Note to older readers: I have changed Dust's eye color from emerald green to hazel with an exotic touch. You can find those changes/details back in chapter 1
After forcing the door shut, Dust clenched her teeth together out of both annoyance and pain while she unintentionally listened to Scout's muffled cursing coming from the other side of the wooden slab. The janitor's true motive was to crush him with the door in order to return the favor, but his nimble movements unfortunately prevailed. All thoughts of the previous encounter with the youngest mercenary were almost forgotten once she locked the entry way, for she had a new problem.
A raspy breath broke through Dust's throat, however the sensation of being smothered continued to heighten by the second.
The female custodian might have successfully removed Scout from her domain, but her eyes watered at the sheer discomfort that continued to grow and possess her from head to toe.
Ol' Dust's trembling fingers balled tightly against her chest and her lips were slightly parted as she attempted to suck in the tiniest of breaths. The excessive stress on her body slowly continued to suffocate her. Her steel limb even rattled along with her shivering form when she frantically pinched the cloth of her bandana, pulling it downwards. A strained gasp echoed throughout the room just as soon as the thin fabric was freed from her face. The young woman desperately took in more cool air; her mouth gradually becoming drier. Her lungs burned with every wheeze and the room around her began to distort into blurs of black due to the lack of oxygen.
Small pieces of her dark brown hair poked out from her large bakerboy-styled hat and messily fell into her face; some pieces even curling up due to making contact with the layer of sweat coating her face.
Her glassy eyes averted to a medium-sized bag lying near the entrance of her room. She had taken it to the mines with her, and it even had small traces of red mud still speckled on its surface. It must have toppled over during her scuffle with the Scout.
Dust stumbled over her own steps as she approached it. After falling onto her knees, she practically crawled closer to it, and began opening the desired compartment.
Fear began to overcome her consciousness as her hands refused to cooperate with her right away, and her vision continued to fail. She clawed at the zipper with her metal prosthetic since her real hand was shaking too violently, but she successfully opened the bag. Finally, Dust dragged out the object that could possibly be her only savior for that dire moment, but she thought she waited much too long for her anticipated redemption. Dust always had a bad habit of assuming the worst. That way, if if she was able to overcome the situation, she would feel a bit stronger afterwards…. or so the negative outcome wouldn't be that much of a surprise to her.
The item resembled an air mask that was designed to only cover the nose and mouth. A flat attachment, which held liquid medication, was connected to the mask by two small tubes. Once activated, the liquid is converted to a type of medical red mist which is quickly conveyed to the facial area. This substance is almost identical to the beam that emits from the Medic's medigun and functions similarly to a portable nebulizer machine. The attachment on the mask was originally designed to be draped over the shoulders for easy transportation of the medicine, though Dust could care less about applying the respirator-like appliance in the correct fashion.
Gripping the desired object tightly with both hands, she forced the air mask over her mouth, and was barely able to switch on the medicated substances within the device because of her trembling fingers.
The parts that made up this medical mask was not entirely thick. It wasn't transparent like "normal" air masks. One could almost compare this contraption to the bandana Dust always wore just because of how it fitted her face, though it's metal-like appearance vaguely increased the woman's menacing aspects rather than reducing her to a sickly individual. Simple foreign engravings were even added in various places on the device, giving it a small sense of decoration.
She choked at first, but then she managed a long and sharp breath, inhaling as much medicine as she could. Some relief instantly coated her chest while the medical gasses literally reconstructed her once deteriorating lungs. As she breathed in the healing properties, the red mist seeped through the small vents covering the mask.
Though the medication was helping, Dust had already ran out of strength.
A struggled gasp seeped from her lips before her injured body pathetically fell forward, her limp form laying helplessly onto her travel bag. Dust wheezed one last time before she slipped into the cruel darkness. The blood from her gunshot wound slowly trickled down to join the red mud from her boots, staining the once freshly-polished wood of the floor.
8 Minutes Later
The Engineer rushed through the narrow hallways of the Viaduct base while praying that the reckless Bostonian didn't cause too much of a life-threatening situation for Dust. Pyro trailed close behind the Texan, eager to assist him in any shape or form. The other mercenaries always joked about the flame-loving man, always viewing him as the Engineer's loyal pet. Pyro always had a rather large connection with the Southerner, and no one really understood why, but his protective streak would not waver. If the Engineer was troubled, there was always a guaranteed chance that the Pyro would feel just as uncomfortable as he was.
"Mhrpph?" mumbled Pyro when they finally stopped in front of the designated room.
