Sorry for the long delay and how short this chapter is, I just wanted to get it out. Gonna try and make sure that the next one won't take so long! Enjoy!

The Tenth Class

Chapter 10: New Player

"Very interesting," Gray man said as he stood in front of a now blank computer screen, arms crossed behind his back.

He brought up his right arm and snapped his fingers, and not even a moment later a Medic-bot rolled up to his side, awaiting an order.

"What robot was that camera in?" he asked the bot, not turning around.

* beep beep * Zhat vas from one of zhe near-intact Spy-bots from zhe carrier wreckage, Master, the Medic-bot said with a bow.

"And that girl? She was the one I saw earlier?" Gray asked, again not moving.

*beep boop * Ja, herr Master.

"Hmm," the old man said, bring his arms around to the front and crossing them. "Have you idiots figured out who she is yet?" he reamed, turning to the Medic-bot.

* boop beep * Not yet. We cannot confirm facial recognition, sir. No records of her in immediate data bases, the Medic-bot said, backing up a bit.

"Ugh, do I have to do everything myself? Move out the way, you scrap heap," Gray said as he made his way off the platform he was standing on. "Send a few Spy-bots to that facility. I'm going to go do some digging."

* beep boop beep * Right away, Master!

Rose was pretty happy that everyone liked her idea of a VR training room. She walked all the way back to her room with a huge smile on her face as she walked with Medic and Engineer. They were both still talking about all the possible things they could do with something like that, all the scenarios they could go through, and play out possible ideas for future projects.

"Well, don't forget guys, this is basically like the VR Training Room Mk I. It's still a work in progress," Rose interrupted and pointed out.

"Even so, miss! This right here has to be the most exciting thing we've had here since Saxton Hale visited a few months back!" Engineer said with a gleeful expression.

"Saxton...Hale?" Rose said, tilting her head to the side. 'Where have I heard that name before?'

"Oh ja! He is zhe one zhat hired us to fight for zhe Mann brothers. Unfortunately, zhey are dead now, so we are technically unemployed," Medic explained.

"Huh, then how-" Rose began, then realized what she saw after she fought the Spy-bot by the carrier wreckage. "Oh! That reminds me, do you guys know that those robots run off of piles of money?"

"Oh heck, haha, we've known that since the first time we fought those mechanical maniacs," Engineer laughed with a wave of his arm. "But how did you find out about it, Rose?"

"Oh well, Wheatly and I were gathering parts for the training room and when we went to the carrier wreckage, there was a Spy-bot that came back online and tried to kill me," she said nonchalant.

"Ah okay then. Wait...a Spy-bot came back online!? And you fought it?" Engineer stopped in his tracks, a bit shocked.

"Are you okay, fraulein?!" Medic asked, also a tad bit shocked that she wasn't the least bit injured.

"What? You guys are acting like taking on a Spy-bot is a big deal. Of course I'm all right," Rose said. She was a bit confused and surprised that they were that concerned about her going up against a bot, but then thought that Engineer was more concerned that it came back online.

"Well, hell Rose. You could've told us," Engineer said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ja, vhat if you were seriously injured, or more of zhose infernal zhings came back online?" Medic said, equally concerned.

"What was I supposed to do? I wanted to surprise the team with something for being so nice to me, and you guys were already on a mission," she pointed out. Both of the mercs looked at each other, then smiled slightly.

"Vell, zhe important zhing is zhat you are alright, and hopefully zhere won't be anymore robots coming back from zhat site!" Medic gleefully stated.

"That's right!" Engineer chimed in. "But to be on the safe side, we should probably head out there and blow it up a second time."

"Way ahead of you, Engie!" the young woman said, chin held high. "Took care of it after we had gotten the rest of the parts we needed. The two men looked at her, and then at each other.

"But how...know what? Never mind. You seem to be more resourceful than I think we give you credit for, lil' miss," Engineer admitted. Rose just smiled at the two of them. Suddenly Medic gave out a bug yawn.

"Alright zhen. I do believe we all should get some rest if ve are to start doing some training tomorrow, right?" he said while stretching his arms up.

"Hehe, I guess you're right, doc. We could all use a little rest," the Texan said as they continued walking.

"Yeah, good point. I could use some shut-eye," Rose agreed.

They all continued walking together until they reached Medic's office. There, Medic and Rose said goodnight to their Texan friend who started to make his way back down the hallway, and Rose and the doctor made their way to their beds. Once in their room, Rose opened up her suitcase to see if her pajamas were still there, and luckily they were; she pulled out a light gray tank-top and a pair of purple pants that had white, light purple, and light blue poke-a-dots all over. She also pulled out some undergarments, but tucked them under the rest of her clothes so that Medic wouldn't see. 'Pauling came in the nick of time last time,' she thought to herself, 'the last thing I need is for anyone to see my laundry.' She gathered her clothes together and turned to Medic, who was just starting to take off his over-coat.

"Hey doc, I'll be back. I'm gonna head to the bathrooms to change," Rose said as she made her way to the doors.

Medic looked at her a bit confused for a moment, then realized who he was talking to. "Ah yes! It's times like zhese zhat make me forget that you are a woman!" he said. Rose blushed from both embarrassment and anger, but continued walking. "But zhat is good, fraulein! Ahah, I vill see you vhen you get back!" he waved.

