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Post by Ray on Jan 10, 2016 22:21:26 GMT -7
Fitz is quick, probably too smart for Caesar's good, asking all the right questions to get all the wrong answers. Caesar turns his eyes back to him, his tongue subtly darting out to wet his lips as his mind races to answer that question.
He knows why he's here. Knows why he's so damn willing to tag along on Emily's missions, playing escort. It's frivolous and, granted, a little high-school-crush on his part, but he'd rather know that Emily is safe than pretend that he doesn't like her more than regulations say he should. Even if this isn't supposed to be anything serious between them. Just something fun. Something meaningless. Something he's damn well willing to break a lot of rules for.
"She needed a pilot." Caesar answers, as truthfully as he can with a bob of his head. "I owed her a favor."
It's simple enough. True enough, without giving away too much. He hates lying, but he's been doing that a lot lately.
Poe, it seems, is the only one who ever knows the whole truth.
As soon as the thought crosses his mind, his cellphone vibrates in his pocket. He digs it out and glances at the screen, Poe's name popping up into view.
Dude. Where you at. Hill's pissed.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 10, 2016 22:42:38 GMT -7
Jemma looks between both Fitz and Caesar and then shook her head. "Always the nosy one, Fitz" she said and drank her tea down before standing up. "Please put those drones away, you don't want any of them to get broke" she rolled her eyes and then smiled at Caesar before moving away from the table and walking into the kitchen.
It had been a long night and an even longer day. Even if it was just a little after midday which was 7am in DC. Jemma's eyes caught sight of the blood still staining her hands and she swallowed hard. Amanda had taken over when she had seen Jemma's hands shaking and this was pretty much the reason why. She had felt a little out of her depth but right now the older agent was asleep in bed, resting so that they could get back to DC.
What would happen once they were there? How would Fury deal with a mission that probably shouldn't have even happened?
Jemma turned the taps on and started to scrub her hands to get the blood off but it wasn't happening.
Fitz looked at Caesar when he said that Amanda needed a pilot and he owed her a favour, he nodded and then glanced back towards the kitchen door that Simmons had just vanished through before looking out the window and seeing the quinjet on the grass. This was one sight he wasn't sure he would ever see. A quinjet parked in front of a cottage while the agents inside of it was taking time to rest up and so that the injured one among them could sleep.
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 11:44:45 GMT -7
"Excuse me," Caesar murmurs, eyes still on his phone, as he pushes himself from the chair. He crosses the dining room straight for the front door of the cottage, all the while dialing in Poe's number. Even with his name printed in three different places on his phone, Caesar still has it memorized like muscle instinct. They've been working together for nearly four years. It's hard not to remember.
The door closes with a soft click behind him and he presses the phone to his ear. Poe answers on the second ring, and immediately floods out a rushed string of words in a hiss. "I fucking told you that you were going to get in trouble. Worse, you got me in trouble."
"Slow down," Caesar huffs, one hand rubbing at his shoulder as he crosses the grass slowly and purposelessly towards the patiently sitting quinjet. "What happened?" He asks, lowering his free hand to rest on the nose of the plane. It's chilly out here, enough to almost make him reconsider unzipping the flight-suit and letting it hang.
"Maria found out that you hitchhiked on Emily's mission, that's what." Poe continues, voice hushed and muffled, and Caesar can hear the background noise of the Triskelion behind him. "Apparently someone from your team reported some hostility in the area. Spilled the beans." Caesar rolls his eyes dramatically, twisting his head around to look back at the house, knowing exactly who did. Jesus, he needs to stop working with designated no-rank SHIELD bodyguards. "Did you get yourself shot you asshole?"
"Thanks for the concern, buddy." Caesar replies, looking away from the cottage and back out across the grass. "We're fine, I'm fine. Emily..." He hesitates for a moment, not because of Poe's possible reaction, but because it still twists his gut each time he thinks about the amount of blood. "Took a bullet. But she's stitched up and resting. We're at some cottage in the middle of nowhere-"
"Oh, Retreat." Poe says matter-of-factly.
Caesar blinks. "How do you know about it, but I don't?"
"I went to the Academy unlike some people I know." Poe retorts. "You with your psychic bullshit waving you right through the steel-reinforced gates..." He tacks on in a mutter. "Whatever. Doesn't matter. When you getting back, cause I'm under some serious heat right now and this is not how I want Hill looking at me."
"No earlier than tomorrow morning." Caesar admits.
