"5, 4, 3, 2, 1." Athena announced. "Secure the objective."
As soon as the doors of Hollywood slid open Reinhardt charged forwards ahead of his team to secure the chokepoint and shield any incoming chip damage, but there was nothing to protect his team from. No rockets, no bullets, no arrows... nothing at all, not even the sounds of gunfire, rocketfire, or arrowfire that would suggest the enemy team was attempting to defend. Unperturbed, he awaited the rest of his team to catch up before they all pushed in together in an unusual display of teamwork. Just his luck that the one time the team worked together the enemy seemed to be non-existant.
"Be ready for anything, this feels like an ambush!" Reinhardt warned, his booming voice giving any lurking hostiles ample time to readjust their strategy accordingly.
Widowmaker peered through her scope at the upper balcony, ready to fire upon any targets trying to fire from the high ground, but the sight she saw made her blood run cold...er than it usually does. "Mon Dieu..."
Following her aimed rifle, the rest of the team cast their eyes upwards and reacted in a variety of ways once they caught sight of what she was observing. Mei screamed and immediately encased herself in ice, Lucio grimaced and averted his gaze, Brigitte gagged and brought a hand to her mouth to stop herself from vomiting, and Reinhardt let his shield disperse and his hammer fall to the ground in shock. They had all experienced the horrors of war in one way or another, but this wasn't your run of the mill bullet-riddled corpse.
Hanzo was hanged from the upper platform by his own bow, the taught string tightened around his neck to the point of drawing blood. A large gash had been cut across his abdomen, eviscerating him and leaving his entrails hanging halfway out of his body, gore, blood, and bile pooling on the ground below. Both of his hands had been bifurcated, slit cleanly and efficiently right between the middle and ring finger down to the wrists. His legs had been haphazardly skinned from knee to ankle, his muscles and tendons left exposed to the air. Worst of all was his face, slashed dozens of times with his eyeballs skewered on arrows piercing through the back of his skull and protruding from his eye sockets.
"What kind of sick, deranged monster would do such a thing!?" Brigitte exclaimed, finally regaining control of herself, though she didn't dare take a second glance at the horrific sight above and ahead of them.
"I don't know, but we still have a job to do!" Reinhardt responded, steeling himself and swallowing his own building fear. "Keep your eyes peeled, if you so much as see a mouse say something. I've got a bad feeling about this..."
Sticking as closely together as possible, the team continued their push forwards towards the VIP's limousine to secure it and begin escorting him to his trailer. As they approached, they found yet another unfortunate victim lying across the hood, with buckets of blood splattered all across the vehicle. Mercy lay dead, her head forcibly driven through the front windshield with shards of glass piercing her neck, practically decapitating her. Her mechanical wings, once a part of her armor, were now piercing straight into her back, her skin pulled back and ribs cut out in a manner reminiscent of ancient Blood Eagle torture. Her legs were surgically amputeted at the knee, leaving two bloody stumps with the other halves lying on the ground besides the limo.
Suddenly, a sadistic giggle echoed through the area, reverberating off of the walls and seeming to come from every angle at once making it impossible to pinpoint its true origin. A shadowed figure darted across a rooftop, soft footsteps echoing downwards bringing all five pairs of eyes upwards to try and spot the murderous murderer who murdered the murder victims they had stumbled across. Sunlight glinting off of some small steel blade was the only clue as to the perpetrator's identity as they quickly slipped downwards off the building and into the alleyway behind the limousine.
Immediately charging into the fray, Reinhardt screamed a hearty war-cry as his rocket pack roared to life and propelled him in the direction of the malicious individual he sought to eradicate. As soon as he rounded the corner however, he came face-to-face with a drowsy Ana strung up between two buildings directly in his path, and he didn't have enough time to stop before it was too late. Her pained screams overtook his war cry, which quickly changed into a horrified cry of anguish as he realized what he had just done. Even as he halted his charge it was already too late, as Ana's limp body flew into the wall just ahead, splattering against it with a sickening crunch as every bone in her mangled body snapped. Hanging limply from the walls behind him were the ropes that had kept her suspended, still tied around her forcibly amputated arms and legs.
"ANA! NOOO!" Reinhardt cried out, throwing off his helmet as he rushed over to his good friend he had just accidentally ended the life of. "Stay with me, Ana!"
