Captain Flowers walked up to the two soldiers and girl with the usual spring in his step.
"Hello gentlemen. You've been gone an awful long time." He greets them.
"Uh sorry sir, Um... Captain Flowers." Tucker apologizes.
"No need to apologize, Tucker. I know exactly what the two of you were doing." Flowers responds.
"Uh... you do?" Church questions.
"Yeah. Its alright to go for a few nights on the town. I would just like to be invited next time." Flowers explains.
"Oh... uh yeah." Tucker stutters.
"I expect to hear the story of this crusade, along with your others." Flowers looks to Tucker.
"Uh... yeah." Tucker responds.
"Who is he?" Kaede whispers to Church while hiding behind him.
"He's our C.O., Captain Flowers." Church responds. "He's kinda weird." Kaede internally laughs at the name "Flowers".
"Church." Flowers says.
"Umm... uh, yes?" Church asks.
"Are you and Tucker going to introduce me to your friend?" Flowers asks.
"Uh... yeah... Tucker... would you do that." Church says. Tucker sighs.
"Flowers this is Kaede. You see we-"
"Accidental stowaway, right?" Flowers asks.
"What?" Church questions. That was stupidly accurate.
"Thats what happens every time." Flowers answers. "Its classic."
"Uh... yeah. Thats exactly what happened." Tucker explains. Kneeling down, Flowers talks to Kaede.
"Kaede, right? Tell me, who are your parents?" Flowers asks.
"I don't know. I was raised in the orphanage." Kaede explains.
"I see. Then your adopted." Flowers said.
"What!" Tucker exclaims.
"What!" Church exclaims.
"Well this little girl needs a family, so I say we give her one. Besides, raising her will all bring us together as a team." Flowers explains.
"We're in the middle of a warzone." Church blankly states.
"She can be blue teams mascot. I mean, she's adorable." Flowers exclaims. Kaede beams at the praise. "Unless the red team somehow finds a baby Yoda, I think we have them beat in that department."
"Uh, Captain. I think what Church means is that a warzone usually isn't the ideal location to raise a child." Tucker explains.
"Nonsense. With enough effort, we can pull through any challenge." Flowers says.
"Theres gonna be no changing your mind is there." Church sighs.
"Look at the bright side. At least you'll be away from those assholes." Tucker says to Kaede.
"Yeah... but I really liked Kouta." Kaede sadly sighed.
"Hey, once we find where he lives, we could go visit him one day." Tucker suggests. This brightens Kaede's spirits, if even only a little.
"Superb! Lets give her the tour shall we." Flowers says.
The blue soldiers took Kaede to a small circular building not too far away. Going up close to it, it looked kinda small in comparison to some of the houses in Kamakura.
"Welcome to blue base." Flowers tells her as they step inside. Inside, is a sort of common area which is rather empty. They show her the armoury, the storage room, the ramp outside to get to the roof that also had an untested teleporter, and finally the barracks.
"This is where you'll be sleeping. Its lucky we have an unused bed." Flowers says.
"That usually happens when you get two bunk beds for three people." Church deadpans.
"Your bed will be the one just across from Tucker." Flower continues.
"Uh, Captain. Don't you see the problem with these arrangements?" Church asks.
"Why, I don't see any problems at all." Flowers says.
"Yeah, maybe not now but when Kaede gets older, theres gonna be girl privacy problems." Church explains. "Also, I don't trust her to sleep in the same room as Tucker."
"Hey dude, I'm not sick enough to sleep with someone underage." Tucker says.
"So theres no need to worry, Church. We'll fix that other problem when we come to it." Flowers explains. "Now, you lady Kaede. You can now store away your bags in here."
"Um... I didn't bring anything." Kaede explains.
"I think accidental means she didn't prepare to come here, sir." Tucker says.
"Right, silly me. I'll go order some extra cloths online right now." Flowers explains.
"Hey, captain! Could you get me a sniper rifle?" Tucker asks.
"Tucker! Of coarse you can get a sniper rifle!" Flowers exclaims. "I'll put an order in for one tomorrow. Its getting late now, so why doesn't everyone just get some shut eye while I order those cloths."
