. . .

At first, Mick was thrown off guard by their captive's admission.

"Did you escape Hydra base?" Stan asked, squinting at him.

Hydra...

This confirmed his worst fears. So, it was true. The many-headed demon that personified Gital's corrupt underground empire was still up to their old nasty tricks. He finally got the answer to who was behind his parents' abduction. That still didn't explain the mix-up Stan had with another kidnappee.

"What are you talkin' about me bein' kidnapped?" Mick demanded. "Are you tryin' to throw me for a loop here?"

"I swear, my partner and I knocked you out at that ritzy club," the goon continued. "We drove you over to Hydra headquarters. I had to dispose of my old toupee, Spinky, out in the desert while on our way. RIP to him."

All the while, something familiar stirred in the back of Spy's mind. Stepping forward and ignoring his injury at the moment, he queried, "What's ze name of zis person you kidnapped?"

Stan was hesitant to reveal it until Scout moved the match lighter again towards his toupee.

"Alright, alright! He goes by a couple of names: BLU Sniper and Cyril."

Spy was startled at this confession, but it confirmed his quaint suspicion. He knew all of BLU's secret identities; unlike his counterpart, he was very tight-lipped and didn't easily disclose such details to his teammates. Not even when they tried bribing or manipulating him with alcohol into squeezing out a confession.

They managed to find out anyway last Halloween, when Scout and Demoman had gotten a hold of Bombinomicon and bribed him with tickets to a Twiggy burlesque show. Yes, Bomby was an avid fan of hers, but only for studying her sensual dance routines, as it was his dream to go wild in front of an audience…if only he could get Merasmus to chant the spell to turn him human, as it worked if a wizard performed it.

How Bombinomicon knew anything about BLU was a mystery; then again, it's possible Merasmus could have easily retrieved the data files by magical means and, for whatever bizarre reason, disclosed it to the wicked spellbook. Hopefully, the Horseless Headless Horsemann nor Monoculus didn't know about their identities.

"Cyril..." Mick hadn't heard that name in awhile. He barely remembered what BLU Sniper called himself, being so used to identifying the enemy team by their special designations. It was also his grandfather's name, so he wondered if part of his memories were instilled in his clone.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what the Hydra honchos instructed us to go by," Stan added.

"What would zey want wiz him?" Spy asked.

"It was something about revenge on some Australian family." Stan turned back to Sniper, puzzled. "How did you break out anyway?"

Apparently, this criminal didn't know that both teams were identical, distinguished only by their colors.

"That wasn't me! And I know what your fuckin' operations are all about!" Mick was now livid, welding his Bushwaka in hand and wanting to spill Stan's entrails.

"Well, you just happen to look very much like the guy we captured," Stan remarked. "He a brother of yours or something?"

Mick grabbed him by his shirt collar, peering menacingly in his face. "No, and I don't care about him." He shook Stan furiously, demanding, "Where are you hidin' me parents?!"

"Hey comrades, look what vhe found," Medic announced, strolling up to the group along with a few other city residents. With them in tow was Jorgis, still fearful of the news of his degenerate activities reaching his uncle.

"Jorgis! Please tell you didn't confess about apprehending the old hag!" Stan piped up.

"Oh, The Administrator? Why not?"

"You goddamn idiot!" Stan was now sweating.

"So, Miss Pauling was right," Scout remarked.

Personally, Mick didn't care if The Administrator had been abducted. She may have been a shrewd middleperson who managed to keep them on the payroll, but he felt no loyalty to her. He already didn't trust her completely after the dirty trick she pulled in obtaining private information on RED team. It didn't matter if she kept supplying them with new weapons either.

More resolute than ever, he ordered, "You're going to lead us to your filthy rat's nest."

"Anything! Just please keep that madman away from me!" the henchman turned towards an all-too-happy Medic.

"I just love compliments like zhose," the doctor replied mockingly, taking a few steps forward. "Please, do go on."

"I heard all about him!" Jorgis blustered. "I don't want him rearranging my organs or turning me inside out!"

Meanwhile, a new plan was brewing in Spy's mind. He turned to Mick, stating, "I can impersonate one of zem and radio back to zeir headquarters zat we apprehended you."

"Anytime you're ready," Sayers spoke up. "We have three vehicles in our possession. I believe the van near the highway would have been the one to alert the scumbags via pay phone."

"Sayers!" one of the militia men ran up to the group. "Bad news. All of the suspects we captured are dead. They killed themselves by cyanide poisoning."

