Author notes: Don't know what to say about this chapter, apart from it being rather dialogue-heavy and focusing mostly on the BLU team. Not sure if I was able to convey everything right and the character interactions feel weak but meh. What exactly has been going on with the BLUs is deliberately kept vague although I'd wager the basics can be figured out.
This chapter also breaks the pattern regarding length, being longer than 1 & 3, but shorter than 2 & 4. Forgive my attempts at portraying accent and speaking patterns in this chapter, I'm finding it difficult to make the characters sound like themselves. Not much action here but hey, poor Engie needs a breather and with how I'm currently planning things, the next few chapters should be pretty action-packed.
Chapter 5: Teufort Blues
The BLU Spy was not pleased. The employee of Builders League United was not one anyone with sense would describe as "happy" or even "tolerant" at the best of times and under current circumstances...well, the Frenchman wasn't exactly the most stable member of the team. To put it bluntly, the normally calm and collected Spy was pacing back and forth, rapidly shifting between panic, anger, fear and, although he'd not admit it, shame.
Their plan had been flawless, as had the execution. That the only thing that had gone wrong was that single, apparently helpless RED had slipped their net was something to be commended. Or it would have been if the lone, one-armed Engineer equipped with little beyond what he could find lying around and his wits hadn't escaped.
"No...not escaped..." The Spy thought to himself furiously as he puffed on a cigarette, stopping his pacing for a brief moment. The Engineer had likely overheard his communication with the Scout considering when the boy had been killed, had managed to get past their Demoman, and board the RED supply train. Then he had cheated death once more when said train was destroyed by the BLU Soldier, kill the insane American, hijack their supply train and was by now at Teufort.
"Merde..." he cursed under his breath, glaring at the Soldier who stood sheepishly at attention to one side of the room. Another long draw on his cigarette, trying to steady his nerves. He turned to the rest of the team, trying to keep himself under control. "Gentlemen, we have failed. Ze RED Engineer was able to survive and likely wishes us all dead...permanently. We have broken contract and with an opposing team remaining to fight us, even if the team is but one man..."
He paused for effect, glancing around at his teammates. Of all of them, it was the Engineer, the Sniper and the Medic who seemed most thoughtful, as to be expected. "Headquarters will likely get involved. Not only will we still have to carry out this preposterous war but we will be punished for our actions. Ze Announcer...she may take personal interest in our misconduct."
At that everyone in the room visibly winced or shuddered. Nobody wanted to have to deal with her, after all. The woman just had a way of getting to people and not even the most hard-boiled of mercenaries seemed immune to her brutally cold presence.
To nobody's surprise, the Scout was the first one to speak up. "Yeah, yeah, we let one man get past us, real big problem. I've dominated the whole RED team at one time or anotha', so tell me Spook, why should we fear a freaking Engineer of all things? You scared or somethin', cause the guy keeps bashing your face in with that wrench a' his?"
"Of course not, but need I remind you, boy, that this man was able to kill you when unarmed, likely suffering from severe blood loss and was missing an arm?" Was the quick, cool reply, the annoyance of the masked man very visible on his features even with his face covered.
The Scout went slightly red and tensed, anger written all over his face. "That didn't count, the guy fucking crept up on me like a damn Spy, everyone knows that one on one he'd never stand a chance." At this he puffed out his chest, brandishing his bat threateningly. "I'd run circles round the cripple and before he even knew a thing, BONK! And brotha? Problem solved, one dead Hardhat, you want fries with that?"
Most of the team rolled their eyes at the runner's smirk, with the Spy and Engineer both facepalming and sighing, almost in unison.
The Texan spoke up, choosing his words carefully as he caressed the space that once held his right hand and now instead bore his grandfather's robotic hand design, the Gunslinger. "Look folks, doesn't matter who can beat who in a fair fight, the Spah's gotta point here. If we'd taken out alla RED in one swoop then everythin' would be cream gravy and we could all go home. But as it currently stands, we still gotta fight, we'll be having mad employers to deal with and we got one of the world's finest mercenaries currently gunning for our blood."
He stopped for a moment to take a breath and hold up his hands, glancing over at the Scout even as the boy opened his mouth to interrupt. "Now, I may be wrong about this but considering that the fella's managed to escape us so far, kill three of us and return to Teufort all whilst as wounded as he was...I'd say that we should be cautious. He may not be as big a threat as RED were when all nine were alive and shooting us, but he's still got a lot of potential to be a real pain in the behind for us. We killed off his friends and if it were me...I wouldn't rest until the mother-hubbards who'd done it were dead."
Silence. Nobody moved. Until finally the Heavy spoke, shuffling a little forward and away from the Medic as he did so.
"One leetle man is still alive. This is not big problem. But he is RED and we broke rules, so we still have problem. Comrades work together to fix problems, da?" The Russian, straightened up a moment, looking at the Medic as if for support. The doctor said nothing, giving a slight nod of the head for the Heavy to continue. "I think standing tall is best. We deal with this as it comes; let scary lady yell at us, we have faced worse. Are we not men? We are killers on battlefield; can we not face woman and smart leetle RED? Have endured for many winters, Heavy not see why this change. We will survive, we will win, we will be able to go home."
