January 15, 2016:
Another debriefing with Agent May, bunny paper clips and a Magic GPS
The Triskelion
Characters
![class="image1"](http://cmbeta.wdfiles.com/local--resized-images//class="image1"/medium.jpg)
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: None.
Fade In…
It's been some time since Jemma has briefed the team on the Daemonites - but that doesn't mean things haven't been happening. She's certainly been researching, even as she recovers from her abduction.
Right now, she can found be reviewing her notes in her lab. Two SHIELD Agents are positioned outside the door and another one is /in/ the lab with Jemma - seems the new protocols for her protection have been stepped up.
Rain is about in her workspace. Tools are floating about Fantasia style. She's working on her desire drive toaster, and the magic GPS that works for non-magical people. Unlike some, she tends to her heritage as a mediator of magic. Her family did help magic and non-magic peeps get along.
"Let's go get some tea and check on Jemma," She comments to Captain, who is wearing his SHIELD outfit, badge and all. "Oh, alright." The two will head over, a bag of scones in hand.
Knocknock on the lab door frame.
Paper files? When there are paper files, there must be highlighters and semi-transparent multicolored arrows to pout at things and colorful sticky squares to write on and various pens to write upon said sticky squares. Darcy moves toward Jemma's office, figner-wiggling her way past the guards and..
"Rain! How's it going Drizzle-D? Coming? Going? Bit of both? I'm making a delivery," Darcy blabs as she just walks right in like she owns the place.
"Hiya, Jem! Need some colorful stuff? It's not holographic rainbow goodness, but it's the best I've got," she quips as she goes right up to Jemma's desk to unload her haul.
Agent May approaches Simmons' lab as requested by the biochemist just in time to see Rain there requesting admittance. Luckily for the witch, she nods to the two agents guarding the door, and one moves to let her through, and giving Darcy that chance to finger-wiggle her way past as well. All May does is follow them as well and stand behind Lewis with her arms crossed to see how long it takes the vociferous junior agent to notice her presence.
"Come on in, Rain, Captain" Jemma invites them in as Darcy breezes through and May does her, almost, Vulcan impression. "Hello Darce… color what?" the scientist blinks at the peppy intern.
A look at Jemma's wrists, just visible under the sleeves of her labcoat, will show that the bruising from the restraints is nearly gone. Just a faint yellowing to indicate anything of her harrowing experience.
Seeing Mays look, Jemma heads to the tea station and puts the water on to boil, pulling four mugs and bowl out, readying to make tea.
Rain smiles politely to May. She plays well with non-magic people, since she didn't attempt to teleport about. "Hello. We came to visit and bring some scones. We were concerned," She admits.
"The junior agents got tired of petting me," Captain remarks. Is he smiling? Probably. Rain will come in as she's invited, and Captain squirms in between legs. As cats do. "Hello agent May, and we're alright." She is trying to keep up with them. "We're mostly working on the magic GPS. It'll be nice for when myself or other magicians aren't around." A beat. "Blueberry and chocolate scones," She offers. "How are you?" She asks poor Jemma.
Completely distracted by showing off the colorful items, Darcy doesn't notice May AT ALL!
"Colored sticky notes! Look. Bunnies!" Darcy says as she holds up a box of paperclips. They rattle in her hands.
"I've been wanting to sneak some of these into Ninja Nanny's office supplies, but I'm afraid that she'd PT me to death if one got spotted. Though, the look on her face, might be completely worth the like bazillion sit ups or something equally retarded," Darcy blabbers right until the name May is dropped. She stops and looks up at Jemma.
"…she's right behind me isn't she?"
Melinda May reaches over Darcy's shoulder and plucks the bunny clips out of her hand. She doesn't respond for several seconds, letting Darcy sweat it out for a few moments before commenting, "Do they have these in hippopotamus shapes?" Then she sets the little box of paper clips back on the table surface with all the other chotchkies. "Captain. Rain. Simmons."
"She is…" Jemma smirks as she looks at the Bunny clips, but May appropriates them and the water boils. Taking a separate package from the 'stash' she keeps, Jemma fills a yellow/orange bowl with water and adds a mix to it. The style of the bowl (http://consciouscat.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/ModaPet-collage-e1403007739807.jpg) matches the arrayed mugs (which are different colours).
