Badlands
It was a calm night at the Gravel Pits. The nine mercenaries of the former Reliable Excavation Demolition (RED) company were enjoying some relaxation time. Or they would have been if it hadn't been for a wizard named Merasmus trying to attack the mercenaries who were stationed at their base called Hydro. Normally the mercs would have ignored the wizard, since every year they would have kicked his ass back to wherever he was residing these days. But this year he was being extra pushy. It was clear as he was banging on the door of the merc's headquarters and begging though the mail slot.
"Come on, Merasmus needs your souls in order to fulfill a contract with my one of a kind artifact of the eldritch ones!" The wizard pleaded with the mercs through a door's mailslot. He was a elderly white male with a gaunt face, wearing a Ram skull on his head that had one eye in its socket. His robe was dark brown that covered his entire body. The idol he was talking about was a 2ft white statue of a being. It looked like a man skeleton with its skin on it with no flesh between the two. The statue's face looked like that of a skull with its jaw bones merged together. It had half a halo merged to its head that had two tentacles attached to it that reached down to its feet. The statue held out its clawed hands in a cup in front of its torso. "I had to sell myself to the Chinese mafia in order to pay for this. They put their drugs inside Merasmus's body in order to smuggle it to buyers. I will spare you the details on how they did it, but please come out and face me!"
"Forget it Merasmus, we are not coming out and that is final." Spy shouted with a French accent, as he and some other merc were playing others at the table were Sniper, Engineer, Demoman, and Medic. He wore a red striped suit with matching pants and had a red ski mask that only revealed his eyes and mouth areas. His hands were covered with black gloves while wearing black dress shoes.
"I swear that wizard doesn't know when to give up." muttered Sniper in an Australian accent. He was a pastel skin male with brown hair. Sniper wore a brown vest, which had several pockets, over a red shirt and had brown pants. A pair of yellow sunglasses sat on his face a black fingerless glove on his left hand. A brown aussie hat sat on his head with the left brim folded up.
"You gotta give him credit for being a persistent man." replied Engineer with a Texan accent. He was a light skin bald male with a 5 o'clock shadow. His outfit consisted of a pair of dark goggles, a dark brown bib overall over his red shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Engineer had a yellow glove on his right hand, knee pads on, and a hard hat on his head.
"I know the blasted bastard still wont give me eye back." Demoman said in a heavy Scottish accent, followed by a chung of a bottle of whiskey. He was a dark skin man with a mustache and had an eye patch over his left eye. Demoman wore a bomb vest over his red sweater and had several grenade canisters on it. He wore a belt with several bags on it and red pants. On his head was a black beanie hat.
"Ja, ja, ja now who deal was it?" Medic asked in a German accent, adjusting his small circular glasses. On his shoulder was a white dove that occasionally cooed. The Medic was a light toned skin male with light gray hair forming on the side while most of it remained black. He wore a long white medical coat with red gloves on, over a white dress shirt and red tie. His pants were dark brown with black boots. While that was going on Soldier was strangeling Scout's neck, who mistook his comment about something. Soldier was a light-hued middle age man wearing a brown soldier helmet over his head that covered his eyes. He had a red jacket on with a belt and a second strap over his chest. On the strap were two hand grenades. He wore dark brown pants and soldier boots on. Scout was a young light skin male wearing a black baseball cap and a red t-shirt with rolled up sleeves. His hands were covered in bandages while using them to keep Soldier from choking the life out of him. A couple of dog tags were on his necklace and wore black sneakers with long white tube socks. Scout tried to kick Soldier off but was getting nowhere. The reason they were fighting is they were trying to figure out dinner.
"I…only…*Accch*...said that…fried chicken…*gasp*…is better than…burgers." Scout struggled to speak, in his Brooklyn accent, as the Soldier continued to strangle him.
"So you admit that America's greatest food is the worst. I always knew you were a communist bastard!" Soldier shouted in a gravel voice. All the while Heavy and Pyro made their own dinner while the two continued their useless fight. Heavy was a large faded skin bald male with a black vest over his red t-shirt. Hanging on his chest was a bullet belt. He had black fingerless gloves on with brown pants on. Pyro was a mystery person even to his own teammates. His entire body was covered from head to toe in a red fireproof suite, with a metal gas tank on his back. He had a black gasmask on with matching gloves and boots. On a belt hanging across his torso was a couple of grenades canisters filled with napalm.
"Could you pass the mayonnaise?" Heavy asked in a thick Russian accent.
"Hmm-hmm." Pyro muffled a yes, handing the bald Russian the condiment. Although Pyro couldn't normally speak since everything he said was a muffled voice, the mercenaries were able to understood him somehow.
"Please for the love of all things holy and unholy just come out and face me." Merasmus begged almost on the verge of tears. "At the very least tell Merasmus why you won't come out and fight?"
"Very well then." Heavy said walking towards the door, after taking a bite of his sandwich. "The reason that we no longer want to fight you is that every year you promise something new and dangerous for us to fight against. But we haven't seen anything new for about 5 years now." The Russian merc said behind the door.
"*Cough* *cough* Yeah *cough* plus we hardly get anything out from kicking your ass and whatever creepy monsters you got for us." Scout said after breaking free of Soldier's choke hold.
This got Merasmus to realize that they had a point. Every Halloween he would do the same thing hoping for different results. Mostly because Merasmus was too busy finding the right ancient artifact and paying off some criminal organizations back in order to get the money for it. The wizard got to thinking on how to lure out the RED mercs and fight him. Soon an idea came to him. "What if I told you there would be riches and items of great worth in it for you all?" Merasmus asked lying about most of the stuff.
"It isn't going to be copies of our normal weapons in just different colors?" Spy asked, knowing that what they got one year.
"Ye-n-no." Merasmus quickly responded.
"Oh aye and I bet you just sold yourself to the Chinese mafia because of all the wealth you have on you." Demon shouted. Merasmus facepalmed himself regretting him telling them about that.
"Okay, okay I may not have the money on me right now. But if you can wait about a few weeks I'll be sure to pay you all 2-no 15 million dollars is if you survive of course." the wizard begged, saying the last sentence under his breath.
Before the REDs could shout out no to him, Engie brought up a point. "Now, hold on there fellas. I think we should take up on Merasmus offer."
"What? Why the bloody hell would we do that?" Sniper asked shocked that Engie would suggest that.
