"Hey, White Blood Cell." AE-3803 began in a cautious manner. While she followed her friend on his patrols around the body, she carried a basket filled with nutrients. At his nod of confirmation to affirm that he was listening, the erythrocyte continued. "I have come to the conclusion that your friends are weirdos."

"Oh." He peered down at her, his left eye looking down at her in what most would think was the creepiest stare that they had ever seen. However, since she was used to his taciturn disposition, she more or less brushed off his creepy aura. "Are we that strange compared to the red blood cells?"

AE-3803 shook her head.

"I don't mean it in a negative sense. However, while red blood cells and white blood cells grow up in the bone marrow and arise from the same progenitor cells, you can't deny that we're...very different." The red blood cell took a bite of her sandwich, smiled at the flavor, and gestured for the white blood cell to take a bite. "But, I actually admire you guys a lot, especially since all you do is ensure that the rest of us cells live a happy and healthy life."

"And I already told you," the neutrophil chided playfully, "you don't have to thank us. We are, after all, doing only our jobs."

The red blood cell swatted at his arm, but immediately sobered as she tried to press the topic that had been bugging her for quite some time.

"Well...I think it's mainly your friends that are the biggest weirdos in the bunch. Remember how one of them carried me to the lungs? Or how all four kidnapped me because they were bored?"

The first part of her statement rankled U-1146 a little, but the second part of what she said was new.

"Wait. What?"

"Yeah," AE-3803 continued, oblivious to how U-1146 froze at her admission. "They literally blindfolded and knocked me out after I traveled to the alveoli. Don't worry, though, 2001—I think?—led me back to the lungs. Do you know why your…"

The redhead's words froze in her throat as she saw that her friend looked paler than most neutrophils. His hat hung low over his face, his lone eye looked like he had seen the worst things imaginable, and he seemed lost in thought. Heavens above, did she break him?

"Ah, White Blood Cell!" She called out to her close companion. Perturbed at his lack of reaction, the red blood cell tried shaking his left arm a little. "Are you all right? Nothing bad happened to me!"

Laughing to alleviate the neutrophil's apprehension did nothing but raise AE-3803's stress levels.

"They kidnapped you?"

"Umm...did they not tell you that?"

U-2146 steadily held her gaze as he shook his head in what seemed like an omen for disaster.

"Er, that look of murder on your face doesn't look too good on you when you aren't chasing bacteria."

U-1146 looked down at her, his expression softening just a fraction.

"Noted."

And before the erythrocyte could say anything more, the neutrophil waved goodbye, migrated into the narrow crevices of a building, and vanished.

"Hey! White Blood Cell, please don't do something ridiculous!"

U-2001 moved through a narrow passageway that was mostly reserved for white blood cells. Although he was unhurried, there was still a sense of urgency. On one of his patrols, he had spotted one of his colleagues, U-1146, stalking off in a direction opposite to his. Because they were friends, 2001 made as if to wave 1146 over, but he had to stop. There was some kind of dangerous aura that emanated from his fellow white blood cell. Frightened, but still curious, he began to shadow 1146.

For some odd reason, the white blood cell that he was tailing didn't seem like he was doing anything out of the ordinary—not that 2001 expected him to do something illicit. Given the dangerous vibes that 1146 was emitting, any other blood cell would think that he was out for fresh blood—bacteria perhaps. However, given that both their receptors remained near the base oftheir necks, that probably wasn't the case.

So why was 1146 looking like he was about to blow up?

"Hello, Mr. Neutrophil!"

Startled, 2001 literally jumped from the shadows of the building that he had been spying his colleague from and onto the pavement. As he adjusted himself to his surroundings, he found himself staring up at an apologetic erythrocyte and an outstretched white glove. Recognizing that the erythrocyte in question was the red blood cell that 1146 had taken a shine to, he readily took her gloved hand and heaved himself off the ground.

Would it be presumptuous of him to assume that maybe she would know what was eating at his colleague?

"Ah, hello Miss Red Blood Cell," he greeted. "Did you happen to talk to U-1146 recently? I just saw him a few minutes ago and he looked...murderous."

"Really? I don't think I—" Suddenly, the questioning look that was on her face was replaced by one that was filled with fear. Her face paled, almost as if the hemoglobin had completely drained from her cytoplasm. "Oh gosh...I think I may have something to do with it!"

