Very few slept that night. Pyro, Soldier and Zhanna, most concretely. Those who had been affected by Leshi's visions couldn't help thinking about what they had seen. A lot. All those lives they would have rather lived. Heavy didn't talk about the matter but his reclusive behavior showed how embarrassed and sorry he felt for letting himself succumb. His teammates showing him kindness and sharing drinks with him didn't seem to get into his head that nobody blamed him for it.
"You just don't know what you're doing when the suggestion pops in." Demoman explained. "It's like the lock-gates of the room your store all your shite burst open and let it flood."
It was true, Heavy thought. And that flood almost swept out his sister. That was the worst of everything.
And he had something more to be uncomfortable about: Medic's enthusiasm about everything. He never told him what he made him see, but, whatever it was, it seemed to encourage him to work. All this issue had been fascinating to him, but after experimenting Leshi's attack, he grew obsessed with it.
"Ah, if that happened in a controlled environment! I would have loved to see what was on your mind, what triggered the transformation, see the process which made you change your anatomy, where the powers come from, the connection the akuma established...!" Medic talked excitedly, like a child. "Do you think you can get angry again?"
"No, Doktor. Never again." Heavy shuddered.
Never again...Yes, everyone except those members of the team who just didn't care didn't want to see this again. If those akumas fed on negative feelings, they'd have to make the effort to erase them...
"It wouldn't hurt us to have protection." Spy said to Engineer and Medic. "We cannot depend on our willpower."
"Honestly, I don't know what we can do." Engineer scratched his head. "If Heavy fell for that too..."
"Well, put those brilliant brains of your to work."
Engineer didn't like being bossed around. But Spy was right: it was his job to solve practical problems and akumas were becoming a big one. He knew how to fight people, but creatures which turned people into monster with supernatural abilities?
He could do this, he told himself. He just had to think hard. And think hard he did. If Medic was enthusiastic about the whole matter, it became an obsession for Engineer.
He studied the cameras to see if he could find and study patterns, but found that the akumas never appeared on film. They never get to capture one and therefore couldn't analyze it. And without a sample from its DNA, he couldn't program the sentries to destroy it the very second it appeared at the base.
Medic performed brain scanners and blood tests to the teammates who had been akumatized, but found they were completely normal, the way they used to be before it happened, and there was absolutely no physical trace from the transformation or the powers they had been granted. Engineer performed a different kind of test, a psychological one. It just consisted on sitting with them alone, with a few beers, in a calm environment, and talk about it, like friends do at the end of the day. He wanted them to be comfortable, not to feel judged, talk freely. He got nothing useful from it. None of them even remember a thing. Pyro was only aware that something bad happened because she was told—she just skipped unimportant scenes; Scout described it as having one's mind drifting away; Demoman said something similar. It was Heavy who told him something he didn't know.
"It was suggestion. I didn't want it. But I did want it. Something that know deep down."
And there was someone very important in this picture: Soldier. He knew something—or at least much more than them. He was a key figure in this enigma. And so, using the same tactic he used to make the akumatized talk, he tried to get information from him. This Sargeant Bug is amazing, don't you think? What kind of technology does he use? What do you think he is, a human or a wizard? And he's got a sidekick, I have understood: the cat lady. She looks hot.
"Watch our mouth, she's taken!" Soldier exclaimed, getting up from his chair.
"How do you know?"
"...It is obvious a woman like that must have a fiancé. Sure it's that Catman. Of course! She's not gonna marry Dogman!"
Alright, so red light. Let's try a different route.
"What a pity that you always get knocked out of the picture. That Bug seems like a great American hero. I reckon you two'd get along just fine."
"Oh, yes, the Russians wouldn't have a chance if we had more like him...Hey, the akumas may be a creation by the Kremlin! Of course! How didn't we think of it before!"
"That would make Sargeant Bug the response from our government?"
"The government wouldn't recognize a good public servant if he came into their houses and fucked them in the ass! They didn't let me join when they needed to save the world and they wouldn't-! I mean...Since we've got nothing to do, I'll go see Zhanna. She came from so far to see me..."
