Hey, all. Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up, I've had a lot of stuff to do IRL (and also the Anniversary event is going on, so...there's that). The pace at which I upload chapters is going to be slowed for a bit while I get some things worked out, but until then, hope you enjoy this one.
Chapter 7: Rules of Nature
"Back home," Sombra sighed whimsically as she glanced out the dropship window at a Dorado darkened by evening. "I should go drop by the bakery."
Several days had passed since Amos' first encounter with Sombra. Much to the grunt's chagrin, she had managed to commandeer one of Talon's ships for use in her personal agenda. Aiding her in achieving that agenda was Kaito, who seemed to be playing a game on his phone involving fruits and birds. Amos, however reluctantly, also had a hand in this private endeavor. Though he would rather be back at the Annecy base and by Widowmaker's side, he simply gritted his teeth and tried to make the best of a less-than-ideal situation.
"You're from Dorado?" Amos asked Sombra. She smirked; he had taken the bait.
"Born and raised. Well, for a while, anyway," Sombra replied. "I hear you've had an interesting first mission around here. They say you just suddenly went insane and shot up a house…but I think we both know better than that."
Amos clenched his jaw again. Sombra conjured more of her holographic hexagons and began idly playing with them once more.
"To tell you the truth, I was never really fond of that Talon policy where they put their recruits through neural conditioning," she said. "It gets so boring when all everyone around you ever thinks about is the base instincts. You know; killing, sex, eating, stuff like that?"
"Hey, it's a dog-eat-dog world in more ways than one," Kaito chuckled.
"Hang on," Amos blinked, looking to Sombra. "You're saying they didn't put you through the conditioning?"
"They needed my brain in one piece," Sombra answered. "Or so I'm told."
Amos snorted. "Lucky."
Sombra could only keep smirking. "How did you break the brainwashing, anyway? I didn't peg you as someone with the willpower to pull that off."
"Oh, uh, it broke when I had a giant panic attack."
Sombra's smirk inverted itself. "Got a real gift for storytelling, huh?"
Kaito snickered, but Amos just shrugged. Knowing that he was going to Dorado made Amos think of the family he had encountered there, just as his conditioning broke. He was meant to kill them, eliminate the witnesses to Talon's operation…but he couldn't. So, with their aid, he faked their deaths, and everyone went on with their lives. At this point, Amos couldn't help but wonder how the family was doing now. He hoped they were doing all right.
And that they weren't too upset about the damage his panicked shooting had caused to their house.
The dropship soon slowed its pace, and with a small lurch, came to a halt.
"Looks like we're here," Sombra remarked as she hopped to her feet. "Coordinates to my old friends are on your helmet's HUD."
"Wha—hang on, does that mean you're not coming on your own mission?" Amos sputtered.
"Girl's gotta get her pastries, and the bakery's not open forever," Sombra shrugged. "Tell them the shadow sent you, they'll know what it means. Oh, and here."
She handed the grunt a small disc-like device. Amos turned it over in his hand, noting a faint purple glow emanating from the center.
"What is this?" he asked.
"Just hold onto it for a while," Sombra told him. "Trust me, it'll come in handy later."
Amos raised a hand as if to ask her a question, but Sombra quickly vanished again.
"Great," he sighed as he clipped the disc onto his belt.
"Eh, I've had worse clients," Kaito shrugged. "Least she doesn't micromanage."
As it turned out, Sombra's "old friends" happened to make up the local Los Muertos chapter.
The gang had taken refuge in a network of alleys by the Misión Dorado, a protected historical site and prominent church. Their symbols and markings covered the walls, complete with their trademark Mardi Gras-style skull. Even their bodies bore skeletal tattoos and luminescent paints, both shining against the night like a firefly's light.
"Uh, excuse me?"
A dozen eyes turned to the skinny newcomer with the red-eyed skull helmet and his vagabond companion. Amos gave them a nervous but friendly wave. Kaito simply nodded.
"Hi, guys!" the Talon grunt greeted them, the thugs staring at his full uniform and occasionally looking to one another. "So, uh, my name's Amos—"
"You lost?" one of the thugs snorted.
"And people say we dress like it's Halloween all the time," another one added.
"Okay, okay—look!" Amos interrupted. "Does the phrase 'the shadow sent me' mean anything to you?"
The Los Muertos group paused. One of them stormed towards Amos.
"How do you know Sombra?!"
