Chapter 3:

The evening wind blew against Scout's skin as he headed back down the hill. He paused for a moment, seeing Hana and Lucio standing a few feet away while talking, and he ran right up to them.

"Boo!" he exclaimed as he jumped behind Hana, and she startled.

"Oh!" Hana turned around, looking annoyed, but her expression changed when she saw who it was. "Well? Did it work?"

Scout winked at her, giving a thumbs-up. "You betcha! Guess who's back in business?"

Hana gasped excitedly, leaping up and high-fiving him. "Oh, my gosh! You remember- that's so great!"

Lucio exchanged a high-five with Scout as well, but he looked somewhat puzzled. "So, you're just...him, now?"

"Uh, yeah!" Scout scoffed. "If I'm gonna be honest, I'd rather be this guy over Dylan any day. Dylan? Dylan, who? His life was borin' as hell! He had no job, nothin' to prove, and he got no girls. But the Scout?" He smirked at Hana, leaning towards her. "Well...he's a different story,"

Hana's brows lifted, a look of amusement written across her fine features. "Oh, my God, are you hitting on me?" she pressed a hand to his chest and pushed him back a bit, snickering. "Thanks, but no thanks!"

"Aw, come on!" Scout persisted. "Ya' sure? After we're done here, we can-"

Lucio cut in, changing the subject. "Hey, so what did you remember about Black Flu?"

"Wh-" Scout stopped. "Oh! Yeah! Okay, so listen-" he took a breath. "The, umm...the stuff- it was in jars, and Medic didn't need it, so he had it mailed to...uhh," he winced at the memory. "The...see-dee-see, I think. CDC! That's where he had it mailed to,"

"CDC..." Hana repeated, touching her index finger to her bottom lip in thought. "I know that name, it stands for something,"

"Isn't it 'Center for Disease Control'?" Lucio mused aloud.

Scout perked up. "Yeah! That's it! Medic gave it to them so they could destroy it. He wrote a note to go with it, too,"

"Wait!" Lucio exclaimed, the tone of his voice making the other two startle. "The CDC! They run that database where Winston found the paper on the Black Flu poison!"

Hana blinked, her mouth falling open in realization. "Then, that means...the paper must be the note your Medic wrote!"

"Come on!" Lucio took Scout's arm, tugging him in the direction of the base. "We have to tell Winston!"

Everything suddenly seemed very overwhelming. Not only had Scout just received a good chunk of memories from his former life, now he was involved in some type of conspiracy. Or was it even a conspiracy? Was it a coincidence? He had another thought: if he was here, in a new life, was the rest of his team out there somewhere?

He tried to shake these feelings away as he followed his new companions to their base.

Within the base, there was an area known to the members as the Computer Lab. It wasn't really a 'lab' at all, though, more of a hallway with computers lined up against the wall. It was a quiet, nice place to work, despite the awkward location.

At the moment, Winston wasn't there to use the computers for anything. He preferred to do work on his own private computer, but today was different. The lab computers needed to be updated, and he'd put off the update for quite some time as he knew it would take much longer than he would like.

Now, he sat in a computer chair, watching the timers run on each computer. The update had only ten minutes left, though it felt like an eternity. What made everything less painstaking, though, was that he wasn't by himself this time. Tracer and Mei had wandered in, waiting to use the computers, and stayed to chat for a bit.

"Did you hear that Adel Heinz is about to be executed soon?" Mei remarked, scrolling through her phone.

"He is, is he?" Tracer sighed, sipping on her can of ginger ale. "Serves him right, I guess. That's what happens when someone kills their family for no reason," she turned to look at Winston. "Do you believe in the death penalty?"

Winston didn't look away from the timer. "Death penalty? Ah...no, I don't,"

"Really?" Mei sounded surprised. "Even for someone like Adel Heinz?"

"Mei, Adel Heinz is mentally disturbed," Winston glanced at her briefly before looking back at the screen. "He needs a doctor, not death,"

Tracer tried to argue. "Yes, but it was still murder!"

Winston turned around in the chair and started to say something, but the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs stopped him.

"There you are!" Hana announced when she saw Winston. "Hey, we gotta talk to you,"

"About what-" Winston halted when he saw a young man he'd never seen before standing there. "Uh- who is this?"

Scout stared at Winston in pure confusion before stating, "I don't mean'ta alarm ya, but you're a gorilla,"

Winston feigned a dramatic gasp. "What!? I am!? Oh, good God, I had no idea!" he snorted, shaking his head. "Seriously, who are you?"

"Hey!" Tracer sat up, climbing out of her seat. "Oh, my gosh, you're the bloke I found in the desert!"

