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 Sixteen:
The ruins that the Chorus reclaiming mission party were currently investigating were located on the outskirts of the "dead zone," just beyond a ridge of ill-shapen trees and other shrubbery that was in the process of growing back malformed from the constant fighting the area had seen in years past.
All things considered, it wasn't too much of a surprise that they had missed these particular ruins. Though these ancient alien ruins were fairly large compared to the spots that they usually scavenged, the alloy that made up the main building blended into the surrounding foliage's color. That wasn't helped by the fact that the vegetation there was quickly growing up to swallow the ruins.
The reclaiming mission party were at the ruins' front entrance, the door having been opened earlier thanks to Lavernius Tucker's sword.
Currently, it was just Tucker, Washington, Grif, Caboose, and Doyle there exploring the actual ruins. Any second now, their group would probably hear an all-clear over the radio that signaled that they could begin exploring the ruins proper.
The lieutenants, along with the mercenaries, had been sent out to patrol the area and guard the perimeter. Personally, Tucker was glad for it as he was still a bit uneasy around Felix due to the mercenary's earlier interest in Junior.
Tucker bounced slightly on the soles of his feet, more than ready to get this part of the mission underway.
Beside him, David Washington glanced around the forested area with his gun at the ready, "It's too quiet." He murmured.
Tucker looked at the blond askance, "Dude, you did not just say that."
Wash stared at the younger man curiously, "Say what?"
"That! About it being too quiet!" Tucker exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air for added emphasis, "Doing that just means something is going to happen!"
"How? By what logic are you basing that off of?" The former Freelancer seemed to have trouble following Tucker's line of reasoning.
"Uh, the logic of watching movies? Duh." Tucker sighed exasperatedly, "Though I would have given you bonus points for 'You three stewardesses look hot.' instead."
Wash couldn't help but sigh in exasperation at Tucker's porn viewing tendencies, "Tucker…"
It was then that a polite cough could be heard behind them. Both men turned to find Donald Doyle and Dexter Grif still standing there. Grif was in his usual "could care less" posture, but Doyle was fidgeting nervously.
"So sorry to intrude, gentlemen," the co-leader of Chorus began, "But we seem to have a situation on our hands."
"Or a non-one, depending on how you want to view it." Grif stated, clearly indicating that he thought Doyle might be overreacting to whatever had happened.
"Eh, it's fine, General." Tucker shrugged off Doyle's worry about the interruption as if it was no big deal (and it wasn't. Not really, at any rate. Tucker could talk about porn all day if given the chance), "What's up?"
"Yes, well, I'm afraid we appear to be missing someone."
At that remark, Tucker and Wash both looked around. The lieutenants and mercenaries weren't expected to be back from their patrols for another few minutes, which meant…
"Where the fuck is Caboose?" Tucker exclaimed as the realization on who was missing hit him full force. Of all the times for the blond to wander off!
Grif shrugged apathetically before answering Tucker, "He's a Blue, which means he's your problem."
"Since when, dipshit?"
Grif sighed and shook his head as though the answer to that should be obvious, "Um, since practically forever? That's how these things work!"
Wash stepped in before Tucker could attempt strangling his orange-armored scavenging teammate, "With all of us out here, there's only one place he could go."
Tucker followed Wash's gray-eyed pointed look towards the temple, "Oh, fuckberries." He muttered under his breath, "Let's just find him before he somehow blows something up. Again."
Hurrying through the entrance, the small group found that the inside of the temple was similar to the other alien structures they'd discovered in Chorus before, only bigger. Which, from Tucker's viewpoint, basically meant a whole lot of nothing on an impressive scale.
They walked down an empty corridor that led slightly underground due to a descending incline. Sure enough, by a table that only had one small artifact on it, they found Caboose with his back turned towards them.
"Caboose!" Tucker chided his younger teammate when he got close enough, "What have I told you about wandering off?"
"Oh, look, my friends are here! So is Tucker." Caboose ignored Tucker for the moment to continue whatever jerkass conversation he was having, "You'll like them."
Hold up…conversation? That realization gave Tucker pause. Who the fuck was the genetically engineered man talking to?
True, Caboose often conversed with Freckles while out on the field, but the gun V.I. already knew all of them. So, who else was Caboose possibly talking to? Had his teammate gone and made invisible friends again?
"Greetings."
The answer as to who Caboose was talking to came a moment later when a small red hologram of what appeared to be an alien suddenly materialized next to the table, right in front of the stunned onlookers.
"His name is Santa." Caboose said in way of explanation, "Because he came with a gift!"
