Chapter 1: Perception Polarity
Perception is perhaps the most complicated, yet ingenious aspect of human nature. Human perception shapes the world of those who use it, making it unique to every individual, and can create outlooks which shape who you are and what you aim to be.
For example, some people percieve pain as a form of pleasure. Your body also responds to perception. If you believe an object to be hot, you will immediately draw your hand away to prevent being burned, but it is possible, if your perception is strong enough, to feel only the heat without the pain, making it less frightening to you.
In a similar fashion, if you were given power, what would you do with it? This is again determined by perception. Do you see yourself as someone who will use this power to protect others? Does that make you feel good? Or do you use this power to get whatever you so desired? Is that what you want?
The underlining message is, don't be naieve, perception controls who you are. And not just through your eyes.
"Oh I do like to be beside the seasiiiide. Oh I do like to be beside the seeeea. Oh I do like to stroll along the prom, prom, prom, where the brass bands play, tiddly om, pom pom."
The most ironic thing was, the person singing this was nowhere near the seaside. He was in a top secret military base, the inner sanctum, so to speak, with several omnics shut down behind him, as he looked forward towards a vault door in front of him.
"Well, hello there, Mr. Door." The individual greeted it.
This person was a young man, as could only be indicated by his voice, with extremely pale skin. He wore a dark green, skin tight rubber suit, connected to a pair of bulky black rubber boots, with a red diamond pattern in the center, as well as on the back, knees, shoulders and elbows, along with a neon green hood that had two long straps that extended all the way down to the back of his knees, deliberately hooded up to cover his face. On his forearms he wore golden, mechanical gauntlets with blocky fingers, massive in size in comparison to his thin biceps, which had black rings around the wrists that had a blue charge running through them, and a diamond shaped hold on the palms which had the same glowing energy.
The figure tapped one of the gauntlets metallic fingers against the door. "Pretty thick, aintcha? Righty then, time to crack you open like a Sunday breakfast egg."
He cracked his neck twice before holding out his right gauntlet. A group of what looked like blue square pixels then emerged from the diamond on the palm, joining together into a giant dome in front of the door. "And a 1, and a 2, and a 1, 2, 3, 4!" He then grabbed the dome and started pushing down on it, and slowly, the door began to creak and groan, before gradually smashing as it curled into itself as the ball of sapphire squares which encapsulated it grew smaller and smaller. Eventually, the figure held the once door in his hand, now nothing more then scrap metal as the pixels all vanished.
"Meh, I expected better." He shrugged, before nonchalantly tossing the ball over his shoulder before skipping into the room. This room was large and dome shaped, with the only thing in it being a pedestal in the center.
"This room has hidden wires, right? It totally has hidden wires." The figure grinned to himself. "Gosh, me. You're so amazing at remembering the most trivial, useless things." He then held his armoured hand up, and sure enough, countless red tripwires faded into existence, before crackling out of existence as the sensors were suddenly ripped out of the walls and clumped together in his hand, leaving sparking wires behind.
"Done!" He beamed as he also chucked the sensors over his shoulder, then walking up to the pedestal and placing his face right against the glass. Inside was a small glass sphere, with a white light emanating from it. "Hey there little fella. I'm gonna be taking you now, alright?"
He smashed his gauntlet through the glass and grabbed the sphere. "Success!"
As he held the sphere in his hand, he suddenly heard a beeping in his ear. He reached a finger up and delicately pressed against the transceiver in his earhole. "Yo?"
"Did you get what I asked for?" A voice spoke down the line.
"Got it in my hand, right now." The figure smirked. "Listen, it was SUPER difficult getting this thing-" It wasn't. For him at least. "-So I'm expecting big cash, you hear me? As we agreed."
"500,000. Yes I remember."
"Heyeyey! Dollars, pal! Don't go springing pounds or yen or...whatever China uses."
"Understood. Just deliver it safely."
