Roadhog didn't turn out to be the best at giving directions. They wandered through the dark, eerily silent Outback for what must have been hours. Junkrat was passed out in Roadhog's giant arms, snoring lightly. Having been unable to sleep earlier in the night, Hana was quickly growing tired as well. Her vision was blurring slightly, and at one point the mech nearly toppled over a large rock, sending Boss and Ana reeling. Hana quickly apologized and shook her head to try to clear away the sleepiness.

"Hey DVa, um…" Boss studied her face in the dim moonlight. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I'm still going, aren't I?"

"You almost threw us to the ground."

"It won't happen again. I'm fine."

Not ten minutes later Hana startled when Boss called her name. "W-what? I'm awake!"

"Then why are we stopped?"

Hana glanced around in confusion. Roadhog was stopped several meters in front of her, waiting. Ana and Boss were both just staring at her.

"…Guess I…nodded off."

"We can find a place to rest for the night," Ana said softly. "As long as it's somewhere safe enough."

"I could take over steering the mech," Boss piped up. "I don't need to sleep."

"No." Hana stifled a yawn. "I can keep…I can…"

Her eyes drifted shut for a brief moment. When she opened them again Boss was standing in front of the mech, staring her down.

"…You just wanna drive the mech," Hana mumbled.

"Yeah, no shit. It's awesome!"

"Ugh. Fine." Hana crawled out the back of the mech. "But if you try to pull any stuff…"

"I won't. I promise." Boss, being only slightly taller than Hana, was able to fit inside the mech with relative ease. She ran her hands over the control panel, a tiny, excited grin finding its way across her face. Hana climbed up onto the arm of the mech that Boss had previously occupied. With a gentle sweeping motion Boss brought the two arms together, creating a sort of metal cradle between them. Hana curled up on the mech's arms, near to Ana, who was carefully observing everything happening around her, and closed her eyes.

"I'm just gonna rest my eyes for a few minutes," Hana mumbled. "Not gonna…actually sleep."

"Sure." Boss started moving the mech forward. Her control of it was surprisingly fluid – Hana barely even felt each step as she rested her head in the crook of her arm. Somewhere in her fog of half-wake, half-sleep she heard Boss say "I won't disappoint you, Hana. I really appreciate you still sticking by me…"

Shortly after that the world around Hana went dark and quiet, as sleep finally claimed her.

An indeterminate amount of time later Hana became aware of something holding her that wasn't a pair of metal arms. She opened her eyes to find Boss sitting against a wall in some dark room, staring absently into the darkness. Hana was lying against her shoulder, she realized, and Boss had one arm around her to keep her from toppling over in her sleep.

"Ngh…" Hana lifted her goggles and rubbed one blurry eye. "Boss?"

Boss turned toward her. "Oh, hi. Feeling better?"

"Where are we? How long was I asleep?"

Boss shushed her, gesturing to the far wall of the relatively small room. Hana squinted. In the darkness she could just make out Roadhog and Junkrat sacked out in one corner. In the farthest corner, away from everyone else, Ana was resting sitting up, her rifle still laid out across her lap. "We found this old building still standing. Well, most of it anyway. Enough to sleep in. And you've been asleep for maybe two hours?"

"Where's my mech?"

Boss pointed over near Ana. Sure enough Hana could see some big bulky thing in the shadows.

"If you want to sleep more, you can." Boss maintained her gentle hold on her. "I'm keeping watch here."

Hana was going to protest, but two hours of sleep simply didn't afford her enough energy to argue. She laid her head back down on Boss' shoulder.

"Did you have a lot of friends before all this?" Boss suddenly asked.

"Um, kinda?" Hana let her eyes drift shut. "Not really as a kid, but once I started getting more seriously into gaming I met a lot of people."

Boss continued to stare straight ahead. "Is it like this?"

Hana opened one eye. "Like sleeping in a wrecked building with a bunch of near-strangers?"

