The first rays of the sun woke me up on the first winter morning that year. I was lying down thinking if everything was just a dream from last night. "Did...Engie really...come here?" I thought. I got myself out of bed and walked around my apartment, trying to find him. "Welp, I guess it was a dream" and turned back to ready myself for school. BLAM! The door hit me right smack in the nose. "Hey Alex! Are you awake yet?" shouted Engineer. "I'm right here" I mumbled, out of pain. "You know we just can't barge through doors like that, you might hit somebody." I scolded Engineer. "Sorry." said Engineer. The room was silent as I had my bowl of cereal.

"Where to hide Engie, where to hide Engie..." I said to myself. Nobody in the whole building knows that a video game character is living in my unit, and if they discovered, they'd go crazy and grab Engineer from me, never returning him back, never to go back home. I scrambled through my closet and tried to make space, "But Engie would suffocate in here..." I thought. Then an idea zinged through my mind.

"Engie!"
"What is it, mate?"
"What did you do this morning?"

"Well um... jogging, walk in the park a-"

"Did somebody go like, crazy when they saw you?"
"Well, nope. Nobody."

"What did you wear?"

"Is that necessa-"
"JUST ANSWER IT."

"A plain white shirt, my jogging pants and... that's all."
"No hard helmet or goggles?"
"Nope, just that."

That was it! Nobody freaked out that Engie was real! That means he could stay outside as long as not a single person cries out the news. I dressed up, Engie too. When I was about to leave, I told Engineer he should come with me. "Engie, I want you to listen to me very carefully, or you're done for." I started. "Sure, you can start." Said Engie.

"You can roam the streets here, as long as you want, only up to 8:00 PM, because screwed up people show up at that time, and don't make it obvious you are Engineer or Dell Conagher because I know that people here are once TF2 players. You can talk to people, but try to control your slang Texan accent and tone it down to a normal Texan accent. I'm sure you always bring your wrench with you, right? Well don't bring it out in public or build Sentries, Dispensers or ANYTHING, you can do it at the apartment ONLY. And please, don't do something crazy to my apartment please."

"...It felt like you were jailing me off for a moment there, Alex." commented Engineer

"Well, it's for the sake of your safety, and it might change later. And I solemnly promise that I'll make time for our research later." I said.

"Promise?"

"Promise."

On my way to school, people were whispering things like:

"Oh my gosh, are they brothers?"

"Wow, that tall man is handsome."

"They could be best friends.."

And all other stuff they say about us, but we didn't care. When I reached school, I made Engineer recite my warnings to him. Surprisingly, he got everything in one shot. "Try your best okay! I know you can!" I said as I went it. Though I have a large feeling he'd fail at the first few minutes. After the day was over, I was very nervous about the results of Engineer's performance. As I stepped out, I saw Engie standing by the gate waiting for me. I slowly walked to him and said "Don't tell me you stayed out here the whole day.". "Of course not! I went back to the apartment, and stayed there, though I set up a few sentries there.." he explained. "Well that's good. One day over."

As we were heading back, I heard a familiar German accent cry this time. "Engie, do you hear what I hear?" I asked him. "Yeah, mate, I reckon I hear.. Medic." He said. "Let's look for him." I added. We searched high and low for Medic but we couldn't. "It's no use. We can't find him" Engineer said. "Wait.. he's nearby" I said. We saw Medic, in his dirty white-red coat and is sobbing. Engineer comforted him, and when Medic looked at Engie, he hugged. "It's bad... it's very bad. Take me home.. Please.." Said Medic in between sobs. "I guess we have to bring him to the apartment. He's badly hurt." Said Engineer. So we took him home.

After some doses of healing from his Medi-gun, we got to heal Medic from his wounds and bruises. I offered some hot chocolate, and he gradually took it. "Engineer, who iz thiz nice guy over here?" Said Medic. "Oh yeah, this is Alex." Said Engineer. "So why are we here?" asked Medic. I looked at Engie, Engie looked at me. We told Medic my theory and Medic was silent. "Don't worry though, we're getting help from Alex, once we are complete." said Engineer. "Complete? What do you mean?" asked Medic. "Well, Soldier and Heavy are out there and they might've got themselves into trouble, especially Soldier." I said. "Well zhat means work, and work means our future! Where do we start?" Excitedly said Medic as he jumped out the couch. "Wait, you don't have the energy yet to help, maybe tommorrow, mate." Said Engineer. "Ok. But we have to get to zhe point by tommorrow!" Said Medic.

"Sure" I said.

After a ton of data digging, and mind squishing with Engineer, we just only got a piece of paper with only a few data, around 5 only. "Ugh we just can't get through this that easily!" I said. "Maybe we should do this at a weekend?" Engineer said. "Well, Merasmus treats himself as a magic god or something" I added. "I have to agree with that." Said Engie. We both yawned at the same time. "I guess we have to call it a night" Engineer said. "Yeah" I agreed. Now with Medic, Engineer had to sleep on the other comfy chair I had in the apartment. I called lights out and went to bed. The wish itself is coming true, and during that time, I never realized it.

Chapter 4: "Two is better than one."