Author's Note: First of all, I have no idea if I plan to get back to Anywhere Girls or not. The idea is rattling around in my head but it's literally just a matter of finding the right way to form ideas into coherent words.

Secondly, yes. I still exist. I'm working again and settled in one place and maybe (?) that means I'll be writing more but gods only know at this stage.

Thirdly, please, for the love of gods, leave comments. I have no real idea of what I'm doing with the TF2 universe and things are subject to change in this story without notice, so feel free to toss in your own ideas on this.

Finally, this will get very angsty in parts. Warnings include violence. Lots of violence. But if you're reading this I'm assuming you're a TF2 fan so violence is to be expected.

Dust covered the thick wooden floorboards, muffling the footsteps of the pair as they peered into what looked like a combination between a bathroom and gym change room. A sign beside the giant roller door had labelled the room as RESUPPLY, but the fluorescent tube that had once illuminated the sign had given in to the workings of time, as had the only other sign in the room - INTELLIGENCE.

Torchlight danced over the white-tiled room, and one of the pair stepped forward.

"Heya Toni - check it out!"

The teenager pointed his beam at a collection of lockers, and a bench with clothing discarded on it. He made a move to touch it, but the girl was shaking her head insistently.

"Don't! You know what that mill did to the groundwater - what if that shit's infected as well?"

"I'll take my chances," the boy commented, picking up the discarded vest, "It's like, some sort of military thing. Remember how they used to say the people around here were always fighting? What if this was some old military training place?"

"I doubt it," Antonia sighed, hugging herself. "Look, can we just go and meet up with the others? This place is starting to really creep me out."

The boy, Jacob, shrugged nonchalantly, discarding the vest on the floor. Really, it was a surprise none of the other campers had ever taken it. Maybe Antonia was right, and it was poisoned or something.

"What'd'ya think that meant?" He asked, swinging his torchlight over the INTELLIGENCE sign. An arrow pointed through a small storage room, towards a long corridor that seemed to wind out of sight. Antonia rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"Look, Jesse and Amber haven't radioed back and we agreed to do that as much as we can. I'm worried something happened to them,"

"You know what they're like," Jacob shrugged, peering into the corridor, "Where do you think this goes? It looks like it goes down a long way."

"The sophomores never said," Antonia replied, "Jacob, c'mon. Please!"

"Nobody's ever managed to get that briefcase before," Jacob told her, "Toni, do you know how cool we would be if we were the first ones to bring it back? Nobody could touch us! Screw being stupid freshmen - even the seniors wouldn't be able to talk shit!"

"And what if this whole place is full of radioactive stuff and being here is killing us?"

"You worry too much. I'm gonna check it out."

Antonia hesitated, looking around the creepy wood-walled room as Jacob started down the long corridor. It was a tradition that every single freshman at Teufort High had to spend a night in the creepy old compounds in the desert, not far from the town, and Antonia had reluctantly followed her best friend Amber into the agreement. A senior had dropped them at the gates of this place at sunset, along with some food and water, and promised to return for them at sunrise. Antonia and Amber, along with Amber's boyfriend Jesse and his best friend Jacob, had entered the compound through a small gap in the wire fence. A sign hanging on the fence had proclaimed the place to be called "2fort", along with various warnings about trespassers risking being shot. The place had once been owned by some company called TF Industries, but, like all the other TF Industries compounds near Teufort, had been abandoned and condemned in the mid-70s.

"Jacob, wait up!"

Antonia hurried along the corridor, torchlight bouncing off the white walls and polished floor. Unlike the rest of this part of the base, this part actually seemed to be made to be bulletproof.

The challenge for most of the freshman campers was simple: survive an entire night in the place without wimping out, and you'd avoid the typical freshman bullying for the year. The senior that had dropped them off had explained a lot of things he'd learned from his Pop about the place, especially about how the old sawmill leaked chemicals into the groundwater. His Pop was supposedly one of the only non-crazy people over forty in the town, and the student had even regaled them with a story about how a few of the contractors who were supposed to protect the compounds had almost been hanged for various crimes once.

Teufort had a colourful history, but unfortunately nobody around their age really cared for history of any sort.

Antonia saw Jacob had stopped at the bottom of the spiralling passageway, and hurried to catch up to him before he ran off again. "Look, can we please- Whoa!"

They had stopped in the doorway to a large room with several more passageways branching off, staring at the huge wall in front of them. The wall to their right was a huge window, overlooking some sort of underground complex, while the ceiling of the room was very clearly carved from bedrock.

"It looks like one of those old 70s computers," Jacob said, moving towards it, "But... some of this stuff looks too tech for the 70s. What the hell?"

Antonia swung her torch beam over the rest of the room, noticing another RESUPPLY sign in one direction, and another INTELLIGENCE sign pointing towards one of the corridors.

"You think this was some old kind of power plant?" Jacob asked, looking over the wall of tech, "Most of this looks like powerboard sort of stuff, except that... it's way more than what a place like this would need."

