The Gold of the Firepines

Rescue?/Mailman Meets Pauling

Yeah, she wouldn't mind killing you at this point.
"Bring it, Dollar Store Goliath."

It was your move first- or at least, that is what Ms. Pauling wanted.
Which is what she got.

You ran forward like a charging bull, but when Ms. Pauling moved to the side and wrapped her arms and the spear around you, you bent forward and flung her over your head with surprising force.

It didn't keep her down, of course; she was back to her knees before you could dive down on top of her. With everything moving as fast paced as it was, you did dive down, but since she got up, you wound up just somersaulting and having your back turned for a split second.

Within that split second, your eyes widened. That was a costly mistake- Your back was open and this was about to be a quick game-
But Ms. Pauling smacked the blunt side of the spear against your back and it practically bounced off you.

...
You were still for a moment and looked over at her confused.

"What? Did you want me to stab you?"

Scoffing, you snapped back to it, swiping your leg out to knock one of Ms. Pauling's ankles or at least get her back while you stood, to which she chose the latter.

Once back on your feet, you lunged for the spear; Ms. Pauling didn't need that after all. Maybe it was too much of an advantage for her-
You approached her from the side and got a hand on the spear. "I don't see why a simple sorry is so hard for you to say, considering this whole fiasco is your fault." You said through clenched teeth.

"My fault?" Ms. Pauling asked. "You don't know half the crap I put up with or what all is going on here and you think you have a right to denote who's at fault here? Oh, do I have news for you-"
One of her arms let go and an elbow met your jaw abruptly, knocking you back...yet your grip on the stick stayed strong.

Too strong- You snapped it with one hand.

Whatever Ms. Pauling had to say fell silent; and that was only an accident on your behalf. It was effective at least, so might as well take advantage.
"News for me? Go ahead! Enlighten me- I'd love to hear all about why you had to dump my ass here instead of talk to me like any other normal person! Why you stranded me out here right when I decided I was going to distance myself from them anyway so I wouldn't get in trouble...! Here's a newsflash for you: I'm not interested in your super illegal shit and highly classified information, I'm just trying to deliver the paper people just throw out and get paid! It's that simple! I just deliver paper and boxes!!!"

You threw down the other end of the broken spear you held and ignored how your hand was pounding from the splintered feeling. Usually you weren't so aware of how your body felt immediately after fighting...and this didn't feel very complete either.

Ms. Pauling was at a loss for words. She'd been taught to catch lies, and these words were spoken so raw there were none to catch. She also knew she herself wasn't in the wrong though; Ms. Pauling was doing her job this whole time according to procedure, though that was something she wasn't sure she could even begin to explain, and if she did, would you even understand that?

You really were just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time from the very start of this.

"Mailman, look-" Ms. Pauling began to try and explain...
However, you were still boiling; not in your right mind yet-

You looked back up, but not to reason; the fight was not over until one of you was down. You lunged.
Unfortunately for you, the fight would be over much sooner than you would know with a swift-

"I'll save you, Ms. Pauling!"
WHACK!

Ms. Pauling had braced herself, but before you could take more than a step, you were hit upside the head and promptly fell to the ground, out cold.
"Check it out! I found my bat! Good thing too; saved ya from that bear-lookin-thing...!" Scout said with a note of triumph.
"Scout...that bear-looking-thing is the Mailman." Ms. Pauling blinked.
That was actually a very good blow. She wondered for a moment if Scout accidentally ended you, but there was a small twitch in your wrist, so she gave a relieved sigh. A lot of money that would have gone toward therapy for Scout was saved.

"Holy-! Aw shit, for real?! MAILMAN!" Scout scrambled to his knees to verify for himself. "It is them..! MAILMAN WHAT HAVE I DONE..!?"

No sooner than the words were cried did Spy arrive with Heavy, still cursing under his breath. "...Godforsaken forest- Scout, what happened?"
"They're fine, Spy." Ms. Pauling sighed.
"Ah, Ms. Pauling...maybe they are a good bloodhound..."
"But what happened?" Heavy repeated.

Ms. Pauling fixed a loose strand of her hair that came out during her small tussle with you (not that it made too much of a difference). "Well, I finally met the Mailman for myself, let's put it that way. They might have a small concussion now thanks to Scout."
"I didn't mean it...!" Scout cried a little, staying on the ground and holding you like you were a fallen warrior.
"We know." Ms. Pauling said, not comforting much at all. "But this is progress. I'm assuming you guys were with Mailman before, yes?"
Heavy nodded. "We also have Demoman, Engineer, and Pyro went after Soldier."
"Okay...the team is starting to reform." She thought to herself. "Now that Mailman has brought us together in a manner of speaking, let's focus on collecting the rest of us and go from there."

"We may have a way out thanks to Facteur's Australium." Spy said.
"Australium?!" Scout shouted in surprise and accidentally dropped you out of his grip.

As you slipped and hit the dirt ground again, you began to wake up, giving a groan, the first thing you heard being frantic apologies.

Spy watched as Ms. Pauling took a step back. He was sure they would learn what actually happened here, and if not, he could take a guess given your Australium-affected behavior.
"There is much to explain..."