Take Flight ↬ L. Fitz [1]

Chapter Seven

Aurora walked deliberately, her footsteps silent against the floor. She faced forward, keeping her back against the deteriorating brick wall. She could feel the presence of agents May and Ward behind her as she took point. As she met the end of the wall, she raised her palm to halt them. Slowly, she peeked around the corner and into the connecting hallway. Two guards stood side by side, facing away from them. She gave it a second to see if they would change positions. They didn't. Turning to May, Aurora held up two fingers, and both agents nodded.

The three of them rounded the corner, their strides long. Coming up behind the soldier on the left, Aurora slammed down her elbow into the crease of his neck, quickly catching his arms and slowing his dead weight as he collapsed to the tunnel's floor. Simultaneously, May brought down his partner.

"Coulson?" Aurora mouthed, looking at Agent May.

"The next left," May responded, just as quietly.

Then the two of them were moving forward again, Ward walking behind them and facing backward to cover their flank. When they reached the end of the hallway, they waited for Coulson's cue; their backs pushed against the wall.

"Now," Aurora muttered, and May ran by her releasing a battle cry and kicking a soldier square in the throat. Aurora followed, grabbing another soldier, and punching him in the gut before kneeing him hard in the nose. She heard Ward and Coulson each taking down a soldier behind her, and she turned just in time to see their inside man, Shaw, hurl a knife into the chest of the last soldier.   

"Time to go, Agents," Ward said.

"Exit?" Coulson asked.

"Follow me."

Aurora and Ward waited for a beat, waiting for the others to pass by them. As the group rushed to the exit, they ran by the bodies of unconscious men, downed in their path to Coulson.

"I was wondering what you guys had been up to," Coulson joked.

She turned another corner in time to see May lower the ladder to the surface, a small amount of snow falling at her feet.

Coulson made a point of looking up through the exit, before motioning forward with his hand. "Go," he said, and one by one the agents climbed up the rickety latter to the snowy surface, a wave of cold enveloping them. Aurora took three quick strides and stepped on the back of the sled, behind May and Ward, and next to Shaw and Coulson, taking hold of the frozen handlebar.

"Um, where are the dogs?" Shaw asked, his eyes darting around the front of the sled.

"Don't be ridiculous," Coulson chuckled. Reaching into the front pocket of his jacket, he pressed a button. Abruptly, the sled jolted forward and began pulling them towards the bus. 

⊗⊗⊗

Aurora sat in one of the lounge chairs, a tablet in her hand. She was half-listening to Skye and Fitz discuss the "disgusting" nasal operation Simmons was doing to Shaw in the lab to retrieve the intelligence he'd collected. After twenty minutes, the door to the lab slid open, and Fitz jumped to his feet to meet Coulson and Simmons.

"Ah, good," he said. "Done with that paranasal extraction nonsense. Do you need me to analyze the data?"

"That won't be necessary," Coulson answered dismissively, walking past him.

"If it's encrypted, I can mine the chip for him," Skye said, also standing up.

"I'm afraid this mission's classified," Coulson said, spinning on his heels to face the rest of them. "Clearance Level Eight," he added as Ward and May joined them. Aurora rolled her eyes, fucking classified, as the others turned to go back to their work.