All right, so here we go with Danny's first day as RED Scout. I haven't really changed his personality, except he has the ability to be far more serious and is far more like Spy when he is completely serious. The people in the games will all have their normal personalities but they will be friends generally.

Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying this story so far. This chapter introduces the other characters and the games themselves, as well as what the others are thinking about these games. The battles won't start until the next chapter. I also have no imagination, so the names of everyone will be the same that are seen in Fortress Games.

Chapter Two: Meet the Scout

Danny realized nearly instantly why Mann Co. wasn't that well known. It sold everything from guns to cosmetics lines, all under different names that you'd never connect to the actual company. Its facilities were also out in the most deserted portions of America that they could find, from the deserts to the forests and even up into Alaska. It was as off the map as you could pretty much get.

The train began to pull to a stop at the station, and Danny took a deep breath. He wanted to look as nervous as possible, and he had to admit that he was. He wasn't sure what he was going to have to expect out of this job. But he reminded himself that he needed to look as much like that kid named Danny White that everyone already thought he was.

He had changed clothes, now wearing a black cap and a headpiece with a small microphone and ear piece. It looked like something you might see on the baseball field, but he knew it was to contact the other members of his team when he was on the field. Bandages were over his hands a wrists, just as he had been warned to do by Mann Co.

He was wearing a red shirt with the sleeves rolled up, matching the earpiece. He was wearing black pants, long white socks and light running shoes. There was a small bag strapped across his back, and he had a baseball bat and baseball in his hands. All in all, he looked like any kid off the street, and certainly like one with no business on the battlefield.

There was no backing out now though. Once his "application" as a mercenary had been accepted by Mann Co. and the gates had been closed behind him there had been something final about it. If they didn't pull this job off, well he'd be stuck here until he was in some shallow grave somewhere with the rest of the poor unfortunate souls who had been brought here. As the doors slid open and he spotted two women waiting for him though, he knew there was nothing else to do but preform his job as best he could. He leaped out into the station and gave them a smile.

The oldest woman was average height and thin, wearing a dark purple suit and watching him with her hands clasped behind her back. She had black hair and dark gray eyes, and a single white stripe ran up through her bangs. She seemed completely unimpressed by what she was seeing, and Danny pretended to not notice.

The younger woman was one he'd only ever seen in pictures at the Agency, the young lady his own age that was simply known as miss Pauling. She had dark brown hair tied behind her head into a lose but professional looking ponytail. Her eyes were a bright green color and she was wearing a light purple suit. She met his eyes for only a moment before turning again to the older woman, who was obviously her "boss".

"This is RED Team's new Scout?" the older woman asked.

"Yep," Danny replied. "Dat's me."

"I've seen better," the woman replied. "But I suppose I've also seen far worse. You will simply call me the Announcer, and for the duration of this war I will be keeping you up to date on what is happening on the battlefield. I will be your boss, and you will show me respect. Are we clear Mr. White?"

"Gotcha," Danny replied, giving her a bit of a salute. She seemed to stare at him for a long moment, though glare might have been a better term.

"Well," she said. "At least you have better manners than the last one. Do not disappoint me. My assistant, miss Pauling, will take you to where the rest of your Team is waiting. Ceasefire is now in effect, so don't threaten anyone in blue."

"Read ya loud and clear, boss," Danny said. The Announcer just nodded.

"I leave him to you, miss Pauling," the Announcer said, stepping away and making her way down another hallway.

"Of course ma'am," came the reply from miss Pauling.

They both watched as the Announcer made her way down another hallway. The doorway closed behind her, but neither of them even seemed to blink out of their characters. They couldn't afford to. They both knew that they could still be under watch right now even though they couldn't see any cameras or other people. Besides, it was far better to pretend they were these two people who technically didn't exist at all.

Miss Pauling took a step forward, running her eyes down a clipboard she was carrying. Danny gave her a rather goofy smile and offered his hand to her. She however just looked up and raised an eyebrow at him as he did so. She stepped forward, ignoring his hand, and seemed to reach up and brush at some stain or fuzz she saw on his hat. He felt in that instant as she slipped a piece of paper under the brim of his hat and out of view. Danny awkwardly put his hand down.

