The Gold of the Firepines

Rescue?/Mailman Meets Pauling

"Scout?!" Ms. Pauling called out, though it was feeling rather pointless.
All the pine leaves, dead or alive, acted like insulation here. It made a difference compared to the open stretches around Teufort. The Administrator had her traveling all over on a regular basis, so she was no stranger to this environment. Still, on-road-travel is much different from off-road-searching.

"Scout..!" She tried again, but stopped after that. There was something in the tone of her voice that sounded alien to her ears: loneliness and fear. And she absolutely could not have that.

It wasn't that she was lonely or fearful, she just hated the woods. Being in them like this at least. It always felt like something was watching her.

Given her job, Ms. Pauling was supposed to be hyper-aware of her surroundings, but in the woods or a forest like this everything was always so misconstrued. She couldn't judge the space or tell what or who all was in it for that matter...it made her more vulnerable.

Making a face, her thoughts jerked away from the psychological. She wasn't vulnerable. She could handle anything. It's not like she would be alone for long; Scout always managed to find her, whether she liked it or not.

There was a snapping of a twig nearby, just out of sight. Which tree it was behind, she couldn't tell.
Her head went back and forth between the couple suspected tree trunks. "...Scout?"

"You must be Ms. Pauling."

Not Scout.
Ms. Pauling was back on edge. This voice didn't belong to one of the mercenaries. She couldn't identify them- "Who-?"
Almost immediately as the question tumbled out, she had her revelation.

Yet no sooner than the revelation arrived, she had to dodge a make-shift spear with two steps, only to get backed against a tree by...a much more ominous and muscular looking figure than she remembered.
"Mail-"

"Mailman." You glared at her with furrowed brows. "Y/n L/n. The one you dropped off here to die...remember that?" There was a spitting hiss in your tone.

As intimidating an entrance you had just made, Ms. Pauling was not just some stand-by-and-quiver lady, and she would have you know this. Rather than look too flabbergasted, after the moment of shock washed over her, she slammed her head forward against yours before kicking you back in the chest with her foot for distance.

You weren't sure what you were expecting, but it wasn't that honestly. You held your nose for a second, but you didn't feel too much; it really didn't hurt, actually (and you knew the Australium was to thank for that now).
When you looked back up at her, Ms. Pauling had taken up your spear you'd thrown. Or rather, the long stick you sharpened while getting there...but she looked like she was going to need it more than you at this point with how she clutched it till her knuckles turned white.
"I remember...and if you want an apology for it, you're sure as hell not getting one for all the trouble it's been being held hostage by nine full-grown men and driving back here off a cliff to find you...!"

"You think I'm going to take that as justification?"
"Take it or leave it, Mailman. That's all you get."
The subconscious pot simmering on the backburner hit its boil. "Give me a proper apology or I'll go over there and rip off your lower jaw."
However, Ms. Pauling took that anything but seriously. "I'd like to remind you that it's them who want you alive. I don't give a damn."

Technically speaking, following original orders, Ms. Pauling just had to give a detailed report of your condition and then finish you off. The Administrator wanted you dead; the only thing that made this complicated were their nine mercenaries wanting otherwise, and a massive upset would be...well, a massive upset.
Ever since you had arrived, you had only made things more complicated for Ms. Pauling; you only made her job more difficult, and now here you were trying to fight her after everything.