Team Fortress 2 and its characters belong to Valve. Most of this stuff remains canon; teams are portrayed in a more realistic manner (or as realistic as you can get with a game like this) while trying to stay true to the personalities of the characters involved. Have fun reading or simply close out of it if you don't.

Cheers.

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It was afternoon when the train slid to a stop, but it wasn't the end of the line.

The green-eyed Spy stepped off the platform and onto the surprisingly lush grass that grew along the railway. He was already smoking, attempting to stand alone from the other men who were exiting the train car behind him. He was one of them now -- at least outwardly -- and it would be key to act like one of them as well. Cold, unassociated, disinterested in anything but information which, at this point, didn't seem forthcoming.

As far as he could tell, they were unloading in the middle of nowhere. Mountains loomed off in the distance, greenery peppering the area for miles with not a structure in sight as far as the eye could see and, perhaps, even farther..

A Scout shoved past him, nearly hitting him as he slung his bat up onto his shoulder, "Fuckin' sticks.."

"Watch your step, boy," the Spy snapped, earning a sneer from the uppity teen who spat down at his feet. There was no further confrontation, but no one was handing out hugs either. The sound of running engines greeted his ears as he moved around the forming mass of Blu troops and lifted a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. Ah.. A convoy of halftrack trucks appeared to be approaching. Perhaps this wasn't their destination after all..

"MEN!" he heard shouted from the crowd.

A few turned, nudging those next to them and getting their attention as well while everyone began to focus on the Soldier who had yelled.

"In formation, maggots, I want you all prepped and ready for your joy ride. Move it, move it up, this tea party is OVER." No one looked particularly thrilled, though in about three minutes all of the classes separated themselves into groups. Spies with Spies, Pyros with Pyros, the whole lot. The undercover Spy noticed a severe lack of Medics. In fact, he noticed that there wasn't a single one in sight..

During his sweep of the crowd, he locked eyes with an Engineer. A hint of a smile was on the man's face. Ah.. He recognized him immediately as his team mate, one who had voluntarily removed his mask for the sake of a more convincing disguise. It was the same man who had stopped the Sniper in the hallway all those weeks ago and sent him packing with a briefcase locked to his arm. He and the green-eyed man were two of the most veteran members of Red team and the senior-most members of the Spy class. What they were doing now was incredibly dangerous though both men understood the risk and turned their eyes back toward the Soldier who was moving down the lines correcting postures and prattling off information.

Both Reds made sure to listen.

"Listen up, maggots! I want all of you in these trucks pronto. Neck to neck, shoulder to shoulder, eyeball to eyeball. I don't want to see any waving, I don't want to see any limbs outside the vehicles at any time." The Scout section groaned. How young and stupid did this Soldier think everyone was? The Demoman section seemed to be having trouble standing straight, but they seemed equally unimpressed with the kiddy advice.. "Pyros, you board with Spies. Heavies.. I want one of you at the back of every truck. Scouts?" And on it went until everyone had been assigned.

The trucks finally arrived, their drivers unseen from behind the tinted glass that composed their windows. It was only a little bit unnerving, but the Blu team loaded themselves onboard with supplies in the front and men in the back like cargo. Needless to say, it felt a bit awkward being pressed so snuggly against the shoulder of an enemy Spy, but it was offset by the presence of his comrade in a truck off to his right.

Neither dared to look at the other after a single glance and throughout the drive to follow, they simply kept their heads down like everyone else.

The green-eyed Spy could see the train moving again, continuing along the tracks -- a decoy, most likely. He could see trail dusters hanging down from the halftracks, watching them sweep away their tire tracks as they moved away from the railroad and off into oblivion. The river faded with every foot they moved, soon winking out of his line of vision as they took a sharp curve away from it.

The Tentaspy lurked just beneath the surface of the water, rising only after the train departed.

Damn..

The trucks were moving away and their dust trails prevented him from seeing anything of value other than their general direction -- due South. Despite squinting, he could see no feasible destination from here save for the distant mountains. But mountains? Not very conducive to fighting., Surely something else had to be out there. Something that he would have no hope of reaching in his current state.

He still panted, the exertion of being awake and moving for 24 hours at a time having ravaged his body through and through. Spies were not built to stay awake and power nap like Snipers, they were not built for feats of strength and stamina. ..but they weren't built with tentacles either.

