Reaper and Amelie opened their eyes as the knocking interrupted them. They looked down in disappointment and removed their hands from where they were. Hers from his and his from his mask. He angrily put on his hoodie again, and was emitting his black smoke out of anger. As he walked toward the door, prepared to throw Sombra out the house, he stopped once more in his tracks as she spoke behind the other side of the door.
"I found her, Gabriel!" She yelled. Reaper quickly turned to Amelie.
"Get dressed. We need to talk with Sombra." He said, much to Amelie's flustered frustration.
"I am going to kill her." She sighed and began to get dressed.
"She has a good reason for interrupting us." He said as he walked out and closed the door behind him, giving Amelie her privacy. He looked down at Sombra. "Explain. Now." He was quick to the point. She dragged him to the living room and showed him the article she had found.
"Tell me that this is her." Sombra begged, only going off of description, hoping she did not interrupt either of them. Reaper looked carefully at the pictures.
"Yes. It's her. How old is the article?" He asked, turning back to her. Sombra quickly went from top to bottom of the page to find the date.
"This was only a few months ago. Sources say that when the building was raided they found only the makeshift lab. Think it'll have any leads?" Sombra looked up at Reaper.
"It's likely. She never was the most organized of people. If she left, it's likely she left somethings behind. Maybe if we find out what she was doing there, we can have a lead of where she may have gone." Reaper said as he continued to examine the footage. Amelie had stepped out of her room and made her way to her hispanic teammates.
"This had better be good." She said as she approached them. "What is it?"
"We've been on the look out for someone Reaper says might help you out." Sombra informed. Amelie's eyes widened in surprise. "And we may have found a lead on her."
"How is that possible? I thought only Talon could figure out what was happening to me." Amelie said, turning toward Reaper. "Is this true?" She looked at him pleadingly. Reaper nodded.
"We only have a lead. She specialized in questionable methods of medication and bio engineering." He said, much to their confusion. "Don't get me wrong. She's good at what she does, but it's always been frowned upon by others. Which is why she worked in Blackwatch. Where things that weren't allowed to be done were allowed." He explained.
"And care to give us a reference as to what exactly she may have accomplished that can convince us that we can trust her?" Sombra asked, hesitant to have put her trust in a stranger. Reaper simply lifted his hand and converted its organic contents into the iconic black smoke he was known for. Much to the surprise of Amelie and Sombra.
"She...did that?" Sombra asked. "I thought the files specified that Dr. Ziegler caused you to have that ability when she tried to...you know..?" She hinted at his unwilling reanimation.
"A lot of the Talon executives thought the same thing. I never bothered to correct them. Make no mistake, Ziegler was the one that made me..." He trailed off and chose to leave the sentence as it was. "However, Moira was the one that gifted me with my abilities." He admitted.
"So you could do that since Blackwatch?" Sombra asked, this having been a huge revelation to her.
"Yes." Reaper nodded. "I only used it on missions that did not involve you or..." He trailed paused. "The other two." He said finally.
"But why..?" Sombra asked.
"Because I did not want you to become reliant on my abilities." He admitted. "I wanted you all to explore your own specialties and abilities." He put his hand gently on her shoulder. "And look how great you turned out." He said with a hint of pride in his voice, causing Sombra smile up at him.
"Do you really trust her with me?" Amelie asked. Reaper turned back to her.
"Trust is a strong word. She never was one to do any favors if it didn't benefit her and her research." Reaper sighed. "It's one of the smartest thing I can say about her. " He said under his breath. "But I think she will be able to help out." He nodded.
"So does that mean we're heading out right now?" Sombra asked.
"Yes. Both of you get ready. And bring your weapons in case anything happens and we need to defend ourselves." Reaper said as he dug out his iconic armor from his duffel bag. Both women nodded and went into their bedrooms to put on their combat gear.
The three of them were on their way to the maquiladora in hopes to find the unethical battle medic. The building was in the middle of a heavily dry grassland. Civilization miles away from them, they knew it was perfect for the upcoming meeting with Moira, as it needed to be as secretive as possible.
As they approached one of the large doors used to allow trucks in, Reaper grabbed it from the bottom and with his enhanced strength, lifted the metal sheets high for his teammates to go in. As they stepped inside, an overwhelmingly powerful odor filled their nostrils.
"What is that stench?!" Amelie nearly gagged.
"Factory hasn't been used in decades, a lack of maintenance means that all sorts of animals, smells, and natural occurrence to run a muck, huera." Sombra teased. "But yes, it is terrible." She stuck her tongue out.
"Enough about the smell. We must be on the opposite end of where her makeshift lab is. Moira would do her research nearly anywhere." He began to move forward. "But not...here." He said eager to go elsewhere in the building.
As they traversed the building, they noticed how hollow some parts were, and some were full of rooms and multiple hallways. As they began to walk down a corridor, where the windows were next to them, overlooking the side of the building. Sombra walked behind Amelie and she behind Reaper. As they were walking, Amelie and Reaper failed to realize the movement heading toward the building. Sombra on the other hand, noticed this and warned her companions.
"Guys, get down!" She whispered as loud as she could and they both did so, leaning against the wall under the window. All three of them poked their heads out slightly. Outside the building, some twenty five meters away, was a robotic individual.
"Omnic?" Reaper asked.
"No, they're clearly showing skin." Amelie said as she looked at them.
"So like...Genji?" Sombra asked.
"No, it doesn't seem like the tech is infused." Reaper said. They all quickly stood up as it seemed they were doing nothing.
"Does it know we're here?" Amelie asked.
"It shouldn't. No one should know we're here." Sombra urged nervously.
