Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
Chapter Ten: Turf Wars
Well, as far as first missions went, Richard "Dick" Simmons supposed theirs could have turned out better. Granted, he supposed it could have also gone a whole lot worse, but it wasn't as if he had prior experiences he could compare it to. Totally beside the point, he thought grimly as another wave of water came careening towards the Reds and Blues in the hopes of scattering the group even further.
Simmons was grateful that whoever had decided to force these cybernetic upgrades upon him had the common sense to make them waterproof, even if their whole "kidnapping teens from the street to experiment on them" idea had been a phenomenally bad one.
He hadn't even thought of its benefit in this particular fight scenario against a trio of Specials who all seemed equally adept at generating and manipulating large quantities of water, truthfully. The reality was, being as fixated on personal hygiene and cleanliness as he had always been, after his abduction Simmons had just been relieved that he could actually shower without any unforeseen complications.
…Seriously, what had he been thinking when he had agreed to join Church's ragtag team?
While Simmons was more or less preoccupied with contemplating his current life choices, Donut stepped forward in-between the Reds and Blues and the rather intimidating wall of rushing water. The dirty blond held his arms out in front of him, and what appeared to be an orb of pulsating pink (of course) energy suddenly enveloped the younger man.
The forcefield grew in size around Donut until it effectively filled up the rather large alleyway on either side of it, the wave of rushing water smashing violently against it a second later.
"Whew!" Donut let out an appreciative whistle at the sheer force that he was more or less effectively blocking, a few tendrils of liquid spillover notwithstanding. The pink-wearing man even took a step backwards, though he quickly remedied that action by pushing back against the water with his field all the more, "Talk about a big hole to plug, but no worries, guys! When it comes to stuffing, I am totally your man!"
"TMI, dude. TMI." Tucker informed him as the water receded and Donut promptly powered down.
"Aw, that's no fair!" The former Freelancer in blue with white and yellow accents named Iowa whined, "They cheated!"
"Oh, I do not like cheaters either." Caboose intoned rather seriously from his spot standing next to Sheila.
Simmons frowned at the sight of their spread out group. Hadn't Church been there before too? But, suddenly, there was a surge of code along the bottom of his cybernetic eye's vision display and he could make out a faint glow heading in the Triplets' direction.
The glow seemed to faintly resemble when Church had activated his power at his apartment back when they had first met. Simmons frowned at the realization. Had Church used the distraction just then to get a closer look at what the thieves were carrying?
Sheila caught the maroon-wearing man's gaze and nodded in confirmation, "We need to keep them occupied." She informed Simmons, waving a hand as she did so. Behind them, what appeared for all the world to be a sheer, looming brick wall materialized to block the fight from view from the street beyond. "That should at least buy us some time before someone comes to investigate." The holographic Virtual Intelligence stated plainly.
"¡Excelente trabajo, Sheila! Si puede seguir así, manejaremos las cosas aquí." {"Excellent work, Sheila! If you can keep that up, we'll handle things here."}
What sounded to Simmons' ears to be something similar to praise from the Spanish-speaking robot caused a slight blush to appear on Sheila's face, and she smiled warmly in Lopez's direction, "I will do my best, Lopez. Do take care." She said with rosy cheeks and Simmons' brain desperately tried to calculate in his head how much coding and algorithms had gone into creating Sheila in order to make it even remotely possible that she appeared so human-like in her responses.
"Con un ángel radiante como tú de nuestro lado, no tenemos nada que temer." {"With a radiant angel such as yourself on our side, we have nothing to fear."}
"Oh, Lopez, you are such a charmer!" Sheila replied as she actually giggled at whatever Lopez had said.
Now it seemed to Simmons that, from his suddenly awkward body language, Lopez was probably doing the robotic equivalent of a blush under his brown helmet. The Spanish-speaking robot did a quick, chivalrous bow in the hologram's direction before moving forward.
Doctor Grey watched the exchange with an almost manic gleam in her brown eyes, "Oh, how fascinating!" The dark-skinned woman breathed out, hands clenched into tight-fisted balls by her chin, "Do you think I could get permission to run a diagnostic check on their electronic impulses after this?"
"Lady, your idea of fascinating is way different from mine." Tucker remarked, thrusting his head in the direction of their foes, "I'm just glad we're fighting what could count as a veritable hose right now after seeing that."
"Yeah. It can be pretty handy when dealing with fire. Oh! Or plant care." Iowa chimed in before he frowned in a rather pouting manner a second later, "…But you guys are still cheating."
"This isn't a game, son." Sarge harrumphed as he moved to join his robotic creation Lopez on the battlefield, "There aren't any rules in a head-on fight!"
"Oh, that was what my sister used to say when we had pillow fights." Caboose intoned nostalgically, "Especially when we got out the water balloons."
