Peace and quiet
It was early in the morning in camp RED Teufort, everyone peacefully asleep, with a few sawing logs. All was serene, quiet, and everything was at peace.
Until the clock turned to six a.m. and Soldier started playing Reveille on his bugle. This was met with a loud chorus of groans and curses.
"UP AND AT 'EM, MAGGOTS!" Soldier bellowed, causing his voice to crash though the thin walls to ensure everyone was wide awake.
"Oh come on Soldier, today is a ceasefire day, can't we all get a little extra sleep?" Scout growled as he flung open his door to glare at the rocket jumper.
"Change of plans, Scout!" This was met with groans. "We are actually going to be participating in battle today," more groans, "more importantly though, both teams are going to be getting a single new recruit today." This was met with intrigued grumbles.
"A new recruit? Like a new class?" The Engineer spoke up as he walked out of his room while fastening his suspenders.
"Negative, it seems that both teams are going to be getting a new edition to an already existing class. According to the Administrator, those damn BLU's are going to be getting a new defensive player, while we are getting a new offensive player."
"Ugh, great, zat is all ve need, anozer dummkopf running into ze fray and getting zemselves blown up." Medic grumbled as he pinched the bridge of his nose in frustration.
"So that means that ze BLU team is getting themselves either a new Heavy weapons guy, a new Demoman, or a new Engineer." Spy looked thoughtful as he started to plan around this new development.
"And dat means dat we're getting a new Scout!" Scout grinned to himself.
"Or Soldier." Soldier puffed out his chest in pride.
"Mmph Mpho!" Came the muffled excitement of Pyro. This suddenly seemed to crash down on everyone else's heads, they hoped they weren't getting a new Pyro, one muffled freak with a flamethrower was enough, they didn't need a second.
"Either way maggots, finish getting ready and be outside for morning training, we want to make a good first impression on our new recruit, we wont be meeting them until after lunch, then after introductions are out of the way, the lot of us will have a battle to test out our new member, and make the damn new BLU regret choosing the color!" Soldier then did a salute and an about-face to go wake up Sniper, who slept outside in his van and relay the same information.
I sighed as I walked around with this lady, what did she say her name was again...Pauling? I don't know. All I knew was that the entire damn RED base looked the same, barring the exception of symbols above the doors showing what this building was for. It reminds me of a military camp, only made with wood rather then tents.
Miss Pauling had me dress in purple for the walk through, so it would just look like she as showing a new assistant the ropes, rather then introducing a new team member to her environment, said it would keep the attention off the two of us. Which later turned out to be a good thing, as were almost ran over by a few different RED team members on their laps around the base, of which the Scout tried to flirt with Pauling, and got denied, the Spy tried flirting with the both of us, and got double denied, the Engineer apologizing profusely when he accidentally ran into us, well more me, and giving up my bottle of water to a wheezing Aussie who cursed at the Soldier for setting up this whole running regiment just because they were having a new recruit.
"So I take it I'm going to be the only female here in this base?" It wasn't a question really.
"That's right, so you need to be careful around here, being the only female is going to garner you a lot of probably unwanted attention from both sides of the teams." Miss Pauling gave a frown as she stared distastefully at the Scout as he flexed his barely existent muscles.
"So stay under my suit and mask until I've proven my worth to them, then if or when they find out, and they try or say anything I hit them with the butt of my shotgun." I grunted as I rolled my eyes at the Scout, until I heard shouting from a Soldier, which caused all the resting mercenaries to jump right back into their running.
"About the only one's you will need to reveal your gender to would be the Pyro and maybe the Medic." Pauling gave a small laugh as the other Mercenaries looked more like they were trying to run away from the Soldier rather then exercising.
"I can understand the Medic, but why Pyro?"
"Since we have limited space, you'll be bunking with him until we can get your own room emptied out of all the equipment and random junk thrown in there." It was then that the Pyro came running by, at a leisurely jog and seemingly unperturbed by the Soldier's shouting.
"Just a warning though, the Pyro is...A unique basket-case, even among the other unique basket-cases. Outside of battle he is a complete goofball but in battle...Well it's best you just stay out of his range or you'll end up being your own funeral pyre." I nodded and made a mental note to stay away from the other pyromaniac on the field.
"Alright Maggots, training is concluded, hit the showers!" The Soldier shouted as everyone trudged into the area for the showers, while the Pyro wandered off back into the main sleeping hall.
"Come on, we'll be able to move around a lot quicker while they are getting ready for your arrival." Pauling gave me a grin and continued to show me around.
"Are you ready to meet your new team members?" Pauling was practically giddy. I simply shrugged my shoulders.
"Ash hudy ash mph mpph ee." I really didn't like this mask, it was confining, my field of view was limited, and it blocked my ability to speak clearly and be understood. It was fine when I faced off against robots, you could clearly hear them coming, people, not so much. If anything was going to give me away as a female, it would be this mask, after I tear it off in a rage in the middle of a battle.
"Great!" Pauling beamed as she opened the doors to the mess hall. I heaved a sigh, squared my shoulders, and walked in behind her.
"Everyone, please meet your new Pyro!" Pauling beamed as she stepped aside and waved her hands at me.
The discomfort on everyone's faces was rather clear, they were not expecting, nor wanting, a new Pyro class member, they also seemed to be put out that I was the smallest person here, well, all except for the Pyro, who looked like he had ingested FAR too much coffee.
"Mmmm...Herro?" I waved awkwardly at the gaping group. It was then that the Pyro came bounding over to me and picked me up into a giant bear hug, yelling something that sounded like he was right. Apparently he had guessed my class.
I wheezed out something that sounded like air, but it was hard for me to even tell since I really could only hear my ears popping inside this mask. After what felt like ages the overzealous Pyro finally dropped me and started dancing. I took as deep a breath as the mask would allow before staring at the rest of the group, who were all glancing around and whispering to each other.
"Is something the matter?" Pauling asked the group of men who were shifting around.
"Well...It's jus' 'dat..." The Scout started before rubbing the back of his neck.
"New Pyro ees so tiny." The Heavy finished and gave an awkward grin as I folded my arms in a small huff.
"Yes, he is smaller and can't take as many bullets as our usual Pyro, however he is faster and more agile then him as well."
"Den why didn't he become a Scout class, like me?" Scout huffed as he stared me down.
"Ahh ann blaee bafebarr mffh fshii." I shrugged, as was met with mildly confused stares. I huffed before walking over and pick up the Scouts baseball bat and ball, despite the protest of the Scout himself, and flung the ball in the air and swung, completely missing the ball by a mile and a half.
"Ah guess that'd be why." The Engineer chuckled as the Scout grumpily took his bat back.
"Short or not, glass canon or not, we are going to find out just how good this newbie is soon enough!" The Soldier barked out causing everyone to be silent.
"Battle begins in five minutes." The cold monotone voice of the Administrator called out over the speakers.
"Alright ladies! Suit up, and lets give those BLU's hell!" Soldier barked as we all ran toward the spawn point for our weapons and ammo.
I gave a smirk, eager for my first real battle in a nearly never ending war. I gave a quick look up toward the beautiful blue sky lightly dotted with light fluffy clouds. Strange weather for this, cause it was about to start raining blood.