Rose just continued out into the German's office, then paused for a quick sigh. "I hope this doesn't become a thing with everyone," Rose whispered under her breath.

"Oh come on now, Rose," Wheatly said, popping up in front of her and crossing his arms. "You know it will be, just a matter of time that people underestimate you because of your feminine side."

"Oh shut up!" Rose snapped. "Don't even go there with me, pip-squeak."

"Uh – who you calling a pip-squeak, ma'am!" the AI said, obviously offended.

"Don't get your wires crossed, mister. I didn't start this, remember?" Rose stated as she walked out of the office towards the bathrooms.

"Fine. You won this one, but don't expect me to go easy on you next time!" Wheatly said with determination.

"Haha, I look forward too it!" Rose said with a smile.

They both continued down the hallway to the bathrooms in silence. Wheatly disappeared when Rose reached the doors of the bathroom, saying hey would give her some privacy, and she continued in. She quickly got changed, for fear of one of the men walking in on her while she changed, and headed back to her room. She thought of it interesting that she was sharing a room with Medic, when she could have been paired with anyone. 'At least I'm not rooming with Spy,' she thought to herself, and sighed. She wondered if they would ever get along, but then remembered what she told herself earlier that day, and went on to thinking about how the VR room can be enhanced and how Pauling told her that they didn't have the money to afford anything that Rose talked about.

She gave a pout when she remembered seeing the money from the Spy-bot and how Engineer never really answered her question about the robots being powered. 'Oh well, I'll ask him about it tomorrow,' she figured. Rose walked into Medic's office, and was promptly greeted by Archimedes, one of Medic's pet doves, who flew down on a cabinet next to the door.

"Oh hello Archimedes!" she said to the dove. The dove just cooed and cocked it's head to the left, probably to see her better, then flew off into the raptors of the medical bay. Rose continued on her way to bed. As she walked into the room, she noticed that Medic was at his desk looking at some files instead of being in bed.

"Hey Medic?" said Rose.

"Ja fraulein? Is zhere something wrong?" the German asked, as he looked up with a smile.

"Oh no, everything is fine," she began to say, "I was just wondering how you came to acquire so many doves, and why you still have them? Don't you consider that a health hazard?"

"Oh no not at all!" Medic said with a chuckle, "Although, Archimedes tends to find his way into patients chest cavities, but apart from zhat, I can assure you zhat zhey are quite clean. As to how I came to have zhem, hehe, vell let's just say I stole a catering van for a vedding and zhey had a large amount of zhem stored in zhe back."

"Wait, what? Why'd you do that?" asked Rose, a bit shocked and confused.

"Oh zhat simple. I needed some new pigeon parts for an experiment, and I didn't have zhe money to get zhem from zhe black market," he explained.

"Oh..." Rose said just looking at him with a confused look on her face. "Um, why did you need, wait, never mind. I don't really want to know why." She walked over to her bed and sat down, crossing her legs. "Couldn't you have just used any pigeons?"

"Oh no. I needed ones zhat weren't wrote with diseases of zhe of the outside world, and zhese pigeons for zhe prime ministers wedding were zhe perfect candidates. Plus zhe ones I didn't need I kept as pets!" Medic said with a smile on his face.

"Huh, okay cool. I guess, heh," she responded, laying back in her bed, putting her hands behind her head.

"But I do have a question for you," the German stated, "Where did you learn to build all of zhat stuff? Zhat was a feat of engineering genius zhat would probably put most of Engineers inventions to a bit to shame," he asked, turning to her. "Oh, also, don't tell him I said zhat, hehe."

"Oh I would say it was that great, just some tips and tricks I learned out in the field," Rose said nonchalant. "I just figured you guys could use a bit of an upper hand. Not to mention, if Gray was so smart, he would have better tactical know-how and he wouldn't have built robots to look like the men he was trying to kill."

"Vell you do have a point," he agreed as he rose from his desk. "Zhere's just so many of zhem zhat we have a hard time keeping up at times."

"Well, I hope to change that, too," Rose said with a soft smile. "Anyways, today's been a big day, and I think we should get some rest."

"Couldn't agree more, frau Rose," said Medic. He then got up and undid his tie, putting it on his desk, and removed his shoes.

Rose brought up her covers over her and began to get comfortable. She heard Medic shuffling around as he got ready and smiled, knowing that the future was definitely not going to be dull for her. Medic walked over to his bed and laid down and brought his covers up. He leaned over to his nightstand and reached up to the light that sat atop and was about to turn it off when he paused.

"Rose?" he asked.

"Hmm?"

"Are you really going to stay with us?"

"Of course, Medic," she said reassuringly. She turned over to look at him; he had a look of relief on his face from her response. "If there is one thing you can trust about me is that I never abandon my team."

Medic's face lighted up more as he smiled lightly at her. "Good. It's good to have a new player on zhe field, so to speak."

Rose nodded at him in agreement and turned back over in her bed. Medic turned off the light and laid down on his back. As the rest of the team laid down for the night, ready to get some rest and take on the next day, a hidden danger was on the way to the compound, ready to catch the Tufort Mercenaries, and Rose and Wheatly, off guard.