Oceans Away || Leo Fitz Book Three

Chapter FortyFive

Asia was sitting in the kitchen with Daisy, eating some chips and dip, when the news broadcast came on. It was breaking news, the announcer said, and the footage had been sent to their station only moments ago. Asia froze, looking up at the screen, setting down the chip she was about to eat as an eerie sense of foreboding overwhelmed her. Then, suddenly, three men in armor were on the screen, standing in front of a grey building. They all wore masks shaped like dog heads, colored with war paint. Guns slugn over their backs and in their hands. Military grade armor.

The Watchdogs. The ones Daisy had been tracking on the internet. With their negative thoughts and ideas about Inhumans. Asia wanted to look at Daisy, see if her own horror was mimicked in her friend's face, but she couldn't take her eyes off the screen. This facility behind us is controlled by the ATCU the Watchdog in front and center said, and Asia thought he was staring at the screen but she couldn't see his eyes well enough to tell. The government, your government, is hiding secrets from you. All of you. Things that you never would know about if they didn't have buildings falling out of the damn sky. Asia thought back to Sokovia. The Avengers had saved so many lives there. Her friends had been a part of that. She felt herself frowning. Why didn't people see that the Avengers had saved people?

The Avengers? Well, there's more people like them..Each and every day they emerge, and the ATCU is hiding them. Protecting them. But that ends now! We want the information released to the public. We deserve answers, lists. Of who they are. Where they are. And if we don't get the answers we need, you will have a war on your hands.

Asia's hands clenched at the table, bracing herself as she watched the screen. Leo came walking into the run, mouth open, as he stared at the screen, but she didn't turn to look at him either. She couldn't pull her eyes from the terrifying sight on the screen in front of her. Her stomach was clenching tightly and she felt as if she might puke.

We are the Watchdogs. The man said, his voice sounding almost like a growl. Almost like he was the beast they claimed to be. And you will obey.

Then, the speaker, the leader, turned, and fired his gun at the business building, an orange glob coming out and smacking against the wall. Then another. Then another. For a second, nothing happened. It was almost as if the entire world were holding its breath. Then Watchdogs were running, in formation, at a jogging pace out of the area. The globs on the wall started to glow a brilliant orange.

And then, it was like time sped up. It all happened all at once.

The building exploded outward, in a cacophony of orange and yellow and red, sucking down into the earth and moving forward, swallowing the trees, the earth around it. Then, suddenly, the explosion reversed, going in on itself, sucking the debris, the walls remaining, everything, inwards, in a fashion Asia had never seen before. The building, and everyone inside of it. Gone. In a flash, a snap of the fingers, and all that remainder was a crater in the ground.

Asia felt like she couldn't move, couldn't breathe. She gripped onto that table for dear life, her only lifeline right now. And then, as if sensing her need, Leo was beside her, his arms wrapping protectively around him. She fell into him, letting him absorb her weight, her shock. What they had just seen was incomprehensible. It was a terrorist attack. And it was going to changes lives for Inhumans as they knew it.

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It was no surprise that Coulson was sending them to assess the damage. Daisy, Leo, and Asia. Mack would meet them there, he was the closest agent to the scene because he had been visiting family. Something had changed in the Watchdogs - before their presence had simply been online. Angry, mean figures spitting out hate speech towards Inhumans. But now, something had caused them to act. Something had pushed them towards the scene they had witnessed earlier. It was part of their job to figure out what.

The flight out to the site wasn't long, but Asia sat there nervously bouncing her leg nonetheless. The length of the flight wouldn't have changed her anxiety over the situation. This was bad. This whole thing was bad. For everyone involved. And the fact that the Watchdogs were okay with killing all those people...that didn't bode well either.

The actual spot looked much worse than it had on TV. There was cement blocks and bits of gravel lying everywhere, lines sliding inward towards the epicenter of the crater. The place had been decimated. It hurt her just to look at it, know how many people had fallen here. It was already walled off with yellow tape and police vehicles, but they were able to get in under the guise of ATCU clearance. It was time for Leo to get his work done. He gave her a peck on the cheek, then went forward, backpack in hand, to go analyze the scene.

Asia worked her way around the scene, talking with different witnesses and police officers, gathering whatever intel she could. It wasn't much. No one saw the guys, who they were, where they came from. No one knew anything other than what was really seen on the footage. It was sad, honestly. She talked to several employees who had gone out for lunch, and come back to find all their friends were dead. Asia could imagine that, leaving only to find her base was empty, and it scared her more than she cared to admit.

"Hey, hey guys!" Leo called to the three of them after a while, as he looked down at his tablet. "Got something to show you." Asia, Daisy, and Mack all briskly walked over to join him by the side of the pit.

"Alright so," Leo began, gesturing with his hands. "I ran some testing on the residue. And, um, it's got nitramene in it." He explained, his scientist voice taking over. All things considered, Asia still felt him incredibly attractive in this moment. She always had an admiration for him, an appreciation.

"I'm not really sure what that means," Daisy said with a shrug. "But based on how you're saying it, it sure doesn't sound great." She was right.

"Well, um, Howard Stark developed it. We learned about it a lot in Sci Tech. It was post-World War II. Its essential function is to cause explosions," Leo explained to them, nodding as he did so. Asia nodded along. While she sure hadn't had the same schooling as Leo, she did take a History course in her day, and she had learned a lot about Howard and his inventions.

"Well...that's odd," Mack mused, brow furrowing as he stared out at the crater. He looked over at the team, who was looking at him, waiting for him to explain. "Nitramene...it isn't exactly stable enough for a gel-based explosive like the one used here. Or at least, not as it was originally invented."

Leo nodded, pointing at Mack in agreement. "Bingo. The Watchdogs must have been making improvements to nitramene." He adjusted the sleeve of his suit jacket, shaking his head as he squinted out at the spot where the building used to be. "Actually," he said, face lighting up with an idea, as he thumbed back towards the plane. "I think I have some sodium hydrogen acetate back on Zephyr One."

Asia, happy to see him excited, didn't really understand exactly what he meant here. She glanced back at Daisy, who also had a confused look on her face. Asia shrugged, feeling about the same as Daisy looked.

"Oh, great," Mack replied, nodding encouragingly. "That'll help us if we encounter more bombs, right?"

"Bingo," Leo said with a snap of his fingers, smiling over at Mack, grateful he understood exactly what he had meant.

"Hey, hey, sodium what," Asia said, leaning forward and shaking her head at the two of them. "Can you translate please? The Sci-Lingo isn't fluent for all of us."

"Hydrogen acetate," Leo said again, his pronunciation pointed, not in a way to poke at a lack of intelligence, but rather to educate. "It neutralizes nitramene."

Daisy and Asia exchanged a glance, before nodding. "Alright then," Daisy said, "I'm going to call Coulson, give him an update." She jogged off back towards the Zephyr.

"Let's wrap up and meet her back on board," Asia said, nodding at Leo, the Mack. "Pack up and we'll roll out."