[Alright stay close.] Zone motions for Caboose, Sarge, and Cyclops to follow him. They had recently breached an offsite UNSC facility where they much of what was left after the Great War and Freelancer. They were sneaking down a hallway until they hear talking behind from around a corner. [Xi?] 

"Three guards, all armed with shotguns." 

"Then I can take 'em out easy! Just watch this Rex!" Sarge was about to rush around the corner but Zone puts his hand up stopping him. 

[No dad, then that'll get the whole attention of the facility. I've got a better idea.] 

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

"So d'you here about the new weapons they're testing out?" The soldier with blue accents says. 

"Nope." The soldier with yellow accents replies. 

"What are they called?" The soldier with red accents asks. 

"They're called Rail Guns. I hear they fire like one massive blast of electricity that either knocks you out or completely blows your head off." 

"Oh you're bullcrapping us right now." The red one retorts. 

"Yeah, I mean come on! Blows your head off?" The yellow one agrees. 

"Oh so it's impossible for a weapon to be capable of something like that, even after they made the Spartan Laser which destroys any vehicle with one blast." The red and yellow soldiers remained silent after that statement. 

"Okay you got us there." The blue one rolls his eyes when he feels something against his foot. He looks down and sees some sort of metallic sphere. He picks it up and shows it to his comrades. "Hey, what's this?" Suddenly he is tackled to the ground by something that jumps up and attacks his comrades. It knocks them over and growls. It brings out some sort of cannons from its legs and aims them at the soldiers. They then watch as three men walk around the corner, weapons on their backs. 

[Cyclops...knock 'em out.] The machine then raises its tail and hits the soldiers over the head with it, rendering them unconscious. Cyclops grabs the ball from the blue soldier and brings it over to Zone, tail wagging. Zone takes the ball and smiles. 

"Aw, who's a good boy!" Caboose says petting Cyclops. 

[Come on, let's get in there. Caboose help me with this.] Zone and Caboose grab the edges of each door and pull it open, prying the mechanized doors apart. They enter the room and see various weapons, crates, and artifacts. 

"Okay let's find the Bluetard." Sarge declares. The three and Cyclops begin searching for the capture unit. 

"Hey Zone?" Xi asks appearing next to his head as he rummaged through a large crate. 

[Yeah Xi?] 

"About Carolina, I'm glad she's alive but, what about us?" 

[What do you mean?] 

"I mean don't you lov-" 

"I FOUND HIM! I FOUND CHURCH!" Caboose yells holding up the capture unit. 

[What were you gonna says Xi?] 

"What? Oh nothing, let's get Epsilon." Xi disappears. Zone sighs as he goes to Caboose and Sarge. Caboose places the unit on the ground and Zone activates his holo-screen. 

[Alright, let's see if I can boost the power and give this thing some energy. Hopefully it'll be enough to get him out.] Zone then swipes his fingers and the unit gives a spark as it begins to light up. The unit then opens up, revealing many wires that were lit up like a Christmas tree. 

"It's opening! It's working!" Caboose says pointing and jumping up and down. "I see him! I see him, he's in there. He's okay!" 

Sarge pushes him aside. "What? Let me see, moron. It's just a bunch of circuits." 

"Yeah but they're glowing. He's alive!" 

"Zone, have you found Epsilon?" Carolina asks on the radio. 

[Yeah, we're getting him out now.] 

"Good I'm en route to your position." 

[See you soon.] 

"Get him outta there." Sarge demands. 

[Almoooost......got it!] The unit lights even bright and then a white Spartan VI with a sniper rifle appears in front of them. 

"No, no, dang it! Whyhyhy? Why did you do it?" Church shouts. 

"Church, you're alive! See-I knew it. See I told them! And she was right! We could get you out!" Caboose says with his hands raised. 

"Alright then, we're square Blue. We helped you get your shiny blue buddy out, so that makes us-" 

"What're you doing here?" Church demands, interjecting Sarge. 

"Uh, saving you. Y-we found you in the place where they were keeping you and we traveled a really really long way to come to this place, and fought a bunch of people, and then fought a bunch of more people, and then we got you and took you and saved you, the end." Caboose explains. 

"But why would you do that? Why?!" 

"Well, clearly it wasn't to hear 'thank you'." Sarge mutters. 

[Yeah talk about ungrateful.] Zone agrees crossing his arms. 

"Thank you? You messed everything up! I was at peace, I had it figured out, it was over! Put me back!" Church says pointing at the unit. 

"Put you back? Buddy, we just fought through an entire military base to reach you. And now you wanna go back?" Sarge asks dumbfounded. 

"YES!" 

"She said we need you. She and Zone said they were the ones who knew how to get you out." Caboose tells him. 

"She? Who're you- who're you talking about, Tex? The real Tex?" Church asks. 

