Transcript:Pilot

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EXT–NEW YORK CITY, DAY

A view of New York City with the clouds speeding up and the Stark Tower visible on the right side of the picture, with only a "A" remaining, as it was following the Battle of New York.

Skye V/O

The secret is out. For decades, your organization stayed in the shadows, hiding the truth.

View of a windowed tower with the clouds on the background, then a lot of people crossing pedestrians.

Skye V/O

But now we know. They're among us.

View of Iron Man flying and his chest's miniature ARK reactor, then from Thor's hammer and Captain America's shield.

Skye V/O

Heroes...

View of a yellow cab upside down, a Chitauri warrior, and the Hulk.

Skye V/O

... and monsters.

View of the streets from the sky.

Skye V/O

The world is full of wonders.

EXT–EAST LOS ANGELES, CA, DAY

In a street, Mike Peterson is buying a hamburger from a mobile food dealer, his son Ace is watching a store front with the Avengers' action figures exposed. Peterson pays the seller.

Mike Peterson	Thanks, Bernie.
Bernie	You bet.

He comes to Ace and gives him the hamburger.

Peterson	Ace, come and get it. (Ace takes the hamburger.) What do you say we go out to your Aunt Mindy's this weekend? (Ace is still looking at the store front.) You and Keisha can swim in the pond.
Ace	Sure.
Peterson	You know, you got a birthday coming up in a couple of months. Who's your favorite?
Ace	I'm okay.

He bows down and turn his son to him.'

Peterson	Hey. Things are tight right now, but I'm gonna find something. Not back at the factory, but I got prospects. You and me, what are we?
Ace	We're a team.

They softly punch their fists.

Peterson

That's right. So, who do you...

At the same moment a big explosion occurs at the top floor of a nearby building. Flames flow out the building with debris. Peterson protects his son with his body. People are panicking, running and screaming everywhere. Peterson look his son to check if he is okay.

Are you okay? All right, Ace, look at me. I need you to stay here with Bernie.

Okay, people might be hurt, and I'm gonna see if they need my help.

Stay with Bernie. Watch my boy!

WOMAN: Help me! Help me!

(GRUNTS)

(COUGHS)

WOMAN: Help me! Help me!

(COUGHING)

SKYE: We can't explain everything we see,

but our eyes are open.

So what now?

There are no more shadows for you to hide in.

Something impossible just happened. What are you going to do about it?

Agent Ward, there's been a development.

It's the Rising Tide.

They've pinned down the location of the package. We need to abort.

I'm five minutes away from retrieving it.

So is everyone else. They posted the coordinates online.

If the job was easy...

Yeah, it wouldn't be any fun. Watch your 6.

Red tie, by the window.

(SPEAKING FRENCH)

(WOMAN SINGING IN FRENCH)

(DOOR UNLOCKS)

(DEVICE WARBLING)

(BEEPING)

Your fireplace is broken.

(DOOR OPENS)

(MAN SHOUTS IN FRENCH)

(GRUNTS)

DUMONT: Ward, just a heads up.

We've got possible hostiles in your vicinity.

Really?

HILL: What does S.H.I.E.L.D. stand for, Agent Ward?

Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.

And what does that mean to you?

It means someone really wanted our initials to spell out "shield."

It means we're the line between the world

and the much weirder world.

We protect people from news they aren't ready to hear.

And when we can't do that, we keep them safe.

Something turns up,

like this Chitauri neural link,

we get to it before someone bad does.

Any idea who Vanchat was planning to sell it to?

I'm more interested in how this Rising Tide group found out about it.

I thought they were just hackers. What changed?

Everything's changing.

A little while ago, most people went to bed thinking

that the craziest thing in the world was a billionaire in a flying metal suit.

Then aliens invaded New York and were beaten back by, among others,

a giant green monster, a costumed hero from the '40s,

and a god.

I don't think Thor is technically a god.

Well, you haven't been near his arms.