The thug found himself facing the glow of Kaito's spectral tiger paws.
"Might want to take a few steps back," the mercenary advised, allowing himself a bloodthirsty grin. "Or we'll see if your bones really do glow like that."
"All right, everybody slow down! Everybody breathe!" Amos chimed in, getting between Kaito and the thug and shoving them apart. "Look, my boss—well, one of my bosses, I've got at least three at this point—told me you were delivering something somewhere. I mean, I don't know the details, since no one ever really tells me anything, but I—well, I was hoping you guys would know something, so…"
"We do," an Omnic decorated in Los Muertos's signature paint spoke up from the back. "We owe her that much."
"Right, boys and girls, our escort's finally here! Let's get that truck moving!" another thug called out.
The roar of an engine echoed through the alley, and Los Muertos' chosen beast of burden came to life. A blood red truck drifted out into the open, allowing several gang members to climb upon and into it. Amos glanced at the truck's rather bright package, and his jaw dropped.
In the back of the truck was a LumériCo-brand fusion core. The very device he had been sent to Dorado to steal, and the goal of that fateful mission where his conditioning had broken.
"Wait, hang on—where did you get that?!" Amos asked, yelling over the truck's engine as he gestured to the fusion core.
"From Sombra!" one Los Muertos thug replied.
Amos sighed. The longer he knew his latest superior, the less trustworthy he found her. She most certainly couldn't be giving back LumériCo's fusion core out of what little goodness there seemed to be in her black heart.
"GET DOWN!"
Something suddenly dropped out of the sky in front of the truck, triggering a small explosion that scattered the Los Muertos thugs and sent Amos tumbling into a wall. Kaito agilely flipped off of the same wall before landing back on the ground on all-fours, snarling like an animal. He glared up to the roof to find a masked figure looming over them.
"Scatter!" cried another Los Muertos member.
"You're not getting away," growled Soldier 76 from the rooftop. He tapped the side of his visor, causing a wide screen to emerge over his obscured eyes. "I've got you in my sights."
76 then opened fire with his rifle, aiming for the crosshair icons his visor placed over the thugs. One by one, the thugs fell to the dirt with a precise bullet wound in each of their painted skulls. Amos could barely breathe through his wide-eyed terror. This was not just simple vigilante activity. This was a slaughter.
Then the rifle whipped in his direction.
Amos yelped in fright as he rolled behind the truck and out of Soldier 76's sights, flattening himself against the door as his breathing finally caught up with him. He looked in Kaito's direction, but the red-haired mercenary was gone. Then the bullets stopped.
"Finish the job!" Kaito called from the rooftop as he wrestled with 76 over the latter's gun. "This walking stack of credits is mine!"
"Uh…sure," Amos blinked. Shaking Kaito's greedy priorities out of his head, he went over to the still-living of Los Muertos' thugs. "Hey. Hey, take it easy. I'm a medic, okay? I'm going to get you patched up. Just stay with me, all right? Just breathe."
Soldier 76 vaulted off the rooftop, rolling across an awning and planting his feet on the street. Kaito pursued, tiger paws outstretched as he flung himself straight from the roof to the pavement. The mercenary grinned as he rose to his feet, flexing his claws.
"So…Soldier 76, huh?" Kaito said. "Hear you got one hell of a price on your head."
"You're not the first joker who thinks he can claim it," 76 snorted. "And you won't be the last."
The old soldier let loose with his rifle once more, but Kaito's paws shielded him from the assault. With a primal grunt, Kaito charged his body with the yellow aura and shooting himself into the air, the paws vanishing as his wrist-mounted tubes rained bullets of light down on Soldier 76. The vigilante retreated for a moment, Kaito's strange bullets punching holes in his wake, before leaping into the air and simultaneously doing an about-face. A trio of small rockets burst from 76's rifle and barreled directly towards Kaito, knocking the mercenary out of the air in an instant.
The red-haired man landed limply on the ground with a sickening thud. Despite taking a supposedly lethal blow, however, Kaito slowly pushed himself to his feet. A faint yellow glow overtook his body, closing his wounds as he wiped the blood off his lip.
"Heh…not bad, old man," Kaito snickered, cracking his neck. "Gonna make me work for my paycheck."
"That's all this is about for you?" Soldier 76 grunted. "Money?"
"Money," Kaito replied with a Cheshire grin. "The DNA of modern society. And cashing you in ought to make me a ton of it."
