[Author's note: Gah! Sorry for the late late entry, but I finally have it done! As well, I've got some of the third chapter done and I'm gonna work on it tonight if I get time. Good news, it's the summer, which means more time! Yay! Joy! So, hopefully, that means more chapters sooner and less time in between. So...here we go.

Chapter II
The Red Team

It was just past midnight and the soldiers of Red Base were sleeping silently in their rooms. Sarge was snoring soundly, Grif was grunting in his sleep like an ape, Simmons didn't make so much as a rustle in his bed, Donut was mumbling something about thongs in his sleep, and Lopez was in the kitchen plugged into the wall like always. All the curtains were drawn, all the doors closed to preserve the darkness that they rarely saw in Blood Gulch.

The Red Base was rudely awakened when an earthquake rocked the building to its foundations. Each member shot upright in their beds when this rumble flew through the ground—there was a loud, castrati-like scream from the pink soldier when a cyan light flashed through the entire base, illuminating the main rec room, shining brightly under the soldier's doors. Then, silence—there was nothing but the darkness left, the members stayed in their room, listening. They didn't know what to think or what to do; all they knew is that everything was hopefully back to normal. But…was it?

Seen through the cracks of the doors, the lights from the rec room blinked on. Each soldier tensed, knowing that there was someone—or something—inside the base besides themselves. Naturally Sarge was the first to act: he stood quickly and grabbed the rifle that was leaning next to his bed. He crossed the small room in three large strides and he leaned on the wall next to his door, ready to spring out. Then, just as the hall lights illuminated him through the door, Sarge was ready to make his move. He eased the door as the intruder passed, and that was when Sarge sprang into action and leapt from the room.

"Hold it right there!" he barked in his gruff, Southern accent.

Chikt, Chikt.

Sarge cocked his rifle and pointed it at the intruder to the Red Base. The man was momentarily surprised to see that the enemy was short, at least half a head shorter than him, maybe more; even more confusing was how the short enemy actually looked frightened, of all things. Despite this, Sarge regained his composure in a matter of milliseconds, and was ready to fire.

"Simmons!" Sarge shouted, waiting for his right hand to pop out of his room. Seconds later, Dick Simmons appeared in the doorway, his brown hair in a large tangled mess, a robotic hand scratching his scalp. He was flustered and cranky-looking, like most people when they were rudely awakened.

"Yes, sir?" Simmons asked drowsily.

"Simmons, what do you make of this?" Sarge asked, jerking the gun barrel to motion at the young boy.

It was in that moment that Grif came out in his white tank-top and orange polka-dot boxers, annoyed at being woken up. The boy stood frozen on the spot with his hands thrust up in the air, hoping not to get shot. It was obvious that he was not only confused, but frightened out of his wits—one minute he was in his bed, the next he was in a strange cement place with a gun in his face, something that obviously didn't happen to him every day.

"What the fuck is going on out here?" Grif asked, shifting his gaze to Corey, who was still holding his hands up in surrender, still staring at the gun barrel at his face. "Oh, I'm going back to bed."

"It's a minor, sir," Simmons finally replied once Grif had shut his door.

"A whut?"

"A minor," Simmons repeated. That was when Donut came out of his hole; he popped his head out first peering warily around his door. His blond hair was long and obnoxiously in the way of most of his face. He pushed it out of the way and stared at Sarge and Simmons before looking to Corey.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, deciding it was safe when he saw the teenage boy. "Hi!" Donut said rather cheerily walking out to stand next to the boy and offer a hand-shake.

Corey looked wide-eyed to Donut, and then back to Sarge and Simmons and then back to Donut.

"Um… Hi?" he said nervously. Corey then slowly and cautiously lowered his hands to shake Donut's hand awkwardly, but Sarge violently thrust the gun forward and the young boy instinctively shoved them back into the air.

"I bet he's a blue!" Sarge shouted suddenly, as if realizing something completely obvious. "A spy!"

"Sir, he's thirteen," Simmons concluded frankly.

"I'm…sixteen," Corey responded tentatively to Simmons, but quickly quieted himself when Sarge thrust the gun forward again.

"Speak again and die, Blue!" Sarge shouted thrusting his gun forward again. Corey jumped back a little with a small gasp of fear.

"Sarge? I don't think he's a Blue," Donut said looking at the teenager and then back to his commanding officer. "He's a little young to be in the army."

"He must be a blue! It makes perfect sense!" Sarge said triumphantly.

"It does?"

"Yes! He came in a flash of blue light! That must mean he's a blue! If he wasn't, the flash would be red!"

"That doesn't make any sense!" Corey protested, raising his voice in panic and trying to keep himself from getting shot.

