Here is the next chapter guys! Hope you all enjoy! This one's longer too!
The Tenth Class
Chapter 11: Surprise!
The whole base was quiet. The outside flood lights shined bright against the bleak night sky. Everyone was in their bed, fast asleep and in their own dreams, as the night passed on. Demoman was passed out on the poker table in the game room with Soldier and Heavy out on the benches near-by. Down the hall was Pyro's and Scout's room; Pyro was snuggling on his bed next to his flamethrower, and Scout was snoring with a sports magazine on his face and a can of Bonk! in his right hand. Spy was asleep in his smoke room, cozy in his red-velvet arm chair and Sniper was in his loft above the facility keeping an eye out for intruders, even though his eyes yearned for sleep. Engineer was passed out over his workbench, as he was currently working on some improvements to his teleporters, and as for Medic and Rose, they too were sound asleep, completely oblivious to the world around them.
Sniper was just about to take a sip from his coffee mug and swallow another energy pill when he saw a shimmer out of the left of his scope. He froze and looked around the area slowly; the area was the top of the building next to the fence that Rose came through a few days ago. He slowly surveyed the area, keeping a steady hand on his rifle and a steady finger on his trigger, ready to pull at the first sight of trouble. After a few minutes had passed he decided that it was probably an animal passing through, like some had done earlier, and went on to drink some of his coffee.
However, unaware to Sniper, the facility was being breached, as two of Engineers Sentries were taken down near the two metal doors by unseen foes. These things then sneaked into the main rooms, basically taking the same path Rose had taken when she first arrived. The figures then made there way down the hall to Medic's office. Still cloaked, the figures silently slipped into the surgery bay and made there way to the double doors on the right side of the room, where Rose and Medic were sound asleep.
Even though she was asleep, Rose began to feel uneasy in her bed, and began to shift slightly. The movement caused the figures to freeze in place, waiting to see if she got up. Once Rose finished moving and a few seconds of silence passed, the figures slowly made their way to her bed. Two of the figures moved to the foot of her bed, and one moved to the side. The cloaked figure became visible as it held up a butterfly knife, poised and aimed at her back.
As the figure swung down, a butterfly sword had made its way through the front of its chest, causing it to freeze and drop its own weapon. The sword then gave off a high voltage of electricity, making the robotic figure twitch and spazz, and finally it stopped. Rose pulled her sword out of the Spy-bots chest and grabbed the other one that was under her pillow. She looked at the foot of her bed and saw the shimmer of the other two Spy-bots, and quickly kicked her covers off over them to give her a chance to get out of the bed and ready up for a fight. She stood up just as soon as one of the bots pulled a revolver gun n her and took a shot.
"Rose! LOOK OUT!" Whealty warned, but it was too late. The shot was fired and before Rose could react, and she felt a sharp pain in her right shoulder. She stumbled backwards a bit, grabbing her shoulder to try and stay the immediate bleeding and dropping her sword to her side, but then she heard the click of the gun.
Turning to face the bot that shot her, she let go of her wound grabbed the chain that was connected to her left sword and pulled it up into her hands. However, before she could get her arm into position, something whizzed passed her head from behind and planted itself in the Spy-bots head. The machine fell to its knees and fell over, twitching and spazzing like the last one, and then Rose saw what hit it; it was a bone-saw. She turned to see that Medic had gotten out of bed, grabbed his bone-saw from a drawer in his nightstand, and had thrown it just in time. He had an angry look on him as he looked at the bot he took down, brows furrowed and everything; his face lightened, however, when he looked at Rose. He smiled for a quick second and then realized she was wounded and the smile disappeared, but before her could say anything, the last Spy-bot had gotten free of the blanket and was lunging for Rose.
"Rose!" Wheatley had yelled again.
