Author's Notes: Wow, I felt unproductive yesterday. Despite getting out another chapter, it was more trouble than I had anticipated. Anyways, today's chapter is a tad special. Reference to Fallout series this chapter. So lets get to it, shall we? Today's Special: One of our boys, (Ramirez) meets the lovely Overwatch crew, and receives mixed reactions.
—Deep in the Heart of the Australian Outback Wasteland—
"You know, we could be sleeping right now." Ramirez said suggestively. Angela grunted tiredly in response. "In our warm beds, surrounded by pillows and blankets…in the deep nothingness that is sleep, amiga." Ramirez tried again. She smacked his arm lightly. He could only chuckle, she was too tired to even respond.
They had chosen to wake up early in order to meet Overwatch when they arrive, which just so happened to be 4a.m. their time. Angela shivered as another cold breeze swept through the sandy front yard of the church, awaiting for the arrival of her comrades from home. Soon enough a drop ship could be seen in the distance slowly making its way closer.
When it reached the the sandy yard, it turned around and opened the rear hatch, slowly lowering to the ground. A tiny woman with spiky brown hair zipped out, and flew towards the blonde doctor, tackling her into a hug. "Angela luv! You're alright! I'm sorry! I should've-" Angela said nothing, but pressed her finger to Lena's lips, silencing her.
"It was not your fault, Lena. If anything, it was Talon. Now lets go inside, warm up, and we'll update you on our situation." Angela said, her exhaustion clear from her slow drawn out tone. Angela and Ramirez tailed by the Overwatch agents walked inside.
The fire burned brightly in the middle of the workshop table, illuminating and warming the room. Many looked around the church, taking into the details, but focused their attention on Ramirez when his voice broke throughout the silence when the doors closed.
"As you might have noticed, our lovely host is currently in the hands of the raiders, and we need to bust him out." He said theatrically, gesturing around the room.
"I thought you said this kid was amazing Angela, and he goes and gets himself captured, by raiders no less. Why should we even waste out time on this kid?" Soldier 76 asked.
"Hey! Watch your mouth about him puto, he could put you in the ground!" Ramirez yelled, but calmed when Angela placed her hand on his shoulder. She took his place.
"He gave himself over willingly, the alternative was a mushroom cloud. I didn't want that. Neither did the raiders, he traded himself for our freedom. The alternative to that would have been them turning me over to the UN or using me as a sex doll. He saved my life several times, and gave up the one thing he fought for the most, his freedom, just to keep us safe. So yes, we are saving him, or Ramirez and I will." She said determined.
Eyes were wide as they stared at her, not only not used to her being vulgar, the threat the raiders made, but also with the perseverance and determination in which she said it. She activated the hologram of the base, aiming it so it hung in the middle of the table over the fire. It looked like the base was on fire, flames licking every building in the hologram.
"We will be landing here, about a mile from the base. The Queen of the Junkers will be there, guns ready for us to help out. We send in Tracer, McCree, Hanzo, Winston, and myself to the main gates. Ramirez, your turn." Angela stood back and he cracked his knuckles and smiled. "Alright, I want blue jay, big, pink and mean, omnic monk, cyborg ninja, and my man Lucio, good to see you again amigo." Ramirez spoke pointing at Pharah, Zarya, Zenyetta, Genji, and Lucio.
He gestured to the rest. "The rest of you will split off into teams you're comfortable with. We strike at dawn, so around three hours until we have enough light to attack, not to mention it gives the creepy crawlies of the wasteland time to go to bed. Last thing I need is a dune roamer to attack us." He said, trying to act nonchalant about the last part.
"Creepy crawlies? Dune roamers? What are those, luv?" Lena asked fearfully. Many of the younger's eyes were on him, interested in what his response would be. But many of the older members, minus Reinhardt, looked as if he was about to spew the biggest pile of bullshit they've ever heard.
"Oh, think of tunnel worms, but fucking huge. Circular rotating jaws with razor sharp teeth, that shoot up around their prey and swallow them whole. I once saw one I call El Diablo, the devil himself is what it is. This thing is easily sixty feet tall. On its fall, it can crush tanks and take a hundred people with it on a dive." He said trying to rile their imaginations. Hana looked nervous. "Is there anything else out here?" She asked timidly.
"Deathclaws…" Roadhog said quietly.
Ramirez's expression turned dark. He looked down and said nothing. Junkrat seemed personally the most affected, he seemed frozen, staring into the fire. Roadhog patted his back, seemingly mumbling soft words of comfort to his friend. Symmetra made her way over to Junkrat as well, patting his back softly, he could only examine his prosthetics.
