averydistinctiveteam

[averydistinctiveteam]

Chapter 4

Word Count: 1487

Triggers: Swearing I guess

“Are you KIDDING ME?” Caro yelled, slamming her fists down on the table. Her phone bounced lightly between them.

“Can you kill him, Caro? Please?” Luke said, eyes narrowing.

“No one is going to kill anyone,” Julie said, walking in. “We’re going to get even.” Behind her came a young woman. Caro and Luke leaned back in their chairs to assess who had come to their table.

“Julie?” Caro asked, “Who is this?”

“Tori, she’s kind of a jack-of-all-trades. I figured if we were going to get back at that twerp, we’d need some help he hasn’t read a resume for.” Luke and Caro looked at each other.

“I mean, sure, I was just going to make Caro beat him up, but this sounds like more fun.”

“You can still beat him up,” Tori said, “But only if I get to join in.” Caro smiled, coyly.

“I like her.”

It was finally dark. Colin was hiding out in a hotel under a fake name, but it wasn’t hard for

Luke to find it. Caro took a deep breath and looked at the backseat.

“Ready?” No one replied, but they all nodded. Caro opened her door and got out of the car. This was going to take all of them acting together as a team. She was used to being a team player; she had been her brother’s partner for a long time. What she wasn’t used to, was being on a team with people she didn’t trust. Sure, she trusted Julie, to a point, but Tori was a new player, someone she hadn’t fleshed out yet. But it wasn’t like they had much of a choice in the matter. Julie was hell-bent on making Tori part of the team. Caro leaned back over so she was facing the window of the car. “Stay put unless we need you,” she instructed her brother.

“Caro, seriously? How many missions have we been on together? How many more is it going to take before you realize that I’m old enough to take –“ “Care of yourself?” She finished, “Not anytime soon, kid, now stay put unless I give you the signal to come in and help.” Luke gave her a confused look.

“And what would that signal be?” Caro rolled her eyes.

“Probably something like “Damnit, Luke, get your ass in here and help us”,” She said. Luke rolled his eyes, but he stayed where he was.

For all of his bitching and moaning, he knew why Caro was so protective of him. Their parents hadn’t been tolerant people, and it wasn’t pretty when Luke had come out as trans. He thanked whoever was listening for his big sister for getting him out of that hellhole. But he still hated it when she treated him like he was still some 12-year-old kid who couldn’t throw a punch. Sure, he wasn’t that imposing, but you don’t have to get violent to get a job done right. He watched silently as the three girls walked to the back entrance of the hotel.

“Ok, so there’s like an actual guy watching all of these video cameras so I’m going to have to put them on a loop, but like, one at a time so whoever it is doesn’t get suspicious.”

“Did you guys not do a background on the security guard?” Tori asked, incredulous.

“Listen, Tami, this is a half-assed plan made up in like, four hours, so no, I did not do a deep background on each guard. There’s like four of them.” Luke was getting nervous. Maybe they should have cut their losses and just never worked with him again. But then the three moved past the first video camera.

“First of all, it’s Tori, and second of all, I was just asking, calm down. I’ve worked with much less.” She got down on one knee and grabbed her picks out of her pocket. It took her a couple of tries, but she got the door open.

“Sorry, Tori, either way, this plan is not foolproof, by any means. I’m getting you in, but I can’t guarantee that…” Luke trailed off, getting distracted by something that was on his screen. “What the hell…” The three girls froze in place.

“Luke, what’s going on, kid?” Caro asked, trying to keep her voice calm.

“Abort, abort, abort! It looks like there’s two tactical teams headed your way, I can’t stall them, and I’m sure Julie could impress one of them into letting you guys pass, I’m not sure she’ll be able to convince all of these guys.” While Luke was explaining their situation, Tori had found them a window to climb out of.

“Wait!” Julie whisper-yelled. “His door is right there!” She pointed to the end of the hall. “All we have to do is kidnap him and force him to give us the money!”

“Caro, Julie, Tori, get out of there now!” Luke was practically yelling into his headset. The girls looked at each other, then Caro made a decision.