2001 grabbed her by the shoulders, fully concerned about his friend's wellbeing. What did she do? What happened?

"Tell me! Is it something dangerous?"

"Haha, yeah...remember how you guys kidnapped me that one time?" She mumbled, "And how one of you carried and launched me point blank at him?"

Abruptly, 2001 let go of the red blood cell as if she were some virus ridden cell.

Oh, no.

All of them, himself included, didn't inform their colleague of what happened. It wasn't a conscious decision; his friends certainly didn't meet up with each other and vote to keep the situation under wraps. It's just that...the whole kidnapping fiasco was so ridiculous and completely out of character for them, it just never came up in conversation. Their conflicting schedules and lack of imposing threats also led to the overall conclusion that maybe they wouldn't have to own up to having acted out of their duties.

Unfortunately, they never took into account that the red blood cell that they had targeted was the wild card.

"Umm, Mr. Neutrophil, I'm so sorry! I didn't realize…"

2001 immediately turned to her and immediately felt the cytosol drain out of his already pale face. Her lips were trembling and she looked so small under his towering frame. Her eyes met his and he was shocked to note that her eyes—hazel and all too innocent—glimmered under a haze of tears.

Back when he was a mere myelocyte, he never experienced the tears of a young girl. Most myelocytes were males, but those who were female mostly ended up as eosinophils. Even so, they were designed to be tough and showing weakness so willingly wasn't encouraged. (Training myelocytes to become the main defense patrolling the blood vessels wasn't as rigid as it was in the thymus, but it could be just as harsh in some regards to their training). So when 2001 found the guilt radiating in the young erythrocyte's eyes, he couldn't help but fidget with his hands and wrack his nucleus for the right thing to say.

Was there anything that he could say?

"H-hey! It's not your fault! Like I said, it was my colleagues and their weird meddling ways...d-don't worry too much about it, Miss Red Blood Cell!"

She seemed to stop her little spiel of crying—much to 2001's relief.

"A-are you sure? Because—"

He waved away her concerns before he awkwardly patted the strange divot that was on her hat in order to further calm her down.

"It's okay, Miss Red Blood Cell. At least, now we know that 2626's hypothesis wasn't all too far off…" That last part was mumbled, but the young erythrocyte happened to hear that last part.

"Er—"

"Ah...we should probably rectify the problem before something terrible happens, yes?"

"So scary!"

"Why does he look so murderous?"

"Let him be. Who knows what goes on in an immune cell's nucleus."

4989, a little perturbed by what numerous cells were commenting, asked, "Hey, are they talking about us?"

2626 shook his head.

"I don't think so. We've been at this cafe for a little while now. Must be a newcomer." As 2626 took a sip of his favorite brand of green tea with a side dish of some bacteria, he peered outside the cafe's windows. "Although, I wonder which one of us was so frightening. Some of the platelets are cowering in the corners!"

4989 toyed with the spoon that lay within his teacup, a bit bored with the explanation.

"Maybe it was a T-Cell. Those guys are always causing trouble for the normal cells whenever they're free."

"In the blood vessels? Remember your schooling, 4989," 2626 chastised as he chewed through a particularly fleshy bit of bacteria. "T-Cells usually congregate in the lymphatics unless called out by the Helper T-Cells for backup in the blood vessels."

"Yeah, yeah! I remember...but how can you explain the complaints from outside? It's been ten minutes and some of the red blood cells look like they're about to lyse themselves." Despite the annoyed front, 4989 looked anxious as he drained the rest of his green tea. "I think we should get back to patrolling instead of causing the locals stress."

2626 nodded distractedly—he was still stuffing his mouth filled with bacteria and washing it all down with green tea.

Within seconds, both of them were out the door and—

"Men, we have a problem."

"Geeze, 2001! Give a neutrophil a head start on PCD, why don't you?"

2048 lay in one of the marginating pools of a deep in a vein of the upper arm. For the time being, he allowed himself to rest and mentally prepare himself for his next round of patrols. He had been resting for quite some time when he felt his transceiver vibrate in one of his pockets. As he fished it out, he could hear 2001's voice urging him to answer right away.

