Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.
Chapter Five:
The lieutenants were already waiting for Washington at the gates leading out of Chorus. Much to his chagrin, the blond couldn't help but sigh loudly at the sight when he also spotted a familiar suit of yellow armor amongst them.
Honestly, Kaikaina Grif only worked with the recruits two days a week, but her schedule was pretty sporadic every week to match her personality. The older soldier really needed to remind Bones to send a message his way whenever she and her apprentice decided on the weekdays that the medic-in-training would be joining their group for additional drills.
…Or, better yet, have them pick out a consistent schedule that they could stick to. That way, Wash would know when it was best to bring out his migraine medicine or, better yet, have something "urgent" pop up.
At first, the group didn't notice his presence, so engaged in conversation as they were with one another. All save Bitters that is, who was sulking disinterestedly close by all the same.
Andersmith was currently talking, his deep voice hushed but most definitely tinged with worry as he remarked: "Captain Caboose was beside himself with worry because Freckles had played dead and he thought he was sick."
"I thought playing dead was one of their favorite games." Palomo looked puzzled at the conversation, having actually been the butt of said game before.
The kid had nearly had a heart attack when he had picked up a gun lying haphazardly on the floor. Said gun had suddenly spat out confetti and talked to him while Caboose laughed from behind a crate. Admittedly, Freckles had thought it less fun when the supply-runner dropped him a second later.
"When they plan it, yes." Andersmith's voice was still somber, "But last night Captain Caboose had been almost certain Freckles had actually died."
"You mean because of that weird power outage?" Jensen asked inquisitively.
This particular thread of conversation certainly piqued Wash's interest, and so he decided to let them carry on with it for just a little while longer before making his presence known. After all, he had been a bit unnerved by the power outage himself.
If it had affected not only everything connected to the power grid at Chorus, but Virtual Intelligences housed within their own self-powering bodies as well? Well, sufficed to say that could indeed be extremely worrisome.
"That's not all." Andersmith continued, "We ran to find Sarge to get him to look over Freckles, but evidently he was looking over Sheila and Lopez for the same reason too."
"They also just shut down while the blackout happened?" Matthews sounded alarmed.
"Then they came back online like nothing even happened seconds later." Jensen concluded, a thoughtful and analytical look clouding over her features, "Interesting."
"Sarge wasn't able to find anything out either." The older lieutenant noted, shaking his head sadly, "Poor Captain Caboose hugged his friend the entire night."
"You mean he slept with his gun?" The sheer ridiculousness of the notion was enough to get even Bitters to comment.
Kai scoffed and waved her hand at the question indifferently, "It's no big deal! Caboose and the crazy old guy do it all the time!"
While Bitters only gaped at her comment, Volleyball sighed and shook her head, "Well, I'm just glad it seems like they're all back to normal now."
Palomo nodded in agreement, smiling helpfully, "Yeah, I bet it was just a onetime thing. No biggie."
Wash sighed to himself. They could certainly hope that was the case, at any rate.
He made a mental note to talk to Sarge later though, as well as the three Virtual Intelligences. He also decided to check up on Caboose as well, as no doubt Andersmith was already planning to do so the second they were done here.
Which brought him back to the current situation at hand that required his focus. Clearing his throat loudly, he waited for the younger soldiers to stand at the ready. It only took a few seconds, after which Wash turned to nod at Andersmith.
"I heard the last part of your conversation, Lieutenant Andersmith," the blond informed him, "And it actually falls in line with our exercise today."
The group exchanged curious glances at one another as Wash continued to inform them: "This training exercise will be a bit different from the norm. As you know, there were some odd power fluctuations all over Chorus last night." When they quickly looked at one another again, he promptly tried to reassure them with more confidence than he himself had currently, "Don't worry. It doesn't appear to have been anything too serious this time."
He continued when it looked as if the rookies weren't going to interrupt, "But it actually had me thinking that today would be an excellent opportunity to have you all check out the shield generators over on the outside of the walls. In order to help you get used to checking for outside tampering."
When no one said anything, Wash tilted his head slightly to regard them, "I know that General Kimball placed you into groups yesterday for future training, so you should get into those pairs now and split up the checkpoints amongst yourselves." He glanced over his shoulder at the imposing gate barring outside entrance to the city, "We'll meet back at the main entrance following the completion of your assignment."
Andersmith and Volleyball broke off into a pair, as did Jensen and a rather ecstatic-looking Palomo.
