Stage 37: Tournaments and Hacking!

"You want me to do what exactly?" Zenyatta asked, floating next to Winston's computer looking baffled while Winston, Tracer, Genji, and Hanzo all stood in the lab together staring at him.

"A while back, you said you could transfer your consciousness to other machines," Tracer said. "So if we hooked you up to the computer you could travel through the Internet to figure out the hacker's true identity, right?"

"Theoretically yes, but I have never tried it before," Zenyatta responded nervously. "Also, I am not very familiar with the Internet and could get lost if I'm not too careful."

"That's where I could help," Genji said stepping forward. "While my brother was busy training to be the next Clan leader, I was doing some amateur hacking on the Internet. Nothing more than a pastime, I got pretty good at it until my near fatal accident."

"Thanks for the reminder," Hanzo grumbled.

"I wasn't trying to offend you, brother," Genji said assuredly. Then he turned his attention back to Tracer. "Anyway, since I know quite a bit about hacking I could hook my mind to Zenyatta's and instruct him while he's in the Internet."

"Is that possible?" Tracer asked Zenyatta.

Zenyatta nodded tentatively. "Genji does have the parts necessary to link his mind to a machine as well, but unlike me he cannot fully transfer his consciousness due to the risk of his human brain deteriorating in the process."

"How can you be certain that won't happen while you're connected to Zenyatta?" Winston asked Genji.

"I won't be entirely connected," Genji explained. "Only part of me will, so my brain won't deteriorate while I'm guiding Zenyatta inside the computer."

"Do either of you have a rough estimate of how long this will take?" Hanzo asked.

Genji and Zenyatta looked at each other and shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Tracer said nervously.

"We have no idea," Zenyatta answered. "But we're willing to still try it for the sake of preventing future incidents of this 'hacking' business."

"Then the sooner we get started, the better," Winston said and turned to his computer. "Athena?"

"Yes, Winston?" Athena's voice said through the monitor.

"I'm going to override your security systems to allow an Omnic to mentally transfer himself onto the Internet in order to find the hacker who's been trying to break into the student files recently," Winston explained.

A series of dots appeared below the logo on the computer screen and then Athena said, "Is the Omnic trustworthy?"

"Yes," Winston nodded. "He's a Shambali monk and a friend of my adopted sister."

Several more dots followed and Athena said, "Security override accepted."

"Thanks, Athena."

"You're welcome."

So Zenyatta stopped floating and sat down in the swivel chair while Genji pulled a second one next to him. Then Zenyatta and Genji took a cord from each of their ear-holes and plugged them into the computer's outlet and the back of Zenyatta's neck respectfully. After a few seconds, the lights from their eyes died down and they were completely silent.

"I'll keep an eye on them to make sure everything's going all right," Winston said to Tracer. "You and Hanzo should be getting to that tournament about now."

"Right," Tracer said and Blinked to the front door of the dorm. "See you later!"

"If you don't mind, I'd rather stay here," Hanzo said, hesitating to leave.

Winston snorted loudly. "Are you concerned about your brother?"

Hanzo turned away to hide his reddened face. "N-Not at all, Winston! I just thought it would be easier having two people watch Genji and Zenyatta instead of you."

"That is a good point, but Athena's watching them too. So you're free to go to the tournament if you want."

"Very well," Hanzo said heading toward the door. He stopped partway out of the lab and looked over his shoulder. "Call me on the CommLink if anything happens."

"Good luck, sir!" Winston said giving Hanzo a thumbs-up.

###

"Hi, everybody, how y'all doing?" Lúcio said as he skated onto a wooden platform wearing metallic rollerblades, blue armored pants with green kneepads, matching blue fingerless gloves, a green sleeveless shirt depicting a smiling frog face with headphones, yellow-tinted glasses, and a yellow headset. When the crowd made a minimal response, Lúcio took the microphone from its stand and held it close to his mouth. "I'm not hearing that noise! I said, how y'all doing?"

This time, the crowd responded much more loudly than before.

"Whoa, now that's more like it!" Lúcio acknowledged. "All right, listen up! Today's a special day not only cuz I'll be performing tonight to promote my new album but also Principal 76 has announced the lockdown on our school is officially over!"

The crowd cheered and clapped excitedly.

"So to celebrate, let's get this Hero Bash tournament underway!" Lúcio said enthusiastically as a holographic image appeared behind him. "As you can see here, everyone's going to be fighting in a series of one-on-one bouts with the winners moving onto the next round while the losers walk away. The participants may use whatever weapons they desire, but no fatal injuries or accidents are allowed! If the participant is disarmed and can't fight anymore, they will be taken out of the tournament and healed by Mercy if need be! Everyone got that?"

"Yes!" the crowd shouted unanimously.

"Good!" The chart behind Lúcio changed to still images. "For the first battle of the first round, we've got Tracer who hails from Great Britain and has a way of disappearing when you least expect it. Then just when you think she's gone for good, she'll appear at the most convenient time for her!"

As Lúcio spoke, Tracer Blinked into the stadium wearing her costume as the crowd cheered.

"Look out world! Tracer's here!" Tracer said waving to everyone politely.

When the crowd noises died down, Lúcio continued. "Her opponent this round is Junkrat, a genuine Junker from the Outback of Australia who may have a few screws loose in the head but he sure loves to blow things up with his arsenal of hand-grenades and land-mines!"

Then an explosion occurred at the other end of the stadium followed by Junkrat flying through the air and landing opposite of Tracer.

"It's a perfect day for some mayhem!" Junkrat said and glared at Tracer. "I hope you've come prepared, mate!"

"I'll beat you before you've even moved!" Tracer said putting her fists up.

"Are you ready?" Lúcio said as a countdown appeared behind him.

The crowd cheered as the numbers went down to zero.

"Fight!" Lúcio shouted.

To be continued…