(A/N) Hey guys, time for the latest update for Phase Two: Betrayal! A little delayed this time, because a few upcoming chapters haven't come in yet, and I thought some small delays would work better for us all than one long one, but hopefully there won't be a problem! A great chapter for you all here, to make up for the wait, written by Gumby1011 and featuring Agent Kentucky, along with the Boombringer's explosive enthusiasm! Next chapter, following up on the boombringing here, will be a Florida chapter by OhSoDeadly, so expect more explosive antics!

Enjoy!

Chapter Fifty-Two – Explosive Enhancements

Agent Kentucky

Written by Gumby1011

"You know what I miss most about running with you? The toys." – Dick Grayson

He absolutely could not wait to get started! Agent Kentucky trembled slightly in excitement as he looked down at the box-like device in his hands, and re-read the label for what seemed to be the hundredth time. "Jump Drive." It sounded so slick. So cool! So… so… so inexplicably amazing that his vocabulary could scarcely comprehend its true description! He'd have to come up with a new adjective just for this occasion.

"… Amasomerifficool," the agent muttered under his breath.

The Director, standing at the head of the third-wavers, turned from the observation-room window to address them. "In this exercise, you will all be familiarizing yourself with the usages of your various armour abilities. As I'm sure you've all come to realize, there is no substitute for battlefield experience. That said…" He turned to face the window again, prompting the agents to follow suit. "This simulation is designed to come very close."

Down in the simulation chamber were three men, wearing bulky suits of armour coloured in steel and red. They moved with confidence, almost as if they were expecting to breeze through whatever laid before them. The Director continued talking as he peered through the glass: "The men in this chamber are wearing close approximations of the heavy-armour suits that elite URF Insurrectionists have been observed to use. You are to use your enhancements to overcome their defences. You are going to be armed with standard laser-simulation weapons, and they are using lockdown-paint weapons."

He paused as a few of the freelancers seemed to question the test's difficulty. "Be advised: by the time you wear down one of their defences head-on, the target will have already shot you."

Kent glanced to where Jersey was standing beside him. "I beg to differ," he quipped. Jersey just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

The Director's eyes narrowed slightly as he shot a look to his left. "Is there something you would like to share, Kentucky?"

"Nope sir, sorry sir, just can't wait to break some mook face,sir!" Kent giggled as he looked down at the trio on the training-room floor.

The Director turned away from the agent, his frown seeming to grow deeper ever-so-slightly. "Indeed. Agent Nevada, you will be our first demonstrator."

"You got it, sir!" Nevada piped, saluting with the hand that still held her ability-unit. Then the green-and-black agent clipped the box into place on the back of her armour as she walked down the stairway to the training floor.

"Begin the training session, F.I.L.S.S.," the Director muttered as he adjusted his glasses.

The peppy voice was quick to reply. "Of course, sir. Initiating live-fire simulation."

The familiar concrete pillars rose up out of the floor, and the three soldiers readied their weapons as the training floor arranged itself. By the time Nevada reached the floor, the three soldiers no longer had a direct line of sight to the door, and the freelancer quickly made use of that cover.

"Alright, spread out, see if we can't catch the target before they get their bearings," the head sim-surrectionist ordered. His two teammates were quick to reply in the affirmative. They spread out and searched amongst the pillars, combing towards the entrance.

Kent watched as Nev attached a suppressor to her magnum, and pressed a button on the side of her armour unit. Suddenly his helmet was spouting static out of the radio, and by the guard's reactions so were theirs. They looked about, frantically, trying to locate the source of the interference. In their momentary distraction, Nevada was able to sneak around the men, so that by the time they resumed their advance on the door, she was behind them.

Nev simply snuck up behind the furthest guard back, and pressed her magnum to a chink in the "impervious" suit before firing a single shot. She wasted no time in darting behind cover as the guard's suit locked up. She managed to repeat this manoeuvre twice with little incident, seeing as the guard's jammed communications meant they were kept unaware of their losses. Nevada quickly jogged back up to the top of the stairs.