"I KNOW!" she snapped back. As the Spy-bot swung to grab her, she pulled the same move she had before back at the carrier, and ducked, grabbed the bot by the waste and charged it backwards. Unfortunately, she did this with her right shoulder, so a sharp pain ran through her body and she grunted from the sudden shock of pain. She stopped her charge half way and ended up throwing the bot against the wall by her bed and grabbed one of her swords. Without a second to think, she lifted her left arm with her sword, turned on the voltage and thrusted it towards her enemy's head.
What she thought was going to be a sure hit, quickly turned into a failure as the Spy-bot moved its head just in time for the blade the make contact with the wall. She paused in disbelief, breathing heavy, then the bot grabbed the chain the sword was connected to and pulled her in, throwing her off balance. As Rose stumbled forward, she noticed the revolver the other Spy-bot had and had an idea; she grabbed the gun, turned as she was falling, and threw it to Medic. Thankfully he caught the gun, but she ended up stumbling backwards, right into the Spy-bot. The bot quickly grabbed her as tight as it could around her neck and she struggled to get free of it's grasp.
"MEDIC! SHOOT THE BOT!" she yelled at the doctor. He blinked then came to, and held the gun up to their heads.
"Ha ha ha, make sure you don't miss, dear doctor," the Spy-bot teased him. Medic glared at the robot. "Because if you miss, you might just have a new cadaver to play with, ha ha ha ha -" BANG!
Rose froze and the world around her began to slow down. As she stood still she felt the Spy-bot behind her loosen its grip around her neck and slowly fall to the ground. As it fell Rose turned her head to look as its lifeless body slumped to the ground, and just stood there watching.
"Rose…!" someone called her name in the distance. Was it in the distance, or was she just out of focus. "Rose are you okay…?" the voice said again, this time with a familiar accent. Then she felt a hand grab her left arm, and she turned her head to see who it was; Medic.
"Rose are you okay? You don't look so good," Medic stated with a very concerned look.
"I...uh...I," Rose stuttered as the world came back into focus. "I, uh….yeah, I'm fine. I just...it's been a while since I had a bullet graze my ear, heh," she tried to shrug off.
"Oh, vell heh, zhat bot didn't really give me much of a choice," he tried to apologize. "Besides, with zhat whole 'cadaver' comment, I just...vell, let's just say those bots can be almost as irritating as the real deal." Medic gave her a calm smile, and she smiled back.
All of a sudden, a sharp pain came back to her right shoulder and she flinched, grabbing her shoulder in pain and grunting. She bent over, realizing that her adrenaline was fading, but Medic was there to catch her in case she fell.
"Come now," Medic said, "Let us go look at zhis gun wound, shall we?" Rose nodded and the two walked out of the room and into the surgical bay.
"Rose, apart from your shoulder wound, I don't see any other medical issues on your person, and I did a security sweep of the area and cannot find any other signs of enemies on the premises," Wheatly informed calmly.
"Thank you, Wheatly. Can you make another scan in about fifteen minutes? I want to make sure no one else is going to give us any nasty surprises," Rose asked.
"Of course, of course," Wheatly said, then went quiet.
Medic and Rose slowly made their way over to the medical bed in the center of the room, and Rose sat on top of it once there. She made herself as comfortable as she could without straining her shoulder even more, while Medic gathered the supplies to pull the bullet out of her shoulder and patch it up. All of a sudden Engineer, Sniper, Scout and Pyro bursted through the doors into the surgical bay, guns at the ready.
"Where they at, fellas?" Engineer said, shotgun in hand.
"Yeah, who's head to we need to smash in?" Scout chimed.
Rose and Medic looked at each other, then smiled. "Well, you guys are a little late," Rose admitted. The four mercs just looked at each other confused. "Yeah, there were three Spy-bots that snuck in and almost killed me, if it weren't for Medic."
"Oh, vell now I'm sure you would have managed," Medic said modestly.
"Maybe, but I would have been more worse for ware, that's for sure," she chuckled.
"Sooo...there's no more threat?" Scout asked, putting down his pistol.
