"Wake up!"

The sudden sound of a bugle playing jerked Lena from her sleep, and she let out a yelp, falling from her cot. The brunette quickly got to her feet, noticing that all the other airman basics were beginning to make their beds. Lena did her best to follow suit, tucking in the corners messily and struggling to smooth out the creases.

The other soon finished with the beds and began to change into their jumpsuits, standing at attention at the foot of their beds upon finishing.

"Jeez, have you never made a bed before?"

Lena looked up from where she was fighting with the zipper of her jumpsuit, finding the dark-skinned girl who slept in the cot next to her looking at her. "Not really…" Lena finished her zipper, pulling her sleeves back so that her hands were free. The jumpsuit was a bit loose on her thin frame, and Lena hoped she would grow into it.

"Well, you'd better learn quickly. The commanders don't approve of messy beds." The girl began to quickly fix Lena's cot, soon having it looking quite presentable.

"Thanks," the brunette said.

"You're new here, aren't you?"

"Uh… I thought we were all new here."

The girl rolled her eyes. "Well, yes, but most of us were here last week, preparing for the training program, and you just showed up last night."

"Oh… I didn't realize everyone else came so early."

The girl gestured for Lena to stand at attention at the foot of her bed, which the brunette did.

"What's your name?" the girl asked.

"Lena Oxton."

"Vasha Oladele."

The door suddenly opened, and Lena saw a commander entering. All the airman basics raised their hands to their foreheads in a salute, and Lena did the same.

The commander made his way down the aisle, looking between the airman basics and their made beds. He paused upon reaching Lena, and the brunette glanced up at him.

"What seems to be the problem with your jumpsuit, airman basic?"

"My jumpsuit, sir?"

The commander reached over, pulling Lena's sleeve down from where it had covered her hand again.

"Oh… this is the one I was given, sir."

"What's your name, airman basic?"

"Lena Oxton, sir."

The commander's eyes narrowed slightly. "Airman Basic Oxton. So you're the one Commander Morrison sent over to us. The way he talked about you, I expected more than a child."

"What did he say about me?" Lena asked, lowering her hand slightly.

"Put that salute back up, no one told you to be at ease!"

Lena quickly scrambled to fix her salute, the sudden yell having startled her.

"Don't expect any special treatment, Airman Basic Oxton. You will be treated the same as every other airman basic, and if you can't keep up, you will be left behind. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

The commander moved on, and Lena let out the breath she'd been holding.

"So you know Jack Morrison?"

Lena sat across from Vasha, setting her tray of food on the table. "Yep, I came over here from Overwatch HQ—"

"Wait, how old are you?"

"Just turned sixteen last week."

Vasha's brow furrowed. "And you were at the HQ in Switzerland?"

"Well, I wasn't an active agent or anything like that. Captain Amari brought me over there so I wouldn't have to stay in the apartment by myself—"

"Hold on, are you talking about Ana Amari?"

"… Well, I don't call her that, I call her Captain Amari, but yeah. She took me in when she and Commander Morrison came to King's Row, I was homeless at the time."

"And how did you end up here?"

"Okay, so the Lacroixs came to HQ for a visit, and when they left, two Talon jets attacked their transport, and we didn't have a pilot so I jumped in a jet and went after them, and I managed to shoot one down and I was like 'You wankers!' and the other one was giving me a bit of trouble, so I had to chase 'im down—"

"Hold on." Vasha looked increasingly confused, and she seemed to be trying to keep up with Lena's rapid style of speech. "You just decided to jump into a jet and take on two Talon jets by yourself?"

"Well someone had to do something, we couldn't just let them kill the Lacroixs. Captain Amari wasn't very happy with me though, she sort of grounded me afterwards."

Vasha was just staring at her now.

"What?"

"Just… I mean, I would definitely think you're lying to me if you didn't look so innocent and sound so genuine right now."

Lena smiled slightly. "I suppose it does all sound rather fantastical. I have a hard time believing it myself sometimes."

The two began eating their food, and Lena glanced around the room. There appeared to only be about twenty airman basics, and Lena could tell that she was definitely the youngest.

