Widowmaker landed the Mantis under cover of darkness. Japan's security system was not what it once had been, not since the Fallout, and she was fairly confident they remained undetected. But because they were not sure she kept the engine idling for almost an hour before giving in and allowing people off the ship.
It had been a long flight, and they were all glad for the chance to stretch their legs. At least, they all seemed glad. Widowmaker didn't know much about some of them, and it was hard to tell what the others were thinking. Reaper didn't show his face, if he even had one. When he stepped off the Mantis he reloaded his guns and stood, dark and angular and tall as a bird of prey. Like an emo flamingo. Road Hog didn't give away much either. For some reason he'd worn that stupid gas mask for most of the flight, and only taken it off to suck on one of Soldier 76's biotic field packs. That could not be healthy.
'Thanks for the flight.' Mercy said. She, like the rest of the team, seemed in good health and good spirits after their rest.
Widowmaker shrugged. 'It was my pleasure. I wanted to come here too, remember. I have a mission to carry out.'
Junkrat was giggling maniacally in the distance. He'd found some of the wilderness supplies stowed away in the hull of the Mantis; spare tyres, bear traps, coils of rope and explosives. He'd never looked happier.
'Why did you want to come here?' Mercy asked.
Widowmaker didn't answer. She had someone to kill, a mission at the forefront of her mind she could not ignore, pushing and pulling at her consciousness with unforgiveable persistence, begging for attention. She did not know where this mission had come from, but she would carry it out if it was the last thing she did.
'How far are we from the main base of operations?' Soldier 76 asked, his gravelly voice interrupting her thoughts.
'Hard to say. A few miles?'
'Are we approaching tonight?'
'You're not approaching anything.' Widowmaker replied. 'I'm still, technically, your superior. You'll be watching the Mantis.'
'And the rest of you?'
'They can do whatever the fuck the please.' Widowmaker shrugged.
Tracer, the young British woman, looked up. She alone seemed upset. The last time they'd spoken Widowmaker had told everyone about the true history of Overwatch, why it had been broken up all those years ago. Tracer was a fan of Overwatch; a groupie. Widowmaker had no use for idealists and naïve little girls.
Soldier 76 nodded briskly, and returned to the Mantis, no doubt to start preparing for the night time vigil. The rest of the group gathered in.
'We're going to try and find Genji.' Tracer said.
'Ah, yes, Mike.' Junkrat nodded vigorously. 'You kiddies keep changing your names and I'll never get the hang of it.'
'Mike and Tracy were fake names.' Tracer scowled. 'And they weren't very good. From now on think of us as who we are. Now who's going to help us?'
There was a silence that stretched awkwardly long. Widowmaker realised, perhaps at the same time as everyone else, that they didn't even know who us was. So far Tracer was the only one with an interest in saving Genji.
'We will come.' Mercy said, gesturing to herself and Reaper. The darkly dressed warrior looked up sharply. 'We helped you and Genji before, and you have returned the favour. Now we will help you again.'
Reaper had not stopped looking at Mercy. Widowmaker wondered if he was speaking to her as he had before, straight into her mind so that no one else could hear. If he was then Mercy wasn't showing it. Those two, Widowmaker knew, had their own agenda. But whatever it was they needed help with it.
Road Hog and Junkrat were yet to pick a side. They looked at each other, one big and slow-looking, the other skinny and wild.
'I wanna see the city.'
'So do I.'
'I'll go with Mercy, then.' Junkrat said. 'What about you?'
Road Hog shrugged. 'Someone should go with Widowmaker.'
The French special agent rolled her eyes. She was supposed to be on a stealth mission, an assassination. She did not need, nor want help. She especially did not want Road Hog, the biggest and heaviest of them all.
But, who knew, maybe he would prove useful? And besides, it would be suspicious of her to decline the offer when the last thing she wanted was attention drawn to her.
Besides, she could kill him if he proved too distracting.
The group parted ways, leaving Soldier 76 to watch over the ship. Widowmaker and Road Hog trudged silently through the overgrowth, not recognising which city they were outside of, but knowing that they were getting closer.
'So,' Road Hog spoke slowly, his voice exactly what Widowmaker would expect a talking rhino to sound like, 'you single?'
Widowmaker sighed. 'You're not my type, piggie.'
He grunted in response.
They came across a wall a short while later. Widowmaker lowered her visor over her eyes and looked around. There were plenty of people on the other side, all armed, as well as vehicles and buildings with dim lights shining in the darkness. Like the hangar they had left at Soldier 76's underground base, this outpost was full of crates and supplies. Clearly it was a frequently used facility.
'What now?' Road Hog whispered, though it still sounded like a bellow in the quiet darkness of night. Widowmaker hushed him, wondered for the umpteenth time if she shouldn't have left him behind.
'Now we get on top of that wall. We have to be stealthy though. Very quiet. Like so.'
Widowmaker raised her arm, fired her grappling hook, and felt it connect. She was instantly drawn upwards, and landed lithely on her feet, crouching low. Very quiet. No one had heard a thing.
Road Hog looked up at her. She looked down, and shrugged. It was not her problem if the big man could not follow her along. He shuffled around on his feet, as if lost, or confused, or a child with a full bladder. Then, finally, he made a decision.
'What are you going to…' Widowmaker hissed, but it was too late.
Road Hog fired his enormous hook up to the top of the wall, chain rattling and clanking all the way. It caught onto the edge of the wall. Widowmaker spun around, looking for any flashes of sudden movement – none. Thank God. No one had heard…
She turned back around as the chain started grinding again. Surely not… Yes, Road Hog was attempting to pull himself up by his hook.
