The Raft

Agent Phil Coulson/ Leader of SHIELD Team

Coulson waited in the cargo bay of the Bus as the plane began to land. Skye walked up to him, the young woman holding her laptop in one hand. "So… what is this place?"

"The Raft is a prison that has been developed for superhumans," Coulson said. "It's not quite finished-"

"Not a great call as superhuman prisons go," Skye noted.

He gave her a wry smile. "Well, it's complete enough to hold the prisoners it needs to. The Wendigo, Abomination, Aberration, they're all being held here. It's been in the works for a while, and BRIDGE was only recently given command of it."

"Got it," Skye looked at Coulson. "So… how you doing?"

"Conflicted," he admitted. "I'm pretty sure I haven't had a year as bad as this one in a while, and it isn't halfway over just yet."

Skye winced. "That bad, huh?"

He shrugged. "SHIELD collapsed, then got rebuilt, my ex found out I was alive, then dumped me, I had to kill someone I thought I could trust… on the plus side, we get better health coverage."

"You're, uh," Skye coughed, the young woman looking almost nervous. "You're being real candid right now."

"Am I?" he chuckled. "Yeah. I guess the death of a friend can cause that."

"Okay, yeah, you are being waaaay weird right now," she said with a worried look.

The Bus landed with a shudder, the door opening. Coulson looked at her. "I'm just trying to make the best of a bad situation."

He exited, leaving Skye to look after him.

Later, Coulson was guided by a BRIDGE prison guard through the dark hallways of the ship. "When did he do it?"

"About 22 hours ago, yesterday," the muscular woman said. "We had to wait to make sure of course, to make sure he wasn't faking as some sort of escape attempt. But as soon as we were sure, we sent out the report."

Coulson nodded slowly, keeping his thoughts hidden. Soon, they reached a pair of doors labeled 'Morgue'. Entering into them, Coulson and the guard were greeted by the sight of a woman in a lab coat waiting next to a table. The table had a body lying on top of it, covered by a blanket. The woman in the lab coat was short, overweight, and had a lollipop in her mouth.

"Agent Coulson," she said with a nod.

"Doctor Johansen."

"Barely," the woman said with a shrug. "I mostly work on dead people, and this is the first one we've gotten."

Coulson pulled the blanket off the face of the body on the table. He sucked in a breath at the sight of the man lying dead in front of him. "Well… Garrett was always breaking records."

John Garrett, formerly of SHIELD, later of HYDRA, had massive bruises around his throat. Other than that, he looked almost… peaceful.

"He was certainly determined," the doctor said. "I know he's superhuman, but he must have been crazy as well."

"He was noted to be… well, damaged," Coulson said.

"You kidding? The guy had to be next level," the lollipop in her lips moved around as she spoke. "He killed himself by grabbing his own neck and [i]breaking[/i] it. Seriously, I've never seen anything like that."

"Like I said. Always breaking records," Coulson joked darkly.

The guard and doctor didn't seem to know how to respond to that.

"You said his cell was covered in some sort of writing?" Coulson asked.

"Uh, yeah," the doctor turned around, grabbing a folder from another table nearby and handing it to him. "We didn't know what to make of it, wanted to know what you thought. I mean, we've had all our code experts working on it. He seemed to think it was important. Called it, the 'Words of Creation'."

"Poe-" Coulson stopped when he opened the folder, staring at the photo inside for a long second. "P-Poetic," he completed, raising the photo in his hands.

"Agent Coulson?" Doctor Johansen said.

"...I want as many of these photos as you can give me," Coulson said, hands shaking as he closed the folder.

"You think those writings are important?" the doctor asked.

"I don't know…" Coulson said.

He felt… elated. Energized. But he also felt, compelled. He was terrified, and he hid it as best as he could. His office on the Bus. That was what he needed. Just get back to Bus.

And find a knife.

Leopold Fitz

In the Bus's lab, Fitz was holding his scanner. He twisted it in his hands, turning it over, then back again.

It had been a long time since Dial had combined with the device as Upgrade. It was still incredibly advanced, and had the black and green circuitry coloration that Dial had given it.

He sighed, putting the scanner down on the table and staring at it thoughtfully.

The scanner was just one small part of an idea building in Fitz's mind. One that was almost painful to think about.

As he eyed the scanner, the young man spun it around on the table.

"Fitz?"

When he looked up, Simmons was standing there, a weak smile on her face. She walked around to look at the scanner as well. "What's wrong? Is it malfunctioning?"

"N-no, no, it's fine," he stuttered. "I'm just thinking. About Mr. Starks offer."

Simmons' lips thinned. "I have too."