He motioned to the artifact on the table that, out of the corner of Tucker's eye, seemed sort of familiar. But Doyle was already reaching for the item to inspect it, so Tucker left it alone. Plus, there was an alien A.I. in their midst that probably deserved more attention at the moment.
"You…you found an A.I.?" Wash asked Caboose incredulously, eyes opened wide in surprise.
"Well, kind of? He showed up first to say hello." Caboose explained, "He is very polite."
"Caboose, what the—!" But there was a loud explosion at the temple's entrance that cut Tucker's question off, "What the fuck?"
Instantly, the members of their group were all running back to the temple entrance. Tucker was hoping to find the rest of the reclaiming mission party there, only to discover several of those Insurrection assholes blocking their only way out. Figured their luck would be that shitty.
"Been a long time coming, Freelancer." One guy with a shark face painted on his helmet remarked to Washington in particular, "Hope you're ready to burn."
Tucker groaned, "Why can't any of the people you Freelancers know not be total assholes?"
Wash could only shrug apologetically at his comment. Tucker could almost picture the sheepish sort of smile crossing over his features just then.
Something about Sharkface's voice just then caused Grif to visibly stiffen behind them, "Terrence?" he asked, voice barely above a shocked whisper.
Sharkface turned to the chubby soldier while letting out a sharp burst of unpleasant laughter, "It looks like Dexter Grif's here too." He remarked, "It sure is a small fucking world, huh?"
Richard "Dick" Simmons entered the clinic. He immediately realized his mistake for not having knocked or somehow announced his presence first, as what Sarge and Doctor Emily Grey were in the midst of doing on the operating table was decidedly not sterile.
His eyes somehow focused in on Sarge's hand buried deep in Doctor Grey's dark head of hair, their lips barely a centimeter apart.
Simmons meant to just back out of the space and give them the privacy they obviously so desperately needed, but his body had other plans. Instead, he let out a tiny, undignified squeak. The noise was apparently enough to pull the two apart, though they regarded one another for a moment more with eyes that were still very much hooded over with lust.
"'Til later, darlin'." Sarge remarked with a huskier voice than Simmons ever wanted to hear from his C.O. again.
The older soldier made his way to the clinic's doorway, turning and patting Simmons on the shoulder in a comforting manner, "Whatever she tells you, you listen. Ya hear?" Sarge told him.
The cyborg nodded shakily, having a sense that both Sarge and Doctor Grey already knew why he was there, "Of—of course, sir!"
"Good man, Simmons." With that, Sarge was gone.
Doctor Grey, meanwhile, had slid back off the table and was currently rearranging her purple blouse, humming contentedly to herself as she did so. Simmons looked away then, his freckled face a bright red.
"So, Simmons, what brings you here?" The doctor asked in her way too cheery voice.
Simmons opened his mouth to speak, when suddenly his entire body went weak. His vision blacked out and he stumbled, nearly falling to the ground. He probably would have, had Doctor Grey not raced forward and grabbed onto him to steady his body just then. He nodded to her in thanks as the dark skinned woman guided him over to one of the clinic's beds.
"So, they're still occurring?" Grey asked, voice completely serious.
He nodded, "With every power outage." Simmons admitted, "They aren't as bad as before though."
"But the fact that they're still happening at all is cause for concern." Doctor Grey finished for him.
Simmons said nothing, nodding his red head of hair instead.
She let out a tired sigh, "It's the same for Church and the V.I.s as well. We're working on trying to find a solution as quickly as we can."
"Thanks, Doctor Grey."
She smiled and gave his shoulder a light squeeze, "Don't mention it. Why don't you rest here for a bit and I'll go talk to Sarge about what other possible tests to run."
Once more he nodded, feeling oddly run down and tired all of a sudden. As Doctor Grey left the clinic, Simmons' mind went to the scavenging mission that was taking place right now.
He could only hope that Grif and the others were doing okay.
The closer to the ruins they got, the louder the sounds of a skirmish became. The mercenaries should have met up with the rookies earlier during their patrol. Antoine Bitters frowned, wondering where they were as the lieutenants were just now coming into view of the temple area
As was to be expected giving the telltale sounds of fighting they had heard, things were not looking too great at the ruins.
Bitters instinctively reached out and grabbed Matthews' arm, preventing the auburn-haired man from getting any closer to the red camouflage-wearing Insurrection members that had somehow gotten past not only them, but the mercenaries as well. The Insurrection had even managed to pin down Captain Grif and the others.