"Simulation test successful. Congratulations, Agent Nevada!" F.I.L.S.S. piped as she re-entered the room.

"How'd I do, guys?" she asked, excitedly.

"Meh," Kentucky muttered. "A little bland, but it works, I guess." Jersey elbowed him in the ribs with her metal arm as soon as he'd finished.

Nebraska rolled his eyes. "Can it, Kent. I think you were very efficient. What about you, Connie?"

Connie, meanwhile, just looked up from the data-pad she'd plugged into her own enhancement unit. "Hm? Oh, yeah, sure." She looked back down at whatever she was working on. "You did… You did great."

The Director cleared his throat, clearly (but of course, not visibly) irritated at the hacker's indifference. "I would advise you all to pay attention to the abilities of your fellow agents. Knowing your ally's capabilities is an invaluable asset on the battlefield."

Connecticut just huffed and stood up, walking over to the window with her data-pad still in hand. "Yes, sir."

"Don't worry, Nev!" West walked up behind her teammate and patted her on the back. "I thought that was pretty cool!"

The Director nodded and looked back at the training floor as the three guards got back to their freshly-unlocked feet. "West Virginia. You will be presenting next."

"Yay!" The exuberant agent practically bounded down the stairs and onto the training floor as F.I.L.S.S. set up the proper protocols.

"Initiating live-fire simulation. Special parameter: Camera drones. Disable the computer terminals to disable drones. Guard elimination: optional," F.I.L.S.S. surmised.

The training area went dark as she spoke, reverting to minimal lighting, providing plenty of shadows for West to hide in, and three computer terminals rose up from the floor. Small compartment opened up like miniature garage doors, and tiny remote controlled vehicles rolled out carrying cameras on their backs.

Georgia had been busy, apparently.

The three guards turned on the flashlights built into their assault rifles, and began panning over the area. Kentucky noticed that they were keeping radio comms to a minimum, opting to use hand signals despite the chamber's abysmal lighting. How was that supposed to help them? Did they think West was going to have the same enhancement as Nevada?

West slowly crept towards a computer terminal, only to be thwarted when one of the guards decided to start camping in front of it. After folding her arms in disappointment for a moment or two, West climbed atop one of the cement pillars. She looked over where a drone was patrolling, and after a few moments, a red alarm light atop its terminal started going off, and the monitor went dark.

The guard at the closest terminal set out immediately to investigate. West slipped in as soon as he went and sent her fist through the terminal screen, destroying it in a flurry of sparks. Its drone went silent. The agent tried to scramble on top of the pillar again, but the camper found her first and fired off a shower of paint rounds. By some miracle West managed to avoid the purple goop, but she had to rush over another drone in her escape, which she blinded and picked up as she ran. "You guys suck! This isn't fair at all!" she shouted before rolling behind cover. Her pursuant rounded the corner after her, and she swung the drone into his face, locking his armour.

"HA!" she shouted, before another guard rounded a corner, attracted by the noise. West flailed in a panic for a moment, before simply throwing the drone at the guard, catching him in the chest. She dashed up behind it and threw an expert left hook at him, cracking his visor before he could recover. "No, seriously, quit it! You're doing it wrong!" she yelled at the last guard (who, of course, has just arrived on the scene) before picking up the guard's assault rifle from the ground and giving the last foe a good coating of lockdown paint.

The lights in the chamber went on, and F.I.L.S.S. announced "Protocol breach. Simulation integrity compromised. Lockdown paint weapons designated for hostile usage only. Armour Enhancement module, however, functions as intended. Test… successful?" The A.I.'s confused tone echoed the mind-set of the spectators. A mind-set that could best be summed up as:

What the fuck was that?

West climbed the stairs up to the observation deck, a pout on her lips. "And it was going so welltoo." Well? It was going well? Wasn't it supposed to be a stealth-type simulation? The other freelancers just glanced confusedly between one another before the Director finally broke the silence.

"Agent Colorado. Would you be so kind as to begin the next presentation?"

