Chapter One - The First Day

The Administrator took a puff of her cigarette, rubbing her temples with her index fingers, "So, your daughter has got in trouble with some idiot poachers, and you're asking me to take her in, to be under the protection of nine unstable mercenaries?" The man nodded, "Yea', and as I'm me and your you, I'm not askin' ye to, Ah'm telling you to". She woman sighed deeply, knowing she couldn't argue with the man, "Fine, which team is she to be under the protection of?" The man thought about the decision to be made, stroking his moustache "RED". The Administrator nodded and looked to the door, "Miss Paulings? Take our guest to the transport, we will leave immediately!" She got up off her office chair and walked out of the room. Miss Pauling followed her closely at her heels like a poodle, "But what about dinner?" The Administrator froze, and walked back to the office, "We will leave in five hours".

~Later, at the RED Base in Tuefort~

The Sniper had taken the so-called honor of look out for the evening, knowing that the Administrator was to be arriving at any given time. The rest of the team was busy readying themselves for her arrival. They had been told that they were getting a new member and so they had all decided they would make a good first impression, hopefully. The roaring of an engine reached the Snipers ears and he grinned, "Oi, mates, they're 'ere!" he called back into the base. The Australian dropped down onto the ground as the car screeched to a halt, the rest of the RED team flooded out of the base and stood at the Sniper's side. No-one spoke as they all anxiously waited for the first glance of the new member. The door of the silver Land Rover swung open and a woman stepped out. "Is that-" the Engineer started, "Yeah! Dat's a chick!" the scout exclaimed as a wide grin spread across his face.

The girl who had stepped out was about the same height as the Scout, with dark brown hair and red streaks that ran down her fringe, which fell at her shoulders. She wore a simple scarlet t-shirt and black trousers which were fairly torn at the knees. On her feet were a pair of steel-toed boots that looked brand new. A leather jacket covered most of her T-shirt, and on the top of each jacket sleeve was a picture of bold lines that got bigger towards the right side. Anybody could tell that the lines were meant to be sound waves. But a single feature that the girl had was the most mysterious to them all; a black blindfold covered the girl's eyes.

The mercenaries' stares ceased when the Administrator stepped out of the car and stood at the girl's side. "Good evening gentlemen, this is RED member ten, you will call her the Listener and she is an assistance class. I do not want to hear any-other news about her other than word about good progress down at Tuefort. Any questions or childish complaints?" She said, her tone demanding with a hint of anger. When only a few murmurs from Soldier broke the silence, the Administrator nodded and calmly got back into the car, pausing to mutter a few words to them, "Your next battle with BLU is two days from now at mid-day". The Soldier nodded at the statement and grinned as if he was already thinking of a way to crush them. With a tired sigh, the Administrator got back into the car and closed the door after her.

With a sickening screech, the Land Rover drove off back the way it came at top speed, leaving the now ten members of RED in the spiraling dust left behind. Naturally, the Spy was the first to approach the girl, "Bonjour mon doux, welcome to ze RED team," he said, his signature smirk shining through the holes in his mask, "I am ze Spy". The man stood at her side and pointed each member out; "Zis is Ivan our Heavy, Friday our Medic, Dell the Engineer, Jane Doe the deranged psychopath-" a loud shout of protest came from the red-faced Soldier. "WHY YOU BACKSTABBING COWARD! I OUGHT TO STRANGLE YOU WITH YOUR OWN FRILLY TRAINING BRA!" he shouted, giving the Spy his signature two fingered salute. "Oh please, Soldier, if you had let me continue I was going to say Jane Doe the deranged psychopath of a great and powerful leader" the Spy sighed, sarcasm coating his tone of voice. Doe obviously didn't catch the sarcasm and nodded, a great and proud smile on his face, but then it fell when he locked eyes with the new member, "Now see here 'Listener', this is not some play ground, this is war and I love it!" He yelled at her, "Women belong in the kitchen, if you are to even set foot on this battlefield, I'm going to have to train this useless heap of bones that you call a body!" The Listener, to everyone's surprise, slammed her feet together and stood to attention, shouting out a swift 'Sir, Yes Sir!" to please him. The Soldiers grin widened, "Tomorrow at nine hundred hours you will report to the Training Field for ten hours of excruciating... Well, training!"

"Sir, yes Sir!"

"I expect to see you then, not a millisecond late, and with your weapons to show me what you've got, is that clear?"

"Sir, yes Sir!"

"Good! As you were private!" The Soldier beamed and saluted the girl whom took no hesitation in saluting back. The deranged psychopath of a great and powerful leader marched off towards base. The girls posture instantly dropped as the man disappeared, "Finally, I though' he'd never stop talking, continue Spoi". The Spy rolled his eyes as he continued, "Burns is ze Pyro, Jack is ze Sniper, ze Demoman is Tavish and our extremely annoying Scout iz Ethan." Another shout of protest came from the scout, yet this time it was ignored. The girl nodded and spoke, "I'm Roxie, the Listener. It's a roight pleasure to meet ya". If it were possible the Snipers eyes grew to the size of golf balls with realization at her accent, "Ey Sheila, yer from Australia ain't ya!" he said, clearly excited to have another Australian on the team. "Yea', I'm from Australia." she replied, her tone as plain and emotionless as a rock.

