Wait..
What is this?
Is this.. An update? But th-that's impossible. Someone call the police, I think the universe may be ending.
But seriously, there's no excuse for how long this took to come out, and it's not even a long chapter. I guess I kinda lost motivation for a bit. I'm really sorry, and with I could make it up to you all somehow. I can try to get back to uploading once a week, but I can't make any promises. I have school, extra classes that take up a lot of my free time, and a very busy April coming up (Season 13 coming out on the first! Yes! But I'm kinda worried about Epsilon)
Well, with that crappy apology out of the way, enjoy the short crappy chapter, I guess..
Jessie slowly raised her head, cautiously searching for whoever threw the knife. "Oh, dear..."
"Is that Felix?" Church asked. "Looks like we have someone to help us take these guys out!"
"Wait.." Wash paused, causing the others to look at him. "Did he just throw that knife at Jessie?"
"Why would he do that?" Donut asked. Everyone slowly turned their heads towards Jessie.
"Why do you keep doing that?" Jessie muttered. She then raised her voice, "Don't we have other things to worry about?" She tilted her head towards the group of space pirates who seemed to be waiting for an order to attack.
"Jessie's right," Tex agreed, "Those space pirates are approaching, so is Felix."
"What are you doing!?" Called Church, staring at the mercenary.
Felix looked at him, "She still hasn't told you?"
"Told us what?" Wash asked slowly, causing a laugh to emerge from Felix.
"Why don't you tell them, then? The whole story, this time," Felix glanced at Jessie.
"Well, uh, you see.," Jessie sighed, "Felix isn't exactly who you think he is..."
"What are you talking about?" Washington demanded, looking between Jessie and Felix.
"Well, since you insist," Felix looked to Wash, "And because that one apparently won't say for some reason," he now looked to Jessie, "Let's just say I'm going to crash your little party going on here. You won't be reaching your destination any time soon."
"Wait, what?" Church put his hands up, "Am I missing something here? Aren't you supposed to helping us?"
"You know, I wish I could see all your faces right now." Felix sighed, "Too bad they're all hidden behind those helmets, I'm telling you, it'd make a great picture!"
"Felix." A new voice entered the conversation. Then, beside Felix, Locus uncloaked himself. "Stop wasting time with talking. We have a job to do."
"He's working with Locus!?" Church exclaimed, flabbergasted. He looked at Jessie, "Why didn't you tell us this!?"
"Sorry?" Jessie gave a shy smile.
"Sorry!? You bothered to explain everything else about this except for Felix? Why is that, anyways?" Church asked her. "I don't know about you, but that's a pretty big detail."
"Uh.. It's just.. I-"
"ENOUGH!" Locus shouted, his voice rumbling through the area. He looked to the space marines, "Attack them. I won't let them get to the Capitol." They all charged.
"Aa!" Jessie screamed, ducking for cover. She turned her head to looked around, finding herself face-to-face with one of the pirates. Or, about ten, upon closer inspection. She froze: she'd normally take one or two, but she wasn't in the right position, and there were more than that. Why were they all after her? She also took a quick glance around and noticed only about two or three fighting the others. They aimed their weapons at her, ready to fire. Ready to kill the one who had caused so many problems for them.
"Jessie."
"Eeek!" Jessie yelped, before realizing no one else had heard it. Am I going crazy?
"No, but you'll be dead if you don't listen."
"Who are you?" Jessie asked, which caused the space pirates to temporarily pause from confusion.
"You forget really fast, don't you? It's Zeta."
Jessie blinked, "Sorry. I kinda forgot you existed there... Where have you been!?"
"Looking around."
"Looking around? What's that supposed to mean!? And why are you inside my head!? I thought you were in my armor!"
"You really do forget things, don't you? Anyways, I've been looking through your mind. You know a lot about what's going to happen, thought I might take a peek."
"Wait, do I have, like, mental versions of everyone?"
