The rest of the team had the same idea of leaving early. Many of them spent their first day of break booking flights, packing, making arrangements and the like.

And for some unknown for mutually understood reason, RED began to use each other's names instead of classes. No one was sure why, but it felt right as they said their goodbyes before leaving.

Some time around three in the morning RED's base came alive. One mercenary would spend some time making last minute checks, making coffee, before they left and the base went quiet once more.

Sniper was the first to leave followed by Soldier, before Engineer, Pyro, Spy, Demoman, and Makina awoke in the RED base somewhere past four in the morning.

Pyro dragged himself to the shower, finding someone already showering in one of the stalls. The firebug just yawned, slipping into one of the other stalls and letting the hot water and steam chase away the cold.

When he got out of the stall, he found Spy buttoning up his undershirt at the mirror. "Hey Spy," Pyro muttered through a yawn as he vigorously rubbed his hair with a towel, flicking water everywhere.

Spy shied away from the tiny drops of water that went everywhere. "Good morning Pyro," He greeted in return, shrugging on his suit jacket. "I'm going to make coffee. Do you want some?" He asked.

Rarely did Spy offer things like this, but he and Pyro were close friends. A strange dynamic, but no one said much about it.

Pyro eyed him. "Yeah, I'll get a cup." Spy nodded and left the bathroom, greeting Engineer as the Texan came in to shower, whistling a little tune.

Spy made enough coffee for the group of REDs he was leaving with. Pouring himself an aromatic cup, he headed back to his smoke room to pull his luggage out.

While he packed enough for the two weeks, it all fit into one luggage trolley for he folded everything and used every bit of space he had. The luggage was locked with his thumbprint. No simple passwords.

He kept his gun and a pure ceramic knife in his jacket, already having plans on getting his weapons through security.

Pyro and Engineer joined him outside soon, followed by Demoman and Makina. They rolled their luggage out to leave by the recreation room door, a small, not-so-neat row of luggage bags of all sorts lying around.

Peering out of the window, Makina saw BLU's base dimly lit too, some figures moving about in the dark. He figured BLU was going places too.

RED's Medic had awoken as the group of REDs were leaving. They wished their Medic goodbye and merry Christmas before leaving, bringing their luggage with them.

As they walked towards the road exit, Spy pulled up his coat a bit further and Pyro flipped up his hoodie. Engineer and Demoman had scarves to keep out the cold.

As they got nearer, they found the BLU Medic, Heavy, and Medibot waiting for them by a car, but it didn't loom big enough to fit all of them.

Pyro did not care, running up to the Medic. "Horst!" He called out, getting a smile from the doctor as the Pyro ran up.

"Good to see you Axel," Horst mentioned. The rest of the former botkiller team came up. Engineer had gone to get his truck around.

"A pleasure indeed," Spy mentioned, shaking hands with the BLUs, though his palm nearly got crushed by the Heavy's iron grip.

"Alexandre," Horst greeted. "I heard zhat you decided vhere ve vould be going."

Spy smiled softly through a cigarette. "It wasn't just me. We've planned to go multiple places. But our first stop is to my home, Marseille."

"Yeah!" Axel chimed in, bouncing like a kid. A rumble got closer and a pair of headlights shone as Engineer pulled up in his truck. The robots would sit in the back of the truck with Engineer driving and Demoman riding shotgun, while in Horst's car Alexandre would ride up front and Heavy would sit in the back with Axel, who was just a little smaller than Demoman.

They got into their respective rides, Alexandre looking behind him at Heavy and Axel in the back. There was space for one more, and he sighed.

Engineer drove off first, Horst following the truck behind. The Medic noticed Spy looking a little deflated. He knew why.

"He vould have loved to be here," Horst commented, referring to Spy's son and former BLU Scout Zack, who died when shot by Olivia and Medibot had no medigun to save him.

Spy smiled. "Yes, he would have. It's a shame he can't be here to come with us."

"He is here in spirit as long as you believe he is, ja? Zhey never truly leave us," Horst replied.

Spy leaned against the window of the car, staring out. "Thank you," He quietly muttered. Horst said nothing in return but a hum of acknowledgement.

The drive to the airport was a little over an hour long. The mercenaries chat throughout the way, catching up even though they saw each other every day on the battlefield. They were no longer on opposing teams. They were friends, family.

When they got to the airport, they parked the car and the truck before heading into the airport. It was nothing fancy. If anything, it was more practical than decorative and pretty. Lit up signs were plain and directed people all over the place.

Around them people buzzed, absorbed in their own worlds and their own plans, hardly stopping for a moment to look at the strange group of people. Makina and Medibot had used Spy's disguise kit to look like normal people.

