Holy crap, this one's looooong.

Only own my representation of the characters and the plot. The concept of the game itself is copyright to Valve.

Also, someone asked where Demoman was. Well... here he is. (RED side, anyway.) For those wondering, BLU Demo will be coming in next chapter, along with BLU Medic. Sniper's not coming in until later.


The briefing room was filled with the scent of cigarette smoke when we arrived.

Blinking and suppressing a cough at the sudden smell, I stopped just inside the door and looked around for the source of the smell. At first I couldn't see anything; the lights were dimmed, so that the map of the area could clearly be seen on the projector. The map showed our base, the RED base, and blue markings that I guessed were our vantage points.

Was he that devoted that he refused to use red marker?

Shaking my head, I took another look around, and this time I did see the source of the smoke: a shadowed figure, sitting in the back corner to my right. Everything about the figure, which I presumed to be male, was dark from the waist up, so I couldn't see exactly who he was; but his legs were clothed in what looked like dark blue pinstripe suit pants, and he was wearing black Cuban heeled boots. Smoke drifted from a half-burned cigarette sitting between the index and middle fingers of his left hand, which he raised up to take a drag. The burning embers glowed in the shadows.
I must've stared for a full minute, because when I blinked and managed to draw my eyes away from the mysterious figure, everyone had taken a seat. I quickly scrambled into a seat in between Pyro and Engineer (who indiscreetly scooted closer to me). I really started wondering what his deal with me, but Soldier cleared his throat loudly.
"Alright, ladies. Time to introduce you to the final member of our team... for now. Our Spy--" Soldier looked over at the darkest corner of the room, the one where the figure was sitting. Everyone looked over, but Spy said nothing; he simply raised up the hand holding the cigarette in greeting. "Who has declined on telling us his real name, has gotten some key details about the enemy and their base."
Spy surprised everyone by speaking. "I don't 'ave a choice in telling you personal details, monsieur. It's a part of ze job." I blinked, trying not to look back. He had a calm, relaxed voice with a French accent.
"Yeah, okay," Soldier said dismissively, waving a hand. "So, would you like to share your findings with the class?"

I didn't know if Spy rolled his eyes at the mocking question, so I did it for him for good measure. There was silence for a while before he sighed, and the chair he was sitting in creaked as he stood, his shoes clicking against the concrete floor. As he passed, I got to take a better look at him; He had a jacket to match the pants, and a dark blue mask covering almost the entirety of his face; I caught a flash of blue-gray eyes that looked over at my table for a split second before he took one last drag and flicked the cigarette away.
"Ze RED base is ze same as ours, in terms of 'ow it was built. 'owever, zey 'ave wasted no time in preparing. Zeir Engineer 'as already set up multiple sentries around all of ze entrances to ze base." He gingerly picked up a red marker in his gloved hands and made markings on the map. I snickered quietly at Soldier's incredulous expression; if Spy had drawn on our base with that marker, he probably would've had a heart attack.
"For a strategy," Spy continued, ignoring Soldier -- or, was he? I could've sworn I saw a small smile when the older man rambled under his breath -- and capping the marker. Every move of his was sure, professional. "I suggest setting up our own defenses, and finding a good point in time to flank zem from behind."
"Or, we could just rush in," Soldier interrupted. "They'd never see it coming."
"W-wait, what?" I sputtered, moving to stand up, but Engineer beat me to it.
"Sir, with all due respect, those sentries? They'd rip us to shreds by the time we even got close enough to get a shot off."

Soldier was quiet. He obviously wasn't used to having his plans questioned; he looked at Engineer with an "oh-no-you-didn't" expression. "True... Alright. Let's go with Spy's plan for now," he gave in grudgingly, crossing his arms behind his back. "You're dismissed for the night; get some sleep, we start more thorough planning in the morning."

