Everyone just stared at Souths dead form and only when Church spoke did they tear their eyes away from the horrid sight. "Okay. I have a great idea. Let's all put down our guns, and not shoot anyone else that we're trying to help,"

Washington rolled her eyes "Relax."

Church had a steady tune that was terrible therpy "Exactly. Let's all relax,"

Wash was used to there stupid situations "Church, Agent South had already shot me in the back once before, and she tried to give up Delta to the enemy. I wasn't going to wait around to see if she decided to do it again,"

Church contiuned to poorly try to calm her down "Right, okay sure..."

"Stop talking to me like that," Wash snapped at him

"We're not talking to you like anything,"

"No-one is talking to you like this..." Caboose added

"You don't need to treat me like that. I'm not crazy, okay? I'm totally completely sane. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go blow up this dead body," Wash turned away from the blues and approached Souths body

Church contiuned "Hey hey uh, uh, green guy,"

Caboose resorted "I'm blue,"

"Delta." Church corrected Caboose

"Oh him,"

Delta activated in Cabooses armor "Hello. How may I be of assistance?"

Church leaned in "Hey yeah, uh, what's the deal with her?" he jerked a thumb in Wash's direction

Behind the blues Wash shoots the body several times with an assault rifle

"Destruction of unused armor or equipment is standard recovery procedure."

"Yeah, no, I mean is she like a whack-job or what?" Caboose glared at Church

Wash tosses a plasma grenade at the body, and it blows up

"Are you aware of her experience with Epsilon?"

"Epsilon, oh you mean her A.I.?"

South's body is well and fully on fire, completely engulphed in flames

Delta conitued "Correct. Epsilon was an... unstable intelligence unit that had to be deleted. Its integration with Washington's mind concerned our superiors."

Wash over Cabooses shoulder threw things and planted homade esplosives

Church cotiuned "What do you think?"

"I believe that Agent Washington's sanity is well within acceptable deviations, for now," Delta responded

A larger explosion involving several crates, then another happened behind them

"I'm filled with confidence." Sarcasm dripping in his voice

Washington approached the blues cracking her knuckles and popping her back "Okay, all done. Delta, I called Command. They wanted me to pass along condolences at South's passing," she smiled devilishly

"Thank you. I will be sure to archive that sentiment." The AI spoke

Church was wary "What did you tell them?"

Wash rolled her eyes and put her hand on Cabooses shoulder giving him a gentel squeeze

"I told them Caboose did it. Apparently they already have a shortcut on their keyboard for reporting his team kills,"

Caboose perked up "Control F U," he memorized

Washington started to laugh and stopped when Church looked at her funny "I would have told them you shot her, but, I wanted it to be believable,"

Church raised his voice getting devesive "Hey. My aim is fine,"

Wash laughed again "And yet, the Meta managed to dodge your rocket somehow," she walked past him circleing the two

"No no," Church corrected her "Not dodge. It was there one second, and it was gone the next. That's how I knew it was using Wyoming's power,"

She sighed "And he was on the ship with Tex wasn't he?"

Caboose nodded "His head was,"

And once again she was confused "His head?"

Church shook in his armour "His helmet. Not everybody is as twisted as you are, Wash. Tex, took it for some reason." Wash glared at him

"So if the Meta has Wyoming's powers, it's even more powerful than we thought,"

"And as scary as someone thought it was to begin with. Back to square one. Scary square."

Please Caboose not now.

"So why does it want these A.I. things anyway?" Church questioned

Wash stoped walking in circles "A.I. help us in battle, depending on their functions. We couldn't run half our equipment without them. And if you get your hands on a smart A.I., you can be damn near unstoppable."

