Prologue: The Assassination Of Mondatta

London, England, United Kingdom

The night was young, and the United Kingdom's Capital was ablaze with lights. The night sky itself was illuminated by the many lights reflecting off the moisture in the air, obscuring the stars from view in a haze of brightness. The megacity was bustling with life as its human and omnic citizens moved about with their normal lives, and down on the streets in front of King's Row, a crowd had gathered. Humans and Omnics alike were gathered in front an elevated podium, and within the building behind it, the Omnic Monk Tekhartha Mondatta was preparing for a speech. In the wake of the Omnic Crisis, he had led a group of robotic outcasts into the Himalayas, where he'd established a communal monastery. In the years since, the Shambali Monk had become a strong advocate for peace between the human and omnic races. His quest for such had become a famous one, and his voice had reverberated throughout the world, gaining him a strong footing in the movement and taking him around the globe, speaking out publically to humans and omnics alike. The Omnic Crisis had left a terrible scar upon the world, and it was a voice like Mondatta's that was sorely needed in a time where humans still feared the machines they created decades ago. Such fear was what led to anger, to rage, and to violence. Violence the likes of which Mondatta never wished to witness again, nor did he want any pure, kind-hearted soul to be tainted by it. He had come to realize during his time in Nepal that through peaceful teaching and reaching out, the gap between human and omnic could be bridged, establishing a new era of peace in a time when such peace was rare among two such differentiating peoples.

Now, after years of working towards peace, Mondatta had been given the chance to speak at King's Row itself. Add in massive media coverage, a large crowd, and heavy security all around the area from police to SWAT to the British Secret Service, MI6 themselves, and it was a perfect opportunity to make an impact on a larger scale than ever before. But with this opportunity came massive risk. It was no secret that Mondatta had made more than his fair share of enemies in his quest for peace. Not everyone agreed with his message of peace, sadly, and there were some who even adamantly opposed it. While the former was to be expected in a world built on free will of choice, the latter posed a massive risk, especially for an appearance such as this one. Some were merely protesting against his message, others very much wanted him dead for it. There were those in the world who benefitted from human-omnic animosity, and they were, sadly, among those who wanted Mondatta silenced the most.

And as it happened, one such person was there in King's Row, observing the event from nearby.

From around a building some distance away from the main building, a man stood observing the crowd anxiously awaiting Mondatta's appearance. A man that for all his calm demeanor had malevolent intent that if realized could shape the future of human-omnic relations for years to come. He stood observing the gathering from nearly 3 blocks down, his cybernetically enhanced eyes zooming in on the podium, allowing him to see it as though standing among the crowd himself. The security surrounding the monk was tight, for certain. Any normal assassin would have a rough time of it if they went for a kill.

But then, he was anything but a normal assassin. Ducking back behind the building, the man put a hand to his right ear, where a communicator was nestled in, pressing it slightly to open the channel.

"Widowmaker, I'm in position, what's your status?" The man spoke in a thick Scottish accent, his once-smooth voice marred by a slight gravelling rasp, the result of multiple surgeries in the wake of a horrifying incident. The hand touching his communicator, like his eyes, was cybernetic, as was his other arm and his right leg, all hidden behind black clothing highlighted in blood red. His hair was red as blood, but the ends were black as pitch, short and aerodynamic. A pair of black visor-shades rested on his forehead, his cybernetic eyes white as death, the pupils red as blood.

"I am nearing my vantage point." A female voice answered him, low and sultry with a thick French accent.

"ETA?"

"Thirty seconds, no more."

"Affirmative." The Scot switched channels and spoke to another person. "Reaper, this is Crimson. We're in position. Stand by."

"Affirmative." A gravel-gargling snarl responded, before Crimson switched back to his previous channel, lowering his hand to sever the connection. Everything was in place now. Crimson lowered his visor shades over his eyes, revealing a wicked-looking angled symbol on his forehead, tattooed in blood red to match the highlights on his dark clothing. One could distinguish four unique shapes in it: a pentagram, a hexagram, an upside-down equilateral triangle, and square in the middle, an inverted cross. Holstered at his hips were two black, custom built high-powered sidearms, built with enough power to blow a man's head clean off. He looked back around the building, his enhanced eyes zooming in once more, and his visor's targeting system activated, calculating multiple routes towards the podium in case assistance would be needed. Widowmaker was the intended assassin for the job, but in the event things went awry, he was there on the ground, ready to act in case the French sniper was compromised. There was no reason to suspect that she would be, but Crimson never left anything to chance, and had insisted on coming as a contingency. If Widowmaker failed, Crimson would finish it.

The crowd suddenly went wild, cheering loudly as Mondatta himself emerged from the building behind the podium, garbed in his signature white robe, laced with gold threading, his demeanor calm as ever. Indeed, were he human, a serene smile would be gracing his features. He approached the podium calmly, spreading his arms out in a gesture of welcome, metaphorically embracing the crowd as a whole.

"Human. Machine. We are all one within the Iris." He began, the crowd cheering loudly in approval. "Before me, I see the future: humans and Omnics standing together. United by compassion. By our common hopes and dreams."

