I turned on the sound sense of my scope so that I could hear what was going on. While Tex scoped out Red Base, the Reds just kept on talking.

"So Sarge said my strategy had merit, but was poorly executed," Grif commented wryly. "Probably because somebody didn't believe in it."

"Bullshit!" Simmons denied. "He told me he thought you were a retarded monkey, and he gonna suspend your weapons privileges!"

"Hey, since I captured the flag, do you think they'll give me my own color armor now?" asked Donut curiously.

"What do you mean, 'captured'?" asked Simmons disbelievingly. "You thought you were buying it at the store, you idiot."

"Still, you think there's a shot?" Donut continued persistently.

"Maybe they'll give you Grif's armor since he destroyed the warthog," Simmons deflected.

"Hehe, yeah – wait, you don't – you don't think they do that, do you?" asked Grif, turning to Simmons.

Simmons was prevented from answering by Tex accidentally skidding a bit on the loose gravel around the base. The small noise caused Simmons to turn around and look at the surrounding area.

"Simmons, whats going on?" asked Grif with concern. "Whats over there?"

Perhaps he heard it too.

"I thought I saw something for a second," he replied, tension leaking into his voice.

Grif turned to Donut. "Hey Rookie, tuck the flag someplace safe until we can figure out whats going on."

"Good idea," Donut replied, turning to the hole in the roof. "I was getting sick of carrying this thing anyway."

One of Tex's steps crunched on the gravel.

"Did you hear that?" asked Simmons.

"Yeah," Grif nodded.

"Hey, what's going on?"" Donut asked in a whisper.

And then Tex threw the sticky grenade.

The grenade made a barely audible sound as it flew through the air, and landed on Donuts head.

It was at this moment that I realized that Donut might actually die from this, which… probably... wouldn't be a good thing, I felt. I mean, who could survive a grenade to the head?

But there was nothing I could do. If I tried to shoot the grenade off of his head, my blue team mates would wonder why I had made the attempt, and they would have questions for me. Questions I couldn't answer. I was just going to have to hope that he lived.

Hearing the sound of the grenade, Grif turned around.

"What the Fuck?" he squawked with shock, backing away.

"What?" asked Donut curiously.

"What is that thing?" asked Simmons when he turned around.

"What thing?" asked Donut.

"There's something on your head," Grif pointed out.

Donut froze. "What, is it a spider? Get it off!"

"No, its not a spider," Simmons shook his head. He sounded like he wanted to get a closer look at it, but he kept a respectful distance.

"Its like a blue thing," he added helpfully.

Donut was still frozen. "What, like a blue spider? Get it off!"

"Its not a spider, calm down!" Grif barked impatiently. "It's some kind of fuzzy, pulsating thing."

"That doesn't sound much better than a spider," Donut stuttered, his voice strained.

"Does it hurt?" asked Simmons cautiously.

"No," Donut replied slowly.

"Maybe we should try to take it off," Simmons suggested.

"Good idea, go for it," Grif replied.

"Me? By we I meant you, asshole," Simmons replied with an aggravated voice.

"Well, somebody needs to get it off," said Donut desperately. "Look, it might be dangerous!"

Then it exploded.

"Son of a bitch," Simmons and Grif exclaimed in surprise.

"Eep, I'm gonna faint!" Simmons shrieked, and then he fainted.

Tex dashed up the ramp and hit Grif from behind.

"Ack!" Grif squawked as he turned around. "Where'd he go?"

Tex hit him again from from his left side, causing his shield to pop, and I could hear warning sounds from his suit.

"Don't kill me, I'm too good-looking to die!" Grif pleaded as he huddled down with his arms over his head.

Tex knocked him out with one final blow to his neck.

"Man, he is really kicking their asses," Caboose said with awe from beside me.

"Yeah, I just wish I could hear what is going on," Tucker grumbled from besides me.

"I get the feeling that you're not very tech savvy," I commented wryly.

"Wait, you mean I could have been listening in on them the whole time?" Tucker asked excitedly. "Sweet, could you show me how it works?"

Slightly surprised by his enthusiasm, I made to show him how, but a niggling feeling of suspicion stayed my hand.