Fresh blood was coming from underneath the door, forming a small stream of red.
"Oh God.." The Engineer growled and darted for the entrance of Dust's room. He turned the handle, and as he unfortunately expected, it was locked. "Don't you die in there, Dust! Hang on!"
Before he could kick down the door, Pyro placed a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring nod, signaling that he could take care of the door instead. The Engineer gave him a confused look, but Pyro simply pushed him away from the entrance. Then, the fire maniac was quick to bring out his ax, a joyful giggle quickly following after his first swing.
"Whoa WHOA! Just a minute, Smokey!" The Texan exclaimed, lifting up a gloved finger, but it was futile. Pieces of wood flew through the air every time the ax blade made contact with the door.
It wasn't long until the door was completely destroyed, but by this time, Pyro was already lost in his little daydream. He continued his powerful swings while humming a joyful tune.
"AHEM!"
The fire-loving mercenary froze all of his movements, his ax suspended over his head. He nervously turned his head towards the impatient Southerner who had crossed his arms in annoyance.
The Engineer stared at him as if he was a child. "I think you got it, son." Sarcasm coated his words.
Pyro gave him a nervous giggle, and finally lowered his weapon. The masked man watched the Texan step through the demolished door frame, and another confused "Mphh?" came from his mouthpiece when he spotted a figure buried in the broken pieces of wood.
The Engineer swiftly knelt down next to Ol' Dust, who was still lifelessly hunched over her travel bag, and pushed away the small layer of debris away from her. Though she was unresponsive, the medical mask was still in place thanks to the floor pressing it against her face. Attempting to remain calm, the man rolled Dust unto her back, and lifted her limp body from the bloody area where she lied, holding her protectively. Her Newsboy hat slid off when he did so, and even more of her dark locks fell into her serene face.
Pyro approached the two from behind, and tilted his head like a curious puppy when he noticed Dust's youthful face. He slowly picked up the hat, but continued to look at the girl.
A small smile stretched across the Engineer's face when he verified that she was still breathing, and carefully reapplied her medical mask, properly attaching it to her. He increased the dosage of the medicine when he pressed a small button on the contraption. This action caused the shoulder drapery to glow red as it produced more healing mist.
The Southerner knew his invention well. The Medic assisted him with creating this healing machine and he had to admit that they were quite the duo when it came to science. "Heh. Dust'll be alright." he calmly stated while getting on his feet with the young woman in his arms. "I'll bring 'er to the infirmary. You better hurry and get the Medic, ya hear?" he ordered.
The Pyro only stared at the girl in his arms, curiosity being extremely apparent despite his eerie gas mask. The Texan could only imagine what was going on in his teammate's head. Most of the mercenaries were intimidated by Pyro, because they never knew what he was plotting behind that mask, but as much as they did not want to openly say it, they still respected him as a valuable member of the REDs. Of course, that took a couple years.
However, the way he was looking at the unconscious woman made the Southerner uncomfortable. Hopefully, it was happy thoughts going through the ax-wielder's head, but there was always the chance of Pyro wanting to burn her to a crisp after chopping her up. The Engineer thought against this idea when he noticed his teammate didn't look tense at all.
"Smokey! You in there?" The Engineer asked.
His low voice snapped Pyro out of whatever fantasy he was having and he quickly focused on the shorter man. "Hmmm? Ohh. Mmsrrryy." his muffled response vibrated against the rubber mask, then he exited the room hastily to find their doctor.
Meanwhile, the other seven mercenaries were conversing in the recreational area, the topic still being Scout's encounter with Ol' Dust. The Sniper, Medic, Heavy, Demo, and Spy were all huddled around the mahogany table, which had an assortment of playing cards spread across its surface.
"Now that I look at it, your face looks a little rough there. Oughta let Doc take a look at it." Sniper suggested playfully when he faced one of the mercenaries who wasn't sitting at the table. A chuckle rung through his throat as he pointed at Scout's still-bloodied face. The four gashes he earned from Dust's punch was still very visible.
"Aye! Gotta cover up yer wee boo boo. Can't let tha' world know a lass defeated the great and powerful Scout! Ahhh ha haaa!" The Demoman loudly joked after taking a large sip of his alcoholic beverage. The majority of the REDs laughed with the Scottish man, but Scout didn't appear too amused.
With arms crossed, blue eyes narrowed, and bottom lip subtlety poked out in a pout-like manner, the Scout leaned against the wall of the recreational area, listening to his teammates jokes and laughter. "Ha..ha." He mocked.
