The long-distance bus stopped at the junkyard which served as Teufort's main square.
"There she is." Soldier rose his head in excitement.
"Which one? That one with the glasses?" Tikki whispered from inside his pocket.
"That old mummy? No! There! The lady with the raven hair!"
Tikki recognized Zhanna immediately. She really seemed like the kind of woman who could make Soldier lose his head and forget his chauvinist prejudices against the Russians: she was big, muscled and pretty indeed.
"What amazes me is that Lieutenant Never-Wash-My-Coats got a girlfriend." Plagg popped out from inside the opposite pocket.
"You'll get my fist in your face if you don't-" Soldier started to threaten him, not minding that everyone around him was giving him a funny look, when he hushed, because Zhanna was approaching.
She jumped into Soldier's arms and kissed him like she wanted to eat him up.
"Did you have a good trip? Soldier asked her.
"Long, but yes." She replied.
"I missed you."
"I missed you too. Tonight we have sex."
"Damn sure we will. I'm gonna make you roar like a tigress riding an elephant, that is a promise..."
It was then when Zhanna seemed to finally notice her older brother Heavy was standing there, hearing everything.
"Misha!" She cheered, opening her arms.
He tried to ignore what he just heard and embraced his sister.
"Welcome, sister. Do you have a place to stay?" He asked.
"Yes, a motel not too far from here. Will you help me with your luggage?"
It was noticeable that she was just carrying a light suitcase.
Heavy exchanged a stare with his sister and nodded, understanding.
"Fine."
"It's alright, I can do that." Soldier grabbed the suitcase.
"No, Jane. Misha will do It. Zhanna refused, getting it back. "You...how about you make sure the restaurant is free from hippies before we have lunch?"
"Right! That is important! I'll be waiting for you in Coal Street, 8!"
When he walked away, Soldier was free to talk to the kwamis.
"She's as pretty as you said!" Tikki exclaimed, grinning.
"I know, right?" Soldier smiled as well.
"She looks just as brawny and brainless as you do. That would explain everything." Plagg said.
"You're gonna love her, and you won't need to talk to her to see she's special." Soldier ignored his comments and said.
"Oh, by the way, what are hippies and why are they so bad?" Tikki asked.
"You see, Tikki, hippies are a race of men...well, in reality they are not men, they are more related to alpacas..." Soldier explained to her as he walked in the street.
They had to talk about this, so the team gathered at projection room. It didn't matter that there were two members missing. In fact, it was better that Soldier was not around.
"Very well, so, for what we understood..." Medic stood in front of his teammates, writing on a blackboard. "There is a certain species of butterflies called akumas...Or at least they take the form of a butterfly...And these butterflies possess objects people are bonded to...Scout's baseball, Pyro's bandana, Demo's eye patch...And turns them into creatures with powers, enhanced physical abilities...And can only be exorcised by...Soldier."
In which moment did we...?, Spy's sigh seemed to express.
"Soldier knows something about this. All of this started after he came from that mission of his in Kong King." Medic concluded, preventing his glasses from slipping down his nose.
"It'd be so typical of him to solve messes he started." Demoman said, frowning in thought, with his eye fixed on the label of his bottle of scrumpy.
"Sargeant Bug, Catman...Yeah, I don't know why, but he is trying to hide the fact that it's him who defeats those akuma motherhubbards." Engineer said. "I just wonder why he has to go to the trouble of creating these alter egos and doesn't just do it. Soldier loves to save the day himself."
"I don't know, but I am very eager to torture him and get the information out of him. Know why I became a disgusting dog and lost my Crabbemarché suit." Spy frowned, arms crossed.
"Perhaps he can only do it when he is using those personas." Medic suggested. "Did you see him fight? It is a different style. He is faster and stronger! Oh, if I could get my hands on him too!"
"Come on, there must be something we can do against these evil butterflies." Sniper said.
"How about not getting possessed?" Scout shrugged. "Like, is there anything we can do?"
"We fight bloody monsters every Halloween, sure we can." Demoman said.
"But everything we've faced is nothing compared to what we've seen these days." Engineer had to admit.
"You've been affected by it." Medic addressed Scout, Demoman and Pyro. "What were you feeling before it happened?"
