For avengersass-embled on Tumblr.

This one hasn't been beta read, so any and all mistakes are my entirely fault. Unless you personally would like to take full responsibility for them. I can roll with that.

1.55

The BLU Spy respawns, fuming and swearing to himself in French. He'd been so close to the enemy intelligence before that damn Soldier blew him up. Engineer glances at him as he goes to fetch more metal, but says nothing.

1.56

Spy regrets taking the open route. With the way the rain and sleet is lashing down, it's wetter out there than the sewers would have been.

1.57

He can't help but let himself get sidetracked, the RED Demoman too busy laying down a sticky bomb trap to watch his back.

Perfect.

1.58

He's halfway between the bases now. No man's land. He's got Sniper to thank for the lack of a Heavy and Medic combo waiting to mow him down. But he's a proud man; he doesn't thank anyone for anything.

Least of all snipers.

1.59

Thunder rumbles and rolls across the sky so loud that for a moment even the sound of exploding rockets is lost in the din.

2.00

Lightning strikes. It hits the wooden roof of the RED building nearest to Spy. It's a good thing the rain's so heavy else there might have been a fire. And it's a good thing lightning never strikes the same place twice or else Spy might have had to worry for his well being.

He cloaks.

2.01

Crack!

2.16

Spy respawns, more frustrated than ever. He'd done everything perfectly and been about to enter the enemy base, only to be hit by lightning of all things. Engineer's back for more metal. He looks up, startled by the French curses filling the air.

2.18

He takes the sewer route this time. Spies might hate the filth of them, but they are at home slinking through the shadows all the same.

2.24

The BLU decides to cloak, but catches himself just in time. Turns out he must have hit the button already without thinking about it. It's happened before.

It can be awkward sometimes, thinking you are cloaking as an enemy approaches, only to realise you were already invisible beforehand. Those deaths have always been rare but intensely embarrassing.

Spy pretends they've never happened.

2.27

His timing is off, horribly off. That Soldier's running past him again, and as attuned to his weapons as he is, Spy knows he's only got a second left before the cloak drops.

2.28

Except it doesn't. The Soldier passes straight on by. Spy peers down at his watch, confused. According to the symbol on the side, he's only used two seconds of it.

2.29

Spy moves further down the corridor, staring at it and wondering if he's gone mad. This isn't his Cloak and Dagger, is it? No, it can't be. This is clearly his stock Invisiwatch, the two look nothing alike.

2.30

But if it's not going down while standing still and it's not going down while moving around, then what the hell is going on?

2.31

Extended cloaking, he realises. That's what's going on.

Spies are opportunists, they take what they can get.

He hears the crack of a rifle from somewhere above him. It's a detour away from the briefcase he's after, but once again Spy can't resist the opportunity for a backstab.

Time to check out how long this cloak is going to last

2.35

It's been at least ten minutes and he's still invisible. The RED Sniper's oblivious to his presence, too busy staring down the sight of his rifle to notice the danger hovering behind his back. A smug smile curls at Spy's lips. This is always the fun bit, proving to the Sniper his one fatal flaw over and over again.

Except things don't go quite to plan. It appears at least one of the Invisiwatch rules still apply.

2.36

There's a horrible juddering motion down his forearm as respawn snatches the balisong out of his grip just as it was about to sink straight into the Sniper's back. Of course. You can't stab someone while cloaked.

He yanks his hand away and the knife reappears, though the numb tingling sensation left by its sudden disappearance remains.

It takes a moment for Spy to recover. It's a moment too long.

2.37

The Sniper punches him in the face, his fist swinging in a wide arc. It's not easy to hit someone who's invisible, you have to cover as much of the surrounding area as you can. And it always looks ridiculous when your fist connects with nothing at all.

But it does this time.

A shock wave of blue static sparks from the epicentre and down Spy's body as he stumbles back. Then it's gone, and he's invisible again.

'Fucking Spy!'

The side of his face aches horribly, dull throbs of pain radiating deep into his jaw and down his neck.

He's not about to let the Sniper get away with that. He's going to stay here, invisible and wait for another chance to attack.

2.38

It appears his decision was a mistake.

'I know you're here spook, under that bloody Cloak and Dagger!'

Spy has no time to try and work out how to kill the Sniper despite his cloak. There's a kukri swinging around the room, slicing wildly through the air. He'd laugh at the sight if that blade wasn't getting closer and closer by the second.

He moves, as silently as he can.

A loose floorboard squeaks beneath his feet.

'Got you!'

Spy dodges. The kukri misses.

But he's moving too fast to stay quiet now. The knife sweeps after him, nicks his arm. Spy yelps in pain and claps a hand over the cut.

