Living Darkness

by vildtiger


Fortress vs Vanguard

Note: This happens a couple of hours after the last chapter, the team name Vanguard comes from the tf2 comic "Naked and the Dead" but the people in that team are all my OC's.

Inside the building the Vanguard team is calling home, the very same place that holds the important alpha respawn machine. The youngest of the group, the Demoman is on guard duty and is bored out of his mind, besides him sit the oldest of the team, the sniper, staring out to the city in a stoic manner. "Why did Jack put me on guard duty again?" He asks the sniper annoyed he has to stay and be bored when he could be way more useful in the armory. "I don't like sitting on my butt all day."

The sniper lets out a small chuckle, amused by his complaining. "And that is the problem young Amadi. You have no patience."

The Demoman frowns deeply at what the sniper said. "Of course I have! You need the patience to build a bomb without it blows in your face."

But Garry disagrees. "No, that requires focus, and you have that. But no patience with things that you do not consider worth your immediate focus. But those things," He eyes the African man, the hood only barely shows his scarred face. "needs to be done whatever one likes it or not."

Amadi opens his mouth to argue that he does things he doesn't like doing but stops and realize that Garry has a point, he has no patience when it comes to things like guard duty or cooking, both tasks which he hates doing and let the whole team know about it. No wonder why his sister jokes he has been around their medic too much. "Okay I see your point, but it does not change the fact I am bored out of my mind." He points out to the sniper.

Garry understands, in fact, he too is bored of sitting and watching the same no man's land for hours on end. "Yeah, same here. What about a small game, eh?" He smiles to the young Amadi who nods and asks. "What do you have in mind?" But before the sniper can suggest anything to kill the boredom, his attention is drawn by the moving flaming object in the sky. "What is that?" Amadi asks, Garry does not know, only that they are under attack. "Sound the alarm!" and the Demoman does, Sniper aims his metal bow at the fast approaching object and fire one of his arrows at it. The thing dodges it, sign this is not a rocket. Sniper's eyes wide in shock and horror when his sharp eyes realize what it is: a person surrounded by flames. And that person is out to kill them! "Amadi, rebound!"

The young Demoman jumps forward and a gold transparent shield appears before him, seconds before the flying and out of fire man rams into their spot. The shield turns bright, almost white in the sign it has reached the limit and Demo releases it, returning the powerful attack right back at the attacker's face. It throws the attacker back and although wounded, Amadi can feel he won't be able to rebound another attack from that guy from how his body is shaking from the stress of using his power. "He's too strong!"

Sniper nods, disturbed by this as well, he fires several arrows at the out of fire man. "Retreat!" He commands Demo and the two swiftly disappears into the building before the attacker can charge at them again.

Rudely awoken by his much needed power nap, Jack flies out from bed the second his brain register the alarm. "This is getting ridicules." He grumbles for this is the third attack they have dealt with this week alone. He puts on his blue scout uniform and grabs his weapons. Leaving his room, Scout quickly takes control over the situation. "Spies, give me report who those fuckers are!" The two nod and the moment their female engineer makes sure the team are in their form of radio contact with one another, the two spies, a male dressed all in black and a female, who is unlike he fellow spy, her uniform is not the Mann co standard but one of her own choice. Both of the spies disappears by cloak, going out to assess the situation for the rest of the team.

Scout then turns to the female engineer. "Engie, check your sentries, Heavy go with her!" and those two are off. Scout puts on a bulletproof vest, sure he will respawn but he rather not if he can avoid it. Coming back from the dead gives him a migraine he rather not deal with while fighting.

Sniper and Demo appear with the sharpshooter giving the team leader a sort of strange report. "It's not Team Mirage, Scout. I think it's the War Women, and they got a friend." and Demoman adds in: "He's is powerful, used up all my powers just holding him back."

Well then, better tell those bitches that this team is no more theirs for the taking. "Right, Kreel should be able to keep them from taking over our minds." If not for her then they wouldn't be free in the first place. Scout ready his scattergun. "You all know what to do the moment you hear that fucking song." The whole team agrees they all have a bone to pick with those three women and have a plan of attack just for them.

