The Bridge

(The B.U.S.)


Lyra's POV.


[Lyra's Outfit]



As Ward and myself train in the landing bay alone, we train using combat fighting techniques. Mid-combat, I right, high kick Ward in the upper chest, but he barely takes any recoil so wing my right foot towards his head, but he ducks and dodges the hit. I then high kick with my left leg towards his left abdomen, but he blocks it with his right, lower arm, so I go to right hook him in the face, but he blocks that hit too using his left, upper arm before he shoves me backwards the steps, but I still manage to maintain my balance.


Ward then goes to left hook me, but I duck and dodge his hit before right hooking him in the abdomen, making him take an uneasy right step back before I take the opportunity to crouch down before sliding my left leg from under him, sending falling backwards and on his back on the floor as I regain my balance and stand up.


"Nice feint." Ward smiles at me as he prompts himself up on his elbows.


"I read your file. I know you favor your left." I state as checked the team's S.H.I.E.L.D. files as soon as I got the clearance.


"That's in there? What else?" Ward asks me.


"Nothing that's news. You don't play well with others." I explain to him as I hold out my right hand to help him up, and he takes mower left arm him his right hand as I take his right lower arm with my right hand before I help him stand up, but he does release my arm.


"I think I've proven that I can... More than once." Ward smiles at me, and I slide my arm from his grip.


"Not here." I warn him, being camera's almost everywhere on The B.U.S.


"Towel down." We hear someone say, and we both look up to the upper deck to see Coulson "I need you both in the command center in 5." He tells us before he walks away, and myself and Ward glance at each other before we go our separate ways, myself up the staircase and him through the empty lab.


[Lyra's Outfit]



After changing out of my gym clothes, I meet up with Coulson, May, Ward, Fitz, Simmons and Skye in the briefing room, and Coulson begins to explain our next mission.


"At 08-00 hours, three men infiltrated the Havenworth federal penitentiary." Coulson explains as images of the destroyed prison is pulled up on the wall computer.


"Infiltrated? More like cannonballed." Skye states comments.


"They were in and out in less then two minutes. Left no prints at the scene, but we do have one lead." Coulson taps on the computer table with his left index finger, and an enlarged image of a man's right gore arm is showed, and he's wearing a Centipede. Exactly like Mike Peterson's Centepede.


"Centipede." I state.


"Seems they salvaged some of their research from Hong Kong." Coulson types on the computer table, re-showing some of the footage from when Chan was unstable with his Pyrokenetic ability.


"So we were right. Chan's platelets solved their combustion problem. Now they can create super soldiers with no fear of explosion." Simmons smiles.


"Maybe don't get so excited about it." Fitz says to Simmons.


"Two of Centipede's labs have been destroyed, but they keep popping back up. Now they have at least three of these guys, maybe more." Coulson explains.


"Who did they break out?" May asks him, and Coulson taps on the computer table with his left index finger, and a man's whom looks like a very guilty, I.D. comes up o  the wall computer.


[Edison Po]



"Edison Po, former Marine, expert in tactics and rapid response. He fell off the grid in '08, reappeared 18 months ago at a diner in Boston." Coulson explains.


"Where he stabbed a friend's eyes out." Ward states.


"With a steak knife, then finished his meal." Coulson adds.


"That's funny. Po doesn't look crazy." Skye comments, and we all glance at her incredulously "I'm kidding. The guy is a walking mug shot." Skye states.


"Which means he shouldn't be too hard to track down. Finding Po and these Centipede soldiers is a top priority for S.H.I.E.L.D. We'll be running point, but we won't be working alone." Coulson explains.


"What team did H.Q. send for backup?" Ward asks him.


"Not a team... A person, someone who can help us fight fire with fire." Coulson explains to us.


"Somebody we worked with before?" Skye asks him.


"Not exactly." Coulson says.


"Were almost there, I'll land the plane." May tells us before we all begin to leave the briefing room, but Coulson calls me out, vaulting all of us to a stop.


