Stained (Red vs Blue)

Stillmate

Before The Storm

Finally, after sever excruiciating days of waiting and waiting and waiting, I was allowed to get armored. But the only difference was that the Director had the engineer make us some padded, lighter armor. If you ask me why, i'd tell you that I don't know, because I really don't know. He just pulled us away from our group, directed us to the armory, and they took our usual armor, and gave us the black, or silver, padded, armor.

It didn't take long for me to get used to wearing it. It was actually comfortable, and it fit the four of us perfectly. The material that they used to make it worked extremely well, absorbing most of the major impacts, reducing the dmanage done. And it was lighter, so we could strike a bit faster than we could before, making our hits stronger.

They also had our names imprinted on them, on the left shoulder. They were in our choice of color, at least. I picked teal, of course. Iowa picked blue Michigan picked green, and Alaska picked yellow. But they didn't give us any kind of helmet, so in training matches we had to be meticulous with protecting our head. A Freelancer could easily shatter your jaw with a single punch.

It was around noon on wednesday when they gave us the armor. I was in the training, have a free-for-all match with Iowa, Georgia, Alaska, Indianna, Ohio, Kansas, and Hawaii. The match was supposed to be hand to hand, but, bacause we got bored, we got FILSS to raise the paint pillars, and had a paint match.

But mid-game, FILSS announced that Iowa, Alaska, and myself had to leave the arena. The Director told us to go to the armory. When we arrived there, they took our armors. Michigan was there, also. Then, after a few minutes of just standing there, some workers approached us, and handed us the padded armor. They said we wouldn't need the units to get into this armor.

They were right about putting it on. It was easy, just like normal clothing, actually. My dogtags hung under the armor comfortably. When we all got changed, they gave us another set, this one in 'silver'. They might have called it silver, but it was only two shades lighter than the black. Of course, each of them had the Freelancer symbol on the left shoulder.

They then gave us our boots, which matched the armor. They had a plastic base, allowing for good traction, and light enough they wouldn't slow us down. After recieving everything, I bounced on my toes. "Calm down there, Nevada. You look like a little kid at Christmas time," Iowa joked. I chuckled, and leaned my back against a nearby wall.

Alaska came out of one of the changing rooms, dressed in the armor. "I don't know about you guys, but I like this," He said, examining the light armor on the hand. "I do, too. I'm just wondering why they gave us these. Our armor was just fine," I said. Iowa nodded in agreement. Michigan came out of the changing room, finishing adjusting his armor.

"Well, how do you like the armor?" The engineer asked, rounding the corner. I pushed myself off the wall. "I like them, sir. But, if I may ask, why did we get them?" I asked, slightly raising my eyebrow. The engineer just chuckled, and responded, "I can't tell you, partly because I don't know. The Director just wanted me to make a lighter set of armor for the four of you," I mentally sighed. The Director's keeping more secrets from us, again.

"But, thank you, sir. I'm pretty sure we all like the armor," Iowa said. We nodded. "Well, from here you are free do do what ever you want. Due to recent events," He paused, glancing away, "you are excused from all scheduled training sessions. You can do what ever you want, but you still must get armored every morning, like usual," He finished, and continued down the hall, away from us.

I stretched, and my shoulder popped. I smiled, glad to finally get back into training. "Anyone else up for a little sparring?" I asked to them. Iowa sighed, knowing that I was happy to be 'back'. "Just be careful with that wound, Neva. But off that note, we recieved new training weapons today. I say let's try them, and then do a little hand to hand," Iowa suggested. I shrugged, and responded, "Sure, sounds good to me. Alaska? Michigan? Is it okay with you two?" I asked.