This one has underwent rewrite as well, and this time I did not touch the author's note.


Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract

Histy Meets Them All! (Part I)


Histoire's proposal was met with more awkwardness than she had hoped.

Like… both the RED Team and the girls were silent. Every second was painful for the Oracle.

"...Huh." Engineer broke the silence first, his voice dull. "Do you mind if y'all wait outside and let us discuss it in private?"

The merc gently shushed IF away, closing the doors as they left the building. IF, still processing the earlier proposal, subconsciously allowed herself to be pushed away.

Then she grabbed her N-Gear.

"What the hell Histoire!?"

Histoire expected her reaction to be something like this, so that didn't take her by surprise. "IF, do you see the area around us? All of these people that have been killed? These men are dangerous!"

"Then why hire them!?"

"Because leaving them alone would bring dire consequences, and trying to arrest them without Neptune will bring heavy casualties we cannot afford. Not to mention if they are not currently with the ASIC, it would give them a reason to join them and oppose us. With the help of a group like this, the ASIC could easily take full control over Planeptune."

...

IF saw her point. If these men were really neutral in all of this, then making them their enemy would be a grave mistake to make. The Guild agent sighed and backed off. "...Yeah, you're right." Medic's Medi-Gun alone would be hard to counter, with its ability to heal all injuries in seconds and revive dead people. The fact that all of them were heavily armed as well was just a cherry on top. "So you just want them on our side just to not make them a problem?"

"Yes, and with a little luck they might prove themselves to be a formidable ally. Their medicine and technology is out of this world!" Planeptune was a leader when it came to medicine and healthcare, but Histoire has never heard anything about healing bullet wounds within seconds, much less literal resurrection. "I really hope Medic will share his 'Medi-Gun' technology with us, we could revolutionize healthcare all over Gamindustri with that!" Histoire mused with a smile, focusing on the bright side of this arrangement. In the right hands, those mercenaries may not simply deal death, but also save many lives...

On the other side of the door meanwhile, the mercenaries were in the middle of a heated discussion.

They stood in a circle, each one being able to add something to the discussion if they wanted to. If they had a round table in the center this meeting might even look official.

They spoke not with words, but with their eyes and facial expressions. They knew each other well enough to know what the other was thinking just by their expression. You might even call it a psychic connection.

Sniper: We can't…

Scout: Miss Pauling is going to be so mad if we take it.

Heavy: Да, I agree.

They had their doubts whether they should or should not take it. And truthfully so, taking Histoire's offer would be them betraying the Administrator. And that came with consequences. Severe consequences.

But there was something rising within Spy's mind, something urging him to take up Histoire's offer. And it wasn't just Spy feeling this, Engineer felt it too.

Engineer: We don't need to actually sign up for anything. We can just go to her, ask her a few questions and figure it out later.

Spy: Plus… we're not actually getting paid at all, what if this turns out to be a better job than defending Mann Co. facilities?

While deserting was severely punished, it wasn't exactly unheard of for people to leave the Administrator to find a better job, and for her to let them actually go, as long as they weren't going directly against her interests. If Histoire's employment turns out to be better, there's a sliver of a chance she might allow them to take it.

Sniper: If Histoire will actually pay us something then I'm in. I'm tired of wasting my hard earned cash on upgrades that don't last even a day.

Demo: We'll still need to talk with Miss Pauling though, aye?

Pyro: Mmph!

Engineer: Yup! But I think we'll manage something.

Their silent discussion continued for almost an hour, and the girls waited this entire time. Or rather IF waited this entire time because Compa fell asleep - snuggling against Nepgear and using her as a body pillow.

IF silently took several pictures of this scene, from several angles. Histoire didn't say a thing as IF covered the N-Gear's camera as she did so, the fairy innocently thought that the Guild agent was simply walking back and forth.

Suddenly the doors were opened and IF's eyes widened, her hands quickly taking the phone away. She had her camera angled right underneath Compa's skirt, giving her a clear vision of her panties.

