All characters and content of this work belongs to their respective owners, I own nothing other than my Original Character and the plot of this story.
The light suddenly faded away, afterwards Lady Emeraldblade, alongside Soldier and Demoman found themselves back in Cheesman Park, albeit in the vicinity of the Romanesque pavilion.
"We did it mates!" Demoman cheered his partners on.
"Save the celebrations Demoman," Lady Emeraldblade told her friend, "We need to keep our guard up, as Merasmus could still be lurking about."
Suddenly, several small portals materialized above them nearby, and out of them came the other six mercenaries. One by one, each one poured out onto the grass below.
"Perfect timing men, it's good to see you all in one piece." Soldier happily replied upon the reunification.
"So, did you three win?" Scout asked.
"Affirmative kid," Soldier answered, "As a matter of fact we beat the crap out of Merasmus at his own game. It seems that the wizard is now done for."
Suddenly a blood-curling scream broke the festivities, as soon after Soldier stopped boasting, his former roommate-turned enemy returned back to the mortal plane, upon noticing him, the team clearly saw that he was both angry and annoyed about having lost to the mercenaries.
"Nyyaaagh!" Merasmus cried out "I hate you so much Soldier! After I specifically designed that series of rigged bumper car games to defeat you and your friends for good, you were still somehow able to defeat me! How is that even possible?!"
"Well you forgot one thing," Soldier replied, "Our new hippie friend here!"
"Wait…who?" He pondered.
Merasmus then glanced at the mercenaries, there standing beside his arch-nemesis was a woman he didn't recognize.
"Wait a minute, who in wizard's name are you?!" Merasmus demanded.
"My name is Lady Emeraldblade." she answered, "The mercenaries teamed up with me in stopping you from helping Nightmare's plan of destroying the Universe."
"Nightmare?" Merasmus thought for a moment, before it hit him, "Oh, you're talking at the client of mine in the purplish suit of armor!"
"Why are you going along with his plan?" she wondered.
"Ah, business is business, you see the knight-eh-demon…whatever he is, we made a deal together, I would help him destroy the Universe, and in exchange I would get revenge on all you mercenaries, especially you Soldier." Merasmus explained.
"Tell me where he is hiding out. We cannot let him succeed in his evil plan." Lady Emeraldblade demanded.
"Oh I know where he is hiding out," Merasmus nonchalantly remarked, "But I'm going to decline your request, as you know…I am EVIL!"
"Surrender now wizard, we beat you at your stupid game!" Soldier commanded.
"GAH, I have had enough of your antics Soldier!" Merasmus said; he was clearly annoyed by his nemesis, "But no matter, if the bumper cars were unable to kill you all, then I will have to do it the old fashion way!"
Suddenly, Merasmus raised his staff into the air and conjured several small portals around the pavilion, almost immediately several Malfested entities emerged from them. The Malfested proceeded to charge at the mercs. The mercs responded by raising their arms and began fighting back.
Meanwhile, Merasmus turned back to Lady Emeraldblade and Soldier with a homicidal glare in his eyes.
"And as for you two…I was told personally by Nightmare to eliminate anyone who got in the way of my plans." Merasmus remarked, before summoning a strange-looking book to his hands "By the power of the Bombinomicon, I unchain thee! Heed my call, and destroy these pesky mercenaries…oh and their new friend too…ONCE AND FOR ALL!"
Suddenly, Merasmus began summoning a large volley of bombs from the Bombinomicon, each of which lobbed in the direction of Lady Emeraldblade and Soldier respectively. The two narrowly avoided being blown to smithereens, as they tried to figure out a way to confront the evil sorcerer head on.
"We can't get near him as long as he is launching bombs at us." Soldier reacted.
For a moment Lady Emeraldblade thought about a possible plan, and then an idea popped into her head.
"Soldier, you continue to distract Merasmus, meanwhile I will sidestep behind him and strike him with a sneak attack." She told him.
"Affirmative!" Soldier saluted his friend, before turning back to the wizard.
"Merasmus! Your magic is useless against me and my aerobatic skills!" he taunted the wizard.
"We'll see about that Soldier!" Merasmus responded, before directing the Bombinomicon to fire bombs in his direction specifically.
Soldier reacted by rocket-jumping into the air, narrowly dodging a bomb that detonated in the spot he was standing in at that moment. He then fired several rockets in Merasmus' direction, but the wizard didn't even flinch from the explosion. Soldier repeated this process of rocket-jumping then firing, but was unable to make a dent into his archenemy.
