Agents of SHIELD: A Different Path | AU

[LadyClara]

The tablet beeped, a notification appearing on screen displaying bold red words.


The sudden noise diverted Clara's attention from the street outside the cafe she was sitting in, the same one she came to a lot to relax. Plus they served really good cappuccino and the waitress seemed pretty attractive to her. Coming here was the only time and place Clara felt normal, felt like an average person going about their daily lives.


Unfortunately for her, the tablet ripped all that away.


MISSION REPORT


The agent sighed and tapped the box, opening the document laced with links, buttons and more. Images appeared on the screen, showing some kind of warehouse compound with high security.


Probably another Hydra storage facility, but this ones different.


Clara zoomed in one of of the guards, studying the gear he carried. Normally Hydra soldiers make their mark known, being typical Hydra, but these guys didn't have one.


Shrugging it off, she locked the tablet and stuck in in her bag. Fishing money out from her coat pocket, Clara stood up, slung the bag strap over her shoulder and walked over to the counter.


Smiling gently to her favorite waitress, she thanked her, placed a tip in the jar and walked out the door, facing the bright sun light and scenery of New York.

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Esthiem




Thump. Thump. Thump.


The steady ringing of hands against the bag echoed throughout the room and penetrated the silence that would have otherwise been entirely distracting. No one was there to be annoyed by it other than Jin herself but that didn’t mean that she was entirely ok with the silence of it either. That was the entire reasoning behind her fists continually burying into the bag in the first place. Knuckles red after a few hard blows, Jin pulled back and looked around her.


The warehouse was empty. Not a single box filled the open space and the only object that even appeared to be removable from the building that could only adequately be described as a shed was a lightbulb screwed in at the top though it was not turned on and she did not see a switch to do such a thing.


‘Well, if there is nothing here, then something is meant to be here.’ It was an easy conclusion to come to and Jin knew they would not have brought her there simply for her to remain trapped within an empty room. She was simply too useful to them in other ways for them to waste her in a place like that. ‘Either something was stolen from them or they are bringing something here and wanted extra security.’ The question remained a prominent one within her mind as she glanced around once more.


Scanning the area one final time, Jin used her eyes to see this time more so than the last time. Computer enhanced vision flooded her sight and zoomed in to seek out every tiniest thing that could have been within the room. There literally was nothing. Finding no other objects of interest, her eyes locked in on the heat signature of the man standing beyond the doors.


She had known he was there. She knew who he was, too. Verus… he was just a man with a gun from everything she had seen. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that he knew how to shoot it, but that wasn’t something she intended on having to deal with. Rubbing at the red skin along her knuckles, Jin walked towards the door and opened it, peeking out and glancing at him. “Are we expecting a shipment?”


“Yes.”


Jin nodded her understanding and zoomed her eyes ahead, wondering who was coming, what they were bringing and how valuable it was to Salazar.

 

[LadyClara]

It had only been 3 minutes or so before her phone buzzed in her back pocket. As Clara kept walking down the street, she pulled the phone out and looked at the screen. It only said one name on the screen; Davis.


Upon seeing the name, Clara stopped in the street, hesitant to answer. A few seconds of consideration, she swiped the green icon and put the phone to her ear.


"Director."


"Agent Anderson. I assume you received your briefing notes?" The Director responded.


"Yes sir, I'm moving out now."


"As I thought you would. I've sent a QuinJet to your location. ETA 3 minutes. Be in the air as soon as it lands."


"Copy."


"Oh and..." Davis paused, surprising Clara. She looked towards the phone at the corner of her eyes as the pause drew longer than a few seconds. "Never mind. Details are in the brief."


The line cut off. Bringing to phone to her front, she stared at the screen for a few seconds confused.


He's never not been professional during work, only after...


Snapping out of her daze, Clara checked the map to see where the jet would land and picked up her pace, heading out to where her ride would be.

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Estheim




Verus and Jin stood on either side of the truck as it backed towards the warehouse, getting as close as it possibly could to the main door before it stopped completely. Without even needing a conscious command, Jin’s eyes measured the distance between the truck and the door. Six feet. No more. No less. Though for a moment she had to wonder if the precision was intentional or accidental, she didn’t have much time to think on it before the doors to the truck opened revealing a driver and then a man in a lab coat.


