Coulson Squared

Enter the Asset

"That's not our style," your father disagreed.

"I was just kidnapped by your 'style'," she argued.

"She's got a point," you said.

"SHIELD covered up New Mexico, Project Pegasus," Skye accused. "Of course you'd be covering up Centipede."

The three of you exchanged glances. "Centipede?" Ward mouthed. You put your hands up, as if to say, "Don't ask me."

"Holy no way," Skye smiled. "You don't know what that is. Billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal, and I beat you with a laptop that I won in a bet?"

"You need to think about your friend," Phil redirected. "We're not the only ones interested in people with powers. We'd like to contain him, yeah. The next guy will want to exploit him, and the guy after that will want to dissect him."

"That won't be pretty," you grimaced.

Ward put his hands on the desk and got down to Skye's level. "What is Centipede?"

She sighed. "It's hard to explain."

"We got time," you responded.

She sighed again then stood up. "Centipede. There was chatter on the web, and then, gone. I traced the access-point mac address to that building."

"What were you after?" Ward asked her, taking her seat.

She turned quickly to face him. "The truth. What are you after?"

"Honor," you interjected.

"World peace," Ward suggested instead.

"You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up," he explained, standing. Skye gave him a slightly offended look, and he began to advance on her. "But you're never around for the fallout. People keep secrets for a reason, Skye."

"Well, just because you're reasonable and--" she poked his chest-- "firm doesn't mean that you're not an evil, faceless government tool bag."

"Oh, yeah, that hurts, kid, that hurts real bad," you shook your head.

Skye looked you up and down. "You're calling me a kid?"

"Just give us your guy's name," Ward groaned.

"He's not my guy!" she exclaimed.

"You understand he's in danger," your father reminded.

"Then let me go," she pleaded. "Let me talk to him. Me, not the T-1000 here," she gestured to Ward.

"You want to be alone with him. Of course," he sighed. "She's a groupie. All this hacking into SHIELD, tracking powers; she might as well be one of those sweaty cosplay girls crowding around Stark tower."

"What?! I would--It was one time," she finished under her breath.

"Ward," Phil summoned the young man. "You stay here, (Y/N)." The two left, leaving you and Skye alone together.

"It was one time, huh?" you chuckled.

"In my defense, have you ever seen Captain America?" she gushed.

"Yeah, talked to him, too. I had to apologize for my dad's awkward and obsessive fangirling more than once." You sat down on top of the table casually.

Her mouth dropped open. "No way. You've had, like, a legitimate conversation with Steve Rogers?" She sat down next to you.

You smiled. "Yeah, but he talks to you like he's just a guy from Brooklyn, and you're just another person. It's quite a change from Stark," you said, rolling your eyes.