A Tibetan Monastery

"I found your daughter."

The woman looked stunning in the silk printed flower dresses that hugged her slender curves and complimented the dark hosiery that she wore and patent leather pumps that made click-clack sounds across the concrete floor. She was beautiful, exotically beautiful, from the mocha colored tone of her skin to the ebony curls of her hair that accentuated the long curves of her black lashes and dark mysterious eyes. The man could not help but stare at her. Her mouth curved into what appeared to be a semi-smile as she spoke further.

"I should tell you who I am…"

"I know who you are." He whispered. His voice barely uttered a few words due to his disfigurement. The flesh had practically melted off, revealing almost the final layer of bone. The eyes, close to death, burned with rage and anger and displayed that last spark of life as the man fought with every ounce to stay alive despite the oxygen tubing and breathing apparatus connecting him to the life giving machines nearby. He sat in his wheelchair, clutching the armrests with his damaged hands and followed the woman's movements around the cold, stone room. Blood secreted from the pus infested wounds even as his malformed fingers lifted slowly and pointed at the woman. "You are Raina. You've come a long way to see me."

Taking a few steps back in surprise, the girl in the flower dress cocked her head to side and folded her arms. The disfigured man knew her. She wondered how. Did her reputation precede her? Did she gain a criminal following after being involved in the events of the Centipede project and the orchestrations of HYDRA double agent John Garrett? She had to know.

"How do you know me?"

A small snicker, accompanied by a slight cough escaped the man's deformed lips. "We've been following you all your life…You've always wondered who you are…What you are…"

Hope sparked in the woman's eyes. She walked over to the man but was stopped by the large Asian bodyguard in a suit who blocked her path with his arm. The man made a small gesture with his hand and allowed Raina through.

In her excitement and her need for answers, she knelt down in front of the deformed man and placed her own hands into the same bleeding and pus-ridden fingers of the stranger she had desperately searched for all her life. Her face beamed the moment she lifted her face and stared into the dead eyes of the person in the wheelchair.

"What am I? Who or what will I become?"

"One of us…" The man managed to crack a smile through the disfigurement of his mouth. "You've finally…returned to your…people…Only the truest of organisms evolve…survival of the fittest…we are the strong…all others are weak…" His bloody fingers stroked her cheek, leaving a scarlet line across her skin. "It was our kind…who were here…before humans…and it will be us…who will continue to inherit the Earth…For that…dear Raina…you must accept…your true nature…and evolve…"

A tear streaked down the woman's face. "I do accept. I wish to evolve. Show me how!"

The man nodded. "You must first…tell me of my daughter…bring her back…to me…so she can accept…the destiny…that was bestowed up her…before she was taken away…from us…"

Raina shook her head. She moved away from the man and stood up in front of him as she wiped away the smear of blood on her cheek. "That'll prove difficult. She is protected. She has joined a government group called S.H.I.E.L.D. that has many operatives that will make this task more difficult. She won't come willingly."

Laughter echoed the room. It came from the deformed man. "I know about S.H.I.E.L.D…I'm haven't been foolish…concerning my daughter's whereabouts….It certainly will be a difficult mission…However, our people…have developed the resources to achieve our goals…We will wait…Until the time will come…To retrieve her…Then when we're finally reunited…She'll understand and accept her fate…So that she can enact her revenge…on the people who wronged us…"

Confused, Raina questioned the man. "And who might that be?"

Through his oxygen tube, a slight hiss emitted from his lips. "The ones…who did this to me…The ones who murdered my wife…The ones who forced our people…into hiding…We will finally have…our retribution…" His dark eyes suddenly changed. A strange, yellowish green glow flickered through the sockets of his grotesque appearance as the woman in the flower dress finally saw a glimmer of what he was referring to. These people, her people, were not human. As far as she could tell, neither was she.

A thin oval slit formed over the pupil to where the iris glowed with a yellowish green tint, she instantly concluded the type of species the strange man and his people were and what she was in relation to them.

Feline.

The Citadel

Deep in the Pentagon's underground facility houses the world's most dangerous criminals. Referred to as the Citadel, the elaborate high tech penitentiary became the United States' main holding tank for highly classified terrorists and warmongers after the demise of the Fridge in North America after H.Y.D.R.A.'s infiltration and destruction of the government prison. Now used as the main maximum security prison and monitored by the American military and defense department, the Citadel became the area where traitors like former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Grant Ward were transferred to in order to serve for their war crimes.

