The sun was high in the afternoon sky, shining down on the two buildings mercilessly. Not a soul was to be seen outside, all of the residents cautious of what might be out there.
At one end of the desert-like area stood an old-fashioned wooden fortress, painted various shades of red. At the other end stood a nearly identical building, made of more industrial materials and painted blue.
The only thing separating the two properties was a small pond and a rickety old fence, the rich brown paint weathered by the elements and age. Though for the most part the scene looked relatively normal, each of the buildings held something invaluable that the other was after.
The inside of the buildings was almost as hot as the outside, and everywhere people roamed the halls. A few of them thought briefly of going for a swim in the pond outside, but quickly decided against it.
The residents of the red fortress were all busy getting ready for the day's battle, each preparing in their own separate ways. Though they did have some degree of organization, for the most part they stuck to themselves.
The same couldn't be said for the others. The Builder's League United employees were huddled in the biggest of the three supply rooms, conversing and trying to figure out a foolproof plan of some sort.
Rumours were floating around that the others' intelligence could hold the plans to a possibly world-altering device that could bring immense wealth to the owners.
They wanted said intelligence.
It would be a difficult task, to seal the series of briefcases - for security purposes they had split up the plan and put each piece in a different briefcases - but they were determined to do it.
Now they were about to head out, the plan fresh in everyone's minds. Most everyone charged off at once to try to take the opponents by surprise, but one of them in particular stayed behind for just a moment.
He was the spy, and his mission on this blazing hot day was to eliminate one foe specifically. The RED's medic had been causing them a lot of trouble lately by disrupting their plans with his spouts of invulnerability, and he had to go.
He was relatively new to the BLU team, having just transferred in a day or so ago. The others knew nothing of his past aside from the fact that he'd been recommended, and he hoped to keep it that way; all they needed to know was that he was skilled at his trade.
He'd taken on as many aliases as missions over the years, making him a master of disguise of sorts. He was exactly what they needed for infiltration and information gathering, but many of his missions involved an assassination of some sort.
Yet despite what they did know of his impressive past, they were still sceptical of his skill. And so he was determined to show them that he could be a valuable asset to the team.
Once everyone was out of sight and the first gunshots reached his ears the spy headed out. He wanted to go while everyone was distracted so that he could slip by the battlefield and into the enemy base completely unnoticed.
Checking one last time that all his equipment was neatly tucked into his blue pinstripe suit, which was just a size too big to hide everything, he headed off, making his way to the front balcony.
Hiding behind the small wooden barrier he looked to the sniper for confirmation of safety. He wanted to make sure this operation went as smoothly as possible.
"Way's all clear, mate," the sniper said, not taking his eye from the scope of his rifle, "Good luck."
The spy nodded, turning on his cloaking device. He'd be nearly invisible for a short time and would have to make the best of it by successfully getting into the RED base undetected.
Not wanting to waste a single second he jumped from the balcony, landing skilfully on the sandy ground. Almost immediately he was back on his feet, running for the entrance.
He was just about to head inside when a large group of REDs came charging through the doors, blocking his way entirely.
Having no time to weave in and out of the group he ran backward, plunging into the water. It was a move that would cost him valuable time, but it would hopefully allow the mission to continue. In either case it was safer than risking them finding out about him.
Though the sudden coldness of the water washing over him was refreshing, he didn't allow himself to enjoy it. His cloak was about to run out of power and if he didn't choose a disguise quickly he'd be found out for certain.
He didn't have much time to think; not only was his cloak steadily running out of power, but he could hear the sounds of battle cries slowly nearing him. Unknowing of whether they belonged to his people or the opponents he randomly chose a disguise.
A puff of smoke exploded around him as he put on his disguise, though it very quickly disappeared due to the water. He put on the soldier disguise just in time; seconds after the smoke had cleared a small group rushed out of the sewers, heading for his base.
Luck was on his side that day. As the REDs emerged from the sewers a few BLUs ventured out from theirs. Almost immediately they began battle, showering the water with bullets and blood.
The spy knew exactly what to do. In his travels he'd learned a few tricks and although this wouldn't exactly be safe, it would most definitely give him an opportunity should he survive.
Making it look like he was joining in the fight he swam through the water between them, right in the path of the bullets. His teammates managed to avoid him, but he took a good amount of lead from RED.
Retreating back behind the RED warrior he called out for a medic, hoping to find his target. However, he wasn't anywhere in sight, so he stopped for a rest in the sewer bend. The manoeuvre had been risky, and he was feeling the effects already. It was no surprise; he had probably at least a dozen bullets embedded in his body, maybe more.
Knowing that he couldn't do any good as he was right then he picked up a health kit to ease his pain just a tad. It didn't do much, but it would keep him standing until he found a better solution.