"What was it like?" Vasha asked, pulling Lena's attention back.

"What was what like?"

"Flying the jet."

"Oh!" Lena smiled at the memory. "It was… amazing, really. I mean, I was terrified the whole time, but it was also exciting. Being so high up and able to see everything… it's unlike any other feeling in the world." Lena paused. "Have you never flown before?"

"Honestly, I don't think anyone in this room has flown a jet by themselves. I'm surprised you managed to get it off the ground and not end up in a million pieces."

"Oh, well… the jet didn't exactly make it out…"

Vasha arched a dark eyebrow. "Oh?"

Lena could feel her face growing hot. "In my defense, it wasn't my fault. The second Talon jet, the one I said was giving me trouble, it came flying right at me, and I didn't have time to do anything else but eject."

"Ah, I see. So you have yet to successfully land a jet."

"I'm zero for one right now, but hopefully my record improves while I'm here."

Vasha laughed, a sound that Lena found she had a definite interest in hearing again. "I don't think they would appreciate crash landings here."

"Speaking of, when do we get to fly?"

"Oh, you're getting way ahead of yourself. I doubt we'll do much flying until at least after the first six months."

"Six months? What are we supposed to do until then?"

"We have classes to attend and physicals to go through." Vasha's brow furrowed. "Don't you know anything about this program?"

"I know it's for pilots."

Vasha gave her a flat look.

"Okay, I don't really know anything about it."

"Then why did you come out here?"

"Because I want to be a pilot."

"But why? You're so young."

"Why does everyone keep focusing on that? My sister took me flying, I liked it, and I knew then what I wanted to do. My age doesn't affect any of that."

"Oh, so your sister is a pilot?"

"No, Fareeha built her own rocket suit and took me out with her on the test flight. Captain Amari wasn't happy when we got back, but Fareeha enlisted in the Egyptian army and now she's over there."

Vasha was staring again. "What even is your life?" She shook her head, looking back down at her tray of food. "Next you're going to tell me that you can time travel or something."

Lena laughed. "No, no I can't do that."

Lena had been to school before of course. Back in King's Row, her parents had sent her to a private academy, which had forced the brunette to wear a rather uncomfortable uniform.

This was different. The airman basics were all assembled in a sort of lecture hall, and while they still had a uniform of sorts, Lena found this to be far more interesting. A captain was standing at the front of the room, going over the basics of the mechanisms of flight, and Lena was doing her best to keep up while scrawling notes in the notebook she'd been given.

Vasha was sitting next to her, also taking notes, though she appeared to be much calmer than Lena felt. The brunette glanced over at Vasha's notes, noting her elegant style of writing. Lena looked back at her own notes, which appeared to be chicken scratch in comparison. The brunette looked back at Vasha, finding herself watching her companion a bit longer than necessary.

"Take a picture, it'll last longer," Vasha whispered, her gaze not breaking away from her notes.

Lena immediately colored and quickly turned her attention back to the captain's lecture, doing her best to ignore the sudden fluttering in her chest.

"So what are the physical tests we need to go through?"

Vasha looked up from her book. The two were sitting on a wall overlooking the water, enjoying their free time before dinner. "Jeez Lena, you really didn't prepare at all before you cam here, did you?"

"I told you, it was all very sudden and unexpected. I practically had to beg Commander Morrison to let me take the test in the flight simulator."

Vasha shook her head. "The way you talk about them, it's like Overwatch is your family."

"They are my family. Commander Morrison, Captain Amari, Doctor Ziegler, Reinhardt, Winston, all of them. They took me in when my parents abandoned me."

"You mentioned being homeless before… what happened?"

Lena looked down at her notebook, which she had been aimlessly doodling in.

"Sorry… I guess that's a little personal." Vasha paused a moment before she added, "They're going to test us in all the basics: running, push-ups, sit-ups, chin-ups… you get the idea. They're also going to make sure we're all in good health and can handle the high intensity demands of being a pilot."

Lena nodded.

"I guess you already know the answer to that question though."

Lena smiled slightly. "I dunno; I didn't actually fly high enough to need an oxygen mask, so I guess we'll find out."