The cobalt freelancer nodded. "Yessir." She turned and walked down to the training room floor, where a pair of technicians were replacing one of the sim-surrectionist's visors and scraping the paint off of another. As soon as they were finished they rushed out of the chamber, while Colorado retrieved a pair of lockdown laser SMGs from the weapons table that rose out of the floor. Colorado and the grunts sized each-other up silently as they waited for the test to begin.

"Initiate live-fire simulation. Special parameter: variable cover," F.I.L.S.S. announced.

The concrete pillars around the room began rising and falling erratically, providing unpredictable cover for both teams. Mobility would be key here. "Alright boys, hit him hard, no mercy!" The head sim-surrectionist ordered. Kent couldn't help but notice the frustration building up in his voice.

Daaaaaaw, is the wittle mook sad he can't catch a wittle agent?the agent wondered to himself, chuckling.

Two of the soldiers broke from the leader in either direction, darting between bits of cover as they appeared and disappeared along the way. The leader followed suit, combing the middle, so they were spread out like a net among the shifting floors. One of them caught sight of a flash of Cobalt and Coral. "There! Target sighted!" He opened fire on the agent, only for her to dart behind a now-paint-spattered column in a puff of blue flames. He gave chase, but right on cue she came sailing back the way she'd gone, surprising him at the corner and overwhelming his suit's hit-detectors with a blistering shower of simulated gunfire.

As the now-locked guard fell to the ground, Colorado moved on to her next target, hopping over bits of cover as they shifted and re-arranged themselves. She caught this one completely by surprise, and performed a thrust-pack assisted vault over a column as it retracted. She ended up full-body tackling him with all her momentum before pressing her gun's barrels to his chin and holding down the triggers. Two locked, one last to go.

This one caught sight of her as she stood back up. "You're mine, bitch!" he seethed. Sounded like she'd saved the leader for last. Paint rounds filled the area she'd just occupied as she thrust-packed back behind cover.

"Finish him! FINISH HIM!" Kentucky hollered from back at the observation room. A few of the agents gave him funny looks, and the Director somehow managed to glare at him without turning from the training floor.

Colorado sprinted straight up at the columns, paying close attention to which ones rose and fell as she moved, the leader's battle-rifle splashing paint futilely on the columns around her. She'd noticed a pattern to their movements. Not easy to pin down, but it was undeniably there. Meanwhile the remaining hostile just growled in frustration, his target seeming to always dodge out of the way whenever a column didn't spring up to obscure his shot.

'Rado was weaving in between the columns, using their motions to help cover her approach. However, for the last ten yards of her approach, she seemed to abandon this, instead sprinting straight at him with her SMG's held out. He took aim, but just when he fired, Colorado angled the thrust pack to give her next jump a little extra height. She went over the burst, and landed on the column she had predicted would rise up between her and her target. Both the column's momentum and the thrust-pack helped her next move: she took a soaring leap clean over the target, drowning him in a torrent of gunfire as she passed over him. Then she fired the thrust pack for a final burst, sending her into a landing roll that ended with her crouched, one knee bent, and both SMGs pointed at the ceiling.

She stood up and holstered the weapons before walking over to the stairwell, kicking the leader and muttering "Bitch" as she walked past him.

"Simulation test successful. Agent Colorado, you have set a new best personal time. Would you like a copy of the test footage?" F.I.L.S.S. asked, sounding almost like one of those old video games.

"Fine by me," 'Rado replied smugly as she walked back into the observation deck, her helmet already slung under her arm.

Nev, West, and Kent all clapped as 'Rado came back in. To witness the freelancer's ferocity mixed with speed like that was one hell of a sight! "Girl, I've seen some pretty crazy moves in my day, and let me just say: DAYUM!" Kentucky chuckled.

Jersey just folded her arms and muttered "Showoff."

Kent edged a little closer to the Director and just sort of asked. "Hey. Boss. Hey boss. Who's going ne-"

"Agent Connecticut."

"Aww," Kentucky bowed his head and returned to his spot.

Connie just looked up from her data-pad, still swatting Utah away from it with her off hand. "… Yes sir. I can work with what I've got." She glanced over at the white-armoured agent as he finally started picking up on her irritation.

