So, here's the second chapter of my Red vs Blue crossover Freelancer, Medic, Mage. As it turns out, I now have another sample chapter to post here come the big update, so this story will actually be published, alongside Hollow Heroes, as a full story come the next big update.
Oh, and...this compilation now has over a thousand reviews. Booyah.
FREELANCER, MEDIC, MAGE
CHAPTER 2:
UP TO SPEED
Agent Virginia, aka Harry Church, rushed to Maine's side as they got him into the Pelican. Only two things had saved the hulking Freelancer's life: the sheer muscle mass of the man, and the armour. True, it was far weaker at the neck, but it was better than nothing, and by sheer luck, the man wasn't dead yet.
But unless Harry got a move-on, that state of affairs wouldn't last long.
Harry grimaced as he began working on the man, using his medical scanner to check Maine's injuries. Nearly hit the carotid artery, his larynx is virtually annihilated, and while those rounds didn't hit his spine or any major blood vessels, it's a near thing, and he's still in danger of drowning in his own blood. Shit, Maine, that fucker did a real number on you.
He knew what happened. He'd been standing by in the dropship, the spare the Mother of Invention had sent to collect the other Freelancers once all was said and done. Harry clenched his fist at the thought of the Director sending in Tex, without notifying anyone else, and effectively interfering with the mission. The Insurgent may have pulled the trigger, but Maine's injuries, Harry blamed on the Director for going off-script. Harry hadn't thought of the man as his father for some time, not since before Project Freelancer. It was since the argument when Harry and Carolina were still in high school, when he had sneered at Harry, calling him a cuckoo in the nest, and calling Carolina a traitor for siding with Harry.
It was that incident, Harry knew, that had led to their current relationship. Oh, they had to be careful, given UNSC regulations on fraternisation in the ranks, and despite not being actually related, a few people still looked askance at it as incest. At least York didn't find it weird, or at least repulsive, and Harry and Carolina had known him since they were teens. York was a good friend. Harry knew that he held a torch for Carolina, but at least respected Harry and Carolina enough to keep his distance.
Harry had to admit, he had a few friends in Project Freelancer at least, even if he only knew them by codenames. North Dakota, for example (though his sister was another matter, uppity little bitch), Washington, Connie (who had recently insisted she be called CT…though she didn't seem to mind Harry still calling her Connie)…hell, even Maine. The hulking Freelancer was a man of few words, and he loved violence, but he was still a friend as much as he was a comrade.
Even if Maine did survive, Harry knew it was unlikely he would be able to speak again. His larynx was a mangled mess of meat, and Harry was struggling to keep his airways clear. He felt the ship he was on shudder as it lifted off.
He wasn't aware of the others appearing until he heard Carolina ask, "Is he going to be okay?"
"I don't know," Harry said, truthfully. "Try taking nine bullets to the throat and living through it. I can help him, but he needs a fucking hospital to survive."
"We're on our way, Virg, don't worry," York said. "Maine's tough, he'll pull through this."
"Toughness has nothing to do with it. I need to work as hard as I can to keep him alive until we get to hospital. I need space to work, please. York…Carrie…"
The two other Freelancers nodded. Strong though their friendship was, Harry had a tendency to get snippy under pressure, and they knew when to get out of his space. Then again, a lot of the Freelancers were like that, including Carolina.
Eventually, too slowly, they reached the hospital ship, and he exchanged notes with the emergency doctors who came to relieve him. "You did the best you could," the man said quietly. "We'll take it from here. Good job."
Good job…no, it wasn't. He wished he could have healed Maine's damaged larynx. He'd even tried to use his abilities, as discreetly as possible, but it didn't work. Maine was a mute now, and he couldn't stop that. Assuming, of course, Maine survived this.
He barely registered the feeling of his lover's hand on his shoulder. "Virg," she said quietly. "Once we're done with the debriefing, we're going to go and get some drinks. I think we need it. I don't like this any more than you do. I saw it happen."
"Did you get the bastard who did it to him?" Harry asked, tears running from his eyes.
