He looked over the Australium he had ordered to be placed in the smaller barracks on the second floor along with the disarmed payload and briefcase, which were kept as trophies. He gave it a once-over before a smile came to his face.

"Nice." He would put it to good use when the scientist needed it for a breakthrough or something.

Eli raised an eyebrow. "Is that really all you have to say?" His smooth tone didn't hide the obvious annoyance he felt.

Did they not realize how hard it was to get?

Victor just looked at him. "Well, yeah? What did you expect me to say?" He was unsure what Eli had expected after getting the Australium.

"Do you know how hard it was to get it? Do you know how much random crap that company made us do to get it? First we had to attack 5 targets around the globe to get briefcases, get the scientists to open them, then it turns out the briefcases have bombs, making us have to move them to a secure location to extract them before finally disarming them."

Victor, hearing this, wanted to speak, only to be stopped as Eli put up his hand before continuing.

"THEN! After all of that, we had to attack Mann Co.'s vault before we FINALLY got the Australium you wanted. I at least deserve a thank you." He finished quite annoyed.

Hearing all of this and seeing the annoyed expression made Victor exasperated. "Oh, come on. It's literally your job, pal. I mean, sure, you went through SOME hoops, but it was all part of the deal made between us."

He just kept his arms crossed as he felt a mix of both amusement and frustration at Victor for not understanding what happened. "I'd like you to try and dodge bullets from a minigun, dodging stabs from an invisible French guy, and a sentry that shoots missiles. You were just here doing... whatever you do here."

A slight panic rose after he mentioned what he did here. 'Did he know!? No! If he did, then….' Victor didn't want to think what would happen if he did know about it. He showed outward arrogance along with a calm look as he leaned back on his chair.

"Alright. Thank you, Eli. For doing an exceptionally well-done job. Are you happy now? Or do you perhaps want a cookie to go along with that congratulations? What about some juice as well?" He mocked cockily while internally panicking just in case Eli knew. He started to think out how to take out Eli as quickly as possible from this position.

Eli's eyes narrowed at this before his mouth tugged upwards. "Heh, barely. I'm just surprised I got anything from that huge ego of yours." He said while giving a mock bow as the eyebrows of Victor twitched.

He did not have a large ego! Wait... this would have been a good time to insult what he did in his free time, which would mean that they didn't know. Victor let out a sigh of relief internally as he maintained a slightly annoyed face outwardly.

"Right..."

"Heh. Now." Eli stopped his mock bow after seeing what he wanted as he turned to the Australium along with Victor. "So... what are you going to do with it?"

Victor gave it some thought before replying. "I guess first we would need to do more research to see if this "miracle metal" can actually do even ha-"

"BOSS!" A minion came rushing in as he took in deep breaths while resting his hands on his knees while looking down, trying to catch his breath.

"?"

"?"

"What is it?" Victor asked. What was so important that they needed to come running in? They already got the Australium. What could possibly be more important?

The minion finally regained their breath as they explained. "It's the Blue team! They have dispatched a mercenary to burn the organization to the ground. Worst of all, it's them!"

Victor didn't quite understand, but Eli realized who they were talking about as he walked forward before putting an arm on the minion's shoulders. "Are you sure it's them?"

The minion nodded, which confirmed Eli's fears. He asked another question. "How far away are they?"

At this point even Victor was worried since Eli was there and whatever he had seen had shaken him.

"Well, they-."

Suddenly his pad began to buzz as he took it out as Eli and the minion turned to him as Iris spoke. "Battle stations! The Pyro is here!" Iris spoke.

"!?"

"?"

"What?" He tilted his head as Eli rushed past him as he just looked at him leave in a hurry before deciding to follow his henchman, leaving the minion alone in his boss's inner sanctum.

He decided to hide in the corner until it was gone. He was a part of the team Eli had chosen to go out to work for R.E.D and out of all the mercenaries. That one was the most terrifying to the point where he doubted it was even human.

