Disclaimer: I don't own RvB.
Important note for recurring readers! Due to the changes made by Marley and her gang, it's becoming harder for me to write up these chapters in a timely fashion. I still have two written chapters that just need editing, but that's not enough for me and especially not for my five day posting schedule. So, this is me, telling you, that until I have Carolina's arc thought out, at the very least, I'm not going to be posting. At least, not at five day intervals. So! Now is the time to review with suggestions on how to handle up coming events, confrontations, and fights. I always welcome constructive criticism!
Okay, boring part done with, onward my minions!
Episode 34: A Change of Pace
York sighed. He was bored. While he was glad to be alive, and that he was right about Carolina, that didn't change the fact that he was bored. Recovering from two gunshot wounds to the chest took a while. And there was some weird thing going on that made recovery even harder for him. He didn't have a clue what that might be, but it was happening. Thus, he was bored while stuck in bed. At least he could see out of his left eye a bit better than before, but that was a small consultation. "Getting cabin fever yet, York?" his medically trained captor asked as she swung into view, grinning that irritating little grin that she had.
"Big time," he groused. She chuckled and came forward to check his wounds.
"Well, good news. You're cleared for therapy. Which basically just means light exercise and working your way up to your previous strength," Marley said, removing the bandages. "The wounds have closed, the muscle knit more or less back the way it should be, so you're not going to endanger yourself if you get up. However, it is my professional opinion that you shouldn't push yourself too hard. You've been laid up for weeks, York."
"I know I know. I'm not Carolina you know," he said, pushing himself to the edge of the bed and slowly getting up. Marley smirked.
"Oh I know. You're much more stubborn," she allowed. York shot a grimace at her... which she ignored. "I'm currently looking for Flowdie. He went off with Tex and Wyoming, and Omega. Something about turning them in as evidence. I have a feeling... it didn't work out like we had hoped. I can't contact their ship. It has me a bit... concerned."
"Well, I can understand that," York said, walking over to a console. "Any way you can help, D?" The familiar green hologram popped up.
"I have been assisting Miss Marley as she tended your injury, York," Delta said. "There is nothing more I can do." Marley shrugged.
"I'm already headed to Valhalla. Hopefully, that's where they'll be," she said. York sighed, rubbing a hand through his hair.
"And if they're not?" he asked. Marley once again shrugged, but the motion was a bit more like a heavy sigh than an unconcerned gesture. York had a feeling she was struggling to keep her worries at bay.
"We go after one of my guys. Eagle. He's our sniper," Marley responded. York perked up slightly.
"Yeah? He any good?" he asked, interested in having fresh competition, and in distracting Marley. She chuckled softly, a good sign in York's opinion.
"Almost as good as you York," she told him with a grin.
"I look forward to testing that," the infiltration specialist said in complete honesty. Marley chuckled, a bit louder this time.
"It's Rick I want you to talk with. He's our I.T wizard," she told him, sounding perkier already.
"Oh yeah? Sounds like a fun guy," York remarked drily. Marley chuckled.
"He's more fun than he sounds, trust me," she told the former Freelancer. York sighed, shaking his head. An icon popped up on his HUD and he sighed.
"We're exiting slip-space," he informed her, nodding toward the cockpit. Gleefully, Marley hopped up and took manual control of the ship, then circled the area.
"There are no indicators that Agents Florida, Wyoming, or Texas have arrived. What would you like to do?" Delta informed them. Marley sighed, laying her head on the dashboard.
"We go to Eagle's new post. Need to introduce him to a sniper who's just as good if not better than him," she said wearily, dragging her head back up. York frowned. Was all his work really that easy to destroy?
/*/
If there was one sight in the universe that Eagle loved, it was The Phantom rising up out of the clouds. It was Marley reaching out a hand to him, welcoming him. It was the dark expanse of space and the dusty cobwebs of the rafters where he'd lay in wait, safe and vigilant. So when he heard the roar of the engines, the creak of hydraulics opening the drop door, saw The Phantom hovering in the clouds and Marley jumping out the door, there were a few tears in his eyes as he took her hand. "I thought you'd never show," he said as she pulled him in for a swift, tight, hug. She chuckled.
"Now where would the fun be in that?" she asked. He chuckled, then froze as someone else came out of the ship.
