*A:N/ Another experimental chapter that gained a life of it's own, hope you enjoy :)
Getting the new additions to Valhalla settled in went more or less OK but there were definitely some hiccups along the way.
Such as Wash adding South to the roster to feed Junior, "You have got to fucking kidding me! I am not letting that-that THING slice into me like some chew toy!"
Washington raised a mocking eyebrow as Junior hopped up trying to get fed "Blarg honk!"
Wash said "What's the matter South? Too tough for you too handle because if that's the case maybe you could try joining the Reds or leave either way is good."
South snarled removing her arm armor "Here you little creep dig in."
Washington and South were at each throats a lot, in fact he got punched quite often by South for pissing her off, but he didn't seem to learn from those instead he insulted her even more which sparked the whole thing off again.
South got pissed off with the lot of them in general though, if the ruined body targets were any proof to support that, strangely enough Iota was surprisingly strong willed and often talked her down from doing too much serious damage.
Also if Iota failed North picked up the slack and brought her down from murderous to just ticked off.
He was an old hat at dealing with her but even he could only do so much with South's temper.
North spent most of his time around Theta, South, and York as they got along just as well when they were in project freelancer.
Theta loved having his own little robot body, which was child sized because by the time Sarge had gotten to making one for Theta he only had enough parts to make it that size, but neither he or North minded.
It wasn't uncommon to see North piggybacking the small AI robot around or holding his hand when they walked or just generally acting fatherly towards the little guy in their downtime.
Theta's next person of choice to be around was Delta who he went with many times to learn the names of flowers, fish and anything really he could find that Delta could explain to him.
York was always amused and happy to see Delta hanging around a lot with his little 'sibling', he even tagged along with them a couple of times just to watch how far Dee had come in interacting with people.
Needless to say he felt proud whenever he seen Delta mimicking a gesture he had learned from York.
Donut was the first Red to welcome them with open arms and once he seen how small Theta was he literally shrieked and swung the poor slightly frightened AI aoround whilst cooing over how adorable he was, Grif also warmed up to him rather fast which York figured must be a big brother thing, but Simmons was terribly awkward with him.
It was like he wasn't sure what to do with him so he avoided him completely for the first couple of days leaving Sarge confounded during that time as his best soldier was never anywhere to be found when he was needed. Grif thought it was awesome.
Sarge almost shot him for that. The freelancers had soon learned though that he often threatens to shoot Grif only to have sheer stupid reasons or dumb luck save him time and again.
Wyoming was another story.
York remembered very clearly how if it wasn't for Delta he would be dead because of Wyoming so no way did he turn his back or let his guard down around him.
Whether it was because he sensed the distrust or felt like he had better things to do Wyoming spent most of his time doing his own thing, or the rare moments he was around took the time to tell Knock knock jokes that Gary easily joined in with that caused great amusement for them, a great headache for everyone else.
Gary was another distant figure if wasn't telling jokes to them, he was off tormenting Church who was still pissed off at having them around, either that or be talking to Andy or be away annoying Sheilah with his presence but basically he never hung around Red base much.
Sheilah didn't like being bothered by him as she wasn't allowed to blow him up not even 'accidentally' but she was however told by Tucker to open fire if Wyoming so much as thought about crossing the invisible line dividing the sides in the canyon.
Caboose didn't seem at all phased about the new arrivals, well unless anyone tried to get too close to Church or Sheilah then he would become defensive and slightly fight-able in his own way, other than that he was Caboose.
For the freelancers that weren't used to him it was quite probably their biggest challenge to overcome in settling in. "Hello." North looked up from the tire he was fixing with Lopez and York helping him whilst Theta sat in the front seat pretending to drive.
North said back "Uh hello shouldn't you be at Blue base?"
Caboose crouched down whispering "I am spying on you."
York said "Hey North you done over there yet? Holding up this thing is heavy!"
Caboose said "Do not tell him I am here or I will have to color you."
