Chapter 2
Bastion and his friends were staying at a very extravagant hotel, Lucio knew the owner and she offered him a personal room for free for some personal favors he did when he first started out as a DJ. As Bastion returned, He saw Lucio testing out some beats and rhythms for his upcoming concert, Hana was talking with Pharah and Mei on skype talking about girlish things he was assuming, Zenyatta was Meditating outside a balcony that looked over the city of Numbani. As soon as Bastion entered the hotel apartment, Ganymede flies over to him and tweets happily that his friend returned. Bastion rubs the bird under his neck then proceeds to check on his CPU and Diagnose what was going on with him.
After some running tests and diagnostics, everything came inconclusive. Bastion thought about rebooting his systems, though he doubts it has anything to do what he was experiencing. As soon as he was about to go into sleep mode so his systems could be rebooted properly, Lucio walks over to him. "Hey Bastion, can you help me with my music, I was thinking of using your voice to give it some sort of realism to techno, you know?" Bastion computed Lucio's request and nods his head. "VWee Voo." Lucio clapped his hands together and smiled. "Awesome, come on, let's go make some noise!" Bastion thought some music making might fix his apparent problem.
As Lucio sets up his equipment, he moves his hand over the turntable and suddenly the top of it is covered by a shield. This is how Lucio is able to make some of his most popular songs, with his sonic amplifier he could bend the bass and volume of his music without damaging some of his equipment in the process, since his passion for music tends to be very intimate in its own way. "Alright buddy, everything's set, just plug this adapter to your head and let's make some fresh beats." Bastion took the plug, analyzing it for any problems, after nothing significant comes up, he plugs the adapter to the back of his head near his core and soon he was plugged into Lucio's equipment. Bastion gave a thumbs up to show he was ready. "Alright Let's break it down!"
Lucio moved his hands smoothly and swiftly as the beat coming from both his headphones and speaker, the music was literally pounding, smooth and full of life, Bastion used his voice module to tweak the Song's performance to feel more real and pure for the Omnic people. It took some time as they kept repeating certain parts to make it perfect but Lucio got what he needed.
Lucio took off his headphones and laughed. "Alright, now that's some real emotion right there bud, woo!" Lucio was very excited, Bastion removed the adapter from his head and looked at Lucio who was very happy, Bastion enjoyed himself for helping his friend, however he was still experiencing this empty feeling, he decided to go over to Hana maybe see if she what's she up to.
Hana was talking in a three-way vid chat with Mei and Pharah. "So, things in Numbani have been peaceful, Hana?" Pharah said casually as she was cleaning her armor. Hana responded in a relaxed yet bored tone. "Eh, its ok, not much action and since I'm officially on break on streaming, my hours have been more or less free." Pharah only laughed despite Hana's "problem". "Ah, poor little girl, bored without video games, you should get a different hobby, like sports." Hana fumed at Pharah. "I AM DOING SPORTS!" Pharah rolled her eyes. "I don't think Starcraft counts as a sport." Hana growled in annoyance. "IT IS A COMPETATIVE SPORT, DO NOT MOCK IT!" As the two women were arguing, Mei was fixing her blaster until she noticed Bastion behind D. Va. Mei decided to change the subject before things went out of hand. "Bastion, it's so good to see you, how are you enjoying the city?" Both Hana and Pharah stopped arguing to looked over at the old war machine who merely waved at Mei. "Beep vwoop." He said in a cheerful tone. Hana smiled at Bastion and pats his arm. "Hey there big guy, how'd your walk around the city go?" Hana asked curiously at him. Bastion recollected the events that led him back to the apartment but when his memory goes over to the Omnic Orisa, his CPU begins to act somewhat strange, so he decided to just make it short and brief. "Beep Vwee Whiir Dwee Zwhee." He said as calmly as he could. Hana and the girls were impressed by what he had said. "Heh, that's our Bastion, always running to stop bad guys." Pharah complimented the automaton with a smirk. Mei merely fixed her glasses. "I sort of wished I didn't hear about the part where you had to break the robber's arm, but he was a bully for using a child as a hostage, I guess Karma does exist in some form." Hana giggled. "Well, Bastion is a hero none the less a real OG in my books." Bastion scratched his head as he doesn't fully understand gamer lingo but accepts it none the less. Hana returned to her conversations on a lighter note rather than an argument that he just arrived on.