"Like doing stuff in a group. Looking out for each other. I don't know."

"Oh. Uh, I guess." Hana closed her eyes again, trying to drift back into sleep. She furrowed her brows when Boss spoke up yet again.

"Are we friends?"

"I guess?" Hana tried not to sound irritated. She failed.

"Sorry, I'm being annoying." Boss withdrew from her slightly. "I'll shut up."

Hana relaxed her muscles as she let sleep slowly reclaim her. Before she fell completely back into unconsciousness, though, she murmured, "We're friends."

"Really?" Boss responded too loudly, causing the others in the room to stir. "Cool. Okay. Um, goodnight then. …Pal."

"Pfft." Hana snickered a little. "You're a nerd. Goodnight."

Despite her tiredness, it was difficult for Hana to fall asleep knowing Boss would just be sitting there waiting for her to wake up. She spent a long while simply pretending to sleep, but somewhere in the pretending genuine sleep steeped itself upon her.

The radiation frying Hana's brain had turned her dreams into patchwork surrealism. Nothing made sense or went together in any comprehensible way. So she really wasn't surprised when she started hearing Junkrat's disembodied voice while she was dreaming about swimming in an ocean of decomposing garbage.

"Deeeeeeevaaaaaa…"

"Whaaaaat?" she answered in the same sing-songy tone.

"S'time to get up."

"I'm up. I'm trying to get through all this freaking…garbage."

Junkrat laughed. "What?"

Finally Hana was roused enough to awaken from her dream. She found herself face-to-face with Junkrat. "Oh."

"Pleasant dreams?" He was still snickering.

"Shut up." She blinked the remaining sleep from her eyes and looked around. It was still dark, but it was that pre-dawn dark, laced with faint hues of orange and purple. They cast just enough light into the room for her to make out Junkrat's stupid ugly-cute face in front of her.

She reached out and pushed him backwards, knocking him onto his butt. "Hey!" This time he didn't hesitate to strike back, grabbing her up and draping her over his shoulders. Then he started spinning in circles.

"Aghhh! Put me down!" Hana pounded his back with both fists, kicking and squirming futilely. "I'm gonna get you back for this!"

The front door of the building burst open. Junkrat stopped spinning, and after the dizziness wore off Hana was able to see that it was Roadhog in the doorway. He jerked a thumb behind him, then stepped aside. A small bonfire was going just outside the door.

"Great, breakfast's ready!" Junkrat hurried out the door, still carrying Hana.

Outside Ana was tending to the fire, while Boss held out a dead possum stuck through with a stick. Its mouth and eyes were open, as if it were killed instantly and without much time to react. Upon closer inspection Hana realized it had a hole in its head. Ana's handiwork, surely.

"Morning." Boss turned the possum slightly, cooking its other side. "Ana's a great shot. She got this thing all the way in the bushes over there!" She pointed to a patch of underbrush in the far distance. "Crazy."

"It isn't much." Ana glanced around at the group. "Split between five people…"

"Four." Boss lifted a hand dismissively. "I don't need any."

"Right. So, four."

Roadhog sat down a few feet from the fire. Junkrat joined him at his side. Hana sat beside Junkrat, glancing over at him occasionally. At one point they looked over at each other at the same time. Hana giggled a little. Junkrat stuck his tongue out at her.

"Okay, I think this is done." Boss dropped it to the ground, pulled a knife from her belt and started slicing into it. "I'm gonna try to split this up as even as possible. I'm a neutral party, so that'll help." A minute later she was handing out chunks of meat. Hana hoped it wasn't obvious to anyone else that she clearly got the biggest and best-looking piece. Boss all but pushed it into her hands – then once she was done distributing the food she came and sat down directly between Hana and Junkrat.

"Not enough room anywhere else?" Junkrat muttered.

"Excuse me?" Boss folded her arms. "I want to sit next to Hana."