"Scout, it's not the women, it's Team Fortress." Black Spy reports.

"She got tired of our behavior eh?" Sniper asks with a faint smile, wouldn't be much of a surprise if the Administrator got sick of them going AWOL and made life hard for her by doing pretty much whatever they want.

From the infirmary, the team's Medic appears, dressed like a RED with the only difference is the large amulet around his neck. "Those men are her soldiers of rejects, but-" Medic brushes his fingers through his blond hair, his quite smooth and handsome face, ruined by the deep frown. "They have an uncanny ability to get out of ridiculous situations, so the last thing we should is to underestimate them." He reminds their team leader with his usual hard tone.

Their second engineer, Cowboy leaves the room holding the alpha respawn as fast his cane will allow. "Last time we did, I lost more than a leg." Cowboy speaks calmly but everyone knows his true feelings about this team and knowing they are getting attacked by the very same team that tormented them in the time they were under the Sirens control does not help on his growing foul mood.

Scout has no wish in underestimate these people, but he sure hell won't show them any mercy either. Maybe it's the untold law that mercenary teams will fight when meeting or it's his thirst for some old fashion revenge, does not matter. This team is dead. "They won't get away with it. Team Fortress will soon learn that they shouldn't have fucked with Team Vanguard! Sniper, the moment they pass the line, set their asses on fire. Pyro, you'll finish those off that manage to get past the barrier."

"You got it" Sniper nods and heads out, Pyro does as well but does stop when he gets a message from Heavy- the only member of the team unable to speak English. "Oh, Heavy just said they might use the sewer. Place still broken after Mirage's last attack." Good Wei is so perceptive. "Right, Medic and Demo will block it off." Scout speaks, the two men nod and before heading out. Scout turns to Cowboy, about to speak but the man stops him. "Don't worry about me, Jack. I'll keep this place secure." Sadly that's all he can do after he lost his leg and most of his sight, still Jack is glad even in his broken state, Cowboy still wants to fight alongside them. He nods and heads out to fight the intruding team.

Outside the Team Fortress mercs are seeking cover from the rain of bullets coming from the sentries scattered about, Team Vanguard's sniper finds a good position and joins the sentries in firing at the intruders. He is more accurate than a sentry, and the moment the enemy soldier tries to get a shot in, he fires and hit the man right in the chest with his armor piercing arrows. The demoman pulls the wounded soldier back behind the truck they brought. Sniper frowns when he can just barely see a familiar glow of the potent healing of a medigun. "They have a medigun." He reports to the rest of the team.

Pyro walks up beside him, reloading his shotgun. "Better take him out before they get a charge ready."

Sniper readies a bow, waiting for the moment this team make the move to leave their only safe spot in the area but stop when Cowboy speaks through the link.

"I want their medic."

Sniper and Pyro exchanges worried glances with one another, both know the rage the man has and that is deeply disturbing as the whole team knows how much destruction Cowboy can do when he really gets angry. Many would think Heavy is the powerhouse but for Team Vanguard, their strongest member is their male engineer.

Out on the no man land, the female spy stop and tells Cowboy in a hard tone. "I won't let you sink down on his level." She has lost enough of the man she loves already, that bastard medic won't be allowed to take the rest of him from her.

Black Spy appears beside her, voicing his own thoughts on this argument. "Let us take him down- the enemy won't expect two spies." Team Mirage sure didn't and that cost them dearly.

"The medic is mine." Cowboy repeats, his tone closer to a sneer.

"God dammit Cowboy, I won't allow any of them near the respawn just for your petty revenge!" Scout snaps back, one of the few not going to tremble at their engineer's deadly anger.

Kreel is thankful someone other than her has the guts to talk back to Cowboy. She knows that giving in to this stupid request will only make things worse. "I'm taking him out." She tells everyone, but the words are mostly aimed at Cowboy.

