The rumors of potential Talent agents conducting human trafficking in and out of Satya's home had been confirmed by the couple a few days ago. Talon was sending people that they found on the streets to correspondents all over the globe to be experimented on. Satya neighborhood her old one at least seemed like a proper candidate due to the poverty levels and the number of abandoned people in the streets. Stealing children mostly. The thought sent chills in Satya's blood. An Overwatch informant had discovered Talon operatives rounding up over a dozen or so people that they'd be shipping out of the docks tonight. Winston had assigned McCree and Vaswani to investigate Talons newest location, set up tracking of their movements and stop their pick up. "Here they come," Jesse whispered when the Talon agents deployed from the cargo hold of the massive vessel once it docked. Most of the deck crew were found by Sat and Jess incapacitated no doubt because of the Talon agents already present and waiting to load their cargo. Four heavily armed agents made their way over to a faded green crate where two others were standing guard. "That must be it."
Next, to those three agents near the crate, there were also five more paroling the perimeter. "I can deal with the men surrounding the crate." She turned to her partner. "Do you think you can handle the others?"
The cowboy smirked as he straightened his hat. "I'll lay down a distraction, that'll be yer cue to move."
"Understood." Satya nodded, descending from the top of the crate where they were positioned and began to sneak towards her target. McCree followed suit and made his way to the other end of the platform. His body weaved through the maze of crates, making sure he remained as quiet as possible. McCree had never been one for stealth, wasn't built that way, but with proper guidance from his Blackwatch days and Satya's teachings, he became a natural. Once Jesse was certain his positioning was perfect near three assailants, he removed a small hand-held device from his belt, a gift from Satya. The pressure from his hand activated the gadget and attached it to the metal of the canister next to him.
"Freeze!" He did for only a moment when a gruff voice sounded from behind him. The heroes spin shuttered when he felt the end of the long weapon being shoved into the back of his head.
Slowly the Cowboy obeyed and raised his hands up, unbeknownst to his assailants that he was grinning ear to ear. "Bang." He spoke to the device then quickly stepped to his left and closed his eyes in order to evade the powerful flash the small device produced which blinded the assailant and three more of his company. Satya looked over the four unconscious bodies that laid at her feet after Jesse had concluded his brawling with them. "Damn." He muttered under his breath shaking his fleshed hand and rubbing the knuckles.
Satya giggled. "Ever so rough."
Jesse cocked his eyebrow to her. "You never complained. "
"True enough." Satya shrugged. "Behind you." She pushed McCree aside and with the snap of her fingers activated her barrier shield to protect both of them from a spray of bullets that sprayed against the shield with a loud ping. The woman jumped back when Jesse quickly shot the three men dead.
"Thanks for the assist, Darlin."
"Of course, my Dear." Satya's mind raced when one agent managed to get ahold of her from behind. A sharpened pain ran through her bionic arm when she became violently pinned against another canister. Jesse drew his gun again but couldn't get a clear shot on the thug. Satya's body struggled to get away, but the attacker wouldn't let up. Satya refused to let this stop her, she refused to let Talon win. The attacker yelped in pain and released Satya when her heel slammed into her attacker's groin causing him to drop his weapon. The lovely woman whistled up to the turret she had deployed above her who delightfully zapped the attacker into unconsciousness. "Well done my darling." She praised the small device.
Jesse rushed to her side. "You okay?"
"Hold it!" Both the Cowboy and the Architect turned back to see that one Talon assailant had drawn his weapon on a young boy who was shivering in his grasp. The boy looked between the age of ten or eleven. His hair was shaved down, his clothes were torn and dirty and his eyes were filled with tears and fear. "Get down on the ground or I'll shoot." The pair froze, taking the agent by his word. If they tried anything that young child would meet his end. Together the pair backed off, unsure of what they could do next. Satya's eyes only glanced up to the very top of the crate above the thug where another of her clever little turrets was positioned. Jesse was quick to grab the boy from the agents grasp and pull him close the moment the Talon agent released him after the turret zapped him.
The small boy whimpered in Jesse's embrace. He was terrified but the Cowboy was excellent at comforting him. "It's ok little guy, I've got you." Relief filled Satya when she saw the boy safe with Jesse. Her eyes then turned to the agent who had held the young boy at gunpoint. Her hand waved over her photon projector, charging the device and pointing it directly down at the agent. The wonders of the projector are that no matter what object the beam was lifting the weight was insignificant. If the controls were changed the photon beam was able to apply immense pressure, it was a modification that Symmetra had been working on for a while. She hadn't tested the mod yet until now. She appeared pleased with the results as the Talon agent cries in pain when the photon beam began strangling his body while it lifted him from the ground. "Symmetra!" Jesse called as he began to work on the lock of the crate that was holding her people. She paid him no mind, she was preoccupied.
"You are a villainous ruffian." She spat at him. Every few seconds that passed she increased the pressure enjoying the man's cries of pain more and more. "How dare you threaten my people!"
"Sat!" Jesse ran after her when she started moving the thug over the side of the pier, but couldn't stop his girl from dropping the agent into the cold water of the pier. He was relieved that the thug was still alive, just floating in the water. Satya wasn't a killer and he didn't want anything to change that. She didn't speak to him after that.
