Lost Scout

Empty, lost and alone in the world.

Fearlessness

After a traumatic and fateful battle, this young Scout finds himself depressed in a lonely and shallow world where no comfort can be found, only regret. And such vulnerability leaves one open to terrible things.

## Loss of 2Fort

Working with his team, the Scout fights back against the RED team at 2Fort, where he manages to make his way to the intel room with the help of BLU Spy, but is injured by the sentries of a pair of Engineers. Spy manages to destroy the sentries and kill the Engineers, but not before his is injured, and he dies just as the Medic and Heavy arrive and save them. Scout is left unconscious as they escape the collapsing base, and as they return to the BLU base and face the Pyro. After the Medic is killed and Heavy is injured, Scout wakes up and realizes what is happening. He reaches for the Pyro's dropped Flare Gun and hits him with a fatal shot. Scout then sees his friends dead around him, with the Heavy quietly succumbing to his wounds right next to him. Filled with despair, Scout contemplates suicide as he draws his gift revolver to his head...before seeing the enemy intelligence in front of him. Realizing that he has to see the mission done, Scout crawls to the desk before passing out. Scout is healed and praised for his valor, but it means little to him, as his friends are gone.

## A Changed Man

In the weeks and months, his sadness and indifference to life begins to sit with him, as terrible visions of the dead Pyro following and watching him. In the meantime, he keeps doing his job, with increasing focus and success, much to the impressment of others, but to the half-hearted concern of himself. The darkness in his life takes a bigger priority as he has nightmares of his dead friends and near suicide, driving him to play Russian roulette on a daily basis, much to the ignorance of his supportive teammates. His hallucinations of Pyro begin to worsen, becoming a more direct threat to his sanity. At some point, however, he finds himself in the possession of the golden helmet of the Pyro, recovered from his body as it was burned on a frozen mountain, and given to him as his effects. Bemused by the cruel irony, Scout's vision of the Pyro worsens to where he feels pressured to wear it himself. In this, he suffers a terrible vision of the Pyro's lair, with him sadly reflecting on his lost family. The Pyro then appears before him, taunting him as the lair becomes a hellish wasteland as he taunts him with their deaths. Offered a gun, the Scout approaches the Pyro, but the spirits of his friends appear and beckon him to walk away. However, he is ultimately driven to shoot at the Pyro, but wakes from his nightmare to see that he had killed a Sniper, who left a party to check on him. Wracked with panic and shame, Scout takes in his body and utilizes an unused workshop in his apartment to cut apart and stow away his body, nervously passing the RED Spy afterwards.

## The Heart Closes Shut

Scout attends the next attack the following day, riddled with guilt, paranoia and anger at himself. He manages to skillfully fight through the RED team without fear and with a reckless lack of concern for his safety, much to the shock and confusion of his team. When BLU is pinned down, Scout dons the helmet he considered bringing with him. With little memory of what happens afterwards, Scout regains consciousness in the wake of the total end of the RED team, hallucinating himself as the Pyro. Scout wakes from his stagger to find his BLU team, who congratulate him, much to his lack of reaction. Wandering alone, he spots a figure and follows them to a waterfall. There he encounters and challenges an undead being sent to claim the helmet, but with some interference from his team, he fights off the figure, who flees as Scout cradles the helmet, much to the BLU team's worry. Scout returns home to find the RED Spy, who realized Sniper's disappearance and investigated Scout's apartment. Scout, filled with paranoia and rage, corners and attacks RED Spy, but cannot bring himself to kill his neighbor. Instead, he seals the workshop and leaves as a robot is activated and kills Spy. A suspicious BLU Pyro and Engineer follow him, and he heads towards the cemetery, looking to visit his friends again. However, he finds the Spy's grave dug up, his coffin empty, his badge left front and center. Overcome with outrage, Scout recalls a vision of the RED base he had when he put on the helmet last; deciding to put an end to his misery, he follows the vision to the hidden RED base to destroy it.

## Last Struggles

Scout, after seemingly killing the RED team and devastating their base, round a corner to find the man who haunted him: The Pyro. Uncaring if it's an illusion, he mockingly prepares to put on the helmet, confident in his new power, but the Pyro stops him and contends with him in a grueling fight. Despite Scouts' efforts, the Pyro overcomes him and beats him down, but is only stopped when the following Engineer and Pyro intervene, crashing their truck into the Pyro. Getting up and seeing the two incapacitated (the BLU Pyro possibly dead, the Engineer weakened), Scout taunts the downed Pyro again, but Pyro grabs him and strangles him as Scout vainly reaches for the helmet, with the Pyro trying to stop him. Upon donning it, he finds himself in a dim bar, where he sees those he's lost and those he's killed in joyous spirits, listening to an Engineer sing a ballad with a guitar. Facing across his dead teammates, he finds himself faced by....himself. From before he lost his heart to himself. The dead Scout shakes his head, and the Scout guiltily hangs his as those around them fade to nothing, just mere memories. The gone Scout watches sadly and wistfully as the Lost Scout begins to bleed from the throat, struggling for air as the world becomes dark and distorted, lost in the static.

The Engineer watches as the tired Pyro walks away from Scout, his muscles and throat torn from his neck, dying in stillness. The Engineer passes out as the Pyro claims the helmet and glances towards him, walking off the punish his failed minion.

## Personality

Originally the big-mouthed big shot one would expect from the Scout, this Scout has been heavily dragged down by his depression and paranoia. The loss of his friends and his family has left a wound on his heart and a cancer on his mind. The helmet in turn wastes no time in exploiting this, fueling his anger and hate for the Pyro in place of the love of his brothers in arms. Scout also becomes increasingly indifferent and unemotional at times, while at others he wrestles and struggles against his guilt and pain.