North blinked trying to process what was going on "Color... do you mean shoot me?..."
Caboose shook his head "No I mean color you, my gun is full of crayons so if you tell I will color you!"
York grunted "North seriously arms going to drop off over here!" North said "Hey uh York what do I do if a Blue guy is threatening to color me?"
York blinked "Blue guy? You mean Caboose? Caboose you over there?"
Caboose huffed "Oh that is just great now he knows I am here! But that is OK I will tell Church Tucker did it."
York said "Hey Caboose if you're there could you help me hold this up please?"
Caboose stood up "What will you surrender me?"
York said "I'll get you one of Donuts cookies if you help."
Caboose appeared to think about it then said happily "OK." Then lifted the warthog up like it weighed nothing.
North stared at the higher raised car and wondered what just happened.
Lopez didn't care one way or the other what was going on with the additional troops as long as they didn't touch his things or break anything.
Doc managed to keep O'malley from killing anyone yet since the AI was always following him around discussing world domination plans like Doc was going to actually help him with them, but even Doc couldn't keep O'malley out of trouble completely, "Yes Lopez with your help we can turn this useless hammer into a devastating weapon of mass doom mwuahhaaha!"
Doc shifted nervously "Uh does it have to be dooming? Why can't it be a weapon that grows flowers or something?"
O'malley sighed pityingly "Oh midwife I would have thought by now you would have understood the intense evil that will be brought about by my hand, after all you know I only keep you around in case I need a spare body, so stop being a fool and help me bring my newest vision into reality!"
Doc twiddled his thumbs "That sounds great but how about we visit the uh pink room of uh utter pain first?"
O'malley paused "Utter pain you say? Hmmm could be useful, very well show me."
A quick trip too Donut's room later had O'malley running out yelling at the top of his lungs "Regroup! REGROUP! The horror! I will never un-see such fluorescence! Sooooo sparkly!"
Donut placed his hands on his hips pouting "How rude!"
Sister was very accepting and constantly trying to get herself in a situation that would have her, Delta and the twins alone, all those mentioned of course avoided said situation like the plague.
Tucker was torn of trying to help set up that situation with him, South and Sister or stick to his guns of being wary of the freelancers, hey old habits die hard.
Church was finding it the hardest to adjust out of them all, he had many memories of getting screwed over by freelancers and AI alike and he was quite frankly sick of it, plus he was pissed as hell that the guys had let them stay when they should of (in his opinion) told them to hit the road.
No though Wash had caved in and let them stay because when has anybody ever done what Church has wanted?
Nope.
So he was avoiding everyone until they regained their senses and sent the should-be-dead-people away or killed them.
Either one was good for him.
Some shaky weeks passed in this way before they all felt more set in a routine, today was the first day since the new 'additions' arrived that they were going to have a battle and Sarge in particular was pumped and ready for it.
"Alright men you know the drill the aim of the game is to kill as many as those filthy blues as you can and retrieve our goal, their flag!"
Donut put his hand up "Oo oo oo! Sarge! Oo oo!"
Sarge hummed "What is candy floss?"
Donut said "Well since I got the flag before why don't we just ask for it again?"
Sarge tapped his chin "While that idea has merit even the Blues won't fall for the same trick twice, I think we'll just attack straight on and if all else fails use Grif as a decoy to give the rest of us a better chance at success heh heh!"
Grif lit a cigarette as he said "Do any of your plans not involve me dying or getting badly hurt?"
Simmons piped up "I think it's an excellent idea sir!"
Grif rolled his eyes "Oh you would, hey Simmons you got something brown on your nose might wanna stop following orders for a while."
North looked at York who was leaning back in his chair with his arms behind his head "This is how they prepare for battle?"
York grinned "Are you really surprised man? Even with Dee around who would probably actually give them a chance at winning they end up doing the thing that Sarge suggests minus actually using Grif of course."
North glanced back them "Right. I dread to think how South's taking this."