The Battle of New York was the end of the world.

This, now, is the new world.

People are different.

They have access to tech, to formulas, secrets they're not ready for.

Why was I pulled out of Paris?

That you'll have to ask Agent Coulson.

Yeah. I'm clearance Level 6.

I know that Agent Coulson was killed in action before the Battle of New York.

Got the full report.

Welcome to Level 7.

Sorry, that corner was really dark and I couldn't help myself.

I think there's a bulb out.

Director Fury faked your death, to motivate the Avengers.

Well, the death of a common ally is a particularly effective team builder.

AUTOMATED VOICE: Say "cheese."

Plus, it wasn't that much of a stretch.

I stopped breathing for about 40 seconds.

Eight. It gets longer every time you tell it.

Yeah, well, you get shanked by the Asgardian Mussolini,

you can tell it your way.

I was looking at the big white light,

and it felt like a lot longer than eight seconds.

Do they know? The Avengers? That Fury played them?

They're not Level 7.

Got out of the ICU, Fury stuck me in a grass shack in Tahiti.

Rough gig. Mai Tais, Travis McGee novels,

and a physical therapist whose command of English was irrelevant.

WARD: But something put you back in the game.

What is that?

That's a superhero, Agent Ward.

An unregistered Gifted. Identity unknown.

SKYE: The secret's out. For decades, your organization...

Another little present from the Rising Tide.

How are they getting this stuff before us?

Same way they cracked our RSA implementation.

They're good.

So I need better.

Agent Coulson has requisitioned a mobile command unit,

to which you are assigned.

Rising Tide is trying to draw us out.

I think it's time they succeeded.

You want me to cross them off?

Wow. No.

I wanna use them to get to him.

This man's world is about to get very weird.

He's gonna need some help.

I'm sorry. I was trained from day one as a specialist.

I go in alone, I get it done.

Defusing a nuclear bomb, I'm your guy.

A welcoming committee? Not my speed.

I know it's not what you want.

Agent Hill did a very detailed assessment of your last three missions.

Combat, top grades.

Espionage, she gave you the highest marks since Romanoff.

Under "people skills," she drew a...

I think it's a little poop with knives sticking out of it.

- What? - It...

That's bad, right?

And given your family history, I'm surprised it's not worse.

But I think you're the guy for this.

If I'm wrong, you go straight back to your bombs.

Team's approved. Physicals are all fine.

Fitz-Simmons is not cleared for combat. I'm told that won't be an issue.

Agent Ward here, he's almost too fit.

That's an issue.

That should be an issue. Maybe I can't join the team because...

God, are you dismissed.

It was a porcupine. It was not a poop.

It just means that you need...

No, I'm pretty sure.

And it's not just Ward. Your whole roster is sketchy.

Well, they're cleared.

I would've been very happy not to clear you, Phil.

I'd love for you to rest up some more.

I've had plenty of that, thanks.

You sure?

You should go sometime.

Where?

Tahiti. It's a magical place.

Three days in, I'd be begging for an assignment.

Exactly.

Tahiti.

He really doesn't know, does he?

He can never know.

Is there any way I can thank him?

Are you sure nobody saw him?

MALE ANCHOR: So, the identity of the Hooded Hero still remains unknown.

Researchers at UCLA Medical Center released a study today, which shows...

- Just act natural. - What?

Just pretend that we're talking.

- We are. - Good.

'Cause you never know who's listening.

I don't even know who's talking.

I'm Skye. And you're the Hooded Hero.

Please tell me that you're not staying with that name.

Wait, what? I'm not... I'm a factory worker.

(SKYE CHUCKLES)

Sure, by day. I saw you. You're a hero.

Like, a for real superhero, which is...

I'm not like a groupie-stalker type, but...

(GIGGLES) Oh, my God! That is so cool!

Okay, okay, chill. Just don't... Don't draw attention.

You're in danger.

You got the wrong guy, lady.

