This is it, the second to last chapter. I apologize for taking so long to get this out, but once again, school stole all my power to write. On the plus side, the next and final chapter is already written and will come out next week. Also, since this story is almost over, I've begun to consider my next project. However, I've got so many ideas, I don't know which one to do next. On my profile page is a poll regarding which fiction you would like to see me write next. The poll is at the top of the page and the descriptions for each fic are at the bottom. Please take a moment to cast a vote on which you'd like to see, as it will help me decide what's going to happen next. Thank you.
Dell tried his best to walk calmly to Gray's office, but his heart wouldn't stop fluttering. He was going to give up everything. All the promise of his partnership with Gray would be void the second he turned on respawn. Once that happened, there'd be no turning back. Everyone would come back to life and they'd have to fight their way out of Gray's base.
For a moment, Dell hesitated. Why was he doing this? Would it really be worth it to abandon the possibility of a future with Gray? There was so much potential in the partnership. Gray had money and technology Dell had only ever dreamed of having.
No. He had to do this. It wasn't about him, it was about his team. Somehow he knew that if he didn't fix the issue with respawn, they'd all be stuck in that Limbo place forever. There was no way Dell was going to keep his teammates from moving on. Especially, he wasn't going to keep Spy from his son.
"Dell, I'm so glad you're finally up and about."
Dell stopped dead and looked down the hall. Standing just before the elevator was Gray Mann, looking at Dell as if he knew he was up to something.
"Yeah. Ah'm feelin a lot better now."
Gray smiled, "Good. Now we can get to work."
Dell backed up a little, "Uh, Ah'll catch up with ya in a minute. Ah forgot my goggles in my room."
Gray started to walk toward Dell, "I'll walk with you. We can discuss our work schedule on the way down."
"That won't be necessary. Ah can just meet up with ya in the workshop."
Dell felt himself back into something. Slowly, he turned around to find the Anti-bots blocking his exit backward.
Gray walked right up next to Dell and put his arm around his shoulder, "Come on Dell, we are partners, after all, we should spend more time together and get to know each other. I mean, you can't form a friendship between strangers, can you?"
Dell slowly shook his head.
"Excellent, now come along, we have work to do."
Dell nodded and took several steps with Gray before bolting for the elevator.
Gray turned sharply and snapped his fingers. Instantly, the Anti-Scout sprang from a side hall and came charging down the hall toward Dell.
Dell waited until the bot was right at his heels before wiping around and punching the robot as hard as he could. The second his hand made contact, Dell realized his mistake. The sharp metal edges of the robot cut into the flesh on his hand and tore it to pieces. Dell grunted in pain, but finished through with the blow. Despite the injury, the move was enough to send the bot sprawling on its side.
Cradling his injured hand, Dell sprinted the rest of the hall and slammed the elevator button. Down the hall, he could hear Gray yelling orders for more of his robots before he stared calling to Dell.
"If you go thought with this, Dell, you'll never have an opportunity like this again."
Dell heard the Anti-Scout scrape to its feet. With fear rising in his throat, Dell kept his attention firmly on the door.
"If you stop right now, you can still have everything. Your team isn't worth all this trouble. Come back to me right now and make the right decision."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Without hesitation, Dell jumped inside and hit the button for Gray's office.
"You're making a mistake, Dell. Come out of that elevator and I won't have to kill you."
Dell closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As the doors started to close, he looked up at Gray, "The only mistake Ah made was acceptin your offer."
Gray let out a scream of rage just as the doors clicked shut and the elevator started its ascent.
Dell held his good hand to his chest and leaned back against the wall. That was it, there was really no turning back. Now, it was either turn on the respawn, or die without a fight. Dell gave a small chuckle. There was no way he'd go down without a fight.
The elevator stopped and all the lights went out.
Dell's heart leapt into his throat. Gray had cut the power. Dell moved to the control panel and pried it open with his good hand. In complete darkness, he felt around in the mess of wires, trying to find the emergency cable switch. Soon, his hand found the tiny switch he was looking for and flicked it.
The elevator shuddered dangerously before a motor on top of the elevator started pulling the car up the emergency cable.
Meanwhile, Jenjie went in to check on his prisoners. In the back of his mental processor, he was aware that Dell was escaping to the main control room. However, he decided to ignore it in favor of tending to his prisoners.
When he entered the prison block, the two males were asleep while the female was up and about, glaring at Jenjie as he checked their vital status.
"Hey!" The female called, "Hey tin can, aren't you going to come in here and finish what you started yesterday?"
Jenjie did not look up at her, but responded, "Why do you wish for further torture?"
"Because if I die, I want to die with dignity, not rotting in some cell."
Jenjie looked through the memories given to him for dignity. Yes, the man had known of dignity. In fact, he'd wanted to die with dignity as well. Perhaps it would be best if he gave the woman what she wanted. After all, dignity did seem to be very important to humans, and there was really no point in disgracing them in their last days.
"I shall give you the dignified death you deserve," Jenjie announced.
He grabbed the large knife off the table of torture instruments and entered the woman's cell, "Alright, prepare yourself, madame."
