Team Fortress: Soaked Through

Part Nineteen: A Call in the Dark

Engineer was fiddling with the lock, still trying to figure out its inner workings.

"I really outdid myself," he mumbled. "There ain't no way of gettin' in here without gettin' shocked. Spy's laser pen will reflect back onto us, I don't have any key kits with me, the skeleton key is useless..."

"How does spark kill?" Heavy asked. "Could I take it?"

"Nah, Heavy, this is about as much electricity as a lightning strike. Any human heart would - say, hold on a minute..."

Engineer got up off his knees, rubbing his hard hat in thought.

"You don't have a human heart. You've got somethin' Medic cooked up, somethin' that could take the electricity of his Übercharge. If I remember the calculations right..."

   He took off his rubber gloves and handed them to Heavy.

   "These won't fit me, Engie."

   Engineer took out a roll of duct tape. "They ain't supposed to. Make a fist for me, like you're about to punch the lights outta somebody."

   Heavy did as he was told, and Engineer taped the gloves to his enormous knuckles.

   "This is to give ya a little traction. All ya gotta do is hit that door with those fists."

   "How are you so sure it will work?" Ms. Pauling asked anxiously.

   "'Cause I thought of it," Engineer explained. "Since Red was none too kind to my B.L.U counterpart, he would probably need to get in here himself, or want someone else to break in. This is a perfect failsafe. Red may be awful smart, but she probably doesn't know a lick about engineerin'. Nobody ever breaks into nowhere with brute force."

   Heavy cracked his knuckles. "Until now."

   Heavy reared back and punched the door with all of his might. Electric waves pulsed throughout his body, but the Russian did not recoil. He punched again with even more force, denting the door significantly. A few more hits, and the door was hanging by a hinge. Heavy shoved the crumpled piece of metal out of the way, the sparks on his skin fading into nothing.

   "I was wondering when I'd get to hit something," Heavy said, grinning.

   The team filed into the room, carefully inching past the now destroyed door. The lights were turned off, but the glow of machinery and buttons lit up a few corners and crevices.

"Be careful," B.L.U Spy whispered. "Engineer may have installed further security measures."

Spy nodded. "This looks like a job for me."

He reached into his coat and pulled out a small, red sphere. Spy squinted his eyes, took careful aim, and threw the device into the room. The only sound was it thumping across the metal floor and coming to a rest in some unseen part of the room.

"Nothing was triggered," Spy announced after a few minutes, "but that doesn't mean we're safe. The lasers, traps, or alarms may only be set off by living things, or our DNA specifically."

Suddenly, a strange sound came from the blackness, causing everyone to jump.

Tweeeeet tweeeeeet tweeeeeeet!

"The hell was that?" Engineer said.

"Maybe a piece of machinery?" Miss Pauling suggested. "Or one of the traps?"

"I've been buildin' for a long time, and I've never heard anything that sounded like that!"

Soldier suddenly pushed his way up to the front, carrying something in his hand. He put the object to his lips and blew.