When Genji woke up, he was sore everywhere. Every movement he made him wince, especially his back. He honestly wanted to go back to sleep. But he remembered that he got woken up, and it was probably the time for the debriefing of the mission. He cursed under his breath.
The mission wasn't a total failure, but it wasn't exactly a victory. He wasn't looking forward to hearing everything that he did wrong. The only thing that saved their life (probably. …OK, maybe a bit more than just a probably) was the intervention of this "Mockingbird" person. He hadn't heard about them, but Gabriel did, and they knew his boss well enough to enter the private communication link that they had…
Or they hacked into it. That could be it, too. Either way, Gabriel didn't seem that surprised that they managed to slide their way into their comms. In any case, the cyborg was glad, if it wasn't for all the questions that ensued in his mind. He hoped they would be answered during the meeting.
The ninja stood up, wincing at the pain. Time to get ready. He wondered what type of clothing he would take on, before shrugging and taking a hoodie with some slim pants. Both black, of course. As was his entire wardrobe… Ah, there was some red here and there, he saw.
He sighed, closing the closet. This was going to be a day, wasn't it ? He was already looking forward to the end, so he could sleep and hope for a better day tomorrow.
He got out of his thoughts. He needed to go to the briefing room now, or else he'll be late. He didn't want attention on him.
He walked into the briefing room, noticing that he wasn't the first, but certainly not the last to be there. Not exactly the last, to be more precise. Everyone was there besides Cassidy, which made him arch an eyebrow, but he didn't comment on it. He sat down next to Gabriel, in front of Moira. He didn't answer her greeting, barely shooting her a glance.
Genji as well as the others waited patiently for Cole, the sound of the commander talking quietly to someone breaking the cold silence.
When the cowboy finally arrived, he was almost late. He looked grumpy, as did everyone else, but it actually looked rather faint on his face. The only way the ninja could tell was because he knew him rather well.
Noticing the newcomer, Gabe told something to his interlocutor on his phone, then turned to his team.
"Glad to see you are all here and on time." He stated, meeting everyone in the eyes. "Now, before we go into what went wrong, I'd like to formally introduce you to one of our best intel providers, Mockingbird. He was the one helping us all yesterday." Gabe put the call on the screen, and there was only an image for a bird as a profile picture, and no face. It was a mockingbird, he assumed.
"You flatter me too much, honey~" Mockingbird replied, a laugh in his voice. "Nice to meet you all, even though it's by distance. I wish I could've seen you properly, but I have things I have to take care of where I am." He explained, not sounding that apologetic.
"King will be staying here through the call, and hopefully give some insight as to what went wrong," Reyes said, looking at the screen with an unreadable face. 'Someone did a fuck up' he thought. Nothing went as planned. Genji had his doubts about the intel that they got to have. He could tell the other agents were, too.
"I will do my best~," the informant said, probably with a smile. The Shimada furrowed his eyebrows.
"First off, the number of agents was almost double of what we were told and prepared for. Any explanations ?" The commander questioned, wary.
"Ah, so we will be pointing fingers ?" There was a slight change of mood in the room. Barely noticeable, but enough to make his hair perk up. "I relayed the info given to me. I even went on the field to get to know the place. How could I have known that they had double the staff for this particular night when there was nothing important happening. They were supposed to have half of the staff there. That's why I chose this night. But I had a gut feeling, and told you the normal amount." There was a pause. "I even warned you, honey. You're barking at the wrong tree, here." He explained. The tone was normal, surprisingly. Still with the same deformed and almost robot-like voice, though. The story was good enough and made sense.
"Then how did you know we were in a difficult situation ?" By the answer, the source wasn't surprised to have this question next.
"I told you, I wasn't feeling it. I know that may sound weak, but my gut feeling is usually right. So I decided to hack into the comms of the warehouse, and I was right." There was a sigh. "Hacking them wasn't the hard part, it was hacking yours. Took me a while. Man, I get why it's so hard, but please tone it down a bit ? A bit more and I think there would've been casualties on your side, too."
"When did you realise ?" Cole was the one to speak up. He seemed pretty convinced, but there was still doubt on his face.
"When things started to go wrong for you. I was listening to their side, and I went to work pretty quickly." That was… The mission duration was about 3 hours, and about an hour in they started having problems, not long after everything went shit.