"Well for one thing our funds are dangerously low. Ever since Pyro used most of our money, we got from fighting those robots, as a fuel source for our heating system. And the expenses paid to fix up our base when Soldier teleported bread. Along with Medics purchases of organs on the black market." Engie explained. The Medic whistled innocently like he had nothing to do with that. And let's not forget the time Scout used our personal funds to score some dates with some 'ladies'." The Texan explained. The last statement made everyone look at Scout with disappointment.
"How was I supposed to know they charge that much for a date?" The Boston said defensively.
"He does have a point." Medic agreed with Engineer. "Plus we have not heard from either Saxton Hale nore Ms. Pauling about any new jobs."
The RED mercs thought about it for a moment. Sure they needed the money that wasn't in question, but figured why the hell not and decided to grab their weapons and prepare for battle. They went to their weapons locker and picked up their respective weapons that would be suited for them in battle. Scout quickly grabbed his shotgun, a metal bat and a can of soda with the word Bonk written on it. Soldier went and grabbed a rocket launcher, a shotgun, and a pickaxe. Pyro grabbed a flamethrower with the nozzle looking like a monster head, a flare gun, and an ax with barbed wires wrapped around the blade. Demon picked up his grenade launcher, a shield and a longsword. Heavy grabbed his trusty minigun, a pair of spiked brass knuckles and a sandwich. Engineer grabbed a wrench, a shotgun and a toolbox that contained various equipment to build items. Medic was next as he picked up a bonesaw, a crossbow that shot out syringes, and his healing gun. Sniper got a sniper rifle, a machete, and a jar filled with yellow liquid. Spy picked up his silver revolver, and butterfly knife, he checked to make sure that his golden watch was on.
"I hope they are not ignoring me now." Merasmus worriedly said. He peeked through the mail slot to see if they were still there. Before he knew it, the door was kicked open and hit him in the nose. "Son of a-" the wizard cursed as he held onto his bleeding nose.
"Wizard, we will fight you!" Heavy exclaimed.
"Yeah we are ready to kick your voodoo ass back to Canada!" Solder shouted.
"Ow…Very well then…ow." Merasmus said, trying to num the pain in his nose. "Then you shall fear the terror of the idol of Vh'ygho!" The wizard started to speak in an accent cantrip that was lost to time as his hands glowed green with magic. The RED mercenaries ready themselves as they held tightly on to their weapons. When Merasmus finished his chanting he threw his hands up into the air. But when he did the magic on his hand disappeared. Nothing happened for a solid minute. "Umm..hold on a moment let me check something." Merasmus said hesitantly. Pulling out his spell book he looked through it to see what he did wrong. "Okay I got the idol of Vh'ygho, I set it into the circle with the correct pattern…" Merasmus muttered to himself as he went over the details.
"Fantastic, this was a waste of time." Spy muttered, putting his revolver into his coat.
"Huh-huh." Pyro muttered.
"Nononono wait I can fix this I ju-*Achoo!*" Merasumus tried to stop the merc from leaving, when the wizard sneezed from all the blood trickling down his nostrils. What happened then was that a few of the wizard's blood dropped from his nose into the statue's hands. Soon the idol's eyes started to glow yellow. A low hum could be heard as the Statue started to move. It brought its hands to the middle of its chest, then it opened up to reveal some red flesh that looked like a monster's mouth with sharp teeth. There was also another tentacle, with a sharp tip at the end of it, that came from the chest as well. The tentacle then dipped its end into the blood as it began to glow bright red. The statue tentacle then wrote some eldritch signs in the air leaving the red signs in a circle. What happened next was that the small idol started to grow in size.
"Uhh…is it supposed to do that?" Sniper asked, taking notice of statues movement. The rest of the RED mercs and Merasmus looked down at the idol. By that time the idol had doubled in size as well as the eldritch signs. They all backed up until the idol was about 20 ft in size. Soon some whispers, spoken in some arcane language, could be heard that almost sounded like it was coming from the statue. The eldritch symbols start to spin in a circle fast, then faster, then faster again. It grew in speed until the symbols were no more than a bright red circle. The circle then filled its interior ring with the same color as it became a vortex. Soon wind started to blow into the vortex, like it was drawing everything towards it.
"What the HELLLLLL!?" Scout screamed as he was the first one to fall into the vortex.
The RED mercs caught off guard as each one of them started to get sucked into the abyss. Some of their weapons and ammo, that was inside the base, was being sucked in. Demo was next to fall into the vortex. As he got sucked in he grabbed his bottle of whisky that happened to flew by him. Heavy held onto the door frame trying to keep himself from being sucked in. But the door frame breaks causing the Russian merc to fall in. Medic grabbed onto his pet bird with his hands trying to prevent it from getting pulled in, but in doing so got sucked in as well. Sniper was next along with Spy both screamed their lungs out. Pyro dug his ax into the ground and grabbed Engineer's hand. Unfortunately the power of the vortex drags them into it all the same.
"DAMN YOU MERASMUS AND YOUR VOODOO MAGIC!" Soldier cursed him as he was the final one to get sucked in and flipped the wizard with his middle finger.
Merasmus meanwhile was unaffected by the vortex, seeing it was mostly aimed at the mercenaries instead. Once the last of the mercs were sucked into the red whirlwind, it closed in on itself. The statue then shrunk back down to its original size and resumed its position as before. The sound of night air could be heard as the once raging vortex died out into a few drops of blood. Merasmus just stood there with his mouth hanging open.
"It…it..it worked." Merasmus muttered quietly. "I…can't believe it works and they're all gone now. Hehehehe…HAHAHAHAHA!" What started out as a small chuckle turned into a hysterical laugh. "I have finally rid myself of those pesky mercenaries and Soldier as well. No longer will those fools make a mockery of the great Merasmus!" The wizard shouted in triumph as lightning struck the sky.
"Hey Merasmus!" A voice cried out to him in a thick Chinese accent. "We're gonna need your anal cavity to smuggle drugs again!"
"Oh son of a bitch." Merasmus muttered angrily as he forgot he still had a debt to the Chinese cartel.
Somewhere else
The room was a dark dungeon stone bricked room with little to no light in it. On one side of the room stood a tall closed wooden door. There was a banging noise as if someone was trying to knock it open.
"Grog knock it off, we don't want to wake up whatever in this place." A female voiced her concerns on the other side of the door.
"Look if you just let me work my skills at the lock then we'll get that thing open." A male spoke.
"Fucked that. I can bust down this door with my nuts if I wanted to." A gruff male voiced his protest as he bashed against the door.
"Look buddy I know you could but like Keyleth said all that banging will probably wake something up down here." Said another female.
"Look if that was the case we would be up to our necks with whatever down in this God forsaken place when Scanlan set off those traps." A posh male voice is heard.
