Chapter 1

How long would it be until the diversions stopped to bother the sniper in his recreation time, his once hensive mind hindered from the time away from his scope. He had spent a long month in his parents house where they both were eager for him to stay with them. They said that they were uneasy about their son being out in the world as an assassin. Of course, Jack obliged, not wanting to upset his parents by rejecting them, and spent a tranquil month in the presence of his family.

He was back in his Australian paradise under the heat, relaxed and calm without the loud noises from other people. The month had made the snipers aim different, more sloppy than before. Jack had usually trained his aim every day, but once he entered the zone of his parents house, the big rule his father had told him was to keep the guns out and away for the sake of his mother. He could follow those rules, being as stubborn as his dad he knew he wouldn't get anywhere with him if he tried to protest and they both knew his mom wasn't too tolerant of guns in her house.

Although, it was alright, for a long time he was able to relax and see his parents, he even had the family he missed. This made him realize a few thing- there were a few area's in his life that needed to be changed. Like his mom had said, he needed to find someone to love. Not being the romantic type, Jack shook it off without a second thought.

It itched at his mind, his fingers tense on the rifle as he tried to stay concentrated on his targets, searching for something his crosshairs could shoot at. He thought about the words his mom would tell him to change because she didn't approve of his life. Deep down, it secretly upset him.

Jack gave up, lowered the rifle from his eye, and let out a long sigh. He wasn't getting anywhere with the thoughts in his head. He mused it would do him better to relax for a bit since his mind was being too strenuous. Jack leaned back in his chair and tilted his head back, letting his face soak in the warm Australian sun, further darkening his skin. This is peaceful, he thought for a second, my serenity, it could be possible to live out here forever and never have to have any of these worries. He closed his eyes,drawing in another deep breath and listened to his surroundings, hearing the wind rustle against the dry grass.

Janett Pauling sat quietly in the front seat of their soon to be medic, Heinrich Fuhrmans', black Jaguar Mark VII/VIIM. She sorted through a few papers, her expression blank as she shifted some papers in the folder to a different pattern that made it easier to read. When Heinrich saw Pauling move his work around, he frowned at her and shook his head.

"Nein, I'm mostly handling ze papers, so they are in ze way I can read them." The medic grumbles, keeping his eyes forward and to the road, hands firmly gripped on the steering wheel.

They were driving over to the Mundy's house to find Jack Mundy, the sniper they wanted to hire for the possible teams. On his papers he was listed as one of the best, but the long distance was almost enough to discourage Heinrich from hunting him down. If it wasn't for the persistent Pauling, he might have tried to find someone else. He wasn't very fond of driving through the terreran of Australia in his car, but refused to complain. They dealt with the heat by blasting the AC, but kept their mouths shut, since they both already knew that they were uncomfortable in the unknown area.

Pauling furrowed her eyebrows,and lifted her head up and turned to look at Heinrich whose gaze was stubbornly focused on the road. He practically felt Pauling's annoyed glare at the fact that he had to have his papers in a certain order.

"I can put them back when we're on the plane, Heinrich," Pauling started, shaking her head as she turned back to the papers, and continued what she was doing. "Besides, we need the papers to find Jack Mundy's house, it's only temporary."

The chatter quieted down after that, Heinrich did not want to get into an argument with Janett, fully knowing she could win any argument the two could get involved with. She was one of the more headstrong people he knew, she stuck to her ideas and did not change without a real reason, and he respected her for that. Although, both were stubborn, they had started arguments over stupid things, especially under the pressure they were to find a sniper.

Neither knew if their soon to be sniper would be willing to come with them, which made them both slightly nervous, they did not want to disappoint their commanders. They had their plans, bribing was cheap but it was their best bet on hopefully getting a new team member. The promise of new weapons and a high pay was enough to encourage people to willingly say yes, though most were hesitant at first. Heinrich was glad to already to have some of their teammates. Lucian, their spy, was one of the hardest people to get to join the team, he was suspicious, but called back after a week of bribing to say that he accepted. Then there were the others- Jane Doe, for example, almost accepted on the spot when battles were brought up.

