Chapter Text
If beauty was dangerous, Daisy Johnson was fatal. She adjusted the gloves on her hands to where they fully disguised the other arrangements that were attached to her hands, and she checked her reflection in the mirror of the diner she passed. There was no indication of the events of last night present in her image.
Her brown hair was pinned up neatly and stopped right before her shoulders where a dark green dress was hugging her shoulders. Of course, the long beige coat hid the majority of the dress. Modesty and such. Daisy would much rather be wearing pants and a blouse, but she knew today was not the day.
In the last two weeks, bodies had been popping up throughout New York City. The killer had a consistent MO; each body had bizarre symbols either carved or written upon. Just the thought of the victims sent shivers down her spine. She hadn’t told anyone, but all of the victims had something in common. They all possessed some form of inhuman ability, and all five of them had worked with Daisy on some secret mission before. She wanted to tell the other agents at SHIELD, but most of them were aware of her secret. Most of them likely didn’t even have the knowledge of the inhuman existence.
Her boss, Chief Coulson, decided that the office needed an outside perspective due to their lack of progress. Of course, Daisy had her own means of finding answers, and that’s what she was doing last night. There were three inhumans left from her group, and she had summoned them to an emergent meeting last night. Yo-Yo and Joey had arrived promptly, sharing the same worries as Daisy. Luckily, Yo-Yo and Daisy worked together as SHIELD agents where they could watch each others’ backs, but Joey had nobody else in his corner. After the first two bodies were found, the inhumans had been digging around the city for any clues of other inhumans or people who were hunting them. Both of their investigations had mostly turned up empty except for a single name that Daisy had gotten out of a man on the street: Reinhardt. He didn’t know much of the man except that he was a tall blonde with a frightening obsession for people with abilities.
Over the last week, the three had searched every block and under every surface, but none could find any more connections. Daisy ended the meeting by reminding them of the LA office coming to New York. If they were to use their powers, secrecy and swiftness were necessary.
And for being stealthy, running late to work in the morning the new agents were arriving wasn’t effective.
She walked into the communications office that served as a cover for the actual office and found the same agents that sat in the chairs every day.
“I’m afraid the LA agents came in just before you, Agent Johnson. If you hurry, I doubt they’ll notice your absence,” the woman at the far end told Daisy. She always wondered why the men in the office liked to think of women as inferior but placed them as the first line of defense. Perhaps, the weight of their Adam's apples were too much of a burden.
Daisy laid a hand on the woman’s left shoulder as she walked around her, “It’s alright, Rose. I’ll find a way out of this mess.” She walked through the now opened door, but now before whispering to herself, “I always do.”
From the looks of it, the new agents were already in the meeting room. Daisy quickly dropped her belongings on the floor next to her desk and scurried into the room. Despite barely closing the door, all eyes turned to rest on her. She paid no attention to the gazes and moved to stand besides Yo-Yo in the corner of the room. Malick just couldn’t let her slip in, however.
“Punctuality is an important skill, Ms. Johnson,” he spit out. His words were laced with venom, but Daisy had built up a wall that not even the vilest of men could break. With the LA agents now listening to the conversion, she couldn’t back down. Not that she ever had any plan to accept defeat.
“Then, why did you leave three hours early, yesterday?” He turned his gaze to the table, refusing to meet Daisy’s eyes now. “And it’s agent.” Loud remarks and whooping noises circulating throughout the room, before Chief Coulson raised an arm to quell the agents. He began briefing the team on the old and new facts of the case, and Daisy used this opportunity to look beside her at Yo-Yo. She met her gaze and nodded slightly before returning attention to Coulson.
Daisy took out a small piece of paper from where she had cleverly hidden it within the sleeve of her dress and passed it to Yo-Yo who tucked it into her own sleeve.
After Daisy had left her and Joey last night, she tracked down the original man who had spoken to her about Reinhardt. She carefully gowned herself in her new suit that Fitz and Simmons, two doctors that worked in SHIELD, secretly created for her to use on missions. Daisy spent hours trying to find the man, which proved more difficult than she had imagined because he had no home. When she eventually found him, Daisy coerced him into releasing his contact on Reinhardt. She was given a name, Charles, and an address to find him at.
The name and address were on the paper that Daisy gave Yo-Yo. With her super speed, it would be safer for her to confirm the location than for Daisy to stride in and quake the door off the hinges. But that would have to wait until later.
When she finally assorted all of her thoughts, she turned to tune into Coulson’s lecture, but she was met with two dark eyes staring at her. She had never met the man, but Daisy found comfort in his gaze. She hated it. The way she felt momentarily weak. He had brown hair with small pieces of grey mixed in, and he had to be a couple of years older than her. She kept eye contact for a second too long until she abruptly shifted her entire head. For some reason, Daisy felt the urge to look at him again.
“Each of the six bodies has this combination of circles and lines on it. Our doctors have been researching the symbols, but none of them have found any historical or cultural connection. Each array of symbols is completely different, and the idea that they are linked like a puzzle is not yet ruled out,” Coulson explained to the agents, “Here’s Dr. Fitz and Dr. Simmons to explain the biological aspects.”
They both stood up and walked to the front of the room. Fitz shuffled through the pictures as Jemma began verbalizing her notes.
“We ran a full toxicology report on the victims with SHIELDS’ latest technological advances that we, well, we took from Howard Stark. The labs show one chemical present in each of their bloodstreams: a new form of a dendrotoxin,” Jemma tried to keep a smile off her face as she proudly presented her research. Whenever Daisy would ask her about her work, she could go on and on about the possibilities. Nothing made her happier except for Fitz who all but worshipped the woman.
