Talon Outpost Alpha (Location Unknown)
23:00
Widowmaker's eyes shot open, quickly taking in her surroundings. The room was tinted a dark red, and thanks to her enhanced vision, she was able to clearly see four people in the room, judging by the lab coats, she assumed they were scientists, three male and one female. Two of them were farther back, at what looked to be some sort computer terminal. Meanwhile, the other two stood two meters from her, writing on clipboards. One of the closer scientists approached her, she glared at him as he did so and she could see his body stiffen. Widowmaker's training had taught her to pay close attention to anything approaching her, and while these scientists posed no threat to her, there was no such thing as too careful.
"W-Widowmaker" he stuttered over her name, causing her to raise an eyebrow to him.
"Relax, I don't bite, unless I'm ordered to do so." she said, any air of reassurance lost during the last segment. Still, the man visibly straightened, taking a second to recollect himself before properly continuing.
"Right, we'd like to ask you some questions to follow up the procedure." He didn't stutter this time, but she could still tell he was uncomfortable.
"Oui, you may continue."
The scientist asked her a series of questions that she was ultimately able to answer all at once, and in a matter much more concise than he had asked them.
"I am known as Widowmaker. I am an assassin working for Talon and the only memories I have outside of my current experience would be my training. I do not know of this Gérard you speak of, nor does the name sound familiar."
The scientist looked visibly relieved, she figured her answers were what he wanted to hear, but she also thought it may have been because of his nervousness around her. She didn't care either way, and she waved the thought process out of her mind as he turned to walk to the other scientists. However, she did keep her eyes trained on him, she had no memory of any of the scientists, but she did have a faint memory of being here before. She wasn't able to put more thought into it as she heard uncommonly loud footsteps approaching from the door to her left. The assassin turned her attention towards it right as the door slammed open, all of the scientists jumped, she was unfazed. Widowmaker took a moment to assess him, his arms were crossed, allowing her to see part Talon's coat of arms on his shoulder, he was covered in many scars and from his build, he was definitely some sort of soldier. She took particular notice to his eyes, green and filled with obvious annoyance and anger. Jericho swiftly pulled out a handgun and began to twirl to spin the gun on his finger using the trigger guard.
"Is she ready yet or am I going to have to find some new white coats?" He shouted, he had managed to hold his gun properly and pointed it at one of them as his sentence ended. Widowmaker noted that all the scientists were terrified except for one who glared at him.
"Yes Jericho, Widowmaker's operation is done and she is ready to be taken at your leisure." The woman responded, she carried a similar demeanor to the gun wielding man, despite the situation. Jericho gave a disappointed grunt, and gestured for Widowmaker to follow him, to which she did so. Before leaving the room, she took one last glance at the scientist, each took a breath of relief in unison.
Widowmaker followed the man through hallway after hallway, none of it was familiar to her, however she had memorized their path since leaving the red tinted lab, and would've been able to return if such a need arose. At last, they arrived at a door that led to an outdoor firing range. Widowmaker followed Jericho through and upon exiting the building, he chucked a rifle at her; she spotted it immediately and caught it, rotating the weapon until she was able to hold it properly with both hands. The assassin took a couple seconds to inspect it; the rifle was in perfect firing and except for the paint job, it was exactly the same as the one she was given at the end of her training, to be used in real assignments.
"Thirty targets, thirty rounds. Miss one and I'm going to go back to the lab and kill all those white coats for screwing up the procedure, not that you care." Jericho smirked at the tail end of his sentence. Widowmaker simply turned to the targets on the range and began to shoot. The assassin effortlessly picked one off and immediately switched to the next without hesitation, only stopping to quickly reload and continue. In roughly twenty-five seconds she was finished, every shot would've been a kill-shot in a real assassin turned to Jericho, who glared at her and gave another disappointed grunt, and gesturing to follow him once more.
After another short bout of walking, they arrived at her room. Thanks to this second walk through the base, Widowmaker felt sure of the general layout of the base, or at least the locations that would be of use to her.
"You'll be briefed on a mission tomorrow." Jericho quickly slammed the door behind him and was gone, leaving the french woman alone for the first time that she was able to remember. She found no reason to still be awake and quickly changed into a more appropriate night attire before climbing into her bed. Widowmaker did not know why, but she found out quickly she preferred to lay on her stomach while sleeping. The assassin crept one arm under her pillow for comfort sake, only to be greeted by a small object. Quickly, she grabbed it and moved it into view; it was a flash drive. Widowmaker turned it over to see "WATCH" written on the back in black marker. It was strange to her, as there was no reason that she would leave something for herself written in English, and if someone else left it for her, what was so important? The purple skinned woman felt no reason to leave her questions unanswered, and so she got up and turned on the computer. The room was quickly filled with the light of the screen; after the device was inserted, she was greeted by a series of video files numbered off before each of the individual file names. She put on a pair of headphones and opened the first file. Immediately, the assassin was greeted by herself.
Amélie smiled at the camera, the video message was taken from her room in the Talon outpost, and she was dressed in the usual Widowmaker attire. The room was dark, with only the illumination of the screen providing vision of her.
"Bonjour, Widowmaker. I'm Amélie, you but in a much different state of mind. I know you don't remember anything, they wipe our memories away about every month, I made this message a few days ago before we were wiped. You'll remember everything in time, however I made these messages for you so that you'd remember quicker and we wouldn't be wasting our time…" Widowmaker moved her cursor over the button to close the file, Talon had told her many times during her training to forget her past life as Amélie. The woman on screen interrupted her before she could close it.
"Arrête !" There was annoyance written on Amélie's face. "We've been through this many times before, and every single time you try and close the files we make. I know what you're thinking, and you shouldn't listen to them, we are being used and I've spent months to get us out of this situation, so don't screw it up! Besides, who are you going to trust, Talon, or you who has a much better perspective than the current you." Widowmaker, although made to be loyal to Talon, she had no reason to deny what the on-screen version of herself was saying. She moved the cursor away from the X button, consigned to listen. Amélie smiled and continued with her original train of thought.
"I'm pleased to see your understanding where I'm coming from. Anyways, there are quite a few files on this drive, I don't want you to watch them all right now, they won't be received well at this point in time, but I have someone who is going to direct you on when to watch another one, only they know about the contents of this flash drive anyways, so you have no need to worry about watching them at an incorrect time. Now one more thing, and you aren't going to like this." Amélie signed before continuing. "On your first mission, I'm going to need you to let yourself be captured. I know that goes against everything you currently stand for, but trust me, I've already networked with them, they'll help us. I don't have any more time to explain right now, just go about our life as Widowmaker for now and take the flash drive wherever you go. One more thing, I'm Amélie, but you aren't, so don't even think about calling yourself that yet." The video message ended.
Widowmaker quickly shut down the computer and placed the flash drive in its previous place. Despite her experiences with Talon, the video message struck a chord with her. It made sense to trust herself above anything else, especially if she had taken the time beforehand to both record and place messages for herself to follow after the procedure. The assassin decided she would continue to think about this, but for now she needed sleep for the coming day.
