Hi everbody! Here is my second story in process - I hope you'll enjoy it. I will write it in parallel with my other one, Tales of Mercenaries. Feel free to let me know what you think in the reviews sections!

Things hadn't been that easy in a long time. Today of all day, for the first time in what seemed to have been an eternity, the RED team finally got the upper hand on the BLUs, a feeling every crimson mercenary was taking a second to enjoy before reloading their guns and jumping back into battle. Demoman – who, for once, was de-intoxicated by the adrenalin pumping into his veins – shot his sticky bombs at the door and detonated them at the BLU Heavy and Medic came out; their dismantled limbs hadn't even touched the ground, when the BLU Scout got hit by one of the RED Soldier's rockets. RED Heavy, übercharged by a pumped up Medic, barged in the basement with a roar as he mowed don anything standing in his way: a BLU Demoman and a BLU Engineer who literally got cut off in half alongside his sentries. Just as the übercharge came to an end, BLU Spy attempted a move: a loud bang detonated in the air, before his body fell to the ground at the Medic's feet. Two hundred meters from there, the RED Sniper smirked. Silence finally cloaked the room as the rest of the RED team made their way to the BLU command centre: Scout and the Engineer's guns were still smoking but their satisfied smile was enough for their teammates, and Spy was cleaning the blood off his blade when he appeared at their side. Pyro ran in, exhilarated, followed by Sniper.

"Great job everybody. Seems like we're finally back in the game." Engie smiled.

"They definitely didn't see dat one comin'!" Scout exclaimed, rubbing his nose with pride.

"Da. Team did good work today." Heavy nodded.

"Let us not get ahead of ourselves, gentlemen." Spy's voice reminded them that the mission wasn't quite over yet. "We still need to get hold of their intelligence. We should get to it before they respawn."

"Aye, let me handle this, lads."

All moved back while Demo stuck his bombs all around the doorframe. The detonation made the heavy metal door burst out of its frame and fall with a loud cracking sound that resonated in the now open room behind it. Spy took the lead, carefully stepping in and found the room clear of any threat. He waved at the rest of the team and they followed in, only to find a staircase leading to what looked like a laboratory. Medic had a quick look around, visibly interested in the impressive display of scientific equipment, while Engie made his way to the computers and looked at the screens, trying to figure out what the other team had been working on before the battle broke out. The others roamed around the room, keeping an eye out just in case.

"Found anything, Doc?" Engie asked without raising his head from the computer.

"Unfortunately I cannot be sure. Zhis looks like a highly specialized laboratory – zhe last time I saw zhis kind of equipment was in a very particular type of facility. Let us say zhe experiment subjects rarely got out once zhey got in."

"Human experiments, huh? You might wanna take a look at this."

Medic walked up to Engie and glanced at the screens. He raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting. It seems zhat they have not been able to do any research recently, but all of zhis looks very new and ready for use."

"D'ya think they were getting ready to get back into business?"

"Das weiss ich nicht, mein Freund. But zhis does not look good."

"OH BOY, whaddid I do?!"

The lab's machinery let out a buzzing sound as Scout jumped back after accidentally pressing a button on the wall he was leaning on. Before the mercs could react, a whole pan of the wall move forward a couple of inches, and fumed smoke as it got pulled up. Revealing a secret cavity, the wall disappeared above their heads and a large, human size pod on rails made its way towards them. Momentarily blinded by the smoke, the mercs couldn't figure out what it was or what it could possibly contain, but as soon as the fumes dissipated, Pyro came closer and peeped into the glass case on top of the pod. She immediately became agitated.

"Hm! Hmmhhmhmhmhmmhh!"

"Pyro? What is it?" Engie asked and walked up to her to have a look as well. Much to everybody's surprise, he seemed to lose all composure.

"Dang-nammit, boys! I think we just found who their next experiment was goin'to be."

Medic and the rest of the gang moved closer and looked into the pod. Some of them frowned, others raised an incredulous eyebrow, others let out a quiet "holy shit". There was someone in this pod. Lying motionless, either dead or fast asleep, was a young woman. They couldn't even say if she was breathing. How long had she been in there?

Engie looked at the monitor and found the activation button. He pressed it, and the glass case opened, freeing up the young woman. Medic took her pulse, while the others held their breath.

"Vell, zhis young woman is alive. Barely, but alive. Her pulse is very faint, I assume zhey put her in some sort of artificial coma vhile she vas down here."

"Damn, these guys really have a problem."

"So, whadda we do? Leave'er here?" Scout asked.

"We can't do that Scout, who knows what the gal's been through…" Engie protested.