Ramirez rubbed the scars under his armor, sighing deeply. He didn't like deathclaws, no one in the wasteland did. They were fast, big, strong, and just plain lethal. He had already deducted that the guy with the prosthetics lost his limbs to the beasts. He damn near lost his life were it not for Marco. He had killed the beast, and the four that had followed.
Ramirez gritted his teeth slightly before standing and gathering everyone's attention. "You all are heroes. My father told me the wasteland only gives birth to monsters. But I've seen Pérdido defeat real monsters, both human and not, in the name of humanity. If thats not what a hero does, I don't know…" He said trailing off. He turned and abruptly left, swinging the large doors open and closing them behind him.
Fareeha stood to follow the man, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder. Her mother stood there, holding her in place, shaking her head softly. "That man is trouble, please Fareeha, leave him alone." She said softly. "I'm afraid i'm inclined to disagree, Ana. He is far from trouble, and he could use a friend right now. I want him to feel welcome to Overwatch, and we can't do that if we avoid him from the start. I don't want to alienate him from day one." Angela stated firmly. Ana face turned to shock when Fareeha shrugged her off and left the church to find Ramirez.
She walked in the dark, small lights on her armor lit up the area, kicking sand up. She could see the man smoking a cigar, in his sleeveless kevlar armor. 'Isn't he cold? Its below freezing out here.' She thought to herself.
"Hey amiga…long time no see. So where do you want to go for dinner?" He asked without turning around. His voice caused her to jump. He turned to face her, his eyes had bags under them. 'And a new scar on his face, must have been from the explosion..' She thought grimly.
"How did you survive?" She asked quietly. He chuckled in turn, causing her to frown. "Thats what you want to know? How I survived? Are you a workaholic?" He asked jokingly. "Answer me!" She barked at him. He leaned back and held his hands up.
"God, you can really have a stick up your ass sometimes. I didn't think I'd survive to be honest. I set off the bomb early cause I was surrounded…" He began to smile. "Mi hermano says it best, If I'm going to die, you're all coming with me." She growled louder than before. "So you just expected to die but didn't? That' so self destructive! Whats with you wastelanders having no regard for your own life?" She asked in shock and rage.
"We don't care about the risks because we know our way of life in of itself is dangerous. We live a life where even in our sleep we can't rest. If you take your eyes off the horizon even for a moment here, you can risk dying at the hands of someone you'll never know. I know we don't live very long, but I've decided that if i'm dying young, its because I died doing something for the right reasons. I want to be the guy who died saving people, not the wastelander who disappeared into the haze of the wastes, never to be seen again because no one even knew his fucking name." He huffed in anger.
"But a 'noble' sacrifice is not the way to do it. Just live a life doing the right thing, and you will leave your own foot print in the world, no matter how big, or how small. People will know you for someone who can do the right thing, only if thats the life you want to live, you don't need to achieve it in death if it is just as obtainable in life." She said with perseverance.
He sighed and sat down on the ground. She watched the man, sitting on the sand puffing the cigar, he put his hands behind his head and fully laid down in the freezing sand.
He smiled up at her and continued puffing his cigar.
"Uhhh, Ramirez, what are you doing?" She asked in confusion, an amused smirk plastered on her face. He looked past her and up into the stars. "Enjoying the stars, not a ton of nights you can see all the stars like this. Wanna watch with me amiga?" He asked sly.
She said nothing, just rolled her eye and sat down next to him and laid down as well, mimicking his position. She really looked at the sky and gasped softly, surprised to even see the faint green and purple of the milky way. It was beautiful…
She turned her head and saw that Ramirez was staring at her. A blush flushed his cheeks, but he didn't move his gaze. "I'm glad you're safe Ramirez.." Fareeha said softly. He smiled at her brightly. "I'm glad I won our bet." He whispered in return. She giggled lightly, but stopped when she noticed genuine joy on his face. He actually was happy, not just that lusty look she'd received from old members of Helix and people she passes on the street. She could only smile in return, before they both returned their gaze to the sky.
—Inside—
"I want to meet the guy." Torbjörn said with excitement as he examined the man's arsenal. Looking at the various firearms mounted on his wall and placed in and around the steamer trunk and locker. He picked up the M60 and thoroughly examined the weapon.