No, you've got the wrong approach.

The cute girl from the hospital is dying to thank you,

and possibly "thank" you, (CLEARS THROAT) and you're hiding!

The clip of you rescuing her has had the most hits

since that puppy with vertigo, and you can't even find a job.

What do you mean about danger?

S.H.l.E.L.D.

"Shield" what? I should carry a shield?

S.H.l.E.L.D. Government.

Scary men in dark suits who come after guys like you.

They knew about the Battle of New York before it even happened.

And then cleaned it up before anyone could ask any real questions.

Overnight. How long do you think it'll take for them to clean you up?

And you wanna know why I'm hiding?

What if you didn't hide?

What if you got in front of this and let people know that you're a hero?

I'm just a guy.

Well, a guy like that gets work, gets perks.

I can help. I'm great with computers. Like, weirdly great.

I mean, I could help you create a whole new identity, or...

A mask!

Okay!

Also, we could just stick with the hood.

Listen. You cannot walk away from this.

With great power comes

a ton of weird crap that you are not prepared to deal with.

Now, my office is...

You have an office?

Yes, I have an office. It's a mobile office.

It's a van. I live in a van. By choice!

But it's always in the alley around the corner, free Wi-Fi,

and you can come by any time.

Thank you.

They're coming for you...

...Mike.

COULSON: Agent May.

No.

So you've been briefed?

I'm not going back in the field.

Yeah, you've got such a nice set-up here.

You ever thought about adding a moat?

I just need you to drive the bus.

Liaise ground transpo, some on-site supervision.

This isn't a combat op.

Then you don't need me.

I do.

'Cause we'll be running ourselves.

Picking the ops, making the calls.

No red tape.

This is where they actually make the red tape, isn't it?

I always wondered.

Melinda.

You're really just asking me to drive the bus?

I'm not asking.

But it's a really nice bus.

FITZ: Whoa, whoa, whoa, watch it! That's the Night-Night Gun!

SIMMONS: Well, it's on my stuff and it doesn't work,

and there's no way we're calling it the "Night-Night Gun."

The bullets work.

Non-lethal, heavy stopping power,

break up under the subcutaneous tissue.

Yeah, with a dose of only 0.1 microliters of dendrotoxin.

I'm not Hermione, I can't create instant paralysis with that.

- You should've run the specs by me... - The bullets are hollow.

-...before building the molds. - It's a marvel I can keep them

from breaking apart in the chamber.

Have you ever heard of physics? Or what's the other one? Inertia?

Fitz-Simmons?

- Fitz. - Simmons.

I'm Engineering, she's Bio-chem. Agent Ward?

Coulson said I'd need my comm receiver encoded.

I don't know if you've worked with that model before.

(DEVICE SHATTERING)

It's brand new.

He'll repurpose the l.D.l.S. chip.

Don't need the external receiver for the inner ear comms anymore.

So, how does it...

Embedded sensory-neural silicone matched to your DNA. It's very posh.

So, are you excited to be coming on our journey into mystery?

It's like Christmas.

(TIRES SCREECHING)

FITZ: One of Coulson's old S.H.l.E.L.D. collectibles.

Flame-throwers, world's first GPS. He's mad for this crap.

Don't touch Lola.

And he calls it a girl's name.

Lola's not just a collectible, you know?

People tend to confuse the words "new" and "improved."

This mobile command, they were in heavy rotation back in the '90s,

but then we got a Helicarrier.

Hey, did you hear the one about the guy who's afraid of flying?

I've done a night jump into a drop zone under heavy fire, sir. I can handle it.

That was a joke. The first part of a...

I'm not gonna tell it now.

If you plan to unpack, make it quick. Wheels are up in five.

We may have a hit on one of the Rising Tide's routing points.

Good. We need to do some catching up.

Is that who I think it is?

She's just the pilot.

Melinda May is just the pilot.

Come on, sir. What game are you really playing?

