//------------------------------// // Chapter 72 - "Blood for Blood" // Story: My Little Caboose II: Friendship is Fragmented! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// The group quickly found their way to a small room deep inside the storage facility. Large, metal boxes sporadically placed around the room. Wash grabbed the Reds and began to scour the room, checking to see if there was anything they could use in the boxes, but for the most part it was mostly rations. Carolina, on the other hand, put her back against the wall next to the doorway and slid down, grabbing her arm. She grunted as released some latches on her armor. She slowly took her helmet off, then did the same with the top part of her armor. "Shit," she grumbled, feeling nothing but pain in her arm. She then looked up to see Caboose, Tucker, Sister and Doc looking at her. "What?" "You are very pretty," Caboose said happily. "Thanks, Caboose," Carolina grunted, rolling her eyes slightly, her looks being the furthest of her concerns. Looking to Doc, she clenched her bad fist. "Think you can do anything about this?" "Uh, hang on," Doc said, glancing back at the Reds. "You guys find any medkits around?" "No, it's mostly just cafeteria stuff," Simmons said. "You know, nonperishable food, metal utensils, industrial sized napkins." After a few moments in the back, Simmons spoke up again. "Wait, found some medical supplies here. Got bandages, rubbing alcohol and some pain relievers." "Great. Bring me it." "Hey, I have dibs on the food!" Grif said quickly. "All I need is knife, the rubbing alcohol, the bandages and the pain relievers." "Got it," Simmons said with a nod, then quickly gathered what Doc needed. "No pills," Carolina said as Doc reached for that first. "Well, uh, what I'm about to do is going to hurt a lot..." "I can deal with it," she hissed. "Alright, alright," Doc murmured defensively. Grabbing the alcohol, he held out his free hand to her. "Give me your arm." "Uh, are we really trusting Doc to do medical stuff?" Grif asked as Carolina gave the medic her arm. "Hey, I've gotten a lot better since the canyon. I'm the one who saved Donut's life, remember?" "Right, how could I forget?" Grif murmured sarcastically. "Alright, I'm going to need you to count to three," Doc said as he took the top off of the rubbing alcohol. "Okay. One... Two..." Carolina took a deep breath. "Thr—" The instant the rubbing alcohol touched her wound, she immediately regretted her decision to not take the pain killers. She let out a small, but pain-fillled yelp. She tried to pull away instinctively, but Sarge and Wash stepped forward and held her in place. As they did that, Doc grabbed the knife and looked at her. Gritting her teeth, Carolina nodded at him. He then slowly put the blade into her arm, much to her discontent. Luckily, the process was over relatively quick, as Doc hastily popped the bullet out of her arm. Carolina's hands clenched up and she was nearly ready to punch something. Suddenly, noise came from the hallway and the group quickly looked at each other. "Caboose, bring her into cover," Wash whispered quickly, raising his weapon. "Okay!" Caboose said. He quickly bent forward and helped Carolina off the ground with one arm, then grabbed her helmet and armor with the other and began to walk towards the other end of the room. Luckily whoever was in the hallway seemed to be taking their time, so Wash and the Reds and Blues fanned out, hiding behind most of the boxes for cover. Eventually, the stranger made his way into the room, followed by the sound of several other footsteps walking towards him. Washington made a signal to Tucker, who was positioned closest to the door with his sword at the ready. Tucker nodded and glanced out. "Junior!" Tucker exclaimed with a sigh of relief, sprinting towards his crossbred son. "[What are you doing here?]" "[I decided that, since you need help, I wanted to be there to help you along,]" Junior said. "[You're getting slow with your old age.]" "[Old age? I'm only—]" Tucker stopped. "[Wait, why did you risk coming out here? Aren't you pretty much the one in charge?]" "[While I was gone I put Maximillion in charge,]" Junior said, looking around the room. "[Where are your friends?]" "[Oh, right,]" Tucker grunted, looking back. "It's okay, guys. It's just Junior." "Did they manage to kill the soldiers?" Washington asked, slowly coming out of his cover. "[No, most managed to get away unharmed,]" Junior replied to Tucker, knowing they could not understand him. "[Our intention wasn't to kill them all, merely to chase them away.]" "Well, that's just great," Washington grunted irately after Tucker relayed the information. "So now the Lieutenant will be telling the Chairman about this, and they'll come in here full force for a sweep of the facilities." Just then, another alien came into the room, followed by several others, all armed to the teeth with alien weapons. "Looks like they came prepared for more than just a rescue operation..." Sarge noted, slowly prepping his shotgun. "Relax, they knew were in hot shit. They wouldn't have managed to scare them away if they didn't have any weapons. It's not like they want to kill—" "[Him!]" one of the aliens snarled. "That doesn't sound good," Washington said as a large purple alien began walking towards him. "[William, what is wrong with you?]" Junior asked, grabbing William's shoulder. "[He was the one who killed our bretheren! But your father kept it a secret from us, up until he needed us,]" William then lifted his carbine and aimed it. The aliens behind it did the same, giving the others a sense of déjà-vu from just a few minutes ago. "[Any one who knowingly deceives clearly can not be trusted. And if we can't trust your so-called 'father', then it is clear to us that there can be no real peace with humans.]" "[Don't do this,]" Junior warned him quietly, stepping in front of William. "[Peace can be achieved, and justice can still be had. We just need to talk about it.]" "[I've always thought that you have too much human in your blood,]" William hissed, taking a precautionary step backwards. "[You may speak our language, you may look like us, and you may act like us... but you do not think like one of us. We are a proud race, and mass murder demands an eye for an eye. Blood for blood. I am reluctant to kill our kind, even if you are a half-bred, but you are still important to us. But unless you step out of the way, you will be dealt with alongside the humans.]" "What are they talking about?" Simmons whispered to Tucker. "They want to kill us all because Washington let the Meta kill a group of their friends," Tucker explained as if it was no big deal, then glanced to Washington. "Nice going on that, by the way." "How is this all my fault?" Washington asked sourly. "[See? These humans do not respect out kind,]" William growled, waving a claw at Tucker and Simmons. "[Instead of reasoning with us, they talk amongst themselves. They do not care about us!]" "[That's not true. Tucker cares about us and our cause, as do his friends.]" "[Yet his friend is the one that slaughtered our kind!]" "[They were working against us!] "[From what Wash said, they were working with the guys who were trying to kill us back there,]" Tucker added. "[Perhaps I was wrong, then,]" William said quietly, lowering his weapon slightly. "[No hard feelings. Everyone makes mistakes.]" "[I am glad you feel that way...]" William said with a nod. "[Because if our kind was working with those outside, they must have been working towards peace with them all along...]" "Oh shit..." Tucker said, knowing what was coming. "[Which makes you the ones who are working against peace, meaning you truly are our enemies]" William snapped as he pushed Junior to the ground and raised his weapon. "Attack!"