A/N: Some OC characters are based off the hero concept videos made by BlameTheController on YouTube. I do not own the rights to the characters and will take this fic down if he contacts me and asks me to.
This chapter includes music, you may choose to play it to immerse yourself in the surroundings. Look out for bold text.
Chapter 2: Caras conocidas
Sombra awoke with a splitting headache and her eyes too heavy to open. She couldn't move, feel or remember anything for a couple of seconds as her body reset and she slowly opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. Her chest felt heavy, her brain foggy and her eyes crusty. When she looked down, a pair of red beady robotic eyes met hers and her breath hitched. A robotic dog with glowing orange neon spray paint looked at her, its skin as dark as the darkest Beryllium. It opened its mouth letting out a robotic yawn and taking a step off the lavender hacker, letting her breathe easy. The dog seemed to be designed after a german shepherd, a police K-9 to be exact, with multiple neon bone designs spray-painted on it and sharp jaws designed to have a tough bite. The robotic beast jumped down from the bed she was laying in, sprinting out the door and letting in cold air.
She laid in an old bed with the mattress full of grease marks, the wooden bedframe simple and sleek. The room was dark with purple light shining from computers and servers as the only light in the room. It was her old room. Her eyes still felt heavy but she couldn't afford more sleep, she needed to figure out what was going on with the gang so that she could get a deal with the leadership again as well as propose that lucrative deal with Ashe to replace that payday she was supposed to get.
She sat up and picked her eyes clean from the morning gunk, thanking the heavens that she was fully clothed and geared up. She wouldn't trust Los Muertos with her tech if the angel Gabriel came down from the skies and told her to. Cold air flowed through the room as she stood up and opened her mini-fridge seeing old FIX energy drinks that she had left a couple of months ago. Sombra cracked her back and exited her neon-lit room to a rush of cold air and the smell of potatoes.
"Oye! I thought it was just a rumor!" a man glowing green in the dark because of his skeleton tattoos approached her. She hadn't even fully left her room yet. He had tan skin, a small tuft of brown hair like a spike on his head and the frame of an overweight fencing enthusiast. The cyber-dog ran through and around his legs.
"Come join us, we're just about to eat." the young man spurted excitedly.
"I'll join you in a bit, I have to... fix my room." she replied.
"Awh, alright then. I'm Sammy, I take care of Carne over here. He just latched on to you as soon as he saw you." he stroked the chin of his robotic companion. "I'm a big fan, I kept your room tidy the last couple of weeks since Javier isn't really able to order anyone to do it."
"I assumed he got kicked out, from what Vidar told me, what happened?" she asked, starting her mission of getting up to speed on what the gang had been up to.
"You'd have to ask someone higher about that, I just know they're keeping him in the concrete jungle."
"Alright, thanks anyways." she waved him away and he left promptly. She relished in the fact that she still had some power.
People in neon tattoos were running around the courtyard in the evening light, preparing tables and lights around the statue. On the walkways above were a few gunmen, shirtless or scantily clad, armed with pulse rifles and a sniper. On the ground near the graffitied entrance to the indoor portion of the hideout, multiple guards with an assortment of melee weapons were keeping watch. More ordinary looking people ran in and out preparing food and seating. A full-blown gang hideout feast.
Remembering her mistake at the ambush point along with the uncertainty of her relationships within the walls of the Castillo, Sombra moved quickly to find a good spot for her translocator. The fort laid among the cliffs above Dorado, forgotten by the people and camouflaged among the surrounding rock and jungle. Few people visited so far out unless they had family in the town nearby. She carefully climbed down the cliffside, making sure the enforcers above didn't see her climb down, she then placed the translocator in a stable position on a cliff before she climbed back up. She had an escape route if the thugs tried to pull a fast one, able to teleport away and climb down into the jungle below if needed.
"You were there at the ambush today?" two guards on the walkway were chatting lightly and Sombra went invisible to sneak closer and eavesdrop.
"Yeah, Malo sent The Doctor and Leech with some 'Forasteros' as help."
"Heard those guns-for-hire were ex-overwatch agents, guess they take any work they can find nowadays huh?" the second crook let out an electronic chuckle.
"They may be desperate, but don't think they're weak. Those crusaders almost crushed the truck we were supposed to steal, completely on accident."
"With all the infighting over I bet we could have easily done that ambush on our own!"
"Whatever you say, Malo doesn't take as many chances as Javier did so you better get used to it." the woman scoffed "Mierda, your bloodthirst is gonna get you killed someday."