"Uh, sounds good cappy." Tucker says. Flowers smiles under his helmet at the use of his nickname.
As Kaede got into her new bed, she thought of the huge day that just transpired. She made a lot of new friends in Kouta and Tucker and to some degree, Church and Captain Flowers. She was also, although unofficially, adopted! Though, she was taken away from everything she knew quite abruptly. What was it the blues were talking about a war? That sounded scary.
In short she was both exited and afraid for what the future might bring. She looked over to see Church asleep in his armour. She did question why they were wearing the futuristic looking armour and more so why they slept in it. If she were to look down, she would see Tucker on the bottom bunk in the same situation. She had to sleep in her clothes since she didn't have her pyjamas with her, though she did take her hat off and placed it somewhere safe. She noted that Captain Flowers had yet to return from ordering her clothes, but shrugged it off as nothing to worry about and fell asleep.
When she awoke, she felt terrible. Tucker checked, and she had a fever.
"Well, this makes for a crappy first day for you." Tucker says to her as she lay in bed.
"Yeah..." She croaks back.
"Don't worry, we don't really do much, so you're not missing out on anything." Tucker assures.
"Tucker!" Church yells as he enters the room. "Where is Captain Flowers? I haven't seen him all day."
"I dunno. I thought he just went out. He does that a lot." Tucker explains.
"I know, but he's never been gone this long." Church exclaims.
"Well fuck, what do you want me to do about it." Tucker asks.
"Search for him, dumbass." Church says before leaving. Tucker turns to Kaede.
"You should stay in bed until this fever dies down. If you get hungry, the fridge is in the storage room. Along with almost everything else we have." Tucker says before leaving.
Simply feeling tired, Kaede falls back asleep. She has a strange dream where she has four more arms that are longer and stronger than her physical arms. When she wakes, it is 3:00 in the afternoon. Getting up, she feels her fever has gone down significantly. In a few hours she should feel fine again. Going to the storage room, she finds the fridge Tucker mentions and makes a simple ham and cheese sandwich as her lunch.
Stepping outside while eating her lunch, she spies Tucker off in the distance staring at the ground.
"Did they come out! Tucker!" She hears Church yell. From the sound of it, he was on top of the base.
"What!" Tucker shouts back as he turns his attention Church.
"Did they come out the other side!" Church repeats.
"Yeah! But they're all black and smoking! Maybe you turned it up too high!" Tucker yells.
"What're you talking about, I don't see a knob or anything on this thing!" Church yells back. "You think I could throw a grenade through here?"
"What that would never work!" Tucker yells back. Smiling at the banter, Kaede heads back inside to finish her sandwich. Going back into the storage room she shes a light coming behind a few boxes. Heading for whatever's behind them, she sees Flowers sitting on a chair in front of a computer. Looking on the computer, she sees all her clothes have been ordered and are on there way. Looking back to Captain Flowers, she notices he is unmoving. Probably fell asleep.
Going outside and to the roof, she tells Church she found Flowers.
"Hey Tucker! Kaede found Flowers!" Church yells.
"How! I don't see any growing in this canyon!" Tucker yells.
"CAPTAIN Flowers dumbass!" Church clarifies.
"Oh!" Tucker yells back before running off to meet with the two. "Where'd you find him?"
"He was in the storage room. Fell asleep on the computer." Kaede answers. "I thought you were looking for him? Why were you two playing with the teleporter?"
"We wanted to see if it works. Besides, no one ever gets work done around here. So if you're ever told to do something, don't feel pressured to actually do it." Tucker explains.
"Shitty advice aside, Flowers NEVER sleeps in. Maybe we should check up on him?" Church suggests.
"Sure." Tucker responds. The three head down into the storage room and the area Captain Flowers is in.
"Captain?" Church asks as he lightly shakes Flowers. Flowers does not wake. Church checks his pulse. "Hoooly crap, he's dead guys. I think he might have had a heart attack in his sleep."
"Dude, thats horrible. This is a sad day." Tucker says. "I got dibs on the armour."
"Do we burry him?" Kaede asks. She didn't know Flowers that well, but she still felt a sense of sadness at his passing.
