OH HEY I FINISHED #6, hopefully there aren't as many typos in this one as there were in #5. I'd like to have the option of an Edit button here but I guess that's never going to happen. Bawwww. Oh well. Enjoy this. *** Things in life aren’t always what they seem. People aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes it’s hard to figure out why some people act how they do, but once you see things from their side of the fence, suddenly they start making a lot more sense. People have reasons for being like they are. Like that one kid who picked on you in school and made your life a living hell. You thought they hated you, but it turned out in the end that they actually had a big crush on you. Why the hell would someone who wanted you to like them spend all their time making you miserable? It doesn’t make any sense until you look at it from their angle and realise that they were just trying to get your attention and didn’t know any other way to do it. Even when we’re grown up, though, we can get into sticky, unfamiliar situations, and as smart and mature as we all like to say we are, it can be all too easy to get back into little kid habits, doing stupid shit because we don’t know what else we can do. And I thought it was just me who did that. CHAPTER 6: HELL HAS NO FURY Reinforcements! I never thought I’d be so happy to say such a big word. HQ hadn’t forgotten about us after all; it was like a big weight had been lifted off all of our shoulders. They’d even sent us a big heap of rations. We wouldn’t have to scrounge for food out in no man’s land for a good while now. We were all just about set to have a party over it. HQ even gave us a fresh set of orders. Well, sort of. They were the same orders as before, just worded differently. We were to continue to hold our position and defend the point. None of us were surprised. We weren’t surprised, either, that our reinforcements were almost all Soldiers. They’d pretty much taken one look at us and headed straight for the hangar, where they could argue, fight and yell at each other in peace. It looked like that really was just how Soldiers were. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that our Soldier had caused so much trouble when we’d taken him away from what he was used to. Speaking of our Soldier, I realised after the new guys turned up that he wouldn’t have a reason to stick with us anymore. He’d come to us because he’d been afraid to be in the hangar by himself. Now that he wouldn’t be alone there anymore, Soldier didn’t need to stay in the barn with us. Soldier realised that, too. No one said anything. There was no discussion, no argument, no debate. After hovering around outside the barn for a while, weighing up his options, Soldier simply disappeared into the hangar with the rest of his new squad, and that was it. I’d hoped that he’d just gone to check them out and maybe pick a few fights, but when night fell and Soldier didn’t come back, I realised that that was it. Soldier had chosen to join back up with his squad in the hangar instead of sticking with us. I was upset about that. Over the last few days, he’d tried really hard to work with us and do as we did. I actually kind of liked him, even if he did call me Loretta, and I thought we’d made… well, not a friend, but definitely something sort of like one of him. I guessed I was wrong. Engie picked up on my unhappiness pretty quickly. He was sad that Soldier had gone back to the hangar too, but he said I shouldn’t throw the towel in on Soldier just yet. “Let me tell you a story my daddy told me when I was a kid,†he’d said. “Might just clear things up a little for you.†Once upon a time, there was a cattle rancher, and his son. One day, the rancher caught a wild mustang, and he brought it back to his homestead to train it. Most ranchers would have trained the horse with ropes and whips to break it and force it to work, but the rancher didn’t believe in any of that. Instead, he trained the horse with patience and kindness, and he taught him to want to work. The mustang quickly became a great workhorse, and when the rancher let his son ride the mustang, together they did a great job of herding the cattle and working the ranch. They were all very happy. But one day, a year after the rancher had caught the mustang, they saw the mustang’s wild herd on a hilltop on the border of the ranch. Because they’d come to love the mustang so much, the rancher and his son didn’t want to see their friend leave, but they saw the mustang looking longingly and sadly at his old herd, his family, and they knew they had to set him free. The mustang flew out of the gate when they let him go, and he ran straight up the hill to his herd. The rancher and his son were sad, but they knew the mustang would be happier if he was free, with his own kind. They camped out all night, and the mustang didn’t come back. In the morning they would have to leave, to