The Kappa Chronicles (TDC 3)

Chapter 4: FAQ, Part One

Location: Chorus, Mount Song

Five figures walked up to the Freelancers. They were Felix, Locus, Johnson, Barber, and Bismarck. Felix was grinning under his helmet. "Well look at this!!! Three Freelancers! What a catch!"

Locus turned to Felix. "So, what do we do with them?"

Felix grinned once more and drew a pistol on Vermont. He was about to fire, when Barber kicked it from his hand! "Barber, what are you-?"

Johnson punched Locus in the helmet, but Locus easily flipped him onto the ground and threw him and Barber over with the Freelancers.

"Look at this! Two Freelancers hiding in our midst! You! Vermonty Python! Remove their helmets."

The two Freelancers were Michigan and Arsenal, the former of which was shouting curses in German.

Felix shook his head. "We can't kill everyone here! Bismarck, call the Pelican. We're going to toss them into our prison.

Bismarck did, then threw a letter at Vermont. "I met a man on a Halo ring. He said that if I ever met a Freelancer named Vermont, I was to give this to him. "

Vermont's face darkened, and he shoved the letter into a pocket.

Theta appeared, and Felix gasped. "Locus! They have an AI! Get It!

Theta created a wall between him and them. "Guys, I'm going to go back to Kappa, but that may delete my memory of this event, so it'll be useless! I might not know about Control or anything, but I have to take the chance! Goodbye!" He disappeared, and Epsilon hid so that he wouldn't be found.

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Location: Chorus, Mount Song; North Ridge

Oregon, Silver, and Gold watched Bismarck shove the Freelancers into a Pelican. He then conversed with Felix and Locus, who walked into the Pelican last, then Bismarck looked right at them! The three ducked.

"Did he see us?"

"I think so!"

"Okay, I'm going to look again. Oh gosh, he's looking at me! Wait. He's going into the Pelican? Why?"

The Pelican flew away, and Oregon and his team activated their speed enhancements and followed at a distance

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Location: Chorus, Crash Site Bravo

Kappa sat on a barrel while Caboose was giving out the daily assignments.

"-and Kappa will be... er.. psst! psst! Kappa! K-KAppa!"

"What, Caboose?"

"What's your job?"

Kappa frowned. "Actually, my job is to-"

Freckles turned, his mechanical legs smashing against the ground with every step. "Artificial Intelligence Program Kappa can ensure our equipment is functioning. ALL of it."

Kappa growled. If Theta were here, he would have the processing power to manage much better. In truth, that was what he was doing, and it was really burning him out! A computer program can only do so much, he thought to himself.

"Good idea, Freckles! He can do... that.. thing you said...."

Great. Now he had to do that also. Why couldn't Theta be here? He teleported to the armory and begun.

Meanwhile, Arizona was working on a project that hopefully would bring Caboose to his senses. He was almost done, when he heard a familiar childlike voice say, "Hi Zona! Have you seen Kappa anywhere?"

"Theta! You're back! He's in the armory! Boy, he's gonna be happy to see you!"

Theta teleported to the armory, and tapped Kappa on his hard-light shoulder. "Kappa?"

Kappa whirled around. "Theta! Oh my gosh I'm glad you're back, bro! Where were you?"

Theta was confused. Something in his memories was missing. "Well, I was with the others..."

"And?"

"I don't remember! Why don't I remember?"

Kappa paled. "Theta, were they in trouble?"

"Yeah! Some guy had captured us! I don't remember anything else, though."

Kappa's jaw dropped. "Theta, we need to go find Arizona and tell him."

The two AIs teleported away just as Caboose walked in. "Kappa! Kappa, where are you?"

Freckles spoke. "Captain Caboose, he has deserted his post. He will be eliminated. "

"No, there is no need to do that, Freckles."

But Freckles was already stomping off to 'eliminate' Kappa. Arizona walked up to Caboose. "Hey, buddy. um, I know that Church leaving really hurt you, but you don't need to replace him with someone!" He pointed at Freckles, who was shooting missiles at Kappa and Theta, who cowered behind a dome shield they had created.

Caboose nodded silently, so Arizona continued. "And I didn't want you to be sad, so I made this." He handed Caboose an old helmet. Caboose's old helmet.

"MY HELMET! AW, THANKS ZONA!"

"No problem."

"You can be leader again."

Arizona grinned. It worked. He looked at Freckles, who was still shooting at the AIs. "Freckles, stand down."

"You do not have the authority to-"

Caboose spoke. "Yeah.. He's the leader again."

"Understood." He stopped firing, and Kappa and Theta appeared next to Arizona. Kappa whispered something in Zona's ear, and Arizona paled.

At that moment, a man in gray and orange armor jumped down, created a hard-light shield, and blocked a rocket headed straight at Arizona! "GET TO COVER!"

The Reds, Blues, Arizona, the AIs, and the new person all took cover and started shooting at the army that was invading the small box canyon.

To Be Continued...