Author Note: Just to get some things out of the way. The Reds no longer have Lopez with them. The Blues don't have the Tank either… yet.

Episode II: Proud Parents All Around

"Please Grif! Don't tell any one! I'll get thrown out of the Red army if they found out I forged documents about my gender and physical!" Donut pleaded to Grif, tears running down her face.

"….." Grif was in a tough spot. On the one hand he could say something and have Donut run out of Valhalla in shame. But then on the other, he had a soft spot for crying women. "I don't know Donut this is kind of a big deal, you know? You did lie about your real gender after all. Sarge is gonna be pissed if he finds out."

"That's why he can find out!" Donut replied. "I need to be here! You don't understand!" She was crying freely by now. This was more than the pink clad woman could handle.

"You lied. What's there to understand?" Grif snorted. "I hate Sarge with a passion but even I wouldn't lie to him." Why had she lied about something like this? I mean Grif may have been drafted and resented it, but Not even he would lie about… well anything. Dexter Grif may have been many things, but a liar wasn't one. That's what bothered him the most about the whole situation.

"I have nowhere to go!" Donut practically sobbed. "It was either lie to get into the Red army or be a prostitute on the street! I had no home, no money. Not even a god damn name!"

Now that got Grif's attention. "What do you mean no name? Isn't it Donut?" what did she mean no name? Grif tilted his head as he studied the young woman.

"No…. I took it from a military obituary." Donut explained. "I was about twelve. I was wondering around back alleys, just trying to scrape by. I had no name; I'd been abandoned early on in life. I don't even remember if I ever got a name. So I found an old paper listing the Dead during the Great War and picked one to call myself at random." Donut had placed her armor back on by this point.

"Franklin D. Donut right?" Grif asked. He crossed his arms over his chest. This was great, just great. How could he rat her out now? She wasn't lying that much was obvious. Grif may have been lazy as all get out, but he was an expert at reading faces. And he could tell she was telling the truth. If He told Sarge, or any one for that matter, that Donut was a woman, she'd be thrown out of the army. And she clearly had no home to go to by what she had said. "Donut?"

"Yeah?" Donut looked up at Grif.

"Your secret's safe with me." Grif nodded at the pink armored woman.

"Thanks."

Sarge stood on the top level of red base staring up at the sky expectantly. It had been about four hours since Mark left to get the new vehicle from command. He was also due for an armor replacement, something about it being too small.

"What are you looking for sir?" Simmons asked as he walking up to his commanding officer.

"Mark! Command called him back to get a new vehicle for us to compliment the Warthog." Sarge replied not taking his eyes off the sky. "They said He would be back about now. But I don't see him any where!" Sarge sighed exasperatedly.

"That's because your looking at clouds sir." Simmons commented. Why would Sarge be staring at the sky for the new vehicle?

"The new vehicle's an aircraft idiot." Sarge snapped facing the maroon colored private. Both Red soldiers attentions were brought back to the sky by the sound of a small aircraft approaching. It had the hull of a small combat fighter, but instead of two wings it had two verti-lift turbines. It had two Vulcan pods above the cockpit dome and two missile pods under the pylons. It landed behind the Red base at the waterfront. A red soldier, clad in armor as gold as his visor, climbed out of the cockpit.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Sarge." The gold soldier apologized as he walked up to the red CO. "It took way longer than expected to fuel it up."

"You're damn right!" Sarge replied. "Your over two hours late! You should have been here much sooner." Idiots couldn't do anything right. What was the world coming to?

"Hey. Isn't your armor some kind of Christmassy theme?" Simmons asked sarcastcially. Christmas themed armor. he had to Thank Vic latter for helping him pull that off.

"No you dumb ass." Mark retorted. Stupid Vic. Thought he was so fucking cleaver. "That fucktard Vic thought it would be cute to give me green and red armor… that was two sizes too small." It still pissed him off that command Let Vic pull a stunt like that. His balls still hurt from squeezing into that armor.

"What's all the racket?" Grif asked as he walked up with Donut in tow.

At the Blue base.

"I sill don't understand why you think you need to go looking for trouble Tex." Church sighed as he watched his long timer girlfriend load several rifles into the back of a cargo warthog. (A normal warthog minus the turret-mounted weapon) He hated how she always seemed to go looking for trouble like this.

"Who said I was looking for trouble?" Tex scoffed. Church was just being over protective in her opinion. All she was doing was going to the old Freelancer base to do some checking around. She didn't really expect to find anything considering the EMP that went off ruined all the mainframes. But it didn't hurt to check either. Something was just bugging her about the whole "command gave us new bodies" situation. She knew command. The never just did things out of charity. There was always some thing they had to gain from doing so. At her expense most of the time. "I'm just going to see if anything survived the EMP blast at the old Freelancer HQ. That's all. It's not like I'm going to start a small scale war or anything."

"Than why are you loading a rocket launcher and Spartan laser?" church asked incredulously.

"What?" Tex blinked inside her helmet as she dumped said weapons in the back of the Warthog. "These?…. No reason."

"Sure, I'll just bet." Church remarked sarcastically.

Inside the blue base, Doc had finished his check up of Sister. She had been getting morning sick everyday for the last month.

"So… Doc, Is sister sick or something?" tucker asked, a hint of worry in his voice. He may not have admitted it out loud be he was worried about Sister. He didn't know why but Sister made he feel things he never felt with other girls he met.

"Well, I've got god news and bad news." Doc replied. He had to be delicate about how he approached this. It wasn't every day a big event like this occurred. It had to be delivered professionally.

"I don't like the sound of that." Tucker shifted uncomfortably. Good news and bad news? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

"Well the bad new is she'll be experiencing morning sickness for the next couple of months." Doc explained motioning toward Sister. The Yellow clad blue sighing.

"Yeah which SUCKS!" She exclaimed in an exasperated manner. Man why did this have to be so complicated? Why couldn't just happen and be done with? Oh well but she was going to go through with it this time. She would not go down as THAT kind of girl. Not her, no sir, not at all.

"Ok so what's the good new?" tucker asked. He couldn't wait to her this one. Something weird probably, like she's going to mutate into a xenomorph, or grow fangs and fur. That's how things usually worked around there. Nothing normal EVER happened when it cam to the former residents of Blood gulch.

"The good news is she isn't sick!" Doc finished, if it wasn't for his purple armor, tucker would have seen the stupid smile on his face.

"Yeah." Sister added in. "I'm pregnant! With your kid Tucker!" She exclaimed happily.

Fade to black.

"Well that's a relief. I at least I know your not sick…… Wait what?"

Next chapter, Tex arrives at the abandoned Freelancer base, or ist it? Church has to put up with a new refruit that arrives, bringing another tank, and Baring a very familiar name. Like wise the Reds see the return of a familiar face while Donut tries to avoid blowing her secret to growing suspicions about her from the others. New allies arrive and old enemies return in epsiode three, Blast from the Past.