Chapter 10: End

It was the Soldier that attacked first, running towards the Pyro, Equalizer in hand. His first swing, wild and uncoordinated, was easily countered by the Pyro. His second swing, aiming for the man's midriff, was caught by the Pyro's axe as well. One yank, and the Equalizer was out of his hand. One swing, and the Soldier was on the ground, a large gash in his side.

Next was the Scout, coming in swinging with his new bat, the Sandman. He threw a baseball to stun the Pyro, but he dodged it with ease, meaning that he was well ready when the Scout reached him. A quick airblast and the Scout flew high into the air, coming down and breaking his ankles. The Pyro soon brought one of his axes down on his leg, immobilizing him further. The Medic, who had been focused on the Soldier, now diverted his Medigun to the Scout, hoping that nobody else would get injured soon.

The Demoman charged in with his Eyelander, and they soon began to duel. The Sniper ran in beside him, engaging the Pyro with his Kukri. The Pyro, faced with the task of fighting two men at once, forced the Demoman into a power struggle and, with his other hand, fired a flare at the Sniper. The Sniper quickly drew a jar of Jarate and extinguished himself, but the Pyro fired another flare, this one at his face. Blinded and in pain, the Sniper could only lie there as the battle unfolded.

The Demoman, a strong man by any standards, was amazed by how well the Pyro was standing up to his assaults. The Pyro had always been a threat to the Demoman, of course, with his reflective airblast, but this was something different altogether. And now that his second axe was freed up, he would no doubt start hacking at the Demoman's extremities. But he didn't. His second axe, instead, began whacking at the Eyelander near the hilt, once, twice, three times, four times-

CLANG!

The blade, unable to sustain such abuse, clattered to the ground, leaving the Demoman with only the hilt of the once-proud Eyelander. The Demoman attempted to charge him bare-knuckle, but the Pyro whirled around, hitting him in the back with both axes, and he fell like an oak.

The Heavy, rather than resorting to his minigun, drew his fists and challenged the Pyro to a fist fight. Surprisingly, the Pyro accepted, and the two began to fight.

A few moments later, after a few kidney punches and kicks to the kneecaps, the Heavy knew exactly why he had accepted. Quickly, he reached for his Sandvich, but the Pyro stomped on his fingers, crushing them, and the Sandvich was soon stomped into the dirt.

The Medic, now frantic, was darting from body to body, concentrating on who was nearest death, on who needed healing the most. He, unlike the rest of the team, had noted that the moment the Pyro had stormed down to them, the gates to their respawn room had slammed shut, despite the fact that they should've been open. There was no doubt in the his mind that anyone who respawned would be forced to watch as the rest of their teammates were taken apart, one by one. And when they had all died – well, the Medic didn't want to think about that.

The Engineer, the most tactical of the bunch, had elected to wear the Gunslinger, a robot replacement of his arm, when he respawned. This arm, in addition to increasing his health, was more than able to withstand a beating from the Pyro's axes. He didn't even bother with mini-sentries, since he knew the Pyro would chop them down in an instant. Instead, he sparred, and he lasted much longer than the others. He even managed to gab one of the Pyro's axes and break the handle, lowering him to one axe! Unfortunately, this meant the Pyro had a free hand, which he used to grab the Engineer's metal arm, and with his other axe, he chopped off the arm and kicked the Engineer to the ground, one more corpse for the Medic to stall the death of.

Which just left the Spy.

They stood there, the ultimate rivals, axe vs. knife, waiting for the other to make a move. In a flash, the Pyro drew his flamethrower, burning the Spy severely. Attempting to run away, the Spy was hit by the flat of his axe, knocking him to the ground. Defenseless, the Spy lay there, as the Pyro loomed above him, ready for the final blow.

"YAAAAAAH!"

The Soldier, side still bleeding, had jumped onto the Pyro's back, preventing him from getting off a clean swing. "You-will not harm-one hair-on that-puny man's head!" the Soldier grunted, struggling with the Pyro. But he soon threw the Soldier off, swirling his axe over his head-

Then the Demoman slammed into him, Chargin' Targe thrust in front of him. As the Pyro swung at him, the Sniper threw a jar of Jarate – no telling how he produced it so quickly – simultaneously drenching the Pyro and extinguishing the Spy. Spluttering in confusion, the Pyro didn't even see the Scout, who fell from the sky, Sandman in both hands, his blow to the Pyro's head coinciding with that of the Heavy's to his chest. Even the Engineer managed to get some hits in, with his pistol landing a few accurate hits.