“Luke, hon, we’ll be out as soon as possible. Turn the car on, leave the lights off—“ “Damnit, Caro, be careful!” He said cutting her off. Caro nodded, despite the fact that she knew he wouldn’t be able to see her. The girls ran over to the room. It had a creditcard key, so there was no way to pick their way in.

“Ok, Luke?” Tori said into her headset.

“Yeah?” He asked, trying to see in the dimly lit parking lot with no headlights.

“I’m going to need your help. I know the gist of how to unlock these doors, but nothing beyond that.”

“Ok, but you’ll have to do everything I say as I say it because the two teams are on…separate elevators?”

“I’m fine with that, just tell me what to do.”

“Do you have the wires exposed?”

“Yeah.” “Strip the green and the blue wires—“ “There’s no blue wire.” “Shit. Ummmm…Ok, let’s do green wire and yellow wire. Cut those and then strip the ends before you touch them together. Make sure you don’t touch any of the metal or you’ll probably electrocute yourself and die.” Tori’s eyes grew wide and took a deep breath.

“Good to know,” she said under her breath making quick work of the wires. There was a systematic click and she dropped the wires. She was still careful about touching the metal, making sure she had something between her skin and the potentially charge handle before she pressed the handle down and pushed the door open.

Caro was the first through the door. The look of panic and fear that crossed over Chaos’ face made the whole trip worth it. But she didn’t have time to swim in her own satisfaction. Instead she pulled out her gun and pointed it at him.

“Laptop away, face the wall.” His hands immediately went up and she saw him swallow hard. She checked him for weapons as the other two secured his laptop. “What did I tell you about double crossing us?” She whispered in his ear.

“H-how did you find me?” He asked. Caro just chuckled creepily as she handcuffed Chaos.

“Caro, do you even realize how creepy it is that you can become this creepy that fast?” Luke asked, “Also, about two minutes before company, so wrap it up.” Caro glanced back at the girls, who were finished packing his things.

“Time to go.” Caro went for the door, but Luke stopped her.

“Fire escape! They’re too close, they’d see you in the hallway and if they weren’t there for Chaos, they’d probably have a couple of questions for you, like “why the hell are you escorting this man in handcuffs? Especially when you’re not a police officer? And, oh, is this an arrest warrant in Philidelphia for—“”

“Ok, Luke, we get it, bring the car around,” Caro grumbled, pushing Chaos back against the wall. She opened the window and parted the curtains, signaling for the girls to go first. But before they could even start getting onto the fire escape, the door burst open and a group of people burst in. Chaos rolled his eyes.

“Did Alec send you?” There were three women dressed in all black. They looked Caro, Julie, and Tori up and down, as they did the same. The three women slowly walked further into the room. Caro’s gun went from pointed at Chaos to pointed at the women.  

“Who the hell are—“ began the shortest of the three, but she was cut off as two other women entered the room. This time, even Chaos looked confused. These women were dressed as police officers.

“Is that Colin Mason?” One of them asked, pointing at Chaos. “And, ma’am? I hope you’re not pointing that gun at me.”

“What the fuck is going on?” Luke asked.

“I’ll let you know when we know,” Julie replied quietly.

[averydistinctiveteam]

Chapter 3

Word Count: 1519

Triggers: None?

A/N: Thank you all for the really nice asks, replies, messages, etc. I really appreciate it. I’m not going to stop the story until I’ve written everyone in, I feel like I owe you that much, and then I’ll decide if I want to continue it or if it’s too stressful or whatever. Again, super sorry about me being weird lol, so here’s chapter 3

“Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me.”

“Look, I’m sorry that it didn’t go as planned, but you still owe all of us the money you said you were going to pay us,” Luke was irritated, sure, and frustrated that he hadn’t gotten the job done, but it wasn’t his fault.

“None of you are getting paid until I get my painting, ok?”

Caro rolled her eyes. “Fine, how the hell do you expect to get it back then? We don’t even know who took it!”

“Oh, you might not, but I certainly do.” His mischievous smile set all of them on edge. He sat back at his computer and typed away for a while before coming back to the rest of his crew.