His tiger paws returned as he took a step forward, but then a dart lodged itself in his shoulder.
"Ugh, what?" Kaito sputtered as he quickly ripped the dart out and crushed it in his hands. "Who the—"
The answer came from behind Soldier 76. Ana lowered her rifle, loading another set of her darts inside. Genji gripped the hilt of his blade tightly. Tina folded her arms and frowned. Winston pushed up his glasses. Tracer smiled one of her famous smiles as she put her hands on her hips.
"Cheers, love! The cavalry's here!" the time-hopper declared.
Tina shot her a condescending glare. "Do you seriously say that every time?"
"What's wrong with that?" Tracer asked.
"It's stupid."
"What? Do you have something better?"
"No, but that doesn't make it less stupid," Tina snorted. "Who says you even need a catch phrase, anyway?"
"Children, behave!" Ana snapped. "We have a job to do!"
Kaito frowned at the increased opposition before glancing to Soldier 76. "I'll cash you in later."
He turned to flee, and leapt upon the rooftops.
"He's getting away again!" Tracer cried.
"He will not," Genji growled. The cyborg sped after Kaito, scrambling in pursuit of the mercenary.
Meanwhile, Soldier 76 turned to the group. "What are you doing here?"
"We're here for you," Ana began. "You're right; we both want the same thing. And you don't have to fight this war alone."
The masked soldier paused for a moment.
"I think I can see where you're going with this," he said. "You want me to join up with you."
"Well, you're…admittedly not our first choice," Winston spoke up. "But we need all the help we can get to bring back Overwatch."
"Hmph…'bring back Overwatch'," 76 scoffed. "What's the point?"
"Why don't you ask yourself that?" Ana retorted. "After all, you're the one who's been fighting a one-man war against the very things Overwatch warred against."
"Yeah…old habits die hard," 76 sighed. "But, just because we fight for the same things doesn't mean we should team up."
"Fine by me," Tina snorted.
"Figured you'd say that," 76 growled, though Ana detected a hint of a chuckle in his words. "I want to see what LumériCo's been up to. If you all want to play soldier, fine. Just stay out of my way."
The old soldier turned and left. Tina stuck her tongue out at his departing back, throwing in a rude gesture for good measure.
"Tina," Ana admonished, prompting the girl to snort in rebellion. The elderly sniper simply sighed. "Well…this was worth a try, at least."
"So, what now, Cap?" Tracer asked.
"That's not for me to decide," Ana shook her head. "Winston?"
"Huh? Oh, uh, right," the gorilla mumbled before taking a moment to clear his throat. "Well, uh…we saw Soldier 76 being chased by that mercenary from Hollywood. Talon clearly has an interest in this area, so while we're here, it may be a good idea to investigate."
"Agreed," Ana nodded. "Let's get going."
With feline agility, Kaito leapt from roof to roof in search of Los Muertos' truck. Now that the secondary revenue was out of the question, there was no reason to not focus on the primary job…provided Sombra would actually provide payment this time. He stopped on one roof across from the ziggurat-like structure that was the LumériCo building, casually crouching at the roof's edge.
Down on the street below, he found his target. Los Muertos' thugs pressed on, with Amos (rather reluctantly) riding in the back. Kaito shrugged and stood up, but froze when he heard a metallic clank behind him.
"Kaito!"
The mercenary grinned in delight.
"Genji," he replied as he turned around. "Fancy meeting you here, huh?"
Overwatch's cyborg ninja displayed a fistful of shuriken for a moment, then withdrew them. "Why are you doing this, Kaito? Why have you turned your back on your honor?"
"Are you serious?" Kaito snorted. "Come on, you of all people should understand."
"Enlighten me."
Kaito snorted again, but this time with a hint of laughter. He then plucked a credit chip out of his pocket and idly turned it over across his fingers.
"Remember the old days, when you and I were just the black sheep of Japan's two top crime families?" the mercenary began. He flipped the chip into the air and caught it in his hand, stuffing it back into his pocket. "My family took every chance they could to get an edge over yours: black market dealings, top-of-the-line weaponry…"
Genji tilted his head, studying the red-haired man. Kaito flicked his wrist, sending a wave of energy down his arm and forming one of his tiger paws.
