There was a long session in the control room of the Alkinson's explaining their abilities and equipment to the Overwatch crew, it was all long winded but long story short:
Baron was the main offensive character and had a double-rife (he called it an elephant gun, it seemed everyone who used it called it that) which could inflict a large amount of damage on any unfortunate soul who got hit by its huge bullet, he also after digging it out of his supplies had some Mills bombs, these were basically grenades he could chuck to cause explosive damage to enemies, but his most controversial weapon was his chlorine gas grenades, these basically exploded on the floor after a short delay and created a large green gas cloud, choking and suffocating anyone caught in the middle, his 'special ability' if you want to call it that was his ability to 'kindly' convince his teammates to charge across the battlefield like it was some no-man's land in the great war.
Pretoria on the other hand was more defensive in her loadout, she had an old, wood cladded, scoped hunting rifle which did a large amount of damage with precision accuracy, but was slow as it had a bolt-action (unlike the semi-auto fire of Widowmaker's and Ana's rifles), she had a hi-power pistol as a secondary to protect herself if any enemy strayed too close to her position, her other tool was a large yellow box with a slit, as she pressed a button and threw it on the floor the box spat out three long strands of barbed wire at high speed, these would coil up and basically created a bush of wire which covered a portion of floor and would slow down anyone who tried to walk on it, her ability was simply focusing herself on her rifle, being able to fire it, work the bolt and reload at a much faster rate, all while keeping her eye firmly down the scope.
Brisbane in his full armoured SWAT gear was an absolute tank, his Lil' Lewis machine gun was basically two Lewis guns welded together into a double-barrelled monster, which could sling lead down the range at a terrifying rate, but Brisbane still held onto his original SWAT devices, he had shock drones which were like land mines but with mini tesla coils poking out of them, they would be thrown into the combat area and after a delay, they would explode in a shower of electricity, electrocuting and stunning anyone caught in the area, his other form of equipment was the arc grenade, this was thrown like a grenade at the enemy and would explode in a bright flash of white, blinding anyone who was looking at it, his ability was to use his experimental Ricco-shield, this would deploy from his left arm like a large riot shield, but had the ability to take in any projectiles which hit it and ricochet them back at the enemy in a perfect return to sender way.
Vancouver was the stealthy support of the family, his supressed covert pistol was small and rather weak, although he never intended to see front-line combat, he had a clocking system which rendered him invisible to any enemies, thus allowing him to walk behind the lines undetected, to confuse the enemy even more he also had the ability to disguise via a disguise system (don't ask how it worked, even Vancouver didn't know), making him look like a Talon soldier or anyone for that matter, when demonstrating it he disguised himself as Tracer and freaked her out, it looked so flawless you couldn't tell if the disguise was real or not, but the main thing he used was his knife to backstab his enemies, made out of a super-sharp alloy designed by JTF2 it had the ability to cut through almost anything, armour, jetpacks, furnaces, the lot (which worried Pharah and Torbjörn the most), his ability was that in times of near death or distress, he could dump all the energy in the device on his back into a 'feign death' system, this would instantly make him invisible and generate a fake dead body of himself which would fall to the ground (a dead ringer you could say), he could use this to escape or trick his enemies into reassurance, just to be stabbed in the back or shot in the head, because that was all what Vancouver liked to do in his espionage ways.
