A/N: I just want to thank all of you for the many follows and favourites and reviews this story has gotten! And to think this has only been up for what, a week and a half? Thank all of you so so so much!

Having no idea when Gray's bots would be sent to attack meant at least two of the six mercenaries had to be up at any given time to keep an eye out for any sudden attacks. It was a tiring job, especially when the selected mercenaries on duty were up at 3am, sitting outside in full view of the facility, in the freezing cold.

"Thhs shucks," Pyro muttered, the firebug having tucked his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around. A small ball of warm light floated next to him, serving as his source of heat and light. Even the asbestos suit failed to keep him warm.

Medic couldn't really tell what Pyro had said, but from the tone of voice it must have not been something pleasant. He rubbed his eyes with a hand in the darkness of the Mann Co facility, leaning against a crate. He had pulled his coat up to his neck and buttoned it up completely, but like Pyro's asbestos suit, it didn't keep the cold out very well.

Pyro stared at Medic for a moment, noticing the older man shivering a little in the cold. Feeling a little sorry for him, he slowly generated a little floating orb of warmth and sent it over to him. The pale yellow-orange orb floated through the cold air slowly towards Medic, where it finally rested next to him. Medic took a moment to stare at it, then glanced at Pyro.

"Ah, thank you Herr Pyro," Medic said, enjoying the warmth the orb gave off. It was not as much as a fireplace, or a flamethrower, but it was warm and that was all he wanted. The two mercenaries on duty lapsed into silence once more, having nothing to say to each other, until Medic caught a glimpse of a little blue light in the distance. He straightened up, squinting through the darkness.

Pyro noticed the small movement and his head snapped in the same direction, though through the tinted lens of his mask, the light was far too small and dim to see. "Whht?"

Medic watched for a moment more, before he decided to investigate. The light flickered for a moment, disappearing briefly before it reappeared just further from its original place. "Don't sound zhe alarm yet," he said, in case it was not a robot. Pyro nodded and gripped his flare gun tightly, following Medic closely behind.

The little spot of light turned into two, disappearing before the two guards could get close enough. A soft clanking sound floated through the air, but where the supposed robot was going could not be told in the darkness. The lights flicked on again even further.

Pyro took out his flashlight and shone it directly onto the source of the small blue lights, sighing irritably when it was a small Scoutbot, harmless. It sparked and stared at them, holding no weapons. Medic rolled his eyes. "If it's just one, and not even armed at zhat, ve could just kill it ourselves. Maybe it got out its facility," Medic said, approaching with his ubersaw. Cornered, the Scoutbot hardly fought back as Medic stabbed his ubersaw through and snapped the robot's head off.

"Thht was… esshy. Thh esshy," Pyro commented. He was a little suspicious that something else was waiting for them; hardly did just one sad, malfunctioning robot show up. As if he had just jinxed their luck, Medic lurched forward as a small needle appeared seemingly from nowhere jabbed into the base of his neck. Before Pyro had time to respond, a Spybot uncloaked from behind and grabbed him, giving him the same needle filled with drugs. Both of them collapsed onto the floor, their teammates in the base completely unaware, as the Spybot uncloaked a teleporter and dragged them away.

Makina lowered his rifle scope, a little disappointed at the easy capture. He hadn't actually thought it would have been so easy, especially done in the dead of night, when the mercenaries would have expected the worse. For a moment he considered telling his escort to head back first and to alert the other mercenaries, but thought better of it and stood up, brushing past the Heavybot to return to the facility. The teleporter used sparked and exploded in the distance, leaving nothing but scrap metal that would lead the remaining mercenaries to find their friends.

Upon reaching back to the facility, Makina quickly weaved through the throng of bots and took the elevator up to Gray's office. Gray was behind his desk, grinning at the screens linked to the security cameras all over the facility. His pale eyes were fixated on one screen on particular, that showed the holding cell where the mercenaries were being kept in. Neither of them were responsive yet, but that was okay.

"I must applaud you on your good job tonight," Gray said, with a malicious grin spread across his face. "I honestly did not expect for it to be this easy."

"Neither did I, but you have the mercenaries now." Not once had Makina ever called Gray 'Maker'. In front of Gray, he never addressed the old hag. It was a conscious effort that never seemed to be noticed. Behind Gray's back, he called him all sorts of things, most of them relating to being old and dead on the inside.

"Agreed. Anyway, now I'm going to go down and cut off that Pyro's mask, and you're welcome to follow me if you'd like," Gray said, getting up from his seat. Makina let Gray pass before he followed behind, curious to see the Pyro masksless.

