A/N: Hey folks!
Dong, Dongdong, Chiang!
Dong, Dongdong, Chiang!
Dong, Dongdong, Chiang! Dong, Chiang! Dong, Chiang!
If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Let me say this first...
"Gong Xi Fa Cai, Hong Bao Na Lai!"
A.k.a. Happy Chinese New Year! I'm celebrating the New Year in my hometown in Johor Bahru. Thus, this chapter was entirely written from my hometown. Cool, right?
Just want to say thanks to all the readers who have read my story so far. Even though I don't have a lot of story alerts of this story and no reviews of my story... (Wait it's only one alert T.T) I would like to say thank you for reading my story.
This will be my red packet gift from me to all of you.
Disclaimer: I do not own Team Fortress 2 as they are owned by Valve (any pun here?). I do own Chris Wong, Yuriko Nakamura, Master Akira and any other characters that are going to be listed in the story though I would only post the names of the characters at the end of my story chapters.
Chapter 4: First Impressions
March 1960
The sound of Miss Pauling's footsteps slowly faded from the meeting room. The moment Miss Pauling's footsteps were out of earshot, the room once again became silent. Only the sound of spinning fans and the low hum of the ventilation shafts were the only sounds in the room.
Everyone looked at one another, unsure of how to approach this awkward situation. The tense environment continued for several moments until Chris spoke up.
"Sooooo... we umm... you guys are the RED mercenaries?" he began.
"Well, yeah we are," the Sniper replied uncertainly.
"Ok, well... I can see that you guys are an odd bunch of people and I would like to get to know more about all of you," Chris continued.
"Well... yeah, I think you're right," said the Engineer.
"Well, ok then. Why don't you introduce yourself?" Chris asked no one in particular.
"Sure son," the Texan began. "Now we don't go around callin' anyone by our real names but you can call us by our nicknames," he stood up from his seat and walked towards Chris.
"Call me Engineer," the Texan introduced and held out his gloved hand. Chris proceeded to shake his hand. The male ninja did not think much of it but he felt that the Engineer's hand was stiff and thin. He made a mental note to ask him about it later on.
The Sniper then stood up as the Engineer shook Chris's hand and approached Yuriko. "Hello sheila, call me sniper," he introduce himself to Yuriko.
"Oh, konichiwa Sniper-san," she replied and shook his hand.
"You know Miss Nakamura, I-"
"Please, call me Yuriko and you can call him Chris," Yuriko interjected with a small smile.
"Well, ok then. You're actually the first sheila on our group you know? You must be something special to be hired by RED. I'm looking forward to fight with you," he said.
"Well, I guess. But really I-"
Suddenly, the Soldier slammed his hand on the table and stood up, gaining everyone's attention. "Now you listen here missy!" the military man forcefully pushed the sniper aside and looked at Yuriko threateningly in the eye.
"What is wro-"
"Don't play dumb with me you no good dress wearing maggot!" the Soldier boomed. "You think you can just march right into our team just like that? You think because you're a girl you think we'll go easy on you? Well, think again missy!"
"B-but I was-"
"I personally despise the thought of women working with me," the Soldier cut her off. "I personally think that somewhere during the recruitment process, they made the foolish mistake of accidentally accepting you into the team, and I generally think that all women are weak and they are a huge burden on our team. BECAUSE OF YOU, YOU just jeopardized our chances of wresting power back to RED!"
"Hey Soldier, don't shout at the sheila," the Sniper tried to stop the sudden commotion. "She just got here and you don't even-"
"AND SO WHAT?" the Soldier cut the rugged hunter as well. "You know how weak women are, I do not, and I repeat, DO NOT THINK that women should join the team," He redirected that comment at the Sniper.
"Whoa there pardner," the Engineer cut in between the Soldier and the Sniper. "Now'd you better stop bad mouthin' little missy here. This ain't the welcomin' party we shoulda give to our new arrivals."
"Shut up you Canadian," the soldier shouted at the Engineer.