"Who's your friend?" he asked, eying the newcomer suspiciously. The fact that his armor was in the Project Red style only in gray and tan didn't really help.
"Name's Ed," the tan armored soldier said, holding out a hand. Eagle didn't move. "Orange saved my life," Ed pressed, his hand still extended. Eagle blinked, then grasped his forearm tightly and gave it a sharp jerk.
"The infiltration specialist, right?" he asked. Ed nodded and Eagle turned to Marley.
"He doubles as a sniper. His skill might be a little effected by his bad eye, but I'd still trust him with my back," she told the wary soldier. He nodded and motioned them deeper into the bunker. It was a simple box bunker, serving as a weapons cache more than anything. There were a few rooms for guards, but aside from Eagle and a few crates of specialty ammunition, the concrete box was empty.
"It's not much, but it's home. For now," Eagle said as he finished his minor tour of the facility.
"It's perfect to continue your training, Eagle. Lots of high spots, plenty of floor space, and more than enough cover," Marley said. Ed noticed Eagle's shiver and lightly shoved his shoulder.
"Buck up, it can't be that bad, right?" he prompted. The burgundy soldier slowly turned to him, no doubt giving him a rather flat stare.
"Training with Marley is worse than basic ever was," the burgundy soldier remarked lowly. Ed shot a look over toward his doctor. Suddenly, a few of the bloodstains he'd found made a whole lot more sense. It wasn't a comforting thought.
"Got any food around here?" Marley asked. Ed turned back to Eagle, hands folded in supplication.
"Please let her loose in your kitchen! Florida used to absolutely rave about Marley's cooking!" Eagle turned to him, then looked to Marley.
"That man..." she said with a sigh, shaking her head. "Flowdie has one heck of a sweet tooth. And he loves sweet potato casserole."
"I have a crock-pot, some beef, a couple of carrots, and four onions," Eagle said with a shrug.
"Oh, surely you have more than that," Marley said.
"Sure I do... but I was hoping you'd get an idea," Eagle said.
"Sure I did. Beef stew. Now, kitchen?"
"Right this way, Marley."
/*/
Dex sighed as he sat in the office, signing paperwork and filing reports. "Yea for promotion," he remarked sarcastically as he finished the third stack of paperwork for the day. He just had a few more sheets... The door opened and Dex bite back a moan. Then he heard the familiar laugh of his best friend and allowed himself to fall forward with a groan. "Please, for the love of oreos and Krispy Kreame, tell me you don't have more paperwork!" he moaned.
"For the love of oreos and Krispy Kreame, I don't have more paperwork," Rick's amused voice informed him. Dex leapt up out of his chair with a cry of delight.
"YES! FREEDOM! You, me, training floor, now!" he yelled, already on his way out the door. Rick chuckled, shaking his head.
"And to think, there was a time when he was a lazy bum who would have loved a desk job," he muttered softly to himself. When he got to the training floor, Dex was warming up and the off-duty, and some of the on-duty, soldiers were gathered. Expectant chatter filled the room, making Rick roll his eyes. "Dexter! You're riling the boys up! And for no good reason!" he called. Dex gave a loud, short, bark of laughter.
"Am not!" he retorted, turning to his friend. Rick shook his head and began to stretch. Dex was eagerly bouncing on his toes, waiting impatiently for Rick to be ready. When he was, he struck without warning. Dex, through long and painful training, had learned to be ever on his toes and ready for a split-second attack, so he was able to block and counter Rick's haymaker. They traded blows, leapt over sweeps, and tossed friendly barbs back and forth, all the while mesmerizing their troops. It was a cacophony of metal on metal, a symphony of coiling flesh, a dance of titanium and Kevlar. The whole spectacle lasted for fifteen minutes and ended with Dex triumphantly sitting on a softly groaning Rick.
"Get off of me you ox!" the maroon soldier ground out. Dex laughed and gracefully climbed off of his comrade.
"Best two out of three?" he asked. Rick snorted.
"In your dreams. I'm headed to the infirmary, get checked for internal bleeding and broken bones. You know, the usual," he said, limping off. Dex snorted as well.
"You're fine, I made sure to pull my punches. Just a little. And I know that limp is faked," he said, plainly amused. Rick held up his hands, limp vanishing.
