Authors Note: Hello hello hello! My name is Ill-Intentions, and I'm a slightly-new-ish writer here! I tried posting a story to this fandom in the past (With the help of a friend's account. She posted it for me, lol), and not a lot of people read it. Tried again with this account, and even less people read it (I have no luck). So, this is basically my last attempt to save this story idea. I've switched up characters, added some new ones, and I'm ready and willing to keep writing this story.
Quick thing so I don't get killed: Tf2 belongs to Valve, not to me.
Please enjoy!
The young man looked out the window of the bus, watching the desert sands roll by. Today was a big day for him. Today, he would be transferring to a new team, along with some others who were being transferred as well. Earlier in the day, he tried to create conversation with them, but they all sort of brushed him off. Acted like he wasn't there almost.
He took a slow, deep breath and looked at the papers he had been given again. On the first one, was a logo. The logo for a team his father always worked for. The team the young man had only been working for, for the past couple years. The lit bomb with the short, curled fuse and curled letters inside it, spelling RED, interested him as much now as they did the day he started. He put the papers beside him again, on top of the suitcase he had brought with him. He knew he barely needed a suitcase. All he'd brought was a change of clothes, an extra helmet,a muscle shirt and sweatpants to sleep in, a pack of gum, a toothbrush, and several small sentimental items. He sighed, and looked out the window again, and before he knew it, he felt himself starting to doze off. As desperately as he wanted, and needed the sleep, it was hard to get any over the incessant chatter of the other mercs.
This was only for a moment though, as not even ten seconds later, the driver stopped the bus, and someone else stepped on. He appeared to be a Demoman, from his attire, his dark skin, and the absence of one eye. The Demoman smiled and nodded to the driver, who held his grim, angry expression. The Demo adjusted a bag he was carrying, awkwardly due to its weight, and trudged forwards through the seats of people, making sure to apologize if his bag accidentally hit somebody along the way. He looked about, then realized that the seats were full of the various mercs - who were all wearing white and light grey colors to avoid hostility during transport between RED and BLU - and that there was nowhere for him to sit.
Though he was a bit drowsy, the younger man moved his suitcase, and scooted closer to the window, providing a place for the Demo to sit. The Demo took notice of his gesture, smiled, and took the spot.
"Thanks, lad. Cool helmet." he said, giving a small nod. There was a silence for a few minutes before the Demo broke it again with a question.
"Where are yah headed?"
The helmeted man looked back at the Demo. "Sawmill." he answered simply "I am going to Sawmill."
The Demo grinned "No way! Me too!"
The helmeted man returned the smile. Not only because this Demo's apparent cheerfulness was contagious, but because he knew he wouldn't be the only one who had no idea what they were doing.
"Are you really?" the helmeted man blurted out
"Yeah!" the Demo replied, before going 'Ooo!' and leaning in a little and asking quietly "What team are yah on?"
The helmeted man showed the RED logo on the front of his papers, to which the Demo pulled out his own. The logo was identical.
"Alright!" the Demo beamed, still grinning. "This should be fun!"
"I agree!" the helmeted man concurred. After the Demo calmed his excitement, he looked back at the helmeted man. "So.. you're a Soldier, I'm guessin'?" he said as he knocked on the helmet.
"Yes I am." the helmeted man replied, to which the Demo nodded.
"You look to be a little young for a Soldier," he commented "Yah haven't even grown facial hair yet."
The Soldier nodded. "Yeah, I get that a lot."
"How old are yah?"
"I am twenty-nine."
"Twenty-nine? Wow, you're young. That's not much older than a Scout, yah know?" The Demo told him, to which the Soldier rolled his eyes a bit. Noticing he had caused annoyance, the Demo looked away. "Sorry."
"No no," The Soldier demurred "You're fine. I just hear this kind of thing a lot, it gets a little old." he finished, nodding in response, before the Demo spoke yet again.
"So what's your name?" he asked
"Oh, hahaha. My name is Ayer." the Soldier replied.
"Air? Is that what you just said?" The Demo asked after a moment, clearly confused.
"No, Ayer." The Soldier replied, familiar with a reaction such as this one, too.
