"So you're tellin' me that in your entire life, you've never blown one single thing to smithereens?"

For a guy with a peg leg, Junkrat seemed to have little trouble keeping up with Hana's mech. Roadhog didn't seem to have much trouble with it, either. She was more than a little surprised.

"I mean, I'm not, like, opposed to it," she responded. "I've just never really had a chance to."

Junkrat paused to look her mech over, tapping his chin. "You know, I bet we could rig up this bad boy with a big ol' self-destruct button. Once we install some boosters…it'd be like a big, self-propelling bomb! Hahahahaha!"

Hana didn't respond. It didn't seem to matter, because Junkrat just continued rambling on about all the various explosive devices he'd constructed for the Junkers. After a while he seemed to lose interest in his own topic, for he then switched to humming some hideous, off-key tune.

It felt like they'd been walking for years by the time Hana noticed something noteworthy in the distance. A large building of some kind. It had plain brown walls and a high fence around it, and was two stories tall. As they drew closer, she realized it was a prison. "Is this it?"

"Yep. Our Base of Operations!"

Junkrat hobbled excitedly ahead of Hana and Roadhog. When he reached the fence he tugged on a rope that rung what appeared to be some kind of scavenged old church bell. A few moments passed with no visible response. Then suddenly a small, wiry humanoid…thing dropped nimbly to the ground from a second-story window on the other side of the fence. Its skin was gray-brown and it had long, claw-like nails on its hands and bare feet. Perhaps most prominent and disturbing, however, was the large animal skull it wore on its head, completely obscuring its face and hair.

Hana shuddered involuntarily. And here she'd thought the skin of her hands melting off was a horrifying fate. At least she hadn't ended up like this thing.

The creature loped over to Junkrat. "Oi mate, let us in," Junkrat said. "We got ourselves a new recruit!"

"Potential new recruit," Hana corrected. The more she saw of this place the more she was reconsidering her agreement.

The creature climbed up the high fence with seemingly no effort, undoing a series of locks and latches that eventually allowed a small panel of the fence to slide open. Junkrat hurried inside, beckoning for Hana and Roadhog to follow. Hana couldn't help but give pause when she passed the Junker wearing the animal skull. It leaned in and gave her a sniff. Then it let her pass.

The inside of the "base" was as decrepit as the outside. The walls were a dingy off-white, and the place was lit with a spare few lightbulbs powered by whirring generators. It was obvious the place had been a prison until just recently, but all of the cells had been converted into rooms full of mismatched, scavenged furniture and dirty-looking survivors.

"So where ya been staying?" Junkrat asked her as he led them to somewhere in the center of the prison.

Hana gave a reserved shrug as response. She didn't want to disclose too much information to these people. Let them think she had another group and was just out scouting or something. Maybe trying to gauge whether or not these "Junkers" were any sort of threat to them.

"Shrugsville?" Junkrat had a stupid grin on his face. Hana shrugged again. Truthfully, the name of her true hometown was difficult for her to recall these days. The radiation poisoning had definitely done a number on her memory, with long-term seemingly the most affected. Maybe it was sort of a blessing in disguise, since it helped her to move on from her parents' deaths. It was a lot easier to grieve two people you could barely remember.

Junkrat led them into what must have been some sort of office before everything went to hell. The mech didn't fit through the doorway. "I'm not leaving it behind," Hana said. "Is there any other door?"

Junkrat let out another burst of crazed giggles. "Mate, you're in a power loader! Just smash your way through!"

Hana blinked. "You want me to just…wreck the doorway?"

"Smash! It! Smash! It! Smash! It!" Junkrat pumped a fist encouragingly.

Hana hesitated. Then, with a push of one joystick, the left arm of the mech shot out and smashed into the old wall. To her surprise, pieces of the wall began to break off and fall to the floor from the impact. A few more blows from the mech and the doorway was wide enough for it to fit through.

The moment she stepped through the doorway, Hana froze. Seated in a torn-up old office chair was a woman in a gas mask different from Roadhog's in that her eyes and forehead were visible. She had dark skin and long, dreadlocked hair. She was dressed in a long leather jacket, and leather gloves similar to Hana's. Her feet were propped up on an old, dirty desk, revealing a pair of extremely worn combat boots.

"You gonna redecorate the rest of my office, too?" Despite being said through a gas mask her question was clear as day.

"Ta-da!" Junkrat threw his hands out in Hana's direction. "Look at our newest recruit! And you said me'n Roadie couldn't–"

"Shut up." The woman looked Hana and her mech up and down. Junkrat rubbed the back of his neck and fell silent. "What's your business with the Junkers?"

