Hey y'all, sorry for taking so long to get a new chapter up for y'all. The last few weeks have been a complete grind due to school and my work situation. I'm pretty much exhausted at this point, but I've got Thanksgiving break to look forward to next week, and work is starting to level off now.

Anyway, I hope you'll enjoy this new chapter.

Chapter 7: Rest, Recovery, and Tempers

Hotel

The next morning

Barricade's POV

I slowly woke up and felt something really warm next to me while it felt like I was laying in some really big, fluffy cloud. I don't really know how to describe just how comfortable I felt, but it was amazing. I slowly opened my eyes and yawned a little before blinking twice and starting to look around. I was back in the hotel room and found myself laying in the bed Marcus had slept in. I guess he carried me back in here after I went to sleep in his lap last night.

I still felt a little bad for my brother, but I started to feel really warm inside when I remembered what he said about me being the light in his darkness.

"Hmm.."

I looked over to my left and found Fleshbag buried in the covers next to me. He looked funny! His hair was splayed all around in weird ways, and his mouth was a little open. It was like he one of those zombie things I saw on that TV show last night.

"Ugghhhhh"

I giggled when he made another funny noise. I slowly brought my right hand up though the covers and poked him on his right cheek, just to see what would happen.

Nothing.

I then poked my squishy sibling twice to see if THAT would do anything.

"Hhgh stapit..." he slurred as one of his legs twitched against me. I giggled again, but forced myself to stop before I woke him up. He'd probably just get all grumpy if I woke him up real early at 8:05 AM...well that's what the clock on the table next to our bed said. I decided to just cuddle up to my Fleshbag and Warlock for a little longer and enjoy the peace and quiet.

So I laid there..and laid there...and laid there...and laid there...and started getting really bored since I wasn't tired anymore. I rolled around with a quiet groan and looked at the clock...it had only been TEN MINUTES! I glared at the clock and quietly growled to myself.

'Dumb, stupid, slow time!'

Well if time wasn't going to go by faster so Fleshbag would wake up, I'd make it go faster until he woke up!

I quietly began wiggling out from under my brother's arm and gently pulled myself out of the covers. I started rolling out of the bed...and then fell down the rest of the way because I forgot how small I am in this Holoform thingy.

I landed with a small squeak and rubbed my suddenly-sore backside while I held Warlock in my right arm. Marcus mumbled something from above and I heard him briefly move around under the covers before everything got quiet again. I pushed myself up and looked around the room to figure out how I was going to stop being bored. My first idea was watching TV...but I'd probably have to turn the volume down really low to where I could barely hear anything so I wouldn't wake my brother up. I then looked to the door and thought about taking Warlock for a drive...except I didn't really know where I would go, I didn't think I'd know how to get back, and I didn't want Marcus to think that I had left him.

I kept looking around the room and saw one of Fleshbag's hand-cover thingies on the windowsill. I was always curious about his armor since I had first met him...and with him sleeping...It wouldn't be bad if I looked at his armor for a little bit, would it?

I stealthy began tip-toeing my way around the room and over to the weird thing mounted under the window that blew air where all of Marcus' armor was. I looked down at his stuff, and then slowly looked over my left shoulder to make sure he wasn't up. He was still sleeping under the covers, so I was good. I went over to the windowsill and set Warlock down in the left corner.

"Tell me something if he starts waking up." I whispered to my partner-in-crime. Warlock didn't say anything, but he slid down a little against the window. He wanted to be comfortable while making sure I wasn't caught.

I then sat down in front of his stuff and started to figure out what I was going to look at next. His main piece of armor had a lot of stuff attached to it in little pouches or these little ring thingies. I decided that I'd look at that first. I picked it up off of the wall from where it was leaning against the wall and hefted it over into my lap. There was this patch with some writing on it mounted in near the center of his armor on it's front. I looked at the patch and read what was on it, not going in any particular order.

1B5M
PVT
AB POS
PAKOWSKI M B
USMC

I hummed to myself and wondered what everything on the patch meant, the only thing I really recognized was "Pakowski", since I had figured out that was part of his name because there was a little tag on his camouflaged shirt that had that word on it.

I decided I'd ask him later about the patch and started looking at the rest of the armor piece. The first thing that interested me were these round things attached to the armor. They were green and had a blocky metal piece with a little metal circle on the side. I pulled one of the round things from the little pouch it was in and looked at it. The little circle flopped around and jingled as I rotated the small ball-looking thing around in my hand. I curiously put my left index finger through the small circle and tugged on it a little. It budged a little, but I felt a bit of resistance from whatever it was attached to inside of the ball. I figured it was supposed to just stay in the ball and pulled my finger out of the little ring and then put the ball back into it's pouch.

The next thing that interested me were the two types of containers Marcus had on his armor. Both had these shiny, pointy things stacked up in them. I picked one of the containers up and looked at it. It barely had any weight to it, surprisingly enough. I then slid one of the little pointy things out and held it between my right index finger and thumb. It looked like there were two parts to it since the tip was a different color than the base of the thing. A little bit of sunlight shone through the window and onto the pointy thing, making it shine. It was interesting, I was curious about what all this stuff was. I put the pointy thing back in the container and put that back away in its pouch.

I then looked back at the armor and picked the piece up. It was a little heavy...well lot heavier than I thought it would be. I held the armor up and rotated it around.

'He wouldn't mind if I put it on, would he..?'

I looked at the armor for a few seconds and thought it over.

'Nah, I don't think he would mind.'

I lifted the armor up above my head and began lowering it down onto my body. I stuck my arms up and let the armor drop down onto my shoulder's. I bounced a little from the weight of the armor, but it seemed like the weight was supposed to be distributed equally around the whole piece. It was too big for me, but I didn't mind that. It kind of felt cool to put some of my brother's armor on.