"Ha, your rockets are meaningless to my wizard magic!" Merasmus laughed arrogantly.
But while Merasmus was distracted, Lady Emeraldblade lunged at the wizard with her sword in hand and slashing him down the back, causing him to shriek in pain and drop the Bombinomicon.
"Gaugh! You'll pay for that you pesky girl!"
Suddenly, Merasmus pulled out his staff and began casting a spell at her.
"Abo Alabasbas!" he recanted.
Suddenly, his staff began to glow a bright green, and proceeded to launch several magic projectiles in her direction. Lady Emeraldblade dove away to dodge each bolt the sorcerer sent at her, until suddenly the wizard predicted where she was going to dive next, and instead fired another bolt in front of that spot, the female warrior was caught off-guard by this sudden turn of events and was knocked several feet away. As she began to regain her footing, Merasmus approached her ferociously.
"And now, I Merasmus the magician, shall vanquish you from this miserable world…FOREVER!" he shouted.
Suddenly, Merasmus charged up his staff. Preparing to fire a potentially lethal spell at the young warrior. Scared that she was about to perish, Lady Emeraldblade prayed in her mind that a miracle would occur, when suddenly her sword began to glow brighter…
"Barbo…EVICTUS!" Merasmus shouted.
Just then, a more powerful bolt of magic fired from Merasmus' staff in Lady Emeraldblade's direction, but just as the bolt was about to seemingly kill her, her sword raised itself up and absorbed the full power of the blast, before redirecting it back in Merasmus' direction, causing the wizard to duck in fear and confusion.
"What the?!" he cried out.
Lady Emeraldblade looked down at her sword, suddenly, she felt a rush of adrenaline flow through her arms and proceeded to thrust one of them forward. Almost immediately, a strange, green bolt of magical energy launched itself from her hand at the evil wizard, causing him to swerve to his side in shock.
"Wha-what? What's going on? How did my spell fail?! How are you-"
Suddenly, Lady Emeraldblade continued to launch more bolts of green energy in Merasmus' direction, each time the wizard responded by dodging each one in utter confusion. But before long, Emeraldblade made a well-timed shot, which managed to hit the sorcerer in his gut.
"AUGH! What kind of magic is this?!" Merasmus hissed painfully.
"The power of this sword I guess…" Emeraldblade replied, equally confused by the sudden turn of events.
Merasmus stopped flinching from the pain in his stomach, before turning around in an attempt to retrieve the Bombinomicon from the ground nearby. He then stretched his arms out before launching out two chains of purple lightning at the Bombinomicon, causing it to levitate up from the grass. As he was doing this, he heard a familiar voice approaching him from the side.
"Screaming Eagles!" Soldier shouted, jumping into the air whilst firing another volley of rockets at his archenemy.
"Oh no! Not you again!" Merasmus ranted, before taking one of his arms and directing it towards the Soldier's direction, "Rigoro Immobilus!"
Suddenly, a blue bolt of magic launched from his arm, hitting the soldier at the height of his jump, the blast froze Soldier completely still making him unable to move a muscle save for those in his mouth.
"Merasmus!" Soldier shouted in anger "What the hell did you do to me?!"
"Oh, I just needed to stop you from interfering with my plans that's all," Merasmus replied, "Now then where was I, ah yes, the Bombinomicon!"
Merasmus proceeded to levitate the Bombinomicon in his direction, once his hands finally got ahold of the cover, he raised it into the air and spoke up once again.
"Now then mercenaries, I banish thee forever. Feel the terror…of READING!" he shouted.
Just then, an even larger volley of bombs began to spew from the pages of the Bombinomicon, scattering all across the park. The mercenaries noticed this whilst fighting off the remainder of the Malfested and began fleeing the falling explosives.
The bombs managed to land around where all the mercenaries were positioned, Engineer's sentry gun and dispenser were unfortunate enough to take a direct hit, causing both buildings to explode.
Meanwhile, Heavy tried to outrun one bomb, but was too close to the splash radius that it knocked him off his feet, injuring his leg.
"Medic, HELP!" he cried out.
The Medic heeard his plea, and rushed in his buddy's direction, narrowly dodging several bombs that were falling in his vicinity, all the while slashing at various Malfested with his Ubersaw, collecting a strange substance from their bodies. He managed to make it to his friend's location and took out his Medi Gun, blasting the Heavy with a healing aroma that patched up his injury and made him feel stronger.
"Thank you doctor!" Heavy praised his friend.