It was a slow process. The first few feet of slack coiled themselves up easily enough, but Road Hog was the problem. He was no more than a few inches from the ground when the chain began to creak and groan in protest to his weight.
'You fat bastard!' Widowmaker hissed.
He growled something inappropriate in response, caught his hook in both hands, and began to pull himself up, scaling the wall. Heavy footsteps thumping on the edge of the stone. She wondered how they had not yet woken the entire base.
After five agonisingly long minutes he reached the top. His fat, flabby hands caught the edge and he struggled to pull himself up, legs dangling behind. Widowmaker grabbed at him and lent her strength, pulling and pulling. First his head, then his upper body. He put his hands on the flat surface and pushed himself up. Inch by torturous inch his enormous round belly scaled the top, rolling over and over onto the surface.
He made it.
'I can't believe you.' Widowmaker snapped at him.
'A picture of grace.' Road Hog mumbled.
She turned to lead him away when the hell of one of her boots clicked against a loose pebble, knocking it over the edge of the wall. It hit the head of a man who had been dozing directly beneath and he jerked awake, looking up just in time to see Widowmaker glancing down at him. His eyes widened.
'Intruder!' He shouted. 'Intru…'
Road Hog dropped down on top of him, crushing the poor man. Widowmaker slipped down using her grappling hook. For a moment – a pure moment, so brief and magical it seemed almost too good to be true – she thought none of the other night guards had heard the warning.
But the moment passed, the spotlights spun to flash upon her, and a dozen guards looked their way. Road Hog and Widowmaker flattened themselves against the wall.
With some incredible sense of previously unseen irony, Road Hog looked down at Widowmaker.
'Now look what you've done.' He grunted.
The Japanese guards rushed toward them, but Widowmaker and Road Hog were a team now, forged in the fiery dangers of wall-climbing. They stepped forward together, raised their weapons, and met the enemy head on.
Bullets flashed past, flickering at the stone behind them. The enemy were still at too great a distance to be accurate. Road Hog lashed out with his hook, caught hold of a large heavy crate, almost twice as tall as a man, and dragged it back toward him for cover. Widowmaker leapt on top of it, crouched, and raised her sniper rifle. She called it the Widow's Kiss. Tonight many of her enemies would greet death with a final kiss.
A shot to the right, then to the left. The Japanese fell, one after another. Below her, reaching around the side of the crate, Road Hog hooked an enemy closer and obliterated him with a blast of his shotgun, close range.
A Japanese soldier was sneaking up on Road Hog. Widowmaker threw a venom mine down without thinking, and it activated, delivering its deathly toxin straight into the breathing mouth of the soldier. He choked, fumbled backwards, and fell over.
She spun in time to see an enemy climbing to the top of the crate. He had a gun pointed at her already, and she realised there was little she could do but…
The soldier disappeared, pulled back down. Widowmaker looked over the edge and saw Road Hog flinging the man to the ground as if he weighed no more than a bag of dirty washing. The big man looked up, winked at her, and then returned to the fight. Widowmaker turned her attention to those enemies further away, who were only now waking up. Some were rushing across the wall, others were moving in and out of the guard houses, perhaps sending alerts to the headquarters. She fired again, and again, and again. Then she reloaded, wondering how many more would appear before she could return the weapon to its holster.
A flash from the corner of her eye caught her attention. She turned, noticed a Japanese man clambering into a vehicle, powering it up. The hover vehicle leapt into the air and two mounted guns, one on each side of the fender, began pumping. Rapid automatic fire shattered the crate under her feet and Widowmaker was dumped to the ground, where she landed almost on top of Road Hog. He also dropped to his belly.
'What now?' The big man asked.
'Wait for it to reload.' Widowmaker replied.
'Wait for what?' Road Hog asked again, over the noise of the rapid fire.
'For the…'
The bullets stopped. It was impossible to say if it was reloading or not. Widowmaker didn't care. She scrambled to her feet, past the broken wooden remains of the crate, and sprinted towards the car. The driver gunned the engine, and sped towards her. A few more seconds…
Widowmaker swapped the Widow's Kiss into fully-automatic mode and sprayed the front of the hover car with bullets. Three seconds… two seconds… one….
A hook latched the front of the car on an angle and it spun, suddenly tethered, whooshing past Widowmaker with only a few inches to spare. She turned to watch it.
Road Hog, of course. The big man had dived to one side as soon as Widowmaker was on her feet, and was now standing several meters to the left of her. He'd hooked the oncoming vehicle at the last possible moment, and its own momentum was now pulling it past. The manoeuvre never would have worked on a normal car, but these new hover cars had so little traction…
Road Hog released the hook, and the car dashed forward on its new course – straight into the wall. It exploded, sending flames and pieces of scrap metal dancing through the air. Widowmaker turned back, just in case there were any more enemies, but there weren't. Finally, finally, they were free.
Her bulky ally came up beside her, laid a heavy hand on her narrow shoulder.
'You saved my life.' He said, at the exact same time as she said the same. She smiled at him, very briefly, then cleared her throat and looked ahead.
'See that?' she asked.
Road Hog looked up. Before them was a much taller wall, a much larger base. The outskirts of the headquarters. Not the city itself. This was certainly not Tokyo, or any of the other major cities. But this was Genji and Hanzo's father had built himself an empire, and much of the Japanese military was now based here. If she could get inside, she had no doubt she could find the man she had to kill…
Road Hog nodded. 'What are we waiting for?'
(Tried to add a bit more humour into this one. Is anyone still reading?)