"As you heard," she said. "you'll be on RED Team here in the facility. Try to look better than this next time you're in front of the Announcer."

"So uh," Danny said. "You're miss Pauling? My name's Danny, Danny White."

"I know," she said, lifting the clipboard a little into his line of sight. "We searched your application in the database. You'll be getting paid on the hour, as well as a bonus for every victory you receive. Respawn stations are set up to avoid permanent death, but they only run from noon to five. Then the ceasefire is called until the same time the next day, when another event will take place. Take care not to get wounded during this time. Though your medic will be standing by in case of this, you will not be able to respawn during the times of ceasefire, resulting in permanent death."

"Wha?" he asked, blinking. "Respawn? 'Permanent' death?"

"You'll get used to the idea soon enough," she promised him. "The rest will be explained by your team. I'm only here to give you the basic information about the job until your team arrives from their ceasefire. Your objective will be different daily, but you will be always looking to defeat the BLU Team, who will be wearing all blue. Simple enough I should think. Follow me Danny, and I'll show you into your Team's base, at least until the Arena moves."

"Uh," Danny said. "Yeah, sure."

Miss Pauling turned and made her way towards the opposite hallway that their "boss" had gone down. Still looking down the clipboard and seeming to make notes about things on forms in front of her, she walked in front of him and through the labyrinth of halls. The walls were white with lines of blue and red running down this central train building. Soon enough though, they'd left the building behind and walked out into the bright sunshine.

Danny continued to walk after her kind of awkwardly, staring at her for long periods of time like a boy who'd never seen a woman in his life, then looking around at other things besides her, anything but her. He wanted to make himself look as much like an awkward adult just out of his teens as possible. As he walked though, he made sure to note several things.

For one, the Arena itself where they'd be having their battles was tiny. As far as he could see, there was a bridge connecting the two sides with only a single glowing point. There was a metal circle surrounding it with a white light above it, projecting a triangle with a question mark spinning above it. He wasn't sure what it was, or what it was meant to be, but it was definitely interesting.

The arena itself was split into two sides, one that had a facade of blue markings and symbols, and the other with red. It was well manicured and well taken care of. Though supposedly there was a war going on, he could see little signs other than the scattered shell cases and bullets laying on the ground. Scattered bullet holes as well defined the rest of the area around them. It once again made Danny realize just how strange this place really was.

Miss Pauling led him right towards the section of the map that was red, just like everything he was in. As they were making their way over however he looked up and spotted a flash of blue clothing as someone disappeared quickly into the blue half of the base. He paused only a moment, until Miss Pauling impatiently cleared her throat. He looked towards her and gave her a bashful smile. As she began walking forward again, he ran to catch up with her and pretended to awkwardly try and make conversation for good measure.

"So uh," he said. "You work here?"

"I do," she replied. "We won't see each other often, so don't try to pretend we're friends or anything."

"Oh," he said. "oh, okay. Great. You're real serious about ya work, huh?"

"I am," she replied. "And I suggest you be the same way if you want to last long here."

"Right right," he said. "But, ya know...ya think we could...hang out some time on the weekends...or ya know...wheneva we aren't busy?"

"I doubt it," Pauling said, pushing her glasses up farther onto her nose and pausing at the door of the Red base. "We'll almost always be busy with our jobs. Anyway, we're here. I'll take you inside and show you around, as well as introduce you to your teammates."

"Oh, okay," he said awkwardly, trying to look as hurt as possible. "Yeah...busy...we'll both be...real busy...Yeah, that's great. Let's go meet everyone."

Miss Pauling, true to her character, gave him a hard, staring look as if she was trying to figure him out. Danny just looked away and made himself look as awkward as possible as he stared up at the red's base. She just sighed and then walked into one of the side doors of the building. Danny quickly followed her inside, pulling his cap down as if he was self conscious of what had just happened and wanted to disappear from view as quickly as possible.