"Fucking hate you."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 11, 2016 12:12:17 GMT -7
Fitz nods when Caesar excuses himself from the table and he goes back to putting the drones back in the case. After Emily was shot in the castle, everything happened so quickly that he didn't really have time to think about what was happening afterwards. Now they were in Retreat and Emily was resting, he was able to actually think about it. The blonde agent was actually one of the nicest they had come across and they had come across a few agents, whether it was at the Academy or the Triskelion. She had been different.
He then looked over at the seat that Jemma had been in to notice that she hadn't come back yet, he pushed his eyebrows together before shutting the case and walking out to the kitchen. "Jemma?" he asked, her back turned to him.
Jemma looked over her shoulder at Fitz and gave a slight smile before she went back to the drying her hands. "I'm just making that cup of tea" she said and then tossed the cloth on the side before she moved over to the kettle.
This place had been set up for both American and British SHIELD agents because there was a bit of everything in there. Whether it was tea or coffee. The British version of something and then the American.
She flicked the kettle on before she turned and looked at Fitz. "It's just been a long night and day and it feels like it's going to get even longer" she admitted and then moved her eyes and looked towards the door of the room that Amanda was in. "I have to say that not many agents would put others first before themselves, I mean she was so determined that we were going to get out of there first and then she went back for the 084, it's crazy" she huffed out a soft laugh and then shook her head.
"I just have a feeling that she's going to give Fury a piece of her mind when we get back State-side" he smiled and looked over at Jemma.
"Well she should because this mission really shouldn't have been sanctioned and if it had to be, it should've been with more man power than what we have, I mean we had three guards that are just.. well useless and really didn't do anything" the kettle went off and she sighed under her breath before moving away from the counter and pouring herself another cup of tea. "Want anything?" she asked over her shoulder.
"No, I'm fine" he admitted and then looked at the door to Amanda's room.
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 13:12:20 GMT -7
Caesar tucks his phone back into the pocket of his flight-suit and climbs into the quinjet with a sigh. He carries himself to the cockpit, drops into the pilot's seat, and reluctantly takes the radio into his hands. As much as he wants to avoid Maria's lecture, he knows that it'll be worse if he doesn't say anything at all. Hill is good at holding a grudge, and she might be smaller than him, but she's scary as hell sometimes.
"This is Sherlock, reporting in to command." He says into the comm, brows knitting together as he closes an eye against the sunlight reflecting of the windshield.
"Nice of you to check in, Laurent." Hill's voice responds immediately, and Caesar cringes a little. "Mission report." She says, and it's as much an order as a threat.
"084 was retrieved, but we experienced some difficulties. One agent injured. Clarke." He responds, eyeing the house once more. "There were about five or six assailants, all in indiscriminate uniforms. Spoke English, so that's a start. Able to incapacitate four of them, but didn't take any prisoners due to the danger of the situation. Currently stationed at Retreat in Southwest England."
"Saw the login in the system. Any information on the 084."
"Not yet. I'll get Agent Fitz on it."
"You're not leading this mission, Sherlock, despite your ego and apparent misunderstanding that you can do what you like."
"Understood, ma'am." Caesar sighs out, "But Agent Clarke is under duress and needs to rest. That would make me next in command based on rank."
Maria gives an annoyed huff, and Caesar knows he's gonna pay for that one. "Fine. Get Fitzsimmons working. Keep me updated" And the comm cuts out.
Caesar breathes in deeply as he drops the radio once more. He pinches the bridge of his nose, massaging the tips of his fingers into the corners of his eyes, before finally hauling himself out of the pilot's seat. The house is quiet and calm as he enters. The guards have all taken leisurely seats on the couch, looking bored but comfortable knowing that no one is likely to appear out of thin air and start shooting at them. Caesar wants to be angry, wants to flip them off like he knows Poe would, but he brushes it off instead and walks passed them. There's no point in starting more conflict as soon as they get free of real conflict.
He presses tender fingers to his temple once more, impulsively feeling at the sore spot on his scalp like it might have somehow healed in the last hour. But it's still aching and a little swollen, and his fingers come back a faint shade of pink from a smear of blood still seeping slowly from the wound.
"Fitzsimmons." He calls out as he makes his way into the kitchen. "Think you two can figure out what the hell this object is."
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 11, 2016 13:57:53 GMT -7
Jemma grabbed her cup from the side and took a sip of her hot drink. The quietness of the house was slowly starting to seep in. When she was at the Academy it was just constant noise and now it was just silence and she was more aware of things around her. This was her first field mission but it was just so overwhelming that it felt like she could scream but she had to be strong because that's what this team needed right now. People to be strong.
