"Oh no. This is bad. This is really bad."
Coulson had just been talking to May through the coms, and briefed Sanchez now about the situation.
"What do you think his next step will be?" Coulson asked.
"Ehm, yeah... Let me explain it like this. Before, his powers were 'bumpy.' Because of the 0-8-4, his powers are 'bumpier'. Right now, they will turn slightly into 'airborn,' and he won't be able to control himself. We need to take him out. We will take him out."
Coulson agreed with her. They had reached a certain line.
"Any-"
An alarm sounded. An 'alert' appeared on screen.
"What the-"
"Hunter," Sanchez replied. "I'll tell him the story as best as I can. Then he'll understand."
Some metres above their heads, Hunter drove the tires of his car leak.
"Nice ride," Tripp grinned, when he came upstairs. "Some rich guy loan it to you?"
"Ehm, something like that," Hunter replied. "Shame about the tires, aren't they?"
"Yeah. Probably costed a grand each."
"At least," Hunter aswered. Then he saw the look on Tripp his face.
"This isn't a friendly stop, is it?"
"Nope. Hands on the car."

                                                                                          *

"HOW THE HELL DID YOU LOOSE HIM?!"
Hunter was going out of his mind, because Coulson had told him they'd lost Creel on the way.
"Why haven't you got every agent looking for Creel right now?!"
"You think you're entiteled to answers?"
"He killed one of my friends, and I don't even know if the other one is still alive, that's entiteled enough."
"It's not."
"You should have aborded the mission," Hunter hissed.
"I didn't make the call this time."
"Then who the hell did?!"
"I did."
Sanchez came into Coulson's office. Hunter wanted to punch her, but his fist got stuck in the air.
"When I've explained everything, you might reconsider punching me. Coulson, do you mind-"
"Not at all," the man replied. He left the office, and locked the door behind him.
"Hunter, you must be full of questions-"
"QUESTIONS?!" He yelled. "I wanted to take her to a hospital, but before I even could have made that call, you came up with something else, and for some god damn reason, everyone agreed, without questioning the orders of your own director!"
"I know, I know. Sit down, Lance."
She let go of his hand, and he fell on the chair at the other side of Coulson's desk.
"To begin; Idaho is dead. That's for sure. But your friend Hartley... She is not dead. But she is also not alive."
"Then what the hell is wrong with her? Did you fix her arm?"
"Yeah, her arm is back to normal again. But... I can't explain this part to you. I'm not allowed to. I have my orders."
"Orders from who?"
"Ehm, yeah. To understand that... I'm one of the avengers."
Hunter started to laugh. But when Sanchez took her real 'Andromeda' form, his laugh faded away.
"Oh. That explains a lot."
She went back to her previous Sanchez form, the blond one.
"Don't ask me why I'm not with the avengers, or why I'm here. That's much too complicated, and if I would tell you, we could be sitting here for days. What I can tell you, is that I serve the three norns, the goddesses of Fate, who live in the gardens of fate, amongst the holy tree the Ygdrassil, gods bless his name. I can see the future, and it is simply impossible for me to disobey them."
"Wait... You can see the future?"
"I am the goddess of life. I can do more then you will ever imagine."
He was silent for a minute.
"Don't you have a bro, the boss of... Dead or something like that? He should be able to bring Idaho back to life, right?"
"I'm affraid he isn't. At least, not without breaking millions of rules. This has to do with the rules of time, and our creators. The entire day, the norns are amongst their tree, weaving wires. These wires are human lives, they can for see what is about to come for every single human in the universe. Idaho was meant to die today, because that was in his wire, so we aren't able to change that."
Hunter looked like he didn't get anything of that.
"Let me give you an example. If Mack is destend to eat an entire bar of Hershey's chocolate tomorrow, I would make sure he can eat this bar, because he's destend to eat it. Does that make any sense to you?"
Again, he was silent for a while, trying to proces all of this.
"All right, I have a few things to say about this," Hunter continued. "First: All of this is destiny and fate crap like in fairy tales?"
"Basically... Yes. Sometimes my brother and I mess up, but then we get punishment."
"Like?"
"A century of torture. Reprogamming. Character change. Going dark. That kind of stuff."
"Whatever. Second, you are one of the most powerful creatures in the universe, and you only use your power when the three ladies upstairs say you have to?"
"I use my powers to guard the living, yes indeed."
"Third and last one; Why don't you fix everything with powers and stuff?"
"Oh, there are millions of reasons for that. Punishment, the rules, protecting humanity to things they can't handle, it is not meant to be, and it wouldn't be that much fun, right?"
Hunter made a face. "Good god. I'm out of here."
He stood up, but Sanchez stopped him.
"Did I say you could go? No, I obviously did not. First; The family of Hartley needs to think she's dead. Really dead."
Hunter wanted to say something, but she ignored him.
"Second, you won't be able to say something about what you just heard, and if you try to.... Some naughty things might happen to you. The only ones you can talk with about this are Fitzsimmons, Skye, Tripp, May, and Coulson of course. As third and last one, but definitely not the really last one, remind who you got in front of you. Don't make me angry, Lance Hunter. Otherwise, you'll have a very dangerous enemy. Oh, and I see Coulson still needs to speak to you. Good day."
She left Coulson his office, and Coulson came back in, finding a very suprised Lance Hunter.
"She...That...How... Now I get why she was giving you a speech when we got back here from our previous mission."
"You do? Good," Coulson answered. "There are still a few things we need to discuss."