(During this chapter I realized that it would be much easier on the readers and myself if I allowed Pyro to speak coherent words since the team generally understand what he says anyway; therefore, Pyro will be speaking in italics. I can not promise any times for next updates, but I can say that any review (or favorite/follow, those are always super awesome too) would probably make the process go faster. So thanks for the words of advice you marvelous people. Alright, now that I got the AN out of the way, on with what you came here for!)
~~~2~~~
It was not long before Heavy called that dinner was soon ready and the group in the lounge gathered in the dining room. The large man served nine plates, a great big smile on his face for some reason Pyro did not know. The russian man was humming something in his mother tongue as the mercenaries of RED gathered to eat. Each merc sat in a seat instantly, Pyro standing back as he guessed that they were sitting in their normal spots. Seven of the nine mercs were seated when Pyro went to grab one of the two empty seats next to each other. Scout shook his head at him so he sat in the opposite one, guessing the one he was going to sit in belonged to the single merc he did not meet yet.
The large table looked small as the eight men sat around it, food piled in front of them. Heavy sat at the left end with medic to his right. On the other side of Medic sat Scout, Spy, and Sniper. The two empty seats were on the left side of Heavy and Pyro sat next to Soldier as to keep the one next to heavy for the Engineer. And lastly, Soldier sat next to Demo.
The plates held large chunks of meat covered in sloppy bbq sauce. The sweet scent covered the room, mixing with the buttered corn and hot soup. Pyro looked uncomfortable as he wandered how he would eat the delectable food. Scout seemed to see Pyro's problem and got up to retrieve a straw, handing it to the gas masked teammate with a bright smile then sitting back down. A rush of "You're welcome"s came from the Scout and the table looked around at each other weirdly.
"Where'd Engie run off to?" Demoman questioned, playing with a fork and knife in his hands.
"Let him come at his own time," Medic suggested. "Now, let us eat. Welcome to ze team, herr Pyro."
"Welcome, Pyro," went around the table before the group began to devour into the meal Heavy provided them. They spread a "This is good, Heavy" as the team enjoyed the meal. Meanwhile, Pyro watched his new team mates carefully to note their details.
Heavy was a giant guy, with a bald head and a shadowed shave. He ate with an oddly graceful way for such a large and strong man. Medic was a much more handsome figure, masculine jaw and wild hair somehow tamed. Then there was Scout, shoveling food into his mouth like he was never taught any educate. He was the obvious youngest member with a clean shave, and untamed hair of a teen. Though something about Scout told him that the kid was a lot stronger than his tiny physic showed him. Next was Spy, who acted the exact opposite the Scout did with delicate elegance as he ate. His balaclava only revealing his similar jaw line to Scout's and a shadowed shave. Then was Sniper with his leather hat, - (An akubra, so I have been told ;) Thank you Chompking55.) - folded up the left side and orange aviators hiding his shadow shaved face.
Pyro looked around his side of the table to note the Demoman's tanned skin and clean shave. He and the Soldier ate similarly with much gusto and haste. But the Soldier intimidated Pyro with his helmet on at all times and his ripped muscles under his uniform. The man only ever screamed and usually of America.
"You okay der Pyro?" Scout asked, before shoving another forkful in his mouth.
"Haa," Pyro responded, looking down at his food realizing that he should eat and show Heavy respect for making the group dinner.
So the man stuck the straw in his hand into the soup, filtering the straw through the vents of his mask, and took a sip. It was warm and full of vegetables and meat chunks. Pyro slurped it up as the soup was extremely tasty and it slid up the straw. The rest of the men at the table were mostly finished with their meal by the time Pyro realized that he would not be able to eat the rest of the meal on his plate. He could try to send corn up the straw but that could lead to choking and Pyro most certainly did not want to choke.
Then a device clattered onto the table, making all the mercenaries look up at I the sudden sound. There stood a short guy wearing an orange construction helmet and gloves. He was the last merc for the Pyro to meet. Pyro nervously took the straw out of his vents and placed it in his empty soup bowl. The team greeted the man and Pyro choked out a 'herro'.
"That there contraption's fer you, son," the Engineer said, sitting down in his chair. "Sorry I was late, fellas. Thank you for the meal, Heavy."
"Da," Heavy replied.
Pyro tipped his head to the side in question of the gadget the Engineer set in between them. The man gave a slight smirk realizing the Pyro's confusion. He picked up the device, aimed the nozzle at his food and zapped it. After demonstrating, he handed the device to the Pyro. The food was transferred straight into the stomach of the wielder.
Pyro was amazed at the technology the Engineer shared with him and gave the man a sincere, "Phaa oo, eemineerr."
The man assured, "No problem."
"Are you, err, feeling alright, herr Engie?" Medic asked, finishing the last of his meal.
"I'm fine," the man replied a little too fast, poking his fork into the meat on his plate. The corn was zapped away previously, but the rest of his meal remained.
"Well, ah, how is yer first day 'ere, Pyro?" Scout asked as the coming silence made the young man flinch.
Pyro shrugged his shoulders and replied honestly, "So far, I have nothing to complain about. I understand your hesitance towards me but I believe we are all at a good start. I just hope I can prove myself towards you all on the battlefield."
Soldier chanted, "Spoken like a true American warrior!"
The Engineer corrected, "You don't understand yet, boy."
Pyro thought hard on the short man's words. He was right about Pyro not understanding why he was there; and Pyro certainly planned on finding out why. The fire lover responded, "I will prove myself to you. Then one day, you will tell me. I swear it."
"Not for a long time," the man promised.
Tension built at the table and Scout made the excuse that he needed to wash the dishes to get up. The rest of the mercs followed suit with cleaning up and leaving the table. Soon, only Pyro, Spy, and Engineer remained.