The back of the truck opened up and people started carrying out large metal containers that appeared to be emitting some small amount of steam from having been frozen. Jin’s eyes zoomed in curiously, but the computer system embedded within them didn’t have any further information to give her. Instead, she soon found herself approached by the individual in the lab coat. “You must be Jin,” he stated. “Salazar’s told me a lot about you.”


“That doesn’t surprise me,” Jin replied evenly. “It only makes sense for a stablemaster to praise his prized stallion.”


The man in the lab coat chuckled at her comment. “Prized stallion, eh? If that is the case, it won’t be for long. He hasn’t mentioned my work, has he?” The man seemed almost surprised with Jin not having said more in regards to the situation.


“He rarely mentions anything to me. I didn’t even know what he sent me here for prior to your pulling up.” Though she spoke with absolute honesty because anything less would be excruciatingly dangerous, there was also a question within the tone Jin used. Cautious but obvious, it was clear she didn’t quite know even now what was expected of her.


The man smiled at her again. “Apparently those eyes of yours can see anything coming from miles out. You’re meant to be a lookout from what I understand. Anything more than that is what the men are here for.”


Though Jin said nothing, she did nod and walk around to the front of the truck, looking down the road that it seemed no one traveled. There wasn’t much for her to see and there was even less for her to contemplate.

 

[LadyClara]

Following the directions to the LZ point, displayed by her tablet, the young agent made her way through the suburbs of NY, weaving in and out of streets and alleyways. She read briefly over the mission status, something about a snatch and grab. Clara hadn't done many of those.


Her mind wandered elsewhere as her legs worked on their own, directing her to the point. Clara thought back to the day she was recruited into SHIELD.


The previous Director, the one with the name she kept forgetting, has brought her in after her incident. She'd been caught hacking her way through SHIELD's firewall to gain information, not knowing they were tracking her. Within the hour, the Director was knocking at her door.


As Clara turned a corner, she found herself in an alley between two office buildings. Confused, she looked down at the screen again, brushing the fallen strands of hair behind her left ear. The marker blipped right where she stood, indicating he had arrived. Looking up above her, shielding her eyes against the glare of the sun, Clara saw an external fire escape ladder on the left building, leading to the roof.


"Ahh. Makes sense."


Sliding the tablet back into her bag, the agent tightened the straps of the bag, looked around to make sure she was alone and knelt down. Judging the height between the ground and the ladders, Clara calculated how high up she'd need to jump up.


Sprinting forward, the agent lept up against the wall and used it to bounce her up higher, her hands grabbing the bottom rung with ease. Quickly making her way up the rest of the ladders and hopping out onto the roof, she saw a brief glimpse of a carbon black wing of a QuinJet, quietly waiting patiently for her.


Landing a little harder than she wanted, Clara rolled forward and stopped in a kneeling position. Holding it for a second, she grunted, massaging her foot.


The rear door opened up as the agent stood up and made her way over. As she expected, there was no one else on board.


"Typical, send me in alone and keep the cavalry at base. Would be nice for a team every once in a while.. Wait, why am I talking to myself?"


Shaking her head, she dumped her bag on a chair and closed the ramp. Taking a seat in the cockpit, Clara flicked a few switches and enabled AutoPilot.


"Take me to Chicago and put up the reflector thingy, whatever its called."

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Estheim




Nothing.


Jin stood watch for longer than she ever imagined she would and throughout that whole watch, nothing came. She began to wonder if what they were unloading from the truck was even worth stealing in the first place. The scientist certainly hadn’t taken any time to brag about it which was what Jin would have expected if it had contained any value. They always bragged about their brilliant creations from what she understood.


The more she thought about it, though, the more curious she became even as she convinced herself that it was nothing of importance. “If that is the case, it won’t be for long.” What did he mean by that? It only added to the puzzle swimming through Jin’s mind and it wasn’t something readily solvable. She simply didn’t know enough pieces. There were no numbers either.


Jin solved problems best when there were numbers.


Eventually, she heard the back door of the truck slam shut and the scientist wandered up to her. “Well, it seems this went without incident. The workers will be here in the morning and until then, it is my understanding you and Verus are here to stand guard.”


Jin glanced at the labcoat man and nodded briefly. “If that is your understanding of the plan, then it is also mine.” The reply was really that simple.


