Nathan, Frost-Byte, was having a meltdown, freaking out. "Someone stole our tech! My tech!" Frost-Byte was pacing around the meeting room, breathing heavily. Suddenly, Raven Fallon wanted to reach out to him and assure him that'll be okay, but she clenched her teeth.

"Sit down, Nathan," she said coldly. Frost-Byte sat down, grumbling.

Melissa, known as Steel, had a gaze that could cut through steel. "This is bad, someone broke into FALLOUT's base and stole Frost-Byte's tech—tech that could risk exposing all of our identities."

In FALLOUT, you had to erase your past to become a spy agent there. They weren't like the CIA or FBI, FALLOUT was much more strict. But people like Raven...They wanted to forget the past.

"Do we have footage?" Orla Sullivan, Diva, asked. She was beautiful, but alas, only a distraction agent, made to pucker up to the enemies for info. Raven wasn't sure why Diva was in the meeting, but she could tell that Camilo was enjoying her presence.

Camilo was known as Glossy, but even he was serious today. "Nope, wiped clean, plus most of the footage would be on the tech." He played with the pen in his hands. "I had a situation like this happen in my mission back in Mexico."

"And?" Whistler, Alexander Lanza, asked.

Glossy sighed. "We managed to find a crumb trail, but it wasn't strong enough to build a case."

"We need to find those crumbs!" Frost-Byte cried out. "That tech is my life's work! In all of my twenty-one years of living, I never had this happen!" Don't you back up your work, Raven knew she was being rude. "I tried looking through my backups, but they've been stolen too!"

"Trust me," Steel said, "nobody steals anything from us without consequences."

Her gaze hardened. "I need to deal with this, but there's a new recruit in the staff room. Any volunteers?" No one raised up their hand and Steel chose herself. "Birdie, if you could ever be so kind?"

"Yes, Steel." Raven got up and immediately went to the staff room. There, she met a short girl with a slick ponytail. She was lean and Raven was sure that with Steel's training, the newbie would be as fast as rain.

The recruit stood up. "Hello, Ms. Oswald—"

"I'm not Melissa, Steel's busy today. I'm Birdie, that's my codename." When she offered her a mug of coffee, Raven declined. "I don't like to drink coffee, it's an addiction."

They got out of the staff room before she told Raven her name. "I'm Brooklyn Braxton, I'm from Yorkshire." Raven didn't reply as they took a sharp turn. "I love the whole codename thing. I was thinking about a Cheshire Cat or..."

"Steel gets to choose, Brooklyn." When Brooklyn's face turned to horror, Raven stifled a laugh. "Don't worry, you won't be stuck with a weird name. Camilo's already called Glossy, you can't get worse than that."

Raven skimmed over the details of FALLOUT training, but Brooklyn seemed promising according to a resume that Steel sent her. "Steel will see you soon, things just got heated today."

"Like what?"

"Classified." Raven leaned against the wall.

"Sometimes, I wonder if I'm making the right choice. Just to do FALLOUT training, I had to disappear from the face of the world..." Brooklyn sounded uncertain, she was only eighteen, fresh out of high school.

"FALLOUT is a great program, but it often takes advantage of youths." Raven crossed her arms. "They're young, too young to understand what they're sacrificing—their life. In FALLOUT, you're expected to die for everyone else. You're expected to be able to move on from your past."

I tried to forget my dad, but I just can't. Raven's dad was addicted to his life's work, which was being a FALLOUT agent. He was so addicted that he forgot about his little daughter back at home.

Brooklyn blinked. "I..."

"Most agents didn't finish university, I was studying law until Steel offered me a way to be a 'hero.' I don't blame Melissa Oswald, she was under the orders of FALLOUT's head superiors." Raven was pouring out her life's story. "Brooklyn, if you have any doubts, address them now before the consequences are set in stone."

Silence.

Brooklyn laughed nervously. "Whoa, that's deep. I guess time really does fly when Steel's trying to steal back those files." Raven was about to laugh but realized what Brooklyn had just said. Steal back those files.

Those classified files. How did Brooklyn know about them?

Raven pulled out her phone, texting Steel. "Who are you texting?" Brooklyn asked and she didn't reply. Suddenly, Brooklyn pulled out a small gun from her pocket and FALLOUT agents around her freaked.

Raven didn't flinch. "Put down the gun, Brooklyn. You're eighteen, this will scar your life."

"Shut up, shut up!" she screamed, moving the gun at everyone's heads. She was out of control, but slowly realized it was a losing game—Brooklyn was outnumbered. She took off and Raven chased after her.

Raven's heart raced—she didn't want to hurt her, Brooklyn was around the same age when she joined FALLOUT herself, but she needed the stolen tech back. "Stop her!" Raven hollered, seeing Brooklyn getting stopped by Whistler.

He held her down, pinning her to the floor. Brooklyn screamed angrily, flailing as Raven arrived on the scene. "This is the newbie?" When she nodded, Whistler recoiled. He released as Raven took over.

"You won't get anything from me!"

"You're so young, Brooklyn."

"You don't know me! Me!" She was crying. "I n-needed the money and—" She gasped, realizing she said too much. Raven helped her up as Brooklyn wobbled on her feet.

"Where did the files go?"

Brooklyn sobbed. "I don't know..."

"And the stolen tech? Computers, laptops, gadgets..."

Brooklyn took a deep breath. "Somewhere in an a-abandoned house."

Raven sighed, wrapping her arms around Brooklyn. She wasn't good at comforting others, but Brooklyn could have had a bright future, but a criminal record was awaiting her. "Thank you, Brooklyn."