Sorry for the longer wait on this chapter! I've been playing a lot of the game since Sombra was released, haha. This chapter is significantly longer than previous chapters though so I guess that kinda makes up for it?
Thank you again for all your kind words regarding the story and your continued support!
Enjoy~
...
It was a nice day out so Alex had finally decided to venture into the city today despite her distaste for crowded areas. Lena had been training with her for the past few days which Alex had really enjoyed. She felt like she was getting a part of her old self back during the training. It was something she had, for the most part, enjoyed doing with Daishin and getting the chance to do something like that again now felt good. Lena's bubbly personality was also infectious and for the most part Alex had been surprisingly happy these past few days. While she still had that sinking feeling in her stomach when she thought of everything that had happened and everything she had yet to decide, she was on a winning streak at the moment and she thought now was as good a time as any to test out these good vibes and finally head in to explore Kings Row.
Lena had offered to show her around the city, being a local, but Alex had been kind of interested in checking out the Sunday markets to see what kind tech and parts were being sold for Omnics and people with mechanical body parts. Seeing as that was a part of herself she liked to keep secret, she figured she'd sneak in by herself today while Lena and Zenyatta were away.
Alex had caught the bus into the city, deciding it would be cheaper than calling a taxi like the night she'd arrived, and managed to locate the markets without too much trouble. Her bus had taken her only a few blocks away so it wasn't too difficult to navigate.
The markets were located in a big and square centre of part of the city, surrounded by taller buildings containing cafes and retail outlets. Alex supposed that when the market stalls were not set up here, the large area would look more like a park, with its grass covered ground and various water features and benches scattered throughout.
Alex wasn't surprised at the amount of people, both human and omnic alike, that were scurrying around the markets, looking for the best deal. She had figured it would be busy before she came, but she really did want to look around so she decided she'd persevere. The crowd kind of acted like a disguise Alex figured as well. She liked to keep her mechanical eye a secret to the public and she hated being singled out regarding the matter, but she figured with so many people at the event, no one would pay her any particular notice unless she was buying something, and even then they'd soon forget her face once the transaction was complete.
Alex had entered the square area at the corner, so she figured strategically she'd just zig-zag her way up and down the aisles until she reached the other corner or until she got bored. She had to keep an eye on the clock too. She wanted to make sure she got back to the safe house before the other two to avoid having to tell them she'd come in to the city and then by extension why. Alex was no stranger to lying but she liked Zenyatta and Lena and she didn't want to have to tell them any unnecessary lies.
'You don't have to lie if the question isn't asked.' Alex figured.
Alex walked past several stores selling varying items from food, to clothing, to technology, and even some selling weapons. Curiosity lead Alex to one of the weapons stalls. While she'd never had a particular interest in firearms, which Daishin had felt very strongly against, she couldn't deny that she was intrigued by hand-held weapons such as swords and daggers. Unfortunately for her, this particular stall specialised in firearms so they didn't really have anything that interested her, not that she'd be able to get anything anyway without a firearms licence.
A middle aged man with a thick moustache was inspecting a vintage looking hand held gun while talking to the older vendor, and noticed Alex casually looking at the stall. He surveyed her carefully and licked his moustached lip. Alex was just about to move on, not even having noticed the man at all, when he spoke up.
"Weapons like these should never be in the hands of a delicate young lady like yourself." The man said smoothly.
Alex looked up; at first not realising that he was speaking to her. She glanced around her briefly not noticing anyone else close enough to them, and when the man winked at her directly, she realised he had indeed been addressing her.
Alex scoffed inwardly and put on her fakest smile before replying sweetly:
"Well it's a good thing I find weapons like this repulsive then, just like their owners."
The man gaped at Alex, taken aback by her blunt response. Alex smiled wider at the stupid gaping man and took that as her cue to leave. When he regained his senses and stoped gaping like an idiot he'd probably be pretty mad, and while Alex was certain she could take the moustached fool in a fight, she really didn't want to draw attention to herself here so she high-tailed it out of there and through the crowd before the man could collect himself.
