Team Fortress 2 and its characters belong to Valve. Most of this stuff remains canon; teams are portrayed in a more realistic manner (or as realistic as you can get with a game like this) while trying to stay true to the personalities of the characters involved. Have fun reading or simply close out of it if you don't.
Cheers.
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The rest of the week moved as expected with minimal to no incidents though no one could shake the cold feeling of revenge emanating from the Blu base across from them..
Fall had begun to mingle with the warm summer air and, of course, the Scouts were the first to complain.
"Fuuuuucking cold."
"Fuck fuckfuckfuck!"
It was the usual blonde and brunette pair, standing guard duty outside the hangar and rubbing their arms every time the wind blew. They wore T-shirts, stood in the shade, and barely had any body fat to warm them -- what did they expect?
"Fuck, dude. When did it become winter??"
"It's Fall, dumbass."
"What?"
"There's four seasons, ya fuckin' moron. .. christ."
The wind blew, they both rubbed their arms and sulked.
And just as they were about to consider standing next to each other for warmth like a pack of gerbils, a Soldier came blasting through the hangar door behind them. "MAGGOTS!" he yelled. Instantly the boys turned and stood at attention. "Your shift is OVER, boys. Let's move, go go go!" They noted the presence of a Pyro shuffling up behind the man, no doubt he and the Soldier would be taking their place.
The Scouts looked absolutely delighted!
"Fuck yea, man! I'm totally goin' for a hot shower," the brunette said energetically.
"Oh hold on, dude," the blonde grabbed him by the shirt, "No, wait. Let's go play catch. That'll warm us up, right? 'sides.. I wanna practice my curve ball."
It wasn't long before they were both loping away from the hangar, leaving the grumbling Soldier behind. No matter how the Soldiers of the Red team tried, it seemed no one could tame those baseball boys. The Pyro muttered something of reassurance as he pushed the hangar door shut and hefted his flamethrower properly.
Meanwhile, as they ran through the alleys and obstacles along the side of the Red base, the brunette decided to get things started, "Hey fuckoff, catch this!" He skidded to a halt and chucked a baseball overhead. The blonde tipped up his hat and grinned as he leapt up onto a creaking wooden ledge and began to run the length of it powerfully. The ball was falling fast ahead of him, but he didn't worry in the least.
Jumping between the end of the ledge and an uneven pile of tires, he whipped off his hat and used it as a mitt to catch the zooming projectile. The brunette's cry of anguish was heard far behind him, "Fucking bullshit!" The blonde simply stopped and looked back waving and taunting.
"Yeah, chucklenuts! How's that feel? C'mon, get your ass down here, I see a field we can use."
And off they went like two streaks of red under the autumn sun. It would be disorienting for anyone to watch them -- two boys playing baseball in the middle of a war zone like it was their own neighborhood. And perhaps, given the hinted pasts of each boy, it was their neighborhood in a roundabout way.
The Sniper had been making use of the downtime by performing his usual routines. Morning coffee, exercise, weapons maintenance, coffee and perhaps a bit of food, going for a brief walk around base, visiting the Red Spy and badgering him for updates, grabbing a cup of coffee, and occasionally heading out to the pond with his lunch bag prepared for use by another.
Today it was time for him to head to the pond and as he walked through the crisp early afternoon air, he couldn't help but smile to himself.
Blu hadn't gotten replacements yet. It was a feeling he got which only bolstered his confidence to walk semi un-armed from the base to the body of water where surely his faithful friend would be waiting.
And indeed he was.
After discussing the Red Spy's calling system, it became rather easy to summon the octospy from the depths of the pond and over to the shoreline once he ascertained that an enemy hadn't accidentally bumbled by the water whistling.
"Monsieur Sniper! Well, well.. You look razher chipper today. Did zhey deliver a new cache of coffee beans to zhe base today?" asked the Tentaspy as he pushed himself up onto the sand.
The Sniper chuckled, walking over to the aquatic Spy fearlessly and setting his things down before sitting behind them. Any concerns regarding the Blu's tentacles and teeth had long since been abandoned after the man's repeated failures to use them for evil.
"Heheh.. Might 'ave, but Oy'm just happy to be alive, personally."
"Ahh I see.." the Spy said thoughtfully, "So you jhust woke up and decided you'd be happy today?"
