Short Story and artwork contest poll. Vote for your favourite story and artwork :D

[TacoMuffin]

Title, pretty much. Chose my 2 favourite stories and artworks, and can't choose, so I made a poll thread.

[b][i][u]Favourite Stories:[/b][/i][/u]

[QUOTE=Nerfed;25803032]Amongst the endless supply of scouts that are thrown into the battlefield, a few are different. Unique. Unusual. Unlike the others, they have a purpose. They have a goal in their short lives.

This is the story of one of those scouts. This is the story of shining bill, the scout who started out as a cripple, and made it to become known as a legend in the history of Team Fortress 2.

Bill started out weak. He was born in Boston, was the weakest of eight siblings, etc etc, the usual sorry excuse of a scout bio you can read pretty much everywhere.

Now, unlike an actual scout who can run fast, doublejump, and deal damage easily, Bill was 'special'. Heavies outpaced him with ease, he was unable to bend the laws of physics in order to doublejump, and ran with loud steps, making any attempt at flanking useless. All Bill ever had that made him stand out was a troublemaker's tosslecap that one of his brothers passed on to him after dying to wounds caused by an overcharged bodyshot. Bill kept the hat safe, he barely ever wore it. He just folded it up and kept it in his pocket.

Eventually, Bill had enough of it all. He was no match for any of the other classes in training and was mocked by everyone to boot. If he couldn't live up to be an actual scout, why not just get out there and at least try showing them what he's made of? And so he did. He stood in front of his fellow scouts and took off his intel cap. "All you guys ever do is insult me. From now on I'm solitary, screw y'all". And with that, he tossed it into a garbage bin. Bill jammed his ears with stylish new earbuds, put on his favorite mixtape at max volume, and put on the tosslecap. Before anyone could interfere, Bill grabbed a scattergun and took the teleporter to the battlefield.

There was only silence. When Bill woke up, his whole body was numb. All he could see were distant flashes, all he could hear was a dampened, distant sound of music. Bill quickly turned off his I-Bat-U and took out his earbuds. He took a moment to clear up. It was all clear now. The distant flashes were explosions from rockets and grenades, and he could hear screams of death along with them.

"MAN UP SON, WE'VE GOT A WAR TO WIN. Get out of here and show those MAGGOTS what Reliable Excavation and Demolitions can do!"

"Heck blockhead, I've been out on this battlefield for ages now. Nobody wins this war, it just keeps going on forever. Even Irene aint running smoothly anymore, poor gal started responding to a reappearing medpack recently..."

"HOLD ON WANKER, stop being so down about all this. Nothin's more fun than watching as the skinny german cries for help after I kill the fat russian wanker."

Bill replied before the soldier, engineer and sniper started arguing too much. "Yo what's up, what'm I supposed to do in this godforsaken hole?"

The engineer replied. "Son, this is 2fort. You have to get all the way into dat blue base, grab the blue briefcase, and return to this base. The task is simple, but the chances of executing it successfully comes at a rate of 0%. Neither side wins son, neither side ever wins."

Bill didn't bother to listen to any of that, he stopped listening at "2fort". Bill had already left the red base, reached the bridge, and managed to make his way into the blue base. It wasn't too hard for him since there were no enemies around. From around a corner, a pyro appeared. Bill tried with all he had to run backward, but the flames managed to catch up to him. He felt the fire burn away at him all over.

All of a sudden, it happened all over. Bill was numb all over, saw distant flashes, and heard music. It was all just the same as before.

"Yo hardhat, w'happened!?"
"son, you just respawned. Even death isn't an option in this hellhole. You just keep coming back. Over, and over, and over."

"well then how about we win this and make an end to it all?"

And with that, Bill ran out of the base again, only to meet death, and respawn once again. He repeated it, he kept on running. With every death, Bill learned more.

*Wire has joined the game*
*Wire connected from Boston*
*Wire joined team BLU*

"Wire? is that really you!? The best scout of the training zone?"
"Hey cripple, do you really have to be here? I almost didn't miss you... Hold on, you're on RED? I AM GOING TO ENJOY THIS!"

Wire and Bill started duelling. Bill had already gained in experience over his trials, and was actually on par with Wire. As they both learned about scouting, their duels became more and more intense. At one point, Bill was dominating Wire, and kept on going.

"At least you will always have a weakness, Bill."

