Chapter 161: Team SHIELD
At the same time as Dial was beginning his battles in the Savage Land, fighting to the death against powerful beings, Phil Coulson's own mission began.
Phil Coulson/Leader of Team SHIELD
Rumbling across the Florida countryside in a large eighteen wheeler truck, Agent Phillip Coulson opened a file on a table and looked around. The truck was made as a mobile base for SHIELD agents, and had recently been renovated. The cabin was connected to the trailer by a small doorway, which was currently open to show May driving the truck. The trailer itself had two sections. The section they were sitting in was at the front of the trailer. It was a conference room/information center, with a set of monitors along a wall, a table in the center set up with a hologram projector, and a fridge filled with snacks.
The back section was a laboratory, set up for both technology and biology, as well as a direct line to any number of BRIDGE scientists across the world, filled with Melati and Octavius' work.
It was very, very advanced, tough, and well-made. But it wasn't the Bus.
Coulson pushed thought away to look up at the three people in front of him. Skye was wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with Captain America's Shield. Coulson had noticed lately that the more casual fighters related in someway to the Avengers tended to start wearing the others merchandise (Seeing Pepper wearing Dial's symbol was oddly cute), and Skye had either adopted the practice or was just a natural nerd. He was betting on a combination of both.
Skye gave Coulson a smile. "So, what do we got AC?" she asked him coyly.
Coulson smirked. "Well, it's like we discussed. The area around Citrusville had a SHIELD facility hidden in the swamps. But when HYDRA and SHIELD went to war," he thought of Ward. Skye bit her lip. Coulson kept talking while tensing the muscles in his right hand. "The facility went dark, and we've heard nothing since. Until people started posting videos claiming a swamp monster was roaming around."
"Hmm," Octavius raised a hand to draw attention to himself. "And you believe these reports have a semblance of truth to them? There are reports across the world of monsters that have been proven to be false after all, even in this new age of wonders we live in."
"I'm not sure," Coulson said cagey. While Dial and Maria had discussed what the monster could be, Coulson wasn't sure. And if he wasn't sure, he would leave his mind open for more possibilities. "But the fact is, there was a SHIELD lab there, and we want to find out what happened."
Kusama, her green-scaled face shifting as she thought, spoke up. "What exactly were they working on?"
"What else?" Coulson pointed at Skye's shirt. Specifically at the shield emblazoned upon it. "The Super-Soldier serum. Every organization on Earth has been trying to replicate after all."
"Are people still doing that?" Skye asked, looking worried. "I mean, we have a lot more super-soldiers around nowadays, right?"
That was putting it lightly. Even ignoring Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, many of the Graveyard Survivors, those who had been rescued from HYDRA by the Reserve Avengers, were currently super-soldiers.
"I'd say there are even more people than ever who are trying for it," Coulson said. "With the Graveyard Survivors proving there is at least some possibility for that."
"T-That is absolute foolishness!" Octavius leaned forward in his seat. "The only reason they survived was the Omnitrix, an alien device that is unfathomably advanced! Taking that event as some sort of proof would be-"
"Doctor," Coulson cut him off with a raised hand. "I agree. But that isn't the issue right now. The issue is the lab. And the men and women who are apparently roaming around it," Coulson pointed at the monitors along the wall, where a map could be seen. "So our goal is simple. Find out what happened and find out what's happening now. Past and present. The good doctors and May will head out into the swamp to check on the lab, check on the state of it, what is left over, and any files that could be found on the computers, especially if someone has been trying to steal SHIELD information on the serum. Skye and I will head to the local sheriff's department to ask them about the military guys roaming around, as well as any information they may have on the lab."
"Me and you, AC?" Skye asked with a grin. "Guess we're back in action, huh?"
Coulson smirked at her, then turned to look over at May. "How long until we get there?"
The super-spy shrugged. "According to the GPS, about ten minutes. I miss the Bus."
"So do I, May. So do I."
Once they reached the town, Skye and Coulson got off at the sheriff's and watched their friends go. Skye, carrying a backpack over her shoulders, frowned as she watched the truck leave.
"Hey, Coulson. Does this all feel… weird, to you?"