"That's the long n' short've it, mate," the Sniper insisted as he took a sip from his travel mug (the white one was special and he didn't yet wish to endanger it out in the field) and began to point at the bag he'd brought, "Mm. Oh, right. Have a look in there, mate. Brought you some things." As the Spy obliged, he adjusted the sunglasses which had recently arrived on-base. They were identical to his old ones save for the damage and he was mighty glad for them as the sun shone on tauntingly despite the chill in the air.
"Ooh! What eez zhis?" the Spy cooed as he sat up and pulled a covered bowl of soup from the bag. It was still warm in his freezing cold hands and he held it near his body, desperate for the heat which failed to penetrate the waters he lived in.
"Chicken, I think. But who knows if that's really what they make it with, roight?" the Aussie asked jokingly. He observed the Spy's reaction to the things he had brought for him, a look of utter appreciation pasted on the former prisoner's face. Hm.. The Sniper didn't have to guess that the Blus hadn't fed him this well for a long.. long time.
Setting everything down in a neat little arrangement, the Blu shuddered and went to look for the spoon that surely accompanied the soup. He sure hoped he'd remember how to use such utensils..
The shudder was not lost on the attentive Red Sniper of course. He took a drag of his coffee and gestured toward the man with his mug, "Cold, are you?"
Pausing, the Blu looked to him and blinked shyly. "I.. a bit. But it's fine; I'm sure I can adapt."
"Adapt over 'ere," the Sniper offered, patting the sand beside himself. He didn't think much of it. Body heat was something he had and something that would be lost to the elements if the Blu Spy wasn't going to take advantage of it. His survivor-man way of thinking didn't let him think about the social aspects of it -- at least not for the moment.
The Blu seemed to jump readily at the offer, using his arms to push himself sideways until his damp suit pressed firmly against the Sniper's side. The Aussie just smiled and nursed his coffee as he looked out over the water.
"Better?" he asked after a few moments.
"Oui.. Merci, Monsieur Sniper."
The sharpshooter could swear he heard nervousness in the Spy's voice, but he only continued to relax there and let the Tentaspy get his uniform wet. ..again. The Blu went to work on his soup, sighing as the flavors hit his tongue and finding himself leaning more utterly against the man beside him. He didn't even realize one of his tentacles had coiled around the Aussie's lower leg until the man brought it to his attention.
"So.. really cold, I take it?"
"Muh?" he looked down and jerked the tendril away with a surprised gasp, "Oh! Je suis désolé, Monsieur. I hadn't.. uh.. realized."
The Sniper rolled his eyes and elbowed the man in the ribs which prompted him to shut up long enough to 'oof' and then rub at the afflicted area. He received a pointed look from the Australian, "Look mate, if they got a mind of their own, they just do. Oy'm the last person on this team who'd yell at yeh for it."
"...merci," said the Spy after a moment, sounding small but gradually regaining his position of comfort against the Sniper's side. The tentacle eventually came back too, but this time.. on purpose.
They stayed like that for a while after the Spy had finished eating and the Sniper had finished his coffee. And they might have stayed there a good while longer if it weren't for something small and white flying overhead and landing with a sploosh in the pond in front of them.
The Blu jolted and looked back, defensively flinging an arm behind the Sniper and snarling up at the sounds of footsteps approaching at a running pace, "I got it, I got it! I.. oh fuck, it went in the water. Nice one!"
Looking back as well, the Sniper lifted a brow in time to see a Scout come skidding to a halt at the top of a short hill framing the pond. They locked eyes for a moment until the Scout became utterly focused on the.. thing beside him. The interaction only took a matter of moments and after seeing that limb wrapped up around the man's leg as well as the way the creature had its arms around the marksman, the Scout decided it was go time.
"Oh my god!"
"Mate, relax, it's--"
"Get the fuck off our Sniper you Blu fuckin' BASTID!" the blonde shouted as he charged forward wielding his bat..
What happened next was almost too quick for the Aussie's brain to register.
Tentacles whipped out of the water, creating an impromptu barrier between the pair and the upset Scout who deftly avoided them and hoisted his bat with the intent of bringing it down over the Blu's skull. He nearly made it too until a tentacle wrapped thickly around his ankles and jerked him backward, another seizing and yanking the bat away before whipping the boy in two circles and slamming him against the chilled surface of the pond.