herd the cattle down from the hills and back to the ranch, and they knew that after that, they would never see their beloved horse again. But the following morning, just before they could leave, the mustang appeared on the hilltop. He ran down to them, as if desperate for the rancher and his son not to leave without him, and happily joined back up with them. The rancher and his son were overjoyed, and the mustang, wild as he was, was happy for them to saddle him up. Because he’d been treated with kindness, patience and respect, the mustang had chosen to come back to them. They weren’t his own kind, but the rancher and his son had become the mustang’s friends, and together they herded the cattle down from the hilltops and back to the ranch. It was a cute story, and I saw what Engie was getting at with it. He thought we should have a little faith; once the first few little bumps and scrapes had been smoothed over, we’d been good to Soldier, and Engie hoped he’d see that and come back. I wasn’t so sure, and I said so. “We’ll see, son.†Engie patted me on the shoulder. “We’ll see.†On the bright side, aside from the dozens of Soldiers HQ had sent us, they’d been kind enough to also bless us with a single Demoman. My team was pleased about that. He’d make a big difference to us. Or, it should have been ‘on the bright side’. Everyone else was really excited, but I couldn’t look at him without thinking of what had happened during my first attempt at a mission. That shit still haunted me, and now it haunted me more than ever. Every time I tried to get up the guts to talk to him, even just to introduce myself, I suddenly found myself back in BLU base with a pistol in my hands, shaking and feeling sick to my stomach. He must have figured something was up since everyone else was so glad to have him around and I was trying so hard to avoid him, but I guess he was just too polite to mention it. I hoped no one would try to explain it to him. Engie was the only one who knew what had really happened, and I knew he wouldn’t tattle, but I didn’t need anyone else telling Demo the lie I’d told all of them. He’d hear the truth from me. Eventually. Somehow. Maybe. In spite of all that, though, I couldn’t say I was unhappy to have Demo around. From what I saw he was a funny guy, and everyone else liked him a lot. Engie actually got along with Demo better than most. They both enjoyed blowing things up, and even though their preferred methods of doing it were pretty different, they found plenty of common ground between them. Engie tended to use machines to blow things up, whereas Demo was a lot more direct about it and used straight up explosives. It only seemed natural, then, that between them they should design and build a machine especially for firing explosives. Before long they’d got each other really overexcited about the whole thing; I’d never seen Engie so inspired before. This was going to be his greatest work, as they say, and I’d imagine it was probably a nice change for Engie to have someone around who appreciated the stuff he built. All he’d had until now was Spy, telling him what boring shit his machines were, getting on at him for not fighting people face to face like a real man (because Spy totally fought people face to face all the time, right?), and generally getting on his nerves whenever and however he could. Engie didn’t get much done when Spy was around the place, especially when Spy got bored enough to ‘borrow’ Engie’s tools while Engie was trying to use them. Engie, as I said before, had no patience for Spies, and Spy knew it. He knew that if he called Engie’s machines boring shit or stole Engie’s wrench, he’d get a reaction, and that was all Spy ever wanted out of other people: a reaction. Spy seemed to make a special effort for Engie, though, going well out of his way to piss the poor guy off. Like I said, it must have been a nice change for Engie to have Demo around. Even though I couldn’t bring myself to go over there and join in – as much as I wanted to – I’d hang around and listen while they talked about this thing they were going to build a lot. Most of the technical stuff went right over my head, but I could figure out that this thing was going to be some kind of grenade sentry. Engie and Demo were out in front of the barn, drawing in the dust with sticks. I couldn’t make out much of it, being too far away and way too dumb to understand shit like blueprints, but they must have had some pretty solid plans about this thing. If it was going to fire grenades, though, a lot of details needed to get hammered out. Grenades weren’t like bullets, and that was where Engie really needed Demo’s help. Demo knew all about grenades. It couldn’t last, though. What with Engie enjoying himself so much, I knew damned well that it wouldn’t take Spy long to turn up and ruin it. Engie had enough time to just about finish drawing something before Spy came over and not-so-accidentally trod on it. When Engie stood up and got raging at him for it, Spy just laughed at him and told him to go and read a book instead of rolling around in the dirt like some kind of animal. “It ain’t none o’ yer business!