"Dust should'a went easy on yer arse. Yer might'a had a chance!" Demo continued to tease.
Scout rolled his eyes and pulled out his Scattergun. After carefully aiming, he shot at the Demoman's chair leg, and the bullets successfully tore the wood clean off.
The chair quickly gave into the Demoman's weight and he gripped the edge of the table as an impulse, attempting to save himself from the fall, but it was already too late. The table tilted down with his weight, disturbing the balance of anything that was on its surface. Spy's glass of red wine was forced into the air while the mercs watched in horror. Sniper tried to catch it, but the glass came crashing down onto Heavy's beloved minigun, splattering red liquid everywhere.
A gasp erupted from most of the mercenaries, though the Medic was more upset at the fact that Scout ruined a piece of his precious furniture set.
Heavy's expression went from calm to furious. "Oh my God. You spilled your baby juice on Sasha!"
Sniper's eyes darted from side to side when he noticed that the Russian was staring him. "Whaa?! It ain't even mah' bloody drink, mate! Don't get fired up at me!"
Heavy was fuming with anger. "How dare you!"
"Now let'z be reasonable here." Spy suggested.
"Nyet! You're all dead!"
"Ehh?" A drunk and confused Demoman uttered while he laid on the floor.
Eventually, a brawl was quickly ignited; quite the childish quarrel in the eyes of most.
Spy tried to tear the men apart but when he was accidentally hit in the face, it only caused him to join the scuffle. Demo unintentionally joined when he clumsily tripped into the three men's little war, but he absentmindedly retaliated with punches.
Proud of his actions, and extremely amused with everyone's immediate reactions, a chain of laughter erupted from the Scout.
Soldier just sat and watched amusingly while taking a bite of his loaf of bread which he didn't bother cutting. No one could understand how he could even see with his oversized helmet, but he had always been a strange one. "Hmm?" he mumbled when Scout playfully propped his elbow on his shoulder, soft chuckles still coming from the younger mercenary.
"Quite the sight, huh? Ey,' can I have a piece'a dat?" Scout asked while reaching for the loaf of bread, but the Soldier merely moved it away from him.
"No."
"C'mon. Please?" the Bostonian pleaded.
"Do I see your name on this bread, city boy? No I do not!"
Scout glared at the Soldier for a moment or so. The crazed patriot's large bottom lip stuck out in its usual manner and he seemingly returned the stare even though his eyes were hidden. He was about to take another bite of bread, however Scout slapped the bottom of his hand, knocking the fresh food out of his grip without breaking the glare.
The Soldier's jaw dropped when he watched the bread flip a few times before hitting the wooden floor. "You traitorous maggot!" He screamed before his hands curled around the runner's neck, and began strangling him.
With an uninterested expression, the Medic sat casually at the now-balanced table, watching the chaos that the REDs were causing. He sighed. This was such a frequent thing that it almost felt like the routine "afternoon-ceasefire fight". He debated whether or not he should start gathering his medical supplies, but instead, the German's face lit up in excitement when he decided 'Inflicting pain is far more fun zhan healing!'
Suddenly, shrill beeping echoed throughout the room, freezing all the mercenaries movements. Some were about to punch one another, others had their weapons pointed at each other's faces, but the familiar sound peaked their interest.
"Is that...?" Heavy asked, his fist a half inch away from crashing into Sniper's face.
"I think so!" Demoman beamed, dropping his broken rum bottle which he was about to stab Spy with.
"Perhaps it'z the Administrator." The Spy wondered out loud as he approached their radio communicator which was still beeping loudly. The rest of the team trailed closely behind and huddled around the medium-sized communication device.
"Heh. Or betta'.." Scout smirked when he pressed the flashing button, activating the call. White noise blared through the speakers when a small screen on the machine lit up, displaying distorted pictures of static.
"Do-zzz-read-? Do you-? zzzz H…..Come in-" A voice called out, but the interference hindered the words from being clear. Heavy growled and slapped the side of the radio, earning a few more buzzes before the picture finally cleared up enough for them to see who had reached them. "Can you hear me?" The woman asked.
"Hey, Miss Pauling. You're lookin' go-"
"Not now, Scout. This is important. It's a miracle I was even able to contact you. I've been trying for hours!" She responded while pushing her glasses up.
"Go on." Spy said.
