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The last match of the day had just ended, the Red team is unwinding, putting their gear back and relaxing, but something just feels… off. With Medic specifically. Heavy caught it first, after Medic came back from respawn earlier acting weird. He tried to get to the doctor so he could uber him again but Medic just ran off, he didn’t think too much about it at first but after he found the man crouched over the Blu Scout’s body, elbow deep in his guts, pulling out organs and biting into them, he knew that something was wrong.
Medic is an eccentric man usually, but not to this extent. Heavy knows Medic, personally, and the man is not a cannibal… atleast not to his knowledge. But even if he was, if he is, at that moment he looked almost rabid. So Heavy left him be, afraid — an emotion he has never felt, not towards Medic — that he would be the man’s next victim.
Heavy quickly left Medic to do… well whatever he was doing and for the rest of the match Heavy — and for that matter the rest of the team — didn’t see any more of Medic. He disappeared off to who-knows-where to do who-knows-what.
Following Heavy’s discovery, the other mercs quickly found things about Medic’s behavior to be strange. Namely the newfound staring.
Back at base, their gear all put away, the team is relaxing from the match, each member in their own way. But a majority are in the ‘common room’ of the base playing cards or talking. Normally Medic would have headed straight back to his lab following the match but he’s currently sitting on a raggedy chair, blankly looking at Scout whose awkwardly trying to talk to Sniper — a hard feat with the feeling of Medic staring holes through his.
After a few minutes of this weird staring, Scout gets fed up and decides to confront Medic. He cuts Sniper off midway through a sentence by standing up and stomping over to Medic.
“What the hell is your problem man?”
The room goes silent, the others in the room — even Soldier — go still, wanting to hear the confrontation. Scout’s question is one that has been playing in the back of all the merc’s heads but no one, not until now, has been brave enough to actually voice it.
Medic doesn’t respond verbally, simply looking upward to Scout who is standing over him, arms crossed.
“Why’re you bein so creepy? Stop fuckin staring at me!” Scout gets more and more irritated the more Medic continues staring at him, not saying a word.
“You’re a fuckin creep man!” Scout turns around and just as he’s about to walk away, Medic pounces.
Scout is tackled to the ground and the rest of the room erupts into panic. Scout lets out a scream as Medic grabs his arm and starts pulling, seeming to be trying to pull the thing off. Medic’s mouth opens into a grin, every tooth apart from the incisors are sharpened to points.
Medic bites down on Scout’s shoulder, using his teeth to help him rip the arm off.
“WHAT THE FUCK! HELP YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES, COME ON.” He screams to the rest of the room and with that Heavy rushes over, grabbing Medic from under his arms like a child. He tries to pull the older man off but he’s latched onto Scout like a parasite.
“GET HIS FUCKING TEETH OFF MY ARM! HES GONNA BITE IT OFF!”
Heavy moves a hand to grab Medic’s jaw and pulls at it to unlatch his teeth from Scout’s shoulder. He takes the small opening to pull Medic back, then moves the hand on his jaw to Medic’s arms to pull them away from Scout’s arm. Finally, he fully has Medic in his grasp, no longer holding on to Scout.
Scout quickly shuffles back, looking absolutely terrified. His arm hangs limply on the floor, at the very least it looks dislocated but with how hard Medic was tugging, there’s a chance of parts of the skin or muscle being torn.
Medic breathes out heavily, the corners of his mouth still curled into a grin. Blood drips from his teeth onto the floor before Medic licks them, savoring the taste of the blood. He doesn’t fight back against Heavy’s hold, seeming to find it futile, but he continues to stare wide-eyed at Scout.
“What the fuck was that?! The hell is wrong with him?!” Scout exclaims, trying, and failing, to get off of the floor.
After a second failed attempt Sniper moves over and helps Scout up. Scout curses as his arm is jostled by Sniper, who quickly apologizes. Once Scout is up on his feet he glares back at Medic, then looks over to Heavy.
“You should get him the hell outa here. I dunno what happened but he isn’t safe ta be around.” Scout sounds weirdly serious, and Heavy notes that immediately.
If Scout is being serious then he needs to act. He nods and carries Medic, who is still limp in his arms and staring forward, towards his room where he can be kept for the foreseeable future.
Scout immediately feels relief when Medic is out of the room. The man always gave him the creeps but he was never this bad. Sure, he might steal a kidney or replace your liver while you were out cold but he’d never outwardly attack someone like a rabid dog.
