TEAM FORTRESS 2 BELONGS TO VALVE

MIRACULOUS LADYBUG IS A CREATION BY THOMAS ASTRUC

The guy was a fool, in all senses of the word. First of all, he thought he could put his nose into the Administrator's business and get out alive. And second, he thought he could escape from him.

Soldier may not have been very bright, or quick or witty, but he was one thing: deadly. He didn't question orders because he didn't practice the bothersome task of thinking. He had been doing this for long enough to know how to destroy a man and not feel a thing, like all his victims were just mosquitoes or cockroaches. His plea, his promises not to tell a living creature what he saw went in one ear and out the other. His grip on his gun didn't soften, his steps towards him were as quick as they were seconds before he opened his mouth in a desperate attempt to save his life, his face didn't show any kind of emotion or even just that he heard a thing he said.

The race of this man ended when Soldier shot him in a leg. He fell on the pavement with a howl of pain. It seemed he wanted to writhe in pain in there, but realized he had to try, he had to move or else he would give him the perfect chance to end his life.

He was carrying something inside a bag. Surely something stolen from RED's facilities. He opened it desperately, trying to grab something. Soldier didn't give him the chance to use it, whatever that was. He pressed a foot against his spine, keeping him down and shot at his head. All of his whimpering, his heavy breathing, everything ceased suddenly. He fell flat on the ground while a pool of blood was forming around him.

Now came the messy but fun part of Soldier's job: getting rid of the corpse. This was normally Miss Pauling's job, but she had to be somewhere else. He didn't mind it: he had gotten rid of enough corpses in his life to know how to do this on his own. Pauling had given him a lot of good ideas, taken from experience. It would have been easy to just cut him into pieces, put them into bags and leave them in the trash bins around, but he had to get rid of all proofs, pretend this man never existed, so this plan became only the first part of the process. He dragged the body to a corner, left it for a second, now that there was no one in the streets, returned with his van (more like Mann Co.'s van, which had a sign which said 'RED BREAD'), where he had all of his tools, and used a chainsaw to make him considerably lighter and more manageable. He kept the head as a trophy, of course. He put the bags on the van, under the copilot's seat, and cleaned the blood from the floor. He then grabbed the bag he was carrying and drove out of the city. There, in what seemed like a barren land, he made a hole on the ground, filled it with quicklime and buried the remains.

He allowed himself to take a moment to rest. Opened himself a beer with the teeth—why does an American work till exhaustion if he can't allow himself a little refreshment? In the meanwhile, he inspected the poor idiot's belongings. There was an ID card he couldn't read because it was in Chinese, a sandwich and a soda can he ate himself, for he was starving, even if he acted like he didn't need food and water to function, and something which attracted his attention. It was a box, richly decorated in an old Chinese fashion. There were lots of little compartments. Inside of them, he found jewelry. Brooches, rings, combs, necklaces...All of them animal-themed.

The man was not reaching for the sandwich to save his life, of course, unless he noted he was hungry and intended to bribe him with food, like he was a monkey or something. And not many people knew how to kill someone with a simple card, like Soldier did. This was the only thing he could have tried to grab in his last moments of desperation. Soldier didn't understand it. Did he think he could offer him jewelry in exchange for his life? Did he think he was a sissy? Did he really believe he would put those on? They were pretty, he had to admit it. But they didn't seem to be worth much. He wouldn't have been bought with junk like this.

But some of those were pretty, and so he decided he would keep the box anyway. He would give them to Zhanna. She deserved to have jewels and look like a princess. And if she didn't want some of that, she could always give some to her mother and sisters.

In the center of the box were a black ring and a set of round earrings with the pattern of a ladybug's wings: black dots, red background.

A ring was not the wisest accessory for a soldier, for would get caught up or harm him, so he took the earrings and put them on as cuff links. They fitted the color of his uniform, so he didn't mind if they were a feminine thing. The things he liked couldn't be a sissy thing, so, he liked this thing, so it was the manliest accessory ever created; period.

And then something weird happened.

An explosion? Soldier couldn't tell—a red light blinded him for a second. He looked around, alarmed, ready to attack blindly.

When it went away, there was a tiny figure floating in the air.

"...Who are you? What did you do to Mr. Cheng?" This thing talked. Oh my God, this thing talked.

Soldier didn't wait to see what else it had to say. After letting out a disgusted shriek, he quickly grabbed his shotgun and fired three feverish shots.

All of them missed. The floating bug screamed and hid under the van. Soldier got on his knees to see underneath and try to grab her with his hands.

"Come here, you little vermin! I don't know what you are and that means you're dead!" He exclaimed, trying to reach her.

"I'm a Kwami!" The thing's voice trembled. "Please don't hurt me!"

Soldier froze, seeing it did not intend to attack, and was silent for a good while.

"...A what?" He muttered, his eyes showing from under his helmet to look at the creature with confusion.