Chapter 46: Strange Symbols

Chapter 46: Strange Symbols

Chapter 46: Strange Symbols

Fridge. Undisclosed location.

A small plane landed on the roof after gaining clearance. Inside this plane were Coulson, Benjamin, and the others.

Only Agents May and Trip stayed on the Bus for standby.

“Director Coulson. We’ve been expecting you. Right this way please.”

A middle-aged man greeted them as they landed and led them inside.

Inside, they underwent another set of tests and checks to verify their identity. This was to ensure the security of the items stored here and prevent any attempts to break out any prisoners.

Even a shapeshifter like Mystique will have a hard time sneaking in here.

It took them a few minutes to finish everything. Benjamin was also provided a temporary pass by Coulson and managed to enter.

They then went inside an elevator that sent them to one of the lower levels of the Fridge.

By the time they reached their target floor, they were greeted with rows upon rows of wooden crates.

Coulson turned to his team.

“Let’s split up. Look for the crate.”

“Understood.”

Everyone nodded and left in different directions.

Benjamin didn’t join them and merely looked around.

There were some interesting things here but most of it is useless to him. Actually, most of the things here are just HYDRA trinkets.

The useful stuff is probably kept elsewhere.

As for why SHIELD decided to keep the Obelisk here...Benjamin has no idea. It was obviously a dangerous thing.

Maybe they are thinking of hiding it from a bunch of useless things so no one will think of stealing here.

As he was thinking of such things, Fitz shouted.

“Found it!”

Everyone turned and started to converge on his location.

Benjamin walked towards him as well and just in time to see Fitz opening the crate and reaching his hand out.

“Don’t touch it!”

“!!!”

Fitz was jolted in surprise and froze up.

Benjamin sighed in relief when he saw that he was still okay.

He approached them and saw a silver object with an irregular shape inside the crate.

This was indeed the Obelisk. Or rather, the Diviner.

The outer shell is made of some alien mineral and is dangerous to human touch. In the TV series in his previous world, a certain group had managed to grow new Terrigen Crystals from it but was unable to separate the Diviner from the crystal, hence the mist created from that version was also harmful to humans.

It was different from the pure Terrigen Crystal that Benjamin had used the other day.

Coulson asked.

“This is the Obelisk?”

“Yes. It’s dangerous if a human touches it.”

“What exactly is this thing?”

Skye asked while staring at the Obelisk, feeling a strange sort of connection to it.

“It’s Kree.”

“Kree?”

Benjamin nodded and explained.

“Many years ago, the Kree found Earth and discovered the potential of humans. They genetically modified humans such that they gain powers through a process called Terrigenisis. This...Obelisk, itself isn’t the most important part but the thing inside it. Terrigen Crystals. Upon breaking it, it will release a mist that will transform those humans with genetic markers passed down from their ancestors who were genetically modified by the Kree.”

Everyone fell silent, still trying to digest the sudden information that Benjamin told them.

Benjamin didn’t mind their reactions and continued.

“I said earlier that it’s dangerous if a human touches it. But those who carry that specific gene can touch it without a problem.”

“W-wait, hold on. I’m confused. How exactly do you know all these things?”

Jemma asked.

Everyone turned to Benjamin as well. They were all thinking the same thing.

Benjamin merely smiled and shrugged.

“I just know things. HYDRA doesn’t know about that yet and only knows of its destructive properties to humans.”

“...What is this genetic marker? How can we tell if anyone of us has it?”

Fitz asked.

“You can’t actually. The genetic marker will only be visible once they have been activated after going through Terrigenisis.”

Benjamin considered telling them that Skye had it but it would be too troublesome to explain how he could tell.

He was already stretching it by telling them what this thing is.

“It’s too bad Captain Marvel is still unreachable at the moment. She’s the only leading expert we have on anything Kree.”

Coulson said.

“In any case, HYDRA wants this thing. And we can’t let them have it. Fitz-Simmons. How fast can you make a replica of this thing?”

“There’s a 3D printer at the Bus and all we need is its dimensions so...an hour should be fine.”

Fitz answered.

“Do it.”

The two nodded and Fitz started to check his backpack.

“Where did I put those tweezers at...”

“Have you checked that side pocket?”

Jemma tried to help him look for it since they needed to hold it up to get an accurate 3D scan.

“Here.”

Benjamin raised a finger and used his Telekinesis to lift the Obelisk into the air.

“Or...that works too.”

Fitz was surprised for a while but still did his job and scanned its measurements.

They then left and returned to the Bus so Fitz-Simmons could work on the replica.

As for the other members, they remained on standby.

“So this is what’s all the fuss about?”

Trip saw the Obelisk floating near Benjamin and approached it to take a closer look.

He then stretched his hand towards it to grab it and see.

“No no no! Don’t touch it!”

“Ah?”

Skye, who was right beside Benjamin at that time, panicked and quickly stretched her arm out to block Trip but she ended up accidentally touching the Obelisk herself.

Benjamin could’ve reacted in time and moved it away but since he saw it was Skye, he thought it would be a good opportunity instead and acted like he didn’t react immediately.

As soon as Skye touched the Obelisk, the Obelisk glowed red, and marks appeared on it that seemed like a pattern.

Skye quickly retracted her arm with a pale face.

“I-I touched it! Am I going to die!?”

“If you were going to die, it would be when you had touched it. Seeing as you’re fine, it seems that you’re one of those that carry that special genetic marker.”

“No way...”

Benjamin smiled and controlled the Obelisk to approach Skye.