As the man in the labcoat made to climb back in the truck and leave with the driver, Jin stopped them. “You know, sometimes it does help to know what we’re guarding.”


“True. Sometimes, though, that’s asking too much even for a prized stallion.” Chuckling, the doors to the truck slammed shut and the engine started up. Jin knew then and there that if she didn’t jump out of the way, the truck would run her over so she darted out of its path, sighing as it vanished on the road to somewhere.

 

[LadyClara]

The QuinJet took off and headed directly towards the cloud layer. Visibility immediately became non existent as thick clouds covered the windscreen like a curtain. At this point, Clara had double checked their coordinates to make sure she was on track before kicking back, reading the tablet screen just as they broke through the cloud layer and flew just above, seeing nothing but the blue sky above and a sea of fluff below. The agent loved this part of flying, the scenery never seemed to fail her.


The mission seemed straight forward to her but the object in question wasn't detailed much. It didn't faze her the slightest that all she had on info was 'Biotech Eyes' and nothing else. Ever since SHIELD moved from the Inhuman stage last year, they had been in pursuit of Biotech engineers and Genealogy scientists for some sort of defence based systems. Clara didn't know what or really care as she was told it was for 'the greater good'.


She believed them and knew that it was to protect the planet from greater threats than mankind. All those years ago with the New York incident shook the world. Not only did they all find out they weren't alone but the other beings were hostile. It was only a matter of time before the world would step up it's game and compete against whatever else was out there.


The Jet gently rocked back and forth as Clara read the mission briefing. She studied the surveillance tapes of recent and watched as some truck drove up, people coming out to greet it. As she watched the two guards carefully, she noticed one of the guards, a young female, was different than the guards. Something about her seemed off. Tapping on the screen, Clara brought up her data profile and was surprised to see it come up blank.


"Oh, that's new.."

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Estheim




Heading back into the warehouse, Jin’s eyes fell to Verus, hoping that he knew more than she did in this particular situation. “Please tell me they told you more than they deemed fit to tell me?” Though she was serious about getting an answer to the question, she really didn’t expect him to have learned anything. That was apparent in her tone of voice.


“I know that we’re here on guard until morning. That’s about it.”


Sighing dramatically, Jin headed back into the warehouse. If the idiot partner assigned to her couldn’t tell her anything, maybe she could learn something from whatever they’d unloaded. Verus made no moves to stop her. Though he never said it, Jin knew that the real reason Verus was there in the first place was to keep an eye on her. Even after two years under their command, they still didn’t trust her. Jin didn’t know if Salazar would ever trust her. She was beginning not to care, though.


Wandering between the heavy steel boxes, Jin’s eyes set to work examining what they could. Composition - steel. Temperature - 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Interior - hollow and filled. Lock Status - sealed. Of course, she had no way of learning what was actually inside but she knew a few things about science and her database slowly brought up a few more things.


Cold temperatures could be used to maintain stability of harsh chemicals that could be highly reactive otherwise. She didn’t see what Salazar could possibly desire of harsh chemicals though - not when he had as great of ambitions as he did. Cold temperatures could also be used to stagnate growth of biological work, keeping samples pure, preventing microbial growth and preventing cell division. That… that seemed far more likely and Jin was fairly certain that this made the man in the lab coat a biologist of some kind.


‘Hmm… maybe he really is growing a prized stallion…’ Jin had to chuckle at the thought.

 

[LadyClara]

Confused, the agent stood up from the pilots chair and made her way over towards her bag, unzipping it and pulling out her phone. The screen lit up with the SHIELD logo in the background behind a message box, asking her to place her thumb on screen. After the phone beeped, she pressed an icon, it immediately dialling a number.


Placing the phone to her ear, she waited until the line picked up, a voice speaking to her. "Operator. You're secure."


"Agent Clara Anderson, ID 4-Bravo-Delta-Omega-7. Requesting current mission status," she responded sternly. The other voice didn't respond immediately and after 10 or so seconds later, the voice picked back up.


"Mission briefing was already given to you, Agent. Standard covert recovery. No teams. The jet is your Extraction." The voice seemed hesitant, as though something wasn't right and Clara picked up on it.


"I need more information about the object in question. I don't have enough Intel to go on."


"That's all the Intel supplied. Radio silent until objective is complete." The line cut off immediately.


