The week seemed to blow by faster than any of the residents of Blood Gulch expected, and this time Maud was firmly ensconced in her cave with Doc, which was firmly marked off-limits as far as troop movement. Doc was also under orders to never take his eyes off Maud until the battle was over, as her teleportation ability seemed to be based on being out of sight. This was a direct result of a discussion between Sarge and Captain Flowers.
(1)"Maud was in Grif's line of fire when he confronted Church!" Sarge had declared firmly. "This not only inhibited Grif's ability - though I hesitate to call it that - to act, it also put Maud in danger! These training rounds are designed to interact with our armor, but she doesn't have armor! Who knows what it'll do to her! Not to mention someone might get unscrupulous and decide to hold her hostage to force the other side to surrender!"
"While I don't think the latter is a valid possibility," Flowers had responded thoughtfully, "you raise many valid points. Doc will take steps to keep her out of the battle until it is concluded."
"Good!"
And now the battle had begun. Sarge had given different orders this time around. Rather than sending one of them straight after the enemy flag, each of them was given one of the opposing soldiers as their specific target to confront. Sarge would be going after Church personally, as he wanted to get even for his humiliation upon first meeting by taking down the Papa Wolf when his cub wasn't in danger, perceived or otherwise. Simmons had not yet performed well enough to earn his own 'get even' assignment, so Grif was assigned to take down Tucker. Simmons was assigned to take down - or at least distract - Captain Flowers.
On the Blue Team, Church and Tucker were assigned to charge the enemy base on two different attack paths while Captain Flowers took up a sniper position, taking aim and intending to take out the Red soldiers as he caught sight of them...if his troops weren't good enough to handle them only, of course. He wasn't going to take victories away from them.
The battle would be very different from last time.
Church made his way towards Red Base, grasping his machine gun tight in his hands. He was ready to take the Reds down. He wouldn't let them get Maud. He was not about to-
A red-clad fist caught him in the side of his head, sending him sprawling and dropping his gun. He quickly pulled the knife from his hip, but it was kicked out of his hand as he was tackled to the ground. He tried to punch, kick, gouge, headbutt at his assailant...but he quickly found himself pinned to his stomach. He started to take a breath, trying to find that state...
"She's not here," Sarge's voice echoed in his ears. "She's perfectly safe. She's in no danger. I'm not going to hurt her. I'm not going to take her away from you. You can see her any time. She needs you alive."
As Church felt the words echo in his head, he struggled to find that state and push past them...but could not.
A shotgun blast of paint caught him in the back of his head, fusing his face to the ground as his armor locked up. "Now stay there, Private!" Sarge declared firmly. "This round is ours...and that's okay." Sarge then turned and walked away...only to turn back and fire a few more times to fuse Church's entire body to the ground. "Just making sure!" He then added an extra coat to Church's head...and the rest of him. And one more to his head for good measure. "Just take a quick nap, okay?" He then turned and went looking for Grif, certain the orange armored slacker would be in need of assistance or rescue, which he could hold over his head to try and get extra work out of him.
Grif made his way carefully across the open plains of Blood Gulch. There wasn't much in the way of cover beyond a few large boulders, and that made Grif nervous. He should be able to see Tucker coming, but he had caught no sight of the Blue soldier. "I don't like this..." he muttered as he moved near the cliff wall.
"Surprise, mother-fucker!" Tucker screamed out as he leapt down from the cliff directly above, opening fire as he came down.
To Tucker's surprise - and Grif's, for that matter - the orange armored troop spun out of the way of the shots before delivering a spin kick to the back of Tucker's head, knocking him into the cliff wall. "How'd I do that?" Grif demanded in shock.
"You'd better hope you can do it again!" Tucker snapped out as he lunged for Grif, only to take a punch that sent him sprawling. "How the fuck did you get so strong?" he demanded as he got to his feet, only to stumble as one foot became encased in the training paint.
"I mine at night," Grif replied readily as he pulled out a hefty sledgehammer. "It's rather exciting. Four!" He pulled the sledge back like a golf club.
"Oh god nooooOOOOOO!" Tucker screamed as the sledge connected with the crotch of his armor, sending him into the air.
Grif then pulled out a bow and arrow with a training paint round for an arrowhead, taking careful aim. "...pull," he finally said before shooting. The arrow caught the falling Tucker right in the back of his helmet, the round releasing its charge to encase Tucker's entire head as he came down. "Bullseye. Looks like fighting those skeletons for the really shiny rocks paid off. Time to get to the Blue Base."
As he turned to head for the base, Sarge fell off a distant boulder in stunned amazement. "Grif...effective? It's not possible..."
Flowers frowned as he watched his men get taken down one at a time. "...they've really improved in just a week," he mused to himself. "I definitely need to get my men to train harder. Still..." He carefully took aim at Grif. "Now it's time to-"
"AAAAAAGHH!" Simmons screamed out as he tripped and fell off the top of the canyon, bounced several times, and came down on top of Flowers' sniper rifle, breaking it in half and causing all its paint ammo to discharge all at once, completely coating Simmons and getting Flowers' right side as he'd tried to spin out of the way.
Flowers carefully glanced down his left side...and saw, as expected, that he'd put all his melee weapons on that side, meaning all his ranged weapons were trapped in the giant paint muck. "Well...that's inconvenient..."
(1) Thanks PopsicleTart for this idea.