"Sniper!" Called a gravely, agitated voice over the Overwatch comms. "Keep your head down or lose it!"
Several of the other operatives gave their confirmation as he took cover behind the pockmarked building that was once an immaculate hotel in England. Another angry streak of crimson zipped past him as the sniper kept Soldier 76 pinned in place. He cursed into his mask as he tried to figure out how to get out of this situation without a brand new hole to patch up. A figure came upon him, running down the length of the building with a powerful compound bow in his hands. Morrison nodded at Hanzo Shimada and the archer replied in kind. Pulling an arrow from his quiver he leaped from behind cover and fired in the direction of the sniper before rolling back in, narrowly avoiding what would have likely been a kill shot. 76 turned and saw a highlighted red silhouette of a long, lithe figure with a deadly long rifle in her hands. Taking in a deep breath he prepared himself to bound outward and launch a salvo of rockets from the barrel under his weapon. He never got the chance.
He had thought he was familiar with every member of Talon, every mercenary worth mentioning and any vigilante stupid enough to land themselves either fame or infamy. A new silhouette appeared within the pulsating blue bubble of Hanzo's recon arrow and it was one he couldn't even remotely identify. The sniper, undoubtedly the traitor now known as Widowmaker seemed to fly into a panic and attempted to escape with the grappling hook held in her wrist. Just as she began zipping off the arrow's radar fell silent and Morrison had no choice but to poke his head out and see just what had happened. Standing there on the edge of the balcony was a man he couldn't identify. From this distance all he could tell was that the clothes he wore where a dark blue and what looked like a full set of jet black limbs that were obviously animatronic. In one of those prosthetic hands was Windowmaker's ankle. The figure held onto her and the frantic sniper turned her rifle around, spraying automatic fire behind her in a vain attempt to escape.
The figure stepped forward, grabbing the rappel cord and yanked on it hard enough to dislodge the hook. The cyanotic sniper fell to the floor, her leg stuck in the air as the figure held on to her in his vice like grip and leaned down, delivering a blow to the back of the woman's neck. As she stopped struggling he seemed to almost gently set her down and then strode into the building she had been firing from, out of Morrison's sight.
"Who was that?" The Shimada archer asked, a look of confusion painted on his face. "Some secret friend of yours?"
"I don't have friends." 76 responded and began running toward the building. Hanzo darted after him, placing a scattering arrow into his bow, just in case.
The building seemed deserted, and for some time, too. As Morrison looked around all he saw were bits of debris, old papers and trash that had been blown in over the years. He was about to just call the search off and order the group to exfil with their new prisoner when a voice came from downstairs, in the basement of the building.
"I've found something that you may want to come and see, Jack." Winston, one of Overwatch's best and brightest lumbered to the foot of the stairs and beckoned the other two down.
As Hanzo and 76 descended, guided only by a few flickering lights, they caught sight of a massive, reinforced steel bulkhead. By the looks of it the thing should have been impregnable, but the hinges had been ripped out of the walls on either side and judging by the sparks popping out of the frame it looked like it had been pried open. This was not the work of one operative.
"Team, be on the look out for multiple unknowns in the objective area." Morrison called out. "At least one of them is highly skilled and his body is augmented with robotics."
"I'll keep a sharp eye out, boss!" came Lena's voice over the comms. "Once I get- oi, stop that! Once I get our new friend back to the shuttle I'll join ya."
"Affirmative." 76 replied and then nodded at the other two. Winston moved in first, followed closely by Hanzo, his bow already drawn back. Morrison swept in behind him, his weapon pressed into his shoulder, alert and ready. The gigantic door lead into a long, narrow hallway that was littered with what appeared to be corpses. Talon mercenary corpses, to be exact. Morrison knelt down to check the pule of one and was surprised to find him still alive. Moving on to the next one the story was the same. Whoever these people sweeping through this Talon base were, they must have been very well trained to be able to neutralize so many enemies without killing any of them. Most disconcerting was the fact that Talon had no qualms with killing and yet there were no corpses to be seen.
The hallway opened up into what looked like a control room with only one other door on the opposite side. There were screens everywhere but most of them were static. Morrison was about to urge the group forward, through yet another broken steel door when he saw movement on one of the screens that was still working. Talon mercenaries were firing at a figure far down the hall they seemed to be trapped in. The man from before rushed in, both arms held out in front of him. What looked like metal fins were extended outward, shielding everything but his apparently very durable prosthetics as he charged down the hallway, shouldering every mercenary he closed with into the walls around them, knocking them out cold.
"Whoever that is, his technology is very impressive." Winston stated, adjusting his glasses. "His face is completely covered and yet he seems to be able to see through whatever those shields are. Perhaps there's screens on the back end to let him see beyond them?"
"We will find out when we meet him." Hanzo stated.
"Agreed." Morrison replied and signaled for the group to press on. The high pitched skipping sound that was all too familiar to the group echoed behind them as Lena Oxton zipped into the room with a smile and a thumbs up. "The prisoner?"
"Nice and comfy in her restrainer on the shuttle." Tracer replied. "Bonzer, who's that?"
"We aim to find that out." the Shimada replied.
Morrison nodded and the group began advancing further into the besieged Talon base.
