Several years ago...
On The Mother of Invention...

Virginia walked into the locker room, noticing Agents Washington, York, North and South Dakota.
"Hey guys." She said as she raised her hand to give a halfheartedly wave. She turned the corner and went to the last row of lockers.
"Hey, Virginia." Wash responded first, before North and York. As Virginia opened her locker, she heard South huff.
"Hey Virginia, what's it like to keep getting knocked back a peg?" South smirked in a taunting tone.
"Not as bad as it will feel for your head to be knocked off your shoulders." Virginia retorted as she shut her locker after retrieving her helmet.
"What did you say to me, bitch?" South slammed her locker and peeked around the corner. Virginia walked along the side of the lockers, staring at the short Agent ahead of her. South's hair was platinum blonde, close to white, and short. Her eyebrows were furrowed as she glared at Virginia.
"Hey, speaking of getting knocked back a peg... what's it like to keep fucking up the mission? Is that why you haven't gotten your A.I?" Virginia smiled, holding her helmet on her hip.
"Why, you fu-," South began to say as she closed the distance between her and Virginia, inching closer to her face.
"Ladies! Ladies! Calm yourselves." North said as he grabbed the back of his sister's armor and tugged her away.
"You're lucky." South spatted as she thrusted a finger in Virginia's direction. "I'm gonna give you such a beating."
"Funny... your brother said the same exact thing when he was in my room the other night." Virginia smiled, winked at North and turned to walk out of the locker, with South screaming.
"What?!"
"Calm down, South!" North said as he pulled her back. South screamed and drove the side of her fist into the locker, and then stormed out of the locker room in the opposite direction of where Virginia was walking.
"Dude?" Washington leaned his elbows onto his knees as he leaned forward. "Did you two... really...?"
North rolled his eyes, putting his hands on his hips.
"No, no we didn't. Don't believe everything you hear," he sighed.

Virginia approached the elevator and pressed the button, then hummed as she waited. After a few seconds, the doors opened and Virginia was greeted by West Virginia.
"Why, hello." He smiled as she stepped on.
"Hey, West." Virginia leaned against the railing on the back wall of the elevator and they rode up to the bridge.
Awaiting on the bridge was the Director, Counselor and the rest of the Agents for the squad. Along with Agent West and Virginia were Agents Michigan, Tennessee, Nevada and Oregon.
"Thank you for joining us." The Director said as began to walk slowly around the table. "West, I'll trust you to debrief everyone on this mission."
With a nod, West walked to the head of the table. A projection of a long, single story building materialized over the center of the table.
"Alright, team. We are targeting this warehouse. This facility is camped on top of a hill in a secluded, wooded area." West explained as he rotated the imagery. "We will need to drop in from a distance, scale the perimeter wall and make our way inside..." He looked over at Virginia. "Unless you can rig up a distraction?"
"Already planning something." Virginia said as her eyes scanned the compound.
"That's my girl." West smiled and continued.
"We are looking for a shipment," West dragged his finger and showed a massive military convoy truck. "It's expected to get loaded on this truck and depart around 19:00 hundred. We must intercept it before it gets on that truck and get the Hell outta there."
"What's this 'shipment' look like?" asked Michigan.
"Glad you asked." West motioned his hand upward, and a unique, rectangular box appeared in the hologram. It appeared as a bronzed metal with unique markings carved along the hatch.
"How big is this thing?" Oregon asked.
"About the size of a rocket launcher, give or take." West responded. "Enough for at least one of us to carry it. Hopefully."
"Hopefully?" Virginia tilted her head.
"Well, we don't actually know the contents, but it's apparently really important to Project Freelancer." West explained. "Could be heavy as fuck." He then shrugged.
"Cool. A 'wait-and-see' strategy. I like those." chuckled Nevada.
"Any questions?" West asked as he looked at everyone around the room. Everyone was silent. "Good. Wheels up in 20. Let's make it home safely."

Everyone re-grouped at the hanger, where they saw their pilot preparing for the flight.
"We looking good?" Nevada asked.
"Just completed my final checks. We're ready to move out."
Everyone climbed aboard the Pelican and sat in their seats as 479-er took to her position in the cockpit.
"So what's this I heard about you and North Dakota?" West asked as he took a seat next to Virginia. Virginia cocked her head.
"Wow, news travels fast in this place." She smirked as she put the harness on. "And it was a joke. I was just trying to piss off his sister." West started to laugh.
"Figures. You like to stir the pot." He lowered the harness until it locked into place. "Troublemaker."
Virginia looked at her colleagues. She was the single female in their squad, but didn't mind since other Agents like South often caused friction.

West Virginia was a rank higher than her, with Hayabusa armor that was green with black accents. Under the armor, he was quite handsome, with a square jaw and black hair that left a curl at his widows peak. He had green eyes that seemed to match his armor color. He was the first Freelancer that Virginia came to know...
Michigan, also known as Micah, had tanned skin and big doe-like brown eyes. He kept his black hair pulled back into a short ponytail. His armor was brown with black accents. He had the helmet known as Rouge.
Tennessee, also called Ten for short, had shaved blonde hair and brown eyes. He attempted at times to hide his Southern accent, but often failed. His armor was black with green accents. His helmet was known as Vanguard.
Nevada, whose real name was Nico, was of Asian decent with short black hair. He had black armor with red accents, and the helmet known as Grenadier.
Oregon, whose real name was Ian, had blonde curls. It was often described as 'cherub-like'. He had big, blue eyes and long lashes. It was often joked that he was the 'pretty boy' of the squad. He had sapphire blue armor with white accents, and the helmet known as Stalker.
Virginia had the Mjolnir armor in silver with purple accents with an Air Assault helmet.

