Season 1: Beginning of the End | Act 2: Freedom
Hey, guys! I'm going to be making a little more difficult for Li-Ming with a new piece of technology from this era! It's very difficult without a little A.I. helper, something she won't receive until a later date.
Disclaimer: I do not own Overwatch or Diablo 3, those belong to Blizzard Entertainment. I do, however, own any and all OCs as well as twisted plot/Canon.
Timing: Post Reaper of Souls expansion, prior Overwatch Recall.
Notes: I'm loving the feedback! If you're looking for the reply to your comment, please read the very bottom! But, I would very much like it if the story is read first! :) Tell me, though, if you'd rather the comment replies be up here! I will accommodate you!
Now, for the love of God, let this Fanfiction begin!
-= *Paragon Matrix* =-
"Nephalem..." came an ethereal, almost familiar female voice.
Li-Ming stirred from her rest, of where she was not sure. She felt the absence of gravity, which was more detailed as she opened her heavily lidded eyes, which forced her to move, causing her to go into an unending spin.
"Waaah!" shrieked she. She was not used to heights, but she calmed herself quickly from her blunder of personality.
Her head swam with confusion as she looked around with blurry sight, nothing but black in sight, until her fall was broken by a hard, wooden floor.
She grunted in pain as she realized the fall was deeper than she originally thought, though she did not feel the effects of falling whatsoever.
"Nephalem!" roared the ethereal voice once more, snapping Li-Ming out of her thoughts as she quickly reasserted her stance from off the floor, looking around and seeing herself within the confines of the Zakarum Cathedral, sans bodies of the dead.
But, before her, was Kasadya, the Conjurer of Death, in front of her, wielding the scythe that all Death Maidens were known for.
Li-Ming meant to reach for the sword upon her back, but found it empty, even of shield and source. She sent a glare up at the maiden, scenarios of which spell to start off with against this adversary filling her head.
"Calm yourself, Nephalem," Kasadya said, free hand risen in Li-Ming's direction. This did not deter Li-Ming's hostile stance, but delayed her attacks for now. "I am able to speak to you through the Black Soulstone."
"I had always wondered," Li-Ming said after a sigh of calm, straightening herself from her hostility and posing a much more calm visage, "whether or not the angels of an archangel that embedded the Soulstone within themselves would also be present within it."
"Well," Kasadya affirmed, "you see that you are correct. Though, I am filled with anguish!"
The mortal rose a brow, "Why? What did I even do to you?"
"You broke your right leg!" Kasadya complained, pointing an accusatory finger in her direction with a very human female bend in her back. "That is where my shard is contained!"
"That is your single reason for bringing me into my own subconscious...of my leg...?"
"No," Kasadya straightened herself, taking a calming breath, "I also come here to tell you that I will be in control of your body the next encounter that you cannot handle! I will not allow you to break the residencies of the Black Soulstone!" she yelled. "Well," she relented, "maybe the places the Prime Evils rest, but by no circumstances must it be us angels!"
"Let me get this straight, Death Maiden," Li-Ming reasserted her dominance, stepping forward slowly up to the fallen angel, whose stepping back did not go unnoticed (sending a smile to Li-Ming's face), "this is my body, and I will treat you according to my own wants. I will allow you to come forth when I want, not when you want. And, if I want to," she added, "I will chose a demon lord over you."
A small gasp of horror rose from the maiden's throat. Whatever was the angel equivalent, if not.
"Now, allow me to return," Li-Ming demanded. Her vision swam as the maiden haughtily followed the command.
"They are also trying to remove my Stone from your leg, so, if you would."
"Wait, what-"
-= *line break* =-
Li-Ming awoke with a gasp, raising her torso from whatever bed was beneath her, her sight coming back as she noticed her leg in a strong, white form, holding it in place, a doctor over said leg who had gasped in fear when she had awakened.
Her eyes blinked for a moment as the doctor regained his dignity, striding back forward towards her leg with tools filled with blood. "Jesus Christ, you scared the everliving shit out of me, woman!" he yelled, returning to his task. "Now, don't move again, so I can remove this creepy stone from your leg."
She immediately registered his comment, backing him away from her. "No!" she yelled, thinking up an excuse before he could fully wonder as to why she would want him to stop. "It's a stranger version of augmentation than most Augmentors use. Please, do not remove it from my leg," she asked.
He scrunched his brow. "But this stone is, like, really creepy," he replied. "Red energy inside of a black transparent surface." He let a single chuckle escape his lips in pure scoff, "I would get it out of my leg immediately. Why do you want it so bad?!"
She thought up an answer for a moment. "Like I said, healer," she replied, "it's an...augmentation of mine. I need it for a power that I haven't the ability to fully control. That aside, remove this thing from my leg and leave this room," she demanded.