†snapped Engie, more pissed off than I’d ever seen him. “Go on, get outta here! Get lost!†“Oh, mon cher.†Spy grinned at him. “You forget. Everything is my business, is it not?†“No! It’s not! Now quit gettin’ in the way and go badger someone else! And quit callin’ me that!†“Why should I? You don’t even know what it means, cher.†“I ain’t yer damn honey or whatever the hell you’re tryin’ t’say! Get outta here! Go on!†“Tsch, fine, have it your way. I will see you later, non?†Engie huffed as Spy turned to leave, and he was about to get back to rolling around in the dirt, when Spy walked off – waving Engie’s wrench at him as he went. I hadn’t even seen him take it, and judging by Engie’s reaction, he hadn’t seen Spy take it, either. “H, hey!†Engie had to look twice before he realised what had happened. “Hey! Gimme that, damn it!†I’d never seen Engie move so quick. For a short guy he could cover ground pretty fast, but the second he’d shouted after Spy and Spy had seen him coming, Spy had literally vanished. He’d cloaked, leaving Engie standing there getting mad with no one to get mad at. Demo watched him storm off to look for Spy, and I kicked back on the tyre stack I’d been sitting on. My heart leapt into my throat when I heard Demo get up, in case he’d decided he was going to come over and talk to me, but when I sat up and took a look I saw that he’d just gone to find a better place to sit and wait for Engie to come back on an old crate outside the barn door. I felt guilty for being so relieved about that. I’m not sure how long it was until Engie came back, but it was a good, long while. When he did finally make his way back outside the barn, wrench in hand, he was worn out and only a little less annoyed. I guess there’d been a big chase before Spy had let him have his wrench back. Demo got up to meet him, and gave him a pat on the back and a few words of reassurance. “Don’t worry about it,†sighed Engie. “He pulls that kinda crap all the time. It’s just what he does.†“Oh, aye?†Demo gave Engie a funny look. “Why don’t you just ignore him?†Ignore him? Engie had never even thought of just ignoring Spy before. Spy was so well-versed in pressing peoples’ buttons that the thought of ignoring him hadn’t occurred to Engie before. It’d be way easier said than done, besides. Spy was cunning and knew just how to get what he wanted. Engie was willing to give it a shot if it meant the grenade sentry got built, though. Over the next few days, Engie and Demo drew up some real blueprints, on paper instead of dirt, for their new invention. It needed a lot of work; all that stuff like how it should store its ammo, how it should aim and how it should fire, had to get figured out and factored in. I wouldn’t have known where to start, but between them Engie and Demo got that shit worked out. They were sat on either side of a big crate in the barn, using it as a table, going over the drawings one last time when Spy arrived this time. Engie noticed him, but didn’t say anything. Spy greeted Demo perfectly politely before he leaned over Engie’s shoulder to take a good look at the plans he and Demo had drawn. Still, Engie didn’t say anything. Even when Spy asked him straight what he was doing, Engie didn’t say a word. Spy figured out what was going on here. He pressed harder. “What is this ugly thing?†Nothing. “What are you wasting your time with this time, cher?†Still nothing. “Did you not hear me? I asked you a –†“– Well, I figure that oughtta just about do it!†Engie cut Spy off, mid-sentence. “I reckon we’ve got enough here to start buildin’!†“Aye, then!†Demo stood up as Engie rolled up the paper they’d been drawing on. “Let’s get on!†With that, they picked up their drawings and headed off to find some scrap to build with, leaving Spy standing there, speechless. This had never happened before, and Spy, for once, was at a loss. He didn’t know what to do with himself and for a while he didn’t do anything at all, until he remembered that I was watching and straightened up, heading back to the hayloft to sulk in peace. Spy was normally so completely in control, all the time, that seeing a reaction like that from him surprised me. The fact that Engie hadn’t reacted to him at all or even looked at him had Spy rattled, and while it was nothing but a good thing that Engie had ignored him and got on with what he was doing, I actually felt pretty bad for Spy. I’d never imagined he could have a side like that to him. Left alone in the barn, I thought about it for a while. I’d had my own less-than-pleasant experiences with Spy, and I’d learned at the end of it that even though it had seemed pretty terrible at the time, Spy had only been