Chapter 1 – Acquisition

War had come.

There really was no denying it.

Not war with HYDRA, well, that was still happening, but no, another war.

Or rather, war on another front.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Version 1, which they were also calling 'old' S.H.I.E.L.D., which was led by Director Coulson and Commander May. They were upholding the original values of S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as recruiting the 'gifted'. People with 'abnormal' or 'inhuman' talents and abilities. They were split into two types. Inhumans and mutants.

Inhumans received their powers through Terrigenesis, a process that activated the dormant powers given to them by their ancestors. They were the only ones that could hold the Diviners, and not be turned to stone and then did. Mutants received their powers through the X-Gene. A gene, passed on from the father, which when combined with the right combination from the mother, resulted in a genetic mutation, gifting the child with an unusual ability.

Not many mutants were willing to join S.H.I.E.L.D., and even less actually had, so very little was known about them. There were rumours of someone gathering them into a private army, but Coulson had neither the resources nor the time to chase down rumours.

S.H.I.E.L.D. Version 2 was the organisation in between Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA. Led by Director González and his board of commanders, including Barbara 'Bobbi' Morse AKA Mockingbird, they held some of the values of the original values of the original S.H.I.E.L.D., but now they felt they had updated themselves for the current times. Their policy was remarkably similar to HYDRA's. All gifted should be studied or shot.

HYDRA's policy was study then shoot.

The military had of course been infiltrated by HYDRA, just like everything else, and while General Talbot had proven himself to be both reliable and trustworthy, but even his reach didn't stretch far enough, especially when HYDRA seemed to be everywhere.

Sighing, and rubbing his hand across his forehead, Phil Coulson leant back in his chair. The new base was a carbon copy of Fury's others, but it still didn't feel like home. Nothing did, not even The Bus had since the whole HYDRA reveal and … him.

Recapping the available information, Coulson realised that he'd missed out one piece or rather two pieces of notable importance.

Grant Ward and Kara Lynn Palamas.

Or the traitor and Agent 33. Their names depended on what mood he was in.

He had Ward's file on his desk again. It seemed to have taken residence there since he had decided to hand Ward over to his older brother Christian. That decision still plagued him, even now. What would've happened if he hadn't sent Ward to his execution for some good PR?

Well his supposed execution. Ward had, of course, broken out, killing his brother's security team, before going on to kill his brother and parents. Then kidnapping Skye and introducing her to her psychopath of a father. Skye had then shot him four times, and the son of a bitch had survived that, which he had then followed up by forming an alliance with Agent 33, and going on with their own objectives, which were still unknown.

There were even more rumours, suggesting that they were focusing on HYDRA, and that more people had joined his team.

But what would've happened? Could Ward have worked his way back onto the team? Become an asset again? He'd done it with Romanoff, she'd been Red Room before Barton had been sent to kill her, and his feelings had prevented him from putting an arrow in her. Maybe Skye could've-

No! That wasn't fair, especially to Skye. She had enough on her plate with her powers and her psychopath of a father before dealing with Ward. Then there was also the homicidal inhumans to consider. While his S.H.I.E.L.D. were more than welcome to the idea of having 'gifted' individuals as part of its staff, the majority of inhumans were wary of them, and with good reason, not everyone was so forward, Agent Simmons had even resigned her position, citing that no good would come of their new policies, and that super powered individuals should be locked up or taken out.

That last bit of information had broken Skye's heart.

Again.

And the worst part was that Ward couldn't be blamed.

Okay, Coulson conceded to himself, that wasn't the worst part, but it would've made things so much easier if he could've blamed Ward for it all, and though he hated to admit it, Ward wasn't the reason HYDRA came out of the shadows, he wasn't the reason González had sent up S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0, and he wasn't the reason Simmons had decided to abandon them all in favour of 'new' S.H.I.E.L.D., where gifted were locked up, studied, and in some cases, even executed.

Sweet, innocent Jemma Simmons was now a hardened scientist, who preferred dealing with her patients with a gun present. Was that Ward's fault too … or mine … or was it just a long time coming?

Fitz hadn't been the same since Simmons had left. He had both improved and lost himself. He could finally speak normally, and his motor ability was back to full movement. There were the occasional mishaps, but nothing too serious.

In Simmons' absence, Fitz had taken over as head of S.H.I.E.L.D.S.'s Scientific Research Division, leading the newly expanded scientific team onto new discoveries and technology, by utilising the abilities of those that were willing to help.

HYDRA had also done Coulson another favour. It had assembled the Avengers once again.

Well, the Earthbound ones anyway. Banner, Barton, Rogers and Romanoff had all taken places on his staff, while Stark had re-joined as a consultant, offering his own expertise and financial backing, as well as helping to persuade the general masses, and by extension, world leaders, of the true HYDRA-free foundations that lay at the heart of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In short, two years after 'The Fall', things were finally beginning to look up.

