The next week went remarkably well. Her aim still wasn't the best, and Zarya still managed to kick her ass every day, but she had not burst into flames, even though her temper flared. And Jack had noticed. She had been informed by Athena that she was being put back onto the mission roster, so she needed to make sure her go bag and gear were ready at all times. It felt pretty good, being in control. Sure she was still awkward around the other agents, and her temper was still on a short fuse, but she no longer had to worry about her powers getting the better of her. Allegra knew that some of the credit should go to Zenyatta and his meditation. She also took a run every day, switching between the two legs and the four. After having figured out how to load music onto the ipod Lucio gave her, she often used it when on her runs and when she meditated or sketched in her notebook.
Allegra was running in her wolf form after dinner, the evening air fresh and cool. She loved these runs the most, they made her feel so free. Spotting a large growth a sweet grass, she stopped. Hesitating, she decided to give in, and dived into it. Rolling around on her back, wiggling, she covered herself in the nice scent. Turning again, she splayed her paws out and have a happy content sigh. She hadn't done anything like this since she was little. She was snapped out of it when she heard something approaching, fast. Before she could decide to hide or to run, a huge red wolf, easily twice the size of her, nearly stumbled right over her. Stopping shorty the two stared at each other for a heartbeat before Allegras hackles raised and her lips curled back into a snarl. The red wolf looked at her in surprise, taking a defensive stance but cocking its head as if it was puzzled. Allegra was ready to fight when the scent practically slammed into her. Sandalwood, gun powder, and cigar smoke. Physically jolting backwards, her eyes went wide. The red wolf gave what only could have been a smirk, recognition setting in. It nodded it's massive head, and Allegra could practically hear the southern twang of a Howdy. Of course, this giant furry beast was McCree, she should have noticed when she saw it missed a forepaw. She gave the closest thing to a groan she could in this form and took off back to base. She heard him follow after her. She turned, snarling and snapping, giving the clear message that he needed to back off. And of course, he didn't listen. He matched his speed to hers, crowding her close to sniff at her. She growled at how forward he was being, but she was surprised that he wasn't making her uncomfortable. Giving a huff, she ignored him the rest of the way. They were within eyesight of the base, and she shifted back before anyone could see her. Flipping her hair over her shoulder she didn't look back, heading for the hangar doors.
"Red!" Jesse called, and she tried to convince herself not to look back. She did anyway, and felt her heart skip a beat. His hair was a little mussed, hat missing and he still had some prominent fang from his recent shift. He was checking to make sure his prosthetic was attached securely, not paying attention to her. Which was good because she felt herself flush, and didn't know why. Looking back up at her he smiled, his crooked grin flashing a bit of his fangs and made her choke on her breath.
"You're a wolf!" He said excitedly, oblivious to her confused struggle. She huffed, crossing her arms across her chest.
"Obviously." She snarked, not meeting his eye.
"I just didn't know, is all. It's a hell of'va surprise. I thought you were a fire type."
"I don't advertise it, not a lot of people know my classification and I plan on keeping it that way!" He laughed.
"That's why Angela is your handler too. She has a special way with us canine shifters."
She grabbed his shirt collar, pulling him down to glare at him.
"I swear to whatever god you pray to, Jesse McCree, you tell anyone I can shift and I will shave your beard off in your sleep." His eyes went wide.
"You wouldn't." He asked in a shocked whisper. Letting him go, she smirked, hands resting on her hips.
"Try me Spurs."
"Alright, alright." He said with a smirk of his own.
"You're secrets are safe with me." She held back a smile and left him, looking back over her shoulder at the man. When she made it back to her room, she shut the door quickly, wondering what had possibly gotten into her mind. Because she was quite sure she was just flirting with the cowboy. And heaven help her, she had even thought he was cute.
An Overwatch team had been called in to help evacuate citizens after a group of bandits using dwarven forged weapons tried to take over a town. But as they entered the town, they found out they they had severely underestimated the number of hostiles. Splitting into smaller groups to cover different areas, Allegra found herself with Jesse, helping Angela get the wounded civilians to a safer location where they could be patched up.
"This would be easier if we could use our abilities." Allegra snarled, providing cover for Jesse to carry an elderly woman to safety behind the large outer wall they were set up behind.
"It would be easier if they didn't have such good weapons." Jesse growled back.
"Frickin Dwarf guns." Allegra cursed under her breath. Jesse was right of course. Dwarven made weapons were simply better than normal ones. And guns made by dwarves were more powerful, and tended to do more damage, with better aim and range then a normal one would have. Having deposited the old woman, Jesse and Allegra moved on to find more survivors. They met plenty of hostiles along the way, having to stop and clear out a path.
