A/N
Hey everybody. Just a short author note here, just wanted to thank everyone whose read the story. You guys are great and it really helps me keep motivated to keep updating this story.
Disclaimer: Overwatch belongs to Blizzard Entertainment and its respective developers. All I own are some characters and the plot of this story.
Now onto the story.
Watchpoint Gibraltar, The Rock of Gibraltar
As morning came around, Ghost left his spot at the edge of the cliff to meet up with Soldier: 76 after getting a message on where to meet him. Tracer had left earlier in the night, leaving him alone once more. He and Tracer continued to talk for a few hours and got to know each other a little better but after trading stories of what they did during the day, Ghost had insisted that Tracer get some rest until the cheerful, young Brit finally agreed. Before she said goodnight, Tracer made him promise that they'd continue their conversation when she woke up. Once he promised that they would continue, Tracer said goodnight and quickly went back to the crew quarters. He enjoyed her company, more than he would probably admit. Her cheerfulness was infectious and he couldn't help but smile. Hell, he was smiling as he thought about it while walking. As he entered Winston's garage, Ghost quickly shook the thoughts from his head. Looking around the garage, Ghost saw parts and contraptions scattered on the tables as well as tire swing up above and what looked like a the capsule of a space craft dangling from the ceiling.
"Up here." Ghost turned to see 76 standing at the broken window. Quickly ascending up the stairs, 76 walking over to greet him halfway.
"What's up, boss?" Ghost asked leaning on the railing.
"We're waiting on Winston. Athena told me Winston wanted to see us first thing in the morning. So she let me in here a few minutes before you showed up."
"Any ideas on why he wanted to talk to us?"
"Not sure. We're going in blind on this one."
"Alright." Ghost said running a hand through his hair. "So what did you do for the rest of the night?"
"Compiled a list of things that needs to be done if Overwatch is going get back on its feet. I sent you a copy of the list so if you have any ideas on how to accomplish these or anythings I missed, I'm all ears." Ghost looked down at his tac-pad and saw the small notification showing the received list. "What about you? I haven't seen you since we agreed on the terms of our agreement."
"Oh, you know, the usual. Getting to know the layout the base, getting some unfriendly glares from some agents that don't trust, enjoying the view, crying, and making friends." Ghost listed off as he opened up the list and began skimming it. "Alright, I might have some ideas for the things on this list."
"None of those are even close to your usual. Why were you crying?" 76 asked, interested in what Ghost was referring to. Ghost looked over at 76 and sighed before reaching into his armor and pulling out the photo.
"I found this awhile back while repairing the armor. Dad wanted a way to have us close by even when he was away on missions so he had this photo taken." Ghost explained, handing 76 the photo. 76 looked over the photo and let out a sad sigh. He had been friends with both his parents and thought highly of them. "I miss them, John." 76 put his hand on Ghost's shoulder, an action 76 had done many times as a sign of comfort.
"I know, James. I do too." 76 said handing him back the photo. Ghost looked down at the photo and sigh before putting it away. The two stood in silence as for the next couple of minutes. It was uncommon for them to call each other by name outside of their home base. Yet even in the moment, James took into consideration 76's identity and when calling him by name, used John instead Jack, the name he was more commonly referred to, which 76 appreciated greatly. After a few minutes of silence, 76 spoke up again, hoping to change the subject to something lighter. "So what's this about you making friends? Who was it?"
"Lena Oxton." Ghost chuckled. He knew what 76 was trying to do. "She caught me sitting by myself at the edge of the cliff looking at the photo of parents."
"Not thinking of doing anything too drastic, I hope?" 76 asked with a raised eyebrow.
"No, nothing like that. Besides, you would miss me too much if I was gone." Ghost said trying to lighten up the mood. 76 pushed Ghost with a small chuckle but the younger soldier was right. He had gotten so accustom to having Ghost around. "Anyways, we traded stories for a couple of hours then she left to go get some sleep." 76 nodded, remembering the hyperactive young woman. "She's interesting, to say the least. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to talking to her again." Ghost smiled underneath his mask while 76 looked at him with a raised eye brow. "By the way, what's taking Winston so long? He should have been here by now. Are we too earlier?"
"No, Athena wouldn't have let us in we were." 76 said standing up straight and looked around. Ghost was about to speak when a door opened, drawing both of their attentions. From the door, emerged Winston.
"Oh good, you're here. We can begin immediately." Winston said looking up at the two men. Quickly climbing up the tire swing and joining the two men, the three walked over to the room that contained Winston's computer. "Sorry for being late, I was caught up checking Athena's systems here." Winston said taking a seat and signed into his computer while Ghost walked over to the window overlooking the outside and 76 leaned on the wall. "Let's discuss how to Overwatch back on its feet." Both men looked at Winston before looking at each other.
