Location: Teufort, New Mexico

Operation: None

Date: July 19th, 1971

Lawrence Mundy was not a happy mercenary. And it was because he was an unhappy mercenary that he spent his hours out on the 2Fort battlements to lament the past two weeks. It was really the only thing he felt like doing these days, what with RED going to hell just like BLU did. What no one expected was just how that would happen.

Lawrence, the RED Sniper, remembered everything clearly unlike his RED brethren. It all started with the end of Operation Endgame. The Sniper respawned just in time to witness the Medic coming into the spawn room to greet all the other mercenaries. The Medic looked sullen, like he lost something very important that he would never recover.

When debriefing started, everyone learned just what was lost. The RED Heavy was dead. The German doctor said that a flaw in the superweapon caused the Russian to be affected by the blast, granting him a death which could not be revoked by respawn. The Engineer verified it minutes later when respawn failed to respond to the Texan's commands to spawn the Heavy. However, the Engineer declared that he would do his best to try and revive their fallen comrade. Until then, respawn had to be disabled for the Engineer to work on it.

As of today, it still remained off.

After the debriefing of Endgame, the mercenaries were put on standby until further notice. At some point, the RED team decided to hold a funeral for the Heavy. Everyone but the Medic attended.

The Sniper let out some spit at that thought. He should've known, should've seen the signs. Killed by the superweapon? What a load of bull. If that was the case, why didn't it affect the other mercenaries? Heck, why didn't it affect the BLU Heavy who was practically his brother? Obviously, something else killed him, and the Medic was withholding answers. Unfortunately, they were too late in seeking out answers.

Soon, other Mercenaries started disappearing. At first, it didn't seem so bad. There were acceptable excuses that were brought up like, "Oh, he's on a special assignment" or, "Oh, he's working on a special project." But then the mercenaries' numbers shrank to the point that they wouldn't be able to perform any future operations effectively. That was when Sniper started becoming suspicious.

Those suspicions were only confirmed when the Medic came to visit him one day. He told Lawrence that he needed to have a kidney implant. Now if anyone actually appreciated the Sniper's Jarate skills, they would have known that the Sniper had kidneys three times the size of anyone else's thanks to Saxton Hale Jarate Pills. They won't be needing replacement any time soon. Which only meant that the Medic had some nefarious plans in mind for him. So that night, the Sniper fled the base in his van for 2Fort, therefore avoiding whatever selfish plans the Medic had in mind.

The Sniper snorted. He should have known better. They were all mercenaries. They weren't here for Queen nor County, nor protecting their family nor their friends. They were here for the money, no more and no less. They were all selfish scumbags. All that friendship the others were on about were meaningless. The relationship between Medic and Heavy was meaningless. The friendship between Jane and Tavish was meaningless. And the bond he formed with the RED Demoman? Screw him! He should've killed him while he let his guard down, not trade tidbits about their lives!

And what he found one he got to 2Fort proved he was right about the Medic! It was here that he found The RED Demoman—one of the first to disappear—and from his current state, Mundy could tell exactly what kind of selfish person the Medic was. For the many days that he has been here, the Sniper has gone to great lengths to avoid the wrath of this newly created freak. Heck, being out here was a big risk as it was. Any second, he might just end up a bloody pulp on a wall just like the clones that were here.

Oh yeah, the clones. The Medic was right for the wrong reasons when he said the superweapon was flawed. It only killed a little over 99% of the F2Ps in the Badlands. There were still a few left around the RED and BLU facilities, but were apparently not enough to threaten a superpowered mercenary. The RED Sniper happened to have come to 2Fort just in time to witness an F2P Soldier spontaneously combust under the gaze of the RED Demoman. After that, the Sniper was keen not to meet that gaze.

Unfortunately for the Sniper, he was so distracted that he did not see that he was under the gaze of another player.

Eh

He did not see that it had its crosshairs aimed at the Sniper's head.

Eh

He did not hear the loud crack of a gun, nor the scream of surprise of its wielder from the recoil.

Eh

He did not see a 40mm projectile fly directly towards him.

Eh

He did not feel his face suddenly cave in from the force of said projectile.

Eh

-+G+-

The BLU Sniper was a happy mercenary. In fact, he was so happy that he decided to flail his arms around like an immature child in celebration. Now why would he choose a twitch of all things, some might asked? Well, it was mostly due to his…condition. That condition could be best described as having the movement and posture of a marionette operated by the world's worst puppeteer. Whenever he walked, it was with the grace of a decayed zombie. His body is sometimes contorted in ways the human body never should, and has never indicated any discomfort from it. In fact, a few seconds ago, his right arm was wrapped around his neck…while bending in more areas than the human arm has joints. And just after that, he fired his sniper rifle while having his upper body blown back like he shot a cannon instead.

And those were the most visible problems. If you were able to get close to the BLU Sniper, you would also notice that his eyes were unfocused and wall-eyed. The most he has ever said an actual work in the last week one word. It was as if his mind regressed to that of an animal, taking away some of the more basic functions of the mind while it was at it.