Alex sighed as she pushed her way through the bustling crowd. That seedy old jackass had dampened her mood, so much for her winning streak. Daishin had always tried to enforce manners and politeness into Alex, the whole 'respect your elders' spiel. Alex had learned pretty early on in life though that there were some pretty rotten people out there, and not everyone deserved her respect or time. Come to think of it, Alex always did seem to have trouble with adults and authoritative figures. She could be pretty standoffish herself, but that guy had been a creep, and definitely not deserved her time or patience.
Alex walked up and down a few more rows of stalls before finally finding the area she'd been looking for. There were a lot more omnics and people with prosthetics in this area, which indicated to Alex she'd found the right place. There were at least 15 stalls selling various parts and accessories. Alex practically forgotten about her bad mood and instead gushed over all the cool stalls in front of her. Even though Alex wasn't really intending on buying much or anything at all today, she really did like window shopping for this kind of stuff and maybe even seeing test demos of certain gear. Besides, anything she did see could always be used as inspiration in the future when she was doing her own tinkering.
Alex started browsing the various stores, finding they mostly catered to limbs. Alex figured they were probably the most popular and in the highest demand. Around her she could see people testing out new arms and legs, some natural looking to match people's skin tones and some going for the obvious robotic look. Alex wondered what she would do if it were something bigger like an arm or leg that she had lost. If the world was a more forgiving place Alex liked to think that she wouldn't be bothered by the more obvious metal robotic look. Some people like to paint over them with really cool and intricate designs that Alex found really pretty. Sadly though Alex knew exactly how unforgiving the world could be. If you were different from the norm you were an outcast. Some places were better, but you never really knew. If the world had been a more forgiving place, Alex figured she wouldn't have needed her mechanical eye in the first place.
After browsing the stalls in the area for a couple of hours and watching some entertaining demonstrations, Alex decided she'd had enough of the crowd for one day, and figured she'd start heading back to the safe house to be sure to beat Lena and Zenyatta home.
Alex had thankfully not spent much money. She didn't really need anything new after getting some new parts only recently, but found a stall selling packages of spare parts for various situations, depending on what you needed. Because it was approaching the end of the day she was able to get a nice little bundle for quite cheap. She sometimes tinkered with her eye herself after Daishin had taught her how he made it, so she figured at least now she had some spare parts when she decided to upgrade next.
Alex placed her spoils for the day into her smaller sling bag that she'd also brought with her to Kings Row, and began her walk back to the bus stop. It was early evening now and the sky was beginning to turn that soft shade of orange that it does when the sun is approaching the horizon. Alex smiled as she walked. This was her favourite time of the day, and even the city with its tall, monotone buildings managed to look pretty in this soft lighting.
Alex was about a block away from her bus stop when she passed a small alley leading off the main street she was currently on. As she walked past she noticed a group of people about half way down the alleyway in the corner of her eye, but didn't pay them much attention until she heard a pained cry, followed by several obnoxious laughs. Alex paused as she reached the other side, out of sight of the alley itself. She didn't like the way those laughs sounded, threatening, not to mention the fact that someone had obviously cried out. She looked around the street. There were a few people walking around and past her, most were in a hurry and none were paying attention to the group in the alley. Maybe Alex had misheard and it was just a group of friends mucking around? She took a few steps back to actually look down at the group, just to be sure.
Upon first inspection it just looked like a group of friends, but Alex noticed they were crowding around something. The way they were laughing still felt off to Alex, and despite part of her screaming at her to just mind her own business, she found herself walking towards the small group.
There were three men and one woman, all around their early twenties Alex thought from looks alone. The woman had bright pink hair and one of the men had bright green, both so strikingly fake that you couldn't help but notice those features first. There was a smaller man with a mohawk, and a burlier guy whose back was turned to Alex, making it hard to distinguish much about him. None of them had noticed Alex approaching yet and she was still a good 10 metres away from them when she suddenly stopped in her tracks, finally noticing what they were crowding around. A small omnic, about Alex's size, was lying on the ground, whimpering and crying out as the small guy with the mohawk kicked them in the stomach. The man's friends laughed louder as the omnic cried out, egging him on.
"Stupid piece of scrap metal!" The mohawk man called out.
"Yeah, why don't you crawl back to the scrap yard you were made from!" The woman with the pink hair added after.
Alex was frozen in place. The group still hadn't noticed her but Alex suddenly felt panic rise up inside her at the all too familiar scene playing out in front of her.