"That's our specialty," Coulson reminded her with a smirk.
"No, not-" Skye shook her head. "Not the mission. That's actually the most normal thing about this, us working together to track down something weird. Feels like the good old days before HYDRA ruined it. It's just… having two new super-scientists helping us, knowing that Fitz-Simmons aren't here. Feels weird."
Coulson turned and walked towards the door. Skye gave him a look of surprise before following. "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong?"
"Not at all," Coulson gave her a smile. "But change is a part of life, to use an old cliche. After all, there was once a time when I wouldn't have considered you overkill on a mission for anything except your hacking skills."
Skye grinned. "I'm overkill?"
"Considering your training, and that backpack?" Coulson stopped in front of the sheriff's office to open the door for Skye. "Absolutely."
The smile Skye gave him was bright as the sun. "Nice. Always wanted to be the dangerous one."
They entered the office, where a deputy sheriff was waiting. "Mr. Coulson, Ms. Skye?"
"That's us," Coulson said, looking the deputy up and down. Dressed in the light brown uniform typical of deputies across the nation, he was a tall and thin young man. He was Asian, with slicked back hair, dark black eyes, and looked between Skye and Coulson with a smile, giving Skye the appreciative look of a man seeing a beautiful woman. "And you are?"
"Deputy-Sheriff Daniel Nakamura," he said with a calm smile. "The Sheriff is out right now, so he wanted me here to meet you guys and answer any questions you might have."
"Sheriff John Daltry, correct?" Coulson asked. "Will he be back soon?"
"Should be," Deputy Nakamura waved over at a nearby desk. "Meantime, I'm supposed to give you all the help I can."
Coulson raised an eyebrow, then looked around. Nobody but Nakamura was in the office. "Guess you're our only choice."
Nakamura laughed. "Well, yeah. Sorry, it's a sleepy town, ya know? We don't get a lot of trouble out here beside drunk teenagers and a few jerks. So it's just me and the Sheriff. We get some help from the police station in the next town over, but otherwise we're good."
"With just two people, really?" Skye asked curiously.
"It's all we've ever needed."
Coulson hummed to himself. The way Nakamura said that made it something Coulson noticed. And noted.
"So, how can I help SHIELD?" Nakamura said brightly.
"BRIDGE," Skye said immediately. "We're called BRIDGE now. It's just our team is SHIELD team, which I guess means I'm talking semantics now, so..."
That seemed to throw Nakamura for a moment. Coulson noted that. He recovered quickly. "Ah, right. Well, how can I help BRIDGE?"
"Mostly in answering questions about what happened January the 12th," Coulson said.
Nakamura frowned, leaning back in his chair. "During the Triskelion battle? Yeah, I remember that. There were reports of a big gunfight out in the swamp, but it was at the edge of the county, so we didn't find out until it was over. And we couldn't find out what happened."
"Really?" Skye and Coulson shared a look, the hacker looking weirded out. "And you haven't heard anything since?"
Nakamura shrugged. "Nope. It was pretty much just a swamp. And when things were quiet for the next, what's it been, 5 months? We pretty much left it alone. No dead bodies after all."
"..." Coulson simply stared at him before nodding and rising to his feet. "Well, I suppose that's all for now."
Skye and Nakamura looked at him. Nakamura looked mostly neutral, while Skye seemed surprised.
"We are?" Skye asked.
"Well, it just seems we'll have to find out the truth from scratch. Unless you can think of anything else?" Coulson said pointedly.
For a moment, Coulson was worried Skye wouldn't understand. But she very quickly nodded and rose up from her chair as well. "Yeah, guess you have a point. It was nice meeting you, Daniel," she said with a smile to Nakamura. He rose up as well and held a hand out to her, his focus almost entirely on Skye.
"Y-Yeah, same to you Skye," he said happily. Then he hurriedly reached for his desk and picked up a card, passing it to her. "That's my office number, but uh, my cell number and facebook is on the back. In case you have any questions, you know?"
Skye chuckled, taking the business card and nodding. "Sure, will do. Thanks Daniel."
He gave her a very charming smile as Skye and Coulson turned to leave.