"I thought Angela sent him home," Mei murmured, mostly to herself as she stared at Scout.

"Are you the gal who saved me?" Scout found himself looking Tracer up and down as she went to shake his hand. "Thanks, I owe ya one! Jeez, you're cute, too,"

Tracer felt her smile falter. Oh, boy, she thought to herself. Is this the way it's going to be?

She pretended she hadn't heard the last part. "Please, I would have done it for anyone. No one else was around but me and Jamison,"

"Yeah," Scout continued, hooking a finger absent-mindedly through a belt hook on his jeans. "Almost like...fate, or whatever,"

Behind him, Hana leaned over to Lucio and whispered, "Do we tell him, or...?"

Winston cut in before the awkwardness could continue. "Hi! Nobody's answering me: who are you?"

"I," Scout began, lifting his head proudly and pretending he wasn't horribly overwhelmed. "Am the guy who's gonna help cure Black Flu! See, you found a paper written by a medic, and I knew him! The name's Scout,"

Winston stared at Scout for what felt like a whole minute before he finally responded. "...Really?"

"Yep!"

"All right, then," Winston crossed his arms. "Tell me, Scout- how did you 'know' the author of that document if he died several decades ago?"

Scout had already mentally prepared an answer. "I knew him in a past life! We worked together, he was our Medic. Dunno where he is now, but-"

"For crying out loud," Winston groaned, covering his face. "I-I'm sorry, I really don't mean to sound rude, but...past lives? Are you...? Actually, you know what?" he did a sort of 'go-on' gesture with his hand. "Humor me. Tell me: what do you know about the Black Flu chemical? What did your Medic tell you?"

"Well, uh..." the impending anxiety started to wash over Scout. He became very aware of his situation: a gorilla was staring him down with a look that seemed to be drilling a hole in his head. When Scout had left for a job interview that morning, this certainly wasn't the predicament he'd expected to find himself in. But, no, no- Dylan was the one being anxious. Dylan would turn and leave and forget about all this. Scout was different. "Medic didn't tell me anything. He gave the samples to our Spy, who put it in the mail. I'm pretty sure what you read was the note that went with it,"

"That really doesn't help-" Winston began, but Hana cut him off.

"No, no!" Hana insisted. "The Spy mailed it to the CDC!"

This got Winston's attention. "CDC? As in- Center for Disease Control?"

Scout nodded. "Yeah, Medic mailed it to them to have it destroyed,"

Winston thought this over, and he gave Scout a somewhat suspicious look. A nearby computer made a 'ping' sound, indicating it was done with the update.

"Hang on for a second," Winston turned to the computer, logging in. "Let me pull up that document from the database,"

He tapped some keys for a few minutes, clicked on something, and then muttered, "We'll just see-" he froze, his expression changing. "What!? Are you kidding me?"

Tracer leaned over his shoulder, glancing at the screen. "What's wrong?"

"The document's gone!" Winston's voice was full of disbelief. "But- I don't understand! It was here a few hours ago,"

Within seconds, everyone else was crowded around the computer and offering suggestions.

"Try refreshing the page," Lucio suggested. "Maybe it's just not loading,"

"Did you click the right link?" Hana asked.

Winston was growing more and more panicked. "Of course it was the right link- I had it saved from earlier!"

"Don't get upset," Mei tried to keep him calm. She pointed to some text at the bottom of the screen. "What does that say?"

In the document's place was a short note. It went like this:

Attention, readers,

This original document has been removed by our editors for presenting incorrect information. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Sincerely,

The officials at the Center for Disease Control.

"Wow," Scout whistled. "Now I know somethin's up,"

Winston turned around, his eyes resting on Scout. "This is ridiculous, but I'm willing to give it a chance," Winston spoke with a very slow and deliberate voice. "If you're really the Scout who worked with that Medic, we need to know if you have any idea who he could be in this life. Have you met him? Have you met anyone who looks like him, or even remotely reminds you of him? Try to think,"

Scout pressed a hand to his chin in thought. "No," he admitted after a moment. "I'm sorry, I haven't met him,"

"What about the Spy who mailed the samples?" Hana piped up. "Do you know him?"

"I don't-" Scout paused. "Wait...aw, shit!" he began pacing while chewing on his lip. "Shit, shit shit, yes, I do. Oh, God, and not only him, either," he flopped down in a computer chair, spinning himself around a little. "God dammit...at least three guys I worked with then are in my life, now. They've been here the whole time. God dammit..."