They got through customs easily, but their weapons on hand did not clear with as much ease. Almost all of them except for the robots, Pyro and Engineer were stopped.

Spy got away producing a pocket watch near his revolver, getting off with a grunt from the security officer not to bring such things on hand in the future. He was also questioned about his mask, which he also got away with using the routine excuse of an injury and faking being embarrassed about it.

The rest wriggled out of questioning with simple answers, usually keeping a harmless metal object near their weapons on hand. Axel cleared security with no issues, for his only weapons were his hands and the flames that came from them.

They made it past, but the robots were complaining about their disguises. Spy hushed them, telling them that it was only temporary.

Spy had booked first class seats on a fairly empty plane. No overbooking would happen if Spy was the one in charge of buying tickets, and they had more than enough money to do so.

The robots sat together, still in their disguises, while the rest spread out considerably. Engineer and Demoman sat together as did Axel and Horst, and Spy sat on his own.

They were offered a selection of wine and champagne, which none of them refused though Demoman was a little disappointed at the lack of strength in the alcohol.

They slept, ate, and played cards throughout the fifteen hour flight, and when they flew over France, it twinkled like a jewel in the night below them.

Spy stretched his legs, delighted to be home. Well, he hadn't been to France in quite a few years, but it was always home no matter how long he went.

As the plane began its descent, he figured now would be a good time to talk to the rest about what they could and could not do.

"So we are in my hometown and I've chosen to be very generous and book one of the nicest hotels I could find. Please, for the love of God do not do anything stupid. And let me do the talking. Disguises for the robots can come off once we're off the plane. Everyone understand?" Spy asked.

There was a chorus of varying levels of agreement from everyone, but Spy was satisfied with the general response and sat back in his seat.

There was still another hour before landing and the plane began to circle as it awaited approval to land. In the time, a pretty stewardess came to offer them more alcohol.

"Can I get the whole bottle?" Demoman asked a surprised stewardess. She called over a senior steward to ask.

"It's an unusual request sir..." The steward began, "the bottle is incredibly expensiv-"

Demoman smacked a handful of hundred dollar bills, more than enough to pay for the entire bottle. Quietly, the steward collected the money and split half with the stewardess before she left the entire bottle at Demoman's table and left without another word.

The bottle was empty in a flat 30 seconds.

As the Scot put down the bottle and licked his lips, he noticed the rest of the group staring at him in a mix of awe, horror, and disgust.

"Wot?" Demoman asked, not understanding why everyone was staring at him.

Axel snickered, "That's impressive."

Spy shot him a look of pure disgust. Champagne was meant to be slowly sipped on and enjoyed, not chugged like some crude vodka or beer or scrumpy.

"Please," Spy muttered, "try not to be so barbaric." He turned away from the Scotsman, trying to enjoy the rest of the flight.

After another twenty minutes of circling, the plane was finally given approval to land. The plane began its controlled descent, barely anything felt as the plane came in contact with the ground. Below in the economy deck, people began to clap.

"Why do they do that?" Makina asked, half mockingly.

"I believe it is because flying a plane is hard vork. Zhey may be congratulating zhe pilot on conquering such a hard task and getting zhem to zheir destination safely," Medibot predicted. But he could be wrong. Humans were hard to predict at times.

Makina's disguised eyes turned a quizzical purple, but said nothing more.

Spy gracefully rose from his seat, while Horst complained a little about how sitting for too long did nothing good for his old bones. "Gentlemen, we are in my hometown. Please act like you usually don't. Which is to say, act like normal people." He turned and sauntered out, kissing the hands of two very pretty stewardesses, who blushed at his charm.

Getting out of the airport was a nightmare. Marseille was a lot more crowded than everyone except Spy expected, and they were caught up in the push and pulls of the crowd like a struggling swimmer against the tides.

Spy had no issue navigating the crowd and finding the quickest but least blocked route, but found himself having to stop every few steps to make sure his friends hadn't disappeared.

Retrieving their luggage was also hard, with the sheer number of bags and trolleys and people all around trying to grab their things.

At some point while waiting for his luggage to come around, a rude local shoved past Axel and swore at him in French to grab his bag. Spy eyed him to see what he would do about it.

While tempted to just burn the man himself, Axel figured he'd kick up too much of a fuss. Instead, he burned the lock holding the suitcase open and melted part of the zip before the Frenchman stalked off. He didn't get three steps before the suitcase fell open and its contents emptied. More French curses were shouted as the man tried to grab all his things and shove them back in his case.

