CH2

"Tucker, go outside and check on the guards. Caboose, get Freckles online and make sure home security is on. I'll grab my gear and watch the monitor." Washington ordered. They followed their respective orders.

"Freckles! Freckles come here! If you come here I'll give you a treat!" Caboose yelled up the stairs as Tucker rushed out the door. In response, a miniature Mantis-class assault vehicle stomped down. "Mr. Washington needs you to guard the house!"

"Acknowledged." Freckles said in a monotone voice.

"Aw man, these guys really got fucked up." Tucker groaned as he dragged the two Chorus soldiers into the building. "Bow chika bow-"

"Not now, Tucker. I need you to get the Reds here too."

"C'mon, why do I have to do all the running." Tucker complained.

"Caboose would probably screw things up, and I need to be here in case the monitor turns on when it's done. I have my helmet ready to record things if I need to."

"I could watch the damn screen, but whatever." Tucker sprinted back out. He reached the Reds' building and pounded on the door. "Yo red fucktards! Wash needs you over in our place." Almost immediately the door opened, with Simmons stumbling out in full armor.

"Thank god! Inside is a mess thanks to Grif, and Sarge is about to confiscate my gum collection!" He wailed.

"Damn sounds like you got it rough." Tucker patted him on the back.

"Simmons! Where'd you run off to? I need to give Grif my customary court martial for being lazy!" Sarge also stepped out in full armor, cocking his trademark shotgun. "Ah a Blue! Simmons, how many times have I told you to not fraternize with the enemy! This demands gum confiscation!"

"Woah Sarge, Wash needs you to come over to Blue bas-our building." Tucker fumbled his words.

"I won't be seduced by the enemy to walk into a clear trap! However, this will also be an excellent opportunity to scout the enemy! I am very conflicted." Sarge though hard. "Very well! You must sign a temporary ceasefire however. I will not have my men killed in a blatant act of treachery! You can kill Grif though."

"It's not like we're still fighting each other. You can come visit us any time anyways." Tucker protested. "Hey Grif! Get your fatass down here! Wash needs to talk to us."

"Will you guys just shut up." Grif finally exited the building, still clad in full armor like the rest of his team. "A new episode of my favorite series just came out, so I need to binge the rest!"

"What if I told you there's food at our place?" Tucker offered.

"Food? Actual food? I've been living off of dead rats because Sarge keeps me locked up in this hellhole." Grif ran as fast as he could to the Blues building.

"Wait, where's Doc and Donut? Aren't they part of Red team too?" Tucker asked.

"Doc is in the capital city with Dr. Grey. Donut is out doing Donut things, but I would take his sexual innuendos over living with Grif any day." Simmons answered. The three followed behind Grif, and they ran into Doc and Dr. Grey the moment they got to Blue base.

"Oh hey guys." Doc greeted them. "Wash said there were some injured guys that needed to be picked up." Dr. Grey and a few other Chorus soldiers walked out of the house with the two injured members. Doc waved bye as he followed them to the flying ambulance. Inside, Grif immediately devoured Tucker and Caboose's charred attempt at cooking, despite it giving off a weird odor.

"Finally you guys made it." Wash said. "I set the monitor up there so we could all view it from the couch."

"Aw yeah, just like movie night! Can I pick the movie?" Tucker called. "Reservoir Dogs for the win!" At that moment, the monitor suddenly flickered on, and the room hushed. An old-timey countdown appeared, starting from 5 and slowly inching down. When it hit 0, it picked up with York and Carolina in the alleyway.

"What the fuck? York?" Wash yelled.

They watched through the rest of CH1.

"Is a jailbreak too big of a problem for you?" York held up his handcuffed wrists.

"Not in the slightest." Carolina confirmed. For the rest of the ride, they talked about what they had been up to while the other was gone.

"I became a thief." York summarized. "For about 2 minutes. After I made a fortune, Tex came banging on the door, asking for my help in killing Wyoming. And I thought, Yeah, killing that mustached jackass would be a good idea despite the fact that I basically had everything I needed, so I agreed. Lo' and behold, Tex's gun jammed at the absolute worst moment, and I got shot. After that I ended up here."

"What happened to Delta?"

~~York, I believe withholding the truth would be detrimental in your future relationship as of now. Agent, sorry, let me clarify, just Carolina has done nothing to incite suspicion. I do not sense any evil intent and it would be helpful if I was able to freely speak.~~

I just don't know D. York groaned internally. "I dunno. I don't think he was transported with me here."