I then looked over to the helmet and visor thingies he had bundled up on the floor. I picked the helmet up and pulled the cover of the "goggles" off..? Yeah, I think those are called goggles. I looked the helmet over in my hands. It had the same tan and brown, square-looking pattern on it like the shirt and pants he had first worn. There were some straps and ear cover things that were bunched up inside the helmet. I pulled those out and then put the helmet on my head and the ear covers on. The helmet was also too big, actually it kind of canted off to the left a little on my head, but I didn't mind it. I then reached up for the goggles and brought them down over my eyes.

It kind of felt weird to be wearing something over my eyes, especially considering how thick my brother's goggles were. I'd have to also ask him why that is later.

Still though, I felt really cool in my brother's armor..well most of it. Marcus had that big backpack with his radio and a bunch of other stuff in it. I didn't want to mess anything up with that, and also it looked like it was real heavy.

I got up and pushed the helmet up a little bit so it wouldn't cover my eyes, and then I grabbed Warlock off of the windowsill. So far I hadn't been caught...so I think it's safe to keep wearing Fleshbag's armor for a little while.

I looked over to Marcus' bed and saw that he was still in his cocoon of blankets and quite thoroughly asleep. He looked all peaceful over there. I could see a small smile on his face, hopefully he was having a good dream. A dream where he was having fun, and not stuck in the city he found himself in. I hoped he was happy. Not because of me, but because he deserved to feel happiness after all the bad things I'm sure he's gone through recently.

For some reason I started to quietly walk over to my sleeping brother. A smile began to form on my face as I got closer. I got over to him and just kind of looked at him for a little bit with Warlock cradled to my chest. I leaned down and gently touched my forehead to his for a few seconds before pulling back and pushing Marcus' helmet up on my head again and turning to head for the door.

I got over to the door and was about to turn the handle to walk outside when I heard a rustling of covers and a quiet chuckle from behind me.

"Kid...what the heck are you doing?" Marcus asked with a smile obvious in his barely-awake voice.

I turned around and giggled.

"I'm being you!" I declared with a little bounce.

Marcus yawned and pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Really now?" he asked as he sat up.

I eagerly nodded my head with the helmet bouncing around "Mhm!"

He fished his arms out from under the covers and held them out a little towards me. "Get over here sis."

I squealed with happiness and ran towards the bed before pouncing into Marcus' arms. He grunted when I smacked into him, but he quickly wrapped me up in a hug which made me start to happily purr and cuddle closer to him.

"Well good morning kiddo." Marcus warmly said from above me.

"Good morning Fleshbag!" I purred against his chest. He chuckled again and bonked the top of his helmet down onto my head "So my little sis is being a little Marine today, eh?"

"Mhm.." I grunted, "But I'm not little." I then corrected, poking his cheek and pushing the helmet up.

"Nah, you're little." Marcus said with a smirk

"No I'm not." I firmly stated.

"Liiittllleeee." He sang with a mischievous smile.

"I'm. Not. Little." I told him, poking his chest with every word. "And you better not call me little again Fleshbag, or else!" I warned with a small glare.

"Or else WHAT?" Marcus asked, still grinning mischievously.

"Or else I'll tickle you until you CRY!" I slowly warned, squinting and leaning towards him.

Marcus laughed and glanced at me with a look that screamed of him planning something.

"You know what I think?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What?"

"I think we should just take it easy today. What do you think? Wanna watch movies or something?"

"You mean it...? You don't need to get food or anything or look for people?" I asked.

Marcus shook his head "Nah. Honestly, if I was going to find anyone else, it probably would've happened by now. Right now taking care of you is my main thing. So what do you say? Wanna take the day off?"

We could relax, not have to worry about anything, and best of all, Marcus would get to be happy and have fun! I was so happy that I could just squeal! So that's what I did while squeezing Marcus after plopping Warlock down on the bed next to me.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" I squealed. Marcus beamed at me and sat back with his hands behind his head. "Anything specific you want to do today?"

"Can we go to the park or go for a drive?" I looked up and asked, trying to look as cute as possible so I could get my way.

"We can do both, if you want." my big brother nonchalantly replied.

"I do." I replied, "You need to be happy." I added. Marcus shook his head and laughed. "Kid, we don't need to do a bunch of things to make me happy. Honestly I'm fine with just staying here and watching movies of TV all day."

I shook my head "Nuh uh! We're gonna do stuff today, and you're going to be happy and you're going to like it mister!" I ordered while poking his chest. Marcus put his hands up while continuing to smirk. "Alright, alright! You're the boss then. Just chill out, okay? We'll do stuff." I huffed and nodded to myself, satisfied that my brother made the right choice.

9:55 AM

"Why are you putting your armor on?" I asked Marcus from my spot in the desk chair off to his right.

"Never know what we could run into out there kiddo. I want to be ready in case something happens." Marcus replied as he put his main piece of armor on over his white shirt and reached down for his helmet.

"So? Nothing's going to happen out there."

Marcus put his helmet and ear covers on, speaking as he got everything adjusted "Maybe, but we don't know that. Besides, I'm kind of used to wearing all of this stuff now.

"Marcus nothing's going to happen. And if anything does, I can protect us with my weapons."

"I get you have weapons, but you just don't have the training kiddo. The world can be a crazy place out there. I'd rather be prepared and not need all this stuff, instead of having something bad happen when I don't have all of this." he replied while strapping his pistol on and grabbing his long gun.

"The world is dumb!" I huffed while crossing my arms. Marcus laughed and then got up. He did this thing where he pulls this handle on the back of of his gun out a little and looks in to it before letting the handle go. "What was that?" I curiously asked.

"You talking about what I just did?" he asked. I nodded and got out of the chair to head over to him. Marcus walked over to me and knelt down and turned around so the side of his gun with the opening in it was facing me.

