Niko pulled me into the room and closed the door behind us. He then hit the light switch. As the lights flickered on, a whirling sound echoed around the room, which caused me to look around. Computer monitors lined the walls and survaliance camera monitors were showing various locations of RED and BLU's bases.

"What is all of this?" I asked, leaning against a wall.

"Camera control room." Niko walked over and looked at a monitor showing an area of BLU's base.

"So what exactly are you looking for?" I asked, folding my arms across my chest.

"Aha! Found it!" Niko exclaimed, placing his finger on the monitor, not hearing me.

"What?" I yawned.

"My hat."

I choked on my own spit. "You had me sneak in here just so you could find your hat? Seriously, Niko, I could be sleeping by now, recovering my injuries... Where are you going?"

Niko was opening the door to the hallway.

"I don't know about you, but I'm going to retrieve my hat."

"Niko.. it's in BLU's base and it's dark out, we'd be walking into enemy territory, I don't think our timers work when we're not in a battle." I explained.

"If you don't want to come, that's fine, I'll retrive it myself." Niko snapped and stepped out into the dim hallway.

"Niko. Niko, wait, I'm coming with you." I chased Niko down.

"I thought you weren't coming." Niko snarked over his shoulder.

"If you're going to sneak into BLU's base in the dead of night, you better have someone to save your ass." I sighed. "What if we get killed?"

"We won't if we don't get caught, now quit making so much noise and come on." Niko slowed his pace so I could catch up.

We turned a corner.

"HI NIKO! ADRIAN!" a loud female voice boomed from the wall.

"Fucking hell!" Niko jumped back, stepping on my foot. "Oh, it's you, Aya."

Aya walked towards us, smiling, holding her camera. "The one and only Aya Shameimaru! Where are you two going in the middle of the night? Oooh, don't tell me you're going somewhere to make out!"

Both Niko and I turned as red as our shirts.

"W-what the hell are you talking about, Aya?" I shook my head to clear the blush and tried to ignore the pain in my foot.

"Then where are you going? Huh, huh, huh?" Aya pressured us into telling her.

"We're going to BLU's base to retrieve my hat." Niko was rather blunt.

"Sounds like fun, can I come? I won't be a bother! I swear on the great goddess Kanako!"

Niko and I looked at each other. "Who?"

"Never mind. Can I come? Pleaseeee?" Aya was practically begging at this point.

Niko sighed and turned to me. "What do you think, Adrian?"

"We could use the extra help in case we get ambushed I guess she can tag along."

"Yay! This will be so exciting! I've never snuck into BLU's base before! Can we take the intel-" Niko covered Aya's mouth as one of our Soldiers walked by us, his helmet covering his eyes.

"That was close" I whispered as Niko uncovered Aya's mouth.

"What was that for?! Huh?!" Aya yelled at Niko.

"Will you be quiet, Aya, we don't want to get caught." Niko replied to Aya, shaking his head.

Aya shut up.

After a few moments, we reached our base's exit.

"Can I talk now?" Aya asked. Apparently she couldn't keep quiet for 20 minutes.

"Fine. We're at the base exit anyway," Niko rolled his eyes as the three of us walked out of the base.

As we walked across the bridge to BLU's base, a cold gust of wind blew my hat off my head.

"Oh no. We are not going after TWO hats." I rolled my eyes as I jumped to reclaim my hat.

We crossed the bridge, only to find the doors of BLU's base sealed shut.

"Great, now what do we do?" I asked as I leaned against a barrel.

"I have an idea!" Aya smiled and pushed a pair of black, crow like wings out of her back. Niko and I stared at Aya's wings.

"I'm supposed to keep these hidden, but whatever." Aya pushed off the ground and took flight. "I'll be back in five minutes." With that, she flew up to the top of the base.

For the next five minutes, Niko and I tried to keep ourselves from freezing. I threw rocks into the lake under the bridge, while Niko kept watch over the two bases. Finally, there was a screech like gears grinding as the automatic doors slowly opened and Aya waved from inside the base.

Niko and I jogged into BLU's base.

"What took you so long, Aya? Did you go down the chimney?" Niko sarcastically asked, looking at Aya covered in soot.

"Yes actually! How did you know?!" Aya exclaimed, amazed.

"Just a guess."

I facepalmed. Why did Niko allow Bird Brain Aya to tag along?

We rounded a few corners and walked down a couple hallways. Then more hallways.

"For Pete's sake, how much further do we have to walk?" I stopped to tie my shoe.

"Just a bit farther, I think." Niko walked on with Aya silently following him, taking pictures with her camera.

"Aya, would you stop that?" Niko glared at the crow-girl.

"But it's so cool in here! It's-"

"Exactly like our base?" I cut Aya off, rolling my eyes.

"You two are ruining everything!" Aya whined.

"No we're not! You're just immature!" I yelled at Aya.

"Both of you shut up, or we're gonna get-"

A light flashed onto our faces.

"Caught." Niko finished.