A/N: This bit doesn't really have anything to do with this chapter, but rather this story as a whole. You see, after a bit of chatting with a user named ThatGreenDooredBookshop, we've decided that he will be a beta-reader for this story. While this doesn't have an immediate effect the story, some chapters may take a bit longer to get done than normal, simply due to the fact that there are now more steps in the process of making a chapter, but rest assured that it is only done to give you the best possible product! As for this chapter, well... let's just say that it has a pretty big effect on the rest of the story moving forward. Enjoy!
A small knock on the door broke Reaper's concentration, and in frustration he yelled "What?"
The door opened shortly there after, revealing a rather ordinary foot-soldier in a training attire. However, the figure didn't say anything, it just stood there, silently.
"Did you come here just to test my patience, or is there an actual reason for you to show yourself here?" Reaper asked, as he got up from his chair, and walked closer to the foot-soldier, who he could now see was a woman that had two braids of long white hair.
"E-er... I... w-was sent..." The foot-soldier started, but her words fled her mouth, like she wanted to flee Reaper's presence.
"Is this organisation filled with nothing but stuttering braindead morons?" Reaper asked in a mocking tone, as he walked closer to the foot-soldier, until he was only a single meter away.
"Speak!" Reaper then ordered, and the operative finally started talking.
"I-I was sent here b-by Command. T-they re-request your presence at once." The foot-soldier said, before just standing there.
"Then get out of my way!" Reaper said, before grapping her by the throat and shoving her to the side. As he walked towards the communcations room, the foot-soldier almost ran the opposite way, trying to get as far away as possible from the mercenary who mercylessly disposed of any allies he found useless.
As Reaper walked through the black corridors, he was thankful that he didn't need to suffer in the presence of Talon operatives more than he needed.
To get to the communcations room, the mercenary had to walk through the dining area, where he could hear several conversations being held.
Without hesitating, he opened the door and stepped inside the room, where all the talk immediately died down, once they saw who it was that had entered.
Reaper unwaveringly made his way through the dining area, while looking around at everyone seeted. Most of them were minding their own business, but the few that looked at him was met by a cold, yet menacing stare.
Finally, he reached the exit and went through. As soon as the door closed behind him, he could hear the banter slowly starting again.
After a short minute with no further disturbances, Reaper finally made it to the communications room. Inside, he saw only one communications officer.
"Command's ready. Just activate it once you are." The officer said.
"I already know how this works." Reaper said, before turning his head towards the officer and hissing "Get out."
The officer quickly nodded and almost ran out of the room, leaving Reaper alone. The mercenary slowly walked over to the console, and with the press of a few familiar buttons, the platform in the middle of the room began to glow, before the hologram of a hooded figure appeared.
"Reaper." It simply greeted, with its usual voice distortion.
"Speaker." The mercenary greeted back. The speaker for Talon Command simply looked at him for a few seconds, during which, Reaper crossed his arms, and walked into the middle of the room.
"Where's Lacroix?" Reaper asked. Not becuase he cared for her, but because he was used to being assigned the same missions as her.
"We're... fixing her, as much as we need to. That's all you need to know." The Speaker responded, and Reaper simply sighed.
"Well, what did you bring me here for then?" Reaper asked, with great annoyance and impatience in his voice.
"Due to Widowmaker's... unfortunate complication, you're now our most experienced field agent." The Speaker said, but Reaper just let out a grunt of annoyance,
"Tell me something I don't know." He sarcastically implored, and the Speaker looked at him.
"Remember which of us is a mercenary, and which of us is a loyal member of an all powerful organisation, Reaper." The Speaker warned.
"I prefer to remember which of us sits on his ass all day, and which of actually get the job done... Speaker." Reaper retaliated.
The Speaker let out an annoyed sigh over Reaper's defiance, but didn't say anything after that.
"Speaking off Lacroix's condition..." Reaper started, and the Speaker looked at him, "What about the Shimada brat? We know he's all alone in Hanamura, send me after him!" Reaper said, not hiding his personal want for Genji's death well.
