Turn

5 - Erin Mathis

I turned the microscope dials on either side of the base to focus the lens on the specimen I had been examining all night. I had been staring at this thing for what seemed like ages longer than a millenium, and had absolutely nothing to do besides.

I peered over at the notes I had been taking, drawing it closer to the edge of the table with my with my pointer finger. There were a lot more notes than usual, because SHIELD had sent over an Unknown, so it was my job to document every little detail about it. At this point, I had only gotten down what I saw from the first two magnifications out of three on my microscope. The painstaking process was nothing short of dull.

Like my life.

From what I could tell, this thing-whatever it had been as a whole organism-had been from a broken planet. Literally, broken. Scar tissue made up at least 68% of the small piece of alien flesh, and I assumed it was from Extra Terrestrial flames. I ran a lab on some of the scar tissue and nothing human came up. Not even any of the elements on the periodic table.

I suppose it could have been burnt up on it's way into the atmosphere, but it would have shown signs of earth when I ran the test. Carbon, Oxygen; Something should have shown up!

This was beginning to frustrate me. I'd been sitting here for hours on end trying to find something important or urgent about this to get myself a free ride upstairs to Fury's office, but nothing so far.

"Maybe if I turn the magnification up..." I held my head over the lenses, frowning down at the light blue flesh under the light of the microscope. Rotating the lenses and clicking it into place, I began focusing my lens again.

SMACK!

"Holy-" My heart rate picked up, my stomach doing a summersalt. I clutched my chest with my right hand, and ran my fingers aggressivly. My breath hitched and heavy.

What the heck did I just see...?

I tried to calm myself down. I really truly did.

But I hardly ever have moments like this in my life. And to be honest, the more my heart raced, the more my adrenaline pumped; the more I loved it. I did not, in anyway show that I loved it; but it was like taking drugs; the more you did it, the more you knew you'd crave more.

"The hell..." I peered over the lens to see the blue specimen of Extra Terrestrial flesh crawling up my microscope's neck.

SHIELD never had us examined live ones! They always went through extensive tests to make sure the specimen was dead before shipping it off to labs to recieve reports.

If this...thing, was capable of evading SHIELD protocal and procedure, what else is this thing capable of--

I gasped, as I was smashed up against the wall of the dark lab, lit by only my microscope and neon white glowing table. I felt as though I had already gotten a concussion, but that would not be the end of my problems. The blue flesh was becoming an actual alien right in front of me!

I was having mixed feelings about this...

As it did, I felt it take hold of my arms. It kept me pinned and the most wicked of grins spread across it's abnormally smooth, blank face.

I'm gonna die.

I lost my breath as the blue E.T. leaned it's forehead against mine, and my vision blurred momentarily. For a moment, my brain felt invaded. Like it was being pushed out of my skull causing me to scream in agony. Wincing-vision still blurred-all I could make out was the vanishing of the blue alien in a haze of mist.

Then I woke up.

***

I jumped, my back going perfectly straight as I panted like a dog that had just finished running a marathon. My breaths were shaky and my body was stiff, as if it had been in a full body cast for a year.

What had just happened?

Was it the coffee over-dose? The lateness of the hour? It was 3 am...

I leaned my head back up against the wall, hitting it with a thud. surprisingly, it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would have, but my head was pounding, and I didn't think I could have focused on anything as minor as my head hitting the wall a little harder than it should have.

I chuckled in spite of my condition, smirking a little through the pain. "This is what I get for being an adventureless, caffine-high, SHIELD scientist..." I groaned as I stood up, using the wall behind me as support.

Walking over to the lab table, I began adjusting my glasses. Looking through the lens of the microscope, I couldn't see the blue flesh I had been examining earlier.

Had I been examining a piece of blue flesh earlier?

I held my head, leaning back from the microscope.

I probably shouldn't go to Pepper's party...