Bulletproof

Training

Waking up at four A.M. was routine for me. But for these men it wasn't, the whole time they were whining about wanting to sleep more. By the time they were up it was already five thirty. I sent them on laps, ten laps each. While they took the time to run I looked around the kitchen for something to make for breakfast. I found a few peaches and yogurt. cutting the peaches I set them on a plate along with the yogurt. When the boys came back the food was finished and they ate it not bothering to notice that it was not filled with fatty foods.
"Alright men today we are training inside of the base" I told them, their faces lit up with happiness at the thought of not having to go out in the heat, "after breakfast go shower off and come back here".
"Can you help me towel down?" asks Tucker with a cheeky grin, I glare at him giving my response with one single look. When they finished eating they all went to shower I went in to each of their rooms. They were all pretty dirty, this made me very frustrated.
They all came back to the kitchen/dining area. I walked around them with a baton in my hand, jabbing their backs and making them stand with their heels touching, Church began slouching he got a sharp jab in the back.
"Excuse me miss Air-zone," Caboose began "but why are we standing like this?".
"Private Caboose that is an excellent question," I say "the reason you are doing this is so you can learn discipline" Tuckers legs separate I hit them, they snap back together quickly.
Three hours later they are still standing. I walk around them seeing some of them begin to rock slightly. They were getting tired. I notice them all rocking. Walking over I look them up and down.
"We will be doing this every morning after breakfast and your jog" I say "now I want you to drop and give me twenty". They stare at me, I knew for a fact that their old commander never had them do this much.
Walking up to the roof of the base I look around taking a look at this canyon. There was another base across from us, using the sniper rifle I check them out. There were four men one in red armor, one in what seemed to be orangish yellow armor, one in maroon, and one in pink. Strange bunch they were, I also noticed them working on a jeep. I went back down seeing the three men doing situps now. I smile to myself before having them shower off. I looked around the base again, going into their rooms I found Caboose's room with a bed, clothing in a pile in the corner, and supplies for coloring?. I sigh as I begin to clean up his crayons placing them organized by color into the box and putting that up beside his bed. I then walked into Tuckers room deciding that I would clean up one thing for each of them. I found lots of things I really wish I hadn't seen. So I settled on the idea of making his bed. Walking into Churchs room I found it was somewhat clean, his clothing was put away and his bed was made. I did notice it was made backwards though. I went over and began to make it properly, I heard someone come into the room.
"Oh Arizona," Church says "um I didn't know you were in here". I turn seeing him with a towel wrapped around his waist, his cheeks are bright red.
"I was cleaning up the rooms" I tell him my face a blank expression as I push past him. I walk into the bathroom, thankfully it was empty, why did this base not have separate  restrooms?!. The bathroom did have a door though, I locked it and took my first shower of the day. I take three a day, four if we have an unusually vigorous training. When I finished up I changed  back into my armor old habits die hard I guess. I decided to watch them do their daily activities. I took a seat on the couch reading an old book that York had given me. I heard a muffled argument, putting my book down slightly I began to listen to it.
"...No you shouldn't get the gun at all!".
"And why not?!"
"Because you killed our last team captain!".
"I did not you a-hole!"
"Guys don't argue I should get the gun!"
"No!"
My interest peaked i snuck closer to the hallway to listen more.
"...She's not going to be around either of you!"
"Sorry man but she's staying with me!"
I groan inwardly walking into the room. Glaring at the three in the room, I walked in the middle of them.
"Explain" I simply say.
"Church and Tucker won't let me have the gun" Caboose tells me.
"Yeah the gun" says Church I hear a slight tone of sarcasm in his voice. Rolling my eyes I walk away from the three, they're acting like children.
    Sitting in my room I begin to write in my journal, my armor is off and I am wearing my pajamas, an oversized shirt and sweats.
Today I put the blue troops through a simple training exercise then they began to argue. My mind keeps going back to project freelancer, I miss Jed and the others... well  maybe not Carolina... she's kind of snobbish. But I miss how Jed would stay up half the night with me talking about everything under the moon. If only he was here now. The soldiers are interesting too, there's one and he has the biggest blue eyes, I think he is the youngest out of the three, he says the silliest things but it makes me smile.