"Even taking a page out of your own book, namely the one where you figured out how to manifest spiritual energy into a physical form," Kaito continued with a smirk. He flicked his hand again, dismissing the paw. "But it didn't matter what we did. When the Shimadas and Umikuros went toe-to-toe, it was always the Shimadas that came out on top. Even on the last day."
"What do you mean?" Genji asked.
"What, your big brother didn't brag about it?" Kaito guffawed. "He led one last strike to take over my family's part of town. And the Umikuro clan fought to the last man—well, with one obvious exception," he added with a snicker.
"You fled?" Genji balked. "You ran away from the battle?"
"I got out while I was ahead," Kaito corrected him. "The survivors had a chance to buy their lives when the Shimadas were taking prisoners…but they all decided they'd rather die than dirty their precious 'honor'."
Genji paused. "You're…the last member of your family."
"This black sheep rides alone now," Kaito chuckled.
"But, your family is dead, Kaito! You should honor—"
"Are you actually serious right now?!" Kaito threw up his hands. "Your family stabbed you in the back, you're playing the tin-plated lap dog to a dead organization, and you're actually telling me that all you can think about is your 'honor'?! We're in the twenty-first century, Genji! The world's moved past all those archaic concepts our families loved so damn much! You and I, we could be the wave of the future! I mean, really, what good has that 'honor' done you, anyway? Got you put in a big soup can, is what it did!"
Throughout Kaito's tirade, Genji had calmly placed his hands together in a meditative gesture. Slowly, the cyborg wiped the anger from his mind. He cast his thoughts back to the snowy mountains of Nepal, to the time he spent with his master and the other Shambali monks. Then, after a moment to find his tranquility, he pulled his mind back to the rooftop.
"Mi o sutete mo…myōri wa sutezu," Genji said simply
Kaito gave him a dumbfounded look. "Did you actually just tell me that even if you sacrifice your body, you'll never sacrifice your honor?"
Genji nodded. His greedy rival spat a disgusted wad of spit on the ground.
"Baka," Kaito grunted. "Guess it has to be this way."
He gripped his ragged shirt and abruptly tore it off, revealing a sight that made Genji gasp. Kaito's body was covered in a crisscrossing network of tubes, each one weaving in and out of his flesh and all emanating from a central dial over the man's heart. Much like how Tracer's chronal accelerator emitted a blue glow, a yellow light radiated from the dial of Kaito's exoskeleton.
"What…is that?" Genji gaped.
"The best black market cybernetics money can buy," Kaito grinned.
Genji balked. "You did this to yourself?"
"Gotta beat out the competition somehow," Kaito shrugged. The dial glowed as his tiger paws took shape once more. "Come on. Let's go."
Genji's shuriken slid back between his fingers as a roaring Kaito charged at him, paws outstretched. The ninja from Overwatch slid aside and ran across a wall, countering Kaito's assault with a small slew of shuriken. The mercenary ninja, however, simply swatted them aside, soon exchanging his tiger paws for the two wrist-mounted tubes.
"Can't fight the rules of nature, Genji!" Kaito called as he opened fire, bullets of light chasing the cyborg. "You don't get ahead in life by helping old ladies across the street!"
His metallic prey finally drew his sword, the phantasmal green dragon leaping from the blade's edge. Kaito grinned as his tiger paws rematerialized.
With cries of righteous fury and primal glee, the two ninja charged.
It was much quieter on Los Muertos' payload.
The gang, Amos in tow, had taken something of a tour around the city of Dorado. They passed through the marketplace, drove by a rather imposing statue of LumériCo CEO Guillermo Portero, and eventually found themselves forcing their way inside LumériCo's power plant. The thugs of Los Muertos left a slew of wounded security guards in their wake as the truck hovered inside. None of them noticed Amos surreptitiously leaving behind a few of his unique bandages for the guards to use.
"Almost there," the lead thug grinned.
"Finally," Amos sighed. "I don't know about you guys, but I'll be glad to get this done with."
"Aw, don't want to stick around for the light show?" one of the other Los Muertos members asked.
"…do I even want to know what you're talking about?" Amos slowly asked.
"Sombra didn't tell you?"
"Nobody tells me the details of the missions I'm stuck on."
A couple thugs scoffed, but the Omnic among them put one hand on the fusion core.
"She rigged the power core to leave a surprise for the company," he explained. "It'll upload a virus into their systems once it's installed."
"Not getting cold feet, are you?" the lead thug sneered at Amos.