"Not anymore. Sorry Scout," she said with a slight shrug.
"What the hell Engie!?" Scout yelled, punching the Texan on his arm, "You woke us up for nothin'."
"Hey now, there's no need for that kinda attitude, son," Engineer growled. "I heard gunshots and came to grab whoever else was closest!"
"You could've at least checked on them before you decided to wake us up, hardhat!" the young mercenary glared.
"Despite all of that..." Rose spoke up as Medic came to her side, "You guys did a pretty good job of coming to check up and make sure everything was okay." Scout and Engineer looked at the ground, feeling bad for yelling at one another. "And I do think some better security measures need to be put in place, apart from having one sniper who looks like he desperately needs some sleep." She looked at Sniper and he rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish grin.
"Well, how'd you suppose we do something like that?" Engineer asked.
"First off, I have a bullet in my shoulder that Medic is getting ready to pull, so discussing this right now is probably not the best time, right?" Engineer smirked as he nodded. "Okay, and second, everyone still needs some sleep so we will figure it out once everyone has had rest. I would suggest, however, to put up some sentries indoors, to that way if anyone else comes in, they won't notice them right off the bat."
"I'll go take care of that then," the Texan said. "Good night, fellas. Oh, and sorry for wakin' ya, Scout and Pyro."
"Mmmhm mhmm mmmhm," Pyro mummbled.
"Yeah, it's all good, Engie. You were just bein' cautious, I guess," Scout said. Him and Engineer just smiled at one another.
"Alright," Rose began, "That being said, go get some rest, and that goes for you too, Sniper." Sniper smiled and gave a slight nod before disappearing through the double doors. The others followed not long afterward.
"Well, that went well," Rose said.
"It's a good zhing you intervened when you did. I zhought I was going to have another patient to tend to, hehe," Medic laughed, as he sterilized Rose's shoulder wound. She cringed as the disinfectant did its job. "Oh, yes zhis is going to hurt a bit," the German said with a smirk.
"Gee, thanks for the warning, doc," Rose teased. "Nah, I know it's going to hurt. I just want the bullet out."
"Understandable. Now hold still," he said, as he continued on the wound.
"Rose?" Wheatly asked.
"Yeah, did you find anything?" she responded.
"Thankfully no. But I would advise that you take a look at those Spy-bots you two decimated to see if you can find out why they came. After you rest, of course," Wheatly suggested.
"Yup, that was what I was planning on," she said, flinching some more from the pain.
"Hold still, fraulein!" Medic scolded.
"Alright, alright," Rose said trying to stay still through the pain. "Just keep an eye out for anyone else that might try to come in, okay Wheatly?"
"You got it, Rose!" the AI said with gusto. "I will be your night guard!"
"Heh, thanks Wheatly," Rose said.
Rose sat on the surgical bed with relative silence, wincing every once in a while, while Medic patched her up. Once he pulled the bullet out, he turned on his Medi-gun to heal up the torn up tissue and nerves. Once healed, Medic and Rose went back to bed to face the new day and go over with everyone of the events that happened, and why they happened.
"DAMMIT!" Gray howled, hitting the top of his desk with his fist. "You robots are all useless!"
Gray Mann was sitting at his desk in a big, dimly lit room. The room had a few pictures of bland paintings and steel-shade walls. The floor was a dark wood floor with a dark red carpet leading from two metal doors to Gray's stainless steel desk. A Medic-bot was standing behind him, checking on a device on his his back that was filled with a yellow substance, and a Spy-bot and a Scout-bot were standing in front of his desk.
"It's bad enough that I cannot find a single shred of evidence that this girl exists, but then you imbiciles fail to capture her and bring her here!" Gray yelled at the two bots. He put his head in his hands and sighed.
* beep boop* With all due respect, Master, the Spy-bot spoke up, * beep* Why do you even want zhis girl here?
