Parallels, pt 2
Maud sat silently on Church's chest, staring into his faceplate without expression. Even with no emotion on her face, however, Church could feel her worry for him in the way she seemed to vibrate with tension. He knew he needed to distract her, preferably sooner and with something that would last long enough that he'd be too loopy from the pain killers for her to be worried...or for him to notice her worry. "It's gonna be okay, Maud," he assured her hopefully. "I'm going to be just fine. I promise." He started to lift his uninjured hand to stroke her mane, but quickly stopped when he spotted it was still red. "...maybe I should wash before I pet..."
"Her?" Maud asked suddenly.
"Her who?" Church asked in confusion.
"So like her?" Maud clarified. "Her?"
"Oh...ooohhh..." Church groaned as he realized what Maud was talking about. While he didn't really want to talk about her just yet, he did want to keep Maud distracted. "Well...I was talking about Agent Texas. She's...well, she's my ex-girlfriend."
"Ex?" Maud pressed, her tone showing the slightest hints of curiosity.
"Yeah, ex," Church confirmed.
"Why ex?"
"I..." Church hesitated, trying to search his memory...only to find there wasn't much to search through. "I honestly don't know. I had a bit of an accident here not long ago, and it gave me some memory loss. I...slipped on a wet spot on the floor. At least, that's what Captain Flowers tells me."
"Ex?" Maud inquired carefully.
"I...I think the memory loss might go before the incident," Church continued. "I don't remember much before then...but I remember Tex coming to me when I couldn't remember anything and...telling me we used to be together. She told me to get some rest, so I'm pretty sure she still cares about me. She just...doesn't show it well. She's great in combat, but the gentler side of things is...difficult for her."
"Like me?" Maud asked softly.
"A little, yeah," Church confirmed. "You're incredibly - I'd almost say insanely - strong, and have some freaky abilities...but you don't show much emotion." Noticing Maud's eyes start to drop, he pushed himself up slightly with his good arm to stare at her. "That's not a bad thing, though!" he insisted comfortingly. "It's just...different. Like Tex is different."
"Tex?"
"Yeah...kind of a nickname," Church explained. "Though I'm pretty sure Agent Texas is a code name..." He lay back, shrugging his shoulders. "I just wish I could remember why we aren't together anymore...why she left me..."
"She left?" Maud asked, a tinge of surprise in her voice.
"...yeah, I'm pretty sure of that," Church confirmed. "I...it's hard to remember but...I remember being upset that she didn't say goodbye. She doesn't like goodbyes, don't know why."
Maud was silent for a time as she turned this over in her mind. Eventually, she shifted to a different point. "Violent?"
"Huh?" Church asked curiously.
"Punch Uncle Tucker," Maud explained. "Punch Red. So like her. Violent?"
Church chuckled softly. "Yeah, Tex can be pretty violent. Like I said, she's a natural on the battlefield. I remember the last time I saw her on the field. I was based...somewhere cold and snowy, not sure of much beyond that just now. I was talking with Private Jimmy and she showed up out of nowhere. Slaughtered the entire unit, even beat Jimmy to death with his own skull!"
Maud's eyes widened in surprise. "You can do that?" she asked in audible awe.
"I can't, but Tex pulled it off," Church replied readily.
"Can I?" Maud asked curiously, looking at her hoof.
"Maybe someday," Church told her, glad to see she'd forgotten about his injured state for the moment. "Anyway, it was her mission to kill the whole unit, I guess...but she didn't hurt me. So I know she still cares. She's a Freelancer, so she does what she's assigned to do without questions or loyalties, and she's efficient and vicious when she does."
"Mom?" Maud asked, a bit of hope in her voice.
Church hesitated. He definitely didn't want to say 'Yes' and have Tex tear into him for it...but he couldn't say 'No' and disappoint Maud, either. "If she ever shows up here, you ask her," he settled on finally. "Just...don't be surprised if she says no. Like I said, she's not much for being touchy-feely."
At that moment, Captain Flowers entered the room leading a man in purple armor holding a strange device that looked like a gun, but one not designed by human hands. On closer inspection, it actually looked like an oddly shaped black magnet with lights at the front end. The man in purple held it at the curve with one hand, his other hand bracing it from beneath. "You're in luck, Private!" Captain Flowers declared happily. "Turns out there was a Medic en route elsewhere within range to be diverted, and Command OKed my request to divert him here."
"Medical Officer Frank DuFrense, reporting for medical duty at Blood Gulch Outposts One and Alpha," the man in purple greeted happily. "I'll just be around treating anyone who gets injured, whichever side and-holy fudge crackers!" This last was in response to Church lifting his injured arm. "How are you still moving that?"