York waved a hand "I'm sure she'll get over it and behave, in fact I hope all of us remember that this isn't a real fight."
Wyoming stepped out of the shadows "Trying to hint at something York?"
York's frame grew a little tenser "Of course not Wyoming, do I have to hint at something?"
Theta broke their staring contest by hopping onto North's lap attracting their attention "Are we going to have to fight?"
North placed a hand on his shoulder "Not if you don't want to Theta it's just training."
Sarge picked up his trusty shotgun "Alright enough yammerin' let's get out there and kick their keesters chhharrrggggeee!"
Meanwhile at Blue base Washington was similarly trying to rally the troops, having much less success "Look guys it's not that hard a plan to follow!"
Church rested his head on his hand said "Hey Wash who died and said you could be leader?"
Washington said back easily "You did."
Church grumbled "Hey that's low! I'm still the leader of Blue team."
Wash shot back "On who's authority?"
"On my own authority!"
"So something that doesn't exist then!"
"Wow you're worked up today, what you don't want South to show you up or something?"
South entered the room smirking "Aw what's the matter Wash? Don't want to be second best?"
Wash shot back an equally disarming smile "Well not all of us can rank higher on the board can we?"
South clenched her fist and Washington didn't back down.
Iota stepped in and said "Perhaps we should return to forming a strategy?"
Caboose said "Aww man I hate Stratego I can never get my pieces in the right place."
Tucker twirled his sword handle around "Strategy? What strategy! We just throw some insults and a couple of grenades and go home. Job done."
Church said "Yeah the only rule is don't kill me but apparently that's too hard for some people to follow."
Caboose pointed at Tucker "Not my fault Tucker did it."
Tucker scowled "Seriously? What is going to take to make you stop saying that?!"
South loaded her pistol "Enough talking let's do this already, come on Sister us girls can stick together."
Sister bounced up after her "Awesome! I haven't gotten stuck to anyone in a long time not since I tried that thing with the extra stretchy rubber bands."
South nodded as they headed out "Yeah. Wait what!?"
Tucker looked at Washington "So did you tell her Sister is colorblind yet?"
Washington feigned innocence as he loaded his gun "Nope. It slipped my mind how silly of me."
Church stared at Wash saying "Wow you freelancers are some cold motherfuckers you know that."
The battle, if it could be classed as that, was an interesting experience for the freelancers mostly due to the first rule of no killing.
Back in freelancer it wasn't the aim but if you did die it was the case of 'oh well things happen, life goes on' and you weren't good enough to be an agent.
Now though they all realized in the back of their minds that even an accidental kill here wouldn't just be slightly frowned on, it would rank higher than complete and utter betrayal so they toned it down a lot, missing by miles on purpose and forced themselves to play nice.
Apart from hand to hand combat which they allowed themselves to kick ass, well South kicked ass, North and York generally made people trip over themselves in circles for a few minutes then 'captured' the enemy.
South not yet knowing of Church's complete lack of skill with a sniper rifle dived out of the way to avoid Wyoming's fire and shouted "Church snipe Wyoming! I need cover fire!"
Church looked around "You want ME to snipe WYOMING!?"
South narrowly dodged another shot "No I meant the alien monster, OF COURSE YOU NOW HURRY IT UP!"
Church said "Right OK no problem. Now let's see how does this work again? Uh zoom? No aha a little button! Alright everything's nice and big, I can see him and uh oh he can me!" In a quick shot Church's body crumbled to the ground leaving his ghostly form.
He yelled "HEY JACKASS YOU JUST KILLED ME! WHAT THE HELL!?"
York frowned looking Wyoming's way "Hey whatcha do that for?! I thought we agreed no killing!"
Wyoming shouldered the sniper rifle "I didn't fire a shot yet mate."
York asked "Then who?..."
Caboose popped up behind Church "Not my fault Tucker did it."
Tucker who was half way across the canyon trying to keep his ground in a one on one with North shouted back "Shut it Caboose!"
