Sit-reps.
After six days at Las Vegas, Duke's team returns to hear Snow-Job mention a potential new recruit, and the aftermath of Beachheads idea of training. "Ah'll nevah get how y'all won sah many fuckin' times; when all yah got are these whiny-ass bitches, can't even go 1 lap around da damn base?!" Beachhead asked as he and Duke, who had bandages on both hands and a bruised face after his plan of using Flint's lucky streak went awry, looked over those Joes omitted from both missions in the infirmary.
"...You had them dragging meat filled R.A.M. tires with the guard dogs chasing them." Duke said back as he pointed at the heavily bandaged Grunt.
"Muh urvyheng errzs." Torpedo says first, also bandaged.
"Get me a phone, i want my lawyer!" Went Recondo, who was in a sling.
"Hand it oveh when yer done so i can throw it at him." Barbecue asked him from his wheelchair.
"See, awl they been doin' since da dodge ball game." Beachhead said next.
"He made us do that in our shorts, and had sandpaper strips glued on the balls!" Dusty tells Duke.
At the commissary, the Joes who went with Duke and Flint swap stories with the ones who went with Snow-Job. "And after we got patched up; me, Thunder, Lady-Jaye, and Quick-Kick here, got Wild Bill to take a shot of us doing the Abbey Crossing. Would have gotten Footloose, but he kept nagging about his cellmate." Shipwreck tells some of the latter Joes while opening a can of R/C.
"Must have been locked up a tad too long though, since he was there by himself." Quick-Kick added.
"Aw crap, i had to draw the short straw, didn't i?" Rock 'n Roll said as he smacked the table.
"What about the new guy Snow-Job talked about?" Ripcord asked after putting his sandwich down.
"You mean Nash?, He did some nice work up there, but it's up to Gen. Abernathy if he joins or not." Cover-Girl replied.
"Should have seen him, had those normies working like a German clock." Frostbite said, and Tollbooth points and nods while his mouth was full. Gung-Ho was about add something when they see a disheveled Lavigne and Stall rushing out of the kitchen.
One minute earlier, the latter pair are in a closet. "So the whole thing was el bummer grande?" Chris asks her while brushing the back of his fingernails across her bellybutton.
"Not so much, the ra~dar was just a prototype anyway. The Brit's~ordered 70 of them after we tested~it with a captured Trubble Bubble." She replied while feeling him breathing on her neck.
She turns around and the two are about to kiss some more before the door opens. "What the hell...Man, this ain't no lover's lane; so get on out before i bash yo' brain!" Roadblock said and pointed to the door.
In the girl's quarters, Lady-Jaye was telling Simmons, Haruna, a few Green-shirts, and the recently returned Scarlett about a side-trip just after the Britain mission. While the Joes where boarding the A.P.C.'s, Lady-Jaye walks over to Duke and Flint. "Hey, Duke?"
"Need something?"
"Well, since we're here, you think we could visit some relatives of mine up north?"
Duke and Flint look to each other and the latter shrugs. "We got some time, given how everything's been cut short."
"Fine, but only 1 day." Duke tells her.
The trio take a flight to Scotland, and take a rented car to an old building. They walk up and are greeted by several people, a man about as burly as Flint walked up. "Who are ye, that be intrudin' on the clan of the bear-heart's land with nae forwarnin?" He asks as he folds his arms.
"Sorry to bother you; but our friend here insisted we visit." Duke tells him, but he says nothing.
"My turn." Lady-Jaye says, and walked forward, javelin in hand. "We are thoose who baeth in tha blood of serpents; so ye best be lattin' oos pass, or it be yer's next!" She shouts in a Scottish accent as she points it at him as some more walk out.
"And yerself?" The man asks next.
"Ah'm she who the earth coul'nae drown, nor a metal sea-beast swallow. Man, machine, bear, giant turnips, exploding crystals?, They could'nae slay me either!" She answered as she raised it in the air.
The man stares at her for a few seconds, and balked. "Beh, unless ye can prove ye have enythin' in those wee twigs ye call erm's, none of ye be enterin tha praperty!"
She then turns to Flint and points to a bag she gave him earlier, he opens it to show an empty Crimson guard helmet with a bullet hole through both sides. "Toss the thing, would you please?"
Flint does as requested, and throws it in the air to the right. Lady-Jaye chucks the javelin at the helmet, and brings it back to the man after it falls.
"Cannae believe me eyes, Fergus; speared tha theng throo both holes in mid-air!" Another man says, before a female voice is heard.
"Aye, Fenella's bairn has proven hersalf, she has. Now beck in tha manor, alla' ye!" An older woman orders, and the two Joe men see Lady-Jaye's face light up.
"Aunty Rhona!" She says and hugs her.
Chapter twenty-five. Read and review.