Miss me?
The sniper stared down the sights of her rifle, Widow’s kiss, to the entrance of the large, gunmetal grey building. Beneath the night sky, she was practically cloaked, aside from the dark blue of her skin peaking out from beneath her visor, but you wouldn’t notice unless you were looking. The sniper crouched on one knee to get the perfect view through the window on one of the main doors, anticipating who would be unknowingly awaiting their death on the other side.
“Well..?” Came the gruff voice of her impatient superior, Reaper, who was waiting round the other side of the building.
Talon had been watching this building for a while now, learning every entrance from the shadows. They’d learned that Overwatch was attempting some form of reboot, which was both good and bad. Reaper was just excited to spill blood, even if he was annoyed that they’d managed to reconvene, and Akande saw it as a way for Talon to grow, by taking out their enemies of forever. Throughout the bases, however, the feelings were mixed. They’d lost people to Overwatch before, meaning less people were keen on engaging once again.
The moment they’d caught wind of the recall, the team had immediately gotten to work on as much recon as possible. It would be best to strike whilst they were still rebuilding in order to stunt any further growth of the group. However, that meant that this mission held extra importance and that they couldn’t afford to mess it up. As such, it wasn’t just the usual field team that would turn up consisting of Reaper and Widowmaker, accompanied by a few of the Talon grunts. Tonight, they were joined by their scientist, Moira - who was mainly there to test out her new arsenal - and Sombra. Sombra wasnt their finest, and they all knew that she was up to something behind closed doors, even if they didn’t understand the full extent of it. Nonetheless, in a situation like this, she could prove to be invaluable.
“Alors, the time-jumper, the monkey.. and the healer from here.” Widowmaker said back into the earpiece in response to Reaper’s earlier impatience, purposefully keeping him waiting for those extra few seconds.
The sniper had seen action whilst Overwatch was disbanded, but there was never as much competition. The consistent routine had turned into her going to a location, taking out a target before moving on. Although she wouldn’t admit it, perhaps it would be refreshing to have a sense of competition back, not to mention that she was back to finally eliminate Tracer. Just seeing a glimpse of her through the small window in the door forced a smile on her lips. This would be more fun than she’d originally thought.
The group anticipated that Overwatch would be less in numbers, but would definitely have evolved in skill and power over time, perhaps even with new recruits. However, whilst they’d been down, Talon had also seized the opportunity to develop their own.
They had more grunts that went through a rigorous training program before they were sent out on the field, even if they were still as dumb as rocks, they could fire and hit a target.
Then came the Vices, named to tie in with Talon. Vices were a branch of Talon with more updated gear and would be the ones testing it on the field - they were more advanced than grunts with better defences, more skill, and more variation. Recently, they’d introduced hard-light shields that could link together to form a larger one. They had no bounds to linking, but would definitely stop holding and need to recharge after too much impact. However, this still made them an effective unit of Talon that was always deployed on the field, resulting in less deaths for Talon members overall.
They were a robust unit now, and as Widowmaker looked around and beneath her, she felt confident in them. Due to what they expected to see inside, they’d brought along a few of the Vices that were stationed on the ground with Reaper, Moira and Sombra. Due to her lack of field expertise, Moira was set at the same door as Reaper, just a lot further back because her main focus was testing her newest concoction with range. Sombra was at the main door, with full intention to mask herself and get to the main terminal inside, extracting the names and details of every new Overwatch agent who may not be present in the building, so that they could strike them down later.
Meanwhile, on the inside of the building, the Overwatch agents continued their work, unknowing of the pending attack being prepared right outside their front door. Although they hadn’t been exactly discreet with their reconciliation by publicly helping the people wherever they went and fighting off any sign of danger, the last thing they expected was an attack. In truth, they believed that they were well hidden and out of sight. The building in which they currently resided was old and abandoned, which they’d miraculously repurposed into a decent base.
Despite the work that they had put into the building, this wasn’t their headquarters, but a base they were building in order to expand to another country. This expansion was on the outskirts of England, sparsely populated so not many people were nearby at any time. The area they were in was quiet, with the nearest village being a few miles out, meaning there was nobody around them at any point. This only helped them remain covert, because nobody would see the airships arriving or leaving.. or so they thought. The entire group were oblivious to the fact that their old enemy had been tracking them for quite some time now, preparing for a devastating attack.
Since their numbers were small currently, the team had agreed that most people should be at this base whilst it’s setting up for the extra protection just in case something should happen to them. That meant that Tracer, Winston, Genji, Mercy and Mei were all gathered with their extra gunners on the side, but still, there were members that couldn’t currently make it to be with them at this time, either because they were at the other base or because they were out doing extra work elsewhere. Reinhardt for example, was desperate to return with his apprentice, but the group opted to leave him at their headquarters, continuing to train Brigitte whilst holding down the fort.