Then someone else entered the room. He was a big man, not as muscular as Creel or Dial, but close, the broad chest and strong arms of a man who had done physical labor his entire life. He was wearing a similar outfit to Nakamura, only with an added jacket and hat. He had a handlebar mustache, an aged look on his face. He looked exhausted as he entered, which quickly turned to surprise when he saw Coulson and Skye. He looked like a modern cowboy, the sort of man who would have been fighting in old Westerns if it had been a few decades back.
"Eh? Hello folks," he said with a hint of an accent, raising a hand to remove his hat. "How can I help you?"
Coulson stepped forward. "Agent Phil Coulson of BRIDGE, this is Agent Skye," he said, holding a hand out, which the man shook. "You must be Sheriff John Daltry."
"That's me," the man said, looking very surprised to see them as he shook Coulson's hand, his grip firm as steel. "BRIDGE, the uh, the spy organization?"
"Yeah," Skye said, blinking. "You didn't know we were coming."
It wasn't a question. Daltry frowned, his craggy face full of emotion. "No, I didn't. As long as you ain't damn reporters. Had to deal with morons looking for the 'monster' in the swamps all damn day."
"Monster?" Coulson said placidally.
"Yeah," Daltry shook his head. "No idea what people have been seeing, but I think it has to do with whatever the hell gunfight was about in that lab of yours."
Coulson and Skye didn't look behind them at Nakamura. "It's why we're here. Deputy Nakamura told us you were out, and he didn't have a lot of information for us."
"Really?" Daltry scowled. "Damnit, Danny, I know I told you to keep things under the belt, but not from the damned Feds. Er, no 'fense meant."
"None taken."
"We've heard worse," Skye added.
"Sorry sir," Nakamura sounded like he meant it. Coulson smirked.
"Look, we have a survivor," Daltry grumbled, placing his hat back on his head. "At least, that's my theory. We found her in the swamp. We have no idea where the hell SHIELD's base is in the swamp, it's damn well hidden, but she was wandering the general vicinity. Spent the last few months recuperating. You want answers? My Jane Doe might have them."
"Jane Doe, huh?" Coulson cocked his head to the side. "You haven't even seen our badges yet."
"Ah, right," John chuckled, looking at Daniel. "Yeah, guess I assumed that you checked out the badges, Danny."
"I uh, forgot," Nakamura mumbled quietly.
"No problem," Coulson passed his badge over to John, who looked it over, taking Skye's and looking it over in turn.
"Danny, you really need to get better at this kind of thing, son," John said idly as he examined the badges.
Coulson glanced back at Nakamura. The Asian man had an annoyed look on his face.
"All right, that checks out," John returned the badges and opened the doors to the office. "Well, I'd rather not lollygag and talk when I could be working. You folks got a car?"
"No, we'd appreciate the ride," Skye said with a smile that was a little wider than before, striding past him as he held the door for her.
"Not a problem at all, miss," John said politely, letting Coulson out next. As the trio left the office, Coulson could feel Daniel Nakamura's eyes on them.
Coulson sat up front with the Sheriff as he spoke about the young woman.
"When we found her, she had no ID, nothing but the clothes on her back," John said calmly. "She's a redhead. More importantly, she's been in a psychiatric hospital for the last five months. I try and check on her, but… she got hit hard."
"I'll say," Skye said from the back, typing on a laptop. "Half her face got melted, damn."
"Wait, how do you know about that?" John asked, looking back at her.
"Well, it's on her files," Skye said idly, continuing to type. "Also, the Citrusville Psychiatric Hospital has some damn light security on their files."
"You hacked the hospital!?"
Skye looked up, staring at him. "Uh… only a little bit?"
John gave Coulson a look. The agent gave him a helpless shrug. "She does do it a lot. She's just trying to help. Which, have you found anything interesting, Skye?"
"Just reports that she isn't talking to any of the therapists," Skye said. "I mean, she's lucid, and the doctors say they have seen her talking to patients and you, Daltry. But she clams up the second anyone with a medical degree shows up. Gotta say, I can relate to that."
"But it isn't helpful," the sheriff grumbled. "She'll talk about things like her favorite color, flowers, places she wants to go. But whenever we try to talk about what happened… she cries. Late at night, when the doctors make their rounds."