"It's called a "chamber check". If I pull the charging handle back a little, I can check to see if there's a bullet loaded into the firing chamber."

Marcus then pulled the handle back a little and let me look into his gun. I saw one of those shiny, pointy things inside the gun and at the start of the barrel. I nodded before pointing to Marcus' gun. "What's that?" I asked. Marcus let the charging handle go and rotated his gun around in is hands to show it off to me. "It's called the "M4A1 Carbine." He then got up and pointed to the smaller gun he had strapped to his right leg and over his black shorts "This is an "M9". It's my backup in case something happens to my M4." he explained.

I looked at his guns and had some pop up message in my HUD ask if I wanted to scan his weapons. I let the scan happen and traced my brother's guns with this red scanning light. Images of the two guns popped up in my HUD; they had some stuff about each gun next to each image. Stuff like what kind of bullet it shoots, how long the barrel is, how heavy it is, and how fast each gun could shoot. I noticed that Marcus kind of twitched a little when my scanning light would go over a part of his body.

"What did you just do..?" he asked, giving me a puzzled look

"I scanned your guns with this scanning thing I have. It told me some stuff about them." I answered

"You're just full of surprises, aren't you?" he chuckled. "Come on, let's get out of here and go do things." he said with a wave towards the door. I nodded and followed him as he opened the door for me to walk through before walking through it himself and getting it closed and locked.

Marcus put his sunglasses on and stretched his arms out while taking a deep breath. "It feels pretty good out here." he commented as we began walking down the staircase. I nodded before deactivating my holoform and going back to my actual body. I transformed and ducked from out under the overhang I was parked under and walked over to my brother as he got down the staircase. I held my right hand out to him and let him get on before setting him up on my left shoulder.

Marcus began looking around and would occasionally glance at something through his M4's ACOG scope as we started walking. We just quietly walked for ten minutes and enjoyed the morning.

I thought you said you wanted to go for a drive?" I heard him ask as I turned a corner.

"We can do that later. I'm still a little sore from being in my other form for a while." I answered as I continued walking. "How's Warlock doing?" I asked while glancing over at my brother.

"He's chilling over in first class." he answered with a pat on his back with his left hand.

I chuckled and poked my brother on his chest "You talk funny!"

Marcus poked the side of my head "Well you look funny."

I poked him again "YOU look funnier."

"Yeah, okay four eyes..." he mumbled with a small smirk.

I stopped walking and glared at him with my left eyes. "What did you just call me...?" I quietly growled.

Fleshbag chuckled and shrugged "Well I definitely didn't call you small this time." he sarcastically replied.

I poked him again, a little forcefully this time because he called me four eyes. "You better WATCH IT mister!"

"Oh I'm soooo scaaared!" he sarcastically replied. He brought his gloved hands up and made them look like claws. "Grrr!" he mockingly growled, "I'm Barricade, I'm BIG and BAD and SCARY! FEAR ME!"

"I AM big and bad and scary! And you SHOULD fear me!" I protested. Marcus shook his head and laughed. "Nah. Your might be all big and bad and scary on the outside, but you're really just a big ball of adorableness."

"THAT'S NOT TRUE!" I growled with a rev of my engine. Who does he think he is?! I'm the biggest, baddest, and scariest person around here! I could flick him across the street if I really wanted to!

"Alright." Marcus nodded. He looked at me with an arrogant smirk. "Prove it."

I growled and plucked him off of my shoulder before dropping him down on the street in front of me. "FEAR ME FLESHBAG!" I demanded.

"Nope." Marcus said, looking right at me.

I growled even more viscously at him and balled my fists. "FEAR! ME!"

"HA! Please, Warlock is more intimidating than you." he said while crossing his arms.

"FEAR! ME!" I snarled while stomping.

Fleshbag just laughed and turned to start walking away. "We gotta work on your intimidation skills kiddo, this ain't gonna cut it."

HE was walking away from ME! WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS!? OH, I'LL SHOW HIM!

I angrily transformed and loudly revved at him. Marcus turned around and LAUGHED at me!

"Hey look at that, you're smaller now." He then turned back around and started walking away again. I revved at him again, this time louder and more hostile...but he kept walking!

I lunged forward and shoved him with my bumper. Marcus glanced back at me this time "Well someone's getting feisty now..." I shoved him again with another rev. "Alright." he chuckled, "You made your point."

Well I wasn't done making my point!

I lunged at him again, but this time I knocked him down. He made a surprised noise as he tumbled down, but I didn't care. "Who's scary NOW?!" I growled at him with another rev. Marcus sighed and used my push bar to help himself get up. "Alright. I'll admit kiddo...ya got me good there." he said as he dusted himself off. I maliciously smiled to myself and lowered down on my front axle to look more intimidating. "That's right Fleshbag, and you better not forget it!"

He raised his hands up and gave a small chuckle while shaking his head. "You're scary Barricade, okay?" I gave a satisfied huff and raised my front end in response. My brother went back to walking and looking around, but I was the one who was deciding where we would go today, and I knew he was sore from all the walking he's been doing.

I drove up to his right and opened my door in front of him. Marcus glanced over at me "What?"

"You know what."

"Nah, no clue. I don't know what you want kiddo."

I gave an annoyed sigh. "I want you to sit in my seat Fleshbag. Duh."

"Well you're big, bad, and scary sooo...-" He shut my door and kept walking, "I don't think I want to."

I gave an annoyed groan and and shot in front of him and flicked my door open again. "Get in you!" I ordered with a little rev. Marcus snorted a laugh and took his pack off, it looked like he decided to finally use his brain and stop trying to fight me, because I WAS going to win today because HE said that I was the boss. He leaned in and set his pack in my passenger footwell before lowering himself into my driver's seat with a sigh that I knew was a happy one. I let him get comfy before shutting my door and strapping him in.

