The mission had been a long and arduous battle, but a successful one.

Mei sat in her quarters, stretching her sore back muscles as Snowball tittered and chirped above her.

"No, friend. I don't need any pain gel, I am fine. Thank you, though."

The tiny bot made a low, skeptical, buzzing sort of noise before hovering onto Mei's desk and alighting gently onto its charge pad.

Kicking off her heavy boots and shedding her heavy down-filled coat, she heaves a deep sigh and flops herself down heavily onto her bed, waiting for her teammates to be finished with the showers.

Mei had always been a rather private person. She was willing to try what she could to be closer to her companions, but there were some things she simply couldn't bear to do. Recalling the first and only time she had ventured into the communal showers when others were still there, her cheeks immediately began to warm.

First off, there was the cheerful and totally unabashedly topless greeting from Tracer in the locker rooms. She had waved at Mei excitedly, with that same sweet puppy-dog smile on her freckled pixie face as though she WASN'T completely bare from the hips up. Mei recalled attempting to direct a friendly smile toward her as best as she could while her eyes were glued to the ceiling, bashfully avoiding the motion resulting from Tracer's frantic arm-waving.

And then there had been Zarya.

Mei had been shampooing her hair when she felt the enormous hand clap jocularly over her shoulder, encompassing the tinier pale structure entirely. Peering down, she noticed the unmistakable pink manicure and went completely rigid. Heart pitter-pattering pitifully in her chest, she slowly turned to face her towering friend.

To say that Zarya was beautiful was an enormous understatement. The muscular warrior was a tribute to womankind.

"Privjet*, little mouse. You fought well on our incursion. Those scum never knew what hit them. Small as though you may be, one cannot say that you are...lacking."

The subtle, split-second downward glance of Zarya's stunning green eyes, acknowledging her bust, did not go unnoticed to Mei, and she felt herself go cherry red.

"A-ah, well, thank you! Y-you're an, uhm, excellent fighter too, Zarya! Very strong! Like the mountain, ahaha!", She had managed to sputter before practically bolting down the hall, towel, suds, and all, back into her quarters.

She sighed, grumbling a little and rubbing at her squishy cheeks to get rid of the burning sensation that overwhelmed her face, and sat up to glance at her digital clock, which cast a cool minty blue hue over her bedspread.

10:47 PM, lights out at 11. Her teammates were surely done with the showers by now.

Gathering up her spearmint shampoo, vanilla shower gel, towel, and other various toiletries, she began to make her way out of her quarters and to the dormitory bathroom.

Just as she reached the door to her bedroom, a familiar squawking noise stopped her in her tracks.

Was she hearing things?

She paused at the door, pressing her ear to it to listen.

There it was again!

"What on earth would a juvenile Emperor penguin be doing he…..oh".

She opened the door to find a cute plush robotic penguin, toddling about in circles before her door. Smiling and humming pleasantly, she crouched down to watch the little robot do its routine.

Giggling, she reaches out a hand to pat the little bird on its soft, faintly humming head.

"Goodness, you sure are cute! And you match my socks!"

She beams, glancing down at her sky-blue socks, patterned with penguins in scarves and earmuffs.

"I wonder who you…..belong...to?"

Looking back toward the little toy, she squinted a bit, noticing a pair of panels beginning to pull apart just below the adorable plush's beak with a faint mechanical whirr. Rows of jagged, shark-like teeth were revealed beneath the fluff, the tiny penguin's expression beginning to resemble a familiar signature smile.

"This looks like…"

Images of round yellow cherry bombs sailing above her, each bearing the exact same maniacal grin, slowly came to mind.

She gasps, realization hitting her just a little bit too late.

"JunkRA-"

The penguin's eyes twinkled with a bright orange LED mischief before the little creature erupted into an enormous smokebomb, coating she, her dorm, and the surrounding hallway with an obnoxious flame-orange dust.

The tiny climatologist could only stand there, dumbstruck. A tiny, angry tremor began at her socks and worked its way into her balled fists. Startled tears began to prickle her flaming cheeks before she heard the faint sound of familiar wild laughter down the hall.

"AAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! OH MY GOD, ME FUCKIN' BOMB MATCHED 'ER SOCKS, DIDJA HEAR THAT 'OG? I CAN'T BELIEVE I CAUGHT THIS ALL ON FILM! DIDJA SEE HER FACE!? AAAAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Wait, a CAMERA!?

She whirled toward the orange-stained plush, picking its heavy little body up to peer into its eyes. Just as she expected, she was greeted with the clicking of a camera lens, adjusting to get a clear image of her fuming face. A low growl bubbled out of her throat, and she fisted her hand in the confounding toy's soft orange-black fur. Behind her, her other hand fished through her bundle of supplies for her Blaster.

"Jamison Fawkes,", she hisses into the camera, letting an indomitable smirk curl her pretty lips as she points an icicle into the bird's glassy eye.

"Prepare yourself for war."