"You weren't kidding when you said this kid had a good arsenal." He said with a smile. "Good is not the word I used." Angela said disgruntled. "Personally, I think his weapon choice is barbaric, but he is more efficient with these weapons that most modern soldiers are with pulse weaponry."
"Hey, what the hell is all over the gun? Are these notches?" He pulled the gun closer to his face gaining the other's attention. He sat the gun down on the workshop table, closer to the fire for a better examination. McCree leaned in as well. They were tally marks, they were extremely tiny carvings of tally marks that covered, quite literally every square inch of the gun. From the barrel, to the stock, even the trigger. There must have been thousands of tallies all over the gun. "They're on all his guns! His blades too!" Hana said in shock looking at one of his hatchets.
Many agents began trading worried glances, except Angela, he had already explained it to her. Many heads turned to her, looking at her expectantly. "*sigh*, Let me guess, you want me to explain the notches on the guns." She asked exasperated, not wanting to bring up more negative things. She could only sigh again when many of them nodded. She sat down on the pallet, facing everyone in the church.
"He told me that he keeps track of every kill. He told me.. 'If I don't remember them, who will?' He felt sad that all the faces he grew to know, have disappeared. He wanted to honor all of those who had the wasteland finish them, even if it wasn't by name." She finished sadly.
Many were surprised by the rather noble and sad act… A voice from behind them made them jump. "He was always a bleeding heart. I pray to Mother Mary that mi hermano makes it through." He said standing next to Fareeha. He made his way forward and examined his brother in arm's personal machine-gun. He pulled the charging handle and smiled when the heard the mechanics inside the gun react from his movement.
"I'm going to finish welding some more armor to my car, and if there are any engineers here, I wanna install an armored turret on my car, si? Wanna show those pendejos we don't fuck around." He turned and made his way back out, a content Torbjörn, excited at the new project, and still tired and slightly grumpy Satya followed him out.
Ana shouldered her rifle and made her way for the stairs. "I'll keep a look out. Jack, join me?" She asked, and with no hesitation, he stood up and followed her up the stairs. Reinhardt had taken his helmet off and could be seen glaring softly as Morrison followed Ana up the bell tower. The rest of the agents began conversing with one another.
Winston made his way over to Angela, sitting down across from her and smiling. "This fellow has all of our interests peaked. He sounds like quite the marvel." He said with a brow raised. She nodded quickly. "He certainly knows how to survive better than most. Its amazing he didn't die during his youth, given how troubled it was. I'm very glad to have met him." She spoke honestly.
Lena walked over and sat in Winston's lap, and smiled up at her. "So luv, how did he save you? You did fall nearly 60 feet, and that fall could kill most people if they landed wrong. So how did he do it?" She asked with a grin. Angela returned the grin and spoke slyly. "He caught me. Right out of the sky." Lena whistled lowly. "What's he look like?"
The question went through her mind and came up with one word that left her mouth before she could regulate it. "Hot." She spoke quickly, then brought a hand up to cover her blushing face. Lena gasped and leaped out of her spot. "You have the hots for him, luv?" She asked, excitement gripping her voice like a vice.
Angela shushed her with haste, trying not to alert their comrades. "I-I might have some developing feelings for him." She said with embarrassment. "Don't say anything Lena, Winston, please. Until I figure this all out, please…" She pleaded with the brit, who instantly felt bad for making the doctor so nervous, both her and the gorilla nodded. "You never answered my earlier question, luv. What's he look like, besides hot?" She said wiggling her brows.
"W-Well, he's tall, very tall. He comes up to I'd say easily six foot seven inches. He's quite muscular, but still fast..agile. He's incredibly strong, I'd say with a strength that rivals Reinhardt. He has strong jaw, slight beard, short brown hair, in a faux haircut." She said picturing his face perfectly in her mind.
She shuddered involuntarily, the blush on her face deepening. "L-Lots of scars, all over. Some on his face, kind of like Jack. Others on his chest and back. Many of them…I feel so bad for him, the pain it must have caused him." She trailed off sadly.
Lena, now standing, shared a look with Winston. "You really miss 'em, don'tcha luv?" She asked quietly. Angela could only nod softly in response. "Don't worry luv, we'll get him back." She said cheerfully. Angela managed to muster a smile in return.
"Oh! And guess what Angie? Emily lives at the Overwatch base now!" Lena exclaimed with glee. Angela clasped her hands together, a bright smile on her face. "That's wonderful Lena! I haven't seen Emily in years, how is she doing these days?" She asked the cheery brit, who's attitude began to decline when asked the question.
