Take Break, Doctors

March 15, 2016:

Working on the Daemonite Detector, Jemma and Sue are urged to have a break … which turns out to be not so relaxing!

Upper West Side - New York

Characters

NPCs: Agent Jefferies, Agent Matthews

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

The two Scientists have put some long hours into working with the Nth metal, using the samples of Daemonite that Jericho and May so kindly collected for her. (Collected - Jericho had hacked one to pieces and Jemma had collected the bits.)

But all work and no play, even for squints like Jemma, makes the scientist dull - as Matthews so politely reminded Jemma when they'd gone several hours without a break.

Which is why, Jemma and Sue are at a small cafe, just down the road from the Baxter Building with their creation, the first prototype, on the table in front of them. They might have agreed to stop for food, but they've taken their work with them!

"So what do you think, Doctor Storm?" Jemma murmurs as she sips from a cup of tea.


"I think all that's left now is to test it," Sue muses, giving the prototype one last look. "Which should be…interesting, to say the least. But hopefully it should help. And once we've tested it, then we can look into possibly duplicating it. It's obviously not going to be the next iPhone," she adds with a crooked smile. "But I can't say I'm disappointed in it."


"Testing it, yes." Jemma smiles back after she glances at the device. "No, not the next iPhone but given why we're creating this, I'd hope not." Of course, they'd been testing of the Daemonites 'bits' which is something, but not really a real test of the devices capabilities.

"If Fitz were here, he'd be chiding me for the poor fabrication… " It's sort of a running joke for the pair. "So next test, the one we have on ice?" beat "I'm sure it's going to need some calibration. The signal it emits and then sends back seems a bit wide for my tastes, I'm sure we're going to get a number of false positives."

Picking it up, Jemma operates the button that emits something like a sonar ping over the area … after a moment, the blue led on the device glows and it emits a low 'hum'. Frowning, the biochem looks at the device and the rest of the shop… before looking at Sue… "A false positive?"


"I'm not convinced on the false positive front," Sue muses. "Although, in theory, it could be set off by non-daemonite psychics. We'd need a psychic to test that on, though. Possibly someone in a deep enough stage of sleep? Unlikely in public during the day, though."

As the sensor goes off, she quirks a brow, reaching for her coffee as an excuse to look around them. "Well. That's interesting."


At this time of day the cafe is somewhat busy. Most of the tables are full and there are people at the counter getting takeaway coffee. Nothing particular obvious to either of the women. Which is fair, the Daemonites are very good at hiding in plain sight.

"It is, isn't it…. " Jemma murmurs, pressing the button as she discretely aims at different parts of the cafe. Matthews and Jefferies are watching, a coiled tension about them …

As Jemma moves the device across the area, both she and Sue notice that the response is triggered as it's aimed at a group of three people, standing near the counter. Two women and a man. One man and one woman are placing orders, the third is just sitting at an empty table, waiting. For anyone else, they would think she was waiting for her order

"Doctor Simmons" Jefferies murmurs "That woman came in not long after we did and she's been sitting there ever since then."


Sue watches quietly as she sips her coffee, doing her best to look relaxed. She may be just a scientist herself, but she's been doing the hero thing long enough to stay cool under pressure. "In that case," she murmurs at Jefferies' explanation, "I think we should probably take this outside. Maybe somewhere a little more quiet?" she suggests to Simmons, reaching for her purse.


Jemma doesn't need a second invitation and reaches for her bag and the device. Turning and walking out the cafe with Sue. Matthews and Jefferies lead the women out.

As they exit, the woman gets up to leave too… if they were in any doubt, they're now not. She's following them.

Jemmas security detail starts moving them quicker … but before they know it, the woman is right behind them, reaching for Sue's arm.


Sue walks out of the cafe at a regular pace, apparently unconcerned until the woman walks out behind her. Unfortunately for the woman, she's prepared. Fortunately for the woman, Sue's version of prepared is relatively harmless. She's put a small force field around herself, just a few inches out, so when the woman reaches for her, she'll find nothing but smooth air in the way.


Matthews and Jefferies are prepared as well, with Jefferies pulling Jemma behind him and Mattews drawing a ICER pistol, despite the number of people on the street. "SHIELD Ma'am, step away from Doctor Storm."

The woman snarls, long talons forming at the end of her fingers as she scrapes against Sue's shield trying to gain purchase. Seeing the futility in that, she barges into Sue trying to knock the woman off balance and cause the shield to falter.

People around the four start yelling, some start screaming … pushing and shoving trying to get away from the man with the gun and the enraged woman.