A minute earlier

David was walking off to go to the bathrooms in the front of the Luxury hotel. He had just finished up on topping out the generator's durability and had been holding it in for a while now so an incident like before wouldn't happen again.

He walked past a couple of minions who were walking past him towards who knows where. Not like he cared as he finally made it to the doors as he got scanned by the door as he rolled his eyes as the process took only a couple of seconds yet felt like an eternity to him.

When he finally walked out, he was met with fire as he looked around to see people burning or running away as it took him a moment to understand what he was seeing, but by then it was already too late as he suddenly saw a flamethrower aimed straight at him as he looked up to see who was holding it only to be met with a gas mask as the person dressed to blue set him on fire.

He screamed as the last thing he saw as his flesh burned to a crisp was that gas mask.

That devil.

It watched as he burned as it's head tilted almost in fascination as he yelled in pain as the world went dark.

"Who the hell is-" Victor was cut off by Eli as they ran through the halls.

"One of the mercenaries from the Blue team! One of..." He paused for a second as they kept running as minions passed them in a panic. "... the worser ones!" He yelled out due to the noise as the red light and panicking minions muffled him, making him have to shout over it.

"Wors-" They turned a corner to the front of the gate as Victor's eyes widened.

Everything was on fire. The Cafeteria, the barracks, and standing in the middle was a ma- a thing dressed in colours black and blue.

That thing was currently fighting against his guards by burning them alive with its flamethrower. He gritted his teeth as he watched Edward who was currently in the back, catch on fire as he let out a scream of pain as he began to try and put himself out as more and more corpses hit the ground.

He felt something in him snap seeing this. That thing was destroying the resources that will take who knows how much to replace. With that, his body began to rush in with only one goal in mind. He heard Eli shout out behind him. "VICTOR! DON'T FUCKING RUSH IN! YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOURSELF KILLED!"

He didn't care. He wasn't going to sit back doing nothing as his property was being destroyed.

There was but a single thought echoed through his head as he rushed forward. He had to end this. Now!

He ran forward as the flames around him fizzled and licked his skin, the smell of burnt flesh from his minions and metal from his base rushed up his nose, which only added fuel to the fire of what he needed to do. Although he did admit that the smell was quite repulsive.

The blue Pyro stood there almost as if it was taking in what it had caused while holding its flamethrower. It looked at the corpses of the Guards and Edward who managed to put himself off and was in a corner while coughing due to the smoke as they came closer to them as Edward looked up terrified but stood up and raised his fists.

It was when the Pyro was walking forward to finish the last guard that they sensed someone rapidly approaching by footsteps through the fire. They quickly switched out their flamethrower with their axe as they quickly turned around while swinging their axe, only for Victor to dodge by a hair as it swung by.

Victor rushed forward, pushing Pyro to the floor as they hit the floor with a heavy thud. Their flamethrower clattered to the floor right in front of their body as Victor made quick work to dispose of it as he grabbed it and threw it as hard as he could away and into the fires.

For some reason the fire system began to work and sprinkle over the fires as Victor was poured with water as the fires went out. He cursed the fire system internally.

He was part furious and annoyed. 'OH, so now it WORKS! This would have been helpful literal SECONDS AGO WHEN I SENT MYSELF AT A THREW MYSELF AT A FLAMETHROWING MANIAC!? In fact! Where the hell was this fire system five minutes ago when the guests and my minions were getting flambéed!?'

The Pyro quickly got up off the ground with unnatural speed as they were about to charge at Victor, who had his back turned, only for them to finally find themselves punched in the back, making them stumble forward before they got a hold of themselves. Edward had gotten to their back and begun punching it. (Not the best idea)

They turned around while swinging their axe; fortunately (or unfortunately for them), they hit Edward with the blunt side of the axe, hitting him in the ribs and cracking them, as well as sending him flying into a charred wall, hitting his head as he slid against the wall unconscious but otherwise alive.

Pyro let out a huff as they turned around annoyed as they held the axe in both of their hands. Victor had turned around due to the thud, seeing Edward's unconscious body as his eyes narrowed as the Pyro turned to face him with the axe clutched with both hands only to be met with him lunging at them.