Simmons gaped at the blue-wearing man, his brain nearly breaking trying to follow Caboose's line of logic, "B—but there shouldn't be any water balloons in a pillow fight!"
The younger male cast a pitying blue-eyed gaze his way, "Clearly you have never had a proper pillow fight."
"Yeah, you have been majorly deprived, gray nerd." Kaikaina chimed in a second later, "Without the water balloons, how else do you get to the braless wet t-shirt contest?"
"Th—the what?!" Yep, Simmons' brain was definitely all sorts of broken now.
There was a loud groan off to his right as Grif yelled, "Goddamn it, Kai!" at the top of his lungs while at the same time Tucker let out a jubilant bellow of "Fuck yeah, I wanna go to one of your sleepovers now! Bow-chicka-bow-wow!"
"Um…guys?" Doc chimed in as he let out a nervous laugh as he motioned to the fight currently going on around them, "Shouldn't we be focusing on this instead?"
"He's right," Washington said, quickly agreeing with the self-proclaimed pacifist's sentiment, "Our best bet is going to be to keep these guys as separated from one another as possible. They're stronger together."
Simmons cast a curious glance over towards the Triplets then, noticing how closely the three had been sticking together since they had started attacking. He had heard before about Specials that had strange "linking" abilities: weaker abilities that actually became all the more powerful when in close proximity to another Special with a similar powerset. It was a rather rare phenomenon though, so not much was known on how it really worked.
But, Simmons supposed that explained why the three were nicknamed the Triplets even though they didn't appear to have any biological familial relations to one another.
"Relax," Tucker guffawed at Washington's warning, "We've got this." He assured the other man as he raced forward himself, his energy blade sparking into vibrant life in his hand.
The plan to divide the three at least ever-so-slightly was already underway when Simmons spotted Kimball look over towards Carolina. Unlike everyone else save Sheila who was busy keeping up the wall and Doctor Grey who was trying to shout out advice on potential weak spots, the cyan-wearing redhead had not moved so much as a muscle in the direction of the fight. Her eyes, however, were definitely glued to it and her frown deepened ever so slightly as her arms remained crossed over her chest.
The other woman raised a dark eyebrow, "You're not going to help?" Kimball questioned, casting another glance back at the action, "I suppose it would be hard to fight former friends."
The redhead's lips formed a tight line at the comment, "That's…not it." She stated so hesitatingly that Kimball had a sneaking suspicion that was, in fact, a larger factor than Carolina was even willing to admit to herself, "This was all my brother's idea, and I want to see if he actually has a valid point."
Kimball frowned somewhat herself then, obviously not liking the idea of stepping aside and letting a fight unfold herself. But, she opted to say nothing for the moment since she was certain that Carolina had her reasons for doing so. Instead, Simmons watched out of the corner of his eye as the dark-skinned woman turned her attention back to the fighting as well.
Simmons, Kai, and Caboose had somehow managed to back the brown-haired Iowa further away from his compatriots through a combination of some well-placed cybernetic energy blasts towards Iowa's feet. The blasts from Simmons caused Iowa to constantly stay on his toes, while Kai made him feel just dizzy enough to find it hard to focus on using his powers.
Caboose's contribution was basically just being intimidating-looking enough due to his sheer stature to ensure that Iowa most definitely wanted to stay as far away as possible from his attempts to "hug it out."
Of course, that fighting combination only worked until Idaho figured out what they were up to. He spun around just long enough to shoot a quick-moving blast of water at the trio from behind. There was a small blip of an alert across Simmons' artificial eye that had him turn quickly enough to notice what was happening.
"Look out!" Simmons shouted at his two allies, instinctively diving forward to pull both Kai and Caboose down onto the ground.
There was a whoosh of violent air overhead and a few rather painful pinprick drips of water from it as the blast flew through where they had all been standing mere moments before, hitting into a building's wall and creating a very large impact crater after an explosion of dust and rock.
"Hey, asshole!" Kai yelled towards Idaho at the top of her lungs, resulting in both men huddling near her having to wince, "You could have gotten me all wet, and not in the good way!"
Simmons' pale face felt like it was going to overheat as an oblivious Caboose rather innocently added, "Yes, this is not like pillow fights with water balloons."
Rather thankfully for them, Caboose's fortune-enhancing ability chose that moment to kick into high gear as if sensing that the tall blond male could have been in trouble. As Caboose shakily got to his feet and helped haul Simmons and Kai up to theirs, a fist-sized chunk of debris skidded down from the top of his shoulder onto the ground right next to Iowa.
The still wobbly former Freelancer put his foot down on it and tripped, falling backwards onto his behind as he still tried shaking the dizziness from his brain. "I'm down!" Iowa exclaimed loudly as Kai and Simmons in particular glanced questioningly at one another, wondering just what to do next.
