Happy New Year! I'm sorry this took so long to get out. I was travelling for the holidays, and didn't really get a lot of down time for writing. But the extra time gave me a chance to plan out what happens in this chapter better. I'm pretty happy with the results. Let me know what you think in comments.
Talon headquarters is more boring than Sombra expected. With a name like Talon, she expected a volcano lair with red and black themed furniture. She didn't expect an office building in Istanbul.
Doomfist reclined like a lion in the Serengeti, patiently watching the rest of the leaders of Talon at the end of the table. His plain clothes didn't hide his physique very well, but Sombra suspected that was the point. His clothes didn't even attempt to hide his gauntlet. Instead, the sleeve had been removed, via tailoring, to reveal his mechanical right arm, leaving the gauntlet resting on the table. The fingers, of which, tapped with a vague impatience.
Palpable tension restricted each senior member of Talon to their chairs. Sombra wasn't explicitly told of each identity, but that didn't prevent her from doing her own research. There weren't many pictures to accompany her research, but she felt confident in her ability to match names to faces, especially while she remained invisible in the corner.
Antonio Bartalotti was killed by Blackwatch eight years ago, but his son, Luca, had taken his place at the table. The well-built tall man around 30 years old sat motionless and cold. His long black hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing biotic implants on the sides of his head. Wonder what else he can see?, Sombra thought quietly to herself.
Sanjay Korpal sat across from him; his back faced the floor-to-ceiling windows made of bullet-proof hard light. He looked younger than Sombra had expected, based on his exploits. Rebuilding the entire city of Rio De Janeiro is no small feat. He was trying too hard to look at ease as he tapped rapidly on his multiple electronic devices, hovering above the table.
Marco Vialli had sent a hit squad after Doomfist and Widowmaker months ago. Marco didn't survive, apparently. Details of his death had remained obscure. But his wife, Aurora, had stepped into his role, and she made sure everyone knew it. Aurora held herself well in her modern suit, with dark greys and accents of red. She sat adjacent to Sanjay, but with a chair between them.
Moira sat by Doomfist, and was apparently the only one willing to do so. Each other member was at least three seats down from him. Sombra couldn't figure if that was out of fear or disrespect. Maybe both. Clearly not everyone was excited to see Doomfist out of prison.
Except for, of course, Maximilien, who sat at the opposite end of the table. Despite his seating choice, Maximilien, the trillionaire Omnic, was one of Doomfist's only allies.
The Omnic sat motionless, as only robots can, in a black suit with a blood-red tie. Unfortunately, despite Sombra's tireless researching efforts, any information about the mysterious Omnic was limited to his wardrobe. And most of that she had just learned from this meeting. Sombra wasn't sure how a trillionaire somehow managed to be completely unknown to most of the world, but she was impressed. Disappearing acts that good are hard to find.
Luca broke the silence. "Do we really have to keep waiting for her? Some of us have things to do," Luca protested in his Italian accent, as his head turned to Maximilien.
"We all have things to do," countered Moira in a droll that made his frustration seem childish.
"Akande called this meeting for everyone," Maximilien lifted his hand towards Doomfist.
Aurora muttered loud enough for everyone to hear, "And why does he get to call meetings?"
"Because I gave him permission to do so," Maximilien lightly chided, almost prepared for the remark. "And besides," he continued, "he has a proposal for us. And I think we should hear him out."
Doomfist hadn't shown any signs of acknowledgment thus far. But at this, he smirked ever so gently. Sombra didn't think anyone else besides possibly Maximilien had noticed.
"And I think Isoken would like to be here for it," Maximilien concluded. The soft bell ring of the elevator punctuated Maximilien's statement. "And there she is," he added.
A lean looking Numbani woman entered the room with grace and presence. And Sombra's blood ran cold.
Isoken was that same woman who had spoken with Sombra in the Numbani casino. Sombra had assumed she was just a bold finance worker, when they had encountered each other. But apparently, she was also a head of Talon.
From whom Sombra had blatantly stolen.
Isoken strode over to her seat next to Maximilien. She took his outstretched hand as if he were helpling her into her seat. She sat down and looked at each member at the table, making eye contact with each of them. Except Doomfist.
Maximilien either ignored the slight, or didn't care. He simply looked at Doomfist, knowingly. Doomfist understood his cue, rose from his chair, and began to pace around the room.
"For too long, we've cowered in the shadows," Doomfist began in his rich Numbani accent, "Why? So we can play our little power games with the governments of the world? So we can get fat and happy while the world wastes away?"