The brunette darted to face Engineer, who was standing in the doorway. He was… amused. IF felt her cheeks blush. Fortunately he didn't tease her over it, instead he gave her a black bulky plastic box with some kind of tape coiled inside.

"Here."

IF took the box and examined it, spotting a label written on it.

Meet the Team

"What is this thing? I've never seen something like this before…" IF said.

"Well, we voted and we agreed to at least listen to what you have for us." Engineer said. "This here has some videos we were ordered to make, promotional stuff. Demo figured we should give 'em to ya."

A spark of recognition flashed over Histoire's eyes, despite no one being able to see it. She knew what this box was and was even more surprised that they had something so old in their possession. "I honestly didn't think I'd see one of these things again. How nostalgic!"

"You know what it is, Histoire?" IF asked.

"That is a VHS cassette, they were used to record videos long before the Purple-Ray disks we use today were invented." The fairy-like Oracle explained. "I'm surprised that someone still produces them… How did you get it?" She continued to query. Engineer wondered what these 'Purple-Ray disks' are, but he decided not to ask.

"Found it inside the supplies we got." He answered truthfully, shrugging.

"Can we even watch that? I don't think we have anything old enough to support it…" IF wondered aloud, hiding the VHS into her coat pocket.

"It will require some searching, but I'm certain that I will find something inside the Basilicom." Histoire said. "But getting into matters at hand, thank you for granting us some of your time. Could you go to the Basilicom tomorrow morning so we could discuss the details of your employment?"

Engineer nodded. "Yup, sure." Then he smiled sheepishly. "If you pardon my lack of knowledge… what is the Basilicom?"

Histoire was yet again intrigued by the lack of common knowledge, but at this point she wasn't surprised. However IF was. "You don't know what the Basilicom is?"

"Nope." He shook his head.

"Do you see that large tower in Planeptune? That's the Basilicom."

Engineer looked where IF was pointing and whistled. They were to go to the biggest tower in the city, which rivalled the Eiffel Tower in height. "Yeah, we can go there." Engineer nodded and turned his head towards IF again. "8 o'clock?"

"Sounds good." IF shrugged.

"Yes, that would be great." Histoire agreed.

It was late at that point, the sun had set and the moon was out. Fortunately they were now inside Planeptune's territory and that meant the paths were illuminated and protected, IF and Compa didn't need to fear getting lost or attacked by the monsters.

IF shook Compa awake, which took some time, and then they said their goodbyes.

As they left the girls felt relief wash over them. This situation was hard on their nerves; taken hostage, then led to an ASIC outpost, witnessed something that could only be described as a massacre. It was a long journey, but they could finally see the end.

The walk back home was uneventful, save for some casual chatter between the girls or an occasional complaint from Compa. When they finally made it back to Planeptune, they were greeted by a Basilicom Staff with a car already prepared for them.

After that they reached the Basilicom within minutes. The Staff gently carried the unconscious Nepgear and carried her to her room, which was kept tidy and clean after all these years. Histoire meanwhile examined the state IF and Compa were in.

Both of them were dirty as well as exhausted after the mission. Compa was drenched in sweat and her clothes were bearing blue stains from Dogoo gel. A quick laundry will fix it. Meanwhile IF was disheveled and had some of her hair missing.

With a heavy sigh IF handed Histoire the VHS cassette she received from Engineer. "Here Histoire… keep it."

The fairy took it with a nod and looked down at it. In her small, adorable hands was a relic of time, one that had all but disappeared from modern society. Why the mercs had it or even why they used it Histoire had no idea, but she could ask tomorrow.

"Thank you. Would you like to watch it with me? I realize you girls are tired but-." IF raised her hand, cutting Histoire off.

"That's fine Histoire, but can we take a shower first?"


IF and Compa, being close and trusted friends of Nepgear and Neptune, Histoire saw no reason not to give them the necessary time to clean themselves inside the guest rooms. It was already midnight and IF and Compa's houses were pretty far away, so Histoire also offered them to sleep inside the Basilicom for the night.

