Fucking PSAs... we want some more episodes Rooster Teeth! Quit teasing us!

Disclaimer: I own no one but my OCs.

Two hours have passed, and still no sign of the Simulation Troopers.

Tex let out an aggravated sigh from her seat on the rock. "Where the hell are they?" Did they get lost on their way here? The coordinates are pretty simple – at least to some of them. Or a couple of them.

Hell, she's still surprised that they would later get organized – it was hard to believe these idiots can do much. Because, seriously, four of the idiots helping out some rebels on a planet? She didn't want to be mean, but… they could most likely get the poor rebels killed before the war is over.

They survived the other things, but Tex had a hard time believing all of that. There are other Simulation Troopers that are better than the ones in Blood Gulch – well, different levels of 'better' – and, well, normal. But these idiots…? She can't see that.

She just can't.

Fifteen minutes have passed, and there's still no sign of them. She let out an irritated sigh. "Maybe I should just invade O'Malley's fortress on my own," she muttered as she stood up.

That was when she heard something. What is it…?

After a moment, she recognized it…but was nonplussed.

Screams? Who would be screaming-?

Then the Warthog landed on the beach. Then it drove a bit before it started to do doughnuts.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! HOW DO I STOP?!" Lone female member of Blue Team screamed.

"PUSH ALL OF THE PEDALS!" Grif shouted. "ALL OF THEM!"

She soon did that, but the moment she did, the Warthog began to tilt dangerously to the left. "AAAHH! LEAN RIGHT! LEAN RIGHT!" Simmons screamed.

They all quickly leaned to the right – sans Caboose ("CABOOSE, LEAN THIS WAY!" Tucker shouted. "Oh," he muttered) before he leaned with them. The Warthog then leaned to the right before it managed to be on all four tires.

The seven passengers sat there in silence, trying to calm themselves.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Sarge turned to the indigo clad woman driving. "Okay, who the hell let her drive?!"

"Don't look at me!" Tucker retorted. "How the fuck was I supposed to know she sucks?!"

"Um… I think I peed on myself," Caboose spoke up.

There are yelps as the Reds and Blue (sans Donut) scrambled to get away from the dim blue as Erica is frozen in her seat. Donut looked over at them. "…Well, I think it was fun," he said.

And then Erica finally let go of the steering wheel and seemed to just die.

Donut just looked over at her. "Hey, are you okay?"

She just tilted her head at him. "Just… just don't let me drive. Ever."

"Okie-doke," Donut simply nodded.

The sound of someone clearing their throat loudly got their attention. Tex had managed to get away from the sand that was flying, with her arms crossed and tapping her foot.

An awkward silence filled the area.

"…Hey Tex," Erica finally said.

"Hey," Tex responded with a bored tone before they looked over at them. "What took you guys so long to get here?"

"Well… there's seven of us, and this is only a three-seater jeep," Simmons explained. "We had to improvise on seating arrangements."

"And someone had a good idea on letting this maniac drive," Grif glared over at Sarge.

"It wasn't me," Sarge said.

"Wasn't me either," Tucker said.

Tex looked over at them. "…So all of you just assumed that she would be able to drive."

"Hey, Grif and I saw the damage she done earlier!" Simmons exclaimed. "They wouldn't believe us!"

"Hey-!" Tucker began until Erica shouted:

"STOP! Just…" She palmed her visor with a groan, then lowered her hand. "Look, let's all agree that I shouldn't drive anything – it doesn't matter what it is, I should not drive anything. Period. Is everyone all right with that?"

They nodded.

Erica nodded and looked to Tex. "Anyways, what did you find?"

Tex nodded – right, back to the plot at hand – and gestured to the fortress near them. "From what I can see, O'Malley's holed up in his fortress," she reported. "He's been fortifying his defenses for a few days now, and he's got some help; one of those religious nuts you guys picked up."

"Oh, I liked them," Caboose grinned. "They were funny."

Tucker gave him a bored look. "Caboose, they tried to kill you and Sarge because of a flag."

"Don't remind me," Sarge grumbled.

Caboose simply shrugged. "I try not to remember the bad things about people."

"That's all they tried to do," Tucker said. "There were no good things."

"Oh, that's okay. I have a really bad memory-" he looked over at the beach and gasped. "Wow! Look, a beach!"

Tex felt a bang of guilt – it was her, Church and O'Malley's fault that he's messed up in the head now… Maybe they shouldn't have a fire fight in there…

"Shut up, Caboose," Sarge ordered, then looked back at Tex. "What's yer plan, Tex?"