And he fled, always did it every time he realized he was talking too much. Of course, he wasn't as stupid as some thought he was.
Why was he acting like he fooled somebody? Engineer just wanted to be direct, make him talk, like Spy suggested, but Soldier knew plenty of excuses to leave the conversation at the point when it got uncomfortable. And Engineer was frustrated because he needed to know and because he wondered why he didn't trust his teammates enough to share it.
The team slowly started sleeping better at night, after they realized the visions were simply visions, after they convinced themselves that the geniuses were working on it and would soon find a solution, but Engineer, on the contrary, spent more and more time working at night, sacrificing sleeping hours, skipping meals. He started to grow a beard and didn't shower because there was no time to waste on that, because he had to find something quick, before it happened again...
The bad thing was that working on this was not exclusive. All of his usual work was waiting for him.
Calls from Miss Pauling were usually very important. Contracts, special missions...But she also came to him with trifles.
"Uh, Engie, my scooter does a weird noise. It's like, uh, pongpongclancclangboom!...You know?"
"I'm...gonna need to see that." Engineer replied.
"Okay, I'll be there in a while."
"Wait, I've got thing to-!" Engineer wanted to tell her, but Pauling already hung up and was on the way.
And so he had to spend a good amount of time taking a look at her byke. Find the source of the problem (a mouse crawled into the exhaust pipe) and then solve it (get the fried thing out of there after dismantling the whole thing).
"Could you...hurry up a little bit? I gotta go real quick. And you're coming with me: the Administrator wants you to check...you know what. That's what she told me. And she wants it now." Pauling said.
That was important, something he couldn't delay, and so Engineer had to make the scooter operational again and follow Miss Pauling to the headquarters, where the Administrator grunted that she had been waiting for too long—she didn't like to be made wait, and less with something as delicate as...he knew what.
And back to the base, the first one greeting him was Scout.
"Where were you? It was your turn to cook!"
"I've got things to do, Scout."
"Yes: cooking. And you're not doing it."
"I can't cook today, okay?"
"So we're not eating?"
"There's a lot of canned beans!" Engineer didn't want to shout but he did.
"Wow, wow, wow, okay, sorry, huh? The ol' yeller..." Scout's irony and gestures made Engineer want to punch him.
Pyro also had something to bother him about: his coat, which she had burnt, thinking she had managed to wash an oil stain from it.
"Yes, Py, very pretty." Engineer said without even looking at it.
And, of course, Spy. He didn't need to speak. He just had to look at him to make Engineer nervous.
"I'm on it." The Texan sighed.
Zhanna held the Rooster Miraculous with her index and thumb.
"And you don't know who that man was?" She asked Soldier. Both of them were naked after making love. Their intention was just take a walk and talk, but somehow they always ended up picking up fights, getting naked and making love. Anywhere. Even in the middle of the desert.
"He was no ordinary man, that's for sure." Soldier said, his hands behind his head.
"He wasn't." Plagg said. Zhanna wanted to reward him for helping her brother, and so couldn't refuse buying him all cheese he wanted, and so there he was, eating a crumb of it. "He was Cheng Lao, guardian of the Miraculouses. That is, until you chopped him into minced meat. So I guess that makes you the new guardian."
Guardian of the Miraculouses...That sounded swell and made Soldier smile.
"Don't get your hopes up. You killed the guardian and now the Order is probably on its way to kick your ass and get it back."
"This box belongs to me! I found it; it's mine! I'm scared of no order! I'll be waiting for them!"
"Yeah, you know how to fire rockets, but can you face hundreds, thousands of Mirakung Fu fighters? Hehe! Do you think you can snaps so many necks?"
"He won't be alone! I will snap necks too!" Zhanna joined him.
"Who knows? He's done a very good job so far." Tikki intervened, lying on a rock. "Perhaps they let him be the new guardian."
"Sure they will let you!" Zhanna smiled at Soldier.
"That Cheng wasn't a good guardian, else he wouldn't have crossed the red lines. I can be better. I can use this power for good. I won't let the communists get their hands on it. And if someone tries to steal them from me...SNAP!" He said.