The room in which Histoire, IF and Compa were going to be watching the material had already been prepared; equipped with a very old gray TV which will then broadcast to a much more advanced touchwall and speakers. The cassette was lying on a sheet of purple-tinted glass, which was in front of a big and comfortable couch. Various pillows were on it for bonus comfort.

Histoire patiently waited for Compa and IF to arrive for their 'Movie Night' as Compa jokingly called it. Hopefully they might learn something and it isn't just some prank made by the mercs.

After several minutes of waiting the doors opened, and IF and Compa walked through.

IF was wearing a tank top and shorts, as her outfit was in the Basilicom laundry. Meanwhile Compa wore her pajamas.

"Hi Histy! Is everything ready?" Compa asked as she plonked herself down next to Histoire, right onto a soft pillow with a quiet *pomf*.

"Yes, just sit down and relax while I start the video." Histoire confirmed with a smile, motioning for IF to sit down too.

"I hope this won't turn out to be some sort of prank. Goodness I'm so tired…" IF yawned, sitting down next to Compa and grabbing a pillow to hug.

Histoire pressed a button on the remote and the screen flickered to life, showing a countdown from three to zero. Once the countdown ended the video changed, turning into a very clean, way too sharp image for the times of VHS cassettes.

The first thing that greeted them was a title card and a catchy tune.

Meet the Engineer

The video started with the titular Engineer casually playing guitar at night, sitting against a truck. Bullets would strike the truck every few seconds, each of them dangerously close to his head. However the man barely took notice as he calmly introduced himself. "…Hey look, buddy. I'm an Engineer, that means I solve problems."

A bullet struck, but he continued as if that didn't happen. "Not problems like 'What is beauty', because that would fall within the purview of conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems." Meanwhile, though not on the screen, mechanical whirs could be heard from something in the background nearby.

There was a counter sitting on a crate next to Engineer, currently at two hundred and nine. Shortly after something fired twice and a scream of agony followed. The counter updated itself.

Two hundred and ten...

"...Please tell me it doesn't count what I think it's counting." IF said, sweating. The images of the Warehouse Massacare still ran fresh within her mind.

"Hopefully not, this is just a video. It could be fabricated." Histoire tried to reassure, but even she doubted it.

Compa said nothing, she just hugged a pillow and stared.

While Engineer continued his carefree self-introduction, one by one, each sentry gun was shown on the screen, a level one, then a level two, and then a fully upgraded level three. Each in turn gunned down someone off-screen with increasing firepower.

Finally as Engineer concluded his little speech with a dull threat, the camera panned out to show more of the battlefield and, to Histoire and IF's horror, showed just how many people were currently attacking and getting slaughtered by his Sentry Guns. All while Engineer simply played his guitar and drank beer without a care in the world.

Also, that light source which IF thought was a campfire…

Was actually a burning corpse…

"Hold it." IF ordered, and Histoire pressed pause.

"What is it?" Compa asked.

"Look. All of them are the other mercs. Why are they attacking their own Engineer?" IF pointed at several visible corpses lying dead near the Engie, each identical to the Heavy, Spy, Soldier, Pyro and Demoman, except all wearing blue instead of red.

"Maybe it's just for show?" Compa suggested.

"Perhaps, it could be they're simply acting. I would rather want to know how he managed to invent these turrets without anyone knowing… Were they never patented?" Histoire remarked before resuming the video.

The last scene showed the entire team posing and the words 'Reliable Excavation Demolition Mercenary Team.'

"Mercenaries?" IF said.

"A company name?" Compa questioned.

"I don't think there are any companies that work under that name…" IF's eyes narrowed.

"It's true, currently there are no demolition companies working under that name… Besides, what kind of demolition company needs mercenaries?" Histoire also grew suspicious. She knew the names of all major companies working within Planeptune and none of them were named like that, and any smaller company simply couldn't afford to hire a group of heavily armed mercs, much less ones with unpatented but revolutionary technology.

