Chapter One: The Quarter

RED Scout room wasn't much more than a square room with a bed in the middle of it, and it was always messy for one reason or another. It was messy today because he was rummaging through all of his stuff to find his mothers last care package. He'd thrown the clothes haphazardly out of the closet, flung things off shelves, and tossed some hats out of his backpack to aid his quest for bubblegum.

No luck.

He exited the room, his disappointment evident. Maybe, he thought, it's time to play some poker with the rest of the crew. Maybe, if he earned enough money, he could buy some gum off someone. Better yet, maybe he can win some by beating Hard Hat; he always had some gum on him, and loved to gamble with gum against Scout, mostly because he never lost and funny to see Scout squirm.

He found himself in a hallway, which led to the lobby. The lobby consisted of two tables, a couch, a window showing the arena for the next battle against BLU, a garage door leading to the arena and a television. Heavy and the Medic were on one table playing chess. It was obvious who was winning the battle of wits, but why the RED Medic would let the RED Heavy stay in the game so long was unclear.

The Scout started walking towards the other table, the one where everyone one was playing poker. The table where everyone was locked in a game of gambling, luck, facial control, and drinking, Everyone, that is, except for the Engineer. Scout looked around the room to find the Engineer, mostly because he was the only other person who had gum.

The Engineer was hitting a metal tower of sorts in the corner of the room. What was he doing? He walked over to the Engineer asking,

"Whatcha up to Hard Hat?"

The RED Engineer stopped whacking the tower just long enough to cringe at his voice.

"Something that is made by me, to make me some spare change, and I'd best be hoping... used by you," He continued to whack the metal tower. Scout examined the tower. He didn't understand how Engineer just whacked a metal tower and turned it into... His train of thought was interrupted when he realized that he didn't know what Engineer was building.

"Soo... Building a metal tower is going to make you money? Man if I knew that I'd make a metal tower so big that people would just be throwin' the cash and the chicks my way. I'd be a Force of Nature, I'd be one rich-"

"Scout," Engineer interrupted while whacking at the tower a few more times.

"Yo, what's up?" The Scout rested his elbow on top of the metal tower, causing the Engineer to not be able to work on it.

"Is there any possibility, of you leavin' for a few? Ya know, so I could finish," The Engineer gestured for the scout to move his elbow off the metal tower.

"Oh yea," Scout quickly took his elbow off the tower, and backed away. Somewhere along the way, Scout must've blinked because the Tower had turned into something glorious.

"Whew!" Engineer wiped the sweat off his brow, and stood back to admire his creation. Then he packed up his stuff and vacated the area.

Scout looked at it in awe. A gumball machine, filled with the worlds finest gum. Scout didn't hesitate to take out his wallet and look for money. A five, a ten, and a one. Oh this was torture, the machine only took quarters.

"Anybody got change for a one?" Scout yelled so his voiced filled the entire room

Everyone only took a brief pause from their activities to give scout a negative response, then went back to their games.

He looked sadly at his money. He knew what he had to do.

"I'll give someone my one if they can spare a quarter."

Again the room was filled with a chorus of people saying they didn't have any quarters.

"You've gotta be freakin' kiddin' me," Scout muttered underneath his breath.

He started his search for a quarter. He looked in his bedroom for a quarter, managing to clutter up his room even more than before. He looked underneath the tables (where he was almost killed for confusing a poker chip as a quarter), he looked in the couch cushions where he was told he was annoying everyone. But still, no quarter turned up.

He walked up [to?] the window and banged his fist against it. How could there be no quarter in the entire building?! He let his eyes scan the arena. This one was symmetrical. There was a sandy floor and wooden walls in the middle, a tower on each side, plus a building right beside it to protect the back area - which was really nothing more than a swamp. Scout lost himself in thought when a bright reflecting light hit his eyes.

It came from a quarter right in the middle of the sandy arena. Someone must have dropped it the last time they were here. But he didn't care how it got there. He just cared that it was there.

He ran out of the garage door that led to the sandy arena. This middle part was a circular area with a sniper tower on either side and wooden walls. There was only a single wall on either side protecting the teams from harm. The only way to get to the swamp on the outside was to go through the buildings right next to those towers.

But Scout didn't care about the arena. He cared about that quarter right smack dab in the middle. As he got closer to it, he noticed something, and was sure that the person he'd noticed had noticed him at the same time.

Both BLU Scout and RED Scout took out their Force-of-Nature's and shot each other. Bullets hit both, and each decided to back away from the quarter to seek protection.

RED Scout got behind the wall and put a hand where the bullet hit him, yelling "All I want is the freakin' quarter!"

It was a while, but he heard the BLU Scout respond from the other side of the arena, "Ya, come and get it ya freakin' wuss!"

RED Scout panted a bit from the injury, but was able to force himself out from behind the protecting wall and fire a couple of shots at/towards the other side. The BLU Scout jumped over the wall and shot back at the RED Scout. Both had sustained more injuries and fell back behind the walls.

They were both hurt. Neither could bear the pain any longer.

Both Scouts screamed out, "MEDIC!"

The RED Medic and Heavy were interlocked in a game to challenge the mind and strategy and put up those skills against another. Medic could have ended the game four turns ago, and he still… but was really enjoying this game with Heavy, so he didn't.

It was the Medic's turn, but something stop him from taking it. A sound that he knew all too well. He heard a pained yell coming from just outside the garage door. Medic took his turn by crushing the opponent's king.

"Checkmate!" he said, standing and flipping over the table.

He grabbed his coat and Medic Gun, and walked back to the lobby. By now everyone was paying attention to what the Medic was doing, and RED Heavy was the first to ask, "What is matter?"

The RED Medic smiled such a dark, dark smile. He chuckled. "Let's go practice medicine," he had said with his dark smile growing wider and much more sinister. He walked dramatically to the garage door. As soon as it opened, doves flew out from behind him.

The RED Scout yelled again. "Come on, Doc! I need some help!"

The RED Medic shook his head as he healed the poor, defenseless Scout. All the other RED team members slowly made their way out into the arena, each carrying their own weapons. They looked across the arena to see that the BLU Team had done the same.

AN: This story is only three chapters long, and I do have the entire thing typed out, but I'm looking for beta readers ((I really do love them :D)) If I have one or not, I will be posting this story about a chapter a week or so. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did writing it. Let me know how I did, and don't be afraid to give it to me straight. If you liked it, tell me why, if you didn't just let me know what I can do so the other chapters don't suffer.