Beep.
Beep.
Beep.
Noah stirred in the darkness. 'What's wrong with my alarm?' The beeping continued for a couple more minutes with no sign of stopping and Noah cracked open his eyes. A woman was standing over him and in a quite literal sense she looked like an angel. With a staff and wings to boot.
'Wait second an angel? I thought I would be in Hell.'
The pain was still there, but now dull and Noah could actually open his eyes. One thing was certain, he had a change of clothes since these weren't riddled with rips, burns, or blood. It was a comfortable navy blue with black sweatpants. "Ah the patient lives."
'A thick Swedish...Swiss? It's an accent, interesting. And by patient she might be a doctor. And...that means I'm alive.'
"I must say from my calculation I thought you'd would be out longer. After taking sever beatings to the chest cavity, concussion, and falling almost a story out of an exploding building, I expected you to be out for a couple more days."
Noah opened his mouth, but his lips were chapped and broke when he finally moved them. And his throat felt dry as a desert. The doctor noticed him trying to speak and put a glass of milk in his hands.
"Drink. You need to build up mucus in your throat." She was checking his other vitals while Noah tried his best not to drop the glass on the floor. The doctor noticed and helped Noah lift it to his lips. Once the rim met his lips, the milk was extremely refreshing especially after all that's happened with the last few...days?
"Wh-where am I?"
"Introductions and functional test first. First of all, my name is Doctor Angela Ziegler, head of Overwatch's medical unit. And you?"
"Mercy."
"Well, yes I am commonly referred to as that. And you?"
"N...Noah Bastin. I was...am a civilian in the city." Angela dotted down the information and took out a flashlight. She soon conducted several basic tests to reaffirm that Noah was in fully functional condition. First basic response to pain, reflex, pupil dilation, and memory tests. He passed most, though the light seemed to burn his eyes. It was best to find out if any injuries sustained would impede would any response to situations.
"Good it seems that you can function just fine. Now Lena's conscious can come to rest."
"L-Lena?"
"Tracer. She worries greatly if someone she protects gets hurt." She corrected. Noah shook his head clear and Angela steadied him. Angela carefully pulled the tubes out of his arm and helped him up.
"Now, I need you to wear these glasses for now. They will adjust the amount of light your eyes receive. Something seems to have happened to the optical nerves and I prefer you to have little direct eye contact to the light." Then she handed him a cane.
"Am I going blind, doc?"
Angela laughed at the joke. "Of course not, not yet anyways." Noah froze and Angela pushed him along before he could ask what she meant. The cold, white room opened up and Tracer sat in the lobby. She was swinging her legs back and forth on Mercy's desk as she looked up and saw the two.
"Mornin' you two!"
"Good morning, Lena. I trust you can take care of our guest while I take care of my other appointments."
"Of course, I'll make sure he doesn't get lost. Have a good day doc."
"And to you to Lena."
The two traded Noah and Lena smiled brightly. Noah noticed through the darkening glasses was that her face had a couple band aids touched up her face, but other than that Tracer seemed to be perfectly.
"Well, it's a relief to see you alive and...well not well, but alive."
"Gee, thanks. Hey Tracer."
"You know my name luv. You can say it." Noah rolled his eyes. "Lena, where exactly am I? Forgive, but last time I was conscious I was on the road." Lena smiled at the joke and blinked in front of him.
"Well, I'd like to welcome you to Gilbritar!" Noah stood speechless for a second since hearing that would imply he would be in an Overwatch base. Lena blinked next to him and pushed him along. "Come on, you get the honor of being shown around by the one and only Tracer."
"Oh, what an honor." Noah replied as Lena led him on and his eyes were drinking in all the surroundings around him. The two explored the base and the guest stood amazed to in such a place. Before he went quiet, Noah heard things about the Overwatch bases. The U.N poured a lot of its best resources (money, food, technology, materials, etc.) to accommodate every single agent that joined their ranks.
Noah felt more out of place when he considered his past. It wasn't the cleanest past nor was it one for all the attention. Lena was going on explaining the functions of how it works and how agents use them.
However Noah was so enthralled with the area, that he accidently left Lena behind and wandered on his own and into…the training simulation arena.
'Hmm, I didn't know they had a nature area.' Suddenly the whirring of machines caught his attention as Noah turned around and found several robot sentries standing there. Their blue lights looked straight at them.
"Um, hello?" Their eyes turned red.
"Target acquired."
"Wait, what?" Noah squeaked before they took aim. Lena didn't notice for a minute until a small alarm went off. Winston's voice went out to her communicator and startled Lena.
"'Ello?"