"I dunno how. I mean, we don't got any shovels. Just pistols and rifles." Church says. "Lets at least get him out of here." Kaede follows as the two blue soldiers carry their comrade outside the base and lay him down.
"What now?" Kaede asks.
"I dunno. I didn't think that far ahead." Church says as Tucker exchanges armour for his own.
"Wanna go loot his stuff?" Tucker asks.
"Tucker thats disrespectful... then again he's not gonna be needing it." Church says before he and Tucker run back inside the base. Meanwhile, Kaede stays back inside and begins digging Flowers grave with her bare hands. It was only a few days ago she was burying a friend and here she was again. A tear drops from her face as she continues digging the hole. If she lost Church and Tucker, then she would have nothing left again, with this she vowed to protect both her friends however she could.
When she turned her attention back to the hole she was digging, she was surprised to find it big enough to fit the Captain in. Looking back to the new created dirt pile behind her, she sees several handfuls of dirt being held up by near invisible arms. Looking back to where they lead, as far as she could tell, they were coming from her back. Moving around the dirt for a bit, she gets the feel for these arms. She can even feel the coarseness of the dirt they were holding up.
"Woah!" She exclaims before dropping the multiple handfuls of dirt in the pile.
"Thats fucking disappointing." She hears Tucker complain as he and Church exit the base.
"I mean, I wasn't expecting much." Church says.
"But really? All we found were a bunch of barenaked ladies CDs. I was hoping for a sniper rifle!" Tucker complains.
"Calm down. Didn't Flowers order one for you?" Church asks.
"He said he would do it today... fuck!" Tucker curses.
"Woah!" Tucker exclaims upon noticing the hole.
"Yeah woah! Kaede, how did you dig this hole so fast?" Church asks.
"Bow chika wow wow!" Tucker quips.
" I dunno. I just used these." Kaede admits as she lifts up two handfuls of dirt.
"Woah! When did you get telekinesis!" Tucker exclaims.
"You don't see the arms?" Kaede asks.
"Arms? We're just watching you FLOAT a bunch of dirt!" Church exclaims.
"So, I'm the only one that can see them?" Kaede questions to herself.
"Okay, so whats going on?" Church asks.
"I was digging a grave for Captain Flowers and these just came out of my back to help me." Kaede explains
"The arms?" Church questions.
"Yes. I can see them. Four see-though arms that I think are coming out of my back." Kaede continues.
"Thats fucking cool! Can you control them?" Tucker asks. To answer that, Kaede picks up two more handfuls of dirt and moves them around. "Fucking sweet." Kaede drops the dirt back into the pile. "Can you grab that over there?" Tucker points to a paint can beside a large rock a ways away. Kaede extends one of her arms to grab the paint can but is surprised that the arm stops.
"It won't go out further." Kaede says, trying to extend it further.
"How far?" Church asks. Kaede grabs a pile of dirt and fully extends her arm to show the two.
"How far is that?" Church asks.
"I don't fucking know?" Tucker complains.
"Then get the tape measurer, dumbass." Church counters. Tucker runs back inside and comes back with the tape measurer as requested. He starts at Kaede and extends it out to the pile of floating dirt.
"Two meters!" Tucker shouts back. "It maybe discount force powers, but they're still fucking awesome!"
"Alright, thanks for the demonstration Kaede." Church says. "Now we can give Flowers a proper burial." Kaede lifts Flowers up with her invisible hands and places him in the hole. Tucker arrives in time to snatch his helmet back from Flowers before Kaede buries him with the use of her hands.
"Problem solved." Tucker exclaims as he watches Kaede finish up. "I was worried we would have to use the rifles and pistols to shoot him a grave." Kaede laughs out loud imaging such a scenario. Once Kaede has calmed down, Tucker hands her the helmet he snatched. "Welcome to blue team." He says before he and Church head back into the base.
Kaede stays outside, studying the helmet she was given before putting it on. It was a little uncomfortable due to her horns, but otherwise, was alright. All the heads up displays looked cool. With that, she took off the helmet, smiling. So far her new life was shaping up to be a good one.
She heads back inside the base unaware of the sniper looking at her. She wasn't in any danger though as the orange soldier looking though it had fallen asleep.