"Kai!" Grif shouted out after seeing what had nearly happened to his little sister, apparently much more motivated to get into the thick of things following her almost being stuck in danger.
The orange-wearing man cast a threatening look towards Idaho then, causing the black-haired man in blue and white to actually take a small step backwards.
Tucker noticed this and grinned over at Grif, "How about a team up?"
Grif nodded his head and suddenly Idaho was shaking rather violently, as if overcome with a near-crippling sense of fear. The effect apparently made it rather difficult for him to maintain his control over water, as the sudden shield he had created to try to block Tucker's oncoming sword-strike dissolved nearly instantaneously, the water orb coating Idaho's fist as he made to counterattack being rather weak compared to previous blasts before it suddenly became a puddle on the ground.
"Can't keep it up?" Tucker asked, grinning, "You know, they have pills for that now!"
"Dude, you're ruining it!" Grif told the teal-wearing man with a sigh.
"Shit, shit, shit!" Idaho threw up another hasty water shield, trying to get a safe distance away before it evaporated again as Tucker's sword sliced through it.
"They're trying to distract and divide us!" Ohio called out in-between dodging what seemed to be an infinite number of generating bullets from Sarge along with bits of thrown debris from Lopez, "Guys! Get over here!"
Idaho gritted his teeth and shook his head to dispel the last lingering traces of fear from his system as he cast a quick glance over in Iowa's direction. Their teammate was still sitting on the ground, hands raised above his head in obvious surrender while Simmons, Kai, and Caboose stood over him.
"We're a little busy here, Ohio!" Idaho informed the pink-haired woman as he bit his lip, fighting against a new wave of anxiety enough to hit Tucker's shoulder with water and temporarily halt his charge, "How about you come over closer to us?"
Ohio hung her head, "Dang it!" She grumbled under her breath before letting loose a cry and running straight towards Lopez. As she did so, though, she directed a speedy blast of water in Sarge's direction…
"Whoa there! Let's not be too hasty, all right?" Doc suddenly stepped directly into Ohio's path, causing the blue-wearing woman with white and rubine accents to slam hard on her internal brakes in order to barely avoid crashing into him.
As she did so, the water blast she'd been creating suddenly sputtered and dropped down uselessly onto the ground. Ohio glanced over in shock at the direction that it had been heading in when she heard Sarge let out a small sigh of relief, clenching and unclenching her hand as she did so but without getting the attack to rematerialize.
The water shield that Idaho had been using suddenly became much smaller too, "What the actual fuck…?"
Doc held his hands out in a peaceful gesture as Lopez and Sarge cautiously approached Idaho and Ohio from the sides, "Can't we just talk this out?" The purple-wearing man asked rather hopefully.
The dark-skinned woman glared angrily at the source of her canceled out power, "The Freelancers I knew in the past didn't care about talking to us at all!" She spat out, her gaze fixing pointedly over Doc's shoulder towards both Washington and Carolina.
Washington flinched at the accusation in her tone while Carolina's green eyes only momentarily flickered downward. "That isn't true!" The blond male in steel and yellow took a step forward, "Ohio—!"
But whatever he was going to say was cut off by the ground shaking violently beneath their feet, chunks of stone from the alleyway and buildings ripping away into the air and becoming rather sharp-looking and altogether menacing projectiles mere seconds later.
"Fóllame. ¡Las rocas están luchando ahora!" {"Fuck me. The rocks are fighting back now!"}
Donut pushed past an astonished Lopez who was currently in the process of dropping the bit of rock he had been about to throw as his own makeshift projectile to keep Ohio on her toes just in time to grab Doc, who was closest to the incoming assault, forcibly by the collar. The pink-wearing man yanked Doc to safety behind him. Donut pulled up a forcefield in the nick of time to deflect much of the assault, but his abrupt action had made Doc lose his concentration when it came to suppressing Ohio's power.
The Triplets took the opportunity to regroup, a huge explosion of water sending the rock shrapnel careening down at all of them at even more lethal speeds than before.
"Oh wow!" Donut mumbled, sweat beginning to bead up along his brow as he tried maintaining his shield, "Now even I'm having a hard time keeping it up!"
Tucker opened his mouth to respond to that particular innuendo with one of his own quips when Washington preemptively cut him off with a glare, "No."
The dark-skinned man in teal pouted, but looked on as Kimball stepped forward with a ball of white energy about the size of a soccer ball floating above her head. "Donut, let the forcefield down." She instructed as she stepped up behind him.
"You sure?" The dirty blond asked as he looked towards her questioningly over his shoulder, "These guys really want to pound away hard on us."
Kimball smirked slightly before turning serious once more, "It will be fine. Trust me."
From close by, Sarge cocked his shotgun, "Can't let her have all the fun, now can we?" He cast a glance over at Simmons, "You ready, son?"