The man in the mask got up from the table and looked towards the suited man and asked, "Can you go over the some things with me? I would like to know a basic idea of the field before going and getting myself murdered from inexperience."
"You will get used to that, but yes. I believe I can assist with your basic beginner training," Spy answered, getting up from his seat himself, pulling out his cigarette case. "Engineer, do you mind if I explain the Resurrection System with our new friend?"
The helmet man nodded his head in approval before adding to not touch anything as the two left the dining room. Pyro looked over his shoulder as he walked away to watch the Engineer stuff the eating device in his belt pocket and slouch in his chair. The man gave off a depressed sigh as Pyro and Spy disappeared out of the Engineer's range. The fire lover felt sorry for the man and sad that he made his fellow team mate upset in some way.
Spy led the new recruit to the Respawn Center in the base located across from the Engineer's garage and down the hall from the Medibay. The room had tons of machines and technology littered around with nine chambers lined up along a sidewall and a control panel by the end of it. Lights flickered on as the two moved inside the room; as it was motion detection.
"This is the Resurrection System or Respawn. Before your first battle you will have to be scanned in your chamber to be included into the system. Each battle day, a field is selected by the Administrator and these tubes transport us into the 'Spawn Room' of the field. The battle commences until there is a declared winner of the day. Sometimes that can last three hours and other times can be twenty. These battles can go on for so long thanks to this machinery built by the first Engineer hired by the Administrator. We are immortal as long as we are registered into this System," the frenchman explained with his now lit cigarette in his mouth.
"Immortality is impossible to achieve. Humans were made mortals. I'm not understanding," Pyro responded confused as he studied the control panel.
"Well, with this device we are revived in ten minutes. Should we be dead for ten minutes then alive again mean that we are immortal, I suppose that is up for debate since it is a machine doing the work and we are rendered dead during those ten minutes. Although, to us it is what makes up who we are. Immortal mercenaries fighting a never-ending battle," Spy answered. "You will understand on your first day on the field."
Pyro nodded, knowing that knowledge and understanding come with time and experience. The control panel had no labeling, making it impossible to know what did what. That was for the Engineer to know and no one else. It became clear to Pyro that either one of two things were true. The Engineer wanted to make sure no one else could understand his work, or the team of mercenaries wanted to keep secrets to themselves.
The man in the mask itched at his forehead and announced to the Spy, "This technology is like nothing I have ever seen before. I suppose I can wait for a demonstration."
Spy simply nodded then directed the Pyro out of the room. The two walked in silence down the long halls towards a room Pyro had not yet seen. Pyro studied the man next to him more to find he carried himself very proudly. Back straight and head held high. Under his balaclava, his face was flat and stern.
The man said suddenly, "You like what you see, non?" An eyebrow raised in question as his head tilted sideways away from the Pyro.
Pyro replied, "No, you are too uptight."
Spy retorted, "And you are too curious, my friend. The difference is, being uptight protects a person from the unknown while being curious gets you wrapped into it."
"Observing everything around you is not a bad thing, in any situation. If anything, from what I understand, my job is important for spotting the odd thing out. I need to hunt down the enemy version of you," Pyro snapped.
"That is not the only thing you need to do on the battlefield. There are many ways that curiosity can lead to poor choices," Spy recovered, flicking his cigarette in a disliking way.
The two entered the new room Spy lead them to. It was about the size of most training gym areas, but seemed much smaller with the mass amounts of weaponry. Nine areas separated by flimsy movable walls defining each merc their segment by their class symbol hanging from the main wall. Each segment was littered with weapons except Pyro's having only a few on the desk. Others had their weapons either hanging on display or hidden in cases under the desk.
Heavy was in his section, cleaning one of his many miniguns in his much larger area. The gun he cleaned seemed very intriguing to the Pyro having a dragon head at the tip of the barrel. Spy left Pyro's side to clean his own weapons. Heavy noticed the Pyro over him and greeted the man kindly.
The Heavy motioned Pyro to come closer and inspected his weapon saying, "Dis is a beautiful weapon. You may like it, Pyro. It sets fire to any BLU dat gets too close. It's called the Hou-Long Heater. My favorite is Sasha, but she is not here. I keep her in my room and polish her there."
Pyro replied, "That is neat. Does everyone have polish?"
"Da, and parts or anything you may need to keep weapons in good condition," the russian bear replied.
The fire lover nodded in thanks and went over to his segment in the room to find three weapons laying on his desk. A basic flame thrower, his primary weapon. The design was based for function and not looks for sure. The white tank connected loosely to the nozzle where a flame would rest waiting for a blast of gas to ignite. There was a simple shot gun, his secondary. Nothing special about the shotgun as it was bland as anything. Lastly, a fire axe for his mele. Surprisingly the axe was the best looking of all of them being shiny and bright red and white.
So, the Pyro sat down in the swivel chair, took up some parts, tools, and cleaner, and got to work on his new weapons. It was late into the night by the time Pyro finished up. During that time, many of the men visited without a word and grabbed a weapon or two to inspect before exiting the room again. Spy disappeared without Pyro's notice and Heavy left with a simple nod. The Scout came by and looked over Pyro's shoulder to make multiple comments about the way Pyro was doing certain things. He then got bored of patronizing his new teammate and left him alone to his work.
The clock above the entrance/exit read 11:14 P.M. and Pyro stretched out of his seat. He shrugged off the fact that he spent a little too much time cleaning his weapons and left the room. Wandering the halls in the poor light of midnight was much more difficult with trying to find how to maneuver back to the bedrooms. It didn't take long to find his room and pass out on the mattress without a care that he was still in his suit.
It was a long day for the new RED Pyro. The first day of a new job. Just think that the next would be the first day on the field. Now that would be a wild day…