The Chimaera (An A.O.S. Story)

0-8-4 Part 2

Seth walked in the cockpit, only to be met by May angrily flipping a switch.

"This was fun," Coulson said to her before moving past Seth.

"What'd I miss," Seth asked his former S.O.

She flipped a few switches before finally replying in a quiet voice, "Restricted airspace, I need to focus."

"Understood," Seth said, knowing she wanted to be left alone, "I'll go make sure the nerd herd doesn't blow us out of the sky."

Seth then returned to the lab to find Simmons pulling the 0-8-4 out of a duffle bag saying to Skye, "Not to worry, the device is stable. Not that it couldn't explode at any minute, especially if hit with machinegun fire. But things like this happen from time to time and at first, it's very unpleasant and you regret your decision to leave the lab at all."

She was cut off from rambling by the door opening and Fitz ranting at Ward, "Are you mental? I did explain in great detail, exactly what I meant, using the Queen's bloody English!"

"Well I use normal English: words like duck and run and might blow us all to pieces," Ward shot back.

"Oh, oh, well, congratulations, agent Ward," Fitz said sarcastically, "You managed to string three words together in a sentence."

Seth sat on the holo table by Skye and whispered to her, "Doesn't this just scream 'team cohesion'?"

She whispered back, "No kidding."

The screaming match had intensified about as far as it possibly could before Coulson walked in and calmly asked, "Do we have a problem in here?"

"No sir," Ward responded, "Just working on our communication. Not everyone was prepared for a firefight."

Simmons rolled her eyes as Coulson replied, "We got out, didn't lose anyone, saved a few of theirs. I'd say we did alright. Anything else?"

Skye raised her hand, "Uh, yeah. I have a small question because I've been feeling like the tagalong hayseed rookie, but now I get the sense that Ward doesn't know which one's Simmons and which one's Fitz and they've seen even less gunfire than me, and I'm no rocket scientist but-- Is this your first mission together?"

"No, of course not," Simmons spoke up from the corner, "It's our second."

"Kind of proving her point there, Hermione," Seth told her, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"I was your first," Skye asked, "That's sweet."

"You're amused," Ward asked.

"I'm terrified," Skye admitted, "I am in way over my head, but I've been on this team just as long as any of you. I might as well be team captain."