By the time they got down to the holding cell Pyro's hat and dragon skull mask had both been removed and left on a table at the corner of the room. All that left was the rubber gas mask that kept anyone from seeing the arsonist's face. Medibot was waiting in a corner for Gray under orders. When Gray entered, he was offered a sharp scalpel.

Gray took a moment to study the Pyro, unresponsive and unaware of what was going on. He from looking at the suited body he wouldn't have been able to tell anything about the man underneath except that he probably really enjoyed setting people ablaze and hearing them scream.

"Let's see who you really are, Mr. Axel," Gray commented, starting to cut away the mask. He made neat, long incisions, enough to loosen it up to pull away, but not enough to damage the mask. He might want a little prize to keep once he was done with the Pyro. His movements seemed to slow as he began to pull away the mask, unsure of what to anticipate.

Makina stared at the now-maskless Pyro. Huh, guess he was no alien. It was a normal man - maybe one who would have been called pretty good looking if Makina were a lady and not a robot. To match his fair skin the Pyro had dark, messy hair that stood in tufts. Satisfied, Gray took a step back to get a good look at him. "Medibot, do a quick physical on him to make sure he didn't react badly to the drug." Gray turned to leave, Makina and Medibot hanging behind.

"Truth be told Herr, I expect something else," Medibot commented. He quickly checked pulse, heart rate, breathing for any abnormalities that could have been caused by the drug and retreated when he found the Pyro to be fine. He let Makina stare at the unconscious Pyro while he went to check on the Medic.

Makina nodded along absent-mindedly. "Yeah, I expected something different too. I hope this makes things a lot easier for us. First chance we get we're out of here."

"You're still going ahead vith zhat plan, huh?" Medibot asked. "I can't stop you Herr, but I can make sure you don't get torn to shreds by zhe other bots out zhere."

"So you're coming?" Makina asked. While he did not consider Medibot too close a friend, having a little help in getting out was nice and always appreciated. "I guess we just wait for them to wake up then," he said, switching subjects. Both mercenaries didn't seem likely to wake up in the next two hours or so, which gave Makina plenty of time to leave and come back later. "Give me a call when they're starting to wake up."

Medibot nodded and rolled over to the other side of the holding cell and out through the door, keeping it open for Makina. Once the bots passed through, the door was sealed shut and locked again. They would be monitored through cameras until later.

The world was spinning and sliding and everything was shifting and moving. At first there was total silence before any sound came back, which wasn't much really. Pyro found himself unable to move any of his limbs properly say for his head, but being able to do that wasn't much of a help when he was tied to a chair. And pretty tightly, at that.

"What the fu-" He suddenly panicked when he saw his hat and mask on the table at the far end of the room. Frantic, he looked around the room for anything that would give him clues on how he ended up where he was - or where he was in the first place.

The sound of a door opening had Pyro twisting his head around to see, a deep scowl forming when he saw Gray and a few robots enter. Gray stepped in front of him, bending down to get a good look at Pyro's pale face.

"My my, what a handsome charmer you are," Gray commented. Pyro growled in return.

"Fucker," he snarled.

Gray raised and eyebrow and straightened up again. "We're going to have to work on your manners, huh… Mr. Bigarsky?" Pyro's eyes significantly widened when he heard Gray address him by his last name.

"What th- how the fuck do you know me?" Pyro snapped, his fists curling into tight balls. If he had been free, Gray would have been punched so hard his jaw might have snapped and probably the rest of his skull too.

Gray chuckled. "Oh, I've known you for very long. I know you're one of the mercenaries trying to defend Mann Co. from me. I know you're special, just like your little friend there-" He gestured to Medic across the room,

"He's not my friend," Pyro growled under his breath.

"-And I know you're likely not going to enjoy what I'm about to do to you next. I'm very tempted to just go ahead and do it now, but I'd like your friend to see it too. Just so he knows what to expect. So you'll just have to wait a little longer for your surprise, hm?" Gray mocked.

The old leader of robots grinned at Pyro one more time before he turned, leaving the room. Before he stepped out completely, he looked back at the two Heavybots who had followed him in. "Oh, you're both welcome to… have a little fun with our guest," he said with a chuckle, before leaving with a click of the door.

Both Heavybots turned back to Pyro and marched up. He had an idea of what Gray's 'fun' meant, which meant he was in for a bit of a beating.