Everything was in a blur, the three had to take a moment to think.
"...Sadness." Demoman replied.
"Frustration." Was Scout's reply.
"Boredom?" Pyro shrugged.
"So they feed on negativity..." Medic muttered, writing that down on the blackboard.
"So what's your suggestion? That we become the merry gang of men?" Sniper rose an eyebrow.
"How are we going to be happy all the time? Ain't that impossible? Shit happens, man." Scout said.
"Do you want to turn into a crazy batter again?" Spy told him.
"Uh, no."
"Then try. At least while we figure out how to resist the spell and protect ourselves..., and Soldier decides to quit the act and be honest with us."
"I'm so glad to see you, brother..." Zhanna closed the door of the room and stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
"How are Mother, Yana and Bronislava?" Heavy asked. He didn't tell her that this cheek she was kissing had been covered in fur not too long before, that he was almost eaten by a dragon, and became a baseball card, all of that because of a curse, though he thought about it a lot.
"Fine. I bring you a postcard from Paris from Bronya."
Heavy took it but didn't look at it. He didn't take his eyes off his younger sister.
"What did you want to tell me that you couldn't say in front of Soldier?"
Zhanna turned suddenly quiet, evasive; nibbled her under lips.
"...I went back home..."
"Why?" That was not a good idea, and Heavy got worried, but he made that question calmly.
"...I don't know. Maybe I thought that now that the men chasing us are buried in the snow, maybe we could...I know it is stupid, but it's been so long that...And I asked myself, if our sisters are going to see the world, why can't I just go back home and...?"
She sighed.
"You wouldn't recognize it now. There are people living there for a long time."
That was expected. The government gave all properties stolen to the opposition to the Party members or supporters.
"...What else do you have to tell me, Zhanna?" Heavy insisted patiently. Because he knew his little sister and knew there was more. He knew the heart of the issue had not been addressed yet.
"The people who lived there..."
She took deep breath before saying:
"The Volkovs...!"
The Volkovs? Heavy showed no emotion, but he suddenly felt cold. Very cold.
Volkov was the surname of Vova, his father's best friend. And a counter-revolutionary, just like him. His sisters used to play very often with his children, because both families lived in the same village and their houses were very close. Zhanna and the youngest daughter, Tanya, were very good friends.
"...Vladimir Vladímirovich collaborated with Father in his counter-revolutionary actions, he was the one who wrote the pamphlets Father printed at home." Zhanna said, her voice trembling. "Both of them wrote articles against the regime...Father was not as careless as to leave traces of his authorship...Someone told on him...Old Vova...You should have seen the look on their faces when they saw me at the door. They got so nervous. Threatened to call the police. Tanya, my friend, almost like a sister to me!"
"...You took an unnecessary risk..." Heavy finally spoke.
"I know, I know, but now that I know who's to blame for Father's death and our situation...!"
"...And he is still living there? In our home?"
"Are you planning to make him pay?"
Heavy didn't reply, or look at her to the eyes.
"Too late." Zhanna replied. "He died last summer. I saw his tombstone."
She frowned, pressing her lips.
"Father didn't get one..." She muttered.
She then shook her head and walked to Heavy.
"I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have told you this."
"No. It's good that you told me."
"I haven't told Mother or the others about this, but I thought you needed to know..."
"...It is in the past. Now you are here. That's all that matters." Heavy took his sister's hands. "We don't have any missions for now, so we can spend time together."
"Yes. You work so much, brother, it's been long since the last time we talked calmly." Zhanna smiled.
And why did he work so much, why was he far away from them? Now Heavy knew...
On the way back to the base, Heavy followed the road mechanically, his mind drifting in a million thoughts, far away from the desert of Badlands.
Vova Volkov...A man his father trusted...A man he knew, with which they shared their table, food when winter ruined the crops and made it scarce...He remembered how everytime he saw him he asked him about his life, his studies, if there was any girl in town he was interested in because he was sure someone as big and strong as him had lots of girlfriends, how have you grown, Misha!
Did they catch him and he put all the blame on his father? Did he switch sides and showed loyalty to the Party betraying his partner?
He couldn't face him and ask him. He was dead.
