"Fast-fast-fast-boy-you're-fast-keep-it-up-up!"
The Scout panted as he scrambled up and over another low wall, hearing those freaks scrape up it after him, feeling sprays of bullets pass by.
He had a cube, one that didn't shoot him, and was now trying to get to the Pyro's portal to take him to the button, before something else killed the walking flamethrower. He was the fastest of the two.
So that meant he had this crap job, with these crap things chasing him like a crap Jurassic Park movie.
"Prey-prey-prey-prey-PREY-PREY-PREY-PREY!"
Oh yeah was he praying!
"De-nied, ya loser lugnuts!" he crowed, as he found the portal and jumped through. He howled as a few bullets caught his leg and hip on the way through, and said a word his ma would've made him eat soap for, but said it anyway, repeatedly, as loud as he freaking wanted to.
He heard them farther away back in the maze, whining and trying to jump high enough to see them. F-freaky pieces of trash.
He groaned as he limped towards the button, but wasn't too down about the flesh wounds, besides, y'know, the freaking pain. The elevators had stuff in them that automatically made them Respawn for the next test. However, if he died now, he'd go all the way back to the beginning of that stupid maze and those things. He put the cube on the button, and whooped as the line of dots began to light up... "YES!"
But they didn't go...to the door...?
Was the blood loss messing him up?
Pyro ambled up to support him before he fell as a hidden line of dots lit up to snake their way to the wall, and the panels there opened up.
Way up.
Scout's jaw dropped as his pants leg got soaked with blood and something else he'd never admit.
This.
Thing.
Was.
HUGE.
"Hello," it said in a voice lower than any of the turret-sentry things they've heard, and looked an awful lot like a huge white sentry. But with legs.
It crushed the cube as it stepped forward.
"What are you things?"
"Mddrhuddr." Pyro said bluntly, and quickly shouldered/dragged Scout back into the maze.
"You things are running," they heard it say over the walls of the maze, "Which reads that you are intimidated, which implies inferiority, which confirms that you are things to be hunted. I will confirm your purpose, and my destiny, and destroy all things Inferior."
They heard the sound of breaking and snapping, metallic, and Scout realized that the thing was smashing right through the freaking walls...
They heard more of the smaller runners, it had probably met up with a group.
"Oh, hi, pal! You're a big guy, aren't ya? Came to join the fracas, huh, ya gonna?"
"Don't impede me, Inferior cousins."
There was a crunching sound and the walls continued to be crushed through. The smaller runners sounded like they were screaming.
"-fzzk- n0t c00l, c0mp4dr3 -zzk-"
Scout would've said that the thing was nuts, but he was too busy babbling as the Pyro dragged him along, leaving a haphazard bloody trail. "Holycrapthat'shugeholycrapthat'shugeholycrapthat's ..."
The Pyro was at a loss, finally encountering something that felt like it was from Before This Place.
But here there was no Medic, no fire, no guns, no fire, no fortress, no fire, no one to Announce the fight was over, and no fire.
This was hell. Without fire. And much swearing and babbling from the baseball-playing mercenary.
"Hugeholycrapthat'shugeholycrapthat's—" It smashed through the wall in front of them, nearly crashing against the other wall in its calm haste, its giant eye beaming down at them, not bothering with its guns and simply using the gifts that made it superior to its ancestors.
"Oh my GAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"
"Hello, Mr. Conagher. How are things going?"
"Not as well as I'd like, ma'am..." the Engineer admitted, scratching his head as he peered over the schematic.
"I know what You want and all, but anythin' beyond legs is apparently beyond me, I'm sorry t' say."
"I understand. Don't worry, I've found someone to help you with this particular request. I believe you both are familiar with him."
"Doktor!" he heard the Heavy bellow, and turned to see the Russian crushing the bespectacled Medic in a hug.
"Ah, H-Heavy, mein freund, is good to see you as vell!" the Doctor replied, grimacing-grinning in his comrade's hold, patting him.
"HAH!" the Russian laughed, setting the German down before slapping him on the back, "The woman has you here, too, da?"
"Ja, vell," the tall man pushed his glasses up a bit sheepishly.
"I vill admit to some variness in zhe beginning of zhis adventure, zhough She tells me zhat you both vere here and doing somezhing..." He looked to the Engineer, "Ve talked, She and I, and you apparently have trouble vith birds?"
"The...structure of birds, mainly..." Engineer admitted with a smile, "Good t' see ya, Doc."
The Heavy gaped when the Doctor simply went around him to see the Engineer's workings. "Fill me in, ja?"
"UGH! Now Heavy is surrounded by stupids!" the Russian complained, but went unheard by his 'comrades'.
"Well, you know the turrets, right?"
"All. Too. Vell."
"Heh, right... Well, the original template is obviously not gonna work for these critters..."
"Vell, zhe shaping itself has some merit, if ve could get a fresh perspective, turn it like so, and ze guns, here? Zhose can be replaced..."
The Heavy went somewhere quiet to concuss his head repeatedly against the wall in frustration. This was getting very bad.
"Don't worry," a turret soothed, "If he truly cares, he'll come back."
Heavy stared at the turret. That settled it. This place was insane.
She was considering Her decision to pair the Engineer with the Doctor. The German had knowledge of birds and the organic and behavioral structures of them. It stood to reason, according to his files, that he also had an extensive knowledge of the organic structure and workings of a human body, while the Engineer had, and was busily acquiring and accumulating to, his store of technical and mechanical knowledge.
This pairing could greatly benefit Her next great project.
The Sniper was still walking this way and that, and found some things very suspicious.
There was slight dust over everything, yeah, slight rust and patina. But here and there it was disturbed.
There was a rubbing off here, a stumbling there, and he found a skid that matched the groove of the stupid boots he wore.
And then there was some flat-soled, rubbery print he couldn't identify. Sneakers, maybe?
Who'd wear sneakers in this place?
This was where he found that pink cube with the hearts on it, and more fresh disturbances...
It was sitting there quite cutely in a little splash of light, and it made him uneasy, and he wasn't sure why.
He whirled around when something moved behind him.
He blinked.
"Who are you, mate, and what the hell happened to ya?"
The grungy man in the once-white labcoat and said sneakers was shuffling nervously, glancing at him and then the cube.
"M'name's Doug, an' that's a long story, stranger..." he croaked, in something that looked like a desperate smile behind the ragged beard.