Better stow your gear.

SKYE: How will you come at us? From the air?

From the ground?

How will you silence us this time? How can you?

The truth is in the wind.

It's everywhere.

You cannot stop the Rising Tide.

You will not find us.

You will never see our faces, but rest assured,

we will rise against those who shield us from the truth.

And nothing, nothing, can stop us in the...

Hey. What up?

You guys are making a big mistake.

You don't look that big.

COULSON: Sorry for the lack of finesse.

Agent Ward here has had a little history with your group, the Rising Tide.

I don't know what you...

Okay. There are two ways we can do this.

Oh. ls one of them the easy way?

No.

Oh.

COULSON: What's your name?

Skye.

What's your real name?

That can wait. It's another name we need. A certain hero.

What makes you think I know that?

Well, you made a little mistake.

The phone you filmed the Hooded Hero with

had the same cryptographic signature as a few of the Rising Tide posts.

Wow, yeah. Was that a mistake?

Or am I now sitting in the center of your secret headquarters? What is this?

A plane? I got inside.

And by now you've discovered you can't beat the encryption on my equipment,

so you got nothing.

We have a fairly strong coincidence.

You being on the scene right before it went up in flames.

Wanna tell me what my team is gonna find there?

COULSON: How did you know the hooded man was in the building?

WARD: Did you blow it up to draw him out?

Did you?

That's not our style.

I was just kidnapped by your style.

S.H.I.E.L.D. covered up New Mexico, Project Pegasus.

Of course you'd be covering up Centipede.

(MOUTHS) Centipede?

Holy no way.

(CHUCKLES)

You don't know what that is.

Billions of dollars of equipment at your disposal,

and I beat you with a laptop that I won in a bet?

You need to think about your friend.

We're not the only ones interested in people with powers.

We'd like to contain him, yeah.

The next guy will wanna exploit him,

and the guy after that will wanna dissect him.

What is Centipede?

(SIGHS)

Yeah, I get it, but... Listen, Doctor, people saw me.

They saw what I can do. If I went public, that might be good.

I mean, your product works. It works amazingly, and...

Yeah, yeah, I know what I signed,

but if we got out in front of this, maybe...

Then what? You want me to go crawling back to the factory?

I couldn't even get workman's comp from those crooks. I don't think...

Yeah... Doctor, I just thought...

Okay.

This was a lab. Was this leased as a lab?

Self-empowerment center.

With a top-of-the-line motion sensor security system.

Ah. So a secret lab?

And a superhero. Not a coincidence.

So was this explosion sabotage? Was it meant for him?

Or are they just in over their heads?

Yep. Working the problem. Ladies, if you'll just... Sorry.

If you're gonna be in the field, Agent Fitz,

you have to get your hands dirty.

- No, I don't. -(BEEPING)

(WHIRRING)

Heigh-ho. Off to work you go.

Centipede. It was chatter on the web, and then,gone.

I traced the access point MAC address to that building.

What were you after?

The truth. What are you after?

World peace.

You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up,

but you're never around for the fallout.

People keep secrets for a reason, Skye.

Well, just because you're reasonable and firm

doesn't mean that you're not a evil faceless government tool bag.

Just give us your guy's name.

He's not my guy!

You understand he's in danger.

Then let me go! Let me talk to him. Me, not the T-1000 here.

You wanna be alone with him. Of course.

She's a groupie. All this hacking into S.H.l.E.L.D.,

tracking powers, she might as well be

one of those sweaty cosplay girls crowding around Stark Tower.

What? I would...

It was one time.

Ward.

Is it the girl? She getting under your skin?

Sir?

Or is it the assignment?

Are you so anxious to get out of this

that you'd deliberately blow an interrogation?

Give me a minute alone with her, you'll have your answers.

She's an asset.

She is such an... Wait, asset?

We don't know anything about her.

Do you appreciate how often that happens?

That never happens.

We need what she knows.