Wire managed to grab Bill's tosslecap, and ran off. He then looked it up in his inventory and clicked "Delete"

Bill was furious. The only reminder of one of his brothers was gone. Furthermore, Bill was going to be stuck on this endless map, forever, unable to ever get out.

There was a crate in the spawn, for some reason. Bill started hitting the crate with his bat while yelling a lot of things.

Engineer, who was sitting on his dispenser, lift up his ten gallon.

"Son, 'les you've got a key for that, there's no use tryin'. Not even more gun will help ye there, an' believe me, I've tried...

Well I'll be damned, did at crate just start breakin'?"

A heavy came running into the spawn.

"MEDIC!"
"Was ist los?"
"LOOOOK! SCOUT BREAK CHAIR! *sniff*"
"ah, ist okay heavy, here!"
Medic dropped a crate down for the heavy.

Now, instead of making up more filler to keep you excited; back to Bill.

The crate burst open. Light sipped out in all directions.

Every class on the red team started running at the spawn, and once there, they all gazed at the cracked crate that now started floating, while emitting more and more light.

The crate vanished, but the light was still there, and it formed into a tiny, bright ball of light.

The ball moved toward bill, who was quite much cowering in fear.

When the ball started touching Bill's head, he felt a warm sensation all over. His mind was being rewritten. He still had all his memories, but for some reason he knew all a scout needs to know to be the best scout out there.

*Bill has unboxed: Unusual baseball bill's sport shine*

Bill stood up and looked at his teammates.
"I AM SHINING BILL, AND I WILL END YOUR TRIALS."

Bill moved out of spawn, just walking. Many blue classes saw him, but they all wondered what this light, resembling the sun itself was, that was emitting from his head. Sure they tried engaging him after thinking for a second, but they all died. Bill became an unstoppable force, and he was moving toward the blue spawn.

Bill started running. He ran faster than ever before, he could see bullets coming before they were even fired. He was now a master of dodging.

"WE HAVE TAKEN THE ENEMY INTELLIGENCE"

The entire red team broke out in chatter. None of them had ever heard that before. It was new, exciting, and best of all, Bill might even make it back.

Not even ten seconds later, everyone quickly dropped their weapons. Another new thing to them; their weapons started glowing red and emitting electricity.

Bill kept going on, capturing over and over.

"I'll be damned, Irene, that kid's doin' it!"
"beep"

"HOOWAA, LOOKADDAT MAGGOT GO!"

Bill finished up. The intel was captured three times, and it was all over. Everything went black.

Words appeared; "You are now on your way to: ctf_2fort"

What did y'all expect, it's a 24/7 2fort server :3

One day, bill Disappeared. It is the 3924 times he captured intelligence, and the 1835764 enemy classes he killed that have made his disappearance shocking.

A young scout disappeared, but the legend will live on. This is the legend of Shining Bill.

Bill may still be out there, or he really did disappear forever. Maybe though, he will be back one day to help out another 24/7 2fort server.

For now, nobody knows, and all that is known is the legend.[/quote]

[QUOTE=Sleepy Steve;25689515]Gone Snipin'
A short story by Sleepy Steve

It was an ordinary day for the BLU Sniper, a day of headshotting Heavies and slicing the throats of any Spies foolish enough to backstab him while he wore his aboriginal Razorback.

The Sniper sat down after successfully headshotting a Scout who, for some reason, had decided to stand still in the middle of the rocky terrain. He let out a long sigh.

“Good day for snipin’, mate.” He said to the Engineer beside him, who was upgrading his Sentry gun for deployment in the field.

“I wouldn’t know much about that kind of affair,” Replied the Texan with a grin on his face. “But I suppose it is a good day for killin’ them REDs.”

“I suppose,” The Sniper said while yawning. “It sure is tiring work.”

The Engineer chuckled. “Hey, at least you ain’t gotta lift up whole Sentry guns and drop them in the middle of gun fire! You just sit there behind walls and what not, using that little gun of yours.” He pointed at the Sniper’s rifle.

He looked upon the Engineer with a disdainful expression and then lifted his rifle back up to look through its scope, to see if any REDs were approaching. “It’s not as cowardly as it seems” He said, moving his hat up to get a better view of the field. “There’s a lot of fear involved with staying in one place, barely moving.” He gestured to the shield on his back. “This little number only protects me from one threat to my health.”

The short man laughed at the Sniper. “Trust me, it can’t be any worse than what those godforsaken Heavies have to deal with daily.”

