Hana groaned in pain. She fought for a few seconds to even get her eyes to open, let alone move anything else. It was hard for her to see what was around her for a few moments, shapes blurring together in gigantic blobs. The low lighting in the room didn't help her while she attempted to reorient herself. As she blinked away the grogginess, she could feel a slight crust flaking away from her forehead, just above her eye.
Didn't take a genius to figure out what that was.
"Jegil," she muttered under her breath, wincing with every blink, "my head's killing me."
A few moments passed as she worked to get herself fully awake.
"What happened?"
"You remember your objective, ?"
The gamer-turned-pilot rolled her eyes. "Yeah, dad! Get in, pressure Talon's supply line, and get out before things get sketchy."
"I'm not your father, ," Soldier:76 answered, "Destroy anything and everything you can to bleed out Talon's front line. Just don't detonate your MEKA suit. It's your only way out."
"I know, I know," waved him off, despite not having a visual communication line open with Overwatch,"I know how to treat my baby."
Shortly after landing at her assigned location, began her mission. As she fired her mech suit's Fusion Cannons, she noticed something off. She was destroying giant containers that contained critical supplies to the soldiers of Talon. She figured she'd have to fight off wave after wave of enemies trying to stop her from getting her job done. Instead, she was basically free to do whatever she wanted. Not a single person could be found in the area. She expected to meet more resistance than none at all.
To any other person, they might see the situation as an easy ride to mission accomplished. To a seasoned gamer like , though, so many red flags went up in her head she was sure she could've triggered several dozen dating sim events to go off at once. She continued to fire away, though, waiting to see what would happen.
It didn't take long for the event to trigger.
Red warning signs popped up everywhere in her mech suit. Her suit all but shut down immediately, rendering an immobile target.
"Oh crap!" she cried out, frantically swinging away at her control sticks. It was like her suit had been hit with one of Ana's sleep darts, only less with less anger and more panic behind her reaction.
"No, no, no!"
More warning signs flared up, this time bearing a 10-second countdown. felt her eyes narrow. She knew exactly what the countdown meant. She mashed at her suit's ejector, trying to escape the inevitable blast. The button, much like the rest of the mech, failed to respond. watched helplessly as the numbers whittled away to zero. Just before the clock ran out, she saw something in one window that immediately told her everything she needed to know about what happened.
A familiar purple, digital sugar skull.
"Oh, you bi-"
"Oh, yeah. That happened. Ugh," Hana shook her head, getting the last of the cobwebs out. She looked around herself, disappointed that the dark room didn't get any brighter once she'd cleared her head. She looked down at herself, noticing something odd.
It wasn't the fact that she was still in her bodysuit. No, if anything, she probably would've freaked out if that was different. No, what she thought was weird was the fact that she was sitting in a chair. A plain chair with nothing significant or distinct about it. Not even any sort of binding that should've kept her in place. Instead, she was just sitting there. As far as she could tell, there wasn't anything there to stop her from getting up and walking straight out of the room.
So, she tried it. And immediately regretted the decision. The second she tried to shift her weight to stand up, her arms felt heavy. Like someone had poured metal into them to weigh her down. She tried lifting her legs, only to come across the same problem. No matter how much she struggled, she couldn't get her hands off the armrests of the chair, nor could she pick her feet up off the ground.
"Wouldn't do that too much if I were you, chica."
Hana's blood ran cold upon hearing the familiar voice. She whipped her head around, trying to locate the voice's owner. A flash of purple light appeared out of nowhere, before a certain Talon agent came into view.
Sombra brought a hand up, curling her fingers in a mock greeting.
"Hey."
Hana growled, trying to disguise her fear. "I should've guessed that whole thing was a trap. Not even sending a drone to poke away at me? Totally obvious."
"Oh yeah," Sombra chuckled, "so obvious that you still ended up falling for it. How did you ever see through my perfect setup?"
"What do you want?"
Sombra feigned shock. "What? What do you mean, 'what do you want'? Are you telling me I can't bring my favorite robot pilot to my organization's secret base without wanting something from her in return?"
"What did you do to me?" Hana demanded, trying her best to look intimidating. Sombra merely chuckled again.
"You know what I like to say. 'Everything can be hacked. And everyone.' So, I did just that. I hacked into your body. Now you'll do whatever I want you to do. Like, oh say, this?"