Still, he crawled numbly toward the bank and dragged his torso up into the grass where he collapsed and tried to calm his quaking nerves.

He felt starved, shaky, and worst of all? ..he felt weak. Surely he would be an easy target if spotted. His tentacles were burned out from all of the swimming, his human lungs and aquatic gills both working in tandem to try and steady him as he lay there with closed eyes and a pathetic grimace. Well.. He'd gotten what he came for -- enemy positioning.

There would be no chance of following them further and he realized with slow acceptance that he should begin heading back. Huh.. Another three day journey? He shuddered both from cold and reluctance, hunger pangs hollowing him out and leaving him feeling predatory. Perhaps a four day journey would be more feasible -- he badly needed to restore himself and the first thing on his to do list basically spoke for itself:

He needed to go find something to eat.

Thirty minutes later, he fell into some interesting lines of thought. Who knew bear meat was so sweet! And, for that matter, who knew they could bite hard enough to actually rip one of your tentacles off?

The lost limb twitched feebly below him, tied off with his own suit jacket as he attempted not to think about it. With a fluidity that surprised him, he was able to maneuver around on his other seven legs like a person walking on crutches to avoid agitating a broken leg. Fascinating.. But it would certainly make his journey that much harder now that unfiltered water would be exposing itself to the wound. He wondered if his aquatic body would be prepared for that -- if it was somehow naturally resistant to water-borne infection. Isn't that how octopuses survived in the ocean?

To be honest, he didn't know.

There was much that was completely foreign to him about his new body and his last hope was that young Medic the Sniper had introduced him to. He'd learned through chatting with him that he once worked at an aquarium while he was going to medical school to keep up his income. His affinity for the fish there eventually led to his studying of them through hobby. And while he went on to become a medical professional, he still kept fish as pets in his home.

For the rest of the day, he ravaged that bear carcass, surprising himself with how much he was actually able to polish off. Perhaps if he thought of it when he got back, he'd ask the Medic how much food an octopus needed to survive and if he was accidentally malnourishing himself by eating too little. Wouldn't hurt to find out, would it?

Night fell when he slid back into the river, his severed tentacle held in his arms.

It wasn't as ridiculous as it may have looked. Medics always prattled on about how miraculous they could be where severed bits and pieces were concerned. 'Remember: don't be left unarmed!' they'd say. Well.. maybe tentacles still applied. He knew they would grow back regardless, but if a Medigun could simply reattach this one, wouldn't that be better?

His thoughts were interrupted by his wounds. That bear had really lived up to its reputation: a lost tentacle, countless claw marks to the others, and a nasty bruise covering most of his right shoulder.

He couldn't wait to get back to base, eyes sliding shut as he began swimming blindly and letting the current push him back toward the Reds..

By this point, everyone on the Red team knew about the Blu Spy loose in the base.

They'd been instructed to keep an eye out for him though despite hours of searching, they'd come up empty-handed. The Sniper's friend knew why. He stood in the briefing room, smoking like a fiend while his short companion watched him with some concern..

He watched the hazel-eyed man pace around with the burned photograph in his hand, deep thought raising the intimidation factor of his scowling face until he couldn't stand it anymore. "Will you sit down? Pacing around does nozhing." The glare he received caused him to shy even further down in his seat, but he cleared his throat and attempted to nonchalantly loosen his tie, "You know as well as I he will be found. What can one man do against an entire team eef he is an inexperienced rookie?"

The Sniper's friend.. smiled.

He paused in his pacing and tucked the photograph into his suit as he walked toward the reclining Spy. "Mon Ami.." he crooned. The other Spy didn't like that tone of voice very much, but he inclined his chin and met the Red Spy's gaze evenly. "Look.. Look around you? Haha.."

Shaking his head, the man turned away and lifted his hands with a shrug, "What can one man do.. He can steal all of our intel! And, what's more.." his arms fell as he glanced back over his shoulder, "He can become invisible, he can and perhaps already has obtained a weapon, and we don't even know how he got in here!"

The shorter Spy lifted a hand to itch at his cheek as he tilted his head back to release some smoke. Staring at the ceiling for a little while, he tried to think of something to say. It was somewhere between counting the pencil holes in the ceiling tiles and opening his mouth to speak that he noticed something of interest. A vent in the ceiling.. it seemed opened slightly. Blinking gently, he lowered his head and stood, still looking at the aperture as he pulled the cigarette from his mouth and gestured toward it.