The cyborg nodded nervously, holding out his metallic arm as he tried to not get overly giddy at the mere thought that an older male authority figure had deigned to call him son, "R—ready, sir!"
Tucker grinned, his energy blade at the ready, "This is going to be fun."
At that, Donut dropped the forcefield. Lopez and Doc pulled him quickly away as the four at the ready took up their new positions towards the front of the fight.
The orb floating over Kimball's head began shooting out rays of blindingly iridescent energy in the blink of an eye in every direction, all in a scattering pattern that dissipated large sections of the oncoming water. At the same time, the three men were making quick work of a majority of the aerial assault of rocks.
"Hey, thanks for the assist!" Tucker turned back to Kimball after one last swipe, grinning appreciatively.
Kimball gave him a brief nod, eyes briefly finding Carolina's behind the dark-skinned male, "I just couldn't stand by and do nothing." She told him.
Carolina pointedly averted her own gaze, although her hardened expression didn't change.
"That's funny." A new female voice uttered as three mysterious figures landed on the group from one of the nearby rooftops, "Neither could we."
The tan-skinned woman who had spoken just then had short, curly black hair resting atop her head and a rather jagged scar underneath her left eye. She was dressed in white clothing with red trim, while her two cohorts were dressed identically to one another in steel and red. They had obviously been the ones who had come to the Triplets' rescue.
The first male, a black-haired man with sharp brown eyes, whistled over at the Triplets in way of greeting, "Guess things got a bit hard to handle, huh?" He joked.
Idaho groaned and rolled his eyes, "Shut it, Darryl."
Darryl's grin only widened as he tilted his head towards the dark-skinned man with a crewcut right next to him, "Hey, it could have been way worse." He informed the former Freelancer as he pointed his finger rather obviously in his teammate's direction, "Guess who nearly blew us all up again trying to make coffee?"
"They need to stop putting dangerous activation buttons so damn close to everyday kitchen appliances!" The unknown idiot stated in exasperation.
Caboose let out a breath of air in amazement, "I have the very same problem." He whispered, looking for all the world as if he had just found yet another kindred spirit.
Tucker reached out and patted Caboose consolingly on the back, "Uh, buddy? You don't even need there to be any dangerous activation buttons close by to be a danger in the kitchen."
"Quiet, Terrill." The scarred woman told her teammate dismissively over Tucker's remark, "We're kind of in the middle of something here."
"Right." Terrill nodded his head in understanding, "Sorry, Sherry."
Ohio let out a rather tired groan of her own, taking Sherry's proffered hand in hers as the other woman helped haul her up on her feet, "We're never going to live this down, are we?"
Sherry shrugged and gave her a reassuring sort-of smile, "Eh, what our bosses don't know won't hurt 'em."
The two women stared at one another a second longer, hands still clasped before Terrill loudly whispered, "Just ask each other out already!" As the others in their collective group all nodded their heads at the suggestion.
"Oh, matchmaking!" Donut squealed excitedly at the prospect, apparently not at all bothered by the fact that the two women were technically adversaries at the moment.
Sherry and Ohio let out two very awkward-sounding coughs and looked away from the other. "You guys still have the data?" Sherry asked Ohio, clearly trying to shift the conversation.
Ohio's blush-darkened cheeks shone even more as she bobbed her head, "Of course! Who do you think you're talking to?"
"Then let's call it a day." The short-haired woman called Sherry motioned over her shoulder to her teammates in their matching uniforms.
Darryl and Terrill stepped up beside her, the ground shaking once more. It suddenly occurred to Simmons that they were dealing with two sets of Specials who had "linking" abilities at their disposal. Lucky them.
A huge wall of earth rose up to block the Reds and Blues from following the Triplets and their allies but, just as quickly, Washington was standing right beside it. He silently poked his index finger in the middle of the hastily built blockade, a huge crack forming straight down the middle of it from where his finger touched. The middle crack began splintering off into a myriad spiderweb of structural weaknesses at a rapid pace before the whole thing came crumbling down.
A few pointy shards of rocky debris remained floating around Washington in order to keep the criminals at bay.
"Shit, you're actually helping?" Tucker was gaping at the older man, clearly impressed by his power display.
Washington smiled slightly as he cast a gray-eyed glance towards Tucker's direction, "It wouldn't have felt right to do otherwise." He turned to look past the three newcomers to address the Triplets further down the alleyway, "You know you're being used, right?" He asked them quietly, almost pleadingly.
Sherry snorted derisively in response, "It wouldn't be the first time, copycat." She said flatly.
All of the others around her nodded their heads in staunch agreement before turning once more to leave.
"Guys!" Washington called out again, and he somehow sounded more earnest and sincere than usual. Even Tucker was openly gaping at Washington now, unbeknownst to the former Freelancer, "It was…" He swallowed as he chose his next words carefully, "Good seeing you again."