2.39

He does the only thing he can think of and steps in close. The next slash of the knife misses, the Sniper's elbow slamming into his chest instead. The Sniper repeats the movement and the Spy receives another elbow to the ribs.

He hooks his foot around one of the Sniper's legs and pulls. As the man goes in for another hit, he overbalances and crashes to the ground, his kukri skittering away from him across the floorboards.

Spy stands above him and laughs, clutching at his side.

'You cheating bastard!'

The Sniper pulls himself to his feet and flings himself at Spy. Spy has no time to react, too shocked by the Sniper's accuracy. He doesn't notice the final splutters of blue static from where he came into contact with the marksman.

The Sniper takes him down, the back of his head cracking against the wood below. There's a hand scrabbling for purchase on his suit, looking for an edge to hold onto. Searching for a means to keep him in place.

'You dirty little cheat! How are you still invisible?'

'I don't know,' Spy gasps.

'Like fuck you don't,' the Sniper snarls, bringing his fist down on Spy's face.

2.42

There's little sparks of static crawling all over him as he tries to breath. It's not an easy thing to do, not with such a badly broken nose and the blood oozing down his throat. Spy coughs, the motion agitating his loose teeth. He'd rip his own face off and cast it aside if that was what it took to stop the pain.

Above him, the Sniper's chest is heaving. His fist is pulled back above his head. His knuckles are grazed and his forearm's speckled with blood all the way up to his elbow. He slowly unclenches his fist, hissing as he does so.

It's so easy to forget that hand bones can be such delicate little things. Spy hopes he broke them all.

The damaged hand is placed on Spy's chest to keep him in place while the other releases him. He doesn't see the point, he's not exactly in any state to fight back.

The free hand gropes its way down his arm, leaving more static in its wake. Spy wants to make a scathing remark about that, something to frame the action in the wrong light and embarrass the Sniper. That's always fun to do. But all he can manage is a damp gurgling sound. It's painfully undignified.

A large hand fastens around his wrist, fingers scraping over his watch. The Sniper pushes the button he's seen his team's Spy use a hundred times before.

Nothing happens.

'What the fuck?'

2.43

The Sniper grabs at his other wrist, feeling for another watch. There isn't one.

'How the hell are you still invisible, spook?'

Spy swallows, tasting copper. 'I don't know,' he repeats.

'Don't give me that bullshit, you're trying to cheat. Fat load of good it's done for you. Tell me what you're up to and I'll kill you quick.'

Spy has none of the answers the Sniper's looking for. His death is not quick.

3.02

Well that was horrible.

The one silver lining is that his watch is still malfunctioning to his advantage. Spy's respawned still invisible, and itching to test out what he can actually get away with when the enemy Sniper isn't around to ruin everything. He can't backstab, he knows that now, and he's still got to avoid contact with the enemy team. But can he use a sapper? Grab the intelligence? It's going to be a pain if he can't, but Spy figures he can always just take the watch off when he's got the chance to do either thing.

3.04

He's taking the top route again. Spy's still got to dodge bullets and rockets but it's incredible being able to head straight towards the enemy base without having to take constant detours to pick up more metal for his cloak.

3.05

'Alert! The enemy has taken our intelligence!' the administrator booms through his earpiece. Spy flinches and swears. His own team's Heavy and Medic are in the way of him infiltrating any deeper into the enemy base. Heavy's bulk is filling the narrow corridor and there's no point trying to get past thanks to the RED just around the corner. Spy wishes Medic were somewhere else. If it wasn't for him, Heavy would be dead by now and the sentry would be nice and idle.

3.09

Finally, both of them are dead. Good. Well, not good really, but it frees up the corridor.

Spy runs past the level two sentry with regret. He'd love to stay and sap the awful thing while its Engineer's away, but there's no time. The BLU intelligence has been dropped twice already, but it sounds as though it's getting closer to the enemy base all the same.

He hasn't got much time.

3.11

There it is. Unguarded. Alone. Ripe for the taking. He's just got to-

'You lose!'

Spy groans and lets his right hand fall away from his wrist. He was so close.

Now it's time to hide and to pray none of the REDs find him before the humiliation round is over.

He glances down at himself, at the faint blue shimmer that only he can see. His cloak should have deactivated as soon as they lost.

Spy smirks. Let the enemy try and find him while his unlimited cloak is still working!

3.35

He saunters back into the BLU base, feeling smug. No humiliating final death for him, so sir indeed. His broken watch certainly has its advantages.

As he heads to his room, Spy lets his mind wander as he imagines what he could do with this wonderful new opportunity. A thousand potentials present themselves, each more appealing than the last.