He complied with an annoyed sigh, removing the thick white cast from her leg and allowing it freedom. There was a large shot of pain that flitted through her body, causing her to hiss in light of it. He gave a, 'I told you so,' look before she batted it off with a glare, his leaving the room in response.
She quietly got up and realized she was in full armor, taking the flask from her hip, uncorking it, and allowing the liquid to flow down her throat.
The effect was almost immediate, cleaning any blood on her leg beneath that armor, but leaving the leg itself broken. She quickly locked her leg on the ground before bending over and grabbing the knee with both of her hands - which was still sensitive and swimming with pain - and forcefully replaced the bones back to where they were, causing a brief shout to leave her.
She gasped for breath for a few moments as she fell back to sit on the bed she had arisen from. This made her knees bend, sending another set of electric pain to course through her from her knee. She clenched her teeth in pure pain before taking another quick sip of the now uncorked flask.
She gasped from the greedy sips she had taken and recorked the bottle, replacing it upon her hip. The pain was immediately almost gone, leg fully healing as she settled back onto the bed, looking out the brightly illuminated window in front of her, showing the once great city.
Rio de Janeiro, once a beacon of civilization, now underfoot of a corporation who set the country into chaos. She was glad she finally made it to the base of the rebels, lest she would still be confused as what to do next.
She stood, sighing as she reached the window and leaned on both of her elbows, shifting weight from her right to left leg to alleviate any residual pain. She looked out upon the city, hearing the echoes of gunfire in the distance, saying aloud, "It seems our comrades have engaged the enemy."
She didn't realize it yet, but she was, in fact, speaking to those within the Black Soulstone. As to how to learn to fully control the beings inside wasn't exactly known to her, she decided her first step was to reshoning her abilities by throwing herself onto the battlefield.
Now, even she of all people, within a realm like this, knew that there was a certain process to be taken in order to gain such allowance to do as she pleased upon the open battlefields.
She must find a lieutenant.
The door swung open, her ignoring it despite its audible speed.
"M!" called Miguel.
Or maybe someone would find her first.
"Miguel!" she called back, turning around, a detectable hiss emanating from her lips as her right foot had been used.
"M, careful!" he yelled, catching her before she fell. "Lucio said he was going out to fight some of Vishkar's men because he thought you would recover later. What do you want to do in the meantime?"
"Bring me somewhere where I can look for a fight," she replied. He scrunched his face in confusion. "Just get me there," she said. "I'll be capable of fighting soon, Miguel Alcantara."
He nodded, before hoisting left arm over his head and bringing her out, her hopping in response. "You can just call me Miguel, M," he deadpanned at her formality.
-= *line break* =-
"Falcon to Overlord, over," called Riley into his communicator, which was promptly answer.
"Go for Overlord, over," she replied.
"This is Falcon, eh, Mike November is up and running, and according to lip reading, she's heading out. I'd looooooove having the Eavesdropper for this mission, over."
His sarcasm spilled through as a single chuckle made itself known from his right. Riley eyed the metal armed man who had also been looking out with him from a random rooftop into the base of the rebels (with binoculars, of course. The real sweet technology, too. Just no mics). They were quite the distance away, and any sound this girl made would never live long enough to reach the two.
"That equipment is just a myth, Falcon," she said, obvious humor in her voice. "But, that aside, you get anything else?"
"Nah," Bucks replied into his communicator, "this is WS, and the two sides have their reasons tighter than a crab's ass."
An exhale of small laughter was heard over the communicator as Falcon also let one slip, shaking his head in response. "Bucks, that's your job now. Go do it, over."
"Got it, over and out," he replied, leaving the rooftop by jumping over.
"God, I've got to get used to that," Riley said annoyed. "This is Falcon," he said into the communicator, "I'm gonna keep watching Mike November. How's TF29? Over."
"They're angry," replied Peterson. "I have teaching those Talon agents you guys caught. They're not happy they're being transferred into a group that searches out other Talon agencies."
There was a moment of si- "Jesus Christ, are you kidding me?!"
"Falcon."
"How they hell do you think we can trust people like that?!"
"Falcon."
"Do you even know how many people Talon's killed-"
"RILEY!"
He sighed, realizing he was going off on an angry tangent, pressed the communicator's button and raised it to his mouth again. "Yes, general?"
A sigh came over on the communicator, before Peterson calmly replied, "Just follow her around while Winter Soldier gathers information on Vishkar's and Lucio's standpoint in this war. WS, during your little rant, told me that Lucio's in the middle of fighting them. They're pretty equal in terms of combat."
"Me thinks general has plan," Riley replied. The general ignored the stupidity.
"That I do," she said. "Here's the deal..."
-= *line break* =-
In front of a perfectly fine Miguel Alcantara who had been acting as a crutch for the currently temporarily incapacitated Li-Ming was a glass pane which blinked with lights, predominantly of the color green. In it were white borders of what Li-Ming depicted Rio de Janeiro and its buildings, symbols and other such things indicating locations of particular objects and enemy strongholds and others.
