Glue Fish: Chapter 2
McCree coughed.
Coughed...and coughed...and coughed...
Eventually he stopped...rolled over...then shivered.
His mind struggled to keep up with the unwanted, terrible sensations.
His hands burned…his cybernetic one sparking with a signature metallic smell...
His legs...baked in lava…
McCree was much too tired to scream...just breathing hurt...just blinking more than once, hurt…
Dream.
It was the only word that came to mind and he gripped onto it, tight.
He felt if he closed his eyes, he would die.
His heart was beating slow enough...it had crawled into his throat.
"You're ALIVE!"
It was a huge shriek, louder than even the panic seizing his thoughts.
McCree was happy...happy that he tasted mud, and felt soft plants against his cheek…
As long as it wasn't pain... wasn't hurting...he was happy.
McCree blinked; blinked and blinked and blinked, again.
The sting of humid air and tears eventually snapped him back, let his mind reel in like the fish on a hook he felt like.
McCree didn't dare move...it wasn't sensible...too painful.
"Up and at 'em!"
He knew that voice!
"R-r-rat," he rasped.
'What happened?' he'd wanted to say, but he settled on enjoying breathing, and blinking, instead; even if it hurt, and felt like his nose would pop off like a cap-gun from his face.
"Alright, Mackie! I'd knew you'd pull through!" Junkrat cheered, very 'very' loudly.
But McCree smiled so broad and tight he'd thought his lips would bleed. Junkrat's obnoxious voice might as well have belonged to an angel.
"What happened?" Finally, he'd asked.
"Oh…," Junkrat trailed off, "A whole lotta nothing…" Junkrat paused, chuckling and giggling to himself.
Still, McCree didn't dare move. To his side, he heard a lot of smashing and cracking, rocks most likely…
"Oh yeah, lots of nothing happened, eh, Talon-wise thankfully." 'Whistling,' Junkrat was 'whistling.' "And roight, you almost died too, Mackie~!"
A gross, fishy-smell leaned in close. "You're lucky yours truly decided to save your crazy, cow-self."
McCree wanted to talk more, but his breath-hitched and he squeezed his eyes shut from the pain.
"What happened?" McCree repeated. His memories weren't making sense.
"Meh, it'll be easier to figure out after a day or so awake."
He felt a soft pat on the head.
"So Mackie, don't you dare fall asleep on me, we've been here for 'three' days."
Three. Days. Said Junkrat, nonchalantly.
McCree wouldn't have believed it, if he didn't feel like death.
"W-what?"
"Three days I said. That, and you sound like a frog, mate."
McCree just nodded, still not fully understanding, but being too tired to bother.
*Slishic!
A wet slap behind his head, sent McCree flying upright.
Pearly eyes...unblinking, cold eyes…
"I-I think...remember...horse...horse!" Cried McCree.
"Yeah, yeah you sound hoarse too, mate. Don't strain yourself."
The smashing and cracking of rocks next to McCree persisted; but he'd grown weary of it...
*Schilp
Another slap; he sat up more fully. It helped his vision by clearing his tears.
"Anyway, up and at 'em! Yah can handle it if you've gotten chatty."
"O-kay."
McCree rubbed his eyes furiously, ignoring how it burned to do so.
He could see proper now. He saw green reeds, a blue sky, the gross brown of the bog, and...and…
"Ahhuagh!" McCree screamed, and screamed!
What. The. Fuck. Is. That!?
"Shit, shit, shit! Calm down, mate!"
*Schlipl schlip schlip!
Several more slaps to the face, though gentler than last time.
It didn't help much though, since the slaps came from the same thing he was screaming at!
"Mackie!"
"Ahhuagh!"
"Mackie! Come on, it's me Junkrat!" He seemed besides himself.
"Ahh shit, I thought of ways how to show yah that wouldn't scare the piss out of yah, but after three days I uh...forgot about the possibility?"
McCree put a hand over his heart; his eyes so wide he could feel them popping out.
A fish-man.
It had Junkrat's face, almost...no, not even that.
Just his voice. Just that memorable, obnoxious voice.
"I also found your hat~!" chirped the fish-man, or er...a mister Junkrat.
His hat.
McCree tentatively reached out to grab it. A hand, webbed with golden-green orange fins held it.
His HAT.
As McCree clutched the article tight, he remembered.
He remembered why, he felt so terrible and dead.
He looked down at the bog and dark water. He remembered the white horse and how'd it dragged him under…
Slowly, he looked back at Junkrat, half-expecting to have hallucinated his new "fish-man" appearance.
