Everyone returned to Sarge's shortly after going over the partial decimation of Wash and Carolina's home.
"What'd you find?" Sarge asked in a huff.
"We may have a lead." Simmons announced, making his way to Sarge's computer counsel that was clearly visible on the living room wall.
As Simmons approached it, Nico bumped into him, aiming his hand at the keyboard before him.
"What are you doing?" Nico asked, sounding a bit snarky in Simmons head.
"I was going to hack into the database of Raini Technologies." Simmons replied.
Nico gave a laugh.
"I got this." Nico waved him off, and Simmons felt both humiliated and defensive.
"No, no. I can do it!" Simmons insisted. Nico looked over his shoulder at Virginia, who was glad to have her facial expression hidden by her helmet.
She threw her hands up in the air as a sign of defeat, and showing she wasn't going to get involved.
"Battle of the nerds." Grif snorted.
Nico sighed and stared at Simmons, who didn't seem like he was going to back down. Nico waved his hand towards the keyboard, allowing Simmons to approach. He began to tap furiously at the keyboard while staring up at the screen.
The logo for Raini Technologies appeared, and Simmons continued through with his typing.
A few file folders popped up the screen, but the word 'CLASSIFIED' in bold and red lettering, kept flashing across the screen.
"Dammit!" Simmons cursed under his breath, as he continued to type.
"Having some trouble?" Nico asked, putting his hands behind his back.
"N-No!" Simmons began to panic as he typed on the screen. He saw the words flash before him after several minutes of typing, and with a sigh, finally gave up.
Nico stepped in and began typing, seeing the once 'CLASSIFIED' folders pop open. A few remained closed, but he was fortunate enough to open a few.
"Looks like we got a few names." Nico announced, glancing at the whole group behind him.
"Who are they?" Virginia asked.
"We got Crono Technologies..." Nico started as he continued to type. "Orion Laboratories." He pounded away at the keyboard. "Aaaand, Noah Gahn's Research."
"Great. We got three places we need to investigate." Grif sighed.
"Should we tag team them?!" Donut suggested in an excited tone.
"That would probably make sense." Nico said as he turned to face everyone. "I guess Virginia and I will investigate the first one."
"Then, Grif and Simmons will investigate Orion." Virginia said. "And Sarge and Donut will go investigate Noah Gahn's."
"Caboose, are you joining?" Simmons asked a sleepy blue soldier as he walked up to them from the couch.
"Yes. I would like that." Caboose said.
"Great. He's with Sarge, Lopez, Doc and Donut, then." Virginia stated.
"Drats." Sarge mumbled.
Simmons felt a bit worried, hearing that Virginia would be going off with Agent Nevada. He swallowed down his worry while trying to convince himself that she will be okay.

The team separated into three groups, promising to keep in touch by the radios in their helmets.
Virginia and Nevada landed on a planet named Harborage, where the research facility of Crono Technologies was set up.
They slinked through the tall grass and came to the perimeter wall that outlined the facility.
"So we go in, hack the system, download all their information and skedaddle." Virginia repeated the plan back to Nevada. He nodded in response.
"I got the drive on me. Hopefully, the downloading won't take too long." Nevada said, patting his right pocket. "If they are the ones that kidnapped Wash and Carolina, I'm sure we could find their intel."
Virginia gave a nod in response, her eyes focused on the tall building. The building reached towards the sky, spiraling towards the top. The whole outside was reflective glass that shimmered with a blue tint. The top of the building was a cylinder point that shown a blue light.
"On my mark." Nevada said.
"Sync." They both said, simultaneously.