After the long presentations it was slowly getting dark outside, Tracer checked her watch after Vancouver's long winded session ended, "wow its already 9 o'clock!?" she thought to herself, she looked around and saw the other Overwatch members walking out the control room to do their own stuff, she decided to walk to the sleeping quarters to get herself a shower and to get ready for bed, she usually would go to the mess hall for supper but decided she didn't feel hungry and continued walking through the corridors, she decided to take a small detour to the hangers to see what was going on down there, after walking down a couple of flights of stairs she found herself in the massive hanger, there was a runway immediately outside the hanger which went a short distance into the sea, it looked like any planes which wanted to take off on it would have to use the catapult system to get enough speed, that's why Overwatch preferred to use helicopters and dropships compared to planes, but there was one good reason why this hanger and its runway was built, there was a sleek, fighter jet with a large amount of white canvas covering it, she could still see some of the metal visible from the edges of the canvas, some parts were dented and the paint had been torn off to the bare metal on the jets underside, Tracer knew what jet it was, it was the jet which Winston used it as a test vehicle for the invisibility system he designed, as we all know the test went pear-shaped and gave Tracer the reason why she needed to wear the coronal accelerator on her chest and back, the plane however manage to survive its rough landing when its pilot turned into a quantum ghost and Winston had recovered it, he had reassured her that the device had been ripped out and he would never work on it again, but insisted that the jet should be kept in a 'just in case' scenario, she personally really liked the jet, she had flown it back in the days when she was in the RAF, flying above the clouds with the sun beating down on you from the clear blue sky, she knew it would need repairing for it to fly again but 76 kept stopping this from happening, for the same reason's over and over again…
"Tracer, that plane is a death-trap, you don't want to be a ghost again, your too valuable for us to lose, you're the best on our team…"
Those words kept reverberating in her head and she shook it to get them out, she walked up to the jet and brushed her hand on the smooth felt of the canvas, she smiled to herself, "maybe some other time luv" she said, talking to the plane as it was a person, she turned around and continued her journey to the sleeping quarters.
After turning a corner, she was now walking down a long corridor, it was slightly tighter compared to the others in the facility and had a nice carpet floor, she saw two figures standing in the corridor taking to each other, she walked towards them and saw it was Torbjörn and Symmetra, "hey what's going on?" Tracer questioned them, "ehh, it's a little problem for one of our guests" Torbjörn replied scratching his beard in worry, "were still working on setting up the bedroom for Pretoria, she's going to have to sleep somewhere else tonight" Symmetra followed up, Tracer thought about it for a second and something popped in her head, "don't worry, just tell her to come to my bedroom, I can work something out" she suggested, "are you sure D. Va's going to agree with you?" Torbjörn questioned her, Tracer just smiled, "don't worry Torbie, I think she'll understand" she said, Torbjörn just signed, "please stop calling me that" he replied to the irritating nickname, "okay I'll go find her and tell her that" Symmetra said walking off, Torbjörn followed her, Tracer looked at them walking back towards the main part of the facility and then turned around, she started walking down the corridor again until she reached her room, she opened the white door and walked in.
The room wasn't that big, it was a rectangular in shape with another door to the left at the back of the room, this lead to a bathroom which was even smaller, opposite the door in the far right corner was a beefy looking desktop computer, on the back wall was a window which looked over the night sea, with the reflection of the moonlight painted on its surface, the whole room was lit in a weak, warm yellow light from a lamp in the corner, there was a large bunkbed against the right wall and lying in the lower bed, chewing on gum and looking at her smart phone was D. Va, she had gotten out of her tight, blue jumpsuit and had gotten into some pink pyjamas, Tracer looked around and saw some soda bottles and some clothing lying around, she blinked up to D. Va and snatched the phone out of her hand, she spun around on the bed and tried to grab it back, but Tracer held it just out of her reach and pushed her back, "Lena! Give it back!" D. Va yelled, like it was some toy in a crowded playground, "there is a reason Hana, were going to have Pretoria sleeping with us, so I need you to clean all of this up and get the mattress up" Tracer explained, D. Va stopped wrestling for the phone, "you could've just told me you know" she said crossing her arms, "we all know what's going to happen, you're just going to go back onto this and sit on your arse, then I'll have to do all the work which was simple for you, now excuse me I going to have a shower" Tracer predicted, she put the phone in her jacket's pocket and walked into the bathroom, picking up some of her pyjamas in the process, when the door shut, D. Va looked at the floor and the clothes which littered it, she didn't want to do it but her mother's voice came into her head, and with her, all the Korean teachings of being respectful to guests in your house, D. Va listened to them and signed, "uughbeolgeum!" she said angrily to herself and started picking them up, after a while and all the time hearing Tracer singing a classic British pop song in the shower she had the clothes in her hands, now was the awkward part, the wash basket was in the bathroom with Tracer showering, D. Va walked up to the door and knocked, "hey Lena please tell me you have the curtain up?" she said through the door, "yeah I do!" Tracer shouted through over the noise of the shower, remembering an awkward moment they had some time before, D. Va opened the door and saw the fuzzy silhouette of Tracer through the translucent curtain, with the blue glow of her accelerator also showing through (luckily Winston made it waterproof), D. Va looked to her right and saw the brown, tall wicker basket in the corner, she opened the lid and shoved the pile into it, "you sure you got all of them little maiden? I don't have to give you a feather duster now?" Tracer joked from behind the curtain, "dagchyeo" D. Va cursed back in her native tongue and slammed the door shut, Tracer smirked and continued washing herself.
