Overwatch: The Beginning of the End
Chapter: Prologue (a Glimpse of the past)
Just as everything ends, everything has its beginnings. A beginning is a marvelous thing. Not having to give a care in the world over what youll be like in your future, the only worry being what games youll play with your friends, what youll have to eat next, nothing of too importance. However, things can always change in an instant. As a child of two government scientists, I was always just a backburner to my familys discoveries. My uncle would always take care of me while my mother and father would be at the lab. My uncle would love to take me out hunting, and fire weapons. Those were the moments I would cherish the most, especially when my future was put forward to what I endured.
At the age of 18, my parents tried to get me to help them with a soldier experiment the government wanted to create in case of a robotic uprising, with the creation of Omnica Corperation. The US Government was always concerned about the future. During the experiments, the lab was raided and the entire facility was decimated, killing nearly everyone involved in the project. When we tried to continue the project, it was discovered the Cybernetic implants had kept me alive from the raid, and without the implants, I would have died. So with no other choice, the project was disbanded.
Left with no other choice, I chose to join the army, where the skills of combat my uncle had taught me through the absence of my parents in my life has made me rise through the ranks within the span of months. I made friends with plenty of my superiors, however two stood out the most. Jack Morrison and Gabriel Reyes. The commanders that the three of us served under called us the Three Protectors of the Army, due to our skilled and gorilla tactics in combat. Then the omnic crisis happened. One by one, each omnica corperation facility would go rogue, from the Miami Basin, to the Rust Belt Facillity, to the Cascadian Hills… the entire American army was forever put onto the defensive, then overwatch was created. Created by the United Nations, the choices of the first strike team, Jack Morrison, Gabriel Reyes, Ana Amari, Reinhardt welmhelm, and Torbjorn Lindholm along with a Chinese agent had been first assembled, however the Chinese had to recall Li ao due to internal conflict, and reyes recommended me to the strike team. Together, we started to push back the forces of the omnic threat. Such hope would become short lived…
Years into the conflict, my ability to combat would become hinged by the ability of understanding Omnics. Through the Cybernetics I was able to hear and understand what a omnic droid was saying. Though this I had a edge, until it started to hear the screams. The screaming of omnic souls. It was horrid, and triggered flashbacks to which I would become unresponsive. Several times we had to pull back, until I could no longer be put into combat. The screams never stopped, as I would constantly hear screaming omnics, being pierced by bullets. I could not understand why they screamed, but I only assumed the worst, that they were being forced to combat, that what they did weren't under the omnics control, but some higher force. Before I could see about the theory however, the omnic crisis was over, and the world was starting to emerge from the rubble. We, as overwatch, have saved humanity from the greatest threat we have ever faced since the creating of some of the most deadliest weapons in history. New positions were opened up in overwatch, one of which, was the head of Omnic relations, which I signed up for immediately. I could not hesitate for such an offer to go without being taken. Through several years I helped omnics in the world learn to coexist, despite few uprisings due to the unethical treatment of omnic civilians. Everything started to look well as my large overwatch family stayed well together, however everything started going downhill once again.
It would start with the loss of my first friend, Mei-Ling Zhou. Based in our ecopoint Antarctica, we would have lost contact with her after a horrible storm. No attempt was made to rescue, fearing the worst, it was the start of my opinion of what overwatch would become. I would constantly believe she would have survived but what would happen to her after. The thoughts would always be then told of by my commanding officers saying that theres no point in wasting time going to look to see if any survived. I was heartbroken. Then came the failed mission. Jack came back without Ana, and he was heartbroken when he informed everyone about ana being left behind. When word of her being shot came to my ears, i was so enraged at Jack. He was never one to leave someone behind. I ripped into him severely about having left Ana behind, one of the closest people on the team I had been to, but after weeks of being upset at jack, and the final straw.. there was no point in staying mad. The Switzerland headquarter bombing was the last thing to happen to overwatch… the loss of both Gabriel reyes and Jack morrison were fatal blows to my moral. Not to only lose the two longest best friends I had, but to also lose Gabriel, the one person I was emotionally attached to…
Nova looks down in silence as he sat there in front of the news channel. The emotions he suffered through the interview, 8 years ago when the bombing happened, it hit him hard, and he still could not let go. "when Overwatch disbanded, I was glad it was all over. There was no need for us. Peace has mostly come to the humans and omnics who can coexist with one another. Sure there are some places like London, Australia, and many others that still haven't learned yet, but maybe when the world does understand that we can co-exist, no one will need to have something like overwatch or these national task forces like Helix Securities."
"Well said Nova. Its sad to say this, but we seem to have ran out of time. Thank you Nova Xavier for telling us about your history, and thank you for your service for protecting the world. The world has been a better place with people like you around" said the interviewer as the set then shut down. The interviewer then turns to me and looks somewhat deeply sorrowly. "it must be hard, knowing your loved ones are no longer with you."