Sombra's stealth tech faltered for a second, making a sound before re-activating and shocking her. It seemed her broken nail fucked with her system more than she thought.
"Que-?" the sniper wielding omnic turned around at the sound. He started walking towards the stairs where she sat crouched. One touch and her stealth camo would be revealed. She closed her eyes, praying to every god she could think of. If she moved down the stairs, he would clearly hear her footsteps and if she translocated away, he would see and hear that it was her. The spray-painted robot walked further along the walkway instead of down the stairs, investigating the sound and she allowed herself to breathe.
"We're keeping an eye on the workers, not the cliffs Hilo." his partner demanded his attention.
"But I-…"
"You want to explain to the boss why there's one gun short when we're out in the open and federales could come at any moment? What if I get sniped from the hill by that vigilante who killed Rara right as you're leaving? You're our only sniper, show some discipline." the woman flicked his robotic head and Sombra recoiled in shock. Rara was one of her few friends in Los Muertos, someone who she always checked in with whenever she came to the Calaveras bar.
Not trusting her cloaking device anymore, she de-activated her cloak as soon as she got to her room. Her next step was to put on the skull mask and hoodie that she kept in her room, making sure none of her hair was showing by flipping up the hood. It didn't seem like the two guards trusted the townsfolk and with untrustworthy civilians around it was a no-brainer to hide her identity. From her last escapade with Los Muertos the press had already made the theory that 'the Sombra collective' were the ones behind the data leak. She wanted to mislead the media for as long as possible in order to keep her identity safe.
"Hey, Gatita." she looked up from her dresser, the mask glowing purple in the darkness of her room. Vidar had walked into the room, a wide smile on his face and tattoos matching his open posture.
"Sammy told me you were awake. We're throwing you that feast as an excuse to eat good food and strengthen our bond with the folk in this small town." he said.
"I'll try to renew the deal I had with Javier. Any tips?" she was all business, the mask increasing her confidence and identity as Sombra.
"Depends on his mood, try to have a good time and he'll ease up."
She gave a short nod to the healer, yearning to ask more questions but afraid to cause him to clam up. In this case the art of infiltration required patience.
"Expect the worst. His name is 'Malo' after all." the curandero warned with a stern tone, walking out of the door as his tattoos darkened. She followed him outside, watching him change posture to that of a tired old man. Leech approached from the tables that were now set up around the statue and by the fort wall overlooking the cliffs and city.
"We'll have the nice view for ourselves, Abuelo. The townsfolk will eat by the statue with our untainted members, Pozo will be there to make sure nothing kicks off." the tan thug spoke in a low tone, slinging his arm around Vidar.
"Good, where does he want our mercenary friend here?" the older man almost whispered back.
"With us."
Vidar paused briefly, throwing a look of uncertainty on the mask wearing hacker beside him.
"How's your project doing?" he asked, causing Leech to smile.
"Bloody amazing." his voice was laced with a strange sort of glee.
"I expected no less, keep working hard and there will be a big payday."
The trio made their way to the round table set up for the higher valued members, Vidar and Leech seemingly engulfed in their own coded language. They took a seat next to each other and their chatter slowly mixed in with the other people at the table. Sombra took a seat next to the only friend she had at the table.
"Do my eyes deceive me or is it the Serpent Slayer herself?" Luis leaned back in his seat, phone in hand. His low black mohawk was almost invisible in the calm candle light and dim moonlight.
"Why don't you take a moment to get me up to speed?" she prompted.
He looked at her with a bored, condescending look.
"You know, I've never really understood what I get out of giving you information." he chewed nervously on the small toothpick he kept in his mouth at all times. "Rara was the one who ran point, she was the one to benefit."
"But now she can't, and you're alone." she replied, feeling sorrow and desperation well up within her.
"You know?" the man squeaked out.
"Luis, I strive to know as much as I can, that's why we have this deal. I'm sorry for your loss, I know you two were close." she could tell he was distraught, yet he kept a straight face.
"She isn't the only one to fall victim to El Soldado." he explained somberly.
"She was strong, and I'm sure she had an honorable death."
He shook his head.
"It really is a shame..." he looked down, orange neon glowing lightly. "...but she knew what she signed up for, somos los muertos after all."
He looked up at her with a newfound determination. "Then you know why I can't feed you info both now and when you leave agai-"
"Shh" Sombra looked around at the other gang members, watching them engrossed in their own discussions and food. "We'll talk later."