The brunette's bag suddenly began beeping, and Lena picked it up, rummaging through it and pulling out her tablet.

"You better put that away," Vasha said.

"But it's my sister—"

"Airman Basic Oxton!"

The brunette jumped, immediately getting to her feet and saluting the commander in front of her. "Yes sir?"

"What is that device?"

"My tablet, sir. My sister is calling me—"

"Are you aware of the rules about such devices?"

"… No sir."

The commander didn't look pleased with that answer (well, less pleased than before). "I should pull a 341 from you for that, Airman Basic Oxton."

"A 341, sir?"

Vasha was shaking her head, one hand over her eyes.

"Drop and give me five," the commander said.

Lena wasn't entirely sure what that meant, and she had a bad feeling about asking. "… Five what, sir?"

"Good God, I would have thought Commander Morrison would have trained you better than this. I can see why he sent you to us. Push-ups, Airman Basic Oxton. Five push-ups."

"Right now?"

"Now!"

The brunette quickly dropped into push-up position.

"Count them off, Airman Basic Oxton. Down!"

"One," Lena managed, her voice slightly strained.

"I can't hear you, Airman Basic Oxton! Let's start again; down!"

"One!"

"I have to admit Lena, that was pretty hard to watch earlier."

The brunette gave Vasha a look from where she was sitting across from her. Dinner had started five minutes ago, and Lena was currently having trouble lifting her fork. The commander had apparently been rather hard of hearing, and in the end, Lena had ended up doing fifteen push-ups, being forced to hold the "down" position for longer than necessary a few times.

"I'm not used to doing push-ups, okay? And I'm definitely not used to being yelled at for no reason."

Vasha let out an amused noise. "That's because you're not an official Overwatch agent. Trust me, your Commander Morrison and Captain Amari are only nice to you now because you're still a civilian."

Lena didn't entirely believe that was true, and she changed the subject as she asked, "What did he mean earlier when he said 341?"

Vasha reached into the front pocket of her jumpsuit, pulling out two forms. "These are 341 forms. You need to carry two on you at all times. If we screw up, or we manage to do something that actually impresses a captain or commander, they'll ask for one of these. They fill it out and hand it over to our superiors, and the proper action is taken." Vasha replaced the forms in her pocket.

"So I'm not allowed to use my tablet?" Lena asked.

"You can only use it in the barracks when we're not on duty."

"Oh." A pause. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

Vasha gave her a look. "I didn't know you had one; besides, I did try and warn you when you first pulled it out."

Lena made an incoherent noise, looking back down at her food.

"You do remember that I said push-ups would be a physical requirement, right?"

"Yes, I remember."

"Well, based on what I saw today, you need a lot of practice, my friend."

The brunette sighed. "I think I'm beginning to see why Captain Amari wanted me to wait…"

"Changing your mind?"

"Not a chance."

"Come on Lena, you have to be able to do more than ten push-ups without struggling."

The brunette gave Vasha a look. "Let's see you do some then if you're so infinitely talented."

"You don't want me to do that."

"Because you can't either."

Vasha gave Lena a look. "All right, just remember that you drove me to this." She dropped to the floor and began doing push-ups with perfect form, catching Lena by surprise. The brunette could only stare as Vasha continued, her pace remaining consistent and giving no sign that she was even close to tired.

"Okay, I get it," Lena said once Vasha had reached thirty. "You can do a lot of push-ups."

Vasha paused, locking her arms and looking up at the brunette. "Oh, can I? I lost count."

"Show off."

"No, showing off would be if I did this." Vasha put one arm behind her back and did ten more, which suddenly made Lena feel very odd.

"You can stop now, I admit I was wrong."

Vasha sat back, gesturing for Lena to resume push-up position. "Come on, try again."

Lena let out a sigh, but moved into position, lowering herself once.

"No, no, those will never fly." Vasha stood and moved over to the brunette, reaching down and pushing Lena's hips down, causing the brunette to immediately flush. "You butt can't be sticking up like that, your body has to be in a straight line."

Lena lowered herself again, her arms shaking slightly. "This is harder."

"It's not supposed to be easy. Just be thankful I'm not sitting on your back."