The cassette didn't care about what they were thinking and simply started the next video, this time titled 'Meet the Demoman'.

This one was far more action-packed, featuring clips of Demoman blowing things up and dodging explosions like it was an action movie, in between these clips there was an interview where he talked about what made him a 'good Demoman', while being drunk and getting even more drunk.

...and this guy handled explosives.

Histoire also noted that he was quite sore about losing one of his eyes, which was especially shown by him saying "T'all you fine dandies so proud, so cock-sure, prancin' aboot with your heads full of eyeballs!" and the fact that he called himself a 'Black Scottish Cyclops'.

...What does Scottish even mean?

"He seems nice, but drinking so much isn't healthy." Compa commented.

"Well he seemed to be holding his liquor pretty well. He also sounded like he has some chemistry knowledge." IF responded, referencing the abridged explosive formula he mentioned.

"Didn't either of you find it concerning that this person just blew up six of his team without a second thought?" Histoire raised an eyebrow.

"That IS kinda scary… but isn't this staged?" IF said. "We know they were ordered to make these videos, so maybe they just didn't have more actors and simply used themselves?

"Oh, oh! And they have the Medi-Gun, so even if they did get hurt or even killed on set, they could just revive them!" Compa joined in.

"...I'm still astonished they have the means to resurrect people. Even if these are all special effects, there was no way those two weren't killed…"

The resume button was pressed and again the same ending screen came up before blacking out. After a short moment of waiting a new video appeared.

This time the ladies got to Meet the Sniper.

The show started with Sniper driving his trailer down a road, one detail they immediately noticed is how primitive the area looked. As far as they knew, power lines weren't used to transport electricity anymore, nor were there any telephone booths.

Was that just some sort of theme they set on during the filming, or was there something else going on?

As the video went on, the Sniper explained how 'Sniping's a good job, mate!' while driving his old-fashioned van or during clips of him in action, in between snippets of him arguing with his dad on the phone over the difference between a 'crazed gunman' and an 'assassin'.

At one point even Sniper himself winced when he shot Demoman's whiskey, while said man was drinking. It was an accidental collateral damage that happened when he killed Heavy. The shot caused Demo to flinch and jam his broken bottle into his one good eye. The merc panicked, ramming himself into a wall and causing the bottle to jam further. He blindly fired off grenades and fell off the platform into a bunch of explosive barrels, with all of his grenades bouncing back to him.

The resulting explosion was massive.

"These are some next-level slapsticks, huh…" IF remarked with an awkward chuckle, "It was actually kind of funny, in a really morbid way…"

Compa mostly just felt sorry for the Demoman, and Histoire had to wonder about the sanity of whoever wrote the script for these supposed advertisement materials. Maybe she was just not one for schadenfreude.

Aside from that, the Sniper's ending remark made for a pretty apt summary of what kind of person he was.

"Feelings? Look mate, you know who has a lot of feelings? Blokes who bludgeon their wife to death with a golf trophy. Professionals, have standards. Be polite. Be efficient. Have a plan to kill everyone you meet."

…Well, it wasn't technically the ending remark. This time, after the ending pose, there was a short scene with Sniper telling his father to put his mum on the phone…

"This is getting weirder and weirder…" IF commented.

"What do you mean?" Compa asked.

"The cassette, power lines, stationary phones… and the fact that they said they aren't from here. It's almost like they're from the past and they somehow went into the future." IF theorized.

"I agree, the last time power lines or stationary phones were commonly used in Planeptune was over five hundred years ago." Histoire explained. Meanwhile, the next video was already playing in the background.

It was Heavy's turn. His video was relatively shorter and simpler, almost entirely consisting of a simple self-introduction without blood and death in the background. Though the girls have caught few interesting bits, other than his over-attachment to his weapon of choice.

"Histy, what are 'dollars'?" Compa scratched her head.

"I don't know…" Histoire answered, as confused as the others.