"Oh no, he got me. What ever shall I do? Fretting. Worry," he drawled. Dex shook his head.
"Come on, let's hit the showers... unless there's someone who'd like a little extra training?" he said, turning to the assembled soldiers. They all shook their heads and backed away. Dex shrugged and turned to follow Rick to the showers, when the alarm goes off. Dex chuckled as Rick came trudging back onto the main floor, pulling his right gauntlet back on while trying to hold his left against his chest with his right elbow. "Here," he said, taking the left gauntlet. Rick shot him a look, then tugged the right one on before grabbing the left and pulling it on too.
"Not the time, Orange," he hissed. Dex shrugged again, grabbed a magnum, and dashed outside to at least attempt to coordinate a counter attack. He was really starting to miss the lazy, incompetent members of the Blood Gulch Crew. Sure they were getting better, but they were more or less friendly now. And that was much better than these semi-competent Blues who attacked randomly, but never with a gap longer than three days.
"Right. Now's the time to make grown men weep for their mamas!" Orange bellowed, hitting a Blue in the shoulder and putting him out of the fight.
"These guys are wimps," Rick remarked over gunfire and bloodcurdling screams.
"Yeah, a single shot to the shoulder and they're down," Dex returned, hitting another in the shin.
"Well Dex, your shots are precise and while they aren't life threatening, they have the potential to be crippling," Rick told his comrade, getting in a shin shot of his own. Dex snorted.
"Oh, and yours aren't?" he retorted.
"Touche, my friend. Touche," Rick allowed. It was widely acknowledged by all at the base that not only were the two new guys the best fighters in the gorge, but that they were completely insane as well.
/*/
Red had taken his task of looking out for Kai seriously. Of course, if he interpreted 'look out for her' to mean 'train her while I'm gone,' no-one could really blame him. Right? Yeah... right. So, Sarge had decided to train her like Marley had trained Eagle. He soon found out... Kai was terrible with sniper rifles. "How you can be such a bad shot with Dex as your brother, I don't know," he said, shaking his head.
"Hey! I'm a perfectly good shot!" Kai retorted, shooting a rock forty feet away... from where their target was.
"Um~hum. And I suppose you were aiming for that rock?" Red asked, crossing his arms.
"Cyah, totally," Kai responded, crossing her arms... and having absolutely no idea how she'd made that shot when she'd really been aiming for the target.
"Child... you're even worse at lying than Dex," Red said, though that really wasn't saying much. Dex was actually a fairly decent liar. Now, saying she was worse than Andy or Doc would be saying something, because they were terrible liars, but I digress.
"Is that supposed to be an insult? I know Dex is amazing at lying. How do you think we survived this long?" Kai asked, crossing her arms. Red froze, blinked, then slowly relaxed. He hadn't realized it, but right here was a free pass into Dex's past. An open book to the intricacies of one of his men. Okay, so it was half a book and parts of it were in gibberish, but it was still a book!
"Ya know, I know pretty much nothing about you," Red said slowly.
"Same," Kai responded.
"Would you be less stand offish if I told you a bit about myself?" Kai considered this, then nodded and sat on the grass. "Right. Guess this could take a while," Red said with a sigh before sinking to the grass as well. "I was born and raised in south Texas. Little town called Hope. Beautiful place. Anyways, I had a nice childhood. Loving parents. Crazy uncles. Friends all down the street. Then I got a little older, about twelve, and things started to go down hill."
"Why is it always twelve?" Kai mused, thinking of her life. Red decided to address that at a later date, and continued.
"My parents were killed coming back from a trip to Mars. It had been their anniversary, so no-one could say that they didn't deserve it. Anyway, these Space Pirates decided that they were going to rob it, then blew it up when they were done. No-one survived. I was left alone, shuffled from Home to Home, until I finally decided to run away and live on the streets until I was eighteen and could join the army. Those were some of the best, and worst, years of my life," he revealed, looking into the middle distance. Kai was thinking... this sounded far too familiar. "Then I joined the army, and found where I belonged. At least... I had... until my drop pod malfunctioned during the battle of Quin'Sir. I was traumatized and had a broken knee. Even with reconstructive surgery, I'd never be able to function as an ODST again. Still have PTSD to this day, though I've been handling it better since Marley got to me."
