Late at night, Miss Pauling was making her way into the RED team's base. Spy and Engineer were seated at the front of the base, enjoying the crisp September night. Spy was the first to notice the Admin's assistant, and became the first to speak up.
"Bonjour, Miss Pauling, I don't recall anyone stealing a briefcase."
"I'm not here because of a briefcase, I'm here to deliver your checks." Pauling panted.
"Well that's a mighty relief" chuckled Engie.
"Yes, for you guys it is," snarked Pauling "You didn't have to drive all the way from the Admin's office to the BLU base to here."
"Well, we are grateful for your labour" thanked Spy. "You will find the others in the recreation room"
Pauling nodded as she handed the two men their checks and passed through the door.
Spy took a long drag of his cigarette before blowing smoke into the cold air. It was not often he and Engineer hung out like this; Spy usually spent his nights in the smoking room. But that night he had decided he'd prefer the peaceful silence of the chilly New Mexico night to whatever chaos was certainly occurring inside.
Unlike the Frenchman, outside was where you would usually find the Texan at night; reclined on his chair, drinking beer while his sentry kept watch.
The two men sat in silence that was only broken by the occasional quiet whirrs of the sentry. Spy noticed Engie was struggling to keep his eyes open. He rolled his eyes at the thought of having to carry the Texan to bed.
His thoughts were interrupted when the sentry suddenly jolted upwards, starting Engie awake.
"What could the sentry have possibly seen from down there?" They both wondered. Worst case scenario, it was an enemy Spy coming to steal intelligence;
The culprit revealed itself soon enough, its golden glow flickering as it fluttered in the sky, eventually taking a rest on the sentry.
"It's a... butterfly?" murmured the perplexed Frenchman.
"It looks more like a moth," observed Engie. He turned his attention to where the sentry had pointed.
"And it seems like it brought friends"
The golden insects surrounded the two awestruck mercs. They did indeed resemble moths rather than butterflies. Not that it mattered what species it was anyway, the fact that these creatures were glittering such a brilliant gold was fascinating enough. Not to mention, they were being quite cuddly.
"Think we could show the others?" Engie chuckled
"Why don't we keep zis pleasure for ourselves a while longer?" Spy protested, "We can show them after their movie."
Engie shook his head in respectful disagreement.
"Pardner, I think these lil' fellas are gonna be a lot more interesting than any movie can be."
Spy sighed, "If you insist"
Upon entering the base, Miss Pauling was initially met with the expected quietness of 10 pm. However as she approached the door to the rec room, she started to hear some commotion.
Nobody was more excited to watch Psycho than Sniper and Medic. As much as the two of them usually didn't see eye to eye, one thing they could agree on was the love of horror. Sniper had gotten to see this movie in theatres as a graduation gift from his parents. Medic, on the other hand, was only getting to see it now. The both of them were seated not on the couch, but on a spare mattress in front of the couch.
Actually seated on the couch were Scout and Pyro. The older mercs worried the movie would be too scary for Pyro, but she was handling herself fine. Scout on the other hand, was straining every muscle in his body to not hide behind his colleague. He was relieved to then hear Miss Pauling's voice as she peeked her head into the rec room. He took the opportunity to scurry away from the horror film.
"Hey guys, what's going on?" Miss Pauling inquired, hoping to be answered by literally anyone but Scout
"The real question is," Scout answered, "Is what are you doing here, y'know, at this hour?" He finished his own inquiry with a smirk and a wink.
"I'm not here to stay Scout, I'm just here to give you guys your checks for this month."
Heavy, having overheard while washing dishes at the nearby kitchenette, spoke up,
"Is that not job of Steve?" He asked.
"He couldn't make it," Miss Pauling explained while passing the checks to the Russian, "Called in about broken... everything."
A new voice then chimed in from behind Miss Pauling, startling her so badly that she nearly fell flat on her face.
"What a goddamn shame. I wish that beautiful bastard a speedy recovery" announced Soldier, who was too busy paying his respects to his favourite postman to notice that he'd almost knocked over his boss.