Iowa stopped and looked questioningly back at the blond, his mouth open as if to say something in response before Idaho grabbed his shoulder protectively. Iowa turned his rather hurt and lost gaze away instead.
Ohio only froze in her steps for a moment, Sherry looking at her curiously before the dark-skinned woman gave a quick shake of her head and continued on without looking back, "Come on, guys, we have to go." was the last thing they heard Ohio say.
Washington hung his head for a few seconds following their departure, Tucker frowning and reaching over with his hand towards the Special in an unsure gesture just as alarms sounded off in the distance. The Reds and Blues decided to vacate the area rather quickly too, figuring it was best to avoid any awkward questions from the police.
It took a few moments for everyone to gather once again at the meeting spot in Armonia that Church had designated for them earlier. David Washington frowned as he looked up at the shadows looming overhead, recognizing the spot on the outskirts of the richer, more well-to-do areas of the city readily enough.
It was a spot that the Director had often arranged for his agents to meet one another at, especially when missions required that they didn't waste time heading all the way back to headquarters. After all, the man always had been rather adamant about getting all assignments done as efficiently as possible. A trait his daughter seemed to share.
Carolina landed down next to Washington not a minute later, her green eyes narrowed considerably as the others regrouped all around them, "Son of a bitch." She muttered.
Washington raised a blond eyebrow slightly. Clearly, the meeting site was recognizable to her as well. He figured that Church must have picked it out not only due to his own familiarity with the place, but due to its ease of access back to his own base of operations.
Washington, desperate to take his mind off of the lingering sense of guilt that he was still reeling from after seeing the Triplets again, couldn't stop himself from commenting to her, "Well, that could have gone a lot better."
Back in Freelancer, he hadn't really thought too much about the Triplets suddenly never being around like they had always been before, had he? A part of him didn't blame them for their obvious resentment.
Carolina, looking rather taken aback by the joking remark thrown her way given how things had progressed in their last conversation with one another, tried to respond but Church was suddenly standing beside them both with a triumphant grin on his face as his body returned to its normal coloring.
For once, Washington was glad for the dark-haired man's abrupt appearance and overly cocky attitude, because he was fairly certain Church's hawk-eyed sister had zeroed in on how self-deprecating his smile had been, how weak his attempt at inane chatter to keep his mind off of things truly was. The blond just knew that Carolina would have tried saying something about their former teammates' appearances that he wasn't really in the mood to hear currently.
He'd rather wallow in his guilt some more.
"Oh, you really fucking think so, huh, Washington?" Church gloated with his arms crossed over his chest in a pale imitation of Carolina's usual stance, "Well, you can just go ahead and suck it then since yours truly just so happened to get a pretty fucking awesome look at what our buddies stole!"
That did pique Washington's interest slightly and he saw Carolina lift her head a fraction to regard her little brother in a more assessing manner. They had both known that Church had gone into his Digital Form in order to mine for data, but neither had known until now if he had been successful in the endeavor or not.
In fairness to them, it had usually been about fifty-fifty when he had attempted to do so while acting as support out on the field during Project Freelancer.
"Anything interesting?" Washington asked once it became all too apparent that Church was way too willing to remain basking in their amazement over his success.
"Yeah," Church frowned at the question, tapping his foot on the ground, "It's info from the Specials Registry that the Director was secretly compiling."
The same Specials Registry that now quite a few influential and "concerned" citizens were pushing to have happen on a legal and open-to-the-public stance. Washington had been keeping up with the ongoing debate well enough in the years past, not sure how many people had truly known that such a list had been worked on for years already in the shadows.
"That registry was hardly legal to begin with." Washington said, frowning at this turn of events, "It was split amongst different facilities and organizations for that very reason."
"All knowledge is worth having, to use as a weapon before someone else ends up beating you to it." Carolina murmured, a decidedly neutral edge to her voice.
Church grimaced at her recitation, "Definitely was the asshole's motto."
The redheaded female furrowed her brows in a contemplative manner, "Given Charon's rivalry with Freelancer, I suppose it would make sense for them to have shared that particular viewpoint."
"Yeah, and it wasn't like Freelancer's reason for trying to make that list wasn't for completely dickish stuff to begin with." Her brother agreed, "From what I've seen and heard of them, Charon are even bigger assholes. And that is all sorts of fucked up."
"So we can throw out any potentially altruistic reasons one might have for creating such a list." Washington surmised.
"Please," Church said as the younger male scoffed derisively, "When was there ever one for that fucking thing?"
Washington frowned but said nothing in reply, knowing Church had a point. A list like the Specials Registry either existed as a precautionary measure, which was why it hadn't been destroyed outright even in its still uncompleted form and had been merely scattered all over Chorus, or as a target list. The scattering of the list was a checks and balance measure to at least try to make perusing personal files of potentially thousands of people that much more difficult in a vain attempt to still appear slightly ethical.
