Chairman: Dear Director. Your program was granted the use of a single artificial intelligence unit, for implantation experiments. Yet, the department records clearly show multiple agents in the field with implants, during the same timeframes. Surely this must be a logging error, and we anticipate a corrected document soon.

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Inside the base, Slade lays South down on a table and takes off his helmet.

Slade: Kan, take a look around and see if you can find a spare suit and some tools.

Kan: Yes, Leader.

Kan heads off to do as he was asked, leaving the two Freelancers in the room. South takes off her helmet, running a hand through her short, blonde hair.

(I'LL BE LEGIT HONEST WITH YOU GUYS, I THINK THAT SOUTH IS KIND OF HOT. THERE I SAID IT! SEND ME ALL THE HATE COMMENTS YOU WANT, I HAVE NO SHAME IN IT!)

South: It really is you.

Slade: Yeah... it is. I'm sorry about Nathan.

South: (looks down) When we left Freelancer together, we said we'd have each other's backs. I failed him. I wasn't strong enough.

Slade: (grabs her shoulder) Oi, don't go thinking like that, lass. He may be gone, but you do him good by honoring his memory. Focus on that.

South: .....Just what the hell happened to you? After Carolina's freak-out, you just up and disappeared.

Slade: ......I couldn't stand what we were becoming, South. What the Director was making us do. And then when I learned what the Director had done to the Alpha and Tex.... and Carolina's stupid-arse obsession over that bloody list.

South: You never did care about the list.

Slade: I care about people, Natalie. Not numbers. That's what the Director's main problem was. He thought everything expendable and inconsequential with his own goals and achievements.

Slade starts taking off South's armor and tosses it in the corner.

South: You could at least buy me dinner before you start undressing me.

Slade: I know people say joking is the best medicine, but I don't think now's the best time.

Kan then enters the room with a box and dragging a Security Armor suit.



(IMAGINE IT BEING FOREST GREEN WITH INDIGO ACCENTS.)

Kan: I found what you have requested, Leader.

Slade: Good job. Delta, Theta, why don't you both head outside and help Wash figure out a plan to find the Meta.

Delta: I believe we would be of use in helping with Agent South's surgery-

South: Surgery?!

Slade: We don't have any bio-foam, remember? I'm gonna have to dig the bullet out and sow your leg back up. Delta, Theta, outside now. Kan, take South's old armor outside too. I'm sure Wash wants to let off some steam blowing it up.

Kan: I understand, Leader.

Theta: See you in a few, Cal.

Delta and Theta disappear as Kan takes South's old armor outside. Slade takes out a knife and spins it between his fingers.

South: I feel like I'm about to be gutted.

Slade: It's just your leg. Just try to bear through it, lass.

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Outside Kan comes out to the Blues and Wash with Delta and Theta appearing, as they all suddenly hear South scream.

Church: Jesus, is she alright?

Washington: She'll be fine.

Kan: My Leader said for me to give you the armor to destroy.

Washington: Thanks. Toss it all over there. If you guys will excuse me, I have a set of armor to blow up.

As Wash leaves to do so, Church turns to the AIs.

Church: Hey, hey uh, uh, green guy.

Caboose: I'm blue.

Church: Delta.

Caboose: Oh, him.

Delta: Hello. How may I be of assistance?

Church: Hey yeah, uh, what's the deal with this guy?

In the background, Wash shoots the armor with his battle rifle.

Delta: Destruction of unused armor or equipment is standard recovery procedure.

Church: Yeah, no, I mean is he like a whack-job or what?

Wash tosses a plasma grenade at the armor, and it blows up.

Theta: Do you guys know about what happened with Epsilon?

Church: Epsilon, oh, you mean his A.I.?

Wash now has a flamethrower, and South's armor is completely engulfed in flames.

Delta: Correct. Epsilon was an... unstable intelligence unit that had to be deleted. It's integration with Washington's mind concerned our superiors.

Wash tries piling fusion cores and gas tanks onto the armor.

Church: What do you think?

Delta: I believe that Agent Washington's sanity is well within acceptable deviations, for now.

Church: Wow, what a ringing endorsement.

An explosion involving most of the cores, then another involving a leftover gas tank.

Church: I'm filled with confidence.

Washington: Okay, all done. Delta, I called Command. They wanted me to pass along condolences at South's quote-unquote 'passing'.

Delta: Thank you. I will be sure to archive that sentiment.

Church: What did you tell them?

Washington: I told them Caboose did it. Apparently they already have a shortcut on their keyboard for reporting his team kills.

Caboose: Control F U.

Washington: I would have told them you shot her, but, I wanted it to be believable.

Slade: Makes sense.

Slade and South come out, the latter being in her new Security armor.

Washington: How do you feel, South?

South: Fine. Though, I gotta say this new armor is kind of big.

Slade: You'll grow into it. Just like Church will grow into his sniping skills. Not.

Church: Hey. My aim is fine.

Washington: How was the Meta able to dodge your rocket, Slade?

Church: No no, not dodge. It was there one second, and it was gone the next. That's how I knew it was using Wyoming's power.

Washington: And he was on the ship with Tex?

Caboose: His head was.

South: His head?!

Church: His helmet. Not everybody is as twisted as you are, Wash. Tex took it for some reason.