fooling around with me. He’d been playing with me, that was all. Maybe this was something like that, I thought. Maybe Spy was just playing. I’d noticed that while Spy hadn’t hesitated to tread all over Engie’s dirt drawings, he hadn’t even tried to touch the paper drawings Engie had made. Wrecking the dirt drawing was sure as hell annoying, but it didn’t do any real harm. If he’d messed with the paper drawings, the ones Engie had taken hours to make up, that would have been different. It was just that Engie gave him such a great reaction every time he did it. The more Engie reacted, the bigger reward Spy got out of it. In a way, by giving Spy such a big, angry reaction every time – and all Spy had to do these days was be there to get it – Engie had, without knowing it, trained Spy to get on his tits as much as he possibly could. This time, though, Spy hadn’t got what he wanted. It must have hit him pretty hard to send him slinking off to the hayloft like that. I’d see, though, soon enough, that Spy wouldn’t give up his favourite game so easily. A few days passed, and Demo and Engie scraped together enough junk to build a test version of the grenade sentry. There were still details and stuff that they had to figure out, like the aiming system and crap like that, so this version of the sentry was built to fire bricks. They were the nearest thing to test ammo that we had lying around the base, and there were lots of them, so they’d have to do for now. There’d be some differences in weight and shape between them and real grenades, but Engie was sure that it wouldn’t be a big deal when the time came to build the real thing. There was a lot going on that I wanted to be a part of, but I was still too afraid to go over there. It bothered me a lot. I wanted to see what they were doing so badly, but I just couldn’t do it. On the other hand, Spy was more than willing to go over there and didn’t hesitate for a second. After being blanked by Engie last time, this time he was going to lay it on as thick as he could, but nothing worked. Even accusing Engie of compensating for something with all of his big guns got Spy no reaction at all, and I could see how frustrated he was getting. In the end, he resorted to the one tactic that had never failed him in the past. He picked up Engie’s wrench, and walked off with it. Even though he and Demo were getting set to put the new sentry together and he’d be needing that wrench before too long, Engie still gave Spy nothing at all. He didn’t even look as Spy took the wrench away, doing as much as he could without it. I saw Spy look back a couple of times to see if Engie would take the bait, but when it became clear that Engie wasn’t biting, he once again disappeared into the barn. It was a good fifteen minutes or so before Engie got stuck and really needed to fetch his wrench back. He found it lying in the dust by the barn door, and eyed it with a good dose of suspicion before going to pick it up. Nothing happened when he did, though. Spy had given up, and he was nowhere to be seen. He’d actually given up. I could hardly believe it. Spy had given up, and suddenly all was not right in the world. Giving up wasn’t like him; he must have been hurting bad for it to make him give up. Engie just didn’t understand, I found myself thinking. Spy was only playing, he didn’t mean any harm. Engie just didn’t see it like that. He didn’t get it. Spy did it because he liked Engie. He wanted his attention. Spy just didn’t know any other way to get it, and now, the only way he knew didn’t work anymore. It seemed to me like Spy was going to be very lonely from now on. I needed to do something about this. Against my better sense, I went looking for Spy. He wasn’t hard to find, since he never felt the need to hide from anyone, and it didn’t take long for me to catch up with him on the roof. It was where he usually went when the weather was good, somewhere quiet where he knew he wouldn’t be bothered. Well, I was about to bother him. When I found him, Spy was reading, or trying to. It would have been obvious to anyone that he was hacked off, and he wasn’t happy to see me. He scowled at me, I figured because this whole thing had wounded him pretty deeply and he didn’t want me seeing him like that. I went over and sat nearly next to him, keeping about six feet between us. Spy didn’t like people getting too close at the best of times. He didn’t talk to me, instead going back to his book. It wasn’t a convincing act. I pushed my luck. “… You okay, man?†“Go away.†“No.†Spy sighed, frowned at me, annoyed. He knew I wasn’t going anywhere; unlike Engie, Spy knew I had him pegged. I knew I didn’t have to be scared of him, even if he threatened me. I knew he’d never do anything to hurt me. He might fuck with me and pretend like he might, but he never would. “You saw what happened,†he grumbled. “Why do you need to ask me such a stupid question?