"You don't need to think about that. We've already handled that situation." The Speaker said, and Reaper let out yet another annoyed grunt.
"Well, if I'm not going out into the field, what did you call me here for? Want me to play patty cakes with your grunts?" Reaper outright insulted the Speaker.
"Restrain yourself and remember who's paying you." The Speaker warned, but Reaper again retaliated.
"You know, just as well as anyone, that I'm here to see Overwatch burn!" Reaper said, with an accusing finger pointed at the Speaker. "The money's just a bonus." He added.
The Speaker took a few seconds to restrain himself from trying to strangle Reaper over holo, and eventually calmed down enough to continue.
"What we brought you here for, isn't here." The Speaker finally said, and Reaper listend with crossed arms. "You'll be sent to our base in Arizona. What exactly you'll be doing there, will be explained once you arrive."
"Arizona? Really?" Reaper asked, but the Speaker was now the one to retaliate with "Would you prefer to play patty cakes with our soldiers?"
Reaper simply let out a quite intimidating grunt, before turning around, and beginning to walk out of the door.
"Well, then I suppose I'll see you there." Reaper sarcastically said, but the Speaker wasn't done.
"Wait." He exclaimed, and Reaper turned around.
"You will need the help... " "Say I need help one more time and I'll track you down and tear out your throat with my own goddamn hands!" Reaper warned.
"Urgh, fine. The 'cooperation' of another of our top personel. Try not to kill each other, before the mission is complete." The Speaker said. The hologram quickly ended, before purple flicker suddenly appeared behind it.
With both his hands and feet clenched tight around whatever he could use, Genji rode atop the Shinkansen, trying not to fall off at the extreme speeds.
Even though this was the most effective way for him to get around in his homeland, that didn't mean he enjoyed it. Thankfully, the next stop was only a few minutes away, and there he could take a few minutes to prepare for the next stretch.
The train first went under a glass roof, before it entered the station and stopped. The doors opened and the various businessmen and tourists exited the train, while Genji finally relaxed on top of the train.
The cyborg ninja quickly looked at the times, and confirmed that there were ten minutes until this train was leaving the station.
Not having anything better to do, Genji decided to sit and try to mediate to pass the time. However, as he was about to do so, he noticed something.
Among all the businessmen and tourists waiting to get into the train, one man stood out.
Next to a hooded guy, stood a man with black skin, that looked like he was in his middle to late thirties. He was also wearing a full suit with sunglasses, and he had a black leather glove covering his right hand. But that wasn't the weird part. The weird part was, that he also had some sort of mechanical plates stuck to his jaw and the back of his head.
As Genji looked closer, he began to think he could recognize him from somewhere, but he couldn't determine where.
Just as he felt like he was about to figure it out, the doors to the train opened, and the man entered along with everyone else, bumping into the hooded guy on the way.
"Goddammit." Genji mumbled in a low voice. He quickly checked the times, and there were still eight minutes until departure.
The cyborg ninja quickly jumped down on the empty track next to the Shinkansen, and looked in through the windows. He quickly found the man, and saw that he was walking towards the front of the train.
Genji quickly and quietly followed him through the train, until he sat down in one of the carts in the front. As Genji looked at him, he saw that the man had an earpiece in his right ear.
Extremely careful to not get caught, Genji jumped up on top of the train on the other side of the empty tracks, and positioned himself so he could keep an eye on the man.
He just sat in his chair, but after a few minutes of looking around, the man suddenly reached up towards his earpiece and pressed it. He moved his mouth, followed by him sitting silently, likely listening, for a little while, before he moved his mouth again, and pressed the earpiece again.
The man then got up from his chair, and started walking in the direction of the bathrooms.
Genji quickly moved, and jumped over right next to the Shinkansen. He found a gap between two carts, and after some manouvering and lockpicking, he managed to gain access to the same cart the man had been in. However he was nowhere to be seen.
Genji slowly started walking through the empty section of the cart, until he reached the bathroom and saw that it was locked.