The cold midnight air circulated above the old fort as the omnic sniper's flashlight did another take around the cliffs, giving the townsfolk the impression that they were getting protected. Mexican rap music was playing from the hideout speakers, the music faint and soft from where Sombra was sitting. She recognized it as 'Todos en la Cuadra Bien Locos' by Dharius.
The small VIP table Sombra was sitting at had a lot of members she didn't recognize, an older bald man with scars darting across his face mixing with his green neon tattoos, a tall chiseled man with a roman nose shape covered in blue and a short cap-wearing loudmouth with blonde locks and glowing yellow tattoos. The ones she did recognize were passing memories, familiar faces that she couldn't put names to. In the corner of her eye, she could see Vidar and Leech bounce apart after previously being shoulder to shoulder, their smiling scheming ended as the healer's tattoos once again turned yellow. The pleasant smell of newly baked potatoes filled her nostrils as the group of gang members dug in, the plates full of food laying sprawled across the massive round table.
"Dame el cerdo." she called out to the only other female member around the table, a few spaces to her right. She had purple tattoos, the color of her mask, hood and gear.
"Claro!" the gang member yelled over the loud crowd. She passed a plate of meat through the few thugs sitting between them, then returned to her conversation with Vidar.
Her plate slowly filled up with delicious morsels of food from different corners of the table as Sombra realized that the people still looked up to her and treated her with respect. Everyone looked at the purple skull mask with dignity and awe. The people spoke to her with respect and familiarity in their voices. She felt honored by the people around her, joking around and laughing as she sat there, stoic with her back straight and her chest puffed out in pride. She closed her eyes and absorbed the vibe around her.
Her mellow thoughts were halted by a large hand squeezing hard on her shoulder, almost lifting her out of the chair. The table quieted down significantly, as if someone had cut the mood with scissors.
"You're coming with me." a gruff voice said behind her.
"Geez, let me eat." she said as she re-adjusted in the chair and straightened her hood.
"No. Malo wants to speak to you."
She glanced over her shoulder, annoyed that her moment got interrupted but slowly sliding back into her business-oriented mannerisms. The man was tall and bulky, like the rocket wielding crusader at the ambush. He had glowing red tattoos that covered his head along with a tight buzz cut straight out of the Mexican military. He wore combat boots along with an open jungle-camo jacket and a white tank top underneath.
"Follow me." he said, as she stood up promptly. "We have loads to discuss."
"I bet we do, I have information to exchange." she replied.
"What information is valuable enough to interest a gang leader?" the man said with a grunt and a chuckle as they walked away from the table towards the Calaveras bar.
"Aye, Carnal, I don't give out information for free." she smiled under her mask.
"What's your role anyways? Bodyguard? Second-in-command?"
"Aye, Chica, I don't give out information for free." the man answered.
He led her up the stairs of the fort to the second-floor walkways, where the two gang members Sombra had eavesdropped on stood. The pair nodded in respect to the man as they passed, heading towards the top part of the hideout. Down below on the right was her sizeable room and all its equipment while the townsfolk and gang members were partying to their left. The walkway had become a catwalk as servers, townsfolk and thugs passed through the stone arch underneath them. The music was now louder since she moved closer to the source. The statue was surrounded with tables and lively people, a few things standing out of the crowd. Some children were crawling under the tables playing some kind of game with the robotic dog, a middle-aged American man was showing off his grilling skills with a large apron on that said 'Raise the steaks' and a chubby thug was standing leaned against the hideout door, guarding it while keeping an eye on the neon tattooed people within the crowd.
"Let us in." the muscular man said beside her as they reached the top part of the hideout. They were faced with a white-haired man with his hair in a small bun and a silver tooth, he had a lean build and carried a pulse rifle.
"I don't know, jefe, do you really have permission?" he said sarcastically, smiling wide.
She perked up at the word 'jefe' while the man ran down the stairs and open the massive graffitied gate that led to the inside portion of the hideout. Her guide put a hand on the small of her back, where she had the large spine implant underneath her hoodie, and pushed her forward lightly. The inside was spacious, a massive storage hall, with piñata crates and fertilizer buckets laying around. The music from outside still raged on, quieter but still noticable. Multiple doors and hallways led into different parts of the hideout, but you could tell that the storage hall was where the action happened. The first wall she saw, right in front of her, had a massive Los Muertos graffiti design squeezed in between two small doors that smelled of MJ. The crates full of conspicuous piñatas created a small labyrinth in the main hall, with a forklift sitting comfortably right next to the big entrance.
