RED vs. BLUE
REVIVE
CHAPTER 8: HIDING AND SEEKING
Simmons saw Virginia, batting her eyelashes at him. She swooned while wrapping her arms around his neck. He picked her up and carried her to bed, where he leaned over her and began to kiss her…
"SIMMONS!" Grif barged into the bedroom, screaming at the top of his lungs. Simmons jumped from his sleeping position; sitting up in fright.
"W-WHAT?!" Simmons nearly rolled off the bed and gripped the blanket.
"Dude, you GOT to come see this!" Grif screamed enthusiastically. Simmons glanced to his side, realizing that Virginia was not in his bed.
Did I dream all that?
He noticed the bottle of wine was on his night stand, and realized that there was no way it was a dream…
"HELLOOOO?! SIMMONS!" Grif continued to yell.
"What the fuck is going on?!" Simmons asked angrily as he got to his feet. Grif was practically bouncing on his feet.
"Wash and Virginia. Spar match! You got to come watch!" Grif said, continuing the hype. Simmons eyes widened. "Tucker and I got a $100 going into the pool. You in?!" Grif asked as he kept waving his hands frantically to usher Simmons to hurry. Simmons nodded and ran with Grif down the hall and towards the training room.
The rest of the team was awake; dressed in their armor. Simmons looked around the room, seeing that it was set up like a dojo. The floor had blue, padded mats that touched from wall to wall. A few weapons hung on a display off to the side. A few work benches and barbells sat in the corner.
"Dude, did they start yet?!" Grif asked as he nearly plowed into Tucker.
"Nope! You're just in time." Tucker said, matching Grif's excitement.
"Alright guys, pay attention. You may learn something." Carolina said as she crossed her arms.
"Go, Wash! Go, Virginia!" Caboose cheered.
"What's the wager?" asked Kaikaina as she leaned into Tucker.
"$100. I put it on Wash." He whispered back.
"I put $100 on Virginia." Kaikaina said smugly.
"Oh, get me a piece of that action!" said Donut. Simmons looked out at Virginia, who was bouncing on her heels. Her fists were clenched and up to her face. She seemed to have the perfect boxing stance.
"GOOOONG!" Caboose screamed, mimicking the sound of a gong.
Wash was shuffling his feet, keeping his fists up to match Virginia's stance.
"Don't go easy on me, just because of my brain injury." Wash said playfully.
"Fine. Just don't go easy on me because I'm a woman." Virginia returned the quip.
Everyone's breath held as they watch the two fighters charge at each other. Virginia leaped into the air, doing a spin kick that almost connected to Wash's head. Wash ducked under her heel, knowing how close he was to getting his helmet knocked off. He rose up, raising a fit to upper cut her, but she grabbed hold of his arm and slid under him. Within one swift motion, she got his arm to go backwards and dug it into his lower back. Wash attempted to step on her foot, but she pushed him away. He regained his composure after stumbling a few feet, and got back into a fighting stance.
Virginia shuffled on her feet and motioned for Wash to come at her. Wash obliged and ran at her, this time throwing up a foot to connect to her ribs. She blocked his foot with her palms and pushed him away. She threw out her fists rapidly, and Wash blocked each punch with his hand. He wrapped his hands around her wrists, and connected his helmet to hers. Her head jerked back with a violent whip and she let out a sound of disgust.
She rotated her arms, grabbed hold of his wrists and hugged her knees up to her chest. Her legs rose up and wrapped around Wash's head, and with all her body power, she whipped him down to the ground. The two soldiers rolled on the ground, and Wash flipped her off of him with his feet.
"Dude, this is epic." Grif said in awe. Simmons was tempted to punch Grif at that point, but he couldn't peel his eyes away from the fight.
Virginia stepped at Wash and kicked out each leg, causing him to back up. He swatted at each powerful leg, trying to avoid them from connecting to his body. They neared the wall, and Virginia charged, throwing her whole body into him. His body flew backwards and bounced off the wall, and then she closed the gap. Her knee rose up and flew furiously into his ribs as her arm was shoved under his chin. Wash smacked the side of her helmet, frantically trying to get her off. As her knee come up again, he grabbed her leg and pushed her away from him. He ran at her and threw all his body weight into her. His shoulder dove in between her breasts and she went flying backwards. She tumbled backwards into a roll and came to a stop on her knees and elbows.