They quickly held up the axe to stop their lunge, as now Victor was gripping onto the axe, catching it at the last second, and with all his might was trying to take it away from Pyro. It was working as Pyro felt the axe being loosened from their grip as they quickly pulled it back before pushing it forward, causing Victor to let go and stumble backwards as they fell on their back.

Victor quickly lifted his head, along with the rest of his upper body, and looked up as he saw the Pyro lifting their axe before bringing it down as his eyes widened.

'####!' He quickly used his arms to push him away as the axe came between his legs, hitting the floor and narrowly missing his crotch.

The Pyro looked at him as they tore their axe from the ground for another swing as they brought it above their head once again and-

*BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG* *BANG*

BANG

Six shots went into the Pyro's head, making the side of their head explode as their half-headed corpse stumbled for a second as their arms fell to their side as their axe loosened and fell out of their grip.

Their corpse fell backwards on its back. Victor looked over to see Eli holding his smoking silver revolver a fair bit away, having fired all six rounds into the Pyro's skull as he lowered the smoking gun to his side while letting out a breath of air before walking over.

Despite what just happened and the carnage all around them of charred corpses or seriously injured unconscious bodies, Eli remained calm on the outside as he approached Victor, who was currently staring at the corpse of the blue Pyro. Wheels were starting to turn in his head as the sprinklers turned off.

Eli was now standing right next to him as the two of them locked eyes as he offered a hand up while putting his revolver away at his side.

"You alright boss?" He took his hand as he helped him back on his feet. His muscles were still tensed due to the adrenaline that was still running around in his system. "You didn't need to intervene. I was handling it perfectly fine." Although the exhaustion with every breath said otherwise.

This only made him smirk. "Right... so you purposefully let them nearly turn you into a eunuch? After all, their axe was this close to chopping your-" Victor held up a hand telling him to stop with what he was going to say, annoyed as Eli let out a small snort.

Victor rolled his eyes as he turned to look around at what was once one of the barracks and cafeteria. A lot of the furniture and items were burnt to a crisp. Numerous bodies of workers and guards were strewn about the place as Victor's eyes softened slightly. Yes, they were resources, but they were his, and he had let them be destroyed.

He let a small sigh out. "Give me the list of all of the minions that died and give me a list of their relatives. I am sending them 1000 gold each as well as a letter of an apology."

This made Eli lifted his eyebrows slightly. He was proven right on his boss's sentimentality as he asked, "Are you sure? You're going to lose an awful amount of mon-." Before he could even finish Victor turned his head to look at him as his eyes narrowed. Seeing this made Eli pause before sighing as well. "Alright..."

Eli decided to change the subject. "Anyways... you really need to stop charging in like that. You could have died. Then all of this probably would have gone to waste."

Victor had no comeback for that, after all it was true... if he died back there, they would all be left without a leader, and he would have never achieved his dream. He would have also failed them. All those years they gave for him would have gone to waste.

"My... apologize... but I can't afford to stand back if no one else is able to do anything." He clenched his fists. Would all of this really be worth it? Could he even change the world?

Eli rubbed the back of his neck, seeing his boss look at the ground as he was about to say something, only for Victor to begin speaking as that sentimental expression had gone back to the regular poker one.

"From what I can see and estimate, over 30 minions, including guards, have been taken out by this..." He looked at the corpse for a second."...'Pyro'. Which makes me have to ask. Does the R.E.D also have one similar to this one?"

As he was speaking, the minions had come back to clean up the bodies and get the minions who weren't dead to the infirmary. Eli was hesitant as he saw a gleam of something in his boss's eyes. "Yes? But why do-"

"Perfect." The idea solidified in his head. The best idea he believed he had this week was as he turned to Eli with a confident expression. "I have a plan."

Eli already had a feeling what Victor wanted to do because it didn't really take a genius to find out what they were thinking based on their question yet knowing it didn't make it any better. He just hoped his prediction was wrong.