Work Text:
“I figure we got 24 hours before the Feds catch up to us. What do you want to do?”
It was hard to stay incognito as such a big group, but no one wanted to split up. They had almost lost each other so many times, and Coulson figured they deserved to have some time together without the threat of robots, aliens, or actual Nazis. The team had contacted the Koenigs, who were eager to patch things up with S.H.I.E.L.D. after the Darkhold incident. Now they were staying in a safehouse in the country, whose location the siblings had conveniently forgotten to share with the US government.
“Coulson, I gave you those numbers.” said Daisy. “And we were the Feds, like, two days ago.”
“I know, I just always wanted to say that.”
Mack clicked a new cartridge into the gun he was reassembling, having disassembled it five times anxiously. “Are you sure we even have that long? The whole world is after our heads right now.”
“Well, mostly mine.” Daisy interrupted. “With the whole attempted murder thing.”
“They’re after all of us.” Agent May opened the door from the safehouse’s basement, carrying a cardboard box to the kitchen table. “Which is why I’m not sure why you had me dig up all these burner phones, Phil. Who are we calling? What’s the point?”
Simmons stepped in. “Ah, actually May, that was my idea. Fitz and I, or, well, more me than him? We thought it would be beneficial to…” Her eyes lit up. “To keep up with the outside world. We haven’t gotten a chance to do much of that lately. It might be nice to know what we’re up against.” Fitz stayed quiet, fiddling with a broken I.C.E.R. and avoiding eye contact.
“It can’t hurt to keep an eye on what the news is saying about S.H.I.E.L.D., so we can turn this thing around eventually,” said Coulson with a sigh. “Really not looking forward to that press conference.”
“That’s the spirit, Coulson!” Simmons said, pulling out electrical tape from the box and covering both cameras on each phone. “We might as well make use of the calm before the storm.”
“I don’t know if I really wanna get too deep into the digital world right now, if you know what I mean,” said Mack, heading deeper into the house. “I don’t need a phone, I’ll just stay here. You guys all go ahead and have fun.” Yo-Yo, who was standing between the team and the rest of the house, reached out a hand and stopped him.
“You’re not gonna sit around the house and wait to be arrested.” Mack’s coat appeared in a blur in her hands, and she tossed it at his chest. “You’re gonna sit around drinking with me and wait to be arrested. Let’s go.”
“Yeah, I guess I could use a drink,” said Mack, speaking to the air Yo-Yo left behind. He grabbed two phones from the box, tucked his gun into his jacket, and followed her out to the car the Koenigs had left them. Coulson started to speak, but May cut him off.
“Speaking of needing a drink, we need to discuss that bottle of Haig,” she said, grabbing a phone herself and tossing one to Coulson.
“I agree, but I was thinking we could all catch up as a group, you know? Do something fun. If Yo-Yo just took the car, how are we gonna get to anywhere fun in the city? Anyone up for a nature hike?”
“Actually, Phil, there’s still one ride left from the Koenigs. I’ll grab the keys.” May headed for the door.
“The motorcycle? I don’t know how we’re all gonna fit on that, Melinda, don’t be- oh.” Coulson looked at the remaining three agents.
“You crazy kids go have fun,” laughed Daisy, waving with one Quake gauntlet. “I shouldn’t be showing my face too much anyways. I’ll help Fitz and Simmons keep an eye on things. The Three Musketeers!” she threw her arms around the reluctant scientists. “Just like old times.”
“Just like old times,” Coulson repeated, nodding and following May to the bike L.T. lent her.
“So!” said Daisy, getting up and stretching. “What’s the plan?”
Fitz finally spoke up. “Jemma, if this is some plan to get me to feel better about the Framework, I don’t want to-“
“Fitz, you wanted to sacrifice yourself for us. I just want to show you what you’d be missing if you threw yourself under the bus like that.”
“What I’d be missing? You’d be safe, Jemma.” Daisy started to back away, sensing a fight, but Simmons held up a hand.
“Remember when Daisy first left S.H.I.E.L.D. to become Quake?”
“See, this is why I wanted to be somewhere else and not here right now,” interrupted Daisy.
Simmons kept going. “And I took the promotion and spent all my time at work, and you started working with Dr. Radcliffe on the Framework and AIDA—“
“Yes, yes, we all know I made massive mistakes, you don’t have the remind me.”