"Not yet. But we will."
Harry, eventually, nodded, turning with Carolina to rejoin his comrades. He wasn't looking forward to the debrief of this little clusterfuck, but he was looking forward to getting plastered afterwards. He doubted he could drink enough to drown the guilt, but he was going to give it a damned good shot…
Harry had to admit, the look of astonishment on Tex's face made going to the trouble of retrieving her and repairing her worth it. But the surprise wasn't at them calling her mother, but rather, at the fact that they knew this.
After a moment, Tex scowled. Her face wasn't exactly like Allison Church's, but it was very close, a more idealised form of the woman Harry had called Mum. "I'm not your mother, as much as the Director would love me to be." She looked down at her hand. "I'm just a ghost, a memory of a memory. So, where the hell am I?"
"In our base," Harry said. "We have a lair now. And it's far enough away from Valhalla, where you crashed, to escape notice."
"Am I supposed to be grateful? If I recall correctly, Carolina here has a major chip on her shoulder about me. A bit like an Electra Complex(1), even if you didn't know I was a Xerox of your mother."
Carolina gritted her teeth. "Maybe, but you have every reason to go against the Director as we do. We heard about you trying to retrieve the Alpha on the Mother of Invention. We know the truth about the Alpha, how it was tortured to split off the fragments like Delta, Sigma, and Theta."
"And how do you know about that?"
"I…invaded Price's mind shortly before we were kidnapped," Harry said. "I later found out it's called Legilimency. I was getting pissed at his refusal to answer my questions and going on about my anger issues, and, well…yeah. I only just told Carrie shortly before we got kidnapped. And we've been out of the loop for years. Hell, we were very surprised that, not only were we declared AWOL, but we'd been framed as double agents feeding information to the Covenant."
"Nobody in Project Freelancer bought that shit," Tex said. "But that was the official story. After CT's defection, your disappearance meant that the Director could hang all sorts of charges on you. Not that he cared about your relation to him."
"Neither do I, not anymore," Carolina said. Then, after a moment, she asked, her features softening, "Are you all right, Tex?"
Tex laughed bitterly. "Concern? For me? I don't deserve it. I may not have deliberately encouraged your rivalry, but I didn't exactly discourage it. The Director even wanted me to do so, thinking it'd make you or break you. Cockbite. I feel fine enough, though."
"Good. We'll be working on a way to deal with that monster Maine's become," Harry said. "We heard he attacked Valhalla and decimated the sim-troopers there, looking for Omega and Gamma, no doubt. We couldn't find either of them, and we couldn't linger with the large Recovery force heading there, so we decided to bring you back. Wish I stayed, in hindsight, with the Meta coming."
"What, the Meta was following me?!" Tex yelled. "Shit, I cut it close. If you guys hadn't retrieved me…I guess I owe you guys one. But if he's been there..." Tex blinked. "Wait…what's the date?"
"Let me save you the trouble," Carolina said. "It's been over a year since you left Blood Gulch. We did the research shortly after we got back, hacking into files. We brought Wyoming's helmet with us. Probably just as well, given the temporal distortion device. Then again, we found reports that the Meta broke into other Freelancer facilities and stole equipment."
"Great," Tex said. "Listen, when you were researching, did you find out what happened to the soldiers at Blood Gulch?"
"Well, we found transfer paperwork," Harry said. "Apparently one of the Reds, someone who calls himself 'Sarge', and his pet robot Lopez have stayed at the Red Base, while someone called Kaikaina Grif has stayed at the Blue Base. Michael Caboose was relocated to the Blue Base at Rat's Nest, and Dexter Grif and Richard Simmons were transferred to the red Base there. Apparently those aliens reunited with someone called Lavernius Tucker, who has become an ambassador to the Sangheili. And Franklin Donut…"
"Never mind Donut," Tex said. "What about Church?"
"Why?" Carolina asked. "I thought it weird that there was a sim-trooper with his name on those records we pulled."
"It isn't weird. I'm almost certain he's the Alpha."