Alex had finished school for the day finally and was on her way to her mentor's house for the afternoon before heading back to the orphanage. She hated the orphanage. The caretakers were awful and always yelled at her, sometimes even striking her. They'd no doubt be angry that she hadn't gone straight back there from school, but Alex decided whatever punishment they inflicted on her was worth it for not having to spend as much time there. Besides, she'd grown to really enjoy Daishin's company and she always looked forward to seeing him in the afternoons.
Alex had been helping him out in his store for a couple of years now and since then he'd also been teaching her how to fight. Alex was hot headed and impatient, which meant she lost a lot of their fights, but she enjoyed learning it nonetheless. It made her feel strong and helped her to control her anger, as Daishin had so inelegantly put it.
She was about a block away from his house when she walked past an alley way and heard a bunch of kids down the end, yelling and laughing loudly. Alex didn't think much of the small group at first until she heard a small yelp followed by a cry for help. Alex looked down into the alley and noticed three kids, two about her age and a third that was maybe a few years older, crowded around and kicking a young omnic. The omnic was crying out for help, which only fuelled the cruel bullies and made them kick harder.
"Stupid robot!" Yelled the burlier of the younger two.
"We don't want your kind here!" Added the older of the three, who was clearly the leader of the group.
Alex had seen discrimination aimed at omnics before. Sometimes people would pass Daishin and make snide remarks or simply look at him weirdly when they walked on the street, but Alex had never been confronted with this level of violence towards omnics before. She had however, dealt with bullies before, and this was no different. Being the hot-headed child that she was, Alex barged in head on to confront these three jackasses.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" She yelled out angrily, approaching the group hastily in an attempt to seem intimidating seeing as size wasn't really on her side.
The three bullies paused in their harassment of the young omnic and looked up to the angry girl approaching them, amused looks on their faces when they saw how small she was and that she was alone. Alex ignored their vulgar faces and made eye contact with the scared omnic child. They looked slightly hopeful that someone had come to their aid, but also scared for Alex, no doubt thinking that Alex stood no chance at fending off the three larger bullies.
The oldest of the three stepped away from the others and addressed Alex directly, who was now only a few steps away.
"Why don't you run along little girl. This is none of your business." He said in a patronising manner that angered Alex even further.
Alex's nostrils flared and she clenched her fists tightly at her sides to prevent herself from straight out decking the teenager in front of her.
Letting her anger fuel her, Alex retorted in a snarky tone: "I asked you a question, jackass!"
The teen frowned angrily at this, and his two lackeys seemed to be interested in the scene and stepped up on each side of him to back him up. The teen took a step closer to Alex, probably in an attempt to intimidate the smaller girl, but Alex stood her ground and puffed out her chest in an attempt to make herself look bigger.
"What did you call me, little girl?" He asked irritated.
Alex smirked wickedly at the teen, before replying cockily: "What? Are you deaf as well as stupid?"
Oh how Daishin would have been proud of her for thinking before she spoke. Well, it seemed too late for that now. That was enough for the teen to suddenly lunge for Alex in an attempt to knock her back, but Alex was quick. All of her training with Daishin so far had improved her coordination quite a bit and she managed to jump out of the way, causing the teen to stumble forward with the momentum of his lunge and fall onto his face.
Alex laughed out loud at the scene before her, angering the older teen more.
"Don't just stand there! Get her!" He yelled to the two younger bullies.
This seemed to spark them into motion and they both turned to Alex and made very uncoordinated attempts to rush her. She managed to dodge the first one, causing him to fall over like their leader. The second boy almost grabbed her as she turned back around, but she managed to duck in time and kick out at his ankles, causing him to topple over onto his smaller friend, both crying out in pain. Alex was fuelled by adrenaline at this point and was laughing hysterically at the comedy sketch happening in front of her. The two younger boys made more half-hearted attempts to attack her but she was quick and managed to dodge them all. In a moment of arrogance however, Alex was too caught up laughing at the two younger idiots that she missed the fact that their leader had gotten up and approached her from behind. He kicked at the back of her knees, sending her falling forward.
She attempted to collect herself, but the burlier of the two younger boys grabbed her from behind and pulled her to her feet, the leader approaching her and smirking from her front while the second lackey helped to restrain her from behind. Because of Alex's small frame she usually relied on her speed to dodge incoming attacks, but now that her assailants had caught her she was having a hard time shaking their grip.