Testing his theory, the cyborg ninja casually knocked on the door. "Taken. Go find another." An annoyed male voice with an african accent said from the inside.
"Jackpot." Genji mumbled to himself. He quickly looked to either side, to make sure no one would get caught in harms way, if it came to that, before kneeling down in front of lock.
After some further lockpicking, Genji finally heard a small click, and stood up again.
Checking one last time for other people, Genji opened the door and stepped inside the room-sized bathroom.
Once inside, Genji saw the man standing in front of the mirror, with a naked upper body. His upper suit was hanging on the side of the sink, and he had laid the glasses on the side of the sink.
Genji slowly took one step closer, and when he did, he saw that the man's right arm was cybernetic. Most of it was golden, with a few black spots here and there.
And now, without his glasses, Genji finally recognized the man.
"Akande Ogundimu." Genji said out loud, as he got three shurikens ready.
"Genji Shimada." Akande responded, as he looked at him in the mirror. "Where are all your friends?"
"I'm here alone." Genji sternly responded.
"I see that, but... why?" Akande asked, as he turned around to look at Genji.
"Becuase I wasn't expecting Talon to be so stupid as to attack two places to close to each other, in such short time." Genji retorted, before taking a battle-ready stance, to which Akande only chuckled.
"You're saying that like it's a bad thing." Akande returned, as he moved he cybernetic arm a little.
"You kill innocent people!" Genji retorted, in a hostile voice.
"Weeding out the weak." Akande corrected with a surprisingly calm voice.
Genji was briefly quiet, before asking "How can you see anything Talon is doing as good?" with disgust now also present in his voice.
"Because they understand." Akande said, before the two combatants started circling each other, still with Akande being the most calm one. "Face it, Shimada. That body wasn't given to you to protect you from life. You weren't granted your skills in ninjitsu to defend yourself. They were given to you, so you could conquer your enemies, and end up the victorious one." Akande said.
"Humans evolve through conlict. Overwatch works against that." He then summarized, with a premature victory-grin.
"But at what cost?" Genji asked, maintaining his hostile stance.
"The cost?" Akande asked, as the combatants stopped circling each other. "The cost of the weak. Of the sickly. And of course, the people like you..." He said, as he pointed his cybernetic hand at Genji. "The unwilling."
As he said that, his cybernetic arm suddenly began to vibrate and pulsate with golden energy. Even though Akande didn't look like he was used to it, he still maintained his grin, as his arm began to slightly twitch.
"See now, the power off the Doomfist gauntlet!" Akande exclaimed, as the arm suddenly shot out to the side, and stopped moving. Then, in three short bursts, it expanded, growing to three times it original size, and eveloping more of Akande's chest.
The transformation stopped, and Akande slowly moved the new arm around, flexing the fingers. He then looked at Genji, and began to charge the fist, as the ninja prepared to dodge.
Blue energy began to pulsate out of the gaunlet, as it vibrated more and more violently, until Akande suddenly charged at Genji with overwhelming speed from the gauntlet.
Genji tried jumping over, but the gaunlet was faster than he had anticipated, and with a giant explosion of energy and noise, Genji was knocked through the bathroom door, through the side of the train, and ended up lodged halfway through a concrete pillar on the station itself.
"Ahh. Power have never felt so... powerful." Akande said, and Genji turned his head towards the hole in the train, where the african fighter stood.
Then, with bare feet, Akande stepped out of the train, and as other people began to flee from both the train and the station, he casually stepped through the flames that'd begun to spread.
As he was getting closer, Genji tried to push himself out of the pillar, only to land amidst all the rubble on the station floor.
"So pitiful." Genji heard Akande say, and looked up, only to see him look down at him. "You were such a prime example of my philosophy." Akande then said.
"I'll never represent something the likes of you believe in!" Genji defiantly said, before trying to get up. However, almost all of his lims screamed of pain, and he was too slow. Once he managed to get up, Akande simply kicked him in the chest, knocking the ninja over, before placing a foot on his chest.