The room began to shift uncomfortably. Several glances were shot at Maximilien, as if to ask, are you going to continue to allow this?
Sanjay spoke up, jovially, "I'd hardly call what we do 'cowering'". Doomfist broke his pacing and looked at Sanjay, "Cowards rarely recognize they're cowards," Doomfist retorted. Sanjay swallowed quietly and turned back to his screens.
Luca was next to challenge Doomfist, "Why risk our necks unnecessarily? Lest we end up in prison," Doomfist's head jerked up at him.
Doomfist's scowl turned into light chuckling, "Prison has taught me a lot," He leaned over the table from behind where Sanjay sat. He used his gauntlet to point an accusing finger at Luca, adding, "Prison might do you a lot of good."
Luca didn't back down at the threat. His eyes locked with Doomfist's. Luckily, Maximilien spoke up, "Please continue, Akande."
Doomfist held his stare on Luca, but rose from the table and continued his pacing. "We do ourselves and the world a disservice by manipulating currencies and buying politicians, just to line our pockets. There is too much power in this room to do anything other than change the world."
Doomfist looked around the room, gauging them, and realized he wasn't making any progress. Even Sombra could see it. Doomfist paused again, as if recalculating his options.
"When I was defeated in Numbani, I faced waves upon waves of their worthless OR15 units. They crumbled beneath my fist without any trouble. But just a day ago, when I had returned, I found one that was...different," Doomfist paused to chuckle as he thought back to the casino. "This modified OR15 actually gave us some trouble-"
"Trouble doing what?" Isoken finally spoke up, ire plain in her voice. The room turned to her. "What were you doing in that Casino, Doomfist?" Isoken asked, feigning innocence.
Doomfist lifted his hands as if the answer was obvious. "Well, I was robbing you, of course." The room didn't seem surprised by the answer, so much as they were surprised by the matter-of-fact way he had stated it. No more subtly, Sombra supposed.
Isoken looked wounded by the words, even though she had obviously known the answer. She seemed even further betrayed, as if she was hoping for a more clear explanation or justification. But there was none.
"If you truly owned that money, it would still be yours," Doomfist clarified as if this answer was explanation enough.
"That OR15," Doomfist continued, as if the side conversation hadn't even happened, "had been modified by a little girl," he said the last words almost accusatory, but not towards the little girl, but the room at large. "She is a genius. In only a few months, she took a worthless pile of trash and made it into something resembling a formidable opponent." Doomfist paused to let the words sink in. Then, silently to himself he says, "Only through conflict do we evolve," as if "And that was just one little girl responding to my one attack. Imagine what the rest of the world could create," he added.
"And what's your point?" Luca chimed back in, defiance plain in his tone. "What would you have us do?"
Doomfist rose a bit, straightening his back to the challenging words. "I propose we come out of the shadows, lay claim to our deeds, and face any challengers that come for their pound of flesh."
Everyone expressed various forms of disapproval, but Aurora's reaction took hold of the room, "Bastardo!" she denounced as she exploded out of her chair. "You have been laying waste to everything we've built since you left prison. You've stolen wealth from our own," she gestured at Isoken, "you've stolen secret, illegal tech from Vishkar," she said gesturing at Sanjay, " and you've stolen the God program, of all things," Aurora threw up her hands in exhaustion.
"I will not stand for this Maximilien," she address at the Omnic. "My husband died to this beast, and you force me to sit through this!"
The room went dead silent.
So, she did know, Sombra thought to herself. Sombra slowly started putting pieces together. This woman was already extremely dangerous if she was in this room, at this meeting. Doomfist, presumably, knew everyone coming to this meeting. There's no way her presence was a surprise. He planned this knowing at least one member had a personal vendetta against him. At least that explains all the extra support he's brought.
Most of the room was silently shocked at the statement. Maximilien's reaction was different, though. He looked away slightly. Guilt? Had he known too?
"He tried to have me killed," Doomfist explained. "I was only returning the favor."
"As am I," replied Aurora, and in that same breath, she threw a small disc at Doomfist. The sudden attack, however potentially dangerous, was not the cue Sombra was waiting for. So, in agony, she remained invisible and unreactive to events.
This was not the case for Doomfist. He raised his gauntlet reflexively, providing a place for the disc to land, on the knuckles. With a metallic clink, like a magnet, the disc attached itself to the gauntlet, and by proxy, Doomfist. It released blue bolts of electricity into Doomfist. Sparks rained from the gauntlet as the shocks brought him to his knees.