The woman straightened herself up and stared down Jenjie. The robot raised his knife and struck the woman across her chest.
She shrieked and dropped to the floor with her blood staining the concrete.
Jenjie cocked his head at the body. Something didn't seem right. She shouldn't have been so motionless after such a blow. Yes, something was amiss, it was just a matter of what.
Miss. Pauling touched her chest where the knife hit. She knew she should have been torn open and bleeding on the ground like the dummy. Yet, all it felt like was a mild sting as if she'd been slapped. She was definitely alright, just shaken.
After a moment of recovery, Miss. Pauling started to sneak carefully around the robot. Just as she reached the door, the robot whipped around and grabbed at Miss. Pauling's throat.
Acting on impulse, Miss. Pauling dove out of the room and slammed the door. The robot slammed its body against the door.
Miss. Pauling threw all her weight against the door to keep the robot from flying out of it. After a short struggle, she managed to close the door and slam a few random buttons on the control panel beside it. The door lock clicked as it locked.
The robot threw itself against the door again and started to assess its escape routes as Miss. Pauling ran to the main control center for the prison block.
She pressed the button for opening the cells for Bidwell and Reddy.
Instantly, the two assistants sprang out of their false sleep and came out to meet Miss. Pauling.
"Thanks Pauling," Bidwell said, "Now, let's go save our bosses."
As soon as the elevator doors opened, Dell bolted out and sprinted to the respawn control computer.
He whipped the flash drive from his pocket and jammed it into the consol. Slowly, the computer started to boot up the massive respawn DNA file.
"Come on, come on, come on," he whispered as he tapped his foot impatiently.
As the computer was loading the file, the power went out, causing red emergency lights to weakly illuminate the room.
Dell's heart nearly stopped as the computer froze temporarily only to resume after switching over to its own battery power. Soon, the screen blinks green to show the file is fully loaded.
With his good hand, Dell inserts the respawn key into the main drive.
This time, he doesn't hesitate as he turns the key.
A groan resonates from the respawn unit as it shudders to life.
After a few minutes, Dell runs over and pries open the metal door to the respawn with one hand.
Standing before him are all eight of his teammates. Some of them had dropped their weapons, but all of them are fully equipped with everything they'd had before Gray had wiped their memories.
Dell smiled broadly, "Howdy fellas."
He was met with eight blank stares.
"…Am I still dead," Scout asked.
"What, no. Ah turned on respawn and brought y'all back. We did it fellas, we've got respawn back. Now it's time to finish our mission and kill Gray."
Hesitantly, those who had dropped their weapons retrieved them. Together, they shuffled out of the room and took a look around Gray's office.
Medic glanced over at Dell and saw his broken hand, "Oh, Engineer, let me take care of zhat for you."
Dell sighed as the medigun's beam washed over him to repair his damaged hand, "Thanks doc."
Suddenly, a loud bang resonated from the second door to the room.
Dell was the only one who didn't jump at the sound, "Dammit fellas, I almost forgot. We've still gotta defeat them anti-robots y'all died to while gettin in here."
Soldier grumbled softly, "Dammit."
Scout jumped a little, "What?! Are you kidding me? We gotta fight those super strong black things again? We're all gonna die."
Medic focused the medigun on Heavy, "Ve're not going to die. Ve have respawn, remember."
Heavy nodded, "And this time, we have whole team together."
Sniper took a quick look around the room, "I still don't like our odds. This is a real tiny space to try and fight in."
Demo shrugged, "I'd say it's about as good as all our other odds."
Fractures appeared in the metal door as it threatened to give way at any moment.
"Here we go," Dell mumbled under his breath.
All at once, the door buckled inward and seven anti-robots barreled into the room. Together, they took attack stances and faced their human enemies.
Gray Mann strode out from behind his robots, "Gentlemen, you cannot win. Surrender now and I will grant you all quick and honorable deaths.
"All robots are lined up with class they mimic," Heavy muttered just loud enough for his team to hear, "Attack robot that is class you were strong against when we fought BLU."
Gray raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me, Mikhail, what was that you said?"
Heavy looked Gray straight in the eye and glared at him, "I said we will not surrender to pathetic baby man and his army of babies."
Gray shrugged, "So be it. Kill them."
All at once, robot and man ran to attack each other. Before the two teams could collide, the Mann Co. team scrambled and went after a different robot.
Heavy turned his minigun on the slender Anti-Scout as Pyro rushed the Anti-Medic with her flamethrower ablaze.
At the same time, Demo launched a volley of grenades at the Anti-Soldier while Sniper trained his scope on the head of the Anti-Demo.
Gray started to look alarmed and backed toward the elevator, "What, no! What are you doing?"
Scout darted in and out of the range of the Anti-Sniper as he tried to get in shots without being burned. Beside him, Soldier distracted the Anti-Heavy with rockets so Spy could sneak around back and find the best way to backstab it.
After a few seconds, Heavy had effectively torn the Anti-Scout to shreds so he could turn his attention to the Anti-Pyro.
Within a matter of minutes, the team of mercenaries had completely destroyed the team of robots.