Fitz looked up when they were called and saw Caesar making his way to the kitchen and nodded when they were asked the question. "We can definitely try" he admitted and looked over at Simmons who smiled softly at him. "We're going to have to use the dwarves again so it's probably best if you," he looked back over at Caesar "give us enough room to work" he nodded and then moved passed Caesar and went into the dining room.
Fitz had brought the stuff in with him so that they wouldn't have to keep going to the quinjet to get the stuff they needed. "Simmons" he called out to her and grabbed the bag that agent Clarke had brought out with her from the castle, the very thing that she had been determined to grab even if it meant that she bled out. Which thankfully she didn't do. He put the bag on the table and then slowly started to unzip it before he went to the case and opened them back up. "Just when I put them away too" he huffed out and grabbed the tablet out of the case and opened the other screens.
Jemma sighed under her breath and playfully rolled her eyes. "Always needing help" she said with a smile before she then looked up at Caesar "We will try our best to actually figure this out, I promise" he walked out the kitchen behind Fitz and came to the dining room.
A couple of the dwarves, Sleepy and Bashful, zoomed up in the air and over to the stick that Emily had brought out with her, this light beaming out of their bodies and Fitz was getting the information back on his tablet. It definitely was different to see something like this in a castle in the South of England. Mostly because of the strange markings on the stick.
"You got anything?" Jemma asked and came up to Fitz's side and putting her cup down on the table, away from the 084. The last thing she wanted to do was get it all over the thing, especially when they didn't know what it was capable of.
"Not yet" he admitted and looked over the tablet at the 084.
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 14:24:43 GMT -7
"I can do that." Caesar replies, crossing his arms over his chest and stepping out of Fitz' path to the dining room. His brown eyes follow him, but he keeps his distance. He gives Jemma a smile and a nod at her reassurance, though it's not really him who needs to know. But SHIELD will ground him for damn sure if they don't get anything solid out of this mission, anything worthwhile that's not a bleeding agent and a rogue pilot. Something that explains why someone else wanted this thing so damn bad. "Thanks," He replies, and lets her join Fitz on the task while he remains in the doorway of the kitchen, shoulder pressed into the frame.
His phone vibrates once more, and he lazily digs it from his pocket to check the screen.
You p much made it worse.
Caesar exhales a slow sigh and slides the phone back away, focusing on one problem at a time. He drags a breath back in, expanding his lungs to capacity, and lets his eyes slide closed for a moment. Fitzsimmons become a murmur as he settles into the own expanse of his mind. The cottage is still there behind his eyelids, the room, the light filtering in through the curtains. But like a rewinding tape, the cottage gradually changes. Unknown faces weave in and out of the rooms, the smell of gun oil fills his nostrils, the smell of blood, conversations rush passed him, but Caesar never settles on one image, one voice, one face. Letting it all play out like background noise.
But darkness begins to seep in around the edges like a rising tide, sloshing through the memories of this place, drenching the couch and the curtains, flooding the kitchen, grabbing at his ankles.
His eyes snap open and his body jerks a little with the sudden motion.
The cottage is back in it's normal state, Fitzsimmons bent over their work, the whir of the small drones filling in the gaps of silence. Caesar blinks rapidly, looking around carefully, expecting to find a pair of eyes watching him from the shadows. But the cottage is quiet. Safe.
A frown pulls at the corners of his mouth.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 11, 2016 14:51:35 GMT -7
"This is interesting" Fitz said and looked between the three screens on his tablet and the 084. He then brings his eyes up to look at Simmons who was waiting for her turn of his attention. "I think I might have found something"
"From which Dwarf?" Simmons asks and brings her eyes over to look at him.
"Well its both of them" he admits and then beckons her over to look at the screen. "See what I mean?" Fitz watches as Simmons raises her eyebrows together and then bit down on his lip. "This is actually an alien staff" he said and then lowered the tablet before looking back at Simmons. "That's not possible, right? I mean I know what SHIELD does but alien?"
Simmons moves away from Fitz and looks over the staff before shaking her head slightly. "I honesty have no idea what is going on here, if this is alien then it would probably explain why the other team wanted it but if they had got it then SHIELD would be the last to know what it actually does" she puts her hands down on the table, but away from the staff and bag the it was laying in. "None of this actually makes sense, I know 084's are unexplained things but alien?"
