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Daisy’s footsteps echoed when she entered the warehouse, the high-vaulted ceilings catching every sound and funneling it back to her. The place had been abandoned decades ago if the corroded shelves and cracked concrete were any indication, but her and Fitz’s newest attempt at tracking Inhuman energy signatures had led her here, and she had to do her due diligence before writing the place off and refining the search algorithm she’d created based on her own energy readings.
Trying to find Inhumans preemptively rather than reacting to reports of strange happenings was turning into more of a project than any of them had anticipated, in large part because Daisy herself was the only data point they had for the differences between human and Inhuman biology. One data point was better than none, but with the inherent differences between each Inhuman thanks to their varying powers, it was difficult to tell which parts of Daisy’s Inhuman markers were generalizable and which were unique to her.
“Mack, I’m not seeing anything,” Daisy said into her comms unit. “You got any better readings?” The warehouse was all shadowy corners, and unless she had more to go off of, she could spend all day here and still not find what she was looking for.
“We’re looking at the north side,” Mack answered, his voice crackling across the connection. The thick concrete walls of the warehouse were difficult for any of their equipment to penetrate, making it even more peculiar that they'd found an Inhuman energy signature here. “Try the northwest corner first.” Another drawback of the technology they were piloting: it was barely more precise than a guess. Nevertheless, Daisy headed towards the north side of the building. Whoever they were looking for no doubt knew she was coming; even with her attempts to quiet her footsteps, it was impossible to be silent in a place as big as this.
Static crackled in her earpiece as she moved further from her entrance point and therefore further away from Mack. Daisy pulled in a deep breath. She could handle being alone now more than she ever could before, but not having Mack as backup would always be nerve-rattling.
She was about to give up and resign herself to another iteration of the algorithm when she heard it: a soft sniffle.
“Hello?” Daisy called against her better judgment. She hadn’t announced her presence in case the other potential Inhuman was a hostile (which they had a good chance to be, given they were in the middle of nowhere in an empty warehouse), but a stranger crying would never strike Daisy as *hostile*. May would chide her for her letting her guard down, but if May had wanted an opinion on Daisy’s carelessness, she shouldn’t have gone off to Hawaii with barely a word.
There wasn’t a direct response to her question, just another sniffle. Daisy advanced with her arm outstretched, but no enemy appeared. The sniffling grew louder, until finally Daisy saw it — a figure huddled in the corner, knees curled into her chest.
“Hey,” Daisy said, lowering her voice and her hand at the same time. “Are you okay?” She scanned the surrounding area for any of the cocoon fragments that were a hallmark of recent Terrigenesis, but couldn’t see any. The Inhuman hadn't turned here, or if they had, had gotten rid of their cocoon before S.H.I.E.L.D. had arrived.
The figure — a young woman, maybe Daisy’s age or maybe a little younger — raised her head, glaring at Daisy with icy blue eyes.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” Daisy said. Even without the obvious tear stains tracking down her cheeks, the other woman looked awful. Her left eye was swollen nearly shut with a fresh bruise and there were a series of small slices along her cheek, like someone had struck her with heavy rings on their fingers. Daisy doubted those were the new Inhuman's only injuries, with the way she was huddling, avoiding putting any pressure on the right side of her ribs.
“I am.” The other woman tilted her chin up in defiance, a stark counterpoint to her closed-off posture.
“Look,” Daisy said, daring another step forward. The woman on the floor flinched at Daisy’s forward movement, so Daisy stopped. She didn't want to scare her. “I don’t know what happened to you, but I do know what you are. I can help.”
“Prove it.” The woman’s voice came out in a snarl. The blonde hair hanging in limp curtains in front of her face only gave her more of the appearance of a feral animal, waiting to snap at whoever offered it a hand.
Daisy didn't know how to prove she could help, but she did know how to prove she knew what the other woman was. She raised her hand again, pointing it at one of the nearby dilapidated shelves. One burst of energy later and the thing had crumbled apart under the force of her quake.
The woman did not look impressed, but her fear had been replaced by wariness, which was a step in the right direction, Daisy hoped.
“If you don’t want my help you don’t have to take it,” Daisy said quietly, “but I’d at least like to know your name.” Even if they walked away from the warehouse empty-handed, they could at least keep tabs on this Inhuman if she showed up again. Most Inhumans they'd found since the Terrigen had spilled into the ocean had wanted nothing to do with S.H.I.E.L.D. They'd wanted their lives to go back to normal, not realizing that normal was far, far out of reach.
The blonde narrowed her eyes, considering the proposition. If anyone were to abandon the idea of return to normalcy, it would be the person who had come from a situation that had left her bloodied and bruised.
“My name is Ruby,” she whispered. “Ruby Hale.”
---
Coaxing Ruby into allowing a S.H.I.E.L.D. doctor to take a look at her injuries had taken the better part of the plane ride back to the Playground, and she'd only agreed after Daisy had promised the doctor looking at her had Daisy's full trust. That created a bit of a predicament, given Daisy didn't trust most of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s doctors, and with Jemma disappeared only Bobbi had anything approaching medical training.
Bobbi had agreed readily, which Daisy had anticipated; she was eager to do anything other than her Coulson-prescribed "rest and recover", and Ruby presented an interesting challenge.
Daisy had been evicted from the medical bay when the examination had begun out of concerns for Ruby's confidentiality, but she lingered outside the door to the examination room nonetheless.
