Wild West
“I’m sorry, sheriff,” said Deputy Ward, “But I don’t see why they keep hanging around.”
“Because they’re useful members of our team,” replied Sheriff Coulson.
The deputy scoffed, “An absent-minded train mechanic and a woman doctor? I mean, it’s great that she patched up my leg after I caught it on that nail in Kansas City, but how are they going to help us find those bank robbers?” Shield Valley was currently being terrorised by a gang of masked criminals with a multi-headed rattlesnake on their bandanas.
Coulson smiled slightly, “You’d be surprised.” He put his arm around Ward’s shoulder. Let me give you a demonstration. Dr Simmons, what did you find?”
“The injury to Ward’s leg was inconsistent with his explanation. It seemed more like a gunshot wound, such as the glancing blow you struck one of the robbers with during the shootout.”
Ward’s smile faded. “Hey, what?”
“Impressive. Mr Fitz?”
“There’s no way he was out of town during the robbery. The train he was supposed to have got back on left Kansas City before the outgoing one arrived. It doesn’t add up.”
“So it would appear,” Coulson concluded, “that their expertise has at least helped us catch one member of the Rattlesnake Gang.”
Ward hadn’t even noticed he was being led towards the sheriff’s office cell until the door slammed shut.
Cyberpunk
“SkySpy says the AI virus was sent from Alchemax,” said Fitz as he unjacked from cyberspace.
“Alchemax?” Simmons repeated, “That doesn’t make any sense. I mean, I know the megacorps are all terrible, and it’s one of the worst, but they were one of the sponsors of SHIELD reforming. Why would they sabotage us?”
“Maybe it’s not SHIELD in general they’re targeting, just us. You know Coulson goes off-program sometimes. Director Gallows lets him away with it, but if someone at Alchemax was wanting something from SHIELD that our team wasn’t providing…”
“They’d see us as a problem, yes.”
“And, I mean, it’s an open secret that Coulson isn’t happy about Alchemax’s influence. Not when they already own the Public Eye and the Avengers.”
Shapeshifters
Simmons was doing another round of tests on Fitz’s blood sample when she accidentally dropped a beaker. Before she could react, he caught it.
From the other side of the lab.
“Well,” she said as calmly as possible, “I think the tests to work out how the Terrigen crystals might have affected you are rather superfluous now.”
Pirates
The HMS Black Eagle sailed into the bay. First Lieutenant May keeping a steady hand on the helm. The ship’s carpenter looked through the spyglass at the ship behind them. “Tell Captain Coulson that the Great Kraken, formerly the HMS Green Eagle, does not appear to be following us,” he told the cabin boy. He turned to the ship’s sawbones. “You know, when they renamed it, I didn’t expect them to have control of an actual kraken.”
She nodded, “We seem to have outrun them though. Unfortunately, that means I won’t have a chance to study it.”
“Aye, well, as long as we’re not studying it from the inside, I can live with that.”
…In SPACE!!
The door to the lab at Starfleet Intelligence headquarters swished open. “Tell me you have something,” Commodore Coulson told the two officers working there, “Admiral Fury’s getting impatient.”
The man in engineering yellow spoke first, “Well, the subspace messages turned out to all be holographically encoded. I’ve managed to decode the first one and it’s exactly what you thought it was. And with that in place, I can probably decode the others.”
“And I’ve completed the genetic scan you asked for,” the woman in science blue added, “Using what Fitz told me about the messages, it was simple enough to compare the scan to the planets mentioned…”
“…And isolate it to not just one planet…” Fitz continued.
“…But to one area on that planet,” Simmons concluded
Coulson nodded. “Excellent work, both of you. With this we can finally root out John Garrett and Section 31.”
Born Another Gender
“It’s interesting how well you two mesh,” said Grant Ward, watching FitzSimmons work, “Especially since you’re in completely different disciplines. Although it’s kind of surprising that she’s the techie and you’re the biologist.”
Jimmy Simmons gave Ward a blank look. “Why would that be surprising?” he asked.
“Uh, no reason, really. I just meant…” he trailed off. Deciding to change the subject he turned to Leanne Fitz. “So what’s that you’re working on?”
“It’s a Drone Wirelessly Automated to Retrieve Forensics, or D.W.A.R.F. I’ve built six others so far.”
“So if you’ve got seven D.W.A.R.F.s, I guess that makes you…”
“Don’t even think it, Ward.”
Schoolfic
“I just want a simple answer,” said Principal Coulson, “Which one of you destroyed the science block?
Leo and Jemma exchanged glances, “I think it was probably me, sir,” said Leo, “I was working in the robotics lab, and one of them sort of escaped. I was trying to reprogram it wirelessly on the fly, and I think I might have overloaded the circuitry.”
“I don’t think Leo’s robot could have caused an explosion like that,” Jemma disagreed, “But I’m afraid I’d left my experiment unattended in the chem lab.”
Leo shook his head, “I saw what she was working on. Nothing volatile, really.”
“It still seems more likely than a robot blowing up.”
Coulson thought about this. “Is it possible your experiments could have … interacted?”
They exchanged glances again, “If the overloaded robot was producing sparks…”
“…and the sparks created an electrical fire near my compound…”
“…then yes, that could be exactly what happened. Sorry, sir.”
Coulson held up a hand. “Okay, then. Is it also possible that both of you knew your own experiment couldn’t have done this alone, but suspected the other one was responsible?”
They both suddenly found their shoes extremely interesting.
Mirror Universe
“And that concludes this meeting of the Saviours of Humanity by Interfering in the Evolution of Lifeform Deviants. Hail S.H.I.E.L.D.!”
As Coulson closed the meeting Fitz caught up with Simmons. “I just wanted to say … that talk you gave about the latest anti-Inhuman drugs was very impressive. The last time I hacked into HYDRA, their programme wasn’t anywhere near this advanced.” He grimaced. Simmons caught the look.
“Still can’t get used to doing your own hacking? I know, I miss Skye too.”
“I … I don’t miss her. She’s an Inhuman, she’s joined her dad’s organisation. Ever since she killed her mum the Inhumans have planned to take over the world. From us! If the Supreme Shield hears you talking like that…”
“I said I missed her, Fitz, I didn’t say I wasn’t going to kill her. It’s just a shame, that’s all.”
Urban Fantasy
“I don’t understand why she didn’t just tell me,” said Simmons, “I thought we were friends.”
“You are,” Fitz reassured her, “It’s just learning she was half-elven must have come as a bit of a shock.” He hesitated. “And you were going on a bit about how the fey were inhuman monsters.”
“Well, so they are! But that doesn’t mean I’d ever think Skye was!”
“She’s not Skye anymore. Apparently the name her mother gave her was Peaseblossom.”
Simmons considered this. “How does she feel about that?”
“That it’s still better than Mary Sue Poots.”
Steampunk
“And that is the complete story,” Simmons concluded, “To the best of my knowledge, William remains on the other world, abandoned by the Royal Exploratory Corps and with only ourselves at the Brotherhood of the Shield having the knowledge and abilities to rescue him.”
“I see,” said Fitz, “Then not only do we have a moral duty to do so, but I personally have a responsibility to thank him for saving your life. We now know that the portal functions when the stars are right, as Mr Daniels put it. We can therefore plan a retrieval attempt.”
Simmons shuddered again, “It was terrible. The sense of crushing despair that creature caused. I felt like everything was over, as though the End Times were upon us.”
Fitz patted her shoulder, “Remember the credo of the Brotherhood. This is not how the world ends.”
It was a wonderful motto, Simmons thought to herself, but eventually they would reach the occasion when it would turn out to be incorrect.