Part 1

Episode 9: Sins of the Past Revealed

Oregon and Carolina burst into a room that looked like a workshop. They looked around, but couldn't find anyone. What they did find were the computer and an odd-looking circular device.

"What the fuck is that thing supposed to be?" Oregon asked as he stared at the circular device.

"Hell if I know," Carolina said as her attention zeroed in on a strange hammer. "This place is full of odd things."

"At least there's one thing recognizable," Oregon said as he turned toward the computer. Oregon immediately headed toward the computer and Zeta's hologram appeared next to his head.

"I'm guessing you want me to look through this?" Zeta asked.

"Got it in one, Zeta," Oregon replied as he sat in the chair.

"I'll let you know what I find," Zeta said as she flickered away.

"So," Oregon said as he swiveled the chair toward Carolina. "Want to go get the others and lead them here?"

"I'm not going back through that room again," Carolina shuddered. Oregon merely shrugged as he resorted to twiddling his thumbs.

"Why didn't you get affected?" Carolina eventually asked.

"Probably something to do with my helmet still being on," Oregon shrugged.

"Why did you blame me for York?" Oregon asked after several minutes of silence.

"I suppose on some level I didn't trust you after finding out you worked for Hargrove," Carolina said slowly and thoughtfully.

"How can I put your mind to ease?" Oregon asked.

"You already did," Carolina said. "However, I'd still like to know what you were up to before our reunion."

"It's a long story," Oregon replied.

"I have time," Carolina said. "Well, until the others show up."

"You might want to get comfortable," Oregon said.

A long time ago…

The Mother of Invention
The Training Room

Oregon was still in his previous armor set at this point, and Nevada wore the CQB armor variant. Oregon and Nevada watched as Carolina and Maine sparred. A lot of the Freelancers made bets, most bet for Maine since he's such a monster. However, Oregon and Nevada both bet for Carolina. Once Carolina inevitably won the match, the Freelancers went along their business. Oregon and Nevada were practicing their aim. Oregon used a sniper rifle and hit some of his targets but missed the rest. Nevada was doing the same, but with a Magnum. At some point, they ceased their training and put the practice weapons away. As soon as that was done, the P.A system beeped.

"Agents Oregon and Nevada," said the robotic voice of F.I.L.S.S said. "Please report to the bridge. The Director requests your presence."

Oregon and Nevada shrugged at each other but immediately headed straight to the bridge.

Later, on the Bridge…

A man with sunglasses stood staring out of the front "windshield" with his hands behind his back.

"Agents Oregon and Nevada are on their way, sir," F.I.L.S.S said from a nearby computer screen.

"Thank you F.I.L.S.S," the Director said. "You can go back to your task."

"Of course, sir," F.I.L.S.S said as she left the screen.

"What are you going to do now?" asked a voice that sounded like Epsilon. "Let me guess. You're going to send them on a suicide mission since they're one of the worst Freelancers at your beck and call."

"Sarcasm is unbecoming of you, Alpha," the Director said.

"You do remember that I was born from your mind, right?" Alpha asked. "Cause if you do, then you are essentially chastising yourself."

Before the Director could respond, Oregon and Nevada walked in.

"Mute yourself, Alpha," the Director said before he turned around and regarded the two Freelancers.

"You requested our presence, sir?" Oregon asked.

"Indeed I did," the Director replied. "I have a special mission for you two."

"We're ready and waiting, sir," Nevada said.

Back in the present…

Oregon's story was interrupted as the two freelancers heard the sound of footsteps. They immediately turned toward it with robot laser rifles aimed.

"Oregon and Carolina," said a familiar voice. "Welcome to my home."

"Who the fuck-Charles is this guy?" Oregon asked as a man in a lab coat and face-mask showed himself.

"Don't you remember, old friend?" the man said as he removed his mask. Both Oregon and Carolina widened their eyes and dropped their jaws.

"Georgia?" the two freelancers asked in unison.

