REVISED CHAPTER

A/N: Ok, this chapter is complete crap. It's really just filler (I think) and it's pretty boring. Nothing interesting happens. While writing this chapter, I was distracted by Steam, which is probably why it isn't that good.

NOTE: Realized that if it skipped from 1968 to 1975, then the characters would have obviously aged, meaning the Scout would not be 23, but would instead be 29 . Unfortunately, this means everyone is older, which I don't know, is kind of odd. They age, but they're physically the same. Eh, let's just go with Valve logic.


Chapter 11: Of Banana Peels and Shells


As May closed the door to the medical bay, she couldn't help but feel guilty once again. She had caused misery to the Medic once more, by bringing up his unfortunate past. The man's past was such a sad one that May, despite attempting to resist the urge to, couldn't help but cry when she heard it. The man had been tortured his entire life and when he finally got what he desired, it was taken away from him so quickly.

May decided to go check on him later, but for now she would go visit some of the other classes that she had yet to talk to. She walked around the halls, but found them to be deserted, so she figured the best place to go was the rec room. Someone was bound to be there, and luckily someone was.

She entered the room and saw the Scout sitting on the couch comfortably watching TV, invested on whatever was on. May walked over to him and sat down next to him. As she focused on the TV, May figured out what show the Scout was watching so intensely.

"The New Adventures of Gilligan? Seriously? The original show was way better." May said.

"Nu uh, this show is freakin amazing! Gilligan has a monkey sidekick in this! I mean come on a monkey!" he yelled, trying to defend his precious show.

"Whatever, I'm not going to argue with you. Just saying though, you can't beat the original. It's a classic." she said, smiling smugly.

"What the crap do ya want anways?" he asked, annoyed that she was interrupting his show.

"Eh, I just wanted to get to know everyone, well I mean I already know you guys pretty well, but, ah you get the idea."

May leaned back on the couch, lifting her arms above her head to stretch.

"Sure, I'm sure you know lots about me." he said sarcastically

May sighed, "I DO NOT want to go through this game again so I'll just outright tell you everything I know."

Curious, the Scout sat there and looked at her. May took a deep breathe and began to speak.

"Your name is Nathan and you are a 23, wait no...29 year old from Boston who has 7 mad dog brothers and a loving mother. You are obsessed with baseball and act like a narcissist and a complete fool who thinks he's better than everyone else. You use a Scattergun and a bat in battle, while your secondary item is interchangeable between many different weapons such as Bonk, which is also the super sugared up drink that you are addicted to like the Spy is to cigarettes and your mother may or may not be in a relationship with the opposite teams Spy." she said, exhaling sharply, then grinning.

The Scout stood there, mouth wide open. He was bewildered at how much this girl knew about him.

"I could go on even more."

"Bu-Bu-Bu-" he stuttered.

"I told you guys, I know my video games." she said, still grinning in triumph.

The Scout shock his head, attempting to come back to his normal cocky persona.

"Whatever, that was just what everyone knows."

"So you admit your an annoying, little, 'everything is about me' runner, huh?"

"..."

"That's what I thought."

Quickly, the Scout changed the subject.

"So what the hell are video games." he asked curiously.

"Well I can show you much better than I can tell you about."

May reached into her bag and pulled out her 3DS in one hand and a bag full on games in the other.

"What the hell is that?!" the Scout yelled in confusion, pointing at the machine.

"This," she pointed at the system, "Is called a 3DS. It is a portable gaming system that allows you to play these video games," she shook the bag, "which are preloaded onto these cartridges. Being a portable game system means it can be used where ever you want, as long as it doesn't get wet, and as long as the battery is charged.

The Scout stared in awe at the new machine that was being presented and explained it (though roughly) to him.

She opened up the system and handed it to the Scout.

"Do. Not. Break. It." she said sternly.

The Scout nodded, complying to her demand.

"Alright, let's use some DS games. Not dealing with the 3D. It would blow his mind even more." she muttered as she shuffled through her bag of games.

May found the one she was looking for and popped it into the system. She briefly took the system from the Scout to show him what each button did.

"OK, each button is programmed for a certain action that depends on the game. Here's the power button, but don't touch it or you'll turn the system off. Alright, let's start of with a simple game called Mariokart."

The Scout was still staring in awe as the game began to boot up, showing the title screen. May knew she wasn't even going to bother telling him about the touch screen because that would require even more explaining.

"OK that plus shaped button is called a D-pad. It allows you to move or select things but now, since you are in a menu, it allows you to highlight what option you want to select, while the A button selects whatever is highlighted. Get it?"

"I think so...like this?" he said, lightly pressing the D-pad so it highlighted 'Time Trials.'

"Yup, now just tap A to select it."

The Scout looked down at the game pad, still unsure of the layout and overall system. He pressed the button, causing the character select screen to activate.