"Lyra, you have an upcoming mission." Coulson takes his right hand out from behind his back, revealing a black, leather file that says 'S.H.I.E.L.D. CLASSIFIED', and I take it with my right hand.


[Mission File]



"What about the rest of the team?" I ask him confused.


"After the assigned mission you will return to The B.U.S., that is if the Director doesn't have any more personalized missions for you or he decides to place you elsewhere." Coulson explains to me. Place me elsewhere?


"Director, as in-" Fitz tries to say, but Simmons cuts him off.


"-Director Fury?" Simmons asks him.


"Why just Lyra?" Skye asks Coulson confused.


"Because Agent Johnson is Level 6 and she's only officially just joined S.H.I.E.L.D.. The Director wants to see what she can do." Coulson explains.


"What's the mission?" May asks me, and I go to open the file but Coulson interrupts me.


"Its Classified, even I haven't seen it nor know what its about. Your eyes only, Lyra. Orders from Director Fury himself, understood?" Coulson asks me.


"Understood, sir." I nod curtly.


(The B.U.S., S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Academy)


After May had landed The B.U.S. on a platform at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Training Academy and Coulson had left to give the offer of Peterson's assistance for our mission May, myself, Fitz, Simmons and Skye stand in the briefing room as Ward pulls up footage on the wall computer of Peterson losing control of his power, Centepede, at Union Station.


"It's not good. At all. The guy was a ticking time bomb. Literally." Ward refuses to trust Peterson.


"H. Q. wouldn't have sent him if he was still combustible. They must have found a way to stabilize him somehow." Fitz explains.


"They stabilize his attitude? 'Cause he was pretty hostile in Union Station." Ward comments.


"Well, it's not like we haven't opened up our doors to other people, people with questionable track records." Simmons refers to Skye.


"Not cool, but true. And don't worry about Mike. He's a good guy." Skye reassures Ward.


"Who's been in the Centipede program." I add, stating that Peterson had a higher chance of knowing more about Centepede than any of us.


"Exactly. He can give us some superpower backup." Skye backs up my point.


"Yeah." Simmons also agrees.


"Just saying, this could easily go sideways..." Ward begins to explain as Coulson and Mike begin to walk up from behind him "... I mean, the last time we saw this guy, he was a raging homicidal maniac-... He's standing right behind me, isn't he?" He asks us, and Skye nods once.


"Mr. Peterson, this is Agent Grant Ward and Agent Lyra Johnson, she is the woman who shot you at Union Station. Fitz-Simmons designed the weapon she used, and I think you remember-" Coulson tries to re-introduce Skye, but Skye cuts him off.


"-Kidnap victim." Skye states, making Mike chuckle lightly.


"You joined S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Peterson asks her incredulously.


"Yeah. Turns out, guys in suits, not so bad." Skye admits.


"Look, I know Union Station could have gone another way. Another team might not have let me out of there alive. I owe you... All off you." Peterson explains to us.


"That's bygones and water under a distant bridge far away. How's your son?" Skye asks him.


"Still with my sister. He thinks I'm working construction, but he's good, happy." Peterson explains.


"So, what do we have?" Coulson refers to Po.


"Not much on Po. I checked his previously known addresses and old military contacts... Came up empty." Skye explains.


"We've been looking for where Po might be on the outside. Let's look at his life on the inside, at the prison. See if that gets us any leads. Anything on the Centipede soldiers?" Coulson asks us.


"We found a facial recognition match on one of them." Simmons says as Ward taps on the computer table with his right index finger, and a man's I.D. comes up on the wall computer.


[Brian Hayward]



"Name's Brian Hayward. Stationed in Afghanistan for three years, then fell of the radar when he got back." Ward explains.


"Only living relative, a sister. Laura, Sophomore at the University of Ohio. She's our best shot at finding Hayward." I explain as I tap on the computer table with my right index finger, and Laura Hayward's I.D. comes up besides Brian Hayward's I.D. on the wall computer.


