//------------------------------// // Lost Ties // Story: Living Darkness // by vildtiger //------------------------------// Note: This happens a week after the last chapter and based on the Team Fortress 2 comics. there will be several OC's in this chapter, some are loosely based on real-life people. (Australia) “I sure hope Twilight is alright…” Spike mutters softly, he knows he saw her a few days ago before she, and the others went to some location Miss Pauling sent them on, but he just can’t help but worry. He feels a hand on his head, followed by Demo’s voice. “Don’t worry lad, she will be just fine.” Spike nods slowly, doesn’t help much on his worries though. He looks out from the car window, watches this new location passes by and sort of wish he could’ve been more excited about it since he is in another world but… he just can’t really enjoy it as he thought he would. Miss Pauling stop the car before a farmhouse there seems to be pretty much out in the middle of nowhere. But one look at the house and Miss Pauling dreads that they won’t find Sniper here and him leaving any clues behind is very unlikely. The house is dilapidation and from the looks of it, they haven’t been anyone here for quite some time. Demo notices the same and remarks to her. “Bloody hell, I’ve slept on toilets nicer than this. Sniper’s parents live here?” and Miss Pauling must admit. “They did, but it looks like they have abandoned it.” Wondering what has happed for their place to turn out like this. Going inside, she starts calling for Mr. and Mrs. Mundy but gets no reply. He might have a terrible sense of danger, but Demo does not feel comfortable intruding on Sniper’s “territory”. Maybe it’s just him or maybe it’s because he- including the others have seen how deadly and cruel their sharpshooter can get if provoked. “This does not feel right, we should leave.” He suggests, walking over to Miss Pauling who has stepped into the dusty living room, not seeing that they are indeed not alone. Of course, Miss Pauling is not in a hurry of getting out from here. “We drove all this way, let’s search the place first.” Miss Pauling picks up a few scattered papers on the floor. “See if there is a clue where Sniper might be.” Getting the sense of being watched, Spike checks behind his shoulder, the turned drake freezes on the spot when he spots a figure of a person staring at him in the shadows. He lets out a fearful scream and takes the run for it. Demo and Miss Pauling snaps to the spot, but before they can get a grasp on the situation, Sniper has reached Demo and injected something into him, knocking him out in an instant and didn’t care she was his former boss assistance as he whacks her in the back of the head, knocking her out as well. With those two out cold, Sniper turns to the young boy, he gets the bit of a startle when this boy suddenly throws a flame that came from seemly nowhere at him, his biggest surprise is hearing a familiar voice from this not so familiar face. “S-Stay back, I-I’m warning you!” “Spike?” He asks and slowly the boy calms down. “Sn-Sniper? That’s you?” Sniper does not reply, the kid already knows it’s him. “What in the bloody hell are you doing here?” He asks the turned drake and starts drag Demo and Miss Pauling to the nearby chairs so he can restrain them. “Somepony stole the Element of Magic, it is here somewhere.” Spike explains Sniper quietly. Sniper stops his task for a moment to look at the kid. Cursing the very element that chose him and yet being happy he still has enough professionalism to realize that he owes Twilight that much. “I'll help.” He tells the turned dragon but must warn Spike. “I’m not myself, I didn’t get away from the women fast enough.” Slowly he turns back to bind Miss Pauling to the chair, it takes a lot from him not to slice her throat over for the anger he feels of what her boss did to him. “You better leave, this might get nasty.” “I’m staying.” Spike says with a way more brave voice than he feels. He is scared of Sniper, scared of what this song that turns someone evil will make the once griffin do. “Suit yourself.” Sniper simply says. When Miss Pauling and Demo get around, Sniper injects the scot, knocking him out once again. “Sorry, mate. Can’t have you up and about for what happens next.” Sniper tells the again unconscious man. He turns to Miss Pauling when she asks. “What is in that? Did you poison him, Sniper?” and he replies rather calmly. “Nah, that was family’s moonshine. Doesn’t matter who you are, it will knock any wanker off his feet.” Sniper replies and pulls