"Who brings a frickin six shooter to a gunfight? You spend more time reloading than you do actually being helpful" She screamed at him.
"At least I hit everything I aim for." Jesse barked back.
They had to duck around a corner to avoid being seen by another large group of bandits trying to clear out a store.
"How do you even carry enough bullets for that antique?" She scoffed, keeping a lookout. They heard a maniacal laugh, and braced themselves as Jamie blew half of the square apart. It certainly helped pick a few of the bandits off, making it easier for Jesse and Allegra to duck down another alley. Coughing through all of the debris, Allegra looked over at the cowboy.
"I'll tell you what, if we survive this, I'll make you cowboy hat shaped cookies."
"How about if we survive, you teach me how to make them." She gave him an unheated glare and agreed.
"This way." Jesse directed, obviously using this keen sense of smell to help them find more innocent civilians. They found a scared group, no more than four, huddled behind what used to be a laundromat. Jesse quickly ushered them further down the alley, signaling them to keep quiet. They didn't make it far, one of the civilian women clutched at Allegra, begging in a language she didn't understand and gesturing behind them. Allegra spotted the thing that made the woman so desperate. A girl, perhaps about twelve years old was hiding behind an overturned car, trying to get to the group her and Jesse were leading out of there.
All that noise brought over some bandits. Jesse was quick to shoot them most of them down, but then was left having to reload. Allegra froze, her eyes wide on the girl, and all she could see was herself at that age.
"Jesse, cover me." Allegra darted across the street, sliding in beside the young girl.
"God damn it. I'm trying to reload." She heard him hiss. Allegra was able to bring another one of them down, but was caught of guard, slugged hard across the jaw causing her to crumple, her gun skittering across the broken asphalt. Above her, with what had to be the largest shotgun she had ever seen was one of the bandits, and ugly smirk on his face. He noticed the girl, giving a harsh laugh at her crying face. The world seemed to slow down, Allegra watched as the man raised his gun, aiming at the girl instead of her. She had two options; she could roll for her gun and hope she could stop him in time, or she could take a bullet for a complete stranger. Her body seemed to chose for her. A deafening crack filled the air as the shotgun fired, the girl screamed, and Allegra gasped.
"Fuck." Allegra groaned, holding her stomach. Pain radiated like a hot knife in her abdomen, but she wasn't bleeding, her body armour keeping the damage nonfatal. The man raised his gun again, this time aiming for her head. She could feel her eyes turn black as she glared at him, but didn't let her control slip beyond that. The man never got the chance to fire though. Hands, one gloved, one metal, grabbed either side of his head from behind. With a sickening crack, the bandit's head was twisted, and he fell. Jesse was quick to get to her, falling to one knee to check on her, worry etched all over his face.
"What was that about?" She asked, trying to sit up, but the movement made her tense in pain.
"I could be asking you the same thing." He snapped, then looked away with a huff.
"I ran out of ammo." Allegra gave a laugh, but instantly stopped with a groan. Jesse tried to check her over, but she waved him away.
"Get her to her mom." He nodded, carefully picking up the crying girl and jogging across the street to the woman who was also in tears. Jesse called for Angela on his com, reporting that Allegra was down, and they needed help extracting a small group of civilians. Allegra leaned over, reaching out as far as she could to grab her gun. It hurt to stretch her arm out, but then again she was just shot point blank in the stomach with a shotgun on steroids. Instead of sitting back up, she just laid there, one arm holding herself around the middle as if it could stop the pain, the other holding her weapon, ready to shoot at anything that even thought of coming close to her.
"Fuckin six shooter." She sighed.
"Hey now." Jesse crouched down next to her.
"Don't be hatin' on my gun." She rolled her eyes.
"You gunna be okay Darlin?" He asked, still clearly worried.
"I'll survive. Did everyone get out okay?" She asked, Jesse helping her to sit upright again. She wasn't sure if she could stand up, so she decided not to risk it.
"Mei and Roadhog took over for me, they'll get everyone out okay. And Angela is headed this way."
"That leaves Junkrat rounding up the rest of the bad guys, who was stupid enough to leave him in charge." She coughed, pain seizing her and she gritted her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut.
"Calm down, Angela will be here to fix you up soon enough." She swatted at him.
"I'm fine. Probably nothing worse then a couple of broken ribs. I'll heal fast enough."