The Blu lifted him sputtering, dripping, and upside-down from the water before dropping him rudely in the sand roughly fifteen feet away. And the Sniper? He just stared wide-eyed and long-faced at the poor Scout, blinking as the Blu's tentacles retracted and hovered at either side of him defensively. The Tentaspy, he noticed, had shifted into a tilted 'standing' position with all of his limbs free from the water and dripping around him like an eerie rain shower.
Seconds passed as the Scout shifted to his hands and knees, coughing and furiously wiping pond slime from his face as he glared in the direction of the stunned Red and the wary Blu, "Sniper, dude, you better have a fuckin' amazing explanation." The Blu Spy sneered toothily at him.
The Sniper inhaled and.. exhaled, expression easily portraying his confusion as he glanced over his shoulder and simply said, "Relax," to his tentacled companion. Obliging him grudgingly, the Spy withdrew his limbs to the sand and settled for glaring over the Aussie's shoulder. "Scout, c'mere."
"Fuck no."
"It's all right, Scout, he's not here to hurt anybody," the Scout hardly looked convinced.
"The fuck is that thing, dude, what the fuck's goin' on??"
"Hey man, did you get the ball ba--.. oh shit."
The trio looked up to see a mortified brunette Scout at the top of the hill with his jaw open as far as it would go. The Sniper dropped his face into his palm and quickly shifted to his feet to remedy the situation, "Get down here, boy." The brunette looked about to run, "I said get down here before I have to put a bullet in your blinkin' kneecap.." The growl in the Sniper's voice forced a meek response from the boy who warily descended the hill to stand behind and eventually help his blonde companion to stand. The boys stared from the Sniper to the.. whatever that was behind him, too stunned to be their usual annoying selves.
"Alright.." the Sniper began as he rubbed his chin. "Boys, this is a defected Blu Spy."
"Defective, you mean," one of the Scouts shot off. He received an even glare from both the Sniper and the curiosity sitting nearby, shutting his mouth and frowning instead.
"Defected. He's on our side which means no batting, no shooting, no punching, kicking, or being a nuisance."
"Dude when the fuckin' Spies hear about this.."
"Zhey already know," the Blu interjected.
"Holy fuck, it talks!"
That sharp-toothed sneer returned, "Zhat it does, and surprisingly better zhan you, boy."
"Snipes, man, c'mon, what the hell?" the blonde said, pointing rudely at the Tentaspy with an expression that begged for answers. He also began to shiver, realizing his sopping wet state with a pathetic frown.
"You think this war's all rainbows and sunshine, mate?" the Sniper asked coldly.
The blonde did like rainbows, but that wasn't really the question, was it, "Uh.. n-no?"
"Blus are over there doin' terrible things to their wounded. Is it any wonder they want to switch sides?"
"..oh," the brunette said with some realization. The blonde share it, albeit a bit more slowly. So that.. tentafreak was a Blu lab animal gone wrong? It still didn't make complete sense, but it was enough to put a look of mild horror on the faces of both Scouts.
After some more information was passed between the four of them, the Scouts agreed to keep it a secret from the others on the condition that they could come and visit the odd creature from time to time. After getting past the whole 'Oh my god, it will kill us all' sentiment, the boys reacted like any teenagers who had just unearthed something really cool.
Not thirty minutes later and they were asking things like: 'Can I touch one of the tentacles' 'What do you eat' 'Could you sink a ship if you really felt like it' 'Would you mind throwing me into the lake again, only higher this time because it was really fuckin' sweet like a high-dive' and, perhaps silliest of them all, 'Can I have your autograph'.
Two autographed baseballs later and the Blu Spy laughed mirthfully as the Scouts ran back to base to get washed and warmed up.
The Sniper watched them go, rubbing the back of his neck thoughtfully. Could he trust the boys to keep their word? He could certainly trust them not to attack their newest object of fascination who seemed to soak up the positive attention like a sponge. In the middle of thinking about what the other Spies were doing, he felt a tentacle rubbing soothingly at his back.
His eyes soon found themselves drawn down toward the Blu Spy who was watching him with a pleasant smile, "You started slipping into a standing coma, mon Ami. Everything all right?"
Grinning gently, the Aussie nodded and reclaimed his seat in the sand, "Oy.. Yes, Oy suppose it is. Was just thinking about the future, is all."
"All in good time.."