"No problemo, see you in a bi-" His head suddenly jerked up. "...Sorry, big guy. Call ya back." He then clicked the transceiver again. "Crud, thought I'd been a bit too loud...however, I don't think I mind if I'm caught by you..."
He spun on his heel and faced the door as a figure ran up to the entrance. She was a woman with wild brown hair and orange goggles, wearing a yellow suit with a silver metalic torso, wielding two strange pistols.
"Bit young to be breaking and entering, ain'tcha?" The woman spoke in a British accent.
"Corikey!" The man gasped, putting on an Australian accent. "Didgerie doodas! Didn't realise you were British there, lass!"
"And you just went from Australian to Scottish." The woman observed.
"...Fudge, you got me there. Hi!" He waved. "What can I do for a young, shapely woman such as yourself?"
"Well, you can start by putting that down and coming with me. That'd be great." She said as she aimed one of the pistols at him.
He hissed through his teeth. "Yyyyyyyyeaaaaaahhhhh, sorry, but I can't do that. Busy schedule, you see. Very busy. Tremendously, even." He was lying.
"Sorry about this then." She suddenly took out both pistols and fired a pulse of energy from between them.
The figure jumped up, avoiding the blasts and flipped around, the soles of his boots glowing a blue colour as they stuck to the metal ceiling, and he ran over her head towards the exit.
"Later, love!" He waved as he ran across the ceiling.
"Oh, we're playing that game, are we?" She smirked as she gave chase, shooting him at his heels.
He reached the end of the room and flipped down from the ceiling before running out into a dark street. The building he had just come out of was a skyscraper with the title 'FRI' on it in green neon. The figure jumped on the side of the next building, specifically a metal drain pipe, as he ran up it. The woman emerged and began shooting at him again, but he ran faster up, forcing her to stop and run into the building, up the flight of stairs.
"Oh, geez, she is good." He thought aloud as he reached the ceiling and began running across it. The woman leapt up out of the top floor window and continued to chase him. "Alright, I didn't really wanna do this, but..."
He flicked the wrist of his right gauntlet, the one which wasn't holding the precious orb, and the fingers all detached into five prongs, that instead of falling, floated around the rings of the gauntlet, revealing his actual black gloved hand inside. He aimed this arm back, and the fingers started spinning before a barrage of blue squares was fired towards her, like a gatling.
"Woah!" She rolled behind a a chimney as the stream of squares peppered it relentlessly, before she ran out again and resumed firing, narrowly dodging the shots whilst shooting herself.
"Okay, this is beginning to get worrying." The figure thought, when suddenly, she seemingly disappeared. "What? Where did-" His mouth gaped in alarm as she reappeared in front of him. He tried to screech to a halt, only for her to grab the orb out of his hand and pistol-whip him in the chest, sending him staggering back.
"There, that wasn't so hard, was it?" She said, holding the precious. "Now then, why did you want it so bad?"
He stood there for a moment, baffled. "No, wait, seriously, how did you do that? You were there, then you were here, did you fly or something?"
"Too bad, but I don't believe I'm obligated to tell you that." She responded. "Back to my question."
"Phooey." He pouted. "...Oh, and to answer your second question. Not telling!" He suddenly aimed his other gauntlet, transforming it in the same way, and both began firing like a gatling, forcing her to run back.
"You've made your point, there!" She said as she jumped onto the next building, attempting to get away.
"Oh no you don't." The fingers reformed into hands as he held is right one out, and she was instantly lurched back by an invisible force, as he caught her by her metal torso in his hand. "Thanking you." He quickly retrieved the orb before aiming away and shooting her off of the gauntlet, sending her crashing into the wall. "Better wrap this up quick. Still, kind of a shame she had to-"
He was interrupted as she literally reversed right in front of him. "What?" As soon as he said that she shot him right in the chest, sending him flying back and painfully crashing into the ground as she expertly caught the sphere. "Oh...yep, that hurts...point blank energy blasts hurt."
