Undercover Agent

2012

IF a desk job where the only thing she had to do was type over mission reports was a tedious job, then being the Avengers' babysitter was really pushing her over the edge.

Kaylin is tired. She's spent the past half year keeping an eye on everyone Fury had in that file, and it's been a very taxing time. She's kept an eye on Natasha Romanov's missions. She's attended charity events where Tony Stark was supposed to show up. She's followed Bruce Banner's whereabouts through the satellite scanners and video cameras. She's even taken it upon herself to help Steve Rogers acclimated to his new life.

A year ago, she'd have laughed in your face if you were to tell her about all this.

The worst part is that she's got less free time, and her girlfriend isn't very happy about that.

Kaylin has been ignoring Kinsley's calls and texts. Not because she doesn't want to speak to her, but because she doesn't know how to explain her situation.

As an agent of SHIELD, Kaylin can't speak about her work. She can't say anything without putting Kinsley in danger, and it always makes her heart ache.

Kaylin loves her girlfriend, so much. It's just... How can you protect someone better than not telling them about the danger in the first place?

Steve - yes, they're on first name basis, on his insistence - has been a great distraction. He's been very enthusiastic about the - for him - new world, and he's been learning much about what he's missed. He won't go near a phone, but he's been visiting the library almost every day to read about all the history he's missed.

Just like now.

Kaylin finds Steve sitting in one of the study rooms with five books spread out over the table in front of him. He looks up when he hears her walk in and smiles kindly.

"Kaylin," he greets, getting up from his seat to give her a hug. "What brings you here?"

They both sit down, and Kaylin notices how Steve closes his book and puts it aside. He's nothing if not a gentleman.

"Well, I wanted to tell you that I won't be at the office for a while," she informs him. "I've got a mission."

Steve's eyebrows raise up. "You're back in the field?" he wonders.

"No," she replies, shaking her head. "I'm merely going to keep an eye on things. Fury has asked me to be an extra set of eyes because of my knowledge on some science aspects that might be needed. Perks of being a smart kid, huh?"

He laughs with her, despite him not understanding the true joke.

You see, Kaylin hasn't told him about who she really is. Steve doesn't know she grew up around smart people, or that she's very close to the very woman he almost went on a date with.

It's for his protection, she tells herself. No one can know.

A notification on her phone makes Kaylin sigh.

"I really have to go now," she says. "If you need anything, you have my number. If it's urgent, however, May is there."

Steve chuckles. "You know she hates you for saying that, right?" he tells her. "Go, Kaylin. Do your job. If it all works out, I won't even be in New York at the end of the week."

"That's right!" Kaylin is smiling brightly now. "You've found a place in DC. How did it go?"

"Kaylin, go," Steve says. "We can talk about this when you're back."

"Fine," she sighs, standing up. "Have fun moving."

-

SHIELD has many bases around the world. Many projects are conducted at the same time, and thus many buildings are needed.

Sometimes, some companies or governments require assistance from people who can work outside the book. One such company is NASA.

Nevada isn't an unfamiliar place for SHIELD. It's an excellent hiding place for top secret projects, and especially those concerning extraterrestrial things.

One such thing is this blue cube Kaylin is staring at in the basement of a NASA facility.

The SHIELD file she had read on the plane over named the cube 'The Tesseract', and it apparently came from a mythological place. It also mentioned mythological gods, which is breaking the woman's belief-system despite never having believed in anything.

Sure, Kaylin grew up in a Jewish household. She attended the synagogue a few times, and had a bar mitzvah at thirteen. However, when she took off for boarding school, she stopped doing that.

Having done her research, Kaylin knows basically everything there is to find about Thor and Loki from Norse mythology. She, also, knows how much the file on both of them differs from said mythology, which confuses her beyond anything.

If they really are those gods, and the books about them are wrong, who's to say the other mythology books are wrong, too? And the holy books?

Anyway, in Fury's file it states that he obtained the Tesseract somewhere in the nineties when aliens attacked the planet. Despite being a level 7 agent now, not all the information on that event are available to her, so she's left pretty much in the dark there.

Not knowing what to do with the cube, Fury placed it somewhere safe, but since Thor and Loki decided Earth was the perfect place to hash out their sibling-feud, it got the director thinking. The cube came from space, and so did those gods. There has to be a connection.

SHIELD's most brightest scientists were put on the job, and their only goal is to find out what it is. Kaylin was called in for extra help when it comes to languages and cultural things.

AKA Norse myths.

She's not the only one keeping an eye on things. Oh, no. Her colleague and friend Agent Clint Barton has much the same task.

Within the agency, Clint has gotten the reputation of being a remarkable shot; he never misses. It has earned him the nickname 'Hawkeye', and he's only grown more into it by always wanting to be as high up as possible, saying he sees better from a distance.

Clint has also been brought along because he was there the day Thor showed up, and thus knows the most about that god.

Besides Dr Erik Selvig.

