Demoman's gasp drew the attention of the other mercenaries at once. Scout, temporarily forgetting his renewed hatred of BLUs, rushed toward Demoman with his scattergun, "Where're the bastards? How'd they get in?"
"Ain't the robots, laddie. Not any more o' them, at least," the others let out a collective sigh of relief, "But look here."
Scout knelt down with Demoman beside the remains of the three robots that snuck in while the barrier was down. He dropped his gun to the ground, so he could use both hands to investigate the remains, "Whoa…"
"What's goin' on over here?" Engineer reluctantly left his dispenser—Spy was still hovering near it— to join the two by the robots.
Scout held up a fistful of bills, slightly burnt from the explosives Demoman used to destroy the robots.
"Well, I'll be," Engineer rubbed his hands against his pants, "Miss Pauling did mention they were powered by money, if I'm not mistaken."
Scout scoffed, "Said somethin' about kidnappin' eagles, too."
"EAGLES ARE A PROUD, AMERICAN CREATURE! THEY DO NOT KIDNAP!" an unfamiliar voice called out, but everyone recognized it as Soldier's, despite him still wearing Spy's mask and watch.
"I believe we all thought she was…" Spy trailed off, unable to find a polite phrasing.
"Lying?" Sniper supplied.
"There's definitely money in 'em alright. I'll need to do some testing to see if it actually powers them, of course," he nodded to the Scout, who was stuffing bills in his pockets, "Stop that and make yerself useful. My toolbox is over there."
Scout rolled his eyes, took one last wad of bills from the robot, and zipped back to the dispenser for the toolbox. While there, he asked Sniper, "So, how's yer leg?"
Sniper stretched it out with a grimace, "Little stiff, but it ain't bleeding no more."
Scout kicked him just below the knee, and when Sniper only winced a little, he smiled, "Yep, you're good as new."
Sniper flipped him off, but Scout was already jogging back to Engineer. Engineer had pried off the chest plate of one of the robots and was shaking his head, frowning. Scout dropped the toolbox near his teammate and found a perch atop a different robot, "Got yer stuff. What's wrong?"
Engineer sighed and pointed to a patch of fried wires and burnt solder, "S'no good. Took too much damage when it got killed. Or destroyed, I supposed. Gotta be alive in the first place if yer gonna get killed."
"Semantics, laborer," Spy interrupted, "Will you be able to study zem?"
"I'll have to check if the damage is as extensive on the other two, but… but I ain't hopeful. We need…" Engineer shook his head, "I need an undamaged one to study."
"Tch, good luck with that," Scout rolled his eyes.
By the dispenser, Spy ran his gloved hands over his sapper.
"SPY! DO YOU THINK—GAH!" Soldier whipped the mask off and the dispenser abruptly cut off contact with him. Back with his normal voice, he continued, "DO YOU REALLY THINK YOUR SNEAKY COMMUNIST SAPPER WILL WORK ON THOSE HUNKS OF METAL?"
"No," Spy reluctantly replied, "I believe zey only affect RED technology."
While Spy retrieved his effects from Soldier, Engineer paced, "It's a damn conundrum, is what it is. You sap one of 'em, and I'll be able to study it. But I gotta study one before we kin modify your sappers to work on 'em… Not that I'd ever want to handle your sappers, o' course."
"Of course," Spy absently agreed.
Scout scoffed, "Dude, you been tryin' to get yer hands on one o' those things for, like, ever."
With a brief glare to Scout, Engineer quickly changed the subject, "Now, if nobody needs the dispenser no more, I don't need to know anythin' about them robots to make the modifications."
Conversation died out as Engineer dismantled his dispenser. Demoman and Scout resumed digging through the robots' remains for money. Sniper's leg still stung a little, although it was fully healed, so he remained sitting by the dispenser, watching Engineer work. Spy noticed him favoring his leg, so he stayed nearby to keep an eye on Sniper while appearing to just be watching the dispenser. Soldier watched the Engineer, too, but he was also keeping a close watch on Sniper and Scout. He wanted to make sure the REDs didn't try anything sneaky in the BLU base.
Sniper's boredom grew as the pain in his leg subsided. Eventually, he decided to walk over, limp almost entirely gone, to Scout and Demoman. Demoman was stretched out on his back, counting tiles on the ceiling. Scout was struggling to pry every bit of outer metal casing from the three robots, checking every nook and cranny for more money. Sniper was reminded of a vulture.
"You leave any for the rest of us?"
Scout was trying to pry open one of the robot's kneecaps with his teeth, so his reply was muffled.
"Pardon?" Sniper held back a laugh.
Scout spat out the metal and repeated himself, enunciating slightly more than usual, "It's all mine. Go find your own robo-corpse."
"Now, I believe zat those 'robo-corpses' actually belong to ze Demoman, no?" Sniper jumped slightly when he heard Spy's voice right behind him, "Would ze money not be his?"
"What? No, I, uh… Hey! Yer just tryin' to get more money for the BLUs!"
"Oh, of course, because everything is black and white with you. Or should I say red and blue?" Spy snapped.
Sniper scratched his chin for a moment, "I think we should all split it. Evenly. We're all in this together. Does it really matter who loots the corpse or who fires the killing bullet?"
"Killing grenade," Demoman muttered, "if yer gettin' technical."
"So, both of you, empty your pockets. We pool ever'thin' together and then split it six ways. And that goes for any more we find down the road."
Demoman sat up to empty his pockets, and Scout joined him soon after. Spy scoffed, "I honestly thought we would have to strip search you."
Sniper grinned, "When you get right down to it, Scout's a lot more mature than he'd have you believe," Scout stuck his tongue out at Sniper, "Well, he's slightly more mature some of the time, at least."