Caboose: Maybe THAT's why the ship took a year to crash!

South: What's with this guy?

Slade: Short story: Tex was in the canyon we were originally stationed at and Omega screwed up his head.

South: Oh.

Slade: Just bear with him, lass.

South: How often do you use that phrase?

Kan: More than one would think, Agent South.

Washington: So if the Meta has Wyoming's powers, it's even more powerful than we thought.

Caboose: And as scary as someone thought it was to begin with. Back to square one. Scary square.

Washington: Oh great, looks like it took one of our cycles. So, what do we do?

Church: What're ya, askin' us? I thought you were like the big know-it-all super agent guy?

Caboose: I would go home.

Church: Yeah dude, retire. You got any savings, like a, 401K or something?

South: We're Freelancers. We're lucky we get paid at all for the shit we put up with.

Washington: Delta, Theta, can you shed any light on this?

Delta: Not without further data.

Church: So why does it want these A.I. things anyway? I understand the equipment part, at least that lets you do cool stuff. But these A.I. things are kinda annoying. They're just constantly yapping and causing trouble.

Delta: I am going to ignore that.

Theta: Yeah, what the heck? You're the guy constantly screaming at everything.

Washington: A.I. help us in battle, depending on their functions. We couldn't run half our equipment without them. And if you get your hands on a smart A.I., you can be damn near unstoppable.

Church: What, like, smart like Delta here?

Slade: Not like that. He's just the logical one of the family. Theta is the trusting one. Smart means something entirely different for A.I.s than it does for people.

Caboose: Now let's not go throwing around words like smart for no reason.

Delta: Wash is correct. We are more analogous to what you would call a fragment.

Church: Actually, I don't care, so I wouldn't call you guys anything.

Slade: Church, put a goddamn sock in it. Please, thank you.

Caboose: And I would never talk about someone's "anal gus". Especially not in public.

Delta: There is one smart A.I. in the Freelancer program.

Washington: Delta-

Delta: The Alpha is a fully formed-

Washington: Delta! That's enough.

Church: What's Alpha?

Washington: The Alpha A.I. It's nothing, it's a myth. A fairy tale.

Theta: Wash, it IS real. You just haven't-

Washington: Theta! Delta! Command. Offline.

Delta: Complying.

Theta: Right.

Delta and Theta turn off.

Slade: Wash, I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell my AI what to do.

Washington: I just get tired of hearing these things talk about their Alpha. And you will too. They get obsessed with the idea of it. It seems like it's all they care about sometimes.

South: D did yammer a lot about it in the time I had him in my head.

Church: But what is it?

Caboose: Yes, if it's something really scary, you don't have to tell us.

Washington: The whole purpose of the program was to study soldiers with experimental A.I., but rumor has it, they could only ever get one. So they had to copy it. The original was Alpha, then Beta, and so on.

Church: They copied them? Yeah, I k- I like that. I guess if one is annoying, then twenty of them are gonna be awesome.

Washington: The copies became obsessed with this idea of the Alpha, the original. In debriefings they would always steer conversations toward the topic of the Alpha. Where it was, if they could see it. Some even took, drastic steps.

Slade: They even turned on some of their comrades and such. Bloody gore-y.....

Caboose: And we believe you. Even though we don't think shooting a friend in the back occasionally is that big of a deal.

Washington: Some Freelancers tried to get to Alpha on their own. They broke in to the secret storage facility where it was kept. They almost got to it. After that they shut down the-

Wash's beacon sounds out.

Washington: My recovery beacon!

Church: Oh, great! We thought the Meta was hurt, but apparently he's just busy killing more of your buddies.

Washington: Pipe down.

Command: Recovery One, come in, level zero come in.

Washington: Go ahead Command.

Command: Wash, we have a beacon.

Washington: I'm getting it too. Do you have coordinates and an ID?

Command: Are you sure about this, I mean this is how we can be-

Washington: Command, you're breaking up on me, please repeat, how what can be-

Command: Hold on, I'm not talking to you Wash. And, and you're sure. Okay. It's Agent Maine, Wash.

Washington: What?

Command: Please confirm last transmission Agent Washington.

Washington: Maine, how can that be? If-

Command: Please confirm, Recovery One.

Washington: Yeah, it's him. It's the Meta.

Church: What?!

Washington: Command, give me those coordinates now.

Church: The Meta is a Freelancer?

Washington: Command. Command, come in!

Slade: Delta, Theta, what's going on?

Delta: Our transmission is being jammed.

Washington: Tell me you got the coordinates before we lost it.

Church: A Freelancer, you have got to be kidding me.

Kan: Silence, Church!

Theta: Sorry, Wash. We didn't.

Delta: We did receive biocom data with the identification though. It appears as though the Meta is experiencing mass power fluctuations.

Washington: Power?

Church: Maybe all that A.I. and equipment can't run on one suit of armor?

Delta: That is an excellent analysis. The Meta is most likely dangerously low on power, and will attempt to augment its energy in some way.

Washington: Then we need to get to it fast. But where?

Church: ...

Caboose: ...

Slade: ...

Kan: I believe we know it's next destination.

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At Zanzibar, the Meta runs across the beach cloaked, heading for the facility.