In particularly congested areas full of enemies, she saw blue circles surrounding them, widening and enclosing for a moment. They were out of sync with one another, adding to the already fleeting board of moving colors.
Above the board, in big blue letters, were the words,
"A bounty board?" she questioned incredulously. She turned to him confusedly. "You're in the middle of a war, and you treat particular targets as bounties?"
"Well," Miguel tried, "mercenaries come every once and awhile, but not as often as we'd like," he admitted. "Lucio is here," he pointed to a location on the map, the green color of the board malforming into a different color in relation to his finger.
"It seems your lines are quite close to your base," noted Mi-Ling. It was true. More than 100 meters from the base and you couldn't not find a Vishkarian soldier. This 100 meters was decreasing, though not quickly.
"Yeah," Miguel said a bit quietly.
"Point me to the area where I could break the will of this line and push yours forward," she commanded. He was confused for a moment, before shedding all doubt with a simple shake of his head.
His hand reached out and pressed on the closest blue circle in relation to the base on the map, and the blue expanded before disappearing, a smaller, teal rectangle appearing on the screen, showing the things required in order to push the line forward.
"This is simple," Li-Ming said in response. "Destroy as many defenders as possible, destroy the sonic-type hover tank, and destroy the augmentor in the area. That should be interesting," she completed.
"But you're still incapacitated," Miguel said and she waved him off.
"By the time I am there, I should be able to fight properly."
Miguel sighed, and relented. "Fine, but if you're going alone, you need this to find your way around the city," he said. He handed her an object which she deemed as a helmet. She took off the white coif over her head and put the machine on. Glass fell down to cover only her eyes, and she readjusted the white cloth over her nose and mouth, so, again, only her eyes could be seen - though, this time, though the not so transparent visor.
She removed her arm from Miguel and regained footing with her right leg. The broken bones should be near fully healed now. If the helmet's...Heads Up Display...was correct, it would be half an hour at her speed. Her bone would be healed by then.
"I will return soon, Miguel," she said, limping away. The limp was smaller now and her walking speed was increased, but it was still noticeable.
"Wait!" he called, running up to her unabated form who still moved. "Why are you doing this?" he questioned. "To prove yourself? Lucio would be more than happy for you to join his army!"
"I don't want any mundane tasks," she replied a bit haughtily. "I want him to know that I am capable as a one-man army...well, in my case, a one-woman army, but that's not the point," she said, stopping and turning him to give the full case of her words. "Not only that, but if he knows what I'm capable of, he will send me on the hardest battles for the average warrior, and I will end whatever evil corrupts people like Vishkar," she ended. She turned and walked away towards her objective.
-= *line break* =-
Li-Ming was right. Her leg healed when she got there.
She just never banked on the idea that it would be immediate.
"Son of a whore!" she cursed, spinning into a corner on her left, the tank shell barely missing the corner and hitting the ground in front of her, large explosion in its wake.
A strand of hair fell in her face, and she gave it a glare, before blowing it out of the way.
She leaned back against the wall as she burst forward simultaneously to a loud gun blast, indicating the tank had fired again. The wall she once hid behind broke down as the tank shell left remnants of rings of sound, which were indicated by the debris it caused.
She rolled as gunfire rippled upon the blue of her shield. During the roll, an extended hand fired a decent spray of red into a group of soldiers, their disappearing almost instantly. Several beams extended from her form chaotically, briefly landing on a single soldier each before they, too, were burnt into red ashes. Four shards made themselves known. Quickly grabbing one, she lobbed it at a single person, who exploded in kind. Several knives telekinetically appeared before her and automatically delved deep into the bodies of several soldiers, cutting them down and killing most instantly.
The tank turned its large barrel slowly in her direction and she quickly made her way to the tank.
Removing Maximus from her back in two hands, she brought it in a high arc far from the tank, spinning it down and with its vorpal edge, cut through the pavement. The tank gunner had no idea why she had done this until the last second.
Li-Ming's calculations correct, the purposeful blunder and surprise she caught in the gunner resulted in a misfire, whose shell wafted past her.
There were two things in her account that she had forgotten.
One, the sheer loudness of the firing, which incapacitated her hearing,
and two, the sheer shockwave of the sonic shell that came past her, which shoved her back with the force of sound.
With a grunt, she landed on her back in front of the tank a good ways away.
She could clearly see underneath the tank, which was filled with the waves of heated air flitting from beneath.
Then, she knew.
Quickly regaining her stance, and by subsequence, regaining hearing which ended its high pitched ringing, she sprinted forward once again, shield collapsing as bullets ripped across the field.
She veered off on the right quickly, the second misfire completely missing her, sonic waves included. She made it to the right side of the tank, as that owl-spinning turret slowly turned towards her, soldiers around her being completely disintegrated by a single beam from one hand.