"It is. Ana, Mei, and I were like close friends. I always loved going to the shopping districts of Shanghai with mei, or looking at ancient Egyptian artifacts with ana. The best things though, were always the sparring practices with Gabriel and Jack. But… we have to move on. The world doesn't need heroes like us anymore, considering theres only few of us left. So many have gone to do acts of protection as mercenaries or other acts under other agencies, it horrible to know we lost so many people because of renegade operations." Nova responds. He gets up and shakes the interviewers hand before he leaves the studio.
Seattle was just as it was hours after Nova walked into the studio for the interview, nothing but rainclouds. He opens his umbrella and then starts walking down the street. He looks around, glumly smiling seeing humans and omnics walking side by side. 'just the way it should be. Peace, love, empathy, everything omnics and humans deserve.' Nova thinks to himself as he continues to walk down the busy main streets of Seattle. He then approaches his destination several blocks south, the old Overwatch Storage House. He enters the building and locks the door behind him. Its been 8 years, but atleast he managed to make the old, still filled, warehouse feel like home. He manages to get into the living area, and watches the Seattle skyline. It was just a dreary as ever. Just like novas personality for the last several years now. No one really came to visit him, atleast none that nova knew. He then flips the channel on to the global news networks, as several stories broke through. The large attack on a compound in Cairo by a masked vigilante, an assault on former overwatch watchpoint on Gibraltar, and that there was some suspicious activity already commensing in areas within Rio, Busan, and Numbani involving Omnic and Talon problems. Nova just sighs as he turns the tv off, not wanting to hear the problems of the world. The world chose to turn its back on overwatch. They thought overwatch were the bad guys in the modern world. Atleast that's what several political groups felt.
Suddenly a intruder alarm activates, as nova then grabs his nearby weapon, a smg, and climbs down into the warehouse. He activates his eye piece equipment, and starts walking through the corridors, when he finds the intruder.
"State your business, this is private property, and you are trespassing on government land." Nova says as he aims his gun at the strange figure. The darkness hid the figure well, as nova approached them.
"my business is none of yours to be concerned about. If you know whats best for you, you would be wise to stay out of my way" was the response in a raspy tone, and started firing shotgun shells at nova, to which nova jumped, easily avoiding, then leaps at the figure, but the figure turns into a plume of black smoke. "you think you would be more adept in combat then your leading me on to believe… nova."
The drop of the name confused Nova, as nova had no recollection of someone with this power of sorts. "how do you know my name. show yourself or risk your fate'
"Talon has requested me to gather something from this warehouse." He said as he forms back into material form, and his form was more apparent, a black robe, combat boots, shotgun shells strapped to him, and a white mask hiding his face. "They call me the reaper. But you wont live to say my name another time." He then aims, and prepares to fire, but I then leap back into the air narrowly dodging the volley of shots fired against me again.
"So your one of those bloody dastardly Talon agents. To think an agency with such power could do much better in the world then the criminal activity your scum leads to now. How does your agency benefit anyone in any way other then the power those who lead you gain." Nova taunts. "no agency would do something without a benefit to someone of their own. It's a surprise you, despite being such a highly regarded part of their organization, haven't seem to see that." Nova then starts shooting at Reaper, to no avail as he just turns to smoke and evades the bullets, trying to now ambush nova from behind and fire more shotgun shells, still missing nova by narrow millimeters.
"My benefit is seeing those who betrayed me die." Reaper becries as he constantly fires more and more shots. "your sorry excuse of a organization should have never been created. Atleast with Talon I will be able to obtain my goals of executing every single former overwatch member."
"you sound more and more like the guy I had loved so much, that its disgusting. Time to end this." As nova then grabs something from his belt, and then holds it out, as it becomes a blinding white light. The light is so strong, that reaper turns back to smoke and vanishes. Nova then searches the warehouse looking to see what was all taken. It wasn't until he found what Reaper had wanted that he discovered the severity of what he was under, as he grabbed the small biochemical shotgun shells that he was found near. "he was after the Blackwatchs illegal contraband… fucking hell. Atleast none are missing" he puts the box of shotgun shells back onto the pallet, and then makes sure everything else is accounted for. This wasn't the first time someone tried to steal something from the warehouse, as a old man came in looking for some old overwatch tech, some dude called soldier 76 or whatever. Once the organizing was done, nova then thought again about what reaper said. '… I will be able to obtain my goals of executing every single former overwatch member…' nova grew more concerned for his safety. For the first time in his life, he didn't feel safe anymore. He didn't feel he could stay hidden much longer. He had to find a way to fix the mess that's starting to happen. That's when it happened. The overwatch communication network activated, and nova could hear the voice of a familiar friend.
Winston! All this time, he never knew Winston was still around in a overwatch facility as well. The Scientist primate had activated the Recall system of all overwatch members, nova listened as Winston explained the perils and hardships that the world suffers through, and how no one but overwatch can put a stop to it. Nova then looks down as the comms then ends, and clenches his fist tight. If anyone else knew what to do at this point, it was most likely Winston. However nova knew he couldn't leave the facility the way it was. So there was just one last thing to do…