"I am fully charged by the way." Medic noted.
Just then, Heavy witnessed another round of bombs came falling in their direction, to make matters worse, many of the Malfested that remained charged at them as well. Heavy turned back to his friend with a smirk on his face.
"I am ready doctor!" Heavy told the Medic.
"Jawoh!" Medic replied.
He then activated a lever on top of his Medi Gun, charging the Heavy's body to pulsate with a strange energy that transformed his body into a red, translucent entity.
"OKTOBERFEST!" Medic shouted as a form of battle cry.
The duo pushed forward towards the advancing Malfested, who attempted to mutilate them by any means possible, but their attacks proved useless as the two heroes were invulnerable. Heavy proceeded to mow down each one of them with his minigun. As more and more Malfested continued to direct their attention towards the Heavy, Merasmus' army began to dwindle in size. It appeared that the mercenaries now had the numerical advantage.
Once the Ubercharge wore off, it became clear that the army of Malfested had perished. The series of events that unfolded was witnessed firsthand by Merasmus himself, causing him to become more desperate.
"Ugh, alright fine, maybe you defeated my entire army, but your skill combined is still no match for my sorcery!"
Merasmus continued to unleash a volley of bombs from the Bombinomicon, but the Demoman eyed an opening; taking out his stickybomb launcher, he fired several sticky bombs at his feet and detonated them upon running over them, blasting him a great distance towards the evil sorcerer. He then pulled out his signature sword the Eyelander, and struck Merasmus against his head, stunning him in the process.
"Gah! No, I can't be defeated!" Merasmus ranted.
"Now's your chance lass," Demoman called out to Lady Emeraldblade.
Emeraldblade nodded, before charging towards the wizard and fired several green bolts at him, each shot hit its target, causing the wizard to flinch. She then leapt into the air and swung her sword down with all the strength she had using the glowing green energy of her sword, the hit successfully connected with Merasmus, knocking him to the ground with great force and incapacitating him in the process.
"You win, no wait it's a tie! Argh…" Merasmus tried to get up, but struggled before dropping to ground in defeat.
"You lose wizard!" Demoman taunted him, "Now give me back me eye!"
"And tell me where Nightmare is!" Emeraldblade demanded.
"Oh, you want to find Nightmare desperately, well I'll give you a hint: HE'S NOWHERE NEAR HERE! HA HA HA!" Merasmus laughed, before turning to Demoman's direction, "And as for you Demoman, you want your eye back? Well, have at it!"
Merasmus suddenly stood up all of the sudden, as though he was unscathed from the battle, he then raised his staff into the air and fired a bolt above the pavilion, causing a portal to emerge directly above it. Immediately another entity appeared, but it was not a Malfested, rather a giant, mutated eye: Monoculus!
"Meramus, you sick bastard!" Demoman angrily chastised his adversary.
"Oh don't feel bad Demoman, perhaps it's long pass time for you two to have a reunion," Merasmus chuckled, before turning towards Monoculus, "As for you, finish off the mercenaries and the girl!"
The sorcerer then turned back to a still-immobile Soldier and spoke once more.
"As for you my former roommate, it's high pass time I dealt with you personally." Merasmus chuckled, "You're coming with me!"
Merasmus shot a levitation spell at Soldier, causing him to rise from the ground, he then turned back to the Mercenaries and spoke one last time.
"Alright, I'm leaving now! Goodbye mercenaries, I leave you…TO YOUR DOOM!" He laughed, before conjuring a portal and entering through it.
"No, No, NO! Damn you, Merasmuuuus! You are the worst roommaaaaaaaaaate!" Soldier cried out, as he was dragged away through the portal with Merasmus.
Lady Emeraldblade attempted to follow the sorcerer through the portal and rescue her friend, but just as she tried to leap through it, the portal closed, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Oh no, Soldier!" she reacted, "He's been kidnapped!"
"Uh, if you think zat's bad enough, look what we have to deal with now!" Medic replied.
She stood up and looked towards the creature that Merasmus had summoned before he left, the monster roared in anger before it began to fire strange, eye-shaped projectiles at the remaining mercenaries.
"Look Out!" Engineer warned everyone, causing them to dive out of the way.
Everyone got up and began firing their weapons at Monoculus. But this had a minimal effect on them, rather it only made them much angrier. Monoculus then began firing more eye projectiles at the mercs in quicker succession. The mercs continued to fire at Monoculus, but once again found the monster was very resistant towards their attacks.
"It's no use mates!" Sniper called out.