She stopped and placed her hand low, before bringing it high up in a swish of arcane activation of a spell, which was, of course, an indication that Blizzard, with the fire rune Apocalypse, rained meteors down on the tank, whose turret was not completely turned by now.
Distracted by the arcane, the gunner stopped for a moment as he was scanning for more before decided which target was more important; the source of the meteors or the Nephalem.
The Nephalem herself gave a wide smile as she repeated the motion, though this time it was simply to activate a black hole behind the tank, the fire rune Blazar.
The tank was dragged in, no resistance of treads to speak of before the arcane spell exploded, sending it in her direction.
Maximus lifted once again after she telekinetically brought it towards her, she did the same motion as before. Bringing it high and down in an arc through the pavement, following through on a second circle which left fire in its wake, in slow motion, piercing the tank as it was brought down.
The tank which was now travelling downwards in relation to the force of the blade, also caved in on that location, the heat of the sword melting through the thick of the tank, the tank now 100% flipping over Li-Ming as it landed on its turret behind her.
She spun around slowly to see her work, and watched as the tank itself exploded, forcing her back a few meters.
"Two objectives down..." she mumbled as she watched the lesser soldiers (what's left of the conscious ones) flee, "one to go," she turned to the center of the small market area.
"You are very admirable in your abilities, woman," replied the built stature of what she pegged as a Talon officer, holding a strange cube in his left hand, which was held out, unlike the rest of his body.
He stood up straight and professional, other hand behind his back in a respectful manner. Chest out. The clothes he wore were close to robes, metal mask also, a smooth chest plate filled with blinking red lights, and a waist cape revealing only the front of his legs. Slits were from knee below in three equally spaced areas behind him.
"But," he continued as the strange red cube blinked out of existence and his left arm returned the appendage to just behind him, "I'm going to have to let you die now."
She rose a brow in confusion, before the man disappeared in what appeared to be red lightning, a red hue of a cloud left in his wake. He reappeared in front of her and in quick motion, jabbed her in the stomach before she could retaliate, her bending over in the process.
A boot made its presence known deep within her right calf, sending her to a knee in mild pain.
Her teeth clenched in anger as she stood again, throwing the boot off, an open hand ready to catch him (hand covered in a familiar mist) as she turned to grab him, but he was gone again, reappering in the location he once was.
"Admirable, again," said the main, "but mistaken."
She ignored Malthael's hand growing on her own, simply turning towards him with a raised head, inhaling and exhaling slowly as she shot him a glare.
"That arm of yours," he said slowly, before reappearing next to her, holding her hand up to study it. "It's very peculiar, this ability to change."
She forcibly removed her hand from his, stepping away from him, finding him gone. "I will not be studied like an anomaly!" she roared in anger.
"But that's what you are," said the voice behind her.
Quickly, her other arm turned into that of Malthael's, sickle included as it swiped open air behind her.
A boot pressed into her back and shoved her to the ground. The man stood above her as he continued, "You are not completely human, are you, little girl?"
That was certainly the last straw she could handle, as she immediately split into multiple versions of herself.
An ethereal, bluish mirror of her, strode to him quickly, striking him in the gut, yet he simply jumped back, calmly dodging the strike.
Yet, he was not ready for the second, who quickly threw a leg into his face, sending him to the side into yet another Nephalem.
Confused, he teleported away, but the real Nephalem stood behind him.
"Who were you calling little, now?" she wondered aloud, smug in besting him as she held him in a headlock that he had walked into. The three mirrors of herself promptly disappeared.
Attempting to remove himself from her, he stopped when he felt a very warm hand pressing into his back.
"This would usually be a little less honoring for my tastes," Li-Ming stated, "but for you, I'll make an exception."
A red beam burst through his stomach, before slowly disintegrating him, his screaming wailing through the microphone of the mask as she ended it, killing him. The corpse fell forward, and with a thud, landed on the ground.
He disintegrated at quick pace, his body and clothing ripping away in red hues of ash. What was left, however, perplexed Li-Ming, and she kneeled down to it and picked it up.
The red box from earlier immediately changed color into a bright blue as it entered her left hand. Here, was a strange cube that seemed to answer to her now.
She felt a strange need now, and placed her right hand over the animated object, and pulling away, expanding it. For a moment, it disappeared, but reappeared as a second dimensional pane of...holograms, as they were called. On this hologram was a chart of several tabs. The first of which called "Augmentations," second, "Personal Equipment," and thirdly, "Military Groups."
Further down was a smaller tab with a simple plus sign on it, something she decided to ignore for now. She lifted a fist to her mouth in thought as she got into a relaxing stance, pressing thumb to lip as she thought of which one to wonder about first.
She decided, and slowly moved her hand forward to click on one of the tabs. She hesitated many times, as she was firstly new to this interface, or any kind of the technology of this age in general. Her finger flipped out as she gently "pressed" on Personal Equipment.