"Koala-hugger or not, I'm goin' in for da kill!" Ethan whispered to the Engineer, whom replied with a roll of the eyes. The Scout stepped over to the girl, his eyes sparkling with mischief. "So, Roxie, yer lookin' great! But not as great as me, naturally, I mean look at this!" he exclaimed, flexing his non-existent muscles. But yet again his concentration failed and he ended up staring at the girl's chest. "Oh ho, man dats beautiful..." he whispered to himself. Suddenly, a fist slammed into his face, and Ethan went flying backwards into the dirt. Roxie growled and rubbed her knuckles, as if she were ready to punch the boy again. The men that were watching the scene burst into laughter and the Engineer, through hearty chuckles, said "Hoo-ee! I like the lil' missy already!" The Sniper, who was still in fit of laughter, picked the boy up off the floor "Ya really need ta work on th' way you act 'round Sheila's mate!" he stated, wiping a tear from his eye. The Scout shoved the Sniper away and wiped the flowing blood from his broken nose. He had to hand it to the girl, she had one heck of a punch, "Whose ya dad, a frickin' Boxer?" he yelled at the girl. "Well, he is slightly..." she said, still no emotion in her voice or on her face. The Scout scoffed and started throwing careless insults her way, to which she retaliated instantly.
"Koala-hugger!"

"Bloody brat!"

"Frickin' brainless girl!"

"Momma's boy!"

The Medic decided to finish the argument before it got any worse and pulled the two apart. "Vell, who shall be ze one to show das mädchen around?" The Medic asked, looking around at the group, struggling at keeping the two teenagers away from each other. "Seeing as it's normally me, Spy, Sniper, Soldier or Medic that does the tour of the base, I nominate Demo to show the lil' missy around" the Engineer said, his eyes still resting on her. The rest of the team apart from Scout nodded, as the runner was too busy nursing his broken nose and muttering unheard complaints about not being a 'Momma's boy'. "Al'igh then Lassie, on wit' de tour!" Tavish said as he drunkenly staggered towards the base. The group parted, still chuckling about the earlier scene whilst walking off to tend to their business. Scout growled at the Listener and turned to chase after Medic to hopefully get his broken nose healed up.

"This is theh main part of tha base lassie, where we do all'our meetin's an' plannin'" Tavish said as they entered a room with four exits, not including the steel shutters with the sign 'respawn' above it highlighted in red. The Scottish man led the girl down a spiraling corridor, and into the intelligence room, "Dis lassie is our Intel, we have all o' our mission breifin's here," he said, gesturing around the room and explaining the main set out of the base. "As ye got yerself inta a trainin' session wit' Solly, you'll be happy ta know tha' theh trainin' field is just out those doors lassie" he said, pointing to two doors which were not-so-surprisingly painted red. "Al'ight mate, where're our rooms?" Roxie asked, her speech as plain as ever. "Tha rooms are through tha' door ther' " he said as he pointed at yet another red door that was carefully hidden in the corner of the room. "Alroight then" she stated, picking up her bag which she had dropped. She started walking away, but before she could, a hand stopped her. "Say lassie, why do ya do that?" Tavish asked, worry in his voice. "Do what?" the girl said, her blindfold moving slightly like she was raising her eyebrow. "Ye don' show no feelin's, at all!" he exclaimed, trying to figure her out. A few moments of silence passed, before she responded, "Feelings are for the weak and are a gateway to the soul." The Demoman found himself shocked at her attitude, and stared at her as she walked off to find her room. He couldn't believe how much she sounded like the Soldier. Shaking his head, he picked up his bottle of scrumpy and staggered off to drink himself silly, "Thankfully, I already don't remember this..."

Roxie's P.O.V :

She flinched as the door slammed shut after her. Room number ten was in her opinion, absolutely beautiful. The Walls were a bright red and the floor was a soft black carpet. And the best thing about it? She tried the switch yet no light came. There was no light. With a laugh, threw off the black blindfold that covered her emerald eyes and shuddered at the small change of light. She could see. Not very much of course, but she could finally be safe from the sun, no more hiding her eyes behind the blindfold. Her laughs steadily increased as the girl fell onto the red hammock that she rightfully claimed as her own. After a few moments of manic laughter, she suddenly stopped and sat up. She had showed emotion. Her eyes widened in fear at the world around her. She was weak, she was alone and now she was completely vulnerable. Her green eyes scanned the room and she hid under the covers of the hammock. They could be anywhere, in front of her, above her, below her or even- behind her. She froze as panic began to bubble inside of her. She had to keep composure! Feelings were the way to her weakness, she couldn't be weak. Not here, not anywhere. She whimpered and curled up in her hammock. It was no use, she couldn't hide, and they were coming for her.