"Ugh..." Gray sighed again, lifting his head. "As much as it pains me to admit, unlike those brutes Helen calls mercenaries, she poses a bit of a threat. She knows how to take down mass quantities of robots before they can even be dispatched, and apparently knows her way around mechanics."
Gray stood up and waved the Medic-bot away. As the bot wheeled away, he made his way around his desk and leaned up against the front of it. "What's even more curious is why she is there, and why than mad-woman even considered keeping her there? That's why I want her brought to the island, so I can interrogate her, and see if I can find out if she knows anything of the old woman's plans."
* beep da boop* And you're sure she would be so easy to catch and interrogate, Master? The scout bot asked.
"Hmm, not anymore. This is going to require a bit more resources and know-how," Gray said, walking over to the giant window panels behind his desk. "For now, though? We'll just watch and wait. Gather our own information."
"So what was with all that racket last night, Rose?"
Rose looked up from staring at her coffee to see Ms. Pauling standing in front of her. The assistant was dressed in the same looking uniform when she first met her, and was holding a clip board in one hand and a pen in the other, but this time she had a bit of a worried look on her face. It took Rose a minute to process what Pauling had asked, since she was basically up all night after the attack; after Medic pulled the bullet out of her shoulder and healed her with his Medi-gun, her arm was still a bit sore and she couldn't sleep through the pain. Not to mention the events of last night still kept resurfacing in her mind, and she couldn't put away the question that they were going to discuss that morning: why?
"Oh, just had an intrusion is all," Rose said nonchalant.
"Just an intrusion?" Pauling said, looking at her over the rims of her glasses. "And you're not worried about that at all? Since it primarily happened to you and Medic?"
"Look Pauling, apologies if I'm a bit short right now," Rose began, "But as you can see, I am pretty exhausted from what happened last night, and by the sounds of it, you already know what happened. So if you don't mind, I'm gonna finish my terrible coffee, and then I will go over everything in..."
"I do mind," Pauling interrupted, slamming her palm on the table. "It's my responsibility to take care of this facility and the mercenaries protecting it. And if there is an intrusion, which there was, I need to know details. Every little detail."
There was a moment of silence between the to women. Rose looked at Pauling with an exhausted look, while Pauling kept glaring at her, waiting for a response. Rose then stood up, picked up her coffee mug that apparently was Engineer's (it said -1 3 Eng.) that he let her borrow, and looked Pauling straight in the eyes. "We are having a meeting in five minutes to discuss the events that took place last night and why they happened. I was going to go find you before it started, but here you are. Now you know," Rose said curtly.
"Oh," the assistant said with an apologetic look on her face as she backed off. "Well, thank you for letting me know, Rose. I'm sorry for being so short with you."
""Meh," Rose said, "Just next time be a little bit more open-minded before you jump the gun on things, please?"
"Of course, of course," she agreed. "So should we...get going then?"
"Yeah, I'll be there in a minute, just lemme finish this coffee."
"Okay, just don't take too long. I'm sure Medic's side of the story will cover most of what happened, but we will still need you to confirm." Rose nodded at the assistant, and he petite woman walked out of the game room, leaving Rose to finish her drink.
"Well, that could have certainly gone better," Wheatly spoke up as soon as Ms. Pauling was out of earshot.
"Yeah well, what did you expect?" Rose asked. "I mean, you've met her boss. Not exactly the nicest lady around here." She took a sip of her coffee. "Ew, whoever made this did a pretty crappy job."
"Probably Demo I would assume," the AI answered. "Anyways, like you said, she could have been a little bit more patient and let you explain that we were all going to go over it."
"Yeah, but the way I see it is I could have made the situation worse by being rude in return, and I don't have the energy for that right now," she said, walking over to the sink and pouring out the disgusting liquid someone mistook for coffee. "Regardless, we should probably make out way over to the conference room. I'm eager to get this over with."
"Why? So you can get to the bottom of it?" Wheatly asked.
