Zone cracks his neck and groans. [Geez man, what did you do?] 

"What do you mean what did I do?!" Church exclaims. 

[Uh, who was the one that made her mad and have her decide to beat the living crap out of-] Tex had then tackled Zone and started beating him with Church's Monitor body. [Ow! Tex stop would you-Ow! Hey guys! Ow! You gonna help-Ow-me or what?! Ow!] 

"Naw Rex, I think you got everything under control. We'll just hang back here." Sarge says. 

"Yeah, you've got some catching up to do." Grif adds throwing away a medpack he was using to cover his crotch. "Hey, what's she beating him with?" 

"I think that was Church's old body." Simmons answers. 

"You mean he ain't a floatin' cue ball any more?" Sarge asks disappointed. "That's too bad. Had a few more nicknames in my side pocket. We'll certainly miss you Lord Hackensack of the Roundalots." 

"Gee thanks." Church says sarcastically. 

"Beating him with his body? That doesn't seem physically possible." Grif says thoughtfully. 

"Uh-hu- we have to do something." Caboose says. 

"I am sorry, as I said, I cannot operate outside the bounds of my standard safety protocols." FILSS reminds the blue trooper. 

"What if I said...pretty please?" Caboose asks.

"Private Caboose, is there a reason why you don't want to use one of the standard safety protocols? In this scenario, I would strongly recommend locking down the armor of any rogue unit." 

"Wait you can do that?" 

"Of course. Armor lock is a standard safety feature since the Freelancer break in." 

"Well why didn't you tell us that?" Caboose says raising his arms. 

"Why would I need to tell the Director that? He wrote the protocol himself." 

"Oh, right. Yes of course he did. Um Sheila, could you do the armor lunchable thing that you said?" 

"Certainly. Now initiating standard safety protocol. Armor lockdown in progress. All units, stand by for lockdown." Tex becomes immobilized and let's go of Zone. 

"What- what's happening? Caboose what did you do to her?" Church asks worriedly. 

"Yes! Yes! I did it! I am the biggest hero ever! I beat up a girl!" Caboose cheers. 

"That's not nice Caboose." Xi says crossing her arms. 

"Hah hah, yes!" Sarge laughed. "See, that's how you do it Grif; face your enemy man to man. Or in your case, woefully inadequate man to woman. And then when she's distracted, use superior technology to take her out. (Sniff) Reminds me of prom night." 

"We didn't do anything, she shut down." Grif points out. 

"Uh, hey guys? What do you think that voice meant by "all units"?" Simmons asks. The Reds and Zone become immobilized. 

"Hrr, h-gr I can't move." Sarge exclaims. 

"I did it, I- not my fault! Not my fault! I did not do this! The computer made suggestions! And the default option was yes!" 

[Well this is just great.] Zone mutters. 

"What's happening? Caboose! Make it stop! Make it st-ow! Rrruh!" Church grunts as he and Tucker become immobilized as well. 

"Uh, Sheila, is, is my armor gonna lockdown too?" Caboose ask fearfully. 

"No Caboose, your helmet does not have that particular protocol installed in it. I had assumed, that was the reason why you were wearing that-" 

"Yes. That is totally the reason." 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

Church looked around the room and saw his surroundings were gray and white. 

"What happened? Where am I?" 

"Safety Protocols were initiated, please remain calm." 

"Sheila, is that you?" Church asks. 

"Yes." 

Church looks up. "What is this place?" 

"Your operator has been injured or incapacitated, and you are now in Recovery Mode. You will remain in this state until such time as you can be extracted by a Recovery Agent, or your operator regains consciousness."  FILSS explains. 

"Wait! You didn't send a Recovery Beacon did you!? Because that would be really-" 

"Recovery Beacons only arm once a unit leaves the facility.This unit has yet to leave this facility. therefore we must first..." 

"Yeah, yeah I got it." Church then sees a black armored figure. "Is that Tex?" 

"Affirmative. Technically, she is not present in this environment, but if you would like to speak to her I can relay communication through external channel." 

"Yes, please." 

