They were about halfway through the first film when every communicator in the room buzzed, everyone looked at their own device simultaneously, they all had gotten the same message. Everyone meet in the mess hall; we have something important to do – Winston. "Aw, shit." McCree rang out, moving to stop the projector, "I guess we'll have to put a pin in this." Everyone stood up to make their way to the meeting, John and Lena passed by McCree as they left.
"We'll do this sometime for sure, McCree, even if it's just us two!" John laughed, slapping McCree on the shoulder. He let out a small chuckle, walking with the two to the meeting. "So, what do you think is so important that Winston needed to send a message to everyone?" John questioned, his hands in his pockets.
"I dunno, but it's probably not good, meetings never were a fun part of our past." McCree let out a dry chuckle, lighting a cigar in his mouth.
"Oh, cheer up, luv! I'm sure it's nothing bad." Lena chimed, she had her arms behind her head as she walked, leaning back slightly. John chuckled at her undying positivity, they entered the mess hall to find all the tables had been pushed to the sides of the room. A large camera had been set up on one side, with multiple lights pointing at a wall opposite the device. The rest of the Overwatch crew was already there, the trio were the last members to arrive.
"A group photo? What a wonderful idea, my friend!" Reinhardt bellowed out, pulling Winston into a hug.
"Well, now that we've gotten the team back together, I figure we should commemorate the occasion, like old times." Winston spoke, his size dwarfed by the large German. Almost everyone in the group agreed, with 76 being the lone voice that didn't seem too keen on the idea, though he made no attempt to leave. "Alright everyone, we're going to put the tallest members in the back, with the shorter ones up front." Winston directed everyone to their place. Reinhardt, Winston, and Zenyatta brought up the rear, the Omnic could adjust the height he floated at with ease. 76 and Ana flanked the right side, with Mercy standing to the left along with Genji. McCree stood towards the front of the group, still smoking his cigar, while Torbjörn stood at the center alongside Lúcio. John and Lena stood on the opposite side of the Swede, John wrapped his arm around Lena as they prepared for the photo. Everyone began to take their chosen pose; McCree would simply stand there smoking, Reinhardt had begun to flex, Zenyatta made a small peace sign, Genji held two fingers in front of himself, Mercy and Ana merely smiled, 76 crossed his arms, Torbjörn bore a serious look on his face, John placed his left hand in his pocket, and Lena did her two-fingered salute. "Alright everyone, 1, 2, 3!" The camera flashed, emitting a polaroid photograph, along with saving a copy digitally.
"Could I get a copy of that?" John spoke, several others expressed their interest as well.
"You can have the first copy." Winston replied, handing him the freshly printed photograph. John glanced down at it and smiled, this was different than the one he had taken during his first time with Overwatch, this felt like a family photo. He was brought back to reality by the voice of Winston. "I've got a job for you three, by the way." He pointed at McCree, Lena, and John. "There's a couple of criminals on the loose in Australia, and they'd appreciate our help in dealing with them. Apparently, they're going solely after Omnics, it doesn't matter if they're hostile or not." John sighed, not expecting to head back out so soon, he enjoyed the time spent on the base.
"Only if I get to hogtie them when we turn them in." McCree laughed, taking another drag of his cigar.
"Jesse, be safe out there, I wouldn't want to have to replace your arm again." Mercy joked, a smile on her face.
"For you, doc, of course." McCree laughed as he made his way to the shuttle bay. John went to his room to quickly change before the mission, Lena did the same. John slipped on the clothes from Numbani; the gray jacket he recently purchased, a black t-shirt, brown jeans, but donned a pair of combat boots instead of the canvas pair he wore. He emerged from his room to find Lena wearing her typical outfit, orange pants and all.
"You ready, luv?" Lena questioned, making her two-fingered salute. John chuckled as they walked towards the shuttle bay, where McCree stood at the bottom of the shuttle ramp.
"There you are, I was beginning to think you were spending a little personal time together." McCree laughed, his spurs jingling as he walked up the ramp into the cabin. "I can't believe Winston interrupted my movie night just to send us on a mission, I'm starting to think he just wanted his lab back." McCree sat down on the couch, he had already poured himself a glass of whiskey. Lena quickly blinked to the cockpit to program the autopilot, John had sat down next to his gruff friend. McCree slid him an extra glass he had poured, before lifting his own glass for a toast. John tapped his glass against McCree's before they both took a swig of their drinks, each man sighing after they did so. Lena blinked back and sat down on the couch, McCree threw a folder onto the table. "Winston gave me a little intel on our guys, they seem like quite the cards. The first one is Jamison Fawkes, otherwise known as Junkrat, he seems to love explosions, apparently, that's how he lost his leg." McCree slid the paper to the side, revealing another file with a masked figure on it. "This big guy is Mako Rutledge, but he goes by Roadhog. He carries a large hook to bring his opponents to him, so try and keep your distance. They've done a real number on the Omnics in Australia, part of some group called the Australian Liberation Front. Don't let the name fool you, they basically destroyed the outback by detonating the core of an omnium." John sighed as he glanced over the file.