After the meeting, we all looked around at each other and shrugged at ideas for what to do for a good few minutes. Finally, Pyro piped in, "Hww abbt dnnr? I cnn ckk."
"Okay." "Sounds good." "Ladno." We all said in response (the last one was Heavy, naturally. Apparently, I was going to have to get used to foreign languages here.)
So, as we all started filing out of the briefing room, I looked back at the projector for no reason. Then I looked again.
Spy was gone.
I blinked, staring at the spot for a good minute. Where'd he go? He'd been standing right next to it, staring at the map; probably trying to figure out an idea. I'd only taken my eyes away for a second... apparently, I was staring for a long time, because when Engineer came back into the room and spoke, everyone else was gone. "Ah. Was wonderin' where you'd disappeared to." Stopping, he got a confused look and followed my gaze before looking back at me. "You alright there, Scout?"
"Uh, yeah," I replied absently, shaking my head and smiling at him. "Just think I'm seeing things is all. Let's go get some grub."

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Pyro was a good cook. That was kind of surprising, since it must've been hard to see with that mask on. But when he sat down with some kind of noodle dish, he just stared at it, with no motion to take off his mask. I sighed. "Dude, Pyro. You're gonna have to take it off sometime, might as well get it over with."
He looked at me, and behind the mask, I was surprised when I could tell just exactly how he felt about that: scared. He was actually scared to show us his face. "C'mon. What's so bad that you don't wanna show us?" Engineer asked in a soothing voice.
Pyro sighed, looking back down at the food and sitting still for a moment before reaching up to pull up his mask... only to leave it halfway up his face. I didn't know his mask was flexible. He grinned at me and said, "Surprised? I have my tricks."
His voice was surprisingly soft, with some kind of accent. Remembering to earlier that day when we had learned his name, I could only guess that it was Chinese. So, I just returned his grin and dug in.
Dinner was eaten in silence, save for the occasional compliment to Pyro, who would beam and blush sheepishly. He obviously wasn't used to positive verbal contact. I was vaguely wondering what the rest of his face looked like when I saw him.

There was a little window in the wall separating the hall to the bunk room and the cafeteria, and standing on the other side was a man, with a somewhat familiar posture. He was wearing a white dress shirt, a black tie, and had his arms crossed as he watched us eat and chat, his face set into one of stone... if stone could show apprehension. It was only slight, but I could see it.
He had brown hair, with an almost reddish hue, styled in a layered cut and framing his face quite nicely. Speaking of his face, it was just a normal face, save for the nose being a bit big. Okay, maybe it was a little bigger than a "bit". The only way it could've been bigger is if he was a Roman general (yeah, I know history, so what?). But his eyes... holy shit, his eyes. He looked like he hadn't had a decent night's sleep in years, with the deep bags that were under them. But the color of them gave me a vague sense of remembrance, like I'd seen them before. Blue-gray...
My eyes widened in realization. Holy shit. Holy shit. It was Spy.

He saw me looking at him. I know he did, because we locked eyes. It was weird; being a Spy, it was probably taboo to have someone see your face. Then again, telling someone your real name was most likely worse. I blinked, and turned to look back down at my food. Why wasn't he joining us for dinner? I shook my head, sliding backwards slightly in preparation of getting up to ask him this very question, but when I looked back to the window... there was nothing. I stared at the window for a good minute before a nudge from Engineer broke me out of my spell. "You alright, son? You seem distracted."
"I... this is gonna sound weird, but... I could've sworn I just say that Spy. Without his mask on," I explained, scratching the back of my neck.
"Hmm. He seems like a weird guy, to be honest. I'm keepin' my eye on him," Engineer muttered. I think the last part was more to himself than to me, so I didn't say anything. I just finished off my food and went into the kitchen to dump my plate in the sink.

