AUTHOR'S NOTE

Thank you so much for reading this far! I'm absolutely astounded by how far I've got, and I hope to continue on strong! Please keep reading, leave reviews, and keep being awesome!

I slump against the wall, tired, as I survey the pile of goodies I have to take back to home base. Three bulletproof vests, a military-grade helmet, two sniper rifles, with a large sack of bullets for them, a fire axe, in good condition, and a riot shield. Everything else is either too broken to be useful or just not useful. I stuff the bullets and the helmet in my bag, grab a strip of cloth and tie the axe to a belt loop, sling both snipers over my shoulder, and put on one of the vests, the other two going under my left arm as my right holds the shield. I feel like a penguin, as I have to waddle to move. I sigh and drop it all.

"Willowtree, this is Dragon. Come in, Willowtree."

Geoff, sounding more calmed down, answers me. "Dragon, this is Willowtree. What's taking you so long?"

"I've got too much stuff here to take safely in one trip. Is there anyone in my area that can give me a hand?"

"Hold on, I'll hail Ame, and see if she's willing to help." His voice cuts out of my channel as he swaps frequencies to talk to her. After a bit he returns. "Ryuo, Ame's on her way. Stay put until she shows up."

"Affirmative. Thanks, Geoff."

He grumbles. "Yeah, yeah. Just be safe."

I sit down, my back against the cold concrete wall, and I listen for sounds indicating the presence of human or Omnic. My eyes slowly start to droop, and the next thing I know Ame is shaking me by the shoulder.

"Wake up, idiot!" She chuckles, but there's a sense of urgency in her voice. "We've got stuff to haul. It's already night, so let's move quickly, yeah?"

I nod, shaking the sleep from my brain and pointing at the pile of things. "If we each wear a vest, and you wear the helmet, we can each take a sniper, put the last vest and sack of bullets in our bags, and then I'll take the axe and you take the shield?"

She nods, and we set to work organizing things. I take the axe off the top of the pile to get at everything else and set it so its head falls against the wall. To my surprise, rather than making a solid clunk, it instead clangs hollowly against the wall. I stand up, intrigued. "Hey, Ame. What's the possibility of a false wall?"

She looks visibly amused by my comment. "There's no way that's a false wall."

I study it intently, noticing that this wall is made out of cinderblock brick while everything else in the base is poured concrete, and soon find that there is no entrance to the room from any of its four sides. I step back, and look around me. Spying a fallen locker, I motion for Ame to come help.

She exhales tiredly. "I just want to nap..." Begrudgingly, she grabs the back end, and we hoist it up as a makeshift battering ram. I count down through my teeth. "One, two... three!"

We slam it into the wall, making it shake, but it doesn't budge. We do it a few more times, and each time the wall gets progressively more bent out of shape. On about the sixth hit, a brick falls out, and I drop my end, looking inside. I can't see much, but I use my hands to move the exposed cinderblocks out of the way to widen my viewpoint.

Inside is a corpse, fairly intact, slouched over a desk, littered with knobs, buttons, and dials. On the wall is a power switch set to "off". Ame and I look at each other, and she nods. I move to the power switch while she unceremoniously dumps the dead body onto the floor and sits in its seat, hands moving over the board like a pianist plying their craft. As I flip it to the "on" position, the board lights up, illuminating Ame in a spectrum of digital lights as she grabs a headset from off to the side and slips it on. Mumbling to herself, she twists this and pushes that, a small green screen set in the middle showing her what she needs to know.

After about a minute of this, during which I am transfixed by her expertise, she cries out in triumph. "Yes! It works!"

I tilt my head to the side. "What is it, though?"

"A comms array! This building was meant to communicate with other villages! I might be able to reach someone!" The glitter in her eyes isn't just from the digital lighting behind her as she swivels to face me. "We can get out!"

I start to laugh, first a simple exhalation, then I pump my fist, overcome by joy. "Yes!"