He had a pretty tomb his sons and daughters could visit and offer flowers to. Konstantin Alexandrovich Petrov rot in some hole on the ground, if the police even bothered to dig a hole for him and didn't just feed his body to the forest beasts. He didn't get to see him achieve his aspiration of becoming a professor in Russian poetry, or his daughters become women, nor were they given the opportunity to make him a grandfather. He would have been such a great grandpapa...He would have been so happy, taking Zhanna to the aisle...
Merasmoth rubbed his hands in front of the vision.
"Oh! What could have been, what shouldn't have happened! All those 'if' and 'could' and 'should' are poison to the heart! I, for instance, can't sleep at night thinking that everything would be better if I never got in debt with the Japanese mafia..."
Joining his hands, he created an akuma, which he encouraged to fly out of there.
"And that will be the poison you will use, akuma, to rot the roots of the giant!"
When Heavy arrived, Medic was outside, walking around, like he was impatiently waiting for his return. And it was so, because as soon as he got out of the car, he rushed towards him.
"Ah! You're here! So, everything fine with your sister?"
"Yes."
"If she's going to spend the rest of the day with Soldier, may I bother you for a while? It'll be nothing: I just want to open your chest cavity a little bit, because I've got the slight suspicion that Archimedes might be trapped in there."
"Fine."
"Good! And we can take the chance and see what adding a little brain to your leg does. The results with Demo are interesting but I need more input."
The akuma appeared without making any noise, unseen, and touched Heavy's gloves. Heavy stopped all suddenly and rose his eyes.
"Leshi, Merasmoth understands you. The culprit for your family's terrible fate is dead and you can't make him pay...But you can still unleash all the grudge and anger you feel...Merasmoth will help you..."
That voice...where did it come from? How did it know...? Heavy grunted, shaking his head and closing his eyes firmly. But it spoke like through loudspeakers inside his brain.
"I am only asking you for the Miraculouses Soldier is hiding..."
"No..." Heavy groaned. "Get out of my head! Now!"
"Excuse me?" Medic turned around to look at him.
Heavy had a hand on his bald head, seemed to be in pain.
"Heavy? Is everything alright, my friend?" Medic asked.
"I can't! Don't want!" Heavy shouted.
"I will use anesthetics this time, I promise!"
"Sure you can. I will make you really powerful."
"Don't want power! Leave!" Heavy kept on shouting to no one.
"Come on, don't be a chicken!" Medic chuckled and took his hand gently.
"Hehehe, Merasmoth can see what your heart keeps. You don't want to kill people for money. You don't want to be so far away from home and never see your mother and sisters, nor miss your father every second. They made you a mercenary by force. And mercenaries don't get a happy ending."
No, that was true. What an ungrateful job! Getting killed like a job, doing horrible things for money to feed his family...
"Accept the power I am giving you, and you and your teammates and everyone will get it."
Heavy finally actually turned his eyes to Medic.
"Doktor...Sorry, Doktor..." He muttered.
"I'm telling you: it's not going to h-" Medic drew back when Heavy hung his arms in defeat and welcomed darkness.
"H-Heavy! Heavy?!"
And when darkness left his body, Heavy was now Leshi. His uniform had disappeared, leaving him bare-chested; only a piece of ragged light brown cloth covered his nakedness and a hood covered his head and shoulders. His flesh had the roughness and color of tree bark covered in mould. His head supported two big antlers with a crown of leaves and bracken. His hands were not hands anymore, but big, sharp claws. There was the only thing remaining from his former looks: his leather gloves.
Medic understood immediately that he was in a very dire situation.
"...Alright...How about we calm down and talk this out?" He suggested. His hand slipped into his lab coat to grab the scalpel.
"You have been good friend, Doktor." Leshi spoke. "You will be first."
Medic expected him to crush him, use force on him—Heavy's specialty. He didn't expect a couple of leafed vines to erupt from the ground and grab him by the legs, and two more immobilizing his arms. And finally one winded itself around his neck.
Medic was left breathless, unable to call for help, and then...he lost consciousness.
"Did you miss me?" Oh, the way Zhanna looked at Soldier, with such bewitching eyes!
"Did I miss you? Look." Soldier took something from his pocket. A jeweler made of teeth.