Bastion still experienced some problems with his CPU and now he's having more problems now that he explained the whole story, excluding the part of the second Omnic. He looked over to Zenyatta who was mediating, Bastion knew the Omnic was filled with wisdom, perhaps speaking with another Omnic might help him with his problems.
Bastion opened the sliding door and walked out to the balcony, Zenyatta turned his head and bowed his head in acknowledgement to him. "Greetings friend, how was your walk?" Bastion stood there in silent as he closed the door, Zenyatta sensed some sort of disturbance in the Omnic and decides to help him. "Is there something on your mind?" Bastion was hesitant to explain but he knew Zenyatta would be more helpful than his human allies, he sat next to Zenyatta and explained his whole day, from his walk to his encounter with a mugger then followed by the meeting of another Omnic, then followed by his CPU causing him to experience some sort of problem, similar to humans as emptiness and thinking about a certain person.
Once Bastion finished explaining, Zenyatta took a moment to analyze everything, then came to a conclusion. "Bastion, I believe you are experiencing the human emotion of love." Bastion tilts his head. "Beep?" Zenyatta nods his head and explained calmly. "Well, it's not exactly love, this is merely the first stage, which in my knowledge is "a crush", quite common to humans who sees someone and suddenly they found themselves interested in their supposed equal." Bastion was confused, then reiterated his Omnic friend. "Beep boop, Vwee Dwee, Vwee Beep boop Dee Whiir Viir, Beep boop." Zenyatta sat there in silence then replied. "I understand friend, but Omnics have evolved past your time, many of them have been equipped with an empathy core, expressing their emotions within their reasoning, though as a Shambali monk, we have turned it off to find spiritual enlightenment within the Iris, but for you Bastion, you shouldn't be able to show any emotion aside the fact that you have found peace within yourself when you were reactivated."
Bastion computed and processed all the information of what he was told and it still came up inconclusive. "Beep Deww Virr Vwee!" Zenyatta placed a calming hand on bastion's shoulder. "Please friend calm yourself, I understand you are unable to compute all that is going on with you right now, but I believe the Iris has given you a chance to experience some sort of emotion without a built-in empathy core, perhaps… it would mean you're gradually evolving without the need for upgrades, does that compute within your logic and reasoning?"
Bastion thought of it for a moment, then shook his head, still not understanding this human emotion, one way or the other. "Beep Viir Whiir, Beep boop!" Zenyatta sighs a little then tried something different. "Bastion, when you were reactivated and met your friend Ganymede, you were confused, yes?" Bastion nods his head, Zenyatta then continued. "well, you have experienced confusion, since you have been deactivated, but upon having Ganymede be around you, you expressed friendship and happiness, is that also correct?" Bastion thought about it, remembering the first time he met Ganymede as he was calm yet happy to have Ganymede on his travels. Once again Bastion nods his head. "You have experienced three human emotions even when you have no empathy core, Confusion, Happiness and kindness." Bastion tilts his head, still unsure what he was getting at. "Beep boop?"
Zenyatta replied in a zen-like tone. "My point, is that you have expressed feelings outside your primary function, it is illogical for you to have emotions without an empathy core, yet you express emotion flawlessly, even today when we were talking, you were expressing doubt, Bastion, my friend, you are special, you are different from many of our brothers and sisters and you adapt without upgrades or updates on your software, you are who you are, even if you do not understand it as a whole, you still express emotion, and what you were expressing when you let the Omnic leave, was merely intrigue, I cannot help you anymore from this point, the rest is up to you, and what you choose is your own, I can only guide you on your path, and give you advice, for now I shall mediate." Zenyatta turns his head and begins to hover, ignoring everything around him.