The Talon grunt simply shrugged. A virus in a company's systems was at least marginally better than a bomb. There would still be people in Mexico who would be devoid of electricity thanks to Sombra's scheme, but—as far as Amos could reason—that was a fate better than death. Besides, trying to avert the payload now would bring a cadre of heavily-armed and vicious gang members down upon him, and his inevitable demise afterward would help no one.
Then a blue light whizzed by him.
Oh, no, Amos thought, a chill trickling down his spine. Not now, please…
His fears were made manifest when Tracer herself appeared on top of the truck's roof, pistols flipping out of her gauntlets and into her hands.
"Heya!" she chirped at the Los Muertos members before her.
The lead thug just snarled. "Kill her!"
His associates raised their weapons, but Tracer was already gone. A few seconds later, she reappeared in the same place she had been standing.
"Heya!" she grinned. She paused for a second. "Ever get that feeling of déjà vu?"
As Tracer and Los Muertos occupied one another, Amos quietly slipped off the payload and crept away. The last thing he wanted was for the time-hopper to confront him. What was he going to say to her? How would he hide their meeting from Widowmaker…or, for that matter, Sombra? Where even was Sombra, anyway?
A massive shape soared overhead as Winston joined the fray, swatting Los Muertos' thugs off the payload. Amos gulped; how many more were there?
"Sup?"
Amos sprang about ten feet in the air, whipping out his gun once he had mentally landed. His panic saw him pulling his weapon on Tina.
"Oh! Uh…sorry," the Talon grunt mumbled as he holstered his weapon.
"Might want to lay off the coffee, dude," Tina suggested.
"I don't do coffee. Or sugar," Amos sighed. "I think you can guess how much I need it."
"Yeah, really," the girl from Ilios snickered. "What was your name again?"
"Uh…Amos."
"Oh, yeah, that guy from Detroit. And a lot of other places."
"Yeah," Amos sighed. "I, uh…I get around. You were—what was it, now—Tina, right?"
"Yep," the thief said nonchalantly as she idly twirled her staff in her hand.
"So…if you don't mind my asking, how did you get here?" Amos ventured.
"With those douchebags," Tina grunted, jabbing her staff at Tracer and Winston. "You?"
"Got a new boss," Amos sighed. "She likes blackmail, so I'm here doing her dirty work."
"Wow, she sounds like a prick," Tina frowned. "I found a cactus in someone's window 'round here. You want me to shove it up her—"
"Oi, Tina!" Tracer suddenly stopped in front of the two. "Want to help us fi—"
She trailed off when her eyes fell on the Talon grunt before her.
"Amos?" Tracer's eyes went as wide as her smile.
"Uh—no!" Amos blurted in a hilariously phony voice, backing away from the two women. "No, this is not the grunt you're looking for! This grunt is actually really busy and—HOLY CRAP, A SHOOTING STAR!"
Tina was the only one who turned to look, but that was all Amos needed to abruptly sprint in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, he didn't get very far before Tracer blinked in front of him.
"Come on, you know there's no need to run from us!" she laughed. "What are you doing here, though? Did Talon send you?"
"…sort of?" Amos said nervously. "It's kind of a long story, but—"
Just then, the disc Sombra had given Amos—still attached to his belt—began to release a purple glow from its center. The glow became steadily brighter, and seconds later a flash of byzantine light burst from the disc. The light quickly took a humanoid shape as it landed on the floor, and soon formed into a familiar figure.
"¿Qué onda?" Sombra greeted as she stuffed the last bits of a churro into her mouth. "How's the payload?"
"Wha—Sombra? But you—you just—how did you—what?" Amos sputtered.
"Let me guess," Tina growled, holding up her staff in an aggressive posture. "This is your new boss?"
"Yeah…pretty much," Amos sighed. "Everyone, this is Sombra. Sombra, this is everyone."
Sombra ignored them as she looked to the truck, finding Winston battling Los Muertos as others of its number occasionally fell from what seemed to be Ana's darts. "I'm guessing there's no chance we can take care of this quietly, is there?"
"Not a one," Tracer said, a hateful grimace suddenly dominating her mouth as she drew her pistols on Sombra. "Amos works for you, right? So, that means you work with Talon."
"Figure that one out all by yourself?" Sombra snorted, adding fuel to Tracer's fire. She slipped her hand behind her back, and the second she brought it forward, a submachine gun materialized in her hand. "¡Asústame, panteón!"
