Author Note:
Hello! I wanted to let you all know that the Spanish in this chapter was brought to you by the power of Google Translate! I also had some trouble with the flow of this chapter but I hope it isn't a problem.

The Pursuit of Happiness

Chapter 11

"...And so it begins..."

"Okay, let's do this. In 3... 2... 1!" The body that Church was possessing jerked and writhed violently. All three members of blue base could hear gears and such grinding inside of its body. The body eventually slowed its motion but still kept the occasional twitch. After it had settled down the sound of fans running and weird beeps could be heard resonating from the body. The body started to look around, slowly at first, until it spotted all three blues surrounding it and decided to play paralyzed.

"S'up." Linux said. The robot's attention focused on him before it did two things. First it said something in Spanish that none of the Blood Gulch blues understood. The second thing it did was back pedal away from them and off the roof. This prompted all three of them to run to the edge, to see if the robot was damaged at all. They quickly discovered it wasn't because it was still backpedaling away from the base.

"After it!" Linux shouted before jumped off the roof to chase the robot. He stumbled when he landed but quickly got to his feet and sprinted after the robot. He could hear Church's voice shouting from the base. It was followed by two thuds which was probably the others joining in the chase. He could make out Church screaming at them not to break his body. Well, he would try to not break it but he couldn't guarantee anything.

He started to get closer to the robotic fugitive. He could hear the mechanical servos in its legs whirring while it ran. At some point the robot had turned forward without Linux noticing. It didn't matter as Linux was close enough to reach out for the robot, his hand clipping the breast plate more than enough times to irritate the blue soldier. He pumped his legs to go faster and he began to get with in grabbing distance of the robot. Just as his hand was close enough to get a good grip on the robot he began to lose ground. His lungs were hurting now and he couldn't keep up much longer.

"Just... hold... still!" Linux leaped to the robot and his arms wrapped around the robot's chest and dragged it down to the ground with him. The robot stopped immediately, garnering a few scratches on its armor but mostly seeping into the dirt a bit. On the other hand, when Linux fell he started to roll until he was good four feet away from the robot on his back. The soldier was taking quick shallow breaths and his breast plate showed that. "Damn... robot... can run..." From his spot on the ground, he could hear his teammates finally catch up and drag the bot to its feet.

"Man, I don't want to sound racist or nothing but you sure can run..." Tucker said to the robot. The robot merely stared in response before looking to apparition of Church.

"¿Es el cian y el idiota?"

"Um... Yeah... sure..." Church answered the robot, clearly unsure of what the robot was saying. "Look we need you to fix the tank." Church gestured to the tank sitting not to far off to the right of the group.

"Negativo, rufuse trabajar para el enemigo."

"Well that's just great..." Tucker commented, having made the correct assumption that the robot has said no; although, he didn't know why the robot wouldn't do it. Church would have asked again in a less than pleasant way if it hadn't been for the whining of a certain Private not too far from them.

"Thanks for helping they guy who caught the damn robot." Linux said as he slowly made his way to his feet. He was about to stand when he noticed them every single soldier staring behind him. He turned his head to see what they were looking to and swore under his breath. Driving towards all of them was the red team in their warthog. How they managed to get it repaired was anyone's guess but Linux wasn't thinking about that because he was too busy saying a phrase to himself. "Son of a bitch..."

Before the warthog got within ten feet of him it exploded into the air and the result force wave picked Linux up off the ground and flung him away from the center. He crashed into the robot behind him and the two clattered to the ground. The robot with a comment in Spanish and the blue with a groan of pain. With extreme effort, Linux brought himself to his knees and pushed off of one of them to stand up. He took the time to spin around, disoriented, and look for his teammates. Imagine how much his eye twitched when he saw the blues had abandoned him and fled to the confines of the blue base. He would be angry at them if it weren't for the nagging feeling of vomit in the back of his throat.

He managed to force the feeling back down before he looked to the robot he had landed on top of. Aside from being scratched and a dent on the left portion of the breast plate, the robot was unharmed. He reached down and, conjuring up even more effort, he lifted the robot to its feet. Linux inhaled and exhaled quite loudly and barely paid to robot any mind when it started speaking to its self. What he did pay mind to was the blue soldiers racing back to them. In the time it took Linux to finish calming down, the robot stopped talking and the blues made it there.