"The team is made of mercenaries," miss Pauling said. "so I don't think I have to explain that things can get...hectic around here. The team you'll meet is only seven at this point, but it's meant to have nine. Eventually we'll fill the role of Spy as well. You're the Scout, so try not to die."

"Oh yeah," Danny said, rolling his eyes. "That's real comfortin'. I'll do dat."

"Well," she said, pausing in front of the door. Danny paused as he could hear the sounds of what sounded like yelling and an explosion somewhere in the background. "Here we go. Just...don't make any enemies with your team and don't act too surprised all right?"

"Sure," Danny shrugged.

Danny couldn't help but be a little nervous. He'd never worked around so many mercenaries before. He'd worked around one or two, and he knew that varying degrees of sanity could be present among them. Even so, when she opened the door and led him inside, the sight that greeted him was nothing short of chaos. He couldn't help but be both nervous and utterly surprised. Apparently, Mann Co. had a policy to hire the best they could, or the most insane that no one else wanted. Then again, with mercenaries, that could easily be both.

The first thing that he saw was the obviously drunk black man who was running around the room and sloshing his brown bottle of (was that whiskey?) everywhere. He had brown eyes, a slight beard, and seemed to be one who was causing the explosions if the reactions of the others was any indication. He was wearing dark pants, boots, a brown vest with some sort of explosive attached to the front of it, a red shirt and a small black cap.

Another man stepped into view as he slowly followed Miss Pauling farther inside. This man was scowling, which made his already huge chin more prominent. He was wearing a helmet on his head, making his blue eyes hardly visible, and he didn't have a beard but certainly wasn't clean shaven. He was wearing a red uniform and dark boots, with grenades attached to the front of his sash. The look on his face indicated that he wasn't amused.

As they stepped farther inside they noticed two more people. One was a man of average height with dark black hair and blue eyes. He was frowning as he concentrated on the work of healing he appeared to be doing on the other man. He was obviously well disciplined and also well groomed. He paused only a moment to push his glasses up farther on the bridge of his nose. Those glasses were blue frames, small and round. He also wore a white lab coat and dark pants, dark boots and red gloves.

The man this man was working on was honestly the largest man he'd ever seen. Hell, he would have thought he'd seen an enormous shaved bear if he hadn't known better. He had blue eyes and a bit of a five o' clock shadow on his face. He was tall and large, his hands easily the size of Danny's entire head. He was honestly rather intimidating. He wore a red shirt with a black vest zipped up on top of it. He had black pants and dark boots, and a large sash of enormous bullets was hanging across his chest. He remained rather silent as he sat there.

There was a man leaning against the wall in the back of the room, a tall man with a rather long face. He wore lightly brown tinted shades and a hat with what appeared to be teeth around it. His face appeared to be rather clean shaven, and his eyes were a dark blue. His hair was brown, and he had long sideburns. He wore a brown vest over his red shirt, and his pants and boots were dark brown as well. He was the only one who noticed the two of them enter, and his eyes flashed as he looked at Danny. He had good eyes.

The last two men were in the back of the room as well, sitting in the back corner. The first man was kind of squat and wore dark black goggles, making it impossible to see his eyes. He wore a red work suit and a yellow hard hat. One single yellow and gray glove was on his right hand, and he wore dark boots. Other than appearing to be bald and having a five o' clock shadow, there wasn't much else that really could be said about his appearance.

The last man was sitting next to him and (to Danny's slight confusion) trying to get a lighter to spark and set a book on fire. He was in a fire suit, a red shiny latex suit. He appeared to be kind of shorter and squat like the other man. Danny couldn't see any of his body, seeing how dark boots, dark gloves, and a gas mask hid any features from view.

This was his "team"? He wasn't sure what to exactly make of them or what he was going to do. He supposed though that he should at least try and get friendly with them. It was far better to have them be his allies and like him than have them react negatively if his cover was ever blown. Miss Pauling stopped and looked around the room, and Danny stopped too as he blinked at all of them.