out his knife, putting the subject back on track. “Anyway, let’s get to it.” It does take some resistance not to plunge his knife into her flesh, but fortunately, he can most of the time ignore the song of those women. So as a way to distract himself but also to get answers he hasn’t been able to find, he starts playing with the knife. “My parents… passed six months ago.” Worst of it was that he was the one who found them. “Sniper, I’m sorry—“ “Not my point.” Sniper curtly interrupts Miss Pauling. He does not want her petty sympathy, all he wants is answers. “When I was cleaning out the house, I found something. They’re not my real parents. So I went off and started digging, around. Everything leaves a trail, Miss Pauling.” He knows that fact better than anyone, wouldn’t be much of a good sniper if he cannot track the prey, but this is not a prey he’s tracking but answers to where he really comes from. “Except me. It’s like I fell from the sky. Nobody knows nothing where I came from!” He sneers and the knife gets plunged deep into the back of Miss Pauling chair. Sniper meets Miss Pauling's somewhat nervous eyes. “So here’s is what is gonna happen. You will help me find out where I came from, or I will show how close I am to be like my other.” “I will search for your answers the moment I am done with this current mission.” Miss Pauling promises, adding her condition. “If you in return help us.” Sniper does not look thrilled about this as he points his knife at her. “And what makes you think I will work for you people again? Last time I did that I ended up with a split soul and that other half is cutting people up. Wouldn’t surprise me he made a lamp out of those blokes skin.” And Miss Pauling retorts back. “You agreed when you took the contract, plus, I am sure that when this is all over. The administrator will help you become whole again.” Sniper does not believe her. “I trust the spook’s words more than you Miss Pauling. People like you. You only keep your promises as long it benefits you. The only reason I haven’t thrown you into a shallow grave is that you are still an asset.” After a moment of silence, he speaks. “Both for me and for Twilight Sparkle. The moment I am done helping her retrieve the Element of Magic, and if you do not find me a track to follow.” His grey eyes meet her green. “You’ll be my next target.” Miss Pauling can only nod, she does not like the thought of that turned pony has Sniper as his employee but as things stand now, she cannot argue. “Alright, if this is the only way of getting you on the team.” She sighs, and while Sniper gets her free Miss Pauling can’t help but wonder how much control she truly has on the mercenaries at this point? *** (midday, near a submarine base) Picking up part of the earth there has the sign of a car has driven past lately, Sniper sniffs to it and can say with certainty to the almost fully gathered team. “The thief went this way about fifteen minutes ago.” “And you got that by sniffing to the ground?” Spy asks, clearly not believing that. It’s not like a fancypants like him knows how to do proper tracking without all those spy toys he has in his pockets. Behind his aviator, Sniper shoots him a glare. “You wouldn’t know proper tracking even if it hit you straight in the face.” He straightens up, nodding to the nearby submarine base. “You better have something better than your butter knife, place filled with Australium pumped blokes. Might be lucky that it is simply the cache Miss Pauling is after.” Ignoring the insult of his choice of weapon. “And what makes you think it is either?” Spy asks and is pretty sure Sniper rolls his eyes behind those sunglasses of his. “Not so sharp as you think, spook. I am an Australian; which means I can hear Australium.” “You can hear Australium?” Heavy asks quite taken aback by this. Sniper nods and feels quite offended that they did not know this well-known fact among the Australians. “I may be a runt and barely have any of the stuff in me, but I am still a bloody Australian. It’s not only because of ego it’s called Australium, it’s because only we can hear this golden metal.” Grown up in a country filled with it does make the people very in tuned with the subtle sound it makes. That is interesting info and all, but they don’t have time knowing why Sniper can hear something others can’t. “Spy, check the area.” Miss Pauling command and after a moment of thoughts. “Take Soldier with you.” “Yes sir!” Soldier salute and runs towards the base, the woman there had joined them after Heavy and surprisingly Medic