"Nerf this!" exclaimed a satisfied D. va as she sent her MEKA flying towards the cache of munitions. Turning her back, a loud boom echoed behind her - while a new MEKA dropped from orbit before her. She had just completed her latest assignment by defeating another Omnic cell. This time the mission was a joint operation between the Korean Army and Overwatch (although Overwatch was omitted in the official report, mostly due to there still being a significant voice of opposition for it).
After signing-off to her stream on with a energetic "Love, D. va - GG!" (today - just like any other day, she managed to net her usual 90% of the usersbase to her stream) - a sigh escaped the 19-year old worldwide sensation's lips. If one of her fans saw her face right now they would flip.
She was exhausted after being forced on alert and, very much on edge or the past few days for this operation. However, she decided that she would run through the events in her mind for her mission report. The mission was a simple one - hunt down and destroy this sleeper cell that was about to deliver crucial supplies to one of their depots. Command had informed her that this cell was an easy target and that she was merely required to provide support to the ground team. Overwatch had warned the Korean Army that the aforementioned cell was in fact a quite well equipped cell as the cache had contained a good quantity of munitions and weapons, according to 76 - "it had enough capable weaponry to turn a group of children and elderly into a special ops army." As usual it was brushed off by command as being an exaggeration.
D. va on the other hand knew that her colleagues (if that was the proper term) in Overwatch never exaggerated. After all, Overwatch was an organization that was pretty much like the Retaliators from the comic books and movies from the past. Hana was after all, loved action movies so - a blockbuster decades ago was certainly watched voraciously by her. 76 reminded her of Chief Amerika and Ana with the eye patch was a dead-on female version of Nicholas Frenzy. For a group of people who were the literal manifestation of 'exaggeration' (think talking gorilla - sorry Winston), no one in Overwatch would simply 'exaggerate'. She decided it was best that she kept the data from Overwatch in mind.
Anyways, what's done is done. Command decided to place D. va to the rearguard as 'backup'. Hana wasn't sure if she was sent there was a publicity stunt for the Korean Army to show off their 'poster girl' or if it was a means to motivate the soldiers. Either way, when she met the group she was assigned to as they were boarding the aircraft that would transport them to the point, she knew they were split in 2 camps. The first - was her fans; fans of D. va practically devote themselves to her, sometimes they seemed blindly ignorant of reality. She'd seen that look before - the look of adoration and admiration. She'd also seen those lusting looks, to those looks she could overlook; after all, she had carefully and meticulously crafted her fan club. Many of her fans would not dare make a foolish move against her, on top of having all the eyes of the world upon her - she also had a specially requested team of operators assigned to her to provide support and protection necessary wherever she went, her team was able to fast-track her MEKA orbital deployment requests as well as providing immediate security as requested. On top of that, her fan club had a good number of self-proclaimed 'knights' that worked tirelessly to defend her integrity, or something of that sort - according to their slogan on their website; and surprisingly they weren't all talk - the sites where people dared to use her image in a disparaging way seemed to be taken down quicker than a politician's 'mishap', what was even more frightening was that the perpetrator's identity would quickly be exposed too. That was one of the few benefits of being 'famous' mused D. va. If push does come to shove - D. va has been authorized to use her light gun and fusion cannons even on allied forces.
But there was one look, a distinct one - so clear like night and day, that Hana Song couldn't handle. That until today, that gaze pierces her deeply and it taxes a lot of her mental and emotional strength to keep her D. va persona up. It was the look of hatred. Call it what you want, it always boiled down to a form of hatred poking it's ugly face out. Jealousy, disappointment, disgust, displeasure, envy, displeasure… the list goes on. This was the second camp. Hana could understand their reasons, from distrust about her ("how can a child protect us?", "we are not here to play your fantasy games!") to disappointment directed at her ("if you were so talented, why didn't you come to our aid earlier?", "it's a mission of life and death, but there she is streaming to her fans.") - but she couldn't do anything to ease those doubts. Many aspects of her life is hidden from her audience - in fact "D. va" was a personality she had to painstakingly craft to hide her many secrets from the world. Many of which are mandated by military and national security that she has to prevent the world from knowing. Her special team was also there to monitor her. If she ever slipped up on that secret-keeping front, she would lose her sanity - in the most literal form. After all, the muscle memory of a person is practically instinctive - the consciousness could be replaced with some help and the body be used to pilot that MEKA. That crushing statement still rings in her head, sending a chill down her spine.
A few well rehearsed smiles and laughs helped D. va to sit through the flight without much issue from either camp. Fortunately or not, their flight arrived at their destination ahead of time as well.
A/N : Welcome to my first fic of the year, just got into Overwatch after being convinced that D. va is waifu material or whatever - she's cute and I believe her character can be developed much more than the little lore we have.
You ought to know that I don't have the best familiarity with Korean culture nor it;s language - but I'll be trying to gather some data while I write this!
The Retaliators are a play on the Avengers.
I'm a D. va main and I'm still picking up the ropes.
Meanwhile, leave a review and enjoy the fic (or this chapter)!
