Penchant for Survival 7

It was obvious whenever the scout realized what the sniper said by the way her shoulders tensed. Her breath caught in her throat, white clouds of steam no longer drifting from her mouth due to the frigid air around them. One could practically hear the gears clanking inside the scout's head as she put two and two together. Fists clenched, eyes narrowed and the scout subtly prepared herself for sprinting away from the sniper.
Lenny picked up on the small cues, her gaze as critical as that of a surgeon's performing an operation. She knew that her window of surprise was closing and that she would have to kill the scout quickly, else she'd risk the scout getting away. If the scout got past her grasp she'd have no trouble outrunning the sniper and alerting the BLUs that she was, in fact, the traitor of the group.
She reached forward, grabbing a large handful of brunette locks and yanking hard enough to force the scout onto her tiptoes and cause her to stagger back, yelping all the while. Her brown eyes squeezed shut and her hands reached up towards Lenny's hand to try and alleviate some of the excrutiating pain she was feeling.
The scout clawed at the sniper's hand, trying to scratch it and cause the sniper enough pain to where she let go. Lenny merely grit her teeth at the pain, not giving any other indicative that she was in pain. She actually tightened her grip on the scout's hair, pulling harder for a moment and shoving Randa to the ground. The grip on her hair lessened before it was removed completely only to have a fist slam against her jaw.
Lenny didn't have a weapon, so she had to use her fists. It'd be bloody, but it'd only make her story that much more convincing--and without Zira, there would be no way to perform an accurate autopsy on the scout.
She could see it now, running into the BLU base, shedding a few crocodile tears and telling them that Randa and Zira had been murdered by the REDs in one big misunderstanding. That she'd never intentionally harm a fellow teammate--in fact that the blood covering her clothes had been from where she'd tried to help Randa get back to the BLU Base, that she must have had such severe internal injuries that she'd died on the way and she'd gently lowered the scout to the ground and sprinted back to let them know exactly what the monsterous REDs had done to their medic and scout. They'd be so riled up over what the 'REDs' had done that they'd forget the accusations against her immediately--after all, why would a supposed traitor willingly return to the place they'd been accused at?
Randa swung at the sniper, not thinking. Just reacting. There was no time to question why the sniper was attacking, no time to try and figure out her motive, her justifications. This was a matter of survival, and though Randa wasn't exactly the most intelligent one of the nine members of BLU she was smart enough to realize that her first goal was to get out of Lenny's reach, to get up and run as fast as she could--and that was obviously fast enough to be taken in as a scout.
The haphazard swing did not connect with the sniper at all--though that wasn't it's intention. It was to create space between the two of them, to allow Randa a second to breathe, to collect her thoughts and put a plan into motion. She swung at the sniper again, moving into a crouched position a second later, resting heavily on the balls of her feet for a split second before she straightened, and as she did so she swung at the sniper again, using all the strength she could manifest to deliver a solid blow at the sniper's stomach, causing the sniper to double over, one hand clutching at her stomach while the other stuck out to catch herself as her knees wobbled dangerously from the pain shooting through her system.
The scout scrambled back a few steps, looking at Lenny for a moment with wide eyes before she directed her gaze to the BLU base, sprinting towards it.
~!~
"It seems it's time for us to intervene." The older woman with salt-and-pepper hair sighed, lightly tapping the end of her cigarette against an ashtray before she uncrossed her legs and stood. She took a long drag from her cigarette, pausing for a few moments before blowing a large plume of smoke before she spoke, "I hate going out, especially to somewhere so cold, but the experiment is still creating quite a bit of data so it's important to keep it going." Her brows furrowed as she watched the monitors, "Miss Pauling, go on ahead and prevent bloodshed. Make up something, prevent the bloodshed. We cannot allow the experiment to fail."
"Yes, Ma'am." The spectacled female nodded, turning to leave, clipboard in one hand the other adjusting the ebony rimmed glasses.
~!~
The scout watched closely for Khronos' reaction to what she'd explained, hoping she'd sounded more convincing than crazy. The engineer was silent, running a bandaged hand through her dark locks. "So do you think Rapture was right? That Lenny is the traitor?"
The scount nodded rapidly, clasping her hands together as she paced, unable to stay still for even a fraction of a second. "She attacked me, Khro!" The scout exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. "Tried to kill me! If it weren't for how badass I am I'd be dead!"
The engineer quirked a brow at Randa's last statement, but didn't comment on it, instead she let out a heavy sigh. "It could have been the RED spy, Randa, trying to create strife with the team."
The scout clenched her fists, not appreciating how the engineer didn't seem to believe what she was saying. "Khro--"
"Randa, I want to believe you. I want this situation to be resolved, but it's not logical for Lenny to just up and betray us. Besides, from the information gathered from Zira, Golem, and even yourself the assailant is male. And, as we all know, Lenny is female."
"She could have dressed up as a male to fool us!"
"Randa..." The engineer sighed, standing and placing a bandaged hand on the scout's shoulder. "I'm no medic, but I think Zira would tell you to get some rest." She lifted her hand from the scout's shoulder, turning and moving to pick up a half done creation and place it on her work table, next to a set of blueprints with a highly detailed diagram and mathmatical scribbles covering the edges. "We can resume this talk once you're rested..."
