Kidnapping Caper - A Tf2 Story

3 - Engie's Ill Pursuit

 Engineer scrunched his face as he tried to resist the urge to wake up. He had just dealt with a horrible dream in which he was trying to fight an invisible spy while the briefcase alarm was going off. Even after being faced with the wild nightmare, he wanted nothing more than to stay asleep.

It was only then that Engineer realized the alarm from his dream was still going off, and he could still feel the spy attacking him. Groggily, he rolled over in bed to find a red-clad, masked figure mere inches from his face, poking his cheek repeatedly while his alarm clock blared from the night stand.

"Oh. Morning, Pyro," Engineer croaked, only to be met by a stinging in his throat.

Pyro sat up excitedly from where he'd been hunched over his roommate and exclaimed something in a muffled, garbled mess.

Engie chuckled quietly, trying to keep stress off his sore throat. "Good to see you too buddy," he replied, sitting up and rubbing his face before shutting off the alarm. "How long's that been going off?" he asked.

Pyro looked at the clock before going on a long winded, muffled tangent of nonsensical noises.

"That long?" Engineer wondered aloud, "Schucks, I better get a move on then. Don't wanna be any later than I already am. You go on to the mess hall, I'm right behind you," he yawned, peeling back the covers on his bunk.

Pyro nodded and headed down the hallway cheerfully. Engineer took another glance at the clock in confusion. How had he slept through an hour of his alarm going off? And even more concerning, how did it take ten minutes of Pyro poking him to wake up?

He shook his head. Never mind, he thought, Just an off day. I've been working too late. Engineer quickly dressed into his usual red button down and overalls, pulled his goggles over his forehead, and tucked his hard hat under his arm before heading down the hall after Pyro.

Still not quite awake, he trudged into the mess hall to find the rest of the team conversing over breakfast. The chilly air of the space felt nice on his face, but the fluorescent lights weren't exactly kind to his newly developing headache. None of that mattered though; a hot cup of coffee was all he had on his mind.

Absent-mindedly, Engineer turned on the coffee maker and watched with coveting eyes as the liquid slowly began to brew. Once it was finished percolating, he carefully searched for his mug in the cupboard and filled it to the brim. Cup of joe in hand, he wandered away from the counter to find a seat.

"Hey, look who finally crawled out of his cave!" called an overexcited Bostonian, "Nice to have you back, overalls!"

Engineer turned to meet the voice. "Well, good morning, Scout," he grinned sluggishly, coming to sit across from him and Demoman.

"Good morning to you too, boyo," Demo chirped, setting his morning bottle of booze on the table, "Glad to see you back. Finally finish that project of yours? I know how you are with your 'work 'til it's done' mindset."

Engineer shook his head. "Not quite, no. I'm just up and about for breakfast, then it's back to the shop," he rasped before taking a long sip of his coffee.

"Then what are you doing here?" Scout quizzed through a mouthful of waffle, "Why not just stay in your little den and ring a bell for one of us to bring you something like you have been, huh?"

Demoman elbowed Scout before speaking up, "What he meant to ask was what brings you about if you're not done? I didn't expect to see you 'til you were announcing your newest gadget to the lot of us blokes."

"Oh, nothing much. Doc rolled up at my desk last night and dragged me to bed. Says I been 'working too much'. I told him I'd turn in for the night so he wouldn't worry about me. Now I'm all rested and ready to get back to it. Just wanted to come up and make myself a cup of coffee before going back is all," Engineer explained sleepily, going for another sip of his mug only to find it empty. With a quiet grunt he stood to refill his cup.