"Aww!" Zhanna exclaimed, taking it.
"I've been saving money to restore the old house I grew up in, in the Midwest. You're gonna love it: there's plenty of space for us and the family we will have."
"I grew up in a house where we had land, and chicken and goats."
"We will have all the goats!"
Soldier was dying to tell her about Tikki. Sure she wouldn't be able to see her, but she trusted him enough to believe whatever he told her. Tikki could be like the family's guardian angel: invisible but still there. He kept no secrets from her. He would tell her everything: about the box, Sargeant Bug, the akumas...It was good that she knew: with the transformation pandemics they were suffering lately, she had to be forewarned.
"Listen, babe, why don't you finish your custard and follow me to a place I know. I want to show you something..." Soldier told her.
"I also want to show you something. I am not bringing underwear." Zhanna winked.
"...Eat it. Now. Waiter!" Soldier shouted.
Zhanna grabbed the spoon, ate the dessert in a second and grabbed Soldier's wrist to run out of the restaurant.
"I don't wanna look, I don't wanna hear." Plagg, inside Soldier's pocket, covered his ears and closed his eyes, but he knew he was going to have a bad time.
Inside the base, nothing was heard. Everything was so, so calm...Instead of finding it suspicious or unsettling, everyone minded their own business. Sniper fell asleep on a chair in a corner of the garage, Engineer locked himself up inside his workshop to work on updates, Spy, in his smoking room, Scout read magazines in bed, Pyro grabbed papers really important for someone and drew on them, Demoman sat to increase his bomb inventory. The base was quiet and Leshi didn't disturb the peace.
His branches slipped under the cracks of the doors silently, lifted the tiles without making any noise, made holes so discreetly one had to look for them on purpose to notice.
He was slow but relentless. That was why they didn't saw him until it was too late.
The branches knocked Sniper out of the chair, covered Scout's mouth, grabbed Pyro by the ankle and drag her away, pulled Demoman's arm.
Spy, who was used to work in complete silence, had his ear trained to hear the slightlest noise. He knew something was moving in the dark of his room. That was why, when that something got too close to the armchair he was sitting in, he stood up and fired three shots. The branches retreated just a little—three more leapt. He ran to the door and found it was blocked; he had to kick it and finally slam it to burst it open. It was then, at the corridor, when he noticed that they had spread all around.
"HEEEELP!" He heard someone shout.
Demoman was fighting them in the nearby room. They were lifting him in the air, and he tossed and turned. Spy ran to the corner where he had his sword and cut them with a swing. Demoman fell to the ground.
"Thanks, mate!" He thanked his teammate, and used it to make their way out of the room before it swallowed them.
They were hearing the others scream. The nearest they could find was Engineer. But there was a problem.
"Engie! Open up! We can't get in if you don't open!" Demoman shouted, banging the door.
A good system to keep unauthorized people in but fatal in a situation like this. Engineer tried to fight his leash and stretch his arm to reach the control board. He managed to pull the rip-cord from his prosthetic hand and make it spin, destroying a branch. His finger was grazing the button when another one wrapped around his neck and...
"Dell!"
Engineer gasped. He was being crushed by...
"Children, don't be brute! Come on, go wash your hands already!"
Where did those four boys, who left the room giggling like little devils come from? In fact, what was he doing lying on a bed, in that room? Who was the woman dressed in pink who was getting bedsheets from a drawer and looked at him with a smile?
"I warned you. I warned you I'd unleash the beasts if you didn't leave the bed." She told him.
"...Who are you?" Engineer asked.
"How precious! I feed you, wash and iron your laundry, and you don't even know who I am!" The woman rolled her eyes. "You work too much, dear. It's affecting your head."
Dear? Who was this woman and why did she treat him with such familiarity?
Who could it be, except his wife?
She approached the bed and kissed him on the crown of his head.
"I know you had to work till late, but it's time to get up. It's almost lunch time, and your parents are dying to see you." She said.
"My...?" Engineer muttered.
That was a good reason to leave the bed. Engineer, not switching clothes or anything, walked out of the bedroom and descended the stairs, from which he was hearing voices. There was people at the living room, sitting on the sofa, talking to the kids. They were telling them something they were very excited about, gesticulated like dancers, and the man and the woman they were talking to listened patiently, showed as much enthusiasm as they performed.
