"Are you sure dis will work?"

"Non, but it will have to."

"And you don't think we should leave note to rest of team?"

Spy scrunched a face, as if offended by the suggestion. "I am done baby-sitting those idiots. If I were to leave it up to them, they would do nothing but argue amongst themselves."

"Okay..." Heavy processed, "Then why you take me?"

"Because you're wearing the colour red. We can blend in."

The Russian halted, frowning. "But you are still blue."

A flat look. "Have you completely forgotten who you're talking to?"

When Heavy's expression remained confused, Spy rolled his eyes and stopped in his tracks as well. And within a few fluid movements followed by a puff of smoke, the masked man transformed into the RED Medic.

"Ohh..." He chuckled, "Heavy understand now."

"Gut," The imposter tutted impatiently, his tongue already adopting the accent without further thought. "Because I am not about to explain it all to you."

"Is like real thing!" The Russian marvelled.

"Zhis is not the first time I've played Medic." Spy reminded.

"Da," His eyes narrowed at the other. "I remember when you stab me in back before."

"Medic" grinned back in return, "No hard feelings, hey?"

"Um, fellas..."

"Don't you understand, BLU Demo? I simply could not wait around for your consent! What are you getting so angry about, anyvay? I'm sure your Medic does this to you all the time!"

"Oh, yooh sure have a lot ta say about everythin', dont'cha?" The Scot spat back, still enraged, his temper not aided one bit by the raging chemicals in his veins.

"Exactly vhat do you mean by that?"

"Excuses, excuses everywhere! And not one of 'em is gonna save yer Krauty arse!"

"Fellas!" Engi tried again, louder, smacking the German in the shoulder.

"Vhat?!"

"Spy and Heavy are gone."

"Nonsense! They can't be gone! Zhey are right-" Medic gestured wildly at the spot behind him, only to be greeted with their absence when his eyes caught up with his gesturing arm. "-Oh."

"Yeah."

"They... They're gone!"

"It's what I've been tryin to say!"

"How can they be gone?!"

"I have a few guesses..."

"They ditched us, those basterds!" Demo supplied his theory.

"Anyone ever tell ya you're a paranoid drunk, Demo?"

And then that theory poisoned Medic's mind. "That filthy Shpy must have taken him away while we were all distracted!"

"Well, let's not jump to conclusions..." Engi tried to reason. "Heavy's not exactly an 8 year old boy you can just lure into your van with some candy. He's a grown man! He can handle himself."

"I suppose..." The German conceded, choosing not to question his choice of metaphor. "But where would they have gone? It's dangerous out zhere! They could be seen!"

"Okay, we gotta get out there and find 'em."

"I can help wi' that!" The Scot happily declared, popping a few fresh stickies on the wall.

"Demo, NO! We have a door!"

But the fatally familiar beeping that followed next signalled that Medic had interjected with his common sense all but too late. The German was forced to witness as a good portion of his wall came crumbling down like crumby shortbread, the detonation most likely alerting any nearby RED team-mates of their presence.

"Why..." Medic tried to speak. "Why would you do that?!"

Clearly, Engi had the same thought, staring at the bomber from behind Medic with his jaw widely unhinged.

"Now." Demo said as he pointed at Medic, "Now we're even."

"You just sabotaged yourself as well as me, don't you know?!"

"Guys- Guys! SHH!" Engi hissed, yanking the doctor down and away from the window, motioning urgently for Demo to do the same.

So as their own chatter dialed down a couple notches, the faint but unmistakably approaching voices of Team RED emerged from the background.

"You heard that, right? That frickin' explosion? There's no way you didn't just hear that!"

"We've had BLU Soldier bombin' our base for the last half hour. Of course you heard an explosion." Sniper drawled bitterly, "Dingus."

"No, you doofus! S'not what I meant!" Scout groaned, "I heard it come from right over there, where Doc's office is."

"So what?"

"Sooo... Shouldn't we check it out?!"

A tired sigh. "Why did you bring me down here again?"

"Because you were the only one who agreed to follow me." The Bostonian shed some honesty.

"Why do I bloody bother..." The Aussie muttered to himself. "Alright, fine. Let's have a look at it."

"Shit." Engi hissed through clenched teeth, ducking his head some more. "We gotta do something, guys!"

Medic, more or less on his last nerve, sent a death-glare towards Demo. "This is all your fault!"

"My fault?!" Unfortunately, the Scot had forgotten the concept of volume control. Engi, trying desperately to salvage the situation, clamped his hand over Demo's mouth as tightly as possible before another loud word left his lips. But it was too late.

"Did you hear that?"