"Did you activate the training simulation room? I thought no one was using that at the moment." Winston said. Lena thought for a moment and turned around and found her audience gone. She grew pale as Winston tried to get her attention.
"Lena? Lena, answer."
"Everything'sfineWinstonI'mjustgoingtocheckonitcallyoulaterBYE!" Lena said as fast as she can before blinking away as fast as she can.
She reached a window and looked down at the field. It was quiet. Really quiet.
'Could he really…?' Then the sounds of gunfire reignited and she saw bursting through the foliage was Noah. This would actually be a surprise as Noah just left the medical wing and know stuck in the most dangerous room in the entire facility. But after seeing him fight through Talon soldiers, take on Widowmaker in hand to hand combat, and survive a grenade explosion it didn't seem to phase her as much. Still she couldn't leave him in there and sprinted to the door.
Noah panted heavily as he held onto the cane with his life. It was the only thing keeping him up on his feet and the only weapon he had in the entire place. "Jesus, I really, REALLY have some shitty luck."
"Sentiments agreed." An omnic said above him. Noah rolled out of its gunfire and took cover behind a rock. "Oh my god."
Bullets were whizzing past his head or bouncing off the rock, because Noah was really not enjoying how his day swerved this way. Several omnics were now over his position and their rifles were ready to spray heat. Noah closed his eyes and braced for the barrage.
Only instead of bullets being fired, the crunching sound of metal could be heard. The man looked over the rock and saw Lena zipping past the omnics before laying waste to them. She landed right next to him and swiped her brown.
"Wheh, don't worry luv, I'm here to save your arse." Noah chuckled at that truth. She's saved his life twice already, and now it's for a third. "Sorry, if my ass gets us in trouble."
Lena rolled her eyes and her gauntlets sprung out her guns. "Let's get out of here." Noah nodded and got ready. In action Tracer was ready and she pointed at the exit. He understood and got ready to move. When Tracer disappeared and began destroying the target bots, Noah dashed for the exit with few sentries noticing his escape.
"Halt-!" One said before Noah shoved the end of his cane through its head. Noah's head was pounding with the adrenaline and blood pumping through his brain. Tracer appeared behind him and grabbed hold of his collar.
"Hold on!" She yelled before the two disappeared in a blink of blue light. One sentry threw something at the door before they reappeared and shut said door behind them.
Noah fell to the ground sweating and panting. Lena was right next to him with a big grin on her face. "Aw, you're crazy!"
"I...I didn't mean to-"
Lena stretched her arms and let them fall to the floor. "I get it. Though try stayin' next to me, after all I can always prote-" Her hand hit something metal and the two looked to see a metal ball now ticking. The duo's eyes widen.
"OH CR-!" But the ball exploded and left a black cloud in its wake.
0-0-0-0-0
"And this one holds all the weapons, that one repairs any target omnics after we destroy them, and that one...is where all the food/bar is." Lena continued even though she and Noah were covered in black dust. Luckily the grenade was just a smoke bomb, but unfortunately it was a messy one. The only thing clean was the accelerator on her chest which had its fair share of grime. And with mention of food, on cue it seemed both of their stomachs rumbled.
"And it seems I forgot to eat since our last mission."
"And the last time I had a meal was...some time ago." Noah rubbed his stomach and wondered how much his previous meal of fries and alcohol sat with him for the past few days. "Well it'll be a nice time to meet the team."
They entered the bar and the glasses adjusted to the room and lowered the brightness. Noah stood and was a little annoyed with the constant change of light. Lena stepped in and smelled the fresh aroma of breakfast.
Cured meat, buttered bread, sweet jams, sizzling eggs, and spices that made the nose go mad. Lena walked up to a table filled with a...colorful group of people. A few of those was a bearded and short, a gamer was tapping crazy on her tablet, a cowboy, and a robot that was enjoying conversation instead of eating.
Others was a massive woman talking with a russian accent, another was listening to some loud music, and another woman that looks like an Egyptian or somewhere in the Middle East.
Everyone looked and greeted Tracer very warmly. "Well don't you look so refreshed."
"Oh you know me, can't leave the battlefield without getting a little dirty, Jesse."
"It is nice to see you safe after a dangerous mission, though I do wonder why you stand unclean, Lena."
"Well it's just nice to hear your compliments Genji, I just had to save Noah's..." Before she could continue, Lena remembered the impaired man behind her. "Oh wait, everyone I'd like you to meet someone."
Lena blinked behind Noah and gave him a reassuring push forward. He stumbled before staring nervously at the heroes. "Everyone this Noah, he's an ally of our recent agent Burr."