"Shit!" the cop stomped his foot. "Now how are we going to locate all the prisoners spread across the country?"

"We don't need zhem," Medic spoke up, smiling deviously. It always creeped Mick out whenever he bore that insidious expression. "Zhese two vill be enough to lead zhe way to Gital's hideout."

Jorgis couldn't even look at the doctor, also disturbed by the insane glee pasted on the psychopathic mercenary's face. Growling, Mick appraised their captured quarry.

"Your boss picked the wrong guy to mess with," he drawled, hatred alight in his green eyes. "When this is all over, you're goin' to wish that we killed you right here on the spot."

"I wish it would be that way," Jorgis whimpered. "I forgot my own cyanide pill."

He was momentarily shocked when Soldier smacked the back of his head.

"OW! Why'd the fuck did ya do that for?"

"Just in case you are lying about the pill," Soldier answered with his usual triumphant grin. He then turned to Scout.

"Private! Accompany Engineer and Pyro in one of the officer's cars and be on standby until we carry out a preemptive strike!"

"Alright, fine - heyyy, waita minute!" Scout responded, displeased. "How come all the others are Lieutenants and Sergeants, but I'm still a private?!"

"Because you haven't passed Bootcamp Level 2 and you're too lazy to improve on your flanking tactics."

"For real? I've been bustin' my ass off in this war for two and a half years!"

"And? That still will not catapult you up the ranks. Time is no soldier's crutch, short pants! You also seem to be less enthused about our country's God-given existence as of late."

"What, I forgot to salute the tiny American flags on the sandwiches we had for lunch?" Scout remarked sarcastically.

"It goes beyond acknowledging our country's supreme deity status," Soldier shot back. "Aside from suspecting wavering loyalty, your kills were too low in the last two matches."

"Ah c'mon, this again?"

"You will not question my authority, private. Do as you're told."

Scout was about to spit back a retort, but stopped short when Soldier fixed him with a stern look. An iridescent spark ignited in one of the military man's blue eyes, but only for a second. Spy caught it, inwardly fuming at what was taking place. The immortal pills were just one of two types Soldier had ingested.

The runner's indignant expression suddenly went slack. "Yes, sir. I'll not question your order. I'll accompany Engineer and Pyro to a car."

With that, Scout moved over to stand beside his two awaiting teammates. Padilla was observing the pair with misguided admiration. "My, that Soldier certainly knows how to command respect and obedience among you REDs. He's certainly the leader of the group!"

Spy grimaced. If only you knew. It's bad enough Zhe Administrator has also fallen victim to him. When ze hell iz Merasmus going to get back to me?!

"So! You guys get the info you needed?" a feminine voice cut through his distressed thoughts.

Miss Pauling appeared, though Spy hadn't seen her arrive by car.

Scout's eyes lit up. "Miss Pauling!"

"Hey Scout," she greeted, turning to the others. "Guys."

"How did you get here?" Spy asked. "I didn't see you pull up in the Falcon."

"I rode with one of the townspeople," the assistant explained. "So, where to? Did you get it out of one of these numbnuts where they're hiding The Administrator and Sniper's parents?"

"Hey, your vocab is improvin'," Scout commented, impressed that she was picking up on his lingo.

"Thanks," she replied, slightly flattered.

"Not yet," Spy answered. "But I have a feeling we won't have much difficulty in extracting it from zem."

"Of course not," Medic replied, fixating again on Jorgis. He was a sumptuous specimen the doctor would enjoy getting his hands inside. Hopefully, the thug wouldn't get killed first. Medic was taking a break from butchering and piecing together cadavers anyway.

"Let's get started!" Soldier barked.

Inwardly, Pauling was worried for The Administrator's life. While it shocked her that her boss and mentor had been taken prisoner, she was determined to rescue her. She had narrowly escaped being kidnapped after TF Industries also received a threat to turn her over. It was only after she had contacted RED to warn them about Hydra that the messengers disclosed this disturbing news to her.

She was going to show up anyway to the inevitable fight with an insidious enemy – one that should have been put down like a rabid dog long ago.

Helen, I'm coming...if you're still alive.

. . .

Spy had managed to gather enough crucial data on one of their quarries to impersonate them. Behind him, Heavy was in the driver's seat of the stolen van along with some of RED team. Pyro, Scout and Engineer of course were riding in one of the cop cars. Spy thought it wasn't a good idea having extra help from the civilians since they were potentially putting their lives in danger. But the more pragmatic side of him argued that it was their choice and if they wanted to get killed in a fight, so be it.