Tex pulled out a map and laid it flat on the rock she was sitting on earlier. She gestured to the others to look at the map. "All right, first we have to breach the outer wall…"

"Oh, I love breaching!" Caboose cheered.

'Goddammit…' Erica thought, a blush hidden under her helmet. 'Has Frankie rubbed off on him-? Fuck, I made it worse!'

"…Then, we have to get past another wall," Tex added, pointing to the second wall.

"Two walls?" Grif asked. "Some people are so materialistic."

"The second wall has a guard tower and an enormous razor-sharp spinning blade."

"What, that thing?" Simmons asked incredulously, before looking at the fan further in. "It's spinning like two miles an hour."

"I didn't say that it'd be hard to get past," Tex nodded. "It's what's beyond the fan that's the problem. We have to get pass the gun turrets and break into the building…"

"And then we attack O'Malley," Sarge nodded.

"No," Tex shook her head. "That's when we plant… this!" She gestured to a large, glowing gun-metal green sphere laying near them.

They stared at it. "…We're planting a volleyball," Caboose said.

"You sure?" Sarge asked. "Looks more like a bowling ball to me."

Erica could have sworn that, where the timer is supposed to be, the words 'FUCK YOU' is shown. "Uh…"

"It's not a ball, you two," Tex said. "It's a bomb."

"We're planting a volleybomb?" Caboose asked, scratching his head.

"Let's move on," Erica said, bored.

"Right," Tex nodded. "I've scouted a location inside the base where we can set it off and take the whole place down." She pointed at the drawing of the main structure and tapped at the 'x' on it. "I've marked the spot with a big X already."

Tucker gave a look at her. "So… you scouted it," he said.

"Yeah," she nodded, rolling it up.

"Okay, let me get this straight," Tucker began, holding his hands out parallel to each other. "You got past the two walls, the huge spinning blade, the gun turrets, and made it all the way into the fortress, right?" Tex nodded. "If you did all of that, why didn't you just plant the bomb instead of putting a big 'X' on the floor?"

Tex froze. "Uh…"

Erica looked at them then at the wall. "Well…" she rubbed her chin. "She only got in once, but O'Malley has been in her head for a while. So maybe he would be more wary of someone trying to sneak in there the second time, assuming that Tex didn't make the bomb until she called us. She would have a hard time being able to carry it while sneaking past the defenses again."

"…Good point," Tucker nodded.

If Tex could, she could have shot Erica a grateful look. Because, as embarrassing as it sounds, the bomb is…really, really heavy. It has to be, to be effective. That and… it was made from her, um, 'personal' items.

Sarge then went over to the bomb. "Well, we might as well take it with us now," he said, kneeling down to pick it up. "That way we can-" he cut himself off as he tried to pick it. He blinked and tried to pull it up with all of his might. "HURRRRR!"

'…I hope he doesn't fart,' Erica thought randomly as they watched the Red soldier trying to lift the bomb. 'Or at least, accidentally shit his pants.'

Finally, Sarge gave up and stood up, panting. "D-Damn. It's heavy. Too damn heavy."

"Oh c'mon, it can't be that heavy," Grif said before he went over to it. "Here, let me try."

Sarge moved out of the way to let Grif have at it.

The orange soldier grabbed it and pulled a bit. He blinked. "What the?" He pulled again a few times then tried to pull with all his might… and he panted. "W-What the fuck?! How heavy is this?"

Tex shrugged. "If you want the bomb to be effective, it has to be pretty heavy."

"Wait, so even you can't carry it?" Tucker asked her. Tex stared at him, and he shuffled away nervously. "Uh… okay, okay. It's normal…"

"Oh! Let me try!" Caboose called out, running up to the bomb.

"Yeah, if Sarge can't lift it, I don't think you can-" Simmons was about to say until Tucker cut him off with:

"Nah, let him. He's got crazy strength – Church and I think it is God's way of compensating."

As if to prove Tucker right, Caboose reached down, took the bomb in both hands and lifted it up as easily as he would lift an actual volleyball. "See?" He grunted.

"Great Paul's Bunions!" Sarge cried out. "He's like an ox!"

"But I have no horns, or lumberjack friends," the Blue grunted.

Erica lifted her hand. "Mikey, you don't have to carry it all the time," she said. "Just set it down for now."

"Okay," Caboose nodded before he put it down. He let out a sigh of relief.