"Fuck... all of you..." He said through his helmet speakers. They didn't pay him any mind but instead focused on the robot.

"Okay, you're still okay... that's good... So are you gonna fix our tank?" The robot just stared blankly at the powder blue soldier.

"Sí, haz conmigo lo que quieras ..." The blue team stared quietly at the robot for a minute before Church worked up the sense to speak.

"Okay... This way..." The blues lead the Spanish speaking robot over to where the tank was, Linux trailed behind the group, and showed him the poor state it was in. "Okay, a grenade blew up inside of the cockpit so we need you to-" The robot walked past him and began to pry and peal off some of the damaged parts. "Or y'know... whatever you feel deserves the most attention..."

The robot, over the course of two hours it managed to successfully fix the tank and get it in operating order again. It had removed the seat and put a new one in, replaced the entire console, and even rewired some of the buttons to make it easier to use. By the time it had finished the entire tank looked newer than when it had landed in the canyon. A part of Linux wondered where the robot got all of the materials to do it. Once the robot had finished it was covered in grease and oil as well as well as some dye that no doubt came from the seat. It backed away from the tank and admired its handy work before turning back to the blues of blue team.

"Su tanque está fijo diablos azules." The voice was the same monotone but the soldiers of blue team the inkling that there was something that they weren't included on. Church, Tucker, and Caboose walked over to the tank to inspect it and make sure everything was in working order and normal. While they did that, Linux stayed behind by the robot, he wanted to talk to him. He let the robot glance at his team before refocusing on him prior to him talking to it. "¿Qué quieres un cruel monstruo azul?"

"What's your name robot?" The robot paused for a moment before speaking.

"Mi designación es 10p-3z o López para abreviar." Linux didn't know what that meant but it didn't necessarily stop him from saying what he planned on saying.

"Um... Okay... I guess... Thanks, for fixing the tank, you did a good job." Linux nodded to the robot, he assumed it understood him. Perhaps it's prime directive wasn't combat but maintenance, so maybe it didn't understand him.

"Si, gracias. No importa, sin embargo, porque no tengo ahome-E-gur-GUR-gurg!" The robot was fine for a minute, talking normal and even making gestures. The next minute it was making strange sounds and jerking around violently. The arms of the robot swung around quite a bit and Linux took an extra step back to ensure he wasn't hit. After a few seconds of odd and inhuman movements from the bot it became unnervingly still.

"Hey-bud-you okay?" Linux took a step forward and tapped the visor of its helmet. He even went as far as to grab it by the shoulder and jiggle it around. A strange sound echoed from the right of him and the now dormant robot. He looked to where the sound originated and found himself staring at the ghostly apparition of Church. He furrowed his brows before checking if he was actually seeing him, first by blinking and then by asking him something. "Church, what're you doing?" The ghostly figure jerked its head to him before answering.

"I... don't know. I was trying to posses him again but something kicked me out..." The ghost turned back to the robot that Linux still had his hand resting on. Linux followed his example and stared at the robot. A hand reached up and grabbed his wrist before twisting the arm and pushing Linux to one knee.

"Ah! The hell?!" He shouted from his position on the ground he felt another hand grab his chest piece, letting go of his arm, and hauled him to his feet before gently shoving him away. Linux swiveled back around to face the robot and saw it was standing with its hands on its hips and its feet wide apart. He swallowed a lump in his throat before reaching for his assault rifle only to find it missing. He focused back on the robot in front of him, mentally berating himself for losing track of his weapon again. "What's going on, is this the robot's doing?" He expected Church to answer but another voice, a different voice, answered instead.

"Buenos dias~ cock bites." That voice...

"Tex?!" Both Church and Linux said simultaneously, apparently neither of them noticed she said morning when it was clearly mid day in the box canyon Blood Gulch... Ah well, can blame them for being what they are... idiots...

"Hey!" Linux shouted to the sky, which drew attention from both of the soldiers standing next to him. He stared into the sky and received no response for his outburst. Though a certain freelancer asked a apparition what was with him. The apparition simply claimed they had no idea and to just ignore them...

Just another day in the canyon...