"Athena." 76 just simply said. On Winston terminal, the list 76 had created appeared in a new window. Reading through the list, Winston saw some of these suggestions were idea he's already had when he sent out activated the Recall Beacon, he just wasn't sure how to go about them. Once he finished, he sighed and looked back at the two men.
"Alright, so how do we go about accomplishing these?"
"Our top priorities have to be getting recruits for Overwatch and getting the public to once again view Overwatch as an organization for good."
"Talon might have control over the media and there's a good chance political leaders are corrupt. That's a lot of opposition we're facing." Ghost added. "But that shouldn't stop us from helping people. Even if we can't get the higher up officials on our side, we can still get the people on our side."
"And that can help us with the recruitment because when people hear Overwatch is back and helping people, people will want to join us and do their part." Winston said hopefully.
"That or it might inspire old Overwatch agents to rejoin."
"Or paint a bigger target on our backs." 76 said grimly. They knew he was right. Once Overwatch is back on the radar, they'll be making a lot of enemies and not of enough friends. All Overwatch activity is considered illegal due to the Petras Act. "We need a plan before we show our hand to the world."
"Alright, talk about the next topic, getting recruits. Any ideas?" Winston asked.
"I have one on that one." Ghost spoke up. "There are a lot of children of deceased Overwatch agents who are either around my age or older that wanted to follow in their parents footsteps but never got a chance. We could start with them for recruits, give them the chance they never got, provided they past the necessary requirements and are willing." The other two thought about it and saw its merits but were hesitant of dragging the children of old friends and comrades into the war that they were about to wage.
"Its a good place to start but all recruits have to agree on their own intuition. I know we can't afford to be picky on who we recruit at the moment but I won't allow people to be bullied into working for us." Winston stated. Before they could continue, Athena's voice cut into the conversation.
"Soldier: 76, Ghost, Doctor Ziegler wishes to speak to you two immediately to perform a medical examination."
"Can it wait?" Winston asked.
"She was quite insistent, Winston."
"Well then its best you don't keep her waiting her. We'll continue this later." Winston said walking up to the two men and putting his hands on their shoulders As he let go, he said one last thing. "I must warn you, however, if you harm anyone in this family, I will not hesitate to turn you both in to the authorities and hunt you down should you escape. Now go on. Best not keep her waiting." With that, the two men quickly left the garage and made their way to the medical lab.
The walk was a quiet one. Even with the base so scarcely populated, it felt like they came across every agent in the base and each of them stopped whatever they were doing to stare at them. As they approached the medical lab, the two guards that stood in front tensed at the sight of the two enhanced soldiers.
"We're here to see Doctor Ziegler." 76 said to the guards. Rather then antagonize him, one of the guard just nodded and nudged his head toward the door.
"Athena let us know you were coming. Doctor Ziegler is waiting inside. Go on in." 76 nodded at the man and both were approached the door but before they could enter the other guard stuck out his hand and blocked their path.
"No funny business in there." 76 just let out what sounded like a low growl and the guard quickly retracted his arm back to his side, allowing the two soldiers into the medical center. Once they were inside, the friendlier of the two guards turned to his partner.
"Was that really necessary?"
"Come on, they got nothing on us."
"Us? Oh no. They can probably take us with both arms tied behind their backs while blindfolded. Don't drag me down with you. You're on your own." the man said. The other guard just scoffed and waved off his partner and they both returned to their duty. Inside, 76 hesitantly knocked on the door to Mercy's office.
"Come in." Mercy's voice came from the other side of the door. The door opened automatically before them and in front of them at her desk was Angela Ziegler. She wasn't wearing her Valkyrie suit. Instead she was in a normal outfit, a button up shirt with a skirt and a white lab coat over it all. Ghost walked in with no problem but 76 stopped the second he laid eyes on her. Luckily for him, she wasn't paying attention.
"Coming, sir?" Ghost asked. This brought him back into reality as well as got the attention of Mercy, causing her to look her up at the two men who just entered her office. 76 just walked over next to Ghost without a word, looking at the floor. Ghost just stood there with a smirk under his mask and when Mercy turned away for a moment, he nudged lightly 76 with his elbow which 76 responded to in kind except a lot rougher, furthering the amusement of the younger man.
"So gentlemen, I'd like to ask you a few questions and perform a few tests, a physical and few medical examinations. Is that alright with you?" Mercy said taking out a clipboard and a pen. "I'll ask the more private questions when I test you individuality but for now I want you both to answer me this. When I noticed that when I healed Ghost last night, his body reacted with my healing application of my staff almost flawlessly, meaning you both have an above average amount of nanites in your body. That's usually something someone in the medical field would have due to them working so closely with them. Why is that?"
