A/N
Hello everybody. Thanks for reading this story. Not a long Author's Note. this time around. On to the disclaimer.
Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own is a few characters and the plot of this story.
Now onto the story.
Watchpoint Gibraltar
As 76 and Ghost stood shocked at the entrance of the base, they were soon blinded as the lights all turned on. Shutting off the night vision and letting their eyes adjust, the two looked around and saw the complete opposite of what they expected. Instead of the base being run down and overgrown like the outside suggested, the interior was well kept and clean.
"I don't think this base is abandoned, sir." Ghost said readying his pulse pistol. Unlike 76, he had opted to leave his rifle back at the hideout, saying it was much each easier to conceal only the pistol as well as move around quicker without the rifle and wasn't expecting much trouble. Now he was starting to regret that decision.
"You are correct, Agent...I don't believe we've met before. You're IFF tag indicates that you are Darren Drake yet the bio scan indicates otherwise." Athena announced as the two stood on high alert. "Scans show that your DNA is similar to that of Agent Drake meaning..."
"Agent Drake was my father." Ghost said. "And you said this base isn't abandoned. What did you mean by that? I'm not seeing or hearing anyone else. No security teams trying to stop us, no Overwatch members going about their business, not even automated security."
"Affirmative. Watchpoint Gibraltar has been home to Winston, who kept me maintained and active still the collapse of Overwatch and is now the HQ of the newly reformed Overwatch. Currently, six Overwatch agents inhabit the base but all are currently on a mission to rescue Overwatch agents from high risk areas or extract agents that have requested it. Once scans showed it was the commander, automated security stood down. Commander Morrison, shall I reactivate you as an Overwatch agent and re-instate your command status over Overwatch."
"Negative." 76 said before grumbling under his breath, "What's the point of bringing Overwatch back? Would have been better to let this all go." Unknown to him, Ghost heard what he said.
"I don't know, sir. I guess someone believed the state of the world was in such bad shape that they needed heroes again to help save the day." 76 glanced at his companion and thought about what Ghost had said. While he personally didn't believe Overwatch's revival was the best course, he knew with a Second Omnic Crisis about to erupt, the world could use heroes once again.
'But I'm not a hero anymore. That part of me died with Jack Morrison." 76 thought to himself. The two continued their way to the armory in silence. As they walked through the corridors of the base, 76 noticed Ghost glancing at him every so often. "Is something the matter?"
"Just wondering, sir. You say that there's no need for the Overwatch anymore but when we got the recall, you thought about answering it and said that we'll eventually answer it. Why?" Ghost asked. 76 just sighed.
"A lot of memories in this place. Not all of them were bad. You're right in assuming that the world needs heroes again but after last time, I'm not sure the world is going to accept them again."
"Them? Come on, Jack, you're a hero too." Ghost said.
"Not anymore." After that, the two walked once more in silence. It was unnerving to be walking down the empty hall of the base. Both felt that any moment, someone would just jump out at them from around one of the corners, making them check their corners in every new room they entered and hallway they passed through.
"Commander, there are no other agents in the facility. There's no need exercise caution." Athena announced.
"You mentioned that all the agents are away on a mission earlier. Why? That seems like a bad decision tactically to leave your headquarters undefended."
"This base isn't undefended. The automated defenses of this base are operational, thanks to Winston. The other agents went with Winston due the high danger level in the areas several of the agents are in. Confrontation with hostile factions were likely."
"Still a bad idea in my book." 76 chimed in.
"I will pass the comment on, Commander."
"Delay that. And don't call me that. I'm not the commander anymore."
"Shall I call you by something else then?" 76 took a moment to think about it before answering.
"Call me Soldier: 76 and we were never here."
"Understood. Deleting log of your entry and accompanying surveillance footage." Athena said. "And what about the identification of the son of Agent Drake?" 76 looked at Ghost, who just shrugged. The two stopped walking as they stood in front of the armory doors. Walking up to the keypad next to the door, 76 put in the his access code. As the door opened heavy set of doors opened, a terminal in the security checkpoint near the doors came to life. Ghost walked up to the terminal to see it had an agent registration window open.
"What is it?" 76 said walking over.
"A new agent registration." Ghost said. "What do I do, sir?"
"Up to you. It's clearly meant for you since I'm already registered." Ghost stopped and thought about it for a minute before responding.