We were playing cards in the den when Spy slid in. He was wearing his mask again; I inwardly groaned. Another guy who wouldn't show his face in public? He sat next to me, opposite of Engineer, and asked quietly, "What are you playing?"
"Huh?" Oh, smooth move, me. I quickly recovered with, "Oh, uh, solitaire. Or somethin' like that." Okay, it wasn't a decent recovery, but it answered his question. Somewhat. Not really.
Either way, he nodded, but didn't move to join in; instead, he watched us play, piping in with a conversation topic now and then when things got too quiet. He even made a few jokes, ones that were genuinely funny. That was good; it proved he wasn't a total stiff, like I'd thought before. Maybe it was just when he was on the job?
I ended up losing a few bucks (I was a total newbie at solitaire), but overall, it was a good game. Heavy proved to be a little smarter than I thought he was... a little. But as everyone was going to turn in for the night, Spy called to me. "Scout, right? Please stay here, I need to speak with you."
I waited for everyone to leave before blurting, "I saw you in the window."
He sighed, fishing out a cigarette case and opening it, retrieving one of the objects inside before closing it with a snap! "I know." He lit up, letting out a deep exhale of smoke before continuing. "Listen, we are teammates, non? I don't want you to zink I am 'iding from you. But it is my job to be discreet. So, don't mention what you saw yet, alright?"
Well, at least he had a decent reason for wearing that mask. I sighed, nodding in assent. "Okay, sure." At the smell of the smoke, I wrinkled my nose and started coughing. Then the coughing turned into hacking. Spy looked up, alarmed, and tried to avert the smoke away from me.
"Scout, are you allergic to cigarette smoke?"
After a minute, I managed to stop coughing long enough to shake my head and croak out, "N-no. Well, I don't think so, anyway."
Spy relaxed fractionally and continued to smoke, making sure I couldn't inhale any of it. "'ave you ever 'ad an allergy test?"
"And have them prick me with needles?" I snorted incredulously. "Hell nah."

We were silent for a while. I knew I should go get some sleep, but for some reason, I wasn't all that tired anymore. It might have had to do with the fact my lungs were still recovering from nearly having been hacked up. I smiled to myself at my own smart-ass humor, not noticing when Spy adjusted on the floor. "Are you planning on staying up?"
I blinked and looked at him. "I dunno, why? Ya plannin' on somethin'?"
He didn't look amused. "I'm just wondering whether or not I'll have to travel light tomorrow, so that I can carry your body back to the base if we fight."
My smirk faded into a scowl in record time. "Bastard." I stood up and stormed off to the bunk room.

Now, here's something you probably don't need to know, but that I'm gonna tell you anyway: I'm a night owl. No matter what time I lay down, it takes me an hour at least to fall asleep. But that night, I collapsed onto the bed, threw the covers over my head, and passed out in an instant. It was a deep, dreamless sleep, and the next thing I knew, I was jolted awake by the sound of loud crashing.
"Wake up, magets!" Soldier yelled, and as I untangled myself from the comforter, I saw him slide his helmet back on with one hand while his other, which held a shovel, lowered to his side. "Today's your real first day! I wanna see you dressed and ready in ten minutes!"
I lay there in a daze before Engineer shook my shoulder. "Up'n at 'em, Scout," he said, even waiting for me to stirr, sit up, and throw the covers off before heading to the locker room. After taking a minute to wake up some more, I quickly scrambled after him.

I had just finished pulling my shirt over my head by the time I joined the others in the resupply room, the shutter leading out to the main rooms down. Soldier glared at all of us and started pacing. "This is our first official day on the job. Here's the deal: fighting, as you can see, starts at eight thirty in the morning every day, and we fight until cease fire at four thirty in the afternoon. You can take a break to eat lunch, if you dare."
Yeah, you heard right: we were fighting on a schedule. It was the most messed up thing I've ever heard, but Solly apparently wasn't kidding. "Our mission is to get in, find the intelligence, and get out. I don't care how you do it, just do it!"
I shook my head, about to make a witty comment when a loud, female voice echoed "Mission begins in twenty seconds."
I jumped, looking around for the source of the noise. "It's just the Announcer," Engineer whispered to me, calmly pulling out a wrench and patting it in his hand slightly. "Nothin' to worry 'bout."
"I knew that," I replied quickly, and I could tell no one believed me. It was amazing how calm everyone looked. Spy was pulling out a cigarette from his case and lighting up; Heavy adjusted Sasha in his hands, an ecstatic smile on his face; Pyro was... well, I couldn't tell what he was feeling, but he clenched the flamethrower tightly, either out of anxiety or anticipation; Engineer whistled quietly, using the wrench as a metronome in his hand; Soldier was pacing around, that shovel still in his hand. He even banged it rapidly against this helmet once or twice, too, as though trying to amp us up for our first fight.
It didn't do that for me. But it did make me wonder if that was why he was so crazy.