"Painkillers, Doc," Church responded as he felt himself starting to get a little loopy. "Loooots of painkillers."
Frank knelt down, pointing his device at the arm. "Let's see now...eeyikes..." He stared at the device as the front end glowed an odd shade of green. "Looks like compound fractures of every bone in your hand, wrist, and lower arm...twisted muscles and tendons...the only thing keeping all the severed arteries from pouring all your blood out is that they're also crushed further up the arm...and every one of your nails is torn out. What did you do?"
"Punched through a Red's armor bare handed," Church gasped out as the energy from the scanner made his body tense as it reactivated nerves.
"What under the sun would make you try-"
"Not try," Church interrupted proudly. "Succeeded!"
"WHY?" Frank clarified.
"...thought he'd hurt Maud here," Church explained.
"Silly Dad," Maud offered, slight affection audible in her voice as she patted Church's faceplate.
"O...kay then," Frank continued. "Looks like the only option here is to cut the arm off and replace it with a cybernetic one. Luckily, I happen to have one with me, so that shouldn't take more than an hour. In the meantime, I might want to check everyone else over." Turning, he pointed the scanner at Captain Flowers, and it once more glowed green. "Hmm...looks like you're in perfect health, Captain!"
"That's good to hear!" Flowers declared warmly.
"Both green?" Maud asked in confusion.
"But different shades of green!" Frank explained as he pointed the scanner at her. "Different shades of green mean...different...things..." He stared at the end of the scanner, glowing bright pink as it pointed at Maud. "...I have no idea what that means. It's never done that before."
Maud shrugged, losing interest in the device. "Doc?"
"My name's not Doc," Frank pointed out. "It's Medical Officer Frank DuFrense."
Maud held her forelegs out wide, spreading them as Frank spoke his full name and title. She then brought her hoofs together to point to her very small mouth. "Doc," she repeated firmly.
"...she's never going to call me anything other than Doc, is she?" 'Doc' asked ruefully.
"Probably not," Church allowed.
Doc sighed ruefully. "Very well, Doc it is. What can I do for you?"
"Can I borrow your skull?" Maud asked.
"Uh...why?"
"To beat you to death."
Doc stared at her for a time. "I'm...pretty sure it's physically impossible for anyone to do that."
"Mom can."
"Oh..." Church began, wanting desperately to curse at the fact Maud had insisted on thinking of Tex as Mom, but not wanting to curse in front of Maud. Unable to think of any good substitute curse words with the drugs fogging his mind, he eventually settled on the first that came to mind. "...crapbaskets..."
"Oh, you say that too," Doc observed idly.
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A DBZA reference to finish of the chapter, now you are just spoiling us Tats.
I'm seeing a lot of use of the word crap baskets. Are you planning a DBZA crossover?
8410496
Yes.
is this a Fifth Element reference?
And once again you prove that you are one of if not the best writer here Tats...
I don't give a flying *yay* about RvB, and you have me laffin' at the antics of the gray Pinkie Pie....
8410496
There was a poll for the next story, where this story and a dbza story was a choice. As you have probably figured out now, this story won.
Did he somehow have a woman's shoulders for a split second, or was this a bit of a typo?
HAHAAAA! DBZA ref FTW!!
8410499
Celestia, Starlight, or Sunburst?
8410563
Big Mac.
8410496
That would be Big Mac's story. All planed ones are revealed in Discord's
a strange device that looked like an gun
1. A.
As usual, people Mauderating their language around the minor. Still funny each time.
Well, I'm laughing like crazy at Maud's interactions with Doc at the end of the chapter and feel warm and fuzzy, good job Tats! Now I can't wait to see Tex show up... and hopefully teach Maud the fine art of beating people to death with their own skulls. Or just being a badass. Hopefully lots of bad stuff that happened in later seasons doesn't happen... I want to see this family stay together forever!
The snowy map on halo combat evolved is called sidewinder
My bloody, holy hell why wasn't I notified when this story first came out?
I love the fact that Doc is showing up YEARS ahead of Canon! And that Church actually SUCCEEDED in punching through Sarge's armor BAREHANDED! So what if it f***ed up his arm, TEX WOULD BE IMPRESSED THAT HE DID IT! oh....oooohhhhhhh.........How will Maud's presence effect the whole "Church was given a robotic replacement body with a bomb in it by Sarge, and the bomb blew up causing them to think that they went through time" scenario?
I have to say, when I first saw this one I didn't know what to think of it... well, added to tracking and liked. Keep the good stuff coming, man
Each chapter just builds my anxiousness to see more. Will Maud's perceptiveness allow her to recognize Carolina on sight as her sister? Will Alpha be saved, saving Maud from the trauma, and possibly merge with Epsilon?