"My father gave me an injection of plasma that had nanites in it after a particularly bad injury a few years ago. That way, my body reacts to biotic fields and evidently, you're staff. He made sure my body accepted them and wouldn't fight against them or flush them out of my system" Ghost said.
"What about you, Soldier?" Mercy asked. 76 took out a canister from his pocket and handed it to Mercy for her to exam. "What is this?" The object had a feeling of familiarity to her and she had a good idea of what it was but she didn't want to acknowledge the thought.
"I have an above average amount of nanites in my bloodstream as well because of time in the Army and Overwatch. That biotic field generator creates a field that our nanites react to stimulate our healing." 76 said. Of course, Mercy already knew all of this. She had seen it countless times on missions with Jack. The device brought back so many memories of her and her commander. A small smile graced her lips as her mind played them back. However, they were cut short as she reminded herself of the men in her office.
"Right. I better start the tests." Mercy said walking away and gathering and preparing her tools. "Which one of you wishes to go first?"
"I'll go." 76 said, stepping forward.
"Alright. Ghost, please wait in the waiting room. I will send Soldier there to tell you when it is your turn." Ghost just bowed slightly and walked out. "Now I need you to take off your shirt, I want to check your lung." 76 compiled without issue. Once his shirt was off, Mercy was surprised from what she saw. While his body was almost youthful and well built, something that proved to be very distracting, she couldn't help but notice all the scars. It seemed his had scars from nearly ever type of injury you can receive from a life of military service, gunshots, cuts and stabs, small burns from explosions. Her careful examination of his body didn't go unnoticed. 76 just stood there with a smile under his mask.
"See something you like, doc?" 76 said suddenly drawing her out her inspection. Mercy's face flushed red and she couldn't bring herself to make eye contact. Grabbing her stethoscope, she placed the buds in her ears and held the other end against his chest.
"Sit up straight and take a deep breath." 76 did as he was told. "Now breath out all the way." 76 once again compiled. "Keep doing that until I say otherwise." Listening to his heartbeat and his breathing through the stethoscope, finding nothing wrong with the exception of a slightly elevated heart rate but chalked it up his training as a soldier. "You can stop now. Why don't you answer a few questions for me while I prepare the next test." 76 just grunted in response. "What is your name?"
"Soldier: 76." he said. She figured he would answer as so. With a sigh, she continued.
"Age and date of birth?"
"Classified." This was going to get old fast.
"Next of kin?"
"None."
"Do you ever take off your mask?"
"Occasionally." 76 simply stated. Mercy groaned internally. It was going to be a long testing period if he kept refusing to make her it easier on her and tell her who she's working with and what kind of person he was. She could only hope that Ghost was a little more cooperative with her chatting than he was otherwise it was going to be a long day.
The rest of the tests went by slowly. Mercy got little to no information about their mysterious vigilante except for medical information that was required. With a heavy sigh, the doctor sent 76 out of her office to go tell Ghost it was his turn. After a few minutes, Ghost walked into the office, making his presence known by knocking at the door.
"Ma'am."
"Ah, Ghost, welcome back. Take off your shirt, I'll being checking your lungs." Mercy said. Ghost did as he was told and took off the his shirt, revealing a well built body. He has noticeably thinner than 76 and less scars but he still looked to be in better shape than most his age or even among most of the other Overwatch agents. Going through the same lung examination as 76, Mercy found no problems with his lungs.
"Alright, Ghost, I have found no problems in your lungs. You can put your shirt back on." Ghost nodded and walked over to go grab his shirt. "Before we continue, I just want you to answer a few questions. What is your name?"
"James Hawke." Mercy looked up in surprise. She wasn't expecting to get an answer.
"Age and date of birth?"
"28? And I'll get back to you on that one. I don't remember." Mercy stared at him confused for a moment before sighing and continuing.
"Next of kin."
"None."
"Should I even ask about the mask?"
"If you're asking if it comes off, then yes it does but not as often as I'd like." Mercy nodded and gather the next tool she needed for the next test. She was hoping for too much when she asked about the mask.
Unlike before, the test went by a little fast as Ghost was more cooperative with answering general questions yet he still managed not to give away any kind of information besides his name that could reveal his identity. While Mercy appreciated the conversation, it didn't help her curiosity about the two men's origins.
"Alright, you're all done here. Feel free to stop by anytime if you are in need of medical treatment."