Mei hesitated, and then reached out to touch his shoulder with her fingertips. "Are you...is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Scout stood up, barely giving Mei a glance before reaching for his phone. "I gotta make a phone call, where can I...?"

"Down there," Lucio gestured down the hallway.

"Thanks," Scout murmured, turning away and beginning to dial a number.

A familiar clunking sound radiated from the staircase, and none other than Junkrat leaped from the stairs and onto the floor.

"Are the computers working?" he wanted to know in a very loud voice, only to be shushed by Mei. "I was just-!" he noticed Scout standing several feet away, and he started to ask, "Did it work?" but he got shushed again.

"You're so loud!" Mei hissed.

Junkrat scowled and acted like he was about to argue, but Hana tapped his shoulder. "Hey, Jamie! This computer's working," she logged in for him and pulled up a game. This seemed to distract him for the moment, or just long enough for him not to interrupt Scout's phone conversation.

The ringing sound jingled against Scout's ear as he chewed on his lip and paced around. "C'mon, dad, pick up,"

There was a click, and then, "Hello, Dylan," he sounded oddly calm.

"Hey, dad," Scout tried to sound under control. "Listen, we need to talk,"

"Yes, we do," his father agreed. "How was your job interview?"

Scout tried to think of a believable answer. "It, uh, it went pretty good, I guess-"

"Stop lying!" his father snapped. "The employer called me. He said you never showed!"

"Yeah, but that's because-"

"Oh, I don't want any excuses! You're too old to keep living under my roof anymore, Dylan,"

Scout felt himself heat up, and he clenched his fist. "Oh, yeah? Why don't ya tell that to John and Ferguson? Also- I ain't going by Dylan anymore,"

"What!?" the man almost spat over the phone. "Are you high, mon fils?! Where are you!?"

"Why don't ya come get me using that little trackin' app of yours?" Scout teased. "I know you still use that app to keep me reigned in. Does it ever occur to you that maybe I'll act like an adult when ya start treatin' me like one!? No, of course, it doesn't, Spy!"

Scout ignored his father's French insults as he hung up and shoved his phone back into his pocket. He turned around briskly, walking back to the others.

"So, Spy's my dad, and he's probably comin' to get me," Scout began, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. "Until then, I'm gonna stick around a while. I hope ya don't mind..."

"I'm sorry, but I do mind," Winston sounded agitated. "We would all feel a lot better if you found somewhere else to stay for a bit-"

Tracer broke in. "No, no, he can stay for awhile! After all, Winston, this wouldn't be the first time we let strangers stay here," when Winston gave her a quizzical look, she made a slight gesture towards Junkrat. Junkrat didn't seem to notice, as he was too involved with the computer game he was playing.

Winston drummed his fingers against the table, thinking, and he rose up. "All right, fine. Do what you need to do, I'm going back to my office to get some things done,"

"Isn't our team dinner tonight?" Lucio called after him as he headed for the stairs.

"No, it's tomorrow night," he answered back. "I changed it, remember?"

When Winston had gone, Scout flopped into one of the chairs. "What's his deal, anyway?"

"He's just been stressed lately," Tracer assured. "A lot's been happening, he's a little punchy," she changed the subject. "Are you sure you want to stay here? There's a motel not too far away, I could drop you off-"

"Nah," Scout waved her off. "I'll hang out here," he turned his head to watch Junkrat play the computer game. It appeared to be some very old, first-person shooter game.

"All right, then," Tracer sat at a nearby computer and logged in. "I'm just gonna be working, don't mind me,"

Scout watched the screen for a few more seconds, and he turned to smirk at Tracer. "Working, huh? Is that code for 'playing minesweeper'?"

A little snicker escaped Tracer. "How'd you know?"

Further away, Mei punched in a few numbers on the vending machine as Hana approached her.

"I hope he doesn't keep hitting on Tracer," Hana remarked in a hushed voice as she leaned against the wall. "He's gonna be pretty embarrassed when he learns he was flirting with a lesbian,"

"Mm," was all Mei responded with, retrieving her can of soda. "He'll find someone, I'm sure. He's very cute, even though he is kind of annoying,"

Hana gaped at Mei, and she turned to glance at Scout. "Oh, my God, Mei. Is that someone gonna be you?"

"Stop!" hissed Mei, playfully shoving Hana's arm as she giggled.

A/N: Hi, everyone! I hope you've been enjoying this so far, I've worked pretty hard on it. The response has been pretty good so far, so thank you all for favoriting/following this story and reviewing it!

Sorry if this chapter seemed a bit uneventful, but this is just a set-up for stuff that happens later. I'm also getting sick...damn seasonal allergies.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you stick around for the next chapter!