Placing his back against the cold concrete of his cell, Ward pulled his legs back and jutted his limbs out as he repeated this motion in order to keep his heart rate going and to alleviate the boredom of being cooped up for weeks in his new home. He figured exercise would help make the days go faster since he was serving a hundred year sentence to life for the assassination of Agent Victoria Hand as well as a dozen fellow operatives. Plus, he was willing accomplice to his mentor, John Garrett's, traitorous activities to which he was convicted of those crimes as well. Clad in white prison scrubs, he switched his position to doing push-ups on the ground as his eyes noticed a couple of the Pentagon guards observing him from the bulletproof glass window of his cell.

"Look!" One of the guards, a man named Larry Penhall, who wore a thick mustache, snorted to his female comrade with thick glasses and blonde hair tied neatly into a bun. She examined Ward with keen interest while he continued to workout. Her security partner did not seem impressed by the former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Larry snorted. "I don't know why he bothers exercising! It's not like he needs to be in shape for some mission anytime soon!"

Ward ignored the insults. He expected to be watched, ridiculed, and taunted for his actions. It was part of the deal he accepted by being a double agent. He did commit the crimes he was guilty of. John Garrett gave him a purpose when he had none and he carried it out like the good soldier he was trained to be. No matter if his mentor was a traitor and a murderer; he made Grant Ward the man that he was, courageous, fearless, and strong. John believed in him and that was all that mattered. He wished he could he say the same about his parents and his family. They screwed up his childhood which explained much of his displaced anger and emotionless state. John used all those negative feelings and channeled that rage into something greater: a well-trained operative who played both sides. He did not feel guilty about his actions one bit, except for one thing. Her.

He never intended to develop feelings for Skye. When Agent Coulson recruited the hacker into the team, she was considered more of annoyance than an actual vital part of the group but over time she won him over. Her humorous wit, wide-eyed optimism, and sweet innocent broke through his barriers. Ward never thought he could get close to anyone. Not since his canine companion, Buddy, had he thought he could build a connection with someone. Even when John forced him to shoot his only friend, he just could not see himself pulling the trigger on Skye. She was different. She was unique, special in her own way, which was difficult to explain. She saw the good in him even when he thought he had lost that part of himself. Somehow she brought it back. More importantly, she was finally his.

Now she was gone. Rolling over on to his back, he stared at the stone ceiling of his confines and fought the urge to cry. He had messed things up so badly. The one spark of hope that made him a man diminished the moment she rejected him. With her faith in him gone, he hand nothing but time and an empty cell.

Short taps on the glass interrupted his thoughts. One of the security workers kept striking it with his wooden baton. Every so often Larry the male guard would purposely annoy him by striking the transparent barrier of his cell. The sound would resonate and vibrate that it made having a peaceful, quiet time difficult. Ward eventually learned to drown out the noise.

"WHAT'S THE MATTER?" Larry yelled. "TOO LOUD FOR YA?"

Ward covered his ears and tried to swallow his annoyance. His throat still hurt from where Melinda May crushed his larynx. Even if he a chance to takeout his opponent, he knew better than to battle the Calvary. Melina certainly had a strong fist and he knew it all too well whenever he soothed his healing esophagus with his fingers. Instead, he sat back against the bed and waited for the two guards to leave.

"Is that really necessary?" The female guard scolded his coworker. "The man is already locked up. There's no need for you to be obnoxious." She frowned at the man.

His face scowled. "What crawled up your butt? How long have you been working here, Miss Plunder?"

"A week." The blonde woman sighed.

Flaring his nostrils, the guard twisted his mouth. "That's right. I've been here for six years, guarding these lowlifes. That makes me outrank you! If I want to treat them like trash, then I will! These scumbags deserve it!"

Angelica Plunder shook her head. She knew this job involve high level security work but she refused to treat prisoners any less than human beings. Each one deserved to be handled with some respect. Pushing the thick glasses of her frames back to her nose, she fixed her blonde bun one more time and continued on to the next prisoner. The next door neighbor of Grant Ward happened to be a dark skinned woman who held her nose closely to the latest book she had been reading. Angelica politely tapped the glass and addressed the prisoner.

Wearing the same white scrubs as Ward and having two long, dark braids pinned back against her black hair, Akela Amador focused all her attention on the latest chapter of her young adult series she was reading through her only good eye, the right one, while her left one still was covered by an eye patch. She sensed the pair of guards watching her but lost herself in her reading.