Spy noticed something among the man's belongings. He left his luggage with Makina before coming over, bending down to pick up a tiny ziplock bag of white powder.

Spy knew exactly what that was. As soon as the other man noticed that he had it, he started screaming in French, lunging for Spy who swiftly side stepped the sudden attack, watching the man fall to the floor.

The shouting attracted a group of police officers, who came running up as Makina grabbed the screaming man, his disguise shimmering away. He held the man tight to make sure he couldn't run off.

Spy beckoned for the two Medics they had to come forward. Medibot took the packet and scanned it, his disguise fading too. There were four police officers eyeing him and waiting for him to say something.

"Benzoylmethylecgonine. Or 'cocaine' as you humans call it," Medibot concluded. "30 grams of it."

Makina was still holding tight to the thrashing offender, who could do nothing to wriggle out of the robot's steel grasp.

"Is it true?" One of the officers asked.

"Oui. He is a doctor," Spy confirmed as the sealed bag was passed from Medibot to the officers. One of the other officers tried to find a way to handcuff the offender while in Makina's grasp, but eventually asked the Sniperbot to pin him to the ground to make it easier. There was no way the criminal could get up with the foot of a two hundred pound robot on his back.

The officers thanked Makina, Medibot and Spy before hauling the man off.

Axel crossed his arms. "What, I get no credit for that?" He pouted, though he was exaggerating a little. Spy smirked.

"You would have gotten arrested if they found that you were going about burning people's things," He muttered, nudging the Pyro in the shoulder.

They continued into the sea of people going about the airport, almost having to fight their way out. They all took a breath once they managed to get out of the doors and into the taxi stand, but the relief didn't last as the group saw the queue of people waiting for a cab. It snaked for over a hundred metres, and some people looked a little annoyed at having waited so long.

"Oh no, ve are not vaiting for zhat," Horst scowled at the queue.

Spy laughed. "Do you think I would make you wait for a taxi after flying first class? Non, I rented a car." He snaked through the crowd and headed into the airport's carpark, searching the rows of cars until he found the license plate given to him.

It was a pretty, luxury car, almost a limousine but not quite there yet. Still, it was a luxury car and it was not something many of the mercenaries had the chance to ride before.

Spy slid into the driver's seat, the rest having more than enough room in the back. He wasted no time in driving off, excited to show the rest the room he had booked.

It wasn't a challenge to drive to his neighbourhood, but he passed it in search of their hotel. That too wasn't hard, for it stood tall and shining against the city.

It seemed like Spy was on full-professionalism mode, for when he parked the car, he reminded the rest, "This is a fancy place, so don't act like how you usually do. And let me do the talking." Without another word, he exited, greeting the bellmen in French as they came over to bring their luggage in. He didn't need to speak French, given that the hotel was popular among international guests, but it made him feel a little more home. And perhaps later in other countries, he'd try to sharpen his skills in other languages.

As Spy booked in, the rest were wandering around. A few people stared at Makina and Medibot, curious about them though they didn't seem frightened. In fact, people were so busy that they went unnoticed. Spy however, didn't slip by so easily.

"Excuse me sir, but I'm afraid you'll have to take off the mask," The lady at the reception mentioned quietly.

Spy always had a way about dodging the question. A spy never revealed his identity. "Ah, I'm afraid I cannot. I sustained some injuries during an accident…" He trailed off, as if embarrassed to talk about it.

She quickly lowered her head, ashamed to have asked such a personal thing. "Oh- I am so sorry sir, I'll have you booked in right away."

The receptionist produced a set of eight key cards, all of which would access the same room. Spy handed out the key cards to the rest of them, keeping one for himself. He ushered them from the golden lobby to the lifts before anyone else questioned them.

Their room was on the top floor, a presidential suite with more than enough room for all of them. There was a kitchen - not that any of them would use it, a massive television set, even a balcony with another dining table. The whole thing was lit by a beautiful chandelier, and suddenly Spy was very worried about how it was going to turn out by the time they left.

"Vell now, zhis is all very fancy. How much did it cost?" Horst couldn't help but ask as he sank into one of the chairs by the television.

Makina's eyes turned a deep pink. He had helped Spy with the booking of the hotels for a few of the destinations. "Maybe it's best if we don't tell you that."

"Expensive, is all I will say," Spy chipped in, "if we are to be in my hometown, then I choose to impress."

Axel and Demoman instantly darted around, looking for the best room in the area. Medibot rolled up to one of the windows, admiring the view of the harbour below, where lots of yachts floated and bobbed on the glimmering sea. He was entranced by the gorgeous view, and Makina joined him at the window to admire the night view.