South had somehow ended back to back with Washington who said "Oh great it's you."
South said back "You're not my first choice either pal!" She heard something weird, and said to him "Hey what the hell is that noise?"
Washington listened as well "Music? Oh no."
Grif whooped "YEHAH!"
As he jumped over the hill with Sarge riding shotgun and Simmons manning the turret he yelled "YEAH SUCK IT BLUE!"
Wash and South leaped out of the way just in time as Sarge pointed their gun at them "Prepare to get Sarge'd!"
Theta ran up to them "Uh Sarge sir? We got the flag."
Sarge looked at him "What?"
Theta held it up "See!"
It was the Blues flag, Delta stepped beside him with Donut who said "It wasn't easy and boy did we have to tug on this sucker hard to jerk it off."
Simmons groaned "Why? Why do you have to say things like that! We can see you have it so why couldn't we have left it at that?"
South snarled "Well you haven't won yet!"
Wash sighed "Yeah they have."
South then noticed that York, Gary, Lopez and North had Tucker, Sister, Iota, Caboose and Church hostage, whilst Wyoming had his sights on them should they try to escape.
Sarge cheered "Yes Red team won! Taste defeat you loser Blues! Gloooorryy glooory Red team!"
South through her gun down "ARG! I can't believe this!"
Washington couldn't resist jabbing "What's the matter South? Can't handle being second best?"
South turned around and punched him "You are such a dick!"
Donut piped up "Yeah you tell him sister!"
Sister said "Tell him what? I didn't say anything."
Church said "Oh goddamit he didn't mean you!"
Caboose shouted "I will not you all oppress me!"
Church looked at him "What the hell are you on about?"
Caboose asked "Aren't we reenacting ladies rights fights? I liked those they had cookies."
Church shook his head "No we're not Caboose just count sheep in your head or something OK?"
Caboose chirped happily "OK." After a second he said "What comes after one?"
Wash held his jaw snapping back at South "And you're a total bitch!"
Delta said to York "Isn't this a situation where emotions running high between a male and female party can lead to reproduction?"
Wash and South both reeled back like they'd been electrocuted.
York answered "Ah now's not the time Dee, I'll explain later."
Church snorted "If that was all it took to shut them up I would have said that ages ago."
Theta tugged on North's hand "What's reproduction?"
North said carefully "Something you can learn about when your older."
Grif added "And something apparently Tucker didn't learn about."
Tucker waved his hands "I told you guys it wasn't me!"
Simmons said "Sure so the alien baby got into your stomach all by itself did it?"
Tucker denied "I was home that night Caboose can vouch for me!"
Caboose said "I did not see anything, or hear anything or be there in way shape or form that would mean I know anything."
Tucker sighed "Wow when the stork dropped you it must have been out of the freaking atmosphere."
Theta tugged again on North's hand "North is that where babies come from?"
North said "How about we find out where Doc and O'malley disappeared too huh?"
York elbowed Wash lightly "Hey man you awake in there?"
Washington made a strangled choking noise that York took as a sign of life "OK then you're good."
O'malley cackled down at them from his place on the hilltop "You fools left your guard down! Prepare to be hammered!"
Sister whooped "Yeah bring it on! I haven't gotten wasted since I got stuck we these losers."
Grif said "I don't think he means that kind of hammered and besides what have you got to whine about? Sarge told us you had raves every night after we all left."
Sarge gasped "Grif! Don't give away intel to the enemy or I'll have to silence you! Actually keep talking then you give me the excuse to shoot you for becoming a traitor."
Grif responded "Uhuh so how come Simmons is still here?"
Simmons said "What?"
Grif carried on "Well you did join the Blues that one time so technically if anyone on our sides the traitor it's you, oh and Lopez because he ran away faster than that door to door salesman we had."
Donut sighed "Yeah. I don't understand why, I mean we were getting along great then I offer to polish his knob and he runs for it. How strange was that?"