They took the hallway to the right, walking past the forklift and a garage door. The two men beside her had stopped glowing as they entered the well-lit hideout. The hallway was lined with spraypainted wooden doors and bent more than once in a snake-like way, it was clear to Sombra that each door represented the members of this particular Los Muertos Set. Spraypainted gang names, slogans, warnings and designs glowed lightly in bright neon colors on the doors. They got to the very end of the orange corridor, where a stairwell led up to the other floors and another garage door swerved off to the right. She knew the cafeteria and shooting range was on the second floor but the third floor was under renovation the last time she was in the hideout. Still smiling, the white-haired man excused himself before leaving to go outside again, lifting up the garage door as the bodyguard escorted her upstairs.
The third floor looked very different from the rest of the hideout, it was some sort of call-center with office cubicles spread around. The floor was padded with a gray rug that covered the entire floor and hangling florescent lights covered the roof in an organized manner. Either the building was an old office building or Los Muertos were picking up scam calling as a side-hustle. A few windows along one of the walls stood slightly ajar and let in music from the party downstairs. After a small walk through the quadratically formed grey-white landscape they made their way to a big office. Sombra was hastily corralled into the dark office, the only light in the room was a small desk lamp on the big desk front and center in the room. A few filing cabinets along with a tall office chair sat behind the desk, giving her the feeling of being sent to the principal's office. The office chair was turned around and the windows looking out into the cubicle area had the blinds down. The loud music from the party outside faded completely as they entered the room, making the purple hacker suspect that the room was soundproofed.
"Here we are." the brute beside her said as he moved towards the desk.
"What's todays topic, then?" she called out, staring at the chair.
"We've been very unclear about our requirements. For that I apologize." the red-glowing man turned the chair around and sat down in it, shocking her.
"But you said... Malo wanted to speak with me?" she replied, thanking her past self for putting on a mask.
"And I do." he said, his voice now at least an octave lower.
"So why hide your identity?" she was confused about the purpose of his trickery.
"Indeed, why hide your identity?" he laid his elbows on the desk and clasped his hands, staring at her with a mean look.
Sheepishly, she flipped back the hood and took off her mask.
"Better." he judged.
"What are your requirements then?" she met his cold gaze with an analytical one, keeping her right hand ready to activate her system and escape if needed.
"Javier let you do whatever you wanted, as long as you didn't need money. He saw you as free labor and a morale boost, especially when you returned to take care of 'El Rey Vibora'." he spoke slowly and methodically.
"...but I don't like free agents. Either we use mercenaries that know nothing about us and have no chance of leaking info, or we use our own men who obviously know about our operations but are too loyal or too smart to snitch."
"And I'm neither." she was tensing up, ready to translocate away at any moment.
"You're a risk." he mused, leaning back into his chair and crossing his arms.
She stood in silence for a bit, processing the information.
"Why don't we just keep it as it was? I come and go at will, you tell the gang that you can call on me at any time to keep them motivated and I help out every once in a while, completely for free." she broke the intense eye contact and inspected her broken nail.
"Because that's how I overthrew Javier." he laughed a deep, sinister, full, laugh.
"He couldn't control you. So, I knew he couldn't control his most loyal companions."
The red glow of his tattoos in the dark office filled the room with an eerie light.
"So what?" she once again met his gaze with more confidence.
"You're gonna kill me because of what I know?" a smug look made its way on to her face as she waved her fingers a little, as if practicing to translocate away.
"Why would I kill such a resource?" he leaned forward, staring at her as his brown eyes with a dangerous glint met her purple lenses.
"I spoke to some of the OGs from the other sets. I know all about you. You've been jumping between sets and making deals with the leaders ever since you were a child." it was his turn to look smug.
"Stick around for a while, help out around here." he finalized.
"Why would I do that? I've got a much better deal-"
"I'm making the deal this time." he cut her off. "Either you hang around the gang until I can confirm your trustworthiness, or I reveal the name you so desperately want out of peoples' mouths to more than just my favorite street kid."
"One condition." a desperation welled up within her at the prospect of being tied down by the gang leader. Perhaps she had finally experienced what it felt like to be blackmailed the same way she had blackmailed so many before.
Malo patiently nodded for her to go on, something she didn't expect out of the rigid man she'd seen so far.