Bastion computed all of Zenyatta's words of wisdom, but he still didn't understand. Bastion placed his hand on his face, expressing his frustration of understanding his problem… After a moment, Bastion looked at his hand near his face, then lowered it. He questioned why he was compelled to even do that, after some diagnostic calculations, Bastion found only one answer to his question: "Frustration". Was this what Zenyatta was telling him? That what he was experiencing was emptiness? Emotions? Bastion stood up and left the apartment building again, deciding to take another walk.
Bastion traveled farther into the city, some of the humans and Omnics looked at him strangely. It's not like they've never seen an Omnic with a weapon for a limb before, right? Bastion shook his head and looked up to find himself in front of a library, Bastion tilts his head and decided to do some research.
Inside the building, Bastion found some books about emotions, Omnic anatomy and a few lighter readings for the fun of it. Bastion took no more than a few minutes to analyze and observe the texts in the pages, It was complicated to comprehend at first, which frustrated Bastion even further, however, he noticed he was experiencing emotions without even realizing it. Bastion placed the books back to their original spots and walked over to a window to see his own reflection.
Bastion decided to do a little experiment. Bastion searched to his memory banks and found a memory of Ganymede, perching on his shoulder, tweeting a very melodic tune. Bastion's eye glowed yellow, as the memory made him "feel" happy. Bastion looked at the mirror reflection and noticed this until the yellow light turned back to its natural calming blue.
Bastion tilts his heads at this and decided to do another test. Searching through his memory banks he found a memory of Zarya hurt from one of their missions, Bastion was helping Mercy patch her up, though he was the one that placed her in that condition, after she saved him from an incoming rocket attack. Bastion's eye was now grey, probably signifying sadness or guilt.
Bastion was starting to understand Zenyatta's words, though one more test couldn't hurt, right? Bastion accidently pulled up a very old memory of his time during the Omnic crisis, the fighting, the explosions, the killing, the rage the hatred, everything was going crazy, nothing made sense for him, only to fight and kill, destroy, destroy, destroy!
Bastion shook his head, snapping out his memory and looked himself at the mirror, only to find it smashed to pieces, by his fist. Bastion noticed from a shard that his eye was glowing blood red. After a moment to calm himself, A librarian came up to him, yelling at him for the destroyed window. Much to Bastion's embarrassment he offered to pay to fix it, luckily Overwatch was being funded, so everyone gets a paycheck. Once the repairs have been paid for, Bastion left the library, now understanding about emotions and Zenyatta's slightly vague explanations.
As Bastion was heading back to the apartment to tell Zenyatta he finally understood what he was talking about, an explosion occurred near him, causing him to fly towards a parked car and smash into it. Bastion lifted his head, his sensors were trying to realign itself, once he was centered again, five people with guns ran out of the building holding bags with what looked like money being overflowed from the top. Bastion shook his head and chased after him, a second robbery, only on a bigger scale, this is just crazy. Unlike earlier, people were nowhere near the vicinity, meaning Bastion can open fire without any consequence. The robbers hopped on into a truck that was waiting for them, just as they were about to escape, Bastion turns into his turret form and begin to unleash a barrage of bullets at the truck, riddling it with bullets and destroying the engine in the process. Once he finished off his ammunition, he reloads and reverts to his recon mode. The robbers jumped out of their vehicle and noticed Bastion, his weapon aiming at them. There were at least five robbers and including a driver, four of them were human and the other two were Omnics.
"HEY, WHATS THE BIG IDEA, BUSTIN' UP OUR RIDE LIKE THAT FREAK!" One of the robbers yelled out in anger. Bastion stood his ground and aimed his weapon at the men. "Beep boop Viir Dee Doo." The humans didn't understand him, but the Omnics did. "You got some nerve old timer, acting like a hero, but we're more advanced then you." One of the Omnics pulled out a small machine and tossed it on the ground, suddenly an energy shield pops up and defends the robbers. "Ok, light him up!" yelled out the first robber.