This time it was the teen leader who laughed out loud.
"Not so cocky now, are we princess?" He said snidely as he approached her, bending his head down to her eye level way too close for Alex's comfort.
She spat in his face defiantly, causing him to flinch backwards and his smile to drop. He wiped at his face disgustedly causing Alex to smirk. Seeing her acting so arrogantly still must have been the line, because the older teen suddenly punched Alex hard across the face, sending her to the floor and causing her head to spin slightly at the impact. The two lackeys let her drop unceremoniously and when she hit the ground the older teen kicked her in the stomach, making her cough and lose her breath. The teen took a few steps back, wiping at his face again and admiring his handy work.
Alex's head was still reeling from the punch to her face and she felt drained of air, but adrenaline was still coursing through her body, and if anything the blows made her angrier than before. Now it was personal. Mustering whatever strength she had left, Alex swivelled her body and managed to kick out the feet from underneath the burly boy, sending him falling backwards onto his ass. She jumped up and punched the smaller boy in the face, sending him falling back as well. The teen made a move for her again, more irritated than before, but she managed to dodge him now that she wasn't being held down. She jumped to the left and kicked him in his right knee, causing him to cry out audibly. As he cradled his wounded leg, Alex sprang while she had the upper hand and punched him in the face as hard as she could, sending him stumbling backwards, almost falling over.
"YOU LITTLE BITCH!" He yelled angrily as he covered his left eye in pain.
Alex prepared herself for his next attack when he suddenly reached into his jeans pocket and whipped out a switchblade. This shocked Alex out of her previous arrogance. She'd been in fist fights before but she'd never been confronted by someone with a weapon. Considering the look on this guy's face Alex could tell he was serious about using it. Alex's heart rate began to rise, this time in fear, when suddenly his lackeys grabbed hold of her from behind again, pinning her in place.
"How about we teach this little bitch a lesson boys?" The teen said as he approached her, swinging the knife in his hand.
The younger boys cheered him on, laughing along with him as he approached. Alex couldn't move, held in place not only by the two boys, but also in fear, the full extent of her current predicament finally sinking in. The teen dragged the knife slowly down the right side of her face, not hard enough to pierce the skin, but enough to instil the desired fear in the girl. He smiled wickedly as Alex gulped audibly, frozen in place and eyes wide in fear.
"What do you say boys? Seeing as the little bitch loves robot freaks so much why don't we help make her one of them yeah?" He taunted.
Alex wasn't really sure what he was saying, her mind phasing in and out, not quite hearing clearly at the moment as the three bullies laughed menacingly around her.
The young omnic who they'd had cornered suddenly spoke up, their high pitched voice begging for them to leave the girl alone.
The teen angrily kicked the omnic hard again in the stomach.
"Shut up freak!" He yelled menacingly.
The young omnic cried out, the scared sound suddenly breaking Alex out of her trance as she remembered why she was here in the first place. She was meant to be helping, not making it worse for the young omnic.
"Hey! Leave them alone jackass!" She yelled angrily, spitting in the teens face again and thrashing violently against her captors.
Alex managed to free her right arm and punch the smaller boy in the face, knocking him away. She turned back to face the burlier boy to deal with him as well, when suddenly the older teen grabbed her roughly by the shoulder. The next few moments happened in a blur and Alex was suddenly confronted with a searing pain coming from her right eye followed by the loss of her vision. Time seemed to slow down and as well as the loss of vision in her right eye, Alex had a hard time making out any sounds happening around her. She wasn't quite sure what had happened. The bullies had let her drop to the ground and she lay there as they seemed to be yelling at each other frantically around her. The high pitched ringing in her ears and throbbing pain in her eye made it hard to make out clearly what they were saying though.
"FUCK! Oh fuck!" She thought she heard the teen yell.
"We have to get out of here Trent!" Yelled another muffled voice, followed by a third:
"I didn't think you were gonna stab her!"