Simmons and Grif arrived to a dome building with an arched sign over the front labeled 'Orion Laboratories'.
"So, what's the plan?" Grif asked.
"I'm not sure." Simmons shrugged.
"So we waltz in, ask if they have any kidnapped Freelancers lying about?" Grif said in a sarcastic tone. Simmons rolled his eyes.
"We go in, extract the information from their computers, download it on a drive and beat it." Simmons explained.
"Joy." Grif looked over to the main road, seeing a delivery truck approaching the facility. "Hey, what about that?" Grif elbowed Simmons to get his attention.
Simmons followed his gaze and noticed the truck.
"Good idea!" They quickly rushed up to the delivery truck, hopping onto the back bumper and weaseling themselves inside.
"What's all these weird containers?" Grif asked as they crouched in the back of the truck.
"Looks like a type of cooler." Simmons explained.
"For food?" Grif got excited.
"Doubt it." Simmons smirked. Grif opened a cooler, nearly screaming when he saw a preserved body on ice. He slowly closed the lid and tried to keep himself from vomiting.
"These coolers may be our best bet of not getting seen." Simmons explained, and then he opened one and crawled inside.
"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me." Grif groaned, hesitantly opening a cooler and allowing himself to slip inside.

Sarge, Lopez, Donut, Doc and Caboose arrived to Noah Gahn's Research facility on the nearby planet of Poesy. The facility resembled the Guggenheim, having multiple layers that seemed to spiral. It looked almost like a giant pot for soil.
"Who's this Noah Gahn's guy?" Doc asked.
"He's voted to be in the 'Top 10 of the Most Eligible Bachelors of the Galaxy!'." Donut announced.
"Um, not surprised that you know that." Doc gave a chuckle.
Donut kept envisioning a flower popping out of the top of it, and thus, causing him to snicker.
"Alright, so how we going to break-in?" Sarge huffed as they sneaked closer to the entrance. It was a guard post set-up by a long road that led to the front doors of the facility.
"Oh, we won't need to sneak in!" Donut said enthusiastically. "I signed us up for the tour!"
"You did what now?" Sarge asked.
Donut hurried up to the guard post, where he was greeted by a woman in white armor with blue accents.
"You must be the 3 o'clock!" She beamed, happily,
"Yes ma'am!" Donut replied.
"Dammit. I wanted to storm the place." Sarge huffed in a mumble. The woman handed out badges on rope lanyards that were labeled 'TOUR'. Everyone put them on around their necks.
They followed her to the entrance, where the doors slid open.
"Welcome to the Noah Gahn's Research Facility!" She announced as she waved her hand. "Mister Noah Gahn is known for his innovate thinking and design of the Mjolnir armor-," The woman began to explain as the group walked down a long corridor. The walls were decorated with tall images of several armor designs. "He was also voted in to be the 'Top 10 of the Most Eligible Bachelors of the Galaxy!" She added after a series of rants.
"See?! Told you!" Donut gushed.
"Caboose, don't touch anything." Sarge warned his blue counterpart.
"I will not touch anything." Caboose repeated.
They continued down several hallways, bypassing several staff members in lab coats. Sarge was bored by the tour and Caboose seemed excited. Caboose pressed his face to the glass, watching as a group of scientists were assembling the bottom-half of a robot.
"Hey, Lopez." Sarge whispered. Lopez turned his head slightly to him. "That room right there, that looks like where you need to go in." Lopez was handed a hard drive. "Do what you do best, compadre."
Donut and Doc noticed that Lopez was waiting for the tour guide to be distracted before he sneaked into the lab.
"Miss! Miss!" Donut waved his hand excitedly, drawing her attention to the opposite side of the hallway. "Can you please explain-?!"
Lopez made his way into the room, where the wall was decorated with several computer screens. Lopez sat in a lone computer chair and installed the hard drive, and began to tap rapidly on the keyboard.
A series of file folders popped up on the screen, and Lopez began to download the information.

Grif pushed open the cooler, gasping and shivering.
"F-F-F-Fuck...!" Grif shuddered as he rolled out of the cooler.
"Don't you have the internal temperature gauge that keeps you warm in below zero temperatures?" Simmons asked, sounding fine.
"It s-s-short c-c-c-circuited!" Grif whimpered.
"Quiet, numb nuts. We're inside." Simmons whispered harshly.
They looked around the room, noticing they were in a type of freezer. Several crates were stacked side-by-side.
"Why do they have a freezer full of dead bodies?" Grif whispered, sounding nervous.
"These must be bodies donated for science." Simmons explained as he went to the freezer door and pushed it open a bit. Simmons poked his head out and looked around, noticing an empty hallway with a few doors. At the end of the hallway was an elevator and a flight of stairs. "Looks empty. We should be able to sneak out. Come on!" Simmons motioned for Grif to follow and together, they made their way into the hallway.
"So how we going to find a computer? It's not like they'll have a listing-," Grif began to bitch, but Simmons cleared his throat to stop him.
"There's a directory." Simmons pointed to the metal placard that listed the floor levels. Listed on Floor 2 in bold lettering was 'COMPUTER LAB'.
"Shut it." Grif growled as they headed up the stairway.