This combined onslaught was too much for the Pyro, and he fell. As he did, the Soldier taunted him. "You made one mistake when you attacked our team, Balbo Bodkins! YOU ATTACKED OUR TEAM! Now I hope you've made travel plans, because we're kicking your ass all the way to Mexico! WHAT DO HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT?"

BOOM!

The Blue team was knocked off their feet as an explosion leveled the Blue respawn room. The Pyro rose, laughing. "You idiots! Did you ever think I wasn't in control of the whole battle? And this is just Phase 1. The next explosion will take the entire map! And before I teleport out of here, I'll enjoy seeing every single one of you die! And we'll start with you, Spy!"

The rest of the team, dumbfounded, stared as the Pyro began to charge, closing the distance to the Spy until-

WHAM!

The Red Pyro swung his axe, catching the formerly Blue Pyro in the face and knocking him down for the last time. Facing away from the Blue Team, he tore off his mask, and as he hacked away at the other Pyro's neck, he began to speak, his voice full of fury.

"This is for what you did to me! What you did to them! What you were going to do to the world! Now you die! Die! DIE!"

Finally, as the ex-Pyro's head rolled away, the Medic put a calming hand on the red Pyro's shoulder. "It's okay. He's dead."

The only Pyro turned his head to face the Blue team. His face was young and handsome, Caucasian in origin, and long blond hair fell past his soft blue eyes. ("I knew he was a hippy," the Soldier muttered.) "I know," the man said, the rage and madness leaving his face.

WHOOSH!

xxxxxxx

The Red Engineer frantically tapped on his keyboard, sweat running down his brow. Behind him, the supersized teleporter strained from the effort of carrying so many people so far. "Medic! Can you see them yet?"

The Medic squinted at the teleporter. "It looks like they're coming, but it's hard to tell!"

Nothing like this had ever been tried before. Building a larger teleporter was simple enough, but to pick up eight people with no entrance teleporter? It was nearly impossible!

The Engineer clenched his fists. If a fat Scottish man with a red shirt can do it, so can I. He pounded the keyboard. "Come on, you stupid sonofabitch! Work! Work!"

FWOOM!

Finally, the eight men – or was it nine? – appeared on the exit pad. At the same time, Upward exploded, causing critical marks to appear on his display screen, but none of that mattered now. The Blue team was back! And with them – no, that couldn't be –

"Herr Pyro!" the Medic exclaimed, embracing the man they thought had been lost forever. But it didn't take him long to notice the Blue team and the injuries thereof. "All right, everyone, celebration can wait until later. Right now, you all must come down to the medical bay! No exceptions!"

The Blue team, still in shock over what had just happened, followed the Medic to the hospital. Except for the Spy, who lingered for a moment. He turned to the Engineer. "Well, Engineer, I'm not sure how you did what you just did, but we are forever in your debt for it. It seems we are not so different, the two of us, and I offer you now a permanent cease-fire between Blue and Red, in light of what has transpired in the past few days." He offered his hand to the Red Engineer.

He took it. "Gladly, partner. Gladly." Later on, there would be celebrations, drinking, and the sharing of stories of how each of them was personally responsible for their victory, but for now there was peace.

Because it was finally over.

The End

P.S. Once again, I would like to thank everyone for their support. Also, many of you may be wondering what's next. Well, as I've already told you, I'm planning a Left 4 dead crossover later, but in between now and then I'll be doing something a little unorthodox: Chapter Plus!

You see, I've been working like a madman, trying to bring all of these chapters to you on time, and there were certain story bits I wanted to put in but didn't have the time for. Well, now I'll be adding them. Check back on the story every two days or so, and look at the chapter names in the drop-down list. Every time I add to a chapter, I'll add a + to the name; for example, Chapter 4: Elimination will become Chapter 4+: Elimination. Remember, this is just in the drop-down list, and I'll be doing this about every 2 days. Once again, thank you all for reading, and I hope you can stick around for my extended chapters.