[Author's note: Gah. Yay life, distracting me. No update since when...August?! Hoh, crap! . Anyway, FINALLY finished Chapter Four. Now the plot really begins to pick up! Wooo!

Chapter IV
Grunting in Pain

"What do you see?" Tucker asked.

Church glared at the teal soldier from behind the sniper's scope. For all the Blue Team knew Church was a ghost possessing the body of a robot so all Tucker could see was that a cobalt suit facing his direction.

"They're still just talking," Church said impatiently. He returned to his view of the Red Base through the sniper scope. Church and Tucker were both sitting atop their base, spying on the Reds. Their enemy seems to have gotten a new team member but there was no ship to bring this mystery soldier to the Gulch. Naturally, Church and Tucker came out for a closer look. They didn't need the Reds to come at them with an advantage.

The day was like any other and the sun beat down on the Gulch like an African summer. The two soldiers were decked out in full armor, though Tucker had his helmet removed. Church, being his robotic self, had no choice of whether his helmet was off or not.

"What about the new girl?" Tucker asked.

"What new girl?" Church responded, after a minute of thought.

"The one you saw earlier with the pink armor."

"I thought we established that he was a guy?"

"No, the other pink one."

"Oh. I think that's a guy too."

"What? Damn, I was hoping for a chick!"

"You can always fuck Sister."

"She gets boring after a while," Tucker mumbled slightly disappointed. Church stared at the teal soldier a second longer ending the conversation by turning back into the scope.

"I mean," Tucker continued, "She never does anything normal. Like, it's all about new positions and toys..."

"Whoa, whoa! Tucker, shut up!" Church shouted quickly, looking up from the sniper rifle. "The last thing I want to hear is about your sex life! I'm your commanding officer, not your bar buddy!"

"Well, technically you're not my commanding officer, so..."

"Shut up, Tucker." Church peered down the scope to see that the two Red soldiers had left to go inside their base. He sighed and lifted the sniper rifle up, setting its butt on the concrete of the base and resting the barrel by his shoulder. Gazing around he wondered what the hell was going on. This new kid just came out of nowhere. How? They would've heard a ship if it came. It's like he just appeared. Out of thin air! How the hell does that happen?

Frustrated, Church shifted on the concrete so that he was sitting in a more comfortable position.

"CHURCH!"

Church didn't bother to look up, he knew it was Caboose; the most annoying thing in the canyon. He rolled his robotic eyes, not wanting to deal with Caboose's stupidity today. It had started out to be such a nice day! Caboose had wandered away to explore the caves he'd hoped he'd be gone the entire day.

"Look what I found!" Caboose shouted, "Can I keep him?!"

Church and Tucker looked up to see Caboose carrying in his arms a strange, small, struggling creature.

"What the fuck?" Tucker said, standing up.

"Caboose, where did you get that?" Church interjected.

"I found it!" Caboose said proudly, squeezing the thing into a hug causing it to squeak like a chew toy. Church and Tucker approached to get a better look at the strange creature that Caboose was smothering.

It had a strange mask, sort of like a gas mask. Its bald little head made them think of a zombie or some really old man. Its body was small, maybe a foot and a half in height and covered in orange armor with a big hump on its back that came up as a sort of collar on the creature's armor. Its arms were about twice the length of its body. One was flailing around while the other was pinned in Caboose's hug.

"Hey, Caboose," Tucker said, "I think that's like an alien. Like Andy's friend?"

"You mean Fluffy?!" Caboose gasped, "I remember him. I liked him."

"...He tried to kill us," Tucker replied.

"He did? I don't remember that."

"Whatever," Church said, "Just get rid of that thing."

"But Churrrrch!"

"No. You can't keep it."

"Chuuuurrrrch!" Caboose whined.

"No! Now, get rid of it!"

"No!" Caboose cried, carrying his new pet back into the base defiantly.

Church and Tucker shared annoyed glances and followed Caboose into the base, dragging the alien after him. He propped it on the blue couch and pet its balding head happily. Each rough stroke caused its eyes to bulge and the rough growl bubbling at the back of its throat to ramp up a notch. Church would not have been surprised if the creature attacked.