"I'm going to fill it out. Should be helpful for when we join forces with Overwatch later on down the road, granted they don't shoot at us first for being vigilantes." Ghost sat down and quickly filled out the required information. 76 grunted in responds and glanced over Ghost's shoulder, seeing the name he entered in, James Hawke.
"Hawke?" 76 questioned.
"Hm? Oh yeah, it's something my parents did when I was born. They knew their line of work would make them a few enemies, more so when dad joined Overwatch. So they agreed that it would be better that I have mom's last name in case someone got their hands on Overwatch agent info since mom never joined Overwatch after the Omnic Crisis. That's why so few people knew my parents married and it was never put into in agent database." Ghost said as he typed, letting out a sad chuckling at the memory and how protective his parents were over him. 'If only you two could see me now.' 76 just patted Ghost on the shoulder. He knew Ghost didn't normally talk about his parents and knew he missed both of them greatly, especially his mother. "Head on in and resupply. I'll be done in a few minutes." 76 just nodded and was about to walk through the doors when he stopped.
"Athena."
"Yes, Soldier: 76?"
"Warn us if anyone comes in or if Overwatch comes back."
"As you wish."
"And Athena, reactivate me in the agent database."
"Affirmative." the electronic voice of Athena sounded notably happier at this. "Shall I still use the Soldier: 76 as your name and your current appearance?"
"Affirmative." 76 said before walking into the armory. Unknown to him, Ghost overheard the brief exchange and smiled under his mask.
As 76 walked into the armory, he found it have plenty of ammo, both pulse weapon energy cells and ballistic ammunition. While loading up on the ammo he was lacking, 76 heard footsteps as Ghost entered the armory.
"I'll give them credit, Overwatch is definitely more prepared for combat operations than we are at the moment." Ghost said, letting out a whistle as he enter. "Who do you think is supplying them?" he asked as he started filling up pouches with ammo. 76 just shrugged and picked up some extra ammo. Ghost quickly filling his pouches with ammo and was looking around to see if there was anything he could take without Overwatch noticing. From both him and 76 taking their fill of ammunition and then some, they barely made a dent in the supply they had. Before he could pick out something, Athena's voice sounded throughout the bases intercom.
"Incoming dropship. Awaiting identification codes." Athena announce. Following the announcement, Tracer's voice came over the intercom giving the identification codes. 76 and Ghost cursed under their breath and quickly set everything back into the general area they were in when they walked in. "Confirmed. Welcome back Tracer." 76 and Ghost swore again for how carelessly they wasted time and sprinted out of the armory. 76 stopped by the door and hit a few keys on the keypad to close the armory doors. Sprinting down the halls, they quickly went the way they came from, hoping they could get out and avoid Overwatch in process.
"Athena, double check to make sure all record of our time here is replaced with a continuous loop of an empty base." 76 said while running.
"Affirmative, 76." Athena said just as Tracer was finished talking about the mission.
"76? My designation isn't 76. Are you feeling alright, luv? Do you need me to tell Winston to run a maintenance check on you when we land?" Tracer asked. 76 swore once more.
"Negative. My systems are running at peak optimal conditions." Athena said.
"Alright, well we're beginning our landing now. Tracer signing off." With that, there was a click of the radio channel shutting off. As Ghost and 76 arrived by the outside portion of the base, near the launch pad, they quickly retreated back indoors as the dropship approached the hanger.
"We'll have to take the long way around. Come on, follow me." 76 said running off down a hallway with Ghost following close behind.
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As the dropship entered the hanger, one of the agents called out to rest of the agents on board.
"Did anyone else see that?"
"See what?" Winston asked, moving toward the window to look out of it.
"I'm pretty sure I saw movement outside. Like something ran off down one of the hallways."
"That's strange. If there is someone at in the base, the automated security should have taken care of them but we can't be to sure. When we land, I'll run a scan of the base while everyone else do a sweep of the base. This should also give those of you who are unfamiliar with the base a chance to familiarize themselves with it." Winston said turning to the other agents. "We'll split up into three teams of six and one team of four." Everyone nodded in agreement. While all were exhausted from a long day and crossing multiple time zones, they knew that the sooner they got this done, the sooner they get to go to sleep. Feeling the dropship land, they all gathered up their gear and split up into their teams. Reinhardt, Tracer, and Mercy lead one group as they knew the base better while McCree and Genji lead another for the same reason. Winston took a team of three other people to head back to his lab and start the scan. As soon as the dropship doors opened, each team piled out and took off in seperate directions to start their investigation. "Athena, any breaches in security?"
