~ Every 100 Power Stones = Bonus Chapter! Your votes keep this climbing. Thanks!
"Little Hermione is actually the famous Miss Witch! And you all kept it from me this whole time!"
Skye shot Hermione a look of mock betrayal, then glanced around at the others.
Jemma, Fitz, Ward, and May all found somewhere else to look, awkward, every one of them, though envy flickered briefly in their eyes.
Envy that Skye could be this naturally close to Hermione.
Was that just raw talent?
Maybe Coulson had seen something real when he'd picked her.
Then Coulson came striding in, and the mood shifted.
His expression was serious. He swept the room with a look, his gaze pausing briefly on Hermione.
"Everyone. We just got word — Ian Quinn's location has been confirmed."
His voice cut through the easy atmosphere like a blade. "Gear up. We're moving out. Objective is capture."
Skye, still practically attached to Hermione's arm, sprang to her feet. "Let's go!"
Multiple missions with the S.H.I.E.L.D. team had done their work on her. She'd come to love the field, the rush of it, and had all but forgotten she was originally just a hacker.
Jemma and Fitz exchanged a glance and moved as one toward the workbench. May and Ward were already sorting through their weapons kits. The whole team snapped into motion, efficient and practiced.
Hermione watched them bustle around with quiet interest.
She followed them into the main hall and drifted over to Ward's side.
"So what exactly are you heading out to do?"
Ward's hands slowed for just a second.
His instinct was to deflect. But one look at Hermione and he swallowed it back down. She was Miss Witch, her clearance technically outranked his. Keeping this particular piece of intel from her was pointless.
He kept his voice low.
"Ian Quinn, CEO of Cybertek. He's been quietly funding and running super-soldier research, and he's been a persistent headache for us. We've been tracking him for a long time. We've finally pinned down his location."
Hermione picked up the mission brief Ward had set aside and flipped through it.
"Project Centipede..." She read aloud, scanning through the technical terms. "Manufacturing super-soldiers designated as Deathlok..."
"Chitauri tech, Super-Soldier Serum, Extremis Virus..."
She curled her lip. "What kind of franken-project is this? It's like someone blended hot sauce into a frappuccino and decided to serve it as a meal."
Everyone in earshot automatically imagined the combination. Involuntary grimaces swept the room, a quiet chorus of internal gagging.
Hermione's finger tapped the words "Extremis Virus."
"Speaking of which, didn't I already take care of Aldrich Killian and all his Extremis Soldiers?"
"How is there still Extremis Virus floating around out there?"
Everyone except Coulson looked up sharply.
Hermione blinked. "You didn't know?"
May's brow creased. "The official report records that Iron Man eliminated Killian."
Hermione shrugged and handed the file back to Ward.
"Oh, that's just Bald Egg doing what Bald Egg does. More classified-information nonsense."
She rolled her eyes.
"Anyway. I was the one who handled it."
That landed. The pieces clicked into place for the rest of them, so that was how that incident had actually gone down.
Meanwhile, Jemma and Fitz had already gravitated toward each other out of habit, running checks on the tactical equipment. Fitz was holding an oddly-shaped gun, brow furrowed tight, clearly stuck on something.
"Jemma, the anesthetic dosage on the Night-Night Gun still isn't consistent enough."
He twisted the dial on the barrel, tone flat and stubborn.
"Sometimes the hit is too strong, the target drops into full coma. Other times it's barely a tickle."
Jemma leaned over and checked the instrument readings.
"I've already reformulated it, Fitz. This is the best result achievable with current technology."
"Best result? We need absolute control. What if the target has a tolerance? What if—"
Fitz was getting wound up now, hands moving.
"Can't you find a way to make the dosage adjustable? Or better yet, make it act directly on the central nervous system, instant incapacitation, no side effects, no variables, "
Jemma exhaled. She cut him off.
"Fitz. I'm a biochemist. I'm not Hermione. I can't conjure exactly what you need out of thin air."
"No problem — I'm Hermione, I can conjure. What do you need conjured?"
The voice came from right beside them. Hermione's head poked forward, looking at them both.
Fitz and Jemma went rigid at the same moment. They'd been so deep in it they'd completely forgotten she was standing right there. Every word of that conversation had gone straight to the source.
Both of them waved their hands in identical, furious synchrony. "Nothing! Nothing at all, Hermione, we were just talking through a technical problem, "
Their sync rate is good enough to pilot a Jaeger, Hermione thought, and casually plucked the Night-Night Gun from Fitz's hands. Under the wide eyes of everyone present, she reached into her bag and hauled out an alchemy table.
Hammers rose into the air. They went to work on the guns, knocking, tapping, turning them over. Hermione drew her wand and swept it across them in sequence, red light flaring with each pass.
"Done."
The guns floated back and hovered in front of the team. Hermione nodded at them.
"I've modified all of these with alchemy. A few basic Stunning Charms, sealed inside. You won't have to worry about whether your shot will drop someone anymore."
Everyone snapped back to reality and took their gun.
Coulson's expression shifted, genuine surprise, and something close to delight. "These are... enchanted weapons?!"
Hermione nodded. "As long as the target doesn't have magic resistance at Thor's level, it doesn't matter who they are. One hit, immediate unconsciousness."
Thor's level.
Eyes went wide. And then every single person on the team quietly tightened their grip on their gun and refused to let go.
Sure, Thor had been knocked around like a ragdoll by Malekith, but that was the Aether, which was an entirely different category of power. And compared to a wizard like Hermione, Thor's resistance looked modest. But compared to anything Earth-born, even super-soldiers? Thor was operating on a completely different level. Those black-red particle streams from the Dark Elves had disintegrated people on contact. Thor had stood in them and kept moving. On this planet, only the Hulk could probably say the same.
Which meant these guns would drop anyone. No calculations required. No variables to account for. Just aim and fire.
For this team, that was an epoch-defining upgrade.
The only limiting factors left were accuracy and reaction time.
And from the look on Hermione's face, completely relaxed, barely paying attention, this had been nothing to her. Just a quick job while she had a free minute.
What kind of treasure was this woman?
Jemma, Skye, and May all had the simultaneous urge to throw their arms around her.
Fitz, meanwhile, was experiencing a different kind of crisis. While the others were in awe, he was losing his mind over the mechanics. A few taps with a hammer. A couple passes with a wand. And the function of the weapon had fundamentally changed, without touching a single internal component.
Nothing about the structure had been altered. Nothing.
Was this an MMO gear upgrade cutscene? Was this actually his life right now?
As a scientist, this was maddening. He desperately needed to understand how alchemy worked.
Hermione caught his expression and laughed.
"Don't bother. Tony's been at it for years and hasn't gotten anywhere. A power that's been passed down through our kind for thousands of years isn't something that cracks easily."
Fitz's face fell.
He knew he was talented. He also knew there was a significant gap between him and Tony Stark. If Iron Man had spent years on this and come up empty, his own chances were somewhere between zero and laughable.
"Alright," Coulson said, stepping in cleanly. "Mission first. Save the questions for Miss Witch when we're back."
"Move out."
.
The first two seasons of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. are genuinely good, and they dovetail with the film universe beautifully.
Skye is really something.
➤ Next: Skye Gets Shot
— .—— .—— .—— .—— .——
Enjoying the story?
Read 130+ chapters ahead on Patreon.
Join the free community tier for early access to the latest updates:
patreon(.)com/DarkGolds