"Air." The Demo repeated, to which the Soldier replied with:
"A-Y-E-R."
"A-Y-E-R. Ayer?"
"Yes."
The Demo chuckled "WOW, that's confusin'. You're weird, but that's okay, so am I. My name's Kendrick."
Ayer stuck out his hand. "Nice to meet you, Kedrick."
Kendrick locked hands with Ayer and shook. The whole ordeal seemed to have cheered Ayer up and out of his tired state. The two talked for a while, exchanging thoughts, debating opinions, and playfully bantering back and forth. It was funny, really. They barely knew each other, yet they were acting like they knew each other forever.
Eventually, when desert turned to dirt, the driver stopped and announced that they had reached Sawmill. Kendrick hoisted his suitcase up again.
"Alright. Let's go." he said, motioning for the Soldier to follow.
Ayer nodded his head in response, took his own bag and stood up. The two walked to the front of the bus, and on the way out, Ayer looked at the Driver.
"Thanks for the ride." he said.
The drivers unshaven face held it's scowling look as he simply nodded, making a bit of ash fall from his cigar. Ayer gulped, and hurriedly stepped off the bus. He almost immediately regretted it, though, as the cold hit at him harshly from the air itself. He pulled his jacket in around himself a bit. Oh, how he hated cold weather!
He could hear the sounds of the doors closing, sealing the fact that there was no turning back before he heard a voice yell.
"Vait! Vait! I'm getting off!"
The pair looked back, seeing another figure pushing through the seats as well, occasionally saying a few things that were incomprehensible to him. As the other man appeared in front of the steps, they only saw a blur as the other man fell, spilling his papers and luggage onto the dirt.
"Ahh, cripe!" Kendrick shouted as he ran back to help him, while messily grabbing ahold of the papers that were strewn about as well. Ayer rushed to the downed man, and hoisted him up as the bus drove off. Once the papers were gathered up, Kendrick handed the unorganized mess to the other man hesitantly.
"Sorry, I don't know how to arrange these." he apologized as the one who fell took the papers gratefully.
The other man looked at Ayer and Kendrick through glasses, unsure of what to think for a moment. He looked at the ground, then at his surroundings, then at his hands, and then back at them.
"Uhh…" he started, again looking at the ground. "Zhank you." he mumbled, his German accent clearly audible.
"Hey, no problem." Kendrick told him, reaching his hand out a moment later.
The other man looked at the outstretched hand for a moment before taking it with a firm grip and shaking.
"It's nice to meet you, bozh. I'm Kurt." he introduced, sounding a bit shy, and eye contact being a bit shaky.
"Nice to meet you, Kurt. I'm Kendrick, and this is Ayer. How are yah?"
"Vell, considering you two just assisted me in gathering my zhings back up vhen I fell, I'm pretty good. How are you two?"
Before anymore words could be exchanged, something spat up the dirt beside them. They jumped back simultaneously, and stared at the spot for a moment before another thing did the same, except much, much closer, narrowly missing Ayer's foot.
Ayer yelped, and head shot in the direction the things came from, his eyes scanning the area frantically for any sign of anyone. He saw nothing.
"SNIPER!" someone from inside the gates ahead shouted, their voice holding an alarmed tone. In a blur, Ayer felt his arm be grabbed roughly. He was dragged back through the gates and shoved backwards. As he hit the ground, he caught a glimpse of Kurt and Kendrick being shoved in as well. Ayer closed his eyes tightly, not opening them in fear of what he might see.
However, when he heard a man chuckling, he opened them. He saw Kurt and Kendrick standing with a man in a red suit and balaclava. The man in the suit was facepalming, as if disappointed. That was until, he brought his hand away, which revealed a smiling face.
"Ahh, Merde." he choked out in between chuckles of amusement, Kendrick joining his laughter soon after realizing the danger was no longer present. This lasted for a moment or so, before they managed to calm.
"Well now… pardon me. My behavior wasn't very appropriate for zhe situation." the suited man said with a French accent. The man cleared his throat before offering his gloved hand to Ayer, a calm smile on his face.
