2013
San Francisco, California
Pym Manor
(Omniscient POV)
As Ava took care of her business upstairs, Brock searched around the manor for any clues that might lead him to something that would help cure her.
Screams rang out from upstairs followed by the scent of blood but Brock just ignored them as he began by checking the study, which contained a number of scientific journals and files detailing Pym's work on various projects.
He also made sure to check the bathroom and bedroom where Pym had slept. Both rooms were empty, save for an old toothbrush and a couple of articles of clothing.
Brock checked the kitchen next, finding a variety of foodstuffs and an unused coffee machine. He set about brewing himself a cup of coffee as he continued searching through the house. He found a small office off to one side and wandered into the room, pausing momentarily to admire the view outside the window that looked out onto the cityscape of San Francisco.
Turning back, Brock began to read through a few of the papers laying on the desk. One of them was titled 'New Data on Negative Energy Projection'. He skimmed through the paper quickly, scanning the information and looking for anything that might give him insight into how Pym used his research. Nothing stood out to him, though, so he moved on to the next piece of paper.
'The Effects of Quantum Energy on the Human Body: Preliminary Findings'. Unlike the last two papers, there was much less technical jargon in this one. He read it thoroughly, knowing that most of this stuff was over his head, but he figured it was worth a shot.
Ava returned from her search downstairs and found Brock reading through a stack of papers on the desk. "Hey," She called out from the hall, "Are you done in here already?"
Brock glanced up from the pages, noticing the small splatters of blood that covered Ava's suit
"Yeah...I'm almost done," He replied, "How'd it go?"
"Well... I got what I came for," She says, "So, what did you find?"
"Nothing yet," He tells her as he stores the papers in the small duffel bag hanging from his shoulder. "This house is pretty big, though. I'll keep looking around."
"Alright, I'll get cleaned up and come back to help," Ava says and heads for the stairs.
Brock watches her ascend the steps and then returns his attention back to the study. His eyes scan around the room, stopping at the bookshelf that stands off to the side of the desk as he spots a small, imperceptible, seam between the wood.
He peers closer and notices that the crack goes all the way up to the ceiling, where it ends abruptly. He leans forward and looks under the shelf, finding another small gap in the floorboards. He reaches down and traces the outline of it with his fingers, feeling the rough edges of the hidden space beneath the floor.
Brock grips the bookshelf at both sides and pulls it from the wall with his hands, revealing a large metal door behind it. A keypad sits on the wall opposite the door with a series of buttons below it.
Putting his hand on the door, Brock felt that he could easily rip through the metal but, not wanting to trigger any kind of alarm that might be connected to the door, decides against it.
Instead, he decided to go out to the car and get Zeru to see if he could figure out how to bypass the lock.
************
San Francisco, California
Pym Manor
Zeru follows Brock down the hallway and enters the study. He notices the large metal door and moves over to it to examine the lock. "Damn..." He mutters as he kneels down in front of the panel. "This thing has a high-level encryption on it."
Brock walks over to him and peers over his shoulder, "Can you open it?"
"Yeah, but it will take some time," Zeru replies. "The lock is connected to the security system of the house and will send out an alert to all local authorities if the wrong code is entered or the door is tampered with, so I have to shut the entire grid down before I can even make any progress."
"Alright, let me know when you've gotten somewhere with it," Brock says.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Zeru gives Brock a thumbs-up before returning to work. Four small silver nodes appear around his body as he begins tapping at the controls on the panel. The lights on the panel dim for a moment before brightening again, indicating that he's successfully disabled the system.
After a long moment, Zeru stands up straight and smiles at Brock, "I was able to get around the first layer of protection. Now, I just need to hack into the lock itself."
After a few more minutes of tinkering with the lock, a loud click comes from the panel as the door slides open with a soft hiss.
"Great job," Brock says, walking over to peer through the door.
"Thanks," Zeru replies.
Brock motions over to the other side of the room and gestures for Ava to follow him as he walks through the door. They step through the doorway together and enter another room.
"Stay up there," Brock calls back to Zeru as He and Ava move to explore the hidden room.
Steps leading down into darkness lead them down into a basement where they find a large storage room filled with boxes and crates. Several of these contain a variety of chemicals and equipment.
"Wow, this place is huge," Ava remarks as she steps across a pile of wooden pallets.
She looks around at the collection of items in the room, "What is all this stuff? Some kind of lab?"
"Probably," Brock says, "Looks like this is where Pym stored all the things he was working on."
They continue to wander around the room, examining the contents.
Brock spots a large safe that was embedded into the wall near the back of the room and moves towards it.
