Chapter 6
The door opened surprisingly easily, revealing a fairly dark room. The only light came from a soft glow in deeper in the room. Fumbling along the wall Fitz eventually found what felt like a light switch and pressed it. The sudden light might him blink rapidly. He could feel Jemma’s hand pressed into his back, reminding him that he was not alone. She was leaning round him trying to see into the room. As his eyes adjusted to the light he could make out where the glow had originally been coming from. It wasn’t possible to see what was causing the glow from before as screens were blocking it. Cloth screens surrounded an area within the room, with the rest of the room being bare.
Slowly Fitz moved into the room, weary in case there were any traps. He wished that Ward were with him. He would be able to notice any dangers that were in their way. He knew he had to head towards the sectioned area, it was the only place the team could be, the only place they would get answers.
Ushering Jemma back he gingerly moved the screen out of the way.
“Fitz?” questioned Jemma, noticing his suddenly ridged posture.
Instead of answering he moved to one side so she could she what he was looking at. It was almost the same as last time when Skye and Ward had gone missing. They, Coulson and May were lying on a raised platform that had symbols on it that were giving off the glow. They all looked peaceful and relaxed. Unlike last time there was nothing surrounding the machine that would help to turn it off.
“We need to get them out Fitz.”
“I know. Can you remember how to turn it off?”
“I think so.”
He watched as she headed past their team to the other side of the room. He knew from last time that there should be some sort of control panel somewhere in the room. As the rest of the room was bare it had to be on the other side, the one part of the room they couldn’t see properly.
Coming to stand beside her, he noticed something that was a little bit different from last time.
“That wasn’t there last time.”
Jemma was pointing out the box above the control panel that he had noticed just before. There were no distinguishing marks on it however it seemed to be part of the machine as when Jemma activated the control panel clanking noises could be heard from inside it. The panel Jemma had been using began to flash causing Fitz to pull her back from it. Before either of them could react the box they had noticed opened releasing a gas into the air.
Fitz glanced in horror at Jemma, but found he could barely make her out. The entire room was spinning. Jemma suddenly collapsed in front of him. He wanted to do something but it was getting hard to breathe.
‘Help’ he thought before hitting the ground unconscious.
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They had decided the easiest way was to just go and knock on the house and talk to whoever answered. But just as they were about to head down to the house somebody left and could clearly be seen moving away from them. As they had found out that Charlie lived alone, it was quickly decided that they would enter the house and have a look around. It was reasoned that they could find out as much information as they could if they talked to Charlie. Plus if he did have something to do with the machine this wouldn’t raise his suspicions.
As they didn’t know how long he would leave the house for they quickly moved down to the house. May quickly opened the door and they all slipped inside. Skye was left to keep a look out for Charlie coming back while the others searched the place. It only took 10 minutes, as the place was fairly empty, only contain a few seat, table and a bed. The only thing of interest that could be found was a stack of papers. They quickly moved them to the table and sorted through them.
“Anything of interest?” Questioned Skye from where she was still stood looking out of the window.
“Not really.” Muttered Ward. “Hang on.”
Skye turned to seem him pull a smaller piece of paper out of the pile.
“Well he definitely has something to do with the future.” Ward commented after reading the paper. He passed it to Coulson to look at while he continued explaining to Skye and May.
“It’s only something small but it contains an email address. I think it’s for a company, just by the paper. It looks like a business card only larger and has the same name as that web address you found Skye.”
“Does it give you any more information?”
“Not really. It looks like they are waiting for more information in relation to experiment from what I can tell.”
“Very good Agent Ward.”
Ward spun towards the new voice, grabbing his gun from where it hung in its holster.
“Oh don’t bother with that. It won’t do you any good anyway.”
The voice came from the back of the house where they had entered. Ward watched as a small man moved into the candlelight. He couldn’t be certain but he guessed the man stood before him was Charlie.
“How do you know my name?”
“Oh that is easy I’ve been watching you. I have to say you have coped so much better with the machine this time. You even managed to find some affects I would never have guessed at. Retaining some of your host’s memories is fantastic. I dropped you further out this time and yet you found you way home perfectly fine.”
“You put us in here?”
“Yes. You handled it so well the last time, plus I needed to test another time period. Your colleagues were just added bonuses.”
“You….”
A cheeping coming from somewhere on the man cut off Ward f. Holding up a hand at Ward he pulled out a device that looked a lot like a telephone and glanced at the screen. The grin that covered his face had Ward worried. Something was happening
“So sorry. I ignored you there. How rude of me. Unfortunately I’m going to have to be rude again and leave you. But don’t worry I’ll leave a replacement for you, well two really. I think you know them. And because I’m a kind person I’ll even treat you to a new place.”
With that he vanished.
“Did he just?” Ward looked at the rest of the team bewilderedly.
“Yep.” Replied Skye moving closer to Ward.
She hadn’t liked the sound of the last part. As she moved towards him the floor felt like it was tipping, almost like she was on a ship. It was taking all her concentration to keep up right. Something was wrong!
“Grant!” She gasped as the world suddenly went black.
She could hear movement around her as the others rushed to her side. Her eyes were open but all she could see was darkness. She could hear Coulson and Ward calling her name. They seemed to be getting fainter and fainter. No matter how hard she tried to reach for them she could find them. Then suddenly it all went dark.
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