The Sniper placed his rifle up against the wall and walked over to the Engineer, crouching down to meet him at eye level. “Listen here mate. There’s nothin’ more frightening than the thought of your head being blasted off at any second by another Sniper. Then there’s those revolver wielding rats crawling around all over, trying to slit my throat at any second. Sure, going out into the field is frightful, but you KNOW what awaits you out there. Here in my little nook, I don’t know what will happen.”

“Alright, alright I get it, can you lay off my bacon a little, Aussie?” The Engineer said, taking a step back from the imposing figure.

The Sniper stood back up to his former posture and let out a chuckle, “Sure mate!” He continued laughing until he noticed a figure enter the doorway, a Scout slowly meandered in, looking lost.

“You lost little buddy?” The Engineer said with a friendly smile.

Swoosh! A knife darted toward the Scout’s chest and impaled him. “Yo man, what-“ The Scout stuttered. “What is the meaning of zis?” His voice changed.

“I knew it, a blood backstabbin’ Frenchman!” The Sniper ran toward the Scout and pulled his Kukri from the Spy’s chest. “What’s the likes of you doing up here?” He said with a menacing grin.
The Spy’s disguise flickered and his true suited form appeared to the two. “I came to end your life, mate.” The dressy man said sarcastically, stuttering and coughing up blood.

Before the Spy could even make a single movement, the Sniper held him up by his neck. “I don’t like blokes who like to stab me in the back, makes business a little difficult.” He held his bloodstained knife to the infiltrator’s neck.

“Do it, I dare you.” The Spy said, smirking.

The Sniper brought his arm back to swing his blade at the Spy, but he noticed a golden gleam coming from the Spy’s suit pocket. He released his pose and pointed at the gleam with his Kukri. “What’s this, then?”

The gloved hand of the Spy reached for the object, but he wasn’t fast enough. The metal edge of the Sniper’s Kukri stopped his hand and sliced open the Spy’s pocket, revealing a golden pocket watch with a hummingbird engraved on the top of it.

The Engineer, making himself useful, quickly snatched up the timepiece and took a look at it. “This looks like a genuine Spy Tech Dead Ringer!” He said astounded by the technology before him. “Man, if I threw one of these together with a couple of things, I could make a neat lil’ device.”

“Attempting to weasel your way out of this, ye cowardly wuss?” The gunman remarked. “With this lil’ ‘Dead Ringer’ business? I know how that bloody technology works!” The Sniper lifted his Kukri and threw a deadly blow to the Spy, directly into his heart. “Not like he had much use for a heart anyways.”

The Spy’s body fell to the floor. His suit covered in blood, a large wound in his chest, he was dead. No doubt about it.

The wielder of the knife took off his hat and bowed. “He was still a man.” He mumbled to himself and placed his hat over the gash that now stained the dead man’s torso.

“Sniper?” The Engineer said, looking away from the golden contraption he had been so interested. “You alright?”

Tears swelled in the man’s eyes. “The hardest part about this job,” He took a deep breath. “Is knowing that you’re ending a life prematurely.” The tears began dripping down the Sniper’s eyes. He removed his sunglasses and put them on a nearby crate. “How do you deal with that? Taking away the life of another human being?”

The Engineer grinned and moved his goggles up to reveal his eyes. “I deal with it by making it a sport.” He turned away and began to fiddle with the golden device he had been bestowed.

A feeling of anger began to build up inside of the Sniper. He grabbed his knife and ran toward the Engineer, but halted as the shrieking of the Announcer came on. “Attention, the control point is being captured!” She said with the same tone and seriousness as she always has.

The Sniper’s attention shifted to the window that allowed him to observe the control point. He let out a sigh. “Just another day at the daily grind.” He picked up his bloodied hat and his yellow sunglasses and put them back on.

He armed himself and aimed toward the single Scout who had decided to lose his head today. The Scout’s head was right under the Sniper’s crosshair. Bang! A shoot flew through the air and the Scout’s heat was blown clean off, his body standing there for a moment, as if he was still alive. Then, the beheaded body fell to the ground, laying there motionless.
A Heavy strolled over to the point. Pow! His head destroyed into a million pieces. The Medic following closely behind him looked around in a panic and then looked directly at the Sniper. A look of pure terror came upon the Medic’s face, right before a shot came barreling down to the Medic’s head. He was dead now too.
The Sniper wiped away the sweat from his forehead. “Hey,” He directed his attention toward the Engineer. “Why don’t you put that Sentry out there so I don’t have to do so much snipin’, mate?”