There was little difference in every corridor and room the group cleared to that of the entrance to the Talon base. The amount of unconscious mercenaries littering the place had grown so much that Tracer had called for a larger team to come in and detain them all. While reinforcements were on the way they had pressed in further and learned very little about the base other than that it housed some devastating weapon held within. A weapon designed by Overwatch's own Chief Engineer Lindholm.
Breaking out of yet another length corridor they finally found a massive room that had generators built in on either side of it. The cords to the generators lead to some machine dominating the center of it and Winston gasped in disbelief.
"What is it, big guy?" Lena asked, concern etched into her face.
"It's Project Tyr. One of the dozens of Torbjorn's weapons designed during the Omnic Crisis. Think of it as a giant cannon that fires a ball of pure electric energy."
"I'm afraid to ask what it was used for."
"Putting a lot of Omnics down at one time, Trace." Morrison explained bluntly. "And Talon has had it this whole time?"
A loud banging noise called everyone's attention to the generator on the right and every weapon was trained on it. From around behind it came the man from earlier with what looked to be some important component to keep the thing running. As it sputtered and died the shield that was housing Project Tyr flickered and dimmed. As the man caught sight of the Overwatch team his eyes narrowed. Saying nothing he raised the chunk of metal in his hand and hurled it at the other generator with enough force for it to punch straight through. As it sputtered and died the man sprinted for the cannon.
"Oh no you don't!" Winston shouted and jetted to the cannon, landing in between it and the mysterious figure. Undeterred, the assailant leaped into the air, reeling an arm back as he made to strike the scientist. Winston leaped to the side and was caught off guard as the man didn't move to attack him, but instead sent his fist into the firing mechanism for the canon, rending the metal. He sent his opposite hand in after it and began peeling the steel back with what looked to be very little effort at all. Winston charged forward and grabbed hold of the man, only to receive a kick in the gut that dropped him.
"Oi!" Lena shouted and charged forward.
"Tracer, wait!" Morrison shouted, but she was already there, firing at him. The man quickly pulled his arms out the fin like shields popped out of the forearms of his prosthetics, blocking her shots. As she slipped in closer to get a better shot at him the man rolled forward and grabbed her wrists, spinning her around and put her into a choke hold. The lithe pilot grabbed on to the robotic limbs and kicked at his legs as she desperately tried to get away. 76 surged forward and the man used the opportunity to grab Tracer by the shoulders and throw her at him. The impact knocked them both to the ground but gave Hanzo a clean shot, which he took. As he loosed the arrow it sailed through the air, making a bee line for the man's head. And then he caught it. The archer glared at the opponent before him as he spun the arrow around and threw it back. The arrow flew with such force it may as well have been a bullet and lodged itself into the archer's leg.
"How!?" Hanzo demanded, gritting his teeth. "Who are you?"
"Ask him." The man said in a rasping, tired voice as he jerked his thumb at the slowly standing Morrison. Through the visor his face was unreadable but the man didn't seem overly worried about 76 or any of the other members of Overwatch as they started getting back up. Winston jumped forward again and this time the man jumped into the air, dodging the massive attacker and landed on top of the huge weapon. Reaching down around the long barrel he began pulling upward and the metal warped under his grasp. The damage to the machine was already irreparable but he didn't stop until he had actually broken it loose.
"Wait, if you're here to stop Talon and destroy these giant weapons they got, why are you fighting us?" Lena asked, her pistols still trained on him.
"Because we attacked first." Winston answered.
"No." Came the reply as he tossed the cannon barrel off to the side. The man jumped up and came back down, kicking his feet downward and practically bending what was left of the weapon into a U-shape before stepping off of it and raising his fists like some sort of boxer. "I would have fought you, anyways. You would have tried to recover this weapon."
"And what makes you think that?" 76 asked.
"Because I know what kind of man you are, Commander Morrison." the figure snapped, pointing an accusing finger at him. "We had to learn the hard way what sort of man you are."
"We?" Tracer asked as her weapons slowly lowered. "How many of you are there?"
"Just one, now." The man replied. He held his hands up and the palms of his prosthetics slid downward, the left side revealing something round held within and the other looking largely the same. It took a moment for anyone to realize one was a light and the other a speaker. A moment was far too long. A brilliant white light flashed, as did a high pitched beep that drowned out all other sounds. All of the Overwatch operatives clutched at their ears and shut their eyes as their senses were overloaded. It lasted roughly ten seconds but by the time the effects had worn off the mysterious man was nowhere to be found.
"Who in the bloody hell was that?" Lena asked, looking at Morrison with astonishment.
"I don't-" He began but noticed something on the ground where the man had been standing. He stepped over to it and knelt down silently, removing his visor. The group watched as his eyes widened and everyone stepped closer for a better look. In the commander's hand was what looked like a military insignia. Its design was sword, its blade pointed down, resting atop a kited shield. At the bottom of the decorative hunk of metal was a scroll with the word "Populandum" engraved into it.
"You know what this crest represents?" Hanzo asked, trying to read Morrison's expression.
"It's... It's a military crest. The kind commanders hand out to members of their unit when as a small reward."
"Populandum..." Winston read aloud, tapping his chin. "That's latin. It means-"
"To Ravage." Morrison finished. The group stared at him, knowing that there was more to what he knew than he was saying. "I'm not repeating the story a dozen times and we're not going to waste time with it here. Let's help our reinforcements round up all these criminals and get back to base."