For a little while longer he waited to see if the medic was making his rounds, but unfortunately that wasn't the case. If he wanted to complete his mission he'd have to seek out the target himself.
There was only one way he could go if he wanted to get results. Trying his hardest not to let the pain of his injuries get to him he staggered through the sewer passage toward the stairs. The water splashed around his feet as he made his solitary journey.
Standing guard at the top of the stairs was a single person, the demo man of the team to be exact.
Seeing that the disguised spy was low on health he allowed him to pass, nodding to him solemnly. He'd seen the real soldier head down that way and now assumed that things hadn't gone all that well.
"Thanks," the spy said in the soldier's voice, as he passed without incident. Unsure of where to look he randomly wandered the building, calling out for the medic every so often.
He wandered for quite some time, mostly without incident. Along his travel he found no signs of his target, though, so he decided to take a chance and try to gather some information while he was there.
Much to his surprise the fortress was very similar to his own, and so he found it very easy to navigate his way. In almost no time he was nearing the intelligence room, hoping to see what kind of defence they had up.
Hobbling weakly into the large room he was happy to see that the defence was about average. Once sentry guarded the briefcase and there wasn't a dispenser to be found. For that he was glad; with no dispenser in the room it would make him a lot less suspicious if he didn't stop.
"You seen the medic around here, private?" he asked gruffly, looking around curiously.
"Nah, he wen' down that way. Might be able ta catch up with him if ya run, boy," the engineer told him kindly, pointing down the other hall and tipping his hardhat, "He's goin' up the spiral stairs."
Spy nodded, heading off right away. Now that he'd gathered a bit of supplementary information on their set-up he had to find the medic and complete his main mission.
Making sure to match the average soldier's speed he rushed up the stairs, slowly catching up to the busy doctor.
"MEDIC!" he called out desperately when he came into view. The German doctor turned around with a click of his heels, looking down to whoever was calling him. He instantly saw that the man was in need of assistance, and he couldn't say no.
Looking back up the stairs he told his teammates, "I'll catch up with you in a minute, comrades."
They nodded understandingly, heading off into battle without him. Soon the two of them were alone in the stairwell and they were free to do their thing.
"So what eez it zat's wrong wiv you?" he asked, making sure his gloves were on right.
"I'm full of bullets, Doc," he answered, making sure to stay in character.
"Doezn't surprise me, Mr. Soldier. Well, on to zee medical room, zen," the doctor urged, trying to get him into the room. It would make the procedure so much easier if they were around proper equipment.
"No, do it here," the spy ordered, "I want to kill those maggot BLUs as soon as I can. Do it here so I can get back out there."
"Fine, Dummkopf… he said, leading the spy into a more open area and sitting him down on one of the piles of hay. Without another word he lifted up the spy's shirt to get at the bullets. The spy looked nervous as he did so, hoping that he wouldn't discover his secret.
Luckily the majority of the bullets had made contact with his lower back and had missed his spine, so getting them out was done rather quickly without having to do any exploring. The icy coldness of the doctor's steel instruments seemed to calm him down despite the situation, relaxing him.
Soon the medic updated him on his progress, "Zee bullets are almost all gone. Zee remainder appear to be lodged in your stomach and upper back areas. Eet will just be a few more minutes."
"No, no! That'll do, my good doctor! I can fight those filthy BLUs like this easily," he said hurriedly, "Just close me up and I can get back to killin' and defending our country!"
The doctor sighed. All his patients were always so impatient. He was just as sadistic as the next guy, but at least he had the smarts to stop when he was injured. How the others could go on like this baffled him.
With a silent nod he took out his medigun to finish up his job. Soon his patient was as healed up as he was going to get, and he was able to get back to his regular business.
"Thanks, Doc!" the spy said as the medic went about cleaning up the area. Soon his back was turned to the waiting assassin as he went to drop a few things up in the nearby supply room.
It was the perfect opportunity to follow through with his orders; the medic's back was wide open for a deadly strike, there wasn't a watchful set of eyes to be seen, and there wasn't a single sentry trained on him.
Swiftly he pulled his prized butterfly knife from his suit, waving it around expertly for a few seconds for show. Narrowing his eyes he crept up behind the doctor, knife at the ready. After this they'd finally have a shot at gathering the enemy's intelligence.
::End of Chapter 1::
I finally got inspired to do another TF2 fanfiction and decided a few things on it. I don't exactly know where it's going (I'm assuming it's going to turn into a romance at some point... if I can pull that off). But yeah; either way, here comes a new Team Fortress 2 fanfiction!
So... yeah. Hope you all enjoy this. If all goes well I'll be posting another chapter in a week or two.
TF2 (c) Valve