The Engineer’s goggles reflected the incoming sunlight toward the Sniper. “Why don’t you just get back to shootin’ them REDs, sissy.” He said, moving his head back to look at his Sentry.

Whoosh! A rocket came flying into the Engineer’s little nest of mechanical devices. He flew back toward the wall. His Sentry and Dispenser were fine, but needed to be repaired. “Need me to take out that there Yank?” The Sniper moved himself to sit on a crate.

“Uhhh, yeah.” The goggled man gestured to the window. “Come on shoot!”

The boisterous laughter of the Sniper began to infuriate the Engineer. “Mate, if you’re not goin’ to do nothin’ for me, you should just piss off.” He took out a can of low-isotope Bonk! and began sipping it slowly. “I’ve been saving this all day, but it was worth it to save it for now. I get to enjoy the show with a little… refreshment.”

Clank! Clank! The Southern Hospitality slammed into the Engineer’s machines, miraculously fixing them. The Sniper didn’t really understand how that worked, but he didn’t question it. But under the sound of the metal hitting against metal, there was the sound of explosions. Boom! An explosion barely missed the window. The Engineer began frantically searching for his Frontier Justice, when he found it, he rushed over to the window and began frantically shooting at the incoming Soldier.

“You’re gonna need a little more firepower than that to get that lil’ bugger.” The relaxed Sniper told him cheerfully.

With a quick and dexterous movement, the Engineer brandished his pistol and began shooting frantically toward the RED menace. In retaliation, a rocket came barreling toward him, hitting him, blasting him to the other side of the room, back near his machinery.

“Okay! Damn, I’ll set my stuff up if you just take out that damn Soldier!”
The Sniper didn’t even respond. He grabbed his trusty machete and ran out of the safe area he had known well.

The Soldier armed his rocket launcher and aimed it toward the seemingly suicidal Sniper rushing toward him. “Maggo-“ His words were cut short by the cut of the Sniper’s blade through the Yank’s throat. He fell to the ground, with his hand over his neck, trying to stop the bleeding, but it wouldn’t help.

“You can move your little gizmos out here now!” The Sniper yelled back to the Engineer. “The bloke’s dead a door knob.” The Sniper placed his hat on the Soldier’s body. “Was an honorable bloke though. Took his death like a man, he did.”

Out of the doorway came the short man holding his Sentry gun on his shoulder. “Fine fine, you win, ya damn Aussie.” The dropped it onto the ground and it began assembling itself. He ran back into the room and brought out his trust Dispenser. “There we go!” He placed it on the ground just a few feet behind his Sentry.

“Hey, what’s that there say?” The Sniper said, pointing toward the screen on the Dispenser with his blade.

The Engineer bore a unusually cynical grin. “It’s a little program I made to keep tabs on all of y’all.” He pointed to the small images of each team member. “It shows which of y’all are alive and which are dead.”

The Sniper approached the screen and crouched down to look at it. “Scout – Dead, Soldier – Alive, Pyro – Status Unknown.” The Sniper paused and then looked at the Engineer. “Why is the Pyro’s ‘status unknown’?”

Removing his hardhat, the Engineer sighed. “Well…” He scratched his head. “When I had these little chips put into everyone’s body that told me whether they were alive or not… Well. The Pyro wasn’t too happy about it and forcibly removed it.”

“Ah.” He continued reading the screen. “Demoman – Alive with a blood alcohol level of… 25%.” The Sniper laughed. “Oh that bloody Demo, always drinkin’ on the job!” His eyes lit up. “Heavy – Dead, Medic – Dead, Sniper – Alive, Spy – Alive.” The Sniper shook his head.

“Terrible ain’t it?” A wrench hit the device with a loud clang. “Our friends, our brothers in arms, were killed in action.”

The Sniper walked off toward the central control point, leaving the Engineer behind to defend the second point.

He got low to the ground and started his slow walk toward the central point. It was currently in BLU’s possession, but a RED could come at any moment. Suddenly, the Sniper looked up and noticed a RED Demoman drinking whisky across the map. His rifle immediately aimed toward the explosives expert and shot once. The bullet missed his head barely, but shattered his bottle.