Crimson just grunted as the crowd listened intently, but then movement caught his eye, a flash of blue. Upon looking however, there was no one to be seen, but he knew someone was there, and he had a shrewd idea as to who it was. Only one person in the world could move that fast, and leave a flash of blue to boot.

Tracer.

Crimson, sensing an imminent attack, raised his hand to his ear piece to alert Widowmaker of the former Overwatch Agent's presence but was too late. Before he could even press the button to open the channel, the sound of gunshots reached his ears. He recognized Widow's rifle, and several more rapid-fire shots caught his attention as well. Tracer had found Widow and was engaging her in combat.

"Shit..." Crimson growled to himself and switched channels. "Reaper, Widowmaker's compromised, I'm going in." Crimson drew both his guns and glanced back at the podium. Apparently the MI6 agents guarding Mondatta had gotten wind of the attack and were moving him. Crimson's visor calculated rapidly, alerting him that there were 17 MI6 agents between him and Mondatta. Perfect.

Without a second thought Crimson was moving, running in a low stance towards Mondatta. The first guard in front of him had his back to him. Crimson dashed up behind him, grabbing his mouth and planting a bullet in his back, dead on impact. The second guard, alerted by the gunshot, had only a fraction of a second's notice before Crimson fired a second round through the first guard's corpse, scoring a headshot and muffling the shot. Never losing momentum even for a second Crimson tossed the first guard aside and kept moving. Three more guards were ahead in a line. Lining up the shot with his visor targeting and calculating the trajectory, Crimson raised both guns and fired them simultaneously. The first bullet went through the first guard's head and into the head of the guard next to him, and the second bullet took out the third instantly afterwards. The other 12 guards were alerted now, and began moving towards Mondatta, creating a barrier between the Omnic and the assassin trying to kill him. Crimson's eyes narrowed as his visor calculated a new route, and he ducked around another building, running through an alleyway towards Mondatta's limo, where the MI6 were escorting him.

Before he could reach the end of the alleyway, however, someone dropped down from above, landing with a metallic clang on on the ground and then levitating in front of him in a meditative stance. There were nine metal orbs around his neck that began floating in a circle around him as he began to levitate. The presence of the orbs, as well as the pants garbing the Omnic in front of him, told him exactly who it was.

"Tekhartha Zenyatta," Crimson smirked as he recognized Mondatta's fellow monk, in fact a close friend of said monk. "I knew you couldn't have been far away, with Mondatta here."

"You will not touch him." The omnic replied, his tone as calm as ever but his anger palpable despite his attempts to quell it. "You will go no further."

"You're no fighter, monk." Crimson snarled, his visor scanning Zenyatta rapidly. "You're a healer with little combat experience. Regardless of your 'biology'." Without wasting anymore time, Crimson charged. Zenyatta, reacting quickly, summoned a Discord orb, sending it towards Crimson rapidly. Crimson, reacting faster than humanly possible, jumped to the right, the orb sailing by him, and then fired a single round, shattering it, before pushing off the wall with his cybernetic right leg, flipping him over the omnic and spinning around, landing a hard kick on the back of Zenyatta's metallic dome and knocking him out of levitation with a resound metallic clang. Zenyatta whirled around in place, firing five blue orbs of pure energy towards his assailant. Dodging them, Crimson spun around landed his left elbow on Zenyatta's head before firing several shots into his chest area. Zenyatta, stunned, seemed to lose his balance for a moment before Crimson once more kicked him with his cybernetic leg, finally knocking him out of levitation and putting him on the ground. Even as a distant explosion was heard, Crimson, making sure the monk stayed down, planted his cybernetic foot in the middle of his chest area, denting it and pinning him down.

"I suppose I'll be killing two omnic monks tonight then." Crimson smirked as he aimed his guns at Zenyatta's head. His cybernetic eyes honed in on Zenyatta's face, almost laughing at the omnic's lack of expression. For a moment they just stared at one another, Crimson's fingers curling around both triggers as he prepared to end the omnic's scant 20 years of life.

A sudden rush of wind caught Crimson's attention, and as he looked back, a familiar black airship was hovering above him, its white searchlight aimed at him. Crimson smirked as he looked back at the Omnic on the ground in front of him.

"You're one lucky bag of bolts." He declared, holstering both his guns and raising his right arm as a grappling hook came down, latching to it. Crimson wrapped it round his arm to secure it, and a moment later was lifted off the ground, pulling himself towards the ascending airship. A moment later his cybernetic left hand latched to the extended boarding platform, and he pulled himself into the ship as it started closing behind him.

Widowmaker herself stood within the ship, eyeing Crimson as he straightened up and noticed her. As he removed his visor he noticed her expression, and a small smirk formed. She was sporting a self-satisfied smile, her yellow eyes gleaming as she walked towards Crimson, reaching him in only a few paces. Her left arm wrapped around his neck as she planted her lips on his, her other hand still clutching her rifle as Crimson kissed her back. He felt her touch, felt her lips against his, but he didn't feel her cold skin. In fact he didn't feel much of anything, but at that moment he felt nothing but satisfaction as the kiss parted, his cybernetic eyes gazed into Widow's fell yellow orbs, a coy smirk forming on her lips.

"Mission Completed, Jack." She said in a sultry, seductive tone, and Jack Crimson smirked in response.

"Good."