“What’s a dendrotoxin?” One of the LA agents asked her, and when Daisy turned her head to look at who was speaking, she noticed it was the man that was staring at her earlier. His voice was deep and the same comforting sensation embraced Daisy, and she had to remind herself to stay focused. She couldn’t show weakness in a room full of men that were waiting to call her out.
“That’s a great question, um, agent…” Fitz answered and trailed off at the end of his sentence, waiting for a response.
“Sousa. Daniel Sousa.” Daisy made the connection in her hand to who he was. Daniel Sousa was one of the most decorated field agents on the west coast and was responsible for multiple rescue missions in Europe during the Great War. There were rumors that he helped save Captain America himself. Maybe, she would figure out if they were actually true.
“Well, Agent Sousa, it basically temporarily paralyzes the body which would make it much easier for our killer to finalize the victims. Additionally, all causes of the death are linked to blood loss.” FitsSimmons’ responses were enough to satisfy the agents that were hungry for answers. The New York agents were already aware of the sadistic elements of the murders, but it was evident that LA didn’t get cases at this extent. Imagine if they knew how the inhumans were linked.
Coulson broke the silence. “Since those of you from the other office aren’t aware of the terrain here, I will be assigning you all to one of our field agents. From the LA office, I want Agent Piper and Agent Carter to go with Agent Rodriguez. Agent Davis and Agent Shaw are to go with Agent Malick. Agent Sousa, go with Agent Johnson and Agent Mackenzie. Your mission is slightly different and will require too of my most trained assets. The rest of you are to stay here and receive your orders from Agent May. Dismissed.” The people in the room all stood up as Coulson left and shuffled to find their teams, and Daisy made eye contact with Mack who nodded his head to the left of the office. She understood.
Yo-Yo grabbed her arm as Daisy left and leaned close to whisper with her thick accent in her ear, “If you run into Reinhardt or any serious problems, you run like hell. We can’t lose another.” There was desperation in her voice, and Daisy knew that the command was a reminder for the other agent, too. Neither wanted to expose their abilities to anyone new.
Daisy smiled softly as her non-verbal agreement and left the room to find Agent Sousa and Mack already outside. She joined SHIELD after Mack, and they become close early on in their careers. With Daisy being an Asian American and Mack being an African American, they both faced hurdles that the other agents glided around. They stood up for each other, and he was one of the limited people that knew of her powers. The list of non-inhumans that knew included Fitz, Simmons, and Mack. FitzSimmons had to know in case she needed medical assistance, or they discovered any inconsistencies in her bloodwork. She wouldn’t have told Mack, but Yo-Yo reassured Daisy that her husband wouldn’t abuse either of their powers. And he never had.
“And here I thought I was going to escape you for a day,” Daisy joked as she leaned in to hug him. “I’d much rather be working with your wife.” She laughed as she pulled away, and he quickly joined in.
“Unfortunately, you don’t have a choice today, tremors,” he calls her the nickname that she had no say so in. At first, Daisy hated when Mack used it in public, but nobody ever suspected anything. It eventually just stuck.
She turned around to face the LA agent and extended her hand which he took almost immediately. “I’m sorry for not introducing myself straight away. I’m Agent Daisy Johnson.”
“Daniel Sousa,” he replied with a smile, “we’ve heard a lot about you in the LA office. I think half of the people here expected you to be a man with all of your success in the fight against Hydra.”
She raised an eyebrow at his statement, “women just don’t need the glory like men do. Mack, did Coulson give you the mission?”
“He did. There’s been another murder, and guess what?”
Her breath hitched as she whispered, “it’s the same method.”
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When they arrived at the scene, Daisy could barely hear her own thoughts. Panic was rushing through her body, and every hair on her arm was sticking up in anticipation of a nearby threat. She let Mack and Agent Sousa lead the way as she trailed behind the two, and while they both questioned her silence at first, they quickly moved past it.
The only member of the Secret Warriors that it could be was Joey since Yo-Yo and Daisy were both currently alive. She hoped there was another inhuman she didn’t know of, but even then, there would still be someone hunting down her people. She needed to find a clue or any hint to lead her in a new direction for her investigation.
The small team showed their badges as they crawled under the caution tape and onto the scene. In front of her, the body was sprawled on the ground, but one of the policemen had the decency to cover the victim’s face. The men directly spoke with the first responders while Daisy took small strides to reach the victim. She moved to sit on her knees, the darn dress preventing her from squatting, and Daisy lifted the bag to confirm her suspicions.
Joey.
Daisy covered his face once more and looked up to the sky, willing the tears to stay at bay. Nobody knew of their connection, and as much as it pained her to pretend this was a random body, Daisy knew she had to protect her secret. The killer could be watching her right now, and she couldn’t give anyone the satisfaction of her seeing her fall.
“Did you know the victim?” Agent Sousa asked her. Daisy hadn’t even seen him walk over with his crutch, but he was now looking at her with concern.
She cleared her throat, “No, I just can’t imagine why anyone would do this.” It wasn’t a lie, and that made it easier to say. He was killing everyone dear to her, and in this moment, Daisy vowed that she would return the favor.
He extended a hand to help her up, “the world’s full of men who don’t deserve it.” It wasn’t until after he had helped her that Agent Sousa found new evidence. “What’s this?” Daisy didn’t see the piece of paper until he had bent down and picked it up. It was folded neatly, and she couldn’t discern the words from beside him.
Mack and the police on the scene came to join them. “That wasn’t there early.”
“Sousa, what does it say?” Mack questioned, but none of them felt the terror that was lacing through her veins. There had never been a note before; there had never been anything left from the killer before. This was new, and Daisy wondered if it had to do with the dwindling number of inhuman superheroes left in the area.
“It says ‘earthquakes can take out even the prettiest of daisies.’”