Church waited a moment and then FILSS responded, "I am sorry but she has refused the connection. She should not be able to do that." 

"Yeah, that's not surprising. Can you force it through?" Church questions. 

"I can try, but I would not recommend that action." 

"Because I might damage her?" 

"No, I just have learned that when a woman wants to be alone, it is best to leave her alone." 

"Yeah, good call." Church agrees. "Hey get me out of this but, uh, leave her in here until I figure out what to do with her." 

"Suit yourself." 

Tex then looks around the room. 

"Uhh, she didn't hear that did she?" Church asks nervously. 

"Unclear." 

"I thought you weren't relaying my messages!" 

"Recovery Mode disabled." 

"You women always stick together." Church's eyes widen in realization. "Oh man I hope she didn't hear that." Church then finds he's back in the facility and shakes of the effects from the armor lock. He walks over Tucker was getting out of armor lock also. 

"Oh god, that sucked! What was all that glowing crap?" Tucker inquires, standing. 

"Sheila put us in lock-down to save us." Church explained. 

"She knocked us out to help us? That makes sense." Tucker says sarcastically. 

"Hey, at least we're not getting our butts kicked okay?" Church points out. "That's an improvement." 

"Yeah, that's a good point. Can't argue with results." They walk over to the Reds and Zone. 

"Sheila, can they, ahh...can they hear me?" Church asks. 

"Affirmative." 

"She said yes." Caboose yells over the microphone. 

"We heard her moron." Tucker replies. 

"I know! I just want to use the microphone! It makes me sound super loud! I'm not sure if you can tell!" 

"Hey, where'd you get the new body?" Tucker asks. 

"Long story dude, I'll tell you later." Church says. 

"Man, I know I asked but I really don't give a crap, Church." 

"Attention Freelancer shoppers! We have a special on submachine guns in aisle seven!" Caboose says aloud. 

"Xi, please take care him!" Tucker snaps. 

"Caboose be quiet!" Xi orders. 

"Aww, man." 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

The Reds and Zone look around and see they're in the same area Church was in before. 

"Sarge, where are we?" Simmons asks. 

"Men, I have bad news for all of us, we're dead." Sarge states. "Which in the case of Grif is good news for me. But still, bad news overall." 

"Dead?! I can't be dead! I still have so much to do!" Simmons cried. 

"Uh? Like what?" Grif asks. 

"Like...everything that doesn't involve a computer...man, it's been a real one-track life for me." Simmons recalls, looking back. 

"So this is the after-life, huh? Not bad, it's kind of grainy." Grif shrugs. "Overall, I cant complain." 

[Guys were not dead.] Zone tries to say. 

"Rex is right! This is just the stage before we move on, like purgatory." Sarge adds. 

"Ooh, or like the last episode of Lost." Simmons suggests. 

"Hey! I haven't seen that yet! No Spoilers!" 

"That show was on hundreds of years ago!" Simmons states. 

"La, la, la-la, don't say anything else!" Sarge sings. 

Zone scoffs. [Give me a break.] 

"Well, I'm going to sleep. See you losers in 14 hours." Grif says. 

"Grif, no napping!" Sarge orders. 

"Sorry Sarge, but you always said I can sleep when I was dead. Hey, guess what? I am dead. So this purgatory is about to become purga-snory. Yawn..." 

"Grif!" 

"Hey Reds! Zone! Can you hear me?" Church's voice booms. 

"Who in Sam Heaven is that?" Sarge says looking around. 

"Is that God?" Simmons asks. 

"Hey Almighty, can it! Some of us are trying to get a little shut eye." Grif retorts. 

"No Blasphemy!" Sarge exclaims. 

"What do you want God? Take Grif, he's been terrible! I mean great!" Simmons says fearfully. 

Zone rolls his eyes. [Guys, it isn't God. It's Church. What is it Church?!] 

"Pfft, this is just what you need, more people worshiping you." Tucker scoffs. 

"Yeah, hey listen, we want to let you out, but we don't want you to attack us or attack Tex, okay?" Church says. 

"Attack Tex? She attacked us!" Simmons points out. 

