A New Challenger
Summary:
Prompt 25:
gets Sombra into video games (Sombra is a cheater)
Hana Song was so excited to show someone her starring role in Heroes of the Storm. Of course, she was the best character, hands down. She was so happy that she got to fight alongside her favorite character, Kerrigan…even if it was on the virtual battlefield.
She racked her brain, who would even be able to appreciate her greatness? Angela would give Hana the appropriate "oohs" and "ahhs" but they wouldn't feel as satisfying knowing that Angela much preferred studying med books and Fareeha's body and didn't grasp the appeal of virtual gaming.
Reinhardt was much the same as Angela, as was Lucio. But he was in the game too, and Hana didn't feel like arguing why she was the best at the moment…maybe later. Jack…no he was waay older than games, which eliminated Gabriel by default. So, most definitely not Ana. She continued to narrow her list of potential admirers in this manner until she was left with three of her most likely candidates: Winston, Satya, and Sombra. Satya was a bit of a stretch, Hana would admit, but it wouldn't hurt to try.
She skipped down to the control room where Winston could often be found during the day. He wasn't hard to miss, his hulking mass sat in front of many large computer screens as he monitored the city, his large hands delicately peeling a banana as his feet skillfully twisted off the top of a peanut butter container. Before it got any weirder, Hana called for his attention.
"Hey, Winston!"
Startled, the scientist jerked, and his feet instinctively tightened. The flimsy plastic of the peanut butter container never stood a chance. The gooey substance smeared all over his feet and splattered all over the ground, Winston took a deep breath before sighing loudly through his nose. It took an entire five seconds before all of the air was expelled from his lungs.
"Yes. Hana."
Hana's eyes tracked the peanut butter goop as it fell from Winston's feet and hit the floor. She caught herself staring and quickly returned her attention to the scientist's face. Which was looking particularly murderous at the moment.
"Umm…ya know what? It can wait. I can see that you're busy." With that, Hana fled the scene pretending not to hear Winston's frustrated sigh.
"That was unfortunate." Hana muttered to herself when she managed to get far enough away.
She made a mental reminder to avoid Winston for the rest of the day.
The next person on her list of potential admirers was Satya. Mostly because that was who her running had brought her closest to. She trekked along the halls trying to find Satya's room. Hana knew which one was hers because it was the shiniest door of all. She reached up and knocked on the metal door. Her cheeks pulled from the big grin she was preparing for when Satya answered the door.
Nothing.
She tried knocking again. A little louder this time.
Silence.
"Satya? It's me, Hana."
There was a muffled sigh before Hana heard the woman's heels clacking on the floor inside. When the metal slid open, it revealed the stern looking woman Hana had been searching for.
"Hello!" Hana waved.
There was a pause before Satya raised one of her brows. Hana cleared her throat nervously before she peeked past the taller woman. Amelie was there, watching her struggle.
"Widow? What are you doing here?"
"We were trying to watch a movie." Satya answered.
"Oohh. Which one?" Hana quickly ran a mental list of all the movies the women might find enjoyable and narrowed it by things they would be mutually interested.
"Pariah." Amelie replied, leaning further into her chair to peer around Satya.
"Never heard of it." Hana admitted.
"Sombra assured us it was well worth watching." Amelie drawled.
Hana allowed her eyes to drift back to Satya.
"Did you need something? If not, then I would like to finish this movie."
"I was gonna ask if you wanted to play" Satya took a step back inside her room as Hana spoke, "a game" reached to the side of the door, "with me" and pressed the button, closing it in front of Hana's face, "but I can see that you're busy." Hana finished. Puffing out her cheeks at the rude display, she stuck out her tongue for a moment before turning and heading for Sombra's room.
"Third time's the charm!" Hana cheered to herself. She hoped the other woman would be in her room. It was a roll of the dice on whether or not Sombra was where she was supposed to be. She didn't have any missions coming up, but it wouldn't be out of the norm for her to be pestering Winston in the control room.
"Good luck with that." Hana snorted to herself.
She found the door, it wasn't hard because it was littered with stickers and purple spray paint. She gave a short knock and the door opened on its own after the third time. Hana found Sombra inside pecking away at her keyboard.
"Yes, Ana?" Sombra greeted without looking away from her screen.
"It's actually me…Hana?" She prompted.
"That's what I said." Sombra paused for only a moment in her typing as she answered.
There was a moment of silence between them, with only the sound of keys being pressed interrupting it.
"Right. Well, I was wondering if you wanted to play a game?" Hana offered.
Sombra stopped typing and spun her chair around to face the other. "What kind of game?"
Hana felt her eyes sparkle with enthusiasm as she explained about Heroes of the Storm and all her favorite characters and what the object of the game was.
Sombra rubbed her chin for a moment before smiling. "Sure! I was getting tired of messing with Winston anyway." She replied with a flick of her hand to close the screen she was previously working on.
Hana sucked in an excited breath before she grabbed Sombra's hand and dragged her along to her room. "You have to download it or else I would have just played in your room."
Sombra shrugged and translocated back to her doorway and out of Hana's grip. "Relax, downloading games should only take a moment for me."
