"You know Scout...when I invented the Scoutbots, I designed them to be a lot more intelligent than you. They would not be caught in this situation you see." The gravely, husky voice of Gray Mann came down a long, long tunnel. Scout's eyes fought to regain their sight but he found that he was lost in total darkness, and his only functioning senses were the faint echo of what was once his keen sense of hearing, and the sickly, all too familiar scent of a strong antiseptic.

There was still a faint sting of where the tranquilizer dart was with its needle still deeply embedded into his skin at the crook of his neck, and its toxins still streaming through his blood.

He could recognize that the voice did indeed belong to Gray Mann because it resembled the voices of both Redmond and Blutarch.

But they were both dead.

Not only that but the voice spoke of creating the robots. Which was an even bigger giveaway than the voice resemblance.

Along his forearm he felt the faint trace of the tip of a cold, unforgiving blade being dragged lightly over his goose bump covered skin, followed by a series of malevolent chuckles.


"Has anyone seen Scout? I need to run an er...experiment vith his...er... metabolism." The sound of the BLU Medic's voice practically echoed around every concrete wall in the large shared base.

The RED and the BLU team had come to terms with sharing the building at Mann Works after the news of their boss's demises, and so far, there had been little to no injuries from scuffles even with the two once enemy teams armed to the teeth. The two Medics shared the same infirmary but stayed rather out of each other's ways, but occasionally they would chat about different medications or techniques that they had learned so they could help each other. But both were careful not to reveal too many secret, or deadly techniques, because if things went back to normal...well that would be a problem for the lot of them.

There was no response to his question, which only received an irritated sigh and a disapproving shake of the head. Most of the members of both teams were off on their own, enjoying the break offered by the cease-fire before the next onslaught of robots, and of course ignoring everything and anything work related. In fact, he assumed most were catching up on lost sleep.

Scout could've been hiding from him, which wouldn't be a surprise, but there was just something off about the young Bostonians sudden disappearance. He had just been speaking to him a few moments before, and suddenly he had vanished rather out of thin air. He blew out a long drawn out breath, and spun on his heel back into the infirmary.


The blade was being dug deep into the back of his neck.

His screams were practically piercing the audio receptors those of the standing by Medicbot's ready to perform the procedure on the poor unsuspecting BLU Scout. But Gray Mann didn't care. The Scout was the perfect subject for his plan. He had created a type of microchip rigged with a high powered explosive that mimicked a very small atomic bomb, that would insert into his spinal cord and nervous system, which would potentially allow him to control the boy, and finally when no one was expecting it, he could blow Mann Works sky high with all of the mercenaries inside, and destroy their respawn machine along with it. The explosives were small, but looks could be extremely deceiving.

And finally, that wretched Mann Co. would finally be out of the picture. And he will have destroyed every last thing his imbecile brothers worked for, and rid of the story they left behind. Oh it was the perfect plan. Using one of their own, the one they would least suspect as a Spy, and finally murder them all. Then he would move onto Saxton Hale and anyone else who once worked with his brothers and finally the world would be rid of the Mann Co. brothers and TF industries.

"Oh Scout hush. It'll be over soon." He growled and gingerly rubbed his temples. "Shut him up." Immediately one of the Medicbots clasped a bionic hand over the Scout's strained open mouth, only resulting in a loud muffled moan. He leaned in close to the inklings head and flicked a tear away from his cheek with a nimble finger and let a small, playful smirk play across his expression.

"Do not worry. When this is over you won't feel a thing. In fact, you won't even remember that you were here at all."