"Mission begins in five... four... three... two... one!"

The shutter lifted slowly, and I immediately raced out. Okay, I'll admit, I was kinda nervous. But that was quickly replaced with adrenaline-induced excitement. Engineer followed me for a short while before breaking off down a hall to the intelligence room, probably to set up sentries outside of it. Nice.
I had a bag with me; in it was a pistol, some ammunition, and my baseball bat. I stopped to lean against a wall, cocking my Scattergun and poking my head around the corner to look outside... only to see that the RED's Scout was looking right back at me.
We both froze. It was almost like looking in a mirror, except that the RED Scout had dark brown hair sticking out from under his hat, and his face was riddled with acne scars. His eyes were so clear, too: light brown. He must've been my age, if not a year or two younger.
I almost wondered how he'd gotten over here so fast, but then I remembered: he was a Scout. And even a RED Scout! I yelped, jumping backwards and firing at him. He ducked back behind the wall, waiting until I had to reload before dashing inside, returning fire with a loud yell. His arms recoiled with each shot; he wasn't used to firing a gun that size.
Neither was I. But he didn't need to know that.
We chased each other around, trying to hit each other. We both came close a couple of times, but neither of us were planning on going down the first fight. And after a minute, he almost had me... until he pulled the trigger and nothing happened. He blinked, looking down at it and back up at me before scowling and ducking down the hall to the intelligence room.
"Hey!" I yelled after him, giving chase before I remembered my headset. I switched it on and pulled out my pistol. "Spy, RED Scout headin' for the intel!"
"Copy," he replied smoothly, and I shook the kid's startled face from my mind as I started making my way towards the RED base, dodging shots from their Soldier's shotgun. Unfortunately, it sounded easier than it was; he chased me around for a good few hours, just trying to hit me. 'He must have a vendetta against Scouts,' I thought as I tried to catch even a second's breath.

I saw our Soldier below me, firing at the RED Pyro, who was hiding behind a stack of barrels. But Solly was too busy gloating about how he had him in a corner to notice that the RED Heavy was coming up behind him. I waited until Heavy stopped below me before pulling out my bat and jumping down with a yell, my bat hitting the big lug's skull with a thud.
I jumped away immediately, knowing that he could do serious damage with just his fists alone, as the Heavy stumbled, stunned. Soldier looked back just in time to see me hit him, and gave me a grateful salute as he turned and fired at the Heavy with his shotgun. The Heavy fell back with a thud, blood spurting from his arm as he howled in pain. "Pyro behind you!" I reminded him as I took off, thoughts racing in my head as to how I could avert the RED Soldier while getting to the intel.
Needless to say, that led to another game of cat-and-mouse with not just said man, but also dodging the sentries and an Engineer that liked waving his pistol in my direction. But I lost the latter after a while, smirking as my heart pounded in my ears, my legs burning... and I loved it. I jumped up onto a construct next to the RED base's entrance and spread my arms out. "C'mon! I'm not even winded!" I yelled at him.
My smile faded when I saw him pull out the rocket launcher, and I dived in through the entrance just as a rocket hit the wall behind me.