Cut the n from 'an'
Also, if the Alpha Church is the core AI, shouldn't he be in a robot body and not one made of flesh? I suppose he could be some kind of brain dead clone with the AI pulling the strings.
heaLth
A DBZA reference to show your love. Thanks
If Maud's lights are bright pink, imagine Doc trying to preform a check-up on Pinkie.
I'm thinking strobe lights and carnival music...
That's Pie family for you!
And we're back to the DBZA references!
*The camera cuts to a pony pool party*
"Wait. We're back on air? Can we have another round of long commercials?"
*Show is instantly canceled.*
Alpha and Jimmy are currently one and the same with memory loss allowing them to build the new identity of Church.
Alpha remembers Tex fighting and Jimmy remembers the procedure of Freelancer putting the Alpha in his skull and how it felt. Jimmy didn't forget the location. Thus Church remembers Tex fighting people, in the snow, beating Private Jimmy with his own skull, and sparing Church.
8410476
No, he's Krillin.
8410593
Dang it Sans!
8410478
Hahahahahahahah Love the scene.
This is pretty funny. Although... should I watch Red vs Blue first?
Love DBZA reference
8410924 Probably, I'd watch it regardless. It's even broken into 5-10 minute segments for easy viewing!
"That doesn't seem physically possible."
"That's what Jimmy kept saying!"
"This doesn't seem physically possible!"
Always loved that scene for some reason.
That DBZ Abridged reference
And yet, it's a painful reminder that the series is currently on hiatus, though.
Silver lining, we get more Hellsing Ultimate Abridged and FF7: Machinabridged.
Yay! New update! I wonder how much of the original you're going to keep the same and which parts will be different!
I'll just have to wait until next time!
8410522
Don't think so, she just has a small mouth
8410593
*miner. you missed the opportunity for the second pun.
Doc: Alright, but I don't think it's gonna stick.
Maud: I disagree.
8410856
I thought Donut was the Krillin... you know because of his "deaths".
Church would have gotten it but he has an anger/asshole problem (Like Vegeta)... and he's an AI (no relations).
Where does Captain Flowers come from? I just finished watching all of season 1 and he's nowhere to be found.
8411770 Captain Flowers/Florida isn't mentioned until episode 50 (season 3) in a flashback. All of this is still pre-season 1.
.... Tex is gonna LOVE being with and training her new daughter..
Oh and when will Maud meet her new human sister?
8411770 Captain Butch Flowers, Agent Florida (Poor Florida) of Project Freelancer, as revealed in season 10. The character was first included in the series as something of a throwaway joke involving time travel to 'fix the past' but having Church appear to have caused EVERYTHING BAD THAT HAPPENS TO HIM. This is part of the whole post-explosion tomfoolery involved in the switchover to the Halo 2 engine in season...3? 4?
His status as being Florida was not something that was known, or even hinted at, until the very end of the flashback sequences in season 10. The fact that he IS a Freelancer means that he is a bit of a badass, despite not being close to competitive with Texas as far as direct combat goes. What little is seen in season 10 implies that his strength is likely baseline human average, but he is able to outthink his opposition.
As revealed in season 14, he also hand-picked every other soldier in Blood Gulch at the start of season 1: Grif, Simmons, Sarge, and Tucker. This was done to attempt to create two incompetent teams that would basically never actually fight, but his list of freelancer replacements if anything should happen to him was changed to emulate a SIMILAR stalemate team composition in a different CTF base on another planet.
Oh, right, those are all kind-of spoilers to a newcomer to RVB.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good work.
DODGE!
8411889 Carolina doesn't show up for a while, we'll just have to wait.
8411348
No, that makes him Yamcha.
8412516
Yeah... but the difference between Donut and Yamacha is that I actually like the "Light-ish Red" soldier.
And Yamcha is just Yamcha (His existence is a total pain in the dragonballs).
8412521
Agreed.
Also, thinking on it, Doc's really closer to Yajirobe with the Senzu Beans.
...
If we're making these comparisons, would that make Broly's counterpart Tex or Maine/Meta?
8412538
Meta. Tex talks too much to be Broly.
Tex is Vegeta.
8412538
Who's the Goku in this story?
I would guess Caboose, due to the TFS abridged version of Goku.
And also why would you think Tex is Broly? She's smart. Meta is a good similarity to Broly.
8412554
Church is Goku. Because during all the important parts, he's dead...and yet somehow it's still all about him.
8412555
I agree with that but what is Caboose exactly then?
I refuse to believe that Yamcha relates to any in the RvB world or anything/anyone. (Yamcha should have stayed dead in DBZ. He is the most uninteresting character ever.) I don't hate him, he's just a repressed memory that I want to get rid off.