"Tex? No, no not Tex. The new lady." 

"New lady?" The door slides open, and in enters Carolina. 

"Hey there, Alpha. Been looking for you for a long time." 

"Oh no." Church says fearfully. 

"Now that I've found you, you're gonna help me do what I should have done years ago: you're gonna help me kill the Director." Carolina seethes. 

"Agent Carolina?! What are you doing here?!" 

"I need your help. I'm tracking the Director of Project Freelancer and you're my best bet for figuring out what hole he's hiding in." She explains. 

"Hole, eh? You know, our buddy Donut was always talking about his holes!" Sarge chuckles. 

[Dad...] Zone groans. 

"Constantly trying to get people to look at them and what not." 

"Come on Sarge, he's dead now. He was shot, remember?" Church reminds him. 

"Oh right...probably has a few more holes in him, huh? Heh heh heh." Everyone just stares at him. "What, too soon?" 

"What's the appropriate amount of time to go by for that joke to be okay?" Church asks. 

"Ah whatever, you big blue baby." 

"Shut up Sarge. What are you doing alive Carolina? You're supposed to be dead. This is impossible." 

[You're seriously gonna ask that question after I defied logistics?] 

"Yeah, that's a funny thing to say, for a guy who's literally a ghost." Sarge adds. 

"Yeah, uh, actually he's not a ghost...um, he's a computer program. He gets holograpically projected on our armor when he wants to talk to us." Caboose states. 

"Seismographic computer programs? Heh heh. Caboose, you say the craziest things sometimes. What an imagination on you." Sarge laughs. 

"Yeah, I don't know what that first word means, but it sounds the same...I will allow it." Suddenly an explosion goes off and Wash backs up into the room firing his rifle. 

"Hey, how we doing in here?" 

"Wash?" Church says shocked. 

"You got Epsilon out, good. We can't hold them off much longer. They're not too happy about us breaking in." 

"Let me see what I can do to help that." Carolina runs out of the room and fires her rifle. 

"Heh, same old Carolina. I guess coming back from the dead doesn't change anybody." Wash chuckles walking up to the group. 

"Washington, why are you wearing blue armor? Why are you wearing my armor?" Church says getting confused. 

"Oh...um..." Wash looks down at himself. 

"Oh...yeah, yeah." Caboose says in realization. 

"They sort of used me to...replace you? On Blue Team." 

"Replace me?" Church says, jaw dropping. 

"I wouldn't really use the word replace... But there's no word for "Take over for you and make everything better almost immediately," so we just say replace." Caboose replies. 

[Like "Substitute"?] 

"Yeah that works." 

"When did this happen?" Church demands. 

"Oh, do you remember when you went into the memory unit and then everyone was sad?" 

"Yeah!" 

"It was right after that." 

"Right after I left?!" 

"Well, it wasn't right after, you know, but you know it was like 5 or 10 seconds." 

"You've got to be kidding me." 

"Life is short Epsilon; we had to move on." 

"I think I just got dumped by Caboose. This is unfreaking believable!" 

"Yeah, it's-it's not me; it's you." Caboose says regretfully. 

"Epsilon, they just needed to even the teams, it's really not-" 

"Hey! Would you guys stop calling me "Epsilon"?! I'm Church now." 

"Oh...um, we sort of call the new guy Church. You know, sometimes." Caboose states. 

"What?" Church growls. 

"Caboose just finds it easier. The armor color confuses him...as do a lot of things." Wash says rubbing the back of his helmet. 

"Let me get this straight Agent Washington; you took my name, too?" 

[It's only in certain circumstances.] Zone answers. 

"Like when we talk to him...or need to fill out paper work...or sing happy birthday to him." Caboose shrugs. 

"YOU'VE GOTTA BE FREAKING KIDDING ME!" Church yells. 

"Well...this is awkward. You know, I think the quickest solution would be a good old fashioned thinning of the ranks with my trusty shotgun. Any takers?" Sarge pull she out his shotgun. 

"Er, we're fine." Wash states. 

[Hey speak for yourself, if this gets any weirder or awkward I may just take you up on the offer dad.] 

"Well, it was worth a shot. You win this round blue...but I'll be back...actually with a Freelancer on both teams, it's been like an even dual. Sure gonna be nice to have an idiot in charge of Blue Team again." Sarge says looking at Church. 

"Thanks. It's great to be needed." Church mutters sarcastically. Another explosion goes off and Carolina runs into the room. 

"Everyone, front and center now!" She orders. 

[Guess that's our cue to boogie! Let's get him Cyclops!] Cyclops growls in acknowledgement as he activates his cannons and Zone pulls out his carbine running out of the room, firing. Carolina, Church, Caboose, Wash, and Sarge run after them firing as well.