"Okay first off I only set off one trap and it was just your basic pit trap. Second Grog was the one who set off all the other traps. And third fuck you." A different male voices is insult
"Can you all just shut the fuck up!" A third female voice shouted.
As the group argued amongst themselves, the banging on the door continued until finally the door's hinges broke off the wall and dropped onto the floor. An orange light from a torch shined into the room as the seven man party was revealed.
"See I told you I could knock it down." Said a tall muscular man with light blue skin. On his bald head were tattoos that were straight lines across his head and over his eyes. He had several scars on his arms and one in the center of his chest. The giant man wore a black shoulder guard with a strap over his naked chest on his right shoulder. Wearing brown pants under his hide skirt with white fur along the edges. On his arms and feet were hide bracers and boots with white fur lining them. He held a large double headed ax.
"Fan-fucking-tastic." Muttered a man with light tan skin and pointy ears. His hair was black with a small hair tail over the rest of it reaching down till his neck met his torso. He wore a black fur mantle with a black cloth cape. His long sleeve tunic was black with light gray seams and had matching pants with boots. Several belts were around his waist, with one being dark green, that held a couple of daggers and had several leather wrapped around his forearms.
"Hey it's cool at least there weren't traps or anything." A short female with white hair that was tied into a pony tail and pointy ears defended the giant man's actions. She had light tan skin with a scar on the left eye. The small female had a blue scarf around her neck. She wore metal armor on her torso and skirt over her white shirt. She had metal gauntlets and boots as well. The female had a necklace with a gold icon on the chair that held a ruby.
"You really shouldn't defend Grog so much Pike dearie." A female who had tan skin and pointed ears. Her hair was dark brown, tied into a ponytail, with a blue feather as an ornament over her right ear. She wore a long blue sleeveless tunic with an open collar that revealed her cleavage. Around her waist was a brown corset with three belts around it. On her right shoulder was a white fur mantle. The female had long black sleeves that reached up till her upper arms with brown fingerless gloves on them. She wore brown high boots that reached up to her knees. In her arms was a wooden bow with elegant curves on it, and a quiver on her back. Next to her was a brown bear wearing iron armor on its back and head. "One of these days his actions gonna get himself killed when you're not around to resurrect him." She continued with her statement.
"I don't defend him that much." Pike said in protest.
"With all the noise you lot are making you could have woken up the dead from their eternal sleep." a pale skin male said who had pure white hair, with the front combed upward to a point. He wore circular glasses on his brow. Wearing a large navy blue coat, with gold buttons, over a dark blue vest and a light blue shirt. His pants were dark gray with matching shoes. In one hand he was holding a wooden torch that was lit up. On his right side, inside the coat, was a holster that held a flintlock pistol.
"Yeah, yeah can we just see if the big what's it called is in here or not?" Said a short tanned man who was about the same size as Pike. His hair was dark brown tied into a ponytail with sideburns. He wore a purple shirt with pink sleeves, with matching collar folds, which was open revealing his chest hair. He had a gold chain necklace with a gold stud in his left ear. Wearing brown pants and some black boots, he held a wooden lute on his back.
"Well from what the man who hired us told us it was called the altar of Vh'ygho. And that we might find the jewel at the base of it." A female who had long orange red hair and pale skin with a few freckles on her face with pointy ears. She wore a green sleeveless dress with dark green patterns on it. On her head were two wooden ornaments that almost looked like antlers. The female had dark brown boots that reached up all the way to her thighs and had glove sleeves that covered her forearms and part of her hands. She held a dark wooden staff that had a green emerald at the top.
"Either case we should find something at this point. I don't want to spend the rest of my life in this place" Said the man with the glasses, as he entered the room.
"Well it doesn't look like there's any traps on the floor. So it's safe to enter this room" Pointed out the tall man with the pointed ears, crouching down on the floor to check the stone floor of the room. With that the rest of the party entered the empty space. The light from the torch revealed that the room was huge and empty, save for a pentagram star banner hanging, that was tall as the chamber, on a wall at the end of the room.
"Well this room is a bust just like the other 3 rooms we tried so far." The female with the bow and arrow muttered in disappointment.
"Hold on a sec." Pike said before gripping her pendant with her right hand. It began to glow bright yellow as well as her eyes. From her point of view she could see a glowing object in the shape of an oval that was behind the curtains. "Over there, behind the curtains." she said pointing toward the drapes.
The giant blue man pulled down the drapes, ripping them off the wall with ease. As the cloth fell to the ground, a smooth purple gemstone, the size of a person's head, was on an obsidian pedestal.
"Holy shit that's the biggest gemstone I've seen in my life!" The short man said in excitement.
"Looks like we finally caught a fucking break cause that the stone our employers asked us to get." The woman with the bow said checking a piece of paper that had a drawing the same description as the gemstone in front of them.
"Uh guys…what is that?" The orange-haired woman muttered as she pointed to what was above the stone. What was above it was a strange, yet familiar, statue of a white stone skeleton. Its arms were folded over its chest.
"Wow, that's not ominous or anything." Said the blue dress woman sarcastically. "Pike, do you sense anything magical about that freaky lich statue?"
The short woman held her pendant again as her eyes glowed. She saw that the statue didn't radiate anything. "No, it looks like an ordinary statue so far."
"Well looks can be deceiving, let me check to see if there are any traps before we pick up the giant purple stone." The man with black clothes said as he knelt down before the gemstone altar. As he checks for anything, Pike notices a low whispering sound.
"Did anyone hear that?" She asked.
"I don't hear anything," the short man with the lute replied. "Wait, now I do."
"Where's that coming from?" the man with the glasses asked as he looked around the room.
"Is it me or are the creepy whispers getting louder?" The orange-haired girl asked nervously.
The woman in the blue tunic drew her bow, in case something dangerous came out. She noticed that her pet bear was growling at something. The woman followed its gaze and saw that the skeleton's eyes started to glow. "Vax get away from that statue!" she shouted.
Vax looked up and saw what was going on as he immediately dash backward away from the idol. "What the hell did you touch now Grog?" He asked accusingly to the giant blue man.
"Wha- I did not touch nothing this time. I swear." he replied defensively. The statue's arms moved toward its sides then forwards a bit. Red runes appeared in the sky as they formed a circle in front of the lich statue. "Oh shit that's not good right?"
"I thought you said that thing wasn't magical." The man with the glasses, told Pike.
"I did and it didn't radiate any magic before now it is somehow." she replied checking the statue again as it was now glowing like a sun. "And it's glowing with a lot of magical energy now."