With a yelp, I miscalculated and ended up rolling along the floor, quickly pushing myself up when I could. Staying still in this place was suicide, and I knew it. I looked around, suspicious. Spy had said that there were sentries around the entrances, right? So... where were they?
Something clattered behind me. I spun around, raising my Scattergun at the sound, but lowered it when I saw Pyro standing there, waving.
"Hey, I thought you were on defense," I said loudly, so he could hear me over the noise of battle rampaging outside.
He didn't say anything. I shrugged, and turned away to head for the main room.

Big mistake.

He had jerked my arm behind my back and put the knife to my neck before I could even blink. The disguise faded away, and I could hear the smug grin on his tobacco-smelling French accent as he stated, "That wasn't very smart of you." I struggled, the blade nicking my neck as I did. "At least you are a fighter," the RED Spy drawled, chuckling as he spun me around to face him. He had the knife lifted in the air, but once he saw my face...

He stopped. Blinked. And got a look of genuine horror on his face. "You..."

I didn't wait for him to say anything else. I forcibly jerked my arm away from his grasp and buried the side of my gun into his stomach. He doubled over, coughing, and I took off to the intelligence room. But as I ran, I couldn't help but wonder: why did he stop? And what was that look for?
He almost looked like... he recognized me.

Here's a hint: never let your mind wander during a fight. Because the next thing I knew, my face met a brown bottle marked with three X's. I gave a little "oof!" of pain and fell, the back of my head hitting the floor with a sickening "crack!".
"Aye, ye should've watched where ye were goin', laddie!"
I blinked, groaning and looking up at the man who had knocked me down. He was a huge black man, leaning over me with a grin and taking a drink from the bottle. He wore an eye-patch over his left ey, and his hair was hidden under a black bandanna. "Fff..." What the hell was this guy?! We didn't have one of him on our team, what a gyp!
He lifted the bottle again, ready to smash it on my head, but a gloved hand grabbed his wrist. "Wait, monsieur!"
The man looked up at... the RED Spy. "Wot t'e...?"

I wasn't paying attention to the announcements, so I was just as surprised as they were when I heard a loud siren and the Announcer's voice stating, "Time has expired."
The drunken man scowled at his teammate as he stood up, leaving me laying on the floor, dazed. "Now what'dye go 'nd do that for? I had 'im!" I don't know how I did it, but I vaguely recognized the accent as Scottish.
The RED Spy said nothing, but looked down at me, his expression unreadable. "Go back to your base. We're done here."
I was already up and jogging away by the time he finished his sentence. I would've run, but my legs were aching, and frankly, I wanted to take my time so I could think. Why did the RED Spy let me go? And who the hell was that big Scottish man?

When I got back to my base, everyone was waiting in the entrance. "What the hell was that?!" Soldier said, looking rather annoyed. "Why didn't you get the intel?!"
I wasn't in the mood to hear his shit, so I snapped back, "Hey! You weren't the one gettin' rockets launched at ya every turn!"
Soldier's face got even redder, but Engineer stepped in. "Now, c'mon, Solly. He saved you, didn't he?" He earned a glare that minimally softened, and Soldier mumbled something in defeat. "Besides, they didn't win, either."
That reminded me of my encounter with my RED counterpart earlier. "Hey, Spy." The Frenchman turned to me. "What happened with that RED Scout?"
Spy was quiet for a minute, surprisingly cigarette-less. "'e ran off before I could take care of 'im."
For some reason, I was relieved.

At dinner, I told everyone about the Scotsman that had almost made my first day my last. I also conveniently forgot to mention that the RED Spy had saved me. "Sounds like a Demoman to me," Engineer stated, cutting up his steak casually.
"Demoman?" I repeated. "Why the hell don't we have a Demoman?"
Engineer shrugged. "Demomen blow things up. It's what they do. As for that second part... it beats me."
The lack of a counterpart on our team obviously disturbed the others. And Pyro was extremely quiet the entire night. And to think, we had to start the whole thing over again tomorrow.
I sighed, sticking a spoonful of potatoes in my mouth. This wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.