When they saw him stand at the door, they both smiled.
"Hello, Dellie. Nicholas was telling us about the fish he caught the other day. Was it that big?" The woman asked.
"...Mom?" Engineer muttered.
He turned his eyes to the man who got up to pat his back.
"Good morning, son. Sleeping till midday! But, of course, you don't do it for pleasure. Ah, I know what it is like, working at night! How ungrateful! Do you want a cup of coffee? I think Linda made some. And your mother baked a pie."
"Pie..." Engineer slowly said.
A smile formed on his lips.
"You shouldn't have."
And he placed his hand on his father's shoulder, as if nothing had ever come between them, while he asked his mother about her book club, as if she hadn't left the home when he was those boys' age.
"Engie? Eng...?" Demoman knocked at the door, but his teammate wasn't answering. He looked at Spy, fearing the worst.
There were more partners who needed their help. Spy was hearing the others scream. On the way to his room, they found Pyro fighting the vines with her ax. She cut the one hanging her upside down from the ankle and fell to the floor with an 'ouch!'.
"Where did these things come from?" Demoman asked, helping her stand up.
"I don't know, but you know what this means, right?" Spy replied.
Yes, it seemed the story was repeating itself.
Scout didn't get the chance to scream. As if Leshi knew that was the first thing he would do, practically all the branches focused on making him shut his mouth. A new one winded itself around his neck, and suddenly Scout felt all of his anxiety disappear...
Because Miss Pauling was lying on the sofa by his side, looking at him with a placid smile.
"This is nice, isn't it?"
Miss Pauling...Funny, he hadn't called that way in a long, long time. Back when he first met her, she was Miss Pauling—now that they were married, she was Flora.
Scout felt strange when she came closer, closer than she had ever been, and kissed his lips. Dear Lord, how good they tasted, like strawberries.
Pauling gasped suddenly, and giggled.
"It's kicking."
There was space for three in that sofa. She took his hand and placed it on her womb, right where the baby was showing signs of life. Was it amazing to feel that new life inside her, that little person who was half him half her!
"We still got time, but we should start choosing a name, don't you think?" Pauling said. "Let's see, if it was a girl, what would you like to call it?"
"Mmm...Sandy!" Scout replied.
"And if it was a boy?"
"Tom!" He replied without hesitation.
"I agree." Miss Pauling agreed. "It's going to make your father so happy..."
Spy, Demoman and Pyro looked for Sniper. Last time they saw him, he was at the garage. Goodness, did it look bad. The branches had spread wildly, making it almost look like a forest. Sniper was nowhere to be seen.
Pyro let out an exclamation while pointing at something that was moving. The branches were dragging something around. Sniper had one of them coiled around his neck and didn't resist, his eyes and mouth open. His partners tried to grab him before that thing took him away.
"Do not fight. It will be worse." A voice said behind them.
They turned around to find Leshi standing there, so tall his antlers grazed the ceiling. He owned the place. He controlled everything.
They didn't have the chance to escape.
Soldier parked the van anywhere, and hopped out quickly to return to Zhanna's arms. They kissed each other hungrily, until they forced themselves to wait.
"The practice room, the practice room..." Soldier purred.
He didn't think of the kwamis inside his pockets, or his brother-in-law being in the building, or the cameras. All he thought about was how he had missed his woman and how he wanted to return to her.
"This decoration excites me. So wild, so...natural..." Zhanna whispered while licking his ear.
"Oh, yes, aren't the vines nice and Medic hanging in there s-?"
Soldier's smile froze and placed his hands on Zhanna's shoulders to stop her. Then walked backwards to look at the facade of the base closely.
It didn't look like that when he left in the morning. But the most strange thing was Medic hanging from up high in what seemed like a cocoon, pale, his mouth slightly open, his eyes open.
"Was this your idea, Doc? Because it looks great. But Halloween was last month!" Soldier said to him.
But Medic didn't reply.
"Doc! Hey, Doc!" Soldier tried to make him react by touching his foot, but it was useless. Soldier placed his hands on his hips.
"Uh-oh. Something tells me your smooching time's spoiled..." Plagged said, looking from his pocket.