"Don't you drop another bomb again, MAGGOT," the man with the helmet yelled. "Do you want to blow us all up?"

"Ah," the dark skinned man cried in a thick Scottish Accent. "Tha' littl' thin' wouldn't blow us up. I can show ya somethin' that will blow us up!"

"Oi," the man with the quick eyes said from the back in an obvious Australian Accent. "We've go' compan' mate."

It was only then that everyone else in the room looked up and seemed to notice them. They all turned to look with some surprise at Miss Pauling, a face they obviously already knew. However when they looked at him there seemed to be a change in their demeanor. Was it guilt he saw? Interesting. He flashed them all a cocky smile though.

"Miss Pauling," the man in the helmet greeted.

"Hello Tom," she sighed, then straightened importantly. "Well then. This is Mr. Danny White, who has been selected as a replacement for your Scout."

"Yo was' up?" Danny greeted, raising his hand in greeting quickly and continuing to smile.

"Get him settled in," Miss Pauling said, checking her watch quickly. "I've got a meeting to be to in ten minutes. All right boys, you know the drill."

With that said Miss Pauling turned and left quickly, truly looking like she was in a hurry. He caught a slight hand signal to him as he passed, what appeared to be little more than a twitch of her finger. It was a general wish of luck between members of the Agency, but even he was impressed. He'd never seen one so well hidden before. He didn't acknowledge this however and just continued to smile at the other men in the room.

To his surprise, it was the man with the lighter who ran forward first. He seemed extremely happy and bounced up and down as he waved at Danny. Danny just blinked, unsure what to make of the man as he showed him a flower he'd hidden somewhere on his person, and then proceeded to light it on fire. Was that his gesture of good will?

"Mmmpf mmmpf," the man said something that he couldn't understand under his breath. "Hudda-hudda!"

"That's Pyro," the man who'd been next to him said in a thick Southern United States Accent and he stepped forward. "None of us know his real name, seein' how he doesn't take his mask off. He likes settin' things on fire. My name's Deil Conaghar, the team's Engineer. I build things to help the team get around, do some healin' and defenses and such."

The rest of the team seemed to wake up suddenly and turn to Danny as well. They didn't seem like they exactly liked his presence here for whatever reason, and many were frowning thoughtfully. The man with the hat that had teeth on it though seemed to be watching Danny closely. If anyone was going to blow his cover, it would be him.

"I em Maksim Navikov," the huge man in the back in a thick Russian Accent said simply. "I em Heavy weapons guy." The man next to him pushed his glasses up as he looked at him.

"My name is Ludwig Schwarz," he said in a thick German accent. "I am zhe Medic on zhe team. If you are in trouble, you vill come to me."

Danny just kind of nodded. The man had such unnervingly severe eyes. He certainly didn't seem like a bad man, but his eyes gave the impression that he'd seen much more than he was letting on. The drunk man stepped forward a little then with a huge grin.

"Hello lad," he said. "My name's Travish McGroot. I'm the team's Demoman. My job is ta blow thin's up."

"Which you do too well," the man in the helmet said before looking up and straightening suddenly. "All right maggot. I am the team's Soldier, Zane Taylor. You'll do what I say and when if you want to survive. Do you understand me boy?"

"Yeah sure," Danny said with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

"You will respond with 'Yes sir' when I address you," the man snapped. The last man, the Australian, stepped forward and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Easy mate," he said. "Le' him ge' used to thin's around here first." Then he looked up and tipped his hat to him. "The name's Mun-Dee. You're Danny White, righ'?"

"Yep," he said, smiling mischievously again. "Dat's me."

Again an odd silence seemed to fall over all of them, only broken by the sound of the lighter as Pyro attempted to light it again and again to set that book on fire. He was already bored with what was going on and had turned back to his apparent fascination with fire. Danny gave them a rather confused look as he watched them all.

"Well," he said. "Did I do somethin' wrong already? Why so quiet, pally?"

