Author's Note: I know how late this chapter is getting out, I am also aware of how much shorter this chapter is than normal. I apologize, and I'll explain more at the end of the chapter. Oh, this is embarrassing, I wrote that Rowe and Fergo had the same armor color lamo! I'll fix that later, just know Rowe's armor is supposed to be salmon. Here's a new chapter for you guys.
Review Responses:
MKDemiGodzilla-Warrior- You mean all the way in Season 8? Bruh, I haven't thought nearly that far yet, hell, I haven't fully thought out Season 2.
Atomic R4y- Thank you, I'll definitely try to put my spin on things.
Vendicor- Thanks man, that means a lot to me.
NullSilver2005- I hope this chapter gets out to you soon dude.
merendinoemiliano- I think the human aspects of the characters are very important and that they should be believable.
Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs Blue.
Here We Go Again
*boom*
In that moment, a loud bang reverberated throughout the walls of the canyon. Before Lockett could regain his bearings from the blast, their position was suddenly lit up with rifle fire.
"They're shooting at us Sergeant!" Caboose fearfully cries.
"Thanks for stating the obvious dumb ass!" Tucker snaps back.
"Just shoot something, will you?" barks Fergo.
The team returns fire on the Reds
"Damn it, Church is still in there," Lockett curses. He picks up his radio and yells "Church, we can't hold our position for much longer, you gotta find Tex and move!"
Church suddenly comes running into the room where Tex was being held.
Simmons looks over, clearly shaken from the explosions and asks "What's going on out there?"
"Uh, hey you," Church stutters, "How's it going?"
"I hear gunfire, are we under attack sir?" asks Simmons.
Church blankly stares at him before looking around as the explosion knocks dust from the walls.
"Are you serious?" asks Church in surprise. He then quickly attempts to slip back into character "I-I, I mean, no, nothing's wrong? Why do you ask?"
"I know you like to fire off ordnance Sarge," Simmons pauses as another explosion shakes the base as to emphasize his point. He continues "But I think this is a bit much?"
"Ahhhhh-" Church stammers. 'What would Lockett do?' "Are you questioning my motives, red?"
"N-no Sergeant," Simmons nervously stammers and even takes a step back. "Anyway, uh Sarge, I think that-"
Simmons turns towards Tex and in the brief moment, Church lunges forward and cracks Simmons on the back of the head with his pistol.
"Ow, geez, the back of my head!" Simmons groans as he collapses unconsciously onto the floor.
"What the hell are you doing!?" Tex cries out in shock.
"Tex! It's me, Church! I've come to rescue you," Church cries out.
Tex gapes at the red before she skeptically comments, "You're kind of short to be Church."
"What?" Church murmurs, his eyes widen in realization as he looks down at his body and remembers that he had possessed the Red Team leader. "Oh yeah, right. The armor."
Church then proceeds to leave Sarge's body.
"Hurk!" Sarge gasps, he looks around and immediately sees Church's handy work from earlier. He grimaces and asks "What in Sam Hell? Where the- Who spit on my visor?"
Church then proceeds to quickly dump exposition onto the freelancer.
"Tex, there's not much time to explain, so I'm just gonna give you the summary here, okay? I'm a spirit now, and I'm trapped in the physical world. I possessed this Red guy so that I could sneak into the base and rescue you while the rest of our guys ran around out in the middle of the canyon dressed in black armor that they got from going through the teleporter."
Sarge, still disorientated from the possession, blankly looks back and forth between the two. Tex was silent for a brief moment as she processed what Church had told her.
She then shrugs and blankly says "...Okay."
Church was stunned at how casual her reply was.
"What? That's it? Okay?" Church blinks, he asks her "You're not surprised by any of this?"
Tex shook her head "No. It pretty much all makes sense."
"I can see right through you, it's pretty obvious..." she tells him matter-of-factly.
While all of this was happening, Sarge just sat there completely dumbfounded by what was going on.
"Sarge, you gotta get up here!" Rowe suddenly shouts, startling everyone.
Before Sarge could respond. Church runs back into his body and retakes control.
"Alright, we're coming!" Sarge/Church shouts back. He turns back to Tex, beckons to her and says "We gotta go."
Tucker spies the entrance of the base and narrows his eyes as something catches his attention. Tucker grabs the sniper rifle and looks through the scope.
"Hey, Sergeant!" Tucker shouts.
"Yeah?" asks Lockett.
"I see Tex," Tucker reports without taking his eyes off the scope, "Their Sergeant is leading her out of the base."
Lockett walks up alongside Tucker and looks through his binoculars and confirms what Tucker had seen.
"Did Church say who he was gonna possess?" asks Tucker.
"No he didn't," Lockett murmurs.
"Do you think it's him?" asks Tucker.
Meanwhile, on the roof of the base, the Reds and Blues were engaged in an intense firefight with each other. The fight was currently at a stalemate with neither side able to make any real gains.
"Keep firing! Keep laying it in on them!" Rowe barks at her teammates.