Alex thought she heard footsteps fading into the distance as she blinked slowly, trying to contain the overwhelming pain radiating from her right eye. Her face felt wet, which confused her. She brought her hand up to her right eye, feeling wetness pool into her hand. She pulled her hand away slowly only to find it covered in a thick deep red substance. Alex was confused and her head was spinning, and thought she could hear someone crying and gagging painfully, maybe the omnic child from before? Her ears were still ringing, but as her shoulders were grabbed and she looked up into the scared eyes of the young omnic in front of her, Alex realised the horrible sounds were coming from her. Suddenly she understood what the red liquid meant, and despite the omnic's best efforts to keep her awake, Alex inevitably drifted into darkness.
The sudden memory stirred by the familiar situation gave rise to an uncomfortable fear within Alex, and she instinctively brought her hand up to cover her right eye. She winced slightly in pain, as if the injury had only happened yesterday. Alex swore she could feel the ghost of a knife entering a non-existent eye sometimes, and it always brought back that pain, that reminder of how rotten the world really was.
The reminders were everywhere. Most of them small and insignificant enough that most people just pushed them aside or ignored them, not wanting to sacrifice whatever false sense of security and happiness they had to indulge such reminders. It disgusted Alex. How rotten and corrupt the world really was. How weak and pathetic people were to ignore such corruptness. She wasn't naïve enough though to think she was any better than everyone else. She too was guilty of the very same acts that disgusted her. Alex was no hero. She wasn't like Lena or Zenyatta or anyone else from Overwatch that were considered heroes. Alex could be selfish as hell and often hated people and didn't want to have to deal with them and kept to herself and didn't get involved in other people's problems. Alex could just walk away right now. Ignore what was happening right in front of her eyes just like everyone else on the street was doing. It wasn't directly affecting her, and her chances of getting home unscathed were significantly higher if she didn't intervene. Sure, the omnic would likely suffer injuries, maybe even death, and the thugs might get away with it, but that wasn't her problem, was it? Did she care?
Alex suddenly burst out laughing in the middle of the alley, startling the group of thugs who finally drew their attention away from the omnic, and to the seemingly crazy young woman with the oddly light silver hair.
"She must have a screw loose!" Exclaimed the pink haired woman as the four thugs observed the young woman laughing to herself in front of them.
The four exchanged curious looks before the leader of the group, the small man with the mohawk, addressed the girl directly.
"Hey! You lost or something?" He asked, slightly creeped out by the girl.
Alex finally regained her senses when she heard a voice calling out. Looking up she realised the thugs were looking at her both expectantly and apprehensively. The scared omnic was also looking at the girl, both curious and hopeful.
Looking down at the omnic and then up at the thugs Alex realised she did care. She wasn't a hero. She never proclaimed to be someone with high standing morals. But there was a line. A line where Alex realised she couldn't simply be an ignorant bystander. She felt stupid for even hesitating in the first place. If anything her eye was a reminder of this. She'd always been the kind of person to stand up to bullies and this was no exception. Alex wasn't really sure if she was doing it to necessarily help the victims, or to punish the bullies for her own twisted kind of vendetta, but either way, Alex was never going to just walk away.
She looked at the guy with the mohawk, seeing as he was closest to her out of the four, and finally spoke up.
"Four against one? That hardly seems fair." Alex said, smiling at the group in front of her, before motioning with her head to the scared omnic on the ground.
The mohawk guy looked down at the omnic and spat, before looking back up at Alex and smiling menacingly.
"What do you care? You some machine lover or some shit?" He asked, prompting his lackeys to start laughing loudly.
"Ooh! Maybe it's her boyfriend!" The pink haired woman added, cackling loudly along with her posse.
Alex grit her teeth through her fake smile as the mohawk man approached her sassily, poking her in the shoulder aggressively.
"Run along little girl, this isn't any of your business and we wouldn't want that pretty face to get hurt now would we?"
Alex smirked at this, before replying under her breath:
"I don't think it's my face you should be worried about."
"What was that, robot slut?" The mohawk guy asked snidely, his hand still pressed uncomfortably into Alex's shoulder.
Before he could react to the movement, Alex whipped her right hand up, grabbing his hand by his pointer and middle fingers and snapping them in a backwards motion, a satisfying crunch resounding from them. The man screeched from the pain, and faster than he could retaliate, Alex brought her left hand swiftly up and punched him hard in the face, sending him falling backwards onto his ass. He was screaming out in pain, clutching his broken fingers, when the burlier man suddenly sprung into action to defend his fallen comrade.