"Woagh, you okay, Miss Pauling?" asked Scout who was fully prepared to catch his crush mid fall.
"Yeah, yeah I'm fine," she uttered while standing up straight. She then looked over his shoulder to the mercs behind him.
"Are you guys watching a movie?" she was finally able to ask.
"Da," confirmed Heavy, "Psycho, I believe it's called."
"It's by that hippie, Alfred Hitchcock", snarled Soldier.
"You could join us if you want," offered Scout, "I gotta warn ya though, it's pretty scary"
"Oi! Don't act like nobody saw you trying not to hide behind Pyro, ya wanker!" Sniper chirped from the mattress, which earned him a kick in the back from Pyro for talking over the film.
"Ow!, was that really necessary?"
"Ja, now shut up!" barked Medic
Miss Pauling momentarily considered the offer, that movie did sound like fun, but no, she had to get back the Administrator. She turned to leave right as Spy and Engie barged in.
Medic stood up to protest another interruption of his movie night. But then he noticed them; beautiful, bright golden moths had entered the room. Suddenly the movie didn't matter much to him any more.
Engineer was correct, this was a more fascinating experience than what any film could provide. Pyro and Demo started dancing on top of the couch, trying to catch as many as they could. Heavy held his hands up, where around twenty nested.
Miss Pauling was so in awe of the sight that she didn't notice Scout place one behind her ear. He couldn't help but flash the goofiest smile as it crawled up higher on her head, taking the perfect spot to look like the most adorable hair accessory.
Her phone buzzed, startling her for the second time that night. She excused herself and left the rec room to answer the call, to Scout's dismay. Outside the rec room, Miss Pauling picked up to hear the Administrator's raspy voice.
"Miss Pauling, I see you have witnessed the little guests appearing on the RED Base"
"Yes ma'am"
Miss Pauling finally noticed the little critter resting on her head. She guided it to her hand so she could get a closer look.
"They look like moths? Never seen one that glows before,"
"They don't tend to do that, Miss Pauling," the Admin replied, "Do you know where these creatures come from?"
"No ma'am,"
"Then find out."
"Yes ma'am."
Miss Pauling re-entered the rec room, where everyone was still cooing over the moths. Even Scout was too distracted to notice his crush re-enter the room. Medic held four of them in his arms. He was by far the most fascinated by these little specimens.
"Vat are you little schmetterlings?" The Medic wowed.
"Think these are moths, mate" corrected Sniper. "Not that it matters, never seen any of them shimmer like this" The bushman cooed as two landed on his shoulder, "You lot are a bunch of beauties, aintcha?"
"They are most magnificent, yes," Spy agreed. His admiration was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.
"Yeah they are pretty", started Pauling, "Like, they are just gorgeous- the most beautiful things I have seen in my entire life, but...do you, by any chance, know where these little guys came from?"
"I also want to know where these hippie bugs came from, and why you two brought them into the base," Interrogated Soldier, the only one not impressed by the sudden appearance of glowing moths.
Spy rolled his eyes at Soldier, but he did stop to ponder.
Where did these creatures come from?
A thought was starting to form in his mind that perhaps this event was not as innocent as it seemed. He kicked himself mentally for not realizing that sooner.
"You might be correct, Soldier, perhaps we shouldn't have brought these into the base" Spy finally said.
"Vat do you mean?" Medic questioned, "This is wonderful!"
"You were having just as much fun as the rest of us before Soldier opened his big mouth" added Scout, "What gives?"
"Scout for once makes a good point Spy" Engie agreed, " What's got you changing your tune so suddenly?"
Miss Pauling decided to explain on Spy's behalf
"As absolutely adorable as these little guys are, we have no idea where they came from,"
"That is true," Engie nodded. "Papilionoidea aren't typically known to glow.