Now D. Va had to deal with the spare bed, which she HATED, she remembered back to the time when she was putting it out for Ana when she came back to Overwatch, she had her hand in the wrong place and it ended in the spring loaded locking mechanism for one of the legs slashing her finger open, and trying to control your mech in a battle the next day with a bandaged up trigger finger was no fun either, she pulled out the mattress and baseplate from under the bunkbed and dragged it to the other side of the room, pushing a couple of bags out of the way, she tilted it on its side and grabbed one of the folded legs, making sure her fingers were out of the way she pulled the leg out, when it reached a certain position a piece of metal sprang out and hit the base of the leg, locking it in place, D. Va being happy of the result and the fact her fingers were still in one piece, repeated the process for the other three legs.
After she was finished Tracer was now drying her hair out, she had put her white and blue pyjamas on (and managing to put them on underneath her coronal accelerator) and started cleaning her teeth, after a while the door opened and D. Va walked in, "okay Lena everything's done, everything's clean and the bed has been put out", she explained, "oukai aour uu sooure euthourings cleene?" Tracer spat out with a mouth full of toothbrush and toothpaste, "what?" D. Va said confused, Tracer gave some time and then spat the foam out into the running water and sink, "are you sure everything's clean?" she said clearly this time, "yes Lena I checked and double checked" D. Va responded, Tracer looked through the door and saw she was being truthful, she smiled and after reaching into the back of her pyjamas lightly tossed the phone in the air, D. Va's eyes immediately fixed on it and she snatched it out of the air, "see D. Va it wasn't that hard?, now be ready for Eliza, she'll be here any minute" Tracer said, D. Va nodded and walked back into the bedroom, Tracer then drank some mouthwash and proceeded to gargle and spit it back out.
With both the girls ready they were now sitting in their beds, doing personal things, D. Va was looking on her phone on her streaming page and everyone who was following her, Tracer had a glass tablet and was looking at her email inbox, the facility was on an intranet which Winston had set up, something similar to what would be in a college or university, it allowed the heroes to communicate with each other and not be in the same room all the time (there was also the base intercom, but that was only used for base-wide messages and emergencies), Tracer looked through the emails she had and they were mostly the same, some battlefield tactics from 76, some random corporation messages which Symmetra and Pharah placed up for some reason, some medical and fitness advice from Mercy, weather reports from Mei and base messages from Winston, but an email close to the top was from Baron, Tracer tapped on it and opened it.
"Dear Overwatch Team"
"I have finally worked out how this god-forsaken email system works, apologies for any technological cursing I am pretty much the definition of 'living under a rock' (or in a castle if you wish), anyways getting back on the point I am the head of the Alkinson family which has arrived to help you all fight those Talon wankers who attacked me, I am aware that all of you have probably seen me as a man from a bygone era of the military, but this is because the barons of my family has been wearing the no. 2 dress uniform ever since the great war and I'm in no position to change that piece of tradition anytime soon, cutting this message short not to waste your time, I am yet to prove myself in actual combat but if I managed to defend my home from a whole Talon squad with the help of your members Tracer, D. Va and Mercy, I think you would see all the potential in me as they do, as the saying goes ladies and gentlemen, 'don't judge a book from its cover'.