"I have to say, you're giving me a work out." Wash panted, feeling his sides becoming sore. Virginia slowly climbed to her feet.
"Yeah. It's mutual." Virginia said tiredly. They ran at each other and Wash lowered his body down. He threw her over his shoulders and flipped her. He flowed smoothly, and dropped her onto her back. The mats echoed a heavy SMACK!
"Oooh, that's got to hurt." Sarge said, cringing. Virginia groaned, lying on her back. Wash leaned over her.
"There's a reason I was in the top 10, and you were in the top 20." Wash chuckled. Virginia rose up her hand and gave the middle finger. "Cute."
"Looks like Wash won." Carolina announced, trying not to hide her joy. She would always favor Wash to win…
Wash took hold of Virginia's hand and helped her to her feet. She rubbed her hips as she rotated her neck.
"Rematch. Next time, with weapons." Virginia said as she shoved his shoulder. Wash chuckled and the two of them began to walk towards their onlookers.
"Dammit." Kaikaina cursed under her breath. Tucker laughed as he waved his winnings.
"Well, now that the rest of you are here, it's time for your training." Wash said as he clapped his hands together. The group groaned, except for Carolina.
"Simmons, go get your armor on." Wash ordered. Simmons nodded and ran back towards his room, not realizing that Tucker had followed him.
"Um, no offense Tucker but I'm not really comfortable having an audience watching me change, sooo…" Simmons said as he picked up the pieces to his armor. Tucker leaned against the doorway, with his arms crossed.
"You're not going to believe what I saw this morning." Even though he was in his armor, Simmons could tell Tucker was smiling.
"What did you see?" Simmons asked, tilting his head with confusion.
"A certain Ms. Virginia leaving your room." Tucker closed the gap between them and grabbed his shoulders. "You dog!"
Simmons threw his hands up.
"N-No! It's not like that. It… nothing happened!" Simmons began to stammer.
"Nothing happened?! What do you mean? You didn't lie down the pipe?!" Tucker sounded frustrated.
"…No…" Simmons admitted.
"You didn't rock the boat? Free the beast? Do the sideways tango?!" Tucker ranted. Simmons lowered his head and Tucker groaned. "Dude, you need to explain to me right now what went down."
Simmons began to assemble the pieces of his armor – frustrated enough that Tucker wouldn't leave, but he knew he needed to get ready for Wash's training.
"She came to my room with a bottle of wine—," Simmons began to say.
"Uh huh."
"—And we took turns drinking—"
"Uh huh."
"—And we talked." Simmons clipped the armor into place as he stepped into the bottom half of his armor.
"Talked? Dude, a girl brought booze to your room! She definitely did not want to just talk!" Tucker groaned again, then approached Simmons to slap him in his human arm.
"Ow!" Simmons rubbed his arm where Tucker had slapped, noticing his pale skin was quickly becoming red.
"You need to study with me; take a chapter out of the book of 'Tucker's Love Advice'." Simmons groaned and began to assemble the rest of his armor over his chest.
"I.. I just don't know to say." Simmons said sheepishly as he slid his fingers into a glove.
"Simmons, listen to me. You said you two talked. You obviously have things to talk about. Just. Be yourself." Tucker suggested. "She was obviously giving you signals."
"You think so?"
"I know so." Tucker nodded as Simmons slid his head into the helmet. "So how did she end up staying in your room for the night?"
"She just asked if she could sleep next to me…" Simmons thought about the night, realizing that maybe Tucker was right. Maybe Virginia was giving clear signals.
"Uh huh. She wants you. She wants some of the Simmon's D!" Tucker sounded excited all over again and began chuckling. "She wants Dick's dick!" He began to bend over from laughing, and Simmons grumbled in frustration and shoved him to the side.
"Okay. Okay. I get it. Let's go before Wash has a heart attack."
They returned to the training room, where Wash had everyone running drills. Grif was in the back of the room, panting and hardly keeping up. Simmons and Tucker joined the group, knowing that this was going to be a long day.
Carolina and Kimball stood off to the side, watching the rest as Wash loomed over them, yelling orders.
"Any ideas yet?" Kimball asked softly.
"None. We'll try to strategize tonight." Carolina admitted. "But as long as we're able to keep you safe."