"A currency, maybe? He did say 'it costs four-hundred-thousand dollars'." IF shrugged.

"That must be a lot of money!" Compa exclaimed, not taking into account the potential exchange rates.

"I would agree, but I've still never heard of such a currency before…" Histoire muttered in thought while the next video began.

Rather than a title card, this one started with Scout and Demoman, both badly injured and trying to escape from a series of explosions, the source of which turned out to be rockets. The unluckier of the two, Scout, was sent flying and IF and Histoire winced as he crashed into the camera, hard enough to break glass…

That segued into the title card, 'Meet the Medic'. The camera panned into an operating room… and all the viewers' jaws went loose at the sight of Medic holding a severed heart, while casually telling a grim yet silly story to the Heavy, who was awake and laughing with the Doctor. There was a large gaping hole in his body, which exposed his ribs and internal organs.

Medic finished his story with a bit concerning detail about him.

"Ahahah… Anyway, that's how I lost my medical license."

Even Heavy stopped laughing after this disturbing reveal. Then all of a sudden a blood-stained dove emerged from his innards, which an annoyed Medic shooed away. Not because it would hurt the patient, but because 'It's filthy in there…'

"What…" IF gaped.

"My goodness…" Histoire said.

"I don't think he should be awake for this." Said Compa, with her expert medical knowledge.

Their already high level of surprise rose even higher when Medic proceeded to blow up Heavy's heart into pieces, even if it was accidental. Heavy wondered what was that noise and Medic opened the fridge, retrieving another heart belonging to something called a 'Mega-Baboon'.

There was also Spy's severed head inside, still alive and calmly asking for death.

"Can we stop here? I don't think my stomach can handle more of this…" IF said nervously.

"If these are props and special effects, they are very impressive ones…" Histoire had to close her eyes and shake her head a little, trying to shake the visions of gore out of her mind. A part of her wondered if a living severed head would be actually possible given the Medic's other feats, but for the sake of her own sanity she kept believing it was all faked.

Compa meanwhile had a very different opinion about Medic. "That doctor must be really good!"

Other girls turned their heads towards Compa, wondering why the hell she thought so and how she saw no problems with everything they just saw.

"How so?" Histoire questioned.

"Well, Heavy isn't dead yet, and good doctors always need to be prepared for any unexpected problems during the surgery." Compa answered matter-of-factly.

Neither Histoire nor IF could find any flaws in her reasoning… Heavy wasn't dead, both in the video and in real life, and Medic did have a plan B.

Histoire simply resumed the video, not wanting to argue.

Medic attached the Heart Implant into the Mega-Baboon heart and, like with the previous heart, placed it in front of the Medi-Gun beam. IF, Histoire and even Heavy himself grew nervous as the heart began beating, while Medic laughed maniacally. The organ beat faster and faster until suddenly it stabilized and emitted the same glow and sheen that Compa saw during the Übercharge.

Then Medic unceremoniously dropped the heart into Heavy's guts, and shoved it deeper into his chest cavity.

With the heart back in its place, albeit a different heart this time, Medic turned on his Medi-Gun and healed his patient. In a matter of seconds all of the flesh, skin and even clothes were growing and mending themselves at an impossible rate, Compa's eyes sparkling as she observed the process.

"See? He's a good doctor after all!" Compa's face simply grew into a determined smile. The other girls didn't reply.

Then Medic and Heavy geared up and went to the frontlines. The video showed Medic healing Scout and Demo just as quickly as before, and then using Übercharge on Heavy to mow down an army of blue-wearing Soldiers. It demonstrated Heavy's invulnerability when he walked through a direct hit from a rocket without taking a scratch, all to an epic mix of rock-and-roll and an angelic choir.

"W-Wait, why are there so many Soldiers? And why do all of them look the same?" IF pointed out immediately.

"Maybe they're extra actors?" Compa suggested.

"CGI? It should be easy to edit those in." Histoire suggested as well.