"Good book?" Angelica asked the African American woman who glanced up briefly.

"Divergent by Veronica Roth." Akela replied, her face completely emotionless. "I recommend it." She said nothing and continued to read. Angelica turned to Larry to gather the latest information about the convict.

"What's her story?"

Larry analyzed Akela for a minute and nodded. "She's a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent as well. Apparently, she was captured during a botched mission and implanted by her enemies with a bomb in her left eye. They say she was forced to carry out their initiatives including killing several international agents. The government captured her and giving her a light sentence for her crimes. She should be getting out in a year or so. Personally, they're going easy on her. She murdered some of our best people so I feel she shouldn't walk!"

Angelica sighed. "You really are not sympathetic when it comes to prisoners, are you?"

The male guard shook his head. "Why? They're all guilty. They wouldn't be here if they weren't."

"Maybe there's more to their stories," she pointed out. "Everyone isn't essentially born evil."

Larry's tongue clucked. "You're really naïve about the real world, Miss Plunder. You either are on the side of good or on the side of evil. Which one do you prefer to be on?"

A smirk appeared on the female guard's face. "The side that wins."

Before he could question her remark, a huge explosion echoed through the underground tunnel walls of the Citadel. Ward ducked and hit the concrete floor hard, covering his head with his hands, while small pieces of dust fell across his dark hair. His neighbor Akela was suddenly thrown from her bed on to the ground, leaving her to listen to the roaring bells and horns sound off to an emergency taking place.

Larry reached for his pistol from his holster while a nervous Angelica took a few steps back behind him. The guard was a bit surprised that she was not reaching for her weapon but he was too distracted to pay attention to his coworker while a large group of Pentagon guards and soldiers came rushing through the hallway armed with rifles and guns.

Another explosion shook the holding area. The guards and soldiers managed to gather their bearings and aimed their weapons toward the large elevator that was lowering down to their floor. The sound of a ding caught their attention and the doors opened to reveal a quartet of strange individuals in navy military jumpsuits that did not look quite human.

The females, both with dark hair, had golden bronze skin that exhibited a row of tiny square shaped platelets embedded on the surface of the epidermis. Each tactile shape began on their foreheads down the side of their cheeks to their necks and finally ended to the section of their collarbone. The first woman was younger, wore her jumpsuit much more revealingly, cutting the top portion at up to her cleavage while exposing her stomach which also bore the same platelet marks around her belly. Her cohort standing next to her was taller, approximately two feet higher in height and she too showed the same weird skin condition as her companion but she disguised them with the large snake tattoos on her bare arms that intertwined around her forearms and around her biceps. Indeed their appearance was quite unsettling but what made their image more sinister were the pair's glowing yellowish eyes that contained a thin slit across the pupils.

Unfazed, the soldier's leader, General Perry Haynes, raised his arm to his men and pointed his gun at the women. "Surrender or we'll shoot!" He threatened.

The younger of the duo sighed before slipping a hand across her neck. A weird mist emitted from the girl's throat, floated toward some of the soldiers and drifted through the nostrils of each of the men who inhaled her wild scent. Then with a weird echo buzzing in their ear, the strange female whispered. "Sleep."

One by one, a quarter of the soldiers dropped to the floor, their weapons slipping from their hands, as each one who fell prey to the mist dozed off immediately. Seeing some of his men fall, General Haynes gestured to the rest who were wide awake.

"SHOOT! ATTACK!"

Half of their fingers pulsed on the triggers before the second female spread her arms to show the strange movements of the snake tattoos slowly moving across her skin. Darkened shadows that surrounded the soldiers began to break away from each corner of the underground cell from the walls, floors, and ceiling. They became tangible objects, squirming like tentacles, and blanketed half the soldiers in a weird net of some sort. The blackened miasma then constricted around the men, tightening their bodies in a vicelike grip and strangled them like one huge python, none them stood a chance.

Upon watching this, the younger one's glowing eyes widened. She scolded her companion. "You said no killing!"

Her female partner grinned. "I lied."

General Haynes refused to back down. He shouted to his remaining men. "SHOOT TO KILL!"

Bullets fired at the elevator door. The older woman grabbed the younger and pulled her inside to safety as projectiles railed at the hydraulic lift. This time, their other male companions attacked. The first named Cobra was taller and larger, extremely muscular built like a bodybuilder as he leapt at the soldiers and began tossing them around like rag dolls. Bearing the same strange platelet ridges across his flesh, his skin displayed a light beige hue as his eyes glowed the same yellow tone with a weird thin slit across the pupils. However, his face was more menacing as he slid out a forked prehensile tongue which he used to ensnare a gun out of one soldier's hand or to snap the neck of another. His other male partner, known as Eel, was just as deadly.

