The Gold of the Firepines

It's Over (So You Thought)

You weren't sure how that made a difference, but you slowly shook your head. "No...?"
"Excellent..! In flakes then! Or chunks, but small chunks- most of them couldn't have been more than flakes- who knows where all the Australium flows in you because of this-!"

"Wouldn't most flakes go in the bloodstream or something?" A voice suddenly came up from behind you, and while it took you by surprise, it didn't shake you nearly as bad as Scout, who just about flipped.
Medic didn't miss a beat. "Well, that is what some may think if it was broken down similarly to other minerals that enter the body, but if the good Briefträger breathed in any flakes...Oh! Sniper, there you are! So nice to see you more eye-level-ish!"

Scout gripped his chest and pointed his bat over to Sniper, almost hitting you in the head (again). "What the hell, man?! Don't pull a Spy! You're not Spy!"
"You should thank Spy. He's how I could find ya." Sniper said, nonchalant. "All I had to do was follow the scent of LeOverpriced Profumo overlaid with sweat."
Spy's eye twitched, and he would have been ready to start something if he had any more energy. "...Your French is horrendous...pissman."

"Okay, that's enough." Ms. Pauling stepped in before it got worse. "So...we just need Soldier and Pyro, is that right?"
"'Need' is a relative term, really..." Scout muttered.
"Soldier has his uses and at least kinda communicates even if most of it is nonsense, but Pyro? I don't know if we really need that freak..."

Everyone got quiet and stared in Scout's general direction. Save for Spy to be exact - who's face twitched slightly from the sight of undency before sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Comrades! We have found you!"
Scout sighed, connecting the dots. "...How much did they hear?"

As Scout stayed turned around, Pyro went to pick up a decent sized stick from off the ground-
"Pyro, don't..." Ms. Pauling said, acting as the catalyst words for Scout to take off, knowing what would come next.
Pyro swung, but with no Scout to hit, missed, muffled what could be taken as curses under their mask and began to charge after the runner. No one tried to stop them.

"Put on your clothes, Soldier..." Heavy said, looking down and away, as the two ran circles. He was more than ready to get out of here...
Him and the rest of you.

In the time you lead the others back to base, you got to hear a nice long rant from Soldier on how pathetic bees truly were when it came to chasing people...after you informed him that they can only really follow you for a quarter mile at most, and can obtain a speed of 12 to 15 miles per hour, so a fit enough person can outrun them.
How you knew that? Again, you weren't sure, but it probably had something to do with the Australium...which really would have come in handy to have for the stupid standardized tests you had take back in the day.

There were a couple of times you had to slow your pace, keeping in mind that the others weren't used to this terrain. You were also just eager to see how far Engineer had gotten and didn't realize how fast you were moving- Soldier and Sniper kept up fairly well.
And Pyro...who was now having to carry Scout due to them actually hitting him once he stopped.

With mostly everyone together there was plenty of chatter dispersed among the respective walking groups who could keep up with one another, and it passed the time in a snap. You had shorter walks that felt longer while you were here...

And this would be your last walk here.
Unless you did return, but that was highly unlikely.

But you didn't have the time to think on it for long; before you knew it, you were entering the mine, not giving those pine trees one look back, and jumping down the entrance first along with Heavy, helping the others down.

"There ye lot are!" Demoman shouted as though riled up. "Ye would not believe it- I've found Engie!" He gestured grandly over to Engineer, who simply had stopped protesting (as he had explained that Demoman had been asleep on the couch and woke up and they were already together this whole time).

Spy looked as though he was about to say something, but Soldier interrupted.
"Excellent! Now find our Heavy-Weapons Guy."

"I am right-"
"There!" Demoman pointed. "Right behind ye!"

Soldier aboutfaced to Heavy. "Incredible!"
"...I have been here the whole time."
"I never noticed."
"You never noticed the biggest, tallest member of our team?" Sniper asked with a sarcastic edge.

Ms. Pauling stepped in front of them and over to Engineer, walking past you - that was probably the closest she had gotten to you since the fight, and she passed quick. "Engineer, is that...?"

By 'that' she referred to the yellow glow radiating, though with a slight unstable flicker, behind where Engineer stood: a teleporter. You had never seen a teleporter in real life...up till this point, you thought it was just science fiction stuff, but...there it was.
"Yes indeed! All done...now, if she'll work...well..." He shrugged. "I got it orienteered with hydro-power from the stream outside usin' unsteady ole cables, but...they're in workin' order, so we should end up at home base."

"You made it; it'll work." You confirmed, full confidence in his capabilities. Afterall, this was the man who saved your box mobile...wherever it was-

"So you will gamble to get out of here, Facteur?" Spy rose a brow. "Sounds like a volunteer's word to go first."

Heavy, Pyro, Sniper, and Engineer all looked over to Spy ready to debate, Pyro dropping Scout in the process. You really hoped that concussion wouldn't result in severe brain damage-
"Now wait a second there, mate. Just because you don't want to risk your skin-"

"No no-" You raised your hands getting Sniper to stop. "I'll go first. I want to, actually."

You began to step over to the fresh made transporter with all your "gold" you had collected. Ms. Pauling stepped back.
"You really don't gotta go first, Mailmix. I was gonna recommend Soldier or Scout..." Engineer explained.

"Or me! I want to go next!" Medic skipped over. "I call dibs!"

"I'm comfortable going, really." You reassured him. "Besides, you don't have any doubts, do you?"
"Well...no." Engineer answered.
"There you go."

You went to step on, but hesitated, staring at it. "...How do I..?"
"Just step on, one foot after the other." He explained.
"How do you not know how to step on a teleporter?" Spy muttered as you stepped onto the said teleporter.
"Look, Princess-"

But you didn't have time to finish your thought before suddenly the world around you flashed and...you weren't there anymore.

You weren't there anymore...

You took a couple steps back and stopped as you knocked into a chair. You knew these walls...you didn't live here, but you knew them. You knew the ceiling, and those cracks...the floorboards and the creaks...the odd smell and draft-
This was RED Base.

You weren't sure what noise it was that escaped you, but it was something like a wheezy laugh. Just like that...just like that, it was over...

It was over.

"So we finally meet."

Your heart jumped out of your chest- not even a full two minutes of arriving "home" and you couldn't get peace, could you?

You deceived yourself: this felt far from over now. You stumbled forward, away from the counter where the voice came from, grabbed hold of the wall to rebalance yourself, and turned to face an intimidating lady with a most piercing stare.
Actually, you couldn't see her face - it was perfectly covered by the cabinets from the angle she stood at, and yet you could feel an intensity in her eyes.

Somehow, despite never having met her before, you knew exactly who this was.

"You have made my days much more difficult, Mailman."