The rest of the drive was bumpy and quiet until they pulled up to a quaint little house, two stories and built out of wood. It was cute, but old fashioned, Pauling noting that it seemed to suit the small Australian neighborhood. Heinrich stopped in front of the house, turned the car off, and sat back into his seat. He waited for Pauling's confirmation that this was the correct house.

"This seems to be it…" Janett said slowly,as her eyes read the papers and glanced up to the houses address. Heinrich, satisfied, nodded his head and stumbled out of the car, his eyebrows furrowing at the heat, regretting that he wore his coat. He strode around the car and quickly opened up Janett's door, already starting to look beat down from the heat.

Janett stepped out from the car, looking slightly concerned at Heinrich, but shook her head and thanked him with a nod. Tightly clenching the folder in her hands, she strolled up to the front porch with Heinrich at her heels, and knocked lightly.

At first, there wasn't a reply, but after a while, Heinrich leaned in to listen to what was going on inside of the house, soon he could hear footsteps nearing the door. The front door opened soon after, revealing a small old woman, who greeted them with a kind smile. She was much smaller than the two of them, surprising them both because the files had said Jack was one of the tallest of anyone yet. Heinrich cleared his throat to speak but was interrupted by Pauling, who shot him a look out of the corner of her eye to tell him that she was going to be the one talking first.

"Hello," Janett spoke, her posture straight and a friendly smile on her face. She encouraged Heinrich to do the same with a friendly nudge from her elbow into his side.

"You're Karen Mundy, I presume?" The woman in front of her smiled, still looking a little confused and nodded her head.

"Thats me." Karen said, her voice soft and her eyes flicked between the two of them.

Of course she was confused why there was two strangers that she'd never seen in the area before, at her front porch, It was an area that everyone in the neighborhood knew each other, and the two seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. Pauling shifted nervously and extended her hand out for the woman to shake, introducing herself as Janett Pauling. Janett stopped, looking up at Heinrich who raised his eyebrows when the woman's attention turned to him.

"Wait in the car, Heinrich. I'll call you if I need you," Janett mumbled.

Henrich frowned and shook his head, sauntering back to the car and slid back into the drivers seat, now grumpy. Pauling shook her head and turned her attention back to Jack's mother.

"Sorry about my colleague, he's just over tired. Anyway, I was wondering if Jack was home?" She tried to give a sweet smile, feeling the heat starting to kick in. She expected Karen to turn to call for him, but was taken aback when his mother stared a bit. Then a large grin spread across her face, and she moved in closer to Pauling.

"Are you his girlfriend?" Karen whispered.

Pauling looked surprised at the assumption. It caught her off guard, as she stumbled over her words. She tried not to laugh and chose to shake her head instead .

"No? I'm… just looking for him," Pauling clears her throat, knowing she didn't fool Karen even if she was telling the truth.

Karen leaned on the door frame while giving her a knowing look. She nodded slowly and moved out of the doorway, waving her hand to signal Pauling to come in.

"Come inside, you look hot, we'll get you some water- JOHN WE HAVE A GUEST LOOKING FOR JACK- AND IT'S A GIRL!" Karen shouted from across the house.

Janett did not expect such a loud voice to come from the same source that the soft spoken words had been spoken just a few moments before. She found it oddly funny, but didn't want them to think she was dating their son. Sadly, Pauling was sure that any amount of head shaking would fail to convince them that she wasn't. Giving up, Pauling accepted her fate as she was led into a small living room. The room was cramped, but homey, decorated with several photos on the walls that very much suited the old house look from the outside. There was an old man sitting in a chair reading a newspaper, who looked up at his wifes call and then disinterestedly looked back down to continue reading.

"Really, I'm not dating your son, I just want to talk to him about a job opening," Pauling says, annoyance slowly seeping into her voice.