"Oh really?" Carolina mused. "I need to show you something in private. The jail should do fine, once we can disable their cameras and mics."

"And how would we do that?" York knew AI could hack wirelessly as easily as thinking, but he was still wary of showing off Delta.

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

~~York, I believe she is on to us.~~ Delta warned. The police car pulled into the nearby police station, where they were led in, armor and all. The police officers escorting them left them in a bare room, with a mirror on one side and a basic table in the middle. Two metallic folding chairs were brought up. When they tried sitting on them, the weight of their armor crushed the flimsy chairs, so the dumbfounded police had to get more resilient ones.

"Interrogation huh?" York observed.

"Let me do the talking. I do have an official ambassadorship for an entire planet."

"You what?" At that moment, a burly man with a dog head walked into the room. He introduced himself as Kenji Tsuragamae and began asking a few questions.

"Which country are you from? Woof." He said in Japanese. Again, York had Delta translate for him. Carolina stayed silent.

"Do you have hero licenses? Woof." Silence.

"What are your names? Woof." More silence. They didn't question the woofs after every sentence, as it seemed like a genetic thing paired with his dog head.

"Uh, Carolina? Aren't you supposed to be saying stuff?" York asked over comms.

"Do you really want to give these suckers info?"

"Fair." They continued to sit in silence.

"We're getting nowhere. I'm willing to offer you some sort of lightened sentence if you cooperate. Woof." Tsuragamae offered.

e

"Do you have licenses for gun operations? Woof." Back to questions. However, Carolina answered this.

"Yes." She responded with her voice modulator.

"Can you show them? Woof."

"No."

"May I hold your pistol? Woof."

"No." All their weapons were still magnetically holstered. Unbeknownst to them, the police had, on multiple occasions, attempted to snatch the guns, but the magnets were a bit too strong for the average man.

"Can you take off your helmets? Woof."

"No." Tsuragamae continued asking them questions for the next 30 minutes, where York continued to sit in stone cold silence. Finally, it appeared that he gave up, and he exited the room. On the other side of the mirror, there were multiple sensors and equipment set up.

"Ah, Tsuragamae-sama. We detected multiple radio-waves being transmitted between them, but they were all encoded. We are currently trying to decipher them." A technician said while monitoring the instruments.

"Send them to the jail for now. Woof." Tsuragamae ordered. These were mere ruffians wielding guns, he thought, and would be dealt with accordingly. What made them odd was their behavior. One answering the questions, the other non-respondent. Almost like real soldiers…

Back in the room, York and Carolina were led back to the police car and taken to the jail. The police finally were able to take off their weapons by utilizing an even stronger magnet to disrupt the holsters. They spent the rest of the day devising plans to break out, although both knew it would be much easier than what they were coming up with. Soon it was night, and the prison room was shrouded in darkness. The only light they saw were from the stars outside, and the guards room way down the hall.

"Church, you can come out now." Carolina said suddenly. On York's hud, a bright light erupted next to Carolina's head. It soon condensed to form a small man.

"Sup asshole." He said.

"You...have an AI?" York asked hesitantly.

"Technically I'm the memories of her father, but yeah I'm an AI." Church answered. "Wait... doesn't that mean I'm your dad?" He asked Carolina.

"I guess so." She shrugged.

"Oh yeah!" Church said triumphantly. "That means you have to get through me if you want to date my daughter!"

"Wait wait wait, I'm not keeping track of all this." York sighed. "You're the memories of her father? Mind explaining that key part?"

"Pretty sure Delta can tell you all about it." Church pointed at his holographic head. "Yo Delta. We know you're in there."

"It seems you have found me." Delta "As expected of Project Freelancer's top agent and Epsilon unit."

"D, you know about this?" York was shocked.

"Perhaps." Was all he said.

"First, jailbreak. Explanations are second." Carolina reminded them all. "Church and Delta, cut off all signals within 1 mile of us."

"A father doing what a father does best! Helping his child break out of jail in a completely different world!" Church disappeared in a flash of light, and Delta did the same moments later.

"Sir! Two more radio waves appeared out of nowhere, and seem to be conversing with the subjects." The technician shouted.

"What? But we're jamming the current area, there's no way they should be able to communicate. Woof." Kenji Tsuragamae slammed his large fists on the table. It was quite disturbing for the technician to see the normally calm and stoic Tsuragamae frenzied like this.

~~Ah, sorry gentlemen, but it seems as though you're trying to jam our signals.~~ A robotic voice emanated from the computer speaker.

"Who is this? Woof." Tsuragamae asked.