"If I'm called away by Talon I have to go." it was an attempt at freedom. She could dodge Talon easily, but if Malo allowed her the freedom to go to Talon missions, she could work on getting to the bottom of her exposed identity. If she exposed the conspiracy that wanted her gone, then eventually she would be able to un-compromise her identity and free herself from the chokehold Malo was trying to put her in.
"Don't you worry about them, I'm sure they would understand if you have some domestic issues arising in your home country. I'll speak to them." she clenched her fist. Feeling trapped despite the translocator outside.
"What about my loyalty? I took down LumériCo for you!" she raged.
"You targeted Volskaya Industries right after, with your Talon buddies. You're self-serving and everybody knows it." he smiled, knowing he'd won.
"How do I know my name is safe with you? You could reveal it anyways." she desperately pleaded with him. If her name got out to any mega-corporation, she would be dead. Despite her tech and resources she couldn't keep up with a global conspiracy that she couldn't see or hear coming.
"You work for us now. We don't work for you. Your reign is now over, Reina Sombra." he effortlessly compared her to the CEO she had exposed mere months ago.
"As I said. Stick around for a while, I'll decide how to utilize your skillset eventually."
Sombra could barely believe what she was hearing. She stormed out of the office, flipped up her hood and put on her mask. The only way she wasn't trapped was physically and she was going to use that liberty as much as she could.
"I'm going to clear my head, I'll be back by 2 am. Be paranoid enough to follow me if you want." she threw angrily behind her, as she saw the large man exit the office.
"I don't have to follow you, you just gave me an exact time!" he yelled over the cubicles.
She stormed down the stairs and past all the wooden doors, almost running as fast as she does when invisible. She was fuming, her usually stoic and mischievous face was blushing and sweating. The main gate of the hideout was heavy and annoying to open, but she got it open after a great deal of effort. With the door finally behind her, she ignored the symmetrical stairwells that led up to the second-floor walkways and the silver-toothed gang member approaching her. She entered the room to her right, running right through it as the people within complained at her shoving. Making it past, she found herself within the dying embers of the feast. The plates laid empty, the children laid tuckered out by the mechanical hound, the mustached gang member stood leaned against a nearby wall and the grill master stared at her with a stone-cold stare. He had disheveled, white hair as well as scars on his forehead and across his lip. He had a Hawaiian shirt, cargo shorts and sunglasses that didn't fit the weather at all.
Sombra shook herself out of the disorganized and panicked thoughts that plagued her as she made her way towards the Calaveras bar. The bar had a second entrance that led straight into the surrounding town which was also really close to the exit of the town. The bar was empty when she arrived, aside from the bartender cleaning a glass. He looked up at her as she came in and put the glass back onto the shelf.
"How can I help you, ma'am?" the skinny man asked.
"Give me a bottle of gin." she said, trying to mask the emotion in her voice with confidence and strength.
"You alright?" he turned around obediently to get the bottle but seemed to want some small talk.
"Yeah, just fine." she bit her tongue so that she wouldn't reveal too much.
"I'm guessing you're taking it to-go?" he smiled knowingly at the masked figure in front of him.
"Yeah."
"I'm gonna need to see some ID then." he mentioned.
She produced a holo-screen with her right hand with haste, showing one of her many fake IDs.
"How much do I owe you?" she asked, staring the man in the eyes with her piercing purple irises as he inspected the digital ID.
"1000 pesos." he looked her up and down, taking in her appearance. A slight look of fear broke the previously stoic face that the bartender had before.
"But I'll give someone from the Sombra collective a discount." he turned paler than he was originally.
"That's a myth, don't believe what Atlas News says about me. There's only one Sombra, and that's me." her feeling of informational superiority returned.
"Huh... I didn't know that..." he tapped his fingers against the bottle after putting it down. "I guess your drink is free then."
She took the bottle and headed out the second entrance, towards the town. She quickly made her way up through the slanted streets, climbing the hill of a town until she could see the jungle. The northern part of the town was old and abandoned, the ruins of an old factory laid there, engulfed by nature. She walked along the wall of the towering structure, watching the vines and moss on it gradually become more and more prominent as she entered the jungle. As she arrived at the back of the factory, the jungle had completely taken over. She opened her bottle and sunk down against the sturdy wall of the factory as she took off her mask to take a sip. The jungle rustled in the wind, the cold Mexican midnight sending cold gusts of wind and making her regret only bringing a hoodie.
"What a shame, I thought you were observant." a rough American voice sounded beside her. She looked to her right and barely saw the standard stock of a pulse rifle right before it hit her.