Inside was a list of armaments she held already on her. She was surprised it was able to identify these. Perhaps it connected to her mind?
Weapons: Maximus
Shielding: Sacred Shield, Galvanizing Ward (passive), Arcane Orbs (passive), Sash of Knives (passive)
Off-Hand: Chantodo's Force
Accessories: Moonlight Ward (amulet), Golden Gorget of Leoric (amulet), Pandemonium Loop (ring), Puzzle Ring (ring), Broken Promises (ring)
Armor: Sonic Helm, White Bandana, Firebird's Breast, Reaper's Wraps, Ascended Gauntlets, Razor Strop, Ascended Faulds (greaves), Fire Walkers
She looked through them, hovering her finger and gasping in surprise when it gave her detailed description and information of each piece of armor. This...Paragon Matrix as it was called above all text in the hologram, was capable of identifying objects not even of Earth. She was truly perplexed now.
Quickly tapping on "Military Groups," she found herself deep within the lower ranks of an empty army name. Perhaps Lucio, in his ambition for freedom, forgot to create a name that people would be drawn to. She would eventually help with that, she decided.
She, with ease now, tapped the "Augmentations" tab. On it was four types of augmentation.
Under the first type (which she strangely read as "I") was "Telekinesis" and "Bionics." The second tab was grayed out, and upon hovering over it, it gave her an extra piece of information like the last ones, but this one simply said, "no bionics to augment."
She rolled her eyes as she realized the stupidity in her curiosity. She was 100% human (as far as she knew) and held no metal as a replacement body part. She looked down the line and saw several different squares with a small picture in them, texts that identified the abilities. After hovering over "Telekinesis," it gave her another small piece of information.
- increases power strength
- creates varied abilities
'Should be simple enough, correct?' she thought idly to herself, hesitating once again after biting her lip. Tapping on the first picture beneath the Telekinesis tab labelled, "Power Overwhelming."
The picture lit up speedily, surrounding itself in a golden box, a reflection effect sweeping across the picture diagonally and settling to the dull version of itself, though gold remained.
She had stepped back for a moment, and now regained her dignity and walked forward again. Two more pictures were on the same row as the first, the ones beneath grayed out. She tapped the second of the first row labelled, "Charged Particle Accelerator," which gave the same effect as earlier, though she did not result in a mess of confusion and fear.
At the bottom, she noticed an "Accept" button and a "Cancel" button, both having the words "Are you sure these are the Augmentations that you've chosen? You may change them at any given time."
Pressing the "Accept" button, she looked back up to see the previous two she had selected had a meter to the side of it, each with grayed out arrows above and beneath them. The third picture on that row was also grayed out, adding to the emptiness beneath them.
Tapping the second subtab of Augmentations (which was a simple "II" to her), it was labelled with "Physics," and "Metaphysics." Each had an extra pint of information that called it "warp aug" and "magic aug," respectively. She was confused to what "warp" and "magic" augmentations were, but continued reading their information as,
Physics (warp augmentations)
- increases physical strength
- creates varied abilities
Metaphysics (magic augmentations)
- increases resource regenerations
- reduces cooldowns/resource cost
"Hmm," she hummed in thought. These might be useful as well, but upon trying to augment them, the boxes were grayed out. She'd no idea why, and decided to question it as of later. For now, she decided, she would return to the base gain whatever reward was set for this mission.
Spinning quickly, after closing the Paragon Matrix which found refuge inside of her left arm and disappearing from sight, she strode back to the base.
New things awaited her, she realized, and she would have to get used to them. Fast.
-= *line break* =-
Lucio slipped into a wall, finishing the spin his sonic boots allowed him, back lightly bouncing off of the wall. His sprint, despite being on air, was still exhausting, even as he spoke to another of his lieutenants.
"Katia!" he said, breathing quickly.
"Lucio!" she yelled back as hail fire breached the corner Lucio backed from.
"I need men on the forward lines!" he commanded. "We'll need to soften 'em up with sonic barriers! Do we have any more augmentors?"
"They're caught behind enemy lines, but not too far," she replied quickly. "If we keep pushing forward, we can get to them and redeploy them on the field!"
"Get them, base confirms the first bounty's been taken!" She gave a look of confusion, even as a sonic shell flew beyond the corner, blowing a large area of asphalt from the street in front of them. "The new girl Alcantara brought in is pretty extraordinary, everyone's sayin'! And she pushed our operation a week ahead of schedule!" he affirmed. "I'm gonna talk to her, she got up earlier than I thought!"
"Understood!" Katia replied, placing a finger to the comm in her ear as he float ran away.
A sonic-type hover tank painted with the colors of his rebellion began to hover through the air at a fast pace as he flew on by, finger to his ear in activation of his communications system.
"Miguel," he called.
"I'm here, Lucio!" he replied.
