Red Vs. Blue Drabbles

#2 - "Back Together Again."

The machine Temple's team had was thought to be powered down, but it wasn't -- not really. As soon as they let their guard down, a large, white blast knocked all of them far away. It was a miracle that they managed to survive, considering that their base was underwater. How they didn't drown is beyond them, luck was just on their side. Like it usually is.

Carolina woke up on a slick, wet rock. Her helmet beside her, but the visor was cracked. Her stomach ached with pain, and her head was pounding. 'After this, I really should eat something.' She thought to herself, struggling to get herself off of the rock and onto land. She hit the ground rather roughly, causing her to let out a groan of pain.

'It's okay, Carolina. Just breathe.' She reminded herself, letting her strength recollect before she pushed herself off of the sand. There was some blood, but Carolina wasn't in the mood to worry about it. She had to find the other idiots before they ended up getting themselves killed, and then Locus could get them out of here.

Her vision was still blurry when she got of the bloody sand, and her head felt two tons heavier, but she was determined to not faint. Those idiots needed her as much as she needed them. Carolina put on her helmet and looked around, finally stabilizing her breathing. She started to scan the area, looking for her allies, and was about to advance to a different location before she heard a groan behind her.

Almost instantly, Carolina spun around and brought up her fists, prepared for a fight even though it could potentially make her faint. She didn't see anyone right away, but the groan got louder, and she looked down. She found Caboose. 'Really? I couldn't have found Locus or even Tucker? Anyone else could be better than Caboose.' She sighed.

"Oh... no, no giant, rubber duckies... I don't want to eat Freckles..." Caboose murmured in his sleep, his armor still completely intact. That, somehow, didn't surprise Carolina in the least. Caboose has an amazing way of avoiding damage and physical pain, even though he isn't trying to. "Oh, don't eat the... bad Freckles... the rubber duckies were our friends..." Caboose said with a snore, causing Carolina to roll her eyes.

In the very least, she had some comedic relief with her if things got too serious. And that was something people didn't appreciate enough in this world.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"No, Caboose -- "

"But you just said -- "

"No, what I said was that -- "

" -- that the big explosion sent us somewhere -- "

" -- yes, somewhere, but not in the future." Carolina said faster than Caboose could interrupt her for the tenth time. It was such a struggle trying to explain what happened, and Carolina was considering just knocking him out and dragging him along. But the others may frown on that, so she couldn't unless she was absolutely forced to.

Caboose listened to her, but clearly didn't understand. Carolina really didn't expect him to, either, so this was a big waste of time. "Neat." Caboose said casually. 'Isn't neat his codeword for when he doesn't understand something? Oh, Jesus.' She groaned in frustration, Carolina was long past the point of calm.

"Just stay behind and listen to me when I say I need your help. All right?" Carolina said slowly to Caboose in hopes he could decode what she meant. He just stared at her, and even though Carolina couldn't see his eyes, she could feel them staring pools into her. She got chills down her spine.

'Why isn't he -- '

"Okay!" Caboose said after a long time of silence, his voice as same as ever. Carolina is too shaken up from the explosion, she is overthinking everything. It's Caboose, he couldn't be evil to save his life. "Let's go! Freckles is out there without me!" He was right about that. Carolina didn't see him carrying around Freckles at all this entire time.