The Sniper was not really worried about this, nor was his defective state of mind capable of even understanding this dilemma. Very little of the BLU Sniper remained in this pitiful creature, only snippets of the mercenary's skills and memories. Two things in particular stood out in his memories: killing is good and killing red people is very good. Today, some sort of instinct in his brain told him he would get to enjoy those things. And as luck would have it, it was right! On the battlements across the site there was a bloke as red and exposed as a bullseye. A bit unimpressive prey, but oh-well. At least the BLU Sniper got to enjoy seeing his face cave in.

As he finished his celebration, another memory came to mind. Usually, these red people are part of a group. So that means that if one guy was here, then there must be other guys to kill! Giddy with excitement, the BLU Sniper unknowingly channeled a power within and instinctively teleported to the battlements where the RED Sniper's corpse still stood upright. Quickly, he shambled towards the small L-shaped hallway that will hopefully lead to new prey to kill.

"Ytreporp em no ssapsert uoy erad woh, yo!" a voice yelled out to him, pausing him just as he got to the bend.

Turning his head, the BLU Sniper could clearly see another creature, clad in red just like his previous game. This one was different. Some parts of it, such as its face and hands, were black. Its legs were not touching the ground, but rather levitating a few feet off of the ground. In addition, the creature seemed to be emitting an aura of power that really put off the Sniper. The strangeness of this creature was such that it actually gave pause to the Sniper. A pause the creature would not give for free

"Eid lliw ouy, rehtaeh, emirc ruoy rof!" And with that declaration, the Demoman unleased an otherworldly laughter, causing the aura he emitted to focus on the Sniper. Now, the Sniper was starting to panic, his instincts being fired off by forces imperceptible to the five senses. Terror filled his heart and helped to root the predator turned prey into place. The BLU Sniper was now as helpless as cattle in a slaughter house.

But the crux of his laughter, the new creature ceased all activity, finally giving the Sniper much needed relief. The Sniper was now uncertain what to do. Should he gloat at his enemy and flaunt his inability to kill him? Or should he go for the kill? Both were equally appetizing choices. Unfortunately, he would not get that choice.

In the blink of an eye, the Sniper snapped his neck towards the wall behind where he was facing. He didn't want to do so, as he could not see anything important about this small, plain wall. He felt like a force pushed him to face that direction. In fact, he felt a force pushing a lot of stuff on his body towards that direction. It was then that the Sniper came to a sudden realization of what is happening. Attack!

But it was too late. The force had suddenly multiplied in magnitude and shoved the BLU Sniper against the wall in an instant. The Sniper tried to struggle, but his muscles could not even struggle to put up resistance. He couldn't even let out a noise to express his anger and pain at this assault.

The force that pushed the Sniper into the wall continued to get stronger, and the Sniper's body started to actually be imbedded into the wall. The Sniper's body continued to activate his pain receptors, warning him about the abuse his body was taking. Eventually, it was too much, and the sniper's flesh suddenly pealed open, letting out gushes of blood to paint the area a darker shade of red. And thus, the hunter perished.

The Spiritual Demoman was unfazed by any of this, just glad that it was over. Truth be told, he considered the transpiring events a mere distraction, an annoyance that was delaying his plans. The silver lining in all of this is that this BLU annoyance had killed his RED counterpart.

Oh sure, he did an impressive job hiding himself. But the Spiritual Demoman actually sensed him almost as soon as he arrived here. The only reason the Demoman did not kill him was because he had more important things to do. Besides, the RED Sniper kept out of his way for the duration of his stay. Even if he was not an annoyance, his death ensured that he shall remain that way. Now only if the BLU Sniper killed those other two…

The Demoman dismissed that thought after reminding himself that he has more important things to do. He has already deciphered and memorized the locations of the Australium caches RED and BLU kept hidden. Now was the time for him to move out and collect the Australium. However, that would leave the base undefended, and he still needed 2Fort to carry out his future plans.

Luckily, the Spiritual Demoman knew just the individuals for the job. So, he hovered up and up, ascending into the sky in order to fly off to where he needed to go.

However, the Spiritual Demoman made one crucial mistake as he flew off to his destination. As he flew over the central area of 2Fort, he missed seeing the upright corpse of the RED Sniper. If he were closer, he would have seen the 40mm projectile lodged into his skull.

He would also have noticed the projectile emitting pulsating blue light.

-+G+-

Meanwhile…

Inside the RED spawn room, one could hear the demonic laughter of the Spiritual Demoman followed by the splattering of blood of some enemy. Afterwards, there was only silence.

Many hours later, the silence still persisted. The people who normally occupied this room were either dead or lost themselves in some other place. Perhaps those hours would transform into days or even years before the silence is broken. They didn't.

Like the coming of a dream, two figures suddenly appeared inside the rooms as though they were always there.