Again silence seemed to reign over everyone. There seemed to be some sort of awkward silence between all of them. Danny could guess that it had something to do with their previous Scout and Spy, which he and his father would be replacing. Finally, Ludwig seemed to steel himself and step forward to look at Danny.

"Zhis is a dangerous job," he said. "Herr Scout, are you avare of zhat?"

"Nah," he said, rolling his eyes. "I signed up because I didn' know what I was gettin' into."

"I am sure you have heard of our procedures," he said. "as vell as our ceasefire, and our respawn system."

"Yeah," Danny said, raising an eyebrow. "About dat. What da heck is dat about?"

"Zhere isn't much to explain," the Medic said, waving his hand in a dismissing fashion. "Vhen ve are fighting zhe BLU team ve can die and are respawned during zhe times of battle. It is after zhat time zhough zhat accidents cause issues."

Danny caught the fact that once again, they all seemed to look around awkwardly. Apparently the subject was rather touchy with all of them. Even Pyro seemed to look up for a minute as this was said, though he was quickly back to trying to burn his book. Danny continued to look cluelessly around the room though.

"Let's say," Deil said suddenly, quietly. "that we had a bit of a fight with our last Scout and Spy. Then the BLU team killed 'em even with the ceasefire. That's why there was a job openin'."

Danny said nothing, but he knew that the BLU team hadn't killed those two. They had been killed by the forces outside of the games and battles themselves. Apparently these people didn't know much about the battles they were taking part in and didn't want to know. Danny knew though that he needed to press for any information.

"Why would dey do dat?" he asked. "I mean, da battles seem simple...too simple. It's kinda creepy actually now dat I think about it..."

The mercenaries didn't seem to know how to respond to this. It apparently had occurred to none of them to ask questions about it. Then again, these kind of people lived for their pay checks and from getting from point A to point B. They didn't question orders because they got paid. However he saw something close to fear flicker just slightly behind all of their eyes a moment. It was time he got them thinking.

"It's no' our job to ask questions lad," Travish said, though he said it hesitantly.

"Besides," Zane cut in suddenly. "you've got a bigger job to do. You're the Scout, which means you run in before us to check for their defenses."

"Also you just kind of annoy people to keep fire off of us," Deil added quietly. Zane pretended not to hear him.

"Boy," Zane said seriously. "you'll only hear this warning once. Watch out for the BLU Spy. That man's a killing machine."

Danny just blinked as if in surprise at the way they had all reacted. Every single one of them, even Pyro, had seemed to almost shudder at these words. Was this the same BLU Spy who had contacted the Agency and asked for their help? It sounded like this Spy was a veteran of these games. Danny just kind of chuckled nervously.

"I'm sure I can take 'em," he said.

"I'm not so sure," Zane said, stepping forward and seeming to be once again sizing him up. "What made a boy like you become a Mercenary anyway?"

"My ma was sick," Danny said with a shrug. "She needed the money."

"That doesn't explain why though."

"Blame my pa then," Danny said, not untruthfully. "Dangerous jobs have been in da family for a while."

Everyone in the room seemed to blink then, surprised at his response. They didn't seem to know what to make of Danny. He seemed cocky, but there was something behind his every word and action that seemed to say that this was almost a forced act, that he knew his limits and abilities and knew them well. Zane continued to frown.

"A boy like you will be killed in a day," he said.

"No mate," Mun-Dee suddenly said to everyone's surprise. "This boy...he's a real fighter."

There was silence as Mun-Dee stepped forward, his eyes glued to Danny's. Danny didn't look away either, almost challenging him to come forward. As the man walked up and stood in front of the boy everyone else watched him, seemingly confused. They no doubt knew that this man's eyes were far better than theirs.

"You can see it in his eyes," the man continued. "Ther's somethin' else ther'. You're no' all you seem, are ya mate?"

"Everyone has deir secrets, pally," Danny replied darkly.

The others all seemed to blink in the change they could see in the young man in front of them. Suddenly he wasn't smiling and cocky. He was calculating, mysterious, and definitely very sure. He was far darker and serious than before, and he smiled mischievously up at the taller man from under the brim of his hat.

