Chapter 3
It's her Destiny
His head rang. Jet lag hit him hard, too.
Jesse could barely believe the Chilean security footage where Lena made herself liable as accomplice to some crappy Australian criminals. A quick phone call made sure that she was flagged as undercover. Then he tracked her down until the trail stopped here.
"Y'sure that she would be here of all places?"
"Of course cowboi! It's the WCS, duh! There's nothing bigger going on in SK!"
"I have a name, y'know…"
He stared at the big screen where some crazy pixels were battling each other. Meanwhile two guys on microphones were having a contest to see who could shout louder. He was surrounded by kids cheering and waving signs with DVa on them. 'DVa' was the nickname of the newest addition to Overwatch, Korean leader of the MEKA unit and E-Sports superstar Hana Song.
"Are you done soon?"
"Have you looked for her everywhere?"
"Three times over while you mopped the floor with the last 6 guys…"
"Well then do it again! I'm done in a sec cowboi, this 'Destiny' guy is a loser. Fitting name though."
He knew her well enough by now. Jesse braced himself for the stupid pun that had to be coming, already face palming.
"DESTINED TO LOSE LOL."
All Jesse wanted was his peace. Instead he had to go after Tracer over three different continents and now had to bear with DVa on his communications channel.
Couldn't get worse, really.
"Who the hell thought it was a good idea to play video games in an open air arena anyway…"
"It's the biggest around! Only fitting for best sport!"
"Sure, if you say so... but isn't it like cheating to have me on com with you? I mean, I can see him play."
"Yeah, that's why we have a ref in the channel with us."
"We have?"
"…"
"Does he speak English?"
"I don't think so, LOL!"
"So, uhm… make more of those flashy blue units. I think Destiny is going for the big dudes!"
"HEY!"
That made him chuckle for moment. At least until the jet lag hit him hard again. Right now was his usual siesta time.
It's high noon somewhere in the world...
Jesse plopped in his trusty foam earplugs and closed the shutters. Nothing would happen anyway.
She was crushing her opponent.
Destiny thought he was firmly in the top spot after establishing air control with mass Muta, but he hadn't seen her hidden tech yet. How that noob didn't overlord scout the island was beyond her. She decided to send a taunt, just to mess with the guy.
"DVa: 이 쉬운 모드 인가?"
The crowd cheered thunderously beyond her soundproof glass box. She'd be the winner by the end of the night. Hana felt so confident, she just issued an attack command and leaned back for the sake of the spectacle, showing the peace sign to the crowd.
"My fans will love this! I can already see my view count explode tom-"
Hana felt a sharp pain in her cheek as something rushed past where her head had been just now. Sparks flew in front of her as a bullet smashed her computer screen at roughly 700 miles per hour, making her jump in reflex, away from the ruined monitor.
Her instincts kicked in. With the push of a wristband button, her trademark pink MEKA materialized in front of her, crushing part of the booth and the rest of her gaming rig.
"DVa disconnected."
Once inside, she booted Starcraft in the on-board systems while scanning the area for her assailant.
"DVa reconnected."
"DVa: 나는 그것을 처리합니다! 겁쟁이 플레이!"
Hana erupted in hysterical laughter as a thin stream of blood trickled down from her cheek.
Finally a real challenge!
"Let's rock cowboi!"
Faint snoring could be heard on the other side of the com channel.
Reaper couldn't believe his eyes. Indeed he checked if they came out right this time, formed them again just in case. Nope, pink mech still piloted by an annoying Korean rat that dreamed itself to be a bunny.
"Sir, she missed!"
The other agents quickly moved away from the new guy. A black claw grabbed the poor recruit and threw him against the next best wall for good measure.
"I can see that. Anyone else want to point out the obvious?"
It was best to keep out of Reapers sight when an Overwatch agent survived. Platoon commander Graf learned as much over the years.
"Orders, Sir?"
"Oh well, let's just call it a day and have a nice barbecue at the headqua-KILL THE GIRL!"
The woman nodded quickly and activated a communication device in response while the agents around her shivered and winced to various degrees, depending on how long they had worked with Reaper already. Graf seemed to be a veteran in that field.
"All agents, move in to eliminate the target. I repeat, eliminate the target."
She shot wide.
Or what could be called wide for her standards, missing her target by the breadth of a hair at most. Widow took her eye from the sights. There would be no second shot in time, Hana was already obstructed by her mech.
Widowmaker didn't understand. She usually never missed. 'One shot, one kill' she liked to boast.
"Comment est-ce arrivé..?!"
She tried to blame the girl for not being hunched over at the moment of the shot like a good gamer, but that was a sad excuse for her lack of millisecond adjustment. The bullet would've hit in time, even while she was at a large distance on some highrise roof overlooking the arena.
Her radio clicked.
"All agents, move in to eliminate the target. I repeat, eliminate the target."
Now the other agents would swarm the arena to do her job. It hit Widow that this situation was probably the fault of her not taking the medication she was issued. They would find out that she was lax on it. They would make her go through conditioning again. That is if Reaper didn't execute her first for being useless. He would find her soon.
