Hello readers =) let it be known that the brilliant creations of both Halo and Red vs Blue do not belong to me, but their respective creators, Bungie/343, and Rooster Teeth.

Chapter 1: Rude Awakening

"Good morning, Agent Colorado! Please report to the training room floor at 0900 hours for your match against Agent North Dakota."

I sleepily lifted my head and gazed at the clock as FILSS gave me yet another unwelcome morning wake-up call. The time was only 0500 hours; not yet dawn. I groaned in dismay, but realized that FILSS's early greeting might actually allow me to get to the showers first. Well, maybe before most everyone. Agent Carolina was probably already up and in the training room running some sims before the matches of the day kicked her out. It was a typical routine of the Director's favorite kiss-ass.

Sighing, I savored another minute in my warm bed and hopped out, grabbing my under armor (because everyone knows that Freelancer armor chafes; bad), and headed for the showers. Sure enough upon arriving in the showers, Agent Carolina was dressing in her under armor and preparing to get her actual armor in the armory. As I entered, she turned her head to me and narrowed her eyes slightly. Any deviation in her routine was suspicious to her it seemed.

"Colorado. You're up early this morning. Bed not warm enough for you?"

Her tone is a slight sneer, and I shoot her a haughty look.

"Plenty warm, Carolina. Was the Director's bed not warm enough for you?"

At this her glare intensified and she stalked over. As for me, I placed my weight against a locker and crossed my arms, a satisfied smirk on my face. I had never liked Carolina. From the second we had met she gave off this holier-than-thou attitude. She may be number one on the leader board, with me down at number ten, but hey, at least I didn't kiss ass to earn my place. I could name a couple of other Freelancers who deserved to be number one, such as York and North. However, since the Director was too busy pruning his precious number one, they were paid little to no mind it seemed. Such a shame. One day I'd prove that I deserved to have the attention Carolina did, one way or another.

"Keep up with the attitude, Colorado. It's going to get you nowhere on that board. Besides, do you think the Director even cares about what happens to you after the last mission you went on?"

Ouch. My smirk waned a bit, and a bitter fire lit up in my green eyes. How dare she mention that?! Was it MY fault that Nevada broke cover too soon? Was it MY fault that the sniper assigned to me, Arizona, had been an incompetent shot? It wasn't my fault that they had gone and gotten themselves killed. We had a mission to accomplish, and since neither of them had done it, I had had to step in and improvise to do it. It was thanks to MY efforts that Project Freelancer now had solid intel on the strength of Insurrectionist forces on our next target. However upon returning, the Director had berated me for leaving my team to die, trying to tell me that though the mission was important, it was unnecessary to succeed on, and that two agents had died for menial information.

I opened my mouth for a biting retort to wipe the smug look off of Carolina's face, but was interrupted as someone cleared their throat. Both Carolina and I turned to see Agent North Dakota standing there, awkwardly holding his under armor.

"Am I… interrupting something important here, ladies?"

Carolina narrowed her eyes at me, her glare practically spitting fire.

"Nothing at all, North. Just making sure that Colorado knows where her place is in this project."

With this final bite, she stalked out of the locker room. I glared after her, an angry scowl on my lips and my brown hair hiding my face as I dipped my head slightly. North gave me a sympathetic glance. His sister South and I had been roommates until receiving separate rooms. South disliked Carolina as much as I did, and we had bonded quickly. I often tagged along with the twins for recreation when we were onboard the Mother of Invention, and the three of us had become close. Though I'd never admit it to his face, or even to South, I had a crush on North. It was a weakness I just couldn't shake. With his tousled blonde hair and those bright blue eyes, he had the looks to go alongside his kind and protective personality. He and South were the only ones who had truly been there for me after my "botched" mission.

Sighing, I turned away from North before he could see my expression, but it seemed too late, for he set a strong and comforting hand on my shoulder.

"Don't let Carolina get to you, Colorado. You know how she is."

I grabbed his hand as I spun around to face him. His blue eyes sparkled with concern, and his lips were turned down into a concerned frown. I hated it when he was concerned; he was so much more attractive when he was smiling, though I welcomed his comforting touch.