Antonia pushed back the foreboding feeling as she peered down the marked hallway. She could sense... something was close. Intangible, and probably dangerous, but this whole new discovery seemed, well, pretty damn cool. Suddenly, they weren't just in some creepy old fort built in the 1800s - this place was evidence of the Australium theory, surely? There was no way they'd have the power to run computers or anything the scale of what she had seen through the window, not without Australium.

"What if this... "intelligence" stuff," she began hesitantly, "What if it's actually a stash of Australium?"

Jacob looked up at her, clearly confused. "Huh?"

"Only the most valuable substance in existence," Antonia stressed, "There used to be heaps of it but since the seventies, there's been, well, hardly any. There's a couple of tiny reserves of it in Australia, but the cost of actually drilling that deep to reach it is almost the same as the cost as the stuff itself. Don't you listen in science class?"

"I only listened in one science class," Jacob admitted, "That time we were talking about anatomy. And I got nothin' out of it, so I stopped botherin'."

Antonia rolled her eyes again. "Okay well, rundown, y'know how Australians used to be a global superpower, even better than America? That was because of Australium. None of the stupid Cold War stuff, and they didn't even need nukes or to threaten people to get what they wanted. They were just nice. Really weird, but nice. So nobody really got on their bad side, so they never really had anyone trying to start wars, even though they had all this Australium. And the stuff itself, you could do anything with it. Teleporters, machines that made sure you never died, even cloning stuff - it was all because of Australium. Then in the seventies, the reserve just dried up. The only stuff left is so low in the earth's crust that to dig it up would cost trillions of dollars, and also maybe accidentally tap the mantle - that's the lava part of the planet, where volcanoes basically come from. It's too dangerous and too expensive,"

Jacob had stopped inspecting the powerboards, and was frowning as he thought carefully. "And you think this intelligence these signs keep pointing to, that it's Australium?"

Antonia shrugged. "I don't see why not."

"So if we take it, then not only will we be coolest kids in school but we'll also be super rich?"

"Yep,"

Jacob was predictable, and that was why Antonia had brought it up - she didn't want to go down that hallway alone, or be the first one in case it was booby-trapped. Jacob, however, didn't think of these things, instead making a beeline straight down the hallway. Antonia followed hurriedly, torchlight bouncing about as she jogged to catch up.

The hallway ended in a room that was mostly empty, except for a desk in one corner with a large red case on it, and two weird-looking contraptions. One of them looked like a camera on a tripod, except much smaller, and the lens seemed to be pointing at the ground. The other device looked even more odd - a H-shaped base, upon which something that looked like two arms was balanced. Small circles at the outermost end of each arm gave off the faintest red glow, and Antonia found herself staring at it in confusion.

Jacob, however, marched straight over to the red case on the desk and looked it over. A small panel on one side had a pair of lights and a few buttons, while the clips looked like typical locking mechanisms for a normal suitcase or briefcase.

"Should we open it?" He asked, "Or just take it?"

"I don't know," Antonia admitted, following him into the room, "I mean, we've got all night to look at it, but..."

Jacob looked at the panel on the case. "Do you feel like staying down here?" He asked, looking at Antonia. She shrugged.

"I mean, it doesn't seem as creepy as upstairs."

"Yeah, I guess," Jacob chewed his lip, "'Cos I don't know if I can get it open. I should be able to, but... If this panel has something to do with it, then it might be tricky,"

"The other room was less creepy," Antonia admitted, looking at the camera-looking thing, "I think we camp in there. Upstairs just feels like it might actually have ghosts wandering around."

"Ha, ghosts don't scare me," Jacob said, grabbing the case and pulling it off the desk. "Whoa, this is heavy!"

As soon as the case left the desk, a red light in the corner began to flash and an old woman's voice called out from hidden speakers seemingly surrounding them.

"The enemy has stolen our intelligence!"

Jacob, still dragging the case, backed away from the desk as Antonia pressed herself against the wall. A whirring noise had begun, and as she looked over, she saw that the lights on the weird armed device had begun to glow brighter, the arms whirring around in a circle until the light seemed to be a disc.

"What's going on? This place shouldn't even have power!" Jacob cried. Antonia kept her eyes on the whirring disc as the light seemed to gather together in the centre. The air felt like it was being sucked out of the room suddenly, and there was a blinding flash from the device.

Antonia screamed as a gunshot went off, and Jacob threw himself aside, dropping the case as he hit the ground, screaming as well. Antonia backed herself into the corner as the man charging towards them stopped suddenly, his scowl turning to a look of surprise.

"The enemy has dropped our intelligence!"

The contraption in the corner slowed its whirring, then picked up, whirring louder and faster. The same sensation of all air being sucked out of the room happened again, and then another man appeared in a flash of light.

Even being from the Badlands, Antonia had never had a gun pointed at her. Now, though, she found herself facing two of them. Her knees gave out under her and she hit the ground, having backed herself in behind the camera tripod thing. She realised she was crying as the device did it's whirring thing again and for the third time, all the air seemed to draw in around that one point.

"What the hell is this?"

Antonia looked up to see the second man had picked up Jacob by the collar of his shirt, setting him on his feet. "Spy, even you know better than that. C'mon now, show yourself."