“What do ya think happened to ‘im?” Sniper asks.
“Hell if I know,” Scout replies, sitting down on a chair. “But now no one can fix my arm, since Medic is the only one who knows how to do that shit.”
“I can bandage it up for ya. It might not be a permanent fix but it’ll work until ya can respawn next match.”
“Thanks.”
Sniper simply nods in response.
—
Heavy closes the door of Medic’s room behind the two of them. It’s a small room with just a bed and a tiny wardrobe, Medic spends most of his time in his lab so there’s no reason for him to have a large room.
Medic sits on his bed, following Heavy’s movements with his eyes as the larger man walks around the room to see if there’s anything Medic could use to hurt someone or himself — basically baby-proofing it.
After deeming everything safe enough Heavy turns back to Medic.
“Stay.” He commands before turning and leaving the room, locking it from the outside.
Medic, to his credit, listens and stays seated on the bed while Heavy goes off to find Engineer. He has a feeling that the respawn machine was the cause of this, after all he started seeing Medic act oddly following his death.
He knocks on the metal doors of Engineer’s workshop, he hears a muffled “Come in!” from inside and pushes a door open.
“Need help”
Engineer looks up from what he’s working on and over to Heavy, greeting him with a smile.
“Straight to business then, whaddya need help with?”
“Doktor”
The reply makes Engineer’s smile falter and turn to more of a confused frown.
“Medic? Is he alright?”
“Doktor bite Scout. Like rabid animal.”
“Wait, bit Scout? When?”
“Now. Heavy thinks it is respawn machine. Doktor die and then start acting odd.”
“You think that the respawn machine is broken or malfunctioning?”
“Yes.”
“Alright then, I’ll take a look at it but first I’d like to see Medic.”
“Okay. Follow.”
Heavy walks out the door and Engineer stands up and quickly follows behind.
After a minute of walking they get to Medic’s room, Heavy unlocks the door and the two men enter. Inside Heavy spots Medic sitting in the same spot he was in when Heavy left. Medic smiles over at Engineer and Heavy, it’s a weak smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Medic, how’re you feelin’?”
“As well as I alvays feel” Medic replies, his lips opening into a grin that shows his teeth, still lightly speckled with blood.
The sight makes Engineer feel uneasy.
“I, uh, heard ya bit Scout? Why’d ya do that?” Engineer speaks to medic how one would to a small child. He’s careful, worried about spooking Medic or angering him too much — he usually wouldn’t worry about that type of thing with Medic but in this state who knows what will happen.
“Ah, he just looked so tasty, and I couldn’t help myself. You know how it is.”
“… alright then.” The room stays quiet for a second before Enginner nods and turns to leave, whispering to Heavy on his way out. “I’ll take a look at the respawn machine.” Heavy nods and Engineer exits the room, the door closing after him.
— —
“So, you were right about the respawn machine. It malfunctioned and tweaked some parts of Medic’s brain when he went through it. I fixed it, so hopefully he’ll go back to normal next respawn though there’s still a chance he won’t, but it’s best not to dwell on that, it won’t be no help.”
— —
“Mission begins in ten seconds.”
The voice booms over the loud speaker. Everyone in the team is ready to go and capture the Blu team’s control points, but Heavy is more preoccupied on something else.
He keeps an eye on Medic, who is grinning wildly in front of him, bone saw in hand.
As the voice counts down to zero Heavy plays his plan over in his head, he’d prefer not to do it this way but there’s really no other way to this. And he’d like Medic to go back to normal as soon as possible.
The voice gets to one and the team rushes out. Heavy grabs onto Medic’s forearm and drags him away.
“Heavy? What are you doing?”
“Trust me.”
Medic might not be in the right mindset at the moment but he’ll always trust Heavy, so he goes along with the larger man.
The spot Heavy drags Medic to is an area that he often avoids as the main spot where the Blu Sniper camps out has a clear view of it. He looks up and, just as he expected, spots the Blu Sniper pointing his gun directly at the two of them. Just before he shoots Heavy moves Medic directly infront of him and Medic gets shot through the head, his blood splattering onto Heavy.
Heavy drops the body and rushes into a building, out of the view of Sniper.
“I’m sorry Doktor” Heavy mutters, hoping that Engineer was right and Medic would respawn and be back to normal. But he can only wait and see.