We share a moment of victory before I settle down. "How long will it take you?"

"To hail one frequency, maybe five minutes. To hail them all, we'll be here all night."

"Do you know which frequency to use?" I question, looking around for any indication.

She shakes her head. "Nope. All night it is. You'd better let Geoff know the news."

I nod, grabbing my radio and putting it to my mouth, leaving the small room as Ame gets to work. "Willowtree, this is Dragon. Come in, Willowtree."

Geoff's voice, anxious, rings over the handset, Celica's worried cries in the background. "Dragon, this is Willowtree. What's your status? We're concerned."

I laugh. "Listen, Geoff, you won't believe what we found." I continue, not waiting for him to guess. "It's a fully functional comms array. Ame is contacting the outside world as we speak."

He, having been taking a small sip of something, spits it out. "You found a what?! No way. No way! That's good – no, that's great! I'll get Celica back up in the watchtower with me and we'll monitor your position for activity! Wow, I don't know what to say."

Carla's voice calls out in the background. "Maybe 'thank you' would be appropriate."

I cut them off. "I need to know how safe we are, because that influences how many channels we can contact before we need to leave. Just keep me posted.

I place the radio back in my bag, not needing to hear the response, and return to the room. Ame is busy spitting a bunch of codes and whatnot into the microphone on her headset, but I can pick up a few things here and there. "Group of survivors... Located... Send support immediately." She turns a knob and starts her schpiel again.

After a while of watching her, she jerks upright from her previous position of being slouched over the board. Her eyes go wide and she mouths incoherent words to me, pointing at the headset. I look at her questioningly, and she flips one of the earpieces around for me to hear. I stick my head next to hers and listen.

"...repeat, this is Commander Jack Morrison of Overwatch. Confirm, Theta-92 Outpost. Repeat, confirm."

She manages to get out of her stunned stupor long enough to stutter a reply. "C-copy, Captain Morrison."

The gruff voice on the other end continues. "We've received your coordinates. We'll send an evacuation team your way immediately. Expect them by morning, at location..." He finishes by rattling off a few numbers which Ame seems to understand.

She replies enthusiastically. "Copy, sir. We'll be there."

"Stay safe." With a final caveat, the voice on the other end ceases to speak. Ame does as well, setting down her headset.

"We... We did it," She whispers, tears forming in her eyes, starting to run down her cheeks. "We f*cking did it. Holy shi-" She cuts herself off, turning to me with a huge smile on her face. "We're getting out of here!"

Without warning, she launches from my chair and hugs me, taking me off guard, though I still manage to stay standing. I, beginning to feel the ecstacy of the moment, hug her back, sharing in her joy as much as I can. We stand there, embracing, laughing, lost in euphoria of finally being done, for a moment, before she lets go and grabs me by the shoulders.

"Man, I should listen to you more often," she jokes, looking around. "What a find."

I'm about to say something, but I'm cut off by Geoff's panicked voice screaming loudly from my bag. "Ryuo! Ame! Pick up, please!"

I fish in and grab it. "Geoff?"

His voice cracks as he fights to keep his breath steady. "There's 20- no, 30- Omnics headed your way! They must have caught the radio transmission! You've gotta get out of there!"

I don't stop for a moment, simply turning and running to my original entry point. I stop to slip a bulletproof vest over my head, and motion to Ame to do the same. She shakes her head, vaulting through the window gracefully. "No time. Come on!"

I grab one for her anyways and follow her through, dropping to the ground beside her. We take off as fast as we can, and she starts to gain a lead on me, as I'm weighed down by two bulletproof vests. I fight hard to keep the pace, but corner after corner and leap after leap and I'm a good second behind her. I notice the residential building, my fake destination from before, whiz by, but we keep our clip steady as we bolt through the ruined streets.

My vest catches on an exposed iron bar, and I tumble to the ground, taking a nasty fall. Ame stops and jogs back to me, breathing heavily. "You good?"