Spy went around to find a room to claim, taking a brief walk about the suite to identify exits and possible entrances should anything go wrong. And with the mercs around, something was bound to go wrong.

He claimed a bedroom with a queen size bed and an en-suite bathroom. The bathroom had a view of the harbour too, but the window was darkened to prevent people outside from looking in.

As Spy unlocked his luggage, Axel poked his head in. "Hey Alexandre, are we going out tonight?" The firebug asked.

Spy looked up. He considered taking a hot shower and relaxing, but the night was still young and he figured he could take them to try real French cuisine. The good stuff.

"Oui. Try to dress a little nicer, if you're capable of it," Spy instructed. Axel grinned and ran off, calling for the rest to change.

Spy was already in his suit like always and did not need to change, but he shrugged off his suit jacket and carried it with him instead. He already had an idea on where he wanted to bring them, which was a little more casual but likely fancier than the other mercs had ever been.

He expected Horst to dress well, and he did not fail, opting for a blazer over his button up instead of his work coat. Demoman came as a surprise however, dressed rather sharply in a button up, jacket, and a tasteful red scarf for a pop of colour.

"I must say, the drunk has surprised me already. I expected you to dress like you always do. Which is to say, sloppy," Spy commented.

Demoman was proud of himself. To receive a compliment from Spy was like winning all the money in the world. "Aye, me mum always told me if I were to some fancy schmancy place, better look the part."

Heavy dressed well too, a white button-up topped with a heavy coat with bear fur.

Axel and Engineer did not try too hard, which Spy expected. Axel just had a coat that wasn't a hoodie on, and Engineer added a scarf and replaced his overall with a comfy pair of pants.

The Pyro rolled his eyes. "My mom told me to just show that you have cash. No one gives a damn what you're wearing after that."

He was true, of course, as everyone saw on the plane with Demoman buying a $400 bottle of champagne without blinking.

"Alright, stop bickering," Spy said firmly, "robots, are you coming with us?"

Makina nudged Medibot to see if he wanted to come. "Vell, ve can't eat but I'd love to come anyvay," Medibot mentioned. Recently he had learned this thing humans called cooking. It looked very interesting, and Medibot was keen to learn. Makina agreed to come too, figuring maybe he could unlock a couple of new emotions out in a new environment.

Spy brought them out of the hotel, but before they left he noticed a man shouting at the pretty receptionist that had served them earlier in the night when they booked in.

"Vhat is going on?" Horst asked, peering over.

Spy frowned. "Wait here," He instructed to the group before walking over. As he got closer, the man threw a ring at the receptionist and demanded that she wear it.

Spy stepped between her and the furious man - her husband, he assumed, for he had a matching ring around his finger. "Sir, do not throw things at staff," Spy growled.

"Who the hell are you? Her lover? Stay the fuck out of my way frog," He spat. Spy was very tempted to take out his knife.

"I'm a person who won't stand to see someone get abused by you," Spy replied evenly.

Makina figured the man wasn't going to stop but Spy couldn't draw his weapon in a crowded hotel lobby, so he and Medibot came up to back Spy.

The man's face dropped in shock at the two robots for a second, but he attempted to regain his composure. His attempt immediately failed when Medibot rolled forwardly threateningly and the gatling gun in him popped out of his shoulder and began to whirr.

"Okay, okay! Bloody bastard," He spat. Looking beyond the robots and at the woman, he pointed a finger at her. "I want to see you wearing the fucking ring when I come back or I'll do what I did last time!" With that, the man stalked out, accompanied by Medibot with his gun still active until the man got into a cab and drove off.

Medibot rolled back, tilting his head at the rest who hoped no one was going to call the police at having revealed a weapon. "Vhat?"

"I didn't know you had it in you, Doc," Makina commented. Behind them, Spy spoke to the receptionist.

"Oh, zhat's nozhing. My job is to protect. From all forms of harm, I suppose," Medibot replied. He noticed Spy slip the receptionist a piece of paper before he took the ring that the man had thrown at her and thanking her.

"What was that?" Heavy asked.

Spy pocketed the ring. It was the receptionist's wedding ring. "She revealed to me that that was her abusive husband. She has tried to file a divorce but apparently he is part of a gang that won't let her divorce."

Engineer shook his head. As a faithful and loving husband himself, he hated nothing more than domestic violence. "I reckon we could pay him a visit," He mentioned thoughtfully.

Axel grinned. "Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

The idea to kill the receptionist's abusive husband and his gang rippled through the group wordlessly. Spy straightened his jacket. "Yes."