Holy guacamole...! Has it really been seven months since I last updated? Well, in that case, you guys are all in for a treat. Hopefully I didn't lose too many fans making them wait all this time. This chapter should be a goodie, I hope. Also, we seem to have something blossoming between Ruben and Lily. Let's see if that can grow and come to fruition. Wee-hee!
Also, I noticed that my chapter is coming out around the same time as the Uber Update in TF2. As well as the "Meet the Medic" video. BAHAHA!
5
"Thank god for hot water..."
Lily stood facing the faucet, eyes closed in bliss as she had submerged herself in the steamy cloud that was now the shower stall she stood in. A note on each entrance to the locker room, to keep anyone from getting in while she was pretty much naked and vulnerable, she had taken the next twenty minutes to shower off everything that was making her stink from that first battle. She had just washed the shampoo from her hair, which was unisex and unscented, really the only thing the men at the RED base were given for bathing. Not like she minded; she just didn't want to smell like sweat, urine, and other filth.
After washing the suds off her body, the shower was turned off, and Lily reached for the towel hanging over the wall separating her stall from another. Slicking her hair back, she wrapped the towel around herself, the slight curvature of the tops of her breasts barely exposed, while her bottom was covered completely. She walked out, heading out of the shower area, and heading for the locker area, before something caught her eye.
It was a bundle wrapped in newsprint and held together with twine, and it looked a bit bulging. Eyebrow cocked, Lily walked over to it and sat down on the bench, pulling the twine away to pull the casing off the package. When she saw what was inside, she didn't know how to respond. Inside was a pair of high-rising cuffed shorts in black, a bright red belt, and a ribbed tank top to match the belt. Beneath the clothes were her Converse.
"...Okay, this is cute," Lily said with a laugh. Pulling the clothing out, she dried herself off well, before slipping on the tank top. She looked down and rolled her eyes when her breasts looked as if they were going to poke holes in the shirt. "Note to self: get my bra cleaned..." She then looked down at her completely nude lower half. "And some underwear."
Just as she was about to slip into the pants, she heard the door from the distant end of the locker room slam open. "What the-?" Panicking, Lily pulled the pants all the way on, ignoring the slight chafing, and reached for the belt. Turning her head, she heard the footsteps get closer, and who do you suppose turned the corner?
Benjamin.
Seeing who the intruder really was, Lily rolled her eyes and leaned against a locker, shaking her head. "You're kidding me, right?" she asked, a brow raised in irritation. "Didn't you see the sign on the door saying to wait? I was gonna take 'em down when I was finished!"
"Da fuck do I care?" he said, narrowing his eyes at her. "Ya done anyways. B'sides, I ain't one t' hog up da whole lockah' room."
"Did your mother ever teach you any manners? When a lady is present, y'know, you're supposed to maybe act like a gentleman? Or at least someone with an IQ higher than 50?" She reached for the belt given to her and adjusted it on her pants.
"Oh, yer a lady? Oops." A wickedly cruel smile was flashed in Lily's direction, before the Scout kicked off his shoes and went to remove his shirt.
Lily produced a melodramatic scoff, before making a face like she was in deep thought. "You're right," she said. "I can see how my tomboyish habits can make me come off as a guy. Well, maybe I should just pull off my shirt, or my pants, and give you concrete proof. We both know it'd be the first set of tits or female parts that you've seen that wasn't printed on a piece of glossed paper!" The wicked smile was returned as the girl beamed in pride. Man, I'm getting good at this.
"Dammit, enough wit' da virgin bullshit! I ain't no virgin. I'm twenty yeahs old, fer cryin' out loud!"
"So am I, cupcake. But unfortunately for you, I was able to feel another man's skin on mine at age seventeen. Oh, how rude of me - I'm terrible sorry! I didn't realize you might be jealous that you haven't found Mister Right yet." She cocked her brow, waiting for his response. Lily: at least 4. Benjamin: 0.
Growling in aggravation, Benjamin glared at her, before leaving for the showers. "Eh, screw you; I'm gettin' th' hell away from ya..."
"Love you too, Ben-ben!" Lily listened before she heard a more enraged growl. Face bright with victory, she grabbed her dirty clothes and rolled them up, before tucking them under her arm. She slipped into her shoes and headed for the door out of the locker room, opening it to remove the sign pasted on the back of it declaring her need for privacy. "There we go..." She crumpled it up in one hand, tossing it in a nearby trashcan set out in the hall, before walking down it, trying to remember the way back to the barracks.
With nine men living in one facility, Lily had thought she would run into one of them, or at least hear one of them, in the halls. But no, complete silence. The only sound she could hear was the occasional squeaking of her shoes on the linoleum floors. "Alright, this is just plain spooky," she muttered to herself, still limping ever so slightly from her injuries. Her legs were badly bruised - she had seen large purple marks on her legs while showering - so moving on them was a bit of a burden. Finally, she came across a sign that read 'BARRACKS' in large letters above one corridor's entrance, and smiled, walking in.