Another location had been compromised. Damn it!

He was many things. A U.S. Army Colonel, a father, a husband and a man of faith. And it was his faith that had led him to this point.

God Almighty had given him the guidance to seek them out. The Lord had given him the wisdom to understand what needed to be done, for the betterment of all humans. And then, Baron Von Strucker had given him the means to carry out his God's will. His work was true and righteous, and he would see it through to the end, all he needed was the right test subject, the one that got away.

All he needed was Subject X.

He'd tried to play nice last time, he really had, they'd taken him alive, heavily sedated of course, and then they tried to put him through the procedure. His team had completed the mind wipe, placed him through the usual control procedures, administered the desired code words, inserted his chip, and then prepped him for his handler. All they needed to do then was put him through the actual procedure, which was when his body broke through the drugs they were pumping him with and escaped.

His supposed handler had then ran off with the one of the chip's two controllers, and the only tracking device they'd had time to create.

Bastard.

Of course, it was rude to speak ill of the dead, but the handler had found the subject, and instead of returning with him, he had used the controller and the brainwashing to keep the weapon as an errand boy, a lapdog even! And if that wasn't enough, the handler went and got himself blown up, leaving their weapon alone, with a control chip inhibiting his powers.

Just think, those heightened senses, the regenerative healing factor, the essential immortality, all unavailable to him because one man had stolen the test subject for himself, and had then allowed himself to be killed without disabling the control chip.

Running his hand along his scalp, he could feel the buzzcut beneath his fingers, the short, spiky hair felt relaxing, as his fingers ghosted to where the scar at the back of his head was. Three small scars from where the claws had caught him. Claws that the chip should now prevent him from unsheathing.

Hopefully.

Rough times call for strong measures. Reflecting upon his mission, he absentmindedly reached to the left of his desk, and reflexively poured himself a scotch, before shrugging, and making it a double. Swirling the amber liquid in his mouth, savouring the taste, before he swallowed the liquid, enjoying the slight burning sensation as it went down his throat.

He was just about to pour himself a second when the alarms started blaring, and he had an extra few seconds before Major Masters burst through the door, causing both men to snap straight up and be on their feet.

"Major", he made sure his tone was the no nonsense, authorative tone that had served him well throughout his entire military career, "Tell me what is going on"

"Sir", Master's startling blue eyes and close cropped blonde hair, along with the six-foot two height, and 220 pounds of muscle, gave him the perfect muscled soldier look. Able to take his marching orders from his Colonel, and then relay the orders appropriately as a successful field commander, "We picked up an inbound quinjet team, we're guessing S.H.I.E.L.D., roughly two miles out"

"We get a positive I.D.?"

"Not yet Sir. I've dispatched a scouting party. We should have a visual soon"

Weighing his options in his head, he ran through the scenarios, "Good call Major. Call Von Strucker. Tell him we have possible S.H.I.E.L.D. incoming. We may need to go up"

"Yes Sir", with his orders, Masters turned on his heel and left, pausing by the door to grow his arms up in a salute, "Hail HYDRA", before leaving.

"Yeah", he let out a breath he didn't realise held been holding, "Hail HYDRA"

But what if S.H.I.E.L.D. had the weapon?

González had never wanted to be the Director.

He didn't mind the privileges, or the pay rise, but it came with such a burden to bare, but such was the cost of leadership. Every field agent knew this.

He considered S.H.I.E.L.D. to be an easy life, or at least, a relatively simple one. He woke up at the same rime every day, ate in the same cafeteria, with the same colleagues, before going about the same tasks; check paperwork, check progress reports, eat lunch, inspections, dinner and then relax for the night.

HYDRA had thrown one almighty wrench in that schedule, their coming out party had cost the lives of good men and women, who had given their lives to a cause, which then cost them everything. And like everyone else in S.H.I.E.L.D. 2.0, he agreed that former Director Fury was at fault. It was his secrets that had led to the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the rise of HYDRA. If the rest of the organization had been aware of Fury's suspicions, they could've been prepared to defend themselves from the onslaught, and Coulson was no better.

If Fury had considered himself a king, then Phil Coulson was his chosen heir to the throne. Both men were cut from the same cloth. Secret keepers, playing cards with their hands close to their chests. There was no way they could be trusted.

So why is Coulson the one that's getting the backing?

Coulson's organisation was the one that was receiving military backing, receiving government acknowledgement, it was Coulson's team that contained The Avengers, and yet, González's own was bigger, and contained most of the original S.H.I.E.L.D.'s resources, even if Coulson had Fury's toolbox.

