Stained (Red vs Blue)

Bullets Hurt

Before The Storm

I must have blacked out, because the I awoke in the infirmary of the Mother Of Invention. I opened my eyes, and was greeted by the bright flourecent lights in the room. I flinched, and covered my eyes. I could feel the bandages on my side. One of the medics walked into the room.

"Ah, Agent Nevada. it's been awhile since the last time I saw you. How do you feel?" She asked. "Fine right now. But that's going to change when the meds run out," I said with a faint chuckle. The medic smiled. "Can you get Iowa, Alaska, and Michigan for me? I need to talk to them," I asked. She nodded, turned, and left the room.

A few minutes later, the three of them entered the room, and went directly to me. They were dressed in our casual clothes, the black shirt with black sweat pants with out secondary color striped down the side. I painfully sat up. I stretched as best as I could, and smiled at them. "You okay?" Iowa asked. I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so. I could do without the wound, though," I said.

She rolled her eyes. A thought occured to me. "Do any of you know where my dogtags are?" I asked. Iowa nodded. "I'll get them," She said, and rushed out of the room. "How do you feel?" Alaska asked. "Fine, I guess. Just confused. Why would Chi double cross us like that?" I asked. They shrugged.

"I would have figured that she would have stayed with her siblings," Michigan said. Alaska and I nodded. Kappa appeared beside Alaska. "I should have seen this coming. Chi is... different from us. Her loyalties were never really with us... I should have seen this coming," He said. I shook my head.

"Kappa, it's not your fault. We all make mistakes. You missed one detail, that's it. I don't think any of you guys saw that coming," I said. Kappa didn't respond, and just disappeared. "And Montana and C-O.... Dammit. The whole project is falling to pieces just because of them," Alaska said. Iowa walked into the room, my dogtags in her hand.

They pulled some chairs over, and sat down. Iowa handed me my dogtags, and I hung them around my neck. It always feels strange when I'm not wearing them. "Thanks," I said to Iowa."No problem," She responded. "So, what do we do now?" Michigan asked. "Well, I talked with the Director earilier, and he said that he wanted a conference with all of us, when Neva is allowed to get up," Iowa said.

"And when is that?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "Tomorrow," Iowa responded. "I'm not staying in bed that long," I argued. "Yes you will. Doctor's orders," She responded. I growled. "And who is this 'doctor'? I will convince him or her to let me up," I asked. Alaska and Michigan chuckled.

"That would be me," Iowa said menacingly. I growled, but couldn't surpress a laugh. The laugh kind of hurt, though. I tried my best not to wince. "Okay, I have a question. Why does Vanguard have a facination with shooting Nevada? I mean seriously, the rest of us only ever got scratches and bruises, but she gets shot. Either you have really bad luck, or they just don't like you," Alaska said to me. I chuckled.

"I know, right? It's just ridiculous. I wonder if they realize that when she's pissed, you don't want to stand in her way," Iowa said. I raised my eyebrow again. "The same could be said for you, Iowa," I said. She chuckled. "No one wants to argue with Iowa. She's to persistant," Michigan said.

I smiled. "Have I ever told you that you would make an excelent politician? No one would be able to go against her in a match, partly because she wouldn't allow herself to lose," Alaska said with a smirk. Iowa and I looked at each other, and shook our heads. "She couldn't be a politician. Every rival would be dead, and she'd turn a 'friendly' debate into a rather violent one," I said.

Iowa just smiled. We all laughed. A few minutes later, Georgia rushed through the door, her eyes immediately locking onto us. She seemed worried...

She ran to where we were. "Where are they?!" She yelled, her voice breaking. "Georgia, calm down, calm down," Iowa said, biting her lip. Apparently, no one was supposed to know we were here. "I'm not going to 'calm down'! Where's C-O?! Where's Montana?!" Georgia yelled again.

