The travel back to Overwatch headquarters turned out to be more complicated than anticipated, and that meant something. Firstly there was the seating problem: Scout wanted to be seated next to Tracer, much to Tracers discomfort, the two doctors both insisted on sitting as far away from each other as they could get, Engineer and Torbjörn immediately claimed the best seats on the jet for their turrets and could not be persuaded to move them, and Reinhardt wanted to be seated next to everyone, despite all protests that that was physically not possible, whereupon Soldier stated that they were in America, a free country, and that even the german Nazi-scum could sit where and how he wished to, and that he would like to see someone try and stop him. What followed was a twenty minute discussion whether the Soldier was really essential for this mission, which resulted in Medic, already as annoyed as he could get, wordlessly sedating the American and stowing him in one of the transport boxes. Pyro sat down next to Reinhardt and offered him his Balloonicorn for cuddling, and finally they could leave, their departure already delayed by at least one hour. Surprisingly, half of the flight went down calm and relatively silent, until Scout made a pretty mean joke about the British, whereat Tracer refused to be near him any more, and managed to convince Mercy to change seats with her. And as if there wasn`t already enough chaos, Mercys new seat had to be right next to Medic - or rather on him, space in the jet was tight and she ended up half sitting on his lap. A quick glance in his face told her he wasn`t exactly happy about the situation either. This was going to be a long travel.
9 agonizing hours later, the plane landed on the headquarters` private airport, and the nine mercs and four heroes stumbled out, genuinely pissed off because no one had managed to shut up for one second during the whole flight - except for Demoman, who had been drunk the second he got on the jet and had passed out five minutes after departure. As a result, the doctors hated each other even more, the runners had gotten into a fight too for reasons unknown and Soldier had started hating everyone and everything after noticing he was stuck in a box.
Outside, they were awaited by Commander Morrison, Gabriel Reyes and Captain Amari. They all looked serious and military, and the mercs silently agreed that it would be best to leave Demo and Soldier in the jet for now. They lined up before the leaders of Overwatch, standing straight and for once not making any inappropriate comments, as Morrison approached them.
"Welcome to Overwatch. I won`t waste any time with small talk, I think you all know why you are here. The omnics are getting stronger each day, and we will have to push our limits to beat them. Therefore, I demand of you obedience, respect and discipline. Also-" He looked around. "Weren´t there supposed to be nine of you?" He received a mumbled "No...?" from the mercenaries and was about to continue, as a rumble could be heard from inside the ship. Everyone turned around to see a box moving forward shove by shove, onto the runway. "Maggots! I will teach you a lesson as soon as I get out of this thing, a lesson you won`t forget!", Soldier shouted angrily. "Wait for me!" Behind him, a groggy Demo stumbled onto the ramp, tripped over the box and landed face first on the asphalt. "What was that? An enemy? Hand me a weapon, quickly!"
Spy cleared his throat. "May I introduce: the Soldier and the Demoman." The Overwatch agents looked at each other, slowly suspecting what they had gotten themselves into.
The base was big and modern and shiny; those were the first things the mercs noticed as they were shown around. They had quite literally been living under a rock for the last few decades, and as though they had seen some pretty impressive military bases during that time, the headquarters were definitely a looker. As said, it was big, multiple floors above ground and even a few underground, where the training facilities and research labs were located. All the walls were white or blue, and huge windows illuminated every room. The mercs each had their own quarters, fully equipped with an elegant bathroom and modern but practical furniture, and they were given access to the training rooms and the standard weapons. Also, Engineer was allowed to use Torbjörns workshop, and even Mercy had given in and allowed Medic to work in the medical wing (but only under her supervision). She wasn´t fond of it, but after Ana had noticed the tension between the two, she had forced them to come to a professional agreement, as they couldn´t use any childish fights now. They had a war to win, after all.
Authors note
Alright, I guess those were enough awkward encounters for now, hopefully we can get into some supercool fighting scenes in the next chapter. I know it`s progressing a little slowly, but I`m trying. I`ll have more time the next two weeks, so I can probably write longer chapters from now on.
Also, I have received quite a few very positive reviews so far, and I`m so happy about that! Really keeps me motivated, thank you! :)
And yes, I forgot Scout killed a bear in the comics, I`m sorry about that, and I`m going to apologize in advance if something doesn`t agree with the original lore, I haven`t read all the Overwatch comics. I`ll also have to make up or change a few things to create emotional bonds between the characters (mainly talking about Medic and Mercy here). Anyways, hope you`ll enjoy!