The Robbers aimed their weapons and opened fire, the bullets zip through the shield and began to pound on Bastion's armor, thankfully his armor was able to handle these weapons, he aimed his sub machine gun at the robbers and opened fire, the bullets didn't pierce the shield but it was showing cracks, looked like it was a weaker model then Reinhardt's or Symmetra's. The robbers backed away as they tried to shoot down Bastion, the Omnic robbers knew they had no chance and attempted to leave with whatever loot they could manage, however they were soon impeded by an authoritative voice. "HALT, YOU SHALL NOT ESCAPE!" The robbers looked behind them to notice Orisa standing with her cannon aiming at them. The Omnics pulled out their weapons and opened fire on Orisa, knowing her models were beaten by Doomfist
However, Orisa wasn't weak as they thought, she turned on a force field around her, similar to Lucio's sound barrier, the bullets didn't do much to take her down, the Omnic robber pulled out a Molotov bottle and lights it up and threw it at Orisa, however, she fires a small device, and a shield pops up and takes the Molotov before it can reach her. The Omnics and the human robbers soon realized that they were surrounded, they all ran away, leaving the money behind, however, this would not satisfy Orisa. "YOU WILL NOT ESCAPE!" She yelled out as she fires off a ball of energy, Bastion thought she was going to kill the robbers, though that quickly changed as soon as the ball stopped moving in a hovered position it shot out six ropes of energy, each grabbing a criminal and pulling them all into the middle, crashing into one another, knocking them out. Orisa walked forward and grabs a bumper from the escape vehicle and reverts her cannon back to her arm, she bends the metal around the robbers, capturing them. "Threats, neutralized." Said Orisa as she waits for the proper authorities to arrive and take the criminals to jail.
Bastion tilts his head a little, most of her abilities are similar to his team mates. Her creator Efi, said she made Orisa… Did she use his allies' abilities as reference? That question is going to be asked for another time. Bastion walked over to Orisa, who was standing guard over the knocked-out robbers. "Beep vwee." He said in a friendly tone as he waved at the familiar defender. Orisa turned around and saw the same automaton from earlier. "It is you again… This is the second time I see you, and trouble seem to come whenever you're around." Bastion computed this and simply shrugged. "Dee Whiir." Orisa wasn't convinced but he did stop the robbers from fleeing, so he wasn't all that bad. "Thank you for assisting in the arrest of these robbers, it would be harder to chase them if they had escaped." Bastion chuckled slightly, his eye glowing yellow. "Zhwee Zhwee, Beep Boop Doo Dee." Orisa nods her head then changed her eyes to that of a smile. "It is honorable that you help people, I am programmed to help out the people of this city, protecting everyone at any cost… However, my creator believes that I can do more help than to stay here in one place, I know my primary function, and that's what I follow." Bastion looked at Orisa and shakes his head. "Beep Vwoop Dee." Orisa tilts her head in confusion. "I should follow my creator's advice, but… If I follow it, it would contradict my main function: "to protect Numbani from all threats.", why would I choose such a path; it is illogical."
Bastion shook his head and explained that he once thought like her, follow orders and things would get done, though his prime directives was not one he wished to talk about, so he basically left out the details and told her that there was more past the prime directives then what's in sight of the orders.
Orisa was at a loss of words and turns around at the sound of sirens. "You should leave, I… Need some time to compute this knowledge… Stay safe and stay out of trouble… Bastion." She walked towards the first officer and gave her report.
Bastion stared at Orisa for a few moments before turning around to head back to the apartment. As he walked away, he noticed his eye was a bright pink but only for a split second however. Bastion didn't know what color that signified. He examined his memory banks and pulled up the events from a minute ago. Everything seemed normal up until he was talking with Orisa, up until she said his name, then it goes on a loop. Bastion closed the memory and saw his eye glowing a darker pink. Was…That interest? No…what was the other emotion Zenyatta said? "Love"? Bastion's eye turned green, probably confusion he analyzed to himself. Bastion shook his head and just walked off to the apartment, though along the way, he kept the loop going, something about it, kind of felt right.