Dr Selvig is the lead scientist on this project. Fury is calling it Project Pegasus, which is a name that has nothing to do with the cube other than that pegasi are mythological creatures, and all they can come up with about space seems to be mythological, too. Just look at Thor and Loki.

Kaylin walks around the machine holding the cube and frowns. It looks an awful lot like an arc reactor, and she immediately knows where SHIELD got the idea for it. It's not like she hasn't spent months stalking the man who's made such a thing a reality. Albeit smaller, of course. He's still working on a bigger one that can run a building.

"May I have the room, Agent Thomas," Dr Selvig asks from behind the woman.

Kaylin steps aside with a kind smile. "Of course, Dr Selvig," she says, and watches as the man adjusts a few wires.

"All done," Dr Selvig declares proudly. "Now all we need is Director Fury's permission to start testing."

"Great," Kaylin says. "Is there anything we can do in the meantime?"

The scientist shrugs as he leads the way to one of the computers. "We can do some energy readings, but nothing more," he tells her.

Kaylin pushes her earpiece. "Got that, Barton?" she asks.

Looking up, she sees the man salute, which makes her laugh.

The energy readings mostly tell them the cube contains gamma radiation, which is something that can cause severe damage. Otherwise, there are some energies that the computer can't name, further solidifying the extraterrestrial theory. So, they put their focus on the gamma radiation.

Kaylin takes another lap around the cube, just to see if she can spot something with her eyes that the computer can't, when a small spark comes from the Tesseract.

"Uh, Dr Selvig?" she questions with worry. "Is it supposed to spike when you use the GRP?"

Dr Selvig looks up with a deep frown. He runs over and checks everything, twice, before he starts mumbling.

"This is not good," he says. "This is so not good."

"Not good?" Kaylin repeats, tilting her head a little so she has Clint in his field of view. "You have to talk to me, Doctor."

Taking a deep breath, Dr Selvig starts his explanation. "The spiking isn't normal," he tells her. "Something is about to happen, and it's not going to be something good."

Nodding along, the agent shares a look with her colleague. "I'll inform Coulson," she states. "Don't let it get worse, Doc."

The scientist promises to try and keep the spiking to a minimum, and watches as Kaylin runs from the room. She races up the stairs and into her SO's temporary office.

"Phil!" she exclaims as she bursts through the door. "The Tesseract is spiking!"

Looking up from the file he was reading, Agent Phillip Coulson frowns at his honorary sister. "You weren't supposed to start testing yet," he tells her without much heat behind his words. He can never get mad at the woman he sees as a younger sister.

Crossing her arms, Kaylin takes a defensive stance. "We weren't," she says. "The only thing we were doing was reading the energy levels."

"Well, then what happened?" Coulson wonders.

"Well," Kaylin repeats mockingly, "Selvig was starting the GRP when I noticed spikes coming from the cube. I asked, and it's not supposed to do that when you're scanning it, and Selvig started to panic. I came here soon after to inform you, because it might be dangerous."

Her SO nods at the explanation. "OK," he says when she stops talking. "Just one question: What's GRP?"

"Right," Kaylin chuckles. "It's what I've been calling the Gamma-Radiation Program. I just didn't feel like repeating that mouthful all the time."

Coulson laughs with her. "Should've known it came from you," he teases. "How dangerous do you think this will get?"

With the humorous tone gone, Kaylin starts pacing. "It's gamma radiation," she begins. "Going off about how I feel and what I know from the Harlem Incident reports, it can only be dangerous."

She stops in her pacing to look at the man in front of her.

"Phil," she says, "I think it's going to explode. The amount of gamma radiation is high, much higher than you think, and if it does explode, we might have a whole new Hulk-like event."

Despite not being a field agent, Kaylin knows all about what happened with Dr Banner and the Hulk. She's read every report on the events, and every file on the man. She knows just how much damage gamma radiation can do.

"Dammit!" Coulson cursed, slamming his hand against his desk. He reaches for the phone in the corner of his desk and picks up the horn. "I'll call Fury," he tells her. "Evacuate the building."

"On it," Kaylin nods, already turning to run out of the room.

"Kaylin!" Coulson shouts, halting her movements. "Keep it as vague as possible, we don't need the panic. Just get everyone to leave the premises."

-

On her way to the control room, Kaylin informs Clint about the proceedings. She explains to him that he has to keep the scientists inside the basement to keep an eye on the Tesseract until Fury arrives while she tries to get everyone else to leave.

Luckily, the control room holds only four people, so there won't be much she has to do to convince them to go home.

Turning to the agent closest to her, she starts demanding things. "You have to issue a building wide evacuation."

"Why?" the agent asks her, pushing one ear of their headset behind their ear.

Kaylin comes up with a quick lie that's close enough to the truth. "Something is the lab is close to exploding and we don't know how large the damage is going to be."

The four agents in front of her immediately issue the evacuation order and leave the room themselves to grab their belongings.

Kaylin herself rushes back to the lab. She passes Coulson in the hallway, wishing him luck with the boss. He wishes her luck with the cube, in return.