Dumbfounded, she stood and stared at the phone in her hand. How could they not give me more information..? And what kind of mission has very little Intel?!


Frustrated, Clara threw down the phone on the seats beside her with a less than gentle thump and ran her fingers through her hair, growling to herself. She could feel the annoyance grow within herself and slowly turn to anger. Clara knew that once her emotions got the best of her, she wouldn't be able to concentrate on the mission. It's be just like the last time.. The agent closed her eyes, taking deep breaths and steadying her thoughts. Letting her arms hang freely by her side, she relaxed and thought of nothing other than counting her breathing.


23 deep breaths later, the tablet beeped to notify her final approach. Exhaling her last breath held, Clara opened her eyes and slowly looked over towards the cockpit. It seemed they had already broken through the cloud layer and was approaching the warehouse, approximately a mile away. Walking over to the pilot seat and sitting down, she flicked a few switches and brought the jet out of autopilot and began scanning the area around her.


"Come on.. Give me a building to set down on top of.." the agent mumbled to herself, gently turning the controls, directing her towards an office building 3/4 a mile away. Gently setting the jet down, she pressed another button, keeping the shields up and jet invisible. Shutting down the engines, Clara stood up and made her way to the rear, stepping down the ramp and out into the sunlight, soaking up the sights of the Windy City.

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Estheim




As Jin wandered and weaved her way through the shining boxes chilling the room by their mere presence, her arms crossed in front of her body in a subconscious reaction to the coolness of the air. Goosebumps tickled along her skin and she began to start walking faster, her motions going from contemplative steps to actual pacing upon the warehouse ground. She barely even registered that her own actions had changed, though. She simply allowed it to continue because curiosity seemed to hold her within the room.


A knock on the door tore her from the trance that allowed for her consistent movements. “Jin, something’s stirring out there.”


She had to raise her eyebrows as she heard that one. Usually even idiots like Verus could give her more information than that when it seemed like something was going to go wrong. Her curiosity, previously holding her among the mysterious boxes, now dragged her back outside as she gave Verus the most confused glance she could imagine her own face creating. “There’s something stirring?” She made an unusually big deal about the way that he worded it because it amused her.


Much to Jin’s surprise, he simply nodded and pointed to the sky. Sure enough, Jin raised an eyebrow at what she saw. Clouds seemed to be spinning. Her eyes were quick to analyze the situation and she read what they displayed as they solved the puzzle. “Some kind of plane pattern… I’ve never seen something like it, though.” She simply shrugged, not thinking much of it because she really didn’t know the area. Maybe there was an airport nearby and then something like that made perfect sense. Chicago was a big city, after all.


“It could be someone coming for the supplies,” Verus suggested.


Jin scoffed. “Someone coming for this junk? It’s all frozen anyway. What use would it be?”


“It’s Salazar’s junk… sometimes that’s more than enough reason to steal it.”

 

[LadyClara]

After getting herself changed in to her SHIELD uniform, Clara accessed the control module on her wrist and tapped a few settings. The black outfit shimmered and refocused to what looked like a completely different array of clothing. Now, the agent donned a black short cropped leather jacket, matched with black skinny jeans with tears in the legs and black high heeled boots with gold studs.


Admiring her new attire for a couple of moments, Clara fixed her hair using one of the reflective panels in the jet as a makeshift mirror, combing through it with her fingers, making her hair fall over her shoulders and wavy. "A girls got to look good, you know?" she spoke to herself, her once a Canadian accent changing to a flawless British one.


Lifting up her bag, she slung it over her shoulder and exited the jet, the ramp raising up, completing the shape and rendering the jet invisible completely. Satisfied, she turned around and hastily walked towards the roof access door, the heel clicking on the ground as she moved. Trying the door upon reaching it to surprisingly finding it unlocked, the young agent made her way down the stairs, eventually reaching ground level out onto the street.


Stopping to view her surroundings, Clara glanced down at her control module on her left wrist, the screen indicating her she had a 15 minute walk to the warehouse in the general direction across the street and to her left. Minimizing the screen, she walked out onto the empty road and made her way over towards her destination.

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Estheim




Jinora contemplated. She contemplated for quite a while, actually. While she could never deny Verus had a point, she also couldn’t see someone going to a lot of trouble to steal whatever it was in the warehouse. A few thoughts contributed to this conclusion.

