Chapter Three: Home Sweet Home

Sidewinder walked over to Ace and Duke's SkyStriker. The cockpit was open and Ace was taking his helmet off. She didn't see Duke anywhere. She had to admit that Ace had some skills. Deep down she knew that she let her win; she had to play the reckless card. This was part of the reason that she didn't have many friends at Wright-Patterson. She knew that she was cocky, brash and had a huge chip on her shoulder. She knew that this was because of all of the abuse she took as a kid. It was also because she felt she had a lot to prove; not only to herself but to everyone. She had the skills, the talent and the guts. Ace stood up and waved to her, while Duke got up from his seat. He looked furious.

"Captain, you mind telling me what in God's green Earth did you think you were doing up there!? You could have gotten all of us killed!"

"Duke, cut the kid a break. She did fine." Ace chimed in. "She was showing us that she has the skills to pilot for us." Ace climbed down the ladder and walked over to her. "You did fine. For a pilot, you're in."

Duke climbed down his ladder. He walked over to Sidewinder. He poked her hard in the left shoulder. She winced but Duke didn't notice. "You ever pull a stunt like that again and I'll have your ass packed on the next bus back home. Do I make myself clear, Captain?"

"Yes sir. It won't happen again." Sidewinder said, through the screaming pain in her shoulder. He took his finger out of her shoulder. Duke stormed off to headquarters. He stopped halfway and spoke again.

"Ace, show her to her room."

"Yes sir." Ace saluted. Duke continued off to his office. Sidewinder grabbed her shoulder. Ace noticed this and tried to help her, but she pulled away.

"Don't touch it!" Sidewinder exclaimed. Ace looked at her. "Sorry, I'm okay. Could you do me a favor, Ace?"

"Sure, what do you need?"

Sidewinder unzipped her flightsuit. She pulled her left arm out of the suit. Ace noticed the scar on her shoulder. "Is it bleeding?"

Ace looked over the wound. It looked fine to him. He noticed that she had some more scars all over her back. "No, you're not bleeding. Are you sure that you're okay? That looks pretty back, Sidewinder."

Sidewinder put her arm back into the flightsuit and re-zipped it. She smiled to Ace. "Thank you. I'll fill you in another time about that." Ace nodded.

Ace walked Sidewinder over to the dormitories. It was a huge building about seven stories tall. She was surprised that they would have such a tall building on the base. Ace noticed her surprise and smiled.

"What's so funny, flyboy?"

"It's nothing." Ace replied. "I know what you're thinking but it's not a target. We've had Cobra attack the base a couple of times, but for some reason they never target that particular building. They usually go after what we store on base."

"So whoever built the dorms didn't think of this place to be a target? That's very strange." Sidewinder replied.

Ace shrugged. "I guess. The women have the entire fifth floor. This is the one and only time I'm allowed to go up there."

"Guys aren't allowed on the girls' floor?"

"Yeah." Ace smiled. "It's a safety thing. Mind you that there are about ten of you total. I'll introduce you to your room-mate. She'll take over from there."

"There's ten of us?" Sidewinder asked. "We all live on one floor?"

Ace opened the door for Sidewinder. She walked in and he followed her to the elevator. "Well, technically nine of you. Lady Jaye lives in one of the houses on base. She's married to Flint. Scarlett has been on the team since day one and she likes her privacy" Ace cleared his throat. "Actually, she shares quarters with Snake Eyes. They like to be on their own. The rest of the team share a room with one of the female Joes." The elevator door opened and Sidewinder walked in with Ace it tow. He pressed the five button and the elevator started to go to the fifth floor. Ace continued with their conversation.

"Yeah, I'm sure that Firewall will introduce you to them. Jinx, Bombstrike, Mayday and Vorona are off on different missions. I'm sure that you'll meet them soon. Cover Girl, Doc and Firewall are probably in the lounge. They have a video night on Sundays." The elevator stopped at the fifth floor and the door opened. Ace offered her the way out and he followed to the lobby. Sidewinder noticed a directory for the women. To the left was a sign with an arrow going the same way. The names on the wall were individual to the person: Cover Girl had a tank behind her name, Jinx had a ninja mask while Doc had a red cross and Bombstrike had a soccer ball. She noticed two more names: Vorona and Mayday. Each one had a sniper rifle on theirs but Vorona's had a Czech flag, while Mayday's had an American flag. The other side had fewer; Scarlett's was a crossbow and Firewall's was a computer. There was a dry erase board on the wall with a bunch of messages on it.

Ace walked in the direction to the right. "I'll take you past the lounge. If the girls aren't in, then we'll take you to Firewall." They heard swearing from the lounge as they got closer. Sidewinder looked at Ace, confused. He just smiled back to her.

"That would be Firewall. It sounds like she's by herself tonight, so she got the Xbox 360 out on the big screen in there." Ace chuckled. "I think the General is going to regret letting her get the Live membership." The two of them walked over to the lounge and walked in. Sidewinder was amazed that the lounge was the size of a small house. There was a full kitchen, an area to either read, watch television, or even play cards. It was then that Sidewinder noticed Firewall sitting on the floor, her back to them. She was moving all over, trying to defeat some creature on the screen and apparently not having much success.