†“Because we’re friends. Don’t be an asshole, man.†“Tsch. This is none of your business. Leave me alone.†I smiled a little bit. “… You’re jealous.†“What!?†Spy hissed, glaring daggers at me, and I knew I’d hit closer to the truth than he’d like. “You’re jealous!†I laughed. “I knew it!†“Don’t be so ridiculous!†snapped Spy, suddenly very angry. “Quit lyin’ to me, man!†I couldn’t stop grinning now. “You’re pissed off because Engie’s spendin’ all his time foolin’ around with Demo instead of you!†When I said that, Spy’s lips began to curl back into a snarl. I was onto a winner, and when he realised that I wasn’t going anywhere, Spy, even if he wasn’t happy to do it, caved in. His anger fizzled out, and he went back to sulking and avoiding looking at me. “Hey, man. Look.†I tried to settle down. It probably wouldn’t help much if I was grinning the whole time. “I know you ain’t exactly down with shit like this but I don’t like seein’ you this way. Let’s go and have some fun, okay?†“Fun?†Spy looked at me like I was stupid. “I don’t play your silly games, boy.†“I know you don’t.†Finally, my grin returned. “That’s why we’re gonna play your games.†“Well, unfortunately,†said Spy, turning to look out over no man’s land, “It seems as though Monsieur Engie doesn’t want to play my games anymore.†“So we just gotta ramp it up a little is all,†I told him. “C’mon, I got an idea.†One thing I learned from my grandmother that I never thought I’d ever need to know is that white flour stays good practically forever if it’s kept cool and dry. It might get some bugs in it, but if you gotta tighten your belt a bit you can always sift those fuckers out and go about your flour-using business. Today, that knowledge was gonna be worth gold. Tucked into a corner of the barn’s storage was a massive sack of white flour. I’d wanted to do this with it for a while, but the opportunity had never really come until now. When I pulled the top of the bag open and saw that the flour was still dry and pretty fresh – even if there were a few meal bugs in it – I knew that this was going to be an important moment. I was about to pass on to Spy a skill that had been passed to me by my older brothers. “So, you ever hear of antiquing?†The way Spy looked at me told me that no, he hadn’t. He’d obviously been too smart and sensible in his youth to do the stupid shit my brothers and I had spent our time doing. “It’s easy.†I dug around in the storage until I found some scraps of brown paper, and I tore some off to make a little bag out of it. “All you gotta do is take this –†I scooped up a big handful of flour, put it into the paper pouch I’d made and twisted up the top to close it. “— and hit Engie over the head with it.†I handed it to Spy. He took a good look at it, and took a couple of seconds to think about it. Then he straight away smacked me over the head with it, bursting the paper bag and covering me with flour. I guess I should have seen it coming. Finally I saw a smile cross Spy’s face as I cursed and yelled at him. He liked this idea. I’d have liked to see Engie ignore him now. The next time when Spy went to interrupt Engie’s work, he did it armed. I looked on from just inside the barn, hoping I was out of sight from where Engie and Demo were sat out front, messing around with the junk they’d found to make their grenade sentry with. Spy didn’t even bother announcing himself. He just marched up behind Engie and whacked him around the back of the head with a flour packet. The shock was enough to snap Engie out of his concentration, and Spy made sure Engie saw him before he disappeared. It worked. Engie went nuts, and it was awesome. Spy must have thought so too, because when he reappeared with me at the barn door, he was grinning from ear to ear. “What the hell was that!?†Engie was on his feet, torn up between brushing and patting the flour off himself and running off to look for Spy. “Ah.†Demo caught him by the arm to stop him from going anywhere. “I think Spy just might have called in for some wee backup there, Engie.†He must have heard me laughing, and that only made it harder for me to keep my mouth shut. I ducked around the barn door, knowing that Engie would have heard me too, but I just couldn’t stop laughing. “… That ain’t like the boy,†I heard Engie say. “What’s got into him?†“Who knows? Looks like we might have to just grin and bear it.†And grin and bear it was what they did. Knowing that Spy had help now only made Engie more determined to win this stupid, childish battle of wits, and that meant that me and Spy had to go to greater and greater lengths to get a rise out of him every time. Spy decided that it was time to really get the party started. I hid behind some crates as Engie and Demo, maybe thinking that it’d be easier to spot an incoming threat inside the closed-in space of the barn, were getting on with putting their test sentry together. I watched Spy sneak over there – until he cloaked, anyway, which made it pretty hard to watch him – and stealthily take Engie’s wrench. Because he hadn’t seen Spy do it, Engie took a while to realise it had gone, or where it had gone. “… You seen my wrench, Demo?