“This is Leverage Inc. They’ve been smearing the name of thievery since around 2008. Since then they’ve expanded so now they’re all around the country making everyone’s lives miserable. While you two were monkeying around and NOT getting the painting, I was actually being useful. I hacked their databases and they don’t even know it yet. This,” He pulled up a picture of a young woman. She was tall and had long light brown hair. “This is Irene Ellis. Not a pro hacker, wannabe hacktivist, overall nerd. She’s the hacker in the local branch of Leverage. I’ll take care of her, since you clearly can’t,” he addressed Luke who glared at him. “This,” he then pulled up security footage of a short woman hitting a punching bag and a man approaching her. “This is Levada Sinclair. She’s their team’s hitter, and trained until Eliot Spencer, you probably know him. Caro, you might be able to take her, who knows.” Caro cracked her knuckles. Was this punk for real? “This is Moriah, infamous grifter, almost as good as Sophie Devereaux, but not. Definitely better than you, Julie.”

“Ok, hold up,” Julie said cutting him off. “I swear, you say another shitty thing about us and I’m walking out. You can grift your own damn self.” Her arms were crossed and she had a look on her face that meant business. Caro stepped behind her and followed suit. Luke looked at the girls for a second and then scurried over to stand behind them.

“Oh, well isn’t this cute. I’m paying you, remember? Now just do your damn jobs.” Julie didn’t want to give in, but she rolled her eyes and backed down. “Now, I have a plan, but you all need to actually do your jobs well for it to work…”

“Why exactly do I have to climb through the ventilation shaft again?” Luke grumbled into his com.

“Because I didn’t want to and you lost the coin toss,” Caro replied, smirking. Luke huffed and continued climbing until he got to the right room.

“How much time is Julie giving us?” “Not much, like two minutes at most, so hurry up.” Luke took a deep breath and slid the replacement painting off of his back. If this worked, then maybe they’d all get the handsome fee they were owed and he’d never have to see that dirty, lying, cheating…

“Ok, she’s in position, go!” Caro’s words jerked him out of his train of thought so he quickly removed the grating and lowered himself into the room. He located the painting and then switched it out with the fake. “Get out now! Miscalculation! They’re heading back sooner than we expected!” Luke dropped the fake painting about where he thought the real painting had been laying and scrambled back up the shaft and out the back of the building. He handed the painting to Caro and wiped his brow. Caro looked over the painting and nodded.

“We’ll pick Julie back up when she’s done “playing her part”,” Caro said, walking towards the car. “You’re sure the cameras didn’t pick us up?”

“Yeah, I just had them loop the last three hours when nothing was happening,” Luke replied, getting into the passenger side. “And now, it’s time to get paid.” Caro rolled her eyes at her brother and drove off. This team would never know what hit them.

It turned out that they realized very quickly that something had gone wrong.

“That’s not the same painting that you sent me a picture of,” Becca said, “I mean, it’s clearly a forgery, the signature isn’t even in the right place. The person who did this was in a hurry.”

“How the hell did someone steal the real painting? We only left it alone when…” Arlana trailed off and then looked at Nate. They both thought of the same thing at the same time. “She was a grifter.”

“Stay here,” Arlana said to the group before she and Nate bolted out. When they went back outside, there was no woman, no car, and no helpful patron. Arlana quickly turned around and went back inside, zeroing in on the patron they had seen earlier. “Excuse me, sir?” he set his weights down and looked up at her. “We were wondering what happened with the woman you were helping earlier?”

“Oh, once you guys went inside she said she had like a brother or something that was coming to pick her up. She said she didn’t want to bother me and told me to go back inside, so I did.” He shrugged. “Why did something happen to her?” Arlana sighed.

“No, no, you’re fine,” she said, walking off.

“So there’s another crew in town?” Nate said. Arlana gritted her teeth.

“Not for long.”

While they were out, Hardison noticed something off about the company’s system.

“Oh no.” How had he missed this before? Irene took a second look at her computer as well, trying to decipher the drunken hack that had been going on right under their noses. Hardison had to find Nate or Parker. “Guys! Guys, I think I know who hacked us, who stole the painting, the whole 9 yards,” Hardison said, catching up with Nate and Arlana.

“What do you want, Hardison?”

“Colin, you know damn well what we want, now give it back.”