He briefly thought of slipping another 'help' message to Miss Pauling over Soldier still having control over them via hypnotic manipulation but decided it would be useless again. He kept forgetting she too was unable to break from his disturbing influence. Spy was the only one so far who could temporarily break out of it, but this always lasted for up to ten minutes. Then he was back to finding himself doing whatever that crazed military reject demanded of him.

Maybe pass the note to one of the civilians? But what could they do against a nearly invincible Soldier? Merasmus had to get back to him on reversing the effect. He was desperate enough to temporarily put aside any differences with the adversarial wizard in order to regain his freedom. Filing that hopeful thought away, Spy proceeded to dial the number to Hydra base.

"This is Sigma 1," came a male voice.

"This is Stan Lockley, code Theta 792," Spy impersonated Stan's voice. "We have secured our capture of the RED Sniper. We're on our way."

"Acknowledged," the receiver responded. "I didn't think it would be easy. No trouble at all?"

The assassin remembered the collision dents and bullet holes in the Lincoln Continental. Gital's cronies at Hydra base were sure to notice them when they arrived. While the van wasn't damaged, the brown sedan would be missing due to being blown up by Soldier. He would have to come up with a plausible explanation when the time came. For now, the main objective was to prevent the execution of Sniper's parents in a retaliatory act if they found out about the ambush; even if the threat could possibly be a bluff.

"No trouble. The Sniper kept his word and came alone."

"Easy peasy it was, hmm? Well, Gital'll be happy about that. See you soon then."

"We'll be on our way. Theta out."

He hung up, anticipating that the team disrupting Hydra's operations had at least an 85% success rate. He knew Mick was now more determined than ever to save his parents, so of course the sharpshooter was going to give it his all. Spy clambered inside the van, sitting in the back with Medic, Mick, Demoman and their two prisoners.

The van pulled back onto the desert road, on its way towards a new adversary's headquarters. Soldier was sitting in the passenger side, loud as usual and ranting off about how all of them were going to kick some Hydra Communist Voodoo Buddhist ass. Heavy simply ignored him, only repeating 'Da' in order to get Soldier to shut up quicker. By now they were already used to his war-obsessed, overly patriotic speeches.

"Since we are treading into new enemy territory, I made it a point to carry enough health packs in sustaining most grievous injuries," Medic was reviewing. "Aside from my Medigun, you vill also be given your own modified Überspritzes. Zhey are fully charged. Engineer should be able to set up a dispenser amidst zhe chaos zhat will likely ensue."

"Not to worry, I got bullet proof pads under me shirt," Demoman reassured before belching loudly.

"Excuse you," Mick replied. He never liked it when his teammates did it without a polite gesture.

"Thanks for saying it for me, lad." Once again, the cheeky grin on the bomb expert's face.

"Tskk!" The Australian looked away, crossing his arms. He was in no mood for any light-hearted discourse; he was seething with rage and itching to spill blood. Every single one of those Hydra bastards was going to feel his wrath if they so much as manhandled his parents. Several times, he had to stop himself from outright cutting Stan and Jorgis to pieces with his machete.

Jorgis leaned over to Stan, whispering, "He's even more scary-looking than the lookalike we captured."

"Well, we did kidnap his parents," Stan answered. "The other dude looked like some actor at a rehearsal."

Meanwhile, out in the desert...

The two Pigmy owls and Vaggy the burrowing owl flew around the desert, emitting alarm calls. One by one they gathered another owl…and another…

Cyril is in trouble!

Come, follow us!

Various raptor species joined them, from barn owls to even the much feared Great-horned owls. Yes, even they suppressed their predatory tendencies to hunt smaller owls at the moment. The majority though were other Pigmys, Flammulated owls, Long-eared owls, and Spotted owls. The burrowing owls also joined, but they weren't the best flyers and had to run on foot most of the time.

Save him...

All knew Cyril served as some kind of enigmatic conduit between the human and raptor world; whether it was really due to ESP, the Grey's advanced manipulation of genetic duplication (perhaps they had unlocked a part of the brain that could actually utilize such a rare, mysterious phenomenon), no one could say.

How they were going to help the marksman was not planned as they were acting through emotions first. After all, they weren't the best at efficient planning.

. . .

Notes:

* The Überspritze is another melee weapon for the Medic and available in the "Team Fortress 2 Classic" mod game. Like the Shock Therapy, it was another earlier weapon concept during the game's development but was eventually scrapped. In this story, it's modified to act as a mini healer.

. . .