Chapter 5: Miss Pauling And An Investigation
Notes: Criticism is allowed! Quick intermission chapter before we get into the juicy stuff.
Two hours.
That was all it took for everything to go to shit.
Just two hours.
In two hours, almost the entirety of both teams were wiped out.
Her mercs, her exceptionally skilled mercs—despite being the laughingstock of the mercenary world—capable of destroying several towns in under an hour, could create weapons from mere scrap metal and chemicals found in the average home, able to fight groups of people in the dozens with their hands and kill thousands if they had weapons, were wiped out by those monsters in a matter of two hours.
Pauling found herself in a run-down vehicle, driving towards where she hoped to find information about those monsters.
She kept the Mann brothers busy so they wouldn't cut funding, but that didn't mean there weren't other concerns, such as how the hot water was shut off and what those monsters were after.
The monsters were obviously not some freak of nature that Mother Nature decided to drop on Earth; Pauling suspected they were a lab experiment gone wrong, but this spawned additional questions about where it came from, why it exists, how it can even exist biologically, and what its primary goals are.
If she can't find any of that out, she's hoping to at least find out where it came from.
The Administrator luckily granted all of them time on the account that Pauling distracted the Mann brothers long enough. Which wouldn't be an issue, considering the Mann brothers were… stupid. There was no polite way around that. They were flat out stupid. She also didn't respect them enough to not think negative thoughts about them.
So that was one issue out of the way, and if the BLU Medic can figure out a way to revert her mercs back to normal, then that would only leave having to figure out where they would go from there.
Pauling's fingers clenched around the wheel; that didn't get rid of the growing nausea of having to leave everything up to BLU Medic. By all accounts, he was a clone of RED Medic, but he was different. He didn't have as many medical advancements as the original Medic did, neither did he show he possessed as much medical expertise, nor did he act as insane as Medic did.
BLU Medic appeared and acted differently. He had pale blue eyes and a deathly pale complexion, as if he was about to pass out and never wake up, and his personality was more subdued and impatient.
None of the other BLUs had this problem as severe as his. Sure, BLU Soldier and BLU Spy were vastly different—even more talented than the original versions of them—and there were some distinguishing characteristics among the other BLU clones as well, but nothing as drastic as BLU Medic.
He wasn't Medic at all, and that's what made Pauling sceptical of his abilities. She wasn't sure if that was a result of the cloning technology wearing down, or if BLU Medic somehow developed his own being in the last four years. Though she had no choice but to trust him and hope he didn't forget RED Medic's years' worth of memories of trying to advance medicine.
She tapped the wheel and watched as the forest scenery faded away, revealing more forested areas and a massive green field that was gradually fading into a deserted landscape. The Administrator's current base was in the centre of Gila, New Mexico. It was also fortunate for Pauling, as 2fort was only a two-day drive away.
But there was also the issue of how her mercs were going to survive for that long. If RED Sniper were still alive, she hoped he was smart enough to take the remaining mercs and drive out of there until they can figure everything out. If not, well, she was banking on… ugh, BLU Scout knowing how to drive his camper.
But she can't keep stalling. She had to find out the origins one way or another because they'll end up killing each other permanently. That was just a given with people forced to fight each other on a weekly basis.
So currently, she was heading towards the closest town to 2fort.
The monster had to have passed through that town if it came from an outside source. If it didn't—and she really didn't want to think of this as a possibility—that meant one of her mercs were traitors.
And having one of her mercs be a traitor after having worked alongside them for so long…
She hoped the Administrator's punishment would be light.
Pauling forced herself to relax and checked her watch. She still had about six hours until she reached a gas station, and she had enough gas canisters to avoid being stuck on the side of the road.
Add ten more hours until she arrives at the inn. It'll take her four more hours to find the nearest gas station again, then fourteen hours before arriving in a town. There was then another four hours until she reached a gas station, and another ten hours until she reached the town closest to 2fort.
Forty-eight hours.
If almost all of her mercs were gone in just two hours, what would happen in forty-eight hours?
Would it even be worth it to go to the town in the first place? What if she was just wasting her time?
This wasn't even taking into account that if she did find a clue, if there was the off chance that this was leading her into a wild goose chase, that would only add onto the amount of time her mercs had left to live. And God forbid if that clue led to her having to leave the country. If that were the case, her mercs were screwed ten ways over.
The hand on her watch ticked.
Five hours and fifty minutes now.
Her mercs were smart. They knew how to get themselves out of tricky situations if they worked together.