She figured if his mom was this desperate for Jack to find a girlfriend, then he probably wasn't too lucky with the ladies, or just didn't care. Being a sniper, she figured he wasn't around other people too often.

"A job opening?" asked Jacks dad, John, whose name Janett remembered from the loud call Karen gave him.

Janett slowly nodded, trying to give them a look that she was there for only the job and not to take their sons heart away. Her look was returned with doubt.

"Well, he left awhile ago to go practice sniping. He should be in the outback near by, lucky for you," Karen gives her an encouraging smile.

Pauling tried to not look impatient with the information. Their flight was leaving that day and she didn't want to go on some grand journey to find Jack, but it had to be worth it in the end. Though at this point it was mostly the fact that she didn't want to deal with a grumpy medic, who only wanted to go back to the base and do his work. She knew when he heard the news he was going to be pissed.

Janett turned and headed to the door with a nod to Karen, who was looking a little disappointed that her guest was ready to leave so soon. Pauling didn't want to accidentally get caught up with his mom who was most likely going to ask her to have a cup of tea, or anything in hopes to get her to stay longer.

"I really have to find him. It's… urgent. Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Mundy," Janett said in a rush, waving to the couple as she opened the door, shutting it softly behind her. From inside Karen stared at the door, prancing back to her husband and nudged him, her expression excited.

"I hope little miss "it's urgent" is pregnant," she chirped.

John put his newspaper down quickly and returned a confused look to his wife.

"Bloody hell..."

Pauling took in a deep breath, returning to the car and opening up the door. The sudden blast of cold air surprised her, she expected the air to be on, but not cranked so high that it was actually a little chilly. The German didn't seem to mind, already used to the cold winters in his home towns. He turned his head eagerly at Pauling, and watched as she sat down in the passenger seat. Janett shook her head, her hands running over the folder, and her eyes focused on the steering wheel.

"Vell?" Heinrich persisted.

Janett closed her eyes and shook her head again.

"They said he's in the outback sniping. We're going to have to hunt him down," Pauling sighed, watching out of the corner of her eyes as the medics expression turned sour and his hand fell hard on the steering wheel. He wanted to leave as much as she did, but they both knew they were in too far to quit. Heinrich turned the key in the ignition, and pulled away from the house.

"Zen I guess the next stop is somevere in Australia- You're ze one who vas so big on finding Jack Mundy. 'No, ve have to get him even if he's in Australia'." Medic grumbled to her, his hands moving up in dramatic motions.

It was their best bet and she wasn't going to give up. It couldn't be too hard to find one sniper in Australia.

Several hours had passed before Jack realized his small break of relaxing had extended much longer than he initially planned. He sat out in the sun for awhile, enjoying all the peace and quiet. He soon realized he had lost track of time. Then again, it wasn't hard to when you had all the time in the world and nothing to much think about. Not having to worry about the troubles of life or having to focus on any job, which was something he always wanted and he was finally able to have it. As the sun started to set, he concluded that he needed to pack up and head back home.

His eyes moved to his rifle, which leaned against a cooler next to his chair where he last put it. Jack stood up with some trouble, not realizing how stiff his body could be after being in the same position for so long. He stretched out a bit, rubbed his head and grabbed his rifle. As he got ready to put his things back in his camper, which was parked a small distance away under a bare tree, when his hand went to move for the chair, the sniper stopped, his expression changing to confusion. He glanced over to see a black car moving in the direction of his camper. What the hell? Sniper thought, his eyes narrowing and he hunkered down, looking through the scope of his rifle. The car was moving fast to his camper. Thats definately not a good car for these parts of Australia, what the hell are you doing?, the sniper criticized, getting a little anxious the closer they got to his van.

He was unable to see who was inside, the windows tinted to the darkest they could get, but he could still easily kill the driver if he wanted to. He hesitated, not wanting to kill someone who could have just randomly found their way out here, but guessing how far out he was, they couldn't have been out here accidentally. As the car started to get closer to his camper, he decided that they were a little too close for comfort. His aim shifted to the tires, and with a single pull of the trigger, the car swerved out of its line.