"Indeed you won't." Akande then said, as he aimed his fist at Genji. "You don't have guts to do so." He said, and began to charge his fist.
Out of nowhere, the fist suddenly began to twitch uncontrollably, even taking Akande by surprise. Small bolts of electricity began to appear on the gauntlet, as the sound of systems being fried escaped the golden outer layer.
"What the hell?!" Akande said, as the gauntlet fell to the floor, taking him with it.
"A small EMP." A voice behind Akande said, and both him and Genji turned towards the source, only to see the same hooded figure that'd stood next to Akande.
"No matter." Akande said. "It'll fix itself in no time."
"And when it does, I suggest you take that opportunity to leave, with what little of your dignity left, intact." The hooded figure said.
"Who the hell are you to make such threats?!" Akande retorted, and Genji could see the fingers of the gauntlet beginning to slightly move again.
In response, the figure didn't say anything. Instead, it walked over to the pillar next to the one Genji had crashed into, and to everyone's surprise, kicked it. Then, after a few seconds, a bow and quiver fell from the upper parts of the structure.
The figure grapped them and equipped them effortlessly, before pulling an arrow and pointing it directly at Akande.
"I'm the only person right now that can kill you, if I so desire." The figure finally answered, as it walked closer to Akande.
Akande briefly looked at him, before looking down at the gauntlet. "Who the hell are you?" Akande asked, as he slowly tried to stand up.
The figure looked towards Genji, before looking back at Akande. It then lowered the bow, and pulled back the hood, revealing black hair and a fine kept beard.
"I am Hanzo Shimada, brother to Genji Shimada, rightful heir to the disbanded Shimada Crime Syndicate and the only person you need to concern yourself with right now." Hanzo said.
"Hanzo?" Genji asked, and even though he wanted to get up and hug him on the spot, his limps were telling him that that would cause more harm than good.
"I'll be there in a second, brother." Hanzo said, before returning his attention to Akande, who now seemed to have gotten the gauntlet to work.
"Akande Ogundimu." Hanzo said, and the african fighter turned his attention back to the archer. "In my quiver, I have enough EMP-outfitted arrows to keep you at bay until the military arrives, and takes you into custody. But if you so choose, I will let you leave, on the promise to cease all hostilities against my brother and his allies. Which now also includes me." Hanzo threatend.
Akande looked baffled for a good couple of seconds, until his expression became one of anger.
"I will not back down!" Akande said, but as he took a single step forward, Hanzo fired the arrow in his bow right onto the gauntlet, however there was no static frying or shocks.
Akande briefly looked at the arrow with confusion, before back at Hanzo, who now stood with a detonator in his hand.
"Last. Chance." Hanzo threatend.
Akande looked at him, before back at the arrow in his gauntlet. Then, as he straightend his back, he pulled out the arrow and looked at Hanzo, fury yet also some sort of respect in his eyes.
"Very well." He said, before turning his back to the brothers and taking a few steps away. He then stopped and turned around, as he proclaimed "But know this, Shimada. One day, whether I'm alive or dead, my plans will some into fruition, and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"
Hanzo simply kept staring, but Genji said "Perhaps not alone. But together, we will." Akande simply turned back around, and with a fully charged fist, he flew up, through the roof of the station, and out of sight.
Hanzo kept standing and watching the roof for a few seconds, until he finally turned around, and went over to his brother, who was still lying among the pieces of the pillar.
"How are you feeling?" The archer asked, as he knelt down next to Genji.
"Apart from almost all of my limps hurting, I'm perfectly fine." Genji responded, and Hanzo let out a quick sigh.
"How did you know about him? And do all of that?" Genji then asked, as he tried to get up, but failed.
"I discovered him arriving in the night to yesterday, and I followed him until this morning. When I realized where he was going, I prepared to take him on here and now, before he could cause further harm." Hanzo explained, as he helped his brother up. "The one thing I never prepared for, however, was you."
"You never do." Genji remarked with a grin, as they together began to make their way out of the station.