"Um… sorry. Not my fault," Utah inched away from the hacker before she finally left out the door, before knocking on the side of Nebraska's head. He finally seemed to come back to life, not having moved or said much since 'Rado's demonstration.

"Hm? Huh? What?" he asked, sounding a bit unaware of his surroundings.

"… Subtle," Connie snarked before shutting the door to the stairs behind her.

"Initiating live-fire training exercise."

The standard grid of pillars rose up from the floor, and Kent watched as Connie seemed to grab only a magnum and plenty spare clips of ammo from the weapon table. "That's it? What about "powerful armour?"" Kent muttered. Jersey only shrugged in reply.

The head sim-surrectionist rolled his shoulders as the three regrouped in the center of the room. "Alright, that's it, no more of this getting flanked crap. Back to Back." The three put their backs to each other, each scanning their potion of the surroundings, and the group refused to move. Connie scoffed beneath her helmet as the three stood in their little huddle.

She darted between the pillars, sure to pass between them only when the guards were looking elsewhere. She managed to get behind one of the pillars right up next to the guards, before springing out behind cover. She focused her shots on a single targets' helmet, the damage counter on their visor spinning up under the barrage. He was quick to return fire in kind, but when Connie dodged out of the way… Well, it was like twoof her dodged, in opposite directions, no less!

"What the hell?" The guard stammered, moments before one of the hiding "Connies" dissolved into thin air. The remaining agent then sprouted another duplicate, and the two ran opposite directions between cover, both firing off shots. Half of the rounds spanked off of the first target's visor, but it was hard to tell which dupe had fired them.

The leader reloaded quick and shouted"Hit them both, pour it on!" The other guards certainly tried to oblige, but the brown agent's unpredictable movements made it tough to not only tell which one was the real one, but also which place the next two would come from! By the time they'd figure it out, she'd already be behind cover.

Connie wore away the target's defences until the first guard fell. His compatriots were quick to kick him out of the way. And one of them charged at the brown freelancer. "Idiot!" the leader shouted as the remaining guard rounded the corner and was greeted by emptiness. He'd picked the wrong cup in Connie's little shell-game. The freelancer darted from her actual cover to right behind the trooper, and took him out using the same weak-point Nevada had used earlier.

"Oh, wow, just look at her GO!" Nevada cheered for her fellow hacker. "Let 'em have it, Connie!"

Kent couldn't help but grin at the creativity of the performance, honestly.

Another hologram appeared behind Connecticut that stood perfectly still behind cover. Meanwhile, the agent herself charged out at the leader, and sent the Hologram out a few seconds later. The guard fell for the quick trick, thinking that the real agent was in fact the decoy, but by the time his rifle's shots burst the hologram it was too late. Connie planted a boot in the man's chest using all her momentum before placing her sim-magnum to his visor and pulling the trigger, locking up his armour.

"Simulation test successful," F.I.L.S.S. chimed.

As the brown-armoured agent re-entered the observation deck, she took off her helmet and sat down at her original spot. "Nice work, girl!" West offered cheerily; however Connie didn't look up from her data-pad as she re-connected it to her enhancement unit.

"Yeah, for now, at least." Connie went back to work, intent on improving the hologram's movement. Most of those duplicates had been on-the-fly motion capture that she'd slaved to her armour, but it may be possible that she could program some more sophisticated motions with time…

The Director turned from the window and faced the agents "I think I can say without a doubt that those were satisfactory performances, over all." He seemed to pass over West as he said this, but nobody bothered to make mention of it. "We will now be moving onto class A and B enhancements. F.I.L.L.S, if you would kindly begin the recording protocols, and prepare a connection to the command server? Agent New Jersey will be the first to demonstrate."

"Certainly, Director," the A.I. replied cheerily.

Jersey turned from the window and took a deep breath, before attaching a small, steel-coloured, oval-shaped object to a socket on the back of her mechanical forearm. The action caused Kent to notice that the arm in question looked like it'd been updated since he last checked. "You go rock those mook's worlds, awright Joooooiiisey?" he piped.