Jacob looked frozen, shaking as the Texan man slung his shotgun over one shoulder. He looked pale, and as the first man turned to look at him, he let out a dry sob.

"Engie, somethin's wrong," the first man stated, looking around the room. The only light sources were the flashing red light, the light from the whirring contraption, and the torch beams from the two dropped torches. Antonia stayed where she was, silently praying that the camera thing would keep her somewhat hidden from view.

"I can't pick up anything on the radio," the first man stated, tapping the headset he was wearing. He flicked a microphone down in front of his mouth. "Yo, Spy, Doc. Anybody read?"

"Ach, they cut the power, it looks like," a Scottish voice stated, ignoring Jacob completely, "I'll go see what they've done,"

He brushed past the Texan, who still had a hand on Jacob's shoulder. Jacob, for his part, was trying not to cry - especially so since the first male had turned his gun to point at him.

"There was another one," the first one stated, "What happened to them?"

Antonia realised that he wasn't interrogating Jacob, but the gun pointed at him made it look like he was threatening him. Jacob was frozen, crying, and the Texan looked around the room, spotting Antonia - or rather, what she was hiding behind.

"Well I'll be damned," he said softly, letting go of Jacob's shoulder and walking towards the corner, "Scout, put yer gun away. It's a pair of kids,"

The other male saw Antonia hiding behind the tripod, and scoffed, holstering his gun. "What are kids doing in 2fort?"

"Our intelligence has returned to our base."

Antonia flinched at the woman's voice, which sounded at the same time the case seemed to dissolve into thin air. At the same time, though, it appeared on the desk, exactly as it had been when Jacob had grabbed it.

"Come on out, li'l missy. Sentries aren't good for hiding behind,"

Antonia looked up at the Texan man, who was offering her a hand, and slowly took it. He gently pulled her up, out from behind the sentry, and gestured for her to join Jacob in front of the desk. The other male, Scout, was awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.

"How do we know they're not just Spys?" He asked. The Texan shrugged, expression unreadable behind a pair of welding goggles as he pulled a wrench off his toolbelt.

"I've never seen Spy impersonate a kid, or a girl," he explained, "Say what you will, but he's got standards. All right, kids," he turned to Jacob and Antonia, both flinching as he addressed them. "What are you pair doin' here? I'mma guess you're from Teufort, right?"

Antonia nodded slowly, ever-aware of the scout man staring at them.

"Then what are y'all doin' here?" The Texan asked. Antonia looked at Jacob, who still looked like he was crying. She probably was, too, but she wasn't the one that had been shot at. The Texan, at least, seemed nice.

"W-we w-were meant t-to st-stay the n-night," she explained, voice shaking almost uncontrollably, "I-it's a d-dare ev-very fr-freshman has to do,"

"Wait, it's a freshman dare?" The scout guy asked. Antonia nodded, and he looked at the Texan as the power came back on.

"Got the power," the Scottish man yelled from the next room, "Some of this stuff has so much dust on it, though,"

"Why would y'all send each other to a warzone for a dare?" The Texan asked. Antonia caught her breath for a moment and realised Jacob was still shaking.

"Th-this place has been abandoned since the seventies," she explained, "There's a bunch of compounds in the area, all the same."

The device in the corner began to whir again as the Scottish man returned, and Antonia gasped as the disappearing air sensation struck again. None of the men seemed affected by it, and a bright flash filled the room as she looked back to see a giant mass of human step away from the... whatever it was.

"Something not right," the new arrival said in a thick Russian accent, "Spy is here, but not here."

"Lads," the Scottish man nudged the scout guy roughly, "'E's right. The powerboard's all covered in dust and dirt. Doesn't look like it's been touched for years,"

"Engie, that's your teleporter," the scout told the Texan, who was shuffling his hard hat back and forth, "I was standing with you when you placed it in exactly that spot. Same for that sentry,"

"This room looks exactly like how I left it," the Texan, Engie, agreed, "But there's dust all over the sentry, and it's run out of power - that never happens."

"Why are children here?" The Russian asked, looking at Antonia and Jacob in confusion, "How did you get in?"

"There's a h-hole in the fence," Antonia explained, glancing at Jacob. "I-I can show you. It's how everybody gets in."

"Shit, Scout, did you shoot as soon as you stepped out?" Engie demanded, moving forward and grabbing Jacob's arm. Antonia could see blood seeping through his jacket, near his shoulder.

"Well, yeah, I thought BLU-"

"Heavy, was Medic gonna follow ya?"

"Doktor will follow if I do not return."

"All right," Engie gripped Jacob's arm. "Keep pressure on that for now, son. Our medic can help you once he gets here."

"Wherever here is," the Scotsman stated, looking at Antonia. He and the Heavy guy were both carrying enough weaponry to scare her into silence, and the eyepatch gave him a frightening appearance, but he seemed to be nice. "What's yer name, lass?"

"A-Antonia," Antonia replied.

"Right. Well, I'm Tavish. You alrigh'?"

Antonia nodded slightly, glancing at Jacob. "I'm... Who are you?"