It had been a long day for the agents, each performing a specific function throughout the day. Mercy and Genji had helped the closest village through a crisis when an explosion hit, but the cause was unknown as they hadn’t arrived exactly on time. The locals had been in hysterics about an airship, but nothing had been confirmed. However, in helping out, they were praised and Overwatch was steadily creeping into the public eye as a good thing once again.
Mercy hadn’t wanted to rejoin Overwatch, and the decision hadn’t been an easy one. The days she spent deliberating the pros and cons had been tiresome, especially considering that she had been a field medic at the time and would be dropping important work. Her final decision had been made on the basis that the team would defend the people she was saving, and they’d agreed to do just that because of how valuable she was, but also because helping and saving people was their primary function, after all.
Even now, she had reluctance in everything she did. After they’d been permanently outcasted and banned, it was already risky. But sometimes, the group did more harm than good, even if it was unintentional. When Talon had attacked previously, innocents had lost their lives where they shouldn’t have. Without Overwatch, they perhaps wouldn’t have been murdered so brutally. But when she was merely helping people in the village, it was doing nobody harm, and she was okay with it.
Tracer and Winston had stuck back with Mei, trying to kickstart their base and reach out to older members who perhaps hadn’t managed to get the message previously. The younger Brit was ever-hopeful, and continuously encouraged Winston since they’d gotten back together that Overwatch would be back and would take amazing care of the people once again.
Currently though, the group were together in front of the main terminal in the centre of the room, sending off their final messages to other agents.
“Well... lets just hope they get back to us.” Winston’s voice cut through the silence. He was losing hope for other agents responding to him, and could feel the mood drop in the room any time he tried. What was he doing wrong?
“It’s alright, big guy!” The cheery tone of Tracer came in as she patted him on the arm. “They’ll come to. For now, you’ve gotta deal with us!”
“So energetic, right before we all go to bed.” Angela chuckled, before letting out a yawn.
There were no other words, and Mei had already gone up the stairs to her room for sleeping, followed shortly by Angela and Genji, leaving Tracer and Winston in the main room alone.
“It’ll be okay, it just takes time.” Tracer quietly reassured. “Now how about some sleep? It’s a fresh start tomorrow! This place is really coming along nicely!”
Lena always had been pure of heart, and it pained her to see her friend so down. She only wished she could get the other agents to respond, but she understood why they’d be apprehensive.
“I’ll go up soon, I just want to sit here for a moment and finish things up for now.” Came just solemn response. “You go on up.”
“Alright, Winston, but don’t be too long! Don’t want you all cranky in the mornin’.”
With that final response, the pilot made her way up the stairs, marvelling at their work as she went. Up here were more desks, but also a nice meeting room with a little kitchen too, so that they weren’t working all day. As she passed by the door of it, she chose to make a tea for herself to relax in bed with. Walking towards the rooms not long after, she smiled as she thought over the productive day they’d had, and just how truly proud of her team she was. The others didn’t seem to register the vast progress they’d made per day; turning an abandoned factory into an Overwatch base was no easy feat.
The bedrooms were little cubes for now until they could afford to expand them, all lined up and practically the same with their little name labels on the door to be able to tell them apart. She reached hers right near the end, placing her hand on the pad beside the door in order to allow herself in. It was a plan room: white walls in which she’d pinned pictures of herself and her team all over the world, both recent and old. A simple double bed on a wooden frame, a desk, wardrobe, the necessities, and an en suite bathroom to accompany every room.
Placing the mug of hot tea on the side, she quickly brushed her teeth and slipped into a comfy oversized shirt and sweatpants before sliding beneath her duvet and pulling a good book from the desk drawer.
“Vamos!” Came Sombra’s irritatingly smug voice over the line, before all of the doors to the buildings slowly shifted open. Their main goal wasn’t secrecy, it was destruction.
Immediately, Reaper readied his shotguns and entered the building from the back, allowing a few Vices to go in front and set up a shield so that when they advanced through the building, there would be minimal surprises. Moira’s slender figure slithered into the shadows as to avoid being seen, meaning her weapon would be a surprise and swing any fight into Talon’s favour - if it wasn’t already. As Reyes made his move into the building, he was met by a massive building with a huge hall, desks littering the outer walls. In the centre of the room was the huge main terminal, where he immediately spotted Winston defensively looking to the main entrance.
“Miss me?” Reaper taunted, as Winston slammed his massive fist on a bright red button on the desk, causing a blaring alarm to sound throughout the building.
Immediately, the other agents of Overwatch who had only gone to bed mere minutes before, were up and raring to go, preparing themselves for whatever threat had presented itself to Winston downstairs, fighting completely alone.