Amanda
I hear a slight sniffling, I begin to wonder where it is coming from what the hell?! I think as I hear someone yell out for Church.
"Caboose shut up!"
I sigh, these men weren't soldiers, they were children. I go out of my room following the slight sniffling I approach a door. Knocking I await a response.
"Who is it?" asks a shaky voice.
"It's Arizona" I say gently. I open the door and find him sitting on his bed, his blanket is wrapped around him. This six foot tall man was cowering in his blankets. I turn on his light sitting at the foot of his bed.
"Wanna talk about it?" I ask in a  soft gentle voice
"I dreamed that we were all fighting someone and then they began to kill us all and they threw babies at us and then the kidnapped Church"
"Well..." I say thinking quickly "I don't think anyone would try to kidnap Church or kill us"
He nods as if he understands. I stand up and begin to leave when he calls me back.
"Miss Air-zone" he says "could you tell me a story?". I stare at him then smile.
"Sure," I say "One day I went to the carnival with my friends. There were lots of us, there were the twins, and York and lots of people. Well me and Wash we decided to go to the house of mirrors first, we ran through it laughing at ourselves. Then he hit his face on a mirror" I smile as I tell the story, "afterwards we took the twins to a roller coaster and they threw up all over the place" my voice begins to grow softer "then Wash and I go to the haunted house..." tears start to well up inside my eyes, they begin to fall. I cover my mouth with my hand to stifle the sound.
"Miss Air-zone are you alright?" Caboose asks. I shake my head no. He engulfs me in a hug.
"I'm sorry Caboose" I say "I just miss them all... especially Wash"
"Who was he?" Caboose asks.
"My best friend, my brother, my greatest ally" I say as tears fall from my eyes.
"I bet he was a good friend"
"He is" I say making Caboose let go of me "now you go to sleep you guys are learning how to drive a tank" I exit the room and go into mine. Closing and locking the door I hold the necklace Jed gave me. I smile before taking out my laptop, I open the video chat thing. It rang for a few minutes before it hung up. I sigh guessing he was just busy.
    Waking up the next morning I changed into my armor, I mentally prepared myself for the battle of waking the boys up. Instead I found them already up and doing push-ups. I smile to myself deciding to show off a bit. I began doing push-up, pretty soon I was already at fifty. I knew that the boys were trying to show off as well so I began doing one armed push-ups.
"Alright that's just not fair" Tucker says sitting on his knees "you obviously have some sort of enhancement on your armor!"
"Are you jealous that little ol me is able to do more push-ups that you?" I ask.
    He crosses his arms in a slight pout, I stand up my arms crossed. I stare at Tucker.
"Boys," I say "what should Tuckers punishment be?"
"Wait why the hell am I being punished?!" Tucker asks
"Never back talk your superior officer, now Caboose and Church what is his punishment?"
"Laps" they both say in unison.
"Alright Tucker ten laps" I say.
"What the hell?" he replies
"Twenty"
"Why are you increasing it?!"
"Thirty"
"Fine I'll go" he starts his laps with a steady jog. I turn to the two in the base.
"Church!" I yell.
"Ah! Yes?" he says
"Yes what?"
"Yes sir!"
"Explain why Cabooses helmet is on backwards" I say while looking at Church, he looks over at Caboose whose helmet is indeed on backwards.
"I think he got excited for training today sir" Church explains/
"Well fix his helmet"  I command "and then go outside today we're doing a trust exercise"
    I walk out of the base taking a look around I find the perfect trust exercise. One of them would would have the sniper rifle, the other would go try to steal the Red Teams flag. I watched them come out. I waved them over to me and told them the plan. Church groaned in what seemed to be annoyance. I gave Caboose the gun, ignoring Church's objections.
    Sneaking through the shadows I near the Red Base. I casually walk inside, this was almost too easy. I overhear a conversation.
"Alright so what did you see?" asks one man.
"I saw the new Blue soldier," said another "he was doing so many push-ups"
"Do you think he could be better than Sarge?"
"I doubt it"
"Well who knows he could be sneaking up on us right now."
I walk into the room expecting to see a group of men. You can guess my surprise when I found three. I quickly took them in, wow the Red army really needed more help than the Blues.There was one guy who was still in his night wear, which was footie pajamas. I pointed my gun at them.