The orange-armoured agent laughed a little before replying. "Yeah sure, whatever you say." She smiled as she put her helmet on and walked down to the training floor. Kent saw her grab a magnum and a shotgun, as well as plenty of ammo before F.I.L.S.S. announced the terms of the test.

"Initiating live-fire exercise. Special parameter: Limited cover."

The columns rearranged themselves again, now there were less of them, and the ones that remained were chest-high, at most. Jersey was quick to take up cover as the three guards began their sweep of the area, a few of their paint rounds already spanking off of the cover behind her. With the cover situation like this, it would be quite difficult for her to stay undetected.

But to be perfectly honest, the cyborg agent had no problem with this. She liked loud. Hopping over her cover she rushed straight at her foes, her robotic thumb pressing a button on the side of her new first knuckle. A translucent blue barrier of plasma emanated from the disk on her forearm, and the paint rounds bounced off of it, and onto whatever cover she passed by. The shield slowly turned redder as it blocked the shots, and had turned a good shade of purple by the time Jersey reached the guard.

She bashed the shield into him, forcing his rifle barrel to the side and opening him up for a world of hurting. Jersey held her shotgun ready to fire throughout her approach, and as she hit him she turned off the shield and swung her weapon to bear, rapidly firing three shots: One to the trigger-hand (making him drop the gun), one to the chest, and one to the face. She grabbed the now-armor-locked body and used it as a barrier while she ducked behind some cover.

The agent glanced down at the shield-emitter. The little window on the side had yet to return to a full blue, and it was uncertain that she'd have the time to let it charge. Then, unexpectedly, she bowled out from behind cover again, now letting the body soak up the lockdown paint meant for her. It was actually a rather comical sight to see: A small, comparably thin form dragging a heavy, armoured man around like a ragdoll. She closed in on the second target, but was forced to abandon her body-shield about halfway to her destination: The added weight of the paint building up was starting to slow her down.

Casting him aside and charging, she lit up her shield again (Which had recharged somewhat, but still wasn't perfect). She used a similar approach as last time- a straight-up shield charge- but this time on arrival she didn't want to risk shorting it out with another bash. Instead she shut the shield down and simply punched her assailant's weapon with her false arm, severely bending the barrel.

A flurry of punches tripped the guard's armour-lock just as the leader (who she'd lost track of, to be honest) jumped out of cover, right behind the agent, shouting "Gotcha!"

"GAH! Son of a-"In a knee-jerk reflex, Jersey spun around and threw a mechanical haymaker at him. In her startled state, her thumb grazed the shield's trigger, and it tried to take shape when she hit her target. But instead, an odd blue flash of light went off, tripping the leader's armour-lock and magnetizing Jersey's arm. "Wha... What the hell?"Jersey muttered as she struggled, bent over, to separate her fist from the guard's face. It was tougher than it should have been, since her elbow was clinging to any part of her armour it drew near.

F.I.L.S.S. decided to chime in from the rafters "Live fire simulation results: Inconclusive. Equipment test: successful. Additionally, plasma pulse detected."

The Director rubbed the bridge of his nose before keying the intercom. "That's quite alright, F.I.L.L.S. Agent New Jersey's enhancement is the source of said pulse. I hope you understand the hazard of triggering a magnetically contained plasma field while it's obstructed now, agent."

The Director stood up straight as, once again, several technicians rushed out onto the field to recover the leader's armour, de-magnetize Jersey's arm, and remove the paint from the first guard's suit. Then after a moment, he leaned over the intercom again. "Agent Kentucky, you are to vacate the training floor immediately!"

The rest of the agents leaned forward a bit to see Kent striding out onto the floor, head held high, only to stop when called out by the Director. "Aw, I can't even help a friend up? Have you no heart?" Silence was the only answer he received. "… Say, while I'm down here, think I could try out-"

"Schedule shift confirmed. Agent Kentucky position: test number eight," F.I.L.S.S. chimed, her peppy voice a dissonant carriage of the Director's displeasure.