"I know that she's the Director's favorite pet. She's like a parrot too; always repeating what she says and constantly squawking about one thing or another."

North laughed, and I was glad to lighten his mood up.

"Anyways North, are you ready to get trashed today? Or should I go easy on you?"

My tone was light and joking, a side that only he and South could truly bring out. All the other Freelancers figured me for someone with a minimal sense of humor, but they never got to saw me with North or South. I always felt self-conscious around the other Freelancers. I had to keep them guessing about me; keep them wondering what my special skill was. York had lock-picking. Maine had his brute strength. Wash was a good detective. Carolina seemed to be good at everything (much as I hated to admit it). Wyoming was a fantastic sniper. What did I have? Nothing special. I wasn't exceedingly good at hand-to-hand combat. My lockdown paint scores were average. My missions either went well or failed, and I had no stellar service with Freelancer so far. I felt like a placeholder most of the time.

However I could be a worse placeholder. I wasn't unlucky like Arizona had been. Before he died, he had been number thirty-five. Talk about a tough life; you hardly got to go on any missions when you were that low on the board. The most dangerous one was probably them shopping for groceries. I had worked hard to get to number ten, and though I wanted to be higher, I was pretty content to be the top twenty percent of all the agents.

North smirked at my short span of attention and snapped a finger in front of my eyes, jarring me out of my thoughts.

"If you're done day dreaming for the moment, Colorado, I would be happy to inform you that the floor is going to be your new best friend after today."

He threw a smirk over his shoulder and headed for the showers, no doubt having the same idea of a morning routine as I did. Chuckling to myself, I stepped into the women's shower area and stripped off my nightclothes. The warm water was a welcome substitute to my bed, and I sighed in bliss as it cascaded down my back. I heard North laugh.

"Enjoying yourself enough over there, Colorado?"

I rolled my eyes and smirked.

"Don't get any wise ideas, Agent North Dakota. I think you're feeling just as good after being forced out of bed so early."

Another laugh was my answer, and we both continued bathing in a comfortable silence. Afterwards, we both walked to the armory together, joking about the most recent match, which put Carolina against Wyoming.

"I swear you could see the steam coming out of Carolina's ears. All Wyoming was doing was joking around! I tell you, North, you missed out big time when Carolina finally hog-tied Wyoming with nothing but her bandolier."

"Colorado, you missed the part where Wyoming pulled a leap frog over Carolina's head and kicked her royal highness's ass on the ground."

Both Freelancers turned to see Agent South Dakota swaggering up to them.

"Morning South. You're up early. You missed the fireworks in the locker room between Carolina and Colorado."

I rolled my eyes and walked forward, with the twins following on my tail. I could hear the glee in South's voice as she caught up to me.

"Oh, don't think you get to run away without telling me what happened. Tell me you told that bitch off?"

I couldn't help but appease my best friend. Throwing her a saucy smirk, I replied in true Colorado fashion.

"Do you want the part before or after I asked her if the Director's bed was warm enough for her?"

This sent all three of us into a gale of laughter, with me filling South in about Carolina's shitty attitude in-between fits of laughter. The armory came up all too soon, and within moments the three of us were busying ourselves with suiting up. I sighed in contentment looking at my armor. The newest Raider armor had been my choice of gear, emblazed with a cobalt blue for the main color, and a coral trim for the secondary. The visor for my helmet was a burnt orange that nearly matched the trim. Tucking that under my right arm, I turned to the twins.

"Think we'll have time for breakfast before the match?"

My answer came in the form of yet another "helpful" bing from FILSS.

"Agents Colorado and North Dakota, please report to the training room floor."

Ignoring my grumbling stomach, I placed my helmet over my head.

"Looks like it's time to get to work."

Hello again, everyone :3 this is a relatively short chapter by my standards, but I wanted to introduce you to who Colorado is. She's spunky, she doesn't take shit from anyone, but she's got a softer side that she doesn't want people seeing. Originally I wanted her to get even more on Carolina's bad side by going after York, but North's personality compliments Colorado's more fiery one. R&R?