Sarge grunted. "Well, I suppose it'll be a good idea to rest…" he muttered, reluctantly. He looked over at Tex. "Alright, then we'll storm in there, blow up O'Malley, leave Grif for dead, and maybe find some clues about what happened to Church and Lopez."

"You mean your robot?" Tex said. She jabbed her thumb at the building. "He's in there with him."

"Wait, what?" Sarge cried out. "Lopez is in the building?"

"Yup," Tex nodded simply.

"In that case, we can't blow up the place!"

"What? Why not?" Tucker cried out.

Sarge's grey eyes shifted under the helmet. "Well…I don't want to get into it, but it's very important that we don't blow up Lopez."

"I hate to break it to you, but when I saw him, he was just a head," Tex informed him.

The Reds (sans Donut) stared at her for a bit. "O…kay, then we can't blow up Lopez's head," Sarge said.

"What, Lopez has some info that's valuable to you guys?" Erica deadpanned (even though she knew that the message is trash).

"Uh…" The Reds droned out.

Erica rolled her eyes under her helmet. "Give me a break."

"Yeah, well, sorry, but I'm going with the bomb," Tex said. "But you know, here's an idea: Maybe you could find your buddy's head in the rubble once we're done here."

"Oh come on," Grif let out. "We can't lift a bomb but we can dig through rubble?"

"Look," Tex held up her hand. "I don't care how important it is – I'm not going to let O'Malley get away this time."

Tucker groaned. "Look, if it'll make you guys feel better, just hire her."

"Wait, what?" Grif blinked.

"Hire her to help you get Lopez back," Tucker explained. "I mean, she was hired to get our flag back when she first got to Blood Gulch."

Simmons tapped his chin. "I think I recall you saying that back at Sidewinder."

"Yeah," Erica nodded. "She takes either money or a favor to trade; either way, she'll help you guys out with Lopez."

"That's right," Tex nodded.

"So… we just hire you and trade in a favor?" Simmons asked.

"Yup."

"Then we'll take it," Sarge said.

"What?" Grif exclaimed.

"Okay," Tex nodded.

"WHAT?!" Grif cried out. "But- wait, hold on. What do we have to do for her?"

"Well, it all depends," Tex shrugged. "It might be for a future job."

"But… it could be anything, right?"

"Oh yeah, anything," Erica nodded.

Grif stared at them. "Like… gay stuff?"

"Maybe," Erica shrugged. Everyone stared at her. "Err- I mean, I don't know!"

"Smooth," Tex muttered.

"Oh hush."

Tucker snickered a little as Simmons and Grif glared at Erica.

Tex rolled her eyes. "Okay, if it'll make you two feel better, we can rule out the gay stuff, all right?"

"Okay," Grif said, (both him and Simmons sighing in relief).

Tucker shook his head. "That is just sad man."

"Okay, everyone, we're heading out in five minutes!" Tex called out. "Take the time to get yourselves ready and prepped for our battle ahead! Are we clear?"

"Yes/Hai!" Tex didn't have to know who it was that said the last part.

"Okay, dismissed."

~o~

As the others did their own thing, I found myself drawn to the shore near Zanzibar. I stood a couple of feet from the water and pulled off my helmet. I was really, really tempted to just… take off my boots, dig my toes into the sand and just… stand there and let the water roll in and wash over my feet as I just stare out. Letting the wind blow through my hair, and just… listen to the waves.

…It's funny. When I think of 'beach', I think of a moment like this. No crowds, no hazards or… anything in general. Just… peace and quiet.

A place of serenity, a place where you can relax and not worry about anything.

It's… my hakuna matata. And yes, I've watched the Lion King back when I was little.

I feel that nothing's going to ruin it-

"Hey."

I let out a sigh. 'Moment's ruined.' I looked over at Tex. "Yeah?"

"You alright?" She asked. "You've been staring out in the distance for two minutes."

I felt a smirk forming. "That's not like you to worry."

"Well, you guys are technically my employers," she said, crossing her arms. "If anything bad happened to you guys, I won't get my pay."

"Right…" I rolled my eyes and looked out at the distance again. "You Freelancers are complicated." I pulled off my helmet.

Oh god, the sea wind is niiiiiice…

I heard a hiss and looked over at Tex. "Damn… your face is fucked."

I blinked. "Is it really that bad?"

"Well, yeah," she replied. "You were literally close to the blast – not to mention that I recently learned that you took a beating from Omega."