No matter the reason for its existence, a list like that in the hands of a group like Charon wasn't exactly an ideal scenario for anyone.
"Since we don't exactly know for sure what these assholes are really after," Church was saying as Washington's ears tuned back into the discussion again, "We could definitely use your help, sis. If you'd like to give it, that is."
Washington looked at the fidgety manner in which Church had addressed his sibling just then, refusing to meet Carolina's eyes all the same. It was the closest thing either one of them would likely get to an olive branch for their outbursts earlier, so he was curious to see if it would be accepted. Neither surviving member of the Church family seemed adept at communicating feelings directly unless under extreme circumstances.
Carolina shifted her balance as she regarded Church and then his rather mismatched group of the Reds and Blues gathered a slight distance away, "I'll see what I can do, Church, but I'm not making any promises." She told him after a few minutes of consideration, "I have my own matter to deal with."
Church made a face at the cyan-wearing woman's response, "Right. And you're finally going to tell us what that is when…?"
But Carolina opted not to respond, stiffly walking away to go and converse with Kimball and Tucker instead. Or, more likely, prevent Tucker's horrible attempts at flirting with Kimball to inadvertently turn young Junior into an orphan before his dad's dumbass idea to try and fight crime would.
It was pretty clear by Carolina's body language that she was saying it wasn't any of their business though, and Washington had already pushed too hard on that front before to risk bodily harm by doing so again.
"Un-fucking-believable." The blond heard Church mutter underneath his breath and, for a brief moment, the former Freelancer felt a bit of sympathy for the frustration that the other man was no doubt feeling at being out of the loop.
That thought had Washington thinking of what the Triplets had said again, however, and he also became rather frustrated at himself for having chosen to remain out of the loop for far longer than he would ever care to admit.
Before the looming ache of regret and anger became too much for Washington once more, he caught sight of Tucker waving both him and Church over to where he was standing with two very amused-looking ladies, although their body language indicated Tucker was extremely close to making Junior an orphan.
Both Washington and Church pointedly refused to look at one another as they walked over to the others, immensely grateful for the interruption to both of their troubling thoughts.
Doctor Emily Grey was certainly having quite the eventful day, if she said so herself! She never thought that she would find anyone else who would have been as interested in tracking down the data thieves as she was. The dark-skinned woman had become well and truly tired of being told by her exasperated coworkers to "just for once let something go."
Oh, sure, she knew that none of them would have had the same deep-rooted reasoning to pursue the matter further that she had, but she had expected a bit more of an uproar over pilfered medical records all the same given their chosen professions. Granted, Grey thought with a contemplative frown suffusing her features, it wasn't as if that wouldn't have been the case if the stolen files had belonged to so-called "normal" patients.
That line of thought had always irked her due to the oaths she had taken upon becoming a doctor. She never put up distinctions or preferences for her patients, and it always bothered her to witness colleagues, if she could even call them that, doing so time and time again just because of where someone might live or what abilities they may have unexpected developed.
The police weren't exactly much better either. Sure, files being stolen from a hospital was somewhat troubling to them, particularly given who the files had actually covered, but they told her upon her asking for more details on the case that the investigation was always going to be lower priority for them in the wake of much more violent crimes.
Grey understood having priorities and, as a medical professional, she would also certainly like to see less victims of violent crimes herself. But, the matter of a string of thefts of medical files on known Specials happening around the same time as heated debates all over the city about whether or not a Specials Registry should be created and specific rules for those with powers put more into place not being a matter of more concern was rather troubling to her.
Come to think of it, before her rather serendipitous run-in with these Reds and Blues, as they rather curiously liked to be called, and their cohorts (oh, she was certain she could do so many wonderful psychological studies on just about all of them if given the chance!), the only other person who had seemed at all interested in the issue besides her was that investigative reporter Dylan Andrews who was always on the lookout for a new story.
Doctor Grey hadn't been terribly impressed with past encounters that she'd had with reporters as they were often far too concerned with getting their "scoop" rather than with the fact that they might be interfering with doctors trying to do their jobs or with the overall healing process in general, but she wondered if she shouldn't at least reach out to this Andrews woman now if only to shed more light on the matter to the general public. She had given Grey her phone number just in case.
"Sassafras!"
The heavily-accented and rather colorful exclamation had Grey glancing up curiously. Sarge, who had been in the midst of conversing with Lopez, Sheila, and Caboose a moment ago, was now facing her direction, looking distastefully at a rather heavily bleeding gash on his right shoulder.
No doubt the Special hadn't noticed the injury before now due to the adrenaline that had been flooding his system. The human body was an amazing machine, after all! To be honest, Grey hadn't been paying as much attention as she perhaps should have been to everyone's conditions in their hurry to leave the site of the fight. It was hard to make out the darker sheen of liquid crimson against the red that the older man seemed so fond of wearing, but now that she was staring at it there was no mistake.