There was a bonus scene after the ending, showing the rest of the team lining up for what was probably the same surgery Heavy went through. Scout was just finished but there were some... minor complications . IF wondered if there really was a bird stuck in Scout's guts…

The next video after that was about Scout. It showed him running through a fierce battlefield, talking (bragging) about himself with the 'Meet the Scout' title screen in the background, and beating Heavy to death with a baseball bat just to steal his sandwich.

It was relatively generic of an introduction compared to the others. There wasn't anything the girls could say, that they didn't already say earlier. Regardless, it was as succinct an introduction to the younger member of the mercenary team as one could get.

The next video took a more cinematic approach again, starting inside some kind of base with a woman's voice warning the (a?) blue Soldier about an intruder, namely a red Spy.

Soldier hurriedly took his shotgun and nearly fell down the stairs he was running down. He met up with a blue Scout that was trying to open a door leading to the 'Briefcase Room'. IF snickered as Soldier unlocked the doors by typing in the code, which was just 1-1-1-1.

Then a blue-wearing Heavy rushed at them with his minigun, and broke through said door before anyone could even put a hand on the handle.

Even Histoire cracked a smile.

"Now that's how you enter with style." IF chuckled.

While the Scout expressed relief that the blue briefcase was still there, a blue Spy walked in with a body lugged over his shoulder. Then the title card appeared, reading 'Meet the Spy' as they suspected.

Blue Spy asked if anyone killed a red Spy, and after getting no answer he dumped the body on the table. It was Sniper with a butterfly knife in his back.

Scout dismissed the intruder as being any kind of threat, while Spy tried to convince him that he was dangerous but to no immediate avail.

"What are you? President of his fan club?" Scout asked mockingly, to which the Spy retorted with…

Photos of Scout's mother having sex with the Spy, with a red balaclava still on…

IF covered Compa's eyes in an attempt to protect her innocence while her own face went red like a tomato, though her embarrassment went unseen in the dark room. Histoire meanwhile was surprisingly unfazed.

Then, as usual, the footage moved on to the featured mercenary-in-red kicking everyone's asses and showing what that merc specialized in. In this case it was sabotaging, assassination and espionage. Histoire tried to imagine how Nepgear would react if she saw Spy's instantaneous disguise. That kind of technology would probably fascinate her to no end-

"GAH!" All three girls recoiled when the blue Spy's head exploded with zero warning. The Soldier had taken it upon himself to check for traitors, starting with the blue Spy, and his tool: A shotgun. He turned out to be wrong, and the real red Spy turned out to be Scout. The video ended with the blue team dead again while the red Spy collected his photos and left with the briefcase…

"Okay, pause."

"What is it, IF?" Histoire asked, pressing the pause button.

"This is the first time one of them referenced how there's more than one of themselves. We saw multiple Soldiers before, but now they talked as if blue and red Spies were completely different."

"Maybe they're both played by Spy? Neither of them are shown on-screen at the same time as each other." Histoire said.

"I guess that makes sense…" IF accepted the Oracle's theory and sighed. These videos started making less and less sense.

The eighth video started with Pyro, Demoman and Heavy hanging around before getting blown up by rockets. IF correctly guessed that the Soldier will be the star of this video.

The man started by quoting someone called Sun Tzu, pacing in front of and lecturing a row of helmets similar to his own, but blue. Histoire assumed they're also other Soldiers, but why would the red one be lecturing the blues?

"Who's Sun Tzu?" Compa again.

"I'm not sure." Histoire responded.

"Maybe he's written somewhere in your book?" IF shrugged. "But to me it sounds like Soldier made him up anyway. 'Invented fighting', really?"

"That's ridiculous, yes. Even if he does exist somewhere in my records though, it could take up to three days to find him that way. It'd be faster if we just asked Soldier directly." Histoire said.

The red Soldier continued, mostly describing the almost nonsensical feats of this 'Sun Tzu'. According to Soldier he used his fight money to get two of every animal on Earth, herded them onto a boat before beating the crap out of every single one. At this point the girls were dismissed everything he said. The other mercs at least made some kind of sense, this guy's speech and mannerism just screamed 'mentally unstable'.