"SOMEBODY sounds like they're sore." I teased.

"Maybe just a little..." he answered with a funny little lopsided grin.

"Mhmm, sure." I didn't believe him.

"Alright fine...I'm a little sore...well, maybe more than a little sore." Marcus leaned back and I let him sink deeper into my seat. He smiled and let the back of his helmet lean against my headrest "You did that on purpose you darn gremlin."

I giggled and tugged on him a little with my seatbelt "Maybeee...You comfy?" He crossed his arms over his M4 and closed his eyes "Quite."

I started driving and turned my radio on and back to the station we were listening to yesterday. I didn't really know where I was going, nor did I really care. Right now I just cared about enjoying the drive and enjoying the day with my brother.

"What happened to you being sore." Marcus asked twelve minutes later after some song he was quietly singing stopped

If I had been in my Holoform right now, I would have shrugged. "Eh, you're a lot more sore than I am. I'll go back to walking later." My brother nodded and went back to looking out of my windows as we drove.

"Hey Marcus?" I asked after a minute of driving.

"Sup' kiddo?"

I shifted a little on my axles, I wasn't exactly sure what was going to happen if what I was about to ask Marcus happened.

"Can I look at your map?...I want to try to download it to my memory."

Marcus looked down at my dashboard "That might be a lot, like if you mean literally everything. You sure about this..?" I gave him a comforting tug with my seatbelt "I'm sure I'll be fine."

"Alrighty kiddo..." Marcus sighed as he opened a pouch on the front of his armor and pulled his map out. "Where do you want it?" he asked as he unfolded the map in his lap. I opened my dashboard-mounted computer to his right and turned it on "Just hold it up to my computer."

My brother nodded and got his map smoothed out. He then started talking in this really official-sounding voice "Well. As the acting Commanding Officer of this unit.-" I felt him lightly wrap his left hand around my steering wheel and rest a foot on my gas pedal.

"-In the event of any unforeseen moments of, and I do quote-" he then made this weird grunting noise in his throat, "What the actual heck just happened?" I started giggling as he went on.

"I will take light command of the Conn." He then smiled at me and held his map up to my computer. "Go do the thing with the thing, I'll just be here making sure nothing wild happens. If you start feeling weird, just let me know, alright?"

I started scanning his map and tugged on him again "Got it Fleshbag!" I chirped.

Marcus' POV

'I REALLY hope this doesn't end up with us slamming into the side of a building...' I thought to myself as Barricade's red scanning light began to trace down my map.

Honestly I didn't really know WHY I was so worried. I mean, it wasn't like the kid was going to just suddenly spazz and throw us at a wall. But still...I didn't want something bad to happen to her if this was too much to handle.

"Doing good kid?" I asked after ten seconds.

"Yep."

I nodded and continued focusing on any sign's of something weird happening as we continued on. The kid's driving was still as good as it was before she started scanning my map, but I kinda helped guide her through any turns she took since I knew she wasn't completely focused on driving. I waited around thirty seconds before checking up on her again. "Still doing good Barricade?

"I feel a little weird, but I'm still doing good big bro."

I felt a little concerned about the kid, but I had faith in her. "How far along are you?

"I've got your map 70% downloaded."

I nodded and kept my right arm steady so we could get this done. My arm was starting to get a little sore, but we didn't make it this far for me to wuss out now.

Twenty more seconds later, and my arm was starting to get pretty sore. I was just about to ask my little sis how she was doing, but I got my answer when I felt her start to get a little squirly with her driving.

"Marcus...I feel..really...weird.." she told me, sounding increasingly as she spoke.

"Fudge!" I growled. "Alright kiddo, let's get you off this road." I calmly said while gently squeezing Barricade's steering wheel.

"I feel...really...tiiiirrreeeddd..." Everything slackened up after she said that last word. I dropped my map and took control as Barricade lost it. "Hey kid, talk to me!" I worriedly said. I didn't know what had just happened. I got nothing back and started to really worry.

I immediately started slowing us down and got us over to the side of the road where I pulled us into the parking lot of a strip mall. I really didn't even bother trying to aim for a good parking job as I pulled Barricade roughly into a spot in front of the building.

"Ah crap, ah crap, ah crap!" I muttered as I put her in neutral and pulled her parking break. Thankfully she had a key in her ignition whenever she was in her police car form. I turned her engine off, pulled her key, and held it to my chest as I worriedly looked down at her dashboard and unstrapped myself with my left hand.

'Please God, just don't let her be hurt.' I prayed as I sat there, unable to do anything for my unresponsive sister. I was scared, I mean obviously anyone would be scared if their sibling just went unconscious all of a sudden, but it was even worse for me because there wasn't ANY way of knowing what was going on with the kid.

So the seconds ticked on, and my level of concern continued to rise. I reached over for my pack and pulled Warlock out after unzipping the pouch he was tucked away in. My big brother intuition was just screaming at me to have Warlock ready whenever Barricade came back, which I was praying would be very soon. After ten more seconds of nothing, I reached out and started to gently rub the top of the kid's dashboard since I couldn't rub her back.

"Come on kiddo, come back to me. You got me sweating bullets over here." I whispered. I still got only silence in response. "Come on kiddo, wake up! You gotta wake up!" I still got nothing after an agonizing half-minute.

I slammed my eyes shut, clenched my teeth, and leaned back as I covered my face with my hands. "Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" I cursed, shaking my head. "Goddamn it don't do this to me!" I was completely terrified now that something had gone terribly wrong. I didn't know what I could even do to help. The warmth that had usually surrounded me when Barricade had me sitting in her was gone, like completely.