"I noticed." He took a bite of the possum meat and loudly chomped on it. "Only way you could be closer to 'er is if you were straight up her arse."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Boss was surprisingly defensive about it. "We're friends. Friends sit near each other."

Junkrat chortled. "Sure, sure. It ain't none of my business anyhow. But, uh…" He leaned behind Boss, over to Hana. "Just throwin' it out there, if you're lookin' for a man to, uh, spice things up between ya"–he winked at her–"keep me in mind?"

"Wait, what?" Hana cocked a brow at him. "What are you talking a–wait, me and Boss aren't, like, a thing!"

Boss leveled Junkrat with a look of disgust, but did not protest his assumption.

"Wait, you're not?" His sly smile gave way to a look of confusion. "Then why'd you bring her with us?"

"Because, I don't know, I couldn't just leave her there with a bunch of people who tried to kill her?" Hana huffed. "Jeez Jamie, you thought I was screwing around with Boss?"

"I mean, I wouldn't be opposed to it," Boss chimed in. Upon Junkrat and Hana shifting their attention to her she simply shrugged.

"Oh, to be young again." The three of them glanced up at Ana, who wore a small, teasing smile, keeping her gaze distant from them. Roadhog nodded in apparent agreement with her.

Hana loudly cleared her throat, her cheeks flushing bright red. "So anyway, I'd like to just eat my gross possum meat please."

"Oi, that's no way to talk about yer girlfriend."

Hana chucked a bone at Junkrat.

They ate in relative silence after that. At some point Hana became hyperaware of Boss just watching her eat. Jeez, I tell her we're friends and now she wants to have sex with me. The Outback sure was a weird place.

After a while, Ana eventually broke the silence. "So Hana," she said, fixing solely on her, "I think you should try to get to Sydney."

"Huh? Why?"

The old woman blotted her mouth with a corner of her cloak. "Do I need to explain why you shouldn't be embarking on an international crime spree?"

"You said she'd be cool about it," Junkrat murmured.

"I figured she would be." Hana folded her arms. "What am I supposed to do in Sydney, anyway? Check myself into a homeless shelter or something?"

Ana didn't seem to have an answer.

"Yeah, that's what I thought."

"I just want you to be safe." Ana's response was so quiet Hana almost didn't hear it. Hana took so long to formulate a response that the conversation changed topic before she could get it out. Junkrat started bragging about his plans for them overseas instead. He had some grand dreams – stealing the Crown Jewels out of England was just one heist on his lengthy wishlist – and Hana was fairly certain they wouldn't complete a single one. Hell, they were probably going to die at sea when they realized none of them knew how to operate a damn boat. Oh well. It would be fun while it lasted.

After "breakfast" Boss was eager to get moving. She seemed surprisingly okay with the idea of becoming an infamous international criminal. Hana was a little surprised by it, until she remembered how much emphasis Boss had consistently placed on one thing – being remembered. That was why she wanted to be in charge of the Junkers. Why she wanted them to succeed and have a historical impact. When you're dead, Hana supposed, there wasn't much else to aspire toward.

She would certainly be remembered if they managed to make a name for themselves around the world.

Roadhog led their journey through the wastes, Hana back in her mech, everyone else trailing behind. They traveled onward and onward until they started to notice a change in scenery. Things started to look slightly less…radioactive. Also less like a desert. Hana picked up on a scent she hadn't smelled in quite some time – the salty smell of a sea town. Her brain tingled with memory neurons trying to fire – she used to smell the sea all the time. All the time in…Busan! Where she'd lived as a kid! She remembered it faintly, her parents taking her to the beach in the summer, determined to yank her away from her video games and out into the sunshine.

Tears threatened her wind-dried eyes again, but this time she fought them off before they could manifest. The sea was nothing to her now but a means of escape. A portal to the rest of the world. Her parents would be happy she was out in nature, right?