He sounded as though he was in pain.
"Well, it's still worth a shot," Coulson said as they pulled into the hospital parking lot. "Besides, sometimes during an interrogation, what people don't say can be as important as what they admit to."
"It's not going to be an interrogation," the sheriff growled. "Look, she may not be a snowflake, but she's been through a lot."
"I know she has," Coulson looked over at the sheriff, noting how emotional he was. "We'll be gentle. I promise. But we do need answers on what happened."
"..." the sheriff parked the car and got out.
"Wow, he really worries about her, huh," Coulson said to Skye.
"Yeah. He does," she said softly.
"...This woman, we're going to meet. We'll want to be careful with her."
"You trying to warn me to be nice?" Skye teased. "I think you hang out too much with May."
"I'm not telling you to be nice," Coulson said. Skye's mouth snapped closed as he gave her a hard gaze. "I'm telling you because there were two groups in that lab. SHIELD. And HYDRA."
Skye's eyes light with realization. "You think-"
"I don't think anything yet," Coulson opened his door. "I'm just warning you that this woman might not necessarily be on our side. So bring that."
He nodded towards her backpack. Skye nodded, placing it on as she followed, her chipper attitude fading. "Why does HYDRA manage to ruin everything?"
"Because they hate happiness, Skye. Because they hate happiness."
Melinda May/The Caval-Agent of Team SHIELD
When the truck came to a stop in front of the base, May, Octavius, and Melati got to work. The two doctors came out of the back, wearing their lab coats over their normal clothes.
Melati had chosen a red tank-top and jean shorts, her clawed feet covered in specialized boots. May had noticed that Melati tended to wear clothes that showed a lot of her scaly skin to the world. She walked out of the back of the trailer with a wide smile on her lizard-esque face, her tail waving happily as she shouldered her backpack.
Octavius was dressed in a green wool vest over a black polo shirt, with khakis on that went down to a pair of brown Oxford shoes. So when he came out of the trailer and his feet landed on the ground, his shoes were immediately soaked in swamp muck.
"...Ah," Otto chuckled to himself, shaking his head. "I should have expected that."
"Even a genius has their bad days, huh?" Melati teased.
"None of us are infallible," Otto shrugged, looking around. Then he frowned. "I don't understand, I thought the lab was supposed to be here?"
'Here' was a random bit of swamp. The section they were in was particularly dark, the trees that rose up from the swamps waters shading it from most of the sunlight.
Otto stared at the ground for a moment. "Hmm… it must be underground," he said softly.
May gave him a look. Apparently he'd noticed that the ground was much more solid under the swamp muck than it should of been. It was the only reason the massive truck behind him wasn't currently sinking into the swamp.
"You're right," May went up to a tree that was as large around as a small car. She pressed a random piece of bark on said tree, which depressed inwards. The side of the tree split apart with a hiss of noise, revealing a round metal room inside. An elevator.
"Otherwise, anyone would have been able to find this place."
"Seriously?" Melati asked, her scaled face twitching. "An elevator to an underground base… SHIELD had no concept of funding, did they? How much did this all cost?"
"I wouldn't know…" May said softly. She wasn't really listening. Instead, she was looking at the floor. Otto and Melati stared as well.
It wasn't visible at first, since the darkness around them hid it. But a second look revealed the large spot of blood that soaked the floor of the elevator.
May entered the elevator, stepping around the dried red spot, and looked at Melati and Otto. "There was a battle. This won't be the last sign of it that we'll see."
Otto nodded, his face falling. "Yes… I suppose we'll have to be ready for some rather horrific sights."
"No use just talking about them," Melati walked forward grimly, stepping around the dried blood as well. "Let's get this done, right?"
May hid her approval at the business-like manner of the younger woman. She simply pressed the single button in the elevator once Otto had entered. With that, they began their journey into the lab.
As Coulson's team began their investigation, deep in the swamp, something began to move.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Hey_Rishabh
Hey_Rishabh So, this chapter and the next will focus on Coulson and the team as they interact with one very important aspect of the Marvel universe. VERY. After that will be some of Dial's return as She-Hulk tells him about her own adventure.