"Well thats just fucking perfect." Vax muttered pulling out his daggers expecting the worst. The others ready themselve not knowing what would happen next. The runes then started to spin in a circle faster and faster, until the ring was filled with a red vortex. The group of people were prepared for anything that would come out of the portal. That is until a white dove came out of the portal first. It flapped its wings like crazy trying to regain its balance before landing on the ground before the group of people.
"Uhmm…okay…was expecting some kind of giant tentacle monster thing that likes to get freaky with people, not some shitty pigeon." The short man said with a little relief and disappointment.
"It's not a pigeon Scanlan, it's a dove." The orange-haired woman said to him as she knelt down before the bird. "Come here little guy, we won't hurt you." She cooed the bird as she held out her hand to it.
"Wait Keyleth that bird might be a brain sucking slug that came from the dankeiest place of that place I can't remember the name of." The giant blue man said holding the girl back "Let's kill it!" He shouted before raising his ax in an attempt to kill the bird.
"Grog no!" Keyleth shouted getting up to stop him.
"Honestly it's just a damn bird, nothing special or horrifying about it." The woman with the bow said.
"Still you can't deny that dove might not be natural since it came from that summoning circle." The man with the glasses spoke. "I mean that can't be the only thing that could have come from that portal."
"I don't think it is, look." Vax pointed to the vortex as various items started to fly out. What came out first was several large metal lockers. Once it left the portal it crashed into the walls and floor almost hitting the group of adventures. Luckily they managed to dodge them without any injuries, though they were curious as to why these metal closets were coming out of the vortex. The short man was forced to roll onto the floor to avoid the debris. Soon various other things came out of the portal, such as wood rocks and junk.
"What the hell is this the portal where the gods dump their trash?" Pike asked as she dodge more trash. That is until something hit her in the head. It wasn't hard enough to draw blood, but it did hurt like hell. She looked down to see that it was a revolver. "Hey Percy, you want to keep your pepper box close to you instead of throwing it around!" She shouted to the man with the glasses.
"What the hell are you talking about? My weapon is still on me." he said, showing a gun that was tucked into a holster behind his coat. Before Pike could retort weapons started to fly out of the portal.
"What the fuck are these things?" Vax said after ducking to avoid a dark green rocket launcher.
The short man started to get off the ground when he noticed a fireman's ax flew out of the portal, and was flying towards him. Acting on instinct the short man spread apart his legs completely dodging the blade as it embedded itself into the ground mere inches away from his crotch. "Whew, that would have been a disaster." he said with relief, being spared from losing his junk. Then a strange noise started. "Oh what now?"
Turns out the noise was the sound of several men screaming from inside the portal. After a few seconds men flew out of the vortex and landed flat on the ground. They were the RED mercenaries who were unconscious from being endlessly spun in the vortex. Soon the vortex collapsed in on itself closing the portal to another dimension. The room became dead quiet as it was about 5 minutes ago. The group of adventures were stunned at the arrival of these men.
"Okay…did not expect to see that." The man with the glasses said stunned.
"Are they dead?" Keyelth asked, getting close to the one in the fireproof suit. She started to poke his head with her staff to get a response. "What kind of creature is this anyway?" she asked herself, thinking the gas mask was a part of the man's head.
Pyro immediately sat up startling the orange hair girl, who fell onto. The other adventurers got their weapons ready thinking that it was a hostel. He looked around and saw himself in an unfamiliar room. Pyro then took notice of the other group of people in the room with him, more specifically the girl in front of him.
"Umm…he-hello?" Keyelth greeted, timidly waving her hand.
"Hmmro." Pyro responded as he wave backed at her. He then proceeded to mumble about what her name was?
"Uh did anyone catch what it said? Cause I didn't." Keyelth said nervously.
"I don't think it can talk, cause it doesn't have a mouth." said Grog looking at Pyro's mask.
"What, no Grog, that thing doesn't, doesn't have a mouth." The short man said "It's that freaky mask it's wearing, muffling its voice."
"Uh right, so who are you? And where did you come from?" Keleyth asked Pyro. He responded to her question on how they were mercenaries and how they ended up here. Of course nobody understood what he was saying. "This wasn't a smart decision."
"Maybe we should ask the other men who aren't wearing masks." the woman with the bow said. Her bear was sniffing at one of them wondering if they were dead.
"I'm gonna check on the other guys." Pike said as she kneeled over Scout's head. She saw no major injury, but he did start to wake up. When he opened his eyes Scout saw Pike's face.
"Well hello gorgeous, am I dead? Because this must be heaven!" Scout flirted with her.
"Wait what?" Pike responded not knowing what to say.
Scout shot up from the ground and tried to flirt with her again. "Do you have a name or can I just call you mine?" He asked again only to notice that the woman he was hitting on was about as high as his waste. "Oh wow I'm flirting with a twelve year old. This is a new low for me."
"What no I'm not a child I'm a gnome you idiot." Pike retorted, offended by his words.
"Oh okay that's better, question though, what the hell is a gnome?" Scout asked not understanding the name of her race. Not even a second later he took notice of the female with the bow then immediately ran over to her "Hey baby, if I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together." Scout said smoothly, showing his teeth in a smile.
"Oh great, just what we need another Scanlan." the woman muttered. She then let out a sharp whistle as a bear appeared in front of Scout scaring him away from her. He happened to squeal like a little girl as he backed off. Soon the other mercenaries started to wake up.
"Ach me, aching head." Demon moaned as he got up to take a swig from his bottle. As he did he noticed it was empty and that the bottle was broken. "Bloody hell." he cursed, throwing the bottle away.
"Oh what a curious sensation that was." Medic said not even phased by the experience.
"Speak for yourself doctor." Heavy groans as the trip made him a bit queasy.
"When I get my hands on that lousy roommate I'm gonna kick his ass back to the Mexican borders from where he came from!" Soldier shouted still laying on the ground.
"Umm are you alright?" Vax asked. "Need help getting up?"
"I do not need getting up from some hippie trash! I am an American who can get up with his own two American hands!" Soldier shouted at Vax, as he pulled himself off the ground.
"Wha-hippie?" Vax responded not understanding if he was insulted or not.
"Ignore him, he is an imbecile who thinks everyone who is not him is a hippie." Spy insulted Soldier, while dusting off his suite.
"Ow everybody alright?" Engi asked, setting his helmet straight.
"Define alright?" Sniper asked, feeling like he went through a tornado and lived.
"Uhhh…Can one of you guys explain who the fuck are you?" The short man with the lute said getting up from the ground.
