Now loading pass_brickyard...
"Freaking hell…" Nate swore, kicking up a small cloud of dust as he did so. "Where the hell is that goddamn ball?!"
"I know right?! I swear, this is the last time we let Soilder anywhere near the goddamn jack." Rick replied from his perch up above, on one of the steel beams criss-crossing the map. "Ya tried over there?"
"'Course I 'ave. the thing ain't here pal." Nate grumbled, looking up at his companion. "Who the freaking hell knows where that idiot put it.
"Well then, what the freaking hell are we gonna do? We promised we'd get this sorted out so we could play…"
"Ya think they'd be fine with baseball?" Nate's eyes lit up at the idea. "I mean, if Doc an' Spy an' Hardhat came along, we'd have a full team! The Admin could be the umpire an' we could 'ave a game!" He waved his arms about in excitement, his accent slipping slightly back into his natural Bostonian accent.
"That would be awesome!" The RED Scout agreed. "Buuuut, ya really think thats gonna work? I mean, we know happened last time we tried that."
"That was 'caise Snipes and Demo thought we were playing something else."
"Yeah, but still...hey, wait a sec…"
"What!? Ya see the jack?!"
"Nah, I see something else. Get up here an' I'll show you."
"Already ahead of ya." He said, taking off his bag and rummaging around in it. "Check out what I brought!" He exclaimed, taking something out of it a displaying it proudly above his head.
"Dude...a grappling hook? How the freaking hell did ya sneak that past ol' Hardhat?" He asked, envy in his voice.
"Heh...long story." Nate said, equipping the thing and firing it. "But tell me what ya saw up here first."
"Well, ya see over there?" He pointed off towards the RED section of the map. "There's someone over there."
"Eh, probably just one of them suits from administration. They seem ta be everywhere nowadays."
"Nah, I don't think so. They wouldn't be 'round here. This ain't a mission map."
"Maybe one of us should go check." The BLU Scout readied his grappling hook. "You go 'round on the roof and back me up. I'm going in."
Frederick nodded and took off along the steel beam they were on, jumping onto the building it was connected to.
Meanwhile, Nathaniel fired the grappling hook downwards, sending him hurtling towards the ground, using his momentum to push himself forwards when he hit the ground with a sickening crunch.
Weaving his way through the map with a practiced ease, he reached the RED goal and the clearing before it, where the figure had been standing.
The person was still there and Scout paused for a second before going in order to gauge the figure.
It was a man with blond hair and a white biohazard suit, giving Scout the distinct impression of uncontrollable danger that he picked up only from the fire retardant suit of the pyro. On his arms were a pair of black bands, with an orange biohazard symbol on it, in a way reminiscent of the RED and BLU's own emblems. The man was holding a black tranquilliser gun similar in design to Medic's crossbow in one hand and had the helmet to his suit tucked under one armpit.
"Hey, ya lost or something pal?" Scout asked, walking over to the man.
The white figure instantly spun around to face the Scout, his gun at the ready.
"Shit!" The man swore, his voice panicked and high pitched. Scout could see his face fully now and it was now he realised that the person wasn't actually that much older than him, bright blue eyes filled with a youthful optimism innocence that had yet to dulled by the hard edge of life. An innocence Scout himself had lost years ago.
But that wasn't what Scout concentrated on. What he saw was fear. It made his aim quiver and his forehead sweat.
It was a fear that Scout knew he could use against him.
He squeaked something in German and waved the gun at the Scout, his voice so high pitched it was nearly inaudible.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down dude." The Scout called, throwing up his hands to show he was only armed with a grappling hook.
The young man swallowed nervously and took a deep breath.
"You're not meant to be here." He said, not lowering his gun.
"And neither you pal. Now, who the freaking hell are ya an' why are ya here?"
"You're the Scout aren't you?" He asked, retraining his gun. His voice had a curious
tone to it that sounded reminiscent of Medic's heavy German dialect, but also contained hints of a French accent like Spy's. "The Commander told me about you."
The Commander.
At the very mention of the man, Scout paled.
"The...Commander?" He asked, all his previous confidence and coolness gone. He couldn't be here.
Couldn't he?
He took a step backwards, his mind working furiously. If this man was with the Commander, that meant he was working with black Mesa and that meant…
"Frederick!" He yelled into his mike, slamming a hand to the yellow headset to activate it. "Get outta here! NOW! Therespawnisdownanheish–"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that." Another voice said as the sound of footsteps sounded behind the Scout. "Call this...a house visit by our doctor here."
"Oh shit…" Scout slowly swore. He didn't need to turn around to see who was behind him.
The black and orange form of the commander walked out form behind him, green eyes watching the Scout intently from under his silver hair.
"Then again, Bio isn't a doctor. But that doesn't stop Josef or Hans, does it hmmm?" he flashed the Scout a charismatic smile. "Isn't that right?"
The man scout now identified as Bio nodded nervously.
"Now, what's that you have on you?" Scout was powerless to act as the man took ahold of the arm encased in his grappling hook. "A grapple hook? Whatever will Dell think of next? Can't predict those Engineers you know? His grandfather and his father were the same. Always pulling amazing technologies out of his ass so fast me and Helen could barely keep up. You would not believe how hard it was to keep the game balanced with him on the team." he laughed at the memory. "Too bad that was what got him in the end. But that's a story I'll leave for Linus to tell, not me."