The guy's movements were slow, being that he was a big guy, and Alex was easily able to dodge his powerful but slow attempts at hitting her. She continued dancing around him, dodging his attacks until he tired a little, before she began her counter, first kicking him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him, and then bringing her wrist up to collide with his nose, breaking the bone and sending him falling back, screeching just as loudly as his smaller friend.
The green haired guy and woman were pretty lanky and didn't seem like the fighting type, or so Alex had deducted by the way they had just watched the exchange and made no attempts to step in. Alex thought she'd made enough of an impression on them now for them to at least stay out of the brawl. Unfortunately the burly guy and mohawk guy were super pissed now and apparently still okay to fight. They both stumbled to their feet and began attacking her together.
It wasn't often that Alex fought against more than one opponent at once, but she was much more skilled than these thugs so she didn't have too much trouble dodging their combined attacks and pushing them back. Both men began charging her from the front, and Alex was certain she'd be able to dodge them again when suddenly the woman shrieked behind her, throwing her off for a fraction too long and as she jumped back to avoid the other two men, the green haired man had appeared on her other side, punching her hard across the face and sending her stumbling a bit. His hit had been hard, but like Alex had guessed, he normally didn't fight so it wasn't powerful enough to knock her down. She had underestimated him though, not thinking he'd attack at all. Alex clicked her tongue, annoyed at herself for letting her guard down.
As Alex had stumbled back, it gave the mohawk guy enough time to charge her again, and he kicked her hard in the stomach, this time finally sending her falling backwards onto her ass. Before she could get up again the burly guy was at her side and kicked her in the stomach so hard that Alex swore she heard bones crack. The blow took the wind out of her and she began gagging heavily as she struggled to breathe.
The thugs started laughing, revelling in their short victory as the burly man took a step away from Alex.
The world began to spin around her as she felt robbed of her breath and Alex couldn't help but think back to the other time. She needed to get up. She couldn't let them keep her on the ground like this when she was outnumbered. Blinking and breathing heavily, Alex mustered her strength and kicked her leg out, hitting the burly guy in the back of the knee hard enough to send him falling forward.
Alex was in immense pain, she was pretty sure the burly guy had broken one of her ribs, but nonetheless she pushed herself to her feet, determined to finish this battle.
The mohawk guy regained his senses first, charging her head on as if he'd learnt nothing from his previous attempts. She dodged him again, kicking him in the back of the knees to send him falling forward and jumping on his back. She grabbed his right arm from behind him and twisted it up behind him, holding him in place and applying pressure until she heard the satisfying pop that indicated she'd dislocated his shoulder.
The man let out a high pitched scream and Alex jumped back and away from his body, assuming that he'd be out of commission for now by the way he was wailing on the ground, not trying to get up. The burly guy had gotten to his feet again and started charging towards Alex. She dodged his massive force again, jumping back and stepping on an old pipe on the ground behind her, suddenly giving her an idea. The burly man turned back to her, his nostrils flaring underneath his bloody, broken nose. He again charged Alex, and as he approached, Alex kicked one end of the pipe below her foot, making it flip upwards. Catching the arm-length piece of metal in her right hand, Alex dodged the man's attack, jumping to the left this time, and swung the pipe around, hard, to make contact with the back of his head. The impact created a loud thud noise, before the man ungraciously fell to the ground, unconscious.
Alex swung the pipe around in her hand, smiling cockily even though her ribs hurt like hell. Mustering her most menacing expression, Alex glared at the green haired man and pink haired woman, daring them to make a move. The man looked pissed, like maybe he'd attempt to attack her, but the woman grabbed his shoulder:
"Just leave it Nate." She said, pleading.
The green haired man spat of the ground before he slightly backed away, indicating that he did not intend to fight. The two helped the mohawk guy to get up with his dislocated shoulder, him screaming during the entire process, and backed away further into the alley, eyeing Alex carefully until they rounded the corner and disappeared from sight. They hadn't even bothered trying to take the unconscious burly guy with them. He just lay in the dirty alleyway, face planted in the ground. Alex did not want to be around when he woke up to that headache.
Alex heard murmuring behind her from the street and turned to see that a small audience had formed. A few people were looking down into the alley, no doubt after hearing the screams coming from the mohawk guy.