“My point is, Leo, that we all dropped off the grid. All work, no play. We barely kept up with anything that was going on in the real world. We were all in our own realities for a little while.”
“Hey, speak for yourself, Simmons, I was living my life.” Daisy looked indignant.
“Daisy, you dyed your hair and hung out with a demonic skeleton from hell.” Daisy opened her mouth to protest again. “Sorry. But my point still stands. We all need a little pop culture refresher. It’s not like there was anything good on cable in the Framework,” It was Fitz’s turn to protest.
“I mean, I was on TV a couple of times, so I’d like to think—oh God, it was always to deliver awful threats, wasn’t it. I can’t believe I…” Jemma could tell her plan was starting to backfire. Maybe Daisy saw this too, and decided to get on board.
“Well I don’t know about you guys, but my legs are sore from our trip in the Matrix. I think I’m starting to understand how astronauts feel. I need to walk around, like, ASAP.” Simmons smiled appreciatively, and Fitz shrugged, which she took as a positive sign.
“You know, I was thinking, since we have these phones, there’s something I’ve been meaning to try out, if you guys are up to it.” She was already typing something quickly into one of the phones, but Daisy and Fitz couldn’t tell what.
“Fitz, remember how they were talking about making a virtual reality Pokémon game?” Immediately, Daisy groaned.
“Yeah, they had some people from the Academy working on it. I can’t believe it took them that long to code a simple international database and random generation algorithm. Why they needed to make whole new battle mechanics is beyond me. A monkey with an Apple II could have done it.” Daisy was about to respond to him, but Simmons cut her off.
“Private app developers don’t have the same resources we do, Fitz,” she said.
“At least they have dependable funding and don’t have to rely on the government,” he responded. “which, by the way, is after all of us right now, in case anyone was forgetting. I wish you’d just let me turn myself in.” Jemma and Daisy made eye contact, silently agreeing to do whatever it took to cheer Fitz up before they had to deal with the consequences of AIDA’s actions.
Twenty minutes later, both girls and a reluctant, grumbling Fitz were slogging through the woods. Fitz was extremely out of his element, and had to go back to the safe house three times for different boots, a hat, and sunscreen. Daisy had laughed when she saw Fitz applying the lotion to his arms.
“Fitz, the plan is to be incognito, not to become as reflective as possible.” She gestured to her and Simmons’ sweatshirts. “see, dark colors. Hoods.”
“It’s 27 bloody degrees out!” cried Fitz. “Don’t you think they’d be less suspicious of a guy in a hat than two women in portable ovens?”
“But they’re lightweight, essentially low-scale cloaking modules—they don’t absorb any heat!’ Simmons replied.
“Yeah, I’m sure when we explain that to people, they’ll completely understand.”
“Wait, wait, wait wait wait. Did you name these things C.L.O.A.K.S. as a double entendre? Do the letters even stand for anything?” Simmons pretended not to hear Daisy’s accusation, and the trio finally set out.
Now, halfway through the woods, all three agents were looking impatiently at their phones. They had customized the generic avatar (“See, he’s wearing a hat!” Fitz had said, to which Daisy pointed out that the digital models were also wearing jackets) and tapped their way through the tutorial, but were dismayed to find that after what must have been thousands of steps, they were still only met with a green, empty screen.
“These things are supposed to get a signal, like, everywhere, right? Are the servers down or…?” Daisy seemed to be regretting coming along. Simmons hated seeing her two closest friends so glum. It was really getting on her nerves.
“You’re supposed to be the computer expert, Daisy!” Daisy was about to argue, and Fitz was probably about to head back, when all three agents heard a noise, tensing up. They were so used to bad news at this point, that they were surprised to realize it was just the phone buzzing in Simmons’ hand. A small blue creature had appeared in the center of her screen. Everyone was silent for a moment.
“Well,” said Fitz as he stared at the glowing phone as if seeing it for the first time. “What are you waiting for? Get it!” Certified genius Jemma Simmons suddenly felt like she had forgotten how to use a simple smartphone altogether. She blinked a couple of times at her boyfriend, almost seeing his old self, and then tapped the screen. A small, round face with three large green leaves smiled up at her from a black abyss. A single Pokeball spun impatiently near her thumb.
