Everything is changing…

Don't own the S.H.I.E.L.D. or the characters of Marvel Comics, but happy to play in their backyard.

"The secret is out…"

-Skye, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Thirteen Minutes

Chapter 3—Party

Undisclosed Party Location

So as to be not too obvious the team arrived in separate vehicles. Skye and Ward went together in a new Mercedes C300. And Coulson and Simmons arrived in a large van, so that Coulson could transport the cart. Fitz showed in his Tesla Roadster Sport. May arrived on a new Harley-Davidson Softail. A valet took the keys as the partiers emerged from their vehicles.

The party began in the penthouse of one of the buildings over looking the Lincoln memorial. When the team began to enter the party, there were at least eighty people there. The first part of this mission was to get video of the partygoers' faces. The video would then be the run through Simmons' face recognition software. She had adapted the software to account for the costumes, make-up and masks. Each of the team began milling around the party.

The next target for observation was any article like a candle stand, bowl, picture or box that looked out of place. Fitz would use his Star Trek communicator to scan each one of the suspect items.

Skye began a clockwise tour of the room while Ward began the opposite direction. They kept eyeing each other for any signals of untoward problems. Coulson and May did the same thing. Simmons was stationed by the cart to monitor feeds and check for results. The feed and recognition software was working fine. Simmons noted to Coulson that most of the people they were passing were very prominent in the Washington party scene.

Ward heard the exchange and spoke over the net, "So, who are we looking for?"

Skye smiled at the challenge. She considered it an easy one. She went over to a couple dressed in colonial soldier's uniforms that was obviously looking around to make sure everything was in order and still watching the entrance. "Hey, great party."

"Thank you, ah…"

"Skye," she held up her pass. "Friend brought me."

They nodded.

"Are we waiting on someone?" Skye knew she had to press to get the answer.

"What?"

"Well, I mean, you guys seem to be looking at the front door. Someone late?"

The lady responded, "Oh yes, we asked Justin Carson and Eli to join us tonight. They should be here any minute."

Skye nodded. The hosts moved on and Skye went to the next guests. Then stepping far enough away she asked, "Did you guys get that? Carson is not only super rich; he is a rival of Ian Quin. And Eli is fabulous, probably as rich with her films and songs."

Ward quipped back, "You're not turning into a groupie? Are you?"

"What no, but I bet you've never even watched one of her movies or listened to one of her songs. Have you?"

May broke in, "Okay children, break it up and focus."

"Right, we still need to find the mechanism that activates the virus," Skye came back. She knew she had won that round and was looking for more.

Skye and Ward finally made their half loop and met with each other at the buffet table. Skye went to get something to eat and then hesitated.

Ward noticed her drawing her hand back, "What?"

"This is so obvious, but I've been to enough parties to know that bad things can be in the food or the punch." She looked at him and saw no recognition of what she was saying. 'Okay, mental note, this guy needs a little more party time. No wonder he's so…' She looked over the party and spotted Coulson with the cart and Simmons next to him. Grabbing some of the goodies and filling her pirate flask with some punch, she said, "Come on, we need to have Simmons test this."

The shortest route was across the ballroom floor. Of course the band, dressed in uniforms rivaling their host, was playing a formal colonial waltz and several people were now dancing.

Ward's face did not smiled at this as he thought it was just another juvenile approach by Skye. But he held out his hand. It started with a small stumble and Skye chuckled. Ward recovered and swung her gracefully around the floor and over to where Coulson and Simmons were standing. When done she looked at him. Skye was impressed.

"Got something?" Simmons asked.

Skye opened the napkin and held out the flask, "Can you test this? Could there be something like a time release capsule that sends out," she shrugged, "a DNA change virus?"

Simmons knew that Skye was shooting in the dark, another urban fable, but she would check. She opened the side of the toolbox and got in position so that no one could see. In this case, her costume was very effective. The folds of her dress covered the view of the cart. She began with the punch. The analysis was simple. There was nothing out of the ordinary. The punch was spiked with Bourbon.

Simmons called out, "The punch is okay. It is spiked if you care to have any." She went on to the food items. The analysis of the first item, candy corn, showed nothing.

Just then Fitz called out, "There is a timer in the pumpkin on the corner of the food table."

Ward acknowledged, "Stand away from it. I will be there in a second."

May observed, "Someone is moving over to the pumpkin. Dressed in a chefs outfit."

Ward came back, "I see him."

The man pulled the lid off the pumpkin, "There you are. You know I need you for the soufflé. Why do you hide from me?" He grabbed the timer and walked back to the kitchen.

Ward shook his head in disbelief, "False alarm. That was a kitchen timer."

It was time for Coulson to bring the team back, "Okay, people keep focused."

Ward went to the front door to check-in with the guards.

Skye began working the floor. She was going to try to get a good facial picture on all of the new people. There were more partygoers coming to the party as the evening progress. The total in the room was now over one hundred. Skye would go up and make a small talk or as necessary blatantly stand in front of the person. It allowed the facial camera to get a good feed to Simmons.

While Simmons was working on the mystery food, the facial recognition software continued to make its comparisons. None had tripped any alarms.

May and Coulson began milling around, in hopes they might just see something the others had not.