SIMMONS: See, we designed each with their own capabilities,

so some recording the dimensions and textures of the room,

and then some testing the matter density, radiation.

I mean, one is basically just smelling.

FITZ: Whoa, whoa, whoa. I've got something in something.

SIMMONS: Who's got it?

Bashful.

Aw.

Surveillance camera. Deep-fried.

Yes, but that model has flash memory in case of brownouts.

Now, I could sync that with data from the motion detectors,

and, with a little luck, get some images from before the blast.

And by "luck" I mean "unappreciated genius."

Yeah, we'll need it. Snow's reading some compounds that are...

Oh, my God.

Explosive?

Not of this Earth.

This is QNB-T-16.

It's the top-shelf martini of sodium pentothal derivatives.

It's a brand new and extremely potent truth drug.

Don't worry, the effects only last about an hour.

And you'll have a nice little nap,

and we'll have all the answers to our... Hey!

What the hell!

I'm sorry, did that hurt?

No. But you've lost your mind.

You should never do that to a member of your team.

And yes, it did hurt a little bit.

But I always try and mask my pain in front of beautiful women

because I think it makes me seem more masculine.

My God, this stuff works fast.

Don't trust us? Ask him whatever you'd like.

Wait a minute. Wait, you can't just...

This is definitely not protocol!

You seem nervous, Agent Ward.

I'm calling to mind my training.

There's no way I'm gonna reveal classified secrets

to a girl who's hell-bent on taking us down.

Have you ever killed anyone?

Yes, a few. High-risk targets.

But they were terrible people

who were trying to murder nice people.

And I didn't feel good afterwards.

And does your grandmother know about these things?

Gramzy?

My hands are tied, Mike. It's company policy.

You didn't meet quota, I had to let you go.

Gary, look, I got no choice. It's just me and my boy now.

There's no openings, Mike. And even if there were,

I got 100 guys standing in line that are just like you,

only they won't bitch when their back hurts.

I was injured, but I'm stronger now. I can handle twice the load I used to.

What are you not hearing? You don't cut it.

When I say I need things moved, I need“.

(GRUNTS)

Like that?

Are you out of your mind?

These are people, Gary.

Men. Not parts you replace when they break.

It's not me, man. It's the company. I'm not the bad guy.

I'm not the bad guy, man.

Yes, you are.

It's simple now.

Just like we used to read about.

You're the bad guy.

And I'm the hero.

Did Agent Ward give you anything?

He told me he's been to Paris, but he's never really seen it

and that he wishes you had stayed in Tahiti.

It's a magical place.

Ward doesn't like your style. I kind of think I do.

What about his?

...remains in critical condition.

Employees could not identify the attacker,

but security footage confirms that this man assaulted the factory foreman

before damaging thousands of dollars' worth of company property...

This is wrong. This is not the guy I met. He was...

He just needs a break.

Then give him one. What have you got?

COULSON: Michael Peterson. Factory worker, married, one kid.

Gets injured, gets laid off, wife jumps ship.

Good guy, bad breaks.

Best guess is, somebody tells him they can make him strong again.

Make him super.

Who has the tech to do that? And why would they want to?

Fitz, what do we have from the security footage? Before the blast.

MAY: What are we seeing?

Well, the man is angry at the other man.

The data is very corrupt.

- Yeah, like Cold War Russia corrupt. - Yeah.

I can't sync the time code without...

What if you had the audio?

I was running surveillance on the lab.

I had my shotgun mic pointed at the window before the blast.

The digital file's in my van.

There's too much background noise for me, but you could probably...

You can clean that up, can't you?

Find a sync point and use cross-filed validation to find...

But I can't scrub for expression patterns when the VITC is all...

SIMMONS: Well, is there a chrominance subcarrier?

Yeah, attached to the back porch. Brilliant.

- That audio would be great. - We will take that audio, please.

Thank you very, very much.

Your van's here. But you were right. We couldn't decrypt the files.