"Well this really does change everything, but I don't want to pick it up because the two things these dwarfs don't tell us is exactly what alien its from and what the staff actually does"
Simmons looks up at Fitz and raises her eyebrow "We could always try it out.." she suggests and then looks back at the staff.
"Are you mad, Simmons?" Fitz huffs out and then shakes his head. "We are not picking that thing up, it's going to be zipped back up and put away until we get back to the Triskelion and hopefully that will be the last time it's actually seen, I wonder if we could stop by The Slingshot on the way back"
Jemma chuckled under her breath. "You have been on about that place since you actually found out it exists"
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 15:14:57 GMT -7
"Did you say alien?" Caesar asks, stepping into the dining room. He hadn't heard most of their conversation, his head feeling fuzzy in all the wrong ways, but he'd certainly heard that. His brows press close together as he steps towards where the pair are situated, observing the so-called staff from a short distance. The two dwarves are still hovering above it, and Caesar glances briefly towards the staff with a disbelieving expression. "Please tell me you didn't just say alien."
But he absolutely did.
Caesar can believe a whole lot, but aliens are far out of that jurisdiction. He's seen monsters, spies, super-humans, and even they're hard to swallow sometimes. Even for a man who's classified as being one of those things himself, according to SHIELD documentation. But aliens? In all his life, all of his work, all of his time spent wandering the halls of SHIELD and being ordered back and forth, he'd not once heard that world come from any authority's mouth seriously. Up till this point, he'd been absolutely convinced that aliens didn't exist. Or, at the very least, would never find themselves standing on Planet Earth, of all places.
"Why do you think it might be alien?" He asks, the word sounding weirder and weirder each time it leaves his mouth. His brown eyes focus on Fitz, brows still furrowed.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 11, 2016 15:33:17 GMT -7
Fitz looks over at Caesar when he joins them in the dining room. "Trust me, I'm still trying to process this too" he admits and then drops his eyes back down to the staff.
He was pretty sure that he knew everything about the world, then SHIELD told him about the monsters and well that just messed everything up but to add on alien too. This really was just a little bit too much for him, a little out of his depth. "Because of the fact that whatever it's made of, you can't get on this Earth" he brings his eyes up and looks at Caesar. "So, all I can really say is that it's out of this world, quite literally" he scoffed.
Simmons looks down at the staff and then up at the two agents that was stood on the other side of the table from her. "We're going to have to radio this into the Triskelion because we're not equipped to handle something like this" she bit down on her lip and then cleared her throat. "Well whoever wanted this knew exactly what this is and was willing to kill for it". It didn't take a genius to know that those mercenaries or whatever they were were sent in to kill anyone who had come for this alien staff.
"I hate to say this but you might have to wake up agent Clarke so that we can get it back to HQ and have them assess it properly" Fitz looked over at Caesar.
A headache was starting to form in Simmons' head, all of this was starting to take it's toll on her and it felt like she had been up for twenty four hours straight, maybe she had. But to get this back to the Triskelion was the right thing to do but she wasn't sure if waking up Amanda was the best thing to do right now. "No" she said and looked over at Fitz. "We will get the information back to HQ and tell them that we will get it back as soon as we can, moving Aman- Agent Clarke isn't the best thing to be doing right now, she needs rest"
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 15:59:30 GMT -7
Caesar runs his teeth together slowly, not sure if Fitz' clarification makes him feel any better about this. This mission is quickly spiraling into a mess that none of them, not even experienced agents like him and Emily, are capable of dealing with. He stares at the staff for a long moment, letting Simmons and Fitz argue back and forth about what their next step should be. Gradually, their voices become background static, until a hum spreads thickly across the forefront of his mind.
"You're both right." Caesar speaks, and the humming is gone. He looks between the pair of them, hands falling to rest on his hips. "We have to contact HQ and leave as soon as we can. But that won't be for another few hours, regardless. Even if we did wake Emily up, we have to refuel before we can make the flight back to the States." He explains. The quinjet can go for a while, but unless they want to get stuck in Greenland with only a smidgen of gas in the tank, finding the nearest refueling station is their only option. He glances back down to the staff, his jaw closing with a click.
"Fitz, come with me. I'm going to need you to explain to Hill just what you found." Without another word, he drops his hands from his hips and steps around the exposed staff to head for the quinjet.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 11, 2016 16:18:57 GMT -7
Both Fitz and Simmons look over at Caesar when he starts talking and Simmons nods. "The only thing we can really do is zip the bag back up and hope that we get to HQ before this decides to wake up" she indicated the staff, or at least that's what Fitz said it was, to be honest it was probably something else. But that wasn't worth arguing over because it didn't really matter what it was right now, the only thing that mattered was that they stayed safe and away from the damn thing.