Skye went over to meet two of the new comers that were too close to the pictures of the Zombies from the last party. Skye went up to them, "Good evening me maties. Where's Davy?"

They just looked at her and growled.

She put her hand on her cutlass thinking that a little more emphasis was need. "Are you going to tick or treat tonight?"

One of them reached out to move her aside and as he pushed her some of his putrefied skin fell to the floor.

Skye activated the net and went for her pistol at the same time, "Okay boys, head over to the corner. Now!" She had her pistol out and it was loaded. Ward had assured her that the ball from the pistol to the head of a Zombie would drop it in its tracks. She was happy that they were moving back slowly.

Ward made his way over to Skye in just seconds. He had his pistols out too.

"If you have them, I need Simmons to take a look at this." Skye pointed to the flesh still on her sleeve. She was extremely worried that she was next. 'Hello, Zombie land.'

The crowd around the scene moved back and Skye almost ran over to Simmons. When she got there she just pointed. She was starting to hyperventilate.

Simmons cut the fabric away from Skye's blouse, scraped off the tissue on to a dish and put it into her analyzer. It did not take too long. The readout displayed on the screen. Simmons called out, "This is an active virus. Keep them isolated."

Ward came back, "Got them at the corner."

Coulson pronounced, "We have a quarantine crew coming up to the party floor. The Zombies will be taken to the next floor down for further analysis.

"Skye log into the video system in the hotel and find out where they came from. This certainly is not what we were led to expect. Be prepared for some another release with or without the guests of honor."

May started working the crowd and got the partygoers to go to the other side of the room. As the quarantine crew came, they took over the crowd control.

Coulson told them to take the door guards to a separate area as a precaution.

Skye looked over at Coulson, "What about me?" She hadn't felt anything, but the fear was beginning to rise.

"If you haven't had any effects by now, you should be safe." Simmons reported. "The virus is only twenty-five percent effective according to the previous analysis."

Coulson knew to keep her busy at her job and said, "Keep checking the video."

Skye called out the next second, "Got it. They came from the second floor, room 205. The room and hallways look empty."

Coulson made the arrangements, "Okay, a containment crew is on their way to the second floor."

Skye went on, "Video shows a normal couple going into the room about two hours ago. Shipping the faces over to Simmons. They emerged from the room just before coming to the party. They were already Zombies."

"Ward and Fitz go down to that room and check it. Look for the activation mechanism." Coulson moved over to see what Skye was looking at. While pointing at the faces from earlier, Coulson called out, "Simmons, do you have anything on those faces?"

"No matches," Simmons replied.

"Is that even possible?" Skye asked thinking that was a bit creepy.

Simmons shook her head, "No. Those faces, well, they must be made or something."

Skye was pointing at the screen, "I thought you said this would get through the masks and costumes, wouldn't a newly created face be identified through the same thing."

That took Simmons off guard, "It should." She made a few adjustments, "But look, the eyes are different. In both of them. See the iris does not match. Even the cheekbones are off. They are way off from being symmetrical. Someone purposefully did surgery on them to change their faces."

Skye caught on, "So they would not be identified by any facial recognition software. Wait, won't the software identify at least the eye based on the iris? And why do the surgery if you were going to use the normal, whatever that is, way to infect the party?"

Simmons continued to work the facial software to see if there was anyway to match the Zombies. She got her answer and started to shudder, "Okay, way over the possible. How gross? The eyes are identified as coming from people that are deceased."

Fitz and Ward called over the net, "This is Ward, we discovered a shot kit in the back of the refrigerator."

Fitz continued, "They injected the virus into themselves."

"Give it to the quarantine crew and get back up here. We still need to find the other activation source." Coulson ordered.

May came over to the group now standing around the cart. Skye was still checking the video feeds.

Skye finally got done, "Nothing else here boss. Say can I run this through the spectrometer or whatever you're using?" She held up the last napkin of food.

"Sure, put it on the dish there and push it in there," Simmons pointed while still typing.

That's when the guests of honor, Justin Carson and Eli, came to the door.

Skye and Simmons heard the alert at the same time. The virus was identified in the last food sample. Skye called out, "It's the food."

Coulson called out to the quarantine crew, "Get them out and hold for questioning."

May had her SIG P226s out and waved to Ward to follow, "We'll get the kitchen crew and that chef."

Simmons checked the analysis of the food. She nudged Skye, "Hey you were right. The alarm did go off because the analyzer had gotten through the outer layer of the…well pills in the food, small ones that held the virus. There is a small nanobot that releases it." She called over to Fitz, "Go find that timer you saw earlier. It probably puts out some kind of signal."

In a few minutes Fitz came out of the kitchen holding the timer. "You're right. It will send out a low frequency wave. Probably get through anything to activate the nanobots."

Skye turned to Coulson, "Okay score one for the home team. But why the other two Zombies?"

Coulson knew. He had seen it so many times before. A cleanup crew would be dispatched to erase any pointers to the people behind the attack, "Cleanup crew as a part of the last attack. They were here for the Chef."

Skye still wanted to know more about how this would be handled, "So, how do we find out who was behind this?"

Coulson gave one of his dry smiles and pointed to the napkin, "Let them eat cake, or in this case the soufflé."

A/N Hey, really hope you enjoyed. Have a Happy and Safe Halloween. Treats and reviews appreciated.