Rowe stops and stares out towards the Blue's line and spots Lockett who was motioning towards his guys and barking orders. She turns back to the base and sees Sarge exiting the entrance with the prisoner in tow. She climbs down and runs up to them.
"Sergeant, what are you doing?" she asks, confused why he had brought the prisoner out.
Church quickly spots the salmon-colored soldier running up to them.
"We're moving the prisoner!" Church quickly replies.
Rowe blinks in confusion and asks "What?! Why?"
Another explosion shook the base during their brief bout of silence.
"U-hm we-I'm-I am taking her to a more secure location!" Church answers.
"But I think we have the situation under control Sergeant," Rowe tells him.
A few bullets wiz by, one actually hits the base wall behind them, just missing the three by only a few inches. Church turns to inspect the bullet hole, and then incredulously looks back at Rowe. Church then begins to think "What would Lockett do?"
"Soldier, I'm going to need you to stand down, and stop questioning me," Church replies blankly.
"Yeah, that's definitely Church," Lockett confirms.
"Should I take the shot then?" asks Tucker.
Lockett thought long and hard about this.
"If she tries to stop them, then we might have to, command would serve our asses on a platter if we actually caused the death of their precious Freelancer," Lockett grumbles. He then quickly adds "Go for a wounding shot."
"Why?" asks a perplexed Tucker.
"It costs them more time and resources to wound a soldier rather than kill them. Also, if I am right..." Lockett comments, "They'll make recovering a wounded soldier a priority versus if they were dead."
"Really?" asks Tucker.
"Well, either that or would you rather risk losing the stagnant and idle environment we have right now?" shrugs Lockett, "If we kill one of them, their command will send a replacement and there will always be that chance they send someone a bit more zealous and aggressive."
Tucker thinks about it for a moment before nodding and saying "Yeah, you're right."
Tucker tightens his grip on the rifle and leans into the butt-stock. He rests his cheek on top of the rifle stock and relaxes as he peers into the rifle scope.
Rowe pauses, she narrows her eyes at her team leader. There was something very off about how he was acting. Now she couldn't be sure, but she knew there was a way to test out her suspicions.
"Sergeant, what is my name and rank?" Rowe sternly requests.
"W-what?" blinks Church.
"Answer the question Sergeant!" Rowe stated sternly.
"U-uh," Church quickly looks down at Rowe's name tap and rank patch.
She had been at the base long enough to know that her sergeant would have been able to answer that question without looking for her name and rank patches. Seeing him hesitate was all Rowe needed to know that the person in front of her was not who he said he was.
"U-h, specialist?" asks Church, slightly off put by her new actions, "Is something wrong?"
Rowe remained silent as she placed her hand on her hip, right above her holstered magnum and took a slow step back.
"Specialist, you're starting to scare me," Church nervously laughs.
He glances over to Tex who silently shoots him a look which wordlessly says "She knows."
The three stood there in a standoff, none of them wanted to make the first move as their eyes shifted between each other. Rowe immediately draws her magnum and points it straight at the two. Church raises his hands and shakily looks straight into the barrel of the gun pointed straight at them. Tex on the other hand showed no visible emotion.
"Grif! Lopez!" Rowe screams. "We got a situat-AH!"
Before Rowe could finish her sentence, a bullet passes straight through her left shoulder. She hunches over from the force and lets out a loud, pained scream as her knees buckle and she collapses onto the floor. Before Church could even blink, Tex immediately snatches up the magnum and points it at the fallen Red medic. Church follows the vapor trail from the round and sees Tucker with the sniper rifle raised at them. Lockett steps out from his side and waves for them to come over. Though Rowe had been incapacitated by the bullet, she was still conscious and locked eyes with the freelancer. What surprised Tex was the complete lack of fear on the medic's face. All she saw was anger and honestly, Tex was impressed.
Rowe glares at the two and chides "Well, it looks like you got me."
"You're pretty good, kid," Tex tells her.
"Hey! Think I heard something!" Grif shouts.
Church looks over and sees a group of Reds starting to look over at them.
"Looks like our cover's been blown," Church comments. He turns to Text and says "We better go."
Church then promptly steps out from Sarge's body, Rowe, who was watching the entire thing, felt her jaw drop.
"W-what?" Sarge murmurs as he looks around, "What happened?" he asks. He then looks down at Rowe and says "Rowe?"
Church shoots Tex a glance and nods towards Sarge. Tex nods and then proceeds to knock Sarge out with a swing from her magnum.
"Thanks," Church says before the pair take off running for the rocks where their team was hiding.
They joined the rest of the Blue team and they all took off running back to their base. With that, the fight was over.
As Sarge slowly regained consciousness, he spotted Grif hunching over him.
"Lopez, Simmons, overhear!" Grif calls out.
The orange soldier is soon joined by the maroon and brown one.
"Oh shit," Simmons gasps at the blood pooling underneath Rowe's body.
"Sarge, can you hear me?" Grif asks.
"Private Grif?" Sarge calls out weakly, "What is going on?"
"Sarge, the Blues got their prisoner back." Grif reports.