With a flick of her fingers, a keypad appeared before Sombra. She tapped away at it for a brief moment before one of Hana's hands suddenly flew up. The hacker then forced the raised hand to loudly, and painfully, slap Hana across her cheek.
"Or maybe this?"
She then made the other one come up and, with a bit of childish glee, teased one of Hana's nostrils with a finger. Hana tried to move her head away, only to feel a force push it back into place. The tip of her finger lightly brushed the skin of Hana's nose before letting them drop.
"But, sadly for you, I don't get to do what I want with you."
"Then why am I here?"
Sombra sighed, dropping her own hands. "Well, someone up above thinks that you'll be good for giving us info about everything Overwatch is planning over the next few months. So, you get to take a trip down to Moira's lab for an, 'examination'."
Hana shivered at that. She only every saw what Moira was like in the field, where she was relatively limited in what she could do. The limitation didn't exactly stop her from being absolutely terrifying. But that was without being in a lab. Now that she was going to be in her territory?
Oh hell no!
"Uh, can we talk about this?"
Sombra shrugged. "What's there to talk about? You're with MEKA and Overwatch. You know a lot of stuff about a lot of stuff. Moira wants to get it out of you, so she's gonna do it."
"Look, I don't know what you guys think you know, but I don't really know anything about what MEKA or Overwatch have plans to do. I usually don't even find out about these things until the day of, y'know?"
"Eh, that might be true," Sombra said, "but there's a chance you know more than you think you know. Now, I could go into that brain of yours and check for myself, but where's the fun in that? Nah, Moira wants a crack at you? She gets a crack at you.
"Now, I'm willing to let you walk on your own if you promise to be a good girl. If you don't, or if you break that promise, then I'll make you walk down there."
Hana thought for a moment. She knew she didn't have much choice. She hated the feeling of not being in control of her own body and, whether she liked it or not, she was going to take that trip. She took a deep breath, held it for a moment, then let it go.
"Okay, fine. I'll go."
It didn't take long for Sombra to release Hana's legs. Once she was free to walk on her own, Sombra led her out of the room and down a few hallways, toward Dr. O'Deorain's personal laboratory. In the back of Hana's mind, she was hoping for exactly what was happening. The base was huge, so it took some time to make their way from whatever room it was where Sombra was holding Hana captive to the laboratory. During that time, Hana came up with an idea. It was risky. A world class hacker like Sombra probably wouldn't be that easy to trick.
But, she had to try. Her life was on the line.
"So, you do know what MEKA stands for, right?"
Sombra rolled her eyes, though Hana couldn't see her do so.
"Yeah, I know what it means."
"So, what's it stand for?"
"Who cares?"
This time, Hana was the one to let eyes roll. "I do. I wanna know if you're actually as smart as you think you are."
"Look, I don't have time for these games, kid. You just need to shut up and keep moving."
"Y'know, I'm starting to think you really aren't all that smart. I mean, really. How hard is it to answer one simple question?"
Sombra let out a groan of disgust before spinning around, locking eyes with her captive.
"Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army."
Hana grinned. "Say that again."
Another huff. "Mobile Exo-Force of the Korean Army."
"Of what now?"
"The Korean Army!"
"Who?"
"¡Dios mio! The Korean Army!" Sombra turned around, running her hands through her hair in frustration, "I knew you were going to be a pain in the ass, pero maldita!"
Hana, for her part, tried her best to hold her giggles in. "So, technically speaking, I'm part of the South Korean Army, right?"
The hacker threw her hands out to her sides, her back still turned on the pilot.
"Yeah, I guess! What does that have to do with anything?"
"Well, funny story. The Korean Army likes to teach its soldiers some neat little tricks. Tricks that the soldiers might have to use during a battle."
"Yeah, like what?"
"Well, how to eat right," Hana started, "how to handle a gun. Marching. Following orders. Y'know, the usual stuff."
"I still don't see what that has to do with anything."
"Well, there's something else that they teach us, and that I haven't mentioned yet."
"Oh yeah, and what's that?"