"Screw you guys!" Grif exclaims. 

"I would never hit a girl!" Sarge states. 

[I never wanted to attack her to begin with!] Zone adds. 

"Just agree and we'll let you out." Church says crossing his arms. 

"Grr, fine..." Grif growls. 

"Whatever..." Simmons adds. 

[Okay, yes!] Zone agrees. 

"Grk duh mrm jerk gurrgle..." Sarge grumbles. 

"I'm gonna assume that last one was a yes." Church looks up and says, "Alright, let 'em out Sheila!" 

"Affirmative. Ending Recovery Mode, red units." The Reds and Zone are then freed from immobilization. 

"Ahh! My neck was killing me!" Sarge says rolling his head in a circle. 

[My back is stiff.] Zone groans. They all walk over to the still immobilized Tex. 

"I'm waking her up." Church states. 

"No way buddy. You must have missed the smashfest we just went through. I ain't repeating that." Sarge protests. 

"Hey, we made a deal: I unlock you, you have to help me with her." Church reminds him. 

"Hey, now hold on a second." Grif declares. 

"This affects the entire group. I say we put it to a vote. All those in favor of waking her up and letting her kill us, say Aye." Simmons states. 

"Aye." Church says. 

[Aye.] Zone adds. 

"Rex! What are you doing?!" Sarge cries. 

[Dad, she's my friend, I'm not gonna leave her like that.] 

Church turns to Caboose. "Caboose?" 

Caboose stands at attention. "Present." 

"No, we're not doing that. Just say aye." Church orders. 

"You. Oops I mean me!" 

"No. Aye." 

"Church." 

"Just say aye." 

"Oh, I get it, right, sorry. My left eye or my right eye?" 

"He votes yes." Church clarifies. 

"I would also like it noted I was present." Caboose adds. 

"Okay. And everyone in favor of not doing that thing and leaving her asleep and not getting killed by the person we're not going to wake up because nobody is that stupid, say Nay." 

"That was like a, quadruple negative." Simmons clarifies. 

"Just vote." Sarge orders. 

"Nay?" 

"I didn't even understand the question, so I'm just gonna say Blueberry." Grif states. 

"Screw it, veto, she comes out. So Sheila, is there any way to turn her, only you know, partway back on?" Church asks. 

"No, I am sorry. I can either leave her in lock, or take her out of lock. There is no in between." 

"So she's either completely asleep, or full-on psycho. Sounds like my ex-wife." Tucker says. 

"You were married?" Caboose asks. 

"Haw-ha- gross, I hope not." 

[You are the world's worst ladies' man. The day you get a girl, will be the day I decide to bullet in my head.] Zone groans. 

"Well, we have to do something." Church huffs. 

"Why do people always say that; we have to do something? We don't have to do anything. Let's just let sleeping maniacs lie." Grif suggests. 

"Here, let me try this." Church exits his body and goes into Tex. After a few minutes he comes back out. 

"What did she say?" Tucker asks. 

"Okay, I think we got it all worked out." Church relayed. 

[She cool?] Zone inquires. 

Church shrugs. "As cool as she ever was." 

"That does not inspire confidence in me." Grif says worrisome. 

"Wake her up Sheila." 

"Affirmative." 

"Back up, back up." Simmons mutters to Grif and Sarge as they take a few steps back. 

"Ending Recovery mode, all units." 

Tex grunts as she stands up. 

"Uh, how're you feeling?" Church asks. Tex runs over and punches Tucker in the front of his face. 

"OW!" 

"Better now." She smirks. 

"What the crap?" Tucker snaps, sitting up. 

"Oh right. I forgot to mention one thing." Zone burst out laughing before Tex walked over and punched him in the face, knocking off his helmet. 

"And that was for knocking me-" Tex silences herself when she sees the familiar face of the silver haired and aqua-eyed Freelancer. "Z-Z-Zone? Is that you?!" 

Zone spreads his arms and smiles, shrugging awkwardly. Tex wraps her arms around him squeezes him. 

[It's good to see you too Allison.] Zone says wrapping his arms around her.