Sarge glares at the soldier and angrily growls "No shit Sherlock, I was there when they shot Rowe and then knocked me out while you were over there on the roof letting the Blues pin you down!"
"Simmons," Grief turns to his friend, "Get on the radio and call for a med-evac."
"Nevermind that," Sarge cuts in.
"Sarge, shouldn't we try to get her out as soon as possible?" Grif asks, "She's our medic, shouldn't we-"
"Oh sure, and send away our only certified medic!" Sarge snaps, "What's gonna happen if you get stabbed in the foot?" Sarge asks rhetorically. "Oh I know!" he sarcastically exclaims. "Let's rub aloe vera on your neck!"
Grif rolls his eyes, feeling rather annoyed by Sarge's outburst.
"You two, get back on the roof and make sure those spec ops soldiers from earlier don't come back for another round," he barks. He turns to Lopez and says "Lopez, help me get her into the infirmary."
Sometime later, Rowe was on the examination table while Sarge carefully looked at her wound. Rowe winces as Sarge gently brushes past the wound. She glances over and sees Lopez walking over and he hands Sarge an x-ray of her shoulder. Sarge reads over the results as Lopez starts cleaning the wound.
"What's the damage?" asks Rowe.
"You actually got pretty lucky," Sarge replies thoughtfully. He then reads off the results "Clean penetration, zero fractures." He then adds "You will need a few stitches though."
Sarge then points at Lopez who pulls out a needle and some thread.
"Where'd you two learn to do this?" she asks, impressed by the two's medical knowledge.
"Well, Lopez is a robot," Sarge says flatly.
Rowe looks over to him and sees that he is completely serious.
"Really?" Rowe asks in surprise while looking over at Lopez.
"Yep," Sarge smiles proudly, "Built him myself."
Rowe looks over Lopez with pure fascination.
"He's very convincing," Rowe comments.
"Thank you," Sarge replies.
Rowe then winces slightly as Sarge stitches up her wound.
"And how about you?" asks Rowe, "Where did you learn this?"
Sarge pauses for a moment as he thinks about the question.
"Well," he murmurs, "Clearly I've been in the army a long time."
He turns to face Rowe before continuing.
"Last week was my 12th year," he tells her, "And I've enjoyed every minute of it." He pauses and frowns for just a moment before quietly murmuring, "Well, most of it anyway."
He then sighs and simply tells her "The military will always try to find the best person for a job." He frowns, "But often, they settle on the only one around," he mutters sadly.
Not even an hour after the battle, Grif, Lopez, and Simmons found themselves cleaning up the base. Well, two of them were cleaning up the base. Grif laid there with his back resting on one of the shields that line the roof of the base. He was so at peace that he failed to notice a shadow casting over him. Eventually noticing the sudden change, Grif's eyes snap open only for a push broom to be rudely thrust into his gut thus putting a stop to Grif's attempt at avoiding work, also known as shaming.
"Oof!" Grif grunts as he instantly snaps to his feet.
He looks to his disrupter of the peace.
"Quit dodging work Grif," Simmons chides.
Grif grumbles something under his breath before standing up and working. Sorry, not working, shamming, otherwise known as pretending work but not actually doing anything. Typical.
"Hey guys, guess whose ba-oh!" explains a high pitched, male, voice.
Grif lets out a loud groan and looks over to Simmons who meets his gaze and visibly sighs. The two turn to see their teammate returning from the hospital. He immediately freezes and stares at their time mate with eyes as wide as dinner plates. Simmons immediately wipes across his visor to check if there was something messing with his vision. There wasn't. Before the two stood their teammate, clad in bright PINK armor.
Donut glances around the war torn base and asks "What happened to you guys?"
Simmons frowns and in a frustrated tone, says "You seriously couldn't come back a few hours earlier?"
Grif remained frozen in shock at the appearance of Donut's armor.
"Why, what happened?" Donut asks, rather dumbly.
In absolute disbelief, Simmons motions around them and says snarkily "What do you think genius." He huffs and explains "We got attacked by the Blues and they busted out our prisoner."
"That sucks," Donuts comments, "I got blown up for all that and you guys let the prisoner get away?"
"Shut up Donut," Simmons glares, "You weren't there, and I doubt you would have done much if you were."
"Anyway," Donut continues on, "Dude, this is sweet! Command was so happy that I got the Blue Flag, they gave me my own color armor!"
Donut looks over to Grif, who has been silently staring at him the entire time.
"What's wrong with him?" asks Donut.
Author's Note: I have been sitting on this chapter for way too long, whatever state it comes out in is just gonna have to stay that way, I'm tired of looking at it. There was really no better way for me to end this chapter, I'm gonna be real with you. Oof, I'm sorry guys, life caught up to me and I lost motivation to write for a bit. Well it was partially that, it was also that one of my classes wasn't doing too well so I diverted more attention towards that, and I also got stuck on a certain part. I definitely found myself getting stuck while writing this because I wasn't able to figure out how to make the events in the chapter, for lack of better words, make sense. Thanksgiving is coming up, hopefully that will get me time to catch up on some writing I've definitely put off for a bit.
