"I don't know Jack..." Angela frowned, looking at the paintball gun in her hand. "C'mon Angel," Jack smiled, "You'll have fun. I know you will."
All Angela could do was offer a feeble smile through the front of the mask she was wearing. She didn't like the sound of this "paintball game" and thought it was a terrible date idea. Being the kind woman she was, she didn't bash her boy friend's idea, and decided that any time spent with him would not be time wasted. Though now she wished she had suggested something like coffee or a movie, as she soon found herself surrounded by men that seemed two times as tall as her. Gulping nervously, she drifted closer to Jack.
"Hey Jack," a big man with a black tactical vest, decked out in military green called, "who's the lady?" She couldn't believe that, one: these men would be so serious about their paintball that they would deck themselves out in full uniform, and two: he hadn't even had the respect to come up and ask her name himself instead of rudely referring to her as, "lady".
"This is my girlfriend Angela." Jack said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and giving it a light squeeze. Angela just raised her hand and waved at the man, who seemed to be scrutinizing her in his head by the way he disapprovingly looked at her. "You really think a paintball match is the best place to bring your lady? She won't stand a chance." He scoffed. Angela's jaw tightened along with the grip on her gun. How dare he!
"Angela isn't just any 'lady'." Jack said, interrupting her thoughts and pulling her into his side again. "She's an important agent of Overwatch, and she's a very valuable and skilled addition to the team."
Angela didn't know what to think about that. She didn't expect Jack to talk about Overwatch outside of work. His friends knew who he was and knew what he did, but know they knew she was associated with that. If they had the same idea about her tactical skills as they did Jack's, she would be in trouble. Now these men would hold her to a standard higher than any she could reach.
Sure, she could follow any team into battle successfully in her Valkyrie suit with her Caduceus staff, but going in as a soldier whose main purpose was to take down an enemy, she had little to no experience. "I'll believe her skill when I see it," the man said, "But I don't doubt anybody on your team could be that terrible. They are part of the famous strike team of Overwatch."
Angela just fiddled with her hands and stayed close to Jack. The team wasn't too hot about the fact she was on the team, and to make it even better she had no real idea of what she was supposed to do. The team started making there way out into the field filled with plain, building-like structures and started taking their positions. A man that seemed to be some sort of referee stood on top of a raised platform that allowed him to see over the whole field. At the sound of an air horn, the team readied themselves for action.
Angela let out a deep breath. Looking over at her, Jack offered her a smile. "Just pretend we're fighting with the Overwatch team." He encouraged, "But fight aggressively and not like you're healing." All she could do was nod quickly as the big man from earlier said, "Lead on Strike Commander." giving a quick salute to Jack.
Nodding his head, he gestured for the team to follow him. They followed suit behind him, making their way for a bigger structure more towards the middle of the field. Upon entering the building, the men got into their positions like they already knew what they were doing. At the readied stance of the other team members, Angela could feel her heart start to hammer in her chest. "You can stay with me and be my backup." Jack told her, all while looking around the corner to see if anyone was coming. All she did was nod, thankful that out of all the people he could have requested her be backup for, it was him. When does Jack ever need backup?
Gesturing for her to stay put, Jack called for a few of his team members to follow him out of the building, but they didn't even have time to move before a splat of yellow paint coated the back of one of the men behind Jack. Everybody whirred around to see three members of the opposing team emerge from the back of the building. The team was able to eliminate these players quickly, and they all walked off the field. "If you get hit, you're out." Jack told her, and she almost rolled her eyes at him. Duh.
"The dead zone is over there." He pointed to the area behind the referee's platform where the four eliminated players sat, "But I won't let that happen." He smiled.
Grabbing Angela''s wrist, he pulled her out of the building and around the left side, where he quickly spotted two opponents. As quickly as he spotted them, he had them both eliminated with two accurate shots to the chest.
At this time, Angela's adrenaline was rushing at an all time high. A paintball splattered on the wall behind her, spraying her right shoulder with orange liquid. Facing her opponent, she fired blindly and hit him square in the stomach. Her first reaction was to apologize and go help the young man, but Jack held her back as the man scowled and said, "That was just a lucky shot, girl." At that, all Jack could do was laugh.
"These people just don't want to face the fact that a woman can be better than them." Angela had to smile a little at this. She had a bit of a feminist side in her, and when it came to the combat ability of women, she knew just how capable they were. She always thought of Ana, who never missed a shot, or Tracer, who despite the difficult things she has had to endure, had harnessed her differences to make her unstoppable on the battlefield. While she didn't agree with the killing that was done, she could not deny how talented her fellow female Overwatch agents were.
Making their way forwards towards the other team's side, Angela gripped her gun with more purpose. After convincing herself that the people she shot at with the weapon in her hand were not going to die like they would if they were on a real mission, she decided she might as well be prepared. While these men came to play and get shot at, she surely did not want to get hit. She had saw the welts and bruises Jack sometimes wore after one of these games, and she didn't want to experience what had caused them herself.
Running towards the next structure- a small, boxlike building standing right in the center of the field- Angela caught sight of all the people now standing in the dead zone. It seemed as if their whole team stood there, along with what seemed like almost all of the members of the other team. Angela started feeling extremely nervous again. Where they the only ones left?
Right before ducking into the building, a barrage of paintballs flew towards them. Acting as fast as she could, she jumped into cover, but not without feeling a stinging sensation on her bicep. Looking at her arm, she saw no paint, though she knew she had been hit. As she was about to walk off the field, Jack stopped her. "If the paintball doesn't splatter, you ain't out."