"Mother…" She screamed at the screen. "How the hell am I supposed to kill the damn berserkers, let alone five of them!! When I get my hands on Bazooka, I'll kill him. He's good at taking them out! He decided to play against me! Damn it all to hell!"

"Having a problem there, Michelle?" Ace asked, causing Firewall to scream again. Sidewinder noticed that she was wearing a pair of blue gym shorts and a pink Hello Kitty t-shirt. She was trying to cover herself up as best as possible.

"What's it to you, Ace?" Firewall squeaked. "You could have let me know you were coming. I scored the lounge for the night. Courtney and Carla are out on dates and Scarlett didn't want to play. She complained about having carpal-tunnel or something."

"Firewall, this is your new room-mate Sidewinder. She came to the base today. We'll give her the tour tomorrow. I need to take care of something tonight." Ace placed her dufflebag on the couch. "I'll see you in the morning, Cassie. Night you two." With that, he walked back to the elevator. Sidewinder smiled and turned her attention to Firewall.

Firewall walked over to Sidewinder. "Name's Michelle, but I go by Firewall. I caught your handle…"

"It's Cassidy, but I go by Cassie." Sidewinder smiled. "I guess we're roomies."

Firewall nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry to say that you got stuck with the geek."

"Your team-mates call you this?"

Firewall laughed. "Nah, they treat me like a little sister. I'm the youngest Joe on the team. I call myself a geek. Well, when you see the room; you'll understand."

Sidewinder smiled back to Firewall. "If it makes you feel any better, I'm kind of the same. Do you think I could give you a hand with this game?"

Firewall looked at Sidewinder with surprise. "You're kidding, right? No one wants to game with me. Of course, they come up with a nice way of saying it though."

Sidewinder walked over to the system and grabbed the second controller and sat down on the floor. "Nonsense, I used to date a guy at Wright-Patterson that was addicted to Gears of War. I learned a few things from watching him."

Firewall looked at her room-mate. "Okay, well let me get my Ipod working and we'll do some damage." She walked over to the Ipod and turned on "Ace of Spades". "I think this will work." She said sitting down next to Sidewinder. They played for a while until Scarlett came into the lounge and told them it was one in the morning and to pack it up. Sidewinder felt a connection to her and decided to head back to their room. She helped carry all of the 360 equipment to their room, along with her duffle. Firewall got to the door and unlocked it. She opened the door and let Sidewinder in. Sidewinder looked around and smiled; this was nicer than her old place and it was huge. The room was the size of a standard living room, with a small bathroom. She looked around and noticed that there were a lot of posters on the walls, as well as figurines and models on some of the shelves.

"Big fan of Final Fantasy, Firewall?" Sidewinder asked.

"Sorry, I told you I was a geek." Firewall blushed. "I've more of a fan of seven and eight. I liked ten and its sequel." She pointed to the area between the windows. She saw replica weapons of the main characters from the games, as well as several more posters near the fire escape. She placed her duffle on her bunk and walked over to the wall that had over five hundred DVDs. She noticed a lot of the movies on her shelves and some of them were her favorites.

"You work in a video store before joining the Joes?"

"Me?" Firewall came over to Sidewinder "Nah, the boys wouldn't let me work there. They were Star Trek geeks, although they would have gotten along with Dial-Tone pretty well." She picked up a DVD from the coffee table and placed it back on the shelf. "I used to rent out my collection to most of the team when I started here. I had to put a stop to it after Shipwreck borrowed Fast Times."

Sidewinder looked at her confused. "What do you mean?"

"You know, the Phoebe Cates coming out of the pool part? Needless to say it always skipped at that part." Firewall smiled. "I made Shipwreck buy me another copy. Now, I just lend them out to the girls."

"You know that you'll get them back the way that you kept them?" Sidewinder nodded. "Yeah, that makes sense." She tried to stifle a yawn, but felt really tired. "Do you mind if I step out on the escape and have a smoke?"

Firewall shook her head. "I'll keep you company. I'll join you for my kind of smoke." She went over to her nightstand and grabbed a joint out of her drawer. Sidewinder smiled at her. She had a feeling on that.

"I'm not surprised that you do that. Hell, I might join you on that sometime."

Firewall smiled at her. "I'm glad you won't say anything on this. It's been hard to do this for a while." They walked over to fire escape door and went outside. They both lit up and were quiet for a while. They finished up and walked back inside. Sidewinder was exhausted. Firewall looked tired also.

"Why don't we get some sleep? We'll talk more in the morning." Firewall said. "After PT with Beach Head, we'll show you the base and introduce you to as many of the Joes as we can. It'll be fun."

"Sure, sounds like a plan." Sidewinder walked into the bathroom to change. She didn't want to scare her new room-mate on the first night. She changed into some sleep clothes. She walked back into the main room and found Firewall was already asleep. Sidewinder pulled the blankets onto Firewall as she slept. She walked over to her bed and climbed in, where she sat awake for a few. She really liked Firewall and knew that they would get along pretty well. She smiled at promise of a new day and quickly fell asleep.