"Aw, man!" Kent sighed dejectedly as he walked out of the room, disappointed at being moved to the last test slot. Well, at least his little performance had bought enough time for Jersey's arm to be more or less de-magnetized. That said, she was still trying to stop her fingers from clinging together as she approached, gazing intently at the back of her hand. Kentucky, however, misinterpreted the gesture. "Yeah, high five!" he slapped the cyborg's upturned hand as she reached him.

"Gah! Kent, what the hell?" Jersey jumped a bit at the sudden break in her concentration before trying to pull her hand back… Only to realize that her still-magnetized fingers had stuck themselves to the armour plate on the back of Kentucky's hand.

Kent chuckled before turning to climb the stairs back to the observation deck, borderline dragging the other agent behind him by the hand. "Daw, that is so sweet of you!" he squeaked in a not-quite-sure-if-it-was-mocking-or-not falsetto. As the duo came back to the observation deck they passed by Utah, who smiled dopily as they walk passed him before he put on his helmet. As the duo came back to the observation deck, the Boombringer didn't notice Colorado snicker.

Jersey did though. "You can stuff it half-pint," she growled under her breath as she walked past the cobalt agent. For a moment Colorado looked like she was about to snap back, but she decided not to after a glance at the Director. She just settled for popping her knuckles in irritation.

Any commentary the other agent's would've had on the demonstration was cut off as Jersey attempted to free her hand from Kentucky's. The demo-man, on the other hand, just peered down through the window, oblivious of the attempts to detach their magnetic grip.

"Initiating live-fire exercise," F.I.L.S.S. chimed.

Kentucky could gather from the thugs radio chatter that they probably weren't audible to the agents being tested. The leader called the other two sim-surrectionists into a huddle before going over their brief strategy. "Alright, this one's supposed to have a shield as well. Surround the bastard, hit him from behind." It sounded like the leader had been trying to get a step ahead of the last enhancement. Guess it probably made sense that the Director would give them some intel, but not enough. That's what actual soldiers usually had, anyways.

The armoured figures spread out among the cement columns, while Utah didn't really bother sticking to cover of any sort. Typical. The white-armoured freelancer walked right where the trio of guards were waiting to ambush him, as a matter of fact. The three sprang out from behind their cover and rushed the giant man. "Dust him!" the leader shouted.

A flurry of pink pellets flew towards Utah, but instead of dodging any of them, he put a fist to the ground, and a golden-tinted dome flared from the unit on his back. The pink pellets went off on contact with the dome, before sliding down the side of the dome in odd little pink snow-flake like… things.

"Ah…" Utah muttered as he watched the objects falling, before charging at the edge of the dome like a linebacker. "It's like being in a snowglobe!" Just before he reached the edge of the dome it vanished, only for him to tackle the sim-surrectionist leader and throw the dome up again. This time, it trapped the two of them inside, together. The guard lifted his gun, grinning that the white-clad agent would be so foolish as to throw up the shield around them both. He pointed the weapon, pulled the trigger...

Click.

The guard realized all too late that when the oaf had tackled him, the gun's receiver had been bent inwards. "Oh..."

"Oh!" It seemed as though the giant himself hadn't even noticed. The two just sort of stood there awkwardly for a moment, until Utah decided to break the silence. "Well…this is awkward," Utah muttered as he cracked his knuckles. What happened next could perhaps best be described as a professional wrestling match in which one of the competitors is horribly, hopelessly, and hilariously outmatched. It was difficult to see the actual fight through the shield's distortion, except for the parts where Utah threw or swung the leader into the side of the dome. That said, Kent could hear the odd thungk sounds such impacts made from all the way up in the observation deck. Throw in the leader's banter (most of which was along the lines of "GAH! Come on, man, we can just talk aboOOOWW!") and it was plain to see that Utah's unorthodox barrier usage was quite effective.