"On the floor," I say they stare at me dumbfounded "now!" I say as I cock my gun. They got on their knees.
"Who are you?" asks the one in Maroon armor.
"Your worst nightmare" I say "get all the way down bellies on the floor".
"Wow mister you're really commanding" says the one in pink armor.
"I'm not a guy" I say.
"Yes you are why else would you have armor like that!" he says "I bet you're really strong!"
"Is he stupid?" I ask the maroon one and the one in sleep wear.
"We think he is" maroon guy answers.
"Church do have it?!" I ask.
"Yes sir!"
"Alright boys we will see you later" I say before running out of the room and the base Church on my heels.
    We made it back to our base easily, Tucker was already back from doing his laps.We put the flag in the kitchen. I decided to let the guys relax for a bit while I tried to call Wash. The screen connected giving me his face, it was bruised and slightly bloody.
"What's up?" he says smiling even though he was in pain.
"Well these men have barely any training and they are filthy" I say "anyway what happened?!"
"North is what happened" he says "he got mad at me for not making you stay"
"Wow... I never thought he would snap"
"Well he misses you, we all do"
"I know that" I say just as a new face pushes his way into the screen.
"Hey Az" North says
"Hi North" I say laughing "Wash told me all about how you messed up his face.
"In my defense I was shocked!" he told me.
"Mhm"
"Honest"
I laugh at him just as Caboose runs into my room, jumping on the bed.
"Miss Air-zone" he says "Church and I are hungry and Tucker too!"
"Woah who's that Az? you're not cheating on me are you?" North asks jokingly.
"I am Caboose!"
"He's one of the soldiers I command now" I say as Caboose keeps whispering to me that he's hungry "Church!" I yell "go make Caboose food! or it's ten laps!"
"Wow you've got them trained"
"Shut up North" I say laughing "they're better behaved than you"
"Oh how so?"
"The dance that the director threw for us, remember" I said.
"At least I know how to have fun"
"You pouted for a week after because I had to take Wash back to his room because he was throwing up everywhere"
"Well you were my date"
"Then at the carnival you pouted because I didn't sit by you on the roller coaster..."
"You said you would!"
"Well I wanted to spend time with Wash!"
"You and I were a thing not you and him!"
"..."
"I'm sorry"
"Hey man you should go" Wash says.
"Yeah... I'm sorry Az"
"Sis you okay?" Wash asks me
"I'm fine" I say
"He still loves you y'know"
"He had to bring up the past..."
"It's alright to cry about that y'know"
"But I don't like to cry" I say "and anyway I was the one that left him"
"I know"
"I had to"
    As our conversation leaves the topic of North I smell something burning.
"Wash I'm gonna have to call you back" I say
"Alright see you then sis"
    Running into the kitchen I see a sandwich on fire, I dumped water on it and sighed tossing it in the trash, thinking about the dance the entire time. I grumbled to myself.
"He's such a baby" I say.
"Who is?" asks Tucker.
"Someone"
"Tell me"
"No".

(WASH'S POV)

    I watched North for a little bit, he looked irritated.
"Hey man what's wrong?" I ask.
"Just... she's all by herself with guys" he replies.
"Dude you know just as well as I do that she can beat their asses if they get out of line"
"Yeah but... I just... She was everything I wanted and more"
"I know it's hard but you can't be hung up on her forever"
"Wash..." He says tiredness in his voice "I don't think I can do that..."  I sighed, realizing this guy felt for Az the way I felt for Melanie. I thought for a minute.
"Y'know there is that dance coming up again... All members of the military can come" I begin "maybe you could ask her... And offer this puppy" I say holding a box with a ring in it.
"Where'd you get that?"
"There was this girl back home I was gonna ask her... But we ended our relationship on very bad terms"
"Like Az and me"
"No"
"What?"
"You don't know the real reason" I begin "Az was worried that on the next mission she would die. She didn't want to live with the thought of her hurting you that bad... She thought a heartbreak with her alive would be better than one with her dead"
North got quiet, I looked over at him to see him looking down at his lap. I noticed something rolling down his cheeks. They were tears. I still held the box out to him, pretty much giving him my approval for him to ask her.
"She was only trying to protect me..." He says.
"She was torn up about it for a long time" I say "so what're you gonna do?"
The box was still held out.