"Alright, with what I have told you, use the D-pad once again to chose what character you would like to play as. Whoever you choose is who you will control."

"Sweet." he said with a smile on his face.

"Oh man this guy looks freakin cool! Ima choose him!" he said, picking the spiked turtle.

"Good now, let me just pick the course." she said as she grabbed the system from his hand, choosing the easiest track in the game, Baby Park.

"Aw man, I wanted to pick!" he whined.

"Trust me I know which one you would have picked and it wouldn't have ended well. I chose the easiest track, so that you could practice. Once you get familiar with the controls, I'll let you choose your own track."

The race started up, but the Scout didn't know what to do. As the game had told him to go, the Scout noticed something.

"Hey why aren't there any racers? This is a racing game ain't it?!"

"Yeah but your on Time Trial mode meaning it's just a 'see how fast you can finish' race. I have to teach you controls first."

"Fine..." he said in disappointment.

"OK, so if you want to make you character go then hold A down. To turn him left and right, use the D-pad by pressing left and right, respectively."

The Scout began to move the character, squealing in excitement.

"Hey, I'm doin it!"

"Good, now try to complete a lap around the track."

He did so, without once hitting a wall, effectively impressing May.

'Your doing great Scout. Just practice the controls a few more times."

Oddly enough, the Scout didn't complain about having to drive around such a bland track so many times, In fact he was excited to do so. Personally May would have easily gotten bored of it, but seeing as how the Scout had never encountered a video game before, it was understandable.

"OK, ready for a race?" she questioned him.

"Aw, hell yeah!" he yelled confidently.

"Alright, you understand how to work the menu's correct?"

"Yeah, yeah..." he said, bored that he wasn't racing right now.

"And you can control the character when racing?"

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" he screamed.

"Fine, fine, just let me get back to the menu."

She navigated to the Grand Prix and chose the easiest difficulty on the easiest set of tracks.

"You got it from here, Scout?"

"Yeah, yeah I got it, I got it, I got it." he said confident in his newly acquired skills.

"OK, well I'll leave you to it. I'm going to go talk with the others. If you need me just come and find me, OK?"

"Yeah, yeah whatever." he said, not paying attention to anything, but the track.

May left him on the couch just like when she had entered, though this time with a new form of entertainment.


She wandered, again, through the corridors slightly worrying that the Scout would do something stupid and break her 3DS. May looked at every door, hoping to find one that was not a bed room. Eventually she came across a door that was labeled 'Training Room' and opened it up.

The room was like a mixture between a gymnasium and a work out room. It was as big and tall as a gymnasium but there were various equipment such as weights and treadmills scattered throughout. It seemed like no one put the equipment back in the right place, seeing as how the randomly placed equipment was just thrown carelessly on the floor. She even spotted a pair of weights, one of which was near the rack while the other was across the room, sitting next to a chair.

May looked around the room, but saw not a soul around. She was about walk out and search else where when she heard the sound of someone grunting. It sounded like they were doing something that required a lot of physical prowess. She followed the sound to the corner of the training room where a makeshift boxing bag and hook had been constructed. The man producing the sounds had been boxing away at a bag that was in such bad shape, that it could burst open any second now.

He was beginning to grunt even harder as he punched the bag with more and more ferocity. The bag began to bend at the sheer force of the impact. If it had been a real person then their ribs would have been crushed instantly. With a grunt and an uppercut, the punching bag went flying off the hook and up into the air. May watched as it began to fall towards her.

"Ahhh!" she screamed as she jump rolled out of the way.

Panting, she was greeted by the man who had almost killed her with a punching bag.

"What Is leetle girl doing in gym. Is no place for someone so fragile." the Russian said, cold heartily.

"I, Uh I was just looking for someone to talk to. Wanted to get to know you guys better." she said, slightly scared at the giant man that stood before her.

"Well you should not be here. This is no place for leetle girl. You are to weak." he said as he put the bag back on the hook.

"Hey I'm not weak," she said with anger, "I'm just young! Besides who said I was weak? Sure I might not be the strongest, but at least I'm good at dodging, like you saw a second ago."

"That does not get you anywhere in battle, just like Scout. All he does is run away with only a baby gun."

"But that's his strength and he does it well. He is the one who captures points and steals the intelligence most of the time, right?"

"Da, but leetle Scout has no power. Running is for leetle baby cowards."

May stood there staring the Heavy down, because of her disagreement with his logic. Power didn't matter in battle if it wasn't your strength. What did matter was what skill you brought to the battlefield. If the Scout was good at running and capturing the intelligence then he should continue what he was doing. He was the speedster of the group and was meant to run.

"So...if running if for cowards, then what do you do if Sasha has run out of bullets and you are facing a Pyro with very little health left? Do you just face it and die or do you run away in an attempt to save your life."