"And I will help you!" Zhanna offered herself. "I believe in you. We will convince the order to let you keep them. You know what is best. This is a big power and must be in good hands. You will not fail the world."
"The man who lost the Ladybug Miraculous! Sure! The best choice!" Plagg rolled his eyes.
"That was nothing. Come on, I can read it on your little face: you like the emotion he brings you. I am sure that order does not let you play..." Zhanna smiled at him, crouching to look at him from close.
"Well...It is true that you two know how to fight, and that makes everything more interesting..." Plagg had to admit with a smile.
"Nooroo, dark wings rise!"
Merasmus transformed, and took deep breath once he became Merasmoth. In the darkness of the storage unit he lived in, only with the light from a few candles placed in different corners, he walked around as much as his belonging and the little space available allowed him.
"I'm running out of time...The Japanese mafia is closing in on me...Merasmus needs to get the Miraculous now..."
He took deep breath, in an attempt to control his nervousness.
"I won't let them rest...Merasmus will attack endlessly until they succumb! I will be in their thoughts, in their dreams! Must find...a new host...Someone who won't fail me..."
With his hands, he opened portals showing what the mercenaries were doing. One in the toilet (not a pretty sight), another one writing on a notebook, one smoking alone...
He approched one showing Spy drinking distractedly in his smoking room so much the tip of his nose went through it.
"Look at this one...Ah! Leshi didn't fail after all! He got to leave a trace of despair in the Spy?"
He smiled maliciously, inhaling like he wanted to catch a scent.
"What did you see that left you longing? Ah! Wrong decisions which make lifelong regrets! You have been keeping it to yourself for so, so long...Well, it is the time to let it out...Merasmus will give you a hand..."
From inside his cloak, an akuma flew out. Merasmus watched it go with a maniacal laugh.
A good part of Spy's job consisted on waiting, so he never was an impatient man. But all he had gone through in the last days was getting him off his nerves. He had never smoked as much as he did now.
Having to French kiss his own son, almost being roasted by a damned dragon, getting turned into a werewolf...All of these very unpleasant and embarrassing moments. But seeing the life he could have been living if decades ago he had chosen to stay in Boston, with that woman he liked; married her after she announced him she was pregnant; left his job for her; actually been there to see the child grow up and show him the right path; been accepted by the children of Betty's previous marriage; had more children with her? That was the last straw. He had sometimes wondered what he would have been like, felt like, if he had forgotten about espionage and went for a simpler life. Seeing it with his own eyes was like a bullet to the heart.
He wanted to experience no more. He wanted this over. And since Engineer and Medic showed no progress, he guessed he had to do something too. Investigated about these akumas. He hadn't found anything so far, and that made him increasingly nervous.
He could have had daughters with Betty: Ivette and Anna. Jeremy looked like a carbon copy of his mother, but they looked like him. He wouldn't have had a fortune to buy them expensive dresses, but they would have had a dad who'd learn to do many hairstyles, so everyone acknowledged that his girls were the prettiest. And Jeremy wouldn't be fighting for a hat factory, but in college, using that speed of his to win championships, making him proud...So, so proud that he'd tell everyone: that's my boy!
The akuma, attracted by it, floated above everyone's heads, slipped through the crack under the door of the smoking room, approached the armchair he was sitting in...
...Stop dreaming! That was just a mirage created to kill them! Back to work!
And suddenly the akuma stopped, when Spy left the glass on the table, stood up and walked out of the room, after pushing those thoughts deep, deep down, so deeply not even the akuma could reach.
"Grrr...He isn't ripe yet..."
Engineer realized he had been working too hard when he got off his van and found the sunset. It looked so gorgeous in that desert, surrounded by the mountains, with the coyotes howling in the background...He rose an arm and the stink made him wrinkle his nose. He let himself go a little bit, yes. And he thought it did him no good to forget about himself. It was the same with horses and machines: you can't force it, you've got to give it a little rest or you'll break it.