Slender and gawky compared to Cobra, Eel's specialized electrical power took down the rest of the Pentagon guards. His abilities allowed him to move at lightning quick speed to which he demonstrated by dodging every bullet being fired toward his way. His body showed a greyish tone, unlike the beige and copper epidermal color hues his teammates sported. Rows of tiny platelet marks spread across his face, neck, and arms and he shared the same glowing yellow slit eyes that the rest of his comrades bore. A flicker of electrical current shot from the man's fingers; it served as a warning to anyone that still wanted to attack them. The Pentagon's security team learned this the hard way as their bodies, both unconscious or dead, littered the floor around them. This left only the last remaining security personnel, Larry Penhall and Angelica Plunder, to defend the perimeter.

Larry nervously shook his gun at both the hulking cobra and the electrical eel. "Stop…or I'll shoot!"

Cobra and Eel glanced at each other, smiled and slowly raised up their hands.

Feeling confident, Larry gestured with his pistol. "Now turn around and put your hands around your head."

The two villains complied with the mustache man's orders. Pleased with himself, Larry winked at Angelica.

"See! Nothing to it. Goes to show you that someone in authority is always in charge…"

His speech was cut off when Angelica performed a karate chop across his arms with her bare hands. The surprise attack caught Larry off guard as he released his gun and allowed it to fall on the floor. Shocked by his coworker's quick skills, the man had very little time to gain his bearings as Angelica struck his face with her elbow, grabbed his arm and flipped him on his back. She finished her move with a knockout attack: a quick punch to his face. Instantly, he fell unconscious. Larry Penhall did not stand a chance.

Removing their hands from behind their heads, Eel and Cobra shifted their bodies to face their covert ally, Angelica Plunder. Cobra rolled his eyes and made a rude remark toward the blonde woman. "Took you long enough."

Angelica clucked. "Oh shut up! I had to play along so this moron didn't suspect anything." She quickly darted to Ward's and Akela's cells and pushed a couple buttons on the control pad to open the transparent doors. Akela Amador was the first to take notice of the group standing at the foot of her cell. Angelica then addressed Eel and gave him his orders. "Stun her!"

Akela's dark eyes widened. A small spark flew across the room, hitting her in the chest, causing her body to convulse until finally she finally blacked out and hit the ground. Cobra crossed the opening of her confinement, picked her up, and tossed her over his right shoulder. Then he followed Angelica to where Ward was sitting and waited for any further commands.

Gesturing to Eel, Angelica pointed to the traitorous former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. "Him too!"

Realizing something amiss, Ward panicked and put up his hands. Through his damaged throat he mumbled his protest. "Wait! I'm with you guys…"

Eel cut him off with a spark from his fingertips. The current struck Ward, making him violently shake before his eyes closed off and he collapsed to the floor unconscious. Cobra seized the opportunity, marched into the cell and collected their bounty. Now with both former operatives slung over the brute's shoulders, he focused on Angelica for the next objective.

"Where to, Dr. Plunder?"

"We're leaving." The blonde woman stated. "Our getaway plane has been signaled at the rendezvous point. We have to hurry before the rest of the Pentagon's security team up above is notified." She scanned the room for her two female comrades. "Where's Black Mamba and Stacy X?"

"Right here!"

The older of the female duo spoke up. Black Mamba with her snake tattoos on her arms dragged her younger sibling out of the open elevator and toward the group. Her yellow slit eyes glared at the pile of corpses she created with her powers before returning her gaze back at Dr. Angelica Plunder.

Black Mamba curled her mouth. "How the hell do we get out of here? There's probably an army chasing us right now."

Dr. Plunder nodded. "Exactly. Luckily, the Baroness and I mapped out our escape route. There are emergency tunnels down on this level that will lead us outside of the Pentagon walls. We have exactly five minutes to reach the plane before government forces start making their way down to this floor. The Baroness has ensured a distraction as long as we make it our contact point." She pulled out a tiny device, flicked on the switch, and aimed it around the room. A tiny, bright red, laser beeped the moment it connected to a stone wall right across from the open elevator. "Right here." She then turned to Cobra who nodded an order to him. "Cobra! Smash!"