“Oh, Hardison, you’re going to have to try harder than that.” He tsked and then shut down the video feed. “Got the painting?” he asked as Caro and Luke entered the warehouse. Luke held it up high so he could see it. “Yes, the money’ll be wired into your accounts.”

“It better be, nerd,” Caro said, picking up her jacket. “Don’t think you can double cross us and get away with it.” He brushed off the threat and examined his painting. This was a successful job. Maybe he could use one of them in the future.

“Colin Mason, more commonly known as his hacker alias “Chaos.” Trust me, he’s only a little smarter than he seems.”

“And cocky as all hell. If ya see him don’t hesitate to punch him.” Eliot added to Hardison’s briefing. Hardison nodded.

“From what we can tell, he’s using Caro and Luke Grayback, both of them are extremely talented thieves, Luke is very proficient when it comes to hacking, Caro, when it comes to hitting, and they’re also using Julie Mason, no relation. She’s the grifter and we think she’s the woman who pretended to have car trouble earlier. They’re all really good at their jobs, so make sure you’re vigilant when we get this painting back.”

“And remember,” Nate interjected, “Chaos is smart. He’ll have contingency plans, we just have to prepare for them.” Moriah raised her hand.

“Couldn’t we just track them and do a smash and grab?” “No.” Arlana said, flipping through paperwork. “They know we’re here, and now we’re pretty sure they know that we know. So all we have to do is….”

“Wait, I though Chaos worked alone? Why would he have a team now?” Jesse asked.  

“Well actually, when we first met him, he was with a team, as well,” Sophie said, “Thieves working with other thieves isn’t very common, most of us like to work alone, but sometimes especially if you’re tryig to pull off a really big job, like this one, you hire out some of the work. For example, Chaos can’t punch to save his life, so he hires Caro Grayback to do it for him.” “And then once the team has done its job, they get paid and then disperse.” Nate finished.

“Guess ya learn somethin’ new every day,” Lavada said. “So, if it’s not a smash ‘n grab, how’re we getting the painting back?”

“We haven’t gotten that far, but we’ll think of something on the way.” Arlana said, grabbing a set of keys off the table and walking to the back door. “Always good to see you, Becca, thank you so much!” Becca rolled her eyes as the back room empties.

“Sometimes, I’m curious about what they’re doing, and then I remember that I don’t want to know,” she said to herself, shaking her head slightly. She knew she was going to get dragged into this mess in one way or another later, she was just glad she could relax until then.

[averydistinctiveteam]

ok so can the blogs for the characters of Caro and Luke message me real quick? I have a question and I can’t seem to find either of your blogs lol

[averydistinctiveteam]

Chapter 2

Word Count: 1362

Triggers: None

“It’s really just a simple smash and grab it’s not like a super crazy involved con or anything…” Irene said. It was much easier to run a con when the best in the business wasn’t watching your every move.

“What does it involve?” Nate asked. Arlana gestured to Irene who swiveled around and projected they job on the wall.

“Not much. We’re just stealing a painting. It’s a Van Delen. A lot of his painting were stolen by Nazis in World War II and “Never recovered.” By never recovered, of course I mean absolutely recovered, but then sold on the black market to make people with shady moral standing a lot of money. One of those people is James Anderson, he’s got “Nature Morte” hanging up in his VP’s office. Steal that, give it back to the Schloss’ and the con’s over.”

“Sounds good. We’ll let you run the con, we’ll just be here as backup, just in case.” Hardison said. Arlana nodded.

“Levada, go get Jesse and Julia, you three will do the con.” Levada nodded and pulled out her phone and looked up. Two seconds later, there was a loud buzzing heard from the ceiling and then muffled whispers. Levada pointed up.

“Found ‘em.” Arlana sighed.

“Girls, c’mon, we have guests, get outa there.” The girls reluctantly found their way to the grate before gracefully dropping down to the floor.

“So we’re stealing a painting?” Julia asked.

“We could do that in our sleep, blind folded, and backwards.” Jesse retorted.

“Well then I guess it’s a very good thing that you will be awake, able to see, and face forward, so that this job will be short.” “C’mon girls, the van’s out back.” Levada led the two thieves to the back enterence. Irene slowly got up.

“They might need me to get past the security systems, so I’m going with.” She said as she hurried out.