"So it took you 2 hours to hack into our link ?" Moira asked, but it was more of a statement.
"Listen, I'm not a hacker guy, I can hack but it's by far not my speciality. I worked as fast as I could."
"Impressive," Gabriel said out loud. Genji didn't think he was supposed to say that, seeing the surprised look on his face.
"It is ?" Mockingbird mumbled, but the cyborg heard it. He wasn't sure that it was the case of the others, too. "In any case", he continued with a stronger voice, "we need a solution for that matter. But I can't call the shots, so it's up to you, honey."
Reyes stayed silent, seemingly deep in thoughts. A moment passed before he nodded.
"Yeah, right. Do you still have access to the commlink ?"
"I put a backdoor on it, yeah."
"You can delete it, I'll grant you official access." The Shimada was slightly surprised. "But do not distract us. If you're on the commlink it's right to the point, no chit-chat. Understood ?"
"Got it, honey." He smiled.
"I'd also like for the agents to give them some sort of contact info, a way for you to reach out to them, so you can get to know one another, and build some sense of trust."
The agents in question grumbled an affirmative response. The ninja was already in a more sour mood than usual, he hoped that this new contact wouldn't worsen it. He will have to see, he could always not answer.
One by one, they gave their preferred contact info. Genji gave his number and received a message to confirm it was the right number. He received it, and simply gave a noncommittal answer. Apparently, that was enough for the informant to understand.
After that, they were all dismissed, and the Blackwatch agent went into the training area, despite his sore body, and against the wishes of Dr Ziegler. He won't do much more than aim training, though. He barely got to start throwing a few shurikens that he felt his phone vibrating.
Mockingbird
Sooo…
How's your injury ?
He stared at the message. Why would he care ? He went back to shooting a few shurikens, before sighing and deciding to answer.
Genji
It's alright.
Simple enough. He wasn't one to talk a lot, anyway.
Mockingbird
You should rest
Your body needs it~
How did he know that he wasn't resting ? Oh well. He threw some other ones before writing a response.
Genji
Then stop messaging me.
Mockingbird
From what I read of your case
You tend to overwork yourself
I'm ready to bet you're doing that
Like right now
Sooo…
I won't hehe~
Called out. Wait, his case ?
Genji
"From my case" ?
Mockingbird
Ye
Reyes gave me y'all files
I'm reading them rn
Huh. He would've liked his authorisation for that… Hopefully, it's nothing too personal. He didn't like it when people knew too much about him, especially when he knew nothing about them. Maybe he can remedy that.
Genji
Since you know so much about me, tell me a bit about yourself.
Mockingbird
Ooo
Getting curious aren't we ?~
Genji
I simply want to even it.
Mockingbird
Whaddya wanna know ?
Genji
Anything.
He had long forgotten why he was here in the first place, too enthralled by the conversation on his phone.
Mockingbird
Well
Ok
Hmm…
My pronouns are he/him
I've been an informant for some years now
Got a lot of connections so if you need anything
You know where to find me~ :3 C:
He stared at the emoji. And at his phone in general. He stopped writing, meaning that it was done. That was…
Genji
That's it ?
Mockingbird
You haven't unlocked the rest yet~
Genji glared at the screen. He had to admit, he was pretty curious, but mostly frustrated over the little info he had over the probably very long files.
Genji
What do you know about me ?
Mockingbird
The files are long
But a lot of it is censored
Sensitive info, I guess
I only know what you look like
And like
Basic things
Mostly trivia
That reassured him. He wanted to ask more, though.
Genji
Give me some trivia knowledge about you.
Mockingbird
Damn
You're really hating the fact that I like
Know things about you when you don't know things about me
Am I right ?
He chose not to answer that call out. Fortunately, Genji didn't have to.
Mockingbird
But ok
I'll humour you
I'm pretty tall
180 cm
Or 6'
Hmm…
I like joking around~
I don't know if you're the type to like jokes tho
Hope you are tbh
Friends tell me my humour consistsof bad jokes
I just think it just doesn't tickle their funny bones
I'm also an insomniac
Dunno what timezone you're in
But if we're on the same…
I'm only half sorry.
That good ?
The Shimada read up all the messages. Good enough, yeah.
Mockingbird
I'm taking your silence as a yes