Opaque clouds drifted lazily in front of the moon. Schrodinger daydreamed casually, her attention pointed at the majestic swirls in the darkened sky.

All she remembered was fighting the rival gang, then a portal opened, then… she was in the middle of this desert? She shook her head, trying to remember anything else, but her strength was ebbing due to dehydration and hunger; her portals decided not to work for her at the worst possible time.

Had she been hearing the voices in her head the past few minutes, or were there actual people nearby? In the distance, she swore she heard the murmuring of several men and music, but she dismissed it multiple times. Her stubborn will broke as she chanced to look down from the sky only once, but that's all she needed. Her eyes fixated upon a building; she pushed back all thoughts of thirst or hunger, only focused upon that lone structure in this vast desert.

She felt so stupid for not looking down sooner! All she experienced now was this growing need to know who was there, and why? Though her hunger and thirst reminded her that they were important, as well. Curious, she quickened her pace, if only a little. An excruciating pain shot through her gut as she experienced what she could only assume were from hunger, but she just cursed to herself and continued stumbling towards the howling laughter of men. Her green eyes determined that she wouldn't die in this desert as she clutched her stomach tightly.

"Heh, Maverick is probably going to nag me for disappearing during that fight. I suppose I could tell him it wasn't my fault, but when does he believe me, anyway? Dude needs to chill." She paused for a moment as she stood in awe of the moon's regal tones when the clouds parted. "I really do miss Baltimore…"

Well, if you hadn't opened that portal back then, maybe we wouldn't be here now, would we?

What's your problem? It's just a lil sand. And honestly, I don't mind the cold.

Would you two knock it off? The people in the building up ahead might give us a lift to a town nearby, if we ask.

Maverick can handle things back in Balty, I wanna stay here.

That's so irresponsible…

Fuck off! I want to go on a rampage! Whatever kind of operation that's going down next week, Maverick'd probably just have me execute one or two people anyways, a complete waste of my talent.

Stupid psycho. I'm surprised Maverick even allowed us to stay when he found out about our little, heh, situation.

::

~At RED base, a week after returning from Coldfront~

"Listen up, Maggots! Tomorrow we take the BLU fort or die trying…!" Soldier drunkenly pepped the men around him as he trailed off to sleep. A few of the mercenaries chuckled as they returned to what they were doing.

"Vhat are ve to do vith these drunken fools?" Medic laughed to himself as he smacked Soldier and Demoman awake. He glanced around the room at all of the men, most were chatting quietly or watching the tele. Spy was in the corner reading one of his books. The only one Medic didn't see was Sniper. He shrugged and joined Heavy and Scout on the couch, watching reruns on the busted-up tele. Demoman got up and stretched, "Bloody Hell, Doc. Wot was that fer?"
::

Spy found it intriguing that not one of the simpletons on his team knew that he was actually gathering a superfluous amount of information on them. He chuckled inwardly at the thought of telling them about each others' secrets, creating havoc and chaos. But he just sat there and read his book, The Great Gatsby. A fine book, it was. And a classic. He was born in France, but he enjoyed reading English literature. Especially the classics. He took a drag from his cigarette as his flipped the page, completely engrossed in the novel, but keeping half an ear on his team. Just in case some juicy gossip made it's way to his corner.
::

Engineer winced as the Pyro chuckled at his last comment.

"It ain't funny, Mumbles!" Pyro peered up at him, then, unable to hold it back, continued on with his insane fit of laughter. A light hughe of red spread across Engie's face. "Keep it down, will ya?"

"Hey Chucklenuts, what's so funny?" Scout peered over at Pyro with a childish gleam in his eyes. Pyro immediately made the motion of 'zipped lips,' indicating it was a secret. Not that anyone could ever understand what he said.
::

"Vell, I'm off to bed. Gute Nacht." Medic got up and left, but that lingering curiosity stopped him in the middle of the hallway. Maybe Sniper is in his room already… It had been a rough day for both teams. The game ended in a stalemate, but the Administrator didn't let up, showing her full anger and disappointment to both teams. Such a vicious woman. He shook his head before slipping into his bed, cooing his good nights to Archimedes. He thought of the battle that would go down tomorrow, and how it would be the same as usual. Charge up Heavy, blow up the Scout, get shot by the Sniper or backstabbed by the Spy… Although he had tried kidnapping one of the BLU's once, the attempt had failed. He was planning on using the kidnapped for his experiments. A sinister smirk spread across his face as he buried his face deeper into the pillow, fantasizing about the terrified screams of the other teams' men as he ripped them open.

His smile relaxed as he felt anxiety tugging at the back of his mind to go make sure Sniper was fine, but he assured himself that he was not a child. Still, it was unlike the aussie to avoid his team mates after such a long day. Come to think of it, the german didn't even see him at dinner. Medic closed his eyes and drifted into a dreamless slumber, unsure if he was making the right decision.
::

Sniper scanned the desert for enemy BLU's, making sure that he didn't give their base away. He heard the drunken fool of a Demoman laughing and bellowing that he was going to blow away all the BLU's the next day. Sniper cursed under his breath, wishing the man would just keep it down. He took one more sweep on the desert and decided the base was secure. I gotta get some sleep… The Aussie slung the rifle over his shoulder and yawned. He felt a cold chill run up his arms, causing him to shiver.

"Bloody desert." Sniper huffed to himself as he rushed back to the fortress. Although he was born in Australia, he could never seem to get used to the cold nights that enveloped the desert landscape. He would always complain as a child that he needed more blankets, and was often teased for it. The teasing didn't bother him much. It was when no one acknowledged him that he began to feel lonely. Even these mates teased him a bit when he'd first arrived. But that all changed when they saw how important he was on the battlefield.

His train of thought was violently broken by the sound of a snapping twig; the RED Sniper swerved around, scanning for anything out of place. He listened. He sniffed a couple of times to see if it was the enemy Spy. No smoke entered his nostrils. He took one last look around before shrugging and walking off, mumbling something about raccoons always messin' with him.

::

Stupid portal system is way too unpredictable, but at least it saved me this time.

The room she had stumbled into was jam packed with baseball memorabilia.

"Oooh, what's this?" Her mouth curled up into a mischievous grin as she picked up a baseball with her slender hands. She opened a portal to the roof and found a comfortable spot to sit. She threw the ball up and down a few times, easily entertained by it. The moon's bright rays of light seemed to reflect off of the ball, new as it was. She found herself entranced in it's soft shimmer… Growl… Her stomach protested to her blatant waste of time. She scoffed and put the ball in the gutter, making sure it wouldn't fall or roll away.

She opened another portal and entered a room that resembled a kitchen. The sink was piled high with dishes and the cupboards were rather messy. She bowed in thanks before opening the fridge, looking through all of the 'delicacies' before deciding on eating a seared steak. She grabbed the skillet off of the wall and some butter from the fridge and promptly began the process, while sipping on some milk she had acquired. She threw the steak into the skillet, smirking as the meat sizzled with juiciness. It popped every once in a while, browning rapidly from the heat of the stove. She was practically drooling over it, failing to notice that someone had joined her in the room.

Author's Note: Ooooh, who walked in on our unsuspecting friend? More importantly, I'm kinda hungry, reading about that steak and all. Mm. I'll take Gluttony for 500, please. Anyways, the next upload will be on the 28th, hope you guys are enjoying this series so far!