Tracer’s heart raced; how could they not have anticipated this? She had to put on her accelerator gently, removing it from its charger after she’d gotten herself dressed, before blinking out of the room and preparing herself to fight. Since she’d met up with Winston when Overwatch first recalled, they’d worked on an accelerator that didn’t stick out so much and make her an obvious target. Although it was still blue, the glow was dimmer and the device itself was no longer so bulky. It would charge for longer, and she felt far more secure with this one.
She’d sprinted downstairs, using the blinks to aid her, noting quite a few things at once; Winston was disarming some advanced grunts with hard light shields. They’d never seen Talon have such an advanced group of basic gunmen, especially with the shields, but her colleague wasn’t exactly giving them an easy time. Swiping at groups of them at a time, he knocked them to the ground and continued his assault to defend the team.
Meanwhile, Mercy was ducked behind a desk in the corner with Mei, slowly healing a wound where a bullet had hit her, lodging snugly in her rib cage. The girl had been unfortunately caught by a bullet as she attempted to jump away from it, and it had successfully managed to find a mark. Luckily, Mercy was quick with the process, and Tracer knew they’d both be back to defend in only a short few moments.
Genji was fighting middle grounds, attempting to defend Mercy and Mei whilst also aiding Winston. The pair made reasonably quick work of the men that were front lining with nothing but rifles, but more shielded men kept leaking their way in, almost endlessly.
A single bullet whistled through the air, burying itself in the head of one of Overwatch’s own gunners, his body hitting the hard floor with a thud. The blood immediately began to pool on the floor where he lay, spreading into the little cracks in the floor. Lena looked to him, and his cold dead eyes stared back at her, making her heart immediately sink.
“It’s Widowmaker.” Mercy called to the girl, snapping her out of her thoughts almost immediately. It would be up to Angela to see if she could help their fallen, and all everyone else could do would be to pray.
Refusing to leave her teammates stuck like this, she blinked behind a set of men that were stood side by side with hard-light shields, spraying them with gunfire, before blinking between the two in the centre, chuckling.
“Hope you didn’t need those!” Tracer giggled as she kicked both men harshly, causing their shields to tumble to the ground and power down, giving her more than enough time to subdue the pair. Now, it seemed Winston had a fairer fight, but as she turned to where Mercy had been, she watched one of their own gunners take a bullet straight to the centre of his forehead.
From this point, Tracer could stall in the room no longer. She knew that she had to get to that sniper and put an end to the continuous murder whilst the remainder of her team held down the inside of the base. As Mei slowly got to her feet, Tracer gave a nod of reassurance in her direction before heading to one of the side doors. Her team needed her now, they were relying on her.
Instead of blinking her way to the sniper, Tracer opted for being quiet and trying to go unseen - despite the bright blue glow of her accelerator. She headed up some metal stairs inside a building adjacent to the factory, steadily making her way to the rooftop. It was a lot colder here in the nighttime breeze, something she would usually embrace, but she didn’t have time. From this rooftop, she could see the slender figure of the sniper on a nearby building, standing stiffly and well composed.
Tracer sprinted to the edge of the rooftop she was on, blinking to be on the same one as Widowmaker, silently praying that the other woman didn’t see. She’d tried desperately not to time-jump, but her team desperately needed her and she couldn’t afford to waste time. Any moment that the Talon member’s focus wasn’t on her team was better than nothing at all.
Slowly peaking her head out from behind the large pipes that she was hiding behind, Tracer could see her enemy up close now, putting so much concentration in as she held her gun. She didn’t falter, didn’t move. Her confidence was admirable, even if what it was used for was less so. Despite it being part of Talon’s brainwashing, Tracer couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous that the woman never had to doubt herself, or never had to doubt a shot she made.
A shot. The sound of another round making its way through the door stopped Tracer from getting carried away by her thoughts. She had to do something, and fast. Although she didn’t know the situation in the building, she imagined it wasn’t looking too great.
Back behind the pipes, concealed from the sniper, Tracer tried to come up with a plan, but the sudden pressure was doing her mind no justice, and she finally decided she’d just have to go in and distract the woman. More of a make-it-up-as-you-go scenario. Although she was used to her own spontaneity, Tracer hadn’t been in the field like this for a while, and she noticed her palms sweating.
Trying to brush aside how she felt, Tracer gripped her guns and readied herself, shutting her eyes and permitting herself a deep breath before she stood from behind the piped and blinked towards her nemesis of however long.
“Hiya, love-“ She was cut off by a swift kick to the stomach, followed by the woman pushing her back against the pipes she just hid behind.
Widow’s Kiss now pointed directly at Tracer’s own chronal accelerator, Tracer eyes widened. Was this it?
“Salut, chérie.”