Grif and Simmons stared at him, Grif muttered "If you don't know what you did wrong I can't be bothered to explain it to you. Maybe your right Sister I could use that drink after all preferably a shot of something strong."
O'malley shook a fist "Oh your going to get a shot alright! Let's see how much you enjoy it when you're wasting away being fed on by starving birds! Mwuahaha! Lopez activate the weapon!"
Lopez said "Fine."
Doc murmured "Oh dear."
As the gravity hammer in O'malley's grasp shuddered into life, "Yes it works!" Then promptly exploded into a healing shield.
O'malley paused and said "Noooooo! What is this?"
Lopez replied "You said you wanted a back up built into the hammer that would prevent you from dying. In this shield it is almost impossible to die."
O'malley stamped a foot "Curses! This is not what I wanted!"
Doc said "Oh now that does perk you up all my aches and pains are gone, nice job Lopez."
Church said "Right so you guys won whoopeedoo can we have our flag back now?"
The Reds shared a look then Sarge said "It depends how much you want your flag back."
Tucker groaned "Aw man this is bullshit well I'm not doing it. Veto."
Church quickly joined in "Uh yeah veto. Quick Caboose veto."
Caboose replied "My toe."
Church said "Good enough, hey Sister and South veto!"
South answered warily "Veto?"
Sister said "Veto? That sounds awesome! What is it?"
Church carried on "Well that just leaves you Wash you know the drill."
Washington snapped out of his daze "Huh? No veto!"
The Reds and Blues all replied "Too late."
North asked York "Do you have any idea what's going on here?"
York sounded quite cheery when he replied "Yeah I do. Just watch you're going to love this."
Wash started "I just want everyone to know that I suck."
York prompted "And?" He just knew that Wash was glaring at him for that "And that I'm a girl."
Grif said "What else?"
Wash slumped slightly "And I like ribbons in my hair and I want to kiss all the boys."
York was having trouble holding in his laughter "Now was that so hard?"
Whilst South had no such restraints and laughed at him "Whilst that is the stupidest surrender sequence ever it sounded good coming from you Wash."
North disguised his small chuckle in a cough that didn't fool Wash for a second. Junior came running over to them giving Tucker a quick affectionate nibble then started jumping up at Wash "Honk honk!"
Washington back up "Hey what are you doing? Shoo!"
Doc said "Perhaps it's his feeding time and the little guys hungry."
South crossed her arms "What's the matter Wash? Can't handle it."
Wash said back "You mean extreme blood loss since I only fed him yesterday I doubt anyone can handle that South." He tried side stepping out of Juniors path "It's not my turn again yet, go to your mother if you're hungry. Go on."
Tucker said "I don't think he wants me right now. I think he's gotten quite attached to you."
Wash dodged another jump "More like to my arm."
North nudged Theta forward "Hey why don't you go see if he wants to play with you for a while?"
Theta shied away behind North's leg "Really? What if he doesn't want to?"
North crouched down "I'm sure he will, you like Junior don't you?"
Theta nodded his head and walked forward in small steps "Hey Junior you wanna go play?"
Junior stopped harassing Wash offering happy "Blarg blarg!" and tapped Theta in the universal motion of tag and the two set off into their game.
York said "You wanna go keep an eye on them Dee?"
Delta answered "I can see them just fine from here."
York looked at him "Dee."
Delta realized his mistake "Oh you mean follow them to make sure they don't get into trouble yes I can and would like to do that."
Iota said "Can I come along with you?"
Delta nodded "If you would like."
South impatient as always said "OK great battles over, we lost, we have the flag back now what do we do?"
Wyoming shouted down "Yes if it's not too much trouble I would like to know how much longer I have to wait up here."
York called back "It's over now you're free to do whatever."
Wyoming packed up his sniper rifle saying "Right then cheerio til later then chaps."
Then headed into base with Gary, which everyone probably should have worried about at least a little bit, but couldn't really bring themselves to care.
South said "Yeah great, now seriously what are we doing next?"