"I told you there was somethin' in there!"

"Someone in this case... Follow my lead. I'm going in."

"Yeah, yeah... Right behind ya."

Medic winced when he heard the familiar sound of Sniper unsheathing his shiv. This was going to end horribly, he just knew it. After-all, what started in chaos, ended in chaos.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck..." The Texan chanted under his breath, his nerves gripping his stomach. Any second now and their game would soon be over. He could only hope for a miracle.

"Get it while it's hot, laddies!"

"The hell?" Scout recoiled a little as Demo popped out from his hiding spot, quickly scrambling for his scattergun. Sniper was already a move ahead, closing in to make his attack. However, he soon noticed that getting closer to the Scot was a grave mistake.

It all happened very quickly, and Medic could only catch a glimpse of the action. Suffice to say, the next time he saw RED Scout and Sniper, they were nothing but bloody confetti on the floor.

"Oh man, I think his ear hit me in the face..." Engi came out from hiding, sensing it was safe.

"Ooh, can I have it?"

"Yes, you can, you sick son of a gun."

"Let me get my jar..."

"Not even all the glue in the world would glue ya back together!" Demo came out to admire his handiwork, grinning maliciously at the pieces of organic tissue on the floor.

"You saved us back there, buddy!" Engi clapped a firm hand on the Cyclops' shoulder. "Can't tell ya how thankful I am."

"Aye."

"And how proud I am. I mean, you actually threw your ulapool caber! Do you know how long I've been trying to get you to do that?"

"Right, this is mine now..." Medic came over to peel the ear off of Engi's helmet.

"Okay, now we really gotta go. They'll be back for us, and I'd rather be gone when they are."

Back at the re-spawn, Sniper and Scout were reassembled into much more recognisable forms.

"The hell just happened back there?!" He demanded from the marksman as soon as they were out.

"What d'ya bloody think? BLU Demo blew us up. You were there!"

"Well, duh, we got blown up! I was askin' how you let that happen!"

"How I let it happen?" Sniper was incredulous. "I didn't see you doin' anything to prevent it!"

"Yo, Medic!" Scout waved towards the passing doctor, putting a temporary halt to his debate with the Aussie, but the German showed no signs of stopping in his run. "Doc, come on, man!"

"I'm sorry, mein Freund." Medic spared him a glance, dutifully attending Heavy's back with a poised Medigun. "But I do not have the time to chat. Come, Heavy, let's go!"

"Woah, woah, slow down."

"Did you really just say that?" Sniper narrowed his eyes suspiciously at the speed-freak.

Heavy couldn't help but tense-up as the young Bostonian approached, his paranoia insisting that Spy's cover had been blown.

"Vat is it, Shcout? I told you, I have more urgent things to attend to."

"Well, before you do that, you should know that there's a BLU Demo in your office. And he just blew me and Snipes up."

This time, it was Spy's turn to go rigid. However, being the man he was, this tension never made it to the visible surface. Sure, it was very probable that the original RED Medic had carelessly let himself be seen by his fellow team-mates. But somehow, he just didn't think Scout would have it in him to test his disguise so subtly.

"Is that so?" He mused, pretending to mull this new nugget of information over. "Was it just a Demo?"

"Don't think so." Sniper contributed. "It sounded like he was talkin' to someone before we saw him."

Medic narrowed his eyes cryptically. "I see. Do you think they're still there?"

"Noooo idea. Just givin' you the heads-up!"

"Danke." He faked a pleasant smile.

"Doc, we should go." Heavy insisted, becoming more uneasy by the minute. "Now."

"Yes, Heavy. Let's." Spy wasn't one to pass up the offer. The less time he spent engaging with the rest of Team RED, the less a chance he would be discovered as an imposter.

When they had run far away enough to be out of ear-shot of Scout and Sniper, the Russian threw a glance over his shoulder at Spy. "Do you think they know?"

"No. I think we're safe." His features turned stern, "At least for now. Now shut up and move along, we need to get to the balloon."

"We should go back there." RED Scout suggested to Sniper, as soon as the other two went their separate ways.

"And why is that a good idea?"

"Whaddya talkin' 'bout? It's a beautiful idea!"

"Yeah, one that's pointless. They'll be gone by the time you get there. They aren't stupid."

"When did you become president of their fan-club?"

The marksman rolled his eyes, dismissing him with a sloppy wave of his hand. "You wanna go? Fine. Go by yourself. I'm gonna try and find the others."

The young lad pouted, crossing his arms in a huff. "Fine!" He spat back, with all the maturity of a 5 year old.

Sniper never looked back.