"There has to be some sort of weakness." Spy replied.
As the mercenaries continued to battle the monster, Lady Emeraldblade spotted an opportunity by noticing a possible weak spot as Monoculus turned, it's torn out flesh from where it was ripped from Demoman's socket.
"Guys, I'm going in, cover me!" Lady Emeraldblade called out.
"Are you bloody crazy? That thing will kill you!" Sniper questioned her.
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing!" Emeraldblade followed up.
Sniper nodded before continuing to fire potshots at Monoculus with his sniper rifle.
Scout provided Lady Emeraldblade additional help by strafing around Monoculus in a distracting manner, all the while taunting the monster.
"Hey wimp, try to hit me with ya best shot!" he insulted them.
The plan began to work, as Monoculus directed its attention towards the Scout. Meanwhile, Lady Emeraldblade focused her energy from her sword on the exposed wound located on the back of Monoculus, she took aim and fired a precise shot at it, causing the monster to flinch and sink to the ground in a dazed state.
"Ze creature's down, open fire, los los!" Medic announced.
All the mercs fired at the now vulnerable Monoculus, but afterwhile, the monster rose back up into the air, it then proceeded to teleport elsewhere.
"Where did they go?" Scout wondered.
Suddenly, they heard a strange noise echo from behind them, noticing that Monoculus had emerged in an attempt to flank them off-guard.
"Look out!" Spy shouted.
But before they could react, Monoculus blasted a volley of projectiles at most of mercs, knocking them down. Only Lady Emeraldblade, alongside Scout and Demoman remained standing.
"Get on 'em mates, we need to stop me eye!" Demoman commanded.
He then proceeded to charge forward and fired several grenade rounds, some of which hit Monoculus directly in the pupil, causing them to flinch.
"Keep firein' at them cyclops!" Scout cried out to his friend as he too began to strafe around Monoculus and fire at them.
Lady Emeraldblade took the opportunity and ran in the direction of Monoculus, jumping over them in an acrobatic flip. She then turned back and fired another green bolt at the monster's exposed socket, causing them to once more fall in a dazed state. Demoman and Scout then ran up to Emeraldblade's side.
"Time to finish this!" Demoman shouted.
He then pulled out his sword, before proceeding to lunge its sharp blade through the socket, causing Monoculus to begin roaring in pain as it tried to free itself from the sword's blade. Demoman continued to sink his blade deeper into the socket, causing Monoculus' cries to become louder. Eventually, the painful sounds stopped, and all of a sudden, Monoculus began to shake violently as it began to let out a long, angry roar.
"Demoman, get out of there now!" Emeraldblade warned her friend.
Demoman quickly withdrew his sword and retreated away from Monoculus with Emeraldblade and Scout as the monster's roar became louder. As the roar came to its peak, Monoculus suddenly exploded in a burst of magic, leaving its fate uncertain.
"Me eye! Where did it go?" Demoman shouted, both in anger and despair.
"I-I don't know." Emeraldblade replied, "But whatever happened, I don't think that's the last time we'll be seeing or hearing about it, nor Merasmus."
The two of them, as well as the Scout regrouped with the other mercenaries back at the pavilion.
"What happened, did you three beat the eye monster?" Medic asked.
"I guess you could say that." Scout shrugged.
"But Merasmus has fled, worse yet he kidnapped the Soldier!" Spy pointed out.
"What are we going to do?" Heavy asked.
Suddenly, as though on cue, numerous police sirens began to blare in all directions around the vicinity of the park.
"We need to get out of here now!" Emeraldblade commanded.
"Everyone back to the van, we need to teleport out of here!" Engineer instructed.
The mercenaries turned to the direction of the van and quickly ran towards it as the sirens drew closer. Engineer arrived first and motioned everyone one by one through the teleporter. Lady Emeraldblade was the last one to enter it as Engineer packed up the teleporter and moved it to a position several yards in front of the van. He then sprinted back towards the vehicle as he noticed red and blue lights flash in the distance. He then turned the ignition key and proceeded to drive the van over the active teleporter, causing the entire vehicle to vanish once it ran over the ingenious device.
The van suddenly emerged on the other end of the teleporter inside to garage outside of the bunker, upon exiting out of the vehicle, the Engineer pulled out a detonation device and pressed a red button, destroying both ends of the teleporter in the process, reducing them to a pile of ash.
"Phew, that takes care of that." Engineer breathed a sigh of relief, before running inside the bunker to regroup with the rest of his team.