"Not here, obviously," Michigan said, trying to act as normally as possible. Georgia glared at him, but didn't say anything. But something changed when she noticed me. "Nevada... Something bad happened on that mission, didn't it?" She asked. Alaska, Michigan, Iowa and myself all nodded, but didn't say anything.

"I knpow you guys aren't going to tell me right now. But will you tell me what happened later?" She asked. We nodded. She turned and left the room. I sighed. "This whole Vanguard thing is complicating things. But I wonder what would be happening if they never existed," I said. "Sometimes, I think the same thing. But, if you think about it, we wouldn't be nearly as far if they never stepped into the picture," Michigan said.

I nodded. "What time is it?" I asked. Iowa looked around for a clock, but Eta suddenly appeared, and said, "Around eight o'clock," He said. "A.M or P.M?" I asked. "P.M," Eta responded, and I smiled. "Only a few hours until I can get up," I said. Iowa shook her head. "Tomorrow morning when I give the okay," Iowa said, smiling.

I sighed. "Well, you get some sleep. We'll be leaving now," Iowa said. "I just woke up," I argued. She just gave me a look, and left, followed by Alaska and Michigan. I sighed to my self. They turned all but one light off, leaving me in my dark corner.

I sat there, staring blankly at the wall across from me. My thoughts kept drifting over to C-O and Montana. Even if we managed to find Tracer and Zeta, I'd go after C-O and Montana. They're more important to me. I can deal... without an A.I.

But I don't know how Eta would react to that. Just because he was stolen from me, he got really mad and took it out on Iowa. I sighed to myself. Just because I got bored, I laid back down, and eventually fell asleep.

My dreams were plagued with C-O, Montana, Zeta, Lambda, Pi, Tracer, and the Creator. I didn't know how long I was asleep, but someone woke me up. My eyes fluttered open. It was Iowa.

I smiled. "So can I finally get up?" I asked. She nodded with a smile. I sat up. My side ached, but it was a lot better than yesterday. I stood up. "You go take a shower. Unwrap it first, then I'll dress it up again," I just nodded in agreement.

After getting showered, which stung, I got dressed, and Iowa redressed the wound. I felt better, but I wasn't clear to train for a few days. I sighed when I heard this. They also wouldn't let me get armored, which ticked me off. I'm not exactly used to not doing anything.

Iowa was sparring with Alaska and Michigan. It was those two against her. She stood in the center of the room, her fists up, ready for an attack. Alaska and Michigan circled around her, looking for an opening. Alaska attacked from her left. She grabbed his hand when he was just a foot from her, and slammed her head against his.

He stumbled just a bit, then Iowa kneed him, spun to regain her footing, and kicked him away. Michigan jumped on her back, and wrapped his arms around her neck. It didn't even make her pause. She grabbed his arm, and threw him over her head. He landed several feet away.

Alaska was already up, and slammed his fist against the side of her helmet. She stumbled, but didn't lose her footing. "Agent Nevada, follow me," I heard the Director say from behind me. I turned to face him. "Yes, sir," I said, not questioning him. He'd probably give me the same response as he usual.

He walked out of the room, and I walked a few feet behind him. Damn. I wanted to watch that sparring match. We arrived at his office. "I've already had a talk with the other Agents about the last mission. I want an explanation from you, Agent Nevada," He ordered. I sighed inwardly.

"We had to split up in the forest because the facility wasn't there. Montana and Colorado how a crevice in a cliff, and we went through it. Again we split up. When Iowa and I hit a dead end. we tried to contact Montana and Colorado. Something was blocking us. We met up with Alaska and Michigan, and ran to their position. When we arrived, we found blood. We then found the facility, and followed drag marks.

It led us to a large storage room filled with Freelancer armor. The terminal in the nack showed the creator of the A.I.s, and he said that we had to play a game to get Montana and Colorado back. We agreed to the game, and then he brought Chi back to him, and I got shot," I finally finished. He just nodded.

"You are dismissed,"