The New Kid.

Mother of Invention is flying through space. After the last mission, things were carrying on, but CT's absence was very noticeable. No one wanted to believe it, but it was getting more and more clear that someone they believed was their friend... was a deserter. Right now Wash and York staring downwards between North's legs. Why? Well he just advanced to the next stage of the Freelancer project.

"I expected it to be... bigger" Wash admitted.

"Why? You've seen mine. It's small too" York pointed out.

"Yeah, but he's green" Wash said.

York gave him a look "How does that even make sense?".

"Hey Wash, quit staring. You're making it nervous" North said.

"Yeah, it's just... they're so small!" Wash said, not being able to get over the fact how small it was.

"Small, yeah! But you wouldn't believe what it can do!" York said.

"Besides, you better get used to it. You're going to have one of your own, soon enough" North reminded.

South comes to see what they're all looking at and just scoffs "Give me a break".

As South walks away North spoke "It's alright Theta, come on out. People just want to say hello to you".

That is what this is all about. North had recently gotten his own AI, named Theta, a blue and red multi-colored AI, who was currently hiding behind North's left leg. Theta slowly peeked out and spoke in a child-like voice "I don't know. There's so many of them. And they're so... big".

"See! I'm not the only one who thinks size is important" Wash said.

York shook his head "I'm just going to let that one go...".

"It's okay Theta. They're all friends of mine. For reasons beyond my comprehension" North said.

Theta appears above North's shoulder "They're looking at me".

"That's because they want to meet you. This is York and Wash" North introduced his friends.

"Hey there little...computer...dude" Wash said a little awkwardly, not really knowing what else to say.

"Give it a rest, Wash. Theta, I have a friend just like you. His name is Delta" York said.

Theta appears in front of York "Really?".

"Yeah. Here, you-you wanna say hello to him?" York asked.

North looked uncertain "Um...York?".

"It's okay, man. Just for a second" York assured.

Delta appears in front of York "Hello Theta. I am Delta. It is nice to meet you".

Theta still seemed a little nervous "Hello".

"See? Everybody here is nice. Isn't that right, Delta?" North asked.

Delta looked at him "Agent North, I do not feel qualified to make a judgement about humans with whom I have only limited experience. Also, "nice" is a rather subjective term for-".

"Delta!" York cut him of, since he was clearly not helping with Theta's nervousness.

"Oh yes. Everyone here is nice... within standard acceptable deviations" Delta said.

"DELTA!" York said loudly.

"And that's my sister over there, South. We're twins" North said as he motioned to South, who was leaning against a wall, watching them.

"I have a sister" Theta said.

"You do?" Wash asked.

Theta nods "We have many siblings".

"What do you mean by si-" Wash began but was interrupted by another voice.

"Hello everyone" The Director and Counselor enter the room. The Freelancers line up and Theta disappears "I hope you're ready to begin our test. Delta! I believe you know the protocol about communicating directly with other AI units".

"I apologize sir. I will log off" Delta said.

"Don't! I want you to help administer the test. Gentlemen, if you will take the floor" The Director ordered.

Theta appears in front of North who spoke "Ok, just like we practiced".

"Are they all going to watch?" Theta asked.

"Of course! They want to see if you're as good as i said you are" North said.

"Really? Well, I guess that's okay" Theta said.

"That's the spirit! Come on, let's do this!" North said as They exit to the training floor

"Delta, I expect you to follow protocol at all times" The Director said in disapproval.

"We were only attempting to make the new unit more comfortable" Delta said, as close to defensive as he could get.

"It's my fault, sir. I asked him to. New kid seems kind of shy" York said.

The Counselor walked up "Agent North was paired with Theta for a reason. His nurturing nature is best suited to care for Theta's...unique personality".

"Yeah. He is used to looking out for people, isn't he?" York said as he glances at South

The Counselor nods "Quite. Delta, your skills are more... analytical in nature".

"If I may disagree, Theta has made double the number of declarative statements since my appearance. That indicates 100% increase in confidence since we modified our interaction strategy. I think that speaks volumes to my caring algorithms" Delta said.

The Counselor almost looked amused "You make an excellent point, Delta. Let's begin the test".

Delta disappears. Down to the training floor the Freelancers watch from an above window as North enters the floor with a sniper rifle in hand.

"Begin the test" The Director ordered.

Theta appears above North's surround North and open fire. Immediately, a Domed Energy Shield activates around North protecting him from the bullets. The test was underway.

"As you may recall, Agent North used his equipment in the field on a previous mission" The Counselor said.

Delta Appears "He was able to successfully maintain the deflective shield for 3.4 seconds in order to block an explosive projectile attack".

"And he somehow managed not to kill himself in the process" The Director said.

"The maneuver only had a 1% chance of success. Had he performed it 999 more times, I'm rather certain he would've been obliterated on each one" Delta said.

"Hey, I'd rather be lucky than good any day" York said.

"You usually are" Wash said.

"Luck will only take one so far. I am in the business of getting results. Let's see what Theta can do. Delta, reduce shield strength by 50%" The Director ordered.

"Modifying" Delta said.

The Domed Energy Shield surrounding North and Theta begins to flicker, signalling the cut in power. The real part of the test was about to begin.

"Power dropping! Theta, use remaining power to compensate for critical tiles!" North ordered.

"Okay" Theta takes control of the Domed Shield and separates it into tiles, blocking the turrets' incoming fire.