"I don't know. This looks like something Scout would do..." Soldier mumbled, scratching his chin while looking at the branches from closer.
"Come on, what are you waiting for?" Zhanna hugged him from behind and rubbed her face on his back.
"Wait, honey. Something smells fishy in here." Soldier let go of her and walked to the door.
Zhanna guessed their love-making would have to wait. She shrugged and followed Soldier inside.
If this was decoration, they reproduced the jungle so, so accurately. It was difficult to walk without tripping with a vine. They were moving, Soldier noticed, and they didn't stop growing.
He stopped, finding something. Demoman and Spy were in the same situation as they had found Medic in, just that Demoman was upside down in the middle of the room, with his arms and legs tangled up—the result of him trying to fight before he lost consciousnes—, and Spy curled up in a corner. All of them still had a pulse and breathed slowly, Zhanna saw while Soldier inspected another room.
As soon as he stepped out, the vines started to move frenetically, creating a barrier between the corridor and the garage.
"Zhanna!" Soldier shouted. He tried to rip off the barrier but found it was too hard.
"What is happening?!" Zhanna shouted, attempting to break it too when...
"Behind you!"
Zhanna turned around to find Leshi standing just a few inches away from her. Zhanna didn't know what that was, but it was evident its intentions were not good, so she started to punch and kick it. All useless. Leshi didn't even feel a thing.
"Life has been hard, hasn't it, sister?" The monster spoke in her mother tongue.
Which made Zhanna freeze.
"...Misha?!" She exclaimed.
"But it's alright. I will send you to a better place."
And vines erupted.
"Oh, no, you won't!" Soldier shouted. "Tikki, spots on!"
Zhanna turned around at that flash of light, and when she looked, she found that part of the barrier was broken by a yo-yo someone was spinning. Sargeant Bug!
But it was not enough, and Zhanna was in danger. He had no choice but to unveil the secret.
"Zhanna!"
The woman avoided the attack and looked at Sargeant Bug from the crack in the barrier. Through it, he managed to slip a black ring.
"Put this on and say 'claws out'! I'll explain to you later! You've got to trust me!"
Leshi squinted his eyes. The Cat Miraculous! He walked towards them, opening his hand to get it...
Zhanna looked back, at Leshi—the monstrous transformation her brother had suffered. Everything surrounding her. She nodded. Of course she trusted him. Always.
As soon as she put the ringer on, Plagg made himself visible to her, making her take a step back.
"Alright, lady, here we go!"
"Claws out!" Zhanna shouted.
She didn't understand what was going on, but it felt great! Her dress and jackets were replaced by a black, turtle-necked jumpsuit, with tall, high-heeled boots and long gloves on her forearms ending in claws. She had a belt around her waist in a way that gave the impression that she had a tail, with a red button with the symbol of a cat's paw. Her loose hair was braided in the Dutch style by magic. A diadem with cat ears appeared on top of her head. She blinked and not only did her sclerae become red and her pupils vertical, a black mask also covered part of her face.
She didn't waste time and used the long nails she was given to destroy the barrier between her and her fiancé.
"This is fine!" She admitted, looking at how sharp her claws were.
"By God, do you look amazing!" Sargeant Bug smiled, holding her hands. "But we'll leave that for later. Let's go."
"That's Misha, isn't he? What happened to him?"
"To sum up, he's possessed by an evil entity and we need to kick his ass in order to exorcise the evil out of him."
Zhanna didn't like the idea of hurting her brother, and Sargeant Bug noted it.
"That thing's not your brother. Your brother is deep down there and we need to help him out with a good ass-beating."
Zhanna nodded. "Alright...And how are we going to do that?"
Sargeant Bug was going to reply when a noise alerted them. They almost attacked Pyro, who was fighting for her flamethrower with a vine.
"Pyro?" Sargeant Bug exclaimed.
"Huh? Impossible! How did she escape from the slumber?"
Pyro was not going to answer to that because she had no idea, and Merasmoth couldn't suspect that a person who already lives in her world of fantasy doesn't need to dream about a better place.
"Now that you're here, you can help us. Try to free the others. We will face the Green Giant."
