Soldier 76 was first out of the Mantis when they landed, but Widowmaker was not far behind. Then followed Reaper and Mercy, and last of all Tracer, Junkrat, McCree, and Road Hog. They left Hanzo Shimada tied up inside. He was a liability. No one trusted him – not yet. Widowmaker, it seemed, was still deciding whether or not to kill him.

Soldier 76 looked around. The cathedral they had chosen to land in was vacant, as he had hoped, despite Widowmaker's prediction that their target "Sombra" would have set up her base here. They had not landed on anything important other than some discarded machinery, a few crates, and a dozen Omnic carcasses. Soldier 76 kicked one to make sure it was down.

'So,' he said, 'welcome to King's Row.'

They had flown over the expanse of the "city", and it was surprisingly impressive. Whatever it had started as, it now covered several suburbs, a considerably large part of London. Large enough to home thousands of people. Tens of thousands, maybe. At each exit was a pile of machinery and debris built up like a wall, to keep out enemies.

And there were plenty of enemies. They had seen these, too, as they flew over King's Row. A million robots and a million undead, vying for positions to get inside. The Omnic virus had driven these machines crazy. Soldier 76 did not know when that had happened – when he'd been commissioned to fight, so many years ago, many Omnics had been good. They had helped members of Overwatch, and the members of Overwatch had helped them in return. Soldier 76 was old enough to remember Mondatta, the prophet of the Omnics, who had called for peace.

Somehow, all of that had been lost. Now the Omnics were mad with a lust for death and, even more strangely, the newly dead were stumbling around, hungry for life.

'Well,' Mercy said disapprovingly, 'clearly the person we need is not here. We should start up the Mantis and keep looking.'

'No.' Widowmaker shook her head. 'I believe Sombra will be close by. And I also believe that we will have more luck on foot. 76's HUD and my infra-red display can…'

'I think this is a democracy.' Mercy interrupted. 'There are several of us here. We have all earned our right to speak.'

'Actually,' Widowmaker narrowed her eyes, 'it isn't. I'm in charge. The ship is mine, and the only other person who knows how to fly it is a clone who has explicit orders to follow my directions. So you'll do as I say.'

Mercy didn't look happy but, as she looked around, she clearly realised her allies were lacking and did not push the point further. Soldier 76 had no idea what Mercy knew, as they hadn't had a good chance to talk. But she seemed smart. Smart enough to know that Reaper was planning to betray her, maybe.

McCree spoke up, his characteristic drawl sounding bored and possibly even annoyed. 'If we were voting I'd say we should leave all together. This place is a death trap I ain't so willin' to stick my foot in.'

76 said nothing, as usual, but noticed plenty of the others nodding ever so slightly in agreement. Even Junkrat, who twitched as McCree spoke, seemed to like the idea of leaving.

But Tracer was shaking. 'I hate this place more than anyone,' she said. 'It was once my home. Or the closest I ever had to home. This is the country I was born in, for God's sake. Seeing it like this… makes me sick. But we don't have a choice. If we don't find Sombra, we don't find Winston. And if we don't find Winston… I die.'

Even as they watched, she flickered. Time was pulling her apart at the edges. She was losing her tangibility. No one understood it exactly, but it was clear that her blessing – the ability to jump through time – was also a curse.

'You're not that important to me.' Road Hog growled, his voice as deep and dark as a raging inferno. A few people gave him shocked, angry stares, but he shrugged through it. 'I look out for me, and Junkrat. That's it.'

Junkrat pat his buddy on the arm, but even the Junker looked shaky. After what had happened to him in Japan, it was no surprise.

'I think we need to do this, big guy. Tracer's helped us a few times. But then, once this is over, we go our own way. Let's make that clear, right now.'

No one argued. Soldier 76 looked at Reaper, who looked straight back at him. Neither of them had spoken. They didn't plan to. They would go with the group. Soldier 76 decided he would take extra care to keep an eye on the dark-clad figure. It would be tough to fight a war when you couldn't trust your own allies not to stab you in the back, but the truth was Soldier 76 expected Reaper to start gunning them down at any moment. He couldn't let that happen.

'Right, that's settled, more or less.' Widowmaker nodded briskly, ready for business. 'We rescue Tracer.'

76 smiled darkly at that. Widowmaker made herself sound like a true hero, fighting for others. The truth was they were here to get Sombra. Whether or not Sombra even could help Tracer was yet to be seen. They were taking Widowmaker's word for it.

He steadied his rifle in the crook of his arm. Now that a decision had been made he fell into a commanding position naturally – he'd been leading raids and defensive holds for years, after all.

'Right. We already known that there are enemies outside, because we saw them gathering from the Mantis. We need to push through, and we need to do it quickly or we'll be surrounded. Junkrat, take those stairs to the upper window of the cathedral and rain grenades down from above. Widowmaker, go with him and pick off their leaders. Road Hog, you go left around that bus and draw their attention. Mercy stick with him. Reaper, you can teleport, right?'

Reaper nodded, but said nothing.

'Go straight across to that far balcony, behind the statue, and start picking off their long range defenders. I'll go right around the bus on foot, with McCree. We'll catch them in a cross fire and gather at the statue.'

Tracer looked confused. 'What about me?'

Soldier 76 shook his head. 'You stay behind. We need someone to watch Hanzo – he's dangerous. And besides, in your state, you would only be a liability. The seven of us will have to do for this mission.'