He can go anywhere, get his hands on anything. No jewels or bank notes or priceless antiques are safe from a man who can crack any vault, pick any lock, pull any heist, and remain completely undetectable the entire time.

Spy was quite the art thief before he joined BLU. Now, once his contract was over, he could get back into the game and become unstoppable.

What might they call him? The ghost? Le fantome? The Invisible Man?

He would be incredible, his nickname splashed across the headlines of every newspaper. But never his face.

3.36

Spy lets himself into his room with a happy sigh. He decides that after a nice long shower, he might see what tricks he can pull on his team mates now. Spy mustn't let them find out how he's getting away with things though. No doubt they'd report him to the Administrator despite his infinite cloak being an advantage to the whole team.

Humming to himself, Spy pulls off his jacket and hangs it up in his wardrobe. He takes off his malfunctioning watch and places it carefully inside his bedside table. Straightening up, he catches sight of himself in his bedroom mirror.

Or at least, he expects too.

The shock is so strong it's painful.

He has no reflection.

It takes a moment to process, a numb feeling settling in that's chased away by horror a second later.

The watch is off.

He's still invisible.

The watch is off.

But he's still invisible.

'Non. No. This is not possible.'

Glancing down at himself, all he can see if the blue shimmer of his cloak. Looking up, nothing. The mirror reflects a world in which Spy doesn't exist.

3.37

It's a minute before he can force himself to stop panicking and come up with a plan. He yanks open the drawer again, the contents rattling, and snatches up his broken watch.

Spy is prideful man, and a loner. He doesn't like to admit he needs help. But damn does he need help right now.

3.40

Scout's the first person he spots, heading out of the kitchen as he bites into an apple. He's taken the thing about apples and doctors to heart.

'Scout!'

His team mate looks around in alarm, already halfway down the corridor

'Scout, am I invisible?'

The younger man raises his eyebrows at the odd question and looks around.

'Well, yeah.' He narrows his eyes. 'What's your game, man?'

'No game,' the Spy assures, trying to keep his voice calm and even. 'I just needed to check.'

Scout rolls his eyes and mutters something underneath his breath as he turns around and heads on his way.

Spy's half tempted to shout after him, but the words die in his throat.

It's not an easy thing for him to admit even to himself, but he's worried. Well, not worried, concerned. Just a little bit. But not enough to tell Scout what's wrong though. It's not as if the boy would be of any help with the situation anyway. Knowing him, he'd probably just laugh.

He needs someone who knows all about fiddly machinery and impossible contraptions.

Spy knows just the man.

3.44

'Engineer- Ouch!'

He takes a wrench to the gut before he manages another word. He reels back, clutching at his stomach. Engineer goes in for another swing.

'Stop! Stop, I'm on your team!'

'Then what are you doing sneaking up on me from behind?'

'Habit?' Spy suggests weakly.

'And why are you still cloaked?'

'Ah, that's the matter I wished to discuss with you if you have a free mo-'

'Not buying it,' Engineer interrupts, raising the wrench again.

Spy holds his hands up in surrender, before remembering that the other man can't see him.

'You sleep with a plush bear in your bed that you call "Teddy Roosebelt"'

Engineer hesitates, as much from embarrassment as anything else.

'You told us when we went out drinking on Heavy's birthday,' Spy adds to seal the deal. He doesn't mention that he already knew of the bear's existence from snooping around the base. That kind of thing wasn't good for fostering trust.

'O-kay. So, say I believe you're BLU, what do you want?'

'Ah, well I have a small problem and thought that you might possibly be the man to fix it.'

'Ahuh?' The Engineer still sounds sceptical. 'Something up with your gear, is it?'

'Well, yes,' Spy admits. 'I'm stuck.'

'Stuck in what way?'

Spy puts his watch down on the nearest counter and steps away.

'Oh,' Engineer says, staring from behind his goggles at the watch and then to the place where he can hear Spy shifting around restlessly.

He's always been one who's quick on the uptake.

4.32

'I'm sorry spook, but that's me clean out of ideas.' His apology sounds sincere, and as a bonus Engineer hasn't laughed at Spy's predicament even once. He's been too engrossed in trying to solve it to make fun of his least favourite team mate. But they've been working on the issue for nearly an hour now and nothing has worked.

Engineer's taken the watch apart and put it back together three times. He's sent Spy off to fetch all his other watches and messed with them too. He's tried various settings on his dispensers and invented a couple of brand new ones. He's got Spy to disguise and un-disguise, to wear all his watches at once and to put himself through respawn under a variety of different conditions.

Nothing has done anything but give Spy a couple of painful electric shocks and make him even more stressed than ever.

