The Swiss doctor, Angela Ziegler - better known by the heroic moniker of 'Mercy' - awoke with a start as she pulled her face up from her desk. After exhaling a loud yawn, she sluggishly looked to the small digital clock sitting at the edge of the desk through half-open eyes.
Ten-o-five? Darn it all... she thought bitterly upon seeing the time, grumpy with herself for sleeping in for so long. Well, better late than never...
She had fallen asleep sometime in the night as she worked. Mercy let out a tired groan as she stretched her thin arms out, remembering how she had spent the entire day previously moving, setting up, and adjusting her medical equipment into her old lab here at Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Rubbing a gloved hand through her fine, but currently tangled and messy platinum-blonde hair, she stood up from her seat with a squeak of the chair's legs as it was pushed back over the smooth, metal, steel-tinted ground.
Yawning again, she checked around her lab to make sure all was well before marching over to the nearby washroom, and after taking out another set of equipment and disrobing from the ones she wore from the day before, stepped into the shower. Under a rain of hot water from the nozzle above, she cleaned herself off thoroughly, and upon exiting and drying off with a nearby towel, began to put on her medical gear.
Her Valkyrie suit, the protective outfit she wore in both battle and when simply performing her medical duty, began to give her a rather angelic visage as she put some of the last parts of the mostly white, gold-outlined body armor on.
Brushing her hair until her light-tinted locks were neat once again, and then tying some hanging from the back into a ponytail, Mercy stared into the mirror and made sure that she was presentable enough to be around her friends and teammates. Lastly setting her golden, halo-esque headpiece over her head, she looked at herself and stretched the wing-like devices set over her back with a grin.
"Ah. Vonderful," she said to herself, before turning about and walking back to her room. After checking over some of her devices, she decided to head to the watchpoint's mess hall to get herself something to eat, before her gnawing stomach became too much of a nuisance to impede all the busy work she had planned out for the day.
"...But he is in good condition, right?" Genji Shimada asked the armored, scientist gorilla, Winston, in a deeply concerned voice. Worry was evidently all about him, as was seen by how he was tightly gripping the hilt of his smaller of the two swords he possessed, still in its sheath on the lower portion of his back.
"Yes. Soldier: 76 reported that Zenyatta managed to fend off Reaper's advance, and successfully repelled him on his own," Winston replied as the two walked along the outside of Watchpoint: Gibraltar's main facility, fixing the rectangular-lensed glasses he wore over his nose with one of his hands. "He will be arriving here with him within the next three hours. Sorry if I startled you."
The cyborg ninja let out a sigh of relief upon hearing the words. "You have nothing to be sorry about, Winston. It lifts a great burden from my chest to hear that he has recovered from the threat. He is a good friend of mine, you know."
"And a mentor to you too. Or... so I've heard," Winston shrugged speculatively. "I'm extremely excited to meet his acquaintance at long last."
"And I cannot wait to see him once again as well," Genji chuckled back, as they rounded a corner that lead to one of the base's silos. As soon as they passed it, the two came upon the sight of Mercy as she was walking in the direction they were leaving from. Taking notice of them the second she caught their individual shapes out of the corner of her blue eyes, she stopped, lifted her head, and allowed a smile to come over her face.
"Oh! Good morning Winston. And greetings to you Genji," the healer spoke with a small, respectful bow to her old friend. "It's been far too long since we last met. When did you get here, if you don't mind me asking?"
Genji grinned back behind his green, face-concealing visor, fond memories of working with her in the past returning to him. "Just this morning, Dr. Ziegler. I've been talking with Winston about a rather... 'thrilling' bit of news he collected recently," he responded, after bowing back.
Mercy switched a curious glance toward the large ape. "Just how thrilling?" she asked him, a curled brow adorning her face.
"Well, I received a report from Soldier: 76 that Zenyatta, the famous wandering guru as you may know him, was attacked by a Talon agent two nights ago," Winston began. "He is being escorted here by him as we speak."
"That agent happened to be none other than Reaper, to be precise," Genji finished for him, gaining a shocked look from Mercy. "According to what 76 told us, anyway."
"Talon sent Reaper to kill him?" she asked. "Is he alright?"
"Only some minor wounds that he has healed on his own," Winston confirmed.
"In that case, it appears we have dodged a bullet," she said gladly, before both Genji and herself noticed Winston walking off to attend to other matters, leaving the two be. Placing her hands together, she looked back at Genji. "Listen, I've only just woken up, and I haven't had anything to eat yet. Have you?"
"No, all I've been doing is traveling here since I received the recall Winston initiated, which appears to have been much later than most everyone else," he answered.
"Shall ve go and get some breakfast together, then?" she asked back. "I kind of... overworked myself yesterday, so I haven't really had time to talk to anyone about things, but this seems like a charitable opportunity."
"Of course I can," the cybernetically-enhanced ninja quickly, and willingly agreed.
"I cannot express enough thanks to you all for accepting me here today," Zenyatta said again, entering the main hall of the unretired Overwatch base right behind Soldier: 76, the latter of whom marched in with his pulse rifle hoisted over his shoulder, acknowledging everyone with a silent nod of his head. Zenyatta continued; "But do not worry about my personal care. I plan to stay only as long as needed, and depart once my use is done."
"You may stay here as long as you wish, my old master," Genji spoke insistently, stepping up to him. "Before I arrived here myself, I requested to the others that you be brought here in the first place, after all."
"That was a wise bit of foresight, my old pupil," the omnic complimented, before casting his gaze toward the several other, present Overwatch agents that had so far answered the recall. At the end of the line of them, Mercy stood with a respectful look aimed toward Zenyatta.