The other lieutenants stopped in their tracks as well. With the motion, Bitters risked a glance at the surprised Matthews. His hand was still gripping the rookie's upper arm despite Bitters' mind telling him that he should probably be letting go now.
Andersmith motioned to the trees a few paces away, everyone nodding as they carefully made their way over to the cover they provided. Another mutual nod a second later, and they were moving forward—closer to the ruins and the inherent danger that awaited them there. Thankfully, the gunshots and yelling quite nicely muffled their approach through the twisted shrubbery.
It seemed that Washington and the others were getting pinned down right at the ruins' entrance by Insurrection bullets. Given the circumstances, they were holding their own rather admirably, but that would probably change in a matter of seconds.
As soon as Bitters had mentally made that observation, there was a burst of flame near the ruins. Holy shit! Did someone in the Insurrection have a goddamned flamethrower on them?
"If we could just fucking distract them." Bitters said to no one in particular, although he was sure some in their group probably believed it directed towards them.
A distraction would be just enough to get the senior soldiers out of the ruins' entrance, but it would also probably put targets on all of their backs as well. Subconsciously, his grip on Matthews' arm tightened just a fraction at the thought.
"Leave it to me!" Before he could even begin to process what she had just said, Kaikaina Grif strode forward with an authoritative air about her, "Hey, assholes!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, "Quit trying to light a fire under my big bro's ass. It doesn't fucking work!"
Volleyball raced up to Kai then, shouting something Bitters couldn't decipher while firing her gun at the stunned Insurrection members. Jensen and Palomo both glanced at one another and shrugged before following suit, joined a moment later by Andersmith.
Fuck it. When everyone you knew was acting recklessly, you might as well too. Such bullshit.
Bitters sighed, finally dropping Matthews' arm to join the fray as well. He noticed a second later out of the corner of his eyes that the yellow-trimmed lieutenant had joined him in the fight.
The distraction was more than enough to provide the older soldiers with the cover fire they needed to escape from the entrance. They broke through the Insurrection ranks just as the mercenaries, led by Felix and Locus, joined the party.
"'Bout time you assholes showed up." Bitters couldn't help muttering under his breath, though Felix still heard it.
"What was that, kiddo?" The steel-and-orange armored mercenary asked him mockingly, "We were a little busy dealing with even more of these assholes on our way back here."
Bitters supposed that made sense, though he couldn't help frowning at the explanation all the same. After all, the lieutenants hadn't run into anyone and they had been exploring the perimeter too.
"This won't be over until Chorus burns!" The man with the flamethrower, evidently the leader of this group of Insurrectionists, signaled to his group to retreat for the moment given the sudden odds they were facing—though not before shooting Agent Washington and Captain Grif what appeared to be significant looks even with a shark helmet on.
"Seriously." Captain Tucker sighed as they left, "Every single Freelancer-adjacent guy we meet is an asshole."
"Umm…" Palomo pointed over to a red hologram floating over Captain Caboose's shoulder, "Is it just me or is that little dude kind of strange-looking?"
Bitters started at the sight, along with everyone else who had yet to be introduced to the figure.
Was that seriously an alien A.I.? It sure as fuck looked like one.
"We can talk about him more once we get back to Chorus." Washington was quick to take charge now that they were in recovery mode.
"Quite right. I feel there are a few things that we will need to have some earnest discussions about." Doyle spoke up from behind the former Freelancer.
It was in that moment, as the older blond spoke, that Bitters became aware of the glowing sword in the Chorus co-leader's hand that looked an awful lot like Captain Tucker's alien relic. …Which was currently active in the teal-armored man's hand, a reminder of the battle they had all narrowly escaped from.
Bitters could feel a headache looming on as his poor brain tried to process all of the sudden sensory information it was receiving.
Vanessa Kimball was surprised to see Carolina standing by the Chorus entrance gate well before the time when the reclaiming mission team was supposed to get back.
"Couldn't wait any longer for news, I take it?" The dark skinned woman asked in friendly greeting, joining the former Freelancer where she stood tapping her foot impatiently.
"No," the redhead admitted with a forceful sigh, glancing over at Kimball, "You?"
Kimball let out a sigh of her own, "With all of the recent events happening here, I felt a bit anxious."
She did not want to admit that a large part of her anxiety was due to Doyle's decision to go with the others on this particular mission as well. No. It was definitely best for that reason to remain safely with her.
"That's understandable." Carolina informed the Chorus co-leader, the two women remaining in companionable silence for a while following their greetings.
