"Phil just doesn't love us anymore," Clint said dramatically. Phil snorted briefly into his coffee.

"I had hoped you have finally matured enough to accept another handler," he said to Clint. "Was I wrong?"

"Depends what your average stack of paperwork for him consisted of. Although I think we're only making new forms for him every once in a while, sir, I think you got most of those covered." Alexis grinned, a bit cheekily.

"I did try to plan ahead," Phil replied evenly. He glanced at Natasha for confirmation that everything really was running smoothly.

Natasha nodded, just a bit, glancing at Alexis and then shrugging faintly. Translation: everything was fine, but she was personally still on the fence about the handler. Not unexpected, considering the (relatively) short timeframe.

Phil gave a small nod back. He figured Natasha would be on the fence about the new handler for a while yet, it wasn't unexpected. He was more glad that Clint was alright with it and wasn't acting out or anything. That had been his biggest worry.

Since Phil was relaxed, Alexis figured it was fine to relax, too. And somehow she fit right in when she wasn't worrying about it, or wondering if she'd overstepped.

It helped that Coulson never told her to stop or smacked her down for it, so she figured if he was fine with it, she wasn't in trouble.

There was a week of relative quiet for the groups, and then came the week of training. Autumn gathered her trio of underlings together, and was preparing to go meet up with Alexis for some newbie-training.

Alexis had four newbies this time around, and she herded them into place easily as Autumn arrived with her newbies.

"So. Week of training." She grinned briefly. "Should be fun and boring and uneventful."

"No kidding," Autumn said. She grinned. "I almost want to call Logan and see if he wants to drop by. They could use the practice identifying what paperwork to use."

"No, that's not until tomorrow," Alexis said with a grin. "Today is the milk run, remember?" It was all normal and routine and she'd done it several times, though not as many as Autumn. So Alexis wasn't worried.

"Oh I know," Autumn said. "And guaranteed one of them will mess it up." She grinned a bit. "One always does."

"At least one," Alexis agreed with a grin. "Alright, you lot, into the van, come on," she ordered, shooing them all into the van for their practice surveillance run.

Autumn herded her minions into the van as well before getting into the front seat so Alexis could drive.

Alexis parked a few hours later and let everyone else out, having the newbs pair off to go do a basic sweep. She wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary at all.

So when she got the first report in that something was off, she went on alert instantly.

"Jameson, Traxler, report," she snapped, motioning for Autumn to call the rest of the group back in.

"Agents, regroup," Autumn commanded into her comm. "Headcount."

"Jackson." "Scott." "Hernandez." Autumn relaxed marginally when she heard her three junior agents reporting in. She glanced at Alexis.

"Oberer." "Singer."

Alexis waited a few more moments before she swore. "Everyone back in," she ordered, already pulling out her weapon. "And I mean now." She even used one of the words from page 14.

Autumn readied her weapon, carefully creeping out to get a look at the situation. Something was definitely not right.

By the time the girls got close, Alexis could see the two junior agents taking cover from AIM beekeepers. She swore and got off a few shots, glancing at Autumn.

"We need to get in and get them out. Without any of the others being hurt."

Autumn nodded and touched her comm.

"All of you, stay hidden and don't interfere. Hernandez, contact SHIELD, tell them what's going on."

"Yes, ma'am," Hernandez replied. Autumn looked at Alexis.

"I'll cover you," she said.

Alexis nodded and managed to take down the next few, running over to slide in with her junior agents, checking them over quickly. "Jameson, put pressure on that wound. Traxler, help him. Autumn, we're going to need a med team ready too." She sounded tense as she watched more AIM beekeepers approaching their position rapidly.

"Right." Quickly, Autumn put in the order for a med team, and then turned her attention to the beekeepers. "If I start taking shots, things are going to get messy. They're getting closer, though, so I may have to."

"I can hold this position until we can get backup," Alexis said. "It's defensible and I've got enough ammo. I need you to stay on the outside and keep an eye on them, see if you can figure out where they're coming from."

"Alright," Autumn said. "Be careful, and tell me if you need backup." With that, Autumn started to scan the area. The AIM grunts were coming from somewhere, and she had to figure it out quick.

Alexis stayed quiet, letting Autumn work, and picking off the AIM grunts when they got too close to her position. But she couldn't do everything; Jameson had passed out and Traxler was panicking. She was doing everything she could to calm him down and keep them all alive until backup could arrive.

"Backup is on its way," Hernandez said through the comms. "ETA ten minutes."

"Good," Autumn said. She picked off a couple of AIM grunts that got too close to Alexis's position, hurrying to hide again as they fired back. "Stay hidden, I don't want you in the middle of this." Her junior agents weren't ready for this kind of action, not yet.