Chapter 8
Workout
Authors note: Sorry this chapter took so long and is a bit shorter but bare with me. It took a lot of thinking and will power to actually write this one. Between procrastinating, playing games with friends and having family over I really haven't have time to write this.
Andre Pov
I walked into the training room to see everyone had already started their own version of training. Tracer blinking around the track, Genji fired multiple shurikens onto training dummies, Zenyatta sat in silence and meditated, ect. I walked over to Bastion, who sat on top of a bunch of tires next to Torbjorn's turret, and waved to him. He beeped happily reminding me slightly of Cog. "So what exactly is your training?" He whirred in response before booping. "Hmm. Speed training? By dodging rubber bullets? Sure I'll try it." He chirped with glee before pointing to the spot where wanted me to stand. I stood before bastion started counting down in beeps. I shifted my stance a little before nodding to him. Before I could even react he released a storm of bullets. Time seemed to slow down for me as I was able to see each individual bullet fire at me, its spiral, its detail, everything. I shifted right and left, left and right over and over again. Only problem was it felt like I was nailed to the floor, I couldn't move my legs as a result of the speed making me just as heavy as stone. All I could do was dodge and dodge I was going to.
Click, Click, Click! The sound of Bastion's empty ammo drum rang causing me to finally stop moving and catch my breath. Clapping soon filled the room. I turned slowly around, trying to conserve as much energy as possible, to see everyone staring at me. I tilted my head in confusion, my heavy breaths giving it away that I was not used to this new human body. Tracer was the first to speak "Nobody's been able to dodge a full Bastion barrage before! Even Genji had to start deflecting half way through it." I gave her a thumbs up after finally catching my breath causing everyone else to go back to what they were doing. "I have a question. I know it seems a bit random but can I borrow one of your pulse bombs? There's something I have to test." She looked gave me a confused glance before slowly handing one over. I nodded before grabbing it and throwing at the floor. It began to tick and beep violently, a warning sign appeared on it signaling we didn't have much time before it detonated. Tracer blinked backwards and quickly yelled at me "What are you doing! Get away from that thing!" I put my hands in front of it, making a translucent blue shield around the bomb. It exploded, the blast being completely absorbed by the shield. My HUD lit up showing the force tank that was 25% full. I heard Tracer blinked towards me and then I received a punch to the back of the head. While I was rubbing my head to ease my pain she screamed at me. "Are you crazy! You could have been blown to smithers! What would I have told Phara!" I laughed quietly to myself as I continued to rub my head. "Sorry… I just needed to test this thing" She let out a heavy sigh before rubbing her temples. "Now I know how Mercy feels when I do stuff like this to her." I laughed, its booming presence much like Reinhardt's "Then I hope you prepared for what I'm about do next" I pressed the bottoms of my hands together, the cores in the palms of my gloves whirred to life with a light blue hue and before Tracer could protest I had already fired the built up power. "Shockwave!" The air fired out blasting through the training dummies and the wall but propelling me in the opposite direction.
3rd person
Andre slammed into the wall easily smashing through it. The wall collapsed, the pieces all landing on top of him forming a pile. Mercy and Lucio sprinted to the pile first trying to make sure that he survived that crash. Before they could reach him an arm erupted out of the pile. It knocked the rocks away until the top half of Andre was visible. He was covered in scratches and bruises but nothing to serious. "Alright next time I need to activate the weight." Andre laughed, Mercy put her hand on her face while Lucio just laughed along with Andre. The cuts on his body began to slowly close over the course of the laughing. "I'm surprised the wounds weren't much deeper. Any other person would have had some part of their skeleton cracked." Mercy stated. I tapped my head "My skeleton is completely augmented metal. It would take a lot more force to break those." Mercy got close to Andre easily showing the seriousness in face. "Your skin is not metal though. You can still be hurt!. You need to take care of yourself. I understand you're not used to being a human yet but that's still not an excuse." I nodded slowly "Sure doc. I'll take better care of myself" Andre slowly got up from the rubble cracking his neck before walking through the hole in the wall. "I'm done training for today. I've got to go get my body checked out by Cog" Lucio nodded but Mercy wrinkled her brow. "Don't do anything else that may affect your health." Andre waved it off before disappearing. "With the money and intelligence he has I'm surprised he rarely uses it." Mercy muttered to herself.
Andre Pov
I walked into my room and called for Cog. He spun around the moment he heard the sound of my voice. I looked at the computer screen and saw he was looking up the name of popular inventors. Arnold Taylor was the closest one. He worked in a Vishkar head tower in Colorado. A scientist with the skills to finish my augmentations would be amazing. Even if he didn't do them for me I just need a look at the blueprints. "Did you get the plane ready like I asked you to Cog?" He nodded. "And you told Soldier 76 about this right?" He gave me a thumbs up. " Alright this shouldn't take me to long. I walked down to the hangar to see Winston tampering with the transport ship. "Winston, what's up?" He turned to me giving me a smile "Oh you know, some upgrades here some upgrades there. You already leaving for the Vishkar center?" I nodded. "Soldier already told you?" He grunted as his answer. "Good luck. May you find what you need" I walked onboard the ship, starting the launch process. It wouldn't be to long of a flight more of a casual 1 hour vacation.