"Get Second Division rolling through the first foothold, and spread them thin! We can't let Vishkar take it back!" An acknowledgement came from Miguel, but Lucio stopped him before he left. "Get those speakers out and start playin' something, too! We need a heartbeat for Katia's division and yours! I'll send out Leo's division tomorrow at noon!" he commanded.
"Got it!"
-= *line break* =-
Li-Ming stepped into the confines of the base and wiped perspiration from her forehead with an exhalation of relief. It was hot out today and running through it with metal armor wasn't the best idea. But it was kind of her best set of armor, so she didn't think twice about wearing it before. Sanctuary certainly didn't have such warm weather, either. Unless you were in Caldeum.
She sighed as soldiers around her began to quickly run back in forth in the coming anticipation that was the next move out, thanks to her completing that first bounty. She found Miguel hurrying to her as she leaned on one of the crates.
"M!" he called, running up to her. She gave a look of acknowledgement as he approached.
"What is it?" she asked.
"Lucio sent my division out to the place you liberated for us," he replied quickly, out of breath. "You pushed us a week ahead of schedule, and we don't have enough manpower yet to hold-"
"Calm yourself," she stopped him, "What do you mean one week?!"
"We don't have enough manpower to hold that line!" he confirmed, "We were gonna get another batch of soldiers in six days!"
She sighed before pinching the bridge of her nose, "I could have the entire city cleared of Vishkarians by the end of tomorrow, starting now," she said haughtily. "It would take you more than a week to even get a tenth of the city?"
"Things are different for you augmentors, aren't they?" he asked sarcastically, getting a huff from her. "Look, head to the canteen and Lucio will talk to you."
"Where's the canteen?" she inquired, and he sighed again, pointing at two soldiers from a reserve division, and telling them to come close.
"Get her to the canteen," he simply commanded, and left quickly to grab his helmet and leave for the battle of a holding point. But, for some odd reason, he couldn't help but feel he just put M in the wrong type of situation. Those two were known to be pretty parental, now that they had their own families to watch over (and liberate).
They nodded and she quickly joined them, pacing beside them as they walked into the base. These two soldiers were of the third division, yet still took orders from another lieutenant if needed. They were headed to the canteen anyways...
The wore a series of reds and blues across their bodies, like the other rebels in the base, she noticed. Though she was of stark contrast, reds and blacks, trims of white and gold across her gauntlets and greaves, white bandana that currently fell loose off of her face, helmet removed and under her right arm.
She sighed as they strode forward, in a comfortable silence that was quickly broken.
"So, how old are you?" one of the soldiers questioned.
"I'm 29 years of age," Li-Ming replied, and a whistle was heard from the first, flanking her left.
"29 and you're not even taller than 5'5"?"
"What do you mean?" Li-Ming wondered.
"Your height," the tall soldier replied. "You're not even up to some of the shorter soldiers' chests around here," he said.
Her eyes narrowed the tiniest bit, showing frustration in her height issue, a small blush tinting on her face. "W-well, m-my people were not known to being the tallest of most," she replied with a small jump in her words, trying to contain some dignity.
"I thought you were in your late teens," the second soldier tried.
"Well," Li-Ming said, regaining confidence in her appearance, "at least I look young."
"Yes, you do," said the first soldier. "Ol' Miguel thinks you're five years younger."
"I'm flattered," she said, again, holding back a blush from the unnecessary conversation centered on her height.
"So," the second interrupted from her right, realizing of her current frustration, changed the topic, "you took out the first bounty, eh? We were scheduled to take it out a week from now when we had more soldiers to work with."
"So I've heard," replied Li-Ming, thankful the tangent had moved. "I, personally, would be able to clear the city in a day without rest," she boasted.
"Well, you're an augmented," said the first one, "you're kind of expected to be that powerful. Some of our augmenteds, though, are pretty crap."
"I see," Li-Ming said as they continued walking through the hallways to where the perceived the canteen to be located.
"So," the second tried to stretch the conversation, "do you even eat?"
This perplexed her. "Why?"
"You're skinny and short as hell," he said (ironically to her), "you look like you haven't eaten in days!"
"I haven't eaten in 6 months, actually," she affirmed, causing the two soldiers to grab her arms. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"
"We're going to make you eat-" the first said, the one on her left.
"And you can't stop us," finished the second one, flanking her right.
"HOW DARE YOU!" she screeched, other profanities leaving her lips as she squirmed in the grip of the large men hold her several feet of the ground, legs kicking about like a toddler.
-= *line break* =-
Li-Ming hungrily ate at the food in front of her, something the men had come to call "cheese burgers, fries, and a shake."
Man one, who she had come to know as Matheus, had argued with man two, who she had come to know as Hugo, over whether she should eat McDonalds or Popeye's (two places she'd love to visit) first, and they decided to give her of both types. She had already eaten the chicken.