With the pair of unconscious prisoners daggling from both shoulders, the hulking giant named Cobra managed to balance both people across his body while punching through the thick concrete and creating a cracked web across the foundation. Angelica pulled the man back and then instructed Eel to finish the job.

Once again a spark of electricity formed from the grey man's fingertips, this time the voltage was much bigger and increased in density. Eel shot through the damaged wall; chunks of dirt, dust and stone flew everywhere until finally settling and allowing the group to see the long dimly lit tunnel appearing in front of them. Dr. Plunder signaled for her comrades to follow and the team trailed after her as they heard the warning sirens of the Pentagon under attack happening from above.

The group ignored the warning signs, heard violent eruptions occurring from somewhere inside the government building but kept sprinting forward until a large grated barrier blockaded the some of the outside light drifting through the openings of the barrier. Not one to allow a simple obstruction from preventing them from reaching their rendezvous point, Angelica violent kicked the grating with her security boots until it fell forward to reveal the team's jet hovering nearby as the vehicle's hatch was kept wide open. An older, auburn haired fortysomething woman in an expensive suit waved to them and beckoned them forward.

"Hurry!" The strange woman shouted in a German accent. "The fools are coming!"

None of Angelica's team hesitated. Cobra jumped in first carrying the unconscious prisoners on his shoulders, followed by Eel and then Black Mamba and Stacy X. Dr. Plunder was the last to get on as she cocked her head to see another explosion detonate on the side of the Pentagon building. Angrily, the German woman grabbed the blonde doctor's arm and dragged her inside the plane as it started to take off.

"Dummkopf!" The German female yelled at Angelica, her German dialect thick on her tongue. "You want to be captured? Do you want the Americans to ruin our plans?"

The blonde doctor frowned and sadly shook her head. More explosions were heard nearby as parts of the Pentagon building became emblazoned with fire and ash. Government agents and the military rushed to contain the blaze as more explosions detonated around the huge defense structure. As promised, the destruction allowed the secret jet to escape and zoom off into the clouds.

Not even the Pentagon's Air Force team could reach them.

The Playground

It had been one month since the takedown of John Garrett and his H.Y.D.R.A. operatives and the arrest of the traitor Grant Ward that the current members of S.H.I.E.L.D tried to reassemble and reorganize the team from their new base of operations, simply known as The Playground. This new facility monitored by the late Eric Koenig's twin brother Billy served as a temporary home for Agent Phil Coulson and his agents.

Jemma Simmons could not concentrate on the tissue samples collected from John Garrett's disintegrated corpse after Coulson obliterated the man with a Tesseract weapon. Her mind still floated to her partner, Leo Fitz, and his confessions of his feelings for her when they were trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Since their rescue and Fitz's recovery, the pair refused to discuss the matter any further and decided to sweep the issue under the rug. However, it made working together especially awkward.

"How's the upgraded that I made on the microscopes working out?" He asked her as she stared at the sample placed on her slide. "I was able to increase the magnification by sixty percent so you can get a better examination of the tissue sample."

"It's working out quite nicely," she managed to crack a smile. "The upgrade allows me view to the corrosion of the damage inflicted by the Tesseract gun. Luckily, even the Deathlok project couldn't regenerate cells. Garrett is going to stay dead."

Fitz grinned. "That's a relief. The last thing we need is another H.Y.D.R.A. zombie running around." Jemma managed to giggle at his remark. The Scotsman exhaled; he nervously muttered. "Jemma?"

The bio-chemist gulped. She knew exactly what he was going to say and it frightened her. "Yes, Fitz?"

"About what happened when we were submerged…" He started. "What I said…I meant…"

A knock on the glass door of the lab interrupted his speech. Skye peeked her head in at the wrong moment and caught the pair off guard. "I'm sorry, guys." The exotic dark haired hacker apologized. She addressed the engineer. "Fitz, Coulson wants to see you in his office. Something about a physics formula?"

Rolling his eyes, the Scotsman shrugged. His face gestured to his lab partner. "We'll talk more about this later, Jemma."

"Of course," the young woman nodded. Jemma watched as Fitz marched out of the lab and down the hall into Coulson's office. Once she was alone, she exhaled a sigh of relief.

"Am I missing something here?" Skye asked in her usual probing way. "Did you two finally talk about what happened?"