He's feel worried and irritable now, and his feelings have been compounded by Engineer's refusal to allow him to smoke in his workshop.

'I wouldn't be telling you this if I thought there was another option, but I think you're going to have to see the doc.'

Spy gives a tight nod, accepting his fate.

Then he remembers Engineer can't see it.

'Oui,' he agrees in defeat.

5.57

It's even worse than he expected. Not only does Medic laugh at the issue for a good five minutes, put him through respawn another dozen times and subject him to numerous pointless experiment (most of which hurt), it also takes him even longer than Engineer to finally come to the conclusion that he can't help.

'Well, I'm all out of suggestions, herr Spy.'

Spy slumps down on the edge of the examination table, staring at the tiled floor below his feet.

'All I can recommend you to do is to wait it out. It can't last forever. Until then, look on the bright side! You can wander around the base with your mask off all you like and no one will ever know.'

'Thank you for your time,' Spy says, his voice flat. He doesn't want to take off his mask. He just wants to stop being invisible.

7.43

It's dinner time and he's still cloaked.

As expected, Scout thinks the situation in hilarious. He keeps making ghost related jokes and says, 'Hey, you're a real spook now!'

Spy points out that 'spook' is just slang for spy, so technically he's always been a spook. Scout refuses to drop it all the same.

Spy sits down at the table with a sigh.

Heavy comes in and accidentally sits on him.

7.44

Spy prods at his food morosely. Every time he lifts his fork up to his mouth the rest of the team stares. He has to admit it must be quite disconcerting the way the chicken disappears off the end of his fork into apparent nothingness. All the same, he wishes they'd stop. His appetite is poor enough as it is.

7.50

Sniper finishes his meal in record time, dumps his dishes in the sink and bolts for the door. Spy expects him to be one to mock him the most, but it appears that having a permanently invisible spy at the table is just the kind of thing to make Sniper feel jittery and anxious. Usually it was fun bothering the Sniper, but even that can't lift his spirits tonight.

Especially when Pyro is fidgeting and staring at him from across the table, their gloved fingers twitching against the trigger of an imaginary flamethrower. It is clear that Sniper isn't the only one who finds the situation unsettling, except where as the Australian simply retreats away to his van, Pyro's likely to start setting things on fire soon.

Spy decides that he's had enough of the meal and retreats to his room before Pyro can start splashing gasoline in his direction.

10.30

It's a slow, lonely evening. He sits in his smoking room, glaring at the fire flickering in the hearth and steadily working his way through a pack of cigarettes.

Wait until it wears off. That's his only choice.

But who knows how long that might take?

He could wake up in the morning all back to normal, or the cloak could finally fade away one day when he's old and ugly and there's no one around any more who knows his face. He has done rather a good job of hiding it these last few years, after all.

3.57

It's an even slower, lonelier night. He lies awake, fretting and thinking and completely unable to sleep.

I can steal anything I want from anywhere, he reminds himself.

What's the point? another voice asks.

I can steal the crown jewels right out of London Tower and give them to my petit chou fleur.

She'll never see my face again. I can't go to her like this. I can't let her see-well, not see, me like this.

I can do anything I want.

There's so much I can't do ever again.

It's not all bad.

Yes. It is. It's terrible. It's terrible it's terrible it's terrible. My loved ones, few and far between as they are, will never see me again. I'm a shadow. A ghost. The Invisible Man.

But it can't last forever. Medic said so. It can't last forever. There's always hope.

Right?

4.43

Spy finally drifts off to sleep, his dreams filled with diamonds he can't touch, invisible flames licking at his heels and the laughter of the people he cares about enjoying their lives without him.

7.30

Spy's alarm rings, jolting him awake.

He blinks groggily, wondering for a moment why he feels so tired and miserable.

Then it all comes back to him as he reaches out a hand and slams it down on his alarm clock.

A transparent arm.

His throat tightens as he stares through it at the bedside cabinet beneath his hand.

Invisible.

Still invisible.

He'd hoped-

Why had he allowed himself to hope?

7.47

Spy drags himself out of bed. He doesn't want to face the day. Or his team mates.

Out of habit and vanity, he glances at his mirror.

Nothing.

Except-

He leans in close, breath fogging up the glass, searching.

Searching.

There!

A hint of blue static, even though nothings touching him. A slight shimmer in the air. The faintest outline of a human being.

Maybe it won't fade away any further than this.

Maybe he's going to be stuck semi-visible for the rest of his life.

But a tiny seed of hope has planted itself in the Spy's heart, and hesitantly, carefully, he allows it to grow.

Never tried writing in this style before or spent so long working in present tense. It was fun to do though. Let me know your thoughts and comments on it if you've got the time!