"I'll tell you later," Zeta appeared in front of me, also surprising the space pirates and making them pause once more. Zeta gestured towards them, "Go get 'em. I think I've temporarily distracted them."
Jessie nodded, jumping up, the sudden movement snapping her opponents out of it. Jessie backed away, aiming her gun, pulling the trigger. Before she arrived, she wouldn't of tried to kill them, but she's seen enough since then. The bullet hit one in the arm, and they shot back.
"Fuck!" Jessie hissed as it hit her in the leg. She punched them out, moving on to her next target. "Hey, Zeta! Do the aiming thingy!"
"On it!" He replied, and Jessie shot again, hitting one in the head. She ran as far back as she could with her new, and may I say painful, injury. She threw a grenade, showing the space pirates their mistake of being grouped together, as it killed all but two.
Jessie dropped to the ground, groaning in pain. Lucky for her her, Tex shot them both down, running towards her.
"You alright?" The freelancer asked.
"I got shot," Jessie groaned.
Tex searched her and found the wound, "It's not fatal. The armor took a lot of it." She looked back up at her, "You not used to getting shot?"
"Not really.."
"She'll heal in time," Zeta said. "She'll be fine."
"I don't feel fine.." She shook her head, "Where's Felix? And.. Locus?"
"They used a teleportation cube when they realized they were losing. They're gone," Tex answered.
-Line-
"Felix?" I echoed upon hearing Kimball. I spotted her, and she turned to me.
"I haven't seen him since yesterday," she told me. "Great, first we can't contact Washington and his group, then Felix disappears."
"He'll probably be back soon," Mom came over.
"Likely, but what I want to know is where he went," Kimball said.
"Then just ask him when he gets back," Mom suggested, while I silently feared where he may have gone. As the two continued to discuss things on Felix, I slipped away to a more private area. Thinking would be a good thing for me. Especially when there's so much to think about.
I sat down on a rock, sighing as I looked behind me. This was where I was now: far away from home, trapped inside a civil war that shouldn't be here. I knew inside that the Reds and Blues would put an end to all this craziness, because when have they failed? They have skill, and they have luck. That's important. They wouldn't fail. Somehow, even if it seemed that we wouldn't make it, they would win.
-Line-
"We are so going to fail," Jessie muttered to herself as they finished a few repairs to the warthog-like vehicle.
"What makes you say that?" Tex asked her.
"We've been stopped multiple times by these guys! Who knows when they'll actually beat us? Every time they come, we get new injuries, and more reason to become slow in our fighting. They'll have us killed before we're even half way where we need to be."
"You sure do know how to fill us with confidence," Church's sarcasm levels were high.
"It's true, and you know it!"
"I'm not so sure you're right," Washington said. "Mind you, I've lived through about a thousand more things than any normal person can hope to survive. Hell, we all have."
"Except maybe you," Church cut in, pointing at Jessie. "You still just joined us."
"So you're saying we will live through this?" Jessie asked.
Wash answered, "Most of us."
"Most of us? What about the rest?"
"Jessie, it's a miracle we've all survived as long as we have. But we're all going to die someday, and for some of us, this is when. These guys... Most people like them would have died back in the canyon-"
"You take that back!" Sarge ordered.
".. But they're unrealistically lucky."
"Okay, okay. Hold it right fucking there," Church held up a hand. "Lucky!? How the fuck are we lucky? Did you not hear about the time when Caboose shot me with our own tank!?"
"Yes, I heard. But, due to you being an artificial intelligence, you didn't die." Indecipherable muttering escaped Church's... speakers... at Wash's words.
"So you're calling yourself lucky?" Jessie asked, remembering some not-so-lucky things that happened to Washington.
"Well... yes. Sure, having Epsilon in my head wasn't the most pleasant experience, but without him I wouldn't have discovered the truth about Project Freelancer."
"What about your bad experience with cars?" Jessie brought up.
"I still survived all of that."
"Hmph."