Price Paid

Mick should've been used to SHIELD agents by now, the way they handle themselves. Their grown up silence, the way the looked down on him for his age, and disapproved his actions. It clearly wasn't any better for Sharon, they treated her just as bad as they did him, and she was actually one of them. They'd brought in Jerren and Patten at Mick's begging, which was just to make sure they were safe through all of the chaos of the morning. After being stitched up, the group of teens were left alone in a large conference room, awaiting the higher ups, whatever that meant. This gave Mick the opportunity to catch everyone up, even Sharon filled in the details that Mick could not, including the fact that she was a SHIELD agent, and how she was Mick's former trainer. 

"I knew it had to be something," Patten smiled. "He's never that confident without cause." 

"Shut up," Mick smiled, which still hurt a bit. "It's not like I wanted to keep all of it from you, I was told to keep my mouth shut." 

"We understand," Jerren shrugged. 

"It doesn't have to be so hush hush anymore," Sharon said as Mick shot her a curious glance. "You didn't tell them yet?" 

"Tell us what?" Davis asked.

"You're all invited to join the SHIELD Academy after you graduate," Sharon said as Mick sighed and the other boys cheered. "How could you not tell them?" 

"With everything going on, it must've slipped my mind," Mick ruffled his hair. "Speaking of slipped my mind, check this out." Mick walked to the corner of the room, picking up the longsword that belonged to Shadowfury. Jerren and Davis' eyes glazed over as they looked upon it's blood stained blade. 

"You should not have that," they said in unison, with a robotic undertone. 

"Guys?" Mick held the blade behind him as Jerren and Davis stood up, making him slightly nervous. "Stop, I don't want to hurt you." 

"Snap out of it!" Patten and Sharon both moved in tandem, she grabbed Jerren as Patten grabbed Davis. Both boys broke free of their grips, kicking them aside as they made their way toward Mick in a zombie like manner. 

"That doesn't belong to you," the two boys continued speaking in together and pointed at the blade as Mick scurried across the room, staying out of reach. "You should not have that." 

Sharon then slid across the floor, tripping Jerren, Mick not wasting any time and webbing him to the ground. Patten then kicked a chair in from of Davis which he fell into, Mick webbing him down into it. Both boys continued to fight and growl. "Your timing is coming Mick Bellouve, or should we say, Recluse!" The boys said this time with a cackle of demonic laugher following. Their bodies convulsed, then the two fell unconscious. 

"What in the world was that?" Sharon asked as Mick and Patten both shook their heads. 

"It has to be whatever Alice and her freaks did to them," Patten said. "It wasn't ever this bad before." 

Mick stared at the weapon in his hand clutching the hilt as tightly as he could. Not only could he see Casey's blood on it, but the blood of Jerren and Davis. In a fit of rage he swung the blade at the wall, it vanished into black smoke upon impact, the gash in the wall down to the stud and what seemed to be burn marks. 

"Feel better?" Sharon asked laying a hand on Mick's shoulder. 

"No," Mick stared at the wall. "All I want is to kill him before anything happens to them." 

"I understand," Sharon said. 

"We're going to save them," Patten placed a hand on Mick's other shoulder. "I don't care what it takes. We're going to save them." 

"Then you kids are going to need to start training early," Coulson said from the doorway. 

"I hoped you'd say that," Sharon smiled as they all turned to face him. "As long as I'm still on the job that is." 

"Oh you're still very much tied to this one," Coulson said firmly. "Paperwork wise, you're going to be tied up for weeks. But, that can wait until we put an end to all of this. First we have to figure out how it's all happening, and why." 

"That means you're going to be here for a while?" Mick asked as Coulson nodded. 

"Don't know if that means its your lucky day, or if you're very unlucky," Coulson said with a grin. "I'm starting to lean on unlucky by how much you work you keep putting on me." 

Mick couldn't help but feel all of his emotions weighing on him. He needed to know what this price meant for Jerren and Davis; were they possessed, cursed, or something worse? Did Shadowfury get his powers from Alice's group too? Did that mean he was someone Mick knew? Tears streamed from his eyes as he tried hard to keep it all together on his own. Being a hero sucked, this life sucked. Sharon wrapped an arm around him, Patten followed suit. His friends were really the only things keeping him together, everything else was just slowly falling apart.