"Monsieur.."

Catching on quickly, the Sniper's friend grabbed a meter stick and reached up to poke the grate with it.

The two Spies watched it shift to the side with ease and looked toward each other..

Out in the hall, things had quieted down a good bit. The day had been bustling with wandering troops, men of all classes mingling with one another and discussing tactics for fights that couldn't even be fought at the moment.

The Sniper had spent all of today hunting, however. The comforts of a cease fire missed him entirely as he scoured the base in search of the AWOL Blu.

It was the third time he'd passed the blonde Scout's room and you know how it is in baseball, buddy. Three strikes and..

"Heeey, Steve Irwin!"

The Red Sniper paused and looked back to see the boy hanging halfway out of his room door, "..'Ello there. Something wrong?"

"Nah, only you just keep walkin' around in them high heels uh yours."

"They're not high heels."

"Uh-huh, yeah ok."

He sighed, watching the Scout as he exited his room and shut the door behind him. Tossing a baseball up and down in his hands, he started following the Aussie through the base, "So yea, listen, wassup? War's over dude."

"It ain't over, mate. We're just at an impasse."

"Yea whatever, but either way you don't gotta be all.. gung ho sentry guy," he pumped his arms at his sides for effect before resuming the tossing of the ball.

The Sniper huffed gently, glancing at him and then back up the hall as he relaxed his Kukri on his shoulder, "There's a Spoy loose in 'ere, mate. Oy'm gonna catch 'im before 'e causes any more trouble."

"I bet he got owned by one uh the Engie's Sentries by now. Seriously, dude, you really think he'd survive a whole day in an enemy base? H'yea, right.."

"The man's a Spy, Scout. Infiltrating's what he's good at."

"Plbbbt."

"Oy'm being serious here."

"Yea, what else is new?" The Sniper stopped walking, reaching out to grab the Scout by his arm and jerk him in front of himself. Startled by the sudden motion, the Scout dropped his baseball and grabbed the Sniper's offending wrist, "Yo man, what gives!"

The Sniper frowned lightly, saying nothing which in turn caused the Scout to frown too!

"I want you to go back in your room, Scout.. He'll be out at night and the last thing I want to see is your throat slit just because some damned spook thought it'd be funny to take you from behind."

The Scout sneered, "Fuck that man, I'm goin' with you. You think I'm scared uh Spies?"

"Maybe you should be," he released the boy who jerked backward and shook out his arm as he went to collect his ball. The mood had been soured and he could see it in the Scout's posture as he stood back up and pointed at the Aussie.

"You think dat? Look, pally, just cause you're all friendly with them suited fucks don't mean you're one uh them! You can't scare me, you know. I ain't scared uh no fuckin' Spies and no god damn Spy's gonna get one up on me."

"Scout, that's nawt what it's about."

"Oh really? I'm sorry, I saw your mouth move, but all I heard was: OOOH! Look out for the Spies, they'll fuck ya up real good!"

"Scout.."

"Naw man.. s'all good. Tell ya what? I'll take care of yer problem," smiling with a set of defiantly-raised eyebrows, the Scout strode right past the Sniper on the way back to his room. The Sniper watched, waiting to see what he meant when he saw the boy coming back out with his bat. Instantly a red flag went up and he started back toward him.

"Now look mate, Oy know you've got a fine ego on you, but so help me if you don't get back in your roo--"

"Hey look man, FUCK you. A'ight?" He backed away from the Sniper, hopping foot to foot, "I'm a force uh nature -- ain't nobody gotta baby me."

The Sniper simply stared at him grimly though it appeared as though even his best intimidation tactics weren't working. The Scout grinned and pulled down his hat before bolting down the hall, "You'll see, Snipes! I'll bat his fuckin' head in!"

Watching after him, he considered giving chase. But no.

Maybe it was just simple over-worrying. Maybe the Scout would be fine and lucky enough to miss the Blu entirely. He was a capable team member and had managed to survive well enough on his own for this long. Perhaps he deserved more credit than the Sniper was ready to give.

It didn't matter either way; he had a job to do..

And as he stepped in the opposite direction, he pulled his Kukri down from his shoulder and got back to it.