These two were of the same last name, brothers from a place known as the United States of America. They were vacationing with their respective wives and children down here in Brazil, but were locked in during Vishkar's attempt at control over the Superpower (of which they succeeded) and joined Lucio's rebellion immediately.
Consecutive moans filled her throat as she ate the juicy food, taking in every taste she had never tasted before, her eating most of the burger in just a few bites, sucking at the straw to the chocolate shake she had come to love so much.
"You look like you've never had McDonald's before," said Matheus.
She said something, but the words were muffled.
"What?" Hugo said.
She swallowed as fast as she could and sighed, before saying, "I haven't."
"How could you not have ever had McDonald's before?!" screamed Matheus, the canteen quieting in his wake. "McDonald's is everywhere!" he exclaimed.
"They had a part in North Korea's deisolationism 30 years ago," added Hugo calmly.
"Which I'm still surprised about," Matheus confirmed, turning to Hugo with a nod, before returning to Li-Ming with a perplexed face. "What the hell, woman?"
"Well," Li-Ming continued, taking a sip of her chocolate shake, the noise of a nearly empty bottle making itself known, she sighed and continued, "I live in a strange place, one of which I won't explain nor provide a location."
Matheus sighed, running a hand through his dark brown hair. A belch came from the Nephalem, though she continued eating unabated. Hugo shook his head in humor.
"What's going on, guys?" questioned a familiar voice to the two soldiers, though Li-Ming raised her head as she was about to dig into a fourth burger.
"Hey, lieutenant," Matheus replied, "just talking to the new recruit. Meet M, the one Lieutenant Alcantara brought in," he said. "She-"
"Hold a moment!" said the Nephalem, glad she had swallowed as quick as she did so as to not spit food everywhere, taking a breath before- "LIEUTENANT?! He didn't tell me his rank!" she roared.
"You know him?" the new girl questioned, sitting with her tray of food, filled other strange foods that Li-Ming couldn't place by name.
"She's the one that the lieutenant brought in, as I had said," Matheus reiterated. An apology came from the Nephalem as he continued. "She, apparently, has never had McDonald's before."
"So I heard, from across the room, Matheus," said the lieutenant with just a tad of venom, to which he reeled from. She turned to the Nephalem. "My name is Leo, third lieutenant of Lucio's," she introduced herself. "Your name?" she requested.
"Just call me M," said Li-Ming, "though I would prefer Nephalem, but that is not a name."
"It could be a hero name," Leo teased with a knowing smile.
'Oh, how she would never know...' Li-Ming internally sighed. "Well, if you don't mind," Li-Ming continued, "I'm going to eat a lot more food. What would be a gold coin's value here, Matheus?"
"Oh, about 20,000 USD an ounce of gold," replied Matheus. "That's about...63,000 Brazilian Reals, why?"
Li-Ming shuffled around in a bag behind the table, so the other three couldn't see much. Curiously, they leaned forward, trying to get an eye to see just what she was doing, before she pulled out a golden coin (as far as they were concerned, it was probably fake), before tossing it to Matheus, who used his helmet that he had discarded onto the table to check weight and compositions. Leo and Hugo leaned over to check over the results as well.
His eyes widened as the helmet actually confirmed that it was, in fact, real, pure gold, and it was just about an ounce in weight!
They looked up to Li-Ming, who casually continued eating (though it was more of a hungry tiger eating a fresh corpse).
"Where did you get this?" Hugo wondered incredulously.
"None of your concern," Li-Ming replied with muffled words, but did not bother to repeat them.
"..." the three of them stared at the smaller, older woman before them, who ate more than they did in three days combined - and that's the three of them together - who was capable of more destruction than a hover tank, and was richer than most people (if they considered the possibility that she had more gold coins where that came from.
But, also, the three of them had a very sinister thought.
-= *line break* =-
Li-Ming, sat, continuously eating as several people were passed out around her, beer bottles littering the floor.
She finished the last bite and sat back, as the third division simply slept around her.
She...probably...knew she would one day eat a lot due to her neglection of food over the half year of saving Sanctuary. Though, not in this large amount. She could eat out an entire larder and not sate the feeling of hunger.
'Of course,' Li-Ming thought, 'having the Lord of Gluttony in your body probably had some sort of influence with that...'
"This is new," flashed a voice from the door of the canteen. Li-Ming turned to him with a questioning look on her face. He strode over on his sonic boots, sitting down in front of her after shoving Leo off the tabletop. "Division Three is full of the toughest guys on the American continents."
"Lucio, I presume," Li-Ming guess, in which he nodded. She leaned forward. "I have been waiting to speak with you."
"And I you, but, you know...paperwork. So, what did you want to talk about?"
"Well, Lucio dos Santos," she said formally, "what exactly do you plan to do with Brazil after you liberate it?"
-= *End of Chapter 5* =-
I DID IT!
Comments:
ChimaTigon: "When are we going to see members of Overwatch?"