The scout visibly withered at that, shoulders slumping forward her expression one of hurt and slight irritation. She looked like the poster child of 'kicked puppy'.
Instead of arguing or generally making a scene, she just turned and slunk out, knowing that she wouldn't be able to change the engineer's mind. She'd sought out Khronos because she seemed like the only other person besides Zira that could stand her for longer than two minutes. Though now it seemed that even Khronos couldn't stand her for an extended period.
~!~
It wasn't long before Miss Pauling arrived, she definitely arrived before Lenny had time to make a plan of action--a perk of having access to the newest technology. It was definitely a stark contrast from the technology the mercenaries had access to.
The woman in the purple dress didn't waste time, quickly drawing both of the team's to the middle point, exactly the same distance between the BLU and RED base, hopefully that would prevent any arguments of 'faction preference' from occurring.
Miss Pauling looked down at her clipboard, occassionally glancing up as she spoke, "The Announcer apologizes for having to draw BLU and RED in such...close proximity of one another, but it seems there's an outsider in the area." She looked to the BLUs, an apologetic look on her face. "It seems that your sniper, Lenny I think, isn't actually Lenny. It seems that the real Lenny was murdered on the train ride here and replaced by an outsider. As I speak we've sent a team to take her into custody so we can question her. We're not sure who sent her, but we do know that her goal was to eradicate all the members from both teams. A replacement will be sent to BLU, and because of their current disadvantage there will be no battles until the replacement arrives." She looked to Alaya, "I'm sorry to say this, Miss Henderson, but the Announcer demands you return the BLU medic to her team so she can read over the newest arrival's records and because we're hoping to return everything to normal after this turbulent time. If you comply, we will give upgrades to your team."
The soldier didn't look amused, but she nodded slightly. She crossed her arms as she watched the BLU medic move from behind the RED demoman to join her team, the medic immediately taking refuge behind Golem once she got to where her team stood.
"Thank you, Miss Henderson." Miss Pauling smiled, adjusting her glasses as she did so. "That is all the Announcer wanted to inform you of. Thank you for your compliance and we will inform you when battles will resume."
Randa looked to Khronos, crossing her arms and sighing softly. "Guess I was wrong...and you were right."
Khronos gave the slightest of smiles, "It doesn't matter who was wrong or right, it's just nice that this all makes sense now. It all makes sense, we have our medic back, and soon we'll have a sniper that isn't trying to kill us."
Randa nodded, letting out a quiet sigh. "I still wanted to be right...but I guess it ain't so bad..."
The teams began the trudge through the snow back to their bases, neither looking happy over what had occurred during that short meeting with Miss Pauling.
~!~
Lenny's elbow slammed into the face of one of the men she'd run into--he was the last one standing and she was determined not to leave any survivors. She'd never seen them before, but she assumed it was a bad sign. Her suspicions were only confirmed when the called her 'Leonard' instead of 'Lenny' which meant they knew. And anyone that knew had to be killed--preferrably in a brutal way that would make them regret gleaning that information.
She drove her shoulder into the male's chest, knocking him onto his bottom and knocking the wind out of him. She gave a swift kick to his side, her brown eyes mere slits as she glared down at him. "Who sent you?" She demanded, pausing for a moment to allow him to answer.
"I did." A female voice made Lenny tense, she turned quickly to look at the speaker. It was none other than the Announcer herself. The woman steepled her fingers as she looked over the men that had been killed due to the rogue sniper standing in front of her. "Oh, and Rory only had one week left till retirement." She smiled, "I should thank you, that's one less pension I have to fund."
"..." Lenny watched the older woman warily, taking a few steps back. "I doubt this is a friendly visit..."
"Actually...I have come to give you an offer, Leonard, you have no idea how overdue this is, but you know how busy life can be..." She waved one hand as she rolled her eyes, thinking of all the things she would have to attend to when she left the area. "You see, we've known of your intention for quite a long time, but we've been using it to collect data in case this happens in the future. You're a...case study of sorts. Up until this point we've been monitoring silently, not getting involved, but we're about to activate phase 2...sooner than expected, but we feared you would be lost if we did not intervene."
"Why are you telling me all of this? And what does this 'offer' entail exactly?" This was the woman she'd been after for so long, she could kill her now if she wanted, so why wasn't she attacking? The answer was actually quite simple, if they'd been monitoring her as the Announcer claimed they would know of her plan and be prepared for it. She'd lay low for a bit, not put her plans into action quite yet--and to be honest, she was quite curious as to what this old hag had to offer her.
"I'm glad you asked." The Announcer pulled out a cigarette and lit it, the lighter clicking shut after a few seconds. She was silent as she mused over where to begin exactly, she hadn't planned on speaking to the sniper about this so soon, but there would always be unknowns in life, and she wasn't one to dwell on all of the 'what-ifs'. "We plan on...aiding you in a way. We're not flat out going to let you kill and turn a blind eye--if we do, the BLUs and REDs may get suspicious of our lack of action, but we won't make it impossible for you to get away with a few murders... We care more about the data you're giving us then the lives of a few insignificant mercenaries. We'll give you a new disguise, with technology that's more advanced than anything these imbeciles currently possess. And..." She looked to the sniper, looking her over for a few moments. "We'll give you back all of the memories that we've previously erased with each of your five transfers..."