"But we cannot know if we can trust her. Maybe her participation in these experiments was voluntary. Maybe she's on zheir side." Spy pointed out. "But the Engineer is right. We cannot leave her here. Who knows, she may have useful information for us, and I trust our Medic will find a way to revive her."

"Certainly. But I suggest ve take our precautions."

"Naturellement."

Her head hurt. It was excruciating. When Kate regained consciousness, all she could feel was it: the pain drilling through her skull, slowly propagating to her entire body. She couldn't even get herself to open her eyes; her eyelids were so heavy it was like they were made of lead. At first she wasn't sure if she was even awake: she could barely feel her surroundings, only aware of her body that felt like it was waking up after a very, very long sleep. Slowly, she managed to get a sense of the world around her, first by feeling the half-soft, half-hard surface the back and legs were lying on. It felt like it was curved. Was she sitting on something? Like a dentist chair? Her sense of balance coming back confirmed this feeling, and she finally opened her eyes, grudgingly mumbling when the light directed at her face blinded her. Confusedly, she heard the sound of a desk chair rolling, and footsteps getting closer.

"Ach, you're waking up, Fraulein! Can you hear me?"

A German accent? Kate was way past confused. Gathering her meagre strength, she opened her eyes again and let them get accustomed to the light. Finally, she discerned a face above hers. High cheekbones, clean-shaved, piercing gaze behind the small glass, and the white collar of a medical blouse. She tried to speak, but her voice was so weak, she tried and get on her elbows to get closer to the man. She couldn't. Her arms wouldn't move. Worried that she was paralysed, she quickly started to feel the straps on the wrists. Wait. Straps? Feeling a sense of panic slowly invading her freshly waken system, Kate became aware of the straps maintaining her wrists, waist, and ankles to the medical chair. Frantically she looked up, getting a glance of the lab she had landed in and the medical supplies that apparently were ready for use.

"Vell vell, do not be scared Fraulein. I am glad to see you avake. Apologies about the restraining straps – just take it as a measure of precaution on our side."

Precaution? Our side? What the hell was he talking about? And why did he look so familiar?

"Let us start vith something easy. Vat is your name, meine Fraulein?"

"I… My name's Kate… Where am I? How did I get here?" She finally managed to say, a streak of panic in her weakened voice.

"Zhat is a question ve vere hoping you vould answer for us. But if you vould just vait a moment, I vill inform my colleagues that you have regained consciousness. Zhey will there any moment. In zhe meantime, I will give a little something to, let's say, re-vitalise you."

Kate's eyes widened when she saw the doctor bringing a terrifyingly large syringe towards her. In a survival reflex, she tried to move, but she had forgotten she was stuck to the chair. The doctor smirked.

"Don't move, you von't feel a thing I promise."

She refrained a cry of pain when the syringe penetrated her arm. By the time the doctor was done, the door behind him opened: through the blurred veil in her eyes, Kate could see a group of men, all dressed in familiar red uniforms, coming up to them.

"Hey Doc, what did ya do to her? Is it really reasonable to give her some more stuff in her state?"

"Ach don't worry herr Engineer, zhese were mere vitamins to boost her up."

No one, Kate included, believed him. Engie sighed and Spy walked closer to her, detailing her, visibly defiant.

"She said her name vas Kate."

"Well, mademoiselle Kate. Do you know where you are right now?"

"I think I might be in trouble, but except for that, no idea." She sighed. Spy did nto reply to this curious answer, but noticed her eyes were looking at all the mercs, one after the other, as if she was recognising them. But she looked distressed, and surprised. Was she on the BLU team? Was she realising she was a prisoner of the opposite team?

"Did you administrate her the truth serum, Docteur?"

"Truth serum? Since when do we have that?"

"Since ve brought her back in here, herr Engineer. A little side-projekt I have been working on in my spare time but never could try. Not on a human subject, at least."

"Dear God…"

"Enough talking. We must find out who little girl is and why she was in basement."

"Wait what? What basement?" Kate asked, unable to process all this new information.

"We are asking the questions, mademoiselle." Spy went around her, and strapped a device around her arm that let out quiet beeps. A lie detector ? "Are you a member of the BLU team?"

"No I'm not!" She exclaimed, and Spy looked at the contraption. The light remained green. She was telling the truth.

"In this case, do you know what you were doing in zhis basement?"

"No I-I don't remember anything before waking up here and…" The contraption strapped to her arm started beeping louder, and a red light beamed up. The Spy frowned, and Kate freaked out.

"Wait a second, it's not like that, I… I remember things before waking up here, but I don't remember anything about being in a basement, or any of the events that led up to now! Last thing I remember, I was going to bed in my flat in San Francisco, and when I woke up I was here with your Medic!"

The beeping noise got quiet again, and the light switched back to green. Truth. Spy and Medic glared at each other.