As she peered to her left to see how the others were reacting to his presence, she saw Torbjörn's diminutive form first, and on his bearded face, the Swedish engineer wore a fairly stern and uncomfortable expression. "I'm not sure I like this all that much," he grunted quietly once he realized that she was staring his way, folding both his whole arm, and the advanced mechanical prosthetic that made up his other limb together over his burly chest. "We rarely ever had omnic visitors when we were first commissioned here way back when, and now look. The whole team's not even here yet, and we have one strutting in like it owns the place."
"Oh, shush you," she said back to him in a scolding tone. "He's an honored guest, Torbjörn. And besides, you should get over your dislike for omnics in this day and age."
"I'll get over it when I'm dead," he huffed defiantly, before turning around and walking off as the small crowd began to disperse as he did. "I'll be in my workshop if anyone needs me..."
Mercy shook her head dejectedly at his disapproval, before looking back to the omnic. As Zenyatta finished a small discussion with Genji, the young and energetic Lena Oxton, better known as Tracer, was the first to approach him. "Wow," she started, putting her hand out in a friendly manner to the guru, and shaking his metal servo quickly once he returned the gesture. "It's an honor to meet a member of the Shambali. Tekhartha Mondatta was an inspiration to me, Zenyatta."
Zenyatta sighed sadly at her words, knowing just how recent his fellow monk had fallen, which to say was less than half-a-month ago, and coincidentally less than a few hours after Winston allowed the callback of Overwatch. "He was an inspiration to us all. I miss him greatly," he spoke back to her, before the tone of his pitch lightened a small bit. "I received word that you attempted to thwart his assassination, Miss Oxton. You have my honest thanks for trying to save him."
Tracer smiled very weakly and turned away briefly before looking back at him. "Hearing that from you is a treasure, sir," she said with sincerity. "They've already started to construct a statue in his honor at King's Row, you know. Unless something interrupts its progress, it'll be finished real soon." Smirking again once she finished, but allowing it to be wider and more joyful than the one previously, Tracer saluted the guru before walking off.
"Shall I show you around the base?" Genji offered, upon seeing that the two's conversation had ended. "I may not have been here in years, but I still know my way around as good as I did in the past."
"I would be delighted," Zenyatta agreed. Mercy couldn't help but put on a positive expression when she saw the master and former student leave together like the pair of grand old friends she knew they were. But after they were gone, seeing that there was nothing else left to do here, she slipped away as well. After all, her lab still needed her attention...
The night was getting late for Mercy as she continued to finish the last of her adjustments to her lab. As the time raced by and she went on fiddling around with her medically-inclined contraptions - when not actively looking over her research into hypothetical diseases and injuries, as well as their cures - she could swear she heard the sound of something bumping around through the air vents connected to the ceiling above. Quickly dismissing the noise as being nothing more than either her weary mind playing tricks on her ears, or the watchpoint's ventilation system acting on its own, she went on with her work without pause, and the sound soon subsided on its own.
As she finished her last review over her lab's functionality, deeming it successful and ready for action, she was finally able to focus her attention onto her Caduceus staff, whereupon she looked it over to make sure its abilities were up to date. No sooner had she laid her eyes upon it, her thoughts traveled back to when she last used the device in service of Overwatch. Before it fell to corruption and internal struggles. Before it was shut down.
Sure, she disliked the old organization in some aspects, most of her reasons stemming from the fact that a few of the higher-ups and officials chose to weaponize some of her devices that were once solely meant to heal and repair, but there were just as many, if not more fond memories as well. The friends she made of her fellow agents were ones she would forever treasure and love, and Overwatch itself gave her the ability to help the needs of others on a much grander scale than what she had before joining up, for starters. All the lives she managed to save from both natural, and battle-induced disasters was something she would never forget. With the reformation of Overwatch, in spite of most of the public's negative opinion on them all, Mercy hoped with all of her heart that she would get that chance again.
Mercy was so caught up in her memories, that she didn't realize a black mist had begun to seep through the cracks of a vent's grate not so far behind her. It was only as an instinctual feeling of being watched crossed her mind did a noticeable chill run down her spine. The room felt as though it had suddenly gotten colder, and once an audible, withered cough went out from behind her, did she turn around. Her eyes widened in fear and surprise at what sight befell her, and in her haste to leave her seat she almost stumbled to the ground.
It was Reaper. His ragged breathing seemed to give off a rather queer mien, and his dark, hooded form was slightly hunched over with one hand held at his chest and the other drooping by his side, but it was him - that was unmistakable. The man who was known and feared across the world for his terrorist activities and passion for hunting down former Overwatch agents, and he was standing right in front of Mercy, like death itself had come for her.
Without delay, she reached for the Caduceus blaster she had holstered by her side, and pointed it at the shadowy figure in an almost hesitant fashion. Reaper didn't seem to react to her action whatsoever, and only remained where he was, still wheezing and gasping uncontrollably, occasionally shifting glances at the ground. Only then did Mercy see a thick fluid substance that appeared to drip out of almost every orifice on his person, including his mask. It felt like an hour passed by the two as their stare-off commenced, and only after Mercy realized that he wasn't attempting to do anything offensive, did she lower her sidearm; albeit at a cautious snail's pace.
"Gott im Himmel... R-Reaper?" she finally stuttered, growing the nerve to slowly approach the tormented wraith as he continued to strain for air, staining the ground with the blood-like ichor with every tortured hack he made. "What... happened to you?"
Reaper staggered forward a short ways, his glaring mask shooting from the ground the instant he felt a warm, delicate hand touch his shoulder. "You tell me, Doc..." he rasped back to her in his impossibly gravelly voice.