Tucker said "We're doing it."
South asked peevishly "And what is that? Wasting time?"
Church said "Nope. Standing around and talking. I know you guys like ruin everything you touch but don't fuck this up OK?"
It was about two months later when Carolina finely found Valhalla it had taken a while but all the sources she'd tracked down said this is where she would find clues that would help lead her to the Director.
Soon she would make the Director pay for what he had done to them, to her, York, Wash, the twins, the Alpha and the many others lost in a pursuit of a shadow. Not much longer and he would know she was coming for him and a part of her hoped he was afraid nut so he should be he made her like this forged her into this weapon he wanted her to be.
Isn't that the shit thing about weapons though?
They can backfire on you.
Seeing no signs of hostility Carolina made her way carefully into Valhalla her scanners detected no signs of activity outside of the bases yet inside Red base was a mass of it.
She hoped her next sources of information didn't get themselves killed before she had a chance to learn everything they knew, she sped up running into the base and hiding in an alcove she must have been in the heart of the base but their was still no sign of anyone.
Could they all be camouflaged?
No she doubted simulation soldiers having access to such equipment and she would see the shimmer after training to defeat Texas there was no way she would miss it.
So deeper in the base then?
Her scanners were showing she was right in the mass of activity, so where were they?
She stepped out staying alert and moving carefully in case the base was rigged with traps, some noise echoed from her right which she followed to an elevator looking shaft. The elevator was gone so at the bottom of whatever it was and whoever was down there if she called the lift back up she's be noticed but getting down without it would be no problem.
She unhooked her pistols ready for combat in case their was an ambush waiting for her below, she couched down and flipped over running down the wall to the bottom where she flipped over attack into a position to attack.
"Alright people- what is this!?"
Out of all the things Carolina braced herself to run into in the underground room it certainly wasn't what she was faced with, instead of a few Red soldiers locked in battle with a few Blue ones, they were at what looked to be a sunny beach side bar sitting around table playing poker out of armor whilst a few other troops hung back watching near a kid that was making sandcastles with a small alien looking thing.
More than one or two faces that should be dead sat around the table looking surprised and in one of their cases guilty as they stared back at her.
One of the soldiers in a light Blue t-shirt through down his cards "How typical is that? I get a straight and a freelancer bursts in! Un-frickin-believable!"
Washington said back "Well maybe you wouldn't loose so much if you had a better poker face."
Church grumbled "Yeah because being up against trained experts is fair."
Caboose said "North do you have any fours?"
North replied gently "This isn't fish Caboose."
Caboose paused "Oh. Gin Rummy."
Carolina pushed her shock away and demanded "What the hell is going on here!?"
York rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly "Uh hey Carolina what a surprise to see you here."
Iota said "Eta are you there?"
Carolina jumped away as an AI materialized by her head, the AI appeared spartan size and tilted it's head at the person that spoke.
Eta said "Yeah... who are you."
Iota blinked and laughed a little "It's me Iota!"
Eta studied the square jaw, freckled nose, pale blue eyes and shaggy light blonde hair.
Eta gasped "Your features have changed!"
Iota nodded to South "I think it's because of her I bet you look different now too, just think about being visual with no armor it's easy."
Eta stood still for a moment then a man with red hair that had long fringe bangs and green eyes reappeared, Eta studied himself in wonder "Woah."
Iota whistled "Woah is right you look like Carolina now."
York couldn't help throw in "I still say Dee is the most creative in spades."
Carolina noticed the blonde man with glasses nod "Thankyou York."
Church scowled "Oh screw you guys I've looked like this forever I'm not changing now."
York feigned innocence "I have no idea what you're talking about."
South smirked "Yeah anybody would think your paranoid, do you often think other people are talking about you?"
Church smirked back "And do you think nobody's noticed you and Wash have your ankles linked under the table?"
They both flushed and pushed their chairs back.
Wash said "I thought it was the table leg!"
York laughed "Right likely story."
