Operation: Arctic Fortress

Medic walked through the empty halls of the abandoned hospital, the walls and floors dilapidated and brown with decay. It was filthy but good for keeping intruders out, namely the BLU “team”. Walking through the halls was just going to be a complete waste of time for them. Nobody on RED doubted the possibility of this particular part of the building spontaneously collapsing and putting the disadvantage on their shoulders, but there was nowhere else to go that had such ample shelter and room for their individual needs.

Leaving the base was borderline suicidal, there was no way of knowing what kind of ambush or attack could be waiting for them at any moment, at any place… it wasn’t in their nature to be unprepared, especially with a full arsenal of weapons, but there was no room for mistakes. Even one slip-up had the potential of putting it all to an end.

Pushing a door open to the room they used for planning out all of their operations and holding meetings -what used to be the nursery in the hospital- , Medic found his whole team discussing the current hot topic. Their new hostage, Wynter. Where did she come from? What was she doing in the area of the hospital where there was clearly a battle being fought, was she possibly a spy for the BLU team, an innocent bystander, or on a side all her own? Scout had assumed she was neither friend or foe, but he wasn’t exactly the sharpest tool in the shed either…

"Vello." Medic said as he entered the room.

"Well?" Soldier asked, sounding like he was giving Medic a military order.

"Vell." Medic said calmly, taking his place at the table between Scout and Sniper. "I’m still not quite sure what she was doing here, but it’s safe to say she’s basically harmless."

"Oi mate I’m not one to rock the boat or anything but she was in our base. Nobody just waltzes into a battle unless they’ve got some part in it, and the little lassy was shootin’ right at us.”

"Pfft she was shootin’ at the fricken BLU team too, don’t start gettin’ all melodramatic Crocodile Dundee." Scout said.

"I wouldn’t be throwin’ rocks now, you half-pint halfwit" Demoman interrupted as he took a swig of his Scrumpy, "Even if e’ was a lit’tle melodramatic ah bet ‘es not half as loud as yer mother is in bed wiff ‘im." The whole crew laughed, with the exception of Medic.

"Yaa vell before we discuss ze Scout’s mother’s sexual preference for French men his son works with…"

"Yes, let’s be gentlemen." Their resident French man, Spy, said coolly. He was reclined in an old office chair with his feet on the table. He took a puff of his cigarette and exhaled before adding a final blow, "Though if there’s anyone zat can make me less of a gentleman and more like an animal, it is indeed votre belle mère." He winked briefly at Scout from across the table.

Medic put his hand to his forehead and let out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “Are ve finished?”

"Yeah, Medic’s got some news to share on that girl and you guys are freakin’ disrupting him, let the man talk." Scout said in a nervous, high-pitched voice.

Before anyone could chime in on the fact the only reason Scout had any interest in what Medic had to say was because it’d draw attention away from the fact that Spy was, in fact, romantically involved with Scout’s mother, Medic cleared his throat and stood up with authority, his clipboard in hand to read off notes he had taken on his new patient of interest.

"As I said before we got sidetracked." Medic said, glaring at Demoman since he was the start of it, "Her name is Wynter. She needed food and thought there was some here. She was indeed on a side of her own. Additionally, I think it would be wise to keep a distance from her until further notice, as she is a little… snappy."

"You say that like we ought to be afraid of girls." Scout spat, rolling his eyes.

"Your guilty conscience is showing." Soldier muttered under his breath.

"What we do with tiny girl after further notice?" Heavy bellowed.

"Zat is what I arrived to discuss, my friends." Medic said confidently, "My ideas were to make her an addition to ze team if we could reach a mutual agreement."

"What use would she be of?" the Engineer asked matter-of-factly, "Scout was able to injure her within a minute of being on base. We would be endangerin’ her, if she even wanted to be on our side.”

"We’ve only got eight goddamned men." Soldier replied, "The odds are already stacked against us, we need all the help we can get!"

"Yes, but consider how long it will take to train her, mon américain ami. Chances are she has no previous knowledge of combat, and we do not have forever, in fact, nobody knows how limited our days are. And like Engineer said, what use has a young girl assisting us in a war against men? She will be more trouble and require more assistance on the team than we can afford." Spy politely disagreed.

"But team need all the help it can get. Tiny girl can help. Tiny girl just need tiny poosh." Heavy said, smiling.

"The girl is in the same boat as we are.” Sniper said in response to Spy, a tone of defense in his voice, “I’m slightly taken aback that you would write her off as an inconvenience just because she’s female. If she was the same sex as us we wouldn’t even think twice about recruitin’ her.”

"So how are we going to go about doing this? I say we vote. All in favor of recruiting the girl say I!" Soldier commanded.

"And what if we don’t agr-"

"THEN YOU’RE A MAGGOT." he shouted at Spy, who immediately recoiled and meekly raised his hand in approval.

"Weakling, you’d rather stand with the majority in false agreement than stand alone with your honest opinion." Soldier scoffed.

Everyone in the room raised their hand, except for a certain member…

"Pyro? Whaddya say about having a new member on the team, buddy?" Scout piped up, slapping the firesuit-clad teammate on the back.

He didn’t say much, as usual, but gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up and a “mphmhphmppphh!”

"Vell, zhis draws our meeting to a close." Medic said. "I vill go have a chat with ze patient and be back soon. As you were, meine freundes." And with that, he exited the room, closing the door behind him on his way out.