The Avenger's Soul

The Only Light in the Darkness (Part 1)

I nodded and left to go do just that.

*****

"This is really, really bad. Quinn is the least scary of the bunch and he shot me...twice!" I said as I stared at the files before me.

"Quinn's more of a sociopath. A lot of those inmates are full blown psychopaths. Violent, impulsive," Coulson said.

"And some with superpowers. Lovely," I commented.

"Is Marcus Daniels on the list?" I looked over at Coulson but typed on my laptop all the same. I glanced up at Coulson then turned my laptop around so he could look at what I had pulled up.

"That's him. Cross check the list of inmates with crime databases, recent activity," Coulson instructed.

I turned the laptop back around so I could work on it.

"I got a feeling we'll be seeing a slight uptick," Coulson said.

"Okay, but that'll take time and more computing power than my laptop. Agent Koenig probably has some sort of –" I started to say. Coulson was already nodding his head.

"I'm sure he'll lend a hand," Coulson said before looking over at Ward. "The plane you flew in on, is it operational?"

"Yeah. You need me to pilot?" He made a grimacing face and grunted when he stood holding his rib cage.

"You heard Simmons, you stay and get better. I'm gonna take a splinter team out and start going after inmates on that list, starting with Mr. Daniels. I think I know where he's going."

"Uh, you sure it's wise to split up the team, leave this base? What if it's part of Hydra's plan, a distraction?" May warned.

"She's got a point. I mean, Fury brought you to this base for a reason. We're safe here," I pointed out.

"Yeah, we're safe here. But what about everyone else? People who don't happen to have access to a top secret underground shelter?" Coulson argued. Ugh I hated that he made a good point. "What about them? I don't know if it's wise, but it's right. I'm taking a team, and that's the end of it."

*****

"All right. Just gonna need you guys to answer a few questions. A few psychoanalytic, non-sequitur questions," Eric Koenig told us as he showed off the chair in front of him.

"A lie detector," Coulson asked.

"The lie detector, Agent Coulson. This baby measures Galvanic skin responses, oxygen consumption, micro-expressions, biofeedback brain waves, pupil dilation, voice biometrics –" He laughed happily. "96 variables in all. Fury designed this himself. He wanted a lie detector Romanoff couldn't beat." I grinned as I thought about the redhead.

"Did she?" Ward asked.

Koenig laughed again.

"Like Fury would tell!" I snickered. I couldn't wait to ask her what the real answer was! Assuming we all made it out alive.

"Okay. The sooner we get this done the sooner we can get to work," Coulson said. "So who wants to go first?" I frowned as I thought about how much Keonig might know about me. I didn't want to have to talk about my imprisonment with Hydra. And I knew Fury knew about it because he had been the one to debrief me right after I escaped. The question was, whether he had told anyone else about me and if he had some secret file on me.

*****

"What is your first name?" Koenig asked me.

"Skye."