It didn't work, however; Sarge simply glared for half a second and fired a shot, but luckily the man was so consumed with his rant over the newcomer that he entirely missed. Corey screeched, ducked under Sarge's flailing shotgun and jumped behind Simmons, who jerked around in surprise.

"Fuck!" Grif's own panicked squeal echoed down the hall from his room.

"Simmons!" Sarge said, whirling around and aiming his gun toward Corey again. "Move over so I can shoot the Blue!"

"No, Simmons, don't move!" Corey shouted back, cowering behind the taller man, closing his eyes and covering his head to not get shot.

Turning back to Sarge, Simmons said, "Sir, I don't think we should shoot the kid," This caused a gasp from Donut. Simmons disagreeing with Sarge was like Grif eating vegetables. It never happened at Red Base, let alone for a person they've never met!

"Wait, what was that?" Suddenly, Grif stalked from his room again. "What did I just hear? Who the hell are you and what did you do with the real Simmons?"

Corey was amazed by the sudden blank look that had appeared on Sarge's face. "…Does he always do that?" Corey asked, looking around Simmons cautiously, wondering if he might get shot.

"I think he must've busted a fuse," Grif said, looking at Sarge and then back at Simmons. "Your disagreeing with him was probably the final thing to make his head finally snap. Probably will be there for the next few weeks or so trying to figure out what happened."

"Okay," Corey trailed off, visibly shaking from the shock of nearly getting a bullet slammed forcefully through his gut, "What the hell is going on here?"

Corey looked from each member of the Red Team, and that's when it suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. Simmons… Grif… Sarge… and Donut… Red vs Blue!

"Wait a minute," Corey began speaking aloud, to no one in particular. "Red vs Blue!"

The Red team stared at him like he was crazy, which to them he was. You would think someone was crazy if they just randomly started shouting 'Red vs Blue' at you too.

"Red vs Blue! How am I in Red vs Blue!?" Corey began his rant quickly, not really caring about the others, beginning to pace back and forth behind Simmons, "It doesn't exist, does it? Well, obviously it does if I'm here, but what if this is just a dream?"

"What the fuck is he talking about?" Grif asked, looking to the other two members of his team who were staring at the kid pacing. Sarge still had that stunned look on his face.

"—Quick, someone pinch me!" Corey said, thrusting his arm out towards Simmons.

Simmons stared at the kid, back to Grif and Donut, and then switched his gaze back to the teenager. "Who the hell are you and how did you get here?"

"Uh…" Corey stopped and thought for a moment, and at the moment, his name escaped him. He was too overcome with shock at where he was to think about things like a name! There was a small pause, and he wasn't sure what to think, until he was reminded. "Oh, my name is Corey…and I don't…know."

Corey stopped and stared at the floor, and then looked at the shard that was still in his hand. "This brought me!" he declared, showing it. "One minute I was in my bed at home, and the next I was here getting shot at by that guy…is he going to be okay, by the way?" Corey asked, pointing to Sarge.

"Yeah, he should be," Simmons said looking back, "He'll just stand there and soon enough he'll come around and—"

"Simmons!" Sarge suddenly shouted, lifting up his rifle to point back at Corey causing the boy to cringe at the sudden movement. "Help me kill the Blue spy!"

"I'm not a Blue!" Corey insisted.

"Yes you are! It's a conspiracy! The Blues used their age-defying ray of Blue to take one of their members and reduce their age and then transport the now young member to our base to infiltrate us and slowly take us down from the inside out!"

"…that doesn't make any sense," Corey responded to Sarge's theory.

"That's just what a Blue would say!" Sarge shouted in triumph—to him, his logic was undeniable!

"I'm not a Blue!" Corey nervously shouted. Stepping back to cower behind Simmons again, hoping that Sarge wouldn't shoot him through Simmons. That would be bad.

"Sarge," Simmons started, "Maybe we should let the kid stay—"

"—No!—"

"—for a couple"

"—No!—"

"—days.."

"—No!"

"Sarge, if worse comes to worse, we can always shoot the kid anyway," Grif reasoned.

"What?!" Corey shouted, "I'd rather not get shot!"

Sarge glared about at his soldiers, it was apparent he didn't want to let this new teenager person to be alive in their base, let alone stay with them for a few days. "…NO!"

Sarge proceeded to fire his gun wildly. Corey jumped and squealed in fear as he spun around and kicked off from where he was hiding behind Simmons. The young teenager bolted into a sprint and ran straight down the hall and slid around the corner that led into the kitchen.

"Quick, men!" Sarge shouted, running after the teenager, "He's gettin' away!"

Corey scrambled around the corner and around the table, tripping over the chairs and landing in a corner by the door to the outside. Sarge came running into the kitchen, gun blazing as a lick of flame leapt from the barrel. Corey looked around quickly and tried jerking the door open. As the heavy metal panel in the wall opened up light flooded into the room, blinding those in it. Corey did his best to ignore the light and dived through the door, scurrying up the ramp to the top of the base.