Church then noticed that the little thing was suddenly staring intently at something on the coffee table. He stood up and wandered over following its gaze, finally noticing the sapphire shard they'd found a few days before.

They'd discovered it by the caves glowing with a low level radiation, or at least that's what Doc's scanners picked up. But then again green was the only hue Doc had so for all Church knew it could've just been a rock. Thankfully the medic read well below lethal doses so they were safe. It didn't do much other than give off a mild light so he didn't really care about it at all. Still…

It was at this moment that the little alien used the loose grip that Caboose had over him to lunge out from between the large soldier's armor-clad feet and mount the table to grab at the shard. As the grabbing hand got near the crystal, it vibrated quickly and violently, a vivid flash of cyan light filling the room.

"Fuck!" Church and Tucker shouted simultaneously shielding their eyes. The light was blinding and lasted for only a second but it was several before they could let their hands drop. Church however kept his up. Even as the glare was brightest he felt a pressure materialize against it.

Once his eyes adjusted he stared at his hand. In it rested the shard that seconds before had been on the table.

"What the hell?" he asked no one in particular.

"Whoa, dude!" Tucker exclaimed once he saw the shard in Church's hand, "How'd you do that?"

"…I…didn't." Church turned his gaze to the dazed alien lying on the table. He stood over it, glaring down. "Alright, you little freak. What are you doing here and why do you want this?"

The little creature shook its head, blinking up at Church. It leapt up and Church retreated as it waved its fist, shouting at him in a foreign language that sounded more like incoherent chattering.

"Okay, he doesn't speak English," Church mumbled.

The creature spotted the crystal in Church's hand and its beady little eyes went wide. Jumping to its feet, it charged at Church screeching a crazed alien battle cry.

"You little fucker!" Church shouted as the alien snatched the crystal from his hands and darted from the kitchen, cackling loudly.

Church chased after the alien as it scampered away. The little thing was just jumping off of the base as Church got to the top but the alien's stubby legs were no match for his long strides and quickly caught up.

Just as Church neared the creature, blue bloomed from the shard once more. He clutched at the creature before anything happened, launching forward and tackling the little alien just as the radiance blinded him and he felt the vibrating shard jab into his side, clenched inside the creature's hard knuckled punch.

As it dimmed, Church blinked his robotic eyes multiple times, letting the colors flood back. He looked around to see a very stunned Tucker looking down at him.

"Dude, what the fuck was that?" he asked.

"What?" Church asked, looking to see the alien pinned underneath him squealing in anger. He stood up making sure to keep the creature trapped. Somehow, someway, that shard transported them from outside, to inside. They were back in the base, sprawled under the kitchen table. "What the fuck is up with that crystal?"

Church wrestled it from the creature's grasp and kneeled down to look at him. "Alright, you're gonna have some questions to answer."

: - - - :

"Uhn…"

"Hey!" Donut shouted, "He's awake!"

Shorty mentally cringed at the loud and cheery voice that made his return to consciousness significantly more painful. Why was he so loud? The blue eyes fluttered open as Shorty came to.

"What?" Shorty mumbled.

"Wake up!" Donut shouted. Shorty winced again. He sat up, happy when his head didn't spin. His eyes adjusted to the light at the same time as his ears adjusted to Donut's voice and within a few minutes he was sitting up, drinking a glass of water and chattering loudly with Donut.

"It really hurt, too!" Shorty said, looking at the other team members who had wandered into the room earlier, "…because one minute I was running, and then BANG!—" he clapped his hands for emphasis, "—I was shot in the face!"

Grif raised an eyebrow at Shorty. As he recalled, he saw Shorty run forward, get shot in the leg and then hit a boulder and fall unconscious. After that, Simmons and Donut both rushed out to get the kid off of the course and get him into the disused medical bay. When they got him back he moaned something about a blue shard and Big Foot's cave. After three days of so called treatment, which consisted of paper and bathroom tissue bandages, the kid finally came around but seemed to be rather…different.

"Um…you were shot in the leg," the orange soldier replied.

"Well, it felt like my face!"

"That's because you hit your head on a boulder."

"Are you sure?" Shorty asked groping around his scalp where the make-shift bandages were tied. He felt around until he hit a sensitive lump on his head and he flinched, "Aha! A bump! I was shot in the face!"