"..."

"That's what I thought."

"You defend leetle Scout and you say you do not have much power, da?"

"Yeah, why?" she said, wondering where he was going with that.

"Must mean you to are like leetle Scout. Fast runner and leetle strength must make you a Scout class, da?"

"I have never been a runner. Really, I'm actually terrible at running, but swimming on the other hand is a different story." she said, smiling.

"So, you are swimmer?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, can't run for crap, but I could swim forever. Unfortunately, it does me no good here...or anywhere else."

The Heavy laughed, "Da, is true."

"So, about Sasha."

"What about her?" he asked, curious at what the girl was wanting to know.

"Does she really cost 400,000 dollars to fire her for 12 seconds?" she asked with curiosity.

"Da." he said proudly.

"How on earth do you afford that?!"

"I do not pay for Sasha's bullets, RED does."

"Well, that kind of explains it."

"So, what does leetle girl want?" he asked.

"I told you I was just wanting to talk to everyone." she said slightly annoyed at already telling him.

The Heavy sighed, obviously not in the mood for talking, but decided to play along. Maybe something interesting would come out of this conversation.

"Fine, what does leetle girl want to talk about?" he asked with a hint of annoyance.

"Eh, I got nothing unless you have anything."

"Nyet. I want to go back to training, but you are here." he said, full out annoyed this time.

"Well, maybe I could train with you." she said, hoping to convince him.

"Nyet, to hard for leetle girl."

"Oh come on, give me a chance." she said, pleading.

The Heavy stood there, pondering the current choice at hand. He could either let this girl try and train with him or he could refuse and possibly have her beg him until he cracked.

"Fine, but leetle girl must promise not to cry like baby." he said, sternly.

"Promise." she said, holding her hand up.

The Heavy walked over to a weightlifting set and began collecting weights. He walked all over and grabbed every weight he could and placed them on the bar. The weight was so intense that the bar actually began to bend slightly. Once he was satisfied with the immense weight, he sat down and began to bench press. He bench pressed 10 times, then stopped and gestured over to May to take his place.

"You want me to lift that?! Are you insane?! How much does that thing weigh?!" she said, panicking that she would have to lift it.

"Only 350 pounds, not hard."

"That's 3 times my body weight! There is no way I could lift that!"

"Leetle girl said she would not cry, now come." he said, commanding her to do so.

Scared to incur the Russian's wrath, she obeyed, shuffling over to the bench and lying down, waiting for pain.

"Ok, I will lift up, then leetle girl take hold and I let go, da?" he said, not really caring.

"I, uh, I really don't think I can do this." she said, sweat beginning to fall down her face.

The Heavy ignored her and placed his hands on the bar.

"Odin, dva, t-"

His counting was interrupted by someone yelling.

"Hey kid!"

It was the Scout running across the gym with May's 3DS in his flailing hand.

"Oh thank god..." she muttered

"Kid!" he yelled once more.

"I have a name you know." she said as she got up from the bench, determined to get away from the Heavy and his crazy heavy weight.

"Yeah, yeah I know."

"Then what is it?" she asked, not confident in the Scout's response.

"It's...uh... never mind this is important." he said, pointing to the game in his hand.

"I won't help you until you learn my name and promise to call me by it." she said, staring at him with her arms crossed.

"Fine, what is it?" he asked, annoyed.

"It's May, now what do you want."

"These guys are cheatin! I'm getting hit with banana peels, shells and other crazy crap!"

"Oh that's normal. Here let's go back to the rec room and I'll explain."

She turned toward the Heavy.

"I'll, uh, catch you later. We'll train some other time." she said nervously.

May definitely didn't want to come back after he had almost crushed her, but she had to say something to the big guy.

"Da." he simply said before quickly going back to his bench presses.


May and The Scout walked back into the rec room together. Ok well it was more of the Scout running into the room, yelling back to her to hurry up, and then May walking into the rec room.

"Now like I said, these guys are cheatin!"

"Nah, that's just normal. You know those floating boxes with question marks?"

"Yeah aren't they obstacles? I been avoidin 'em!"

May quickly face palmed, sighed, then began to explain once more how the game worked to the Scout.

"No, those are called item boxes. If you run into one a box in the corner will appear and in a few seconds you will get an item that you can use by pressing the Y button. Different items do different things like shells shoot out in front of you while banana's drop behind you. Got it?" she said, annoyed at having to explain something that was so simple to her.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks May." he said with a smile.

'Your welcome, now I'll be off again, just find me if you need me again." she said, returning his smile.

Once again May walked off, leaving the Scout behind in search of the last 3 remaining people that she had yet to talk too.


Fun Fact: Originally I was going to have the Soldier be the one in the gym, boxing. The scene would have been harsher with the Soldier being himself and yelling a lot, but the Heavy boxing made more sense.