Pyro was a little distracted by the kitty standing in front of her but nodded and used her flamethrower to repel the branches trying to trap her.
They would give him the miraculous. Even if he had to kill them to get them. Leshi tried to punch Sargeant Bug, and he dodged it. Zhanna tried to choke him wrapping an arm around his neck, but Leshi grabbed her and pushed her away. On the floor, Zhanna shook her head and looked for something she could use to attack, being so hard. It was then when she noticed that the thing hanging around her belt did not only have a decorative purpose, but it was a folded staff. That could be of some use. Using it to get impulse, she kicked Leshi in the face, making him stumble.
"How do we make him go back to normal?" She asked.
"He must have a corrupted object!" Sargeant Bug replied.
Zhanna tried to remember what Heavy was wearing when they talked and what remained...
"The gloves!"
"Yes, that must be it!" Sargeant Bug exclaimed. "At the count of three, we attack! One...NOW!"
And they both pounced on him.
They needed all help possible, and Pyro tried to get it. She ran to Demo, took him down with her axe—he fell on his face, but didn't complain at all. Pyro got on her knees and slapped him a few times, but didn't get a reaction from him. He almost didn't seem like he wanted to wake up...He was smiling...
Because he was shaving and he looked fantastic with his pair of sexy brown eyes...
Alright, so Demo was not waking up. Spy surely would. Pyro shook him, even stole his lighter and burnt his nose a little bit. Still no movement.
The house was full of movement. Betty's sons were coming home for Thanksgiving. Her seven sons with their wives and children. Not to mention their children: Jeremy, who was coming from college for the holidays, and the youngest girls, who still lived with them. So many people, so much to do...But he loved seeing the house so full of life. He loved the activity.
Sniper had been moved next to the fridge, which a branch opened to wrap itself around the Sandvich.
A frown grew on his face.
"This is wrong..."
Mom and Dad watching television, sitting on the sofa, like they did every Saturday night...
His mother turned her face at him. "What did you say?"
"...This isn't real..." Sniper said, getting up from the armchair and looking around, at the house he grew up in.
Everything was exactly the way he remembered it. His parents as well...
"This isn't real!"
"What's the matter, son?" His father asked him.
"Are you alright, baby roo? Does your head hurt?" His mother got up and asked him with concern, placing her hand on his forehead.
"You are dead! This isn't happening! This isn't real!"
His muscles didn't want to respond. His eyelids weighted a ton. He felt cold, so, so cold...
But Sniper managed to grunt loud enough to attract Pyro's attention. She ran to him just in time to see his eyes move, life return to him and try to get the vines off his neck. She helped him.
"I fucking hate this..." He grunted once he was free, and ran to get his kukri to get rid of those things.
They reached the hallway just in time to see Leshi push Sargeant Bug and Zhanna several meters away from him.
"You will give me miraculous. Now." He said, creating more vines to subjugate them with.
"In your dreams, you tree-hugger son of a bitch!" Sargeant Bug, and he ran to another room, out of his reach, and grabbed his yo-yo to exclaim. "LUCKY CHARM!"
The now familiar shining. And an object fell on his hands.
Zhanna took it and read the label. "Peanut butter?"
"Yeah! Take off your clothes and bath yourself in it!" Sargeant Bug exclaimed, and was about to get undressed too.
Good thing that his powers gave him a clue of what to do with this.
A ladybug pattern on the jar. On their hands of Sniper and Pyro. On Sasha, which the branches kept hanging from a wall.
Sargeant Bug smirked.
"I got it! Change of plans, ma'am!" Zhanna stopped looking for some zip in her costume and Soldier addressed Pyro and Sniper next. "Alright, men, a question for you! What is the number one rule working with Heavy?"
"Never touch Sasha." Sniper responded immediately.
"Exactly. So you know what to do." Sargeant Bug replied, handing the jar to them. He then turned towards Zhanna. "Babe, now you gotta use your special power. The magic word is 'Cataclysm'."
Leshi couldn't believe they thought they could run away from him. He wasn't in a hurry when he reached the room Zhanna and Sargeant Bug were in.
"You can't run away from me."
"Who is running, you pig?" Sargeant Bug provoked him.
Leshi did not mind the insult. He was going to take a step forward when Pyro lifted her mask and whistled at him, to attract his attention.