North hid a grin in his cards "Something you forget to tell me Sis?"
South flicked a coin at Wash's forehead "Oh please like I'd be interested in him."
Tucker said "Hey save the flirting til after the scary freelancer lady is gone please."
Wash and South both said "We're not flirting!"
Carolina shot the ceiling, sky, whatever and got their attention back "What." She said dangerously "The hell is going on?"
Sarge said "Now listen here missy there's no need to get on your high horse and threaten to kill thing in my base, that's my job! Lopez hand me my shotgun."
Donut piped up "Lopez isn't here Sir remember? He said he was going to run security checks on the kitchen."
Sarge chuckled "Good old Lopez always focused on his job."
Wyoming sipped a drink and said "Actually I think you'll find he said he was going to woo that tank."
Carolina said "If I have to kill one of you to make you answer my questions don't think I'll hesitate because as far as everyone else is concerned half of your are supposed to be dead anyway. So if no one starts talking about what I want to hear I'm going to start shooting, which is it?"
Tucker said "Woah she's almost as bad as Tex."
Carolina nearly shouted as she said "What do you know about Texas! Start talking!"
York stood up holding his hands in a harmless gesture "Carolina calm down please it's kind of a long story, so why don't sit down with us and we can talk."
Carolina scoffed "Sit down with you? Let my guard down so you can stab me in the back again? I don't think so."
That remark stung, all the ex-freelancers that knew of the past between the pair watched carefully to see what would happen next, York dropped his hands "...I'm going to help the kids make sandcastles... do what you want."
York turned his back on her walking over to Theta and Junior, Carolina faltered slightly "..York..."
York waved a hand "It's fine Carolina just do your own thing as you always do, just try not to kill anyone in the process will you?"
With that he crouched down and seemed to completely shut the rest of the room as he played with the kids.
North frowned "Carolina you can see we're all unarmed can't we answer whatever it is you want to know civilly?"
Carolina swept her hand out in arc "Oh? What about the numbers you have in your side?"
Grif rolled his eyes "Like they're helpful six of em aren't solid people outside of this room anyway."
Carolina went to ask what he meant when Delta said "If I may Carolina I can explain to you, you see myself and six other AI, Gary, O'malley, Theta, Iota and Church-"
"I'm not an AI I'm a ghost goddammit!"
"-all exist in robot bodies outside this room but inside this room which is a giant holographic projection room we can simulate ourselves as actual humans and it seems that Eta too can do so."
Carolina said "That doesn't tell me how you are still here when I know Maine captured those AI fragments."
South kicked a chair out "Sit down and shut up and you might actually learn something."
Carolina stood there for a moment considering her options then slowly she approached the table and sat down never once letting go of her weapons, "Alright start talking."
So talk they did.
Carolina sat back arms folded to prevent herself from grabbing anyone's throat "You can't be expect me to believe that."
North shrugged "Well that's what happened."
Carolina stood up slamming her hands on the table "So what have you been doing since then? Standing around and talking in this canyon in the middle of nowhere!?"
Wash leaned back "Pretty much welcome to Valhalla."
Carolina clutched some poker chips so hard they cracked "I'll give you a welcome you won't forget in a minute!"
Tucker said "Bow chika bow WOAH the scary ladies aiming her gun at me!"
In a motion she didn't expect North, Wyoming, Washington and South had all risen into defensive postures.
South said lowly "Drop the weapon."
Carolina said "So you say we'll talk but then you're all ready to fight me, that's friendly."
Wyoming didn't twitch as he retorted "Well we're not the ones pointing a loaded weapon at our unarmed comrade are we love?"
Carolina lowered the weapon and they slowly dropped out of the fighting stances.
Church said "Holy crap did you guys just stick up for Tucker?"
Simmons blinked slowly "I think they did."
Wyoming sipped his drink "Oh don't act so surprised."
Tucker said "Uh yeah I think we will but just so you know I'm still not leaving you alone with my kid."