"You weren't shot in the face!" Simmons finally snapped.

"Then how do you explain this remaining lump from where you drew out the bullet?!" Shorty said, pointing at the wrong side of his head, grinning widely with the belief that he won the conversation, "I win."

"…That's where you hit your head," Simmons retorted.

"Or where I got shot! In the face!"

"It's not worth the fight, man," Grif said, shrugging and leaving the bedroom.

Shorty looked around, grinning foolishly as Simmons followed Grif out of the small room. Donut was still there and Sarge had never bothered to come in. As far as Shorty knew, Sarge was still outside at the obstacle course. With a sudden urgency that made Donut jump, Shorty whirled around on his bed, pulling his legs up and twirling half way to face the pink-clad soldier.

"So how are you?!" he asked.

"I'm good!" Donut said, jumping onto the bed to sit next to his friend, "What about you?!"

"Fantastic!" Shorty replied, "A little bored, but still."

There was a small pause in the conversation, and after a couple minutes, Donut asked, "Wanna paint our nails?"

: - - - :

"Ah still think it's an evil blue shard of the Blues." Sarge mumbled, fingering the small shard that had come with Shorty to Blood Gulch.

"Makes sense, sir," Simmons added.

"Not really," Grif replied.

"Of course it makes sense," Sarge continued his rant, ignoring the two soldiers, "The Blues are never around, and then this kid comes up with a Blue shard to destroy us from the inside out. Yes, I can see right through his foolish plan!"

At that moment Donut and Shorty came walking in, Donut with bright pink fingernails and Shorty trying to rub the stuff on his own fingers off on his shirt behind him. Simmons stood up from where he was sitting next to Sarge, and addressed Shorty.

"Hey, where exactly were you before you ended up here?" he asked.

Shorty looked up quickly, hiding his painted fingernails behind his back and looking innocent, or at least trying to. He thought about Simmons' question for a minute, his face twisting from thought, to confusion, to frustration. "Well…I don't know," he mumbled, "I remember…coming here, and something about Big Foot, but that's all…Oh! Maybe I was Big Foot before I came here!"

Simmons simply stared in response. "I don't think so."

"Well…it's possible."

"Whoa now!" Sarge shouted, as his hand thrust forward as if it were being pulled by another force, "Evil blue crystal on the loose!"

The shard slipped from his hands and floated in the air like a hover-craft. The soldiers simply stared in disbelief as it slowly began to drift out of the room and out of the base.

"What the fuck was that?" Grif asked.

"I don't know, but we should follow it." Simmons said, motioning for the others.

"Good move, Simmons! Let's follow that Blue shard and expose the evil Blues once an' for all!" With excited resolve, Sarge bounded out of the room, following the floating crystal.

"Hang on!" Shorty shouted, "I gotta grab a few things!" With that, he ran out of the rec room and back into the bedroom that he and Donut shared. The remaining soldiers watched as the loud sounds of crashing and grunting came from the bedroom. Several items flew from the doorway into the wall.

"What is he doing in there?" Grif inquired.

Before anyone answered, Shorty came walking back with his hands full of things he apparently found in the bedroom. "Okay," he said, "We're ready!"

"What is all that stuff?" Donut asked.

"Let's see," Shorty said, looking at it, "Some extra clothes, just in case we don't get back tonight, some toothbrushes and toothpaste. Some nail polish, for obvious reasons. Pots and pans, for cooking. Notebooks and pens in case anyone wants to write some stuff down, and then we got some cups, deodorant, ketchup, a pack of gum, and a map of Peru!"

"Why would we need a map of Peru?" Simmons said hotly.

"In case we get lost!" Shorty said, as if the answer was completely obvious.

"…Whatever," Simmons said, "Look, let's go catch up with Sarge!"

"Yes, sir!"

"And you're leaving that stuff here, Shorty." Simmons left the room, followed by Grif and Donut.

"What! But we need this stuff!" Shorty stammered, trying to follow, stumbling out of the base with his arms full. As he made it near the ramp to the dusty ground, Simmons turned back, grabbed the boy's wrist and gave a big jerk to pull him forward. The stuff fell from his arms and with a yelp. Shorty soon caught up with the group, pursuing the mysterious floating shard.