At the other side of the corridor, she and Sniper were sharing the peanut butter, which they were eating with their own hands.
"Hmmm!" She licked her lips.
"Oh, yeah. It's so good!" Sniper grinned.
At their feet was...Sasha! Leshi's eyes widened when they saw them wipe their dirty hands on...ON SASHA!
Leshi let out an inhuman roar and charged like a stampede of buffalos, his arms extended, ready to break their necks.
He didn't expect Zhanna to jump on his shoulders.
"CATACLYSM!" She shouted.
And she flipped forward, placing her hands on his...destroying the gloves.
Leshi seemed to lose all of his strength when she did so, because he fell on his stomach. The akuma tried to escape.
"You're going nowhere, pal!" Sargeant Bug shouted while he opened his yo-yo and trapped the akuma in it.
Zhanna watched fascinated how that thing became an innoffensive white butterfly when he opened it back, how he grabbed the peanut butter jar and, tossing it, created a sweep which got rid of all the branches. The mercenaries found themselves standing where the attack caught them, extremely confused, wondering where their families went, what was this place, until they remembered.
"Well done!" Sargeant Bug told Zhanna, hugging her.
She turned her eyes to the fallen monster, which now wasn't so, but her brother, who closed his eyes and grunted. She wanted to hug him, but she guessed she had to hide her identity, and so just smiled and offered him her hand.
"Are you alright, big man?"
Havey looked at her with a confused frown, then accepted her help.
"Where's Flora? Why am I stuck here with you g-?" Scout stooped when he saw Zhanna dressed like that. "...Hello?" He asked seductively.
"I got a little help. This is..." Sargeant Bug said.
"I'm...a koshka, I guess." Zhanna wasn't good with names. A she-cat. That was what she was, and couldn't make up a nickname.
"Yes, this is Koshka!"
The mercenaries exchanged a look (except Scout, who was distracted by how tight the suit was).
"Mission accomplished! Let's go!" Sargeant Bug shouted, and grabbed his partner's wrist and ran out of the base.
His teammates saw them go.
"So now there's two of them..." Medic sighed.
"Woo-hoo..." Demoman celebrated ironically.
"It does not matter...Call all help you want, Soldier...Those miraculous will be mine, and this time it will be me who will ruin your life!"
Heavy was so ashamed by everything going on that he became reclusive for some time. Zhanna guessed she had to tell him something, and so she approached his dorm.
"Brother..."
"Sister...What are you doing here? Visits are..."
"Forbidden. I know. But no one's got to know. Are you alright?"
"I don't remember anything. I didn't hurt you, did I?"
"No, you didn't."
"Good..."
She sat on the bed while he kept polishing Sasha. They remained in silence for a while.
"You miss him, right? Father, I mean..." She broke the silence.
He didn't reply.
"You don't need to act like the big bear with me. You are my brother. This is between you and I."
Heavy stopped and stayed still for a moment. He didn't turn to look at her when he replied:
"A lot..."
Zhanna nodded understandingly. She gestured at him to approach, and Heavy, after considering it for a second, dropped everything in his hands and got on his knees to rest his head on his younger sister's lap. She kissed and caressed it tenderly.
The one who always took care of others needed to be taken care of some time.
A man with a moustache, a big nose and glasses, smiling at the camera.
"This was your father?" Soldier asked.
Zhanna nodded.
"He would have liked you." She said, getting the old picture back, which she kissed before putting back into her pocket.
Which wasn't all true, because Mr. Petrov was an intellectual and a pacifist and hated brutes like Soldier, but in her head the picture of them sharing moments together like family was pretty and didn't want to spoil it.
"He seems like a great man. He has to be, having had children like you two." Soldier said.
Zhanna smiled. She turned her eyes at Plagg and Tikki, who were rewarded for their service with food, crumbs of the best one could get in Teufort.
There were still many things she didn't understand, but she didn't need to understand everything to know Soldier risked his life for her brother and justice. And that was all that counted.
"Those people who killed them deserve to be fed to the dogs." Soldier said.
Zhanna shook her head.
"No. Living a happy life. That is the revenge I want."
And she kissed his lips and snuggled him.