Everyone said, 'ooh', and the mention of his friend got Noah's head whirling. He wanted to ask about him, but the agents were about to introduce them. He only read about Tracer, Mercy, and Winston; but he's seen video footage of McCree and Genji so he had some knowledge. Really Overwatch wasn't one of the many subjects he did research on.
"Um, ally's a strong word. More of an unwilling victim."
"An unwilling victim that survived quite an attack." Genji replied. Noah raised his eyebrow at the cyborg. "Lena told us that you held your own quite well."
The other agents murmured among themselves about and Noah felt a little overwhelmed. "Well, I was fighting for my life and I had to do what I can."
"In that case I hope you're ready when you fully recover."
Noah laughed before stopping himself. "Heh?"
"Burr did convince you to join our cause didn't he?" Everyone's eyes was on Noah and the man swallowed his nerves real quick and nodded. "Yeah, he did. I mean I was a little stubborn, but he convinced me."
Jesse smiled. "Good, it's nice to have some new recruits on board again. If you need any target practice, just come find me." Noah agreed with that and bumped Lena who was talking to Genji. "Hey, Lena can I talk to you real quick?"
She nodded and walked Noah off with the other agents returning to their food. "He seems nervous, did you notice that Hana?"
"Whatevs, dude's probably fanboying by meeting us Fareeha." Hana said before continuing her game.
0-0-0-0-0-0
"What?!"
"I said I didn't agree to coming here! Burr tried to convince me, but I told him no!" Noah said. He couldn't exactly say he refused to join Overwatch in front of all the heroes. It wasn't the best crowd to break the news to.
"I thought you did. Burr told us that you agreed to join us during the attack."
"No, what happened was that he appeared out of nowhere, showed me the flash drive, and showed that he was part of Overwatch. He asked me if I'd come back into the game with your team, but I refused. That's when everything went to shit." Noah stopped himself as Lena's face turned serious.
"Well you're here now and Burr was right to have brung you 'ere."
"What're you getting at? Lena, I can't just join. All of this was just Burr, not me." Her eyes started to stare down his soul. "You can just join. You've proved yourself in that fight."
"Getting my ass kicked and having you and Burr save it." Noah replied dryly. "No you idiot! We had Burr's movement recorded when Talon attacked. We saw you takedown multiple soldiers and you took on Widowmaker and survived! Any normal person would've been killed at the start. Burr was right to get you."
Noah rolled his eyes. "And I'm going to tell you what I told Burr: I've straightened my life. I got a normal life and for the past three years I enjoyed it. Look I respect what Overwatch done for the world, I'm even proud for helping Burr putting his skills on something else, but I don't want any part of it. And I'll tell that to Burr to his face." Lena's eye twitched as she grabbed Noah's hand.
"Hey, WA-!" She blinked through the facility with only tiny breaks. They returned to the medical wing just as her chronal accelerator needed to recharge.
"-IT!" Lena let go of Noah's hand and he stumbled for a second. He pushed up his glasses as the light once again adjusted for his eyes. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
She pointed her thumb to the glass next to Noah. He glanced at the window and his eyes widened in shock. On the other side of the window was Winston and Mercy examining a broken Burr. Half of his face was covered in bandages and from his distance, Noah could see that it was shallow breathing.
"Burr." He said quietly. "What happened?" Lena looked at him with guilt.
"When you tried to save us, the shrapnel and explosion hit him at almost point blank range. The landing didn't help, though Winston took the brunt of it Burr's condition worsened. Ange's been working her hardest, but only time can tell when he's gonna wake up."
Noah felt many things pass his head. Anger at himself, frustration from being so helpless, great sadness at his friend's condition, and when all that passed, his body was numb with uncertainty. Lena saw his eyes and noticed the battle going on.
"Look I was going to tell you, I...I just wanted you to feel a bit better before all this. And before you woke up I was worried on losing two heroes so early. The world needs heroes, it needs us to come back and deal with the crisis."
Noah rubbed his hair in aggravation and sighed very deeply. Lena rubbed her arm and walked forward. "Look, I understand if you want to leave and...I won't stop you."
"That stupid bastard." Lena looked up and saw a distraught smile on his face. "If that bastard knew how deep our friendship went he would've played the injured card long ago."
Now curiosity took over the Brit. "I'm sorry?"
Noah stood up straight and rolled his shoulders. "If I leave now and he dies, I'll be his final act. His final failure. I can't do that, I've got to make him proud." Her eyes widened.
"Wait, does that mean-?
"Yup, till Burr's awake and I can beat the crap out of him, I'll be a member of Overwatch." Lena smiled at the news and whooped at the announcement. Meanwhile Noah pressed his hand on the glass and looked at Burr. "Don't leave me just yet buddy. Can't have you dyin' knowing I left you."