"What's it to you baby man?" Heavy asked intimidatingly.
"Wha-de-I am not a baby you jackass. I'm Scanlan Shorthalt!" He introduced himself while taking out his lute and strumming it. "Renowned bard who travels the world, greatest singer of all of Tal'Dorei, slayer of monsters and bandits, and lover to all sexy people out there." With each point he made about himself, he would strum his lute and small light purple fireworks would sparkle around him.
The RED mercs just stood there somewhat phased by the little showboating Scanlan gave himself.
"Great another man who's more full of himself than Scout." Spy said in annoyance as he rubbed his eyes with his finger and thumb.
"Hey screw you Spy!" Scout shouted while flipping him off. "
The man with the glasses took an exhausted sigh. "Look I'm sure we have about a million questions about what's going on so how about we get introductions out of the way. My name is Percival de Rolo." he introduced himself.
"We call him Percy for short." The woman with the bow commented. "As for me my name is Vex'ahlia. Your friend already met Trinket here." She said as she petted the brown bear next to her.
"You have a bear for a pet?" Sniper asked, perplexed. "Is that safe?"
"Not unless you pissed him off, which I'll have you know I do not." She replied with a sly smile. "And this here is my brother." She pointed to the man with the black clothes.
"Vax'ildan is my name," he replied.
"Sounds like a hippie name to me." Soldier said, cheeky.
"Alright that the second time you called me, what even is a hippie?" Vax asked trying to figure out the insult
"A hippie is a treehugger who has long hair, who hates meat and violence, and is a downright sissy!" Soldier shouted.
"Sissy?!" Vax shouted.
"Bwahahahahaha! He-he called you sissy! Hahahahaha!" The giant blue man roared with laughter. Vax grumbled wanting nothing more than to stab Soldier right now to prove him wrong. Before he could Pike walked in front of him.
"Alright let's not kill each other just yet." Pike defused the situation knowing Vax would have done something erratic. "My name is Pike Trickfoot. The big lug you got laughing his lungs out is Grog Strongjaw."
"Hehehehe…Hey." Grog said, his laughter finally settled down.
"Hi I'm Keyleth." She said timidly waving her hand. "So…uh…what's your name by the way?" She asked.
Scout immediately went over to Keylteh and gave her a coy smile. "Hi the name Scout, but you can call me the man of your dreams." The Bostonian flirted with her while introducing himself.
"I…umm…What?" Keyleth asked, not sure what to say.
Spy said nothing as he yanked Scout away by the collar of his shirt. "Now is not the time to be thinking with your dick boy." Spy lectured Scout.
"Yeah, since Scout already introduced his name, why don't the rest of us introduce ourselves. *ahem* My name is Engineer, or Engi for short." The Texan introduced himself, while taking off his hard hat.
"Sniper is my name." The Australian said, picking up his weapons.
"They call me Demoman, or Demo if you don't feel like saying that. Now I know I had another bottle here somewhere." The Scottish introduced himself as he looked around for another bottle of beer that wasn't broken.
"What ya looking for?" Grog asked Demo
"Me bottle of Scrumpy." Demo replied.
"Your what?" The giant man asked
"Whiskey, beer, ale, any kind of liquor. I need some of that good stuff right about now." Demo said as he picked up a bottle but sighed bitterly when he saw that it was empty.
"You…drink…ale?" Grog asked with a little bit of excitement.
"Aye laddie can drink about 12 bottles in half a day." Demo boasted.
"Pfft. Only 12, me and Grog here can drink about 20 barrels the size of me a day each." Pike boasted wanting to up the ante.
"Oh can ya ye we little lass. Can you prove that, or are ya just spinning tall tales?" Demo asked with interest.
"Hey, nobody here has tall tales. At least not to my knowledge, I mean I haven't seen everyone naked ass yet, so I wouldn't know." Grog stated taking the Scotsman's words seriously.
"Fantastic, another imbecile I am aware of." Muttered Spy. "As for me, I am the Spy." The Frenchman continued with the introductions, taking out his cigarette and lighting it.
Pyro introduced his name again while waving his hand back and forth.
"What did that thing say?" Percy asked, not understanding a word he said.
"He said his name is Pyro. You'll get to understand what he is saying if you hang around him long enough."The medic explained. "As for me, I'm the Medic." The German doctor said, clicking his heels and giving a slight bow. A white dove landed on his shoulder. "And this little fine fellow is Archimedes." Medic introduces his pet bird.
"I am Heavy." The Russian introduced himself, while picking up his minigun. "And this is my weapon."
"Ooh bet you bash people around with that thing pretty nicely." Grog said in awe thinking it was a kind of blunt object.
"What no Sasha is not ment of bashing. She is meant for killing tiny cowards with custom made bullets." He tried to explain the concept of his special gun. But to Grog it was just noise coming out of the man's mouth. Percy on the other hand was quite curious that this giant thing was a gun. Sure he had one of his own but it was small compared to this thing.
"Heavy, Scout, Spy, and Medic? What kind of names are those? They sound like job titles rather than names." Scanlan said not believing their names.
"How dare you maggots give out your names to the enemy like that!" Soldier shouted angrily for all we know they could be planning on how they can use our names to defeat us!" he shouted pointing his finger at the group of adventurers.
"Soldier those are not our actual names, they're our code names." Spy said, irritated by Soldiers stupidity.
"Wait code names?" Vex asked, confused at the term.
"Yeah we're a bunch of mercenaries fighting in a war back home." Engineer explained, "And our employers asked us not to use our actual names since it's a secret war."
"I…see…"Vex replied cautiously, not knowing how to respond to that. "And how the hell did you end up here in the temple of Vh'ygho."
"Vhinny who?" Scout asked, mispronouncing the name.
"Vh'ygho, some sort of dark being or something. I wasn't paying attention to our employer when he hired us." The female half elf explained.
"Huh that strange didn't the wizard say that name when he tried to kill us?" Medic asked.
"What wizard?" Percy asked
"My roommate Merasmus. Every year he comes by and tries to kill us all because I turned his home into a raccoon sanctuary and a few other reasons I can't remember at this moment." Soldier explain some of the situation to the adventurers.
"This year he had an artifact that looked similar to that statue over there." Heavy brought up pointing to the statue in the room. "At first nothing happened but then the artifact then opened a portal that brought us here."
"So you think this statue will bring you back to where you came from?" Vax theorized. The RED mercs looked at one another, then came to the conclusion that might be the best idea at the moment. "Or that idea just popped in your head right now." Vax muttered
"It's worth a try lad. Problem is none of us know magic. I mean there was that one time we had magic, but it was from pages of a spell book that we just read the words off and they just disappeared." Demo explained an event they had one time.