"Bonjour, gentlemen. My name is Maxence. I am zhe Spy here with zhe REDs. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance." he explained, nodding his head a bit.
Ayer took the Frenchman's hand hesitantly, and was a bit surprised at the man's strength as he was pulled up.
"And who might you zhree be?"
Kurt looked at Ayer and Kendrick for a moment, before introducing himself and his allies.
This made the Frenchman's expression harden a bit. "Kurt…"
Kurt noticed this look and stepped back a bit. He looked to Ayer trying to read his face.
But Ayer wasn't paying attention to the German. He only watched as the hardened expression of the Frenchman softened into something else.
Sadness.
Maxence looked at the sand, his eyes a bit glassy, as if he had teared up slightly. He then closed his eyes before lifting his head to look at the sky. He stared for a moment, looking a bit lost for a moment before he half closed them and shook his head as he looked back at them.
"Apologies… Our old Medic had zhat name… It's a shame, what happened to him. No more zhan a fortnight ago, he was taken from us." he lamented
"Oh… I'm sorry for your loss." Kendrick grimaced as he approached and placed a comforting hand on the Frenchman's shoulder. Maxence shook his head again.
"Our old Soldier was killed by zhe same men… pretty soon after zhat… I was with him when he died… Respawn had been failing recently..." he explained. He opened his mouth to continue, but immediately closed it when he realized he was rambling.
He cleared his throat and turned to the new recruits.
"Well… I won't get into zhat. Allow me to show you zhree around."
Kendrick looked over at Ayer, and the Soldier shrugged as he looked back. The trio followed Maxence as he walked. Then, once they were sure Maxence wasn't paying attention to any conversation they would have, Kurt looked over to Kendrick and Ayer and spoke.
"You all do realize zhat zhis is a very dangerous base, right?" he asked, making Ayer's head immediately shoot in his direction to look at him, his oversized helmet spinning on his head a little.
"Dangerous?" he echoed, a hint of nervousness in his voice. "How?"
Kendrick looked at Ayer. "Aye, lad. Very dangerous. You've never heard the rumors about the BLU Team here?"
"The rumors?" Ayer continued.
"The Blu Team here," Kendrick began "is apparently extremely hostile. On and off the battlefield. I've heard things about them attacking members of the RED team during cease fire just to pass the time."
Kurt chuckled nervously "Zhe vaterfall here? Zhey've drowned people in zhere. Zhe saws? Zhose have been killing tools for zhem vhen zhey've felt especially cruel."
"Aye. Which means people like us are goin' tah be gettin' some protection from the others for a while. They'll know more about this than we do."
Ayer took that in for a minute or two, now beginning to imagine the horrors that the RED team had been through here. The thought of it scared him, honestly, but he was taught to never show fear. Strike Fear, don't Show Fear his father would say.
"But it's just a story," Kurt assured "I'm sure it's not true. It vas just a story started by people who are trying to ruin zhis place. It's made to scare people off."
"Oh, I hope you're right." Kendrick told the Medic.
Ayer nodded his agreement "Yeah…"
For a split second, Ayer saw something out of the corner of his eye. It was a person, definitely. A member of the BLU team. The figure had a small frame and overalls, so it had to be an Engineer. But, when Ayer turned his head to look at the figure, it was gone.
He stopped and stared at the spot for a second. He could have sworn there was someone there. He didn't let his gaze wander from the spot, incase it appeared again. But the more he stared into the empty space, the more he felt something build up inside of him. Something that made him want to look away, but keep staring at the same time. The feeling felt a lot like fear, but something was… different about it. If one was to ask him exactly what, though, he'd be unsure of how to answer.
"Ayer." he heard Kendrick's voice say from behind him, causing him to take his eyes off the spot. "Let's go, lad."
Ayer nodded, now noticing that as soon as he took his eyes off of the spot, his fear levels dropped significantly. Before he followed, he took a deep breath. He didn't know what just happened there, but he knew one thing for sure. The enemy was dangerous, and after his team. He vowed to himself at that very moment that he would NOT let his team fall victim to their cruel treatment. Something told him, however, that he wouldn't keep this promise long.