Nevada and Virginia climbed up a fire escape, where Nevada was able to tinker with the fire exit in order for them to sneak in.
Virginia had her gun up, ready to fire. They swept the corridor, ducking under windows that showed the inside of offices. A few people were tinkering away inside the rooms, focused on their work, not realizing of the two Freelancers who sneaked into their facility.
"This is like the good ol' days, huh?" Agent Nevada asked as he crouched along the wall. Virginia gave a chuckle.
"Yeah. The good ol' days." She repeated.
Virginia peeked into a room, seeing the two workers inside had their backs turned. She rolled forward across the doorway and onto the other side. Nevada quietly crept across the doorway, matching Virginia's stride as they started to rush down the hallway.
"We just need to get to a computer. Any computer should do the trick." Nevada stated as he came to the end of the hallway. He peeked around the corner, seeing a group of people walking down the hallway, away from them.
They quickly walked across the hallway to the opposite corridor. Virginia glanced over her shoulder, seeing nobody coming.
Nevada took the lead and started to walk down the corridor. He poked his head into a room and saw a computer in an empty room.
"Found one." He whispered and crouched into the room. Virginia stepped into the room and quietly closed the door behind them.
Nevada sat into the computer chair and hooked up the drive and began tapping away at the computer. Virginia looked around the room, noticing a few framed family portraits hanging on the wall. A few file cabinets were stacked by the wall, and she decided to go through them.
"I'm in." Nevada announced as he pulled up several images of file folders and began to download them.
"Notice anything of concern?" Virginia asked as she shut the file cabinet, not finding anything of interest.
"Well, there's a lot of locked files. We'll need to take them and unlock them in a more... safer location." Nevada explained, seeing the word 'PRIVATE' repeatedly flash on the screen. He sighed and continued tapping on the screen, seeing the folders transferring to the drive. "It will take 2 minutes."
"That should be enough time." Virginia said as she stepped back to the doorway. She peeked through the crack in the door. Walking down the hallway was a scientist, dressed entirely in white, holding a cup of coffee. "Scratch that."
Nevada glanced over his shoulder at her.
"Come again?"
"We might have a visitor." Virginia whispered as she re-shut the door. Nevada sighed and looked back at the computer.
"Nothing's ever easy."
"Incoming." Virginia announced.

Simmons and Grif opened the door to the second floor, seeing a quiet hallway.
"Looks like the coast is-," Simmons began to say, before a group of five scientists walked out of a room. "-not clear."
"Good job, jackass." Grif sniped. Several more scientists flooded the hallway as they looked on from the crevice in the doorway. "So now what?" Grif asked. Simmons pondered as he looked around the hallway, and then turned to look at the flight of stairs they had just walked up. On the wall next to him, he saw a small red square that said 'PUSH for Fire Alarm'.
"I got an idea." Simmons announced. Grif turned to look at him and followed his gaze. Simmons slammed his fist against the button, and then a red light began to flash overhead.
The scientists all paused, seeing the lights flash along the corridor. They all stopped what they were doing and all began to migrate towards the stairs.
Everyone rushed down the stairs, not noticing the maroon and orange soldier that had tucked themselves into an air duct system.
"Ow! Get off me, fat ass." Simmons growled.
"You're crushing my organs." Grif whined.
"Hey, those are my organs." Simmons corrected him, as they waited for the last of the scientists to disappear down the flight of stairs. Simmons pushed open the facing to the air duct system and slowly crawled out. Grif squirmed, nearly feeling stuck. "Quick. Let's go."
Simmons rushed past the door and down the hallway, seeing an office open and a large computer monitor hanging on the wall.