[Laura Hayward]



"You and I will go talk to her. Have May set a course for Cleveland. Lyra, look into your new assignment." Coulson gives us are orders.


As I sit in my bunk as I read through my assignment for a second time, for an understanding what I just read was correct. I am to be sent on a mission with two agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. that I'm not even sure I even rank the same level as, and the mission is to rescue hostages from a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel named The Lemurian Star which has been pirated by a man named Georges Batroc and S.H.I.E.L.D. has only just recently been given a tip off where the ship is going to be located in a few weeks. I will also be working with a team named S.T.R.I.K.E. to rescue the hostages, but I have been given a classified mission within a classified mission which is to be lead by an agent, but I'm not aloud to know what the mission is about. Hopefully this mission goes as smoothly as it doesn't look on paper.


(Ohio, Cleveland)


After May, Skye and Peterson identified Raina from prison security tapes whom had been visiting Po and she was also the woman in the flower dress that gave Peterson the opportunity of Centipede, and Coulson and Ward had tricked Laura Hayward into calling her brother and then tracking his location, right now Ward, myself, Fitz, Simmons and Peterson await on the landing bay for May to land The B.U.S. as Peterson wears his new, built suit from Fitz and Simmons.


"I think it's quite smart." Simmons comments on Peterson's suit as both Ward and myself load our fire arms.


"How does it feel?" Fitz asks Peterson.


"Feels good. Comfortable." Peterson twists his body in the suit.


"Having powers is cheating, but the suit's pretty cool." Ward comments.


"It's perfect for an array of tactical missions." Fitz states.


"Yeah, also measures your heart rate, systolic pressures, and glucose levels." Simmons explains.


"All while providing state-of-the-art ballistic protection." Fitz adds.


"Yeah." Simmons sighs as she looks at Peterson longingly.


"Thanks." Peterson thanks them.


"Oh, no. Thank you." Simmons says at the same time Fitz says "We've never been so proud." And Coulson, May and Skye make their way down the staircase.


"Hayward's cellphone has been traced to an abandoned factory about eight miles from here." Coulson explains as he holds an electronic tablet in his right hand.


"Probably Centipede's new lab." I state.


"Certainly been there M.O.... We destroy one factory, they set up another, putting us back to square one. This time, I want answers." Coulson explains to us.


"Means we go in quiet, do minimal damage to the facility and the people inside." May adds.


"Ward, Lyra, you'll go in through the west entrance. Mr. Peterson, May and I will enter through the loading dock. You'll run the back end from outside." Coulson explains the last bit to Fitz, Simmons and Skye.


"We're doing this just us? We've been playing whack-a-mole with these guys since Ward first picked me and Lyra out of my van. Shouldn't big S.H.I.E.L.D. be sending in backup?" Skye asks Coulson confused.


"Trust me, they already did." Coulson looks to Mike.


"Let's move." May tells us.


"No pressure." Fitz pats Peterson on his upper right arm with his left hand.


(Oakland, California, An Abandoned Factory)


After Ward and myself enter through the West entrance of The Abandoned Factory where Centepede has been set up, but as we enter the Building all we can see is a maze of shipping crates


"Are we alone here?" Coulson asks over coms.


"It appears so. The only heat signatures we're reading are yours." Simmons explains over coms where she, Fitz and Skye are in the S.H.I.E.LD. van outside.


"But there's a weird electronic signal. I'm trying to isolate it." Skye adds.


"Place looks emptied out. Think we're too late?" Ward asks them.


"Fitz, dial Hayward's number. Find out." Coulson tells him.


"... Uh, sir, you've got company." Fitz says.


"Yeah, we do." Coulson sighs before we hear a large crashing echo throughout the Factory.


"Coming your way." I tell Coulson, but myself and Ward stop walking when we hear a creaking noise, and we turn around to see a man in an army suit.