returned to the team follows- after have exchanged a few words with the big guy. Miss Pauling did not catch what they said but she can make a good guess it was the words to be careful. Spy does not like her command of who he will team up with, he rolls his now reddish eyes. “And with that: all stealth got thrown out of the window.” Before he cloaks. Miss Pauling ignores him, Spy might not see it but Soldier will be a great help if he gets into trouble. Leaving those two to ‘make plans’ outside this base, Spy sneaks inside. What he finds are several people there probably those tending and controlling the submarine ship, most of them are huge and muscular- not to mention having big mustaches. A clear sign they are indeed Australians, then there are those who have more Sniper’s build. One of those people passes his hiding spot and Spy raises a brow when he notices a purple shirt having a yellow logo of a circle cut up in four and has a bare circle in the middle underneath the marine clothing. That catches his attention, more so when he spots at least two more has these purple shirts. What does that— Spy tense up when he feels a gun being pressed up against the back of his head. “And now would you kindly uncloak.” He does and remarks to whoever is aiming their gun at him. “I presume you’re going to use me as a meat shield.” If not then this man would’ve shot him by now. “It won’t work.” The shooter chuckles. “I know, and killing you will only grant you a headache.” Spy hears a cloak getting dismissed and blinks when the gun gets lowered, he turns around and must say he is surprised to see a spy working for Mann Co. Except this spy is dressed in purple and has a ridicules festive mask and too big of a scarf around the neck. This spy seems amused by his disapproval of the choice of clothing. “Oh lighten up already, Antoine.” Spy’s eyes wide hearing his name from this stranger, how, how did this spy know his name?! Now it’s his turn to point a gun at him. “How do you know that name?” He demands, the purple spy doesn’t even seem to notice he has a gun at his face. “Lower the gun Antoine, or one of my comrades will shoot you.” Spy looks around but he cannot see any signs of a second shooter or the glint of a sniper rifle scope. And as if reading his mind, the other spy points out. “He does not use scopes, now lower the gun. You won’t win against us.” He hesitates but does lower the gun, the tone in this spy’s voice makes it clear he is not joking around. The purple spy nods and asks whoever on the other side of his intercom. “What the status on the others?" A tapping sound comes from the intercom. "Alright, if they get in close, shoot anyone except the women and child.” Before turning back to Spy “I know you are after the Australium, that you cannot have. But if your team backs down, I will give you the information where this artifact you’re looking for is located.” “Our boss won’t allow us to back down.” Spy points out, not sure why but he has a strong sense that if he and the others get into a fight with this guy’s team: they will lose. He can feel the same aura of years of hard experience around this man as he felt around his old teacher. And lord and behold, the purple spy drops the best disguise he has ever seen, revealing his old teacher with a black cat lying on his shoulders. “Still hasn’t learned to think for yourself I see, Antoine.” and with that, the man disappears by cloak. Spy stares at the now empty spot in utter shock of what he just saw. His old teacher is still alive? How?— No, never mind that, the same as to why he and this other team are after Australium. “Miss Pauling.” He calls her up from his wristwatch machine. “How’s the situation?” “One of the thieves caught me and left with the warning we need to back down.” He explains and knowing his old teacher, one he has heard from many others has been proclaimed the best spy by anyone who knew about him. Spy doubts that even though he is now younger and stronger can defeat his old teacher, that man taught him everything he knows! “I incline we do as told. These people are above us.” “Spy, you are the best of the best. There aren’t other people out there better.” Miss Pauling argues to Spy, although she is worried about this warning the thieves gave Spy. She can’t let the Administrator down, and besides; these guys cannot really die. “Is the Australium there?” “Yes.” Miss Pauling is just about to make the order for the others to move in, instead, she freezes on the spot when Heavy suddenly got headshot and he drops dead to the ground, scaring