Angela almost groaned at that. She honestly wanted to be out: Out of the way of flying paintballs like the one that had just hit her, out off the adrenaline-charged atmosphere.
"Lets kick some red team ass". Jack smirked, and Angela sighed, gripping her gun tightly with her sweaty palms. "Ah, c'mon Ang," Jack chuckled, "You have to be having a little bit of fun." Angela just rolled her eyes, causing Jack to let out that deep laugh that she loved. Lifting his mask to kiss her on the head, he pulled it back on a gestured for her to follow him out in the line of fire to end the game and get the victory for the blue team.
As soon as they rounded the corner, paintballs rushed towards them. Angela was able to shoot one man, who was deemed eliminated by the splatter of paint on his chest, but the other shot narrowly missed the neck of another. When Mercy ducked back into the shelter of the building to check to make sure she still had ammunition and attempt to calm her sporadically beating heart, she saw paint splatter all over Jack's mask and left arm.
As Jack walked off the field, he shot her a look that could have only meant, "You got this, now don't screw up." Taking a deep breath with her heart hammering in her chest, she tried to think what Jack would do. She knew the men would be heading for her now, after all this time she'd spent in the building, so she decided to leave out the other end of the building and make her way to another structure that was about ten yards away from her.
Taking a deep breath, she sprinted out the opposite side of the building she and Jack had been shooting from. Her heart pounded in her chest as she whipped the muzzle of her gun around to face one of the two remaining men who had been too slow to make his way into the building. Pulling the trigger, she hit him straight in the back, causing him to let loose a string of profanities and stomp off the field like a child. She would have smiled if she had not been insanely nervous.
Trying to remind herself that it was just a game and no lives were on the line, she ducked quickly behind the structure she had ran towards. As soon as she crouched down, she knew she had to get up and move. The structure was a mere two walls that made a 90 degree angle, and if the remaining player came, she would be trapped.
She remembered her combat training well, and knew what she would have to do if someone had her trapped, but she didn't really ever want to use what she had learned. After all, the only time she fought offensively on a mission was if her life depended on it. She was a healer and nothing more.
Looking to her left, she knew that she could not go that way, because she had reached the far edge of the field. Looking back to her right, she knew she couldn't return that way, for her opponent would surely be on her tail.
Quickly and quietly, she decided to sneak her way around the wall to the left, hugging the structure and creeping around to see if she could catch sight of the other man. Right as she rounded the corner, she could see him disappear behind the walls.
Keeping as quiet as she could, she quickly tried to filter through her options. She realized that if he had seen her make her way to the outside of the structure, he would have been on her already. He must not have seen her. Being as quiet as she could, she made her way towards the side of the wall from which he entered. She knew he probably would go back that way.
As quickly and as quietly as she could, she made her way out from her hiding place from in front of the wall, catching the man by surprise. He was trapped.
He tried to shoot at her, but in his desperate attempt to eliminate her, aimed poorly and shot way too far left to hit her. Drawing her gun, she shot once, accurately hitting him square in the chest.
"You just got lucky, woman." he spat throwing his mask on the ground in childish anger.
""It wasn't luck." Angela scoffed, laughing lightly (out of nervousness or joy she couldn't tell). "If you've been through as much military training as I have, you would be able to beat an ordinary guy such as yourself."
Smirking at the man who sat in the corner, he looked at her with a surprised expression. "Military, huh?" Angela just nodded.
Walking off towards the referee, the man quickly followed after her. "Every soldier needs a commander." he winked, pointing at his arm band that labeled him commander of his team. "Join me for drinks after this?" he asked.
Angela laughed, walking towards the dead zone where the rest of the teams stood, anxiously awaiting to see the winner of the match. Once they reached the referee, he looked at both of them and noticed the paint that marred the front of the red-team member's chest.
"Winners: Blue team!" the referee announced, and the men on the blue team whooped with excitement, shaking hands with the other men on their team.
Scooping her up in his arms and spinning her around, Jack wore a huge grin on his face. "You did it Angel! I knew you could!" he praised, bringing her into an excited kiss. She laughed, finding it hilarious that he cared so much about this game, and at how different he reacted compared to how he was at the end of an Overwatch mission.
"So did you have fun?" he asked eagerly. "Want to go again?"
She laughed again. "I still think it's a rather worthless and silly game."
Sighing, Jack just shook his head. He couldn't argue with her, considering she just won the game for them. The rest of the team even came up to congratulate her, including the man that had rudely referred to her as "lady" earlier. "You did good." he said gruffly, offering his hand for her to shake. She shook it firmly and gave him a simple, "Thank You." "I didn't catch your name." he stated, and she just smiled. Maybe it was because he didn't ask.
"Doctor Angela Ziegler." she said with a smile.
"Well thanks for grabbing that victory, Angela." he said, giving her a hint of a grin. Turning away from her, Jack wrapped his arm tightly around her and they made their way to shake hands with the other team.
Angela received many compliments, which thoroughly surprised her. Men could actually let a little harm come upon their egos it would seem. After shaking hands with the rest of the opposite team, the two commander's shook hands as well. When the red-team's commander made eye contact with her, he scowled. Shaking his hand, she laughed as he rolled his eyes disappointedly, warranting a confused look from Jack.
"Thank you for your offer," Angela grinned wickedly, "but I have a commander of my own. And he commands more than just a silly paintball team."