They also skipped the fight scenes. They've already seen enough bloodshed for their lifetime.

But nothing could save them from the horrific reveal at the end…

The helmets he was talking to weren't actually other Soldiers…

"…I should've seen this coming." The Oracle groaned, feeling sick to her stomach.

"Props or not, a bit more and I think I'm gonna be sick…" The guild agent covered her mouth, resisting the urge to vomit. Again, only Compa seems unaffected by the viscera, only widening her eyes a bit with a little "Oh…" of surprise.

"Well… I think there's only one left. This last one can't get any worse… Please?" Histoire forced a smile, hoping and begging the last one wouldn't be too gruesome.

Her pleas weren't heard.

Meet the Pyro was the last on the list.

Unlike the others, this one actually showed brief interviews with other red-wearing mercenaries, in between scenes of Pyro walking towards an old desert town. From how the blue mercs ran in terror instead of fighting back as they did before every time, and the nervous way even the red team members were talking about their own comrade, IF and Histoire could tell that the Pyro was in its own tier of derangement, perhaps even worse than Soldier and Medic.

Their fear was justified when the camera showed Pyro burning the entire town to the ground without a word, and the blue team stationed there was getting brutally incinerated without remorse or mercy. The girls shuddered as the red Spy asked aloud the question that appeared within their minds: "One shudders to imagine what inhuman thoughts lie behind that mask. What dreams of chronic and sustained cruelty?"

As if to answer that question, the camera zoomed in and peered into the Pyro's mask-covered eye, delving into his very mind, to see…

"Do you believe in magic~?"

The girls just… stared, trying to comprehend what they're witnessing. Without looking away from the screen (almost unable to), Compa slowly reached out her hand to the side, hoping to find Iffy to cuddle and comfort herself with. But the Guild agent was no longer there.

Compa was finally able to tear her eyes away from the screen and search for her friend - who was about to leave the room.

"I-Iffy, where are you going?"

"Nope! I've had enough for today, I don't want to see another menta-"

IF stopped speaking when the doors opened fully and she saw a very familiar person standing in the hallway, her hand also extended, suggesting she was about to open the same doors from her side. Both stared at each other for just a moment, in stunned silence.

Eventually Histoire took notice of the commotion too and looked their way, wondering why the talking suddenly stopped.

"Umm, IF-."

"Gear!?"

Nepgear has woken up.


Interdimensional RED-Coded Contract

Histy Meets Them All! (Part I)


I finally got myself an editor. Kudos for MortalitasBoreali for editing and Appelflap64 and M76030 for grammar correction.

If someone don't know what's happening. Valve created a set of 'Meet the [name]' videos. Showcasing the said mercenary and giving us little more info on their character.

The next chapter will show mercenaries' side of the same time. I didn't include it in this chapter, because I wanted it to be more focused on HDN characters learning about mercenaries and their world. Before anyone asks, yes few of these questions will be answered in the mentioned interview. I will also bring cat outta the bag around that time.

Responds:

Bt200 – Ay, thanks mate!

Thaqif – See number 17 in the beginning of the chapter

BreadNotDead – Yes, Mercenaries can't really show any mercy, because they weren't trained to do so. They were hired in order to slaughter anyone opposing their employers without a second thought. The only thing which saved Compa and IF from their wrath was Spy's cleverness, quick thinking and gentleman manners. He knew that they're somewhere they don't know, and right before him were two females who seems to know the road.

MortalitasBorealis – Thank you, I'll take up your offer as the Beta-Reader.

Editor's note: MB here. This is my first time polishing someone else's work as a Beta-Reader, so please bear with me if I make some mistakes here or there. As a side note, in case you're unfamiliar with TF2, the Meet The Team videos actually do exist, and you can watch them in all their glory for yourself with a quick search on Youtube. On that note, I hope you enjoyed our combined work!