"Negative."
"Tracer did mention you made a mistake when talking to her earlier. Is everything alright?"
"Yes, Winston."
"Alright, well start a bio-scan of the base and let me know the results." Athena went silent for a few moments before responding again.
"Scan complete. Results show 24 human life signs in the base." This surprised and concerned Winston. There were only 22 of them on the dropship.
"Everyone, we have two unknowns in the wondering the base. Keep your eyes open and immediately report if you see anything." Winston notified everyone. "Athena, you said there were breaches in security." Winston asked as he hurried back to his lab.
"There weren't. Both are Overwatch agents. Both IFF and biometric scanner proved it as well them having the proper access codes."
"Did they take anything? Agent locations or data? Operation logs?" Winston entered the garage and quickly climbed up to the second floor and checked his computer.
"Negative. All data, classified and declassified have remained untouched." Just like she said, all data was there. No sign of hacking or even anyone entering this room.
"So what could they want?" Winston asked himself. "Athena, bring up the surveillance footage from today." A window opened with the requested footage. Winston watch each camera angle of every entrance in the base only to find nothing. "How they get in?" Winston grunted in frustration. "Has anyone found anything?"
"Hanger and main entrance is clear. We will stay here and make sure no one can leaves." Reinhardt's voice came over the radio.
"Launch pad and board room clear. No sign of them yet." McCree said.
"Barracks clear. Moving to secure armory." One of the of the Overwatch agents they pick up said, he and his team leaving the room. Unknown to them, Ghost was hiding in that very room.
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Ghost watched the Overwatch team leave the room from his cloaked position on top of the lockers. Waiting for a minute to make sure they were actually gone, Ghost moved from his position and walked over to the door and peeked out.
"They're gone." Ghost let out a sigh of relief. He and 76 were forced to split up to avoid Overwatch more effectively. They agreed to rendezvous outside to escape but getting there hasn't been the easiest task. Staying put to let his cloaking device cool down, Ghost kept an ear open for the sound of approaching footsteps. For the first couple of minutes, nothing was heard until finally the faint sound of someone running could heard. At first he thought it was 76 but as the running got closer, he realized the footsteps were too light to be him that and there were gaps in the running as if they were running then a split second of nothing then running once again. Cloaking, Ghost backed off to the side of the room and watched once more. Just as he got to the side of the room, a young woman burst into the room with pistols drawn. She had on some kind of metal device over her chest, which intrigued him but at the moment did feel like the it was the appropriate time to ask. He recognized the woman but couldn't remember her name at the moment.
"Come out, come out wherever you are." the woman said in with a British accent. She looked around the room until her eyes fell upon where Ghost was standing. Noticing a shimmer in the air there, she was about the get a closer look when the sound of boots caught her attention. Turning around, she was soon greeted with McCree and Genji walking through the door.
"Howdy there, Tracer"
"Hello, Lena."
"You two spot anything? I can't seem to find anything."
"Nothing." McCree said with a sigh. "Whoever's here is doing a mighty fine job keeping himself hidden." Ghost watched as the two conversed, hoping they'd leave, when he noticed the third stopped walking in front of him, with his back turned to him. The other two seemed to notice this as well and turned their attention to him.
"Something the matter, luv?" Tracer asked. Genji gripped his katana, drawing it slightly.
"We are not alone." he said. At that moment, the sound of gunfire drew all their attention. Ghost took this as his opportunity to make his move. Luckily for him, there were two entrances to the room and he was near one of them. As the three Overwatch agents turned to face the direction the sound came from, Ghost stood up and uncloaked and jumped toward Genji just as his radio crackled to life. Hearing this, Genji turned around just to catch Ghost's fist to the cheek of the helmet. Shoving him into his two friends, Ghost sprinted out of the room and up the stairs, six shots from the McCree's Peacekeeper impacting the wall directly behind him.