Most mercenary teams only lasted a mission or two, or in extremely rare cases, a year if they were repeatedly hired together. But not for as long as her mercs have worked together. They were good at what they did, despite being ridiculed in the mercenary world for working so long together, not being independent contractors, and participating in this pointless war.
That's why she formed the team in the first place: they were balanced. Three offences, three defences, and three support. All of this combined to form a natural, cooperative team. Yes, there were flaws, and some people didn't get along, but their well-balanced nature compensated for them.
They were practically born to be each other's partners, some more so than the others.
Which is why Pauling was as professionally distraught as she could be over having lost most of the mercs.
That monster dispatched Heavy in seconds and Pyro in even less. Both of their strengths were ineffective. That monster consumed Heavy before he could even throw a second punch. Pyro's flare had no effect on it; it was only swallowed by the thing like it was a piece of hard rock candy.
Soldier's rocket launcher dealt the same amount of damage as Pyro's flare gun, and Demoman was the only one who managed to deal any damage at all, if the bare minimum.
RED Medic was nowhere to be found, and Spy went silent after about ten minutes of this happening. There was no sign of Sniper either after he went to turn the hot water back on. There was an update on Scout and Engineer's statuses after meeting up with Demoman and Soldier, but what happened to everyone else besides Demoman was still undetermined.
Not to mention that all the BLU's statuses, except Scout and Medic, were unknown. If she hadn't seen them fighting, she would've assumed they had unionised with or without Scout and Medic's knowledge.
She knew it was the paranoia speaking, but she couldn't help but suspect they were behind the monster.
She had good reason to believe they were behind the monster as well.
It's been seven months since they all began living on the base. There wasn't anything necessarily suspicious about it, but the Mann brothers pushed for them to stay on each new base for longer periods of time to avoid wasting money. There was also the fact that BLU's base was obviously more advanced than the RED's base in every aspect. She also wasn't stupid enough to be oblivious to their obvious hatred for the originals. BLU Scout made that hatred obvious enough.
BLU Spy was much more persuasive in his speech; he could have easily stolen their finances and planted the idea to Blutarch to stay at the bases for longer periods of time, and given that the BLU Medic demonstrated none of his abilities, he could have hidden them until now.
However, they weren't behind this.
Pauling clutched the wheel and chewed her bottom lip.
She had no idea who was to blame for this until she discovered it for herself.
Pauling sighed and stared at the long pathway ahead of her. She still had miles to go until she reached a gas station. She also didn't have a reception. So whatever happened was beyond her hands.
She tiredly rubbed her eyes, looking up at the sky that glinted with stars.
Right…
So another all nighter.
It was early in the morning, and she could see the landscape shifting as the forest gave way to more hills and fields. There was no life for miles, and she arrived at the gas station exhausted after six hours of driving.
Which turned out to not be open yet.
Great. Perfect. She really needed that on top of everything else.
With nothing else to occupy her time, she took out documents in the glove department. She hadn't finished them yet because she rushed out the door the first chance she got, and with everything else that had happened in the last eight hours and no word from anyone, she didn't have the nerve to work on them.
Her actions were unprofessional, and while any normal person would understand her point of view, she became jittery. She was supposed to have finished this work eight hours ago and have more work assigned to her, but now she has to play detective.
She looked around the streets to see if there were any cars coming her way or if the gas station owner would arrive, and when she saw none, she huffed and rolled her sleeves up.
She may as well pass the time while waiting.
Her pen scratched against the paper, with a binder on her wheel serving as a makeshift desk. She was currently writing checks for the mercenaries; there was always so much money given to them that, if she had been her younger self still living in the city's slums, she would've gaped at the ridiculous amount. She did that the first time she received a hit-and-kill. A whopping $1,000 on her check. Of course, that doesn't compare to how much she makes now.
It's funny that she held no remorse for the murder. She was entirely focused on the job and what came next, and Pauling wondered if her experiences in the slums had hardened her.
In the slums, she saw bodies being rolled out of homes daily, surrounded by crying people. Her mother did a piss-poor job of protecting her from seeing such things, with Pauling usually finding her passed out on the couch with a needle beside her or some sort of concoction in a baby's bottle that no one should drink.
Her background was why she connected more with Heavy and Scout. Especially Scout. Growing up in the city's slums, they were bound to become hardened, forced to work under the table and do whatever it took to survive and get out.
Once Pauling had enough money from that job, she boarded the first bus and wandered wherever her feet led her. She took hit jobs and was a good enough killer by the age of eighteen, making her popular through word of mouth because she was a woman. Women could get away with a lot more because no one believed a woman could do what she does.