"A battle wound?" Grey asked conversationally, hoping it hadn't been bleeding too heavily all this time without proper treatment.
Sarge glowered down at the injury as if it had personally affronted him, "Musta gotten nicked during that last skirmish."
Grey walked over in two long-legged strides, not bothering to give the red-wearing man the chance to downplay what had happened as she suspected he was about to do. "Don't move." She advised him in a voice that left no room for argument.
She hovered over the gash with her fingertips, nearly touching it and lost in her focus. The injury was, thankfully, a rather straightforward one.
Nothing vital had been hit. The wound itself was even rather clean despite having been made by a piece of violently thrown rock shrapnel, and she doubted there would even be much of a scar if it healed properly. A thin smile lit up her face at her suspicion that Sarge might not be the sort of person who would be particularly welcoming of that last bit of news.
The red-wearing man fidgeted awkwardly as her scrutiny continued, "You really don't hafta…"
"Not to worry, Sarge!" Grey cut him off rather jubilantly, "I have just the treatment in mind for you!"
Sarge watched in silent fascination as Doctor Grey pulled out a pocket knife of all things. Yes, she found that the tools were perfectly named since they fit so snugly into one!
…Normally, the dark-haired woman held onto the tool until the direst of circumstances and she was given a measure of privacy. But, she assumed it would be all right to show this particular group of people what she could do.
Without giving him any time to react, Grey sliced the extended blade over the open wound. There was a sudden glow in the arc that she had made, the gash covered by it in its entirety as the injury began to close up all on its own.
"Would you look at that!" Sarge marveled on in astonishment, moving the hand he had brought up on instinct after Grey's swipe so that he could see the ongoing repairs more clearly.
"In my case," Grey beamed as she put away her knife, beyond pleased by Sarge's reaction, "Cutting and healing people has always been the same!"
Sarge looked up at her face then, his weathered features nearly as red as his clothes as he gaped at her, "You are a woman after my own heart, Doctor Grey."
Grey's own face felt rather warm itself as she returned his smile, so very glad once again that this day had turned out to be so eventful.
Kai was talking rather emphatically to Doc and Donut over what exactly had been the odds of that fight possibly turning into a full-blown orgy once those three new guys had shown up because "I have seen way too many pornos that start out just like that!"…and, for once, Dexter Grif wasn't going ballistic over her continued efforts to embarrass the family. Still, he couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh all the same.
Honestly, right now? He was just so fucking relieved that his little sister hadn't been hurt during Idaho's sneak attack that he could really care less about the hypothetical mayhem a totally unharmed Kaikaina Grif was trying to imagine herself getting into.
Of course, that only lasted for about two minutes before Kai turned in his direction with a put-upon scowl covering up her face, "Um, big bro? You hovering like that is totally putting a damper on this convo." She informed him rather matter-of-factly while stamping her foot on the ground for added emphasis, "You definitely don't want to get a stalker rep like Tucker's cop over there."
From farther away, a figure in teal shouted "He's not mine!" around the same time as a rather defeated-sounding cry of "For the last time, I am not a stalker! …Or a cop!" could be heard too.
Kai raised an eyebrow at her sibling then as if the outbursts had somehow made her point, "So, come on, Dex! You in or out?"
"No need to be shy now!" Doc chimed in rather pleasantly, "The more the merrier, I always say. Unless someone happens to feel left out during group gatherings."
"Come on, Grif! Join the fun! I always make room for one more man." Donut gestured to the empty space between himself and Kai, "Even if it means having to do a whole lot of contortions, the satisfaction's always worth it!"
"Ha! That's what those guys said a few weeks ago too." Kai let out a snort of laughter at her recollection of an event that had most certainly, much to Grif's consternation, not been anything close to a mundane albeit brain-breaking conversation like the one she was having now.
Grif sighed again and rolled his eyes, "Thanks, but I think I'll pass."
"Suit yourself." The tan-skinned young woman shrugged dismissively, turning back to Doc and Donut and ignoring her sibling entirely.
The trios' voices drifted over to Grif in a hushed tone of indecipherable jargon as he walked further away, catching sight of Simmons standing by himself a distance away.
Even though the fight was now over, the dumb nerd still looked incredibly anxious and strung out. The cyborg was glancing from the ground to the others and back again in a frantic, nervous way. His body was poised as if he was thinking about running at any second.
Grif raised a dark-colored eyebrow and walked over, "Hey."
Yeah, he was right about Simmons being a potential flight risk just then because the lanky redhead jumped a good meter in the air at the sound of his voice. Both of his eyes, including his artificial one, were wide and panicked when they landed on Grif.