Hana chose not to say a word. The two stood in silence for a second. Just as Sombra was about to spin around and press her captive for an answer, Hana struck. She swung her leg at her captor, delivering a powerful roundhouse kick to Sombra's side. The hacker cried out in pain, her body nearly bowing to the side on impact. Hana turned with her target, watching as Sombra lost her balance. She then threw a hard front kick, forcing the hacker into the wall, hard. Another cry of pain gave Hana the last opening she needed in her attack. Sombra stumbled forward slightly from the impact of her back to the wall, leaving her off-balance enough for Hana to throw one last kick. This one, however, wasn't intended to do any damage. Instead, the young pilot gently, but firmly, pressed her foot against Sombra's throat. The move forced Sombra back into the wall, unless she wanted to choke herself on her captive's foot. The two finally settled down in the hallway, with their roles effectively reversed.
Hana smirked at the Talon agent. "Thank God for mandatory taekwondo."
Sombra tried to bring a hand up in an attempt to re-hack Hana. Instead, she gagged slightly as the foot applied a little more pressure to her throat.
"Nuh-uh. Not doing that again. Not unless you can hack your neck back to normal. Now, listen up, here's what we're gonna do.
"We're not going to visit Crazy Lady so she can do whatever the hell she wanted to do. Nope, now you're going to take me to the nearest exit. Somewhere out of the way, where nobody's gonna notice me leaving. I'm sure you know a spot or two like that, right?"
Sombra didn't answer at first, instead glaring down at her attacker. The two locked eyes for a few seconds before either woman made another move.
"Yeah, I know a place."
Hana's smirk grew.
"Good. Now, I know you like to start crap on both sides, so I think you can see where me getting out of here works for you, too. Nothing like stickin' it to ol' Dumbfist and Crazy Lady by having their only intel source escape, right?"
Sombra's glare intensified. Hana maintained her appearance of control, hoping it would hide the growing fear towards the hacker. But then, Sombra did something that caught her slightly off-guard.
Sombra smiled, though this time, there was no malice behind it.
"You're not wrong, y'know. I have been meaning to find a way to get under Akande's skin lately."
"Cool." With that, Hana finally pulled her foot back, giving Sombra a moment to take a deep breath. No sooner did she exhale, though, did she find that same foot now on her chest.
"Just remember, no funny business."
"Who, me?" Sombra asked, feigning innocence.
"I mean it. Forty frames."
That confused Sombra. "Forty frames of what?"
"It took you forty frames to hack me and make me do that stuff with my hands. I'm pretty sure I can kick you in the head faster than that. Get funny, and we can hold that race."
Sombra put her hands in the air, as a sign of submission.
"Nah, nah, don't need to do that. I'll be good."
Hana finally brought her foot down, standing on both feet for the first time in what felt like hours to her. She subtly moved her leg back and forth, trying to get some blood circulation back in it.
"Good. Now, let's get going."
After several minutes of Sombra leading Hana around the Talon base, and Hana silently doubting the person in front of her, the pair finally reached a hidden exit.
"Here," Sombra said, sliding the grate covering the ventilation shaft in question. "you can use this to get out of here."
"Hm," Hana mused, looking into the duct, "I guess this'll work. You sure this'll get me out?"
"I use it all the time," Sombra said, "nobody'll find out you're gone until it's too late."
"Okay then, I'm outta here!"
"Wait!" Sombra cried out, grabbing Hana by the arm. The pilot shrieked in surprise.
"What?!"
"You need to hit me."
Hana stared flatly at Sombra. "Not into that."
"No, you idiot! If it doesn't look like you actually fought back, nobody'll buy it. Just, like, kick me or something, I dunno."
Hana sighed. Part of her wanted to just walk away. If Sombra got in more trouble for letting her go, then so be it. That's her problem, not Hana's. The other part of her, which only took a fraction of a second to think about, caused her to throw a roundhouse at Sombra's face. The impact knocked Sombra loopy, making her stumble on her feet for a moment.
"Dammit. She better not have broken my teeth or something."
When she came back around, she saw that the girl had run off. She rubbed at her cheek, where the kick had landed, wincing in pain. A bitter taste hit her tongue, forcing Sombra to spit out a small amount of blood. She looked down at her feet, tapping a toe into the ground. She smiled to herself, even though it hurt.
"Maybe I oughta take a class or two."
Translation note: Some of the foreign language used in this story is used with Google research to back it up. If you speak either Korean or Spanish, and you know what better words to use than what I have here, please be sure to let me know. Thanks!
1: Jegil – Korean: Damn
2. Chica – Spanish: Little girl
3. Dios Mio – My God
4. Pero maldita – Spanish: but damn
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