"Do any of y'all know how to work this kind of stuff?" Engi asked, hoping for some miracle. The group of adventures were hesitant in answering that question. "Guess not." The Texan put together.
"We don't need any special voodoo spells! What we need is some good American artillery to fix this situation!" Soldier shouted, as he grabbed one of his rocket launchers and aimed it towards the statue. In his mind, he thought that by destroying the statue they would be pulled back to their world "Say bye, bye statue of non liberty." he said pulling the trigger.
"Stop it you idiot!" Spy shouted as he and Sniper pulled on Soldier's arm aiming the rocket launcher upward. The rocket was launched upward to the ceiling and exploded. Rocks fell down causing the people to move out the way. The room shook violently and many feared that a cave in would happen. Thankfully it didn't happen as the room went back to being still. There was now a gaping hole in the ceiling.
"Well that was fucking loud as hell." Scanlan said, cleaning out his ear hoping to stop the ringing noise he was hearing.
"What the hell was that?!" Keyleth asked about the weapon, with a little panic in her voice.
"That is pure American weaponsmith right there lady. It's perfect for killing the enemy nazis and communism." Soldier said with pride.
"You imbecile!" Spy shouted at Soldier. "We may need that statue to return home. And your first idea was to blow it up?!"
"We're just bloody lucky that the whole damn place didn't cave in on us!" Sniper shouted as well.
"I'm more worried that the blast must have alerted something in this place. The employer did mention that some gnolls might have taken residence in these ruins." Percy explained.
"Gnolls? What the hell is a gnoll?" Scout asked hesitantly. Before anyone could respond there was a low boom noise, sounding like a drumbeat that echoed off the walls. Everyone grew still and quiet, nobody made a move or a sound. Then another boom was heard, then another. The booming continued into a rapid beating as the noise grew closer to them. Along with the beats came chattering noises as it grew closer.
"Well you're about to have your answer in about a minute or so." Pike hastily said as she ready herself for battle. A yellow star mace magically appeared in her right hand, while a yellow transparent small shield appeared on her left wrist.
The other adventures did so themselves as they pulled out their respective weapons. Vax pulled out a dagger for each hand. Vex pulled an arrow from her quiver and knocked it on her bow. Percy pulled out a pistol-like object that had 6 barrels. Keyleth ready herself as she held her staff with a firm grip. Grog pulled out his double head axe with a grin on his face. Scanlan than tuned his lute as he prepared for battle.
"Pfft what are you hoping to do with that guitar? Sing terrible music?" Scout asked, taunting the short man.
"My music is anything but terrible." Scanlan pointed out.
"That's debatable." Vax answered with a coy smile.
"Screw you Vax!" the short man shouted, flipping him off.
"I hope you boys know how to fight, cause I'm not risking my ass to save yours." Vex started pulling her bow.
The other mercs quickly grabbed their respective weapons off the ground and prepared themselves. Everyone gripped their weapons tightly as the noise grew closerer. They could see some torch light and shadows off the wall as whatever grew closer. What came into sight was a horde of humanoid hyena beings. Their fur ranged from gray to brown and had black spots all over them. Their armor was a bunch of metal or leather scraps put together as well as their weapons. The RED mercs were startled by their heinous appearances but quickly still themselves.
"Fresh meat and goodies!" some of them shouted as their jaws snapped.
As they drew closer, Heavy walked in front of the group with his minigun winding up. "Now I will show you how I kill tiny cowards with Shasha." Heavy said as he let out a barrage of bullets. The gnolls would fall like flies with the bullets ripping apart their flesh. Most of them ducked for cover behind their fallen comrades or rocks to avoid the bullets. "Hahaha! Cry some more!" Heavy shouted while laughing out loud, continuing his killing spree. About three-quarters of the gnoll pack was killed thanks to the Russian weapon.
"Holy…"Scanlan said in amazement
"Shit…" Vax finished also in shock.
"Hey, no fair! Save some for us to kill!" Grog shouted in disappointment seeing most of the gnolls were dead. However the floor next to Heavy shook a bit, and soon a giant lizard-like monster. Its was about 10 feet tall and 15 ft long, its body was covered in thick gray, layered plates. Its head was bullet-shaped, similar to that of a shark, with a massive mouth. It had stumpy but powerful legs with three large white claws. Heavy saw this and jumped out the way before it could snap its jaw around him. The creature crawled out of the whole as more gnolls came out from behind it.
"What the hell is that?!"Scout shouted in a bit of fear.
"Fuck me they tamed a Bulette!" Vex shouted as she let loose one of her arrows. It struck a gnoll between its eyes causing it to fall dead.
The others scatter as the creature, now known as Bulette, ran amok trying to eat any of them. Scout ran around bashing his wooden bat on any unexpecting gnolls. The gnolls tried to shoot him with their arrows, but Scout was able to dodge them.
"What's the matter, you can't touch what ain't there." Scout stood still taunting them. That proved a mistake as an arrow hit the Bostian in his shin. He screamed like a girl as he felt it burrow into his flesh. Another gnoll soon jumped on him and was about to tear out his throat with its jaws. The only thing keeping him from doing that was Scout's bat as he shoved it into the gnoll's mouth and tried to push it off. But it was only a matter of time, the wooden bat started to splinter and break with each bit the gnoll took. Some thorny vines came up from the ground and grabbed the gnoll pulling it off of the Bostian. Keyleth had used her druid magic to control the vines, allowing it to pull the gnoll and tie it up.
"You okay?" She asked, offering him a hand.
"Pfft nah. I had that freak right where I wanted him." Scout boasted, trying to act tough in front of a woman. But it was hard considering he still had an arrow in his leg. Before Keyleth could respond Scout pulled out his pistol and fired a shot. The bullet whizzed past her hitting a gnoll that was about to ambush her. She turned around and saw that Scout saved her now."I think that calls for a date."
"Uhmm…well…I…" Keyleth said nervously but was distracted as more gnolls came for them.
Soldier was about to fire his rocket at the on coming gnolls, when one of them knocked his weapon out of his hand. About half a dozen surround the American ready to kill him. "You maggots think you got me cornered, well I got you cornered instead. HUTTAAH!" Soldier shouted. He then grabbed a gnoll by its head and twisted it hard, resulting in a neck snap. Soldier grabbed his pickaxe then brought it down onto another gnolls head, resulting in a little blood splatter on his face. A gnoll with a dagger jumped onto Soldier and stabbed him in the shoulder. "Argh!" Soldier shouted in pain, but bear with it as he grabbed the stabber and tossed him over his shoulder to the ground and proceeded to stomp on its face. Another gnoll jumped him, this time from the front. But Soldier caught him and struggled to break this one neck as well.