The encryption's coupled to the GPS.

Get my van back to that alley, and then I'm in business.

Agent May will escort you.

And on your way out, wake up Ward.

You're...

Wow, you're him.

I'm glad you're doing okay.

Yeah. Thank you. They're beautiful.

What the hell are you doing here?

I don't know where to go, Doctor.

Everything's getting... I know what's right, I do.

But no one will listen to me.

I volunteered because you said things would change.

You said you could keep it together.

Our first subject lost it,

walked into the lab with a freaking bomb...

I'm not like him.

Well, tell that to your foreman in the ICU.

I saved you!

You exposed me!

You exposed the program.

The people who gave me this technology, they are very serious

and they do not want to be revealed.

Mike Peterson needs to disappear.

You're right.

I'm not him anymore.

I'm someone else now.

Please. You're juiced, Mike!

And you're losing it just like the last guy.

(SIGHS) God, this is a disaster.

No.

It's an origin story.

Audio file should be coming through.

It's not compressed, so it might take a minute.

-(BEEPING) - Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm getting it.

So, when you get back, I'll show you my thing.

A thing. It's not... It's my hardware. My equipment! Let's hang up.

So the alien metal wasn't the explosive?

Well, I assumed from the break pattern and dispersion that it was.

But it's just dripping with gamma radiation and...

Ugh!

Now it's actually dripping. Fun!

So what did that get us?

Skye's sending us the rest of her decrypted files on Centipede,

but we have her audio. I've loaded it up.

Nice work.

Using motion estimation, Bayesian inference,

a beam splitter and a little diffraction theory,

our mystery man appears.

It's like magic, but it's science.

Explosives in the case?

DOCTOR: Please, calm down. Just, let me check your vitals.

I feel fine. I want to feel more.

Where's the doctor? Where is she?

If you don't settle down, I'll have you sedated.

Where is she?

Wait, did you see that on his arm?

COULSON: What does that look like to you?

A centipede.

It's an intravenous filter for his blood. This goo, sir?

Very similar to the serum Dr. Erskine developed in the '40s for the...

Super-soldiers.

I'm reading alien metal, gamma radiation, the serum.

Every known source of superpower, thrown in a blender.

We need to see the origin of the blast.

Run it back from the last point recorded.

That should do it.

Let's head back.

All right. Let me just...

(GRUNTS)

Mike!

What are you doing?

Saving you. From the scary men in dark suits.

And you're gonna help save us.

"Us"?

Don't cry, okay? Stay strong for me, Ace.

What are we?

We're a team.

That's right. Now drive!

EXTREMIS. It's new. Completely unstable.

Poor man didn't bring an explosive.

And Mike has the same stuff in his system.

Well, judging by his strength level, a lot more.

So any minute now, Mike is gonna...

He'll take out anyone within a two-block radius.

Well, you wanted a bomb.

Sir? He didn't explode because he was angry.

The two are connected.

Well, it's kind of a chemical surge,

but calming him down will buy him a minute at most.

He will detonate within the next few hours.

Solution?

Isolate him? Get him away from people?

Or?

Put a bullet through his brain.

If he's dead, this irradiated metabolic process will stop.

You need to come up with a third option.

One that doesn't involve Mike's son losing a father.

We have a couple of hours at most. There's no way that we could possibly...

Don't ever tell me there's no way!

It's on you. Get it done.

May'-

He took Skye.

You're all right?

We'll deal with that later. At length.

Right now we need to figure out where they went.

(KEYS CLACKING)

How long is this gonna take?

This is top speed, trust me.

It's not like I'm deleting a Facebook page.

I'm bypassing the License Bureau's AES protected data stream. So, chill.

How do I know you can really do this?

I've done it before.

Come on, give me more paralysis, less rigor mortis! Come on!

No,no,no.

Just pretend it's an exam.

We're taking an exam.

- An exam? Yeah. - Yeah.