†“You just had it, didn’t you?†“Yeah, I did. I had it right… right…†I forced back a laugh as Engie’s shoulder’s dropped. “Ah, god damn it! Not again!†Engie grumbled, but again just carried on working without his wrench until he couldn’t get any further without it. This time, though, he didn’t find it ditched in some corner of the barn. Spy was determined that if Engie was going to try so hard to ignore him, he was going to try twice as hard to make sure he couldn’t, and Engie only found his wrench when he sat on it that night in the hayloft when we were bedding down. The next few days did not go smoothly for Engie. As if it wasn’t bad enough that his wrench was constantly going missing with no kind of warning at all, flour-related incidents were also seriously on the rise. It got so bad that Engie didn’t even want to take his wrench if he found it too quickly or too easily because it was likely to be some kind of flour trap, and Spy thought it was great. There was nothing Spy loved more than seeing Engie get wound up over him, and believe me, by the end of the week, Engie was about as wound up as a guy could get, but still, he ignored us. We did everything we could. We bombed Engie with flour from around corners, behind doorways, even from the rooftop. It didn’t matter if Engie kept his wrench in his toolbox, in his pocket or even in his hand. If it wasn’t in sight of either him or Demo for even a second or two, it would vanish. We made working on his new sentry nearly impossible. But still, Engie ignored us. It took a lot of time, but in spite of everything Engie and Demo finished their test sentry. Spy and me watched from not too far away, since we’d got pretty gutsy about what we were doing over time. Engineer knew damn well that we were there but didn’t pay us any attention, just like he hadn’t paid us any attention for the rest of the damn week, and he and Demo were patting each other on the back for a job well done. He and Demo were really proud of what they’d managed to do, and now that all the building was done, it was time to test the test launcher for the first time. Engie was excited. “It took a helluva lot’a doin’,†he said, “And it might not’a taken so long if we hadn’t had any help from Mungo Jerry ‘n’ Rumpleteaser over there –“ He pointed a thumb at us as he said it. “—But we got it done!†“Aye!†Demo nodded. “A job well done if I ever saw one m’self!†I looked at Spy. “Who the fuck are Mungo Jerry an’ Rumpleteaser?†“Didn’t you hear, mon ami? We are Mungo Jerry and Rumpleteaser. Clearly, I am Mungo Jerry, and you are Rumpleteaser. Because Rumpleteaser is a girl.†“What? Fuck you!†I shoved Spy off the crate we were sitting on, but the next thing I knew I was stuck in a headlock, struggling to get free. I hadn’t figured Spy would be that strong. “Come now, ami!†He turned with me, grinding his knuckles into my skull, as I tried to back out of that fucking headlock. “Someone has to call you ladies’ names with Monsieur Sollie gone!†“F, fuck you! Hngh!†We stopped, Spy’s arm still around my neck, when we saw that Demo and Engie were watching us. I huffed. “What’re you jerks lookin’ at?†“Indeed.†Spy waved them off with his free hand. “You are meant to be ignoring us. Shoo.†Engie and Demo looked at each other for a second, then back at us, before taking themselves and the new test sentry outside and leaving me and Spy to our business. I hadn’t wrestled someone since I was in school. It was great to have someone I could fool around and pull pranks with again, especially when they were as clever about it as Spy. He thought of stuff that I’d never come up with in a million years. It was only after we’d worn ourselves out that we realised something really important, though. “They said that prototype was ready to test, did they not?†Spy cocked an eyebrow at me. This was a big deal. We had to do something. I didn’t know what, since pelting Engie with flour from the barn roof had got old really fast and just wasn’t gonna cut it anymore. Spy knew exactly what to do, though, even if there wasn’t any time for him to explain it to me. All I could do was watch as Spy vanished, and Engie and Demo got the new sentry set up out front. Engie and Demo were really excited about this. They’d just finished loading the sentry’s chamber with a few bricks, and Engie had a remote in his hands to control it with. They’d figure out making it automatic later; it was probably more important to know it could fire properly before fucking around with complicated shit like that. Demo was stood beside him as they made a big, loud countdown to what was about to be a big success. I’d never seen such a big grin on Engie’s face before as they gave each other