~~Can't answer that one Buster. Daughter needs the power cut, so sorry beforehand assholes.~~ The lights in the room shut off, and Tsuragamae was forced to physically shove the electronic door open.

"We have escapees on our hands!" He said over his radio. However, he didn't receive an answer and instead heard garbled static. "Damn, they got the radios too."

York and Carolina had teamed up to force their way through the bars holding them in the cell. Church and Delta were currently running rampant in the jail's security system, having accessed it through a nearby security camera. They both had night vision on and soon found where their weapons were stored. They rushed through the building, breaking through doors and zapping the occasional police officer who was unfortunate enough to get in their way. They made it out quickly, and hijacked the nearest car using York's lock picking abilities and got away.

"Church, Delta, keep up the pressure. Make them think we're still in the building." Carolina ordered. York kept a steady yet fast pace on driving. He didn't panic when multiple other police cars blared past them in the direction of the jail, and they reached a quiet part of the city. "You guys can come back now."

"Phew, that took forever. Hey one eye, can't you drive any faster?" Church complained.

"Any faster and we would've been arrested for speeding, dipshit." York rolled his eyes. "We should probably take off our armor and guns. They've probably sent out warnings to all the local stations and heroes. I would know."

"Good point." They pulled over the car and tried finding anything useful. Fortunately, they found two large duffel bags, both stuffed with hiking gear and spare clothes. They were big enough to fit all their armor, but small enough to not incite too much suspicion. They kept ear pieces in order to communicate with the AI and translations, and both carried a single Magnum, holstered discreetly. They ditched the car, due to York's advice (he is the career criminal) and walked away from the crime scene.

"What now?" York asked. They were now in an unfamiliar environment, full of people hunting them down, with no outside support. It sounded like a typical Freelancer mission, but York was still uneasy.

"Try and fit in, I guess." Carolina scanned the area. "Food and water first. Was there any cash on the car?" York grinned and held up a wad of yen.

"Sky is clear and we're in the middle of nowhere." Church remarked. "Damn does this remind me of the Reds and Blues."

"You still need to explain to me who they are." York rolled his eyes.

"It appears they escaped." Tsuragamae observed the tire marks in front of the jail. A small man with a rodent-like head walked up to him.

"A shame. I would've loved for them to join my school."

As the episode closes, Tucker erupted in laughter.

"What is it?" Caboose yelled. "What is the funny?"

"This is like some sort of shitty fanfiction." Tucker wheezed in between breaths. "But it's irl."

"Fanfiction?" Wash inquired.

"It's like some sort of fan-made story site." Simmons answered for Tucker. "Some guy was constantly emailing me about something he wrote, and I was pretty sure it was a virus."

"Did you open it?" Grif asked around a mouthful of charred eggs.

"I visited the site first. After that I scanned the email for any viruses and opened it." Simmons shuddered. "It was titled 'Grimmons' and I still have nightmares about reading it."

"What was it about? It can't be that bad." Grif asked. Simmons leaned in and whispered into his ear. "Nevermind. Mind if I use the bathroom? I'm gonna go throw up a bit." Grif stumbled over to the restroom, and they could hear retching all the way down the hall.

"I will go make sure my subordinate is safe!" Sarge stood up.

"That's...completely unlike you Sarge. I congratulate you on advancing as a leader." Wash patted him on the back.

"And I will totally not won't not shoot him with a non-existent 50 gauge pellet and will bring him back safely!" Sarge pulled out his shotgun. Simmons immediately pulled him down.

"You are not going anywhere near Grif with a fully loaded shotgun." He said firmly.

"Goddammit Simmons? Are you conspiring with the enemy again?" Sarge was about to give him the full lecture when a voice coughed on the monitor.

~~Are you guys done bickering?~~ It was the strange man again. ~~I got an important message for you.~~

Wash motioned for everyone else to be quiet. "What is it?"

~~ Are you guys enjoying the show?~~

"Is that it?" Tucker asked from the floor.

~~Nah, just kidding, that wasn't it. This will be a bit more important than whether you're happy or not.~~ The man adjusted his screen and spoke in a booming voice.

A day has passed. Judgement is near. The countdown has begun.

9

"Bleh, I hate that voice modulator. Irritates my throat for some reason." On the other side of the monitor, the guy rubbed his neck.

"Oh shut up Blitz." The woman said. "Drink some water and it'll go away. Are you always this baby-ish?"

"Oh you're gonna eat your words soon." Blitz grinned. "Boss said you're up after the next one for talking."

"Well shit."

A/N CH2 has been completo. Very cool me