"Do you have a way to contact your allies?" Hanzo asked, as they were almost at the exit of the empty station.
Genji briefly turned towards him, and nodded, as he pointed to the side of his helmet. Hanzo simply nodded, and Genji tried contacting the rest of Overwatch.
"Yes?" The sound of Torbjorn's voice rang in his helmet, after a few seconds.
Genji briefly chuckled, before admitting "God, you have no idea how happy I am to hear your voice, Torb."
"Okay?" Torbjorn simply responded, souding very confused. "Are you all right?" He then asked.
"Not really." Genji admitted. "I'd appreciate it if you could come and pick me up, so I didn't have to walk home on my legs, which I'm pretty sure are broken." He then asked, as Hanzo put him down on a patch of grass, a good distance away from the station.
"Of course, of course. A team will be send, and if I'm correct, then Angela's on it." Torbjorn said, and Genji chuckled.
"That would be like her." The cyborg ninja admitted, but as he did so, Hanzo suddenly turned around and was about to walk away.
Genji quickly grapped his arm, as he said "Do you mind, for a second?"
"Sure." Torbjorn said, and the line went briefly quiet.
"Where are you going?" Genji asked his brother, confusion clear in his voice.
"Away." Hanzo simply answered him.
"Why?" Genji kept asking, in a just as simple way.
"My job here is done. Doomfist has left, and you are safe until your allies arrive. There is no point to me staying." Hanzo explained, in a voice Genji found a little bit cold.
The cyborg ninja let out a heavy sigh, before letting go of Hanzo's arm, but the archer didn't leave. Instead, he turned towards Genji, as he felt his brother wasn't done.
"Do you really think the job ends here?" Genji asked, and Hanzo looked at him with a slightly confused expression. "It doesn't." Genji then said, and Hanzo listened carefully.
"Doomfist will return. If not here, then somewhere else in the world. And when he does, he'll have the backup of Talon behind him, along with Reaper and Widowmaker. No one can stop that. Not even you. But if you join us... join me... then we have a chance. We have a chance to end them, and finally bring peace." Genji said with deepseeded passion clear in his voice.
At first, Hanzo was quiet and contemplating, before answering. "Genji, the people you fight beside... they are honorable and dear friends to you. I tried to kill you, my own brother. Even if I could, then I don't deserve to fight alongside you and such other heroes. What you are asking of me, is just..." The archer turned away, and slowly started walking away. "... something I cannot do."
Genji looked at his legs, but felt the same stubbornness that drove his brother take over. He put his hands on the ground and ignored the screams of pain from his legs, as he slowly rose.
"Hanzo!" Genji excaimed, when he finally stood on his legs.
His brother turned around, and Genji slowly started limping towards him. "Stop doing that to yourself." He implored as he limped towards his brother. "I have forgiven you. You have nothing to prove to me, and I don't see the reason for you to keep yourself down."
Genji was now right in front of Hanzo, and he slowly grapped his brothers hand, and held it open. He then reached into his pockets, and pulled out a sparrow feather.
"You don't have to sell yourself so short, and let your talents go to waste. Beacuse frankly..." Genji said, before placing the feather in Hanzo's hand, and closing it around it. "... there's no one else I'd rather save the world along side, than my brother."
Genji let go of Hanzo's hand, and the archer opened it, and looked at the feather. He then looked up at Genji, who was visibly starting to get tired in his legs, and closed his hand again.
The archer sighed, and put the feather in his hair, before taking Genji's arm over his shoulder, and helping him back to their original spot.
"Very well." Hanzo reluctantly said, and even though he couldn't reveal it, Genji smiled under his mask.
Once they reached the top again, Hanzo put Genji down, and the cyborg quickly thanked him, before returning to his connection. "Oh, and Torbjorn? There's one more thing."
"What's that?" The swedish dwarf asked.
Genji quickly looked at Hanzo, before saying "Tell the others to save an additional seat in the dropship."
"Will be done." Torbjorn said, before closing the line.
Hanzo carefully sat down next to his brother, before mumbling "We'll see."