'What, so now they come?' Alex thought to herself, annoyed.
Some of them looked like they were dialling numbers on their phones, no doubt calling the local authorities. Deciding she didn't want to be around when they arrived, Alex threw the pipe onto the ground, and approached the omnic who was still lying on the ground. She leant forward and held out her hand.
"You okay?" She asked genuinely.
The omnic seemed a little reluctant at first, but after a moment they accepted the offer and took hold of Alex's hand as she pulled them to their feet. They observed her carefully before speaking up for the first time since Alex had entered the alley.
"I should ask you the same thing. That was pretty crazy, what you did." They replied, clearly taken aback by what Alex had done to the thugs, and sporting injuries of her own.
Alex laughed in response, glad that the omnic seemed fine for the most part.
"Yeah, I guess it was. Well, I don't mean to be rude, but I think the cops might be on their way and I'd reeeeally rather not have to deal with them, so if you're okay I'm gonna head off yeah?" Alex said, scratching the back of her head and smiling way too casually for the situation.
The omnic considered the girl in front of them for a moment longer before smiling themselves.
"Thank you." They said genuinely.
Alex smiled back at the omnic before high tailing it out of the alley, running hastily to her bus stop as she heard the sounds of sirens behind her.
Alex had managed to make it back it the safe house in one piece, more or less, and before Zenyatta or Lena too. She headed straight for her own bathroom to inspect her injuries. As she looked at her reflection in the mirror, Alex winced. She had a black eye on her left side from when the green haired guy had punched her.
'Shit!' Alex thought.
If it had just been the stomach injuries Alex could have hid them from Lena and Zenyatta, but face injuries were harder to conceal. The bruise was quite noticeable, and would likely deepen in the next few hours. Maybe there was makeup around here she could use to conceal it?
For now Alex focused on the more pressing issue, the injury she was actually worried about. She slowly took her leather jacket off and peeled up her singlet, wincing in pain at the motion of stretching her torso. Once the singlet was removed, Alex inspected the damage. The left side of her ribcage was a deep shade of purple in two patches from the kicks, the higher of the two significantly larger and deeper. This was the one that worried Alex the most and she feared the rib below might be cracked or worse: broken. She attempted touching the bruises lightly, only to withdraw her hand hastily at the pain.
"Fuck!" Alex exclaimed out loud.
She was sure it would need medical attention but she also didn't want to tell Lena or Zenyatta about the fight either. Maybe she could sneak away to the hospital while they were out tomorrow? She was still a minor though, so she wasn't sure if they'd treat her anonymously without Zenyatta finding out at the very least.
Not sure what else to do for now, Alex slowly took the rest of her clothes off and quickly showered, feeling dirty after the brawl.
When she was done she got dressed, painfully slowly managing to get her bra and singlet back on, and lay back on her bottom bunk, breathing deeply and wishing that the safe house had stronger painkillers.
Alex knew she should get up and find some make-up or something before the other two got home so she could conceal her black eye, but the thought of moving at the moment seemed way too painful so she just lay there, not quite sure how much time had passed when suddenly the door to her room swung open violently.
"Hey Alex! How was your day? Wanna go train?" Lena asked in her regular bubbly tone as she practically burst into the room, clearly in a very good mood.
Alex hadn't expected her to be home so soon, or maybe she'd just been lying there longer than she thought, regardless she still had a very evident black eye. Not wanting Lena to see that she was injured and not quite sure what to do she just grabbed the pillow from underneath her head and threw it over her face, covering herself up and muffling her voice.
"Haven't you heard of knocking?!" She yelled through the pillow.
Lena giggled in response and apologised, adding:
"Sorry Luv, just thought I'd surprise you." She added happily.
Lena watched Alex's reaction amusedly. Why was she covering her face with a pillow? Curiosity got the better of Lena, and she decided to creep quietly up to the side of the bed. Once she'd reached the edge, she crouched down beside the girl quietly, pausing for a moment before grabbing the pillow and swiftly swiping it away from the girl's face, smiling widely at her teasing handiwork. Her expression immediately turned to worry when she saw the girl's face.
Lena wasn't sure what the girl had been hiding, but she certainly didn't expect to be greeted by a mortified Alex with a deep bruise forming around her left eye.
"What the bloody hell happened?!"