Heinrich screamed loudly when one of his tires popped, followed by a large yelp from Janett when the car decided to swerve out of control. The car had been traveling at fast speed, and the sudden force of the steering wheel turning was threatening the car to tip. Luckily for the two inside, it only spun, suddenly ending in a heavy stop when Heinrich slammed his foot on the brake. The jolt caused both of their bodies to move with the movement in the car. Both had been shaken up and shifted around, which had only caused minor injuries.

Janett leaned forward, keeping her hand on her head and took a deep breath in. Heinrich stared blank faced in front of him, his hands gripped tightly onto the steering wheel as he shook. Once he realized that the car hadn't flip and everything was alright, he let out a long sigh. He did notice some minor scrapes and bruises, but nothing he couldn't handle.

"Janett." He says quietly, peering over at the girl.

He raised his eyebrows with worry, unbuckled his seat belt and leaned over to grab her hand to remove it from the bump on her head. She had hit her head on the side of the car, but not hard enough to do any real damage. The bump was starting to swell, but she was lucky that it was only going to bruise. He would have been fired if he had accidentally gotten his bosses assistant in Australia hurt. He rubbed her back and nodded, turning the key so the car was off but the air still blasted.

"You should be fine, your head hurts, Ja?" Heinrich turned to her, as Janett nodded with furrowed eyebrows.

"I should be fine. Didn't expect that," she muttered back.

She shook him off with her hand and opened the door to go find out what happened. Heinrich nodded, getting out of the car to examine the damage to the tire, which was followed with an upset yell in German at the blasted tire. He put his hands up, looking around for the convict who shot his precious car, hissing unhappily.

"Scheiße Jack Mundy! Ve are here to talk!" he yelled loudly, running his hand through his hair as he looked back to his car with a small whimper.

Suspicion rose inside of Jack, but he also felt curious as to why they would have so blatantly pulled up and yelled their position out. They couldn't have been there to kill him, no, it was way too sloppy of them. He decided to investigate, slowly raising from his position.

Jack narrowed his eyes, not wanting to be too trusting. He lowered his gun, still holding it with both hands as he slowly makes his way to their car. It didn't take long for the man mumbling over his car to see him closing the gap between them. The strange man was speaking in… what sounded like German?

Now, that's odd.

Heinrich put his hands up, trying to not seem suspicious to the sniper. This was definitely him. Tall, tanned, and mostly always holding a gun. The medic didn't usually let himself have a gun pointed at him so freely, even keeping a loaded pistol in his back pocket in case things got ugly. Fortunately for Heinrich, Jack didn't fire. He just looked more confused and suspicious if anything, and Heinrich didn't blame him.

"Ah- Jack," Heinrich started, but his words were cut short as Janett stepped out of the car quickly, seeing the gun Jack held. Jack narrowed his eyes as he walked closer to the two, raising the gun a bit further.

"Who're you and how do ya know my name?" Jack questions.

Janett raised her hand for his attention, and when given, his expression became even more unhappy.

"Lower the gun, we don't want any harm," she said slowly, motioning for him to lower the gun.

Jack looked over the two, his gun slowly lowering, but still remaining at a height where he could shoot on a seconds notice.

"Ve are offering you a job offer herr Mundy," Heinrich hisses, succeeding in convincing the sniper to lower his gun.

He looked a little annoyed, mostly caught off guard, but Medic was happy to put his hands down and have a gun out of his face.

Why in the bloody 'ell are these people out here offering me a job?, Jack thought to himself, still confused about the whole situation. Guilt rushed over him when he looked down at the blasted tire of the car. He decided on not saying anything about it, choosing to shake his head instead.

"Job offer? I'm not lookin' for a job." Sniper grumbled, his eyebrows furrowing. He found it odd that they went to such lengths to find him, they should have waited for him to get out of these parts of Australia before they pressed him to join a job.

"It's a good offer. Work for our cause, Mr. Mundy, and you'll get the many perks-" Pauling was interrupted as the sniper shook his head and raised his hand.