The man then goes to right hook Ward  in the face, but Ward dodges the hit, and  the man then goes to left hook Ward in the face, but Ward dodges that hit, too along with a right high kick. The man then crouches down and and goes to swing his right foot from under me, but I jump over his leg and go to right hook him in the face, but he dodges it and right hooks Ward across the left side of his face and I manage to high, left kick the man in the face, but he remains unaffected, so I go to high, right kick him buy he dodges the move. The man then goes to right hook me in the chest, but Ward suddenly pushes me out of the way so I hit the ground, and the man punches Ward in the chest, sending him backwards and to the ground about twenty feet away.


I then pick up two metal bars from the ground and begin to use them as extensions of my at me and begin to throw hits at him, but he blocks it with his upper arms unaffected, so I go to swing both of them towards his right ribcage, he blocks the hit by swinging his right leg up and back down. The man then throws a right hook, then left hook on repeat twice, and I just barely manage to block the hits with the metal bars before he jumps and goes to right kick me, but just as I dodge the hit he grabs my upper, right leg and flips be backwards so I land roughly on my back as I drop the metal bars which he picks up.


Two more men in army suits then appear just as Coulson and May apear in my left eyeline, and they are both are on the ground beside Peterson whom is standing, and all three men begin to head towards Peterson.


The man whom was fighting Ward and myself goes to hit the right, metal bar in Peterson's face, but Peterson grabs the metal bar in his left hand. The two men whom were fighting Coulson, May and Peterson then approach Ward and myself as we stand up from the ground, ready to fight. Peterson then manages to impale the man he is fighting, making him collapse to the ground and the two other men automatically flee the scene with incredible speed. Coulson and May then stand up as Ward and myself walk over to the man, and I only now realise whom he is. Brian Hayward.


"Who's behind Centipede? Who's doing this?!" Coulson demands from Hayward.


"I won't say anything. I promise. No! Please! Don't do the-" Hayward is cut off when we hear a little electrical buzz, and his right eye begins to bleed as he dies suddenly... We've seen this before.


(Skip to The B.U.S.)


After arriving back at the B.U.S., I take my bulletproof vest off in my bunk before heading outside of The Briefing Room to see Ward sitting at the mini bar as he takes small sips of a bottled beer in his right hand before lightly groaning as he presses the bottle against his right, bruised upper cheek bone.


"I'll pour you a Scotch." Ward puts down the his beer on the bar as he sees me and picks up a bottle of Scotch from behind the bar with his right hand.


"Don't ever do that again." I warn him angrily.


"Brandy, then?" Ward asks me slightly confused as he takes the cork out of the Scotch with his left hand.


"When we're out in the field, your head needs to be on the op, not on me." I explain to him and he puts the Scotch down.


"Time-out. Still playing catch-up here. What are you talking about?" Ward asks me confused.


"You taking a punch for me? I don't need your protection." I assure him.


"You think I don't know that? I took that punch 'cause you're faster than me. You could do more good on your feet. It was tactical, not personal." Ward corrects me.


"My mistake. But still, never take a hit for me, ever again." I tell him.


"Like I said, it was tactical." Ward repeats himself.


"I don't give a damn about tactical, and I was ready to avoid that hit. You think you know my strength, stability and capabilities but I haven't even shown half of that to anyone on this team yet because I haven't needed to. So I repeat, never take a hit for me." I tell explain to him.


"... Fine. Scotch then?" Ward asks me.


"I don't drink on the job." I tell him before I head back to my bunk, but I stop when I see May and Skye talking, so I step back slightly to watch from afar.


"... You have to decide why you're here. We have a mission, and it's not to find your parents. If you can't put aside your personal attachments, then you shouldn't be here!" May shouts at her before she walks past Skye, but stops walking beside me as Skye walks away and heads to her bunk before we hear paper ripping and sobbing before her bunk door closes "If you know the truth about your parents, tell her. Because she needs to focus on what's more important." She tells me before she goes to walk away, but I grab her left upper arm with my left hand to stop her.


"She can never know the truth, and you and Coulson can't tell her either." I tell her.