Carolina said "Look you know what I don't have time for this now that I've found you we can band together and take down the Director."
Caboose grinned "I can play the triangle."
North said "She didn't mean music Caboose."
Caboose mouth formed an 'O' "Well I never get along with girls, they don't like me, I don't think there are any regular girls anymore."
South said "Have you lost it? You of all people want to kill the Director?"
Carolina answered "Yes. He deserves it for what he did, what he's done to us, what he put us through, he should answer for those crimes."
York spoke for the first time in ages he said aloud "Count me out."
Carolina stared at his back "What?"
York looked at her "I said I'm not going, I've told you before Carolina you need to let things go."
Sarge said "And count us out too, I mean I love a charge against overwhelming odds and beating down enemies but this ain't our fight."
Church nodded "Yeah ditto that."
Carolina looked at Church "You more than anyone in this room should want to make him pay, after all he did to you? All you AI? You'll just turn a blind eye and forget about it."
Church glared "Why shouldn't I? I'm pretty fucking tired of all that bullshit and it's more or less behind me now so why would I want to waste my time finding the guy who started it?"
Carolina stood up straight "I see. Is that how you all feel?"
Washington, South, North and Wyoming looked away, the Reds and Blues watched her warily in case she went nuts and killed them all, the AI watched her carefully.
Carolina offered one last "It was good to see you."
She didn't elaborate any further and went to leave.
Eta offered a wave at his AI siblings planning on going with Carolina except she said "I'd advise you get out of my armor I don't need an AI's help."
Eta faltered "But Carolina..."
Carolina made her suit surge "OUT!"
Eta against his will was flung out and he drifted until he landed in a helmet in Red base.
Without anything further Carolina left.
Hours later she was tracking Maine's trail to a ruined facility trying to work out what he was after, it was quiet until a muffled "OW!" caught her attention, Carolina armed herself and shot forward.
In a flash she had the person on their back at gun point, she recognized the armor in an instant "York?"
He said "Hey Carolina."
Carolina let him up "What happened to letting things go?"
York got back up "I still think you should let this go but I'm not going to let go alone."
Carolina didn't know what to say "York..."
"And I'm not letting you go alone either."
Carolina looked at the yellow armored spartan "Eta?"
The spartan nodded "The Red Sargent made me a robot body."
Carolina frowned "In a few hours?"
Sarge said "Yep beat my own record I can make these things off by heart now hehe."
Carolina looked to see the assembled group of all the Red and Blue soldiers as well as the AI and ex freelancers.
Gary said "Knock knock."
York said "Yeah so a few friends might have tagged along."
Church raised a hand "Just to be clear I'm only here because I got dragged along not because I want to be."
Tucker said "Yeah and besides I have my sword if anything tries to kill me."
Donut added in "Which he can use like a pro."
Simmons whined "There! Right there! You see what you do? Stop doing that!"
South leaned on North's shoulder "Two are better than one right bro?"
North shouldered his sniper rifle "That's right."
Theta peeked over North's shoulder from his spot on his back "Hello."
Washington said "As long as North doesn't have to do your half as well."
South through back "Bite me Washingtub."
Sister said "We going to exchange hickey's in a bubble bath? Awesome I'm get my flippers!"
Wyoming said "Yes exactly-wait what!?"
Doc piped up "If anyone gets hurt don't worry I'm much better at medicine now."
O'malley laughed "Which means he's moved on to rubbing Nivea cream on wounds to stop infection, now can we stop dawdling and move on to shooting things? Mwuahahaha!"
Grif groaned "Just please tell me I don't have to do anything on this trip."
Sarge smacked him "Show some willing dirtbag!"
Church automatically hit Grif as well "OW!"
"I'm starting to like that feature again."
Delta said "If you would like help forming a strategy Carolina I would be happy to assist you."
York offered a hand towards her "So what do you say Carolina?"
Carolina accepted his hand, "Let's lock and load people."
~Fin~