The other guys were keeping an eye open in case they saw something suspicious. He could allow himself a little rest.
He had a shower which made him feel so good. Next, he walked out the base with an orange on a plate and a beer, lied down on his reclining chair and was ready to peel it and drink. Inspiration hit him to play a little something, so before he did he grabbed his guitar—he was about to play when, having barely grazed the cords, Medic appeared.
"Engineer..."
Engineer didn't like the way he said that.
"I've noted that the dispenser's supplier is too slow. You should really take a look at it. All of us depend on it."
"Yes, yes, I know, I'll take a look at it later. There's no battles on the horizon, right?"
"No, I mean, unless the BLU had time to replace their entire team already. One never knows..."
That was true, one never knew when they could fight again, and so Engineer sighed. "Yeah, I guess I should solve it as soon as I can..."
"Oh, and the boiler is not working. I tried to give my doves a bath and it left them freezing, my poor dears." Medic added.
"Okay, I'll take a look."
"And Engineer..."
"Anything else?" Engineer sighed.
"Don't forget to smile." Medic said, shaping a smile in the air with his index fingers before walking away.
Right. Smile, be happy, or the akumas will get you. Smile, damn you.
Engineer looked at the guitar still in his hand, the appetizers, and guessed he had to leave it for later...He...could rest when he solved the akuma problem.
"Wait a second...I sense...perturbation...Do not leave the base, akuma, you've got prey after all!"
Engineer was getting up when Scout shouted from inside:
"Engie! The teleporter's acting up!"
And Engineer clenched his teeth. "I'm coming!" He shouted grudgingly.
Not one second. Not one single second to breathe!
The akuma found fertile soil in him.
It introduced itself into the guitar in his hands, and his expression of anger intensified.
"Bad Hoss, you are tired of everyone taking you for granted, not respecting your boundaries, BOTHERING YOU ALL THE CONFOUNDED TIME! You can get rid of them all and be free. I am only asking you for the Miraculous in return..."
Smile, they said? Engineer did just that.
"Giddy up..." He muttered, before transforming.
Scout saw how a fly which flew too near the teleporter got hit a spark which made it explode.
"Engie!" He called his teammate again.
And again he got no reply. In that case, he walked out to look for him.
"Are you making me use my legs?" He was saying when he approached his chair.
All his things were there, but he was not.
"Engie?"
Slow steps behind him.
"Need a dispenser here, need a teleporter here, put a sentry over here, over there, repair this, repair that..." His teammate said tired and mockingly.
Scout turned around and found the man he was looking for.
But when did he change his looks? Where was he going, dressed like that? Wide-brimmed brown hat, worn-out cloak and long gloves of the same color, stripped white shirt with hangers, boots up to the knee with spurs, googles with lights which seemed to express his feelings...
"Uh...Is there some cowboy party and I didn't get the memo?" Scout asked.
"I just thought I was in my right to have a little fun." Bad Hoss said.
"Uh...Sure. Whatever. But...the teleporter?" Scout insisted.
"That can wait." Bad Hoss replied, and grabbed what was hanging from his back: his guitar, now completely black, with decorative engravings. "Come on, boy. Let's dance..."
And he strummed it, but apart from notes, it created something else. An invisible blast, which sent Scout to the ground.
The boy grunted in pain. When he attempted to stand up, he felt Bad Hoss' boots on his stomach, and he was standing there, looking at him like one looks at an insect.
"...Shit..." Realizing what this meant, Scout could do nothing but lament.
"The Miraculouses. Where are they?" Bad Hoss demanded him.
"I've got no idea of what that even is. You're the smart one."
"Wrong answer."
Bad Hoss played his guitar again, and the force coming from it made the ground around Scout crack, and he felt like he was being crushed by a big force. His head hurt a lot, his ears rang.
"I'll ask you one more time..." Bad Hoss said. And he had his fingers on the cords again when he rose his head a little bit.
Suddenly, he changed his mind moved his head brusquely. A gesture which seemed to be senseless but soon was revealed to be actually a headbutt. Spy's figure became translucent, he stumbled, blood coming out his broken nose.
