CAPCOM owns Ada Wong

Naughty Dog owns Ellie and Joel

Preface: Ada Wong was attacked but must attend mandatory 0900 formation. She is confident that she will fail the competition to become an officer and so she is now making plans to escape with Ellie and Joel. She needs to convince Joel that she is worthy of escaping with him and Ellie.

As far as Ada was concerned…it hadn't been a bad day-**so far**. The group had returned to the USO room after the girls had showered in the airport restroom. Kathleen had just tried to kill her-but this was not an unusual experience for Ada. She was a soldier, trained to expect this. Had been a soldier for awhile. Even in her early high school years.

The way Ada measured the day-and always had-was thus; if she could take a shower after PT, then she was fine. Had she just escaped death again?

Yes.

All was right, then. And she was good to go. Time would not drag her, today.

She sat on the bunk bed opposite Joel's and prepared herself hurriedly, to be in accordance with regulation 670-1.

She combed her hair, now shortened, and tried to divide it into two short braids. Her military uniform was too large for her-even though it was a small, making her appear dumpy.

Ellie sat down beside Ada, her grubby hands clasped in silent prayer as she pleaded with Joel silently.

Ada's words were businesslike, but there was some subtle hint of urgency to them.

"I can get you better weapons if you help me sneak off base for a few hours. The armory won't give out guns to civilians-and Ellie's pistol has too much carbon buildup to be reliable in a fight."

Joel looked down at the pistol magazine in his hands. He had been pressing the spring on it passively while she spoke. He was tired right now. Tired of the silent rebellious nature in Ellie's eyes. Tired of that goddamn siren, Kathleen-come back from the dead to finish what she started.

"You gonna get Ellie in trouble for what you're trying to do?"

Ada pursed her lips and then quickly responded,
"I promise, Joel. These soldie-"

There was a rap on the door. It started opening quickly, compelling Joel to launch himself at it. His weight slammed it shut again.

A voice, belonging to Suarez, called through.

"Letting the specialist know, she has to be at terminal two."

Ada rolled her eyes, laying her head on Ellie's shoulder in a melting gesture.

"Yea, alright I will be there just need to get ready." Ada projected through the door.

Suarez continued, "Just wanted to let you know that, I'm strict about the 20 minutes and I'll have to counsel you for being late. You should be earlier than that. Reason I'm telling you now is you're new and I'm the sergeant in charge of yous."

"GOT IT." Ada said tersely. Joel let his head droop forward as he chuckled darkly at Ada.

"I-" Suarez pushed again hard on the door that Joel was still blocking.

"Can I come in? I'm trying to tell you something."

"No, I'm getting ready." Ada said, while sharing Joel's smile.

"Well, they want you to be even earlier cuz of the competition, you should go 15 minutes prior to that. They want to talk to us about you know, being a spec ops officer."

"Got it I'll be there."

Suarez left them alone at last.

Ellie shook her head in disbelief. "That guy is ruuuude as fuck! Thought he could just literally walk in on all of us without even asking?"

"This is the military life, Ellie." Ada said while wrapping her wispy braids into a neat bun.

"But," Ada pointed out, "Suarez also has a scar on his scalp, Ellie. He's got some kind of traumatic brain injury." Ada turned and grabbed Ellie's shoulder. "Today, I give you permission to be Specialist Choi. You're gonna wear my uniform for a few hours at the motorpool fixing vehicles so that I can work on us getting out." The girls smiled at each other. Ada held out a hair tie to Ellie, indicating she also needed to make her hair presentable.

Ellie got up in front of Ada, and saluted with her left hand to her brow. "I'm Choi, Sergeant. I'm oddly not Asian but trust me bro…"

Joel sat back down on the bed and pointed at Ellie,

"You don't salute a sergeant, Ellie."

Ellie slapped her forehead in shame.

Ada cut in, "No, actually that's perfect! Ellie you can help me lose this competition by simply being a confused soldier."

"Oh, I can be a confused soldier!" Ellie's goofy mischievous grin was wide now. She rubbed her palms together.

"Just…" Ada said carefully, "Don't talk to anyone; focus on pretending to fix the vehicles-but don't actually fix anything cuz…screw 'em."

Joel got up and checked around the USO for any listening ears.

"I need a shotgun, a fully automatic rifle…and we need magazines." He gasped in pain as his head began to pound again. Thinking of fighting off lickers with Ellie was definitely headache inducing to begin with, so he lay down and focused on his breathing.

"I'll take care of everything Joel." Ada assured him. She sized up Ellie, who certainly looked nothing like Ada. Ellie's freckles, ratty brown hair and tall height versus Ada's white hair, sharp keen eyes, and somewhat heavier bosom would give any normal person pause. But in a baggy Army uniform like Ada was currently sporting-with no nameplate-the odds were somewhat favorable that no one would give much of a damn. Ada sucked in air and pretended to grow, mimicking Ellie's carefree voice, "Hiya, I'm Ellie." Elllie did the opposite, shrinking three inches by bending her knees, "I'm the maintenance specialist, and I'm not fixing shiiiit!" Ada nodded with pride at her counterpart. Ellie grabbed her hand and measured against her own, "Oh my god your hands are so smolllll!" Ellie said, pouting at Ada. Ada smirked at her and said,

"After you guys get chow, Ellie you need to walk over to the vehicles and get inside the backseat of one of them. I'll be looking for your face in the window."

Ada closed the door softly behind her and briskly walked over to terminal two.

Ellie exclaimed to Joel, "She's so adorable! Can we keep her Joel?"

He grunted.