Chapter Text
“Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three," a voice softly chants ten feet away from me. I unconsciously time my leg lifts to the ponytailed man's counting. It's obviously not meant for me, rather for the impressively mustachioed man who was under him on his back, lifting. It was quiet, save his counting and the whirring of machines.
So far only a few people had arrived but I was informed that fifteen will be arriving. So far my time at the new experimental organization, Project Freelancer, has been spent watching the trickling arrivals of what looks like experienced, attractive soldiers working out way harder than I am.
I glance over at Carolina. "Hey, do you recognize anyone here?"
The redhead doing one hand push-ups at an alarming rate grunted in response. I smirked. I didn't expect much more than that from her. After three years of basic together it's anything but surprising that she's working off her nerves in the sweatiest way possible.
"They don't look like they are fresh out of basic like us. It's going to be hard to keep up I think. At least for me."
"Get back to work." Carolina mumbled.
"Am I making the big bad Carolina nervous?" I whispered teasingly under my breath, not wanting to embarrass her in front of our new peers.
She paused her push-ups to glower at me, a not so rare occurrence. I smile slightly at her and get up. "I think I need to bulk up so I can beat muscle man over there."
Carolina rolled her eyes and got right back to work.
Walk across the room towards the handheld dumbbells, I try to take a closer look at the others. There's a younger man, maybe only a year or two older than me, talking up a storm with an older, motherly looking lady. She did not seem to care one bit about what he said but she wasn't shutting him down and he wasn't letting up. A few people silently glided on the treadmills. They creeped me the fuck out. They were almost synchronized, leading me to believe that they may have come from the same covert unit. Over at the dumbbell station a tiny women hefted 75 pounds in each hand. Her arms were probably bigger than my head. I picked up thirty pound ones and made my way back to Carolina. I'm definitely the back of this pack.
It was a good hour until the next soldier came in. I honestly am stunned he was even able to fit through the door. The hulking eight foot mass of muscle moved silently into the room. He moved over to the other side of the room from Carolina and me. I watched him, mostly in awe of his physique, trying to figure out what he would do. He got out a mat and sat down, beginning a few stretches. After a little while I realized he was doing yoga. I snickered a bit at the irony and went back to work. Whatever works for him I guess.
Carolina and I had been one of the first to arrive. Carolina isn't typically a quiet person, not loud, but definitely not quiet. However after a good two hours, fifteen minutes after the giant man arrived, I got a little worried about the fact she had barely said anything.
"Hey, Lina? You doing okay? Maybe we should take a short break."
Carolina, who had been lifting with me spotting her, placed the weights on the supports with my help.
"Why? I'm not tired."
"We've been going pretty much non stop for a few hours. It's at least time for a bathroom break. Or water, I am so thirsty."
Carolina glanced around to the others. She shrugged and got up. "Let's go find some water."
"I think I saw some right outside."
We leave the room and as soon as we are out I reach up and give her a soft kiss on her jaw.
"Are you okay? I know something's wrong, Lina."
Carolina, just over a head taller than me, tried to look down to avoid my eye contact. Realizing she is actually looking directly at me, she feigns cheeriness and says, "I'm fine! I know I can do this. Don't worry about me."
"You are an awful liar. You're nervous that you can't keep up. Trust me Lina, once you get in the game and get some experience, you’re gonna be the top of the pack."
Lina gives me a weak smile. I grab her hand and give it a squeeze. She dips her head to give me a soft, warm peck.
Straightening slowly, she says, "Thanks, Jemma. I needed that. Now, did you actually need some water or was that just a ploy to give me an inspirational speech?"
I giggled. "Nah I'm absolutely dying of dehydration right now."
If only takes another half hour until the final soldier arrives, and another ten minutes until a man named Aiden Price arrived and called us to attention.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Aiden Price and I am The Counselor at Project Freelancer. If you ever have any questions feel free to ask me. Welcome to Project Freelancer. We are a group that is doing experimental research in order to end this long war. Before we get started we must test each of your abilities to decide which division you would be the most valuable in. Since this is just the first batch of agents, these divisions will be very small and make up the core of this project, it will take the next three months to test for which division you will each do best in.” Aiden pauses, moving towards the top of our line, where the man in the ponytail is standing. “The codenames I am about to give you will be your only identification throughout your time within this project. We are recruiting 50 states in total, and each codename will be a state name.”
He stands in front of each of us, going down the line, stating names of states with no discernible pattern. The man with the ponytail is Agent Florida, the man with mustache is Agent Wyoming, the giant man was Agent Maine, the puppy-like man was Agent Minnesota, the motherly woman was Agent Rhode Island, the woman with the huge arms was Agent Massachusetts, the two scary looking ones were Agent Iowa and Agent Idaho, Carolina was surprisingly just Agent Carolina, and I am Agent Oregon.