When Lena and I arrived at two large doors at the end of the hallway, I didn't know what I was expecting. But I certainly wasn't expecting to walk into a heated argument between Reinhardt and some sort of mutated ape.
"...and I'm telling you it isn't ready! And neither is the pilot!" the ape was obviously furious, as his arms were going haywire and a ton of spittle was flying everywhere. Reinhardt, impressively, held his ground, even under the torrent of spit.
"Vell then MAKE it ready. Overwatch is steadily crumbling, and the Omnics are gaining ground. Ve need to get this plan in motion. As for Lena, I've gotten her a copilot, so she should be able to learn a bit faster." Reinhardt turned and saw us standing there, bewildered. "Speak of the devil..."
"Coven! About time you showed up." Reinhardt said, crossing his arms. I gave him a sheepish grin.
"Yeah, uh, I got..." I glanced at Lena. "...a little bit caught up in something, sorry."
Reinhardt looked from me to Lena, from Lena to me. He sighed and shook his head. "I don't even vant to know. Anyways, Coven, meet Vinston, the local crazy."
"Vinston?"
"Winston." The ape turned to me and adjusted his glasses, the angry facade receding from his features quickly. "I'm the head scientist of Overwatch."
He extended a... hand thing to me. I cautiously took it, getting a bit nervous at the sight of my somewhat large hand being swallowed whole by the ape's.
"Coven." I said, shaking his hand the best I could. (What? You try shaking a 600-something pound ape's hand, and THEN call me a wimp.) Winston raised an eyebrow.
"Just Coven. I'm an orphan."
"Ah, I see." the monkey readjusted his glasses. It was always an awkward situation whenever I told someone about my heritage, no matter how hard I tried to make it otherwise. Thankfully, Lena stepped in to salvage it.
"Alroight, well, now that you've met, let's get on to tha flyin', ya?" she quipped, much to the silent thanks of me and Winston.
"Ah yes, the flying. Well, about that..." the ape glanced over to Reinhardt, who simply put up his hands in surrender. He turned back to us. "...it's not ready."
"Wot."
"The Slipstream, it isn't ready. In fact, it's nowhere close to being ready. We're still trying to figure out how to merge the quantum accelerator with the plane without it exploding into millions of tiny, radioactive subatomic particles which would then fuse with the air around them to create an explosion the size of Alaska."
"God you sound like Kai..." I said, rubbing my temples.
"Winston. English. Please." Lena pleaded. The ape rubbed his chin.
"Hmm... alright. Basically, we've still got to find a way to put the teleportation thing together with the plane without it going boom." He grinned at us.
"Good enough?" Lena and I nodded. "Great. Now, since the Slipstream is currently out of the 'training' picture, you're probably going to have to use a refitted jet, which, of course, I have right here..."
Winston walked, err, moved over to a large tarp. Large as in four times the size of him. He grabbed the edge and pulled, revealing a brand-spanking new, refitted F-35 Lightning (look it up). Lena was beside herself with excitement, and even I was quite impressed.
"Whaddya think?" Winston said, he himself grinning. "You like?"
"I love!" Lena dashed over to the jet, eagerly looking it over. "What are it's specs?"
"She's got a lightweight aluminum frame reinforced with Chromium, Tungsten, and other classified materials. With an engine that has 500,000 horsepower, she's the fastest thing out there, second to only the Slipstream itself."
Lena slowly turned to look at Winston. Her eyes were wide and wild. "F-f-five hundred THOUSAND horsepower?"
"Yep."
Lena looked like she was about to faint. "Bloody 'ell! How fast can this thing go?!"
"Well, it's never been tested but," Winston headed over to his desk and grabbed a banana. "theoretically it could reach Mach 30. Any higher and your brain would explode."
"And you're saying the Slipstream's FASTER than that?" I said, disbelieving. The ape simply nodded as he peeled the banana.
"Much, much faster. It's a time-travelling jet for goodness' sake! The Chronal Accelerator can only do so much; the engine's gotta be able to reach at least 106,216.7 kilometers per hour to charge it!"
"Why such an exact number, Win?" I asked, curious.
"106,216.7 kilometers per hour is exactly 66,000 miles per hour, that's why."
"So it's all, Back To The Future style then?"
"Back to the who what now?"
I gawked. "Have you never seen Back To The Future?"
"Never heard of it."
I rubbed my face. It may be old, but Back To The Future was one of the classics, a symbol of dreams put forth by people of a more primitive age. What kind of person doesn't want to watc- Wait. Not a person. Yeah, okay.
"Nevermind, it's an old movie." Winston shrugged, popping the last piece of his banana in his mouth as he did so. He then tossed the peel over his shoulder, across the room, and into the waiting garbage can. Marcus Jordan would be proud.
"So, when do I git to fly this thing?" Lena asked, still ogling over the F-35.
"Well, why not now? The jet's full of fuel, and the snowstorm's cleared, I don't see any reason why you couldn't suit up now..." Winston glanced over at Reinhardt. The big man sighed.
"Fine. I'll let ze Major know. He is not going to be happy about it though!" Reinhardt turned to leave, but not before Lena zipped over to him and gave him a hug.
"Thanks Reiny! You're tha best!" Reinhardt chuckled and patted her head. "Of course I am."
"Alroighty then Cov! Let's get flyin'!" Lena zipped over to the washroom, grabbing a pilot suit while she did. "Be right back!"
I sighed. This was not gonna end well…
A/N
I played around with the German accent for Reinhardt, but it just doesn't look right. Let me know if you think it's spot-on, or just terrible. If it's the latter, I'll take it out next chapter. :)
P.S. I used BTTF references in here. Don't sue me (please).