Tracer looked ready to argue, but decided against it. She knew Soldier 76 was right, it was just hard to admit.

'Ok,' 76 looked at his assembled team. 'Let's do it.'

Road Hog threw himself against the large doors of the cathedral and it popped open, hinges shattering, wooden slats splintering. There was quite a crowd of enemies gathered outside – more than Soldier 76 had anticipated. For a moment he thought he might not be able to pull this off after all. Then the grenades dropped down from above, and everything was thrown into glorious chaos.

The enemies, a mixture of heavily-armed, bedraggled men and women, scattered as the grenades fell, explosions rocking the cobblestones. A few shots flew in the direction of the Soldier 76 and the others, but Road Hog caught them with his bulk, and Mercy immediately healed his flesh. They pushed outwards from the doorway.

Road Hog fired his hook, and caught a woman with a shotgun. She was torn through the air towards him, and he took her out with a single shot from the scrap gun, then tossed the woman's body away. The obese warrior took a few more shots with his improvised gun, shrapnel spraying in all directions, causing the remaining defenders to fall back.

Meanwhile Soldier 76 and McCree worked as if the whole thing was choreographed. They made their way to the right of the bus in concert, moving side by side around each other as if playing some demented game of leapfrog. Soldier 76 sprayed a line of bullets and a line of enemies dropped dead in showers of blood. McCree had his six-shooter at arm's length and was pulling the trigger with deft precision, taking out one after another after another. There was a gathering at the stairs to a building on their right. McCree threw a flashbang grenade and Soldier 76 fired a helix rocket. Half a dozen enemies were decimated in an instant.

McCree pushed forward to the front of the bus. He poked his head around, then gestured for Soldier 76 to come closer.

'There's a lot of bad guys hiding through those walls,' he drawled. 'Road Hog's on the other side of the bus with Mercy, but he can't get a clear shot.'

Soldier 76 nodded. He looked at the building to their right. It was large, at least two-stories high. If he was lucky, perhaps it would have some sort of balcony from which he could get a clearer look…

'Stay here, provide some cover.' He instructed. 'I'm going to try and flank.'

He entered the building and found a few more enemies huddled around some computer equipment. A few quick shots took care of them. He felt bad about shooting these men and women. What if they had not meant to kill him? What if they were the last free remnants of humanity?

No. They were criminals, scum. This was a community of the worst of the worst. They had gathered outside the cathedral with only one goal – to see the intruders killed.

Soldier sprinted up the stairs, taking them three at a time. One of the criminals fell down on him, a knife in hand. 76 dodged the first slash by pushing himself to the left, against the wall, then threw a punch hard enough to kick the criminal toppling down the stairs. He continued upwards.

On the second floor were more enemies, which he quickly took out. It didn't take him long before he found a balcony to his right, overlooking the courtyard with the statue. It was a statue of an Omnic – an Omnic that Soldier 76 recognised from before the Fallout.

Mondatta.

He did not know much about Mondatta, but he knew that the Omnic had aimed for peace. There was a sense of irony in the Omnic's position here, in King's Row, where he watched peacefully over a violent display such as this.

Soldier 76 looked down. From here he had a clear view of the enemies behind the wall – the same ones which were successfully stopping Road Hog from getting through. As he watched some grenades fell, scattering the enemies. The loud crack of a sniper rifle rang out, and two men fell, a bullet had passed straight through both of their heads. At least he knew Widowmaker and Junkrat were still doing their best.

76 looked up again, and saw Reaper, standing on a rooftop on the opposite side of the courtyard. The spirit of death was walking through a dozen enemies, men and women, felling one with each shot. The Hellfire pistols blazed with light, their hunger sated as the souls of the departed filled the air like musk.

76 shivered. He did not like that Reaper. He would kill him if he had to. In fact, he would do it just for the pleasure, as soon as he got the opportunity.

But for now, it was time to focus. Soldier 76 turned his gun on the enemies behind the wall. They still hadn't noticed him. It was all too easy to pick them off with his pulse rifle from above – like shooting clay pigeons that had not even been thrown into the air yet. In a matter of seconds he cleared the area, allowing Road Hog, Mercy, and McCree to step through. Widowmaker and Junkrat followed up behind, having now abandoned their positions in the upper window of the cathedral. Soldier 76 leapt down, his genetically strengthened legs absorbing the impact, and went to stand by his friends. He arrived at almost the exact same time as Reaper, who had flown over in his smoky wraith form.

Widowmaker looked exhilarated.

'Well, that was glorious,' she beamed. 'And this is only our first checkpoint. We may need to fight our way all the way to the other end of King's Row before we find Sombra.'

'If she's even here.' Mumbled Mercy, who did not seem to be enjoying this plan. Although the humans were criminals, they were still humans, of which there were very few left in the world. As if that weren't bad enough, every person they killed would soon rise again. The hungry dead would inhabit King's Row, and all would be lost for the community that had made it their home.

Soldier 76 tried not to think about that. He was merely following orders.

Widowmaker, meanwhile, pretended not to hear what Mercy had said. 'There must be, what, thirty dead? Forty?'

'Thirty six.' Reaper's voice echoed in their minds, and no one questioned the number. When it came to death, Reaper was the expert.

Widowmaker smiled. 'Thirty six. Terrific. I think my work here is done.'

'You didn't even do anything.' McCree looked unimpressed with the sniper.

Widowmaker's spidery grin only grew wider. 'You're welcome.'