Miss Pauling walks in on a party. Everyone is sitting around a table, some are drinking, some are yelling, most are congratulating L and bragging about their exploits in the battle.
"Looks like you guys are having fun," Miss Pauling grins.
The mercenaries jump up when they see her, encouraging her to sit down and have a drink.
"I'm afraid I don't have time to hang out. I wanted to tell you guys 'Good Job out there.' Also, I need to speak with the Medic."
The redheaded woman stands up, "Actually, could you call me L, not Medic?"
"Sure," Miss Pauling smiles, "Could you come out into the hall for a bit?"
L nods and makes her way through the room and out into the hall behind the woman in purple.
"Listen, you did a good job out there, better than expected for your first fight," Miss Pauling says as soon as they're far enough from the room that they can barely hear the party.
"Thank you," L smiles.
"However," Miss Pauling continues, "there are some concerns. You didn't use a gun at all during the fight. Even though your role as a Medic focuses more on healing your teammates, there will be times when you will have to shoot a gun. If you don't know how to, I recommend asking someone like Sniper to teach you.
"The next thing: you need to remember that, in the field, the mission comes before your life. You will die out there. That's why there's Respawn. We're aware of your… Situation, and have accommodated for that in the system.
L looks at the ground.
"You also need to work out whatever is going on between you and Heavy. I know the guys can be cold to newcomers, but you need to work it out before it can impair the mission."
L nods.
"And one final thing."
L looks back up.
"Take care of that wound. The guys will know something's up if that's not healed."
"I know," L says, touching her cheek, "the medigun doesn't heal ABT and I haven't had time to apply more."
"Well, you've got a couple of days before the next battle. Use it to get along with everyone. Now," Miss Pauling pushes her glasses up her nose, "I think I've kept you from your victory party long enough. Go back and have fun."
"Are you sure you don't want to join us?" L asks.
"I appreciate the invitation, but I have a lot more work to do before the day is over."
"Well, it was nice seeing you again."
"You too," Miss Pauling says, turning to leave.
As she walks through the halls, she thinks, It was a mistake hiring this girl. She's too nice. What was the Administrator thinking? We're supposed to be employing mercenaries, not civilians!
Before she can realize it, Miss Pauling makes her way outside. She pauses and looks up at the dark sky, a cool breeze brushing against her skin.
"Whatever, let's just finish this up."
Miss Pauling climbs into her truck and drives over to the RED base.
The atmosphere among the REDs is more somber. Only a few of the members are drinking together, and they are not nearly as rowdy as the celebrating BLUs.
Miss Pauling located the RED team redhead in the Medic's office.
"May I have a word with you, Medic?" she says, walking in.
"Oh sure, come on in," the woman smiles, "Medic, I just love the sound of that."
"I'd like to start off by saying that your performance today was better than we anticipated."
"But, we lost."
"Regardless, your adjustment to this has overall been better than that of your BLU counterpart."
"Is that so?" the Medic smiles, and Miss Pauling sees something in her eyes that wasn't in the BLU's. Something that unnerved her, more so than anything she''s seen working with a bunch of homicidal maniacs.
"Well, we look forward to seeing your performance improve. I recommend using the next few days off to work on your skills and get along with everyone."
"Don't worry, Miss Pauling, there will definitely be something for you to see."
I don't doubt that, Miss Pauling thinks, before clearing her voice and saying, "Well then, have a good night."
"You too, Miss Pauling," the Medic turns around as Miss Pauling leaves, a grin on her face and a plan in her head.
That's weird. With all the others, the RED and BLU counterparts are almost completely identical. But those two are surprisingly different.
Miss Pauling makes it back to her car.
"I don't think this is going to end well," she mutters, then turns the key in the ignition.
This stuff is probably going to read like conspiracy theory ramblings.
Here is my theory on the Respawn system:
1. It's a teleportation system combined with resurrection. It teleports the bodies from the battle and brings those bodies back to life. It doesn't really explain why there's identical RED and BLU though. It's not likely that all 9 classes have identical twins. But considering how ridiculous the TF2 canon is, I wouldn't rule it out (Graymann was raised by Eagles for pete's sake). I don't mean that in a negative way.
2. This story relies more on this theory: It's a cloning system. New bodies are generated directly when someone dies. Maybe the genetics of the clones have been altered so that the bodies immediately decay upon death. This can also explain why there's identical RED and BLU, one or both teams is/are cloned. The Originals of the Classes were either on the teams, and are long dead, or are being kept somewhere. If this is the case, then it explains why no one is bothered by the fact that they have basically killed themselves, they are either aware that there's clones, they have been made to not be concerned with it, or they don't recognize their counterpart as identical to them.
Either way I think the Respawn is something developed by Engineer's family. Maybe it was originally powered by Australium but was eventually altered to use other power sources.
3. The final option is that it doesn't matter at all and will never be explained in the TF2 canon. Which is probably the most likely.
Thank you for reading. Please leave me a review and let me know if anyone even wants to read more of this.