"Ah hell, you better take that back and apologize to Miss Yuriko here," The Engineer sternly declared.
"You can't say that to me you numbskull! Do you understand that?" the Soldier threatened.
"Make me," the Engineer dared.
"Why YOU..." the soldier quickly threw a right fist at the Engineer. The constructor instinctively used his arms to block his face from the unavoidable and painful contact and closed his eyes shut.
It never came.
Engineer braced for a few seconds but realised he wasn't hurt. He opened his eyes and was shocked to see Chris grabbing the Soldier's fist, stopping the blow.
"Hmpf, you think you're all that aren't you?" Chris asked with a dark tone to his voice. "You think that girls are useless? You would dare to punch your teammates just to show them who's the boss?" Chris tilted his head upwards and looked at the Soldier's shocked expression straight in the eye. A smirk was plastered on the male ninja's face.
"What the? Unhand me this instant maggot!" the soldier instructed the male ninja.
"Not until you learn some proper etiquette mind you," Chris finished with a casual tone.
"That's it! You're gonna get it from me you hear!" the Soldier then threw his other fist at Chris, hell bent on teaching the new recruit a lesson in respecting seniors.
Instead, Chris released the Soldier's right hand and side-stepped the oncoming punch. Chris quickly grabbed the Soldier's left arm and used his body as leverage. He pulled the soldier over his body, sending the military man flying into a grey metal cabinet. The soldier slammed into the metal doors of the cabinet, leaving a huge dent in them as the soldier slumped to the floor.
The act caught everyone by surprise and they gasped when Chris took down the RED soldier so easily. The Soldier, who was left in a daze, was seeing stars and his vision was slightly blurred. The Engineer and sniper who were the front-row witnesses had straight faces plastered on them. They were immediately impressed by what Chris had done. Yuriko on the other hand didn't know what to do. She just stood there as the event quickly unfolded before her.
Chris approached the Soldier and looked at him with an expressionless face as though taunting him. The Soldier looked up at Chris as he slowly recovered from the impact with the cabinet.
"Let me say it again," Chris said to the soldier. "You'd better learn some manners or you'll be on the receiving end of another one of those," Chris moved closer to the Soldier's face.
"Understand?"
The Soldier grunted in response and he slowly got up. He began to limp slowly to the exit as he felt bruises in his back and right knee. The German doctor stood up and offered to help the Soldier.
"Get away from me German! I do not need medical assistance from you," he growled at the medic.
As the Soldier left the room, an uneasy silence came about the room. The Medic looked down and shook his head in a show of disappointment.
"I zhink zat ve should go now," he said as he adjusted his glasses.
"Aye lads, that was tough," the Demoman replied. "I'm gonna go and get me more scotch," the Demoman stood up and began to leave the room.
"I vill check on ze soldier to see iv he is allright," the Medic soon followed suit.
Only the Scout, Pyro, Engineer, Sniper, Heavy, Spy and the two ninjas remained in the room. The tense atmosphere had dissipated and Chris took this opportunity to approach Yuriko.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked gently. The female ninja nodded slowly.
"Yuriko, you don't have to worry about him. He doesn't know yet what you're capable of. Ignore his comments, don't let them get to you. Remember what I said about walking the walk? Just let it be and he'll soon warm up to you. Got it?"
Yuriko closed her eyes and sighed. She opened them slowly and nodded in agreement. Chris gave her a knowing smile and turned towards the Engineer.
"Is the, umm... the Soldier going to be fine?" he asked the Texan.
"Ah don't cha worry about him, he's just a lil' cranky from the losses we've been havin' as of late," the Engineer replied. "We have seen worst, like there was this one time a BLU called him a 'civilian', hoooo wheeee, he surely got beat up real bad."
"I'll take a note on that," said Chris as he shrugged.
"Hey Chris," the Sniper began. "Don't mind me asking, but what shall we call you two as? I mean with what you did just now..."
"Well, I'm not very fond of the thought of you guys calling us by our codenames, but they placed us under the name 'ninja'," Chris replied.