"Actually, not too good at the moment I'm afraid. She's been down on her luck recently, being fired from her job at the agency she world for, lost her apartment, you know, the works. I couldn't stand the thought of her living on the streets. So…I may have told her she could come live with us before I asked Winston.." She said nervously, rubbing the back of her neck.
"As long as she keeps making me that peanut butter banana bread, she can stay as long as she wants." He chuckled happily. Angela gave a motherly look of disapproval to the both of them. "Lena, Winston! I expected better of you! Lena, you should have asked for permission before telling Emily it was okay to come to Overwatch. And Winston, you should not be breaching your diet so much. You need your nutrition and peanut butter banana bread is not as nutritious as actual bananas." She stated matter-of-factly.
Both of them sighed and nodded slowly. "Good. Now we all need to get ready for today's attack on the Raider base, do whatever preparations you need to." She said sternly.
—Several Hours Later—
The Overwatch drop ship's shadow cast against the jagged land, following slightly behind and to the left of Ramirez's Mustang, leaving a trail of dust in its wake as it roared over the landscape. In his passenger seat, sat Lena, who had begged almost non-stop to ride with him when she saw that his mustang was, in fact, not a hover car.
"Wooooooo-Hoooooo! You must adore this, don't you luv? All this freedom?" She asked in joy. He nodded, chuckling at the bright brit. "Let me tell you amiga, riding with the windows down, listening to good tunes, smoking a fat joint, and going 115 miles per hour. There is nothing on this planet that compares." He said, reminiscing about all the times he had done just that.
The sun barely peaked past many of the wrecked titan omnics that littered the Dunes of the South. They had left nearly an hour prior and were getting close. Soon they would stop, and trek on foot the rest of the distance, as to avoid having the ship spotted. Satya offered to stay back and guard the ship, also being a temporary pilot should something go wrong. She would simply close the distance and pick them up.
"You seem pretty young to be in Overwatch, chica. How old are you anyways?" Ramirez asked curiously. "First off, its not polite to ask a lady's age, second off, I'm 26 ya bloody tosser! I'm plenty old enough to be in Overwatch." She stated with a huff crossing her arms. He messed with her hair, eliciting a startled 'Hey!' from her and smiled at her. "You remind me of my sister." He said distantly.
"You have a sister?" She asked innocently. He shook his head, only managing to confuse her. "She passed away couple years back, disagreement with pops, threw her in the ring with Pérdido, so she didn't exactly last long. I was never mad at him though, it was my piece of shit dad that forced the fight. Was real hard on Ma..Pérdido, she and him got along great, she was like a younger sister to him, took him months to come back from that, he was in a dark place." He trailed off, not wanting to breach the subject further, and Lena was smart enough to know when to stop asking questions.
Her thoughts were cut short when the radio buzzed to life. "Ramirez, Lena, are you there?" Angela's voice rang through the comms. "Loud and clear, what's up amiga?" Ramirez responded. "If these readings are correct, the raider base is having a mass evacuation. We just received an update from the Junker Queen, she told us to head to the base directly, that there is an already established LZ. Pull up next to the ship when we land. I- Stand by you two, we need to have all eyes on deck. Be careful." With that, the radio had gone silent.
The latino man and tiny female brit shared a look. "What do you think cleared us an LZ?" Lena asked incredulously. He could only shrug as his eyes returned to the road. "Dunno amiga, could be mother wasteland coming to help her children in need, or maybe..just maybe, Pérdido wasn't locked up as tight as he should'a been, eh?" Her eyes widened considerably.
"You're saying he can just break out of a raider base, just like that?" She asked skeptically. "No, I'm saying nothing good has ever come from someone underestimating him. He got caught voluntarily, but he sure as hell won't make having him easy for them." He said with a light chuckle, dying off as something in the distance caught his eye.
There, supposedly where the fortified raider base sat, a column of black smoke could be seen bellowing into the skies, visible for miles in all directions, despite the towering omnics that littered the landscape. "Please be safe amigo, I don't want to bring you out of there in a body bag.." Ramirez whispered softly to himself, but Lena's sharp hearing just managed to pick it up.
She often managed to forget simple things on the battlefield, sometimes simple things as who her opponents really are, as people. It finally occurred to her that it applies everywhere. Even these hardened wasters were just people trying to find a way to survive in a harsh environment. It gave her a broader sense of reality, but so many lingering questions. One thing was for certain, she needed to meet this Pérdido fellow..