"Did you think after all these years I can't smell spies from miles?" Bad Hoss exclaimed.
And he showed no mercy to him, playing his guitar in his direction. The blast was so brutal Spy was pushed into the base. His teammate saw it and looked out.
"You varmint better start talking or I'll squash you !" Bad Hoss approached to threaten him while he was on the ground.
"Oh, Engie! You should have called me!" Medic seemed to be more offended that he missed his shift than him having being turned into a creature that was going to kill them.
"The guitar! Get the guitar!" Demoman yelled.
But how, was the question. Because Bad Hoss was not going to let go of it. Not before making good use of it.
Sniper fired his rifle, and Bad Hoss, with a few pretty notes, not only created a barrier, but propelled them back to him, getting him in the neck. If it wasn't for Medic using his Medi Gun immediately, that could have been his death. Pyro also tried to approach cautiously and snatch it from him, and another wave made her fall on her back.
"Engie!" She called.
But Engineer couldn't hear her, and Bad Hoss laughed cruelly. To make her suffer, he played again, and made her hit the ground with the glasses of her mask broken, showing her brown eyes open wide in pain.
Scout grabbed a piece of lumber from a corner and managed to hit him with it in the back of the head, knocking his hat off. Bad Hoss showed no signs of pain, or even of been bothered by it the slightlest. The lumber broke only making a scratch from which no blood came out. Bad Hoss chuckled and turned to him.
"Take a load of this..."
He introduced his index finger into the scratch, twisted it. A very disgusting sight to Scout. But the worst was that he ripped a bit of the skin, showing a skull made of metal.
"Oh my God!" Scout shouted in disgust.
Bad Hoss chuckled at his dismay. They couldn't hurt him. He had the high ground there.
Like a good cowboy raised in a Texan farm, Bad Hoss knew how to tie the misbehaving calves. He got the team in line and had them witness how he turned the base upside down.
"Sure you won't tell. Very well. I'll serve myself."
He opened and emptied all drawers, ripped all pillows and couches, lifted all tiles, knocked on every plank looking for hollow sounds.
"Very well..." He said, sighing. "So it seems Soldier wasn't stupid enough to leave them here. I guess I should ask him. Where is he now?"
No one replied.
"Come on. I'll save you pain if you tell me." No response from them. "I'm going to find him either way."
Bad Hoss clicked his tongue, seeing his team was not cooperating.
"Very well. You asked for it."
He walked to Spy first. It was evident that he never liked spies and now his evil alter ego wanted to get even for all the nasty tricks he had suffered in the hands on people like this. But he seemed to change his mind, realize that Spy was trained to endure torture.
He smirked and grabbed Scout instead. The weakling.
"Waitwaitwaitwait! No!" The boy shouted, trying to resist.
Bad Hoss didn't pay attention to his plea and, after making him kiss the floor, he got down on one knee and practically pressed his guitar against his ear.
"Where is Soldier?" He patiently repeated.
Scout pressed his lips and shook his head energically. The rest of the team had no idea of what a Miraculous was, but it was clear that it was as important as to kill for it, and so hoped the boy understood this as well and kept his mouth closed for the first time in his life.
But fear can do wonders, and Bad Hoss only had to graze the cords a little bit, making them murmur, to make him panic.
"He said he was taking his girlfriend to see the sunset at the desert! That's what he said!"
"Good job, kid." Sniper frowned.
"The desert, huh?" Bad Hoss stood up. "The desert's wide. But I ain't in a hurry. No more."
He took some steps, then stopped.
"And in case you try to follow..."
He played a lively tune, making the whole base shakes, everything made of glass explode in tiny pieces, Medic's doves fly away terrified, leaving feathers everywhere, and all the men scream, because their eardrums burst.
Bad Hoss walked towards his workshop with no one to stop him. There, he extended his arm to the pile of scrap metal he kept and commanded it to move. Sparkles coming out of his limb bestowed life on the mess, reshaped it, giving it the form of a horse. In its interior was a gas tank which made the creature spit fire when it bucked. Bad Hoss hopped on it and galloped out of the base.