Clearing the thoughts from his head as Agent Mackenzie entered the conference room where the rest of his senior agents were sat waiting.

There were his right hands from before the fall, as well as Agent Morse, who oversaw Operations, Agent Mackenzie, who oversaw engineering, the recruited Dr Simmons, who oversaw Bio-Chemistry, and her partner Dr Creed, who handled the medicinal side, including training field medics, and running base check-ups. Simmons had wanted to run the check-ups herself, but Creed had told her there was too much work for her to do already, so he had taken over. All in all, it was a good set-up.

"What's to report?"

Receiving the go ahead from her director, Agent Morse stood, surveying the assembled council, before beginning her report. "We've received a report of a HYDRA base operating as a secret scientific research base, using military resources to further HYDRA's own goals"

"Where is the base located?"

"In Canada Director. British Colombia to be more precise"

González looked pensive for a minute, as did several members of his board, "How did we come by this information? As I recall, we have no operatives active in Canada"

Bobbi didn't hesitate in her answer, "Using technology provided by Mack, which he based on designs 'taken' from Leopold Fitz", she ignored Jemma's pained grimace at the mention of her former best friend, "We intercepted a transmission from HYDRA operatives. They've confirmed the base's approximate location"

"Recommendation Agent Morse?"

"A single team, a mix of science and ops. Ops to clear the base, and science to determine viability of whatever remains", she allowed everyone a moment to think over her proposal, and continued when she saw several heads nodding slightly, "Sir, I'd like to volunteer"

González nodded, "Very well. Agent Morse put together a strike team. Agents Simmons and Mackenzie can give the science report, their expertise should more than suffice. Are objections?" He gave his council time to voice their disagreements, but none came, "Dismissed agents"

Fighting the large grin that threatened to take over his face as he looked at his team, he couldn't hold it off, and it broke onto his face, causing his teammates own grins to grow as they managed to get him to crack a smile.

They were a ragtag team. Drawn together originally by the need to survive and heal. They evolved into a team to learn how to stand on their own two feet, on their own terms, before the team grew, and became about atonement, about paying for their sins, and maybe on the way, wiping some of the red from their ledgers and finding a bit of redemption along the way. The six of them had plenty of red in their ledgers.

Well, it was more like five plus one, but whatever.

Somehow, in some way, the six of them worked, even if four of them had some 'upgrades' to their biology. They could each be considered a living weapon, through circumstances, training or both, they were all dangerous, deadly even, but it made them effective at their former 'jobs'.

"So are we going Boss Man?"

"Don't call me that!" While his words were reprimanding, his tone was playful. When they'd first started out, he'd never once attempted to take control, because they had to learn to make their own choices and decisions. After they'd expanded their team from two to three, and then later to four, and eventually to five, they realised they'd needed to better coordinate their movements in the field, and they'd all looked to him as their leader, and he had to admit, it felt nice, knowing that the four of them trusted him enough to take his orders and follow them, and even though he'd hated the idea of giving them orders at first, he found himself fitting into the role as field leader quite naturally.

"Yeah yeah Boss Man", she waved him off, "Are we going or not?"

"It's up to you guys really"

The other four exchanged glances, putting up a united front as a team.

"So … just to be clear here-"

"This place came to you in your sleep-"

"Where they were doing experiments on people-"

"-and they had human test subjects-"

"-which you think was for HYDRA-"

"-or the military, and you want us-"

"-three 'enhanced' individuals-"

"-to walk in the front door"

"-find their leader-"

"-and then knock it down"

The four of them turned their heads together pretending to confer, while they murmured indistinctly at each other, making him wait while they decided to try and irritate him, and he just rolled his eyes, before the four of them turned to him, answering in unison with irritating grins.

"Were in!"

He chuckled at their antics, "Good. Wheels up in ten then … and guys"

The four of them turned back towards him, from where they'd moved to grab their gear, while he was about to head off to make sure they had transport and comms.

"Thank you"

Stepping in to the briefing room, Director Coulson couldn't help the small smile that made its way onto his face at the sight of his old team and his new team moulded together seamlessly.

Mostly.

Commander May, rather unsurprisingly, got on very well with Natasha Romanoff, both women were cut from the same cloth, even if they argued over several topics, which led him, again dammit, back to the topic of Ward. Natasha was an advocate for the possibility of the good in Ward, having trained him and been Red Room herself, she knew him better than most. While Melinda was adamant in his 'evilness', and was prepared to put a bullet in his brain the next time she saw him.

Another set of friends that had formed was Hunter and Rogers. For some reason Rogers found Hunter's brash nature refreshingly reminiscent of his old war buddies, while Hunter just enjoyed having somebody he could 'educate' on modern values.