1 hour later..
I docked the ship about a mile from the headquarters and walked the rest of the trek. When I finally entered the building I was greeted by a woman in a completely white suit. "Good afternoon, how can I be of assistance?" I looked at the elevator to the right of the reception desk before looking back to her. "Can you direct me to Arnold Taylor's lab?" She began meticulously typing on her keyboard presumably looking for the lab in this massive building. "He has specifically stated he does not like any visitors. I'm sorry but I can't let you in." I slipped my hand in my pocket and pulled out an ID card. "I'm the representative for Russia's steel industry. I'm here to make a deal with Arnold. Some of his augments could be sold for a lot of money and help a lot of people, this could easily benefit Vishkar." Her jaw dropped at seeing a man from a multi-trillion dollar company walk in to make a deal. Little did she know she was actually meeting the owner. I quietly chuckled to myself before asking her again. "So can you direct me to Arnold Taylor's lab?" She nodded "Floor 56, room 259P. When the elevator stops look to the right and go straight down the hallway. You'll find it" She smiled at me before pointing to the elevator. I walked in as an Indian woman in a long blue dress walked past me, She stared at me for a second before continuing on her way. I paid no attention to it and hit the 56th button. The doors slowly closed and the elevator began its ascension. Within moments I was on the floor I needed to be. I took a right like the woman told me to until I reached the door. I grabbed the handle and opened it, I walked in to see a younger man who looked to be 3-4 years older than me in a chair.
"I already heard from the receptionist why you're here. Whatever your offer is I'm not interested. I'm not letting my work go out to the public now leave." He stated flatly, not even turning to look at me. "That whole 'make a deal' thing was just a front to get in here. I'm here to see Arnold" He snorted "Arnold Taylor has been dead for a month now. Bless his soul, some low lives attacked him while he was mourning the death of his son. He was rushed to the hospital but soon succumbed to his injuries. He passed his work onto intern and closest friend. I've been working here ever since. Now you know you can't see him, now I'm going to ask you to leave once more before I call security." I shook my head in response. " I actually cant just give up now that I'm so close. If I'm going to help the world I need Arnold's augments!" The man slammed his fist into the table "I am not going to let another one of my failures slip into the world again!" He spun around in chair till he was facing me. He was a light brown man, his chin was covered in stubble, he had a long black mustaches, big brown eyes and long black hair. His face was somewhat familiar but at this point I was distracted by his anger. "I have cost to many people their lives! I will make sure that this happens to nobody else because of me!" This man was going through some emotional turmoil that's for sure, he gave of the same feeling as me, it was odd to say the least.
"Failed experiments? How so?" He grit his teeth. The vein in his forehead was ready burst at a moment's notice. He put up his fingers "3 times I have made the mistake of trusting someone else. 3 times its cost the lives of innocents. I've trusted a man who cost the life of an innocent kid, then betrayed me once more to cost my best friend, Arnold's son, his life. Then after trusting a new person in my life hoping I could start anew she stole my invention and used it for her own desires of 'order'! They had all tricked me and look what happened." He continued to vent, all this pent up aggression finally flooding out for the first time. Something clicked in my head when I thought back to his earlier sentence of betrayal. "What's your name?" He looked at me in confusion. "I know this is a random turn but this is important. What is your name?" He contemplated what my name could have to do with any of this. "Markus, Markus Taylor. I never got a last name so Arnold took me in as his own" I smirked inwardly at myself finally figuring out this dudes deal.
"So.. you blame yourself for Andre's death. Though noble it doesn't change that it's not your fault." His eyes widened at the mention of my name. "Who are you? Some Talon agent here to finish the job?" I chuckled. "From how much time we spent on the run I don't think anyone could catch you." I stuck out my hand "My names Andre Williams, remember me?" He slapped my hand away from him. "Now you're making some sick joke?" He hissed "Let me tell you something. You don't deserve to even utter that name." The venom from his words leaked out of his mouth, his resentment easily flooding out. "Markus when did you become such a hard ass? I remember when you would sneak me out while Shiro was sleeping to go get some food when the orphanage didn't have enough. You were the one who started the parties on our successful heist, where did that spark go?" Markus clenched his fist. "NO… he's dead. He died, just like the others…just like my other failures." I could see Markus trying to fight back the tears with every word. I walked up to him and put my hand on his shoulder. "What happened that day was not your fault. It was bad luck that we went for some Talon operatives. We got greedy. You could have done everything perfectly and I still would have died, and Jessica would have been captured." He wrapped his arms around me, I could see the tears streaming down his face, each drop filled the room with the sound of self forgiveness.