1. Only her and Verus were guarding the warehouse. Surely if it was more important they would have more guards.
   
2. Stealing it in route would have been much easier than stealing it once it was stationary simply because combat and defenses were much easier stationary.
   
3. If it was important, then they simply wouldn’t know about it. That’s just how good Salazar was at keeping his business to himself.

“Are you sure about that? This shipment… it lacked his usual regime of protection. Doesn’t that show whoever would want to steal from him that this isn’t worth enough of his time?”


Verus chuckled slightly. “Last I checked, he keeps you at an arm's length for many reasons. Have you ever considered that your tendency to overthink things might be one of them?”


Her reply was swift to that one. “He keeps me at an arm’s length because he cannot stand to look at something that could be a weapon when he cannot have it himself and for as long as I am breathing, he will not have my eyes.” Her tone was defensive, her expression was fierce and her eyes were clear. “That is all the reason he will ever need.”


Verus scoffed. “Maybe you are still blind. You are a weapon. That’s why he sent you here.”


His words caught Jin off guard. She was a weapon? What was that supposed to mean? Distraction brought on by the conversation they were engaged in, Jin’s eyes failed to pay attention to the road leading in. The corner of her vision registered the heat signature approaching but Jin did not notice. Her mind was elsewhere.

 

[LadyClara]

As the young agent walked around the corner, her eyes laid down upon the compound a few hundred yards before her, the gates closed over. Keeping the same pace, Clara walked down the street, the wind blowing her hair behind her, waving as the breeze picked by. She remained on the opposite side of the road, cautiously surveying the area from the corner of her eyes.


She looked around for anyone standing guard by the gates and any possible ways for her to climb in undetected. To her surprise, no one was by the gate, both inside and out. It was as if the compound didn't need protecting at all. Clara hesitated, unsure on what to do next. This doesn't seem right. Why would I be sent to recover an item from somewhere that isn't guarded?


As she walked further down the street, her eyes caught two guards standing by the building. She couldn't tell much about them besides they seemed as though they were talking. This bothered her more, two guards for something as serious as this recovery mission. Clara passed a bench with a sign next to it, signalling buses to stop, and sat down, pretending to check her phone. She began looking up and down the road as though she were waiting on one.


In between looking down at her phone and then down the street, she kept a watch on the two guards, studying their moves, trying to find out what kind of weapons they possessed and where the package may be stored. "It must be in the warehouse behind them. I need a way in," she mumbled under her breath.

 

[Lady Warlock]

“Jin” Jinora Estheim




The screen over her eyes flashed into heat vision for the briefest moment. Jin wasn’t even sure why they did it and sometimes she wondered if they didn’t have a mind of their own. Another part of her knew that her father had never really been a programmer at heart so it could have been an error in the software itself which was something she would have to deal with until she had access to the tools to fix it herself.


What she did know, though, was that there was another body in the area aside from her own and from Verus. Her head had the sudden instinct to look up, to look to where she had registered the signal. Jin seized control of every bone and muscle in her body to ensure that she didn’t actually do that because if there was a person there, she didn’t want them to know that she saw her.


Instead, Jin accessed the memory of her eyes. Looking over photographs she’d taken of the area, Jin realized what also happened to be ahead of them - a bus stop. ‘Interesting… I don’t think anyone’s been there for the whole time we’ve been here. And I’ve not seen any buses use that stop.’ She imagined it was just for show rather than actually serving that function. Of course, even Jin could miss something, though. ‘Measure.’


The computer within her eyes promptly measured the distance to the bench. One quarter mile… close enough to see but far enough to be out of range of too much without extensive work put in.


Jin could run that distance in less than a minute easily. She had to assume the person sitting there could as well.


Engaging without more intel seemed unwise. Instead, she nudged Verus with her elbow. “Someone’s watching us. Look at me. Don’t look for them.” She kept her words low and even, hoping Verus didn’t decide to be an idiot.


He wasn’t. That surprised her.


Meeting his gaze, Jin nodded towards the warehouse. “I’m going to go inside and wait. See if you can draw their attention. I’ll be watching.” She hoped it was just an idiot who had gotten lost or something of that sort, but on the off case that it wasn’t, Jin wanted to be able to watch them fight before she got herself into any long standing engagement. That was what waiting in the warehouse would do.