The Avenger's Soul

The Writing on the Wall (Part 1)

Daisy's POV

I stood in Coulson's office observing him as a record played in the background. He was carving on his wall and panting as he pressed the knife into the wall; he pressed too hard and the tip flew off.

"Damn it," he cursed, shaking his hand and turning away from the wall as I stopped the record. He looked up; finally noticing me standing by the record player, my arms crossed.

"How long were you standing there?" He asked me.

"Long enough," I told him. "May gave us specific instructions, you go on a date with the crazy wall, I have to chaperone."

"I didn't want to wake you," Coulson replied, looking guilty.

I raised my eyebrows and held out my arms, gesturing to my disheveled state.

"Oh come on! You know I don't ever sleep. Besides, do I look like I've been relaxing?"

He shrugged slightly and closed the blade.

"What's on your mind?"

"It's all connected, everything. Ward has information about my father, who just happens to have the alien buzzkill device which is somehow connected to the writing, that is related to the G.H. serum that is in our blood – like we're pieces to a puzzle," I rambled, as Coulson gazed at the wall.

"Except we don't know what the puzzle is or how the pieces even fit," he said.

"It's a hacker's worst nightmare, everlasting gobstopper of firewalls," I sighed deeply.

"It wants us to know. I can feel it," Coulson stated.

I looked confused and walked up to stand beside Coulson.

"Then it...should tell us, because I have been trying to match the writing to constellation maps, navigational charts, genome diagrams. And if it's a map, it's a map to nowhere!" I said frustrated.

"I need you to stick with it. The writing's coming more and more frequently. Used to be two, three times a month. Then once a week. Now it's ever day, every night," he was breathing heavily as he looked over to me. "I can't turn it off."

"How do you function? When do you sleep?" I asked in concern. I mean I never seemed to need sleep but I assumed that was due to my powers.

"That's why we need answers," replied Coulson.

"And what if we don't find them?"

He gave me a helpless look.

"Anything else?" He asked, turning away.

"When does May get back?" I asked.

He picked up a new knife and opened it.

"Not until we find Ward." I frowned, as I watched him go back to carving.

*****

"We found Ward," Coulson informed me as we walked into his office. I just stared at him showing no emotion. "What?"

"One of my sources, this guy Micro – he's kind of a crime scene junkie – he came across something," I told him. He took a step closer to me. "The writing but not exactly how we wanted to see it." I handed him the tablet I was holding and showed him the picture on it. Coulson stared at the picture of the dead women with carvings all over her body with shock then looked up at me only to return his eyes to the tablet and scroll through all the pictures.

"When were these taken?" Coulson asked.

"Last night," I told him. He scrolled to a full body picture of the woman. She was laying on her stomach, no shirt but still with pants, and her back was all carved up. "Whoever did this is still out there."