"I'm in the upper arm. What's happening?"

"I'm trying to fix a problem that has arisen within our ranks."

Immediately concerned, he asked, "Should I be worried?"

"Very. Meet us at the lungs. Over."

"Uh, sure. Roger that."

As 2048 stretched his legs and hopped back onto the main roads of the blood vessel, he felt a great sense of dread. Kids what made 2001, a usually laid back white blood cell, act so...unsettled?

When 2048 met up with the rest of his squad, he took notice of 2001's grim face and the twin grimaces upon the other two neutrophils, he immediately felt like backtracking. However, he was still a white blood cell with a task to protect the body. Bravery and determination were only but a few of the traits that were needed to be part of the immune system. Therefore, against his instincts to turn tail and leave them to resolve their own issues—whatever they may be—2048 stepped forward and announced his presence.

"Yo."

"2048, good of you to come here. As you can probably tell, we've got ourselves a problem."

"And—"

"Just so you know, it's all 2626's fault!" 4989 interjected as he pushed his favorite colleague in front of him. "I was just supervising and 2626 took it too far!"

2626 rounded on his partner in crime, a wounded look on his face.

"Last I recall, you were the one who had the idea all along. You just needed my help to actually see—"

Before 2626 could continue on his hurt tirade, 2048 spotted the red blood cell looking at them with a look of utter confusion on her face. Unlike last time, she didn't look too uncomfortable in their presence. Understandably, though, she stood off to the side and watched them curiously.

"Miss Red Blood Cell! What brings you here?"

"Hello, Mr. Neutrophil!" Her face colored a little—presumably because she was surrounded by neutrophils. Still she pressed on with her greeting, completely ignoring 2626's look of utter bewilderment and abandonment. "I actually came with your colleagues. It was kind of my fault that U-1146 found out that you kidnapped me. I'm sorry!"

She bowed her head and seemingly held her breath.

Oh gosh.

She was so cute!

2048 already knew that the red blood cell was quite cute—he did carry her that one time, but he was distracted by thoughts of teasing 1146–but her display completely destroyed him.

She was almost cuter than the platelets.

Nervously, he laughed as he waved away her apologies.

"That's what this is all about? I was expecting something more devastating."

"But it is."

At 4989's somber tone, 2048 found himself looking away from the erythrocyte and into his fellow white blood cell's direction. 4989 looked tired; his face was ashen. It was very rare for the youngest nuetrophil in the group to be so serious unless there was a bacteria present.

"We think that 1146 might be plotting against us."

"Erm...he's too kind for that sort of thing."

"You should have seen him, though! He looked like he was about to phagocytize the platelets when he last saw him!" 2626 cried aloud. "The platelets!"

Oh.

That was bad.

It was decided that the erythrocyte would first approach their colleague. After all, she was still one of 1146's closet friends and well...it's not like he was mad at her. That still begged one question that had yet to be answered.

Just where was he right now?

They could contact him via transceiver, but…

"You never know, he could have learned how to phagocytize cell's via transceiver," 4989 helpfully supplied.

Not that it was possible, but one could never know for sure.

So, they took the next best option.

Following AE-3803 around.

"Hey," AA-5100 whispered conspicuously. "Is there a good reason why there are four white blood cells stalking you?"

"Yeah...best not to question it."

AE-3803 was on one of her scheduled deliveries, but she was deliberately taking her time. It had been decided by the neutrophils that she try her best to attract attention from as much bacteria, viruses, what-have-you in order to gain the attention of U-1146. So far, she had been attacked almost five times, got lost eight times, and had run into her mentor at least two times. Both times, her mentor had merely eyed her curiously before stopping at a tissue for her scheduled delivery, but now, the brunette erythrocyte wanted answers.

Her mentor took hold of AE-3803's shoulders, her eyes flickering between her mentee and the four intimidating males who were busy plugging up one of the crevasses between cell complexes.

"Are you sure you're not in trouble"

"Actually, they're more in trouble than I am."

"And they're not bothering you?"

"I feel like I'm bothering them by not doing my job."

Taking the hint AA-5100 moved away from her friend and hoisted her package against her hip. With a small murmur of goodbye and a promise that AE-3803 would tell her the entire story when they had coinciding breaks, AA-5100 left.

