Little Blue Terror
“This thing just doesn’t make any sense.” Fitz yelled while smacking the console. The girls had taken Scott’s car to get Skye some clothes since she couldn’t live in her uniform. Fitz and Scott were examining the machine that had assumedly brought Skye to their world.
“Dude, hitting it an’t gonna help.” Scott replied. “With our luck that will produce another Daisy or two.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Fitz said.
“You heard?”
“From what I could piece together, Jemma was babbling a bit.” Fitz said. “It’s nice to see her smiling again.”
“It’s nice to see her anywhere near you without wanting to kill you..”
“Let’s just say you missed quite a lot while on that assignment.” Fitz said.
“I tend to. I’m never around when the real fun happens. I survived the blowing up of the Playground because I was on a beer run. I missed the whole mess in the Lighthouse because I was chasing down Barty, not realizing how far up shit’s creek I was. Want to know how I survived the first battle with Hydra four years ago?”
“How?”
“It’s because I was stuck changing planes in Phoenix. They wouldn’t spring for a direct flight. So while Captain Rogers was crashing the Insight Carriers into the Triskellion, I was sitting at a Pizza Hut in Phoenix Sky Harbor waiting for my connecting flight. I guess in that case, someone’s cheepness actually might have saved my bacon. Hey, by the way, I’ve been meaning to ask, whatever happened to that Deke guy?”
“Um…I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Yeah, sorry, I know you didn’t like him.”
“It’s ok.” Fitz sighed in frustration. “This machine is impossible. Nothing is labeled, the screen is fried beyond repair, and I have no clue what this blub thing is supposed to be. You know, I spoke to a contact at British Intelligence. They found this thing in a sealed off shaft in an abandoned London Underground station… but look at that.” He said, pointing his flashlight at the raised control panel.
“Which station?” Scott asked
“Does it matter? Look!” Fitz says
“Well, considering many old underground stations were used during the war for various purposes. If we knew which station we could know who was using it and possibly how it got there…” Scott paused for a second before sheepishly admitting “And I.. um… happen to… like… trains...”
Fitz looked up at him with a scowl “Will you stop with your anorak train spotter babbling and just bloody look already!”
“Alright, alright, don’t get… “Scott stopped himself mid sentence “How long ago was that tunnel sealed again?”
“1947, 1949 at the latest”
“And that looks waaay too much like a circuit board with microprocessors …Wait, what’s this box for..?” Scott asked, pointing to a square component in the machine.
There was a cover on the side facing them. They popped it off, revealing a burned out, blue, square object.
“No way…” They said to each other while backing away slowly.
“We better call the boss man…” Scott said “How should we move that? Should we even bring it up?”
“Can’t you move it? You know…” Fitz asked.
“I don’t even want to be in the same time zone as that thing.” Scott yelled “Two things about my powers. First, they require focus, which is not something I have in spades right now, one false thought and who knows that it would do to that thing. Second is when I use them, I interact with the entire object. I don’t know what that would ether.”
“Maybe we should make the call from in here.”
“You want to undo that rat’s nest of cables and drag my computer down here, be my guest. This room is shielded, I don’t know if you noticed but the wifi doesn’t work in here.”
“I might have a plan B. what do you have in the way of utensils in the kitchen?”
“When we saw the machine, we assumed it was a product of Howard Stark.” Scott explained to coulson via a video call. “What we didn’t consider… was which Howard Stark.”
Coulson’s brow furrowed on the screen for a moment.
“You’re saying the machine came from another universe aside from ours and Skye’s? What makes you think that?”
“This” He said carefully holding up a pair of salad tongs…
Holding the charred remains of the Tesseract.
About an hour later, the girls returned from their shopping trip to find the two men staring at the burnt blue box on a table. Skye had ear buds in and was dancing and singing along to music playing on Daisy’s phone and didn’t notice what was going on at first. Jemma recognized it immediately.
“Where the bloody hell did that come from?” she screamed dropping her bags on the floor.
“It was inside the machine” Fitz answered “It might be its power source.”
“Is it inert?” Jemma asked.
“That’s the blue cube thingy…” Daisy stammered.
“What is that? It looks so pretty.” Skye marveled, taking the ear buds out.
“I’ll explain later, just don’t touch it.” Scott said, slapping her hand away as she reached out to poke it.
“Well you must have touched it. It wasn’t here when we left.”
“Yeah, with tools, not with our bear hands.” Fitz yelled at the girl.
“Oh come on, what’s the worst that could happen…” Skye said.
She grabbed hold of the Tesseract. The other’s braced themselves for something to happen.
“What?” Skye looked at them, holding the cube in her hand and playing with it.