“Go ahead. You will be able to hold it.”

“A-are you sure?”

“100%”

“...”

Skye turned to look at the others and to Coulson who gave her a nod.

“Who’re they?”

“SHIELD. The victim’s a former SHIELD agent related to an ongoing investigation of theirs so I had them come along.”

Jake nodded in understanding.

“So? Anything you found yet?”

“Not yet. I just got here too. Give me a sec.”

Jake went over and touched a random wall and his eyes whitened.

“...I see them. The victim’s with another person a few hours ago. Tall, blonde hair, muscular...oh and he has these weird tattoos all over his body. Same symbols as the ones carved onto the victim.”

Coulson raised a brow and looked at Benjamin in confusion.

“What’s he doing?”

“He’s seeing the ‘memories’ of the wall a few hours back.”

“Aaaand he’s started carving onto the victim. Ugh. He continued to carve even after she died from the blood loss...It seems to be some kind of compulsive behavior.”

Jake sighed and shook his head as he ended the vision.

Coulson then showed him two pictures. One of Sebastian Derik and the other Hank Thompson.

“Which of these two was the culprit?”

“Oh, you already have suspects? It’s this one.”

Jake was a bit surprised but he still pointed at who he saw in his vision. It was Sebastian Derik.

“Huh. You have quite the useful ability there.”

“I know right?”

Jake laughed sheepishly.

Suddenly, Fitz’s voice rang out from the other room.

“Uhh, sir? You might want to see this.”

Coulson followed him and saw Fitz-Simmons looking at the scattered paintings in the room...all of which had the symbols painted on them as well.

Jake clicked his tongue.

“Man, talk about one freaky case...”

“Tell me about it...”

Skye who stood beside him sighed.

She turned to Jake curiously and asked.

“So you’re like...what, a mutant?”

“Nah. I’m an Inhuman. It’s basically the same thing but instead of the X-gene, I have the Inhuman gene.”

“Inhuman gene?”

“Yeah. Apparently, I’m some kind of human slash Kree person. Pretty cool right?”

Jake laughed but Skye was more than surprised.

Inhuman gene...was this what Benjamin was talking about earlier!? There’s actually already one whose genes were activated!?

Before she could ask anything further, Jake turned to Benjamin.

“So what’s all these about exactly? Why do they keep drawing these things?”

“Hm? Ah well, these former agents were injected with a formula that contains Kree DNA, and apparently the Kree’s memories are somehow affecting them into drawing or carving these things.”

“...”

Jake fell silent.

“Uhh...I’m not going to go crazy like them too right?”

“No, you’re different. They were humans while you’re an Inhuman so it won’t happen to you.”

“Cool cool cool cool cool”

Jake repeatedly said that word over and over while sighing in relief.

Skye overheard their conversation and asked.

“Ben? You know about the Inhumans too?”

“Hm? Well, I did tell you about the special gene already right? I just didn’t put a name on it so as to not overwhelm you. But yes, that special gene is the Inhuman gene. After going through Terrigenisis, you will become an Inhuman.”

Benjamin confirmed Skye’s thoughts.

Jake was surprised and turned to Skye.

“She’s also one of us?”

“Yeah. But she hasn’t gone through the Terrigenisis yet. And I don’t have any crystals anymore. Well, they already found one but it’s up to her if she wants to use it.”

Benjamin shrugged.

Forcing others to go through with it will only make things worse and might even create a powerful enemy.

At this time, Coulson spoke up.

“We need to meet up with Bobbi and the rest. The culprit is probably headed their way now.”

“Oh, actually, I can still track him if you want.”

Jake raised his hands.

“How?”

“Well, I’ll just look at the corridor’s memory, see where he turns, and so on.”

Coulson turned to Benjamin who nodded to confirm what Jake said.

“Lead the way then, Detective.”

“Yes! Man, this is exciting. I can’t believe I’m doing a mission with SHIELD!”

“Focus, Jake.”

“Right, right.”

Benjamin sighed at the overly excited Jake.

Jake then went to the corridor outside the apartment room and checked which way the culprit went.

“He’s...huh.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Well...it’s weird. I saw him head to the staircase then after a while, he suddenly appeared again and went to another room.”

Skye turned to Coulson with a weird expression.

“He probably left first then doubled back to throw off any investigations...”

“And the place he chose to hide is right next to where the murder happened. The safest place is often the most dangerous place.”

Coulson could only smile wryly.

Sadly, this guy didn’t expect someone like Jake to exist and his plans were completely thrown off.

“Aww, is it over already?”

The most dissatisfied one was Jake who thought he’ll be joining a SHIELD mission only for it to end immediately.

“Well, at least this made things easy.”

Benjamin chuckled and nodded at Jake who then turned to other police officers on the scene.

After a while, the police officers started knocking on the neighboring doors as part of the standard protocol for questioning on an ongoing investigation.

They knocked on a few other doors for a while first in order to lower Sebastian’s guard before finally knocking at his door.

“This is the NYPD. We just have a few questions.”

“...”

“Anyone home?”

The police officers knocked again.

This time, the door opened and reveal a tall blonde-haired man with a muscular build.

Confirming it was the suspect, the police officers looked at each other and quickly stepped away.

Knowing something was amiss, Sebastian tried to take a step back to reassess the situation when a hand appeared out of nowhere and grabbed onto his neck.

When Sebastian saw the face that appeared out of nowhere, he saw a flaming red skull whose hollow eyes seemed to stare deeply into his soul.

Benjamin smirked and felt a little playful.

“Boo.”