I take stock of myself, but as I do so also push the bulletproof vest on her. "Give me a minute and put this on."

She obliges, slipping it on and beckoning me on. "We have to move. The longer we're out here, the more chance we have of-"

A gunshot cuts her off, complete with a smoking hole next to her feet, and we look behind us to see a Bastion unit, its optic glowing red, pointing its assault rifle at us. I scramble to my feet and run as fast as I can, Ame ahead of me like greased lightning. I don't even recognize the scenery as we run as fast as we can possibly go, my heart pounding through my ribs, stopped only by the bulletproof vest, my breath like razor blades in my throat and the breath of God in my lungs.

More gunshots ring out, quick series of jittery pops as we dart through intersections and across expanses, no bullets making connections. As we enter a more congested area, I pull out my radio. "Geoff!"

"Copy!" He yells into the other end, about as raggedly as I feel.

"Pack everything up! They're on our tail! Get everyone else to safety!"

"Copy!" I can hear him yelling in the background, but I turn my focus back to running. I'm now a fair bit behind Ame, and I've lost track of her, but I know the area better now that we're closer to base. I take each twist and turn at full speed, not wanting to slow down for fear the Omnics on my tail won't miss next time.

I start to chant the directions out loud in order to keep my mind focused. "Left here. Right here. Left again. Straight through. Faster! Left! Right! Faster!"

I push myself to the absolute limit as I bolt homewards. Finally, I see base come into view, with Carla herding Celica out as Geoff watches from the roof. I slow down right as the sun starts to rise on our once-peaceful dwelling.

Geoff jumps down and lands in front of me, approaching quickly. "Where's Ame?"

I look behind me. "We got separated. I'd have thought she would be here before me..." Without thinking, I whip the radio to my lips. "Ame! Come in!"

After a moment, I hear her flow over the airwaves. "Yeah?" She sounds out of breath, labored almost. "You home yet?"

"Where the hell are you?" I start to walk inside, already anticipating what I'm about to hear.

"Buying you guys some time, what do you think? Get to the soccer field outside the school, they'll pick you guys up." I can sense the sadness in her voice, a bittersweet melody.

I resist the urge to throw my radio at the nearest wall. Placing it in my bag, I turn to Geoff. "Where's Nobu?"

He points to my work area, and I walk in to find him folding up my project. "R-Ryuo!" he stammers, surprised.

I disregard him, instead grabbing my bulletproof vest and taking it off. "Nobu, can you attach the gauntlets?"

He looks at me, panic spreading across his features. "I already have. Don't tell me you're-"

I start to place myself into the suit, yanking straps tight, nearly too tight, in my rush. "I need you to tighten up the shock absorbers and fill all available slots with power cells. Geoff, help me with these straps. I'm not leaving Ame behind."

Geoff looks at me with the same expression as Nobu, and for a split second they weigh their options. Then, almost in union, they get to work, doing what I've asked of them. In what feels like too long and no time at all, I'm all suited up. My movement feels stiff as I start to move towards the door, flexing my muscles to move the damn thing.

Nobu comes up alongside me as I reach the door. "You're not going to test it first?"

"Every moment I waste is a moment Ame could die. I have to move fast." I start off at a walk, and then move up to a jog, feeling the crude metal apparatus I have strapped to me start to loosen up a bit, bending to my will, moving as one with me. Once I start running, pumping my arms back and forth, I straighten out my hands and take my thumbs out of my palms, lowering them slightly to touch the base of my index finger, rubbing the contact pads together, sending electricity coursing to the boosters, and-

Liftoff.

I push off the ground with my feet, and I'm flying, much faster than I could ever have run on my own. All too soon, the ground rushes back up to meet me, and I take it in stride, pushing my legs, one in front of the other, just to keep my balance. My torso moves forward faster than my feet, and I'm forced to jump to reposition so that I don't fall over. I don't let up for a second, instead recklessly blasting my way through the streets, dodging and weaving through what I can and jumping over the rest. As the congested area comes into view, I lift my radio to my mouth. "Ame! Where are you?! I'm on my way!"

