My Little Fortress: Night of the Living Dead

When night fell on 2Fort, the two teams were busy having their little Halloween parties in their respective bases. Unlike the previous years, there were no axe wielding apparitions, no gigantic floating eyeballs, and no poor excuses for a dark wizard flying around and causing chaos.

Instead, a massive bread monstrosity was rampaging through the Blu base, killing and eating all it came across.

Red team all stood on the spot Sniper usually took during battle, and watched as smoke rose from the Blu base, followed by the screams of terror and agony from the nine Blu mercenaries.

"Should we go down there and help?" Heavy asked. The others all gave him a 'are-you-serious' look. Heavy shrugged simply and folded his arms as he watched the Blu Pyro be thrown out a window and into the water between the bases.

He didn't come back up.

"We dealt with that freak show four months ago. Let the Blu's handle it this time." Scout said as he turned around and went back inside. The others all looked at each other, giving shrugs and nods of agreement. One by one, they all turned and went back inside to the party.

All save for Spy.

Instead, he stood and flicked the blade of his Big Earner in and out of it's handle, a cigarette resting between his lips.

"Hey, Spy. Aren't ya' comin' in?" Engineer asked from the doorway.

"Nope. I am simply waiting for the fight to end so I can go in and investigate my earlier findings further." Spy said, his eyes never leaving the Blu base.

"Well...alrighty then..." Engineer said, returning to the others inside the base. Spy simply flicked his blade in and out in silence, waiting for the rampage across the way to end.

* * *

Once the bread monstrosity had decimated the Blu team and move on out of 2Fort, Spy had only five minutes before the Blu team respawned. Before leaving, he had grabbed Engineer with two teleporter toolboxes. The teleporter entrance was set up in Red base, and the others were instructed to enter it once the exit had been set up. Once inside the deepest part of Blu base, Spy had Engineer set the exit and enter the Blu's command center with him.

"Keep on your guard. It's only minutes until they respawn." Spy warned. Engineer nodded and kept his Lugermorph close by.

"So, what exactly are we lookin' fer?" Engineer asked, looking around the desk of a command terminal bank.

"Not looking for, listening for." Spy said simply as he approached the massive map display.

"Okay, what are we listenin' fer?" Engineer restated.

"The voices..." Spy said simply, looking over the map. As he looked, he began to realize that the locations marked on the map were not points of attack, but actually points of where the Blu's had also heard the voices, "Looks like I wasn't the only one to hear the voices..." Spy said as he grabbed a nearby clipboard and pencil, marking the locations down.

"We all are one..."

"Uh...Spy?" Engineer called, looking up suddenly from where he was sitting.

"I heard it too..." Spy responded, looking around. The air suddenly became more heavy, as a stench of some kind began to fill the air. In the hall outside, the sounds of active teleportation were heard, followed by the low voices of the other mercs. The first one to enter the command center was Medic as he cleaned his glasses with his lab smock.

"I'm honestly surprised zis part of zhe base vasn't totaled..." he muttered, looking about as he placed his glasses on. "And vhy does it smell of rotten flesh in here?" he asked suddenly.

"Ah was wonderin' what that smell was..." Engineer said with a groan of unease.

"Medic, have the other look around here. Look in the break room, upper offices, data recording, everywhere. I want to find where that voice is coming from." Spy ordered. Medic nodded and signaled the others to start looking around. Suddenly, there was an ear piercing collection of screams that rattled the air.

And as soon as it started, it stopped.

Demo poked his head in, wedging his pinkie into his ear. "What in the bloody hell was that!?"

Spy, Medic and Engineer all cleared their heads and looked at each other with unease.

"Help! Somepony, please help!" cried a young woman's voice.

Silence fell around the mercenaries.

"Uh, did Ah just hear a lady screamin' fer help?" Engineer asked simply.

"If anypony can hear me, we need help badly!" continued the woman's voice.

"It's comin' from that there speaker, Spy." Engineer said, pointing to the communications suite.

Spy went over and turned on the intercom microphone, the small red light showing it was ready to broadcast.

"Uh, hello? Can you hear me?" he asked warily. Silence followed the question for a short time. "Hello?" he asked again.

"Hello!? Hello!? Oh thank the Goddesses, somepony replied! Yes, who is this?" came the voice.

Spy looked to the other mercs that had now entered the command center, each of them giving the same look of unease and uncertainty. Spy looked at Medic, who simply gave a shrug.