The other two guards thought so too. They just sort of looked at each other apprehensively as the thorough beating was administered. When the dome shield's time limit expired, Utah was holding the armour-locked leader by an arm with one hand and a by leg with the other. "Huh?" the white armoured freelancer mumbled as he looked up at the other two, who were still likely debating what to do next. The first one to move raised his weapon, and Utah spun around with the leader once before hurling him at the aiming foes, hammer-toss style. The meat-missile intercepted the shots and bowled the second guard over with enough force to lock his armour too.

The final guard just looked at Utah. Then at his rifle. Then back to Utah. The white freelancer shrugged. "Sometimes it hurts less if you go ahead and lay down," he offered. The guard just nodded and slowly put his weapon down before lying flat on his stomach and putting his hands behind his head. Utah then turned to the observation deck, and gave an enthusiastic thumbs up.

"Simulation test successful" F.I.L.S.S. announced. "Additional points awarded for capture of a potential interrogation subject."

Kent as well as some of the other freelancers clapped as Utah re-entered the chamber. "No, really, what do they feed you?" the Boombringer asked, half laughing as he spoke.

Utah just shrugged. "Oh, you know. Food."

"Nice work tiny," Nebraska patted Utah on the back as he walked past. "That said, I daresay I can one up that, even." He grinned with confidence before putting on his helmet and walking down to the training-room floor.

Once again, F.I.L.S.S. announced the terms of the battle. "Initiating live-fire simulation. Special parameter: labyrinth." As she spoke, cement columns raised from the floor, high enough that it would be impossible to climb on top of one. They formed a sort of maze-like pattern around Nebraska and the three guards as the grey freelancer picked up a battle-rifle and a magnum.

The three guards began working their way through the maze as a single loose unit, standing in a spread-out, single file line. Meanwhile, Nebraska headed into the maze, battle-rifle pressed against his shoulder. He kept his eye on the motion tracker, and stood absolutely still when the three red dots appeared, pressing himself against the wall they were on the opposite side of. He had positioned himself at a u-shaped section of the maze, and waited to make his move until the middle guard was closest to him.

He activated his enhancement and slipped through the wall, appearing just behind the guard before turning solid again and busting a cap in the back of the guard's neck. The guard in front (the leader) turned the corner to investigate the noise, and saw Nebraska as well as the armour-locked guard. The grey agent thought fast, and ran towards the guard in and exaggerated, cartoony way. The guard fired a burst off at the agent, which went straight through him and hit the guard that rounded the corner behind him.

"Oh! Sorry Frank!" the leader exclaimed before swinging around to observe his environment. "Just another hologram…" No sooner had he finished saying this than did Nebraska become solid again, shooting the back of the leader. "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT!" the guard bellowed as he fell to the ground.

"Live fire simulation test: Successful. New personal best time," F.I.L.S.S. announced.

Kent was not impressed. Sure it was a good kill, but it had been too damn brief, and there hadn't even really been anything all that dynamic about it! The Boombringer cupped his hands around his mouth. "Boooooo." It took him a moment to notice Jersey's hand had finally detached from his. "Oh hey, will ya look at that."

"Finally!" The ginger muttered as she tested out her hand. Fingers weren't sticking anymore. So that's good. She looked over towards Kent, about to ask her for some help with stuff like that in the future… But the agent had vanished. She watched as the green and blue agent dashed out onto the training floor, shoving past Nebraska as he burst through the door.

Kent looked back as he blew past the agent. "Out! Outoutout! My turn now, It's my turn!"

Neb just paused before closing the door behind him. A few minutes later Kent heard him say "Class A. That man got a class. A." The boombringer shrugged before ripping the Jump Drive out of its box and attaching it to the small of his armor's back.

And suddenly, it took a lot more effort to move in his suit. "Hey, boss, what gives?" he looked back up at the observation chamber window, his arms held out. Which took more effort than usual. It felt like he was moving through molasses!

"The drive requires an additional power source, included in the box." The Director shook his head as he spoke. "Agent. Surely evenyouhad the foresight to actuallyreadthe operations manual?"

