The next hour.
"Let me get this straight, you gave this guy our flag?" Church was bust interrogating the newcomer while Tucker scanned the area with this rifle sight. Rookie stood anxious behind them.
"Is that bad?" Caboose asked.
"Bad? Oh no, that's not bad, next time he comes over, why not just help him blow the whole god damn ba-"
"Hey! It's not his fault. You're the one who told him to wait for a general that never existed in the first place!" Rookie yelled in Caboose's defense. Church was about to give her a nasty retort when Tucker suddenly called out. "There! There he is!"
Church immediately lifted the sniper rifle and peered through the sight, "where?" And then spotted him, "Oh yeah, oh I got him. He's sneaking around back by the cliffs."
"He must be one smart Sonnva bitch." Tucker said with a hit of admiration.
Rookie also peeked through her gun's sight and noticed the red man pausing, looking around, and backtracking constantly like a person who's unsure of where to go. "Uh, guys? I think he's more lost than anything else."
"How can you even see that far with a normal gun?" Tucker asked.
"I got an advance scope for it." She said patting the rifle.
"Oh shit." Church suddenly moaned, "Guys, look at his armor. It's red."
"Oh man, that means it's their sergeant."
"Well, that makes sense. At least now we know how he got by our defenses."
"Uh you know," Caboose piped up, "he came in the back door where you guys were standing."
"Yeah something about not being able to drive that tank I recall." Rookie added.
"Well why weren't you watching it?" Church demanded.
"You never told me to and I was busy cleaning up your mess inside the Base!"
"Yeah ok, let's take him out then." Tucker quickly said, wanting to change the subject.
"Rodger that." Church lifted the sniper and zoomed in closer.
"Ok, say good night Sarge."
But as many rounds as the Blue leader fired off at the red figure, each shot missed their mark completely.
"Ah crap." He turned and noticed Rookie and Tucker staring at him.
"What?"
"You're really not very good with that thing are you?" Tucker was trying hard to hold back a giggle.
"Unless you were trying to hit the air around him, then it was pretty good aim." Rookie was unable to keep the giggle out of her voice.
"Shut up!"
Rookie looked back at 'Sarge' and saw him running back and forth waving the flag, shouting something that they could not hear. "…What's he doing now?"
"Great, now he's taunting us. That's just embarrassing."
"Alright, that's it! "I've had it." Church snapped and turned to the new comers, "rookie," he made sure to point at Caboose. "You stay here, me, Tucker and this rookie will head to the teleporter. We'll cut him off at the pass."
"Right!" Caboose acknowledged.
"We have a pass?" Rookie asked.
"There is no way I'm going through that thing."
"Tucker we don't have time for this. Why would they give us a teleporter if it doesn't work?"
"I don't know!" "Why would they give us a tank that no one can drive?"
"Actually," Rookie butted in, "think all tanks come a built in tutori-"
"We already tested the teleporter remember?" Church said cutting her off.
"We threw rocks through it!"
"Yeah and? So what? The rocks came out the other side didn't they?"
"Yeah, but they were all hot and covered in black stuff."
Rookie glanced between her leader and comrade as they argued, then looked back at the red team member that was getting further and further away. "…I think I'll lead the Calvary for this one."
Before anyone could stop her, she hopped down and began running at an amazing speed toward the small red figure in the distance. "Meet you there to back you up!" She called back. The rest of the group watched her in awe.
"Well, it's good to know that someone is willing to go the extra mile for this team." Church mused.
"I'm certain she can run that mile and back before this teleporter works properly."
"Freeze!" Rookie shouted, as she closed in on the red soldier. "Huh?" The man turned and found himself staring down the barrel of a very large and unusual gun. Rookie was confused as to why neither Tucker nor Church came out of the teleported yet, but figured that they were still arguing back at base. It would be up to her now to recover what had been stolen.
"Can it tomato paste! You were either really good or really lucky to come to our base alone and get this far with our flag, Sarge," Rookie growled. "But this is as far as you'll ever get, now hand it over and maybe I'll go easy on you and let you limp back to your base old man."
"Sarge?" the soldier asked, seemingly forgetting about the gun in his face. Rookie was taken aback by how young he sounded, didn't Tucker say he was old and talked like a grumpy pirate? "I'm not the Sargent and I'm not old, I'm Private Donut at red base, I just got here 2 hours ago."
"What?" Rookie lowered her gun, now noticing that this guy didn't even have his gun out, or seem to even have one. That was a common rookie move.
"Yeah, I had just come back from the store over there when those guys started shooting at me! And then you showed up."
"Store?" Rookie was so confused now, "There's no store in this canyon, it's just the red and blue base's, the only store I can think of is in the nearest city. Which is many miles in that direction." She pointed east of the canyon.