"Add variables" The Director ordered.

"Acknowledged" Delta said.

The turret beams begin to gyrate, moving around and above North and Theta. Theta follows the turrets and maintains critical shield tiles where they are needed, not a single bullet even came close to hitting North.

"Great job, Theta!" He praised.

"Stop talking to me! You'll mess me up!" Theta said.

"Right. Sorry" North said a little sheepishly.

"Reset" The director said and the floor resets and the Domed Energy Shield becomes fully restored to 100% power "Agent North. Your objective now is to eliminate all targets" More turrets appear "Begin".

"I thought the shield works both ways. There's no way for him to attack" Wash said as the turrets began to fire.

"Theta, analyze turret rate of fire. Adjust shield to match" North instructed.

"Okay...Done" Theta said.

North took aim "Firing. On my mark".

Theta "Ready!".

"Mark!" North fires his sniper and the bullet moves towards the shield, looking like it was about to hit, which could spell disaster. But then the shield flickers open just enough for North's sniper bullet to pass through and then immediately reseals. The bullet takes out a turret. North and Theta repeat this method for the remaining turrets, successfully destroying all of them.

"All targets eliminated" Delta said.

"Test complete. Excellent work!" The Director said as the Domed Shield deactivates.

"WOHOW! WOW! That was incredible!" Wash cheered.

"HAHA YEAH! What did I tell ya?" York said in excitement.

"And we're sure they don't get any bigger?" Wash asked jokingly.

"Dude, you are killing me with that!" York said in good humor.

South shook her head, still she wondered what Pyrrha was doing. She figured her redheaded friend would've wanted to see this, given Pyrrha herself was a prime candidate for an AI partner.


As for Pyrrha herself, she was sparring with Carolina. Pyrrha was still a little rusty during the last mission so she needed train more to brush it of. Both were out of their armors, and was wearing simple work out clothes. Both sisters were facing of for a few seconds before Carolina launched a kick, which Pyrrha managed to block and she pushed her sister's leg away, before blocking a punch. Pyrrha retaliated with a spinning back kick, but Carolina blocked it before grabbing her leg and throwing her away. But Pyrrha flipped through the air and managed to land perfectly on her feet.

"Nice. Seems like that rust is coming of" Carolina said with a smile.

Pyrrha smiled back "Maybe, but we're not done yet".

Carolina nods and got ready again. Pyrrha attacked first delivering a series of kicks which Carolina managed to expertly block. Pyrrha then tried to punch her, but Carolina managed to grab her arm before twisting it and then flipped Pyrrha over and made her land on her back with a painful grunt. This would signal Carolina as the winner of their spar.

"Sorry little sister. You still have some ways to go before you can beat me" Carolina said as she offers her sister a hand up.

Pyrrha accepted the hand "I don't think that is ever going to happen. You will always be better at hand to hand than me".

"Pyrrha, you are looking down on yourself way to much. You need to be more confident" Carolina said.

"I know. But confidence isn't something I have a lot of" Pyrrha said.

Carolina could tell something else was troubling you her younger sister "Ok Pyrrha spit it out. What is bothering you?" Pyrrha didn't answer "Is it about CT?".

"You mean Connie, I always hated that she wanted to be called CT. But yes, I am thinking about her" Pyrrha said.

Carolina noticed a look in Pyrrha's face that she did not like "Pyrrha... you are not blaming yourself for this, right?".

Pyrrha gritted her teeth "And what if I am? I completely failed to notice we had a traitor walking among us".

"Pyrrha, you are not being fair to yourself. Non of us knew she would just disappear on us like this" Carolina said as she put a hand on Pyrrha's shoulder.

"But I should've noticed!" Pyrrha snapped as she brushed Carolina's hand away "She's been acting strange for weeks now. Wash even told me he caught her talking to someone, but didn't see who. I brushed it of, thinking she was just making a secret call to a loved one. But turned out she must've been feeding information to the enemy... I thought I knew her, Carolina... I thought I was her friend...".

"Pyrrha..." Carolina said silently.

"But it turns out... I didn't know her at all. And now I don't think I was ever her friend. I was just another obstacle, standing in the way of her and her secret mission. I am sick of this, Carolina. All this violence, all this trust issues. All this filtering to see who is better than who. I don't want to be better than everyone else, Carolina. I just want to be my own person, who's worth isn't decided by a fucking ranking system! I am sick of all of this!" Pyrrha said, loosing her cool by the moment.

"Pyrrha!" Carolina said loudly.

Pyrrha snapped out of her anger and covered her mouth in shock "Oh my god... I-I'm sorry Carolina. I didn't mean to say that! I don't even know why I said it! This is not me... It can't be me".

Carolina did the one thing any good sister would do, she pulled Pyrrha in to a strong hug "Easy, easy...".

Pyrrha hugged her back as she began to shake and sob "What is happening to me, Carolina? What is happening to me!?".

"It's ok, little sister. Everything will be ok" Carolina assured as she kissed Pyrrha's cheek and hugged her closer. She dropped her normally serious and focused nature. Right now, Pyrrha didn't need a harsh reality check from her superior. She needed comfort from her older sister.

As the two sisters hugged, South was hiding behind a corner. She heard everything and it was clear if the Director found out about Pyrrha's sudden emotional break down, he would take her of active duty without second thought. So South decided no one else needed to know for now.

But she would be keeping a much closer eye on Pyrrha from now on. Much closer.

.

Tell me what you think.