Kentucky thought back about the past half hour. And all he got back was "JUMP-DRIVEJUMP-DRIVEJUMP-DRIVE!" Nope. No operations manual. "Of course I did!" Kent replied, indignant. "Whaddya take me for?" He stooped down and retrieved the power-source from the box. It seemed to be a slot where it would fit over a pauldron. Kentucky attached it to his left shoulder, and attached the short cable dangling from it to a plug in the back of his armour.

The world suddenly felt normal again. Kentucky did a little celebratory shadow-boxing before doing a goofily exaggerated salute. "Agent Kentucky, geared out, psyched up and ready to tear it down, Director sir!" the agent cried, a satchel of armour-lock simulation explosives bouncing against his side.

"Oh Jesus," Kentucky heard the sim-surrectionist leader mutter.

"Hey, whoever you think can help, buddy!" the Boombringer giggled in retort.

"Initiate live-fire simulation," F.I.L.S.S. announced. The stone columns rose. Kentucky didn't bother grabbing a proper gun. His bombs would be all he needed. He pressed a button he'd noticed on his shiny new pauldron, and a counter popped upon his visor. It read "0% distortion." Kent cackled inanely before turning the counter all the way to one-hundred. "LET'S SEE WHAT THIS THING CAN DO!" he shouted before hitting the button again.

"Idiot."

The agent wasn't quite sure where the voice came from, but the counter dropped to a measly 10%. "Aaaaawww…" he groaned. Either way, he braced himself for whatever mind-blowingly amasomeriffic effects his shiny new dump-drive would have-

And nothing happened. Kent pouted for a moment before kicking his foot in frustration. And it must have stretched for about three feet longer than it should have, before snapping back to its original shape when he stopped moving.

What?

He stood still for a moment. Until, apparently, he let his experimenting get the best of him. Two of the guards rounded corners on opposite sides of him. "Oh, fuck that!" Kentucky cried, before dashing another direction. He made create time, clearing the columns with two full strides each, before bounding behind some cover. It was like the entire world was moving beneath Kent's feet to aide him in his endeavours! "You know what? It's about damn time!" the agent declared.

Compression time remaining: 30 seconds.

Kentucky glanced back from the counter and started rifling through his bag, before retrieving a few impact-rigged grenades. "I can work with this."

From the observer's perspectives, it was one of the oddest sights they'd ever seen. It was like Kentucky had suddenly turned into elastic, or been rendered to cartoon physics, or maybe a little of both! He took a few six-foot long steps and found himself a pillar away from one of the guards. He leaned forward, reached out with a sticky bomb, and daintily placed it on the guard's chest. Over a total distance of ten feet. As the bomb went off with a flash and the guard froze in place, another popped out from a pillar just behind the agent.

"Woops! Didn't seeya there!" Kent piped as the soldier took a swing at him. The agent ducked to dodge, growing shorter for a moment before jumping back ten feet. "That's an awful nice gun-arm you're packing!" Kentucky reached forward and put his arms on the guard's shoulder before lifting his feet off the ground, his body snapping back to form and flinging himself over his target. He waved at the mook as he landed, before setting off the charge he'd planted on the man's shoulder.

As the agent sat on the ground, he heard the sound of some machine powering down. He glanced at his HUD and noticed the timer had vanished. "Wow, what a rush!" he cried before squirming a little. Then he hopped back up on his feet, following his motion tracker right to the leader. Just before rounding the corner, Kent engaged the drive again, this time setting it to thirty percent. He flailed his arms and bounced up and down as he approached the leader head on. The leader, on the other hand, was baffled into silence by the sight of the blue-and-green armoured figure flailing in anatomically impossible ways like some sort of eldritch contortionist.

"… Yeah, fuck this." The man tossed his rifle to the ground before stomping out of the chamber. "I don't get paid nearly enough for this bullshit."

After a few moments of confused silence, Kentucky stopped his flailing, just after the jump-drives disengagement revealed his horror-show to be him just spazzing like an epileptic in a strobe-light emporium. "Yay! I win!" Kentucky shouted as he pumped his fist.

Back in the observation deck there was dead silence. It was only cut when Agent Jersey looked dead at the Director. "What have you done?" Her tone was somewhere between a despairing question and a blunt statement of a fact.