"You are safe now," Satya announced to the terrified pack of individuals once she and McCree managed to finally open the doors of the canister. The people were hesitant at first, but their doubts soon faded once they were sure that their rescuers were here to help. As the group rushed out of their steel prison, they thanked their heroes in both English and Hindi which Satya was teaching to Jesse. Both of them knew it was time to disperse once the authorities began to show up. The weight in Satya's chest from earlier began to die down, but yet she still remained unsatisfied. Jesse watched her curiously as she constructed a dozen turrets with her biotic and deployed them inside the canister. J helped his girl close the doors again allowing the crews to take it back on the vessel. "A gift for Talon when they come to claim their prize."
Jesse was hesitant to that idea for a moment. "What if workers open it instead?"
"The turrets will know to only attack Talon agents. I've also programmed them to act as homing devices. They'll track the ship wherever it will end up. Once we know we'll be able to dispatch a team." Satya's brilliance never stopped amazing him. Not only was Symmetra properly getting back at Talon for harming her people and invading her home, but Overwatch now had a way of tracking their enemies' movements. The duo watched from a distance. The Talon operatives were taken into custody and the captives were rushed to the hospital. They had arrived quicker than expected so any hopes of interrogating any of the agents were dissolved.
The portal closed after the pair was safely back home. The teleporter at the docks would then receive a signal to break down its hardlight construct.
"You kinda lost it there for a moment." Satya knew this topic was far from unavoidable. "You wanna talk about it?"
Satya snapped, much to Jesse's surprise. "No, I do not!" The cowboy silenced himself after that. He only watched as Satya changed into her nightwear and climbed into bed without another word. This was a problem the pair shared, bottling up their problems rather than discussing them. It was a character flaw that both were working to fix. It was late and J thought it best to drop the matter for the night and try to pick it up again tomorrow. It was hard to tell if Satya was sleeping or not when Jesse climbed into bed with her. She was curled up on her right side and facing away from him. He knew she wasn't mad with him, she was angry at herself.
The late hours were only ticking away so slowly, driving Satya crazy as she laid awake. She turned on her left side to face her sleeping partner. Because of the blackness, she wasn't certain if Jesses was awake. His steady breathing indicated that he had to be sleeping, then again, he wasn't snoring, perhaps he had just gone under.
"Jesse?" She whispered, lightly taking his shoulder. "Are you awake?" Jess stirred with a low grump he cleared his throat.
"yeah…I'm awake." The blankets rustled when he laid on his back and Satay elevated her body above him. "What's wrong?" It took him a moment to recall what now must have been bothering his partner.
"I need to speak with you."
He groaned sheepishly when he sat up. "Yeah, I figured that when you woke me." Satya gave him a half smile, feeling guilty for pulling him from his slumber. "You were thinkin bout the Talon agent, aren't you?"
Jesse could have used a warning when Satya flipped on her side lamp since he had been unknowingly staring right at it. "Sorry." Sat apologized, quickly shutting the light off to restore the room to its darkness. Satya moved closer to him, wanting to feel the warmth of his body to comfort herself. She positioned her upper body up on his lap
"I'm sorry I snapped at you." The architect sighed after a moment of silence between them. "I was…..am….frustrated with myself." Satya hesitated. "I didn't mean to act so violently. I don't know what came over me."
Both of Jesse's arms secured around his girls' body in warmth and security. "It's alright Darlin. I've had my fair share of lash out." This statement only slightly surprised Satya. Jesse being the rouge he once was implied that he
The tone of voice he had indicated to Satya that they were past events he was not proud of.
"You've never told me that."
"I was ashamed to." He admitted. There were still a few gaps in Satya's knowledge of Jesse's Deathlock days. He had, of course, told her the question she had wanted to know since day one, that being how exactly he lost his arm. To this day the tale still shook her. They both had shared those stories with each other when they were ready. There had been a lot of painful memories in both their pasts, these led to both not trusting very easily. But naturally, over time they learned to open themselves up to those who
"How do you properly handle it?"
Jesse paused. "Dunno….I guess admitting that you've done something wrong helps." Jesse was taken aback when he heard faint cries coming from his girl. She pulled away from him to bury her face in her hands. This time J turned on his side lamp. Satya began to calm down to the sound of his heartbeat and the faint whirring of the gear in his biotic as he ran it up and down her back. Satya counted the seconds of each pause between beats in her head.
"I don't believe that we've driven Talon out of Hyderabad." Satya sighed whipping her eyes. Jesse knew she was right. From the looks of it, Talon was just beginning to set up their operations in India. The two of them had only managed to delay them, not scare them out of the country. But now they had concrete proof of Talons movements, now the local authorities would be able to keep tabs on them.
"We'll handle it," Jesse reassured, securing her in his arms. "They can't hide forever." A sense of reassurance came from his words.
"So much disorder. How can they tolerate it?" Satyas want for harmony was nothing new to Jesse, but at the time it had been challenging for him to understand. Maybe he couldn't fully understand it because he wasn't built for it. He had once only fed conflict for his own needs, while Satya worked toward order for all humanity.
"I'll help to shield you from it." He promised, placing a kiss on Satya's forehead. "I promise."
She believed him when he clutched her lovingly. She wasn't afraid of what would come next. "Could you read to me?" She asked in a whisper, looking up to see Jesse smiling. "Only Until I fall asleep?"
"Of course." He removed his book from under his pillow and opened to the previous chapter. He laid back on the mattress while propping his head up so Satya could lay against him. Satya had always loved when Jesse would read aloud to her, he possessed such a soothing voice. Jesse waited until his girl was comfortable enough and closed her eyes for him to begin reading. The gentleness of his words mixed with the warmth of his body settled Satya into a dream filled slumber of security. "I'll always be here for ya Darlin."
(Will post the final chapter soon.)