"Yes, I'm sure they do." She said.
He staggered to his feet, his hood falling down to reveal light, chestnut brown hair erratically spiking up, whilst he wore a pair of shades over his eyes. "You're...you're really, really incredible."
"Is that a compliment?" She asked with a smirk.
"By all means." He said. "I've uh...heard about people like you...fact now that I think about it, you remind me...you're one of them, aren't you? One of the Overwatch?"
"You could say that." She shrugged. "Been away for a long while...but I reckon we're getting together again."
"Awesome." He gave a weak thumbs up.
"My turn now. Why were you stealing this, then?" She asked.
"Beats me." He sighed. "I was getting it for some guy who promised me a lot of money, simple as. Figured I could finally get something nice for a change. So, uh...my whole, torso, hurts...so can you please just...let me have it?"
"Nope." She replied simply.
"Suger honey iced tea." He stated, before sitting on the ground in defeat and taking of his gauntlets, wiping his nose. "Look, I, uh...admit, I'm not the best thief. But I guess I had a good run. If I'm getting hauled off by a, if I may say, hot woman such as yourself, I'll...gladly take it."
"Very suave of you." She noted. "I've got a better idea though, unless jail sounds good to you?"
"May I hear the other option?" He requested.
She picked up one of the gauntlets and looked it over. "You've got some nice little tricks. Shame you seem to use them for stealing, you probably nicked these, didn't you?"
"Tht is incredibly biased of you!" He yelled. "...And also completely true."
She nodded. "So why not try using your skills properly, and be a hero? Since Overwatch is getting back together, it would be nice to do a bit of recruiting."
"You're asking ME, to become a hero? The guy who stole something and shot at you?" He thought aloud.
"Eh, I'm in a good mood." She shrugged.
He tapped his fingers against the ground. "I'll be honest, I only have two questions. Will there be a bed, and will there be food?"
"If you pull your weight, why not?" She figured.
"Sold." He agreed, jumping to his feet. "Ah, I mean, thank you very much for your generous offer, ma'am."
"Look at you, proper gentleman. But don't call me ma'am." She told him.
"Yes, miss." He saluted, putting on his gauntlets. "But, hey, what are you...?"
"I'm gonna be leaving this where it properly belongs." She said, zipping down to the front of the building.
"Oh boy, he's gonna chew me out for this." He thought aloud, just before she reappeared.
"Right then, we better get moving." She said.
"Roger, missus." He agreed, making her turn on her heel.
"Enough of that. Just call me Tracer, 'kay?" She requested.
"Tracer, huh? Sounds good." He nodded, beginning to stroll past her.
"Which reminds me." Tracer grabbed his shoulder and pulled him in front of her. "What's your name?"
He chuckled. "You can call me Magnec, if that's alright with you."
"Magnec it is then." Tracer agreed, turning 180 again. "Right, c'mon, we've got a ways to go, a bit slower now with you along."
"Hey, don't call me dead weight as soon as you pick me up!" Magnec argued, pulling up his hood and chasing after her, running across the metal pipes along the buildings.
Indeed, perceptions shape how you view the world, and the tiniest changes can send your perception, your life, spiralling down a new, unseen course, for better or worse.
Heyo! So, yeah, this is a test chapter I wrote, just something I thought up for a want to write something Overwatch based so yeah...this is it.
Just to give you a bit of detail, my character here, Magnec has the power of magnetism, he can attract or repel anything metallic by manipulating the excess amount of electrons in his body, and infecting anything he comes into contact with with his electrons.
The gauntlets he wears are called Magic Hands, and create light wave squares that can form together, or be fired as projectiles. The Magic Hands can also be broken apart into pieces in order to be used with Magnec's magnetism to form gatlings, swords, or just stay as fists.
I did create a backstory and meaning behind Magnec as well, so I might see if I'll go anywhere with that.
In any case, thank you for reading!