Well, that bombshell wasn't…wholly unexpected. Oh, it was a possibility that they had mostly dismissed while trying to figure out what to do, but they didn't know what to believe. It may have been that their father had been double-bluffing about his location, or that he had placed a decoy there to try and direct attention away from himself. Still, it was a major surprise.
After getting over it, Harry said, "Well, he's at Outpost 48-A, not far from where we are, actually."
"Then we need to get there ASAP. If the Meta's in the area, he's in danger. And while we haven't seen eye to eye lately, and we parted on bad terms, he needs to know what's coming. I doubt the Meta will recognise him for what he is, but if he does…" Tex shook her head. "And if Recovery has been dispatched to Valhalla, they'll probably come across him while they're trying to track down those who know of Omega and Gamma. As far as I know, the only Freelancers in Recovery are Wash, and the twins."
"And York?" Carolina asked quietly. "We know he's dead, but we didn't learn how."
Tex closed her eyes. "I'm sorry. It was my fault. I got him to help me to try and track down Omega and Wyoming, but…it went badly, to say the least. York died, and Delta remained with him out of loyalty. He may speak like a computer, but he's one of the more human AI fragments, and I mean that in a good way. I know York was friends with both of you. He helped me out when I tried to free the Alpha. He didn't deserve what happened to him."
Carolina advanced on her. "Goddammit, Tex!" she snarled. "You take my position, you threw that damned flag at that sim-trooper Biff, you killed CT when I was trying to capture her, and now York's dead thanks to you. Finishing what you started in that damned training room."
"I saved York's life by using those armour-lock rounds, Carolina!" Tex snapped back. "If you want to blame anyone, blame Wyoming and Maine for using live rounds, including a live grenade, all for your father's gratification! He wouldn't have given two shits if Maine, Wyoming or York died in that training exercise, only if I was! But while I may not have given you the respect you think you deserved, I still thought of you as a comrade, as a human being! I actually asked about what to do about you during the heist of the Sarcophagus. And he told me to let nobody stand in my way. I don't think he really cared if you died."
"You don't think I've realised that?" Carolina growled. "And I noticed that you didn't mention Biff or CT."
"CT was a traitor, and I dealt with her as the Director ordered. If I had known what she did, though…I may have acted differently. As for Biff…I was being heavily influenced by Omega," Tex said. She looked over at Harry. "And at least you were on hand to save him."
"Luckily," Harry said acidly, thinking back to the massive row he had with Carolina about that little incident. While he was angry that Texas was responsible, even if indirectly, for York's death, he was a bit more calm about it. Carolina still had lingering anger issues about Tex, and needed to vent them…at least without it degenerating into a brawl.
After a moment of glaring at Tex, Carolina eventually subsided. "Then you're going to pay off your debt to him. Though I'm sure you want to do the same thing. We're going to head after the Director, once we've put Maine to rest."
"For revenge?" Tex asked. A sardonic smirk touched her lips. "Then why didn't you say so? I've just got one question, though."
"Ask away," Harry said, guessing what it would be. And he wasn't disappointed.
"Where the fuck have you been all these years?"
Carolina and Harry shared a look, before Harry said, "Short version? We got kidnapped by an ancient magical artifact and taken back in time to the late 20th Century by a bunch of wizards who thought I was their messiah for surviving an attempt on my life from a wizarding terrorist."
Tex stared at them, her mouth gaping, and Carolina fought to keep the smirk off her face. Eventually, the blonde gynoid said, "You know what? Fuck it. That sounds crazier than half the scenarios they put us through in the sim-trooper bases, and I think I'm going to need a strong drink while I hear the long version…"
CHAPTER 2 ANNOTATIONS:
So, Harry and Carolina have been having a heart-to-heart with Tex.
1. An Electra Complex is basically the female equivalent of an Oedipus Complex, where a daughter competes with a mother figure for a father figure's attention. It derives from the legend of Electra, who, with her brother Orestes, plotted to kill their mother Clytemnestra and their stepfather Aegisthus for the murder of Agamemnon.
