Assault (Red vs Blue)

27: High Tension

27: High Tension

Present Day: Infirmary; Main Business Complex (Downtown Armonia; the planet Chorus)

By the time evening had started rolling around, York drank at least five cups of coffee and had only eaten a few bites of the rather unappetizing soup North had brought him a few hours earlier. He'd only left the infirmary twice during the day, too — once to relieve himself, and once to ditch the heaviest parts of his armor. By early evening, most of the soldiers had reduced themselves down to just their kevlar suits, leaving actual armor pieces on just from the knees down. At least, the rest of his team, the Reds, and the Blues had all done that. York had a feeling the soldiers of Chorus were too paranoid to walk around so exposed. Not that he blamed them, but he wasn't about to be stuck in full armor any longer than he had to be.

York looked at Carolina, who still laid unconscious on the bed. She'd been like this ever since they picked her, North, and Tex up from the bottom of the cliff. Dr. Grey had said she would make a full recovery; only he'd find it more believable if she would wake up. Her vitals were stable, they had been for quite a while — she was just out cold. It worried him.

"Still no change yet, huh?" a voice asked from behind him.

York turned slightly in his chair to see Tex and Church approaching him. They were both dressed similarly to him; Church's glasses sat on top his mess of hair, and Tex held two cups of coffee. She held one out to York, which he took gratefully.

"Not yet," he answered, taking a sip of the coffee. "Not even the slightest sign of waking up. Doc's awake, though. I think Donut's been trying to catch him up to speed on things. Doctor Grey just seems to be there as a babysitter. And I think she's hoping to get a better crack at Doc with his split personality."

"Is that what we're officially calling it now?" Church asked, sounding slightly amused. "I preferred just calling him crazy. It was funnier."

The three of them tuned into the conversation just in time to hear Donut saying, "And then, get this, it turned out Felix was really evil, and he had been the whole time. So we decided to expose the truth to the people of Chorus. It stopped the civil war, but now we've been fighting alongside them so we can take Charon down, and send a distress call to Earth!"

"And at no point whatsoever — during anything that was happening — did you guys realize I was missing?" Doc asked, starting to sound agitated again.

Donut paused for a moment. "Um . . . No! Apparently, we did not. Our bad!"

"Argh! I will destroy you! I will end you all for your insufferable ignorance! You will feel my wrath!" Doc — or rather O'Malley — bellowed.

At the sound of O'Malley's voice, York noticed Tex immediately grab at the back of her neck. She grimaced slightly; Omega had to be acting up with hearing the other soldier's voice. There was no doubting she'd ended up with an instant headache. Without having all her armor on, Omega didn't have any way to appear. But that wouldn't stop the A.I. from causing issues inside the freelancer's head. When Church looked at her, Tex quickly dropped her hand and tried to play it off as nothing. Her partner looked at her suspiciously — he wasn't buying her act, but he wasn't about to say anything, either.

"Oh, my! This is without a doubt the most vocal split personality I've ever seen. And I've seen quite a few," Grey commented. "Though, I do suppose spending an eternity alone in the void could do that to a person. I just can't help but be curious as to how deep this actually goes. Mister O'Malley, I have a question for you. When you say you're going to 'destroy us all', what do you mean by that, exactly?"