Kirah

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Niah Bautista

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Location: The Playground
Skills: N/A

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"No thank you, I just ran and eating right after running is always a little annoying." She grabbed some towels and handed them to Cass to clean up the mess in the microwave. "That's good to hear though. I'm glad the upgrades are working. Don't particularly want HYDRA to waltz in here." She finished her glass of water, washed it, placed it in the drying rack and waved bye to Cass. "See you later."

She let out a small sigh as she exited the kitchen, her skin felt like it was crawling even though she hadn't touched the food mess that Cass had made. Niah needed a shower anyway from her run and went to her room to do just that.

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Kade retrieved the item Astrid needed. Though subjectively they would be gone at most a week, it was a good idea for Astrid to have it anyway, just in case. The others gathered what items they deemed necessary and gathered in the entryway with Alexander. Elenore met them there. "Be careful everyone." She had a nervous smile on as she hugged Sumi and Hannah (an anyone else who wanted one), but there was a sparkle in her eye. The one that anyone who had been at the school for very long recognized as nonsense.

Kade led the group out of the house and into the storm that was raging across the property. The wind whipped at them threatening to knock them over and sweep them away. Rain poured down from almost every angle as if it had no respect for physics. And the lighting and thunder flashed and crashed around them threatening trees and the house and them as they crossed the open field. Kade moved with a lith and quick pace. Leading the group into the woods. The storm seemed to lessen, was it the trees protecting them from the elements or had it realized it could not reach them? Through a couple heavy breaths, Kade spoke, "We are looking for a pair of trees, interwoven, but their trunks are just wide enough to climb through."

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Niah Bautista

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Location: The Playground
Skills: N/A

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Niah finished her morning run. It felt good to get her pent up energy out, though she could just imagine Antonie running beside her which made her want to run faster. Things hadn't quite gone as planned, but did they ever? After a shower, she stepped into the kitchen to get some water. She almost didn't go into the room when she realized someone was in there, but when she recognized it as Cass she decided it would be fine. Niah gave her a small smile and nod and poured herself a cup of room temperature water.

"How are the upgrades going?" She asked after taking several sips of water. Niah wanted to be her normal self, but she had a feeling that self was gone, dead with all the people that had died since the start of Phase Three. Her hand tightened around the cup she held as she thought about what HYDRA had done to her and the rest of them.

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

"Yes go pack, and yes Alexander be prepared for anything you think could happen. The in-between is a dangerous place and is constantly changing. Only go if you're ready for that." Elenore looked at each of the kids Sumi had chosen to go with her and paused on Kade. The two shared a look that had to be a full conversation.

"All right Sumi, this is your quest, lead the way," Kade said to her. Sumi grinned and shouted.

"Get packing, meet in the foyer in ten minutes. Yes, you can bring weapons." She grabbed Hannah's hand and dashed up the stairs, the candle they had been holding blew out, but the pair of them seemed to find their way just fine.

As soon as they were gone one of the girls who had not been invited started complaining. "Why is it always Sumi? Why can't any of us go?"

"The more in the in-between the more dangerous it is. Also, it is her quest and technically she wasn't on the last quest she was the last quest." Kade said rolling his eyes and then left the dining room to go up to the attic. His lips were drawn tightly.

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

"The World Tree might be a viable way," Kade said thoughtfully and then turned to Alexander. "In-between places are very dangerous. I'm sure our new friend here could explain how a certain squirrel in the world tree is not one to be reckoned with." Kade gestured to Astrid as he said 'new friend'. "There is a much closer in-between, but it is controlled by some fairies. If we want to spend the time to go to Boston I'd much rather deal with the squirrel."

"Your fairies?" Sumi asked. Kade shot her a dagger look.

"Not my fairies, but ones who will not be pleased to see me. There are a couple routes through the in-between and none of them are safe." Kade turned to Eleanore. "What does our timeline look like?"

Eleanore pulled a watch out of her pocket and counted just under her breath so only those near her could hear. "At most a week of in-between time. And probably only until midnight here."

"Well, that rules out Boston. Sorry, Astrid."

"Darn I wanted to meet a squirrel," Hannah said, Sumi elbowed her.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Niah Bautista

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Location: The Bus
Skills: N/A

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Niah had joined the team and listened to Agent Abercrombie give orders. There had recently been a change in Niah's feelings toward Abercrombie. She had never liked the woman as she was too bitchy for Niah's taste, but at least she seemed to be a strong leader. When the meeting adjourned Niah was left with some downtime. Everything had felt so rushed in the days since Phase three she hadn't had time to wrap her head around all of it.

"Agent Abercrombie I need to speak with you about something I saw." The images from when she had touched Sami played through her head. The secret order from Fury, the cryptic phone call from Agent James Rhodes, and then, of course, the conversation she had had with Sami's mom. It didn't make sense. Niah wanted Abercrombie's opinion on it. Especially about Sami's failed secret mission, he hadn't killed von Bardas, instead, he was dead.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Playground
Skills:Enhanced Hearing

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Niah nodded, "I have one thing I need to do." She left the room, dropping her concentration on her powers. Her ears rang for a moment as they adjusted back to normal level of hearing. She found Sami's body and dug into his pocket to find his cell phone. "I am sorry friend, but someone has to call her." She searched through the contacts for a moment until she found a number listed "DO NOT ANSWER". Seemed likely. She wrote down the number and found a different phone. The chance that Sami's mom wouldn't answer the phone for him was high as well so she wanted a strange number and hoped the woman would answer that. Should she tell her that her son was dead? After she got the information she needed.