"These's clearly aren't just some normal moths" Spy collaborated, "For all we know these creature could be radioactive, robots hiding cameras, or a shared hallucination from a toxic gas that has crept into this room"
Spy continued "It's not even just their glow, these types of creatures don't tend to be very cuddly either,"
"Oh come on! You're looking way too hard into this man!" Scout argued, "They're just butterflies, how bad could it possibly be?"
Spy was about to retort when-
"I THINK I HAVE WAITED LONG ENOUGH!"A voice boomed from every wall in the room, stopping everyone in their tracks. They looked around to try and figure where that voice was coming from, but Soldier already had his suspicions;
"I KNEW YOU HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THESE HIPPIE BUGS!" Soldier bellowed, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT?"
Spy kicked himself mentally again; Of course glowing golden bugs would be a result of magic. Why the hell didn't he realize that before the Soldier of all people?
"CORRECT SOLDIER! I WAS THE ONE TO SEND THESE MOTHS TO YOU!"Merasmus bellowed back, showing himself to his ten victims,
"IT WAS A SUGGESTION FROM A DEAR FRIEND OF MINE!""Oh, please," Scout scoffed, "What friends?"
"Affirmative Scout!" Soldier applauded, "Who'd ever want to be friends with this maggot?"
"He must be so lonely," Demo joined in to mock the wizard that had cost him his eye, "He sent bloody butterflies to us so that we'd be his friends"
"As if that makes up for all the crap he's put us through," Scout laughed.
"WHAT AN IDIOT!" Soldier guffawed, before being cut off by his former roommate.
"SILENCE! I have sent these creatures to your base for a very special purpose; I promised some dear friends that I do have that I would bring him more pitiful souls to compete in their challenge. Although, really, they're the ones doing me a service, because I'll never have to deal with you idiots ever again!""Oh no, you don't, you hippie!" Soldier barked before bolting to the door. But Scout and Heavy were already looking for it. It wasn't there any more. Heavy punched where it was supposed to be, but he only succeeded in bruising his knuckles.
Everyone realized then; these glowing moths were all a trap by Merasmus, who had now morphed the creatures into impenetrable walls to ensure that nobody escaped. As one might expect, that everyone started to freak the fuck out.
Miss Pauling desperately called the Admin. She could barely hear her boss's raspy voice over the screaming mercs.
"Miss Pauling, what on earth is going on?" The Admin demanded to know. Before her assistant could answer, her phone was snatched away by the Demoman.
"THESE BUGS WERE A BLOODY TRAP!" The terrified Scot shrieked, "AND NOW THAT DAMN WIZARD IS SENDING US ALL TO HELL!"
Miss Pauling took back her phone, to confirm what Demo had said, "Yeah those moths were a lure by Merasmus, something about his friend wanting some extra souls."
"Do any of you have your weapons?" The Admin calmly questioned. Miss Pauling couldn't help but laugh a little at the irony of that question. This all had to happen the one time that nobody was prepared for combat.
"No ma'am, nobody has their gear or their weapons. Except for me, I have my gun, but I really don't think that's going to help us here."
"Very well," Admin responded, "Reinforcements are on their way."
"IT'S SO LATE FOR THAT, MY DEAR!"Merasmus laughed to Miss Pauling as he mocked the other miserable attempts he saw to escape his grasp.
"I WILL ENJOY SEEING YOU ALL SUFFER!"Suddenly the ground started to violently shake beneath them, then it started to crumble. Merasmus screamed in evil amusement as the mercs started to fall into the abyss.
"MISS PAULING!" The Administrator could hear the chaos from her office, "What is going on now?"
"THE FLOOR IS CAVING IN!" was the only thing her assistant could yelp before she too was dropped to the abyss. There were a couple more moments of horrified screaming and then,
Nothing.
The call had cut out. Helen stared in disbelief. She knew Miss Pauling well enough to know she could not have faked that level of terror she heard in her scream.
Admin grabbed her microphone.
"MISS PAULING ARE YOU THERE?" Nothing but static.
"MISS PAULING DO YOU HEAR ME?!" Still, nothing.
"MISS PAULING?"
...
"Miss Pauling?"