"Yours sincerely"
"George III of Alkinson"
As soon as she read the last line of the email there was a knock on the door, "I'll get it" D. Va said jumping out of her bunk, she walked over to the door and opened it, on the other side was of course a smiling Pretoria, "hey Eliza!" D. Va cheered, welcoming her into their bedroom, "hallo D. Va, hoe gaan dit?" she said to D. Va, the Korean teenager just looked at her blankly, not knowing what the Transvaali had just said, Pretoria just giggled in response to the look on her face, "I said how are you?" she explained, "oh I'm fine" D. Va quickly replied stepping aside to let Pretoria through, Tracer jumped off her bunk and stood next the bed, "hey luv, we have everything setup for you" she explained, putting her hand on the spare bed, "thanks Tracer, is there anyware I can get dressed?" Pretoria questioned holding a bag up, "sure, just go in the bathroom and get changed in there if you need privacy" D. Va pointed out to the door, Pretoria smiled and walked to it, opening the door and then shutting it behind her, Tracer then saw that Pretoria had dropped another bag, she picked it up and looked at it, it was black and looked like it was full of personal stuff when she shook it slightly, but it was kind of inappropriate to look through someone else's stuff so she just put it on the spare bed on top of its covers, her and D. Va hopped back into their bunks, pulling the sheets over their bodies, after a while Pretoria came back out, wearing a grey nightgown and had her clothes in her arm, she was reaching to the back of her head to undo her pony tail which held her brown hair back, after doing that she looked at the other two girls who were sitting calmly in their beds, "are you two seriously going to sleep right now?, its only 10 o'clock" she asked them checking her watch, "well we usually do at this time" Tracer responded, Pretoria put her clothes to the side and sat on the spare bed, she pulled the second bag onto her lap, she opened it and started to rummage through it, "what do you have in there?" D. Va questioned, "a lot of stuff from my home country, and personal stuff" Pretoria replied, she pulled out a scrunched-up piece of multi-coloured cloth, Tracer pulled her legs out from under her sheets and sat on the edge of her bunk watching her, D. Va also leaned herself forward out of her bunk, after a while Pretoria managed to fold the fabric out, she stood up and held the rectangular shape out , it was a flag, the flag of Transvaal, "this is the flag of the Second Republic of Transvaal, we have had it ever since the first republic and our time in the South African union" she explained, the other two girls looked at it, it was like the Dutch tricolour as it had the horizontal red, white and blue stripes, but on the hoist side was a green bar which went down vertically, after showing it off she rolled it back into a ball and put it back into her bag, "excuse me Pretoria I know you are so proud about your country but, and excuse me if I'm sounding rude, but where is Transvaal?" Tracer asked, Pretoria smiled and pulled a large book out of the bag, there was gold text on the cover and read "'n gids tot die lande van Transvaal", "this book basically sums up everything in my country, now I won't read it all out but if you want to see where it is..." she began to say as she opened the book, she flicked through some of the pages, she found the page and brought it closer the other two girls, "here it is" Pretoria said, both Tracer and D. Va looked at the page, it was a map of Transvaal, with all the road networks and the major cities filling in the countries outline, it was bordered by Botswana to the west, Zimbabwe to the north, Mozambique to the east and South Africa to the south (Swaziland had joined Transvaal as an autonomous province just after its independence), "so that's where you came from?" D. Va asked Pretoria, "ja, my country has only been independent for two years now, but I have been fighting for it since I was a little girl" she replied, she sat back in her bed with the covers over her and started reading some of the page's out (since all of it was in Afrikaans, she had to translate it), the book went on about the Dutch settling in the Cape, to the creation of the Boer republics, Transvaal, Oranje and Natalia, the Boer wars, the South African union and independence.
"…And that is where we are at today, two years into independence Transvaal is a vibrant and bustling country, with the Boer populace ready to take it into the future" Pretoria finished, she closed the book and looked at the other two, D. Va at this point had fallen asleep and Tracer was close to doing the same, "that was nice Pretoria but it's getting late" she said with fatigue in her voice, Pretoria checked her watch, it was almost midnight, "oh yeah okay I won't hold you back" she replied, "okay luv, good night" Tracer said, she hit a switch in her bed which turned the lamp in the corner off, now only the moon light lit up the room dimly, she turned and slowly dozed off, "goeie nag" Pretoria respond, she too rolled over and slowly fell asleep.
March 24th 2030
The next day was rather uneventful, well if you considered D. Va doing her regular streaming, Lúcio filling the radio channels with dubstep music from his makeshift radio station, 76 on his usual running routine on the mountain tracks, Pharah and Mercy doing their work in the medical labs, Torbjörn doing maintenance on the workings of the base, it was just your average day and the Alkinson's were adjusting to it, they all through the day had managed to fully meet all the cast of Overwatch and had drawn some friendships, Brisbane still had to deal with some jet lag so he was still tired, but still had all the Australian hospitality in him, he had quickly made friends with Zarya and Reinhardt as in terms of combat they all shared the same jobs as a tank, taking in damage and dishing it back out, Vancouver despite his ignorance and shady character had managed to strike a friendship with Ana, it was pretty easy since all the rest of Overwatch knew little of their past so it made them go together, Pretoria's cheerfulness had easily made her friends with Tracer, D. Va, Winston, McCree Mercy and Pharah, Baron however was still very isolated, he still talked to his family, Tracer and 76 regularly but everyone saw him still keeping himself to himself, Zenyatta after thinking about it had suggested he may have a lot on his mind, but no one wanted to ask Baron about this as they feared of what it may bring up.