“Huh. Not so immersive when you cover up the cameras, I guess.” Daisy leaned over Simmons’ shoulder to press the AR on/off switch. Seeing the cheerful grassy background, a stark contrast to the muddy, decaying leaf piles of the forest, Simmons slid the Pokeball towards the Oddish, but she was too slow. Again, she tried, and the ball soared over the living vegetable’s head.
“Let me try,” Fitz said, his eyes growing wide as he took Simmons’ phone from her.
Simmons backed away and smirked triumphantly at Daisy. “He used to LOVE Pokemon,” she said.
“Uh huh.” Daisy replied, and Simmons turned towards her friend. Daisy was looking intently down at her own taped-up phone, catching her own Oddish. Simmons sighed and did the same on Fitz’s phone, using up nearly all of his Pokeballs in the process.
When Fitz discovered this, he was adamant they get to the city, and quick. By now, they could see the tantalizing blue markers for Pokestops just at the edge of their maps. They trudged over fallen trees and mud slicks, only finding two Rattata on the whole trip. They finally reached the edge of the woods, a huge and winding stretch of trees, a little past midday. Daisy and Simmons, still a little weak from sitting in the Framework portal, were panting and sore, but Fitz, who had been under longer than either of them, was only beaming.
“Do you see that? There’s three landmarks right over there. Come on!” It was not lost on Simmons, as she still held Fitz’s phone, how much he looked like his trainer avatar, determined eyes under a baseball cap, a backpack full of technological marvels.
It wasn’t long before the trio had captured enough digital beasts (there were much more here in the city) and powered through the first few levels. When the professor asked which team they wanted to be on, they all looked up confidently.
“Mystic.” said Fitz and Simmons.
“Valor.” said Daisy at the same time.
“Daisy!” Simmons was shocked. “If Pokemon were real, would you not want to know everything about them? Scientific exploration is our job, after all!”
“Scientific exploration was your job, but it’s more than that now.” Daisy insisted. “We’ve all had to be brave. It’s not the same gig it was when you guys graduated the Academy, or when Coulson recruited me out of my van. I gave up the Rising Tide years ago. We’re all field agents now.” She looked her two friends in the eyes. “The bravest of them.”
No one could argue with that, and so the three scientists swallowed their intellectual curiosity just for one day. It paid off. By being on the same team, they turned the whole block red. They kept their heads down as they paced up and down the sidewalks, their faces buried in their phones. Every so often, they would see one or two teens loitering in the same places they were; Daisy wanted to bolt, sure they were being followed, but Simmons shook her head. She walked behind one of the teens, a boy on a BMX bike, and smiled. She guided her friends away from the teens then, and waited until they were out of earshot before whispering, “He was trying to catch Meowth, too.”
One of the boy’s friends, a tall, lanky kid in basketball shorts, came out of the convenience store right next to where the trio was standing. He must have been grabbing snacks for the battles ahead, but he nearly dropped the small plastic bag when he saw Daisy. Her hood had slipped down sometime between evolving an Eevee into a Flameon and bringing the nearest gym up a level.
“Hey, aren’t you—” the boy hadn’t even finished his sentence when the three agents took off, pretending not to see him. “Hey!” he called out. He finished, “…the ones in the red gym over there,” but no one heard him. The agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (turned agents of Valor) were too busy speed-walking away. Not too fast— they may be on the run, but they still had eggs to hatch.
That afternoon, the three agents almost forgot the horrors of the past year, almost let go of their guilt. Daisy almost forgot about seeing her face on every TV, seeing the footage of her double attempting to assassinate General Talbot, losing Lincoln twice. Simmons almost forgot about being betrayed by Fitz’s LMD, crawling out of her own mass grave, and seeing the man she loved become a virtual Nazi and a real-life killer.
Best of all, Fitz almost forgot the look in Simmons eyes when he told her she meant nothing. When she saw him as a killer.
They filed into the bar at different times. Coulson and May arrived with the loud purr of a motorcycle engine. Daisy, Fitz, and Simmons barged in ten minutes later, sweating and panting, and Yo-Yo and Mack only had to slide from their booth to the bar stools. They were all staring into their drinks, listening to the old clock behind the counter ticking away. It was almost time for them to go.
“Hey,” said Fitz.
“Did you guys hear about Magikarp Jump?”