Heavy was the first to get up. He could barely walk, had a persisting ringing which anulled any other sound, his ears bled, but he forced himself to move and encouraged his teammates to do so. They had to stop him!
"The Miraculous, they are like genie's lamp, yes? You call and summon the creature inside." Zhanna asked. Now they were in Soldier's car, on the way back to Teufort, to leave her at her motel.
"In a way, yes." Tikki nodded. "It is the object which contains us kwamis. It is thanks to them that we can be seen by you humans."
"So without them, we cannot see you?"
"That's right."
"But we are not geniuses; we are not elementals per se." Plagg added.
"We are more like...Emotional concepts come to life." Tikki explained. "I am Creation."
"And I am Destruction." Plagg pointed at himself with his little thumb, proudly.
"What is causing this is the power of Transmission. There is also Derision, Pretension, Exaltation, Jubilation..." Soldier was blalantly picking his nose at this point, making Tikki desist from explaining further, because she was starting to doubt he cared or even knew what derision, pretension, exaltation or jubilation were.
Zhanna didn't understand everything, that was for sure, but she didn't make herself many questions either. She just recognized the importance of these creatures and was determined to help her future husband defend them. Somebody using their powers wanted the rest...Such power was incredible, she had seen what it did to her big brother, the stronger person she knew...And she wouldn't let whoever was behind this get her hands on hers or Soldier's!
A sudden noise, a neighing from a horse from hell.
Soldier looked out the window. It was a horse from hell! One made of metal! And riding it was a cowboy who looked like Engineer.
Wait. That was Engineer!
Bad Hoss grabbed his guitar and made it sing, bursting all windows and making Soldier swerve. One more time and the car roll over.
Bad Hoss jumped off the horse and walked to the accident.
"Y'all dead? It's alright if you ain't. I can kill you now."
But when he looked, there was no one in the driver's or the copilot's seat.
He was hit in the chest by a yo-yo, making him stumblr. Sargeant Bug and Koshka jumped on top of the car.
"There is trouble again!" Koshka exclaimed.
"We will have this shit going on day after day." Sargeant Bug told her.
"Promise?" She looked at him with shiny eyes.
"What a cute couple." Bad Hoss smirked. "Ride together, die together."
They dodged before the wave that followed crushed them.
The Miraculous box was inside the car, but Sargeant Bug winked at his partner and showed he had it inside his coat...
He then wrapped his yo-yo around Bad Hoss' arm, trying to make him drop his guitar. He pulled with such strength he made Sargeant Bug bite the dust. It was Koshka's turn to attack. She pounced on Bad Hoss and unleashed a series of swats on his chest and face. She was surprised not to see blod or flesh, or organs. A metallic skull and a mechanism inside his chest were revealed instead.
"Bad kitty, bad." Bad Hoss muttered, and played frenetically, making Koshka feel like she had been swallowed by a hurricane; couldn't hold onto anything and rolled.
Sargeant Bug grabbed him and punched him in the face his hardest. He broke his hand doing so. Bad Hoss never stopped smiling. He pushed him to the ground with a kick, then burst his lip with another one to the mouth.
"Your rodeo ends here, Bug."
Koshka wasn't going to allow it. Stumbling, she got up and hit him in the back with her cane. Bad Hoss grabbed it before she could hit him one more time and tried to steal the ring on her finger. Sargeant Bug wrapped an arma round his neck and dragged him away from her. It seemed Bad Hoss didn't need to breath, for he didn't choke with Sargeant Bug's strong arm. He hit him with the elbow in the stomach and then the jaw, and got to make him stumble.
It was time to use his special move.
"LUCKY CHARM!"
And on his hands fell...
A pair of pistols.
"That is not going to stop him!" Koshka said.
Sargeant Bug looked around. He saw figures approaching from the distance. The weapons on their hands had that ladybug pattern on them...The pistols...Wait, these pistols were...
Sargeant Bug needed a moment but understood.
"True. It's not." He replied with a smile.