The phone rang, and when it was answered by a female voice, one Niah hopped was Sami's mom she said, "Hello, Esme Kanneh, I am Agent Niah Bautista. I was informed you had a message for Samuel Rhodes. Could you please pass the message to me?" It was straightforward and there was no technical lie. Though it was possible Mrs. Kanneh didn't know what the message was and that worried Niah. Not as much as the prospect of telling a woman her son was dead. Was Sami an only child? Would she be devastated? Niah knew they didn't get along but that didn't make the pain of losing a child any easier. Niah had seen first hand what that did to parents.

"... I don't know what you're talkin' about, sweetheart." Niah's heart dropped. Was she lying?

"Agent Rhodes said to contact you though. Do you know why he would do that then?"

"I haven't heard from Samuel in years, hun."

"Sorry for the confusion ma'am I mean Agent James Rhodes said to call you."

"Oh... Well, that's a surprise... I can't think of the last time I spoke to my brother in law either." Niah had no idea of this woman was lying, but there was a way she could check. She focused on her hearing. Maybe she could hear the woman's heartbeat through the phone? Seemed unlikely but she would give it a shot.

"Ah, so you don't know why he would want you to be contacted?" The woman's heart wasn't racing, she could hear it though, which was fascinating.

"I'm afraid not." Nothing changed. Niah frowned.

"Okay, thank you for your time ma'am." She couldn't bring herself to tell the woman her son was dead. Someone else would have to do it. "Have a lovely day." She added.

"You too hun." Niah cringed and hung up, leaving Sami's phone next to him. She quickly made it back to the bus, got a new clip of ammo for her ICER and curled up on the couch. That had been a dead end, and she still needed to talk to Abercombie about the other stuff she saw from Sami. She wasn't just going to talk about that in front of anyway though, not anymore.

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Sumi

"Perfect." Sumi had a huge grin on her face. "Now the perfect quest team." She said tapping her chin. She glanced over the couple of Giselle's with their hands raised and ignored them. It was like a sports event. "All right Astrid, Alexander, Katalina, Hannah, Christopher and Kade." Kade raised an eyebrow his hand wasn't even raised. "What we need 'adult' supervision?" Sumi shrugged. There was a collective groan from every other kid Sumi didn't pick.

Eleanore seemed to be able to sooth all the roughed feathers with a simple wave of her hand. "Very well Sumi. This will be nothing like the trip to save you though. You'll be passing through serious dangerous areas. And the group will be lacking the sugar transport beads you required last time."

"That is true," Sumi said turning around to face Eleanore. "But does the index line even have sugar?"

Kade sighed. "No. We need to go into the in-between to get there." Kade seemed unhappy about the prospect of going to the 'in-between'.

Agents of SHIELD - Concluded

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Niah Bautista

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Location: Playground
Skills: Psycometry; enhanced hearing

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As Abercrombie scanned minds Niah listened to everyone's heartbeat. Nothing alarming caught her attention though. Niah reached out and touched each of the phones. She frowned as Hawkeye announced that Kennedy was the mole. That was disconcerting. She had to make sure. Just in case Kennedy had recruited anyone else into Hydra since Phase Three, as unlikely as that was.

Everyone's phone seemed clean, but she paused on Jim's phone. "Everyone is clear, through this. I just, well, almost everyone." She held up Jim's phone, "I'm not getting enough off this to say you're clear, but if Agent Abercrombie thinks you're clear then you're probably good. I also didn't hear anyone's heart racing during all of that."

Through the Doors of our hearts - Finished

Eleanore

A frown flashed across Eleanore's face, but she quickly turned it into a smile. "Those happen, they are called micro-storms, which explains why this one is so intense. Astrid why don't you and Alexander get the younger kids settled." She gently placed her hand on the girl's shoulder. There was a group of five kids that were probably 10 years old up to the oldest of 13 who seemed like she didn't want to be with the group. The younger ones of the group were messing around, one was crying and her tears got more violent as the storm intensified.

Sumi marched up to Eleanore and loudly demanded an explanation. Eleanore surprisingly smiled at Sumi, glanced at Kade and cleared her throat. "I have reason to believe the index line has been misaligned." Sumi's eyes narrowed slightly and then realization crossed her face.

"What can we do?"

"We can hope it fixes itself." Sumi frowned at Eleanore.

"No wonder you can't go home." She turned around and faced the group. "Who wants to go on a quest?" A dozen hands shot up.

"No quests," Eleanore said.

"And what was bringing me back to life?" Sumi asked over her shoulder. She was facing the group so she failed to see Eleanore's smile that beamed proudly down on Sumi and then vanished.