Twilight and Spike immensely. Seconds later, the echo of a sniper rifle can be heard. “Cricky!” Sniper ducks by mere reflex, now he knows how it feels being on the receiving end. “Get them out from here, they got a sniper!” and no matter how much he looks around, he cannot see a glint from the scope. While Demo gets the girls and Spike to safety at the truck, Sniper takes out his own rifle, only there he finds the other- it's a man dressed in grey, camouflaging him on the roof, the lower part of the face hidden by a scarf. The man stares directly at him while aiming his old rifle that does not have a scope. He points down to the ground, the sign to put down his weapon before removing the scarf showing a malformed jaw from a shot he took. Sniper feels a chill runs down his back, every sniper in the world has heard about this guy. “… it’s the White Death!” He gasps, never thought he would ever meet the best sniper of them all. Miss Pauling freezes up hearing that name, she too has heard about him, but… he disappeared a couple years past. “You sure?” If those guys have the White Death on the team, then sneaking inside is pretty much impossible. Sniper lowers his weapon, no wish in risking this legend taking another shot at them. “No doubt about it, that's him alright." “Spy, did you recognize the man there captured you?” Miss Pauling asks Spy, starting to see why Helen did not want them to engage these people. “Yes, it was the Ace of Spies, I spotted some other I‘m certain is the Force of Nature.” …. Okay, they are so screwed! Those three alone are the best of the best, the elite of their jobs. Miss Pauling can now see why Helen told her not to engage with these people. “Okay, Spy, draw back.” Never thought the thieves would be legends. “Good to know our names still means something.” Ace of Spies grins, appearing beside Spy just after he finished the call. Spy eyes his old teacher, the moment is bittersweet seeing him again. “It’s… good to see you again.” Ace of Spies is the closest thing he ever came to have a father. “Likewise Antoine.“ Ace pets the cat on his shoulders before he hands Spy a piece of paper. “The artifact is at this location and before you go, if you kids behave; there is a small cache of Australium in the ruins of New Zealand.” Spy scowls from being called a kid but he is more than aware that he won’t get any answer of what this team made out of legends are planning to do down there. “You will need to ask Miss Pauling about that, I’m merely an asset.” Ace nods. “Very well.” and speaks into his intercom built into the wristwatch. “Force of Nature, could you take it up with them?” “Do you want me to wipe their asses as well?” The man on the line replies in a mocking tone. “Some of them crapped their pants when Death shot at them, tsh, what a bunch of pussies.” Spy never thought that the man there got the nickname Force of Nature would have Jeremy’s attitude, mixed with his snark. Ace pinches the bridge of his nose, and Spy can’t help but feel amused that even a master spy can get annoyed by scouts. His amusement is quickly replaced with his own annoyance when Soldier suddenly charges into the base, to then get taken out by the White Death. “Not the woman.” Ace says simply and those people having the purple shirt round Soldier’s girlfriend, forcing her to surrender. The master spy turns back to his student. “Let’s hope the rest of your team aren’t this reckless.” Spy can only hope the same. Waiting tensely outside, Miss Pauling can do little but watch the White Death handle Soldier in such a manner it seems more a nuisance than anything. Moments later, a man leaves the building, running with a speed worth of Scout. This other speedster stops not far from them, revealing a man dressed in a full body rubber suit there has several purple markings, he takes off the goggles just as a white bird lands on his shoulders. “Alright people, here’s the deal. If you keep your noses out of our business and don’t ask questions. We will allow you to go with us and grab a small cache of Australium located down in the ruins of New Zealand.” Scout is about to asks his confusions that New Zealand is a real place, he doesn’t though as he’s too busy taking in that he is standing near THE Force of Nature! Hale got the weapon all wrong though, the man has a futuristic looking weapon and from the barrel, he can see electricity. This is so awesome! “Alright.” Miss Pauling agrees, unlike Scout who is close to fan gasmen, she is incredible wary around one of these legends. There is a reason why this man is been