Grog, in the meantime, was swinging his axe left and right cleaving any gnolls unlucky enough to be in front of him. Their blood and guts spattered the area around him. He saw Soldier struggle and a small idea popped in his head. "Hey soldier man! Toss him this way!" He shouted to the American. Soldier having no other option did just that. Throwing the gnoll towards the barbarian, Grog brought down his axe splitting the gnoll in half. Blood covered his blue skin as he laughed triumphantly. "Ha that was awesome!"
"You're damn right it was." Soldier said admiring his brutal style. "Now let's show these maggots how we do things in America." He said picking up his shotgun as he and Grog charged into more gnolls.
Vax threw a dagger at a gnoll, stabbing its heart. The dagger then magically came back into his hand as he threw it again killing another gnoll.
"Hmm, that's an impressive tool you have there." Spy complimented the rogue, shooting a gnoll in the head with his revolver.
"Thanks it pays to have magical weapons now and then. You got any other tricks up your sleeve other than that?" Vax asked, pointing to the Frenchman's gun. Spy didn't answer as he just smirked and disappeared into thin air. A gnoll looked around to see where he went. Until the Spy appeared behind it and stabbed him in the back. Spy then became the gnoll that he just stabbed as he walked towards a gnoll then proceeded to shoot him in the back of its head.
"I have some tricks." Spy said as he adjusted his tie.
"Okay thats fucking cool." Vax admitted.
Pike bashed a gnoll with her mace shattering its skull. She took notice of Grog and Soldier injuries they had sustained from the fight. "Hold on their guys, I'm on my way." Pike said as she ran toward her friend first. Her weapons dissipated as her hand began to glow yellow. "Everlight, please heal them." She prayed. Soon all the wounds on Grog closed up as if nothing had happened.
"Whew, thanks Pikkie." Grog thanked her for healing him.
"No problem buddy." Pike said before turning to Soldier to heal him. "Now hold still Soldier this might take a-" before she could muster up another healing spell a red stream of energy touched Soldier's body. His wounds closed up and healed up like it did with Grog. Turns out Medic had used his healing machine to fix his comrade up.
"Thanks doc." Soldier said before continuing the fight with the gnolls. Pike turned her head towards the German as he healed Scout of his injuries.
"Whoa that so fucking cool. What deity gave you that kind of miracle?" Piked asked, thinking Medic healing was that of the gods.
"Deity? Nein, Nein, my small friend, this is a miracle of science! Though I must admit your method of healing is quite effective. How is that done?" Medic asked leaning closer to Pike to examine her.
"Maybe once we get out of this we'll talk some more." She said before summoning her mace and bashing another gnoll.
"Ohohohoh I can't wait." Medic said with a sadistic grin as he pulled out a saw bone and chopped a gnolls head off.
Percy ran out of ammo and reloaded his pistol. As he took aim at another gnoll, his pulled the trigger and it didn't go off. "Bullocks perfect time to malfunction." Percy cursed as he tried to fix his pistol. Another shot was heard as Engi had used his shotgun to kill a gnoll.
"Here partner, let me take a look at that." Engi offered as he took the pistol from Percy's hand and began to tinker with it.
"No offense this weapon is highly sophisticated and no doubt that you could possibly-" Percy remarked before Engi handed it back to him. The white hair man looked surprised at how fast he worked. He took a look at it and saw that the problem that caused it to misfire earlier had been fixed. He then shot a gnoll that came up to the two of them and it worked just fine. "Well I'll be damned. You really know how to work with advanced machines, my friend." Percy complimented the Texan
"Ah shuck weren't nothing." Engi said as he fired his pistol.
"Hey Engi, why aren't you building your sentry or something!" Sniper asked, hacking away at a gnoll with a machete.
"Just finished." Engi said as a mobile gun was set up and started to shoot all gnolls that came into range by itself. Sure it was level 1 at this point but it got the job done nonetheless.
"Di-did you make that yourself?" Percy asked in awe.
"Sure did, partner." Engi replied with pride.
"Incredible." Percy phrased at the marvel of the mechanics.
Demo had been using his longsword to chop off the heads of the gnolls. But he soon started to feel winded as he hasn't had a swig of beer for a while now. "Bloody hell." He cursed as more came towards him. Suddenly some music filled the air as Demo vigor soon returned to him. He didn't know what caused this as he turned to where the music was coming from. Turns out that the short man was playing his lute as magic came from it as surrounded the Scotsman.
"Take heed Demoman. A challenge now you must meet, I Inspire Competence for such a feat!" Scanlan sang while strumming his lute. Demo then felt like he could take on the world now as he charged into the group of gnolls and started to kill them. Scout came up to Scanlan and saw the event that took place.
"Uhm what just happened?" Scout asked, perplexed.
"That my friend was but a small taste of what this gnome can give." Scanlan boasted. Three gnolls then charged them hoping for an easy kill. "And now part 2 of what I can do. SCANLAN HAND!" He shouted as he played his lute hard. A large pink/purple hand appeared and punched the gnolls away. Scout just stood there with his jaw hanging open. "So, still think I'm useless?" The gnomed asked with a smirk.
Almost all of the gnolls were dead at this point. Vex was using her arrows to hit every Gnoll she could see. Her bear pet would cover her back, killing any gnoll that got close to her. However when the bulette charged towards the two, Pyro came in front of the beast and turned on his flamethrower. This caused the beast to stop right in its track and roared in anger. Sniper then came up with his rifle and fired. The bullet hit the creature in the head, but didn't go in enough to puncture the brain. The bulette then started to charge at the Australian, forcing him to jump out of the way.
"Nice try but those things are tough as rock. You probably want something stronger than that if you want to kill it." Vex told him while helping him up.
"Thanks for the heads up. Oy Demo we're gonna need your help over here!" Sniper shouted to the Scotsman. He grabbed his grenade launcher and fired at the bulette. When it made contact with its torso the mini bomb exploded leaving a small gash on its side. Though it wasn't enough to keep it down.
"Damn thing's gonna need more than one bomb to keep it down. Hey Medic, are you charged yet?" Demo asked the German doctor.
"Ja!" Medic replied as he knew what the demon was planning. But before he could get close to him, the bulette wacked Demo with its tail, knocking him into the wall and leaving a nasty gash on the Scotsman torso.