Amos raised a hand to say something, but Tracer was already firing on Sombra. Talon's hacker rolled aside, spraying bullets from her own gun as she went. Not one to be outdone (least of all by a member of Overwatch), Tina pole-vaulted in Sombra's direction, only for Amos' latest superior to kick her away with surprising agility.
"I know kung fu," Sombra quipped, picking another disc off of her belt and throwing it into an upper-level hallway.
"Don't think I don't recognize that device!" Tracer snapped. "I know you stole it!"
Amos blinked and raised his hand again. "Uh…did I miss something?"
"Winston's computer systems were hacked a while back, by someone who really likes purple pixels," Tracer explained, glancing at the Talon grunt for a split-second before turning an unusually steely gaze towards Sombra. "That someone downloaded a copy of the plans for my chronal accelerator."
"What can I say?" Sombra shrugged. "A girl's got to have the latest tech."
"Have this, bitch!" Tina roared as she came in swinging, only for Sombra to suddenly vanish again. The hacker soon reappeared atop the disc she had discarded, now lording over the group from the safety of the upper level.
"You know, sometimes I feel a little sick after using my translocator," Sombra said, holding up another of her discs for all to see. "I'm sure you know what I mean, Tracer."
"Wouldn't be a problem if you just disappeared forever!" Tracer snapped.
That gave Amos pause. Tracer's words sounded harsher than he thought even Sombra deserved, but before he could bring this up, Tracer had blinked up a wall and into the hacker's hallway. The two women exchanged fire for a moment, Tracer attempting to chase the fleeing Sombra all the while.
"Kaito, where are you?" Sombra snapped into her earpiece. "We're getting pinned down over here!"
The only response she received was Tracer's sudden blinking in front of her and lashing out with a kick. Sombra flipped backwards to avoid it, the two transitioning into a flurry of hand-to-hand combat at this point. On the ground floor, Tina huffed in frustration as she quickly stormed off to find some stairs.
"Tina, wait! I—hold on a sec!" Amos tried, but she was already gone. He heaved a dejected sigh. Why was he always the one getting left behind?
Meanwhile, one of Sombra's translocators landed atop the truck, its owner appearing atop it shortly afterward. The very sight of her sent the remaining Los Muertos members into an elated frenzy, some of them even leaving their engagement with Winston.
"Sombra!"
"¿Qué pasa?"
"Where you been, amiga?!"
"Aw, I missed you guys, too," Sombra laughed. "That new job I told you about? Way too many hours. But, don't worry, this one's all me."
More shouts of approval came from her old gang. Unfortunately, their distraction allowed Winston to shove through them and towards Sombra.
"Coming through!" he grunted as he lunged, his target slipping off the truck and out of his reach. She replied by opening fire, forcing Winston to use his armored shoulders as shields.
"A little help would be appreciated!" Sombra snapped in Amos' direction.
"Uh—"
"Amos!" Tracer exclaimed, suddenly appearing by the grunt's side. "You know you don't have to do this!"
Amos clenched his jaw. He could feel a mountain forming on his shoulders.
"Amos!" Sombra cried as she dodged Winston's latest strike with a quick translocation. "Come on!"
Tracer put a firm hand on his arm. "Do the right thing, love. I know you can do it."
The mountain's weight multiplied exponentially. Helping Sombra would get him back to Widowmaker, but he would lose Tracer and Winston's friendship. Helping Tracer and Winston would keep him on good terms with them, but would bar him from Widowmaker. Running away would help no one, even himself. Amos's jaw clenched hard enough for him to feel every indentation in his teeth. The pace of his breathing picked up.
Then Kaito fell into the fray, rolling aside and exchanging shots with a pursuing Genji.
"Sorry I'm late, was catching up with an old friend!" Kaito quipped. "What did I miss?"
"Oh, the usual!" Sombra replied as she flipped off the payload and away from Winston. "Trade partners?"
"Sure, why not?" Kaito shrugged, and with another spiritually-charged leap, tackled Winston to the floor.
Sombra turned her submachine gun on Genji, but before she could fire, a sneaker and its screaming owner collided with her and sent her tumbling across the floor.
"Want some more, Smugbra?!" Tina sneered.
A snarl took the place of Sombra's usual confident smirk as she sprang to her feet. With another quick translocation, she was back atop the payload. This time, however, a purple glow began to emanate from the lining of her coat. Then, as if lifted by invisible strings, the hacker slowly levitated into the air.