But he hadn't. McCree wasn't sure how to feel about that, so he 'didn't.'
"Junkrat, that really you?" Said McCree, managing to keep his voice steady.
"Yep~!"
So chipper, so casual, with the craziest things...it was Junkrat alright.
"What...are you?"
Junkrat chuckled, "Well, I'm a mermaid."
Mer. Maid.
Maid. Mer.
Mermaid, the Junkrat.
Junkrat the Mermaid.
Mer-rat?
Junk-maid?
Over the course of a minute, McCree rolled that word around in his head, and it hadn't started to make sense.
"Pardon."
"I'm a mermaid, Mackie! Come on, come on, it ain't that weird!"
"It's, that's…yes, plenty weird Rat."
"Hrm…" Junkrat hemmed and hawed, "Well, fine. I guess it is. But certainly not as weird as the Kelpie, if I gotta say."
"Kelpie?"
"Haha, you still don't think what attacked you was a horse, do yah?" He paused to chuckle. "Nah, that nasty bugger was a kelpie. Bastard beat me up too, before I managed to unglue you."
"A kelpie?"
"Okay, now that's getting annoying. Don't know how many more times you want me to say it." Junkrat sighed, shrinking down onto his fishbody. He pouted a moment, before springing up. "Oh wow, a kelpie. Funny, I just realized that kelpies are like mermaids for horses. Huh...neat."
McCree nodded, as if he'd been listening, but he was so dumbfounded and tired, that he still wasn't sure if he was hallucinating everything.
"Anyway!"
*Swrick swrick.
McCree looked over and saw that he'd been correct about the smashing and crashing of rocks.
Junkrat had set up a primitive shop, consisting of half-smashed fish placed atop flatrocks, which offered the only dry surfaces that he could see.
Then, high on a boulder, he spotted the shattered remains of his cybernetic arm.
McCree gasped, "My arm!"
He hadn't even realized it had been missing and he grimly grabbed the stub on his right side.
What else was missing? His..his holster!
"My Peacekeeper! Where's my gun!?"
"Ha, yah just noticed? Mine stuff is up there too, tried to get 'em dry, but it's hard to do here. Everything is gonna need proper repairs."
Junkrat shrugged, "This bog is hell. In fact, I've waited for you to wake up so we can move camp to dry land. All our tech got absolutely fucked from the water, Overwatch communications included."
"I...I see, damn. That's really bad." he understood this time. McCree got up, edger to get going.
"Okay, then...enough-"
"You okay?"
"Yeah, just need to go to the bathroom…"
Three days...McCree was dirty in places he didn't even know he had…
"Okay, new plan: fuck. the. mission!"
That sent Junkrat laughing, rolling through the bog-muck like a mudskipper.
"Roight, yes! Fuck the mission! First thing, we dry the tech and request 'back to base,' simple!"
"Yep, absolute, mission-failure...we better get a truckful of coffee after this!" Cried McCree.
"Yeah, fuck the mission!"
McCree gathered his things, careful to collect every scrap of his prosthetic-arm, especially if he had no idea what the pieces would be for. He was already missing him arm severely. He had no idea how Junkrat managed to live without an arm, and 'leg,' but then McCree saw with what ease Junkrat traversed the bog with his...mermaid-tail.
It still hadn't clicked. Junkrat was a genuine, god-damn mermaid…
And something else occurred to him, that he just couldn't overlook.
"Hey Junkrat, if you've been waiting on me three days, why in the world didn't you set up camp on dry land in the first place?"
"Ahhh ha ha ha," It was a nervous laugh, Junkrat even seemed a little pissed. "I wish it would've been that easy. Firstly, the kelpie never left. The creepy fuck has never stopped staring at me from that puddle." Junkrat pointed to a dark pool, and McCree's blood ran cold…
He could barely make the kelpie out, but he saw, those beady...pearly eyes. The eyes glowed ominously. This kelpie-creature wasn't even trying to hide.
"Second," Junkrat cleared his throat. "After scrapping with the kelpie to get back your dead-weight body, you weren't fit to drag anywhere. It took everything I had just to keep you breathing."
McCree couldn't meet Junkrat's eyes. His cheeks reddened. It had been a silly question.
"Right, of course! Thanks a ton Junkrat; I really do appreciate it!"
"You BETTER!"
A/N: Thank you for reading! Reviews and Feedback is very much appreciated!