"Lopez! Quick, activate and get your ass over here!" Sarge shouted, shielding his squinting eyes from the light, "We have a Blue to destroy!!"

"Si?" Lopez inquired, quickly popping up behind the Sergeant. Sarge instructed his robotic companion to follow him up the ramp after the teenage intruder that so rudely popped into their base. Though the organic one of the two was the first to go through the door, he was the last to reach the top of the base—Lopez was a robot and therefore unaffected by the blinding sunlight. He naturally took the lead.

When Corey's eyes finally adjusted as he reached the top of the base, he turned to see a brown-clad soldier charging up shooting aimlessly toward him, followed closely by Sarge who, as well, was shooting. Corey shouted again and dived out of the way, landing somewhere near the ramp that led to the ground of the base.

"Die, Blue!" Sarge shouted loudly, firing his rifle aimlessly.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

"Shit!" Corey shouted as he dived forward, rolling head-first down the ramp and landing in a cloud of dust on the sandy ground of Blood Gulch. Corey then, in his momentum turned himself to land and crawl to the outside of the base, sitting in the dirt awkwardly, as he hid from Sarge.

"Sarge, wait!" Donut shouted, running up the ramp to the top of the base, followed soon by Simmons and Grif. Both were staggering as they tried to shrug off sleep, wondering why they were even giving a fuck about this random kid. "You don't want to kill him!"

"Yes I do!" Sarge argued, stalking slowly down the ramp, followed by Lopez. "Lopez, let's take him out."

"No!" Corey protested from behind the corner. The young teenager was sitting, back against the wall and hugging his knees, shoving his head down between them to somewhat protect himself from the bullets, not that losing his legs would do anything remotely helpful to his future.

"Sarge, No!" scolded Donut, as if he were talking to a misbehaved child, "No! Bad Sarge!"

"Shaddap, princess." Sarge grumbled, turning to the pink solder, preparing to order the soldiers back into the base. He looked back to Lopez, who had also stopped next to him.

"Sarge, I think Donut is right," Simmons piped up, "We shouldn't shoot the kid."

"Besides,"Grif said, shrugging, "If we need to we can shoot him later."

"What!?" Corey shouted, popping his head around the corner of the base. He soon shrunk back when Sarge fired another bullet toward him with another shout of 'die!'

"Sarge—think about it," Simmons reasoned, crossing the length between him and Sarge and squeezing between Lopez and his commanding officer, "We could use him for our own use, we can threaten him. It's like… using the Blue's member against them."

Sarge thought this idea over a bit, before snapping his fingers in triumph. "I have a better idea! We can use him for our own use by threatening him to help us against the Blues!"

"Anciano estúpido," [Stupid old man,] Lopez's monotonous voice mused, his helmet shooting Sarge a glare, or at least as much as a glare a Spanish robot without a face can muster.

"Hey, Shorty! Get out here! I won' shoot ya." Sarge said, turning back to the corner of the wall.

Corey didn't listen.

"I said come out!" Sarge said again.

Still no answer.

"Come out or I'll shoot you!" Sarge yelled.

"Okay, Okay!" Corey finally said, standing up and warily walking out, scratching his head, "What do you want?"

"You're gonna stay with us, Shorty—and no trouble, or you die!" Sarge rambled, "You're gonna help us with the devil Blues!"

"…Shorty?" Corey asked skeptically, unsure of the strange nick-name that Sarge had given him.

"…and if you try anything, I'll shoot you where you stand!" Sarge finished. "Alright, Dirtbags! Back to sleep!" Sarge announced striding back toward the base proudly. Lopez muttered another obscenity toward Sarge in Spanish, before stiffly following him back into the dark base.
Grif followed Sarge soon after, leaving Corey to stare at Donut and Simmons. "Um…" Corey said before the two could head into their base,

"Where do I go?"

"Well…" Simmons mumbled, "All the rooms are full…"

"You can bunk with me!" Donut gasped, "It'll be just like a slumber party!"

"Um.." Before Corey could get a word in edgewise, Donut had grabbed his wrist and dragged him down into the base at a half run toward Donut's bedroom. Passing through the kitchen, the rec room and then into the hall, Corey nearly found himself tripping from the constant running over the objects that scattered the base.

"Alright!" Donut said, as they entered his room, "We'll need blankets and pillows and then some games would be good too, and…"

Donut began a long ramble about pointless things that Corey obviously didn't understand. Instead, he leaned against a wall as Donut tossed things randomly out of the closet, things including blankets and pillows, and a few board games.

"Yeah." Corey mumbled once Donut had finished, "So…mind explaining a few things to me?"