"If I show you how to do this, you're going to use it to try and pick up chicks, aren't you?" I accused testily.

"Oh come on, man," Tucker protested. "If I knew what a chick likes and doesn't like, picking her up would be easy!"

"Ok, One: That is the creepiest thing I've ever heard, and Two: I respect the fairer sex way too much to do that to them," I replied sternly.

"Oh come on dude," Tucker complained. "Please, show me how it works!"

"Tucker, you're just gonna have to figure it out yourself," I frowned with annoyance, before turning to Caboose. "Did Tex get in the base?"

"Yeah," he said, still watching Red Base through his scope.

"Blue Team, Flag Returned," said a deep voice behind us.

"What the," Tucker exclaimed with startlement, and we turned around to look at what was behind us.

"What on Earth?" I exclaimed in a faux-shocked voice when I spotted Church. "An AI! I didn't know we had an AI."

"What? No, that's just Church," Tucker frowned, looking at me strangely.

"When did you have the time to make an AI out of Church?" I asked. "I thought it was a long and complicated process?"

"White, I'm a ghost, not an AI," Church growled with annoyance.

"Really?" I walked forward and poked him.

"Wha – Stop that!" he exclaimed, moving away from me.

"Are you sure you're not an AI?" I asked curiously. "You really look like one. Unless I'm badly mistaken, you're the hologrammic projection of an AI."

"I'm pretty sure I would know if I was an AI," Church replied irritably. "No, I'm definitely a ghost."

"But, if you were a ghost, wouldn't the universe be crawling with them?" I pointed out. "I mean, literally billions of people and animals have died since the dawn of time, and if they could all come back as ghosts, there would be so many you couldn't walk anywhere for running into one, Whatever you are, I'm pretty sure you're not a ghost. Whats the last thing you remember?"

"Damn it, I don't have time for this," Church growled irritably, turning to Tucker. "I see you've got your flag back, how did you guys manage to get it back from Red Base?"

Tucker seemed startled to be addressed. "Um, that flag? Uh, we always had that-"

"Tucker, who'd you think your trying to fool?" asked Church in irritation, before looking around. "Hey wait a second, where's Tex?"

"I'm not really sure," Tucker replied vaguely. "He said he was going to the store, something about, uh, elbow grease-"

"Oh great! This is so typical!," Church exclaimed with anger. "What was the one thing I told you guys the last time I appeared?"

"No idea, I wasn't there," I commented from besides him.

"I meant Tucker and Caboose," Church replied, annoyed at being interrupted. "Again, what was the one thing I told you?"

"That Sidewinder is cold?" Caboose replied hopefully.

"You were at Sidewinder?" I asked curiously.

"Uh, yeah," Church replied testily.

"Cool! What was that like?" I asked with enthusiasm.

"It was Cold!" he shouted angrily, turning back to Tucker and Caboose. "WHAT WAS THE OTHER, ONE, THING, I TOLD YOU!?"

Tucker and Caboose seemed to shrink into themselves.

"Not to let him get involved?" Tucker said eventually.

"Right," Church nodded. "and what did you do?"

"We… let him get involved," Tucker replied morosely

"And not just a little involved, how involved?"

"Very, Very involved," said Caboose.

"Why is it so important to you that he not be involved, anyway?" I asked, before my tone turned teasing. "Don't tell me you're doing this out of a mis-aimed concern for us."

I could swear I saw his helmet turn red.

"Not a chance in hell," he replied angrily, turning to Caboose. "Caboose, keep an eye on the situation, I want to know if Tex is captured."

"Right," said Caboose, who turned around and lifted up his rifle.

A few moments passed, and Tucker decided to go verify that we had gotten the right flag.

After another half a minute passed, Caboose spoke up: "Yep, he's definitely captured. Or dead. Captured or dead."

A moment later, he gasped: "Or captured and dead!"

"Oh, well, that's just perfect!" Church exclaimed in anger.

"What! What is your problem?" asked Tucker, turning to Church in anger. "Why do you even care if he's captured? I thought you hated that guy anyway for stealing your girlfriend?"

"I never said I hated Tex," Church explained. "I just said that she was the reason why we never got married."

"She?" asked Caboose and I at the same time.