"Listen, all radio communications have gone haywire. I think someone may have hacked into the system. Everything going offline ever so often is not reassuring either. Even the surveillance cameras have tapped out and there's no way I could alert you if there happens to be another problem. We've been blinded! Something is very wrong, guys. I can't even contact the Administrator!" She said before stomping on something that wasn't visible to the mercenaries. A grunt of pain could be heard from the speakers.
Without anyone noticing, Pyro had walked into the rec room, but instead of getting the Medic right away, he viewed the screen.
Small fires could be seen in the background and strangely, a loose rope was wrapped around Miss Pauling's body.
Just a glimpse of the fire was enough to cause Pyro to zone out and stare at the transmitting video.
"Uhh..Where are you right now?" Scout asked when he noticed the flames, and the other sketchy activity happening on the assistant's side.
"Well...A couple of the BLU's attempted to capture and interrogate me...but…." She pulled a BLU up by his hair and shoved him in the camera. "I think I have this under control. I'm using their own servers to contact you now since ours aren't functioning correctly. Were you able to gather anymore provisions?" She questioned, her voice sounded a bit frantic.
"Oh yeeah. I almost forgot. Our creepy janita' has a stash of crap in her closet." Scout replied.
Miss Pauling lifted an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"
"I mean, she has a lot of ammo an' broken weapons we can use. Maybe Hardhat can fix em up or somethin'. It's betta' than nothin'." A grin lit up Scout's face.
Heavy nodded. "More is good."
"Um. Alright then. Hey, wait a minute. She?" Miss Pauling knew of Ol' Dust's true gender, but knowing the others knew slightly confused her. Well, it was bound to happen anyway.
"Yup! Ya heard me. Dust is'a chick. It's kinda freaky ta think about!" Scout exclaimed.
Soldier disagreed however. "Dust is a robot."
The Bostonian gave him a questioning glance. "I'm pretty sure she ain't a robot, brotha.."
"You don't know that. We must eliminate all robots or threats to the United States. We're all American, men! You should all agree!" The Soldier's helmet slightly bounced up in the midst of his "intense" speech, showing his determined eyes.
The mercenaries exchanged concerned looks before returning their attention back to their soldier. Sniper cleared his throat while Demo shook his head with a small grin.
"Da. All is American." Heavy said sarcastically. With a toothy grin, Medic gave Soldier a thumbs up and a friendly nod.
Spy was embarrassed by his teammate's stupidity. "Mon Dieu…"
"Ugh! Boys! Boys! Focus!" Miss Pauling yelled, another yelp of pain belted out from the man under her feet when she stomped down..
"Sorry Miss Pauling.." The mercs said in unison.
"Hopefully the Admin won't be too angry with me giving you instructions, but hear me out. You need to get out of there immediately.. Load up the train with all your supplies and ammunition. Don't leave anything valuable behind, especially if it could value the Builder's League, alright?"
"Where should we go?" Spy asked.
"Meet me at the main base in the Badlands. At least there, we can regroup and come up with a strategy that could protect the company if need be. I don't know what's happening, but all of you are sitting ducks out there. Please, just get on the train and get to New Mexico fast! Oh and one more thing. This is important. Watch fo-bbzzz zzzzzz. Danger-bbzzz-Kill...." Miss Pauling's voice was quickly overcome with white noise.
"Miss Pauling?! We can't hear ya!" Scout yelled at the screen.
"Bbbttzzz…" And with that, the video screen failed and the call was lost in the sea of static.
"Magnificent." Spy groaned as he rubbed his eyes, sarcasm coating his words..
"Is very unfortunate.." Heavy responded as well.
"Chin up. At least we have'a lead now." An optimistic Sniper beamed.
"Right. We must move. Gather all supplies and load zhem onto zhe train. I'll transfer zhe message to zhe Engineer." Spy ordered.
"Gotcha." Scout complied with a nod.
Sniper was quick to agree too. "A'right. Come on, Lads."
Pyro was finally able to snap out of his trance. He quickly grabbed onto the doctor's arm and shook it like a child trying to alert his mother. "Mrrrrrdic."
"Vhat? Vhat do you need?!" Medic growled after pulling his arm free.
"Mpppust huddaa nu!" Pyro showed him the hat that belonged to Dust.
Medic examined the hat and quickly recognized it. "Ahh. I see.."
"Mmc'monnn."
With that, the mercenaries finally left the comfort of the rec room, all having an important objective to carry out.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Best reference I can provide for the medical air mask that Dust wears is the Respro mask and the CAS air cleaning mask. Also, if you guys have ever played on the Coldfront map on TF2, did you catch the burnt cabin reference? =D Huehuehue)