"So you're a real soldier, not like Dex?" Kai asked. Red snorted.
"The only reason Dex wasn't a real soldier before he got stationed here was because he didn't want to leave you. If Marley hadn't shown up and given all of this reason for him, he wouldn't see the point in doing anything and need the threat of great physical harm to even get up in the morning," he said. Kai shook her head.
"It's still a little weird, hearing about him from you guys," she said.
"What was it like when you were kids?" Red asked, hoping the girl would open up. He'd missed most of their conversation when Marley's dropped Kai back at Red Base and therefore didn't have a lot of information on either of the Grifs.
"Our childhood... it wasn't all that great, and Dex hates talking about it," Kai said, looking away from the older man. Red sighed and took his helmet off, the soft click hiss of the locks disengaging signaling a serious shift in the conversation. Even though Kai hadn't been in the 'army' very long, she understood the amount of trust and seriousness showing your uncovered head displayed.
"I'm not asking about your brother's past, Kai. I want yours," Red said. She sighed, knowing she was beaten.
"Well... He's there for most of it. For a lot of my childhood, he was the most important person in my life," she said sadly. "Mom ran off when Dex was only fourteen and our dad had become an abusive drunk by the time I was twelve. Dex... he had to grow up for me. Quick. He tried to look out for me, but he's only four years older. It was a lot to drop on him. Then... dad remarried. She was okay at first... but she's the one who started Dex on... his eating disorder. I never liked her. She was worse than the mother who abandoned us. I never realized, but Dex kept me sheltered from a lot of the stuff that went on in that house. It was the other kids at school who convinced me to try drugs when I was fourteen. It was my first boyfriend who got me drunk the first time... and then took my virginity. And it was always Dex who came to get me out of those messes. Dex was always the one to scold me. But I never listened, not really. I kept going out and doing those things, those degrading things... And through it all, it was Dex who looked out for me, who helped me in my rough times, never our step-mom. Then she decided to run off and join the circus. That, of course, pushed dad even further off the deep end... and Dex too, to a certain extent. He always tried to stop me from going on a binge, or sleeping with a guy, or any of the other things I did... but I never listened. Not until he was gone and that comforting, reliable, unrelenting presence was gone. I didn't have a crutch, and I fell. I fell hard. I knew he'd been drafted, but I didn't get any letters. No postcards, no phone calls, nothing. Not until they informed us... that he'd been KIA. It broke me... until I managed to steal a ship, a suit of armor, and make my way here. And I found him. After so long, I had finally found him. I was ecstatic... and then he told me to go home. I thought he would have been happy... but he wasn't," Kai said, tears pooling in her eyes the more she told. Red wordlessly pulled her into a hug when she was done. Sure it wasn't what many would consider a normal response for the ex-ODST, but what many forgot was... he was human too, and sometimes, human's acted in unforeseen ways to unexpected, or even expected, things. This was one of those times.
"After Dex gave you up to the Blues, he was a wreak. I'd never seen him so defeated, not even when I used to use him as a human punching bag and blamed him for everything, even if it might have actually been my fault. He loves you just as much as you love him. He wasn't mad, not entirely. He was scared, Kai. Scared out of his admittedly good wits. And then he calmed down and saw your arrival for what it was. A chance. He introduced you to Marley, who agreed to train you. He introduced you to me. Better, he entrusted you to me. And I'm going to make sure he doesn't regret that decision by training you when Marley can't... as well as at least attempting to give you the kind of love and advice a father should give his precious daughter. If, that is, you're willing to let me." Kai sniffled and hugged the gruff man back.
"I think... I'd like that, Sarge," she said. The man chuckled.
"Wouldn't ya know, I've forgotten what my name really is?" he asked. Kai gave a weak laugh.
"That's a sign you've been doing this for far too long." Red chuckled back, letting the young woman go.
"Perhaps. Now, about that advice..."
/*/
While Red and Kai were having a heart to heart, Ed and Marley were putting Eagle through his paces. "I... Hate... You... Both!" the sniper huffed, jogging around the box Red Army dared call a bunker. Ed sent another paint round toward the running soldier, forcing him to speed up to avoid the hit.