There was no point in hiding this from them. Danny knew that though he couldn't say everything, letting them know he was more than he seemed would make it easier if his cover was blown far too early. If they knew he wasn't exactly just the Scout, then he knew from experience that explinations would be much easier. For now though, they just looked confused.

"I'll show ya to your room," Mun-Dee said, his eyes flashing again.

Danny just nodded, and the darker look on his face was gone. He appeared to be a cocky teenager once again, and he said nothing. The man just motioned for him to follow and made his way down one of the hallways away from the area where they normally gathered. As they left the room, the sound and smell of burning paper came from the back of the room.

Mun-Dee said nothing, and Danny let the silence hang between them. He knew that he'd have to let his new teammates get used to the idea that he was more than he seemed, and let them process what had just happened. And besides, he had things he needed to do as well to prepare both physically and mentally.

The man stopped in front of a simple wooden door, simply motioning to it. Danny nodded his thanks before stepping inside and closing the door behind him. The room was simple, dark with a window with blinds on it. There was a small closet for all of his things, a bed, and a small night stand with a lamp that would provide the only light in the room when the sun went down.

Danny made his way over to the bed and sat down, throwing his bag down and starting to unpack it. He wanted to make it look like he was as nervous as possible as he was "moving" into his knew place with his new strange housemates. As he put the small amount of belongings he'd brought with him away into the closet and flopped down on the bed, he flipped on the light and stared up at the ceiling as if he was thinking.

He waited until he was sure he heard Mun-Dee move off again down the hallway, and then waited for quite a few more minutes. Sure he was alone, he finally pulled off the headset and hat in a show of trying to make himself look more nervous. He moved his hand towards his pocket and made it look like he pulled the paper that Miss Pauling had given him earlier under his hat from his pants. He could never be too careful.

He unfolded the first piece of paper, which was a large piece of paper like a letter. Pauling had skillfully pressed the pen into the page to make it look like she'd written a much longer note than the one present, some sort of letter. Unless there was a camera that could see from under the blankets and up, anyone watching would think he was reading a letter from someone. He made a great show of looking down the whole length of the page as he read the simple note written in the tidy scrawl.

Two,

When you get this, you'll finally be alone and be able to read it. I trust you know when. You're not one of the best for nothing. Tomorrow during the battle, get our ally by himself. Make a show out of it of course, so they can't tell. But give him the second piece of paper that's in here so that he'll know who you are. He already knows I'm here.

One

Danny then opened the second piece of paper to look at it, unfolding it carefully. He made it look like he was still busy reading the other letter, but took time to scan over the words of the second piece of paper he'd be giving to the BLU Spy later on. It was simple and to the point.

Spy,

The second of three has arrived. I am the second, the one who is gone in a flash.

Two

It was a simple note, one simply to say that he was the second spy, the RED Scout, to have arrived from the Agency. So he knew that there were going to be three of them coming, and he already knew of Pauling. So Danny just had to be sure to give this to him when there wouldn't be a chance of them being seen by anyone else. They couldn't let anyone know after all. He folded the paper with a sigh.

"Ça commence," Danny said in French under his breath.

He slipped the papers into his pocket silently, knowing that he had to keep them as secret and safe as possible. Until he handed off this note and had the chance to burn this paper then he was in danger of being discovered. He supposed though it wouldn't be too hard to get Pyro to burn it for him. He was fascinated with fire after all.

Danny sighed once again like he was tired and put his hat and headset on the table. Then he flipped off the light and rolled over as if to go to sleep.

Finally I finished chapter two. It's starting to set up the story and get things moving along as well with everyone else. There are a lot of secrets and things hidden in this story obviously, and Mun-Dee's already onto it. Though, if you want to know what any of the italicized words are you'll have to look them up because I'm too lazy to write it here. They're in other languages (or hand written).

Anyway, if you enjoyed feel free to leave a review below and tell me how you think I did. I do enjoy reading them and seeing what you guys think.