Finally, she spotted a sign of life. Wiping his head and stepping out a room a bit farther down the hall was Theodore, his tool belt on as well as his goggles. Turning his head, he spotted the young woman heading toward him and gave a friendly smile, waving. "Hey, Lil'!" he called out. "How was showerin'?"
Lily shrugged as she came to stand in front of the Engineer. "Meh. Hot, steamy. A bit wet from all the water." She giggled a bit.
Theodore sighed. "Oh, hush," he muttered, reaching out to tussle her hair, forgetting her rule. Lily only narrowed her eyes, but let it go because of who was doing it. It almost felt no different from her own father. "So, I cleaned out a room for ya. An' maybe...went a bit loco an' added a few other touches here n' there."
"One question: is there any pink, orange, or yellow involved?"
An eyebrow raised, the Engineer poked his head into the room, before bringing it back out and shaking his head with a smile. "Uh, nope. Didn't paint it. Not sure that's allowed here, y'know. I jus' decorated it the same way I'd do if'n I was doin' amateur interior design for a teenager. Plus, I...threw in somethin' that can hopefully replace that MP-whatchamacallit I tore apart."
"Oh?" Without even asking if she could see the room, Lily rushed in and looked around. The bed was made up, which matched the rest of the beds in the barracks: red comforter with white sheets. Three pillows rested against the headboard, while there were only one per bed in Benjamin's room. On the dresser were a few large magazines and catalogs catering to people in her age group. A record player was placed on the corner of the dresser, a stack of records resting next to it. And to top it all off, an old-fashioned typewriter was resting next to all that, a stack of blank papers at the ready.
Lily's lips curled into a large smile, but before she could express her thanks, Theodore walked up behind her, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Yep, it's ain't the most comf'table yet, but it'll git there. The catalogs I left our are for orderin' anything you may need: snacks, clothin', pretty much everythin' else. As for the record player, go an' see what I picked out. Lemme know whatcha' think."
Only turning back to nod, Lily moved forward and picked up the stack, her green eyes going wide when she saw the names in there. "Jimi Hendrix...The Doors...Jethro Tull...The Who?" Not even bothering to gaze through the rest, she put the stack down and looked over at Theodore. "...You'd make a damn good dad, Theo."
Chuckling, the man felt his face turn red as he reached up to scratch behind his head. "Heh, damn nice a' ya to say, Lil'. Glad ya like it." Giving her a pat on the shoulder, he sighed. "Well, might as well let ya make yerself at home. If ya need anythin' from the catalogs, just lemme know an' gimme a list. Be more 'n happy to mail out an order."
Laughing softly, Lily turned around and gave the Engineer the biggest hug she could. "Thank you so much, Theo," she whispered. "I don't deserve all this kindness from you."
"Yer not used t' dealin' with Ben's bullshit quite yet," he said, hugging back. "Might as well balance it with come Southern kindness." Letting the girl go, he gave a small wave, before turning his back. "You should probably get some sleep, honey. You've had a long day."
"Goodnight, Engie," she said, winking before closing the door softly behind him. Turning around, all the girl could think to do was squeal and run over to the stack of records, taking them in her grasp before jumping onto her bed. "Time for some 'Purple Haze' and chillin' out!"
It was around nine in the morning when Lily woke up, but not from her own biological clock. Sure enough, she got herself a good ol' Bostonian wakeup call. The sound of Benjamin's loud scatting made her growl, but grin as her gaze wandered down to see her Converse just sitting at the side of her bed on the floor. Picking it up, she tossed it between her hands and sat up, waiting for the right moment when he was just by her door.
"Jackpot," she whispered, before giving it a hard toss against the door, causing a loud bang.
"DA FUCK!" The Scout nearly pounced out of his slippers and backed up against the opposite wall, staring at the door. He tried to regulate his breathing, before he could hear soft feminine laughing coming from the other side of the door. Growling, he continued to where his destination lay, cursing about how evil women were. This only caused the laughing to grow louder, and by then Benjamin was fuming.
Meanwhile, Lily had buried her head in her pillow, allowing herself to come off her giggling spree. As she calmed, she sat up, and looked out the window. It was a strange world out there - sands already heated to scalding temperatures under the Badlands sun. The rogue sound of a vulture circling the premises, looking for the corpse of a rodent or even one of a dead mercenary. The sounds of gunshots ringing out in the distance.
Hold the phone. Gunshots?