“Pick up Moriah on your way!” Arlana shouted after her.

“Lev, keep an eye out for the guards, they seem unusually active today,” Irene said, typing away at her computer. “Moriah can only distract so many of them.” There was a tinkling of laughter over the coms.

“And do you know vhat I said?” Moriah said in a Russian accent, “I said “No, I can’t do zat today, but come back tomorrow…” Irene rolled her eyes. How could people fall for such a stupid ruse? But whatever works to get the job done works for me, Irene thought.

“J squared, you got a guard coming up, Lev, can you—“ there was a sound of flesh colliding with flesh and Irene watched as the guard fell back.

“I told ya, I got it.” Levada replied, turning back to Jesse and Julia. “How much longer?”

“Done!” Jesse said as she opened the door to the office. Inside there was a beautiful painting hanging directly over a leather rolling chair Julia sighed happily. They both carefully took down the painting and covered it up with cloth. Before they left, Jesse left a note for the VP in place of the painting. Then they got the hell out of there.

“Vhat is going on? Vhat is all of this red lights?” Moriah asked, partially to the guards, but mostly to her team.

“Goddamnit, Levada, you tripped on of the trip wires again.” Irene said, furiously tapping away trying to get the alarm to turn off. “Well maybe if ya gave me a list of the trip wires I wouldn’t fall for ‘em, Irene!” Levada said through clenched teeth, pushing Jesse and Julia through the open door to the elevator just as some guards rounded the corner.

“Burn,” Jesse suggests. Julia and Lavada nod in unison and they both begin to apply face prosthetics and a couple of braces to her. They finished just in time for the elevator to ding open and they escorted her out. Moriah had already left, pretending to be scared off by the sirens and flashing lights. Irene pulled up in the van and Julia slid the door open for the other two women.

“How did they not notice you were carrying a painting?” Moriah asked with a laugh.

“Chaos,” Julia replied, “Chaos makes it easy to slip things past people. They’re not paying full attention to you, just the threat.” Jesse was pulling the prosthetics off her face, but she paused to high five her thieving friend.

“I’m going to call her.” Arlana said, “This job was too easy, and we don’t want to give the Schloss’ a fake.” Julia and Jesse rolled their eyes but the let their mastermind go with her gut.

“I happen to know an art dealer, if you’d like me to call her.” Nate offered, knowing there was always a chance that Maggie was in town.

“That’s very kind of you, but we have one of our own on tap,” she replied, putting the phone to her ear and walking off slightly.

“They’re doing good work here,” Hardison said to Nate. “They’re helping people. On a much larger scale than we ever could with just one team.” Nate smiled and nodded.

“I’m proud of you.”

“OK, Becca’s gonna be over in soon to evaluate the painting,” Arlana announced to the group. They all nodded and then went back to what they had been doing previously. Hardison was talking with Irene about coding, Eliot was talking with Lavada about technique, Parker with Julia and Jesse about the different things they’d stolen both together and separately, and Sophie was talking with Moriah about the different character’s she’d created. That left Nate and Arlana.

“They’re good kids, really,” she said, surveying her team. “They really care a lot about not only the job but the people, too. I mean, sure everyone could improve, but we’re doing good here.”

“Doing well,” Nate corrected her.

“No, we’re doing good.” Nate smiled at her sentiment. “Lavada used to be a part of a private security group, but she quit after she got in too deep with some of the clients; Irene was a computer science student at CalTech when she was framed for committing computer fraud, but when she exposed who it really was, they still kicked her out; Julie’s been living on and off the streets for years, grifting her way into a person’s life, only to steal their wallet or something else valuable. She’s never been caught. Moriah’s getting to Sophie levels of grifting, and our expert, Becca, she’s the only truly honest and straight forward friend I have.” Nate nodded. He knew the feeling. The only family he had left, was the family he left to go be with Sophie. And sure, they were doing just fine without him, but that was what hurt the most. Almost as if she had read his mind, she spoke. “The only reason they’re as good as they are is because they learned how to work as a team from you. That’s how they taught us. They could only do that with experience.” Nate sighed and opened his mouth to speak when there was a loud noise like a gunshot multiplied by 100 that came from outside.