The PA system shouts for all personnel to leave, which makes is difficult to push past people coming up the stairs, while Kaylin has to go down. She keeps apologizing as she brushes past, racing down the stairs as fast as she can to inform the scientists of what's going on.

Finally reaching the basement, Kaylin rushes inside, yelling for Dr Selvig. "Fury is on his way, and the building is being evacuated," she tells him.

"Good," the man sighs, a weight lifting from his shoulders knowing help is coming. "Don't go near that cube. I'm afraid something might happen."

Nodding her consent, Kaylin makes her way to a computer instead. "Have you found anything yet on why it's spiking?" she questions.

Smiling at the eager agent, Dr Selvig shakes his head. "But we're looking into it. If you can assist Agent Barton in observing us, I'll feel much safer."

Knowing she's in the way of the professionals, Kaylin makes her way up to where Clint is sitting. He has his feet dangling from the elevated concrete, and his arms folded on top of one of the safety bars. Sitting down next to him, they watch the scientists below trying to work out what's going on.

"What do you think?" Kaylin asks the man, trying to make conversation while also trying to calm her nerves.

"Trouble," Clint answers with a deep sigh. "It's always trouble."

She can't find any fault in his words. Whenever SHIELD is involved, there's something going on that will end terrible. Either a battle breaks out, or something blows up. Sometimes both.

Clint nudges Kaylin's shoulder. "Have you noticed how no one did anything, and yet that cube started acting off? It suggests that the Tesseract can work as a door," he tells her. "If, on our end, no one did anything, who's to say there's no one on the other side who is?"

Kaylin shudders. "That's a terrifying thought," she says, staring down at the cube. "Everything points to mythology, or space. Care to take a guess?"

Clint chuckles, lifting a shoulder to shrug. "I just hope that, whatever it is, is friendly."

"You and me both, Hawk."

"Agents Thomas and Barton," the voice of their director calls from over the comm units they're wearing. "Report."

Both agents' attention snap to where the scientists are standing to find Fury staring at them. The man raises an eyebrow, and they both hurry to reach him. Clint by sliding down one of the ropes hanging from the ceiling, and Kaylin by just using the stairs.

Reuniting on the ground, the two make their way to Fury. They push and shove each other while joking about their travel ways until they reach their boss, then all humor is gone from their bodies.

"Barton," Fury calls upon Clint first. "I gave you this detail to keep a close eye on things. Thomas," the man turns to face the woman, "you were supposed to watch the cube."

"I see better from a distance," Clint answers at the same time that Kaylin says, "I was."

The three of them look at the Tesseract. There are still blue sparks coming from the cube, only now it seems to happen more frequently.

"Have you seen anything that might set this off?" Fury asks his agents, not looking at either of them.

"Doctor, it's spiking again!" one of the scientists shouts, and Kaylin excuses herself to follow Dr Selvig to the computer. Despite not having had the same schooling as the others - she went to Comms, not Sci-Tech when she was picked up by SHIELD - Kaylin does know her way around different components.

Perks of growing up around smart people.

She hears Clint answering Fury's question, but her focus is on the line that's appearing on the computer screen. It's going upwards, which means that the radiation level is getting higher and higher, and that's dangerous.

"At this end?" Kaylin hears her boss ask, and she looks up.

"Yeah," Clint nods, thrusting his hand out to point in the general direction of the Tesseract. "The cube is a doorway to the other end of space, right? Doors open from both sides..."

That's the theory Clint has stuck with, and it sounds plausible. However, if that's really the case, than whatever is on the other side is trying to break through. Maybe that's what the sparks are; the doorway opening.

"Guys," Kaylin calls as dread feels her stomach. "I don't think it's a good thing to stand so close to the cube." She walks over to them with her eyes trained on the blue thing. "If it opens, you'll be blasted out of the way," she tells them.

As if the Tesseract was listening to her, it starts to spark even more. The cube suddenly shoots blue energy bolts around the room, forcing everyone to run and hide.

Clint pushes Fury aside, almost tackling Kaylin in the process, too. They lay on the ground as a large energy bolt hits the other side of the room and a silhouette seems to appear at the end of it.

This proves it. This proves Clint's theory of it being a doorway. They're watching as the foreigner kneels with their front towards them. They're holding something that looks like it came from a Sci-Fi movie set, and their all leather clothing squeaks when they move.

"Dear Lord..." Kaylin breathes out in shock. She doesn't believe in God, but if this is an alien, maybe she should start.

The foreigner lifts their head, and Kaylin feels shivers go down her spine when her own eyes meet the icy blue of the possible alien. They're smirking at her, which freezes her movements.

Is she even breathing?

"Sir," Fury calls from where he's getting up, clearly having recovered already. "Please, put down the spear."

They look at their 'spear', as Fury called it, with a small frown, before they look back at the man. Without warning, and with minimal movement, they twist the staff to point at Fury, and shoot.