An experimental compound

Jemma Simmons was thrilled beyond words to be on the helicarrier for the first time. Literally beyond words, as when the young biologist was greeted on the flight deck by Commander Hill, she opened her mouth and was unable to form a syllable.

"Let's get you to your lab." Hill smiled reassuringly, "I know you'll want to get started quickly and that's fine with us, we can't crack this formula."

Jemma grabbed her case from the deck and followed Hill. Unlike the Commander, Jemma did not have to wear a dark jumpsuit, and was instead in a sensible dark skirt and blue blouse, paired with flat shoes.

"Let's get in quickly," Hill added, "it gets seriously windy out on deck."

She didn't have to warn Jemma who felt the back of her skirt already lifted up by a gust of wind, revealing the seat of her grey panties adorned with a flying rainbow unicorn, much to the amusement of the other crew on deck.

Hill led Jemma inside, down a maze of corridors and into a laboratory, where a handful of other scientists looked briefly up from their own projects.

"This is your workspace." Hill explained, showing her to a desk at the back, "You should find everything you need, but if you don't grab that phone and dial Q for the quartermaster. I'd hang around and help you get set up but we're airborne in ten minutes so I'm needed on the bridge."

"It looks great, thanks." Jemma squeaked out, before Hill left.

Jemma Simmons, at twenty-one, was probably the youngest scientist working for SHIELD, having been recruited straight after graduating early from college, where she had finished her first doctorate and was preparing for a second. They had promised her thrilling opportunities to push the boundaries of modern science and had delivered, including this current project. Supposedly the organisation had encountered a terrorist cell who were bonding advanced armour and weapons directly to their skin, they had tasked her with finding a way these could be removed without harming the users.

Jemma set her case on her desk and popped the lid. Inside was a neatly folded white lab coat, which she put on. Below this were the files she had been given on her project. She laid these out on the desk and got to work.

A little later the laboratory rattled as the helicarrier took off into the air, but Jemma barely noticed as she was absorbed in her project. Around the laboratory were well-stocked cupboards containing everything she needed, and after a while her desk was filled with vials and bottles of chemicals, and various equipment to combine them and test them.

"...combining those two should..." Jea muttered to herself, tipping the contents of a vial into a bottle with another mixture, and watching it change colour from green to purple. "...but if I want to break the molecular bonds and the armour to disengage, it'll need a catalyst..." she went to the cupboards, looked for a moment, then triumphantly pulled out a test tube of blue liquid, "Aha!"

Returning to her desk, Jemma took a pipette and drew up a little of the contents of the test tube. Setting the tube in a rack to the side, she carefully held her pipette over the purple mixture in the bottle, and squeezed a single drop into it.

There was a deafening bang and a cloud of thick grey smoke which blinded Jemma for a few seconds. She coughed, waving at the cloud and trying to disperse it.

"Are you okay, Dr Simmons?" one of the other scientists called out.

"I'm... Cough! ...fine!" Jemma replied. Suddenly an extractor fan above her desk whirred to life, and the smoke was sucked away. "Oh, thank goodness for that!" she smiled weakly, "I don't know quite what I did wrong, but that was not what I was hoping to achieve."

"N... No, ma'am." one of the others replied, trying to suppress a smile.

"What's going on?" Jemma asked, looking at their faces. All the others were looking at her, several also trying not to smile, most of the men were looking excited, a few of the women were shocked. "Really, is there something I should know about? You're all looking at me very..." Jemma glanced down at her body.

"Oh my god I'm naked!"