Fitz looked between both Simmons and Caesar before he too nodded and moved around the table. He then gently pressed the tablet into Jemma's chest and said to her "Can you put Sleepy and Bashful back for me while I explain to Agent Hill just what it is we actually have on our hands and Jemma.." he said looking at her. "Please don't touch it, just be careful as you zip it back up"
"Got it Fitz" she said and then took the tablet in her hands before watching Fitz disappear after Caesar. Jemma sighed under her breath before she put the Dwarfs back in their case and zipped the bag back up around the alien staff. She bit down on her lip once more and then pressed both hands into the table. All of this was just getting out of control and she wanted to know exactly what Fury thought he was playing at sending all these unqualified agents into something big.
"Is Agent Hill mad?" Fitz asked as he came up beside Caesar "Because if she's mad then she probably wont even believe what I'm saying and not only that I don't even believe it myself" he admitted and looked back at the cottage. Alien. This really wasn't possible. This day was really turning into something crazy and he just wanted to get back home and sleep off all this crazy shit.
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 16:38:43 GMT -7
Fitz catches up with Caesar quickly, and he glances back at the younger man with an eyebrow raised slightly. A short guffaw breaks free from him, turning into a low chuckle that rumbles deep in his throat, and a crooked grin stretches across his face. "Like you wouldn't believe." He admits.
They climb into the quinjet and Caesar returns to his seat at the front of the plane. It's warm inside with the bright light shining through the glass, heating up the interior of the jet even though it isn't doing much outside. Caesar switches on the comm, even if he's a little reluctant to face Hill's wrath again. But maybe actually having an answer, even an answer as horribly inconvenient as aliens, might sooth the raging beast.
Caesar makes a quick mental note to never call Hill a raging beast again.
"Sherlock to command, can you read me?" He says aloud to the radio.
"What is it." Maria deadpans back, and Caesar gives Fitz a told-you-so look.
"She's all yours, Fitz." He says, motioning with a hand towards the comm.
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Post by Snowglobe18 on Jan 11, 2016 16:50:22 GMT -7
Fitz really didn't want to hear that. He wanted to hear that Hill was actually calm but of course Caesar had to tell him the truth. "Thanks for that" he swallowed hard but kept following him anyway. The sooner they got this over and done with the quicker he could get back into the cottage. It was damn cold.
They were in the quinjet and Caesar was already on the coms talking to hill. He raised his eyebrow at him before shaking his head. She really was a grumpy woman. It was like that time when Jemma was.. His thoughts were interrupted when Caesar said that it was his turn to talk.
Fitz cleared his throat and bit down on his lip before he finally started speaking. "Commander Hill, I used my dwarfs to take readings off of what we found in the castle and I can't believe it myself but the conclusion has come back that the thing is.. " he looked over at Caesar and shook his head. This was nuts. "That its actually alien"
He waited for a laugh to come from commander Hill and was actually nervous about this. "Hello?" He said and raised his eyebrow. There seemed to be silence and it was making him nervous. "I know it's a lot to take in but this thing is made up of stuff that isn't even possible on earth"
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Post by Ray on Jan 11, 2016 17:12:26 GMT -7
There's a long beat of silence from the other end, that Fitz attempts to hastily quell. Caesar remains sitting there, brows raised, eyes watching the radio as if Hill herself is bound to come crawling out of it to slap the both of them.
"Aliens." Maria finally repeats after more than thirty seconds have passed, her tone even and steady. But Caesar knows not to be fooled by that. Silence stretches again, and Caesar leans back in his chair; one elbow on the armrest and his hand curving around his jaw. "Caesar, please tell me he's joking." Hill finally speaks, bluntly. Caesar sits forward once more, one hand pressing into his knee.
"It doesn't make sense to us either, but that's what he found." Caesar replies, backing Fitz up even if he doesn't believe it himself. "And if he's right, which it'd be hard to fake something not known to man in this day and age, this could potentially be something far out of our league." Hell, it's already out of their league. It was out of their league the second Emily was handed her orders. There's a long drawn out sigh from the other end of the line, and faint muttering that Caesar can't quite make out, but he doubts it's anything good.
"Bring it back. We'll have scientists examine it here. How soon can you return." She orders.
Caesar checks his watch briefly, doing the calculations. "Give us ten hours."
"Make it eight." Maria replies.
"Yes, ma'am."
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