Really? Is it- is it really that bad? I lightly touched my face a bit before looking over at my reflection in my visor.

Ooooh….damn.

I have burn marks on my face, and some scars from where the glass from my old helmet pierced my skin…

It… must have took a while for them to heal up.

I looked over at Tex. "Did… Were we really in medical treatment for three months?"

She shrugged. "Apparently. I heard a lot of things that were going on out there in the war. The Elites have revolted against the Covenant after the Prophets' betrayal, and we later learned that the 'Halos' they were trying to locate to start the 'Great Journey' were designed to wipe out all life."

"Damn."

"I know," Tex nodded. "But a lot of people don't exactly trust the Elites."

"Well… on some parts, I don't blame them," I shrugged. "They were the 'monsters' that helped kill a lot of humans, part of a lot of 'monsters' that tried to kill off all humans."

Tex gave me a look. "That's some emphasis on 'monsters'."

I gave a look back at her. "Humans are also capable of being monsters themselves. Though there are those that try to do 'good', the temptation to do bad things is just… high. Even if we held back our need to destroy things, if we kept bottling it up, it will not be pretty." I looked out to the ocean. "Humans can be good or bad… a lot of them choose to be bad, because… it's, well, easier. In certain jobs, people abuse their authority to get what they want, believing that, with a badge and fancy items on you, you're untouchable." I looked back at her. "There are a lot of things wrong with humanity Tex. You know it, and I know it. There are really few people who are genuinely good, and there are a lot of people that act 'good' but are really bad deep down. And you also just got people that are just plain bad. Sure there are some that have a chance to be redeemed, but… for some, they don't choose redemption; they just… kept doing these things because it's easier. And there are a lot of people who would rather take the 'easy' path and not work their way up with hard work and dedication." I sighed. "Times like these… I hate humans. But… I'm human too. At times, I wish I was something else that isn't a 'human'… but to come down to it, I'm kind of…selfish. Or… a lot. It's a human thing. I guess what makes me feel better is that… I'm me. There's only one 'me' and I'd rather be 'me' than someone else. You can change a lot of things about yourself – outside appearances and such – but you can never really change who you are on the inside. And I think that's important, you know? To have your own identity and not be a 'being' that someone else wants you to be… I think that's better than anything else – to have someone accept you for who you are and not of other things you have. Yeah…"

There was silence.

"…Wow, you really can be philosiphal," Tex deadpanned.

"Sorry," I gave a sheepish smile.

"And the part where you have your own identity…"

It took me a few seconds to register what I said and remember about what Tex is. "Oh… I-uh- I-I'm sorry. I didn't-"

And then, she chuckled. "Don't worry about it. You didn't mean it."

I stared at her. "Uh…"

"Did I break you?"

A few seconds is all it took for me to come up with my answer. "…Yeah."

Wow… that was great (sarcasm).

"By the way, you just killed two minutes with your talking," Tex added. "We have a minute left."

It took five seconds for it to register. "Wait, really?"

"Yup."

"Well shit."

"Anyways, I originally came to you to give you this," she then handed me something in a small black case.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Just take it and see."

I did as I was told and opened it. I stared. "…Whoa."

In it was a pair of new glasses. It didn't look fancy or anything… but it seems to resemble my old (still broken) pair.

I pulled them out. "Where did you get this?"

"Someone gave them to me," she replied.

I looked up at Tex. "Who?"

"She didn't say." 'She'?

…Well, I better not complain; or question it. At least I can see again. That's a plus.

I put my helmet between my thighs and placed my glasses on.

Oh god! I can see things clearly again! I can see the windmill! I can see the Reds fucking around with the Warthog and Lav and Mikey doing…something.

Still… I can see.

"Well, you're happy," Tex's voice broke me out of my thoughts.

I looked at her. "I am happy."

"Well good," Tex said. "Because it's time to go."

…Oh.

She walked forward and hollered: "Okay! It's time to go everyone!"

I took my helmet in my hands and sighed. "Well, the calm's over," I muttered, before carefully putting it on. "Back to chaos." I paced behind Tex as they began to go over the battle plan one more time before our assault.

…Let's hope we can survive this.

Well... that happened. I don't know what else to put on here, so here's a short chapter. Sorry that it couldn't be longer.

As for the poll... uh, I have no idea how long I'll keep it up; I may have to do other polls on who Erica will have a some romance with, but at this point, who knows.

Get prepared for some action.

Leave a review please.