"Sorry!" Ghost yelled as he shot up the stairs and muting his radio. Reaching the top, he quickly made his way out of sight of the stairs and re-cloaked just as Tracer shot up the stairs and quickly scanned the area before blinking toward the direction she thought he would have run. Soon enough, McCree and Genji were out of the room and following Tracer. Once they were gone, Ghost let out another breath of relief. Getting ready to move once again, he unmuted his radio and called 76. "Sorry about that, sir. My position was compromised by a green cyborg ninja dude. Can I assume that's you making all that noise on the other side of the base."
"Affirmative. I got spotted by one of their agents when I was changing positions. I got a squad trying to chase me down. I'm heading toward you, be ready."
"Got it. I'll take them out." Ghost said drawing his pistol.
"No. Do not fire at them. We're already on bad terms with them, killing one of their agents will only make it worse."
"Then what the hell do you want me to do, use harsh language?"
"Just be ready." 76 said.
"Fine but I'm jumping in if things start to go south." Ghost huffed in frustration and headed toward where 76 was coming from. As he watch 76 come around the corner, he noticed 76 had basically lost the team chasing him but before he said anything, Reinhardt, who took up the entire doorway, step out from a different doorway followed by Doctor Ziegler and three other agents. Soon enough they joined in the chase and soon enough 76 ran out of room to run. With his back against the wall, 76 put aside his rifle and turned to face the agents chasing him. The three agents part of Reinhardt's team were the first to reach 76 but all of them were out of breath form running so much. Noticing his weapon against the wall, the agents kept their weapons trained on 76 and cautiously approached to apprehend the vigilante. However, once one of the agents tried to zip tie 76's hands behind his back, 76 headbutted the agent, sending him reeling backward, before kicking another one. Reinhardt, who was observing the situation, wanted to get into the fray but knew that he would only end out hurting his men so he stayed back to insure the vigilante didn't escape. As 76 grabbed another agent and held him in front of him, the other two groaned and threw down their rifles and engaged the enhanced soldier in hand to hand combat. Kicking the agent he was holding into one of them, 76 ducked under a punch and shoved his elbow upward into the man's jaw. One man took out a baton and tried to hit 76 from behind only to get backhanded. As the baton was in the air, 76 grabbed it from the air and smacked the third agent with it as he tried to rush from the other way. As the three men laid on the floor groaning and somewhat bleeding, 76 just sighed and slung his rifle on his back before looking back at Mercy and Reinhardt. From behind them he heard panting and saw the group he had ran away from earlier now with McCree leading them.
"Well what do we have here? What's a masked vigilante like yourself doing in a place like this?" McCree said slowly walking forward.
"You know in the eyes of the law, we're all vigilante" 76 said.
"Fair enough. Now I have one question for you." McCree said tipping his hat with his left hand and his right moving toward his revolver. "Do you feel lucky?" The two men stared each other down. As McCree was about to draw, the sound of ping came from behind him.
"Grenade!" One of the agents behind him yelled as all of them jumped in different directions to get away from the grenade. McCree on the other hand, dove toward Reinhardt as the larger man put up his shield to protect Mercy and McCree. As the group braced themselves for the grenade to go off, 76 took the opportunity to make a break for it while they were distracted. 76 got a few meters before Mercy noticed him running.
"Wait!" The rest of the group turned their attention to Mercy before looking at the direction she was facing. As they saw 76 running, the agents who weren't covered by Reinhardt's Barrier were hesitant to stand by or move and fire at him with an undetonated grenade in close proximity.
"It's high noon." McCree said, drawing everyone's attention as he stood up and lined up with the shot with 76's head. As he was about to draw Peacekeeper, he was interrupted when Ghost ran up behind the cowboy and slid, grabbing his leg and standing up quickly, flipping McCree and uncloaking in the processes. Everyone stared at the man who literally appeared out of nowhere for a moment. Mercy, being the first to react, swung her staff to strike Ghost, only for him to dodge at the last moment and slip past her. Once past the medic, Ghost sprinted after 76, hoping to catch up with the older soldier. However, once he rounded the corner, 76 stopped him. Looking in front of them, Genji and Tracer stood in their way.
"Dammit." Ghost sighed before getting ready to fight. "I'll get the ninja, you get the teleporting girl?"
"Actually, it's time travelling and don't bother. There's too many to fight at once." Just as he finished, Reinhardt shot around the using his charge with Mercy flying close behind and McCree and the other agents running behind her.
