You woke up early, too early. You felt it. Looking over at your alarm, it was thirty minutes until Soldier usually starts making his rounds. So.. not that early? Why do I feel so... light? This is weird. With a groan, you got up. No use in sleeping for only thirty minutes, you'll just wake up more tired.

You shuffled over to your bathroom and started your morning routine. For some reason, you wanted to look extra cute today. No makeup, like you ever wore it anyway, but just a little extra care to your hair, a little extra care washing your face, and a little extra care making sure your clothes fit perfectly.

You took a little bit of extra time admiring your jacket, and making sure you grabbed your tools. You and Miss Pauling really did a good job with this, and of course the help from your teamm- well, you guess you could say they were friends, made all of it possible. You scoffed at yourself before smiling. Can't believe I'd ever say that. You did a little twirl, suddenly very excited at the prospect of finally being comfortable with all of them. You know what else you were excited for?

Kicking some BLU ass.

With a smirk, you pretend to fight the smirk off of the BLU Strategist's face, pretending to make her hallucinate her worst nightmare. You really hoped that it would be what she'd hallucinate. After all, why not have a little fun and learn one of her weaknesses for once? Maybe give you the upper edge one of these days. You most certainly deserved it.

You smirked and placed your secondary back into your holster for it on your waist. Your primary was in a holster on your right thigh, your disks were on a belt as well as your devices, and your knife was in a clip on your left.

I'm ready.

Suddenly, a large knock rapped itself against your door.

"CUPCAKE! GET READY FOR TODAY'S BATTLE!" You heard Soldier shout through the door and opened it in front of him.

"Way ahead of you, Soldier," you leaned against the doorframe with a small smirk. He simply chuckled in his... well, "Soldier way" while shaking his head.

"Proud of you, soldier," he added in a weirdly low volume, as if he didn't want to admit it to anyone else. Perhaps the surprise showed on your face, because he chuckled again before walking off. It was like he was in a daze or something. He doesn't usually act like that...

The words "thank you" left your lips like a breathy whisper, unaware of what it meant for him to say that. Then, a smile adorned your lips and you proudly followed after him towards the living room.

Breakfast started, Engie having cooked. It was nice, and it was filling but not to the point where you felt heavy. Simply perfection from the Texan. Throughout the meal, you noticed Spy taking glances at you and then looking down at his plate seemingly caught up in something. You really hoped he didn't regret hugging you last night. Not when you were both starting to get along. Either way, breakfast went off without a hitch, you explained the plan to them, and it was time to head to the battlesight: TwoFort.

You hopped into the back of the truck, Spy was driving and you took notice of him looking at you through the mirror. Shrugging it off for now, you decided to sit next to Scout and Sniper to avoid any extra drama. You wanted this to be a good day after all. Still, you couldn't ignore the stress in Medic's eyes and the slight concern in Demo's. I'm MAKING this a winning battle so help me.

You leaned your head against the back of the truck.

"Excited ta fight, Toots?" Scout whispered, obviously trying to contain his excitement by talking low.

"You bet, Scout," you smirked, closing your eyes.

"Even afta last time? Wow, you're tough!" You couldn't help but furrow your brows.

"I suppose so, Scout." His stupidity never ceases to surprise you.

"Well, I'm rootin' for ya." But then again, neither did his kindness towards you. Like a big brother or something you never got to have. "Say, have you practiced your insults?" You peeked an eye open to look at him, smiling.

"Why would I do that?" Scout rolled his eyes.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Taunt 'em! Really get in deir head. Make 'em go mad! Ain't dat strategic, Miss Strategist?" You couldn't help but chuckle and saw Scout smirk.

"Well, I haven't thought about it that way. I'll be sure to try that."

"Yea-Oh! We're here." He stood up and offered his hand. You took it, laughing, noticing a certain Frenchman looking at you. You brushed it off. "Ladies first." He comedically bowed and you shook your head.

"Doesn't that mean you go first?" You joked, and Scout faked a gasp.

"Rude."

"You said it, ma'am."

You hopped off the truck and Scout followed you, playfully punching your arm. You and the rest of your team started stretching as the timer on the wall to your respawn room started ticking down. You could feel your excitement building and hoped it was infectious. Medic was overhealing all of you and Scout was already taunting the enemy. Good to know he was ready.

"Five!" You heard the announcer and almost started jumping with excitement. This was how I was supposed to feel about my original battle....

"Four!"

"Three!" I can't wait!