“Sorry! My car backfired! I just had it fixed last week, I’m so sorry for the noise!” A young woman apologized profusely as her car steamed.

“I don’t think that’s just a backfire ma’am, would you mind if I…?” One of the gym patrons had come out to see what the fuss was about. He gestured toward the smoking hood. “I’m a mechanic.”

“Oh would you? Thank you so much!” She went from apologizing to thanking in a matter of seconds. The teams went back inside.

“Hey did you move the painting?” Jesse asked Julia. “Cause I set it on the table and now it’s on the floor.”

“Maybe you dropped it,” Julia suggested.

“Or maybe the gym’s haunted,” suggested Moriah, wiggling her fingers. Julia rolled her eyes but Jesse scrunched her forehead up

“The gym’s not haunted, is it Arlana?” She called to the front.”

“It’s not haunted.” Was the reply. Moriah giggled to herself. Almost on cue, Becca walked in the door.

[averydistinctiveteam]

Chapter 1

Word Count: 1470

Triggers: None?

It was all Sophie’s idea. At least, that’s what Nate would say if asked. He was serious when he said he wanted to get out of the game. But he also missed his team. Nothing could ever replace Sam, but Eliot, Hardison, and Parker did a pretty damn good job. Of course he’d never admit that he missed them, or the chase, or taking down corrupt CEOs. But he did. He missed it far more than he ever thought he would.

Sophie would gladly admit that she missed her children. She video chatted with Hardison and Parker when they first moved on, and she called Eliot occationally to complain about Nate, but after a while, they drifted apart. The three musketeers had started something bigger, but they didn’t really talk about it with her, and she had lost touch before the plan had come to fruition. She wondered how they were doing, and she begged Nate to just visit them. It had been 10 years since their last visit. In that time, they had traveled the world and then some in that time. It was time to go home and see what the kids had done in their absence.

“Wow, the Brew Pub is looking really good! I love the new counter tops!” Sophie marveled as she ran her hand down one of them. Hardison gave Eliot a knowing look. Eliot rolled his eyes in response. They had been fighting about what kind of countertop they should get for months. Eliot finally just bought the countertop he wanted without telling Hardison, who found out and quietly changed the order.

“Oh, boys it’s so good to see you! It’s been so long!” She said finally, engulfing both of them in a tight hug. They wouldn’t say it out loud, but both of them missed getting hugs from Sophie. “Where’s Parker?”

“She’s in the back, there was an issue with one of the satillites, so she’s trying to fix it via webcam,” Hardison answered nonchalantly.

“The Brew Pub has satilite restaurants?” Sophie asked, surprised at how well it was doing. The boys blinked and were silent for a second.

“Oh, no, we expanded Leverage Inc. to be nation-wide. We might start an international branch in the fall, but it doesn’t look promising. We might have to push back the date a while,” Hardison answered her. Sophie’s eyes grew wide.

“Wha-what does that…entail?” She was awe-struck.

“Hey, when did the Brew Pub need a whole extra level of parking?” Nate asked as he entered the Brew Pub.

“Nate!” Sophie beckoned him over and he slowly meandered towards the small group. “The boys have some exciting news!” “News? I mean, it’s not exactly a ‘new’ thing, Sophie. We started recruiting about two years after you left, and then it all spiraled out from there. This is our what,”

“6th full year,” Eliot finished for him. Both Nate and Sophie stared at them for a full minute, not saying anything. The only reason they stopped, was because Parker stuck her head out of the back door.

“Guys, we have a bit of a situations. Sophie! Nate! You guys came back!” She squealed the last part. When Hardison and Eliot moved toward Parker, Nate and Sophie followed suit.

“Which one is it?” Eliot asked, pulling up a map of the United States. A string of red dots fell down upon the map, signifying where the satilite buildings were.

“Our New York office,” Hardison answered, typing on his laptop. “If we leave now, we could totally make in like two hours.”

“Wait, how are you going to get to New York? We’re in Portland!” Sophie exclaimed.

“We bought a small plane when we started branching out farther.” Hardison said this as if it was common knowledge. Sophie and Nate looked at each other in complete confusion, but they followed their kids out of the Brew Pub and into the busy streets of Portland. Eliot flagged down a taxi, which took them to a private airport.