"What, like smart like Delta here?" he guestured throwrd Caboose

Wash shook her head "Not exactly. He's just the logical one of the family. Smart means something entirely different for A.I.s than it does for people,"

Caboose sat down on the dirt "Now let's not go throwing around words like smart for no reason,"

"Wash is correct. We are more analogous to what you would call a fragment," Delta confirmed "There is one smart A.I. in the Freelancer program," He contiuned

Wash tried to shut him up "Delta-"

"The Alpha is a fully formed-"

"Delta! That's enough,"

Church was suddenly interested "What's Alpha?"

"The Alpha A.I. It's nothing, it's a myth. A fairy tale," Wash shook her head very stiffly

Delta just had to speak again "It is hardly a myth. Agent Washington, you must have memory of the Alpha-"

"DELTA! Command. Offline!"

"Complying." and Delta was gone. it was silent

"Oh. Sounds like somebody has a secret."

Wash clenched her fists "Shut up Church, I just get tired of hearing these things talk about their Alpha. And you will too. They get obsessed with the idea of it. It seems like it's all they care about sometimes,"

"But what is it?"

"Yes, if it's something really scary, you don't have to tell us," Caboose suffled twoard Wash as if she would protect him

Washington sighed "The whole purpose of the program was the study soldiers with experimental A.I., but rumor has it, they could only ever get one. So they had to copy it. The original was Alpha, then Beta, and so on,"

"They copied them?" Church sounded in disbelif "yeah, I like that. I guess if one is annoying, then twenty of them are gonna be awesome."

"Yes, The copies became obsessed with this idea of the Alpha, the original. In debriefings they would always steer conversations toward the topic of the Alpha. Where it was, if they could see it. Some even took- drastic steps."

"Like, shooting their partner in the head drastic? Or-"

"I told you, she shot me in the back first!" Wash yelled

Caboose sat back down with Wash closely following "And we believe you. Even though we don't think shooting a friend in the back occasionally, is that big of a deal."

"Thanks Caboose" she turned back to Church "Some Freelancers tried to get to Alpha on their own. They broke in to the secret storage facility where it was kept. They almost got to it. After that they shut down the-"

A loud beeping rang through Washs aroumr causeing her to shoot straight up onto her feet. "My recovery beacon!"

Church laughed "Oh, great! We thought the Meta was hurt, but apparently he's just busy killing more of your buddies,"

"Be quiet!"

The lady on the other end was talking in all to familiar lines "Recovery One, come in, level zero come in,"

Caboose put his head on her shoulder she sighed "Go ahead Command,"

"Wash, we have a beacon,"

"I'm getting it too. Do you have coordinates and an ID?"

"Are you sure about this I mean this is how can this be-" the lady was whispering

"Command, you're breaking up on me, please repeat, how what can be-"

"Hold on, I'm not talking to you Wash. And, and you're sure. Okay. It's Agent Maine, Wash."

Her mouth was hanging open "What?"

"Please confirm last transmission Agent Washington,"

"Maine, how can that be? If-"

"Please confirm, Recovery One!"

"Yeah, it's him. It's the Meta."

"What!" Church screamed "The Meta is a Freelancer?"

Washington pressed her hand against her helmet "Command. Command, come in! Delta, what's happening?"

"Our transmission is being jammed,"

"Tell me you got the coordinates before we lost it!" Wash wined crossing her fingers while Church was still yelling

"A freelancer!"

"I am sorry, I did not."

"You have got to be kidding me." Church resorted

Delta contuined "I did receive biocom data with the identification though. It appears as though the Meta is experiencing mass power fluctuations,"

"Power?" Washington quirked

"Maybe all that A.I. and equipment can't run on one suit of armor?" Church shrugged

Delta nodded in his hologram "That is an excellent analysis. The Meta is most likely dangerously low on power, and will attempt to augment its energy in some way"

Wash nodded "Then we need to get to it fast. But where?"

There was a very awkward very long silence and Church and Caboose bowed their heads

"We uh, we might know where it's going,"

God i love this story so far we have 1 vote Caboose and thats it so make sure to vote for the best fit! Thanks for reading will update very soon remember to vote!