A combination lock was affixed to the front of it, with a series of numbers running along its edge. He moves to tear open the safe but Ava grabs his arm and stops him from doing so.
"I got this," She says as she reaches out and phases her hand halfway through the lock. Faint-clicking sounds emit from the lock as the mechanism inside rotates, releasing a bolt. Ava removes her hand as the heavy door swings open.
An empty space takes up the upper part of the safe, looking as if something was hanging inside of it once upon a time. At the bottom lay several tubes that appear to be filled with glowing Blue and Red liquid.
Brock approaches the tubes, brushing his fingers against the glass. "Is this it?" He asks, turning to face Ava.
Ava nods, "It certainly looks like the stuff my Dad would work with, but I don't know what the Red stuff is."
Brock looks at the tubes in thought for a moment then turns back to her, "Pym's research papers mentioned something about a particle he created back in the 1980s, maybe that's what this stuff is."
"Could be," Ava replies, "Either way we've found what we're looking for, so let's get out of here before someone finds us."
Brock nods as he stores the tubes away in his duffel bag and moves to follow Ava back up the stairs, but stops as a large object that sat in the corner of the room and was covered with a tarp catches his eye. He walks over to inspect it, pulling back the cloth to reveal a large silver vehicle.
The vehicle looked similar to what Brock thought a hover car would look like, Its exterior was made from chrome-plated metal that seemed to glow faintly as it reflected the light of the room.
Brock brushes his hand against the smooth surface of the vehicle and reaches for the door that opens on the driver's side. The door slides smoothly open revealing a seat surrounded by a holographic display screen. He climbs inside and examines the interior. A single driver's seat was situated in the front of the vehicle with a control panel to either side of it. Another row of seats lined the back, each with its own console and display screen.
"Whoa..." Ava says as she approaches the vehicle and looks inside.
"Think I found our ride home," Brock tells her, stepping out of the vehicle and closing the door.
"Does this thing even work?" Ava asks, reaching out a hand to stroke the roof of the vehicle.
"No clue," Brock replies, "But good thing we have our own little genius on hand to solve that problem."
**********
Classified Location
S.H.I.E.L.D Helicarrier
Nick Fury's Office
One Day Later
In the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, Nick Fury sits behind his desk reviewing paperwork. A knock comes at his door and he glances up from his desk and calls out for whoever it is to come in.
Agent Hill walks into his office, holding a file folder in her hand. "Director, here's the roster of all the new recruits that were recently assigned to the new field team."
Fury takes the folder from her and scans through the names on the list. "Thank you, Agent Hill. Any standouts?" He asks as he looks her over.
"Yes sir," She tells him. "A few actually. There's the new pair of scientists, Dr. Fitz and Dr. Simmons, who seem quite promising. Then there's Agent Ward, who's been given the second-in-command position under Agent May. His leadership skills and combat ability are going to be a great asset to the team. Lastly, we've added a highly skilled hacker that we've had our eyes on for a while, Daisy Johnson."
"Interesting choices," Fury says, glancing back up at her. "Run a secondary background check on each of them. I want to know everything about their pasts. Make sure there aren't any red flags in their records."
"Understood Director," Agent Hill replies.
"Good, now, please leave me alone to finish this." He says as he lays the folder down on his desk and closes it.
"There's one more thing, sir," Agent Hill tells him.
"Oh yeah? What is it?" Fury says, leaning back in his chair as his hand taps the top of the desk.
"One of our 'constricted assets' hasn't reported in for a couple of days," She says, "She usually is permitted a bit of freedom, but has never been away for this long."
"Which one?" Fury asks.
"Ghost, sir," Agent Hill replies.
"Has anyone tried tracking her?" Fury asks.
"Yes sir, but her tracking device seems to have been deactivated," Agent Hill replies, "Which means it's either malfunctioning... or she's gone off the grid completely."
"That doesn't sound like Ghost," Fury says, "she's always been too smart for that. She knows we're her only chance at living."
Agent Hill nods her head, "If she's truly off the grid, then she must have done it purposefully. She may have realized that she couldn't trust us anymore and decided to cut ties with us."
Fury sighs and rubs his temples. "Call in one of the Techs and ask them to run an analysis on the tracking device. They might be able to give us some clues about where she went."
Agent Hill nods again and leaves the office.
**********
A/n: Hey everyone! Quick announcement, I will now be posting chapters earlier on my Patreon, so if you can't wait and want to read the next chapter as soon as it's done then go check it out. Hope you are enjoying the story and as always thanks for reading!