"No! I want him to feel what he put me--"

"If you don't like it, then be my guest and end it as you wish Francis." Kreel snaps back, she cannot see it but several on the team awaits anxiously if this argument will escalate and cause more tension in the team.

Back at the base Francis burning anger fizzles out of his beloved words, replaced with regret on how low he has fallen thanks to his petty need for revenge. How close he was to hurt his own team and most of all, throwing away the best thing that has happened to him. "I'm sorry…" He muses of this dark realization. If someone deserves revenge it is her.

Everyone on the team breathes out a sigh of relief they did not know they held and with this crisis evaded for now, they return back to fight the intruding Team Fortress.

Sniper swiftly scans the situation going on down below and tells the two spies. "Lure them out, I and Pyro can trap them."

"Affirmative." Black Spy replies and turns invisible along with his female companion. Both quietly stalks over to the pinned down enemy team, he ignores the chance of backstabbing the Pyro, instead he waits for Kreel to do the kill both she and Cowboy deserves.

She appears beside the medic who is too busy healing the soldier from the hit he took from Sniper and too late the team realized they got infiltrated. She plunged her knife right into his chest, making sure the now soon to be dead man realizes who she is. "This is for Cowboy you monster!" She sneers.

Black Spy dismisses his own power of invisibility and swiftly shoots at the heavy who is trying to attack Kreel, the man flinches in surprise, giving her the chance to cloak again. The medic collapses, his chest heavily bleeding from the stab wound Kreel gave him. Black Spy does not cloak, instead, he flees the enemy team in hope to lure them out. As hoped, the team was not happy they attacked their healer and several of them take pursuit.

"Sniper got aim on you!" Kreel warns him from her cover. Black Spy swiftly activates his Dead Ringer that activates when the sniper headshots him. The dummy falls with an exploded head while Black Spy continue running, leaving the soon to be prison.

She knows it's a huge risk, but she wants to see their faces when they realize they have been lured into a trap. Kreel appears, the sniper is the first to spot her and the shocked look in his eyes when realizing they got fooled is so much worth it.
Before any of them can aim at her, Pyro fires a flare and his special made flammable substance lying in that area burst into flames, surrounding the enemy team. Kreel smirks and leaves, she is well aware this team is crazy enough to try and run through the fire but they won't get far inside of what is waiting for them.

Hates to say this but: "These people know what they are doing." Engineer remarks of how fast they feel into this trap, and feels a bit stupid falling for it in the first place.

Not that it has ever stopped them for Soldier and Demo get over by rocket and sticky bombs, even Ignis takes flight but the enemy team sure heck does not like the alicorn and that bow-wielding sniper shoots a waves of arrows at him, forcing the alicorn to go after him instead of helping them out. Soldier and Demo help him out by shooting at Team Vanguard's female engineer. They manage to destroy her sentry and kill her, and with the sniper and pyro finally backing off, Ignis can help the trapped team out from the flaming prison.

They run inside, here they encounter the heavy and that put their assault to a sudden halt by the wave of bullets coming from his Huo-Long Heater minigun. Demo wasn't fast enough to get away and get torn to shreds by the man's attack.

"Dag dammit!" Engineer curses on how this other team manage to pin them down every single time they make a push. He puts down a dispenser and lets it heal the team since they no longer have Medic around. Man, he never saw that female spy coming and from her words, it's clear she is holding a deep grudge on the doc.

With the team more or less healed and ready for this new roadblock. "Any idea how to get past him?" He asks the remaining of the team.

"Yes" Ignis walks into the hall, sommons his flames and like a living meteor, he charges at the Heavy. Engineer fully understands the other team's heavy huge startle of such an attak and he didn't stand a chance against Ignis frontal assault. The heavy did survive and with the last of his strenght, he grabs Ignis and hurls the alicorn over to a strange decoration on the wall. Proves not to be a decoration for the moment Ignis hit it, he lets out a scream of pain and the light coming from it, points to this thing is pumped full of electricity. It knocks Ignis out, robbing them of their big gun.

The heavy drops to the ground not long after and for good measure, Sniper shoots him in case he was still alive.
"Alright, so don't touch that thing." Sniper points out, like Engie, he is shocked that seemly harmless and bit root looking decoration is a dead trap. Fortunately, Ignis can endure a lot of damage so he should be fine.
Spotting movements on the upper floors, Sniper looks up and sees a man in blue, at first he mistakes him being a soldier from how he commanded the remaining team around, but it quickly became clear this is a scout when this man uses the stair's railing as his quick way coming down and with a double jump got right above Soldier and shoot the man death with his shotgun. This scout lands right onto Sniper, replaces his shotgun with a survival knife and Sniper yelps in pain as that blade slizes his newly healed hand.

The scout retreats as quickly as he came, Pyro did set him on fire but that did not really change anything as their engineer had sat up a fully upgraded dispenser on the top floor, the scout leaps up there with a uncanny agility and soon will be ready for round two.

Sniper growls in frustrations as he let Engie's dispenser heal his hand, if they didn't have it. Then that slash wound would've kept him from using his rifle properly. It seems the scout has realized this too, Sniper does not like how the man is watching Engie who is too busy upgrading the dispenser.

"Heads up, the medic is still alive." Garry warns the team, quite taken off guard that the medic and heavy is running into the base. He cannot stop them as he lost most of his arrows when that flame guy attacked him.

"Impossible! I stabbed him right in the chest!" Kreel exclaims in disbelief of the news and he replies his hypothesis why her attack didn't work. "He must have had a bottle of medigel on him." He runs over to their second dispenser and with restocked arrows, he quickly joins Scout and the others doing their best to keep them pinned in the main entrance.

Meanwhile, down in the basement, Spy, Zhanna and Miss Pauling are using a path made from what seems to have been from a former attack. Miss Pauling consider it lucky, while Spy is wary as this team is not incompetents and knows it's only a matter of time before they get attacked.

This expectations for an ambush was the saving grace for Miss Pauling as she didn't notice the door was filled with sticky bombs, in last second he pulls her away and saves the young woman to get blown to bits by this team's Demoman. Out from the smoke of the bombs, the Demoman appears, firing his bombs at them which explodes on contact, unlike the ones their own Demo have as they bounce a bit around before blowing up. He and Miss Pauling have to depend on Zhanna covering for them as they draw back. From the cover, Spy pulls out his revolver and shoots at the Demoman. The Demoman falls to the floor, clenching his bleeding chest. Spy is about to move over and take him out but stops and feels his work cut out for him when Ace's son, the medic arrive and swiftly heals the Demoman with the Quick-Fix medigun. "Take out the Demoman." Spy tells the two women. "I got the medic." and he cloaks for he wants to see if that man really can lives up to Ace's name.

Noticing movements in the loose gravel they threw down here for this very reason. Medic leaps out of the way, dodging the backstab and shoot a poison arrow from his crossbow at the spy who thought him to be an easy target. The bolt hits the spy in the chest but it won't kill as the man is smart enough to pull it out before it can inject the full dose. Swiftly changing weapon, medic attacks with his own knife, the spy leaps away and goes on the offensive as well, he easily evades the knife and hits the spy several places in attempt to both disarm and knock him out. It does come as a surprise this spy know this same way of fighting but is unable to gain the upper hand. In fact, neither of them can and their fight to both disarm and kill looks like a deadly and complicated dance, ending with both aiming their long ranged weapon at each other's head. This attempt to disarm the other made it clear who the other is. Medic smirks, not a friendly one though as he's far from happy to meet this other student of Ace. "I have been wondering what kind of person you were. Not many people caught his interest."

Spy must say that this man sure lives up to his father's name. He hasn't met anyone able to keep up with him. The medic might not be a spy or much of a risk taker but from how swift he was to calculate his next action, it wouldn't surprise him if this medic is just as smart as Engineer and Medic. "Funny, I haven't heard him mention you." He retort smoothly, wanting to taunt the man into attacking him.

But Medic here has been trained most of his life for such tactics. "Why should he?" He retorts annoyed this spy went that way, but he can play this mind game as well and tells the man in a cold matter of fact."You of all people should know why he does not talk about it." As hoped this startled the spy, something Medic capitalized on. "Yes, I know about you, Lechance. Not from Ace mind you, his mouth is tighter than a miser's purse but you're not good hiding secrets as you may think."

Much to Spy's humiliation, the medic must've known that these words would've taken him off guard as the man swiftly disarm him. Now at the man's mercy, but the fear the son of Ace will use his only weakness against him as Ace always warned him about, Spy tries to regain his weapon. "Don't you dare—!" Before he can act, though the medic does something. With a simple hand movement, his whole body freezes up and he can do nothing to get out from it. The medic keeps pointing his left hand at him, there is smugness in his blue eyes, but as a true spy, his expression is under constant control. "Team Vanguard holds power no man should have. Can you guess what my power is?" Spy does not reply, nor reveal that he has gotten quite scared that he is literarily at this man's mercy.
"Let me give you a hint:" The medic lowers his hand and Spy cannot stop his body from going down on his knees. "Did you know the human body is 55% water?" Spy's eyes wide in shock. Is this man saying he can control water?!
Is he at this very moment using the water in his body to control him? Then what powers do the others of Team Vanguard have!?
His eyes land on the Demoman and see that Miss Pauling and Zhanna shots have no effect on the man as some kind of shield is protecting him from their bullets.
"You understand Team Fortress never stood a chance." The medic plunges a injection into his shoulder and there is nothing Spy could do to stop him. His body goes heavy and sight starts swimming. The doctor must've released him as he drops to the ground, the last thing he heard is the son of Ace saying: "Be happy we no longer play by Helen's rule."

Back at the front door of the building, the front assault part of the team is unaware that infiltration has failed and still doing their best fighting off the enemy team, which is going really bad.

Sniper lets out a curse when that black dressed spy succeeds in destroying Engineer's building and both him and Engie are getting really paranoid this spy will return up and put that knife into their back.

Sniper spots move movement and not taking any chances since he has no idea if respawn is up, He shoots and a grunt of pain reveals he hit the stalking spy. "Come out and fight like a man you filthy spook!" Sniper shouts after the man. It was bad enough doing this game with Spy. But with this black dressed one; he has no idea what to expect, plus this spy has that obnoxious Dead Ringer. He hates that thing!

The Black Spy returns back to the second floor and lets Engineer's dispenser heal him. He glances down to the enemy team, quite proud he made them paranoid and thus easier for the team to deal with. Pyro sees it too and says as he reloads his flamethrower. "Try and see if you can get rid of the medic. Can't have they do a charge." He nods and after have cloaked, he returns to the jumpy enemy team. He stalks closer to the newly arrived medic and heavy pair, like the rest they are jumpy knowing they got a spy nearby. Spotting an opening, but not for the medic and heavy, someone else will take care of them. So instead he shoots the Engineer but misses and instead of killing the man, the bullet instead blows off the welding goggles and leaving a mark from the bullet. As hoped this really freaks the man out and waste bullets in an attempt to get rid of him. Spy simply uses the Dead Ringer and seek cover, again waiting for another moment, didn't matter he made a loud roar when appearing, all that did was making these men the more paranoid.

And it worked, Engineer spy-paranoia is back in full force, he has put down a new sentry but is too wary of getting attacked again that he won't leave it to find metal for the upgrade. Sort of wish this was their own spy stalking them, him Engineer could at least hear as their spy had a tendency of doing insults right before he strikes. This eerie silence, only broken by that irritating Dead Ringer sound, it is really putting him on edge. His small bullet wound is healed thanks to Medic and the relief seeing the sparking effect on the medigun is overwhelming.

"I am charged!" Medic shouts out of habit and noticing how tense the enemy team has become, he gleefully turns to Heavy, but before he can, three grey and somewhat glowing arrows hit the medigun, breaking it and thus ending the charge. He stands there, staring in shock and horror the medigun fall apart in his hands.
Medic snaps out from his shock when the enemy heavy and pyro team up, forcing them back with a wall of fire and bullets. The rest of the team is quick to aid them.

Soldier, Heavy, Pyro and Sniper all get killed. Leaving only him and Engineer to fight but both know they stand no chance against this small army.

"It seems I made a great mistake in letting you leave."

Medic scans the area and spots the cowboy dressed engineer appearing from the stairs. He looks quite pathetic from how much trouble he has in walking thanks to the lost leg and his mostly gone eyesight. Still, neither her nor Engineer will taunt the man that he is no threat, they, both can feel this looming dread of great danger- coming from this invalid man.

"Not today." Cowboy tells the doctor. "Thanks to you, I have become of no use to my team. The constant pain you have forced me to endure has pushed those I love away, and for what?" He asks darkly, magenta flames appear around his hands, letting this sadist feel the pure anger he feels, anger that fuels these flames of hell. He stops before the medic, fire appearing around his shoulders. "For science? For the greater good?! He removes his goggles, allowing this monster's remaining member to see what this healer did to him. his eyes are gone, torn out and without these specially made goggles, he is completely blind. "If this experiment of yours was about creating a monster from a peaceful man-" using the free arm he blasts this rage-fueled fire at the doctor, throwing him into the nearest wall, but he is far from done with that one. "Then you succeed." Cowboy puts back his goggles and eyes the possible for the first time scared man. "I am not a man of rage, but I can say without a doubt: thanks to you, I am filled with it."

Medic is of course shocked of the powers this man shows off and disturbed that they are fueled by rage from what he did to this man. For the first time, the RED side of him realizes how much damage his curiosity and lack of empathy has caused. If there exists karma then this engineer having the codename Cowboy is the very embodiment of the revenge his victims from the war wants to bring down on him. That side of him now understands why the BLU side wants to do better— not do better with his bottomless need for knowledge but be a better person. And to be better, he needs to survive. Even if Cowboy here was in the listening mood, Medic has never been good at apologizing, he's better at killing anyway, so using what he learned from Twilight in his time in Equestria. Medic summons a shield, blocking Cowboy's flames of rage, it's not as strong as he would've liked. The very heat of the flames is affecting him, forcing him to feel the anger coming from the man. Fortunately Cowboy is not very mobile thanks to the lack of a leg and proper eye-sight, so Medic can get out from the flames, pull out his bonesaw and get rid of this threat before— the female spy suddenly appears, throws him to the floor and before he can defend himself, she sliced up his throat. This time he cannot heal himself thanks to Cowboy have exhausted his magic with those flames of his.

When sure the medic is dead for good this time. Kreel steps away from the body and Francis dismisses his flames, both turn at one another but they need time to mend the rift this anger and thirst for revenge they both have been craving for caused, something that almost ruined their relationship.

The female engineer eyes the two and asks them worried. "Are you two going to be alright?"

Francis pulls down his hat with a sad sigh. "I don't know…" He admits and Kreel nods in agreement. They both will try and get through this but… it will be hard.

Rune turns to the last survivor of the enemy team, must admit that he is relieved this engineer is smart enough to know when it's time to give up as the man has put down his weapon and taken his hands up in surrender. "What should we do with him?"

Jack eyes the man, frowning deeply from his thoughts of what they should do. If this has been in the War Games, they would've murdered the man without a second thought but now? After a moment he gives the command. "Throw him and the spy into the cells."

Rune nods and walks over to the man. "Turn around." The engineer does as told and again Rune is glad the man does not fight back as he put the handcuffs on him. He and Wei bring the man to the cells, making sure to keep him and the just awoken spy separated in case they got the idea to escape.

Walking into the cell the Pyro guided him over to. "What's going to happen now?" Engineer asks the red-haired and maskless man slowly.

Rune eyes the man and thinks since this one did not put up a fight, he can reveal this much: "Now we will discuss what we should do with you." Turns to the heavy of the team, and both leave to join the team meeting.