"What!? They told me at red base that I had to go to the store and pick up some things, they said I'll know what it was when I saw it."
Rookie understood immediately. "Look, Donut was it? I'm willing to bet those guys just said that as a prank or to get rid of you for a while. My leader did something like that to the rookie I came here with only he told him to stand guard on the flag for the next week until the General came to get it. Only there is no general, but Caboose didn't know that and he thought that you were the general when you walked in. That's why he gave you that." She pointed at the blue flag in his hands.
Donut seemed stunned, and then his confusion turned to angry annoyance. "Those jerks! Why would they do that?"
"Same reason my team mates made one of their rookies stand guard for a flag for a week. As a joke and to get rid out you for a while I bet." Rookie deadpanned.
"I'm seriously gonna have a word with the Sar-"
"Freeze!" A familiar blue leader came up from behind them.
"Not another one." Donut moaned.
"Can it Sarge-"
"I've already said that to him and he's not the Sargent, just a rookie."
"What?"
"He's not the Sargent. He's just a red rookie." Rookie explained again more slowly.
"Well how the hell did he manage to steal our flag?"
"Steal!?" Donut cried indignantly, "I didn't st-"
"3!" a dark, familiar sounding soldier shouted out as he suddenly popped out of the other end of the teleporter.
"JESUS!" Church screamed.
"THE HELL!?" Rookie yowled.
"HOLY SHIT! Who's this guy?" Donut shouted.
"What in the hell- Tucker? Is that you?" Church asked as the soot covered soldier turned to him.
"How did you get here ahead of me?"
"And what's with all that black shit on your armor?" The red rookie asked.
"Good thing I opted out of taking the teleporter." Rookie grumbled.
"Hey!" Tucker noticed Donut and lifted his gun, "freeze Sarge!"
"Here we go again." Rookie grumbled.
"Would you stop calling me a Sargent? I'm still just a Private."
Tucker took a step back in confusion, "the Sarge is still a Private?"
"No that's not-" Rookie began but was cut off again.
"Oh. My. God. The teleporter sent me back in time."
The three stared at him.
"…WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS TEAM!?"
"Look, I know you don't know me, but you have to believe what I'm about to tell you. Sometime in your future-"
"Tucker, this isn't the future. Because I'm still here." Rookie sighed, recovering from her previous outburst. Tucker turned to her. "It's me Tucker. Rookie." she said.
"…So…You're Rookie's mother from the past"
"WHAT!?"
"Tucker, what the fuck are you talking about?"
"I know this sounds crazy, but eventually this red guy becomes a sergeant, and then one day we get a tank, and he comes and steals your flag while we're distracted. And this chick," he turned to the sapphire soldier again, "she has a kid, who grows up, and joins our team. I see where she gets her looks from." He added, despite that fact he could not see her face at all.
"Is this guy a retard?" Donut asked.
"Hey!" Rookie pointed her gun at him, "We don't use that kind of term around here." In truth she wasn't sure if they did or not, but this Red rookie didn't have to know that.
"Just shut up Red." Church growled irritably before turning back to his confused teammate. "Tucker, listen to me, ya haven't gone back in time ok? And this is the guy that stole the flag; he's just not the Sargent."
"What's that noise? Rookie's voice came from the background, along with the polka music that was gradually increasing in volume every second.
"Turns out he's just some dumb rookie, who happens to have the same color armor as him."
"Um Church?" Rookie backed away from the small hill where the music was emanating from.
"He got in somehow and-for God's sake! What is that music?"
From the hill, the Reds in a horned jeep flew overhead, yowling in excitement.
"Sunnava bitch!"
"Holy shit!"
"Run!" Church screeched. Tucker didn't even have to be told, he was already running for his life.
"The Jeep must have been brought back in time!" Tucker shouted, still sticking to his crazy time travel theory.
They fled for cover behind a nearby boulder wedged on a sloping canyon wall, just in time too. The Red's opened fire with the turret attracted to their vehicle.
Rookie however, was partially hidden behind the hill directly behind them. She panted with adrenaline, watching wide eyed as the maroon soldier fired rounds after round at the rock where she had last seen her team mates duck behind, yelling insults as he did so.
At Blue Base…
"Oh man, that's not good." Caboose mumbled as he watched the scene though this gun scope, " oh my god that jeep has a really big gun.
Putting the larger gun away,, "Stay here…tank," he glance at the unused tank, "stay here ," he turned back again, "tan-"
"Get in the tank and help, moron!" Rookie's voice was barely heard above the gun fire.
"Aw, screw it." He moaned and made his way to the tank.