Further bickering ensued but the Spy's thoughts kept on drifting back to the RED even as the Demoman fell over, the Soldier started a yelling contest with the Scout, and the Sniper tried to leave the room. The others hadn't seen what he had, didn't suspect what he did about the whole war. And...they had never seen the Engineer truly angry. They were enemies yes, but they had always maintained a fairly friendly rivalry and both Engineers tended to be fairly soft-spoken and peaceful men.
Except, the Frenchman mused, if you destroyed their hard work time and time again. He had seen the fire in the Engineer's eyes before, visible even beneath those goggles. He had heard the anguish in his voice as he beheld the scattered scrap metal that had once been his mechanical children. He had felt the rage manifested as the RED charged at him, somehow knowing which one of his teammates was actually the Spy, shrugging off the frantic bullets fired by the Spy, taking a knife slash to the face without stopping.
He remembered, time and time again, the flight of the wrench and the hand that held it so tightly as it swung. He recalled with distinct clarity the final moments as it filled his vision and impacted his skull, time and time again. He shuddered, reaching into his suit pockets for more cigarettes as the Medic attempted to prevent the Heavy, Soldier and Scout from killing each other as the Pyro simply watched, amused. The master of stealth and espionage fumbled for a moment, unable to find his lighter when a voice interrupted him.
"Here ya go, slim." The BLU Engineer stood before him, holding a lighter in his right hand. The Spy tried not to stare at the mechanical appendage as he plucked the lighter from its fingers and without thinking lit the cigarette and closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the brief respite. With a deep breath he exhaled and brought himself back to reality. The two mercenaries just stood there, looking at the chaos that as ever, always seemed to brew when you stuck the team in one room for too long.
They didn't speak their worries but they didn't need to. There was a man with great intellect and resolve, capable of doing anything, currently mad as hell, thirsting for their blood, with easy access to resources at the Teufort base and no limitations or regulations to hold him in check.
He would give no mercy, have no restrictions and have plenty of time to prepare, depending on what HQ did with BLU.
The pair shivered slightly, the Spy pulling out his butterfly knife instinctively and the Engineer staring at the Gunslinger. Fear struck both men, as did the bitter sting of shame at having resorted to such a low blow, stripping a man of everything for their own selfish reasons. Justice would come and the form the Angel of Death took would be that of an intellectual Texan burning with fire...
At that moment, said Texan was fighting a desperate battle against weariness and losing. He'd arrived at Teufort and as much as his senses screamed at him to go fix himself up properly in the medical bay with the Medigun, his body had other plans. He was exhausted and the little nap and rest he'd gotten on the supply trains didn't cut it. He should check the base over properly and maybe go to the communications room and contact HQ but right now the mercenary wanted nothing more than to enter blissful sleep and maybe wake up from this nightmare.
His vision was getting blurry, his steps uneven as he plodded slowly through the base. The parts of the base that weren't involved during combat were towards the rear of the base and partly underground. Everyone had their own room...or had.
He blinked, trying to move his train of thought away from the fate of his team. The base seemed to be in proper order, if a little untidy and a tad bit dusty. It had been a while since they'd been stationed at Teufort, lately they'd been carted off to a lot of new and strange locations. The last time they'd been here they'd left in a bit of a hurry so the team hadn't had the chance to clean up properly...
The Engineer suddenly halted his movements as he entered the social area where the team spent a lot of their time during ceasefire, swaying slightly as his eyes glanced over what he saw. A baseball, a half-finished bottle of scrumpy, a box of matchsticks, a plate covered in sandwich crumbs, a home-made medal, a packet of cigarettes, a jar filled with urine and a bag of bird seed for the Medic's doves.
His vision had gotten blurrier, his balance uneven. Right then and there he lost it, the true impact finally hitting him. He didn't even notice as the tears flowed freely, his legs moving automatically as he let out his sorrows. It was as if the world hadn't yet heard the news and was expecting the RED team to be back and on duty any moment now. But instead they were gone, never to again set foot inside this place, never again to speak and joke and fight and live...
He stumbled his way into their living quarters, the unoccupied rooms mirroring the emptiness he felt consuming his soul. He knocked things over, he hit the walls, he kicked things aside...he knew not what he was doing, only that he didn't want to be here anymore, he didn't want to fight, didn't want to be alone. He wanted his team back. He wanted his life back. He wanted...
His body wanted sleep and was quite sick of being denied. Hiccuping, coughing, crying and trembling, he made his way to his room, not caring to shut the door. He had just enough sense left in him to remove his helmet and goggles before he collapsed onto his bed, fully dressed and still sobbing as he drifted into restless sleep.
In the basement of Teufort, there was a sudden whirring and several beeps as a large computer stirred into life. The tape reels span and slowly, with steady beeps, whirs and clatters, a message was printed onto paper and lay waiting to be torn off. The room became silent once more, the phone lines bearing no further communication and the computer having done its job. The telegraph was blunt, short and to the point:
"RED will engage BLU at Teufort in precisely one month. Objective is to secure the intelligence. Usual restrictions lifted. Apart from interfering with the enemy base, DO WHATEVER IS NECESSARY TO WIN."