"You know?" May asks me confused.


"The little you and Coulson know, yes. But I know everything, because something like that you never forget." I explain to her as small tears begin to brim in my eyes "And one more thing, never talk to my sister like that again." I warn her before I release her arm and head to my bunk.


After Peterson explained to us that he called his son and Raina answered the phone, Coulson has called May, Ward, myself, Fitz, Simmons, Skye and Peterson to explain what it was about.


"They want a trade, Ace for his father. They've set a time and a place." Coulson explains to us.


"Bloody savages." Fitz states.


"They want to experiment on him, determine how he still has his abilities." Simmons explains.


"And we're gonna let them? We've fought these guys before." I state.


"We don't have a choice. The instructions they gave Mr. Peterson were very specific. I called H.Q., told them to stand down." Coulson explains.


"Stand down?" May asks him incredulously.


"So we take them alone." Ward says.


"We should at least have a hostage-rescue unit in support of this." May tells Coulson.


"They said they would murder my son. If we make one wrong move..." Peterson trails off, not wanting to think about what could happen to his son.


"Any electronics, any coms, any sign of surveillance and they'll terminate the arrangement." Coulson explains.


"I'll give myself up, no problem, get him back. I can figure it out from there." Peterson tells us.


"You're still recovering. We can't just hand you over to them like that, can we?" Skye asks Coulson.


"Fitz-Simmons have a non-electronic method of tracking him." Coulson states.


"Simmons has fabricated an odorless scent. I have an instrument which can detect it. Works like a bloodhound, can track someone from over 50 kilometers." Fitz explains.


"After we make the trade, we'll be able to follow Mr. Peterson. Buy him some time to get his strength back. We'll find him." Coulson assures us.


"I don't care what happens to me. As long as my boy is..." Peterson trails off as he stands up.


"... I promise you, we're gonna get your son back." Coulson promises Peterson.


(California, Long Beach Port)


[Lyra's Outfit]



After arriving at the meeting point that Raina set up on Long Beach Port which has been filled up with a few shipping oil crates, Ward and myself have set up rifles to the left of the Port on an Aquarium roof encase things take a turn for the worst whilst Coulson, May, Fitz, Simmons, Skye and Peterson sit in the S.H.I.E.L.D. van on the Port to our far right as we wait for Raina and Peterson's son. A car then pulls up on the other side of the Port, and Coulson and Peterson steps out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. van, and Raina and an army man, from The Warehouse earlier, step of the other car before they all begin to walk towards each other, but they all go into a blind spot behind a an oil truck.


[Raina]



"Ward, you have a clear eye?" I ask him.


"Negative." Ward tells me.


I then see Ace, Peterson's son, run out of the car that Raina and the army man had exited from and also runs into the blind spot, and a few moments later Peterson exits the blind spot as he carries Ace and walks towards the S.H.I.E.L.D. van, without Coulson. Raina and the Army man then walk out from the blind spot and towards their car, but the army man is carrying and unconscious Coulson over his right shoulder.


"What happened? They've taken Coulson." Ward asks May, Fitz, Simmons, Skye and Peterson.


"All right, call it in. We need backup." I tell them as I manage to get a clear target on the army man "I have a shot." I tell them.


"Do not engage. They'll kill Coulson. Stand down. I'll contact H.Q.." May tells me, and I hesitantly pull away from lens on my rifle and see that May, Fitz, Simmons and Skye have stepped out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. van.


We then watch Peterson but Ace down next to Skye before he sprints off towards Raina, the army man and Coulson, but the oil truck suddenly explodes into flames, the shock throwing both Ward and myself backwards a few feet.


"Where's Coulson and Peterson?" I groan slightly as I sit up and reset my rifle, only to see Peterson missing in the flames as Raina's car also explodes into flames.


A helicopter then suddenly rises from behind the port whilst it fires towards Ward and myself, hitting us in the bulletproof gear and the force sends us both backwards off of the small ledge and onto the second flooring of the Building.

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