To say that Captain America was surprised at the changes would be an understatement.

When the two of them eventually got roped into May and Romanoff's argument, they declared themselves neutral, which was a smart move in Coulson's opinion, even if they were both more sympathetic to Romanoff's side than May's, telling the Commander she was wrong was never a good idea.

Barton, who had originally taken to isolating himself, had later spent a lot of time in the top floor science lab, where Banner and Fitz had taken to working. The three of them had struck up a strange friendship, giving them each an outlet to talk, as well as a genuine friend. And after a disastrous lesson with his bow, Hawkeye had taught Fitz how to fire a handgun, and he was getting pretty good at it. They'd also declared themselves neutral, though Banner and Barton mostly agreed with Romanoff, Fitz was staunchly on May's side.

Skye was the only one uninterested in making new friends.

The betrayal of Ward had hit her the hardest. Adding in her psychotic father, new powers and the betrayal of Simmons, Mack and Bobbi had left her depressed somewhat. She'd warmed up when The Avengers had taken up a permanent residency, but she was still a far cry from the young bubbly hacktivist who had wormed her way onto the team, and their hearts, and despite his failings, Coulson could tell that Ward had meant what he'd said about his feelings. The two of them had been obvious since day one.

Taking in the complete sight of them all was brilliant though. May, Romanoff, Barton and Rogers were trading stories from their different missions. Banner and Fitz were attempting to talk shop, while Hunter was simultaneously trying to interrupt them and coax Skye into the conversation.

Silence fell as he entered the room, all of them reverting to 'Agent Mode', as he clicked a few buttons and the holotable lit up in front of them, showing them the military base that was their target.

"This is Alkali Lake. A disused military testing base from the seventies. We're not sure what they were working on, but it was shut down decades ago. Unfortunately for us, all work was paper based, so there's no lead to follow, but Agent Skye", his eyes flicked over to her briefly, "Has managed to intercept a HYDRA transmission naming the lake as operational"

He flicked his hands, pulling the 2-D floor plan into a 3-D rendering of the base, "We're only using higher-ups, until the mission is over it stays between us. May, Romanoff and Barton – you're on extraction and overwatch. Skye, Agent Rogers and Agent Hunter will accompany myself and Agent Fitz into the lab. Once secured, Agent Fitz's expertise will help us in determining the value of taking the lab. Dr Banner will remain on base to keep an eye on things … and handle Stark if he shows up without Pepper again. Questions? No? Good. Wheels up in an hour. Dismissed"

"Sir, we have visual confirmation"

"Don't waste my time Major. Who is it?"

"I'm pulling a visual on screen now. You're going to want to see this for yourself Sir"

With a few taps on a keyboard, the video feed from a remote deployed camera burst on screen, and the Colonel dropped the glass he was holding, as his hand reached out for the man on the screen.

"Oh my beautiful … weapon … you have come back to me"

The Colonel stroked his chin, not bothering to contain the smile that made its way onto his face, unaware of the strange questioning looks he was receiving.

"Erm … Sir? How do you want us to proceed?"

"I want the them alive and unharmed. Not a scratch Major!"

"Yes Sir"

The Major reached for the radio, clicking the on switch and hearing it squawk to life.

"Masters to Squad Leader"

"Receiving. Over"

"Activate Plan 'Fauna'. Over"

"Copy that. Over and out"

"And Major Masters?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Inform the technicians. I want to put him through the procedure the second we have him in custody and concious. If we have his friends, he'll comply more willingly. He needs to be awake for the procedure to work"

Taking out the last robotic drone, he returned the small projectile launcher inside his wrist, turning back towards his teammates, a small note of confusion on his face, "Is it just me or is this-"

"Too easy?"

He was about to reply with a yeah, when he found himself unable to move. Magnetic plates. Damn it!

He was unable to warn his friends about what had happened, but the three of them were called super-spies for a reason, and they'd noticed when he froze, but it was too late for them. Even their highly trained senses and reflexes weren't able to stop the darts from piecing their necks.

Fighting to stay conscious, the four of them hit the floor, as their eyelids began to droop. They heard the distinguishable noise of the crunch of leaves under boots, as standard issue military boots came into view, and their vision faded to black.

"This is Masters. Report"

Prodding the four of them, ensuring that they were unconscious, their field leader, decked out in black and red tactical gear, reached up to his shoulder and grabbed his radio.

"This is Squad Leader", he rolled over their obvious leader to confirm his identity, "We have them. Tell the Colonel, the Subject X has been acquired"

Author's Note

This is just an idea I've been sitting on for a while - since the mid-season finale. I've finally decided to post it.

Leave me a review, telling me your thoughts.

-MarvelMatt