Unfortunate Auto-balance'd

The battle was over. Neither team had officially won, but. . .

They had a new little friend over in RESPAWN. The smol, child-like figure had appeared, just as the others were prone too, lying face-down with the wet, sticky remains of blood stuck to his back, despite the wounds having healed automatically.

He was wearing the usual red uniform, and flipping him onto his back, the markings on his sleeves indicating he was an Engineer. . . But they already had an Engineer, and aside from the inverted color scheme, the little Engineer was familiar. . .

The little one stirred before any of them could figure out what exactly to do about it, stiffening at the sight of them all, staring at him. Lil Engie sat bolt upright and scrambled away, glancing around for any of his BLU comrades, but signs of the RED base were everywhere. 

Glancing down at his clothes, he stiffened, picking at his scarf for a moment. Tears welled up behind the dark-tinted goggles and he hid in the scarf, trembling minutely. 

“Well. . . This is certainly something, Ja?”

”Well, what do we do?! He’s from BLU!! He is the enemy!!” 

Boomed shoulder, startling the Lil Engie pretty badly. 

“Vhy not keep him here? He is now RED team, somehow. And even if he vill not help us, we can keep him prisoner so he cannot help the BLU team.”

”Excellent point!!” 

Soldier moved to pick up the small Engineer, who whimpered and scampered away, ending up scuttling into the RED teams original Engineer. He looked up at him, pushing up his goggles to wipe away the tears, and Engineer sighed, allowing the little pardner to hide behind him. 

“I’ll keep an eye on him, and make sure he doesn’t he get into too much trouble. Besides, having a pardner in the workshop can’t hurt, either, if he is up to it.”

Soldier nodded and saluted, going on his way. “Keep an eye on the captive! I will go see why this has happened!!”

”Vait, Soldier! How would you be able to figure it out?! It is the RESPAWN, not—“ 

Medic trailed after him, the others slowly filtering from RESPAWN, as well.

Engineer sighed and scratched the side of his head, glancing down at his new little buddy/prisoner. 

“. . . Well, looks like you’re sticking around with me for now. Gonna be confusing having two Engineers. . . How’s about we call you Lil Engie, if that’s alright of course.”

Lil Engie nodded ever so slightly, following behind Engineer as they returned to his workshop. The Texan man didn’t reall agree with all this, and would have greatly preferred if his smaller counterpart was back in his own base. . . All the same, he couldn’t deny the logic of it all.

. . . A capture of a valued resource, even in the form of a person (especially so, others might argue) was counted as a win all the same.