Church's Crusade #23: The Penny has dropped
Several months had passed since what Paul had called "The Battle of the Gulch" had taken place. Church looked about and smiled to himself. Everyone seemed to be doing something they enjoyed. Doc had been getting transmissions of medical journals sent to him in an attempt to become a real doctor. Caboose and Anna could be seen walking about holding hands, both with silly smiles on their faces and no one had seen Tucker and Sister in days. Paul was busy messing about with the pieces of machinery they had managed to salvage from the rift in the centre of the canyon. And then there was Rourke. No one was really sure what he was doing, but whatever it was it seemed to be putting a huge smile on his face.
Yes, everyone seemed to be having the time of their lives.
Except him.
He knew he should be happy that everything was peaceful in the canyon, that their hadn't been any incidents with the Reds.
But he couldn't. Whenever there was a long period of quiet like this, something awful had always been just around the corner. The last time it had happened Tex had got on a ship that was later blown up.
Something was going to happen, he could feel it…
Anna looked at their entwined fingers, then looked up at Caboose and smiled.
"So,' she asked, 'What shall we do today?"
Caboose smiled back before replying, "Well, I thought we could go for a walk and hold hands. Then later we could make some muffins and have a glass of orange juice. Do you think that would be a good idea?"
Anna laughed, "That does sound like an interesting-", Anna spun around as she heard something shifting behind her. She watched as several small pebbles slid off of a nearby slope, while her hand reached up to pull the sniper rifle from her back. She scanned the slope, looking for whatever had caused the slip. Behind her she could feel Caboose tense as he muttered to himself, "Kittens. Kittens covered in spikes. Evil kittens covered in spikes!"
Anna looked about and finally spotted the figure, slipping through the rocks, rifle in hand. They were wearing indigo armour. Anna raised her rifle and fired.
The bullet flew from the barrel, sped towards the figure's head…and passed straight through it.
Anna swore and spun about, just in time to see an indigo blur rushing towards her. She tried to aim her weapon, but a fist smashed into her face and caught her rifle as she fell. She heard the clicks of two weapons and looked up to see a pistol pointed into her face while the sniper was trained on Caboose. Anna tried to stand, but as she straightened lights seemed to explode in front of her eyes and a wave of pain swept through her skull. She sat back quickly and glanced up at the indigo figure. The first thing she noticed was that her assailant was undoubtedly female. The armour she wore was of a lighter variety than that that the Blood Gulch teams had access to, more figure fitting. She was tall, just a few inches shorter than Caboose and she held both weapons perfectly steady.
The attacker looked at both of them then said, "Sig, keep watch for a moment would you?" Anna thought she was talking to herself until a semi-transparent indigo figure stepped out of the armour of the woman. As the image kept watch, the woman put away her pistol and pulled of her helmet. A wealth of deep malt-brown hair fell out and reached down to her shoulders. She shook her head a few times, until her hair had settled comfortably on her shoulders then looked at the image, "Thanks Sig, that's all for now." As the image vanished, the woman turned and pointed the sniper at Caboose's head, "Right, now your going to come answer my questions. And if you don't,' she jerked her head in Anna's direction, 'Your girlfriend gets it. Do we understand each other?"
Without answering, Caboose reached forward, gripped the sniper barrel and quite casually bent it until it was facing skyward.
The woman swore, then swung the rifle about and brought it into the side of Caboose's head. As the big blue went down, she drew out her pistol again and brought it up, ready to fire at Caboose. However, her finger had barely touched the trigger when a bolt of cobalt plasma smashed into the weapon, melting the barrel and fusing the mechanisms.
Anna looked about and saw the air ripple as Church dropped his invisibility and appeared out of thin air. The indigo woman swore, drawing her knife then suddenly became a blur of speed dashing towards Church.
Church stood perfectly still until a second before she reached him, then he suddenly sprung forward, his fist catching her in the stomach. She was knocked back several feet, but managed to roll and come to her feet then launched herself at Church, knocking him off his feet in the process. They began to roll about in the dirt kicking and punching at each other, trying to get the upper hand. At one point the woman managed to get her hands on Church's helmet and pull it off of him. Church kicked her off him and she sprawled in the dirt before flipping herself to her feet. Church rose too, though somewhat more sedately.
The woman threw herself across the intervening feet, knife in hand. Church grabbed her wrist as she tried to stab him through the eye. She glared at him and swung a second knife up, trying to stab upwards through his jaw. Church caught this wrist as well and stared into her face. She stared back angrily, "Oh your good."
Church smiled pleasantly at her then brought her wrist up so that the knife ran up through his mouth and into his head. He grinned at her look of horror before head-butting her. She fell unconscious to the ground. Church nudged her with his foot as he pulled out the knife, "You have no idea…"
Church strode back and forth across the room before stopping in front of the figure tied onto the chair, "So, who are you, why are you here and why did you attack Anna and Caboose?"
The woman looked up and glared at Church, "Alright, my name is none of your business, I'm here looking for a friend and I attacked them because the girl tried to shoot me. Now for my question. What the fuck are you?"
Church smiled, "Me? I used to be human, then Caboose happened and now…I'm not."
"Well, whatever you are, I would advise you to let her go,' said a new voice.
Church smiled to himself, "Ahhh so you're a Freelancer. Which State do you represent?"
The woman stared at him, "What? You have a guy pointing a gun at your head and you want to know which state I represent? And how the hell did you know I was a Freelancer?"
Church laughed, "For starters there isn't anything with a body behind me. I can't sense any solid matter which means that thing is either a ghost or a hologram."
The Freelancer snorted, "There no such thing as ghosts."
"I could offer evidence to the contrary."
"Whatever."
"Anyway, seeing as you don't seem to believe in ghosts, we will have to conclude that it is a hologram. Now the only person I have ever heard of who could do that was a Freelancer who went by the name York. So you must have at least known him. And seeing as your armour seems to give you super speed, I'd say that that is your Freelancer special ability. Am I right?"
The woman was staring at Church thoughtfully when a look of recognition spread across her face, "Hey I know you! You're Church, Tex's ex-boyfriend."
Church stiffened then nodded.
"Please you've gotta tell me, where is Tex?"
Church's face was expressionless as he replied, "Tex, along with Freelancer's Wyoming, Carolina and York, is dead."
"Oh fuck."
"You going to tell me who you are now?"
The woman looked thoughtful for a moment then nodded, "Freelancer Pennsylvania, Penny for short. AI Sigma, prefers the name Sig."
Church looked at her calmly, "Well Penny, would you care to tell me why you are searching for Tex…"
The characters Church, Caboose, Tucker, Simmons, Sarge, Grif, Sister, Donut and Doc are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions.