Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Holy s**t, people are actually looking at this? Well, for those of you who haven't, it's a TF2 fanfic. Lemme know if I did anything wrong, character or literary wise. I want criticism!



It was a dull day in BLU base.

Not to say that it was a dull day for 2fort. No, it seemed every one of the BLU team had decided today was the day to abandon defense and instead attack relentlessly.

Engineer had been no different at first. Sure, it was nice to stay alive most of the day, but he got bored standing in the same place with nothing to do but wrench a building now and again. He liked to switch things up from time to time, keep those REDs guessing.

However, anything he tried to build in RED base had been found and destroyed before it was even functional. Tired of feeling useless, the Texan had set up shop near the BLU's intel room.

He was quickly getting bored, again. Not one single RED was daring to sneak away to have a go at their intelligence.

So Engineer set up a teleporter, down in the sewers. It was getting plenty of use, but it wasn't getting attacked. He was left with a level three sentry that had yet to fire a single bullet, a level three dispenser blocking a so far unused doorway, a level three teleporter entrance and exit that were both being ignored by the enemy, and absolutely nothing to do.

So he ventured out a bit.

The Sniper was out on the battlements, keeping the RED Sniper busy. Engineer decided to lend a hand, or rather, a pistol. However, after the third or fourth death, it didn't look like he was going to come back. So the two ended up entertaining themselves with an impromptu sword fight, using their melee weapons. It was silly and childish, yes, but it was something to do. Right up until the RED Sniper made a reappearance and put a bullet through the Engineer's brain.

When he woke up in respawn, he decided to just leave the Snipers to their sniping.

Engineer then tried to keep himself entertained by guessing how well the REDs were doing just by who came out of respawn and when. Sometimes it would be just one or two every so often, sometimes almost all of them at once. Scout had the most deaths by far, but when Engineer pointed that out, the boy claimed to have two kills to every death. The Texan decided not to argue about it.

Eventually, that, too, got boring.

The Engineer sat down on a crate, back against the wall. His grip on his shotgun laxed, and he felt himself starting to drift off...

"WHAT IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, PRIVATE!?"

The Engineer jumped so badly he nearly shot himself in the foot. "Solly? What...?"

"DON'T YOU WHAT ME"! the Soldier shouted back. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO WAS SLEEPING ON THE JOB!"

Engineer was thankful for his goggles; he could roll his eyes and the Soldier was none the wiser.

"Now, I'd expect this sort of behavior from that dirty hippie, or even that drunk Scot, but you!? A red-blooded American!? YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A DISAPPOINTMENT!"

"Now, Sol, don't you have somethin' else better to do than stand here an' yell at me?" This wasn't exactly the sort of change of pace he had been hoping for.

Before the Soldier could reply, Scout had, once again, died and run out of the respawn room. "What the hell you still doin' here!?" he demanded, bat raised. "We need your a** at the front! Quit faggin' it up with Hardhat and move!"

"What!? I'll have you know that - hey! GET BACK HERE!" While Soldier was speaking, the younger boy had ignored him completely in favor of rushing back out again.

Thankful that Soldier decided yelling at Scout was more important than yelling at him, the Engineer was perfectly content with settling back down, and getting back to sleep. That is, until he heard an all too familiar hiss and crackle. "Spah sappin' my teleporter!" Finally! Something to do!

The Texan figured the Spy was probably at the exit, but it just wouldn't be possible for him to run there in time. So instead, he jumped up and raced for the entrance. Unfortunately, he arrived just one moment too late. "Teleporter down!" Well, heck.

Dutifully, Engineer went about rebuilding both the entrance and the exit for the teleporter, putting them in about the same places as before. He even managed to get it back to level three, but he stayed near the entrance even after he was done upgrading it. Sure enough, that Spy started trying to sap it yet again.

Engineer wrenched it off, and made a mental note to later try to figure out how those things could instantly travel from one end of the teleporter to the other. Really, they shouldn't be able to do that, and especially not backwards... Oh, there was another sapper. There must not be any BLUs down there.

So, again, the Engineer wrenched it free. Again, the Spy placed another sapper. Well, wasn't this getting silly? It reached the point where the Texan was swinging that wrench as fast as he could, while the enemy Frenchman replaced the sapper as soon as one had been removed. That was another thing he should work out... Just how many Electro-Sappers could a Spy carry, anyway? Where were those large, bulky things even being kept?

Eventually, the Spy had won. Engineer just wasn't able to reverse enough of the damage done by one sapper before the next was put on. However, he wasn't angry, because he was finally being kept busy.

Even though it seemed fairly pointless, the Engineer rebuilt the entrance, and set off through the waterway to rebuild the exit. He didn't see the Spy while he was setting up, but that wasn't surprising. What was surprising was when he set back off to his own base, and the teleporter remained untouched. It was even more surprising when the alarm signaling his sentry was being sapped went off. Aparently this Spy had gotten bored of the monotony of the day's battle, as well.

Engineer returned to piles of scrap metal instead of a sentry, dispenser, and teleporter. However, there had been no announcement of their intelligence being taken. Perhaps this Spy was just a coward. Now, even though it had yet to happen, there was still the chance of one of the REDs breaking away from the fight, actually use the more or less ignored sewer route, and get to the intel room. He couldn't very well leave the place unguarded. It was just after he'd begun building a new sentry that Engineer was killed by a knife in the back.

Perhaps this Spy wasn't such a coward, after all.

For Engineer, the match was quickly getting interesting. He still didn't see much of either team, except for that RED Spy. It was turning into a game, really, to see how well they could perform their jobs in regard to one another. Neither of them were holding back, both trying their best to outgun, outmaneuver, outwit... and neither seemed to be taking it personally. When the Spy's disguised was dropped, Engineer could see he his enemy was grinning just as much as himself.

At times, it even seemed as if they were the only two battling; an illusion that was easily broken, if not often. Like when the heavy respawned and saw the two trying to melee each other. The Russian opened fire, easily mowing the RED down.

Strangely, the Engineer felt a bit annoyed at this. Heavy had noticed, so he passed it off to the other as it just being him wanting to get revenge. "He ain't botherin' you fellers none," he had explained. "You just leave that Spy to me."

The Heavy seemed to accept this easy enough. "Okay. Be seeing you later," was all he said.

However, there was one time in particular their little game was interrupted that had caught the Engineer's attention. He had been chasing after the Spy, had followed him right out onto the battlements, when the enemy Sniper got him in the leg. Instead of looking to see who had shot him (there were only two REDs bothering to step out of their base, after all), he had looked up to Spy. For the briefest moment, he looked just as surprised at Engineer getting shot as the injured man himself, before a look of indifference replaced it. Then the Frenchman turned to his Sniper, and just before a second bullet went through his skull, he could have sworn one RED shot the other a glare.

Looks like he wasn't the only one enjoying this little game of theirs.

Unfortunately, nothing lasts forever. The workday was soon to close, and with neither side having made a capture, it was sure to end in stalemate. Who knew what the next day would bring? They might not get another chance to play this game again.

Engineer decided that this wouldn't be the end. He took to the waterways, abandoning the dispenser he had been working on, and placed a sentry at the base of the stairs leading up into RED base. Any of the nine men could find it, true, but eight of them should consider it too big a pain for them to deal with. After all, why risk injury during ceasefire when the Spy could just walk right up to it?

That wasn't the only thing Engineer left before he ran back to his own base. On the sentry was a note. If anyone else were to see it, they would find some numbers they would likely dismiss. In all actuality, it was a radio frequency and a time. Engineer would just have to wait and see if that RED was just as clever off the battlefield as on...