"Thank you, ma'am." Ghost said walking out of the office. Not seeing 76 when he walked out, he walked out past the guards when one of them stopped him.
"Hey, man. You're buddy left awhile ago. He told us to tell you that he's going to back Winston's lab to continue talking to him."
"Thanks, dude." Ghost said walking back the direction he came from earlier. As he was walking, he caught sight of a familiar woman in an orange jumpsuit, brown bomber jacket, and chronal accelerator just as she walked out of one of the building but didn't have her white arm guards that contained her pistols. When she finished stretching, she looked around and saw Ghost walking by.
"Oi, James!" Tracer called out to him. Ghost stopped walking and waited for the young woman to catch up.
"Morning, Lena. Sleep well?"
"I guess. Still a bit tired, though." Tracer said. As if to prove her point, she yawned right after, which caused Ghost to smile under his mask. "What about you?"
"I never went to sleep. I stayed on the cliff for the rest of the night." Ghost said. Tracer frowned at this. "Anyways, what's your plan for the day? I'm off to meet up with 76 and Winston to talk about how to get Overwatch back on its feet."
"Mind if I tag along? I have nothing planned."
"Sure. Come on." With that, the two started walking toward to Winston lab. The walk started off quiet but it quickly ended with Tracer being the first to break it.
"So...mind if I ask you something?"
"You just did." Ghost responded. Tracer just gave him an odd look. "Sorry, I've spent way too long with 76. What's up?"
"I'm curious. Why do you and Soldier: 76 always wear masks?" Tracer asked. While she was truly curious of what the reasoning behind it, she was also tasked by Winston to find out as much information as possible about the two newest allies of Overwatch by getting close to Ghost. Ghost, on the other hand, examined the young woman next to him to see if it was genuine curiosity driving the question or if she was order to do this. He had his assumptions that she was ordered to talk to him seeing as no other Overwatch agent would even approach him or 76 but he didn't want to call her out on it on the chance that she was actually being genuinely kind and wanted to try being friends.
'Christ, I sound as untrusting as 76 right now.' Ghost thought to himself with a mental sigh. 'But then again, I don't want to compromise us if I'm right.' With another mental sigh, Ghost stopped his train of thought and decided that it be better if he referred to the advice of his superior. 'I'll talk to 76 about it later.'
"Would you believe me if I said we were superheroes?" Ghost said trying to deflect the question with humor. While he's response got a giggle out of Tracer, it didn't work as she looked at him expecting some kind of answer. "Didn't think so. Truth be told, if it wasn't necessary, I wouldn't wear mine. Main reason we wear them is to hide our identity."
"Well obviously. Come on, you can tell." she said with a smile.
"Truth be told, I wouldn't wear mine if I didn't have to."
"Why do you have to?"
"Let's just say certain people were less than please with my family and had us all killed. However, they don't know I survived thus why I have to wear a mask."
"And the photo was..."
"Of my parents, One of the only things I have left of them really. Our house was destroyed in the fighting." Ghost said his voice dropping a little. Tracer smile went away once she heard that, stopping him midwalk and hugged him, which surprised him to say the least and he felt his face heat up. When she let go of him, she looked back up at him.
"I'm sorry." Tracer said. Her normal cheerfulness was nowhere to be found in her voice. Ghost just made a sad smile under his mask and felt bad for bringing down the mood with what he said. This time, he wrapped his arms around the smaller woman.
"It's fine. You couldn't have known. I'm sorry for bring down the mood." Before he could let go, Tracer reciprocated the action with a small smile. Letting go, Ghost looked around, unable to meet her gaze her and nervously scratched the back of his head before regaining his composure. "Come on, they're waiting for us." Tracer looked at him for a moment before smiling and nodding, her cheerfulness quickly returning.
As they continued walking in silence, a beeping coming caught both of their attentions. Hearing it was coming from Ghost's wrist, Ghost looked at the small screen and saw a notification from one of their contacts. Clicking on the screen, it opened up to show an image from a balcony of civil unrest in King's Row, people and Omnics protesting and riot police on standby. However, what caught his eye was an armored figured toward the crowd. The armor was all too recognizable as the standard issue Talon armor. Just before he could say anything else, another notification appeared in the screen, this time of a Talon dropship in Ilios, Greece.
"Well...shit." Ghost said before turning to Tracer. "We need to get to 76 and Winston."
"What's going on?"
"Trouble and lots of it. Talon could be making a play soon." That was all Tracer need to hear as she nodded and the two took off running. As they ran, Ghost's radio came to life.
"Ghost."
"I got it too, sir. We're en route to your position. I have Lena with me."
"Location."
"Cutting through the hanger."
"Hold there, we're coming to you."