"I'm not worried about me." Kimball said. She sighed, sounding almost sad. "I'm worried about the other people. What damage that could be done."
Kimball looked up at the teleprompter that hung in her room, and watched the news briefing that showed the building she once was in.
The fire was out and part of its side was scorched. The military had roped off the area. A cleaning crew had come in and was gathering everything that had fallen onto the sidewalks.
"We should just come out of hiding. Let them find us. We'll bring them down again!" Carolina's voice rose with anger.
"You don't know what they're capable of, Carolina. Rushing in without any plans could lead to your team's demise." Kimball said, before casting her eyes down to the teal-armored lady across from her. Carolina nodded in agreement.
The thought of losing Wash, or anybody else, made a pit in her stomach. She remembered how she felt after Wash was shot in the neck, and it was like her heart was breaking all over again…
Everyone huffed with exhaustion and collapsed onto their knees as they completed running their laps. Grif closed the gap and finally caught up to everyone and dropped onto his belly with a loud groan.
"Good job, everyone." Virginia complimented.
"Yeah, you guys really pushed yourselves." Wash added. "I'm impressed. I thought you all would have gotten soft when you were off duty."
Grif rolled onto his back and patted his gut.
"I'm soft. Right here."
"Hit the showers everyone. We'll meet at the dinner table in 30." Virginia said. Wash looked over at her.
"You know, it's kinda nice having a second voice giving orders."
"I ain't afraid to tell people what to do." Virginia smiled and gave a laugh. At that time, Tucker heard that and gave an elbow to Simmons' side.
"You heard that? Bow chic a wow wow." He whispered. Simmons rolled his eyes, but knew that Tucker couldn't see it. They all walked down the hall, their knees weak from the extraneous exercises they had endured for the day.
Carolina, Kimball, Virginia, and Wash all sat at the briefing table. They were dressed down in comfortable attire, looking ready for bed.
The teams shuffled up to the table and took a seat. Kimball pressed a button, and a screen projection opened from the middle of the table.
"Hey everyone. It's Dylan," came the familiar voice over the speaker. "I hope you're all staying safe."
"Hey!" Everyone chimed in to greet their old friend.
"So I've followed up with the investigations on the UNSC Federal prison break-out and the bombing at the Capital."
"What's the intel?" Wash asked as he leaned onto an elbow.
"Well, as you already know, during the prison break, a katana was used to behead many of the guards. Then, their uniforms were used, most likely to help get further into the confines to get Bucky, Cronut and Temple out." Dylan explained. "Then, a bomb was used to break them out of the facility. The same material was used from that bomb to make the bomb that went off in the Capital."
"Any idea how that bomb got in?" asked Carolina.
"Yes. So the CCTV in the Capital building wasn't tampered with, and it shows that someone at the front desk received a package of unknown origin, before the footage was cut out…. Right at the moment of the bomb explosion."
"A package delivery?" huffed Sarge.
"The postal worker was interviewed. He said he retrieved it from his mail truck and was dropping it off, per his route. Nothing out of the ordinary. No odors or noises. No nothing. He was totally clean."
"Any ideas where they could strike next?" Kimball asked.
"No clue. From their note, which was chopped up pieces of magazine clippings… cliché." She said smugly. "They're trying to hurt you all where it counts first, before they kill you." A random noise of what sounded like clutter echoed through Dylan's transmission.
"What was that?" Kimball asked Dylan.
"Hold on." Dylan whispered, and then everyone's hearts rose when they heard Dylan scream. "IT'S THEM!" A loud crash rang through the transmission, and everyone found themselves getting to their feet.
"DYLAN?!" cried out Carolina.
"THE BLUES! THEY FOUND ME!" Dylan called out, and a gun shot went off in the background, followed by a series of clatters. Kimball rolled her chair to the neighboring desk and clicked a button on the screen.
"I need the police to get to the address of reporter Dylan Andrews IMMEDIATELY!" screamed Kimball into the speaker.
The transmission suddenly went quiet. Everyone's breath had become labored. Virginia had a hand up to her mouth. Carolina's eyes were rimmed with tears. Wash's fists were curled so tightly, that his knuckles became white.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are." Sang a familiar voice over the transmission.
"…Temple…" Tucker said through gritted teeth. His nostrils flared angrily. Then, all went quiet again.
