A Breakdown of Negotiations
“Mr. Carter… You’re lying down on the job” Romanoff said as the man regained consciousness.
“King…” he groaned “They’re abnormals…”
“I know” she said. She turned back to her other agents “Someone get Carter in an ambulance, please?”
“We tried. The others? What about the others?”
“They were all killed in the crash.”
“We need to stop them.”
“I know, Paul.” She said as paramedics started treating him.
Romanoff walked up to a van her people had brought to the scene where her private crime scene techs were working.
“Do we know what caused the damage?” She asked one of them at a computer.
“Yes… unfortunately.”
The man turned his screen so she could see
“We pulled this from the dash cams of one of the wrecked cars.”
Romanoff watched the video of Daisy wrecking the cars with her powers.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am. I know this is hard to watch.”
“I knew those two were freaks of nature. I never wanted to have to see it.”
“Does that mean that our Agent Johnson is…?”
“Don’t you dare say it” Romanoff said, enraged. “delete the footage.”
“Ma’am”
“I said delete it. Tell anyone who asks that the man driving did it.”
“Ma’am, with all due respect, you know the rules as well as any of us…”
“Unless you want to suddenly find a bullet hole between your eyes, you will keep your mouth SHUT!”
She said as she walked out.
“Anyone got any ideas?” Daisy asked peering around the large boulder the four were hidden behind.
“We don’t even know what’s going on” Jay said
“Barry and our friends are probably in there at gunpoint.” Scott said “… I might have something, but it’s going to be risky…” He said, handing Daisy his phone.
The men guarding the road were surprised when they saw Scott walking up to them with his hands in the air.
“Don’t shoot, I surrender! Just let them go!”
“Contact King for instructions” the team leader told one of his men.
Romanoff was walking back to her car when one of her aids ran up.
“Director! We’ve got contact from team three; they’ve found one of the targets. They want to know what to do.”
“Which target?”
“The man, the one called Riley.”
She stood still for a second
“Kill him.”
The Chessboard troops raised their guns at Scott.
“Look, just lets the others go and I’ll come quietly.”
Suddenly, the plane’s gun turret popped out and fired at the ground behind them, the force of the blast knocking them down.
Daisy, Jay and Jessie ran up the ramp from behind the plane, having circled around while the guards were distracted. She knocked down two of the guards holding the others in the main cabin with her quake blasts. Lincoln used the opportunity to shock two more, with Jemma finishing off the last with a frying pan to the face.
“Chessboard is working with the Purpled eyed lady.” Daisy told them a she ran in. “Everyone OK?”
“Not so worse for the wear.” Fitz said “Who are these two?” He asked, pointing at Jay and Jessie
Barry asked in shock “How did you guys get here?”
“We’re not exactly sure ourselves.”
Scott ran up the ramp and motioned to Daisy, who threw him his phone back. He pressed an app on the screen and the camera revealed the cloaked presence of his car working its way back to them.
“So it turns out this entire operation has been some kind of set up” Daisy finished explaining after a few mintues. She walked over to where Jas was sitting.
“I’m sorry…” She told her “They took Seven, and gave her to the purple eyed lady. There was nothing we could do to stop them.”
Jas broke down crying.
“Oh God again?” she screamed. Daisy tried to hug but Jas just shoved her away.
“Jas, we’re going to get her back. We swear.”
“That’s all you people do is make promises!” Jas screamed “You’ve cost me first my dearest friend and now my WIFE.”
“I thought you said she wasn’t your wife.”
“My Daisy is still inside her.” Jas said “I know she’s in there somewhere and I almost had her back, but you send her off on a mission without telling me and now she’s god only knows where.
Scott heard his car load itself into the rear bay and the ramp rise and lock.
“Let’s get out of here before things get any worse.” Scott said
“It’s a little late for that” Romanoff said, stepping into the cabin with a high tech looking rifle in her arms. “Agent Riley, you really need to work on permit security and not leaving your car door unlocked.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve showing up here.” Barry said.
“People like you… You’re just too dangerous.” Romanoff said, still aiming her gun at Daisy.. “You are a threat. A threat that needs to be eliminated for the greater good.”
“Because we’re different?” Daisy asked
“Oh, right… that little, what was the term you used when you beat Mr. Carter? ‘Chestnut…” She said with a slight laugh “There’s a difference between people having different skin color or liking someone of the same gender and watching a 3rd grader lift a city bus.” Romanoff said with an angry tone. “Your ‘enhancements’ make you weapons. They make you freaks. You KILLED over a dozen of my best men! Carter is on his way to the ICU, if he’s lucky.”
“You’re right. We’re weapons.” Scott said “But that doesn’t give you the right to kill someone who hasn’t done anything.
“People like us are dangerous, there is no denying that. We have to live with that fact every day. But, unlike that gun you’re carrying, we CHOOSE to use our abilities, with certain exceptions” he shoot a look in Thawne’s direction “To help. To save lives. We don’t WANT to hurt anyone. We might be weapons, but we each have a conscience, we CHOOSE to be good people.”
Scott stepped closer and leaned forward so the two were face to face.
“Right now, there is nothing more that I want other than to beat the ever loving crap out of you for the shit you’ve pulled. But I’m not going to, because it’s wrong. If you have an ounce of human decency left in you, you’ll put that gun down right now.”
Romanoff pointed the rifle square at his chest and pulled the trigger.