The sun was now setting on the watchpoint and everyone had been called to the control room. It seemed pretty urgent as Winston had called it over the facilities PA system, the whole control room was now full of everyone sitting on chairs or leaning on the back wall, looking towards the large display, after a while of commotion and all the personal talking amongst themselves, 76 and Winston finally came out and stood in front of the screen, everyone went quiet, "okay you all, we have had a small break in action but I think tonight that is going to end" 76 began, he hit a couple of buttons and a world map appeared on the large screen, the view zoomed in onto the Iberian peninsula and then onto Portugal, and its capital Lisbon, "were hearing reports that Talon are trying to pull something like the Doomfist heist off again, this time at the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga in Lisbon" 76 then passed it on to Winston, "the museum holds a large wealth of ancient paintings and sculptures, estimated to be worth up to ten million euro's" the gorilla said, "pfff, like to see the Portuguese are trying to match our wealth" Vancouver snorted, everyone looked at him, Pretoria who was sitting next to him elbowed him in the gut, causing him to hiss in response, "as you were saying" Baron called out while giving Vancouver an 'I've got my eye on you' look, "oh yes, this collection will give Talon a boost to their resources if they get their grubby little hands on it, that is why tonight we are going out there to stop them" Winston continued, he then turned to Lúcio, "Lúcio I think you understand the local language?" he asked the Brazilian DJ, "ehh, Portuguese-Portuguese is kinda different from Brazilian-Portuguese but most of the words matchup" he replied, 76 turned to the Alkinson's who were all sitting together, "this is going to be your first mission so I'm expecting the best out of all of you" he ordered, "don't worry about us mate, we can all take care of ourselves" Brisbane said, but he then frowned at the Canadian, "and Vancouver stop acting like a smartass" he scolded, "well as they say, ignorance is bliss" Vancouver replied, not seeming to care as he fiddled with the display which controlled his disguise system, Baron just signed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "okay then any questions?" Winston called out to the entire room, one hand stuck up, "yes McCree?" he responded, "the person who tried to hack into Athena, are you sure they are not going to be there alongside Gabriel and Amélie?" McCree suggested, they were all assuming that Reaper and Widowmaker would be there overseeing the heist, "I don't know, but se should be prepared for the worst they can bring" Winston replied, he looked around and nobody else had their hands up, "okay let's all move out, this I hope will put Overwatch back on the map and in everyone's good books" he boomed, there was a small amount of chatter as everyone went back to their stations to gear up for the operation, while Baron was walking back to his room to grab his double-rifle, Mills bombs and gas grenades, Zenyatta hovered next to him, "Lord Alkinson, I am worried about your friends ignorance towards the feeling of combat" his worried robotic voice suggested, "well he has done a lot worse than that" Baron replied, "are you confident in his ability to take care of himself?" the Omnic continued, Baron stopped walking and looked at Zenyatta, "look, if you think you know how Vancouver works you seriously don't, the guys sneaky, a ruthless killer, an arsehole, he doesn't care if the people he kills have a life, a spouse or a family, all he cares about is making sure they are choking on their own blood and giving the other enemies shell shock, he's so serious on that he even taunts them as their lives slip away, that's how he works Zenyatta and I don't think even all of you mental thinking can show a softer side of him, because there is no softer side" he explained, Zenyatta looked at the floor, "okay Lord Alkinson, just promise yourself to make sure he can take care of himself" he said, "don't worry he already can" Baron just replied, Zenyatta nodded and floated off to leave him in peace, Baron signed, "I hope he can" he said to himself.
Translations
Beolgeum! = Fine! (Korean)
Dagchyeo = Shut up (Korean)
'N gids tot die lande van Transvaal = A guide to the lands of Transvaal (Afrikaans)
Goeie nag = Good night (Afrikaans)