The heavyset man was oh-so-tempted to use his power just then to help Simmons calm down at least a fraction, but he figured if the pale cyborg hadn't outright bolted like he seemed so keen on doing then he was fighting his nerves well enough on his own right now. Besides, constantly bombarding Idaho with a nearly suffocating sense of panic for as long as he had in the fight before had made him feel particularly lazy in regards to using his powers again so soon. He would need at least a few more minutes to recover. Maybe something to eat or drink too.
"Relax, kiss-ass." Grif told Simmons instead, nodding over in the direction of his happily chatting away sibling, "You saved Kai earlier, so I just wanted to say thanks for that. I guess."
Honestly? He couldn't think of too many people who would risk themselves for the sake of a "good-for-nothing" Grif. Given how Simmons' first impression of Grif had probably not been all that "favorable" or whatever, he was shocked that the cyborg had even made the effort to save his sibling.
"Oh!" Realization appeared across the nerd's face then, and the heavily freckled portion of his face turned rather red right up to the plating on the other side, "Ah, um…you're welcome?" Simmons smiled slightly and the shy note behind the expression was rather cute somehow, "We—we're all teammates, so it was the least I could do. Right?"
Grif didn't have the heart to tell him that he still wasn't quite sure what to make of this whole "team" business, especially not with those guys from the park's comments and threats still looming in the back of his mind. Nor did he want to tell Simmons how he might react himself if anyone but Kai happened to be in immediate danger, but he felt like he had to reassure the desperate cyborg somehow.
"Right." Grif said at length, watching with keen interest as some of the nervous energy radiating off of Simmons' shoulders dissipated and he relaxed slightly.
The man in the maroon hoodie let out a prolonged sigh of relief as Grif continued to watch, his curiosity piqued as to why Simmons was still so on edge to begin with despite himself. He looked away for a moment, coughing purposefully to get the redhead's full attention.
Just as he felt Simmons' questioning regard on him and he opened his mouth to continue their conversation totally against his better judgement, Grif was interrupted by a loud exclamation while a momentary spark of frustration hit him for an unknown reason.
"Hey, assholes!" Tucker loudly called out with his hands circled around his mouth, "We should totally be celebrating right now!"
"Whoo-hoo, yeah! Let's get wasted!" Kai shouted back eagerly in response.
"Goddamn it, Kai!" Grif groaned and held his head in his hands, his face suddenly feeling rather warm as Simmons stifled a fucking giggle of all things at his reaction to his sister's antics and the heavier set man tried to fight the slight upwards curving of his own lips but to no avail.
Thankfully, before Grif could question himself any further on just what the fuck was possibly going on there, Caboose raised his hand and stepped forward in response to Tucker's initial declaration, "I think I know a place we could go for that." He offered, much to everyone else's surprise.
Author's Notes: Gah, I had NO idea this chapter would end up being as long as it ended up being! 0_0; I seriously got carried away at some parts, and now my poor hands are paying the price for it. XD
Oh, Grif…not only do we still not know what you're going to do with the whole Felix and Locus situation, but you are so very much in denial about Simmons that it isn't even funny! XD As are Tucker and Wash, honestly. …And both Sherry and Ohio too. Lopez and Sheila, along with Sarge and Doctor Grey, might be the only couples so far who have put those "funny feelings" into perspective at the moment! :)
Speaking of Grey, not only was this my first attempt at writing for Sherry, Darryl, and Terrill (so I apologize if I wrote them too OOC or anything like that), this was actually only the second time I have ever written a POV from Doctor Grey! I absolutely adore her so she shows up in pretty much all of my fics, but for some reason I'm not yet as confident in writing her narration. Hopefully it wasn't too out of character! :D
Also, Sheila being a hologram who can create optical illusions is pretty much my take on Synergy's skillset from Jem and the Holograms. I REGRET ADMITTING NOTHING! XD
Next time in Specials: Caboose actually DOES know a place (because I can never write an AU without some kind of bar scene, evidently XD), and Tex ends up showing up there too much to Carolina's chagrin. Kimball learns a bit more about Carolina and offers to help her out. Tucker and Wash talk about the Triplets and how well the team did. Grif and Simmons muddle more through their feelings thanks to the wonders of alcohol while Kai makes a "friend." Three more of the Lieutenants finally get introduced, and Grif ends up having to play the role of reluctant hero all on his lonesome.
Not sure yet if I am going to jump right into the next chapter or post something for one of my other WIPs next, but I hope either way you will enjoy the future updates! :) Thank you so much for reading! :D
I would also very much like to give out a huge, huge, HUGE thank you at the top of my lungs to the incredibly talented and absolutely phenomenal blankslate101, who has made a wonderful comic illustration for the "powers and fax machine" convo between Grif and Simmons in this story. :D It's seriously amazing and I absolutely loved how they captured that scene. I can't stop smiling every time I see it. Please be sure to check out their amazing work over at DeviantArt yourself! :D Thank you so very much, again! :)