Jemma could not look her in her eye. Turning her back away from the hacker, she returned to her microscope. Skye already knew the answer to her question. After taking down John Garrett and his men, her colleague confided in her about the situation between her and Fitz. Skye was not surprised by the engineer's feelings. She always knew he had a thing for Jemma. She was that perceptive.

"You haven't talked about it." The dark haired clucked and folded her arms.

"It's complicated."

"Complicated? What's the problem? He confessed his love for you and you either tell him that you feel the same or let him down gently. By the way, how do you feel?"

The bio-chemist shyly shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know." Her brown eyes averted Skye's gaze. "I mean I'm fond of him but I'm not sure if I feel the same way that he does about me. I'm so confused."

"Well un-confuse yourself." The hacker advised. "Look inside, examine your feelings. It's better to know where you both stand than to string him along and keep him hanging. It's not fair to you both."

"The same way that you felt about Ward?" Jemma hit below the belt. Realizing her transgression, she tried to apologize. "I'm sorry, Skye. I didn't mean…"

Skye raised up her hand to stop her. Her voice sighed. "It's okay. I'll admit I have a lousy track record when it comes to guys. I mean I got involved with Miles who taught me how to hack and look how that turned out. Ward turned out be to be sociopath who we all trusted and, naturally, I fell for him too. Guess, I need to take myself out of the dating pool for a while and stick to what I know best. Computers."

Jemma still seemed skeptical. "You're telling me that all your feelings for Ward are completely out of your system? That you can completely cut off your feelings for him and move on?"

The hacker nodded. "Absolutely." She put on a brave poker face. She was lying. It still hurt that Ward betrayed her and her friends and the pain dropped to her stomach at the mere mention of his name. However, her loyalties remained with Coulson and the other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Grant Ward would eventually phase out of her mind and her heart.

Hopefully.

Back inside Agent Phil Coulson's office, Fitz entered the private room where Melinda May and Antoine Triplett stood next to a wall filled with scratches and symbols that their leader had made. Fitz took one look at the weird pictogram and grew fascinated by strange formula.

"You did this?" He questioned Coulson.

"Yes," said their team leader. "I was hoping for another dream about Tahiti but I got this instead."

Melina May stepped in. "We were hoping you could tell us what this means?"

Fitz pressed his fingers across the images on the walls. "You were correct in assuming it's some sort of formula. The symbols are similar to pictograph writing like hieroglyphics or prehistoric cave drawings but then it gets cryptic." He pointed to the series of lines and drawings. "If I remember correctly, these numerical patterns are similar to coordinates 51 degrees, 26 north, 116 degrees, 28 west which stands for a historical formation. The Burgess Shale!"

"The Burgess Shale?" Agent Triplett raised his eyebrows.

Coulson looked at Antoine. "You know it?"

"Yeah," nodded the African American man. "My grandpappy took my family up there when I was kid. He was really into all that paleontology stuff. The Burgess Shale is this place up in the Canadian Rockies where the many of the most impressive dinosaur fossils were found."

Agent May cocked an eyebrow. "Why would the formula give us those coordinates?"

"I don't know," said Fitz. "But there's more." He pointed to small section in the upper left where more symbols, lines and pictures formed a pattern. "I think this grouping right here means something." His eyes analyzed the pairings. "That's strange."

"What is it?" Coulson asked.

"It's a Darwin quote," said the engineer. "Survival of the fittest. Vala-Kuri."

Antoine shook his head in confusion. "Vala-Kuri? What is that?"

"No idea." Fitz remarked. "The rest of formula is incoherent. I can't make out the rest."

"Well, we at least have something to work with." Coulson noted. "If John Garrett and I are writing down strange symbols and formulas, then that has to mean something."

"But what?" Melinda wondered too.

"We'll just have to find out…"

Agent Coulson was cut off. The Playground's facility lights were going off like crazy as alarms and bells signaled for everyone to enter the main hallway. Billy Koenig came rushing out of his office and past Coulson's team as he raced toward the garage.

"Where's the fire?" The S.H.I.E.L.D. leader questioned the caretaker.

"There's somebody at the front door!" Billy announced.

The news hit fast and everyone darted to where the facility monitor was stationed at. Agents Coulson, May, Triplett, and Fitz met up with Koenig at the plane dock followed by Skye and Jemma who watched with curiosity as Billy's pulled up the camera's on the computer screens.

There, standing in front of the S.H.I.E.L.D. facility, were a group of military men but it was not the army that surprised the team. It was person leading them.

Former Assistant Director, now Commander Maria Hill.