"Gentlemen! Mission begins in 10 minutes, and I hope, for your sakes, that you do not fail me again."

As soon as this message from the Administrator was over, the BLU team ended their idle chit chat and left the employee room to walk towards the changing room, all eager to get going. While going to the locker room, Nathan was usually in the middle of the group, playfully bad mouthing his companions and taking his sweet time.

Today, he was the first getting dressed.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" he impatiently told his teammates as he took off his casual clothes, tossing them aside and grabbing his uniform. The others, surprised at his sudden enthusiasm, stood stunned for a second before going in and getting dressed as usual.

Nathan grabbed his clean jogging pants, his used pair of running shoes, and a comfortable t-shirt, donned with the colour of his team. He put them all on as he watched the others put on their uniform. God, they were so slow! Maybe if they hurried up a bit more, they could start the damn battle already. Then, Nathan could go Spy hunting...

Turning back to his locker, the young adult slowly pulled out his dogtags. Well, not exactly his dogtags. The Scout examined the chain and the tags silently, turning them around in his fingers and staring at the name engraved on them. They used to belong to Arthur Scott, his ma's first boyfriend and husband, and, according to the oldest brothers, the best one of the bunch. The one that actually gave a shit about his ma. He married his ma, got Allan and Daniel, the two eldest, on this Earth, and everyone was quite happy. Then, World War 2 came around, and Arthur was forced to enlist. He promised his wife and two children that he'd come back, smiling and victorious.

He didn't.

A tall man from the Army came to the door one day, handing his ma these dogtags and simply saying "I'm sorry." No big speech. No beating around the bush. Just those two words. Daniel claims that their ma had been crying and feeling miserable for almost a year, and that this loss affected her emotional state. She tried looking for love too quickly, and this, unfortunately, is an easy target for assholes with no morals who are simply looking to get laid.

Nathan's biological father was one of those assholes. He was a fat sack of shit that never seemed to be sober. The only person in the house who liked him was Laura, and that was because she always saw the good in people. Nathan learned from his siblings that this abusive dick left the house after coming home drunk and almost beating Laura and a few of the brothers to death when Nathan had been one year old. The Scout had used his one favour with TF industries to find this jerk. To this day, he still found it amazing how much blood can be spilled and splattered around when beating someone with a baseball bat in a hotel room.

Nathan placed the dogtags around his neck before putting on his headpiece and helmet. He didn't know why the Scout in RED wore dogtags too (probably because he's a copycat), but to Nathan, those tags around his neck was like his lucky charm. He never fought without them.

"Mission begins in 5 minutes." said the strict female voice over the intercom. Nathan looked around, and sighed as he saw that, once again, he was the first ready. Well, first after the Pyro, but he didn't count, seeing as how he came and left work in his full body suit. So, as usual, he decided to go and chat with the Engineer. The two of them had became pretty good friends, mainly because Nathan thinks of the Texan as the only other somewhat sane person in the entire team. Next to himself, of course.

"Hey hard hat." he said as he sat down next to the Engy, who was putting on his kneepads.

"G'morning, string bean." came the reply, in it's traditional southern accent, followed by a friendly handshake. "How are you?"

"I'm...doin' good, ya know, nothin' new." Nathan decided against telling his teammate about Richard...but he was still curious about what he would think about it. "Say, overalls...you got a family, right?"

"Yup. Here, ah got a picture of 'em. I always keep it around on me." He grinned as he reached into his overalls pocket, pulling out a small picture. Nathan stared at the photograph, watching the smiling face of the Engy, his traditional hard hat and goggles replaced by a simple, white cowboy hat. Next to him was a smaller woman with dark red hair and plump red lips, grinning as her arms held close to her husband. Under them, and in the center, was a cute young girl, who couldn't be older than 4 years old, with the same coloured hair as her mom and the same blue eyes as her father, staring at the camera with the young innocence that only someone her age could have.

"Nice family you got there, Engy. Your wife's fine with you workin' here?" Nathan wondered if he was the only one who had to hide this job from loved ones.

"Yup, she got no problem. Well, none anymore, anyways. Used to worry that the Respawn machine would fail one day, but after ah showed her all the different safeguards and backups that machine's got, she was fine with it. She even encourages me to blast a bunch of REDs sometimes."

Nathan nodded. Maybe he could do the same with his ma one day. Of course, he'd make sure to invite all his brothers as well, so he could finally make them shut up about his "shitty construction job" and show them once and for all that he had the coolest job. Remembering why he brought up the subject of his family, Nathan asked "Hey, hard hat...mind answerin' a question for me?"

"Shoot."

"Well...let's say that one of those RED guys gets this idea in their dumb head to come live near ya and your family...whatta you think abou' that?"

The Texan seemed to think about it for a second, scratching his head. "Well...ah don't know...guess it would depend on who it was...what they'd want...and how close they'd get to mah family."

"Well, let's say it's...oh, I dunno...that spy, for example...you'd...have no clue what he wants...and he became your wife's bo-...buddy." The Scout was hoping he sounded as casual as he could, but his friend still chuckled as he pulled out his work goggles.

"That sounds awfully specific, Scout. Do ya got something to tell me?"

"What? Nah, man...just...ya know, curious, is all. Saw that idea in...in a movie recently."

"Hm...well...," the Engy said, rubbing his chin in thought, "I guess ah'd keep an eye on the sneaky bastard, make sure he ain't up to no good...but heck, if he ain't, ah wouldn't worry too much about 'im...we could even become friends outside the battlefield."

The Scout couldn't believe his ears. "What? Really? But ya keep sayin' he's an annoying prick that keeps zappin' all your stuff..."

"Yeah, but that's durin' work hours. You were talkin' about off work, right? B'sides, ah wouldn't be the first with a friend in RED. Take helmet head, over there..." he points towards the Soldier, who was currently loudly ordering an annoyed Sniper that he better see heads exploding today, or God help him. "Well, would you believe him and the RED Demoman are best buds? Ah swear to God it's true!" he added, seeing Nathan's surprised face. "They spend all their weekends together, hanging out. Just don't tell you know who." He casually points his thumb towards the loudspeakers, hanging from a corner in the ceiling. "She tried to break 'em up a few years ago, but all that did was strengthen their friendship. The two still pretend to hate each other's faces, and she buys it."

The Scout and the Engineer stared back at the Soldier, who was now ordering the Pyro that he better be smelling burning flesh all day, ignoring the fact that the Pyro was aiming his flamethrower at the Soldier and was literally a twitch of a finger away from setting him ablaze. Nathan had one last question.

"And...what would ya do if that spy began flirtin' with your wife?"

As an answer, the Texan pulled out his shotgun and cocked it, making Nathan laugh. His laugh was interrupted by the Administrator's voice declaring "Mission begins in 60 seconds."

"Oh! Better grab your weapons, string bean. G'luck to you!" The Engy said with a chuckle, putting his orange safety helmet on his head.

"Yeah, good luck to ya too!" Nathan said, getting up and heading for his locker, only to be stopped by the Soldier.

"And you! You better not screw us over like yesterday! I want the enemy's intel in our base so fast, I won't even see it! Understood?" He commanded loudly.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever" grunted the Scout, grabbing his trusty Scattergun, his pistol, and his metal bat before lining up and entering the teleporter that would bring him into 2fort's spawn room.

It was finally time to find and kill Richard.