They didn't need any sort of guidance on how to get to the mystery men Junkrat and Roadhog had spoken of. As soon as the Junkers came into view of the ocean a group of men ambushed them. Six of them made themselves known, but movement from nearby bushes and building wreckage implied others were not far. They were surprisingly well armed. Roadhog stepped in front of the group. Boss and Junkrat stayed behind Hana. Ana faced away from them, watching their blind spots.

"What do you have for us?" The men didn't seem interested in formalities. Two of them eyed Hana's mech.

Junkrat looked to Hana. With great reluctance, Hana clambered out the rear door of her mech. She came around beside it and held her arms out in its direction, an offering.

A couple of the men inspected it. "Eh, I guess someone out there'll buy it," one said. "Weirdo junk collector or something."

"All right, so that covers you." They beckoned for Hana to go join them. The other Junkers all tried to follow her – but the men stopped them. "That covers her. What have you all got?"

They traded looks, silently trying to decide what could be given up with minimal impact on their ability to commandeer the boat. Eventually Ana stepped forward. To Hana's surprise, she held out her rifle. The men inspected it. "Hm. Kinamura. They don't make these anymore. Nice gun." One of them took it out of her hands. "Collector value's kinda ruined with all this chicken scratch on it"–he ran his fingers over the tally marks–"but we can use it, probably."

Ana came to stand at Hana's side. Her good eye flicked back and forth, keeping constant tabs on all the strangers around them.

Junkrat stepped up to them next. He dug through his small satchel and pulled out one of the land-mine-looking explosives he'd used to blow open the prison doors. He handed it gingerly to the men, who looked it over with some degree of uncertainty.

While they were looking it over, Junkrat stealthily withdrew something from his pocket. Hana nudged Ana, but Ana was already locked on to it. They took a few steps back, trying to look casual and pretend they had no idea what Junkrat was about to do.

Sure enough, moments later Junkrat pushed the detonator. The man holding the bomb screamed as it exploded in his hands. Hana averted her eyes from the carnage, but was forced to return her gaze to it as the men all leapt into action.

Ana wasted no time incapacitating the man with her rifle. One swift kick to his inner knee sent him sprawling. Ana caught the rifle just before it hit the ground.

One of the men seized Hana from behind. Her scream was choked off by a rope pulled around her neck. She kicked and squirmed, reaching desperately for Ana. Ana was having her own trouble with the man she'd knocked down, who had sprung to his feet and was trying to take her down with sheer force. She seemed reluctant to use her gun, and was instead just barely fending him off physically.

Hana twisted and fought, but it only entangled her further. The man dragged her away from the group by her throat. She choked and sputtered, her vision dimming around the edges as she was denied air longer and longer. Ana…! Jamie…someone…!

With a cry, the man crumpled to the ground. Hana gasped in some sweet, sweet air, and then turned to see what had freed her. "Boss!" The other girl stood over the man, who was bleeding on the ground. She slid her machete into the sheath beneath her long leather coat, then offered Hana a hand. Hana grabbed onto her and stumbled to her feet.

A series of pops behind them alerted her again. Boss clutched her gut. In a very similar way to the prison, she staggered forward. This time though, knowing what she knew, Hana could sort of tell it was an act. With a groan Boss collapsed to the ground, but as she went she grabbed Hana's leg and pulled her down too. Hana sprawled out beside her in the dirt. She closed her eyes but could hear at least one of the men step toward them, probably to ensure they were actually dead or dying.

Just before the man could reach them Hana heard a strange sound – a sound like hoarse, choking laughter – from somewhere behind them. The man cried out as something knocked him back. Hana opened one eye to find Roadhog madly spewing scrap from his gun, barely able to maintain a hold on it as it knocked everyone down and away from the Junkers. It was Roadhog laughing! Hana had never heard him make a sound before.

His scrap gun was great at swatting the men away, but it unfortunately did not seem very lethal to them. Instead they simply turned their attention to the remaining standing Junkers, namely Ana and Junkrat. Junkrat was just flinging explosives at them from a distance, while Ana still refused to engage them with her rifle.