"Let me finish with the tea, Captain, and I'll pet you." the scientist responds to the Cat. Her life is … weird. "Oh, scones. Just the ticket, Rain. Thank you!" She pauses a moment and considers Rains question "I'm doing ok, thanks Rain. Being able to focus on work, really helps."
Before long, the tea is steeped and Jemma puts Captains bowl where he can reach it "Catnip Tea, for you Captain. I found it in a quaint little store near where I'm living." and the mugs are passed around to the others.
"Agent May, are you here for my briefing?"
Rain looks quietly amused. She is glad the scones are well received. "Hello," She greets the others. "Thanks," Captain offers. He will wait patiently for his drink, too. "Ooh." And he will hop up to reach the bowl. Few things are truly out of the reach of cats. He will wait a bit, and Rain will accept a mug.
The scones are handed over to Jemma. "I am glad to hear that," Rain replies. Captain grunts softly in affirmation. They both go quiet, looking to May. "… and those are cute," Paperclips! Rain might get butterflies or cats.
Melinda May accepts her cup of tea from Jemma, nodding at the question about the briefing. "Yes." She gathers up the colorful office supplies that Darcy left on the table and sets them to one side so Captain doesn't have to worry about knocking any to the floor. "Is this about the Daemonites?"
"Yes. It is." Jemma responds to Agent May as she takes the scones from Rain and dishes them out. "I've been examining the Michael Canning and Sian Church, who we have been holding and as my last report indicated, we had a Daemonite … on ice." Thanks to Clint! "I've spent some time with Doctor Storm in the Baxter building and found some interesting things."
"The first thing I've noted, on reviewing Cannings and Churches med records. They were extremely malnourished."
Rain is quiet for a moment, as Captain laps his tea up and she hers. "Thank you." She inclines her head a bit. Daemonite. It feels familiar. She furrows her eyebrows. Though, news of one on ice makes her eyes go wide. Extremely malnourished. Hmm. Rain is turning this over. She nods, listening.
Malnourished. May nods almost absently. "So the Daemonites are fully taking control of the humans they inhabit." After all, who's to say what those reptile things would normally consider food? Very likely not salads and tabouleh.
Seeing Rains confusion, Jemma stops for a moment. "Sorry, Rain." On the holographic screen in the conference desk, images start appearing. A Lizardlike being appearing out of two bodies, the bodies left on the ground. At least two more occassions where the Lizardlike creature seems to 'morph' from a human body. "Those creatures, are … apparently Daemonites. Possibly Extraterristial." Not that Jemma is confirming that at all.
"I'm not sure Agent May. I've not tangible data. Just the video footage. The suspect was doing something, accosted by SHIELD agents and then the creature appeared, leaving the suspect, passed out on the ground." Jemma considers for a long moment "It might be possible for the creature to take over the host and consume it, but I'll need a lot more data than what I have."
"Do you remember, in our last briefing, I showed the mind scan? Where there seemed to be an overlayed pattern? Look at this." A scan comes up showing a very distinctive pattern "This was the creature that Doctor Storm and I examined." Another scan, labled Sian Church is shown and the second 'brain activity' that is shown is nearly a 1:1 match for the frozen Daemonite.
Rain smiles politely. "That's okay. The name feels familiar," She offers. And she looks over, frowning. "I see. No, I remember them now. I remember - I should try to see if they are magic in nature if I see them again," She murmurs. At least then she could discern a bit. "That makes me think. Maybe I should add odd energy fluxes to the GPS," She is taking notes for herself. "There are many ways to possess someone. Some psychic, some physical. Some more akin to how parasites hijack their hosts." She furrows her brows.
"It wouldn't shock me if there were a mix of methods." Mind and soul. Captain is lapping up tea. Kitties lapping up stuff: Always adorbs. But Rain is thinking. "I wonder if they are more like psychic vampires. Some reptiles eat meat, others insects or plants…"
Melinda May looks from one to the other. "I was thinking more along the lines that they don't bother to feed their host bodies while inhabiting them. But those other options are possible. What else do you have?"