“Are you daft? That thing is an extraterrestrial artifact of immense power.” Fitz said “The last known person to physically touch it was zapped to God only knows where.”
“Not that he didn’t disserve it” Dasiy threw out.
“EEPP!” Skye yelled and put the cube back down.
“The last time SHIELD saw that bloody thing,” Fitz continued “Thor was taking it back to Asgard.”
“Thor?” Skye asked “As in Thor, the old Norse god of thunder? Thor, the dude with the hammer?”
“He’s an alien.” Jemma said
“So aliens are real?”
“Were you not paying attention yesterday?” Daisy asked
“Sorry… My head just feels strange, really strange. I might need to lie down.”
“I think it would be best if we got all this back to HQ.” Jemma said
“Actually, I think the new applied sciences facility outside DC would be better” Fitz said.
Jemma and Daisy nodded in agreement. Scott was confused.
“When did we get a new Applied Science Division?”
“While you were away.” Jemma answered.
“How are we gonna get it there? The others are still halfway around the world.” Daisy asked.
“We could call for a Quinjet from base?” Fitz said
“Ahem” Scott said, motioning out the window at Zephyr Zero “Anyone need a ride?”
“You just want an excuse to take that out for spin.” Daisy said with her arms crossed.
“Guilty as charged.”
“Are you sure you know how to fly this thing.” Fitz asked as they loaded the machine into the plane.
“Not now, it’s a tight fit gotta concentrate. Jemma, the carpet lifts up in front of the coffee table; there are some strap hard points underneath.”
“Got it” She yelled back.
Scott and Daisy were working together to get the machine up into the plane.
“Ok Daisy, let’s put it down, real easy. Now.” The two let go and the machine dropped slightly onto its wheels.”
“To answer your question, this thing has so many automated pilot aids nearly anyone could fly it, but yes, I’m a certified pilot.”
“Why would a tech learn to fly a plane?” Fitz asked.
“…Because I felt like it?” Scott responded “My Grandfather flew B29s in the Pacific during the final months of the war. Even once he joined S.H.I.E.L.D. he remained in the Air Force Reserve. My dad spent much of his time in SHIELD as a transport pilot and now he flies for Fedex. Flying just runs in the family.”
They quickly tied down the box and prepped for takeoff.
“How does this thing take off from in here? There are streets and people outside.” Skye wondered, Scott having invited her to sit in the co-pilot seat.
“It’s got a VTOL mode like the Quinjets and Zephyr One” Fitz anwered.
“Basically it can take off and land straight up and down.” Daisy added.
“Like a helicopter” Jemma finished.
“You guys do realize you can’t all stay in here right? It’s a little cramped.” Scott asked from the pilot seat.
The other three agents gave him a look that for all intents and purposes screamed “We’re not riding next to that thing.”
“All righty then…” He continued, taking the hint.
“Skye, since you’re our guest, would you like to do then honors of pressing that button”
He pointed to a big white button on a box bolted to the top of instrument panel.
“What does it do?” she asked while pressing it.
“It’s the garage door opener.” He said as the roof slid away, letting the mid-day sun shine down.
Scott manipulated the controls, and three doors opened on the underside of the plane, revealing three replusor engines like the kind in Tony Stark’s Iron Man suits, only large enough to carry the plane into the air.
“Arc thrusters enabled. Repulsor lift mode on. Active camouflage on.” And with that, the plane’s electronic cloak blinked into action, hiding it from people’s vision.
“In the words of Brooklyn’s own Jackie Gleason; ‘And away we go” he said, as the plane rose into the sky, its wings unfolding once clear of the building.
“So how long should this take?” Skye asked as the Big Apple shrunk below them, the Zephyr now flying normally.
“Eh, bout an hour, hour and a half give or take.” Scott replied “While we can go pretty damn fast, our cloak doesn’t stop sonic booms. I’m not about to break every window in the Northeast while en route. I would also like to not rattle that thing around anymore than we have to.”
“What’s a sonic boom?” Skye asked
“Oh boy…” Scott muttered as the group settled in for the ride.
About half an hour later, high over the Delaware River, one of the displays began making a beeping noise.
“And so they starting building the network in the 50s based on the German…” Scott stopped his history lesson on the Interstate highway network “Hold on… Weather radar is picking up a storm cell. But I don’t see anything.” The summer sky beyond was clear, bright blue all the way to the horizon.
Then, a loud computer voice began yelling through the cockpit “TERRAIN! PULL UP! TERRAIN! PULL UP!”
“We’re at 30,000 feet. We wouldn’t even hit Mount Everest.” Scott said, silencing the alarm. “Something is up with the FMS.”
“Um, guys…” Jemma stuttered.
The group looked behind them.
The machine was glowing again.