"This is Spy. And you might be?" Spy asked.

"I-I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle. S-sorry if I sound nervous...things have been happening outside and I have no ability to stop it...my friends and I are held up in my library..." said Twilight, her voice cracking slightly.

"Can you please tell me what's been happening?" Spy asked, his voice rising with slight determination. The others all gathered around him, listening in as well to the speaker.

"My friends and I were out when this...thing...attacked us and gave chase! When we got back to town, I told my friends to hold up in the library while I got my other friends from a party...when I got to the party..." Twilight said, breaking down into tears on her end.

"Mademoiselle, please calm down. What happened?" asked Spy.

"Everypony was dead! Massacred, annihilated, wiped out!" Twilight screamed as she sobbed harder.

"Listen guy, you better get over here now! We're in deep trouble here! Now, can you help us or not!?" asked a new woman, this time the voice was slightly high-pitched.

"Am I the only one who's getting weirded out by this?" Scout asked simply. Heavy gave the back of his head a hard slap as an answer. Scout yelped and mumbled darkly under his breath.

"Well gentlemen, what do we say?" Spy asked, looking around at his teammates. The others took glances at each other, awaiting the answers. The silence stretched out longer than it needed to, which began to aggravate Spy. "Well?" he asked more firmly.

"Ah hell, Ah'm in." Engineer said with a firm nod.

"Da." Heavy stated simply.

"There better be some booze when I get there..." Demoman said with a readjusting of his pants.

"Jawohl!" Medic chirped.

"Right on ya', mate." Sniper said with a tilt of his hat.

Pyro let out a muffled 'I'm in!' through his oxygen mask.

"Screamin' Eagles!" yelled Soldier as he jugged his grenades.

"Hey! Easy there Nutso!" Scout proclaimed as he jumped away from Soldier's juggling. Spy met Scout's gaze and the Bostonian gave a sigh. "Alright, I'm in."

"Good. Mademoiselle Sparkle? Are you still there?" Spy asked through the microphone.

"Y-yes, I'm here. Can you help us?" Twilight asks, her voice slightly broken.

"We can help. Where do you need us?" Spy asks with a smile.

"I'll open a portal for you..." Twilight said, followed by odd sounds. In front of the world map, a shimmering appeared, then it expanded and remained open. On the opposite side, the sight of a homely library of sorts could be seen, illuminated by multiple candles.

"Wait, Spy. We need our stuff!" Scout pipped up, signalling that they were all weaponless.

"Zhe Blu's haven't vesponded since us being here. Ve can just take zheir items, zhey vill not miss zhem." Medic said. The others seemed to agree to his statement.

"Miss Sparkle, we will be there shortly. We're just going to get some things we are going to need." Spy said into the microphone.

"O-Okay...I didn't know there were going to be more of you..." Twilight replied simply.

* * *

After the mercenaries had loaded up on weapons and some minor cosmetics, they all regrouped in the command center and stood before the portal.

"Y'all ready?" Engineer asked as he clutched a Frontier Justice. The others all nodded firmly and Spy spoke up.

"We are coming through!" he called, spinning the barrel on the Diamondback he was holding.

"Okay! We'll clear some room! How many are coming through?" Twilight asks.

"Nine of us. You asked for the best help around!" Scout declared confidently.

"Nine? We're going to need more room. Rainbow, move that desk over. More...more...right there. Okay, that should be enough. You may come through now." Twilight declared.

The mercs of Red Team all looked at each other, making sure no one was going to back out at the last minute.

"This better not hurt...I can't lose me other eye." Demoman said as he checked the load of a Loch 'N' Load he grabbed from the Blu Demoman's weapon stash.

"We go! Zaryadka!" Heavy declared loudly, jogging into the portal. Medic was quick to follow after turning on his Quick-Fix pack. Demoman did a long drink from his scrumpy bottle as he walked into the portal. Pyro giggled insanely as he waltzed into the portal. Sniper removed his hat as he entered the portal, followed by Scout who took a drink from a can of Crit-A-Cola. Soldier marched professionally into the portal with Engineer, with Spy entering last, a cigarette burning between his lips.

Once Spy entered the portal, the portal sealed itself behind him, leaving the Blu command center empty once again. Both Red and Blu base sat empty, devoid of any life save for the occasional rat and the flock of doves in either Medic's offices. Suddenly, the Administrator's intercom crackled to life.

"Where have they all gone!?"