Hana gave her a skeptical look, but didn't want to deter her from the game. "Okay. I am just going to go grab my gaming equipment and I'll be back. If it isn't done, then you can play on mine. Alright?"
"Sounds perfect."
Hana nodded before making a mad dash for her room. She snatched up her laptop, mouse, keyboard, and headset and lugged it to Sombra's room.
Only a few minutes had passed before she returned. She kicked the door because her hands were full, and the door slid open on its own again.
"Let me just set this up." Hana suggested as she plopped her stuff down on Sombra's bed.
"Why?"
"So you can play while your game downloads." Hana replied, confused.
"I'm already playing." Sombra answered.
"What?" Hana screeched. "No way!"
She pressed her face close to Sombra's screen as if her eyes were playing some cruel trick on her.
"How did you manage to get the game on so fast?"
"I cheated." Sombra answered vaguely. Hana waited for her to elaborate, but when it was clear she wasn't going to, she gave a sigh of defeat.
"I like this Kerrigan woman. She reminds me of someone I know." Sombra mentioned dazedly. Trying to place where the sense of familiarity was from.
"Oh! I love her! She's so cool. Almost as cool as me!" At Sombra's skeptical look she continued, "Probably cooler." Hana admitted quietly.
Sombra smirked and returned to her screen. "Is this…is this you?"
Hana perked up immediately. "Yep!"
"What about me?"
"Umm, no. You're not in there."
"Qué triste." Sombra said mournfully before making a sound of surprise. "Wait. Lúcio's here too?"
Hana smoothed a lock of her hair nervously. "Yeah."
Sombra gave her a look before shrugging. "Looks like I'm playing Kerrigan."
She entered the game and spent the first few seconds getting a feel for the controls.
It was a few games before Hana asked if she could play with Sombra.
She giggled at the battletag name when Sombra told her so they could find each other. "Why did you pick the name Olivia?"
Sombra's only answer was a noncommittal shrug.
"How did you even get the name Olivia anyway? Shouldn't there be numbers or some differences? I feel like that name would have been taken ages ago."
Sombra chuckled. "I guess I'm just lucky."
Hana picked herself since Kerrigan was taken and the two of them decimated the other team majority of the time. Players who were completely terrible left the game after a minute. Sombra would always giggle afterwards.
They made a great team and before long Hana had to leave and call it a night. Bidding Sombra a good night's rest, Hana packed up her equipment and returned to her room quietly.
It was after a few days, when Hana decided to play Heroes of the Storm again, that she first encountered "Olivia" on the opposing team.
Smiling she picked Kerrigan. She marveled at the high level Sombra had reached in just a few days, but shrugged it off. Hana wasn't about to complain about another gamer's level of dedication.
She charged onto the battlefield knowing exactly what lane Sombra would be taking., before lurking in some grass. It was about two seconds before she found her character getting killed by "Olivia".
She narrowed her eyes and typed into the chat for everyone to see, 'haha, good one' while she waited to respawn.
The trend continued and every time, she would get more and more frustrated. The game was almost over before Hana asked, 'how r u so good already!?'
Sombra replied with 'boop' and Hana lost it. She made it her mission to kill the enemy Kerrigan before all was said and done. Damn the mission. Her team was doomed anyway.
She searched high and low before she found Olivia killing Hana's team's tank. "Oh no you don't." Hana warned before launching her brutal attack on the enemy. Sombra's character was losing health faster than Hana's and she could taste the bittersweet victory close at hand.
Sombra was on her last bar of health before she disappeared. Hana and the tank ran around in circles to see if Sombra was lurking somewhere just off screen.
"What the?"
Before she even finished her question, Sombra's Kerrigan struck and depleted her remaining two bars of health.
"How the hell did you do that?" Hana asked incredulously as she simultaneously typed.
'gg ;P'
Hana sighed, figuring it was a glitch and that she'd never have to deal with playing against Sombra again. 'gg : |' Hana replied, willing to be a good sport about the defeat. A true gamer knows how to lose graciously. At least, that was what she told herself.
She shuffled over to Sombra's room and knocked on the door. As usual, it opened on the third knock.
"Come to offer me praise?" Sombra gloated as she twirled around in her chair.
Hana stared at her for a moment, she had to be sure. "How'd you do it?"
Sombra raised a brow. "Do what?"
"How did you teleport?"
"I cheated."
Hana gaped. "Sombra! How…why? Why cheat?"
"Because it's fun."
Hana pinched the bridge of her nose. Her last attempt at remaining civil. "Could you please stop?"
"Why?"
"Because it's cheating!" Hana stomped her foot.
"So?" Before Hana could reply, Sombra continued, "If you don't like it, then report me."
Hana gave Sombra a pitiful look, "I couldn't do that. The only reason you're playing this game is because of me."
Sombra raised her eyebrows expectantly. "So what are you going to do?"
Hana thought for a moment, "Want to team up?"
Sombra gave her an impish smile, "Of course."
After that, the two of them would always see if the other was on and make sure they were in a group before playing to prevent any argument again.
They haven't lost a game while playing together since then.