"Good, cause I do believe that you owe be a cookin' lesson." Allegra gave him a sour look.
"Mission isn't over yet, maybe I'll get lucky and Junkrat will blow us all up."
"You're gunna hurt my feelin's if you keep that up." Jesse laughed.
"Yeah, well, I've seen what you called cookies and…"
"If you talking, that means you are still alive." Angela hurried into view, her heels clicking against the busted road.
"That's a good sign. We have to make this quick." Angela warned them, dropping her heavy medical bag beside Allegra. The doctor gave her a quick check, and deciding she was stable enough to move, ordered them to head back to transport.
"Up we go." Jesse helped Allegra up, one arm around his shoulders. She tightened her grip, probably bruising him when the pull caused pain to flare up again. She protested, ensuring them that she would walk on her own, but they ignored her. Together they made their way through the almost empty town, a few random explosions the only other sign of life. They were lucky not to run into any hostiles.
"Here we go." Jesse helped her aboard the carrier, making sure she was sitting down before he went to help the rest of the team. Fifteen minutes later, everyone came filing back onto the carrier, arms full of dwarven guns, storing them in the back room. Mako went to the cabin to get them started on the way back to base, and Angela cornered Allegra, ready to see how bad her injuries were. After they were in the air and stable, Angela had Allegra set on the table and started her examination.
"You're very lucky you were wearing your body armour." Angela scolded her.
"I've had worse." Allegra huffed. Angela tapped the top of her head with a pen.
"A point blank shot like that to your abdomen would have resulted in …"
"I know what could have happen." Allegra interrupted.
"But I am capable of handling it, that girl wouldn't have." Allegra pouted, not looking the doctor in the eyes.
"Taking a bullet for a civilian isn't something I recommend, but at least everyone in Overwatch has done it or would do it. I guess you're officially one of us now." Angela smiled at her.
"Congratulations. Now, I need to get this armour off of you."
"The back." Allegra instructed, trying very hard to sit still. The back of her body armour laced up tightly, almost like a corset. It wasn't the most functional, but considering some of the other uniforms agents wore, functionality wasn't always most important. Angela took one look at it and clicked her tongue.
"Oh lord, I will need help with this." She looked over at Mei, who seemed to be having a hard enough time keeping Jamie away from the confiscated weapons.
"I… I can try..." Angela pursed her lips, unsure what to do.
"It's not like I'm not wearing something underneath it." Allegra felt her embarrassment grow. Angela gave her an apologetic smile.
"Jesse can you come here please." Allegra groaned under her breath, and tried staring a hole through the ceiling.
"What do ya need?" Jesse asked helpfully.
"Can you help remove Allegra's body armour. It laces in the back."
"Damn Angie, at least let me buy the girl dinner first." Jesse laughed, trying to make the situation a little lighter. It didn't help, Allegra blushed darkly, and Angela scolded him. Hands held up in submission, he started to try and undo the laces. A stab of pain laced through her and she inhaled sharply through gritted teeth.
"Stop!" Angela nearly shouted, although the order wasn't needed, Jesse stopping as soon as he heard the hiss of pain.
"Shit." Jesse mumbled under his breath.
"I can try again." He started.
"Just cut the damn laces." Allegra growled.
"Alright, but remember this later that ya' asked for this." Angela handed Jesse one of her scalpels, and he sliced through the laces in one clean swipe. A great pressure was released and Allegra could breath a little easier.
"Thank you Jesse, you can go now." Angela helped work the armour down Allegra's arms and set it on the table out of the way.
"Does that help?" The doctor asked.
"Yeah, actually." The pain was still there, but it wasn't a constant pressure.
"Lift your shirt, so I can see what I'm working with." Carefully, gritting her teeth, Allegra lifted her shirt to just under her breast. Angela immediately frowned, her brows pulled low. Her skin was already purpling, bruising in ugly blacks and blues, but there was no swelling. Angela poked and prodded, gauging her reactions and diagnosing her.
"You have five fractured ribs, and you have bruises inside and out. But there is no internal bleeding. You also have a nasty bruise on your jaw. With your rate of healing, I believe that you will be completely healed within two to three days. Consider yourself lucky."
"I chose between two maybes. Maybe I would get to my gun in time, and maybe I could save that poor girl's life. So, yeah. I consider myself lucky." Allegra let her shirt drop. Angela gave her a serene smile.
"You have come so far." Allegra scoffed, rolling her eyes and refusing to look at the blonde. But her acceptance and words of praise made Allegras heart grow a little lighter.