called the Force of Nature. His weapons are all electric based and if not for that specially made suit: he and anyone else trying to use his weapons will be electrocuted. That and this man has the training from two elite forces, one from the UK and another from Russia, so he knows his fair share on how to raid buildings and take out the biggest threats. “Only three of you may go.” The man says, he turns slightly, nodding to a parked truck can be seen. “The rest will head to the coordinates your spy was giving, it will bring you to where the artifact has been taken.” Again Miss Pauling agrees, she picks Demo, Pyro and a very reluctant Sniper. “Rest of you, get Soldier and Heavy at the nearest respawn point, then go the coordinates Spy has.” They nod and leave, well almost everyone, Scout just had to embarrass himself by trying to talk to the Force of Nature. “Uh... hi, sorry to intrude but, uh could you sign my weapon? It’s just a sawed-off shotgun but it’s called by your name in fact, isn’t that cool—“ “Scout!” She snaps at him, and is quite surprised that this elite force man actually laughs at this fanboying he got from Scout, more so with his reply to Scout’s request. “Sure thing kid.” He grabs the force of nature weapon, taps it with one of his rods and electrocutes it, leaving behind a fried spot at the handle. “Here you go.” Returning the slightly burning weapon back to Scout. Best day ever! “Thanks! Man, I am never throwing this one out!” and he trots after the others, holding the pretty much-destroyed weapon as if it’s the biggest thing ever, for him it sure is. This weapon was held by THE Force of Nature! Wait till his brothers hear about this! Force of Nature grins while watching the first group heading off. The grin is quickly replaced with a serious scowl when turning to the remaining four, he simply has to sign them and they follow. The team sniper leaves his spot when they walk into the base, the red-dressed sniper tips his hat at him as a polite but also a bit shaky greeting. The White Death returns it with his own polite nod before turning to the purple dressed Scout, giving him the sign they are ready. “Right, to the submarine people!” Force of Nature commands and all those people having the purple shirt head to the submarine ships, he points at one of the ships to their 'guests' and tells them. “You will take that one. When you have the prize you will leave immediately.” “Understood.” Miss Pauling nods and does at the man told her and the others. She takes control of the sub and while following the three other submarine ships towards the land of New Zealand, Miss Pauling asks the three mercenaries. “What do you guys know about New Zealand?” “Not a bloody thing.” Demo replies with Sniper saying in a pretty uncaring tone. “Mom told me they wanted to be left alone, so they sunk the whole godforsaken island.” Well, he got that right. “True, and forty years ago they got their wish. They built a giant glass dome over the whole country and sunk it to the bottom of the ocean. It must’ve been a utopia, a paradise under the sea. But something happened.” She glances to the right, watching as they pass by the broken hole in this giant glass dome. The submarine ships before them lead to a large door, it opens when approaching and Miss Pauling figures this is their stop. “Look alive everybody. We’re here.” Leaving the sub, Miss Pauling only moves when the White Death allows them by a hand-sign, they walk along with this elite group of people further into this underground building. Sniper, being just like Scout when it comes to the White Death- although is way calmer by walking beside this sniper legend. He eyes the man and asks carefully. “Mind if I ask you a question?” The White Death eyes him, no sign of annoyance in his eyes, only a hint of sadness. The legendary spy explains why. “He lost his voice when a Russian soldier shot him in the face.” The White Death nods, eyeing Sniper again with eyes saying ‘sorry about that’. Disappointing but it’s not like it’s the White Death’s fault he lost the ability to speak. “No worries.” So asking how he does the shots without using a scope is impossible, what he can ask though. “Is it true you have killed at least five hundred men?” The White Death smirks before shrugging and holding up a notebook there has a lot of signs of battle. Sniper thinks he understands that one. “That’s how many you were able to record down?” The mute man nods, and if the battered book is any indication. “But you didn’t always have time to write down the kill.” The man shakes