Episode 02 - Endless Greed

**Endless Greed** is the second episode of The Scratched Universe. It was released in July 12, 2020.

## Summary

### Chapter 1 - Quiet

During an ordinary day of fragging duty, a RED Heavy joined a 24/7 Halloween server - spawning in the RED team. The match had begun just a few moments before he joined. As he prepared himself to leave spawn, he bumped into a friendly RED Medic missing his glasses, who had been wearing a Medic's Mountain Cap, a Quadwrangler, and a Mercenary Medal. The Heavy greeted him, and in response the Medic acknowledged him, though would not join him outside the spawn room until later. As he left the spawn, the Heavy bumped into two other friendly RED mercenaries: a Demoman and a Pyro; who were trading hats. Upon seeing him, they greet him.

As the Medic left the spawn, he rushed ahead, telling everyone to assist him in capturing the point. Everyone moved to the center of the map and started to notice how empty and quiet it was. A lone RED Sniper was sitting near the stairs, who was then interrogated by the Medic. The Heavy noticed the lack of mercenaries and asked the Sniper where everyone was, to his dismay and annoyance. The Sniper responded that the control point could not be captured, and thus the mercenaries were stuck on the server until they could win or lose their objective - a permanent stalemate.

In disbelief, the Medic called out the Sniper for being an enemy Spy, to which the latter denied. In response, the Medic fired his syringe gun in an attempt to spycheck the Sniper, confirming that what had been said was true, and that the Sniper was no Spy. In consideration of the permanent stalemate, the Heavy formulated a plan for himself and his teammates: Waiting. While the Pyro and the Demoman eagerly accepted the plan, the Sniper and Medic were hesitant to join in, but did so anyway.

### Chapter 2 - Trouble in Paradise

As the mercenaries waited it out, a group of BLU and RED mercenaries appeared from nowhere, merged together and unresponsive, implying the server had been populated with more players prior to the arrival of the four RED mercenaries. Amongst the group's confusion, the server had turned off its respawn systems, meaning that if mercenaries died within the server - it would be permanent. Panic started to spread, with the friendly Medic having disappeared and reappeared to the group; initially prompting the Pyro to spycheck him. This causes the Heavy to be suspicious of him, but makes no verbal comment about it. In that moment, the server had notified the mercenaries that a gift for each of them had spawned on the map, otherwise distracting majority of the existing playerbase from the turned-off respawn system. The Heavy tried to get their attention back; for them to focus on the suspicious activities going on but they had already left. As the Heavy waited for his teammates to return, a gift had spawned near him but he did not reach out to pick it up. As he stared at it for a little while, it suddenly disappeared and the Heavy had grown even more suspicious. He also began to suspect the Medic to be an enemy stand user, but could not confirm it as of yet.

No sooner had the mercenaries obtained their gifts, they returned to the central control point to unwrap their gifts, though after some time the Heavy pointed out that they were missing the RED Sniper. In the midst of the newfound confusion, the Heavy stood forward as the leader, telling everyone to split up in pairs and search for the missing Sniper. They went off in separate directions.

The Heavy and the Medic could not find anyone at BLU's spawn, nor the RED Sniper. However, after some time, his weapon was found by the Pyro and Demoman. Soon after, the Sniper's voice taunted the duo, and when prompted to look up, the corpse of the RED Sniper fell on top of them, showing a backstab wound. The Pyro told the Demoman to find and warn everyone to group up. As the Demoman agreed and ran away to find the other people, the Pyro fired a flare from his detonator, which was then seen by the Heavy. He rushed towards the flare and bumped into the Demoman, who he then followed towards the Pyro.

To their shock and grief, they found the Pyro dead beside the corpse of the Sniper, and the Medic began to freak out about the situation. With his patience wearing thin, the Heavy called out the Medic as an enemy and 'not of this team', much to the shock of the remaining two RED mercenaries, to which the Heavy reveals that he remembered meeting the Medic when he was wearing the medal, taunting him that he hadn't forgotten the cosmetic item, and daring the Medic to hit him. Initially, he was dismissed by the Medic, and confronted by the Demoman on being a 'backstabbing snake'; though he dismissed the accusation by throwing his sandvich on the floor, much to the Demoman's relief. With confidence in his voice, the Demoman swore to get back at the person behind the deaths of his friends.

### Chapter 3 - Revelations

Despite the Demoman's confidence, however, he was immediately killed by the Medic to the shock and horror of the Heavy, though it is revealed that the Medic himself was also dead, revealing the form of a BLU Spy that ultimately revealed himself to the Heavy. The Masked Spy congratulated the Heavy for impressing him and seeing his stand 'Fight the System', giving him a demonstration as to how his stand worked. The Masked Spy then called out the Heavy for being a stand user, as he had been able to see his own stand. When the Heavy reached out for his sandvich, the Spy destroyed it, and went in to attack him, noting his enhanced reaction time. Vowing to find out what his stand is, Heavy reacts by running away, to which the Masked Spy takes as a game, and pursues after the Heavy.