"...The whole time we worked for SHIELD, I thought we'd be with Coulson forever," he said sadly. "And I still want to. But the chance to…"

"We can still work with Coulson," Simmons reminded him.

"But not as often," he said sadly. "And I loved doing work out there, finding new and strange technology, really testing my limits."

"We can still do that."

"But it won't be the same," he picked up the scanner, walking around the lab. "We won't have everyone."

"But we will!" Simmons walked up to him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We'll see them all the time! And we'll still be in BRIDGE."

"Coulson needs us."

"Coulson does need us. Because of our expertise. But we can find someone good enough to replace us," she said simply. "Remember that Graveyard survivor, the recruit I've been tutoring, to make up for the time she lost while in the cell? She'd be a tremendous asset to Coulson's team."

"She does have the experience we need… And I know someone as well, an atomic researcher I know was recently looking for stimulating work," Fitz said with a little bit of reluctance. "But what-"

"We'll talk to them first," Simmons reassured him. "We'll let them know about it first."

Fitz opened his mouth only to find himself unable to speak. Simmons sighed, clutching his arm.

"I know Fitz. I know."

They stood there a moment longer.

Just then, Fitz felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He took it out and couldn't help a little smile at the name 'Chandler'. He picked it up with a look at Simmons.

"Hello Mr. Stark."

"Heya, Ross," Tony said on the other side. "I've got a proposal for ya."

As Tony began to speak, Fitz felt a sense of relief at being back on far more familiar ground.

Mahmoud Schahed/Dial

Later that night, I was in my kitchen eating cereal for dinner, a classic tradition. I was also reading a message from Skye, who had apparently visited the Raft. It turned out that this version of the Raft was in the middle of the Atlantic, rather than connected to Rikers. I was thinking of how to reply when my doorbell rang.

"Huh. X, help a brother out?"

"Of course, sir," X said over my apartments speakers. As he spoke, the door opened, allowing my visitor in.

I was real surprised when I realized who it was. "Ruby?"

The fourteen-year-old petite super-assassin looked at me, smirking slightly. She was wearing workout clothes as always. Seriously, she might as well as sleep in those clothes.

"You hear anything interesting when you were spying on me and Jen?" I snarked.

"Only that you're terrible with women," she snarked back easily.

"Hold on, if we're going to make fun of each other, let me just," I made a big show of squatting until I was the same height as her. "Okay, [i]now[/i] I can hear you. So, you were saying midget?"

She scowled. "I could kill you."

"You could try," I got back to my full height. "Seriously brat, what's up? Everything okay?"

"I-" she cut herself off, shuffling her feet. Almost like a nervous tic, she took out a knife from a pouch at her side and started twirling it in her palm while she took a moment to think. Once again, she somehow maintained a balance of terrifying and adorable. Terrible? No wait, that is a word. Adorafying.

She sighed, flipping the knife into the air and letting it fall back into the pouch at her side.

"Showoff," I teased lightly.

While she did look smug, she also seemed pleased. "Mahmoud, Natasha was telling me about this book yesterday. She said that I should read it. And I was going to, but I forgot. And I know you have those," she nodded toward the bookshelves that dominated my living room.

"Yeah, not going to ask how you know about my bookshelves when this is the first time I've let you in my room," I walked up to my shelves. "So what was the book?"

"Hogfather?" she said questioningly.

"Ah," I looked through my shelf. I didn't exactly have everything alphabetically ordered. My books were really just put together based on what worked best. So all of my Terry Pratchett novels were placed next to Neil Gaiman, with the novel Good Omens in between those two. I quickly found the book in question and pulled it out. "That's a good one."

"...is this a Christmas book?" Ruby asked, taking the book with a confused look on her face, staring at the image of the Hogfather on his sleigh.

"Kinda. It's not really that," I admitted. "Look its… okay, imagine a planet that is in the shape of a disc, and it rests on the back of four elephants who in turn rest on a turtle that flies through space."

"...so this is a book for little kids," she said with a hint of disgust.

"That's something little kids say," I raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, this is one of the best books ever written, by one of the most incredible writers who ever lived."

"It has a picture of Santa Claus on it!" she protested.

"Books and covers," I chided. "Look, how about this," I pointed at my couch. "Go ahead and read a few chapters. If you like it, you can borrow the book and read the rest. If not, just put it back on the shelf and have a good night."

She still looked doubtful.

"...Natasha liked the book."

It was a weak attempt to convince her, so I was surprised when she was suddenly sitting down on the couch with the book open, eyes scanning the page. I smiled and went over to finish up my cereal.

A few minutes in, Ruby called out to me.

"I like Susan."

I looked up at her. She was still reading.