Kimball was just about to give up on pointlessly waiting and suggest to her friend that they get a meal over at Cass' instead when one of the guards at the gate raced towards them.
"The reclaiming team's back early, ma'am!" The guard informed Kimball after a hasty salute, "It looks like they've been attacked!"
"What?" Both Kimball and Carolina exclaimed at the same time, glancing at one another before racing to the opening gate.
Sure enough, the group standing before them looked more than a little worse for wear. Though, thankfully, any injuries they might have sustained seemed rather minor.
No, what really drew Kimball's attention after assessing everyone's health was the alien A.I. that was floating above Caboose's head. That was before her dark eyes drifted over to the other leader of Chorus. Was that an alien sword clipped to Doyle's side?
Carolina voiced what Kimball was thinking in a succinct manner, "What the hell happened to you all?"
While the others were busy talking about the Insurrection, glowing swords, and gift-giving alien A.I.s, Dexter Grif snuck away.
The chubby man had a sneaking suspicion that he'd be asked for his own perspective on the situation later. He sighed, not really knowing how helpful that would be in the long run anyways.
Terrence was alive and still with the same group of assholes that had caused Grif to leave his big brother figure in the first place. That was pretty much it, really. He hadn't expected the guy to have an obsessed viewpoint when it came to Freelancers or anything like that. Terrence had been relatively normal back when Grif had known him as a teenager.
Still, seeing his childhood friend again had shocked Grif. He should probably tell Cass. He wondered how she would take it considering how close she had been to Terrance. In a way, he was rather glad that Kai hadn't recognized Terrance when they were fighting at the temple. She had always liked him.
Though, thanks to his big brother instincts, Grif had wanted to throttle the girl for the stunt she had pulled back at the ruins even though it had served as a decent distraction.
But, right now? Well, truthfully, all he wanted to do…no, scratch that. All his lazy ass needed was just to see Simmons. Seeing the nerd always helped to calm Grif down when he was feeling stressed.
He found Simmons in the hallway outside the clinic. The location alone was alarmingly enough on its own. It was made even more so when there was a flicker of lights overhead and he saw Simmons stumble.
More alarm than he'd care to admit flashed through his system at the sight of the redhead hitting the ground and then trying to get up again as if the effort was difficult.
"S—Simmons?" Grif was at his side in an instant, guiding the cyborg back into the clinic and over to one of the beds there before the weakened redhead could protest.
"Oh, h—hey, Grif." Simmons looked decidedly sheepish, as if he was trying to figure a way out of the precarious situation he had just stumbled into, "How'd…the mission go?"
"Nice try, kiss-ass." Grif wasn't going to let the asshole off the hook so easily, "How long has this been happening?"
Simmons glanced down at the bed, biting his lip, "Whenever…whenever the power fluctuations occur."
Grif closed his eyes in frustration and inwardly counted to ten, "And you didn't tell me because…?"
Simmons sighed, "I didn't want you to worry."
"Yeah? Well not telling me makes me worry even more!" Grif shouted back, "Geez, Simmons, you're supposed to be the fucking smart one!"
There was a stunned silence following his outburst and both men's faces became decidedly hot.
Simmons coughed awkwardly, looking about ready to retreat inside himself, "I'm…I'm sorry, Grif."
Grif sighed, running a hand through his dark hair, "Let's just forget it, okay?" He asked, motioning to the chair that was by the bed, "You want some company?"
His voice made it apparent that he felt that Simmons should rest for a while given what had just happened. Before Simmons could even reply to his question, Grif had already lazily plopped down in the chair next to the bed.
"Sure." Simmons smiled, apparently relieved at Grif's offer to stay.
For a moment, the two settled into their usual comfortable silence. Grif would have preferred it stay that way for a little while longer out of laziness, but he knew that even an exhausted Simmons' curiosity would inevitably get the better of him.
"How'd the mission go?" Simmons asked conversationally a few seconds later.
Grif shrugged lazily while trying to hold back his smirk at how predictable his nerd was, "Oh, you know, pretty routine. Caboose befriended an alien A.I., Doyle now has a matching sword to Tucker's, and one of my old friends is the leader of the Insurrection."
"Yeah, yeah…" Simmons nodded his head until Grif's words actually sunk in, "Wait, what?"
Author's Notes: Well, some more character introductions and reveals were had! Yes, for those wondering, I will eventually be going into more details on Sharkface's connection to Grif in the Prelude for Losers? prequel stories. :) This was a fun chapter to write for a whole variety of different reasons, so I hope that you enjoyed it too!
Thank you, as always, for taking the time to read this! :D