Fixing her hair, Lily slipped on her shoes and exited the room, looking down the hall to make sure a certain boy wasn't waiting to jump her. The coast clear, she headed down the hallway toward the end of the barracks, and headed down another, letting her ears guide her to the sounds of the gunshots. She cut down another small hallway, then came to a wing that looked like it had been recently added to the premises, as the details of the walls and flooring were a bit more pristine. On and on she walked, before coming to one room with a scope target symbol on the door. Next to the door, on a new brass panel in small lettering, it read "SHOOTING RANGE." The girl pushed open the door, and headed inside, to see exactly the kind of scene she envisioned: five separate shooting stalls, two of them occupied, and the sound of small explosions and gun barrels blasting into the air.
Lily walked in and closed the door, to see one person step out of his stall. Or rather, try and squeeze out. It was the Heavy, Dimitri. He did a double take when he spotted the young girl in the room, before placing his rifle down. "Vhy ees leetle lady in the shooting range?" he asked in almost the tone of a gentle giant.
Lily laughed softly. "Oh, I just heard shooting from my room, so I figure I-"
"Aye, wot's dat fem'nine-like sound I hear?" The two turned around to see none other than the Demoman stumble out of his respective stall, bottle of whiskey in his hands. "Ah, th' lass from th' lock'rr. G'mornin'."
Lily bit her lip and raised her brow teasingly. "Drunk already, Tavish?" she asked, walking over. "What kinda stuff you downin'?"
"Nothin' but th' finest whiskey in all a' Scotland. Havin' money gets ya places, lass." He handed the bottle to her, which the young girl looked at and took.
"So, by places, you mean in a ditch, in someone's bathtub, or with paint all over your face and in a bed with a strange woman?" Chuckling, she gripped the neck of the bottle, brought it to her lips, and began to take a sip. Her eyes went wide with disgust and she pulled the bottle away hastily from her mouth, coughing with a look of pure displeasure on her face. She handed the bottle back to Tavish, who only laughed along with Dimitri.
"Can't hold yer liquor, lass?" he asked, taking a swig himself like the toxic mixture was water.
"I can hold my liquor just fine," Lily replied. "That...that was just nasty, dude. I wouldn't drink that if I had the worst case of heart disease in the books."
"...Whiskey can cure heart disease?" The Heavy scratched his bald head.
"Yeah! Didn't you kno- ...oh, forget it." Lily sighed. "So, were you two practicing?"
"Aye." Tavish took yet another sip. "Gotta keep our aim perfect for takin' down BLUs."
"...and you do it drunk."
"'Ey, it works." Reaching down, the Demoman picked up his Stickybomb launcher with his free hand, and held it out. "Care t' try it?"
Lily didn't even need to hear the words that followed the physical offer, as she took the weapon from the Demoman. She stumbled a bit as she came to terms with how heavy it was, before pressing the rather large trigger. On command, the spiky, red ball was launched out and attached itself to a nearby wall.
"I...think you miss target," Dimitri said confused, pointing at the end of the shooting range, where a target painted blue was sitting.
"So? It shouldn't blow up near any of us, right?" Lily turned to look at Tavish. "How does it figure out which are BLUs?"
"Somethin' called a 'color sensor,'" he replied. "I'unno, Engie explained it t' us. Those clothes a' all them BLU dandies must se' it off."
"Oh?" Walking over to the wall, the young girl got about two feet away from the Stickybomb. She then held out her hand, waving it in front of it, wondering if it would set the device off. Sure enough, it didn't. "...That's awesome."
"Quite." Tavish walked over, pulling the gun a bit clumsily out of her grasp. "But yer grip on it was horrid. Let's find ye' another gun." Walking over to a rather large metal cabinet that spread over a length of twelve feet of wall, the Demoman slid one of the door toward the cabinet's center, displaying a rather impressive collection of weapons for each class. It was a sight enough to make Lily's mouth salivate, and her inner gamer want to giggle like a trigger-happy idiot. "These here 're all the weapons we use in battle with th' BLUs. Rumor's got it that ye' gonna be workin' with us 'cuz a' yer mastery o' 'dat Spy. Might's well get bearin's on somethin'."
As Lily took one step forward, she heard the even louder footsteps of Dimitri's walking toward the exit. "I must off to give Sasha her daily polish. Be careful with new leetle teammate, Demoman," he said in almost a concerned tone, before offering one nod to Lily and taking his leave.
"Aye..." Grumbling something else, Tavish walked closer to the exposed half of the cabinet, looking around before pulling out a shotgun, one of the more common, standard weapons of either team in the game of Team Fortress 2. He handed it off to Lily, and then walked her over to a fresh stall, a new target lying out a distance for her. "Y'see that there? Give it a shot."