That left a nervous Matthews with a rather bored and annoyed Bitters standing together, as well as one Kaikaina Grif standing amongst the pairs while waving her hands wildly in the air to get Wash's attention.
The genetically engineered soldier let out a long-suffering sigh, "Yes, Kai?"
"Which team am I going to be on?" She asked, "I want the one that is going to be the most fun!"
She was pointedly staring over at the Volleyball and Andersmith duo, grinning and waving to the blond young woman who waved back with a smile a second later.
Hmm, so it appeared that the younger Grif must have left with Bones before Kimball had tried her team-building tactic.
"Don't do something lame and stick me with you," Kai stated emphatically, turning back to the former Freelancer, "Because you're old and old people suck."
He tried, with great effort and patience, to not shout back that he wasn't that old even though he supposed compared to these kids he was. Instead, the blond closed his eyes and counted to three before sighing again.
"These exercises aren't supposed to be fun, Kai." He reminded her, gray eyes landing on the team of Matthews and Bitters before she could respond.
Now that he thought about it, Kai could actually help balance out Bitters' attitude and Matthews' temerity if she worked with them. At least for this first time, or she could just end up throttling Bitters if he was upsetting Matthews too much.
"You can work with Matthews and Bitters on this assignment."
He didn't even have to look towards his direction to feel Bitters shooting daggers at him with the lieutenant's eyes now underneath his helmeted visor. But, Wash chose to ignore it as the groups got underway.
The guards had already opened the gate to the outside of Chorus, and his trainees stepped outside to start on their assigned task. Once they were out of sight and the gate flared back to brilliant life, the former Freelancer sighed yet again.
"I could use a drink." He muttered under his breath, the tension in his muscles slowly receding.
"Wow. I never would have pegged you for the type of guy who wanted to have that kind of fun so early." Someone joked behind him, voice warm and all too familiar, "Or, you know, ever."
Wash promptly turned around with the intention of telling Tucker to fuck off when he saw a smiling Junior standing next to his father and stopped himself. Barely.
Instead, he sighed once more, "How long have you two been here?"
"Long enough to see you fighting the urge to bang your head against something on account of Kai being, well, Kai…" Tucker grinned, but then looked at Wash thoughtfully, "Since there aren't any recovery missions for a while, if you were serious about needing that drink I totally know a place. With food too."
He couldn't help but sigh again, which seemed to be a recurring pattern today, "It's odd how it seems like you keep showing up just to make sure I eat, Tucker."
"Hey! Food is important!" The younger man grinned mischievously and shrugged, "Besides, I have to make sure you know you're in fact a human and need to eat like the rest of us even if you are a kick ass soldier."
Wash decided to ignore the pleasant feeling he received from that particular comment, "I suppose I might as well since I have free time until the group comes back."
The lieutenants' comm-links were not only linked to the guards should anything majorly out of the ordinary happen, but to his own as well.
"You're in luck too since the place I was talking about isn't too far away either." Tucker noted, apparently quite happy at Wash's agreement.
However, his expression took on an uncharacteristically serious look as he glanced at the closed gate, "Do you honestly think they'll find anything?"
Wash stared at the gate that the younger recruits had walked through and shook his head, knowing exactly what the dark-skinned man had meant with his question, "No. The fluctuation was far too quick to trace." He noted before adding quietly, "Besides, if it was in fact some kind of tampering or sabotage, it would have come from within the city limits."
Tucker pondered that for a moment, his facial features eventually relaxing once more as he mused out loud: "I wonder how long it will take for them to figure that out since this is the first time they've checked equipment beyond the walls."
"It wouldn't shock me if they don't end up driving each other nuts first." Wash admitted, smiling slightly even though he was only partially joking on that count.
"I keep telling you I'm fine!"
Leonard Church was certainly good when it came to being loudly adamant while Carolina and Simmons remained seated close by, both saying nothing.
He was currently sitting on the exam table as Doctor Grey agilely moved around him with her scanner. The dark-skinned woman would occasionally stop to jot down a few notes on her nearby data-pad, or grab another instrument with which she'd seemingly poke and prod various other areas of Church's body with.
Richard Simmons was certain there was some kind of official medical terminology for what she was doing, but the words alluded him at the moment. Besides, it had felt a lot like poking and prodding when the redhead had been examined earlier before Church. He supposed they should just be grateful that none of the mystery instruments the doctor was using had sharp or pointy needles attached to them.