I pulled Warlock over to me and pressed him against my chest. I started to feel a tear fall down my face, and I sniffed as my throat tensed up. "Don't do this to me kid, please." I whispered as the silence continued.

"M-Marcus...?"

I heard her voice and by God I never felt so relived in my life.

"Barricade?"

"I'm...I'm here., I'm back." she tiredly answered as her familiar warmth began to envelop me again.

I exhaled a breath I had unconsciously been holding back. I let my head fall forwards and hugged the kid's steering wheel. "Oh my God you scared the hell out of me kid!" I exclaimed as a wave of relief washed over me.

'C-can you hold me?" I heard her timidly ask in a small voice. I knew what she meant and pulled back to give her room. "Yeah, get over here." I answered as I wiped my eyes quickly. Barricade popped up next to me in her miniature form and crawled her way over to me and into my lap after retrieving Warlock. I wrapped my arms around here and squeezed the crap out of her while putting my forehead on the top of her head.

"Kid, please don't do something like that again. I thought something really bad happened."

She leaned up against my chest and I felt her gently squeeze me with her seat in this kind of weird hug, but I didn't mind it.

"I'm sorry for scaring you Marcus." She said timidly. "I thought it would be easy to download your map, but it took a lot of energy and I got really tired. I just fell asleep for a little while, but I'm still really sorry for scaring you."

She then pulled herself back and looked up at me with this fearful look on her face. "Marcus, are you mad at me...?"

"What? No, why would I be mad at you?" I confusedly asked.

"You cussed, and you don't do that unless you're really upset or really mad..." she said with her voice starting to tremble a little.

"Oh Barricade, I'm not mad at you kiddo." I sighed as I pulled my little sis close. "I was just really worried about you. I didn't know what happened and I was concerned that you had gotten hurt. And most of all, I was terrified because I knew that I probably wouldn't know how to help you." I felt her wrap her left arm around me and start rubbing my back over my plate carrier. I dropped her key into one of her cup holders and placed my right hand on the back of her head and brought it to my chest above my plate carrier's map pouch.

"Look, you're doing better now so that's all I care about." I softly said. A smile then creeped on to my face as I got an idea. I snaked my left hand down to her side and started tickling her. She started wiggling around and I heard her muffled squealing against my plate carrier. All of a sudden I felt something attack my side in a barrage of sudden tickling.

"Hghhhiiighhht!" I heard a muffled yell from her and plucked her off of me as I tried to pry her hand away from me.

"What?!" I hollered through laughter.

"Tickle fiiiggght!" she proclaimed before quickly setting Warlock down in her passenger seat and throwing herself back at me. I tried my best to resist her relentless attacks, but I really couldn't do much. I tried not to fight back since I knew the kid was still recovering from whatever had happened and just let her go wild for a good while.

"Okay, that's enough!" I announced as I put my sister into a bear hug after giving her a good minute or so to torture me.

"Hey! Lemme go you! This is illegal!" she protested as she tried to squirm out of my hold. I just laughed and continued to pin her to my chest. "Nah kid you gotta stop. I don't want you dying on me again." But of course, like all hyper children...she continued squirming...

"Let! Me! GO! I'm not done unleashing my wrath on you mister!" she hollered as she squirmed her torso around.

"You've unleashed enough wrath on me for now kid, you need to calm down." I tried to calmly state.

"NO!" she screamed. She then started gnawing on my right forearm in an attempt to make me let her go. Thankfully she didn't bite down heard enough to puncture my skin. Still though, the little bastard seemed to have some sharp teeth.

"Hey, that's enough!" I firmly stated.

"NO!" she growled through her gnawing. Alright, that was enough. The time for me to fulfill another duty as big brother and keep my younger sibling in check was finally upon me.

I stopped trying to hold her and instead picked her up and spun her around in my lap. "Barricade, KNOCK IT OFF!" I warned, firmly grabbing on to her shoulders and holding her still. I felt everything harden up around me as the kid tried to bore holes into me with the glare she put on.

"OR! WHAT?!" She growled while clenching her fist's.

"Or we're going to go home right now, and I'm not taking you to the park." I quietly warned. At that point, she fizzled out in front of me in her miniature form and fired her engine on into a harsh growl.

"We're not going ANYWHERE then!" she growled at me.

Ah, amping up the ante, huh? The little gremlin was pushing it now. "Okay then. I'll just get out and walk home right now then." I stated as I reached for her door handle. She then locked me in and shot her seatbelt out to strap me in.

"YOU'RE not going ANYWHERE!" she growled with a rev, wrenching her seatbelt tightly around me and pinning me into her seat. See, that's where she messed up.

"Barricade, if you don't knock it off right stinking now, you're going into timeout when we get back and you won't get Warlock until after I let you out of timeout." I warned. "You're pushing me now kiddo." I added in a half-growl.

"I don't have to listen to you!" she snarled while pressing me against her seatbelt with enough pressure to actually start to hurt, all the while revving her engine at the same time. At this point I was about at my limit. I knew that really, she was a lot stronger than me. If she kept this up, I was pretty sure she'd start to do some actual damage. I quickly reached down and pulled my knife out of its ankle holster of my right leg and stuck the flat part of the blade under the seatbelt in a spot right over the top portion of my rib cage.

"Young lady that is ENOUGH!" I growled through clenched teeth. "If you do not stop right now, you are going to HURT ME!" I continued while raising me voice. "I am your big brother, and your freaking guardian! I'm NOT going to continue to put up with this temper of yours! You better wise up, pull your freaking head out of your butt, and listen to me before you do something REALLY dumb! Do you understand me?!"

I think between raising my voice, borderline-cussing, and actually looking like the pissed off Marine I was becoming, things started getting through Barricade's stubborn head. While she continued to growl her engine at me, I felt her flinch up under me a few times. Other than that, she remained silent, maybe out of fear.