She coughs, and then laughs weakly. "Don't waste your time. Just get out."

I start to say something but Geoff and Celica cut me off. "Ryuo! Ryuo!" they shout, their voices tinny through the handheld transciever. "She's at the auto repair shop, the one you looted!"

I adjust my course slightly to the right, noticing I now have to weave in and out of a ton of small alleyways. I scoff, instead leaping off the ground onto a car, and from there onto the flat roof of a single-story building. It only takes me a few steps before I have to jump again, onto another roof, and from there in another few steps to the next. My strides are long and I bob from side to side as my feet, connected to the metal soles on the suit, pound on the rooftops of businesses, shops, and homes, all with relatively flat roofs, which is good for me, as my destination comes into view.

I see Ame, sitting on the ground, holding her side, grimacing, her back against a chunk of rock resembling a wall. I see an Omnic, its red optic staring her down, holding a gun aimed straight at her head.

I don't need time to think.

I simply jump.

I aim for behind the Omnic, and reach my hand out to catch its head. As I swish behind it with inches to spare, the metal of my gauntlet comes into contact with the metal of its make, and I strain my arm to keep my grip as all it wants to do is tear off at my shoulder. Fortunately for me, the Omnic gives in before my arm does, its head tearing clean off of its shoulders, sparks flying from both the severed cortex and the decapitated body. I take a big tumble, not caring about my landing, rolling to a stop about ten feet away from where the Omnic, now hopelessly trashed, falls to the ground in front of Ame.

I uncurl myself and groan, feeling my whole body protest from the intense battering it just weathered. My arm screams with agony – I must have sprained, if not dislocated it – but I ignore it, instead moving to where Ame stares at the still-sparking body of the deceased Omnic.

I manage to laugh at her face. "You were right. Flight is a better name."

She coughs, and my eyes open wide when I see flecks of blood on her lips. "Ame, have you been hit?!"

She lifts her arm from across her midriff to uncover a nasty gash in her side, which has already stained the clothing around it with blood. "One of them nicked me. I also took a nasty shot straight to the back but-" she coughs, interrupting herself- "the vest saved me from that one."

I take out my radio once more. "Geoff! I have Ame. Is Overwatch there?"

A voice answers, though it is not Geoff's. "We're here, where are you? We have the rest of the survivors."

I recognize the voice as the gruff man from Ame's communication. "Sir. One of mine is wounded. We're about a kilometre or two from your current location. Can you send an advance team to extract us, or drop another bird nearby?"

The voice growls. "Neither. You'll have to either wait there while we swing by, or you can meet us here withing 30 minutes."

I shake my head, looking at Ame's pained expression. "Get here as quickly as you can, then. We have one injured and she's bleeding out."

"Affirmative. Hang tight- we're on our way."

I look at Ame, and then out at where I crashed after my running leap. Two more Omnics are already moving in on our location.

I look around. "What can I use...?" I notice the dead, twitching robot corpse beside me, and an idea starts to form in my head.

I grab the body and yank it closer, thanking my lucky stars that it's another Bastion unit. I rip off the front paneling and grab through the wires until I find the one I want, connecting it to an exposed end of another to hopefully spark the desired change.

The machine beeps, and then starts to move, changing its configuration from that of a walking, humanoid form to a stationary turret, though the form is broken, and looks barely held together. I look up to see the two Omnics taking aim at my location, and I duck behind some cover as bullets pepper where my head would have been had I not moved.

I grab through more wires until I come to my primary concern. I tear it out, quickly replacing this wire at that terminal with that wire from this terminal, before finally reconnecting the power cell to my new circuit. "Come on, come on...!"