Reply: "We will see some in this chapter on (as you saw with Lucio), though Li-Ming doesn't directly meet him until the end of a chapter being all mysterious and shit. Another one should show up in an Omake Arc."
"Please do remember that this is pre-Overwatch recall. Winston has not been attacked by Reaper yet!"
-= *next comment* =-
Warmachine375: "Whoa, this is getting interesting. Li-Ming, the Wizard, is in the Overwatch universe and now she's about to make a name for herself on Earth quite a bit fast. By liberating Brazil from Vishkar Corporation. Hope Lucio would be cool and more than happy in accepting her assistance and probably make a new album out of it, lol. Although it won't be long if Symmetra would be called in by her superiors to find and deal with the new player in the field against their interests, 'for a better world under order and harmony of Vishkar'.
"It won't be long before Overwatch will know and hear about her on the news or intel gathering. Especially Soldier 76 who's in South America too as well, probably with Ana if she tagged along with him. It depends on how they'll deal with her and approach without being labeled as her enemy. Any enemy of Talon and Vishkar is their friend.
"My mind was blown when Li-Ming had the Black Soulstone, or at least a shard if I'm not wrong, within her body. That could risk her of being in eventual possession and takeover from a certain Prime Evil named Diablo if he wakes up. She better find a way to keep him in check and probably succeed where Aidan, the former prince and hero of Tristram and the Dark Wanderer, had failed to do so. Better hope Leah was in the soulstone too since she was possessed by Diablo to be his vessel and being the offspring between the Lord of Terror in possession of Aidan's body and that spiteful bitch Adria. Li-Ming might try to console her that she's not alone with ghostly angels, mad kings and terror demons anymore.
"I have a question about that Paladin employed by Vishkar and fought King Leoric. Is that suit of advanced armor that Li-Ming mistook for one of her fellow comrades, the Crusader of the separate and independent Holy Order, based on the Crusaders of Germany whose suits of technologically empowered armor built by J-08, and its known members are Reinhardt Wilhelm of Overwatch and Balderich von Adler, the late leader of the Crusader order?
It was also badass that King Leoric came out through Li-Ming and curbstomped the Paladin singlehandedly. I wonder what would happen if he encounter a Crusader like Reinhardt. It will be an epic battle between both warriors, ancient and modern.
If Leoric is within the soulstone, then Aidan might be there too since he's Diablo's vessel previously. Hopefully he might use this to redeem himself too by fighting once more as a hero he once was and reconcile with his father, brother Albrecht if he's there possibly, and his daughter Leah too as well.
Anyways keep up the great work and happy writing! Looking forward for the next chapter! Faved and Followed! XD
Reply: "Oh, my God! You know more than I do when it comes to Overwatch and Diablo! I may have to employ you in some manner! :p Anyways, I apologize, but while you were right on in many aspects, two of the people you have mentioned are not going to be within the Soulstone. You are free to speculate who those two are.
"Yes, Leoric was fighting a paladin, employed by Vishkar, with the advanced armor by J-08. There will be a fight between one from the Black Soulstone and Reinhardt of Overwatch, though I will not mention the circumstances of that fight and who fights Reinhardt. And, yes, you are also right on the fact that she mistook the paladin as the Crusader I have named Peter.
"Yes, eventually, the Prime Evils will eventually transform over her, but they will have difficulty combatting the feelings of the Nephalem they have been inside for a time I will not say now. These feelings will be of who is good and who is bad in relation to the Nephalem's feelings.
"I believe Soldier: 76 is actually in Mexico, as Dorado was said to be a Mexican city. I have plans for a particular gang named 'Los Muertos!' You'll possibly like it, maybe not!
"As for Ana, I have not actually researched her abilities whatsoever. I will eventually do so and see where I can have her meet Li-Ming.
"Thank you again, Warmachine375!"
-= *next comment* =-
Akshka (Guest): "Sooo she has every boss in her head hmmmm I mean thats interesting I like it"
Reply: "Not as much as every boss but also other things. For example, while it wasn't elaborated on completely, while fighting Reaper, the whole "flashes of orange" and "sent terror even in himself" points to the fact that she was a Terror Demon for a moment. Since the Black Soulstone is capable of holding "all Evil," it also contains the minions of each of the Seven Demon Lords.
"Even though Malthael is technically an angel, he did embed the Soulstone within himself during the fight with the Nephalem. He is also, as far as I know, the manifestation of the former Angels of Wisdom, which means Death Maidens, Flame Maidens, Anarchs, Exarchs, Urzael, and the like are also within the Soulstone.
"Leoric himself was once tormented and used by Diablo, making him one of the minions, that's why he was manifested."
-= *next comment* =-
MEleeSmasher: "Okay who the heck is next? First Malthael, then Leoric. I'm putting my bets on Leah next."
Reply: "Nope! :) You already see in this chapter whose next!"