Once her mentor left, AE-3803 ventured towards the currently plugged up crevasse and tapped her shoe against the wall, looking like one of those stern hematopoietic stem cells whenever they were feeling irritated.

"Aren't you guys supposed to be more subtle than this? I thought you were all military trained so that you could ambush bacteria."

"Impressive. However, your knowledge is a little lacking," 2001 noted as he popped out of the thin space. "That's more of a Natural Killer Cell tactic. We just happen to get lucky whenever ambushes happen. Other than that, we're just as subtle as a cancer cell."

"I see," the young erythrocyte mutters more to herself than to her white blood cell companion. "Still, isn't it a bit weird that we haven't seen from him in ages? I think you guys should resort to just calling him."

"And risk him killing us all!" 4989 popped out this time—without help this time—and resisted the urge to shake the redhead's shoulders. "Trust me, Red, it's better to attract him via bacterial invasion with you as an intermediary."

"Careful, little white blood cell, you might just get what you were wish for."

AE-3803, if she wasn't so used to it, would have fainted at the sight of parasite looming over the lot of them.

In the end, a kind hearted eosinophil with pigtails came to save the day. With one strike from her weapon, the parasite exploded into scattered pieces that had to be carried away by several troops of neutrophils and macrophages. The excitement of that encounter was far from over. Within one of the backup crews that came shortly after the incident, U-1146 had arrived.

Stoic and impassive, he barely noticed his favorite red blood cell approaching him until he was knee deep into the parasite's undulating membrane. Well versed in how neutrophils would phagocytize their enemies—she had been hanging around the white blood cells for so long, she practically felt like them already—she merely sat back on her haunches and appraised her friend.

Focused.

Impassive.

And not as mad as what his colleagues made him out to be.

"Red Blood Cell," the neutrophil murmured softly. He wiped the back of his glove against the smeared cytosol that was on his face and offered her a small smile. "What brings you here? Shouldn't you be out on one of your deliveries?"

"Well...about that…"

Curiously, the white blood cell looked down at his companion as she stuttered out a hushed reply. As much as he hated to admit it, he couldn't make out a single word that she had just uttered.

"Do you mind repeating that?"

"Well, since you did mention that I was on delivery, I actually have to deliver something to you."

"I don't need oxygen."

"No, it's actually a message from some of your colleagues."

Carefully, the neutrophil kept his face as aloof as possible. After all, he didn't want to scare his friend.

"And what did they have to say?" He added a moment later, "And how come they aren't the ones confronting me?"

"They just wanted to make sure that you didn't phagocytize them first before explaining themselves."

"Phago—?"

"Please don't do it! If you do—" 4989 shoved 2626 and 2048 in front of him "—eat these guys first!"

"Oy, 4989—"

"Who gave you the right—"

2001, once again in charge of his companions' shenanigans, pushed himself to the forefront of the group and offered a sympathetic smile. Much to all the neutrophils' collective relief, 1146 nodded in return.

"We just wanted to let you know that kidnapping and overstepping our boundaries with your friend was completely all in good fun. However, we do realize that what we did was completely uncalled for and we all humbly ask for your forgiveness."

U-1146 continued to stare impassively at his fellow neutrophils before he took a step forward.

And another.

And another.

Until he was standing directly in front of them.

Even though neutrophils were usually the same height, for some odd reason, 1146 seemed to tower over all of them.

A beat.

"Oh, I already forgave you guys."

"WAIT WHAT?"

"WE'VE BEEN TAILING A RED BLOOD CELL FOR NO GOOD REASON!"

"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US?"

2001, clearly relieved, but still wary, regarded the eldest neutrophil. Something wasn't quite right…

"I just took a walk to clear my head."

"A walk?"

"Yes, I happened to visit Dendritic Cell on the way."

Oh.

No.

And with that, 1146 guided AE-3803 back to her scheduled route to the lungs.

"Oh, we are so screwed," 2626 breathed.

2001 couldn't have said it any better.

"Hey, White Blood Cell, what did you mean? What's wrong with going to the Dendritic Cell?"

"Oh...we just made a deal of sorts."

In one of U-1146's many pockets, a small sachet of photos lay innocently within.