Truthfully, having learned that he wasn't the only person affected by whatever had happened had unnerved Simmons quite a bit. Underneath his bravado, he wondered if Church didn't feel the same. Carolina no doubt was worried over her brother, so the silence from her end wasn't all that unexpected.
Even Doctor Grey, usually incredibly cheerful and chatty over a wide variety of subjects, was unusually quiet as she continued with her examinations. That in-and-of-itself was just a tad unsettling for Simmons as it meant that the black-haired woman was far more worried about whatever was going on than she was probably going to admit at the moment.
"Seriously, come on, Carolina! Tell her to lay off already!" Church was partially begging, partially complaining to his sibling.
"Sorry, Church," she finally muttered under her breath at length, "But I am not taking any chances and neither should you."
There was something about the way the redhead said that which caused Church to stop in mid-complaint. He regarded her with dawning realization, his face suddenly unreadable.
"Is this because of what happened to the others?" He asked quietly.
Before either Simmons or Doctor Grey could even guess as to what they were talking about, Carolina visibly stiffened and glared threateningly at Church.
"Don't mention that again." She warned him, as the two others in the room cast curious glances at one another.
"Fine." Church agreed reluctantly, as though this were a topic he had tried to get the Freelancer to talk about before futilely as he muttered something else under his breath, "You're acting an awful lot like Tex though."
Simmons winced at the mention of a disappeared friend, as well as how it seemed as if the temperature of the clinic had just dropped several degrees at the mention of her name too.
Carolina clenched and unclenched her hands, green eyes as hard as ice but burning holes into her brother's skull all the same. Church flinched when he realized his mistake, suddenly looking apologetic.
"At least," she said at length, with each word dangerously enunciated so as to cut off any attempt of his to say he was sorry, "I cared enough to stay around, unlike her."
To be fair to Tex, they still didn't know exactly why she had just suddenly left following the end of the war. But, Simmons could certainly see why Carolina might feel that way. It was an extremely touchy topic for her.
Before either sibling could add further fuel to what was a stressful subject for them both, Doctor Grey stepped back from the cobalt-wearing cyborg with her hands up in the air.
"Finished!" She yelled a lot louder than necessary, no doubt to divert attention from the tense situation escalating in her workspace.
It worked, thankfully, especially when Sarge waltzed in a second later with Sheila and Lopez in tow.
"Is that right?" The older man asked in response to Doctor Grey's rather loud earlier declaration, "I just finished too."
Oh, thank fuck! Simmons had never in his entire life been more grateful to see his superior, especially since his entry helped divert attention completely from the familial argument that had nearly unfolded disastrously before them.
"Sólo porque usted nos hubiera ayudar a ejecutar los diagnósticos. En nosotros mismos." {"Only because you had us helping you run diagnostics. On ourselves."}
Sarge nodded his head gravely at whatever it was that he thought Lopez had just said, "You're right, Lopez. My mechanical genius surprises even myself sometimes!"
"No se podía incluso me programar para hablar un idioma que nadie entiende aquí de forma remota." {"You couldn't even program me to speak a language anyone here remotely understands."}
Sarge nodded again, expression somber, "But the sad truth is we didn't find anything."
"Here I was thinking that would be fucking good news." Church muttered under his breath.
"Only because you're a cowardly Blue." Sarge shot back, adding quickly, "No offense."
"I'm pretty sure there was some, but I'm too relieved to be getting off of this exam table to really give a fuck." As he spoke, Church jumped down to the ground without waiting for any cue that he should.
"Finding something would also perhaps mean finding out what had caused the power outage in the first place, Church." Sheila, ever the peacemaker, informed him.
He huffed, "So long as it doesn't happen again, I could really care less."
"It would be ideal if that turned out to be the case, however…" Sheila stopped and looked down at the floor, obviously in distress as she trailed off.
It was enough to cause a slight tinge of worry to cross over Church's face due to their friendship. Lopez wrapped his arm around her in a consoling gesture, apparently not bothered at all to provide a comforting moment to someone he cared for in a room full of onlookers.
In a way, Simmons was almost envious of that confidence although it was such a touching gesture that he was nearly overcome with tears not a second later. But, because that was a tad embarrassing and Sheila's reaction had him both concerned and curious too, the redhead covered up that inclination by asking in an only slightly watery voice, "You two were affected by the power outage too, Sheila?"
That was more than likely considering that Sarge had been examining them while the two cyborgs were here with Doctor Grey.
Sheila nodded, "Not just us. Freckles was as well."
"What happened?" This was the first time that Carolina had spoken since her near explosion at Church earlier, once again all business.
