Old Habits Die Hard | 2
OoOoo
Winston prided himself on many things. Top-tier physicist, a veteran member of the most memorable military strike team, inventor of the chronal accelerator (which saved Lena's life), and so on.
What he wasn't happy about himself right now was being the new leader of Overwatch, with its previous one still in the team.
He couldn't fault Jack Morrison, really. Being the leader of a team that ended a deadly war to only receive hate in the end was surely an unpleasant experience.
I think right now is a good time to check on them again. Winston flipped a switch on the keyboard, and a loading symbol appeared on the large monitor in front of him. When the comm link was established, he leaned to the microphone in front of him. "Soldier 76, what's your status?"
There was no response from the other end, which worried him a little. He was about to ask again when Jack's voice came in; "I'm in position. Tracer is currently moving to her own. I'm about to kick down the front door and check out the warehouse's interior."
There was a hint of fatigue in the soldier's voice, Winston noticed. However, he decided not to comment on it. "Okay, then. Proceed with your plan of action, and God bless."
"Affirmative." There was a loud thud, as if something was kicked down hard. Footsteps were heard, but for the most part silence reigned.
Suddenly multiple gunshots were heard, and Winston felt a knot twist in his stomach when he identified them as some kind of semi-auto rifles. The familiar fire of Jack's pulse rifle responded immediately.
"76?" Winston asked, failing to keel the panic from his voice. "How's your front?"
"Spotted just about ten Talon operatives in front of me," Jack replied. "I'm taking cover behind some crates, although it won't be effective for long."
"Well then, use your pulse grenades!" Winston exclaimed. "That should clear them out, right?"
"Don't panic, Winston!" Jack replied sharply, almost as if snapping. "As a leader, you must not show weakness to those under your command. Have faith in their abilities too- damnit!" More gunfire was heard, and Jack's pulse rifle came to bear when they died down. "As I was saying, I'm a well-trained soldier. Don't worry about me- I know what I'm doing."
Winston gulped, giving a nod despite no one being able to see it. "Got it."
The sounds of guns blazing continued, them either being of the Talon operatives' rifles or Jack's return fire from his more advanced weapon. There was a sound of wood shattering, and a curse was heard from Soldier 76 as his footsteps started pattering rapidly.
Winston cleared his throat before leaning to the microphone, making sure his voice was steady as possible. "What's your status, 76?"
"Got clipped in the shoulder while relocating, but that'll be dealt with later," Jack replied. Winston couldn't help but wonder if a joking tone should be there somewhere. "I might actually consider tossing a pulse grenade, just to get more of their men focused on me."
Winston grunted an affirmative. "Don't forget that satellite inspection device I gave you. Put it somewhere around the building's center, and I'll make you a map of its interior to help you better."
"You know, there's a second floor to this building," Jack replied. "I think I'm gonna put it there, just in case of a third floor. This building looks like it can hold three floors."
Winston nodded. "I'll keep your word on that."
ooOoo
Jack Morrison peeked out from a stack of crates, unloading a full clip of his pulse rifle against a bunch of Talon operatives poking out a corner. He didn't see of their fate as he immediately ducked down, shoved an ammo box into his weapon, and went up again to fire at some men who were lined behind their own stack of crates.
Jack ducked behind cover just as return fire rattled throughout the room. One of the edges of his cover was blown off by a hail of bullets, sending splinters everywhere.
He grunted when the wooden shards collided with his armor, although all bounced off harmlessly. "I might have to throw a pulse bomb, after all."
The opposition's gunfire did not cease as they all opted to fire at the cover itself, taking off healthy chunks by the second. Jack thanked God that he didn't have to breath in all the sawdust that was going around.
If I don't do anything table-turning soon, everything's going to shit. Jack grabbed at his utility belt and pulled out a pulse bomb. With a swift motion, his thumb knocked off the safety, and he stood up against all gunfire to pitch the grenade behind him.
"Asta la vista, cocksuckers." With a heave, Jack tossed the pulse bomb at the opposite end of the hallway. Every Talon operative halted their fire as they took a look at what had rolled to the center of the it group.
One man dropped his gun and jumped back, a mortified expression on his face. "WHAT THE FU-"
There was an explosion, and the entire floor shook as the Talon members' side of the hallway was engulfed in dust. Jack admired his handiwork for a while before slinging his rifle over his shoulder and walking over to them.
When the dust settled, most Talon members Jack spotted were lying on the ground, unmoving. Three, however, were pulling themselves up.
You've just made your life more miserable. Jack sprinted to one of them, pulling his fist back. The man wasn't even able to react when a punch slammed into his face, sending him crashing against the wall and slumping down with a bloody face.
There was a cry behind Jack, and he whirled around to knock away the punch another man sent at him. He gave the Talon member's stomach a kick, and he stumbled backwards. Before the man could recover, Jack reached for his nape and pulled the man's head down to collide with his knee.
CRACK
Just as the man collapsed to the cement floor, Jack grunted when something slammed on his back. There was a resounding scream as he turned around to look at a man holding his bloodied knuckles. Jack whipped out his pulse rifle and batted the man's head, sending him to the ground like the two others.
Jack nodded at his handiwork, then proceeded to turn the corner and encounter a flight of stairs. As he walked to the second floor, he pulled out the mapping device Winston entrusted him with, and upon reaching the top of the stairs he set it on the floor. He pressed the activation button on the device and sprinted off, bringing his pulse rifle to bear.
"Winston, I have secured your device. You can do your thing now." Without waiting for an answer, Jack switched his comm link to a different frequency. "Tracer, break into the topmost level of the building. We'll be sweeping up the warehouse and securing the objective."
ooOoo
Winston pumped a fist in celebration after Jack reported the placement of his device. He gave an affirmative and began working on the satellite imaging.
On the monitor in front of him, a 3D model of the warehouse's interior was beginning to materialize. Once he was sure that an entire map of the interior was created, Winston sent a command to display the map in energy mode.
When Genji had first scouted the warehouse for the team, he had reported that he saw nothing of significance. However, he had told of feeling a disturbance in his inner senses. The ninja described it as "foreign" and "not of this world".
With that information, Winston had built a device that could sense all known energies of the universe in a given area. He had installed a mapping system with it, and thus made the perfect gadget to track down the mysterious object.
What Winston saw in the device's energy mode shocked him to his core.
All known energies of the universe were marked with a particular color by the gadget. Protons were seen as a dull red, and neutrons a dull yellow. Together, they made the blandest of color schemes, and with the fact that they were a very common energy source, they also made the blandest of background colors in the mapping system.
With that said, it was quite easy to notice the very expansive circle of pure black lying in the center of the warehouse's third floor. For the energy device, black meant an unknown or still-unidentified energy, and all that amount of anomalous energy was making Winston nervous.
Winston's nerves were even more frayed when the swirling blue/red/green (thermal colors) shaped mass of Lena dove into the third floor, breaking one of the windows. She began nearing the pseudo black hole, and Winston sprang into action.
"Tracer, this is Winston!" he yelled at his microphone after establishing a link. "I'm warning you, we have no idea what we are dealing with! Please, for the love of God, disengage from the objective!"
Winston was greatly disturbed when Lena did not respond to his message. It quickly morphed into horror as he could only stare at her through the screen, looking at the circular mass of black as an equally black limb reached out from it and grabbed the floor...
To be continued...
