Part 37 - New sheriff in town

Ichibe made his way north. That was the direction the motorcyclist said she had left after taking his bike. The direction he was going was nowhere. While that would be a perfect place for SHIELD to set up a base, they would then probably do it in the desert and she would then travel northeast or even east and not north.

So there had to have been another stop somewhere before that. Ichibe speculated that the Kree soldier was probably at some SHIELD facility or trying to get information.

Either way, she was low profile right now as she couldn't trust anyone. The Skrull threat was serious.

Ichibe arrived at Santa Clarita and was faced with a choice. He had to decide where to go right now. Either east to Humphreys or the other way to Bakersfield.

After thinking about it for a while, Ichibe simply shrugged and decided to do both. He was going to Shunpo all the way along the roads and looking for any suspicious place that she could have gone to, or that there was a fight.

Of course, there was the city of Santa Clarita itself as well. So, he had his work cut out for him.

"Well, no time like the present."

.

At the Joint Dark Energy Mission Facility, Vers and Fury are going through the archives to find out more about Dr Wendy Lawson. As they go through the records, they find out that she was indeed working on a light-speed engine.

While she died during a test flight, six years ago, all the info about the pilot of that flight is redacted.

The last person to see Lawson was someone named Maria Rambeau. So they were planning to start there and ask her some questions. Vers was going through the files and saw an old picture of herself there.

She had many questions that she wanted to be answered and it seemed things were being kept from her.

Fury had just left and contacted R. Keller. Vers contacted Yon-Rogg.

Her memories were not influenced by Skrulls, she was sure of it. Yon-Rogg was wrong here. She wanted the truth. The only way was for her to find Maria Rambeau.

Vers got up and left. She had to get out of there and find Maria. She had history on earth and Maria knew what that was. But where was Fury?

She made her way through the building when she heard fighting. Thinking for a brief moment, she decided to help Fury.

.

Fury was trying to navigate through the corridors of the thousands of files. Keller was definitely a Skrull. When he called him by his first name, it was suspicious and when he confirmed the fake mission they did in Havana, Fury knew he was a fake.

This was bad news. Skrulls had infiltrated SHIELD and he had called them here.

Suddenly he felt a gun pointed at his head and heard the voice of Keller.

"Was it something I said?"

Fury pushed 'Keller's' arm away and punched him in the face. The fight was quite one-sided though. The gun was empty and had no more bullets in it.

After trying to through the gun at Keller, the tides changed and Keller beat Fury's butt up and down the corridors.

"Now, you know, I don't really need these to see…", Keller said as he put the glasses back on, "… but, they do kinda' complete the look … don't you think?"

Keller stood over Fury and right at that moment, he was blasted by a photon blast and got hurled along the corridor. Strangely, his suit wasn't affected by the blast. Somehow, the powers of the Skrulls extended to their clothes or something.

Vers had arrived and blasted a hole through the roof. She and Fury escaped using this chance.

"You called them?"

"My Bad."

They fled through the compound and met Phil Coulson on the staircase. He let them go and put his trust in Fury.

The two finally made their way to an airfield where they spotted a Quadjet for them to escape. They entered the cockpit and sat in their seats, with Vers in the pilot seat.

"You know how to fly this thing?", Fury asked.

"We'll see…"

"That was a yes or no question."

Vers started the engines and looked at Fury with mirth in her eyes.

"…Yes."

Having said that, she started the thrusters and they flew out of the underground facility.

.

Meanwhile with Ichibe…

My goodness, this is more work than he thought it would be. His geta were definitely the wrong footwear for this sort of thing. Even though he liked to play Sherlock Holmes, he was nowhere near as smart as he is. And trying to brute force his way through stupidity was not the most enjoyable thing to do.

He managed to search all of Santa Clarita and didn't find anything suspicious in any bar or storage facility. He looked in 'discos' and restaurants. He asked the locals for suspicious things.

Ichibe used all sorts of cover stories. The story of being a reporter was the most convenient one. People told you all sorts of things. Everyone had a story to tell and he liked to listen to their blabbering.

But not today. He was on a mission to find this Kree woman and that was what he would do. He reminded himself that this was not primarily a game and he should get a hold of himself more ...

... Nah whatever. He was just going to have fun with this one. Not like the Kree would endanger the planet in one day right … right?...

Ichibe thought about it. The stolen bike that the Kree woman stole, had to have been noted by the police by now right? So maybe they would let him have a look at their security cameras…

A funny idea came to Ichibe's mind. It was dress-up time. He knew exactly where to go as well. While he was speeding through Santa Clarita he saw a shop where he could get dressed up for all sorts of occasions.

Time for a new sheriff to come to this town…