"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME BARRICADE!" I hollered as I remained pinned there. She REALLY flinched under me this time, like her whole body flinched away from me.

"YES!" she tried to snarl in an intimidating manner, but I could obviously sense the weakness in her voice. She slowly stopped pressing me forwards with the back of her seat, and I heard a click from below me and to my right, so she also unbuckled me.

"Unlock your door, and let me out, NOW!" I calmly ordered, getting another flinch in response. The door unlocked and slowly opened for me. My map landed on my radiopack, so I grabbed that and the pack itself, and then stepped out of Barricade after returning my knife to it's holster. I used my right foot to close the door behind me and started heading over to the right corner of the building's overhang to get some space and calm down.

I took a deep breath and collapsed down on the ground against one of the store windows. I was pissed, I mean, obviously! I just had the joy of almost getting strangled back there by a police car-shaped kid who was having a temper tantrum.

"Be a big brother they said, take an alien kid that turns into a police car under your wing they said, it would always be fun they said." I huffed to myself. "They didn't mention anything about the freaking temper tantrums..." I growled while thumping my head back against the window and looking up. I sat there for a little bit and then started to laugh at how absurd it all sounded. "I ain't old enough for this crap." I told the world while throwing my hands up and putting them behind my head. After a minute or two I picked my map up from where I had set it on the ground and got it folded up and stowed away in it's pouch. I then started looking my plate carrier and M4 over to make sure nothing was damaged. Thankfully, everything was still in good working order.

Honestly, if you were to tell me a few weeks ago that I would be in this position, I probably would have just given you a completely dumbfounded stare. I had done many things in this week: I got blown up, I discovered that humanity isn't alone in the galaxy, I almost got killed, I now have the fun of dealing with Survivor's Guilt, I acted like a kid for the heck of it and spent some time at a park, I found the kid, I took said kid in, both of us have comforted each other, both of us have made each other laugh, we've had tickle fights, the aforementioned sentient police car had just almost strangled me, and I now quite confidently took her in as my little sister. I mean the week sucked...but maybe it didn't suck THAT much...

I took a few minutes to get myself chilled out. I spent most of my time just sitting there with my eyes closed and my head resting against the glass behind me. I also got a very-needed stretching session in, in which I heard more popping from my joints than I ever had before. It kinda surprised me though if I'm being honest.

"Alright Rads, time to see if you're about to be killed." I sighed to myself as I decided to get up and check on the kid now that I was in a better mood. I got my pack slung over my shoulder and pushed myself up. It was kind of weird. You'd think a car wouldn't be able to show emotion, but this kid was obviously pretty crushed. She was dropped all the way down on her axles, and just about bottoming out on her frame. As I got closer I could also hear an obvious change in the note of her engine. Earlier it was a loud, harsh growl. Now it was running, but barely audible.

I slowly made my way over to her front and made sure I didn't look hostile in any way. "Hey kid." I softly called out. She gave a small whimper and jerked away from me, kid must have been terrified of me right there. I slowly brought my hand up and and held it out to her. "Woah, hey it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you or anything." I cooed to her as I slowly tried to approach her again. She whimpered again as I stepped up to her, but she didn't shy away this time, maybe out of fear. I gently placed my hand on her hood. It was trembling, and I knew it wasn't from the vibrations of her engine.

"Easy there kiddo." I softly said as I began to gently rub her.

"Do...do you hate me..?" she asked in a trembling and tiny voice after a few seconds of me rubbing her. The question caused me to flinch out of surprise with my breath hitching, I wasn't expecting that. I felt her pull away from me just and inch or so, however I quickly put my hand back on her hood and began to rub it again.

"No Barricade, I could NEVER hate you." I replied in a calm and warm voice.

"Am..I a bad sister?"

I continued to rub her "No kiddo, you're not a bad sister. You just lost your temper."

"A-am I in trouble..?"

I sighed and just held my hand against her hood instead of continuing to rub her. I looked down at her "Have you learned your lesson?" She didn't verbally say anything. Instead, she gave a tiny rev and pressed up against my hand.

"Alright then. I'll take that as a yes." I then gave her a pat "We're cool." Barricade gave another rev and pressed herself even more against my hand as her engine started to quietly purr. I won't lie, it was kind of awkward for me. I mean no offense to her, but having a car do this to you when this is something that straight up doesn't happen with any normal car was just weird for me.

"Hey you uh..want to hug it out..?" I half fumbled. The kid continued purring, but she began to just barely pull away from me. I took that as a confirmation and walked back a few steps to giver her some room to transform if she wanted to. Instead, she materialized in front of me in her miniature form.

She had an uncertain look on her face, and was rubbing her hands together while slightly crouched and looking up at me. I could tell by her body language that she was still a little scared of me, but I wanted her to know that we really were cool again. I gave her a small nod and smile of encouragement to make it obvious that she could come to me.

She very slowly started to edge towards me and shrunk in on herself the closer she got until she was standing right in front of me and looking up to my face. I raised my arms a tad, however I stopped when she suddenly flinched and pulled back a little with a little scared noise. I gave her a reassuring look and continued to slowly raise my arms a little away from my body.

In a flash she rushed forwards and latched on to me. I slowly wrapped my left arm around her back while I held the back of her head with my right hand and began to rub it.

"That's it ya little gremlin, everything's alright." I murmured as I slowly crouched down. I then pressed the front of my helmet against her forehead and closed my eyes. "Your big bro still likes you a lot, and he forgives you for what you did earlier." The kid started to purr a little louder and leaned into me. "I like you a lot too, and thank you for forgiving me for being mean to you."