"All evidence I have, Agent May," Jemma starts in "points to the host eating regularly. However, as we weren't observing, that's a valid summize." As May asks 'what more' the biochem sighs. "Well, this… these are the brainscans of Sian Church just after we apprehended her." Jemma points to the screen "Do you see the 'overlay' on the brain patterns?" As Jemma continues, a second image appears, another brain scan, this one a standalone, labelled Daemonite-2 "These are the brainwaves that Doctor Storm and I monitored during our examination. Now…." the images overlay and the 'second' set of brainwaves on Sian match that of the Daemonite.
"Odd energy fluxes would be helpful, Rain." Jemma smiles to the witch as they work.
"Well. Admittedly, the device is still a work in progress. I use it so I don't have to scan as I fly on broomstick and use a map." Divination and map reading plus riding a broomstick? Yeah, Rain would look like one of those crashed witch Halloween ornaments. SPLAT.
She looks to the scans, peering. Huh. "I see…. kind of. It looks like an NMR or something," She furrows her brows.
"But I'll do my best to add it. You guys are welcome to use and test it as I go." Captain grunts softly. Laplaplap.
"I think I've seen the matching brain wave patterns before. Are you saying that Sian Church's brain scans did notgradually revert back?" May finishes her tea and sets the cup aside, clearly not ready for a refill.
"Oh no, they did… " Jemma responds to May and more images appear on the screen. "That first was image taken not long after we apprehended Miss Church. These others are at intervals from them, right up to yesterday."
The images show the scans reverting to normal and at about 7 days, the brain scan shows 'normal' - there's no indication of the extra pattern. "Michael Cannings was the same…" Jemma adds.
"I would like that, Rain. To be able to test it. It might give us the edge we needed."
Rain listens. She watches quietly, furrowing her eyebrows. "I see. I wonder if the host adjusts or they…" She trails off. Captain is a bit sleepy, getting gonked on catnip tea. His tail curls up around his loafine form. Rain smiles. "Sure thing, I'll bring one by." But it soon fades. "This is a lot to think on. Thank you."
Melinda May nods her approval to bring one of the GPS devices over for Jemma to test. "What I'm getting out of this, Simmons, is that we need to find a way to track, apprehend, and deal with these Daemonites even faster than we already have been." Lovely.
Simmons looks between May and Rain, nodding slowly. "Yes, and it might have just gotten worse. This is footage of an incident I attended north of New York the other day."
On the screen shows a single woman, under fire by a group of four … firing what seems to be modified weapons, some emitting energy beams, other ballistics. The screen shows Jericho and a flame haired woman appearing trying to disrupt the battle between the two groups. The SHIELD TAC unit deploys and then three agents turn their fire on the group of four…
"This was a conflict we were alerted to the other day. Jericho was there and that woman … Jericho seems to know her. There was a physchic compulsion, to shot on that group of four … most of us managed to weather it. Those three didn't and one, lost their life."
The video keeps playing showing a Lizardlike being appearing where the woman had been, there is no human body left behind. Eventually the lizard gets away and Jericho apprehends one of the four 'black ops' type … the other three disappear into the trees.
""We've got the one in custody, Agent May. But … it seems we've stepped into the middle of something?"
Rain frowns a bit at the news. She nods, listening.
"So we aren't the only ones that those Daemonites are competing against. We have stepped into the middle of something." And May looks displeased about it. "That makes everything that much worse, unless that one person that was apprehended turns out to reveal the other group as potential allies." Of course, being who she is, May is NOT going to bet on it.
"Remember Jericho said something about Source 'K' and there being a secret war?" Jemma reviews her notes on the case. "Maybe that's what we walked into…" Still it's concerning "Someone will need to interrogate the detainee. I'll keep analysing the data we have. Maybe Rains GPS will help…"
Finishing her tea, Jemma looks to May, her look rather worried.
Melinda May nods to Jemma. "I'll arrange for the interrogation." She really, really hopes that this detainee will be the break they need to finally stop being in catchup mode with this whole mess. She takes a moment to collect all of the used beverage containers and moves to wash them up before taking her leave.