Meanwhile, Engineer wasn't yelling out any words in particular. It sounded more like a battle cry. However, before he could get any closer to Pyro, something had zoomed towards him and lodged itself in his mouth.
He stumbled back, widening his maw as a freshly-washed, clean, orange carrot sailed directly past his lips and hit his throat. His eyes widened as the vulgar taste set in, and then the pain. Carrots, he thought, as his knees buckled. And then he passed out. Heavy had just made it up to see the whole thing happen. He gave a thumbs up, hopefully in the view of Sniper, then mouthed out "GG." with a straight face.
"Pyro!" Heavy shouted, hoisting Engineer's body up onto his shoulder. Pyro glanced back. Heavy squinted, suddenly aware that the tornado looked slightly more massive than it had before. Pyro had not only been pushing the tornado away, but had been feeding it more air. But, you win some, you lose some. Heavy, who had a soft spot for Pyro, dashed forward and grabbed Pyro with his other arm. However, in the moment, the tornado had gotten closer and stronger. Engineer's unconscious body suddenly flew off of Heavy's shoulder. Heavy gritted his teeth, tightened his grip on Pyro and jumped off back to where Medic was, on the side farther away from the tornado. Luckily, the flamethrower was safely in Pyro's hands.
"We need to get out of here." Heavy announced. The tornado was there and growing larger, and Sniper was definitely having trouble shooting at the other fans because of all of the flying leaves and debris. A leaf slapped him on the face, but he made no indication that he noticed.
"Ja. Come on, Herr Pyro." Medic said. "What was Engineer up to anyway?" He asked as he attached a healing beam to the firebug. He did need to build up a charge so they could escape more easily. Pyro launched into a muffled explanation. Medic could barely comprehend it because they were speaking so fast.
"Pyro. Cannot understand." Heavy interjected. "We have time and Medic needs to build charge. Use sign." In times when Pyro had to say something long, they switched to sign language. Heavy and Medic were some of the only ones who could understand the signs well (the rest of the team only knew the basics), and watched as Pyro made several hand signals. Dysarthria, Medic thought. Not only did Pyro have to speak through a mask, they also had a speech disorder, which made it difficult for them to verbally express large ideas.
"I see." Medic said after they finished. Sometimes Engineer tried a little too hard to be a good Team Dad. He had reached 100% charge during Pyro's explanation, so they were able to go.
"Thank you." Medic signed, and then the three of them were off as Medic rapid-fire switched the Quick-Fix charge between Heavy and Pyro.
Demoman landed on the ground somewhere (he wasn't sure where) and groaned in pain. However, after a solid ten minutes of flying about in dust and leaves, it was nice to feel something solid beneath me. His head spun and his body ached, but he was alive. He blinked his one eye open and saw that the air was still around him. But as he sat up, he realized he was directly in the center of the tornado. The eye of the tornado. Hoo boy. Masses of dirt and leaves and probably a couple of trees swirled around him, but didn't touch him. As he looked up, it seemed like a glowing green light shined down on him. Rain drizzled lightly down, sparkling as it caught the ethereal green light.
Demoman debated if this was a product of being drunk a good chunk of his life, or if he quite literally was in the middle a bloody tornado. Suddenly Engineer's body flew out from the dirt cloud in front of him and hit him square in the torso. Demoman fell back down, this time with a Texan blanket lying across his chest. Both of them were unconscious.
"Sorry, Medic." Sniper whispered as he tried yet another position. There were only two fans left, and yet he could not find them. There was too much dirt and too many leaves in the air, blocking his vision. "I'm trying to hit them but there's too much stuff in the air." He was frustrated.
"Ach, Sniper, it's fine." Medic assured him. "You have already done a lot. And we are almost at one fan. If we take care of this one, you can get the other, ja?"
"Alright." Sniper acquiesced, and continued to look around through his scope.
"Yo, Snipes!" A voice called from behind him, and he turned to glance. It was Scout, who was still wrapped up in a blanket like a burrito, and had somehow rolled up the ladder to the roof. "I found this thing that flew in through a window." He pointed his chin down to the rectangular shaped thing that was half stuck in the blanket. "I think it's Hardhat's." Sniper dashed over and tugged it out. It looked just like Engineer's machine-destruction button. Sniper had seen the stocky man fly into the tornado, so it didn't seem too strange that some of this things would fly off. He pressed down on the button.
Demoman was suddenly awakened by a huge mass of dirt falling directly into his open mouth. However, it had been a mistake to look up, because the dirt was followed by a huge mass of leaves drifting down on top of him. Patches of his sight were slowly covered as they leaves began to bury him. His eye closed again. He was probably dreaming, anyway.
"It's a miracle!" Medic exclaimed. In a second, the remaining fans had self-destructed. With no more wind powering the tornado, it had dissipated completely. All of the leaves and dirt had stopped swirling about, and fell straight down. Even the rain had ceased. Heavy had the good sense to hold the crate shield up to protect them from it. However, he realized, it might not be too helpful in the end. The leaves had already reached his chest level, which meant Pyro was entirely covered, and Medic's head was the only visible part. Pyro was extremely happy, and was glad that the tiny flame at the end of their flamethrower had extinguished, or else the huge leaf pile would be set aflame. They ran through the leaf-fall, arms waving.
Soldier and Spy had followed Scout up to the roof (and all of them were stilled wrapped up in blankets). They and Sniper all stood there, jaws dropped as the disastrous tornado transformed into a beautiful fluttery fall of delicate leaves, decorating the reddening sky with various shades of orange. Sniper stepped forward, looking up and holding his hands out. A red leaf struck through with bursts of yellow landed gently on his palm. Scout looked as if he was about to cry, his eyes sparkling with tears that had yet to fall. Soldier was already crying into Spy's blanket and no one knew how they managed to stay upright.
Sniper's lip trembled at the beautiful sight, and then he buried his face in his hands.
Pyro had gone in a straight line after separating from Heavy and Medic, and once they reached a certain area not too far from the front of the fort, they dove into the leaves. Then, they fished out a hand and pulled it up.
"Drrmrr!" They said happily, tucking another hand under Demoman's armpit to drag him up. Demoman's head surfaced, and he looked unconscious and also with a mouthful of dirt and leaves.
"Heuh?" He managed to say, before his eyes opened and he realized that there were indeed many unsavory things in his mouth. Demoman proceeded to have a violent bout of coughing and fall back into the mass of leaves, dragging Pyro down with them.
"Awe man, I am so jumping in." Scout said, and then hopped to the edge of the roof. He proceeded to front flip even without his arms, and disappeared into the mass of leaves next to Pyro. However, he landed on someone.
"What the-? Scout?!" Came a muffled cry from the leaves. It was Engineer. Heavy's face, from at least a solid two hundred feet away, suddenly hardened. He bridged the distance between him and Engineer at an impressive speed that put Scout to shame, forcibly grabbed Engineer by the back of his overalls and zoomed off into the fort. The team would soon learn that Engineer had been caged into the Time Out Corner.