“It’s not a particularly big airplane so we stay under the radar,” Hardison explained as he helped Eliot open the door. “And it helps that Eliot has his pilot license.” And with that, they were off. Nate and Sophie held back the thousands of questions they had for each of them. Only Sophie actually asked any questions.

“Did you two get married?”

“Nah, it seemed stupid.” Parker answered, typing away at her phone.

“We’re still working out the kinks…” Hardison clarified, looking disappointedly at Parker. She didn’t notice.

“Ok, so from what I can get from the lead there, they were hacked. Not like a normal, Hardison-can-just-type-on-his-computer-and-fix-it type hack like a really, really bad one. And honestly, they’ve got some of the most talented hackers we have at the New York office.” “Yeah I was thinking of maybe movin’ some of ‘em? Just to spread the wealth to the other ones.” Parker thought about it, but she shook her head. “They’re family, just like us.” And that was the end of it. When they landed, they were greeted by the head mastermind of the New York Branch.

“Arlana Foely, we spoke on the phone.” She extended her hand to shake Parker, Hardison, and Eliot’s hands. “Our car is this way—“ She cut herself off an did a double take. “Are you…Are you Nathan Ford and Sophie Devereaux?” She asked, awestruck. Nate smiled, weakly and shook her hand. Sophie, on the other hand, was beaming. “You guys are legendary. Honestly, I wish we had more time, because I have a million questions to ask you, but time is of the essence and we we’re about 20 minutes away, on a good day.” She quickly refocused herself and led the quintet to the car. The drive was fairly quiet, only Arlana spoke, debriefing the team on what had happened since their last contact.

Finally, they made it to “home base,” as Arlana called it. What it was on the outside, however, was a “Fitness Complex.” She led them past a sea of treadmills, stair-steppers, elliptical, and a range of weights to a door marked “EMPLOYEES ONLY.” She pushed through the door and the rest followed in her wake. Behind the door was a mess of computers, flashing lights, and freaking out.

“Arlana, I got our cameras back, but I can’t seem to figure out how they – shit now they have it back again, goddamnit, help me make sense of this Julia,” a young girl growled out as the team entered. Hardison didn’t skip a beat, sitting down next to the girl.

“Alec Hardison and you are?” The girls looked up, frozen in shock.

“I’m Irene. Ellis.” They both extended their hands and Alec shook them, one at a time.

“Now, I couldn’t get in by myself, and neither could you, so let’s see what happens when we do it in tandem,” he said, starting to frantically type. Irene didn’t waste any time and began typing away at her own computer.

“Wouldn’t it have been smarter just to send Hardison, if all it was was a computer thing?” Nate asked. Parker shrugged.

“This has been happening on and off for 12 weeks, so we figured it was time to visit and see who’s wreaking havoc on us.” She replied. Eliot glanced around and then leaned over and whispered something in Parker’s ear. She nodded and he left.

“Levada, you’re getting good,” Eliot said as he approached the punching bag. A young, short, woman appeared from behind it. She wiped the sweat off of her forehead and raised a single eyebrow.

“I was already good, I’m just gettin’ better,” She countered. He smirked and tossed her a water bottle, which she easily caught. “Thanks, what’re you doin’ in town? I thought you guys weren’t due for a visit for another couple’a months?”

“Some computer thing that Hardison has to help with.” Lavada nodded.

“Irene’s been goin’ crazy over that code. I woulda sworn up and down she was gonna smash her laptop.” She said with a soft chuckle.

“Yeah, Hardison gets like that sometimes. You been keepin’ busy?” she shrugged and began unwrapping her hands.

“This job keeps me busy. I like it. Helpin’ people never feels bad.” Suddenly Lavada something behind Eliot caught Levada’s eye. “No rest for the weary,” she grumbled as she headed towards the “EMPLOYEE ONLY” door. Eliot followed. Just as they both entered, Hardison and Irene were able to take back control of the hub for good. They high-fived, then Hardison noticed something on his screen.

“What’s this job?” He asked, pointing at a file.

“Oh, that’s the one we’re working on. It’s small potatoes compared to most of the ones you guys do.” Hardison looked up at his team.

“Sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics.”