Church actually seemed interested too, and Simmons felt his own stomach, or what passed for it now at any rate, tightening up in knots.
"It was as though we were forcibly shut down." Sheila recalled, her gunmetal green frame shuddering, "When I returned online, it was with a jolt. As if this body had been destroyed and I'd been placed in a new one without realizing it. Again."
The last sentence was akin to a whisper, and Simmons knew even without her directly saying so that she was referring to when she had first become "Sheila." After all, she was apparently the offshoot of another Virtual Intelligence.
Lopez hugged her tighter, recounting his own thoughts despite everyone's lack of understanding towards them.
"Fue horrible. Me POWER hacia abajo a veces alejarse de lo que la gente, pero nunca así." {"It was horrible. I power down sometimes to get away from you people, but never like that."}
This time, Sheila was the one who gripped his shoulder reassuringly. They stared at one another as though they were the only two in whole room. Fuck it. Simmons was not going to cry over how touching and sweet that was! He wasn't!
Church coughed awkwardly, "Sounds awful. Sorry, Sheila. Lopez." He frowned, "Guess it's a good thing it only lasted for a short time."
"Who's to say that will be the case the next time though, Church?" Carolina countered her brother's point with a question of her own, "That's why we need to figure out what caused this in order to prevent it from happening again!"
"Yeah, I fucking know." He grimaced, "I just don't want to deal with it right now, okay?"
"It was the same with Caboose's talking gun-dog." Sarge decided to step in again before things got heated once more between the two siblings, "I'll run some more tests on him next if I can convince Caboose to actually let him go for a moment."
"He doesn't know that I got sick yet, does he?" Church asked, the prospect clearly not one he would like to ponder given how clingy the younger man could be.
"We've tried keeping him out of the loop." Sarge seemed to understand what Church had meant, "No point in the kid worrying himself to death over the both of you."
It was bad enough how distraught Caboose had no doubt become over what had happened to Freckles given how attached he was to the Virtual Intelligence. He would be downright inconsolable if he realized that Church had been affected by whatever had happened as well.
"Thanks for the peace of mind." Church paused, then muttered, "Also, for not worrying him anymore than necessary too. I guess."
"Don't mention it. I just didn't want to worry the poor kid anymore." Sarge sighed and shook his head before glancing around the space and remembering what the three of them had stumbled into earlier, "Did we interrupt something?"
"Nothing that wouldn't have gotten worse in a bad way instead of an entertaining one, love!" Doctor Grey assured him, flashing a bright and appreciative smile his way.
Sarge's cheeks dusted slightly with pink as he smiled at the flirtation before he coughed awkwardly and frowned, "So I take it that you guys had about as much luck as we did?"
"In that this whole thing was a complete waste of fucking time?" Church scoffed and crossed his arms over his chest, "Yeah. Pretty much."
"We haven't found anything too serious. At least not yet." Doctor Grey confirmed, regarding Sarge seriously now herself.
Carolina opened her mouth, most likely to protest and say that there was clearly something serious going on even if they hadn't found it yet, but the doctor cut her off.
"We're not saying it isn't happening, just that whatever occurred had been for such a short period of time that we can't trace it. It hasn't left any lasting or lingering issues in its wake either." She explained.
Sarge looked at Church and Simmons next, "You two boys feeling all right now then, I take it?"
Simmons couldn't help but nod enthusiastically out of habit, "Much better, sir!"
Church rolled his eyes, "Terrific."
"What about you two?" Doctor Grey in turn asked Sheila and Lopez.
"A bit unnerved by the experience and the missing log that occurred in my memory banks due to it, but otherwise fine."
"No es demasiado confiado con él la investigación de nuestro lado de las cosas pero por lo demás bien." {"Not too confident with him investigating our side of things but otherwise all right."}
"So we can either hope it lasts even longer next time to actively gauge what occurs. Or hope that it was just a one-time event." The dark-skinned woman concluded.
"The second one. Definitely." Simmons muttered under his breath.
The others nodded their heads in silent agreement. Save Sarge, who sighed in disappointment and muttered "Spoilsports." under his breath at their lack of enthusiasm for mystery and the unknown.
"As great as all of this has been, can I go now?" Church asked suddenly, apparently deciding any contribution he had made to the conversation had long since been over.
Doctor Grey glanced at Carolina who remained absolutely still and silent at the question before nodding, "I have no reason to keep you any longer if you're sure you're feeling fine now."