"We?" Ghost said, stopping suddenly. Tracer ran past him before stopping and blinking back next to him.
"Winston agreed to give us a lift back to US once I told him what was happening."
"Got it. Holding locations." With that the radio went silent. Turning to Tracer, Ghost figured he should explain to her what was happening while they waited. "76 and Winston are going to meet us here. 76 and I got reports from some contacts of the situation in a couple of locations. It didn't look good. Riots in King's Row with a Talon soldier spotted in the crowd as well as Talon dropship being spot in Ilios, Greece."
"So what's going to happen?"
"I'm going to assume 76 and I are going home."
"Home?! You're going to abandon us?" Tracer yelled. This got a small chuckle out of Ghost.
"No, I'm not abandoning you and I promise I never will. Its just 76 and I have to pick some things, maybe even someone if they're there, from our home base if we're going help you guys. Plus I left my rifle there. Kinda need that to fight effectively." Ghost said smiling, forgetting for a moment that she couldn't see that. "After that, again I'm assuming here, 76 and/or myself will deploy to engage and disrupt Talon efforts in the area or gather intel on what's going on before engaging." This caused Ghost to frown under his mask. He didn't like the fact that Talon was getting bolder like this and he was having trouble figuring out the motive for what they were doing this time. For King's Row it was obvious. The place had always been a location of tension between in humans and Omnics. Its also where the highest number of Omnics were located due the close proximity to the reactor however what they were doing in Ilios was beyond him at the moment. The opening of doors caught his attention and soon enough 76 and Winston came jogging in.
"Winston, what are you doing here?" Tracer asked seeing the gorilla.
"I agreed to bring them back to Indiana to they could gather up the equipment they need to help us. Looks like we're going to be doing it sooner rather than later. Mind if I borrow you ship?"
"Sure as long as I get to go along too. No one is piloting her without me watch them." Tracer said jerking her thumb toward her dropship.
"You're a pilot?" Ghost asked confused as Winston climbed up to dropship and entered it.
"She joined Overwatch as a pilot. One of the youngest pilots at the time but after the incident with a prototype fighter, she stopped being a pilot and became a field agent." 76 explained as he watched the engines cycle on. Ghost looked at him, surprised by information told to him.
"But I never lost my skill in the cockpit or on the ground." She said looking at Ghost before turning to 76. "So mind if I take along?" 76 looked at her before glancing over to Ghost who just shrugged.
"Fine. Get your gear while we finish getting the dropship prepped. Ghost, go grab our weapons from the armory." Both of them nodded and ran off to go complete the tasks they were told to do. Once they were gone 76 quickly ascended the stairs and entered the dropship. Quickly climbing the stairs to cockpit, he stopped at the controls next to Winston. It had been years since he last entered one of these. He was rusty but he still remembered his way around the controls. Cracking his knuckles. he pressing a few keys, he opened a channel for Athena to use so she can access the ship and speed up the process. Hitting a few other keys, the ship ran a full diagnostics on its systems. The diagnostics would take a few minutes so 76 walked out of the cockpit and walked down the stairs to check on the supplies on board. As he was checking the ammunition box and supplies boxes and bags to make sure they were filled and were strapped down properly, Tracer returned with her white arm guards on with her two pistols inside and made her way to the cockpit. A few minutes later just as the system diagnostic showed everything green, Ghost returned with 76's heavy pulse rifle strapped to his back and his pistol in the holster.
"Ready to go." Ghost said, removing the heavy pulse rifle from his back and tossing it 76, who caught it with ease and put on his back.
"Let's get work." With that dropship door closed and the hanger doors opened allowing the dropship to take off.
A/N
And that's a wrap. Thank you so much for reading this. I hope this is up to par for what you guys have been expecting or hoping. I know the past couple of chapter have been a bit slow but it should pick up soon. Look forward to that. This chapter kinda shows the relationship 76 and Ghost have outside of combat as well as few character more interactions. Probably a bunch of mistakes that I missed as well.
Also, issue #8 of the Overwatch comic came out earlier today which I read at 2am and boy does it change a lot of what I planned for this story. This changes how Ana will be included into the story because of the events of the comic as well as the reveal of 76 being Jack Morrison. So expect Ana joining our current heroes sooner rather than later but like 76, the Overwatch crew won't immediately know who she is. So if you have read them already, I highly recommend you do. They're free to read online. No download required.
On a side note, the next update might take a little bit longer as my attention is going to be divided and also intent to draw Ghost. So apologies ahead of time.
So what did you guys think? Like it? Hate it? Leave me a comment/review or shoot me a PM if that's more your style.
Thanks again and as always, have a great day.