I responded by pulling her closer and placing my chin against her neck on her left shoulder. Both of us enjoyed each other's embrace for some time before we both coincidentally gave a pleased sigh at the same that made both of us chuckle.

"How about we go to that park now, eh?" I asked, pulling myself back to see her face while still smiling from my previous laughter. Barricade's face lit up and she started to nod vigorously in agreement to my suggestion. "Alright then." I said while pushing myself up. "You wanna drive us there?" I asked with a smirk, nudging her right shoulder.

The response I got was Barricade turning her miniature form off, opening her driver's door, and inviting me to get in with a rev. I chuckled and made my way over to her open door where I got my things stowed inside and got in. I got myself buckled up and shut her door. I was then basically wrapped up in her seat and I let myself get VERY comfortable within the plush confines of her warm leather.

"Alright my wrathful gremlin, let's roll." I called with an eager smile as I crossed my arms over my M4's receiver...except nothing happened. Actually the kid turned her engine off.

"Uh...what gives..?" I asked, quirking my brow.

"We can't go anywhere if my engine isn't on." She teased while playfully nudging me with her seat.

"Okay then." I chuckled. I grabbed her key out from the cup holder it was in, put it in the ignition, and turned it. My sister's engine came on with an excited rev.

"Better now?" I asked

"Yep!" she chirped while releasing her parking break and shifting into reverse. So we headed off. I didn't know what we would do at the park, but I'm sure it would go better than yesterday did.

Hotel

9:27 PM

I took another swig of water from my canteen as we sat there watching TV while my French bread pizza cooked in the microwave. So far we've had a good day. We spent like two or three hours over at the park goofing around. We had a few sessions of hide and seek where I suggested that Barricade use her miniature form so she could hide and find me more effectively. The final score after many matches of meticulous searching from both of us was a score of 4 wins for me to Barricade's 3. She was a very challenging opponent once she got the hang of things in the first round, where she found me hiding in a row of bushes within two minutes of the match starting.

After she got bored of the park and I ate lunch, we went driving around for a little while and listened to music. I had to briefly interrupt our fun to stock up on water in a grocery store where by the grace of the good Lord, I found that the frozen section still had power and nabbed myself a box of pure heaven in the shape of a two pack box of French bread pizza's. We kept going around for a little longer until she called it quits and said that she was ready for us to go back home.

We got home around four and just chilled out from then on. I found a channel that was running a marathon of movies and we've basically been eating that up since then. While we watched TV I introduced my little sis to the greatest competitive game known to anyone who's ever been alive; Rock, Paper, Scissors. We went pretty hard on that, and both of us got pretty competitive about it. Of course, I was usually the winner.

Yeah...I got a good number of growls, stomps, huffing, angry arm crossing, glares, and angrily snarled "Fleshbag!"s thrown my way. It was still fun though, both of us had seriously threatened tickle torture on each other multiple times throughout our duels.

And now I was just waiting for th-

BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!

"Yes, finally!" I fist pumped and then jumped off my spot at the foot of my bed where I was sitting, and made my way over to the microwave in the little kitchen we had to retrieve my slice of goodness. I depressed the button to open the door and stuffed my face into the opening to take a deep breath of that beautiful smell.

"Oh my God that's soooo GOOOOOOODD!" I moaned while closing my eyes and leaning my head back. I guess Barricade heard me over by the TV, cause she started snickering like the little gremlin she was.

I reached into the microwave and pulled the paper plate that had my pizza on it out and then shut the door with my free left hand. I then made my way back to my spot on the bed and plopped back down onto the cushy mattress with my dinner in hand. I would take a minute or two for my pizza to cool off enough for me to not burn my mouth like a dweeb on my first bite, so I briefly got up to go place the plate on the counter of the TV stand.

Barricade scooted over in the desk chair to where I was when I got to over to the desk.

"What's that?" She asked with a point at my pizza as I set the plate down.

"French bread pizza kiddo, heaven on a crust." I answered. She scooted closer to me and tentatively poked the side of the crust twice "What's it taste like?"

"Well, I mean-" I shrugged, "-pizza. I guess you'd kind of have to just taste it to know." She then looked at the pizza, and then to me with a curious look. "Marcus, can I try your pizza..?"

I quirked my brow "Can you...actually eat my food...?" She shrugged and leaned back in the chair "I've never tried to eat human food before, but I think I can, even in this form..."

"Ah well, nothing ventured, nothing gained." I reasoned. I then stood up and went over to get my knife from the windowsill. I brought the ankle holster over to the TV stand and set it down on the wood surface. I then released the latch holding my bayonet and pulled it from the sheath. I figured I'd just cut the pizza in half to make things easy. If she didn't like it than I could just take that half back. Barricade curiously watched as I held the pizza down with my left hand and carefully cut a slice in the middle of the pizza to separate it into two halves. Once I had made the cut, I used my bayonet to slide the two pieces away. I then brought my knife up and wiped any marinara and cheese off of the blade and licked all the goodness off of my right thumb and index finger.

"Man that's good." I said as I wiped my hand off on my shorts. I then slid the plate a little to my right so it was in between us. "Here ya go kiddo, your first taste of human food. Hope you like it."

Both of us picked our respective slices up and looked them over. I took a whiff of mine in while Barricade looked her slice over in her hands. She then brought it up to where I think her nose was and sniffed it. She blinked twice and then slowly brought it up to her mouth and held it there for a second or so before suddenly chomping down on the pizza with a little "Hawmp!"

"What the heck was that you crazy thing!?" I laughed at her cute display. She giggled with the pizza in her mouth and then finished biting a piece off and began to chew it. I curiously watched as she chowed down.

"So what's the verdict?" I asked as she finished chewing.

