Previously on Fate of SHIELD: Wendigo was brought down by the team, but the cannibal spirit possessed Richards! They got help from a shaman named Michael Twoyoungmen and Richards managed to create a device to suppress Wendigo.
The team managed to convince Dr. Twoyoungmen to let Richards attempt to keep the Wendigo under control, but only if Savage was taught how to do the ritual to re-entrap the spirit should things go wrong. Savage and Gott also agreed to escort the shaman to his department's rendezvous site, where he'd give them the repaired totem and begin work on a second one, so that one could be given to HYDRA as a decoy.
The other members of the team identified a stolen shipment of dendrotoxin and located the warehouse with Zorya's help. They landed their quinjet about 30 minutes from the warehouse in northern Washington, and rode in on motorcycles. The thieves had made a mistake in letting their van get caught on camera and then leaving it parked outside the warehouse.
When they arrived, they found the warehouses in the area mostly abandoned and the target warehouse looked mostly so, aside from the suspect van. The team first checked the adjacent warehouse to their target, because they were nearly identical. They found a mostly square building with empty floors and used the roof to scout the roof across the street. Richards hacked into the security systems of the target building and the team couldn't find any evidence of guards.
Richards stayed on the abandoned roof, ready to cause a distraction, while Stalson and Rennaker moved into the target building. They split up and found mostly nothing. They were investigating the offices on the third floor of the building when sudden static burst over the comms and Richards went silent. Rennaker and Stalson rushed to help them, but as they neared the door, a blue mist enveloped them and they were knocked unconscious.
The three members of the team awoke at once in a featureless, small, white room with no apparent doors. A stereotypically geeky voice mocked them from somewhere unseen, introducing their kidnapper as first Webber Torque (whom none of the team recognized) and then as his name within underground circles, Arcade! Richards recognized that name. Stalson mocked Arcade, who explained he'd been hired to kill whomever came after the dendrotoxin. When Stalson called that stupid, Arcade further explained that his employers were expecting Agent Coulson, whom Arcade claimed was not dead. Stalson retorted that Arcade was misinformed and Arcade told the team he'd been bored by them and started the ceiling descending towards them.
The team worked frantically, but couldn't find a way out. The ceiling reached them and dropped softly as a tarp, with the walls also falling away suddenly. The team cut their way out and found themselves in a vast woods. They were immediately suspicious and Stalson fired a round at the sky, trying to ping the roof. Nothing came of it, so as Rennaker and Richards searched the area and assessed that Richards only had about an hour left of his Icer injection to control the Wendigo.
Stalson spotted a cabin off to the team's east, so they began to move towards it. As they moved, Richards saw something tracking after them. The headed towards the mysterious figure. They cornered it and found... A large man, carrying a machete, and wearing a goalie mask. It was, from all appearances, Jason, and he lashed out at Richards. Stalson and Rennaker tried to intervene, but Jason ignored them and focused on Richards, who had turned and begun running back to the cabin. One of Rennaker's shots rang true, though, and tore into Jason's scalp, exposing a metal skull. Arcade was employing a robot of the horror movie icon.
Richards made good time away from Jason and reached the cabin mostly in the clear. He ducked inside and spotted a figure laying on the bed. Back in the woods, Stalson tried to hold Jason back, but was thrown aside. Rennaker stayed focused on her shooting, putting more bullets into Jason, to light effect.
Richards locked the cabin door and then crept to the bed and pulled back the covers to reveal a teenage girl of a bookish sort, wearing a man's leather jacket and tied down despite being unconscious. Richards started freeing her just as Jason reached the cabin and started banging on the door. Stalson moved in and swept the robot killer's legs out from under it, dropping it to the ground. Unfortunately, that made Rennaker miss her shot on the killer.
Inside, with the girl put safely in a corner, Richards set a booby trap in front of the door, with water and electrical wires He unlocked the door and slunk back. Unfortunately for him, another figure, with long knives for fingers, appeared at the back door of the cabin. Arcade's version of Freddy keyed on Richards, who began to fire rounds at him.