his head, the smirk widens when Sniper whistle impressed. Sniper must admit he can see why this man became a legend, more so when this man did it in freezing cold in the Finish winter. Sniper would never have been able to do that, he couldn’t shoot straight from the cold when the teams fought in a base called Coldfront and less so without a scope. One of the large doors opens, and an old man steps outside, he stares wary at the many people, that until his eyes land on Sniper. There he smiles and spread out his arms in a welcome. “Welcome to New Zealand, son. Welcome home.” Sniper’s eyes wide hearing that from this old man claiming to be his father. Talk about coincidence, then again, this might be a trick. “How do I know you’re my real father?” He demands. The man opens his mouth to explain but stops when the purple dressed people walk past him and think it’s best stopping them intruding before explaining why he is the father of this man. “Hold up, where do you think you are going? This is a private home!” He is about to grab the man in the rubber suit but stops when that one points a weapon sparking of electricity at him. “For your own safety; stay out of this.” and he, along with the others leave. The man hesitates then slowly turns to the remaining group there includes his son. “I better explain what happen all those years ago." He clears his throat. "After many educated calculations, I realized we had to leave the ocean and head to space, but the council- those idiots did not listen so I had to take matters into my own hand. I built a rocket there would take us to space— that was my plan but I simply did not have time to build a bigger ship, so there was only one seat. I was planning on going myself but… um well, you got that seat instead.” Sniper has trouble believing this story, he knows his parents aren’t his real parents. But he is the son of a scientist and…. he’s not truly an Australian. If this is the truth then that explains the files saying he does not have Australium in his blood… He’s not sure how to react on that fact. “After all this time I thought I was an Australian, why I never grew a mustache, why I never wanted to fist-fight the other kids… it’s because I’m not really an Australian…” The old man— his real father nods. “That’s right son, you’re from New Zealand and—“ “… and thanks to your father, everyone in New Zealand DROWNED, and we’ve been stuck in this sealed lab ever since.” An elderly woman voice speaks at one large dinner table filled with wine bottles. His father groans, explaining to him. “Where your mother has been trying to drown herself, one bottle of wine at the time." Sniper turns around to this woman. “Mom?” She nods, but this reunion is far from what he expected, instead of being happy to see him, she instead turns to her husband, telling him slurred like Demo when he’s drunk. “Bill-Bel, when this wine runs out… I am going to shoot you and then kill myself…” “You know what would be nice, Lar-Nah? To get through ONE day without you—“ Miss Pauling steps in here, thinking they can argue about this after they have left. “Um, hi, if I could butt in for just a second here…” The elderly pair eyes her, only one of them has their attention on her though. “I am looking for gold rocks. Does any of you happen to know where it is? It’s practically worthless, but my employer has a crazy fondness—” Sniper’s dad laughs, reminding her. “My good woman, I’m a Scientist! You can’t fool me. I know the true value of that metal.” Both he and Miss Pauling cast a glance to the White Death walks past them with a crate filled with Australium. She would love to reclaim that crate, but she has noticed how sharply the Force of Nature is watching her and she really does not want to become another number on his kills list. So instead she turns to what this man of science has. “Dang… so um… any chance you would let us have it without coming to a fight?” She gets thrown to the floor by Sniper and he looks ready to kill. “You can’t ask me to kill my biological parents.” Sniper sneers in anger, it takes a lot from him not to put a bullet through her. The only thing keeping him is what remains of his professionalism and the fact he has found his family again. His father is very glad about this and puts a hand on his shoulder. “That’s right son, family has to stick together.” Sniper’s mother, on the other hand, is apathetic at the whole situation at best. She empties her wine bottle and leaves the table. “Sure you can get the paint.” She leads them to where a rocket is, the whole thing is painted in