the thumbs up and started counting. “Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Fi –†THUMP. Flour exploded out of the sentry’s barrel and chamber, covering everyone and everything less than five feet away. That included Engie and Demo. My jaw dropped as they stood there in silence for a minute, the reality of what had just happened slowly sinking in. I hadn’t even seen Spy do it. I hadn’t seen him go over there. I hadn’t seen anything move. I hadn’t seen anything at all. I couldn’t even start to figure out how he’d managed to sneak the massive flour bomb into the sentry’s chamber, and I’m guessing that neither Demo or Engie could figure it out, either. Spy reappeared next to me a second later, watching with me, and for a long time, nothing happened. No one said anything, no one did anything. Until Engie finally snapped. “DAMN IT, SPY!†Shit, I’d never heard Engie shout like that. “COULDN’T’CHA JUST LEMME HAVE THIS ONE GODDAMN THING!?†His voice echoed around the base as he yelled and cursed, and I couldn’t help but flinch. Spy didn’t look like he was finding this funny either. We both knew that this had been a step too far. We’d been annoying before, but we’d never done any harm. Now, though, not only could this have wrecked Engie’s machine, but we’d also wrecked what was meant to be a big moment. He’d never get to fire that sentry for the first time again. Engie eventually tired himself out, and Demo got him settled, but when Demo suggested that they should just get on and forget about it, Engie refused. “What’s the point?†he asked, gloomily. “It’s only gonna get ruined. We ain’t gonna get shit done with this thing. I give up.†Demo tried to talk him out of it, but in the end, Engie just turned and headed back into the barn, defeated. Spy and I beat a quick retreat to the clubhouse. “Shit, man, shit!†I muttered, twisting up my cap in my hands. “What the fuck have we done, man?†“Something terrible,†sighed Spy. “This is awful.†“Yeah, man. We fucked up.†“Non, mon ami. I, as you say, fucked up.†Spy folded his arms, looking away. “I did this.†“Dude, brother. If I hadn’t come up with that stupid flour shit –†“The flour was harmless, ami. I should have known better than to do this with it.†Jesus, Spy was so torn up. He seemed nearly as upset about this whole thing as Engie was. I guess he really did like Engie after all; he put a lot of effort into pissing Engie off, but that was different from going out to properly, seriously upset the guy like he had done this time. We spent the rest of the afternoon hiding in the clubhouse, wringing our hands and biting our lips, trying to think of how we could even start to make this better. In the end, there was only one thing I could come up with. “… I guess we’re just gonna have to apologise.†“Oh please,†muttered Spy, still not able to look at me. “How would that make things any better? Do you honestly think that I could just say I am sorry and that that would make everything right again?†“Maybe not straight away,†I said, quietly, “But… it’d be a start, y’know?†“He’d never take me seriously.†“Well man, he sure as hell ain’t gonna take you seriously if you don’t even try.†What else could we do? Neither of us could bring ourselves to face Engie for a few days, but in the end I realised how stupid it was that I was now going to lengths to avoid both Engie and Demo, and I decided I was gonna man up and do the right thing. Spy wasn’t as brave as me, but when I marched off to find Engie, he felt like he didn’t have any choice but to come with me. It would have looked pretty bad for him if I apologised and he didn’t. Engie wasn’t pleased to see us, but he caught on pretty fast that we weren’t exactly happy to see him either, and he stopped frowning at us so hard. He still didn’t sound too keen about talking to us, though. “There somethin’ I can do for you two?†When Spy couldn’t bring himself to say anything, I took it on myself to be the one who’d man up first. “We came to apologise,†I said. “We’re real sorry about fuckin’ your shit up all this last couple’a weeks, man.†“Is that a fact?†Engie tipped his hardhat back, and gave Spy a hard stare. “At least the boy’s man enough to cough up an apology. Ain’t you got nothin’ t’say for yourself, Spook?†I was shocked to see that Spy couldn’t even look at Engie, let alone say anything to him. I put my hand on his shoulder. “C’mon, man.†It took a while, but Spy eventually managed to say what he’d come to say. “I am sorry, cher. I never meant to do any harm, but… I suppose I got… carried away. I spoiled something important to you. I should never have done it.†“Well, ain’t that a turn up for the books.†Engie kept frowning. “Tell me, Spy, did Scout put you up’ta this? Like he put you up to that crap with the flour?†“Please,†said Spy quickly, “Do not blame him for this. What happened, it was all my fault. He only saw that I was upset and tried to make things better.†“… Upset?