"Gonna need a better plan than just hoping that thing stays still." Vex muttered. "Scanlan, see if you can get that beast's attention on something!" She shouted to the gnome.
Scanlan nodded and played his guitar. "Focus all on me, beast. And you will enjoy a feast." the gnome rhymed. Then an image of Scanlan appeared in front of the statue in the room. The bulette then walked towards the illusion thinking it was real. Once it was in position Keyleth used her vines to hold the beast in place.
Forced to get another heavy hitter, Medic turned to Soldier. "Soldier, I am fully charge let's show this beast how we do things back home."
"You got it doc!" Soldier shouted, grabbing his rocket launcher. With a pull of a handle of Medic healing gun, more energy came out of the nozzle and onto the American. Soldier's entire body glow bright red as it shines with power. The bulette was intimidated at first but then roared at him, breaking free of some of the vines. It knocked him with its tail again but no wounds were on him. It was apparent that he became indestructible as the group of adventures looked on with shock and awe. For the RED mercs it was normal for them so they were used to it. Soldier then began to fire his rocket launcher at the bulette. One rocket hit it in the head causing massive damage. Then another hit him near the ground before the beast, knocking it back a bit. Then the bulette roared in pain as blood spilled out from its wounds. Soldier then fired one more rocket as it went into the beat's mouth. Accidentally swallowing it the beast then exploded from the inside scattering its guts all over the place and everyone. Only a handful of gnolls were left as they tried to make a retreat. But as they tried to leave the room, Heavy blocked their path. He cracked his knuckles as he proceeded to beat the living crap out of them. The room became dead quite as it was before anyone came into it, beside all the dead bodies and such.
"Well *ahem* that was something." Vex said, whipping the blood that got on her face.
"That was fucking amazing!" Grog shouted with glee. "Oh do me next I want to glow red too."
"Sorry, mein giant ally. But this requires time to charge up. Also it requires a special device that you don't have at the moment." Medic explains to the barbarian in simple terms.
"Aw man." Grog sighed in disappointment.
"Turns out you lot are not all useless as you look to be." Vax complimented them.
"Thanks….hey what do you mean by looking useless?" Scout asked, feeling insulted.
Pike healed Demo of his wounds and he was back up to his two feet. "Feeling better?" She asked, making sure she didn't miss any wounds.
"I feel better when I get some beer in me. Also not bad with the healing their lassie. You could put our Medic out of work with that stuff." Demo praised her.
"I have never seen such weapons of your caliber. The style, the mechanics, the effectiveness of such marvels it's unbelievable." Percy exclaimed as he was trying to contain his excitement about seeing such advanced weapons. Pyro then proceeded to hug Percy as thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately this continued longer than the white hair man was comfortable with.
"So does anyone want to tell me what the bloody hell those things were?" Sniper asked.
"Gnolls, nasty bunch. They like to kill and pillage anything that's not their clan. Looks like they made this temple their base." Vax explained "And that creature we just met was a bulette carnivorous digger that usually resides in grassland and ambushes its prey. How these bastards got a hold on it, no idea."
"Uh yeah that's cool and all can we just go home now." Scout said wanting to get out of this weird place.
"Sure if we can…just…aw hell." Engi said in frustration. Turns out the statue that was in the room had been destroyed during the battle. The corpse of the bulette was on top of the rubble of the idol.
"Soldier, did you by any chance destroy our only way home?" Spy asked on the verge of full frustration.
"Don't be ridiculous, it was that bull thing that did it with its body. All thanks to me killing it." Soldier said. Though it was true that the creature broke it, the American was indirectly the cause of destroying the statue. Heavy held Spy back as the Frenchman wanted nothing more than to stab Soldier in the neck now.
"Now, now calm down Spy we don't even know that this could have brought us back home." Engi said, keeping a level head.
"Sure maybe our employer knows more about it."Scanlan brought up" I'm sure he might explain things as soon..as..we get..the…Oh shit" He then noticed that the gem that they were hired to get was now in pieces as well.
Up above ground it was dusk as the sun was setting behind the trees of the forest. Both the adventures and RED were above ground trying to salvage a shitty situation. They managed to gather up all the gem pieces and try to put it back together as it once was. But it didn't stick, they had to use some tree sap to glue it back together.
"Think it will hold?" Keyleth asked worriedly.
"It will, problem convincing our employer that it's not broken." Vax said in a concerned tone.
"Sorry about all that." Engi apologized.
"Something tells me if you didn't break it one of us might have ourselves." Percy admitted knowing their luck.
"I'm just glad that those gnolls had some loot on their hands." Scanlan mentioned. Once they had gathered the gem pieces they looted all what the gnolls had on them. Turns out that they had a bunch of gold coins on them as well as some rare jewels and items.
"So what now?" Heavy asked, seeing what to do next.
"Well we go back to our employer and convince him that we completed our job and get a nice reward." Vex explained.
"And us?" The Russian asked.
"What about you? You can take care of yourself in a fight. I'm sure you can survive in this world." Vex casually said not caring about them.
"Wha-no we can't just leave them here." Keyleth objected to Vex's decision. "They are strangers to our world and have no idea how things work here. Hell they got lucky with us being here but they might end up fighting a dragon next time."
"Wait, dragons are here too?" Scout asked a bit nervously.
"I agree with Keyleth. Besides we were kinda at fault for leading the bulette toward the statue in the first place." Pike brought up her point.
"Yeah plus they kick some serious ass back there. I want to see that shit again!" Grog said excitedly holding Soldier close to him with one arm and Heavy with the other. Though the Russian didn't move from his spot like the American.
"Yeah I want to enjoy kicking more ass with you to pal." Soldier said enjoying his killing spree with the barbarian.
"Giant man is a great warrior." Heavy praised Grog.
"I wouldn't mind seeing how their machines work as well." Percy mentioned as he was hoping to learn how their weapons work and such.
"Normally I would be with you Vex, but something in my gut tells me that we should let these crazy bastards join us." Vax brought up. Seeing no other options Vex admitted defeat.
"Alright you guys can join up with Vox Machina." Vex said with a small smile.
"Vox Machina is what your group is called?" Sniper asked.
"Well it's better than being called red." Scanlan pointed out.
"Actually RED is the name of the company that hires us." Spy explained.
"Oh then what is your group called?" Keyleth asked.
"We call ourselves Team Fortress." Engi told them.
"Hmm, I like it." Percy said.
With that said the two groups joined and started to have a little celebration in their new alliance. Some of them were calm and collective but the others cheered hard. They got to know one another telling them stories of their adventure as a new chapter in their lives were about to be told.