Okay. I don't want an "F" equals a massacre.

(BREATHING HEAVILY)

-(BEEPING) - Whoa!

Oh, no! What is this nonsense? Why are you making nonsense?

This isn't me!

It's noise. Someone's hacking our secure channel.

It's longitude and latitude.

Mike took Skye.

She's telling us where.

We'll take the nice lady with us.

We can't go to the airport, so we'll take a train.

And there, she'll help us start over.

Make a new life. A better life. Like I always said.

Look at this place.

You're gonna risk thousands of lives over some nobody?

Nobody's nobody, Ward. Fitz-Simmons will come through.

Mr. Peterson, good morning. We're not a threat, we're here to help.

But you're in danger and we need to take you in.

What did you do?

You're right, he is a little bitch!

- Go on, get her! Get her! - Ace, get back.

Man, get out the way, man! Come on! Come on, now.

Ace !

(SCREAMING)

Tell dispatch we need backup!

(SIREN WAILING)

Hey. Let's get him out of here.

Help my daddy.

- I promise. - Come on, honey.

Ace ! Ace !

Look. The stuff inside you is unstable. It'll kill you and everyone in here.

Who's gonna miss us?

(ALARM RINGING)

We're at the north entrance, May.

We told them to hold fire.

I don't think that's us.

We may have a third party here.

He's gonna head down to the tracks. You stay high, I'll go low.

Only take the shot if you have to, Ward. Ward!

If I have to.

(TRAIN HONKING)

You've got to stop. These people can help you.

The men in suits? They're your buddies, now?

Where'd they take my son?

Get down!

(GRUNTING)

You think that means anything?

I know you got men everywhere waiting to put me down.

I know how this plays out.

I don't.

I know you got poison in your system.

I know it's burning you up.

Mike, the last guy who wore that exploded.

I'm not like that other guy. I'm...

It matters who I am, inside, if I'm a good person, if I'm strong.

I have a clear shot. Do you copy?

I know you're strong.

Your boy knows it. He needs you to let us help.

You took him!

You took my wife, my job, my house.

You think this is killing me?

All over, there's people being pushed down, being robbed.

One of them tries to stand up, you got to make an example out of him.

You bring this building down on us, will that help them?

That's a lie! All you do is lie!

You said if we worked hard,

if We did right,

we'd have a place.

You said it was enough to be a man.

But there's better than man.

There's gods.

And the rest of us, what are we?

They're giants.

We're what they step on.

I know.

I've seen giants up close. And that privilege cost me.

Nearly everything.

But the good ones, the real deal?

They're not heroes because of what they have that we don't.

It's what they do with it.

You're right, Mike.

It matters who you are.

I could, you know?

Be a hero.

I'm counting on it.

COULSON: Subject is in stable condition.

All clear at Union Station.

(DOG BARKING)

(KIDS LAUGHING)

(SIGHS)

I told him his father was coming home.

He will. We have some experience with this.

He almost blew. We almost died.

We have some experience with that, too.

You don't have it all mapped out.

True. We didn't cut off the head of the Centipede.

Whoever sponsored that little experiment is still out there.

Among other things.

It's a brave new world, and a really old car. (CHUCKLES)

Lola can keep up.

What about you? Have you thought about the offer?

Hitching a ride on the crazy plane? Not exactly a team player.

We're not exactly a team. But we're in a position to do some good.

You'd be a great help.

And you'd be front row center at the strangest show on Earth,

which is, after all, what you wanted.

I was able to hack S.H.I.E.L.D. from my van.

Are you gonna show me something new?

(CELL PHONE RINGS)

Go.

Sir? We've got an 084.

Is that confirmed?

They want us to go in and confirm it.

What's an 084?

(ENGINE STARTS)

You've got exactly 10 minutes to decide if you really wanna know.

There's no way we can make it to the airfield in...

(WHOOSHING)

...10 minutes.

The tide is rising.