"Psh no. I need a nap."
Everyone had gathered for the meeting, some more tired than others and trying not to fall asleep as Medic and Rose explained in detail what happened last night. Demo was barely keeping his eye open, as he was coming off a massive hang-over, and Scout and Engineer seemed to be just as tired as Rose was. Sniper had a bag or two under his eyes, but luckily no one could rightly tell since he was wearing his aviator sunglasses to hide how tired he really was.
"So basically after everyone left, Medic continued to work on my wound and pull out the bullet that was so nicely bestowed upon me by one of those damn Spy-bots," Rose finished explaining.
"Hmm, okay then," Ms. Pauling "And you have no idea why they went for you to begin with?"
"Nope. That's what Medic and I were gonna try and figure out after this meeting," Rose explained. "The bodies are still in our room."
"Well have Engineer and Spy go with you to help, and then come get me right away if you find anything," Pauling instructed. "The rest of you, either go get some rest or do...whatever." With that, Ms. Pauling left the room first, which gave the signal to everyone else that the meeting was over.
One by one they all filed out of the conference room, some of them going back to bed and the rest going down to the game room while Rose, Medic, Spy and Engineer made their way to the medical bay to check out the robot bodies that laid there in Medic and Rose's room. Most of the way there the group walked in silence, until Engineer spoke up to break the silence.
"So um, what exactly are we lookin' for, fellas?" he asked, putting his hands in his overalls.
"Well," Rose began, "we need to find anything that can give us a clue as to why they attacked, like something holding a command code, like a chip or small box, or even a letter or something, anything."
"Okay, I think I know what you're talking about," Engineer said.
They reached the doors to the medical bay and went through. The surgical table still had a few spots of blood on it from Medic pulling out the bullet in Rose's shoulder. They were too tired last night to clean up a huge deal so they just left everything and picked up anything big. The group came up on the doors leading into their room and paused.
"Alright, remember guys we are looking for anything that can tell us what these bots were doing here," Rose reminded the group. As everyone dispersed to each of the bots, Wheatly wanted to ask Rose a question privately.
"I can understand why Medic and Engineer had to come along, but why Spy?" he asked in a hushed tone.
"Because all of these bots are based off of these mercs, so it makes sense to bring Spy along since these bots basically think the same way he does," Rose said softly.
"Ah okay. Now that makes sense."
"Why do you think Ms. Pauling wanted him to come, Wheatly?" she asked.
"Oh I don't know, maybe just because she wanted him to," he answered.
"Seriously? Just because?"
"What? It's not like I know the woman, or any of her motives, or anything really."
"Still, you're better than that. You almost always give a decent reason for your assumptions," she scolded.
"Alright, miss nosey-pants. Maybe it's because I think that she thinks Spy should help you out some instead of misjudging you all the time," the AI explained reluctantly.
"See? Now was that so hard?" Rose teased.
"Yes. Yes it was," Wheatly began to tease back. "That was such a traumatizing experience that I think I might need to go to therapy for just living through it."
"Well it's a good thing I'm a licensed therapist," she pointed out.
"Oh shut-up," Whealty said. "I wouldn't want to go to anyways. You would just tell me I'm exaggerating anyways."
"Yeah, probably. You do tend to do that, you know," she teased again.
"Let me reiterate; oh shut-up," he said. Rose just giggled softly and began helping the others search for clues.
For at least 27 minutes the five of them looked over every inch of the room and the broken bots but couldn't find a single scrap of evidence as to why they came. For a few moments the speculated and pondered, nothing actually sticking however. As the group left the room, Engineer asked Rose if he could take a crack at the VR room and try it out, and she gave him permission saying he didn't need to ask, but just to let her know when. She also told the group she would let Ms. Pauling know they didn't come up with any physical evidence, but would go over the speculations they talked about. The group then went there separate ways, taking it easy for the rest of the day, hoping that there wouldn't be anymore surprises anytime soon.