“What in the hell!?” He heard the Cyclops say in the distance. The Demo looked around and noticed the Sniper from afar. “Oh boyo, you’re about to go to hell with that bloody Heavy and Medic!” He quickly grabbed his grenade launcher to start firing pipe bombs toward the Sniper, but he was too late. The Sniper’s shot was half-way to his skull. Hit. The shot hit him directly in the eye and he fell to the ground, dead.

“Let’s see, who does that leave…” He put down his rifle and began counting on his fingers. “Spy one… Scout two… Heavy three… Medic four… Soldier five… Demoman six… Only three more buggers to get rid of, I guess.” He noticed one of his comrades, the Soldier, dead on the ground with a bullet wound over his heart.

“Poor fellow.” He crouched down to remove the medal from his chest. Moving his shades away from his eyes, he examined the medal. The medal had the following engraved into it:

“For the most valiant Soldier and the best son in the world.” Recited the Sniper, as if he had engraved it himself. He placed the medal back on the Soldier and began walking towards the RED team’s second point.

“Where are all of the REDs?” He muttered to himself.

A cough came from his left. “Most of ‘em are dead and most of us are dead too.” A wounded, dying Scout said to the figure that stood next to him. “I think it’s only you, the Engie and that rat.”

“Save your breath, boy.” The Sniper started walking forward, only to step on something metallic. He looked down and noticed an un-opened can of Bonk!... the real stuff. His hand reached down and grabbed the drink and looked at it. “Scout, what kind of effects would this stuff have on me?”

No response. The young boy had passed. “So young.” The apologetic man remarked. “But so is life.”

As he walked down the path to the second point, he noticed the scorched body of a RED Engineer laying in a pile of metal and broken parts. The Sniper thought nothing of it and trotted on towards the point.

In the distance the sound of burning and screaming struck the Sniper’s ears. It was distinctly the Spy’s voice. He must’ve been killed. He approached the point and began the process of capturing it. The burning in the distance stopped and he heard the footsteps of a Pyro become louder and louder as it came toward the point.

A feeling of fear overcame the rifle wielding man and he took a step back away from the point, but it wouldn’t help. Barreling through the doors came a Pyro with Degreaser in hand.

“Oh bugger.” The Sniper turned around and started hightailing it away, but it didn’t help.

Flames erupted from the end of the Pyro’s flame thrower and kissed the Sniper’s wooden shield with its heat. “Ah piss!” He yelled as his body started to catch aflame.

He kept trying to run away, but to no avail. The Pyro blasted air beneath him, launching the scared, flaming man into the air. The fire obsessed maniac dropped his flame thrower to the ground and brandished his Flare Gun, quickly shooting a flare at the Sniper. The Pyro then dropped this weapon as well, and unsheathed his finishing weapon, his Axtinguisher.

Trapped in a corner, the Sniper had nothing left to do but cower and await his own death. As the Pyro lifted his axe above his head, he noticed a distinct sound that was oh so familiar to him. “Watch yer back, mate.” The Sniper laughed.

“Mmmphh?” The Pyro murmured only to be stabbed in the back by the Spy.

A gloved hand was extended to the Sniper to help him up. “Need some help.. mate?” He chuckled as he helped the burned man up.

The Sniper smiled and got back up on his feet. “Thanks.”

“Anytime, pal.” The masked man said, grinning.

“Victory!” The Announcer announced to the remain combatants.

The Spy and Sniper laughed and started walking off back to their spawn. This was the day that the Sniper and Spy became good friends, a day that will remain in both of their hearts for their entire lives. [/quote]

[b][u][i]Favourite Avatars:[/b][/u][/i]

[img_thumb]http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/6829/steamavatar.png[/img_thumb]
By tyler3497. It is a Minecraft Sentry (Fucking awesome)

[img_thumb]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/BRBLOL/medic_large.png[/img_thumb]
[img_thumb]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v97/BRBLOL/medic_small.png[/img_thumb]
By Sleepy Steve. Medic Drank too much of his Kritzgrieg (Also fucking awesome)

So yeah, vote for your favourite 2. One with the most votes by tomorrow will get the buds (or frying pan).

[Sleepy Steve]

Come on guys, get some votes up in here!

[Nerfed]

I feel honored to be one of the 4 entries that passed :3

[Sleepy Steve]

[QUOTE=Nerfed;25846627]I feel honored to be one of the 4 entries that passed :3[/QUOTE]

Earbuds would match all of those Scatterguns. :v:

[Pocket Medic]

2 and 2 are delicious.

[Poketama]

So I won right?