"Yeah, and I want you to live. Now come on! Five more laps!" Marley called, stretching out and warming up for a teaching spar. Eagle groaned, but did as instructed and pushed himself forward once more. Ed just grinned, knowing he would hate doing this training at the moment, but would later thank his lucky stars he went through with it. After his last five laps, Eagle was about ready to fall down in a faint, but Marley wouldn't let him.
"Block!" she yelled, sending a fast snap kick toward his midsection. Reacting quickly, Eagle brought his elbow down to catch the kick, but it wasn't fast enough. "I said block!" Marley barked, sending a punch toward his face this time. Because his arms had been wrapped around his midsection, Eagle was able to pull his forearms up and duck his head down enough to minimize the damage done to his head when the blow connected.
"You're too fast!" Eagle argued.
"Dodge!" Marley yelled, snapping a kick toward his shins. Eagle barely managed to jump over it, landing shakily and stumbling back a few steps. "I'm not too fast, you're too slow. Dodge!" Eagle did an awkward duck step, pulling his head down and tummy in while stepping back, to avoid the scything hook kick aimed at his neck.
"Don't you think you're pushing me a little hard?" Eagle asked in a puff, sweat rolling down his face. Marley gave a loud 'psh' noise before lashing out with a quick jab toward his face. He instinctively pulled his head back and out of the way.
"If you have the breath to argue, you have the breath to fight," she said. "Counter!" Eagle floundered and took a right haymaker to the chin, sending him sprawling to the ground. "I told you to counter!"
"I'm tired," Eagle said, refusing to move. Marley huffed and kicked him in the ribs. "OW!"
"Roll over and give me twenty!" the woman barked, prowling around him like an evil house cat, all sharp points and fury and bristled fur in a tiny little package just ready to slash you to ribbons if you made one wrong move. Groaning, Eagle nonetheless rolled over and started doing push-ups. But these weren't exactly the push-ups you many be accustomed to. No. The way Marley made her boys do push-ups were in sets of five so instead of twenty push-ups, Eagle had to do one hundred push-ups. By the time he was done, his arms were burning. This was the third time that day he'd been forced to give Marley twenty 'push-ups.' "Now run boy! Run!" the woman ordered, pointing to his 'start' point. Eagle bit back another groan and set off at a light jog, picking up the speed as Ed sent another paint round toward him.
"Third time today," the running sniper groused. He was equal parts glad and dismayed that he was not to wear his armor during training. On one hand, he didn't have to run in it while on the other, he didn't have it to protect himself from Marley's attacks. Ten laps around the Box and Eagle was facing Marley again, blocking a low kick.
"Block!" A high kick that he barely caught and couldn't deflect, bruising his arm. "Block!" A left haymaker that he couldn't catch, bruising his chin and sending him reeling back. "Block!" A straight punch to the gut, a shaky low forearm block that added to the already aching bruise. "Dodge!" Another punch to the gut. Eagle hopped back, stumbling slightly as he landed on trembling legs. "Block!" Low kick, a shin block, one more bruise. "Dodge!" A leg sweep and another shaky landing. "Counter!" Another haymaker to his already aching jaw and Eagle was back on the ground, moaning. Marley shook her head and treated his abused jaw.
"Marley, I think it's time you call it quits. I don't know if he can handle much more abuse," Ed said. Marley shook her head.
"Drop and give me ten, Eagle," she said, though he voice was a bit kinder than before. Eagle didn't even groan, he just rolled over, pushed himself up, and set to it. Marley smirked and looked over at the former Freelancer. 'He's got a bit more in him,' she signed. Ed rolled his eyes.
'You're going easy on him,' he retorted with a pointed look. Marley shrugged, appearing rather indifferent to the suffering soldier behind her.
'Not as easy as you wanted me to.' He bowed his head to her and was about to sign back when a voice interrupted him.
"Stop. Signing. Behind me," Eagle huffed, forcing shaking arms to lift his body once more. Marley blinked, then grinned.
"Whatever you say, Champ," she said, holding up her hands and making a show of putting them in her pockets. When Eagle had finished his fifty push-ups, Marley set him five laps around the Box. Shoulders slumped slightly, Eagle nonetheless jogged off again. Then came the dreaded spar, or so he thought. Instead, Marley set him to doing stretches, then waved him toward the showers. Nodding gratefully, the sniper loped off.