### Chapter 4 - Retaliation

Despite his attempts to flee from his opponent, the Masked Spy easily catches up with him, and proceeds to attack him with his stand, cutting him off on his route. Successfully hitting him, the Spy approaches closer, with the Heavy retaliating by throwing a punch at him, an attack the Spy easily catches. With a tilt of his head, the Heavy activates a skill which increases his strength and manages to break his wrist, causing his enemy to back off to fix his wrist. When told that he was no Spy, the Masked Spy begins to explain that he was no ordinary mercenary, but is cut off by the Heavy chuckling at his self-description. In retaliation, he attacks once again, but each attack is easily evaded, until the Heavy throws a punch his way (which the Spy blocks) and sends his opponent flying into the wall.

Much to Heavy's surprise, The Masked Spy simply gets up and brushes off the previous attack. He confronts him once again that he is a stand user and orders him to activate the stand, to which the Heavy replies he won't. In response, the Spy suggests he runs as he attacks him with multiple knives. Despite his attempts to run and even leap to safety, he is injured by the Spy's attacks having been stabbed in the foot upon landing and stabbed in the back by multiple knives. Even with his sustained injuries, the Heavy pushes forward, once again surprising the Masked Spy by 'having a pulse'.

The Masked Spy approaches him once again, mocking his current state before disappearing from sight. Anticipating an attack, the Heavy prepares himself to fight, calling out the Spy as a coward for disappearing on him. He is, once again, attacked by the Spy, although this time he is stabbed in the back by the man himself using his gadget stand (rather than being attacked by a knife thrown at him).

### Chapter 5 - Justice

When taunting him in his supposed final moments, however, the Heavy uses his elbow to send the Spy flying back, breaking his mask from the impact. The Heavy calls him out for being wrong, telling him that he's more than any ordinary Heavy mercenary. Due to his injuries, the Heavy collapses to his knees, in which the Spy chuckles to himself and tells him to stay down. Before attempting to finish him off, the Heavy quickly recovers to the shock of the Masked Spy. With a laugh, the Heavy stands up and tells him he needs more than what he's already done in order to defeat him. Listing off all the friends the Spy had killed, the Heavy threatened his opponent that he was a dead man.

Much to the Spy's surprise, he tells him to just stay down once more, asking him who he was. In response, the Heavy introduces himself as Heavy Guy, before introducing his 'weapon' - a stand by the name of Crush. When challenged by Heavy Guy, The Masked Spy retaliates by attacking him with throwing knives; an attack that was easily countered by Heavy Guy's stand. He then uses Crush to attack his opponent, throwing multiple punches and even hitting him to the skybox. Despite his broken neck, the Spy is not only alive, but tells him to 'burn in Hell'. Not long after, Crush attacks him and sends him flying to the top of a pit that leads directly to Hell, barely clinging on for dear life.

Even with the Spy's burning hatred spoken out loud, Heavy Guy takes the opportunity to tell the Masked Spy that the burning and pain he feels is justice. He then forces his opponent to let go of the ledge, watching as he falls into the pit, before turning around and raising his hand to catch his now respawned sandvich. As he falls to his demise, the Masked Spy wears a sinister grin on his face and accepts his fate. However, whatever was present at the bottom of the pit proclaims that he would be "of great use".

Back on the central control point, the voice of the Administrator proclaims that the point is now available for capture, the point now restored and fully functioning once again. Heavy Guy, who had been eating his sandvich, notices a gem that has fallen from above, and upon picking it up it ignites in his hands, causing him to react. With the control point now available for capture, Heavy Guy captures the point and proceeds to leave the server, not before remembering the friends he had lost along the way with a smile on his face.

### Post-Credits

In an unknown location, several bodies of mercenaries lay scattered and misshapen from their injuries. A flashlight is destroyed by the blue light of a mysterious figure that, after searching around for a moment, leaves the area. The fingers of a dead Engineer mercenary twitches, and the scene cuts to black, with the low growl implying that something (or someone) lingered within the building.

## Appearances

* Heavy Guy - A Heavy class mercenary living the life of a Fragger. He is the stand user of Crush.
* Crush - Heavy Guy’s stand specializing in short-range combat.
* The Masked Spy - A vampire superhuman and stand user that took control of a 24/7 Halloween server with the aid of his stand ‘Fight the System’. He was defeated by Heavy Guy.
* Fight the System - A gadget-bound stand controlled by The Masked Spy.
* Unknown friendly RED Mercenaries
	+ RED Medic - A Medic class mercenary that was killed moments after meeting Heavy Guy. His body was used as a puppet by Fight the System.
	+ RED Demoman - A Demoman class mercenary that was killed by The Masked Spy. He appeared to have been good friends with the RED Pyro.
	+ RED Pyro - A Pyro class mercenary that was killed by The Masked Spy. He appeared to have been good friends with the RED Demoman.
	+ RED Sniper - A Sniper class mercenary that was killed by The Masked Spy.
* Alien Walker (offscreen cameo)

## Trivia

* Episode 2 is the only known appearance of The Masked Spy, though his eventual return was hinted at towards the end of the episode.
* The Masked Spy is the first stand user within the series to be featured as a main antagonist
	+ Despite this, Veerus is the first stand user introduced within the series to be introduced as an antagonistic character in the previous episode - though he does not make his debut until the following episode
* Though they don't make their official debut until Episode 3, Episode 2 is the first episode to feature the Alien Walker
* This is the only episode to possibly utilize the Mercenary Medals outside of employees and V.A.C staff members