Moira had no qualms about reacting to the attack either. As she abruptly stood from her chair, she raised her left hand at Doomfirst, and her right hand at Aurora. The hand aimed at Doomfist released her biotic healing gas. The hand aimed at Aurora unleashed a purple tendril that latched onto Aurora, sucking the life out of her.
The electricity didn't stop coursing through Doomfist, but he rose from his knees anyway, as the yellow healing gas washed over him. Aurora began to wither and slump from Moira's tendril. From her slump, she grabbed a gun from somewhere hidden. Making a strained effort to fight Moira's attack, she took aim at Moira.
Before the first shot went off, Moira vanished from her seat, literally. At the same time, Doomfist reached his arm back, like loading a gun. Electricity still pulsed from his gauntlet as he threw his punch at the hard-light glass, separating the room from the rest of the city.
The glass shattered, along with whatever device Aurora had initially thrown at him. And as soon as the bullet-proof, hard-light glass had vanished, a single sniper shot rang out. A bullet trail lead from the room to one of the several buildings surrounding the area. It would have been easy to miss the two separate sounds if one wasn't listening closely. But the result of the shot clarified events for everyone. Aurora lay motionless, unnaturally prostrated over the table. Blood pooled around her.
So that's where Widowmaker was hiding, Sombra thought to herself.
This all happened in the span of a couple of seconds. Luca and Marco had had only enough time to take refuge under that same table that Aurora's corpse now laid upon. Still in his chair, Sanjay sat in horror, his eyes fixed upon Aurora's body. Sometime during the fight, a purple, polygon shield had enveloped Sanjay and his entire chair.
Maximilien had no such shield, nor reaction to the blood. Instead, his head had been caught by his hand in a gesture of exhaustion and frustration.
"Akande, what have you done?" he asked, mostly to himself.
Moira appeared in the corner of the room, right next to the unseen Sombra. Was she grouping up for a defense? Or was just just hoping the next shot would hit me?
Doomfist stood relaxed at the window he'd just shattered. The room wasn't especially high above the ground, but the wind still whipped through the room dramatically. Without turning away from the city, Doomfist replied, matter-of-factly, "She attacked me first."
The hand previously holding Maximillien's head suddenly slammed onto the table. The bang from his hand startled everyone again, but Sombra wasn't sure if that was because the sound was so similar to another gunshot, or because they'd never seen Maximillien so angry.
"You baited her into attacking," Maximillien nearly shouted, while still somehow maintaining that unnerving, evenly-spoken cadence to his voice that only Omnics can produce. "Do not use your half-truths on me, Akande," he concluded, as if he was somehow narrowing his eyes at Doomfist.
Doomfist did something truly surprising that Sombra had not expected. He recoiled at the Omnic's words, as if he'd been hurt. Did Doomfist care about what this Omnic thought of him?
Maximillien straighten up, as if preparing for his speech. "I'm disappointed, Akande. I had high hopes for your initiative, but you've chosen a path of aggression that is inherently unsustainable." His words seemed even more formal, as if he were reading out a verdict.
Seemingly in response to the Omnic's words, armed guards appeared from thin air, decloaking from their hiding spots around the conference room. Apparently Doomfist wasn't the only person keeping invisible backup nearby.
Isoken and Luca didn't show any reaction to the guards. Either they had been clued-in, or they have a pretty good poker face. Sanjay clearly had neither of those things. He nearly jumped out of his skin, shouting, "Gods! Have they been here this whole time?".
Doomfist lowered himself into a fighting stance, preparing for a fight with a wicked grin on his face. "Just try me," he mused openly.
Try me. There's the signal. Time to make a move.
Sombra effortlessly stepped into sight, waving her arms across her chest, as if throwing curtains open. The gesture of her arms felt like stretching after a long nap. From her extended arms, a wave on energy released in a sphere that encompassed the whole room, hacking every device it touched.
All electronic devices sputtered and sparked, letting their owners know of the failed states. The armed guards, half surprised by another invisible person, and half surprised by most of their gear not working, were ill-prepared for the fight they had just started.
All at once, Doomfist released his punches, Moira spun purple tendrils, Widowmaker fired shots at soon-to-be corpses, and Sombra wrought chaos.
It was hard to tell what exactly happened when all of the fighting stopped. Corpses were splayed carelessly around the room. But one thing was for sure: the leaders of Talon had escaped.
"It looks like they got away," Moira noted disappointedly as she surveyed the damage.
"It makes no difference now," Doomfist explained. "We're moving forward."