"Two!"

"One!" Let's do this!

The doors opened, and following the plan, Engie ran to the courtyard and Sniper to his "perchin' place." Soldier rocket jumped his way off the balcony and screamed, decapitating the enemy Sniper. One down. Demo set a sticky trap in the sewers, and Pyro was using this weird electrifying thingy, enjoying his swim. Spy cloaked and Medic made his way with Heavy to build Uber until he'd use it with Pyro later. For now, you had a mission.

Find that bitch.

You switched to Spy's gear and cloaked yourself with one final high five to Scout, who volunteered to be the distraction until Spy took care of the Engineer nest.

You sneaked around the BLU base, careful of the steps you made until you heard her.

"Aren't ya just a wee bit concerned she'll come up wit somethin'?" You heard the BLU Demoman.

"Umm let me think... hell no. We broke her. You should know. You helped," it was weird to hear your voice scold what should be one of her friends. Just have to wait until he's gone.

"Well, I'm gonna help tha Engineer down wit tha intel."

"No, you're going to stick to the plan I made and take out that stupid soldier that won't stop rocket jumping and killing our sniper! Like honestly! What was her plan with that anyway? Waste an offensive class just to take care of a noodle with legs? Hah!" You saw the BLU Demonman's eye narrow.

"Yes ma'am." With that, he walked off. Now she's alone... perfect.

You slowly walked up to her and decloaked, switching the disk off. Her eyes widened, but before she could even scream, you slapped her.

"Wha-?" You just cut her off with a kick in the stomach. She fell to the ground. "ME- umph!" You covered her mouth with one hand, and injected her with your hallucinator the next. As she went limp, you switched to Spy, cloaked, and stepped back to watch as the sound of footsteps drew nearer.

You watched as she tried to stand up but fell, collapsing on the ground. You saw tears in her eyes as she started screaming.

"No, NO! Please, Miss Pauling please let me go," she started to beg and then screamed. "I don't want to be erased, please, PLEASE!" Now it was getting to you. Not wanting to hear her scream anymore, you headshot her with Spy's revolver.

I guess I got what I wanted. Now back to the plan.

"Success! We have secured the enemy intelligence," you heard the Administrator and smirked. You made your way to find Scout in the sewers, having successfully distracted most of the other team so you could get to the Strategist. You backstabbed a Heavy on your way to him, having cornered him, and smirked as Scout high fived you.

"So? What did she hallucinate?" He asked, excited.

"I'll tell you later. Quite fascinating, really. Let's do this," you laughed and switched to Scout's gear.

You two ran amok, killing anyone you saw by tag-teaming the singled out mercenary. Once they started catching on, you and Scout parted ways. You went with Demo for some fun after his sticky traps stopped a push. He gave you a crash course on the sword, and you easily picked up the skill. You were slinging it around, rushing at the BLU Medic, laughing at the look of terror on his face.

"Aye! Lass, yer better at this then I would've thought, but then again, what do I know?" He laughed and you shook your head.

"You know more than you think, Demo. Now, go give 'em hell. I gotta notification that Spy's plan didn't work a second time, so I have to help him," you assured him and he gave you a nod, sending you off.

You slunk around the BLU base cloaked and scoped out the area in their intel room. You saw a ripple of red and smirked. Spy had nodded at you while cloaked. You watched and made you way to the Engineer as his sentry started being sapped.

"Ha! Come out you snake. It won't w-AAUGH!" The BLU Engineer cried as you backstabbed him. Spy uncloaked and handed you the intel. You both shared a look you couldn't decipher and he cloaked himself at the sound of footsteps.

You switched to Scout and started running as fast as you could. Thanks to everyone following the plan, you had a clear path to your intel room. As you expected, it went smoothly.

"Success! We have secured the enemy intelligence," you heard the Administrator and smirked once more. Two down, one to go. Time for the final act.

You joined Medic in a double-Ubered push with Pyro and Soldier, destroying the Engie nest and killing everyone in the intel room. It was weird though for two reasons. One, Medic didn't seem like his normal self, he seemed detached as Pyro yelled muffled, giddy sounds. Wouldn't that usually excite him? Two, almost the whole BLU team was guarding the intel room except for the Strategist. Where did she go?

Ignoring it until after the battle, Soldier protected you as you ran back to your intel room.

Once there, you looked around at your teammates that were there. They all clapped and whistled as you slammed the briefcase onto the counter.

"Victory!"