Stalson pushed Jason through the door, leaving him in the booby trap Richards had set. The robot slowed for a moment and then focused on Stalson. In the moment of opening, Rennaker shot Jason's right eye out, shorting out the robot's sensors and further slowing it. Freddy retreated over the roof of the cabin, but Stalson managed to catch him and pin the robot down beneath the deactivated Jason. With Freddy unable to avoid their fire, the team took him down easily.
They woke the girl, who questioned them as to her whereabouts and eventually introduced herself as Lacey. She explained that she didn't know how she'd gotten there, and was awfully accusatory once she discovered the team was SHIELD. Rennaker took a serious dislike to the girl, but restrained herself. Lacey, for her part, didn't like Richards very much, calling him creepy. The team checked her quickly, determining that she was a real person, not anther of Arcade's robots. Richards quickly stripped the power cores from Freddy and Jason, reasoning that they might be useful at some point, and their removal would keep the robots deactivated.
From in the cabin, the team could see a lake down a hill. Stalson quoted game theory, saying he was certain it was where Arcade wanted them to go next. They moved quickly down the hill. It quickly became apparent that distances weren't taking the length of time to travel that they should. They determined that Arcade had them in some sort of complex simulation. Richard suggested he could build a small EMP from the power cores and set to work near the beach of the lake. The team could a small boat out in the waters, but ignored it for the moment.
Arcade broke in to mock the team again, before sending out a new threat in the form of a bear-masked Jason clone called Otis. The figure lumbered down the hill as Richards scrambled to make the EMP and Rennaker and Stalson prepared their defense.
Unfortunately, the situation changed quickly as a long tendril grabbed Rennaker's ankle and began dragging her toward the water. Stalson couldn't take the chance to let Otis reach Richards, and charged the murderer. Lacey stole Richard's gun, which frightened the scientist for a moment, until she fired wild shots in the direction of the killer robot engaged with Stalson. Richards, for his part, was running out of time, with only a few minutes left before the Icer would wear off and Wendigo would be free. Arcade taunted that he couldn't wait to see what would happen when Richards' timer ran out.
Rennaker wrestled with the Kraken pulling her into the water, repeatedly freeing herself and being re-grasped. Eventually, though, she got free long enough to turn and shoot, hitting the Kraken square in it's eye. A moment later, Richards completed the EMP and slammed a hand down on the button, rushing to dive into the water. The device went off, shutting down the robots and saving the team. Richards' Icer device was still active, but he was almost out of time, with only 3 minutes left on it.
Grabbing Lacey, Stalson and Rennaker sprinted back to the cabin. Richards swam towards the canoe out in the lake.
At the cabin, Lacey discovered something banging against her in the chest pocket of her leather jacket. It turned out to be a single Icer round, which Stalson took from her. The two SHIELD agents shared a suspicious look at the girl. Stalson started covering himself in lubricant from the dead robots, hoping it would confuse Wendigo.
On the lake, Richards found a teenage boy in the boat. Cursing the luck, Richard started back to shore, but only just made it before the Wendigo spirit was free, roaring rage into the night.
Stalson charged down the hill, with Wendigo keyed on him. They came together and Wendigo tried several times to chomp Stalson, and very nearly killed him by slamming him into a tree. Stalson managed to ride Wendigo's arm for just long enough to insert the new Icer round and hit the manual injection button. Wendigo screamed as it was slammed back into Richards' subconscious. Soon, the heavily bleeding Stalson was laying on the ground next to the heavily naked Richards.
From above, Arcade complained about his cameras being disabled, meaning he'd missed all of the Wendigo action. Rennaker, followed shortly after by Lacey, arrived and administered first aid to Stalson. The team got the boat pulled in and discovered that the person in it was Lacey's boyfriend, Flynn. After a few barbs from Flynn and a shirt wrapped around unclothed Richards, the team retreated to the cabin to regroup. And it turned out Flynn had yet another Icer round on him...
Other posts on Agents of SHIELD