"Everything going okay?" Mack asked, appearing beside her with surprising stealth for someone the side of a small mountain.
Daisy shrugged. She wasn't sure what okay would be in this situation. Ruby hadn't attacked anyone, which was a valid concern considering the amount of hidden knives Bobbi had found when helping Ruby out of her soiled clothes and into a hospital gown. They also still didn't know anything about the woman; she'd only given yes-or-no answers to any questions Daisy had asked en route, if she'd answered at all. As far as Daisy could gather, Ruby had come from a bad situation but felt guilty for leaving it behind.
Goddamn if Daisy couldn't relate to that.
"Fitz ran a preliminary search on the name Ruby Hale," Mack said. "Nothing turned up."
Daisy shrugged again. "Nothing turns up when you search Daisy Johnson, either." That tended to happen when you created a name for yourself. Even if she hadn't, searching for most of their team was a futile task after Coulson had asked Daisy to scrub them from the web. Talbot couldn't find them now, but neither could anyone else. For some people, the absence they left behind was a presence in itself.
Fitz would know about that, with how he treated the negative space Jemma had once occupied.
Mack nodded, though he didn't look convinced. He still tread carefully when it came to Inhumans, but as the months wore on with more Inhumans being created every day, Daisy was beginning to think that might be a good thing. At the very least he balanced her tendency to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, though Mack always managed to do so in a way that wasn't unkind.
It would be naive to believe that every Inhuman had good intentions, after what her mother had done and tried to do. Daisy wasn't naive. But she was hopeful, and, well, Mack could understand that too.
---
The smell of sweat and cherry lip balm hit Daisy like a train when she stepped into the gym.
The sweat, she understood. The agents at the Playground did their best, but keeping a gym smelling like anything other than sweat was a full-time job none of them had signed up for.
The cherry lip balm was new. Daisy counted her way through the female agents on base, a task which took a depressingly little amount of time, before spotting the source of the smell: Ruby, sitting in the corner. Ruby had a thing for corners, and Daisy could understand why. Corners were safe, and they were secure. Corners didn't allow for surprise attacks.
Daisy, for obvious reasons, wasn't permitted to access the records of Ruby's introductory session with Dr. Garner. She did have access to his clinical recommendations vis-a-vis Ruby joining the Inhuman team Daisy was building (well, trying to build) and to her immense surprise, Dr. Garner hadn't given his standard response of allowing the Inhuman more time to adjust and revisiting the subject after a six-month waiting period.
She had guessed why that was. Dr. Garner would probably call it something like a formative experience, being abandoned by your family shortly after discovering you had powers beyond your wildest dreams. If S.H.I.E.L.D. abandoned Ruby again, or even if Ruby perceived she was being abandoned again, things could get... nasty.
"Hey," Daisy greeted, footsteps intentionally heavy as she plodded across the matted floor. Ruby had already seen her enter, but Daisy had learned after spending much of her free time around people with hairpin triggers that a little extra warning was never amiss. "Ready to start training?"
Ruby blinked at her. "Sure."
She stood in one fluid movement, and once she had unfurled it became obvious she had anticipated using the gym as intended instead of as a hideout. Her sports bra and athletic shorts showed an impressive amount of smooth, pale skin, and Daisy had to force her eyes back up to Ruby's face. She was training the woman, not ogling her.
"How much do you know about this sort of thing?" Daisy asked, beckoning Ruby over to the mats. Joey had started with some level of knowledge thanks to his gym-buff phase, and Elena had been a runner even before her powers, but some of the other Inhumans who were candidates for her team looked at the SHIELD gym like it was a torture chamber.
Ruby studied her for a long moment, and the look in her eyes was... familiar. Like she was deciding how much of herself to give away. "Enough," Ruby said eventually.
Daisy ignored the tug in her gut. She knew a non-answer when she heard one, but she also knew she couldn't let it stand. If Ruby was going to go into the field with her, she had to be trained. A vague assurance that she had been trained once before wasn't enough.
"We'll do a practice round and go from there," Daisy decided. "No powers, only hand-to-hand." They hadn't explored Ruby's powers yet, so the reminder they were powerless was more for her. Quaking everything was generally an easy win, but she wanted to be prepared in case quaking was ever not an option. "Triple tap is a tap out, okay?"
Ruby nodded.
She wasn't much for words, that one.
The fight began cautiously, but despite the caution it was glaringly obvious Ruby had more than enough training. She had dropped into a classical fighter's stance, one not even Daisy could mimic with the same level of ease and consistence given her single year of formal training. When Ruby moved around Daisy, it was how May had taught her to move: purposefully, with an eye for weaknesses.
When Ruby moved, it was deliberate, too: a single strike at the back of Daisy's knee, hard enough to get her down on the ground but not hard enough to cause any real damage. Once Daisy was on the ground, Ruby had no problems forcing her from kneeling to on her back, placing a single knee on Daisy's sternum to hold her in place.
It was a good thing the gym was empty and no one had witnessed the frankly humiliating defeat. Daisy triple-tapped Ruby's wrist, and Ruby hesitated for just a moment longer than was comfortable before taking her weight off Daisy's chest.
It occurred to Daisy as they reset for the second round that after her vague answer about the nature of her training, Ruby wouldn't show all her cards at once. There was a chance, a good chance even, that she was even more skilled than this official bout had let on.
Her brow furrowed.
One thing was certain: there was more to Ruby Hale than met the eye, and Daisy wanted to uncover all of her.