"Can I ask why?"

"'Don't get afraid, get angry'," she quoted.

I grinned. "Yeah, that is an awesome line. You'll probably end up liking her a lot more by the end."

It was quiet for a bit.

"There's an Assassin's Guild?" she asked moments later.

"Yep."

I finished up my cereal and sent a message to Skye. As I did, Ruby let out a little noise and looked up at me.

"They want to [i]kill[/i] Santa Claus?"

"...Essentially yes."

"This is the best book ever!"

"...You're an odd kid."

Soon she seemed to get really involved in the book and stopped speaking.

When I went to sleep, she was still in my living room reading, so I left the lights on and made her a cup of tea, leaving a blanket nearby. I don't think she noticed.

"Goodnight, brat," I said affectionately.

"Goodnight," she returned absentmindedly.

April 27, 2014

When I went into my living room the next morning, she was passed out on my couch, a book resting on the floor as she snored. I looked up at the tv, which was on and playing a very familiar movie. "X, was she up all night?"

"Yes, sir," he said. "She finished Hogfather and asked me to play the movie for her," I picked up the book on the floor.[i]Thud! [/i]was the title, with the image of a club about to hit a guy on the head.

"Teenagers," I said fondly. "With their books and their skills in assassination."

"A common trend," X said with just a trace of sarcasm.

April 29, 2014

A couple of days after Ruby stayed over, I had the guys over again. The 'guys' being every male Avenger.

I was in the kitchen eating one of those popcorn snacks with chocolate and caramel drizzle, Creel making the world's biggest sandwich behind me. Hulk (and I do mean Hulk, not Bruce) was sat next to Thor.

"Have at thee!" Thor cried joyfully as he manipulated the video game controller in his hand.

"Hulk crush puny Thor!" Hulk yelled back.

On the screen, a loud shout was followed by a crash of thunder as Bowser was sent flying by the tiny form of Pikachu.

"Yes!" Thor shouted, rising off the couch.

"NOOO!" Hulk twisted his controller in anger.

A loud wrenching noise filled the air. I closed my eyes and sighed while Hulk blinked down at the controller in his hands.

"...Hulk sorry."

"It's all right buddy," I raised the Omnitrix and started flipping through the menu.

"Look, I promise, the heavy duty controller will be done soon," Tony said to me from the table we'd set up with more snacks. He was drinking with Rhodey.

"Yeah, yeah," I grumbled.

"Hey, it's better than I got when he destroyed my car," Rhodey noted.

"Uh, you still owe me for the time you started breaking my house," Tony replied.

"You started breaking your house," Rhodey scoffed, ignoring me as I turned pressed down on the Omnitrix, turning into Upgrade and flowing past the two.

"I started- no, you stole one of my suits! I defending my property!"

"You let me steal the suit, Mister 'Leave-the Arc-Reactor-In-the-Super-Suit."

"Okay, I'm just going to stop sharing my toys from now on," Tony declared.

"Whoa, hold on now-" Rhodey suddenly sounded worried, but I wasn't able to hear the rest of the conversation, simply flowing into Hulk's controller and beginning to fix it.

"Hulk sorry."

"Ah, don't worry about it, you big galoot," I told my giant friend.

"Thor," Creel said, walking by with his big sandwich. "I'm playing the next game."

"Then it is a challenge you want?" Thor said arrogantly.

"Well, you're mostly button mashing," Creel pointed out as I flowed out of Hulk's controller, leaving it repaired.

"Because I have no need of any other strategy!" Thor declared proudly, selecting Pikachu once again.

I ignored the squabbling trio in favor of heading out to my balcony in Upgrade form. Clint, Sam, Steve, and Bucky were leaning against the railing, looking out on New York City below.

"What's up?" I asked.

Clint turned to look at me, then did a double take. "Dude, warn us next time you sneak up on us as a giant blob monster!"

"Nah, it keeps you on your toes," I snarked, flowing over to take a spot. "What are you guys talking about?"

"Mostly how much New York has changed," Steve said, lifting a beer to his lips.

"Yeah," Bucky pointed down at the city. "Hell, that used to be a tiny ass park."

"An ass park?" I asked.

He gave me an annoyed look, though his eyes sparkled with amusement. "Very funny. But seriously, look at it."

I eyed the section of city he was pointing at, which was nothing but buildings.

"Gotta say," Sam said idly. "This really is a pretty city."

We stayed on the balcony talking for a little while before going inside again for an impromptu Super Smash Bros. tournament. To no one's surprise, Tony ended up winning, the brilliant bastard.

Then we watched The Thing and Steve swore off beef. Not much else in April topped that.