Franziska Pauling

For the WAR! Update, Pauling was tasked by the Administrator to split up the RED Demoman and BLU Soldier's friendship, as inter-company friendships are forbidden by contract. She offers both parties weapons in exchange for killing the other, starting a seven-day war that ended the two's friendship.

In the comic Meet the director, Pauling hires a Director to interview the mercenaries and record their responses regarding their jobs. Afterwards, Pauling lures the Director to a mine with a loaded gun shovel and bag, and the Director is never seen again.

In the A Smissmas Story comic, Pauling tries to get Spy to assist in killing Old Nick.

In the comic Loose Canon, it is revealed that Pauling killed the monkey Poopy Joe by launching him into space, which she did for a dollar.

After the deaths of Redmond and Blutarch Mann, the mercenaries lose their jobs. However, when Gray Mann's Machines attack, Pauling encourages the mercs to return to battle the robots and make money again. Pauling and Soldier infiltrate Gray Mann's base and and steal intelligence. She is later instructed by the Administrator to regroup all of the mercenaries, which she does by impersonating a police officer to recruit Soldier, burning down the Pyro's company, hiring Demoman, saving Spy and Scout from being hung for terrorism, and picking up Heavy. With the Pyro's help, she destroys documents regarding the Administrator's past before going to get the Sniper. The Administrator then tasks her with collecting the last of a rare metal called Australium. However, when Miss Pauling arrives, she finds it destroyed.

Pauling and the mercs are captured by the Team Fortress Classic Mercenaries, who begin to torture them for information. Despaired that she failed her mission, Pauling, aided by Spy, attempts suicide. She is stopped midway by the TFC Spy disguised as Heavy. They are saved, however, by Soldier and his girlfriend Zhanna punching him so hard his neck snaps. Pauling confronts a dying Gray Mann about her loyalty to the Administrator and explains how she has lied and killed in her service, but Gray dies in the middle of her speech. She and the mercs try to escape, but are captured by the TFC mercenaries' Leech Bots, which begin to drain her blood. She begins to hallucinate as she dies, but is saved by the Medic. Aided by Scout, Pauling fights off the Machines. She then gets a call informing her that the Administrator has died. Discouraged, Pauling finishes off the robots with the team. Once all the robots were down she makes a speech to the dying TFC Heavy. The Administrator is brought back to life with the last of the remaining Australium, and Pauling and all the mercenaries get their jobs back.

Later, Pauling requests new weapons from Saxton Hale. Hale refuses, so she steals his weapons.

In the animated short "Expiration Date", Pauling contacts RED Team explaining that they left witnesses at their last job. She shoots them and begins to hack them up with an axe, all while Scout tries to find the courage to ask her out. After a misunderstanding where they believe that the Engineer's teleporters have given them all tumors and three days to live, Scout asks Spy to instruct him how to impress women, as his last wish is to go on a date with Miss Pauling. He sounds the briefcase theft alarm to bring Pauling down to the base, though Pauling is upset that he wasted her one day off a year. She attempts to leave, but the base is attacked by a Giant Bread Monster accidentally created by Soldier. Scout and Pauling work together to rig a bomb to destroy the monster, but end up on the wrong side of the blast doors. The two dive into the monster's mouth before the bomb explodes, killing the monster. Pauling agrees to allow Scout to go on tasks with her, such as sanding off fingerprints of corpses, pulling out teeth, and killing someone who pressed a briefcase alarm. She then realizes that Scout is the one who pressed the alarm, and says that he'll already be there for that one.

She has a very slender and fair-skinned yet pear-shaped figure. She also has black hair, often tinted purple, which is pulled back into a large bun at the bottom of her head. Her eyes are green. She wears purple at all times in the comics, giving away that she works for the administrator, as well as implying that she works for both RED and BLU teams.

Pauling generally complies with her employer's views for fear of incurring her wrath, even if she does not necessarily agree with them. Despite her boss' stern demeanor, she insists the Administrator is "not so bad when you get to know her". It has been shown that Scout has taken a romantic interest in her, which she tries to completely ignore.

She is shown to not have much concern for people, as shown in one line in the Tough Break update, she has yelled at a lady to shut up while a tiger is mauling said lady to death a few of the contract voicelines shows her going on a Teufort cave tour that happens to visit the same place she buries all her bodies in, another has her telling a safari tourist mauled by a tiger to "keep it down" because she's on the phone, a third has her shoo away a Casanova Wannabe by telling him "I'm trying to get someone killed for money, can you give me a second?"