"How…we all saw you die. Your body crumpling to the ground, that man taking you and throwing you body into the cooler like a bag of meat." I returned the hug hoping I could calm him down at this point. "Though my body was destroyed my mind was transferred into the Cybernet. I absorbed much knowledge into my subconscious. I created a robot body as a vessel until I was able to reconstruct my body in the form you see now. But the original reason I'm here is to get the speed augment blueprints. Thanks to Overwatch I'm closer to the man who captured us than ever before." Markus gave me a look of shock. "Overwatch eh? Thought they were disbanded?" I nodded to him. "Disbanded yes. But not done helping the world. We are still hunting down people just like Vlad but we'll have a better chance of taking him down together." I extended my hand out to him "What do you say. Let's get this bastard." He took my hand and shook it "Deal." I smiled seeing he chose the right choice. "Now that we've got that out the way we can-" The sounds of screaming interrupted our little chat. I took a defensive stance along with Markus trying to figure out where the sound was coming from. Next came gunshots silencing the screams of the innocents. "Down stairs! Let's move!" I nodded as we sprinted out of the room, we ran down the hallway until we reached the stairs. When we finally got to downstairs office we came face to face with an Indian woman with a long blue dress and a glowing gauntlet.
"Symmetra!" Markus snarled at her. She flipped her hair. "How cold. That's not what you used to call me." She said, her heavy accent on complemented each word she said. The anger radiating off him was intense. I watched his eyes trail to the corpses on the floor, the multiple gunshots and burn marking that ran across each body only infuriated him more. "You monster!" He yelled at her. "Monsters you mean" an unknown female voice said. A woman seemingly out of nowhere appeared right next to Symmetra. She had a more Hispanic look to her. "You must be that Sombra person I've heard so much about." Markus spat. She nodded "Glad you've heard of me but back to the real point we were here. Thanks to you showing up we can finally get what we need." Markus clenched his fist tightly "And that is?" He asked. "The data core" Symmetra stated Markus' went pale the moment the question left her mouth. "How….how do you know about that…" His tone had gone a bit more quiet now. Symmetra snapped her fingers and within seconds my arms were wrapped behind my back. I struggled to get out of whatever was grabbing me's grip. I slightly turned my head to see a robot holding me. It perfectly matched the description of the machines Shiro called a guard. Markus grunted as he struggled to escape its grip. Symmetra strutted over to Markus lifting his head up with her finger. "Now make this easy for all of us…the offer still stands. Join Talon, the order of the world can be put back with them. You have the power to do it, make the right choice. We'll even let you friend go" She said as she pointed to me. I struggled to escape, hoping I could help Markus before she could trick him. Markus threw his head to the side to get away from her grip. "I'd rather die than allow another one of my creations to fall into your hands once again." She stayed silent for a second. "Well then, we'll search this entire building for it. You should have made it a lot easier." She looked to Sombra who nodded. She strutted over and placed the SMG to Markus' face "Nos vemos más tarde" I leaned forward with as much force as I could, flinging the guard at Sombra who quickly moved out the way. She sprayed rounds at Markus wanting to finish him off quickly. I jumped in front of him putting up the shields to stop the bullets, the force they provided slowly filled up the pressure of the shockwave meter. I turned to Markus "Markus! Hang on!" He nodded as he steeled himself. I place my hands on the floor and roared "Shockwave!" The force slammed into the floor immediately cracking every inch of it. Seconds later the floor gave way and collapsed, and we came with it.
We slammed through multiple floors before finally coming to a halt. I pushed the rubble and stone away from my body as I frantically searched for Markus. His hand pierced through the rubble giving me confirmation that he was indeed alive. I grabbed his arm and pulled him out. He coughed up a few rocks before stretching. "Next time you're going to use one of your superpowers tell me and don't just say 'hang on' " I nodded. "Don't worry this is a serious déjà vu moment for me" I heard the low talking inside the rocks signaling we weren't the only survivors. "Down this hallway, come on!" I turned to see Markus had already started down the hallway. I followed him before we were a safe distance away. "Now for the big question, what the hell is a data core?" He stayed silent staring up into the roof. I placed my hand on his shoulder "If Talon agents are after this thing it must be important. I need to know..what is this thing?" I emphasized the last part of my sentence. He sighed "The data core has a the blueprints of my work and Arnold's. It has everything we've ever worked on. We hid it away from the world so that nobody could take these blueprints with evil intent. If anyone was able to get these they could raise up the world's most powerful mechanized army." The thought of Talon knowing about so powerful terrified me, but we had a job to do. "Alright so we just have to get that data core and bring it back to Overwatch." He shuddered a bit. "Or we could just leave it here." I looked at him in surprise. The fact that he would say something so stupid was different that it left me speechless. "Well… what if they never find it?" Its very well hidden and the chance that they find it is pretty low." I looked at him in anger. "You are not seriously doing this right now! You said it yourself, a terrorist organization with the most powerful army in history is a threat to the world!" He swung his body around to face me. "We can't assume they will find it. If they don't the world will be fine." I was losing my patience with him, I could understand he didn't trust anyone but we didn't have time for this. "They will find it! They will search this entire place until they get this, they won't waste a chance to get this much power!" He kept trying to make more excuses which quickly pushed me to the breaking point. "Trust me this thing is well hidden, let's just-" I immediately interrupted him, I just couldn't take it anymore "WE CANT REVIEVE THESE PEOPLE MARKUS!" He went silent, the realization of what would happen if he stayed by this ideology must have hit him hard. He nodded finally letting me breathe easy….until I saw a glint of purple behind him…