"Helen?" Scout echoed, confused and too scared to say anything else.
"Of course, she calls herself the Administrator nowadays. Ever since she took over my job." He spat. "But I'm not here for that – that would be petty of me. I'm here because I have another job now. And well, a job's a job, y'know? you're a mercenary, aren't you? You understand don't you?" After seeing that Scout wasn't going to respond, he continued. "Of course, I digress. Bio?"
"Y-yes boss?"
"Do the thing already. Even being near this kid tires me out. Jesus, what is it with you Scouts?"
"The thing? You mean…"
"Yes, I mean that. Why else are you here?"
"Vhat about your orders?"
"My orders are my business Bio, not yours. Your orders come from me, and your current order Biohazard is to pump this little freak of nature with enough of your viruses to give that nazi who calls himself a doctor a run for his deutschmarks."
"They're pathogens…and I'm pretty sure the Medic is a doctor..." The Bio muttered.
"Bio…" The Commander warned.
"Fine. step away from him." He said, taking his helmet from where it was tucked under his arm and putting it on.
"Hold on a second. This will have to go. And tell Dell I'm sorry for breaking his little toy." His grip on the Scout's grappling hook suddenly impossibly tightened, as his armour assisted strength overcame the metal of the weapon, crushing it into the Scout's hand. The Scout shrilly screamed as his grappling hook, along with his wrist broke.
The Commander abruptly dropped the runner's mangled hand, and walked off to the side to observe what happened next.
Scout clutched his mained right hand, blood slowly dripping off the disfigured mess of steel and flesh and bandages that had once been a hand.
"Vhy did I even agree to this?" The suited man muttered from behind his helmet.
"Hey dickhead! Whatever happened ta 'Scouts come in pairs'?! Bonk!"
All three men suddenly looked up just in time to see Nate's red döppleganer jump off his perch on the top of the RED base on to the armoured form of the Commander.
"Sorry pal I took so long." Rick apologised, jumping off the fallen form of the Commander and running over to Nate.
"Rick!" The Scout exclaimed, relief tinting his voice. He wasn't alone here anymore.
"Yeah, it's me pal. Can ya hold a gun? 'Cause this is gonna shitfaced pretty damn fast if ya ask me." Nate nodded and Rick passed him his pistol. "Just focus on the Bio guy pal. I'll take care of the Commander."
"Alright…" Nate swallowed as he took the gun in his left hand and turned to face the Bio. Through his hazmat helmet, Scout could see that his fear from before had not abated a single bit, terrified blue eyes staring back at him like he was some monster.
Making a mental note to go easy on the guy, the Scout took in a deep breath. This would be easy. Just a simple bullet to the kid's head and it would be over. Rick would take care of the Commander and this nightmare would be over.
Finally.
"Ready."
"Then GO!" The two scouts took off from their back to back position, running full tilt towards their opponents.
Nate ran, but instead of strafing to the left or right like anyone else would, he jumped, and then at the top of his arc, he jumped again, clearing the Bio's head.
Twisting his body midair to face the man, he fired off a shot into his right shoulder, causing him to emit a terrified squeal of pain and drop his weapon.
He let out another shot, this time to the man's head and he collapsed.
Landing on the ground behind the now dead Bio, Scout walked over to the corpse and stared down at it, with only the slightest pang of remorse. The kid probably didn't deserve it, but then again, Scout didn't become a mercenary by having a conscience.
Scout looked up from the corpse to the other battle, only to see the other Scout still fighting the commander.
And froze.
The Commander was turned with his back to Nate, too distracted by Frederick to notice him.
His grip tightened on the pistol as his mind slowly formulated a plan. He had nine bullets left. He only needed to put one through the man's unprotected head to kill him.
He could do this, couldn't he?
Lifting the gun up, he aimed at the Commander's unarmoured head.
And fired.
A single shot, crackling with an unearthly blue energy left the barrel, only to strike Scout's target moments later.
There was a moment of silence as the Commander froze, his mind having its last thought before falling to the ground.
Nathaniel stood there for a long few seconds, pistol outstretched in his left hand as his mind processed what he had done.
And then lowering his gun, he grinned.
"...and don't you ever cross me again ya son of a bitch!" He yelled, all his terror of the man suddenly gone. He had done it. The man was dead and everything would return to normal. Everything would be just like it was meant to.
His grin widened as suddenly, he laughed. Not in the jeering way that he was used to doing to the corpses of the other team, or the bouts of giddy happiness from when his gun's power got to his head, but rather in an uncontrollable wave that washed over him and his mind, swamping everything else. He stayed like that for almost a minute, maniacally laughing while Rick watched, a confused and concerned expression on his face.
"Uh...Nate?"
"Yeah Rick?" He turned to his companion, his laughter finally ceasing.
"Bodies aren't meant ta fade, are they?"
"Dude, what the freaking hell dya mean? Of course they…" His voice trailed off as he caught sight of what Rick had been staring at. "Oh shit."
"Oh shit." The RED Scout agreed.
"Then that means…" Nate trailed off, staring at the slowly fading corpse of the Commander. He snapped his head around to look for the body of the Bio, only to find that it was gone, along with any trace of his presence on the map.
"They have respawn."
changelog 18-7-16
+ added chapter