"He's getting better," Ed noted, once Eagle was out of hearing range. Marley nodded.
"He is, but he can't counter," she said, almost reproachfully. Ed shrugged.
"He'll get it, don't worry. How much longer do we have?" he asked, turning to face her, rather than the door to the barracks.
"Oh, I'm not worried," Marley told him, turning to the left and moving toward The Phantom to return to The Ghost. "We've still got a year left." Ed jerked.
"Wait... what?" he asked, unashamed that his voice had gone up an octave or two. Marley had a habit of dropping verbal bombshells as though she were talking about the weather. It was one of the more annoying quirks Ed had come across, and he'd come across quite a few annoying quirks. Wyoming's knock knock jokes were a prime example.
"I said we have a year left to whip this boy into shape. While he's a good sniper, I'm afraid of what might happen if he's left on his own. So, we'll focus mostly on his hand to hand, some demolitions, and then long range when we feel the kid needs a bit of a confidence boost. You know, one of those 'there is something you're good at, even if you suck at life' kind of things," Marley said before vanishing completely into her ship. Ed shook his head at the woman.
"The crazies you live with," he muttered before hitting the showers.
/*/
Halfway across Human controlled space and a day before, Dex suddenly had the feeling Kai had done something that he should be mad about, but he couldn't pin it down. It was driving him crazy, which drove his men crazy, which drove the Blues crazy, which drove Rick crazy, which added to the cray of the Reds, which added to Dex's crazy, which made a great big pile of crazy covered in a haze of fear and the sound of misery. How this could happen in only five and a half hours, no-one was quite sure. They just knew that it did and it needed to stop before everyone was dead. Sure the two sides wanted to kill each other, though Dex was a bit more kind to the Blues than the last Red Sargent that had been through, but they didn't want to go around killing their teammates. So, it was decided, they would call a truce until Dex's problem had been worked out. And who was in charge of fixing Dex's problem? Rick. His solution? "AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! WHYYYYYYYYYY?!" Throwing the brooding Dex out a window and onto the outdoor training grounds.
"SHUT UP YOU OX! YOU'VE BEEN ASKING FOR THIS MISTER MCBROODY! NOW STOP YER WHINING AND MOPING, YOU'RE SCARING THE ROOKIES!" Rick yelled down at him before he jumped out, did a triple corkscrew, and stuck his landing with his twin pistols drawn. His customized twin pistols.
"Wait... when did you make those?!" Dex shrieked, eying the weapons that looked like streamlined Maulers in Rick's hands. Actually, they looked like Magnums with thin throwing knives strapped to them and connected to a spool of wire that was bolted to the overly large hand grip.
"Oh these? Just something I've been working on for a while. Wanted a way to combine my two areas of expertise. You're just the first to see me test them. Do tell me what you think of them when I'm through," Rick said, lining up a shot.
"Oh dirty Oreos!" Dex screamed, dodging out of the way and pulling out his third favorite gun. "WHAT DID I DO TO MAKE YOU HATE ME?!" he asked as he ducked behind a large-ish rock, cradling his DMR to his chest.
"You've managed to do the impossible. You suddenly developed something that's been driving you crazy, which is driving your men crazy, which is driving the Blues crazy, which is driving me crazy, which has been adding to the crazy of our men, which seems to have added to your crazy, and all of this has resulted in a great big pile of crazy covered in a haze of fear and the sound of misery. We're not quite sure how you've managed to cause all that in only five and a half hours, we just know that you did and it needs to stop before everyone was dead. Sure the two sides want to kill each other, but we don't want to go around killing our teammates. So, it was decided we would call a truce until your problem had been worked out. And who did they decide to put in charge of fixing your problem? Me. This is my solution," Rick recounted coolly, launching one of his knives at Dex and controlling it with the wire attached to the hilt.
"I did that?" Dex asked, narrowly dodging Rick's flying stabs.
"Yes. You did," Rick said tonelessly.
"In less than a day?" Dex asked, firing a burst at his second-in-command. Rick dodged with the ease of long practice and reeled in his knife, flicking the wire in an attempt to catch the still moving Dex.
"Yes," the maroon soldier grit out, frustrated with his inability to cut his comrade.