Australium. Much to Miss Pauling’s disbelief. “You used it to paint your spaceship?!” Bill-Bel snorts. “Hardly. This represents a fraction of the Australium I had.” Already knowing the question this young woman is going to asks when she opens her mouth, so he replies her. “I used most of it to paint the prototype spaceships.” “And where—?” “They exploded.” Miss Pauling facepalm hard, somewhat hoping to knock herself out from this so-called scientist idiocy, pretty sure his wife is the smarter one for she is kind enough to offer her a drink, which she really needed. Hold up, Bill-Bel just realized something. “Son, how did you get back from space?” and his son explains. “I never got to space, dad. I crash-landed on Australia!” But that can’t be right, he calculated the whole earth will be covered in magma. “But how did you survive? The earth was covered in magma years ago! I calculated it!” He jumps when a purple dressed man with a somewhat festive mask appears right beside him, saying in a deadpan tone. “Let’s just say you greatly miscalculated, all the earth is in danger of at the moment is nuclear fallout and three mind-bending women.” Before the man disappears again, leaving Bill-Bel very dumbfounded. Sniper recovers quickly, he has been dealing with a man like this for years, although not as much of a know-it-all like that one. “The earth is fine dad. We can bring you back to—“ FOOOM! Everyone snap their attention to the rocket, Demo shields Miss Pauling against the rocket’s fire in last second, causing only him in getting incinerated. Recovering from almost getting burned alive and happy Demo was beside her when she tried to get the Australium off the rocket- now crashed through the roof and causing water to flood inside. “No! The Australium!” “Well, that’s one way to do it.” The Force of Nature remarks a bit surprised by this sudden develop before commanding the rest of his team. “Time to get the hell out from here! Echo, do your thing!” The sniper nods, pulls out a double-edged knife and after a moment of holding his little and ring missing hand out in the air, he finds what he is looking for and cut into the very air with that knife, space rips open and reveals another room. The people dressed in purple runs through. Ace gives the others a single look before disappearing along with the two others. Before Miss Pauling can ask what kind of portal that is, the cut to this other area gets closed, leaving them behind in this rapidly flooding area. There is still a chance to salvage just a bit Australium to Helen, she runs over to the computer to figure out where the rocket is heading, but to her horror, this rocket did not crash land like Sniper’s… this one managed to get to space. “It’s gone… I failed my mission retrieving the Australium- the Administrator is going to kill me!” But there is nothing to do about it now. “Guys! Get to the sub!” She commands the remaining two. Sniper does stop half-way, asking worried. “Where’s my dad?” and by the look in his eyes, she knows what he is about to do. “Sniper, don’t go looking for him! If we don’t leave now we will drown!” True, drowning is possible the worst way to die, but death means nothing to one who’ll just respawn. “It does not matter! He’s my dad!” He turns around to go back, telling them “if I’m not back in—“ “Guys!” Pyro calls annoyed, only got attention when she takes off the mask. “Our submarine is fucking gone!” Sniper and Miss Pauling turn to where the sub should’ve been, they can do nothing but watch it sail out through the door, having the only passenger as Sniper’s father. Seeing this breaks Sniper, his biological father left them to die… then, the door opens and the crashing thought of his father is far from the man he believed is gone for just a moment, which makes the truth crash even harder when this marine proves not to be his father coming back. Devastated and furious that he fell so hard for this, Sniper draws out his submachine gun but got shot by what looks to be a spy. He splashes into the water with two bullets stuck into his chest, it won’t kill but he sure hell won’t be able to fight either. “You got two options.” This blue dressed scout leans intimidating over the railing beside the black dressed spy. Behind them stands what looks to be an engineer with a white cowboy hat. “Either you come quietly or you can drown down in these depts. And we’ll simply pick you up at the respawn point, of course, not all of you are that lucky.” His blue eyes land on Miss Pauling, one there will not respawn if she dies. “What it gonna be?”