"Great. I am." Church bolted from the clinic, only to swear under his breath when he nearly ran into Caboose, Doc, and Donut standing right in front of the now open doorway.
"Here's everyone!" Donut remarked happily upon seeing them while waving, "Hey, guys!"
"Church! I missed you!" Caboose immediately clung to the cyborg, sniffling, "Did you hear about what happened to Freckles?"
Before Church could get air back into his lungs to respond to that query from the blue soldier, Doc looked at the others in the clinic curiously, "What's going on?"
Carolina, however, ignored the newcomers for the moment. Which was understandable considering that she seemed relieved about her brother, but still unsure about the entire situation as she asked: "Is there any way to determine what happened?"
"We would have to set up monitoring devices to accurately measure the power levels in Chorus. They would be able to record even something like the power fluctuations from the other night." Sarge informed her, apparently relieved to see someone still showing a little initiative.
"I assume we have the equipment here?" The Freelancer got straight to the point.
He nodded, turning to glance in his subordinate's direction, "Simmons can help you find them."
The cyborg nodded, "Of course, sir!"
Carolina looked grateful for a split second before turning to exit, expecting Simmons to follow. She pointedly ignored Church as she left, though she did at least take the time to nod in way of greeting to the others.
"You know she was only worried about you!" Simmons could hear Doctor Grey chastising Church as they walked away a second later.
Leonard Church sighed through Caboose's bone-crushing hug, "Believe me, Doc-Lady. I know."
Thankfully, the side room of the warehouse where they stored the equipment was a non-cluttered mess. It wasn't used as often as other rooms were, so it was one of the few in the warehouse where Simmons' organization process actually stuck for longer than ten minutes.
The cyborg pointed to the shelf where the small, thin rectangular devices were, "Those are them."
Carolina looked around the room for a moment before retrieving the assorted pieces of machinery, "Sorry that I dragged you here since I don't know where this stuff is."
"It's understandable since you and Wash are often busy elsewhere." Simmons shrugged off the apology of the woman some people mistook for his own sister given their similar hair and eye color. The redhead had never had siblings, but Carolina would have been an awesome one. She never even seemed insulted by such remarks since she considered all of the Reds and Blues her oddball family.
"I should be coming in to check up on everyone more though." The older woman said with a frown, before smiling somewhat, "Especially since I actually like the atmosphere here."
Before the maroon-wearing man could respond, she turned around and looked at him in concern, "Since Church is insisting he's fine, how are you feeling in light of all of this?"
Simmons became awkward and fidgety at the regard as that was his go-to response whenever someone asked over his wellbeing, before finally working up the nerve to answer. "Like Church, I feel fine now." He informed her, "It seems like whatever happened was a temporary setback, even when compared to some of the other side effects I experienced before Doctor Grey and Sarge's adjustments."
"Church suffered horrible headaches before Chorus," Carolina recalled, a distant look crossing over her features before she shook her head and glanced at him once more, "I imagine it must have been even harder for you due to the extent of your injuries."
Simmons thought that was debatable given how Church's cybernetic implants where directly linked to his brain, but he remained silent. The other cyborg had clearly suffered some long, undermining trauma involving them that neither he, Carolina, nor Wash ever seemed keen on discussing.
"Which is why I think that is all the more reason to be prepared even if I hope it was just connected to the fluctuations and that they were temporary." Carolina concluded, nodding decisively, "Better to not have anyone suffer more if we can avoid it."
Simmons was both surprised and touched by her comment, though he brushed it off with a sigh all the same a second later, "I still wish the whole thing hadn't been blown out of proportion on account of Grif telling Doctor Grey about what had happened to me."
Carolina actually smirked knowingly in response, "It's because he cares about you a lot. You know that."
Simmons felt his face get incredibly hot even under his partial face plating, desperately trying to think about how to change the subject as he somehow managed to mutter, "M—maybe. I'm still going to yell at him later for it."
"I would expect nothing less from the two of you." Carolina's smile widened slightly, "If Grif hasn't shown up by the time we put these devices up, I'll gladly help you track him down to get the chance, Simmons."
For a split second, Simmons almost felt a bit sorry for Dexter Grif. Almost.
Author's Notes: A few more little plot hints and reveals were had! :D I am trying to make these chapters a bit shorter than in my previous multi-chapter work, so hopefully they will get out a bit quicker. So, they'll probably be around ten to fifteen pages in length usually. Hopefully this will help keep those waits from getting way too long! :D
Thank you very much for reading this chapter, and I hope that you enjoyed it! :D