Chapter 6: Communication

Note: I just want to take this moment to thank everyone that is now following this story. I couldn't do this without your support. I also want to say that I fully intend to see this story through to its end, rather than give up after a few chapters. After this is over, I plan on making a crossover of Left 4 Dead and TF2. I hope I can get your support on that one, too.

The Spy walked through the sewers, searching for the genesis of the awful sounding explosion. Unfortunately, he found it.

He looked at the collapsed pipe, at the sabotaged sentry, at the bodies of his two teammates. He took a closer look at the sapper the Pyro had attached. It was an ingenious design, made to trigger the sentry rather than disable it. But why not make it fire at the men themselves?

And why did he always taunt his foes, even though it risked blowing his cover?

Because it wasn't just about the kills, was it? It was about the humiliation, the sheer ability to say that you not only beat them, but beat them totally.

He wasn't just killing the team. He was dominating them.

The Spy sighed, wondering how he could ever hope to stop such a clever and evil foe as the Pyro.

Repeat, this is Red Team calling Blue Team, do you read?

The Spy's attention snapped to the discarded walkie-talkie lying on the ground. Without hesitation, he snatched up the device. "This is the Blue Spy, I read you, over."

Spy? Where's the Blue Engineer?

"He's dead, along with our Heavy. I do not know how many of us are left."

Dead? Damn! If he's dead, then it's just you and the Medic left.

The Spy's breath caught for a moment. Just him and the Medic? How could that maniac have eliminated the entire team so quickly?

Never mind that now! We've come up with a way to defeat the Pyro! All you neezzzzzis to lure hizzzzzzzzzzz-

"Repeat the message! I need to lure him to what?" the Spy yelled frantically.

Zzzzz TURBINE! You have to lure him into our intel room in Turbine! We've got a trap set zzzzz so you have to zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz-

xxxxxxx

"-the Red Intelligence room! Do you copy, Spy?" the Red Engineer shouted into his walkie-talkie.

"We've lost the signal!" the Red Scout shouted back.

"Well we need to get it back! We have to get that message out! Scout, check the supply closet, there should be a signal amplifier." The Scout ran off to do so. "Demo! Soldier! That signal came from the 2Fort sewers. You two need to get down there and recover the Engineer's and Heavy's bodies. Spy, follow along behind them to make sure the Pyro doesn't take them by surprise." The three ran to the exit. "Heavy, did you get those supplies down to Turbine like I told you?"

"Most," the Heavy replied simply.

"Well, get the rest there on the double! We need those parts there before we can set up the trap! Sniper, any sign of the Pyro out there?"

The Sniper looked away from the window for a moment. "Not a sign of him."

"Keep looking. We can't afford to let him take us by surprise. Doc, how are they doing?"

The Medic took a little more time to answer that. Each time they had wheeled in a new man, the damage was worse than the last. The Blue Scout had his spine broken in 3 locations, the Demoman had had extensive shrapnel damage, the Soldier's skull was split down the middle, and the Sniper's neck had broken from falling out of that tower. The Mediguns had healed these injuries, and yet they did not move, and every minute the Medic expected to hear one of their EKGs flatlining.

They hadn't despawned, either. Usually, these injuries would've brought them far past 0 health, but somehow they hung on. This was no doubt the work of the Pyro, who had tampered with the spawn points in a way far more clever than simply deactivating them. Why, he was not sure, but by the way things were going, they were going to despawn when the Pyro wanted.

Now he turned to the Engineer. "I have healed their bodies, but their minds are still off somewhere far away. It's as if that monster has claimed their souls, rather than their lives."

"So, they're not dead?"

"No, and yes. Let me ask you a question. Do you remember the last time you died?"

The Engineer thought for a moment. He remembered back to that time, lying motionlessly on the ground, butterfly knife in his back, waiting to respawn.

And then it hit him. He looked up at the Medic, who nodded. "He doesn't want them dead, does he?" the Engineer said.

"No, Herr Engineer. He wants to play a game."