"Non. Nononononon…"
Widowmaker began to develop cold sweat. Her face drained of more color by the second. All the emotions she let back into her life made it hard to think. Fear was the strongest of them. Her body trembled as her mind raced, unsure what to about this. She found no answer, only flashbacks of her time strapped to the torture chamber Talon called a medical lab.
'There is nothing to fear, Madame Lacroix. It will hurt, but the pain will slowly fade.'
Needles punctuated her skin. Shocks rocked through her body. She was going to die, she thought, every waking hour, but she never did. In the end they hurt her until she felt no more.
It was getting hard to breathe.
Not again. Notagainnotagainnotagain-
"You're havin' a panic attack, luv."
Widow blinked, breath stuck in her throat. Was she getting insane? Was she hearing voices? Her eyes grew wide and it took her way too long to figure out that this sounded way more real than the head of research had in her flashback. Widow spun around to reaffirm herself under heavy breathing.
"Tracer!"
A string of emotions shot through her as she pressed out the name in her thick French accent. Fear was already present. Then there was shock. Relief that she wasn't crazy. And happiness. She had never been more happy to see Tracer.
Tracer was her 'get out of jail free' card, she realized. Widow could just pretend like the pesky Brit ruined her shot. She only needed to at least wound her to make Reaper believe.
"Happy to see me, luv? Not such a good shot without a hot bod in the way, eh?"
Lena grinned. She was quite proud of that bit of mockery, even if she was slightly surprised how genuinely happy Widow seemed.
"Oh am I ever, Chèrie. Maybe you could help me line up another target~"
Widow quickly pulled Widow's Kiss on the pesky little fly. A volley of automatic fire missed her blinking target, as expected, giving Widow enough time to stand up and grapple to high ground.
"Hahaha! Really?!"
In the first seconds of the fight, Widow noticed something different about Tracers combat style. She had only one of her pulse pistols. Was there something attached to her arm?
What irritated her most however was the fit of laughter Tracer was having. She danced around her, evaded her rifle fire like usual, but cracked up like it was the most funny thing in the world to her. It made her angry.
"What's so funny?!"
"I've waited weeks to try this out!"
Tracer blinked into the air, forcing Widow to move under pulse pistol fire. She'll turn right, Tracer thought giddily, covering Widows perceived retreating path in small, smiling explosives from the contraption on her pistol-less arm.
Qu'est-ce qui se pas-
The balls detonated around her. Widow could barely grapple out of the way while her right leg and arm got singed in the grenade explosion. Even though she reacted as fast as she could, Widow was hard pressed to deal with disorientation and a ringing in her ears. She also lost her visor in the brief chaos.
That trick wouldn't work twice though. She whirled to get Tracer back into her peripheral, who was already in the process of lobbing something at her.
"Catch!"
Pulse bomb! You fool!
She could see it coming. This is where she would get the upper hand, just like on the rooftops of King's Row. Widow shot the bomb with perfect precision within a second of it being in the air.
The bomb didn't explode though. It scattered.
Shrapnel in metal scrap form opened up like an umbrella and rained down in her vicinity. Wide eyed, Widow tried to shield herself, but to little avail. Metal crashed into her skin, cut her open in multiple spots, making her bleed like a stuck pig.
"What is this..?!"
The answer came in form of a carefree voice followed by cheerful laughter.
"Improvisation! Haha!"
Widow shivered and rewarded the lunatic with a shot to the face. Of course Tracer blinked out of the way.
4 more rounds in the chamber.
Widow's mind raced while her body grew weak from the wounds she just took. It should be doable. Everything about Tracer could be summed up in three's. 3 blinks, 3 second recharge, 3 second recall back in time. To hell with her improvisations, she would beat her with timing!
Shoot, blink, 3 more rounds.
Even if she missed the shot on Hana, she was still superior!
Shoot, blink, 2 more rounds.
In all her fights, Tracer never beat her one on one. She was the huntress, not the hunted!
Shoot, recall, last round.
This was it.
The last shot would be going to the chest. Widow take no chances anymore. Her grip was getting weak and she needed to win this fight. It would still be about one second until Tracers blink recharged. She would be stuck on her recall point 3 seconds ago. Widow was sure she remembered the spot right. She knelt down to compensate for her weakness, aimed, counted.
Un
deux
trois
As she pulled the trigger, an explosion rang in her ears. Where Tracer should've recalled to, smoke rose to the sky. Widow followed the trail with her bright, amber eyes and met her match in the wildest gaze she ever witnessed.
"Rocket boots..? But… what…"
She just couldn't comprehend this anymore. Widow's Kiss slowly slid out of her hands as Tracer's chronal accelerator roared in vibrant blue, announcing her next blink.
이 쉬운 모드 인가? ~ Is this easy mode?
나는 그것을 처리합니다! 겁쟁이 플레이! ~ Play on, coward! I've got this!
Comment est-ce arrivé ~ How can this be?
Qu'est-ce qui se pas- ~ What is happeni-
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Feedback will again be greatly appreciated.
Beware of the next chapter. It will be hot. Or crazy. Or both. Most likely both.