It didn't take long before the ship arrived to its destination.
"Alright everyone, we're approximately 2 klicks southwest of your destination." 479-er announced. "Safe travels. I'll be on the radio when ready."
The ship door dropped down and everyone released their harnesses. One-by-one, everyone stepped off the ship.
"Alright everyone, let's hustle. Synchronize on my mark. Mark." West said.
"Sync." Everyone said in unison, then they all turned to head into the dense forest.

The squad came to the edge of the clearing; hiding amongst the bushes and trees.
"We got two guard towers. One on each side of the main gate entrance. One soldier in each." Oregon announced as he looked at the building from the scope of his shotgun.
In the distance, they could hear the rumbling of a truck nearing the building.
"Okay Virginia, what's the plan?" West asked as he looked at her. Virginia thrusted her thumb at the truck that could be seen coming out of the woods and towards the gate.
"I got an idea. Easy access." Virginia responded, then she whispered to Ten. After a few whispers were exchanged, Virginia took off and snuck behind the truck just as it bypassed her.
She swung her body underneath the truck and carefully held herself in place, thanks to the magnetized coating on her gloves, knees and boots. She pulled off the facing of the undercarriage and let it fall to the ground.
"Hmm.. this looks important." Virginia swiped up a stick from the dirt road and tangled it within the exposed wires. She yanked on it and the wires sparked, and in that moment, the truck sputtered and came to a stop.
"Aw, what the hell!" Cursed the driver.
"Out of gas?" Came the voice of the passenger.
"I don't think so. Seems like the battery died." Replied the driver.
Virginia peeked ahead and saw that the truck had stopped perfectly where she wanted - inbetween the doors.
The doors were stuck open now with the stalled truck unable to move.
"Ten!" Virginia called out on the radio.
The guards in the towers began to notice the stalled truck, but were suddenly taken aback when a bat flew in their view.
"What the...?" One guard said.
"Shoo! Fuck off!" The other guard tried to wave off the bat.
In that instance, a swarm of bats were in front of the glass, blocking their view. They frenzied all around the tower, making it difficult to see.
"This is Tower One! I've got a bat problem!" Called out the guard over the radio.
"Me too!" Called out the second guard on the radio.
Little did they know, the bats were holograms. The holograms were Ten's special armor ability.
Virginia rolled out from under the truck and motioned for the rest of the squad to move in, while the driver and passenger had their heads under the hood of the truck.
They reached the wall in unison, and they gave each other a nod.
They each slung a grappling hook onto the wall and quickly climbed the wall.
Once on the top, they could see a few guards going to assist with the stuck truck.
"We got security cameras." Nevada announced, pointing to the small camera that protruded out of the corner of the building. "Guess it's my turn."
Nevada leaped from the wall to the roof; rolling as he landed. He made his way to the camera, being cautious not to be seen.
The team watched as Nevada hooked up the wires to a patch in his forearm, and then after some tinkering, he gave a thumbs up.
Everyone jumped to the roof, landing in similar fashion like Nevada. They ran across the building to the backside and peeked over the edge.
"Okay, it looks like we're at the loading docks. That's the vehicle they'll be loading the crate in." West said as he pointed to the vehicle that was parked with its rear to the dock. The backgate of the vehicle was down and a single guard carried a small crate insidem
Two guards were standing around, talking and occasionally laughing.
A few crates were lined up along the dock, waiting to be loaded.
"Alright. So the objective must still be inside the warehouse." West said, and then he looked at Virginia.
"You're my trump card of distractions. What you got for me?"
Virginia looked at the three guards, and around the rest of the outside.
The lot was empty, except for a few military vehicles that were unmanned. No signs of any other guards.
The back end part of the lot reminded her of a junkyard. Pieces of metal and wood were piled up, leaning against the perimeter wall.
"I got this." Virginia said confidently. She went to the edge of the wall and slinked down into the shadows. She said down low and creeped along the dock and went under the vehicle. Her heart pumped with adrenaline, but she loved this.
Her ears listened intently on the movements of the guards, and when she knew the timing was right, she snuck up to the driver door and carefully opened it.
She was smiling when she saw the parking break was on. She listened to the truck hum, and then noticed the keys left in the ignition.
Quickly, she released the parking break and dodged back into the shadows of the dock, just as the vehicle began to roll.
"H-Hey!" Cried out one of the guards.
"Dammit, Doug!" Screamed the other guard. All three of them leapt from the dock and charged after the rolling vehicle.
A few crates spilled out of its opened back end; splintering the wood that was once intact.
West motioned for everyone to move and they quickly dropped from the roof and ducked into the open bay door.
Virginia jumped up and ran inside, quickly catching up to them. She was chuckling to herself when she heard the sound of metal colliding against the stone wall.
"Good job." West complimented Virginia as they regrouped behind a row of crates.
"I got eyes on the objective." Michigan announced.
Everyone followed his gaze and found the box sitting and strapped to a hand cart.
"They're making it easy for us." Oregon whispered.
They could hear the commotion outside and knew that they weren't going to have long.
"Do the old 'switch-a-roo'?" Ten asked. West nodded.

The three guards continued to argue, but radioed in for assistance. A few other guards walked through the warehouse and out onto the dock.
"What did you do?!" Screamed one of the guards.
"Boss is gonna be piiiissed!" Warned another.
The guards all gathered, not realizing the crate that they were supposed to be protecting, was now being hauled up the roof hatch.