"Hana," Boss whispered. "l can get to the mech. I can bring it over."

Hana silently nodded. Boss's skin took on that radioactive green tint again. She melted away into the ground, leaving no trace that she had ever been there. Hana shifted her gaze over to the mech. A minute later a neon green light took shape within it, forming into Boss' silhouette. She powered up the mech, and before any of the men noticed she engaged the boosters right into the fray.

Thought she was gonna bring it over to me… Hana reluctantly continued to play dead until Boss had attracted the men's attention. A handful of men who had been watching from the sidelines jumped in and started shooting at the mech. Boss swung one of its heavy arms at them, leveling two men in one swing and taking the third one down with the mech's shoddy but effective cannons.

Hana waited for Boss to bring the mech over to her, but that didn't happen. Instead she treated it as her own, fending off anyone who tried to stop her. At one point, however, one of the men lodged some sort of bomb or grenade-like-thing at her. It exploded on contact. Hana sat up, eyes wide – when the smoke cleared Boss was nowhere to be found. The mech looked to have sustained some damage as well. Leaping to her feet, Hana ran over to it. She could probably make a dive into it before anyone could stop her.

Before she reached it, however, the mech's rusty metal groaned into motion. It lifted its arms and continued firing. Hana stopped in her tracks, tilting her head in utter confusion. It's never done that before. The mech then boosted into the air and landed near her, kicking dust up all around. It lowered to her level and opened its pilot door. "Um, thanks?" Hana crawled inside.

The mech's control panel had a sickly green glow to it. She reached hesitantly for the joysticks – but before she could grab hold of them, they pushed themselves forward. The mech rushed forward, firing off its burning metal cannons with a fury Hana didn't know it had in it.

It didn't take long for the men to realize they were outmatched. Several attempted to retreat, but were dragged back in by Roadhog's hook, then blasted in the face with his scrap gun. Junkrat blew a few of them skyward with his experimental tire bomb – Hana kept her eyes averted from the carnage. Ana remained on the sidelines. Boss was nowhere to be seen.

Eventually they managed to push through and either kill or chase off every last one of the boat men. In the moment of peace Hana stopped to collect herself. As soon as she did so the mech suddenly lurched forward and spat out a puddle of neon green light. That green light quickly shaped itself into Boss' familiar form. Hana blinked a few times, glancing down at her control panel. The green glow was gone from it.

Boss coughed a few times, then sat up and rubbed her head. A slow, delirious grin spread across her face. "I have no idea what just happened, but that was awesome."

"I think you possessed my mech." Hana pushed the joysticks forward. The mech moved at its normal trudging pace, nothing like how it had been a few minutes before.

"Yeah, I thought so. I wonder if I can do that with other stuff?" Her eyes were wide with excitement.

"Try it later. We've got to get to that boat before someone else steals it."

Boss climbed up on the mech, still smiling like a goof. Hana carried her over to the other Junkers. Extending an arm to Ana, she said, "Are you okay?"

Ana nodded.

"You didn't, um…" Hana hesitated, not sure how to put it. "…Nevermind. Come on, I'll carry you."

"I'll walk." Ana strode past her, but paused to say, "Thank you, though."

Hana could see a mighty ship docked in the far distance. That must be it! It looked absolutely luxurious, unlike any ship Hana had ever seen. It was smooth and elegant, mostly white with some light blue trimmings on the side that looked almost translucent. If nothing else it definitely looked expensive. Oddly, it was flying a flag Hana didn't recognize – orange, white, and green, with some sort of circular design in the middle of the white stripe. It definitely wasn't the Australian flag, that was for sure.

She picked up the pace, excited to see the beautiful ship closer up. The seashore wasn't far, and with no one left to attack them it was an easy path. Would it really be that easy to just take the boat and go? Could they really just leave Australia like it was nothing?

"Uh…" Boss pointed at something emerging from behind the massive boat. Hana's eyes widened.

Maybe not.