The woman was certainly intimidating, but Hana had faced down bigger foes. "I don't know," she decided to say. "What can you offer me?"

The woman raised her eyebrows, but she didn't look entirely displeased with the flippant answer. Instead she removed her gas mask, allowing a full view of her face. "Good question, but first you gotta sell yourself a little. What can you offer us?"

"Renovations," Junkrat piped up, gesturing to the newly "renovated" doorway.

"I told you to be quiet."

Junkrat copied her words in a sing-songy mutter.

Hana found herself drawing a blank. What would she have to offer this gang of hardened survivors? "I have, well, this." She extended her arms to encompass the mech suit she sat in.

The woman's expression did not change. "I don't mean your possessions. We could easily kill you and take the power loader for our own if we wanted."

"…I can repair it."

"A little better, but we have a dedicated mechanic already."

Forced to introspect on her own strengths, Hana was a bit surprised at what she managed to come up with. "Well…I'm a good strategist. I was on my way to winning a world championship tournament for Starcraft before all this happened."

The woman smirked a little. "'Starcraft?' Is that a video game?"

"Yeah." Not only was it just "a video game", it was something that was apparently so firmly imprinted into her memory that she could remember details about it better than she could remember her own family anymore. But Hana saw little point in mentioning that to the woman.

"Okay. A good strategist. What else?"

"I have really good reflexes."

The woman nodded, chewing her lip idly. "What else?"

"Well I think I'm pretty smart, and fast, and good at avoiding too much danger. I'm still alive out here, aren't I?"

"True. And you're awfully young to be out there by yourself."

Hana faltered for a second before responding with "I'm not by myself." By then it was too late. The woman clearly saw through the lie. She continued to stare Hana down for what felt like an eternity. Finally, after Hana swore she could feel the woman's eyes boring into her skull, the mysterious woman simply said, "All right. I'm sold."

The response surprised Hana. She struggled to act nonchalant about it as the woman then asked her what she wanted out of the Junkers. "I mean, I guess it'd be nice to not be slowly dying all alone out there."

The woman nodded. "Don't think anyone wants that."

"…And I guess having other people to talk to would be nice, too."

At that the woman chuckled. "Well your mileage is gonna vary with this bunch. Some of them"–she waved a hand in Junkrat's direction–"will never shut up. Others…well, they either don't talk much or only talk about weird shit you'd never actually want to hold a conversation about."

Hana looked around at the three Junkers surrounding her. Did she really have anything to lose? Worst case these people killed her. Then at least she wouldn't have to be hungry or sick anymore.

"I guess I'll give you guys a chance."

The woman stood up from the desk. "All right. Welcome aboard, then." She offered a gloved hand to Hana. Hana hesitated. The woman lowered her arm and did not pursue a handshake after that. "They call me Boss."

"I'm Hana."

"Hana, huh?" Boss tapped her chin. "Just a word of advice, you're gonna want to come up with a nickname around here. If you don't give yourself one someone will give you one. And it won't be flattering."

"A nickname? Um, okay. I'll try to think of something."

"Good." Boss looked to Junkrat then. "So, since she's your recruit, I want you to show her around."

Junkrat saluted her.

Next thing Hana knew she was taking a tour of the apparent human freakshow known as the Junkers. Everybody there was clearly a victim of unhealthy levels of radiation, many in worse shape than she was. As Junkrat led her past the cells-turned-bedrooms, rambling on about everything and nothing, Hana took in some of her new roommates. One cell held a boy younger than her dressed in nothing but tattered shorts and a baseball cap, with an unnerving stub where his left arm should have been and patches of skin with no pigment mottled in with a skin tone that otherwise was very close to Hana's own. He glanced up from chewing his fingernails to take in the odd caravan moving past his bedroom. Hana avoided eye contact with him.

A few cells down from his, Hana paused again. A bizarrely-dressed person sat on a cot inside that cell. Every centimeter of their skin was covered, a yellow gas mask covering their face and a green hood obscuring their head and hair. They were cleaning a frighteningly long gun–some kind of sniper rifle?–with an old rag. Their body was strapped with ammunition all over.

Hana made the mistake of staring for just a moment too long. The person lifted their head and immediately locked onto her, their gaze piercing even through the red lenses of their gas mask. Hana felt a shudder run through her. She averted her eyes and hurried after Junkrat.

Staying here was going to be an experience, for sure.