Heavy laughed heartily at the destruction before him, "Hah, little robots are not so difficult when you know how to fight them."
Engineer nodded, "Yeah, y'all did good. Now, where'd that snake of a man run off to?"
"I believe I saw him run off during zhe fight," Medic said.
Soldier grit his teeth, "That communist coward, he probably realized his foreign robots are no match for us Americans and ran off before we could give him a proper American ass-whooping!"
"Ahy, now let's go after him before that bastard slips away," Demo said as he ran for the elevator.
"You're sure this is the right room," Miss. Pauling asked as Bidwell typed in the code to a laser grid security door.
"I'm positive this is right," Bidwell said.
The powerful red lasers died as the security code was accepted.
Reddy charged forward with a shotgun he claimed he found lying around. Behind him, Miss. Pauling and Bidwell followed suit.
In the dimly lit room, the Administrator and Saxton Hale are chained up against a sturdy metal wall.
Hale has some sort of metal drum encased over his head while the Administrator appeared to be asleep.
Bidwell and Reddy went to assist Hale as Miss. Pauling ran to the Administrator's side. As quickly as she could, the young assistant freed her boss from the loose restraints.
Helen looked groggily up at her assistant, "Miss. Pauling, is that you?"
Miss. Pauling nodded, "Yes Administrator, it's me. I've come to free you from Gray Mann's base."
"Very good Miss. Pauling. Though I was expecting your arrival to be sooner than this."
Miss. Pauling sighed, "Right, sorry Administrator."
Behind her, Miss. Pauling heard Hale come to.
"Bidwell," he said, "where am I? Where are all the hippies? Just a minute ago I was punching hippies, what happened?"
Bidwell sighed, "You're at Gray's headquarters. The hippies were a hallucination. Now, let's get out of here before something goes wrong."
Hale shot to his feet, "But Bidwell, we have to go punch Gray in the throat for capturing me!"
Bidwell glanced over at Miss. Pauling, "Gray Mann is dead. Helen's mercenaries already took care of them."
"Oh, that's no fun. Well, at least I can go back to my house and punch yetis."
"Certainly Mr. Hale, just as soon as we get out of here, we can-"
"Who said anything about getting out?"
Both bosses and their assistants turned to find the robot, Jenjie, blocking the door to their escape.
Hale ran at the robot, "I don't care who you are. I'm gonna kick your ass!"
Jenjie waited until the last second to step nimbly out of Hale's path. Unable to stop, Hale slammed into the far steel wall at full force. He sat back onto the floor, dazed.
Jenjie shook his head, "What an idiot."
From a sliding panel in his leg, Jenjie drew a long dagger, "Well, at least I'll have fun killing all of you."
With a snarl, Jenjie lunged straight for Miss. Pauling.
Instantly, Reddy swung his shotgun around and fired at Jenjie.
In a spray of bullets, Jenjie's mechanical head was blown off and black shrapnel was sent flying around the room. His body stopped in mid lunge and collapsed to the ground with a few gears clicking and whirring before they died.
Miss. Pauling took a deep breath, "Thanks Reddy."
He nodded in response.
Bidwell picked up Hale's limp hand, "Uh, I don't think he's going anywhere on his own for a while. Pauling, take Helen and get out of here. Reddy and I will take care of Hale."
Miss. Pauling nodded, "Right. I'll see you guys back at base."
Bidwell nodded and Miss. Pauling and Helen ran from the room.
On the top of the Gray Gravel tower, Mann Co.'s mercenaries confronted Gray Mann.
Dell crossed his arms across his chest and stared down the man he'd almost made his partner, "Alright Gray, we're done playin yer stupid games. No more runnin, just get your ass over here and we promise we'll torture you a little before we chuck ya off the tower."
Gray glared back at the mercenaries, "You're all fools. Killing me won't solve your problems. In fact, it will probably make them worse. Without myself or my brothers around, Helen will find a new, stronger enemy for you to fight just so she can keep control over Mann Co. and all its false sub companies."
Soldier stepped forward and waved his fist at Gray, "It does not matter. You crossed the line when you made me pretend I wasn't American. In fact, on the communism scale, you are Saline!"
"And what exactly does that mean?"
Soldier rushed forward and rocket jumped into the air, "It means I'm going to kick your ass!"
He landed on the ground next to Gray and whipped out his shovel. With the flat end of the shovel, he smacked Gray as hard as he could on the side of the head.
As the rest of the team ran to meet their soldier, Medic called out, "Zhe machine on his back, rip it out."
Soldier shot a quick thumbs up and used his shotgun to shoot Gray in the back.
Gray Mann cried out as Australium exploded from the life extension machine and sprayed out in a mix of red and gold.
Gray hunched into a ball and whimpered as his body aged rapidly, "You idiots, you're making a mistake. This decision will be the end of you, mark my words."
Spy knelt down, grabbed Gray's hair and pulled his face up so the team could see him, "No, monsieur, this decision, is the end of you."
Spy pressed the barrel of his revolver to Gray's temple and fired.
With a final wheezing breath, Gray died and his body began to crumble into dust.