"Not a problem." With a confident grin, Tavish still unaware of the girl's experience with guns, she raised it, aligning it with her arms and focusing the end of the barrel the right way for a good ten seconds. After double- and triple-checking, she closed her farthest eye, felt her tongue lightly jut out from the corner of her mouth, and pulled the trigger. A small tremor of recoil erupted in her arms, and as she looked up, she was disappointed when her bullet just clipped the border between the farthest and second farther rings out. "Aw...poop."
"Hmm, well maybe distances aren't ye' cup o' tea." Tavish slid the shotgun from Lily's grasp, before walking over to the cabinet. "Guess ye' should stick to a weapon that's better close up." That's when the liquor seemed to leave its spot as dominant thinking force, and the Demoman was able to put two and two together. "Wait, that's it!"
"...what?"
"Yer gonna be a Scoot, jus' like Benneh!"
"I'm gonna what?" Lily felt as if her life was flashing before her eyes. Sure, she could play the game, but could she really fight the battle?
"Be a Scoot! Y'know... run 'roond with a gu-"
"I know what a Scout does!" Lily's voice squeaked. "But...I have to be on the front lines for that! I just got here and you already want me dead? Da hell, Tavish!"
"I'm not sayin' yer gonna have t' be up there with Benjamin yet," the Scotsman defended, putting his hands up. "But, trainin' as one and gettin' used t' the weapons an' how t' move would be ideal. Fer you, a quick escape would be easeh!"
It was then that Lily's eyes started to lose their shine, her face its lively peach color. She looked almost like death had overtaken her. "...I...can I have more of your whiskey, dude?"
"Wot?" Tavish looked back at his bottle, before giving a roar of laughter. Patting Lily's shoulder hard, he didn't even notice her squeak again in discomfort before resuming. "Yer gonna be fine, lass! We've got the bes' medical services gover'men' money can buy. An' you'd be a perfect Scoot. It won't be all that hard!"
Tavish DeGroot...you sir, are one wrong son-of-a-bitch...
Fingers attached to pure white knuckles clutched a toilet seat in the barracks lavatory. Lily groaned, hearing it echo in the porcelain well surrounding her face, displaying numbed fear. One swig of whiskey and a business 'proposition' to put her life on the line had done simply wonders to her stomach. With each recollection of the scene back at the shooting range, another pulse of nausea shook her digestive system, followed by another maybe five minutes later. As she became fairly certain that her stomach held no more, she gave a whimper and rested against the wall next to the stall, wiping her lips with the back of her hand.
Why the hell did this have to happen to me, she wondered in silence, still trying to make sense of it all. Sure, most everyone seemed friendly enough, but at the end of the day, what came with it? Why, only the promise of another dance with death on the Badland grounds. At this rate, she wouldn't even make it out of this dimension alive. I want to go home! I want to see Bianca again. I want to be with the girls talking about board games in the dining hall. Why do I have to be here? I don't want to die. I don't want to die...
Lily's green eyes welled up with tears. After the tears came a sob, followed by the shutting down of her defenses. Wrapping her arms around her legs, she brought them against her already tender stomach and rested her forehead on her knees. She didn't care if any or even all of the others came in and found her in her position. Humiliation wrapped in estrogen was the least of her problems at this rate. She could do nothing, and no amount of sleep or wishing it away was going to do anything at all. The world of Team Fortress 2 was no longer a place where Lily found comfort in after a long day of classes. It had become the only reality she was allowed to know, the only one she existed in at the moment. She'd be damned if it was destined to become her grave as well.
"What am I gonna do...?" she whispered out hoarsely. "Do I really have to fight my way out of here until I can go home? What happens if I...?"
Any thought the young girl had formed took its hold as she choked out another sob and buried her face yet again. If she made it out of this, she swore video games would never again catch her interest. If by some miracle she was able to return, more than likely she'd develop a phobia of them. Of course, throwing away a couple hundred dollars was the least of her problems. Her situation was as impossible as situations could be. She had to hold out for something. A miracle, some kind of driving force...
Home.
Lily felt the muscles in her chest tighten as she fought to stand up straight. Her back pressing against the wall to steady herself, she gave herself time to think logically. Sure, her situation was terrible, but she wasn't making it any better. She would have to fight. It was out of the question. If she wanted to have any chance of returning to the twenty-first century and her dimension, she'd have to help the others and give the Engineer enough of an ability to plan on how to get home.
Opening the stall, the young girl walked ever so slowly out of it, as well as the lavatory, and down the hall. Heading back toward the shooting range, the only thought active in her brain at that point was whether the Scattergun was on the left or right side of the metal cabinet.
Get pumped, guys! Our little Lily is growing up, and it looks like we can see big things headed her way, as well as ours. Comments would be loved greatly, and after I get enough, I should have a good grasp on how to take the next chapter. Love the feedback, kiddies! Hope you're enjoying the ride.