Back with Nevada…

Nevada jumped off a wall and into the air. She landed behind a machine and blasted it in the back. She dropped her now empty laser weapon and looked around. The floor was covered in machines and machine parts. Wash was busy wrenching a knife free from one of the machines, Sarge was reloading his shotgun, Grif was keeping his laser weapon away from Simmons as he wanted to keep hold of it even though he had the Grifshot again, and Tucker was leaning against a wall.

"Okay, people," Nevada said to the sim troopers and Wash. "We need to hurry up to Oregon and Carolina."

"She's right," Wash said to them. "We still have a mission to complete, and they might need our help."

None of the sim troopers budged a muscle.

"So, you're abandoning the mission?" Wash asked.

"Fuck no," Tucker said as he walked up. "We just need to relax a bit. We just spent who knows how long fighting robots from James Cameron movies."

"I'd hate to ever agree with a blue," Sarge spoke up. "But he's right. We're spent, and not all of us are as young as we used to be."

"No, that's just you," Tucker said. "You're the only one here with creaky bones."

Sarge just grunted.

"Also," Simmons spoke up. "I want to see if I can reprogram these machines. We might need their help before the end."

Nevada and Wash looked at each other once and immediately agreed without verbal communication.

"How long do you think it'll take?" Wash asked Simmons.

"Based on how high tech the machines are… give or take an hour," Simmons replied thoughtfully.

"Excuse me," said Kappa as he flickered next to Nevada's helmet. "I do believe that with my help, the amount of time necessary would be reduced."

"By how much?" Nevada asked.

"Half," Kappa replied.

Nevada nodded, and much to Simmons chagrin, Kappa flickered over to him.

Back with Oregon and Carolina…

Oregon and Carolina stood speechless as they stared at their former ex-Freelancer agent. Georgia, on the other hand, was enraged.

"I would say that it's good to see you two," Georgia said as he clenched his fists. "But it's not. I had hoped you were both dead. After all, you abandoned me, Carolina. And you, Oregon… you always thought you were better than me."

"That's not true," Oregon said having found his voice.

"Isn't it?" Georgia asked. "Every time we sparred, you took me down. You even laughed as you did, and you never asked how I felt about being in your shadow!"

"I thought we were just having fun," Oregon said. "I thought you enjoyed the sparring as much as me."

"Well, for me it was always a chance to get above you in the leaderboard," Georgia snarled.

"I didn't abandon you, Georgia," Carolina spoke up finally. "I thought you were dead. The jetpack…"

"The jetpack," Georgia said bitterly. "Yes, the fucking jetpack. I did lose control of it and rammed face-first into a passing asteroid."

"However, you never checked to see if I was alive!" Georgia roared. "You just left me to die in the vacuum of space!"

"There was no time to go back to get you!" Carolina shouted. "We were being chased by Charon Industries mercenaries!"

"How did you survive?" Oregon asked. Georgia looked away from them for a bit before staring at them coldly.

"I don't have to tell you," Georgia said.

"In fact," Georgia sneered. "You have other things to worry about."

Suddenly, Oregon was blasted in the back and Caroline turned to see Eric walk forward with a mini-mac rifle in his hands.

"You!" Carolina snarled as she aimed her laser rifle at him. Suddenly, a knife embedded itself in her right leg and she fell to one knee. With one hand on the rifle and the other pulling out the knife, she looked to see who threw it.

"What's the matter, Carolina?" asked a familiar arrogant and cocky voice. "Old wounds acting up?"

"No… you can't be," Carolina said as her eyes widened in shock. "You're dead!"

"Quite to the contrary," said a figure as he walked out of the shadows. "I am very much alive."

Felix was back and wore an upgraded version of his old S Variant armor.

We're almost at the end of part 1. Episode 10 will be the final episode of part 1. I have yet to determine how part 2 will begin, or what I'm going to do in part 2 other than have them be in a Marvel universe. That means I won't be resuming the story for a while after episode 10. Yes, I know there have been days between the episodes. However, as this is an original story arc I need to do the stories in my own time. As always, if you enjoyed the story please do favorite the story and follow for updates. If you have questions, then please feel free to ask them. If you have suggestions for how to do the marvel half of the story, please ask them in your reviews.