†Now Engie’s expression lifted. Spy flinched, just a little, realising what he’d said. He’d done it now, and before Engie could ask him what he’d meant, Spy up and disappeared. I guess he wasn’t ready to have a heart to heart about it. Engie looked at me. “What’s he mean by that?†“Who knows, man.†I lied, figuring Spy wouldn’t want me to tattle. “That guy’s a fuckin’ mystery.†Neither of us said anything for a while, until I spoke up again. “I really am sorry though, man. I mean it.†“I know you do, son.†Engie sighed. “I guess we all do things we regret, don’t we.†Engie was pretty okay with me about the whole thing. He knew that Spy, really, had been behind the worst of what had happened. I guess he figured I wasn’t smart enough to cause so much trouble on my own, and he didn’t mind forgiving me for it. I didn’t know if Spy would get the same luxury, but what little he’d let slip seemed like it had got Engie thinking. I hoped Engie would work out on his own what was really going on. Things would be a lot easier between him and Spy if they understood each other better, or at least if Engie knew that Spy did it because he liked him and not because he was deliberately trying to be a jerk. I went and apologised to Demo, too. He was seriously surprised to see me coming to talk to him, but in the end I couldn’t do anything else but explain my stupid behaviour truthfully. He needed to know that it wasn’t anything to do with him, that it wasn’t his fault. I needed to make sure we understood each other. “Well,†he said, “Ye might’ve done some silly things, but I’ve heard nothin’ but praise for ye from everyone else, laddie. I thought it were a bit odd that you should be causin’ trouble like y’were after hearin’ all that.†“Yeah, well.†I shuffled my feet. “We all do things we regret, don’t we.†I did my best to make it up to Demo and Engie for being such an ass. I helped them get all the flour cleaned out of the test sentry and get it working again, and then I ran around and got everyone together for the test firing so we could all see it in action. Spy was nowhere to be found, I wasn’t surprised to see, but I knew that he’d be watching from somewhere. I doubted he’d want to miss this. So with all of us shouting together, we started the countdown again. “FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE! FIRE!†Engie hit the button, and the test sentry launched a brick with so much force that it flew clean over no man’s land and straight through a window on the front of BLU base. We could just about hear an alarm going off. We all cheered, some of us exchanged high-fives. The prototype grenade launcher’s first real test had been a big success. After a few more bricks and a few more broken windows, we all patted each other on the back and brought the thing back inside the barn. That’d show those BLU fuckers. I hoped they’d find out how it felt to be cold at night with a few windows missing. We kept an eye out to see if BLU would retaliate with an attack, but they never did. I guess they didn’t think it was worth it for a few smashed windows, not so soon after we’d received a heap of reinforcements. I rested a lot easier in the hayloft that night, knowing that I was friends with everyone I shared it with again, but I couldn’t help but notice that even after what must have been a couple of weeks, we still hadn’t seen Soldier. I was just lying back, figuring that I shouldn’t have been surprised – Soldier wasn’t any mustang, after all – and trying to get to sleep, when the sound of someone pounding the barn door jolted me awake. I grinned, and nearly flew down the hayloft ladder to open the door. Sure enough, Soldier was there when I opened the barn door. It took him a second remember that he didn’t need to ask permission and come in, but I think he was happy to see us all. It didn’t show very much, but I figured he must have been since he was quiet. He was sporting a few really good bruises and scrapes; it looked like he’d spent the last two weeks fighting with the other Soldiers and putting everyone in the hangar in their place. Soldier had come off pretty badly himself, though. He had a cut lip, and I think his nose might have been broken. Still, he didn’t complain about any of it, and after sharing some awkward – maybe even a little nervous – greetings with the rest of our team, he settled in the hayloft with us for the night. Finally it felt like things had fallen into place around here, and all was right with the world again. The next time Spy stole Engie’s wrench, Engie obligingly chased him around trying to get it back. Maybe he’d decided he didn’t want things to get as bad as they had done last time, or maybe, just maybe, he’d started to realise that it was just a game. Just goes to show, I guess. You can know someone for years and still learn stuff about them. And I’ve gotta tell you, I’d have a hell of a lot of learning to do around here. END