She gave up her name in the slums of that city and adopted a new name when she began working for the Administrator: 'Pauling.' She felt at ease with that name. If she ever decides to retire, she'll keep it. Pauling sounded like her.
'Jeremy Pauling.' It also suited him.
She squeezed her fingers around the pen, feeling heat rise up her neck and onto her face. Okay. Nope. No more thoughts of that. She immediately distracted her thoughts by working on the documents.
The minutes ticked by as the monotonous tasks that piled up slowly whittled down.
It's been six hours.
She hasn't heard anything from her mercs.
She couldn't care less about the clones since they could always make more, but she'd heavily prefer that they weren't captured by that monster. In fact, she hoped that the monster had only captured Pyro and Heavy. She doubted it though, given how long it's been without a word from either team.
They weren't dead. She trusted their ability to stay alive. They weren't.
There was a sudden knock on her window, and she let out a suppressed scream.
She whipped around to stare wide-eyed at a tired looking middle-aged man, whose face screamed "Do you need something, miss?" He backed up once Pauling rolled down the window.
"Are you waiting for the store to open?" He asked with a drawl.
"Uh, yes, yes I am." She answered.
"Come on in then." He said, waving her along without waiting for her.
She quickly unbuckled her seatbelt, haphazardly placed the checks on the passenger seat, and scurried after the man. She watched as he pushed the door open—it wasn't locked?—and walked behind the counter, turning on a few lights along the way.
Pauling stared at him for a moment, trying to think of what to say before jumping in and broaching the subject immediately. "Excuse me, you haven't seen anything weird in the last few days, have you?"
"Define weird." He muttered.
"Um…" saying that there was a monster that ate her very skilled mercs in two hours wasn't exactly a sane thing to say. "Just noteworthy?"
"I haven't."
"Nothing?"
"You can look at the security footage, but there's nothing out here for miles."
"No, then—nevermind," she shook her head and looked around the worn-out store, noticing a bathroom. "Do I need a key for the-"
"Just walk in."
"Thank you."
After using the restroom and cleaning up her makeup, she quickly exited and bought some snacks for herself. She walked up to the counter and gave extra cash.
She said, "Pump one."
He grunted, and she waved goodbye to the man after ensuring the pump was turned on, who acknowledged her with another grunt. The door opened with a bell chime; the heat hitting her, and she got into her car after filling it up with gas.
She stared ahead at the road with a weary look, silent, before she placed her head on her car wheel and sighed.
A dead end.
Pauling expected it. However, she couldn't help but be disappointed.
Another forty-two hours until she reached the town.
Images of her mercs being consumed by that thing swirled in her mind, and she tried desperately to push it to the back of her mind. Her mercs weren't dead. But the thoughts kept coming back, and she was growing more frustrated and antsy.
Her car was moving too slowly, no one was talking to her. She was alone in investigating this matter, and she wasn't sure if she could trust the BLU and RED mercs to not kill each other before the monster does.
The quiet stretched for several minutes until the ringing of her bricked phone interrupted it.
Maybe it was stupid to answer without looking at the caller id, but she was desperate.
"Hello?" She asked.
When BLU Medic's voice came through, all her nerves flared up once more. "Frau Pauling."
"What's happening? Is something wrong?"
"I'm only calling to update you on our statuses."
She forced herself to relax and leaned against her car seat. "Okay, okay, so, status. What's been going on in the last six hours?"
"We're still alive. Mostly. Unfortunately, our security was cut off, so we don't have access to what's happening around the base."
"What? It did?" Strange since it was working eight hours ago. She also didn't get a call from the Administrator yet. "Did you try the backup?"
"I wouldn't be saying that if we hadn't tried."
Pauling chewed her lip. "Okay, anything else? Is anyone in mortal danger?"
"In a way."
"Wha- what do you mean?" She asked, becoming breathless with anticipation and fear. "Did something happen? Were one of you-"
"Calm down, Frau Pauling, I can feel your nerves from here." BLU Medic said, Pauling hearing shuffling in the background and a door shutting. "Nein. That thing didn't take any of us."
"Then what?"
"Sniper and Scout found us. The RED ones."
Notes:
Miss Pauling being BLU Scout's biggest hater since his birth.
In the first draft of this chapter, I was originally going to have an existential crisis conversation between the Administrator and Miss Pauling after the Mann brothers were killed, before having the Administrator go "rogue," but then I realised that would just go against everything I've already established, not to mention everyone in that chapter was incredibly ooc and that would just be WAY too much plot to keep up with. Even for me. So fortunately for you guys, you won't have to question life and death!
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