Bad Hoss approached inexorable. Koshka threatened him with her claws. He played his guitar and sent her to the ground once more.
"HEY!"
He turned to Sargeant Bug.
"If you want our Miraculouses, we can make a deal! I challenge you! No powers! No punches! A pistol duel! Texas style!"
And tossed one pistol at him. Bad Hoss smirked. He hung the guitar in his back.
"Texas style..." He repeated.
The wind blew, shaking his cloak. The thriller made Koshka tremble out of nervousness; she was unable to get up from the ground.
Bad Hoss examined the pistol he was offered and saw there was just one bullet. He let out a laughter.
"You yankees don't know crap about the Texan honor! I know what you're intending to do! You want to distract me! Now your pretty cat will attack me from behind while I'm distracted with you! Well...Too bad! I'm not falling for this!"
He turned around just in time to find that Koshka was about to use her Cataclysm on him. He pressed the tip of the pistol against her forehead and was about to shoot when he was surprised by a shot to the head.
He stumbled, looked around. Then he spotted the Sniper's hat in the distance.
He took a step forward, and was stopped by a baseball hitting him in the back of the head. He turned around and found Scout standing there, bat in his hand, dropping it and going for his gun.
Bad Hoss was about to stop him when he heard a familiar roar: Heavy, ubered by Medic, was winding Sasha and started to fire at his feet. He grabbed his guitar quickly and played his music. He got to get him away from him before his enormous bullets got to touch him.
But there were more people coming for him. Pyro, making her flamethrower expel fire; Demoman, yelling, his sword in hand; Sargeant Bug, screaming as well, making his yo-yo spin.
It didn't matter! He would kill them all with his music!
This was the moment chosen by Spy to make himself seen and attach his sapper to his back.
"You think you're very smart, but you made the worst mistake an engineer can do in battle, son: let yourself be distracted and forget about the spies!" Sargeant Bug exclaimed.
Bad Hoss started to convulse and scream at the top of his lungs. The light in his googles showing his eye emotions flicked. A bit of smoke came out of his mechanism.
Koshka was quick to grab the guitar as soon as he dropped it and slammed it against the ground with all of her strength. The akuma escaped from the remains.
It was Sargeant Bug's turn to trap it into his yo-yo and purify it.
"You won't disturb our pardner any longer." He smiled, watching as it went, now as an innoffensive butterfly, until it was swallowed by a chameleon.
"Hooyah!" He shouted, throwing the pistols in the air, provoking the final spell. The metal horse crumbled into a pile of junk, the car became his dirty and old piece of garbage but was operative again. Engineer was freed from the darkness and he whined, dizzy.
He looked around, saw himself on the ground, everyone looking at him, Sargeant Bug and Koshka.
"...Did I hurt somebody?" Was the first thing he said.
"Yes. But it's alright now." Sargeant Bug replied.
Pyro offered her hand for him to get up. When he did, she embraced him.
"Oh God, this is embarrassing. I'm so sorry, fellas. I screwed up real good..." Engineer lamented himself, running a hand on his face.
"You did. But it's our fault too. We put...too much pressure on you, didn't we?" Demoman admitted. He looked around and everyone nodded.
"I apologize." Spy muttered.
"That's what you get for being so nice. Next time just tell us to go to hell." Scout winked at him.
Engineer chuckled. "I will. Don't worry, I will."
He picked up the remains of his poor guitar.
"Dear Lord..." He muttered, touching his face again.
A few days of rest awaited Engineer. His teammates wouldn't let him get so physically and mentally exhausted again. He was given as much time as he wanted to sleep, eat enough, relax—they would take care of the akumas. That was what Sargeant Bug and Koshka were there for, right?
But Merasmoth was not going to rest...
"This is not the end..." He whispered in the dark of his home. "There is a window open...Merasmus still has one more card...One open mind...Yes! His own friend will cooperate in his destruction!"
His eyes narrowed at the sight of Medic, who was standing one more time in front of the blackboard. A gibberish where he wrote down everything he knew about this phenomenon. Not enough...Not enough!