"Perks?" Jack inquired, taking a step closer.

"Yes- Perks involving weapons…..a large pay….sniping every day?" she lists as she puts her hands together and walks over to the apprehensive sniper.

He was lost in his thoughts. He shook his head to stop the thoughts from distracting him and he studied Pauling for a bit.

"And what kind of job will i be doing if it involves me snipin' every day?" Jacks voice had become suspicious again.

It seemed like he didn't know what to expect from a job that would offer things like that. He thought that this probably meant a couple jobs for assassinations. Even so, he still didn't understand why they came to such lengths. He noticed the female shift in her position, probably asking herself if she herself if they were just wasting their time, but after a second or two, she made a decision and pursed her lips.

"To work for Mann. Co., for our cause. You see, Mr. Mundy, we believe you are one of the most skilled snipers and we think you would be valuable to our team. Of course, there's more explaining if you do want to come with us. All I have to say is those perks come to effect the second you agree, and wouldn't you like to do something to help us? I can't answer too many personal questions about it, unless you're official about saying yes," Janett kept her voice firm, nodding her head as she pursued the sniper.

He seemed skeptical about her, his frown returning. It sounded shady, but he was always in those shady businesses. It did peak his interest, the bribe of new weapons, and a large pay. Jack crossed his arms and nodded slowly.

"'lright, think I understand…. a bit? So if I accept, I'll be… fightin' for your…. cause, and I'll be getting a pay and new stuff, correct?" he didn't sound too thrilled over the fact that he was being pulled in with bribes, but he couldn't help it.

As much as he loved everything, his gun was getting old and even if he wasn't looking for a job and didn't want one, he really did need one.

"That's correct. So do you accept?" Pauling leans in, watching the doubtful sniper look at her, then over to his van and nod slowly.

"Yeah," He answers, jumping a little when Janett puts her hand forward quickly for him to shake.

He takes her hand, noting her grasp was firm, but still gentle. She could probably be fightin' for this cause if she wanted to.

"Janett Pauling- just call me Pauling. Err- we have to leave, right now," Janetts' gaze moved over to Heinrich who had been worriedly looking back at the two. The medic waved, his look becoming relaxed when Pauling shot him a thumbs up to signal things worked.

"Though- Ms. Pauling, we're going to have to take my van, since..your car…" He starts as he shook his head.

Pauling nods slowly, looking at the camper as she walked over to medic to explain the situation. Jack watched the two bicker, the man putting his hands up and pointing to his car and then over to him. Oops, was all the sniper could think of before turning to the area he had his stuff and quickly picked it up, returning the items to his camper as he watched the two end their argument. Pauling returned as Heinich opened the door to his car to clear all of his things out, getting out boxes from the trunk and starting to carry them to the camper. He was upset that he was being forced to leave his car because Jacks' camper wasn't able to tow it.

"We can get the car back, right? Just call someone?" Pauling asks.

The sniper turned to look at the car, made a face and nodded slowly.

"Yeah." The car is done for. Jack tried not to glance at Heinrich, for fear of giving away the fact that his car was indeed helpless without it's tire and wouldn't be retrievable any time soon.

The sniper opened the passenger door for Janett, who smiled as she got inside. She tried to get comfortable, even if the camper at the moment was suffocating with heat while sitting in the shade. The sniper watched Heinrich slump into the back part of the camper, the obviously upset and grumbling German had his eyes glued to his car. There was nothing Jack could do about it, he could pay him back, but that seemed like too much work.

Shaking his head, the sniper climbed into the drivers seat. He turned the key and the car started up loudly. Jack leaned back into his chair and examined Pauling, who was getting out an old folded map and watched as she pointed to the nearest airport.

"It's there. We'll be going to Teufort," Janett spoke, turning to look at Heinrich in the back seat while she shook her head.

"After this, Lawrence is next, which Lucian is already taking care of."

Written by Mick-kun

Edited by TweekTweeet

Neither of us own Team Fortress 2