"Very well. So, you have no idea who we are, and what zhis place might be?"

"… well…"

"Speak, mademoiselle. You are not in a position to lie or try to deceive us." Spy asserted, his voice cold as ice.

"I know who you guys are… but you're never going to believe me." Kate confessed, obviously terrified and conscious that anything she was going to say was going to be held against her.

"Try us."

"I know you're the Spy. The doctor is called the Medic, and this one over here is called Engineer. And there are Heavy, Scout, Demoman, Soldier, Sniper and Pyro – you guys are the mercs on the RED team, fighting against the BLU over intelligence, or control points, or whatever it is you actually do. If this is the RED base, I assume we're in Teufort, or somewhere nearby?"

Baffled, none of the mercs reacted right away.

"How can she know that? TRAITOR. WE HAVE A TRAITOR IN OUR MIDST." Soldier started shouting, only to be shut down by a deadly stare from the Spy.

"This is more information than most people have about us, including the BLU team. Would you care to explain how you came to be in possession of such information mademoiselle? And remember: you cannot lie to us."

"You're ,ever going to believe me." Her voice was but a desperate squeak, but she sighed, and finally let out the absurd truth. "Oh God, I can't believe I'm going to say this. I know you guys from a videogame. It's called Team Fortress 2, and you guys are the playable characters."

That was not the answer Spy had expected. Stupefied, all the mercs looked at the lie detector. Nothing. How was it possible?

"Well Medic, you're the expert here. Any idea what in Heaven's name just happened back there?"

"Herr Engineer, I'm afraid I do not have any more explanation than you do. My only guess at ze moment is zat somehow, zhis girl has gathered information about us, and when she was put into ze come, zhe memories of zhe information became more like a dream, which might explain why he thought she saw us in a game."

"Which could only mean that girl is a spy of some sort." Spy concluded. Engie saw in his eyes that he was ready to get this over with, and this could not be good for the poor girl they had left strapped to the chair under Demo's surveillance.

"Now wait a second Spy, maybe there's some other explanation. I suggest we contact Miss Pauling and let her know about all this mess."

The rest of the group agreed, and Spy sighed before he took up the emergency phone and called the Administrator's office. When Miss Pauling picked up, he concisely explained the situation.

"Wait a minute, Spy. So you found a young woman in a pod in the enemy's basement, and she can't remember how she got there, and she seems to have delusions?"

"Zhat is the present situation, yes. We have her under control, but we need to know what to do with her."

"What did she say her name was, again?"

"Kate. She wasn't able to give us a full name. The Docteur says her memory might still be disturbed by the artificial coma she was in."

"How old is she?" The question took Spy by surprise, but he replied.

"I don't know exactly, but around twenty-five years old, I would say."

"What does she look like?"

"Miss Pauling, I hardly think zhis is relevant to…"

"Just answer the question, Spy."

There was something in her voice that made Spy pause, before he replied, carefully.

"Rather tall, slim, of pale complexion. Short, burly auburn hair, brown eyes, freckles. And a small scar on her forehead."

Miss Pauling remained quiet for a moment. Spy waited, but was growing impatient. What did Miss Pauling know about the girl, if anything?

"Listen to me, Spy. This girl cannot leave the base, do you hear me? You need to keep her in there, and I need you to ensure her safety."

"Pardon?" Spy exclaimed. "Miss Pauling, we found her in ze enemy's base-"

"I know Spy. I cannot tell you anything just know, but I'll need you to do as I say anyway. Think of her as your new mission: keep an eye on her at all times, find her a place to sleep, make sure she's not hurt, and I will contact you in a few days to let you know what we will do with her. Is that understood?"

Spy didn't reply right away. Something as definitely off. Miss Pauling did know who the girl was, but for some reason preferred to put her men's safety at odds rather than letting them on the secret. He cast a glance at the other room, where Kate was lying, trying to stay still despite her obvious anxiety. Who could she be, to be so important to Miss Pauling?

"Very well. We will do as you please, but don't say I didn't try to warn you."

When he hung up, all the mercs kept silent, pondering about this curious mystery. Spy was the first to react. He walked over to Kate, took out his blade, and cut the straps to free their prisoner-turned-protegee. Confused, Kate sat up and looked at him, massaging her mistreated wrists.

"What now? Aren't you going to kill me?"

"Not today. Apparently zhere is more to you zhan meets zhe eye – I would just like to know what. You will remain in our base under our watch. Try anything to run away, and we will immediately put a bullet through your brain. Am I clear?"

Kate felt as if the world was weighing on her shoulders. She desperately looked at Spy, Engie, and the others, and resigned herself to accepting the situation. However crazy and dangerous it was. It wasn't like she had a choice anyway.

"Alright. So, what do you want me to do?"