"Huh. I guess I am awesome," Dex remarked, before he yelped and fell to the ground to avoid a spray of bullets. "Since when did Magnums spew bullets like BRs?" the orange armored man muttered as he crawled behind another rock.
"DIE!" Rick bellowed, grabbing a hidden wire off the ground and tugging.
"AH! Mother of Godiva Fudge Brownies!" Dex yelled, pushing himself away from the ground and throwing himself to the right as he heard the dirt beneath him make a small click. Moments later the IED blew, taking a six foot radius with it.
"Wow," remarked one of the watching Blues, staring at the Red Sargent and his right hand man.
"Guess they really were holding back against us," another finished.
"He-yeah. The Boss Men are badasses, that's for sure. Almost like having two permanent Freelancers on the..." a Red began, before he screamed in agony as one of Rick's knives impaled his leg and a burst from Dex's DMR tore through his shoulder.
"Don't ever compare me to a Freelancer, Joanes," the formerly sparring soldiers intoned as one, voices low and dark and deadly. Everyone in earshot swallowed heavily and retreated. "Freelancers, tear each other apart. Freelancers, care about who gets the better score. Freelancers, lie. They cheat. They steal. They shoot each other in the back, sometimes literally. To call someone a Freelancer... is the worst insult in the galaxy because Freelancers... are the worst monsters, because Freelancers are human. They've crossed a line, a very fine line, that separates civil from barbaric, humanity from animals, and that... is something I never want to be associated with," Dex added before he stalked off into the base. He emerged fifteen minutes later, loaded down with a multitude of weaponry and proceeded to tromp off to where he could demolish a few boulders... and possibly carve out some new caves. With hand-held artillery.
"Congratulations. You just made Dex mad. Way ta go guys. Way. To. Go," Rick said, complete with a condescending Slow Clap. The Reds managed to look sheepish while the Blues were utterly terrified. "I suggest you all stay in your respective bases until he cools down. Reds, you may want to hide in your barracks when we can no longer hear ammunition impacting rock as that would mean Dex is on his way back. Wait until I give the all-clear. Or an extra three hours after the gunshots have died down." The Reds and Blues were quick to follow his suggestions. It was recorded among the scariest days in Death Gorge.
/*/
When Marley said 'demolitions' she meant anything and everything that went 'boom.' "Are you sure you want him doing this?" Ed asked, watching Eagle assemble an IED. Marley waved him off.
"Psh, he'll be fine!" she said.
"Besides, I'm helping," Louie added over the radio.
"Yeah. That's what I'm worried about," Ed remarked... from fifty yards away. Marley elbowed him.
"Lay off! Louie's a good guy. Handy too," she argued.
"Oh sure, but you can't deny, he's crazy," Ed said, giving her a look that told her quite plainly that Ed was rather glad he'd never had to relay on Louie on a mission.
"He's Cajun. Ever hear him talking about the river boats and the old woman out in the bayou his mama used to leave him with? Now that, was crazy," Marley countered.
"Yeah... wait, what?" Ed said, looking from Louie to Marley so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash. Said woman chuckled at his impression of a fish on a hook.
"Yeah, mama was a crazy ol' gypsy. I remember she'd drive us down to New Orleans, set up in front of the big square. Me and my old man would play dueling guitars and she'd read palms. Best family days ever," Louie chimed in. A muffled boom and Eagle slowly laid himself out on the concrete.
"You guys are worse than Red Team," he remarked. Louie smacked him on the head.
"'Course we are! Now get up and do it again! And don't cross those wires this time. Those things are dangerous!" the man admonished his 'student.' Ed leaned over to Marley and asked,
"You sure he's Cajun? He doesn't sound like it."
"'Course I'm sure! He's just been out of the Bayou a little too long," Marely replied, carefully watching the other two soldiers at work. Ed looked at the former Freelancer and the 'Simulation' Trooper, then back to Marley.
"Is this how it's gonna be the whole time?" he asked.
"Yes. It is," she affirmed. Ed's shoulders slumped and he walked away, shaking his head.
"I'm stuck with crazy."
/?/
A/N: I... I have no excuse. This... this just... Happened. Yeah.
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Review please!
A/N 2: Minor edits, mostly for spelling. 8/26/16