"So, what, we're just bounty hunters now?" He questioned, looking at McCree.
"Nah, it ain't like that. These two have caused some real damage to innocents, they've done literally millions in property damage on practically every continent, they even blew up the Hyde Global building in Sydney. There we a lot of innocent people in that building, they're some real sick bastards. Word is they're about to hit another Omnic settlement in Australia, and we're there to stop them, and, hopefully, capture them."
"Alright," John began as he placed his DMR on the table, "You've convinced me." The shuttle landed in a dusty plain a few miles outside of Sydney, though they weren't quite in the outback, large chunks of metal jutting out of the ground could be seen from miles away, their massive forms dwarfing any nearby trees that remained. The trio walked down the ramp of the shuttle, the Omnic village they were sent to defend wasn't too far away, a klick at most. As they walked to the village they each surveyed the surrounding landscape, it was almost as inhospitable as Deadlock Gorge, though it still held its charms. The wildlife was still present here, several small mammals could be seen running around in the underbrush, along with several birds dotting the sky. The trio stopped just outside of the Omnic village, the gate slowly opened to reveal an Omnic wearing some sort of robe.
"Thank you for coming." The Omnic spoke, walking to greet its guests. "We are happy to welcome members of Overwatch to our village, we owe you a great debt. We are a peaceful village, we do not take place in combat of any kind, why we have attracted the attention of these criminals is unknown."
"I think they just hate you." McCree dryly joked, surveying the outside of the village.
"Well, would you look at that. Looks like the bots picked up a little bit of help, eh, Hog?" A voice spoke in a thick Australian accent, the trio turned to see the pair of criminals had just walked up to the village, uninterested in using any elements of surprise. "Well then, if you're gonna stand between us and the bots there, we're just going to have to go through you!" Junkrat raised a grenade launcher, preparing for the imminent battle. Roadhog silently stood at his side, brandishing a shotgun and hook. "What do you say we go for the lass first, eh Hog?" Junkrat spoke, his companion merely grunted in response. The hook that Roadhog held suddenly shot out, bringing Tracer right to him. She quickly rewound, appearing back at the side of John. "Oh, well that's a nifty little trick!" John had already moved to use a fallen tree as cover, McCree squatted down next to him, Tracer was rapidly blinking around to distract the criminals.
"Okay, let's focus on Junkrat first, I don't want to have a limb blown off." John joked, McCree nodded and began to fire his revolver from cover, trying to the force the Australian to move. John prepared to fire from behind the log when it suddenly began to move. Within moments it was jerked away from the duo, Roadhog had removed their only piece of cover. "Ah fuck." John began to fire at the larger man, intent on breaking his hook. The shots didn't seem to faze Roadhog, he slowly began to make his way towards John, brandishing his hook. Tracer had been blinking around, deftly avoiding the grenades that Junkrat was firing, though the pressure it put on her made her unable to counterattack. McCree had moved from where the log once laid, firing rounds into Roadhog's stomach.
"Go help out Lena, I'll deal with the big guy!" McCree shouted, fanning the hammer of his revolver to rapidly fire into Roadhog's stomach. The large man flinched before grabbing a yellow container from his pocket and injecting it into his mask. John took the opportunity to move closer to Junkrat, the criminals had separated a short distance from when the battle began. An explosion knocked John to the ground, Junkrat had placed a concussion mine on the ground just as the battle began. His DMR was thrown from his grasp, though he had landed closer to Junkrat. The man's attention was still focused on Tracer, and John ran towards him. Leaning into his right side, he threw all his weight into a punch with his prosthetic arm, the heft of the metal added quite a bit of force to his strike. The punch connected with the Australian's face, emitting a sickening crack as the metal collided with his cheek bones. Junkrat was launched backwards towards Roadhog, the larger man glanced down at his comrade. John quickly ran to retrieve his rifle, regrouping with McCree and Tracer.
"You bloody wanker, no one punched Jamison Fawkes and lives to tell the tale! Hog, we'll finish this later, I think we've bought enough time for our friends. I'll be back to finish our little score." He glared at John with fire in his eyes. Roadhog picked up Junkrat and began to run towards a vehicle with surprising speed, before they took off down the roads of the outback.
"What did he just say? They bought time?" John looked to both his teammates, who shrugged in response. Suddenly his communicator rang, he was getting a call from someone. Winston. John brought the communicator to his ear, "Winston, what's up?"
"There's been an attack on the base, it's Talon, they knew we were here. The tried to take some data, but we barely managed to stop them, Reaper was with them. We need you guys back at base, 76 might have some intel on where they're hiding."
"We'll get back there as soon as we can." John sighed, hanging up the communicator and placing it back into his pocket. "Talon hit Gibraltar while we were here, it doesn't sound like anything serious came of it, but we might have a lead on where they're based out of. Seems like we'll be able to settle the score with Reaper." The three quickly returned to the shuttle, Lena took the controls in order to get them back to base as soon as possible, Talon would be on the defensive soon.