"This human food is really good!" she replied with a little bounce before chomping down another bite. I smiled and then took a bite of my own piece and began to savor the great goodness it brought to my taste buds. From then on we just enjoyed the pizza while watching TV. I made my way back to the bed and plopped down. I made sure I didn't eat my pizza too fast, and instead focused on enjoying every bite.

My little sis on the other hand...well she was going at her piece like a ravenous little piranha. She'd chomp down on a piece and then start working it down. Once she'd eaten her bite she'd usually go back to watching TV or she'd look at her pizza for a few seconds before slamming down on another bite.

Now obviously I was over here on the bed melting at how adorable the kid looked as she viscously murdered her pizza. Also it was just kind of amazing to think that an alien, one made of metal at that, actually liked human food.

Later

I had just taken another bite of my piece of heaven when I felt it...THOSE DARN PUPPY EYES!

I looked away from the TV and found Barricade hitting me full force with them while she twisted the chair back and forth and hugged herself, obviously trying to look as cute as possible for some nefarious reason.

I tracked her eyes and found that they weren't on me...but my pizza.

"Oooohh no, nope, not happening." I announced while shaking my head.

"I want MORE!" she quietly begged while oozing innocence.

"You've already had your piece kid." I stated before taking another bite.

"But I want MOOOOOORRRREEE!" she whined while looking like a kicked puppy.

"Kid, no, it's not happening." I stated after swallowing my bite.

"But we still have the other pizza!" she keened.

"That's for tomorrow kiddo." I explained, causing her to just start whining even more...well it was more of a metallic whirring.

"Caaade!" I warned, raising the pitch of my voice a little.

"That's not my naaame!" she huffed, falling back in the chair.

"You know what I meant." I grunted before taking another bite.

"Maarrrcuss! Pllleeeeaaassseee!" she pleaded, clasping her hands together and leaning forward towards me.

I sighed, starting to get a little annoyed. "Negative Ghostrider, and that's the end of it." I firmly stated.

Barricade made a big show of dramatically giving a sad sigh and slowly turning back around while slumping in the desk chair. I just let her pout while continuing to finish off my pizza and watch TV. Like all kid's who didn't get their way, she started to quietly grumble to herself as she sat there moping. It was amusing, but I tried to just tune it out and let her stew in her own little mood. I lasted a few minutes until she grumbled something along the lines of "Small, dumb, meanie-head flesh creature!" to herself, and then I just lost it and couldn't stop myself from snorting a laugh.

"Don't laugh at me human!" she pout-snapped. I quietly snickered to myself and tried not to make too much noise before I had another temper tantrum on my hands. I finished my pizza off with one more bite and made my way over to the kitchen where I dumped the paper plate into the trashcan. I then snagged my radiopack and went outside onto the balcony to try to listen to music while the little gremlin got calmed down.

I plopped myself down against the wall of our hotel room right next to the end piece of the railing at the balconies' far right with the light of the little lamp that was mounted above the door giving me illumination. I pulled the extendable antenna out of it's pouch on the right side of my pack and got it deployed and set down. I then flipped my radio on and got scrolling.

Pretty soon I found a song I liked over the weak airwaves. I hit the very tail end of Puddle of Mudd's Blurry. I sucked cause I only caught the last ten seconds of it, however I bounced back when Blow me Away started up. That one was by Breaking Benjamin, and I had eaten it up ever since I found out about it over the hype of Halo 2 dropping back when I was a Junior in High School.

Obviously I started singing along when the lyrics came and cranked the volume up to an enjoyable level. Yep, this was bliss, no doubts about it! Now I was just ready to get back home so I could play Halo 2 again, starting with running through "Outskirts" and "Metropolis", two of my favorite missions.

11:48 PM

My eyes felt like someone had strapped weights to them. I was trying to stay up, really. I mean freaking Alladin was on! I LOVE THAT MOVIE!

...but my body was just giving me the finger and ordering me to sleep. So I was officially out of commission for the night, unlike Barricade, who was still wide awake and glued to the TV.

I had already gotten brushed up for the night so right now I was just sitting under the covers of my bed and propped up against the headboard of the bed. I had taken my side of the bed back now and I most certainly was NOT going to snake over to the other side tonight, that would just be too much work and I was already thoroughly content in my cocoon of sheets.

For the third time in five minutes, I yawned.

"Oh my lord I'm poofed.." I groaned as I rubbed my tired eyes. I decided that any further resistance was futile and pulled myself under the covers with a content sigh.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing mister!"

I chuckled and cracked my eyes open to look at my sis.

"I'm done kiddo. I can't force myself to stay up any longer." I explained. Of course, that didn't satisfy her. She hopped out of the desk chair and jumped on the bed where she crawled her way over to me and started vigorously poking my cheek. "You can't go to sleep yet! I demand it!"

I laughed and tried to swat her hands away, but I was just too sluggish. "Sorry buddy, but my body's pulling rank on me here. I won't last another five minutes."

"This is illegal! You're not allowed to go to sleep yet Fleshbag!" She exclaimed with a glare. I just smirked at her and wiggled my way a little deeper into the covers.

"I'll arrest you human!" she threatened, jabbing my right cheek.

"Mhmm, sure you will buddy.." I mumbled.

"I have handcuffs! Don't think I won't do it, creep!"

"Hm, yeah mkay' officer. What'r you gonna do after ya arrest me..?" I slurred as I started drifting off.

"I'm gonna stuff you in my seat and haul you off to jail!"

"Mm, which one..?"

"The one I pick!"'

"Gotcha, can I ride up front..?"

"I'll think about it!"

"Mm..."

I then gave one final yawn and closed my eyes. "Goodnight...little sis..." I sighed.

She kept poking me and making demands, but I really wasn't listening at this point. She finally gave up and asked some question that I didn't hear, probably if she could sleep with me tonight. I just nodded and mumbled a "sure." before I drifted off to sleep.