Petchricor:

Ok, I'm just putting up the prolog for now while I work on all the other chapters. So, read this for now and follow if you think it sounds interesting. I'm hoping to get the other chapters up soon, but no promises.


The day in the new canyon had started out just like any other, the sun was rising and there was silence for a few short moments, which Wash had come to love and cherish. Sadly, this silence did not last long and soon there was yelling and arguing throughout the canyon. Wash sighed and sat up, stretching his arms and giving a large yawn before standing up and pulling on his combat boots, pulling his jacket off of the floor and setting it on his shoulders before walking out of his room and into the middle of the canyon.

"Morning guys," Wash said, yawning with a hand covering his mouth. They all turned and stared at him with wide eyes. He looked at them and raised an eyebrow, obviously confused by this. "What?" They all pointed to his head and Wash patted down, feeling spikey hair go flat under his hand. He chuckled with a smile. "Oh yeah, I knew I forget something." He ran his hands quickly through his hair with another yawn. "So, what's going on guys?"

"Nothing really, we're just arguing over what we're going to do today," Grif told him in a bored tone. Wash nodded in understanding and put his arms at his sides, looking around at all of them. "Of course I just wanna go back to bed and get up in about five hours, but no one's going for that." Wash snickered and was joined by everyone else as Grif glared at them.

"That's nothing to fight about, why don't you all just go off and do your own thing? Except you Grif, last time you took that long of a nap you never went to bed and kept us up all night," Wash said with a pointed glare. Grif huffed and folded his arms over his chest. "Now, why don't we have some breakfast fire then meet later here in the middle of the canyon and plan something then?" They all nodded with mumbled agreements and Wash smiled. "Great, see ya in about an hour." They all said their goodbyes and the two teams parted ways across the canyon.

Days where usually boring around here and not much happened anymore, though they all seemed to be enjoying the peace. Wash knew that he was, he was enjoying not running from flying bullets and ex-agents who wanted to kill him or following Carolina around to find the Director. Peace was nice, but for some reason he had a feeling in deep in his gut that it wasn't going to last very long.

Sadly, his gut was right.

They were about to enter blue base when they all stopped, gasping in surprise as they spotted Carolina standing there. Her helmet was removed and her face covered in blood. She slowly raised her head to look up at them and her eyes fell on Wash in an instant. She fell forward and Wash caught her gingerly in his arms.

"I need, you, help," she mumbled in his arms. Wash picked her up and watched as Tucker bolted down the hall to get Doc. Wash set Carolina down on the couch and wiped some blood out of her face with a wet cloth. Her eyes found him again. "Wash." Her voice was raspy and tired as she spoke, getting Wash's attention. "O'malley. He's, back." Wash's eyes went wide and Carolina went unconscious.

"Caboose, go get the reds and bring them over here," Wash ordered, Caboose nodded and ran out of the base and across the canyon. Doc and Tucker ran into the room and Wash backed away, watching as Doc wiped away all the blood and wrapped up her wounds. Wash and Tucker shared a look. "She said something about O'malley." Doc tensed and stopped in his movements, looking up at Wash as he looked down at Doc with a scared expression. "She said that he was back." He heard many gasps behind him and he turned to see the reds walking into the room.

"O'malley? You mean the Alpha's anger? Our first ever enemy, the asshole who started it all?" Grif shouted, obviously not liking this one bit. Wash nodded and looked at Carolina and Doc got back to work with his hands shaking ever so slightly.

"That's what I got, yes," he answered. He could see most of them go pale as they all looked worried. Wash knew about their encounter with O'malley and Tex, about what happened to them and how much they went through, especially Doc when it came to dealing with the evil AI. "But until she wakes up we can't exactly be sure what she meant by it, so we'll just have to wait it out." They all nodded and scattered around the base in silence. Wash took a deep breath and sat on the ground with his legs crisscross. He was terrified.

Wash and the others all sad around the room as Carolina took a moment to get her thoughts together. No one spoke in the nervous atmosphere that filled the entire room, base, and canyon. Wash held his hands tightly together in an effort to stop them from shaking in his terror. Carolina looked up at them slowly, eying each and every one of them carefully as if she could sense their fear. She took a deep breath before she spoke, making them all antsy.

"As I told you before, Wash, O'malley is back," she told them simply and there was a long pause where she gathered her breathing again. "Church and I were on a mission when all hell broke lose, someone mentioned something about agent Tex being just a shadow and he snapped, screaming at him as he became more and a more see-through white. Soon Church was screaming inside my head and O'malley had taken full control, giving that evil laugh he is well known for.

"He said something about concurring Earth and her colonies and how no one could stop him. He grabbed the first body he could find, and the strongest, killing the man inside so that the body would be fully his own. I guess he did that because of what happened between him and Doc, and he didn't want anyone slowing him down or anything. Anyway, he killed everyone and beat me down. I did the first thing that came to mind," she said and looked up at them with a funny look in her eyes at this line. "I came to find you."

"Why us?" Tucker asked, getting everyone to look over at her. Carolina looked over at him slower than the others and thought this over a long moment, as if she didn't know the answer herself. She finally broke eye contact with him and looked away with a tiny smile upon her face.

"Because I knew that if anyone could stop him it was going to be you," she answered the question finally, getting everyone's attention. "You've been through things that would make some of the Freelancers I knew run and hide, but you didn't do either. You faced them head on and you prevailed, so I knew that if I had to find one group and get their help that it had to be you guys."

Everyone just sat in silence after that, not knowing what to say at all in response. Wash looked around at his team a long time in thought. He didn't want to put them in danger but at the same time they couldn't let O'malley take over the human race. He stared at the ground in thought, but Sarge spoke first.

"Where do we start?" he asked and everyone looked up at Carolina with expressions that said they agreed with him. Wash gave a tiny smile. He knew that he could count on them no matter what. Carolina smiled and winced a bit, touching her head in pain a moment before looking at them.

"Thanks guys," she said and they all nodded. "Now, suit up, we've got an AI to find." She said with a smirk. They all nodded and ran off to get their armor on while Wash helped Carolina to her feet. "Wash, you'll be leading them into battle while I stay here to heal up, while I do so you will keep in touch with me. When I am healed I will join you on the battle field." Wash nodded and sat her down, waiting for the others to come back. He took a deep breath and went to get his own armor on. This wasn't going to end well, he just knew it.


And that's is for now. Keep an eye out for more chapters!

Thanks for reading, please review, and have a bow chicka bow wow day!
Perla: And may it be the best day ever, of all time.