Both the Engineer and the Sniper raised an eyebrow in interest.
"Shoot pardner, you two sound like interesting folk to fight with, I really do look forward to fightin' with you guys," the engineer said in a semi-excited tone.
"Same here mate," the Sniper added.
"Sure, can't wait to see what you guys can do too," Chris replied casually.
"Hey, how bout we show you around the place for a while?" the Engineer suggested.
"Sure thing, lead the way," Chris replied.
"Alrighty then. Hey Pyro, Heavy, let's show them around the place shall we?" the Engineer called out to the two mercenaries.
Both the Pyro and the Heavy stood up and began walking towards the double doors. Chris, Sniper, and Engineer followed suit. The only people left in the room were Yuriko, the scout and the Spy. As the 5 men left the room, Yuriko was left with her thoughts.
"Bonjuor, Mademoiselle."
The Spy snapped Yuriko out of her thoughts as he greeted her. Yuriko looked towards the Spy who still held a cigarette in his mouth.
"Oh, konichiwa, err..."
"Please, call me Spy."
"Hai, Spy-san."
"May I ask madame," the Spy began, "if you are alright, that was harsh treatment ze Soldier put up against you at that moment."
"No Spy-san, I did not expect something like that to happen all of a sudden. Desu, I am alright now," she replied. The Spy took out his cigarette and blew out some of the smoke.
"If you say so madame. I shall take my leave, I need to do something important," the Spy said.
"Well, ok then. I will see you again then. Arigato Spy-san." Yuriko replied.
"Then we shall meet again. Au revoir Madame Yuriko," the Spy ended and activated his invisibility watch. The Spy's image faded into nothing which caught Yuriko heavily off guard and she retreated a couple of steps.
The scout, who was sitting at his seat, watched as Yuriko tried to regain her composure. Footsteps could be heard leading out of the room. As the footsteps slowly diminished, Yuriko's composure slowly returned. The Scout decided to use this opportunity to stand up and approach Yuriko.
"H-hey there, uh... Yuriko right?" he stammered slightly.
"Oh, umm..." was Yuriko's reply.
"Yeah don't worry, you can call me Scout," he began, trying to impress the young female ninja.
"Oh, konichiwa Scout-san," she said.
"Yeah, um, so, I want to, uh, you know, like..." the young Bostonian tried to continue.
"Uh, Scout-san? Are you ok?" Yuriko asked.
"Oh, y-yeah, I mean n-no, I mean, I-I..."
"Oh, never mind Scout-san. I think I should go find Chris-san right away," she said.
"Oh, well, okay den'," Scout replied weakly.
"Yuriko? Yuriko!" Chris's voice could be heard calling her.
"I-I have to go now Scout-san. I will see you later then," She said.
With that, Yuriko ran towards the door in the direction of Chris's voice. The baseball lover stood there, alone in the room. His eyes were staring in the direction of the double doors where Yuriko had left. His mind crawled with thoughts of disbelief and regret.
"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" he cursed to himself.
To Be Continued...
End A/N: Xing Nian Kuai Le, Wan Shi Ru Yi!
So that folks was my red packet gift from me to you this Chinese New Year. I should also report that my exams are coming up in March so I may not have time to post the next chapter. Hopefully I would be able to keep updating the story by then.
Anyways, I wish everyone a merry and prosperous Chinese New Year of the Rabbit.
Review please!
Thanks and Cheers!
Edit February 3rd 2011: Looks like i won't be able to celebrate the Chinese New Year this year. My grandpa passed away this afternoon and we had to begin preperations for his funeral instead of celebrating this year. The mourning period should be about 2 weeks but it doesn't matter right now. He wanted me and my family members to be happy and I respect his decision. Though I might seem like I'm ranting about what happened in my family, no, I'm just saying that if anyone is celebrating CNY this year, make sure you spare a thought for all the family members and those who have passed on. I thank you if you took the time to read this, it really means much to me...
Note: This chapter was written on the 2nd of February.