Sue has more than one trick up her sleeve. By the time the woman tries to rush her, she's already pushing another shield up in front of herself to surround the other woman. She stumbles back a step, throwing her hand out in front of herself as she tries to wrap the field entirely around her attacker. "You should really read your own files," she mutters, eyes narrowing.


Sues shield does up and wrap around the woman, fully encompassing her but rather than stop her, a 15ft tall lizard like being appears from inside the woman. Well that's what it looks. So now Sue has a woman, who doesn't look very well, trapped inside the field with Daemonite, a very angry Daemonite who is trying to move against the shields wall and move.

Are Sue's shields and Sue herself strong enough to hold that? And what are they going to do about the trapped woman. Both Jemma and Sue know that the hosts are generally recoverable.


Once the attacker is trapped, Sue lets the shields around herself fall, bracing herself to better concentrate on the task at hand. "Gentlemen," she says to the agents, "If you could please try to keep the general panic here from getting out of control, it would be a considerable help."

Sue's fields are strong enough to hold against bombs and bullets - they can handle a giant lizard. Separating out the host, on the other hand, is somewhat more complicated. Keeping the main field intact, she works on building another field inside of it, stretching the field to try to wall off the creature from its host.


Sue might have to make the first field a little larger to get some room between the host and Daemonite … but eventually she does it - segmenting the host from the lizard.

All the while the Daemonite is throwing itself against the farthest edge of the binding and it realises what Sue is doing, it phases … trying to slip through the 'wall' the Scientist has created.

Matthews and Jefferies do try to keep the panic to a minimum although Matthews doesn't put the ICER pistol down. There's still yelling and general panic, but it's abating. At least most people have the good sense to try and get away from there.

"Watch out, Doctor Storm, the creature is phasing." Jemma feels useless at the moment …


Once the host is separated from the daemonite, Sue lets the host's field fade, all the better to focus on the field trying to hold in the creature. "Mitosis," she says lightly, though there's some strain in her voice. "Cells do it all the time. This is just a cell wall, holding in a particularly nasty little virus." Sue can't exactly phase things, but her walls are making solid force out of nothing. She pours more energy into the field, trying to block the phasing.


Jemmas not overly familiar with how Sue's shields work but mitosis certainly makes sense to her.

With the host free, Jemma ducks near the fallen woman, dragging her clear so she can check her vitals. There's a 'whoosh' sound as a quinjet lowers onto the street - Matthews or Jefferies must have called it in. Out stream four more agents, armed with what heavy weapons and six more follow behind, clearing civilians.

A second Quinjet arrives and as the doors open, a portable freezing unit is wheeled out "Doctor Storm, can you manoeuvre that creature into the cryo unit?" One of the armed agents asks It seems to be the only way they've managed to contain the Daemonites so far.


"The closer you can bring it, the better," Sue answers the agent, still keeping her eye on the creature in its field. "Holding this is one thing, lifting it could be slightly more awkward. Doctor Simmons," she calls back to Jemma. "Could you please check the sensor? I'd rather not be surprised to find they don't work alone."


Working with Sue, the SHIELD agents move the cryo unit into position and open the doors. Sue will have a little work to get the creature into it, but when she does, the agents will close it up and operate the cryo-freeze, hoping that will be successful to neutralise the threat for the moment.

Jemma looks up from checking the woman and nods, fumbling for the prototype they've created. Operating it in all directions, she doesn't get any readings …"It's clear Doctor Storm but the power source is nearly completely drained." A design flaw they'll need to address.


Sue uses her field to push the daemonite into the deep freeze, holding it until the cold is enough to put it under. Once she releases it, she bends over, hands to her knees to catch her breath. "Well, the power supply we can work on," she nods, looking up with a flicker of a smile. "I hear that's Stark's specialty. But at least we know it works." She looks toward the containment unit, shaking her head as she straightens up. "And apparently I'm still on their list. I suppose I should let Reed know."


Jemma winces. She would never wish that on anyone, bad enough that she's targetted by several of her projects. The deep freezing works and there's a sleeping Daemonite in the unit. "You should, Doctor Storm." Jemma walks over and crouches beside the other scientist, putting her hand on her shoulder. "How are you doing?"

The SHIELD agents start to clear out but Jemma holds a hand up. "Doctor Storm, could we store this with you for the short term?" With SHIELD compromised, Jemma doesn't want to risk this speciman going missing.


"Of course," Sue agrees, stepping over to take the device. "Though," she says as she tucks it into her purse, "I'd like to come with you for this particular examination. See if we can find out anything new." And avoid mentioning this to Reed if she doesn't absolutely have to…

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