With a start, the turret barrel starts to rotate and, within a second, is pouring out bullets like a hose. I grab the edge of it and grunt, exerting all my force to turn it to face my aggressors, tearing through their metal chassis like paper and reducing them to scrap heaps in seconds. I disconnect one wire to stop the whole assembly, but as I do, more robots take the places of their fallen brethren. I drag the edges of the unit to aim the turret manually and connect the wires to shoot, taking one out, then aiming and shooting the next, aiming and shooting the next, and so on. I simply swap my aim from one target to another, almost like a video game. Ever so often a bullet would ping near me, but my unwilling puppet seemed to be taking the brunt of the attack.

With a metallic snarl, probably caused by a timing belt issue of some sort, one of the Omnics pierces the frontal armor on my weaponized corpse, shearing through the wiring. I barely move away before it explodes in a fragmentation of metal parts and spent bullet casings.

I land right in front of Ame, who is looking more and more glassy-eyed by the moment. I call out to her. "Ame! Keep awake. Keep focused, on me."

She mumbles something, and I look back to see the Omnics starting to vault my previous line of cover and advance, with us in the line of fire. I stand up, standing with my body directly in the way of Ame's, not willing to let any harm come to her, my body barely moving as I want it to for the pain, facing the Omnic defiantly as it raises a triple-barreled gun to bear straight at me, and through me, Ame.

I close my eyes. My lips open as I breathe in and out. "It's over."

The gunshot rings clear and true.

However, it's the sound after it that I don't comprehend, a screeching and clanking noise, along with a low hum.

I open my eyes to find the Omnic beeping and whirring, a hole straight through its head, struggling to aim, or keep its balance, the four horse-like legs beneath it shifting around. Another shot, this time closer, rips through its gun, causing a high-pitched keening sound as the gun itself overloads, sending melting bits of metal and unspent ammunition to fall to the ground. As I turn and look, the most majestic sight I think I've ever seen greets me.

A large military-grade dropship hovers over the battlefield, its side hatch opened to reveal a sniper, crouched low with a cowl around them, taking shot after shot, getting kill after kill. A man in a large suit of armor stands next to them, holding a vast shield made of shimmering blue light in front of him, causing all enemy bullets to stop right in front of the sniper's face. A man with an assault rifle stand near the edge, yelling. I strain to hear his words.

"Get the hell in, now! We need to evacuate!" He waves a hand at me to bring Ame with me.

I place my arm behind her head and the other under her legs, and though my whole body screams, I lift her, crying out as the exertion makes it feel like my muscles are combusting. I carry her step by precious step to the edge of the platform, where the soldier takes her from me and hoists her into the dropship. I can hear bullets hitting the concrete around me, some even going so far as to ping my suit, and this spurs me on as I, too, climb up, passing through the shield as if it weren't even there. As my feet leave the ground, the sniper grabs my arm and yanks me in as the hatch starts to close and we pull away from the ground. As the hatch closes, I see the rest of our survivor crew huddled against the wall, Carla hugging Celica close as Geoff, Steven, Nobu, and Tomasz sit there, their heads all leaning against the metal behind them.

I smile. "The gang's all here. We made it...! Heh..."

With a start, I feel a warmth in my stomach, and not the wholesome kind. I reach down and touch my abdomen to feel a crude sting where my fingers meet flesh. I look down, and the sniper next to me follows my gaze to three fresh bullet holes in my stomach, blood rapidly staining the clothes around them.

I close my eyes to blink, but instead open them to find myself on the floor, a plethora of faces I don't recognize clustered around. I hear faint yelling, and I want to tune in more, to move, to fully understand, but my senses, body and mind all disobey me, simply too worn out from all the excitement to function any longer. I turn my head to the side and see Ame laid out in a similar fashion to me, people around her as well. I smile.

"At least Ame's okay..."

With that thought as the last clear, coherent string of words my mind could put together, I drift from the cold metal floor into a weightless, inky black expanse.