"We can take them. This is just like that one time in Mexico with Los Muertos after you made sure that little girl got home safe." Just as he said, Winston landed in front of Tracer and Genji with his team not far behind. "Well...shit." Ghost though for a moment before speaking up. "We're not getting out of this but I have an idea."
"Oh? And what's that?" 76 said as the large group of Overwatch agents trained their weapon on them.
"Don't shoot! We surrender!" Ghost yelled loud enough for everyone to hear and put his hands up. Everyone just stared at him as if he went crazy as he removed his sidearm and put it on the ground.
"That's your plan? Surrendering?" 76 just looked at him before putting his rifle on the ground and putting his hands up as well. "There better be more to this plan."
"Hey, if you want to get shot, that's on you but I intend on making it through this to keep fighting. We got a war to win."
One of the teams of agents approached the two men and quickly zip tied their hands behind their backs and shoved them to their knees as the another two collected their weapons. Once they were sure that their new prisoners were secure, Winston approached them.
"Who are you two and how did you get into this base without tripping security?"
"You left the front door unlocked and we were curious." Ghost answered sarcastically, which got him a rifle butt to the back of the head. 76 didn't take well to that as he stood up and was about to beat down the agent with his hands tied behind back for assaulting his partner before being shoved back down to his knees. "Ow, dick. Hell, can't take a fucking joke."
"Answer the questions." the agent behind Ghost said, roughly forcing him back onto his knees and getting ready to strike again.
"Fine. We're here because of the Recall. We're Overwatch agents. That's why security didn't attack us when we entered. Go through the database, we're both there." Ghost said.
"Athena?" Winston asked.
"One moment, Winston...yes, both Ghost and Soldier: 76 are in the agent database."
"Ghost? I thought your codename was Wraith, Darren?" Mercy asked, approaching the two prisoners. Ghost perked up at hearing his father's name and turned as far as he could to look at doctor.
"Sorry, ma'am, but Wraith died nearly a year ago."
"Then why do you have his armor. And don't lie. I know its not yours."
"Fair enough. Darren gave me the armor when he past away. 76 and I were there when Talon attack his home. Old man didn't go quietly though, that's for sure. Killed every last Talon operative that entered his house." Ghost said with a sad smile under his mask as he played back the day he lost his dad in his head, thinking of all the things he could have done differently to save his dad's life. He was brought out of his train of though as that Mercy spoke to him.
"May I?" Mercy gave a small tug on Ghost's hood. Ghost just nodded and leaned back as Mercy pulled down his hood.
"What are you doing?" Winston asked.
"Just because they are prisoners doesn't mean I will refuse them proper aid." Mercy responded. Turning her attention back to Ghost, she quickly found what she was looking for. On the back of Ghost head a blood freely flowing out of the cut from where the rifle butt impacted his skull. "The fact that you are still conscious is remarkable."
"My dad always said I had a hard head." Ghost said with a chuckle. However, the chuckle turned into heavy breathing as the adrenaline left his system and the pain began flooding in, followed by dizziness. "I don't feel so good, ma'am." Ghost said with a slight sway. Using her staff, Mercy quickly flicked on the healing setting and use it heal the injury.
"There you go. You should be fine now. I healed the injury. The dizzy feeling will go away in a few minutes. If he passes out, bring him to me immediately." As Mercy began to walk away, she heard Soldier: 76 say something that caused her to stop and look back with widen eyes.
"Thanks, doc." It wasn't an uncommon phrase. She had heard it many times on the battlefield while treating soldier across the globe yet here she was, looking back at the masked man all because of that simple phrase. Her first thought slipped out as a whisper before she could stop it.
"Jack?" No one else seemed to have heard and if 76 did hear it, he made no indication that he did. Believing she no one else heard her, she just smiled at the soldier and continued walking to Winston continue his business. Unknown to her, 76 did hear it and was smiling at the medic from beneath his mask.
A/N
And that's a wrap. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter. It was interesting to for me to write. I'll be honest, while writing this chapter, I had to stop constantly and the go back to think about how I wanted to write this chapter, one of which was 76 and Ghost getting away in the end but with odds against them, I figured this was the most logical choice. That and I've been basically up for the past couple of days getting easily distracted by Overwatch and other games. Apologies.
Anyways, what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Somewhere in between? Leave a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.
Thanks again and have a great day.