"Well we can't ignore it if we're here." Amelie urged back.
"Wait." Reaper tried to diffuse the situation. "It's taking something out.
The all paid close attention to the individual as it took out a device and set it on the ground.
"...what is that?" Amelie asked with worry.
"That's Vishkar technology...It's a teleporter." Sombra said with worry. "Why does it have that..?"
Reaper continued to pay attention, wondering who this could have been. It certainly could not have been Overwatch. A Vishkar executive perhaps? Unlikely. What would they be doing by an old LumeriCo company. As far as he knew the two companies had no relationship.
Amelie on the other hand, heard a slight clank somewhere behind them in the building, she quickly turned on her infrared vision on her helm and noticed that several heat signatures were inside the building scattered in different areas.
"We need to move!" She said urgently as she quickly aimed her sniper rifle out the window and with perfect accuracy hit the teleporter in the hands of the lone individual outside. "We've got company with us!" She said as she began to move ahead of Reaper and Sombra who followed quickly. They made their way up the railing at the center of the factory and all of them noticed the fast movements of the individuals.
"What are they?!" Sombra asked.
"It must be Tal-" Before Reaper could finish his statement, one of the individuals pounced on top of him from the side and caused them both to fall of the railing and toward the center of the ground floor below.
"Gabriel!" Amelie and Sombra yelled after him as they saw that Reaper landed harshly against the floor, the thing on top of him hold him down with tremendous strength. The being screamed at Reaper as if it were the one in pain.
"Help me!" It begged Reaper, who became a cloud of smoke and he got away from him, the thing lunged at him with animalistic movements. "I'm sorry! I don't want to do this!" It begged him and punched him with great force. Reaper moved away from him and took out his hellfires and fired at the chest and shoulders of the individual. His screams came to a halt. Reaper thought for sure that he had killed it. Until the being stood up in a haunting way that made it look as though it was being picked up by some invisible strings. Like a puppet.
The being, no longer crying out, yet bleeding, continued to head toward Reaper. He raised his hellfire once more and shot it at its head. Putting it down for good. Reaper stepped back, not taking his eyes off of it. Before a loud beeping could be heard from it. He had failed to recognize the beeping on time and the being exploded in place, the shockwave sending Reaper crashing into a pile of crates.
"What the hell..." He coughed blood out of his mask, before looking up at the railing. Amelie and Sombra looked down in horror at what had just happened. Amelie placed her hook on the guard of the railing and let Sombra hold onto her as they both descended to Reaper.
"What was that?" Sombra asked.
"I don't know. But it was't doing it on its own, that much I know." Reaper said. Clutching his rib cage. "Fuck..." He cursed as he realized a piece of metal was embedded in it, to which he took out with great pain before handing the shrapnel to Sombra. "I think it belongs to it. Think you find out anything about this piece of metal?" Sombra took it in her hand and examined it.
"This metal brand is specifically from Volskaya industries. And the one outside was holding a Vishkar teleporter." She said. "We need to find someplace to hide, we can't stay out in the open like this." She said as they heard more agonizing screams throughout the factory, making their way to their location.
"Over there." Amelie pointed to a hallway that lead to several offices and they all took refuge in.
"So you're telling me that we have two world renowned businesses coming after us? Seems a little suspicious to me." Reaper quipped, grunting in pain as he had yet to self heal from the shrapnel that was embedded in him. "Their headpieces were Vishkar tech. It seemed similar to something they used a few years back in Brazil to take control of the population."
"That can't be right. Why would they come after us?" Amelie asked.
"Hang on a second." Sombra said, interrupting them both as she began to call someone. "I have an informant of my own. You guys may be a bit surprised in finding out who it might be." She said cautiously. As summoned a hologram to display a video chat with someone. As the call was answered both Reaper and Amelie were shocked to see Katya Volskaya on screen. "Amiga, como estas?" Sombra spoke with sarcasm.
"What do you want, friend?" Katya spoke with venom.
"Listen to me and listen good." Sombra spoke with just as much venom back. "We have some cabrones after us and they have your tech on them. Unless you want those pictures to surface on every Russian screen in the next ten seconds, you will explain to me what happened to our deal, comprende?" Sombra threatened. Surprising Reaper, Amelie, and Katya. The Russian mogul cleared her throat and quickly looked up her files on the matter.
"I don't think we have anything to worry about. We only recently sold a few power armors to your organization. They should not be malfunctioning at all." Katya explained, thinking that Sombra was still a part of Talon.
"I see, did my associates tell you why they needed the armor?" Sombra asked.
"Only that they were needed for a special project that was to bring a lot of companies' technology together to make some sort of soldier. I have not seen or heard anything about that afterwards." Katya spoke honestly.
"I see." Sombra said, pondering for a second. "Gracias, amiga. You helped me out more than you can think. We'll be in touch." Sombra said as she ended the call and turned to her companions.
"So you're the one that compromised the mission a few months back." Amelie spoke with accusation.
"Hey, it's saving our butts right now, isn't it?" Sombra said. "So we know that this is Talon for sure who's doing this. I got to hand it to them, I don't think we could have figured it out on our own." Sombra admitted.
"Alright, new plan then." Reaper sat up painfully. "We need to know everything about these soldiers. We need to capture one carefully. Sombra, hack into whatever you can on it and extract as much information as you can from it." Reaper began to plan, living up to his associates expectations of his leadership. Both women nodded. "Amelie, use your infrared sights to seek out the nearest one, and let Sombra do her thing. I'll remain here. Once we figure out what it is we're up against we'll go on the offense." He explained.