"Sombra!" cried one of her Los Muertos friends. "¿Qué haces?"
Sombra's looked to him with a grin that would have made the Cheshire cat himself proud. "¡Apagando las luces!"
She threw her arms wide, somehow launching a wave of purple energy that rippled throughout the building. Every light the wave passed darkened in an instant. Electronic security doors were unlocked. In seconds, every electrical device in the building had stopped working. The ones with screens now displayed a stylized purple skull, evidently Sombra's calling card.
Only the glow of the Los Muertos tattoos provided illumination, but each source was quickly making itself scarce. A few moments later, the emergency power kicked in. The lights came back on, almost blinding Amos in their intensity. Los Muertos had fled, taking their fallen with them.
But what worried Amos was that Sombra and Kaito had fled, too. Without him.
"Uh, Sombra?" Amos said into his communicator. "Where did you go? Why am I still here?"
"Oh, sorry about that," Sombra said rather flatly. "Had to make a quick exit, you know? Don't worry, you'll figure something out."
"Wha—you're just going to leave me here?!"
"Rules of nature, kid," Kaito added. "Can't keep up, you get left behind."
The line cut off. Amos' blood ran cold. He swallowed hard.
"What was that all about?" Tina asked him. "Did you just say they left you behind?"
Amos slowly nodded, lip quivering in terror.
"Remind me to even out that bitch's baldness for her," Tina snorted disgustedly.
"Hey, you okay?" Tracer asked, noticing Amos' shivering hands.
"No! I just got abandoned!" he cried. "And—and I—I-I need to be at Talon's sick bay! There's—"
Then Ana Amari came in. Amos recognized her immediately; she was the woman who had put Widowmaker in the sick bay to begin with. He clammed up with a whimper.
"Well," Ana said. "Seems we have a guest tonight."
Amos quickly reached for his smoke bomb, but his eyes met the barrel of Ana's rifle before he could grab it.
"No sudden moves," she said. "Or you find out first-hand what these darts can really do."
A flash of anger brushed some of Amos' fear away. "What if I've already seen that?"
"Then you won't want to resist."
"Cap, hold on!" Tracer held up her hands. "Winston and I, we met this guy before! He's not like the rest of Talon!"
Ana raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"
Winston cleared his throat. "Tracer and I had some assistance when we fought that Omnic a few months ago. Tina was part of our support, along with the superhero Thunderstrike. And—as hard as it might be to believe—so was this Talon grunt."
Amos gulped. At this point, he had no choice but to place his life in Tracer and Winston's hands. And he somehow doubted that the elderly sniper would be willing to listen.
"He's our friend!" Tracer added, throwing her arm around Amos' shoulders. She then looked directly at him. "Right, Amos?"
"Y-yeah…we're okay," Amos said timidly.
Ana pursed her lips in thought for a moment.
"Hag, if I see you pull that trigger one time—" Tina began, but Ana sent her a sharp look.
"Shh, the adults are talking," the sniper interrupted. Without waiting for another of Tina's indignant responses, Ana looked to her comrades. "We've been infiltrated before, by someone we didn't think was a threat. How can we be sure this one is really what you say he is?"
"He is no threat," Genji spoke up. "I, too, have encountered him before. He is rather poor in a fight, especially when outnumbered. And he is also very clingy with his superiors."
Amos was tempted to argue, but thought better of it given his situation.
"Hmm…I can certainly believe the second of those points," Ana hummed. Amos' temptation to argue grew a bit stronger. "Winston, you're the one in command. What do you suggest we do with this out-of-place soldier?"
"Well," Winston began, adjusting his glasses. "I say we give him a chance to be one of us. If extra security would make you feel better, we'll put him on a probationary period. But, we're not going to treat him like our enemy."
Ana sighed, finally lowering her rifle. "I'm still not sure about this, but it's your call."
"I can assure you, Amos here is no threat to any of us," Winston said. "Now, let's bring him home."
Tracer's smile couldn't be wider as she led Amos along, following Winston and the others as they made their way back to their ship. The fidgety Talon grunt, however, spent half of his time trying to avoid the wary glares from Ana and Genji. The other half was spent worrying. What was going to happen to him now? What if Genji and Ana decide that they've had enough of him only a few minutes later?
And what would Widowmaker think if she could see him now?