As he crouched over the lifeless quadruple amputee, the figure he had chased after in the first place silently dropped down onto his back, the slight weight she added to his armor not even registering in his grief-stricken mind. In one swift motion the figure grabbed him by the hair, yanked back his head to expose his throat, and slashed it from ear to ear with a kunai. Blood sprayed from his new wound, splattering the wall, Ana's corpse, and his own hands when he brought them up to put pressure on the lethal gash. Even he knew it was a fruitless effort, not only was the wound far too grave to survive without immediate biological restructuring, but his armor's gloves made his hands far too large to even touch his neck underneath his armor. Accepting his rapidly approaching death, he fell forwards besides his friend, gently cradling her in his arms as he awaited their reunification on the other side.
"REINHARDT!" Brigitte screamed as the rest of the team finally rounded the corner, the entire ordeal having lasted only a matter of seconds from start to finish.
Kiriko twisted her head to the side, glancing over her shoulder at four terrified, horrified, and three distraught, faces. Raising her bloody kunai, she licked the blade clean before teleporting out of sight just as Widowmaker opened fire, the bullet hitting the wall in front of where she had been standing. Enraged, Brigitte immediately took off, to where she didn't rightly know, but standing around wasn't doing anyone any favors at this point. After a few seconds of hesitation Mei followed suit, clumsily thumping her way after the overzealous squire with Widowmaker leisurely following suit. Lucio glanced at Reinhardt's body, his vital signs finally ceasing and his body falling into an eerie stillness, his armor keeping him slightly propped up despite his head visibly hanging limp out of it.
Activating his speed-boosting capabilities, he caught up with his team before he was separated from them, something that Reinhardt proved to be a fatal blunder and one he wasn't eager to repeat. The team moved past the limousine, ignoring the ignorant omnic producer shouting at them from within as he chastised them for taking so long and to pick up the pace before he's late for whatever he's doing. As they passed through the cafe into the studio proper, the producer's incensed shouts turned to terrified screams, but having blocked his voice out none of them noticed the shift. Finally the shouting came to an end as his voice modulator was punctured with a kunai, followed by his optical lenses being smashed with its handle, and then he was finished off completely with a swift puncturing through his central core.
Unaware of the murder occurring just on the other side of the large gate separating the studio lot from the studio, the team began methodically scouring the western set for any traces of Kiriko. They indeed found some, though judging by the ghastly paleness of Cassidy's face it certainly wasn't recent. The futuristic cowboy was dead, left hanging upside down over the main street of the dusty road, his legs tied together at the ankles with a makeshift target carved into his abdomen. There were six bullet wounds visible scattered across the circular gashes, with none coming close to actually hitting the mark. His revolver lie discarded beneath him, the ammo within presumably spent on his corpse.
Scoffing at the poor marksmanship capabilities of Kiriko, Widowmaker briefly considered firing her own perfectly centered shot on the target but quickly discarded that idea given the circumstances. Her team would prove useful in luring Kiriko out so she could kill her, she shouldn't ruin that by defiling their friend's corpse just to prove her superiority. As the team finally made their way forwards, parting around the body as if he were Moses and they were the Red Sea, another sadistic giggle sounded off from somewhere above them. Sharing a glance they all had the same thought, that Kiriko must be atop the set pieces watching them from above. Acting immediately, Widowmaker grappled up onto the walkway connecting one side of the street to the other and scanned the area.
The saloon's roof was clear, but as she quickly spun around to sweep the other side of the street's rooftops a kunai crashed through the scope of her rifle and pierced into her eye peering through it. Screaming, she lowering her rifle, causing the scope to automatically retract and pull the kunai with it, forcibly yanking her eye from its socket before being stopped as it didn't fit into the scope's compartment. Feeling her consciousness beginning to slip from the sheer ungodly pain she felt, she blindly fired her rifle in automatic mode, spraying bullets into the air in front of her. Just as her ammunition expended, so too did her consciousness, causing her to topple right off of the walkway to the dusty street below. She slammed headfirst into the ground with a sickening crack, her skull caving in and every vertebrae in her neck snapping apart, killing her instantly.
Mei screamed and immediately encased herself in ice as Brigitte and Lucio tore off around the buildings to catch the lift to the roof in order to confront Kiriko before she had a chance to slip away again. This left the Chinese climatologist all alone on the street when she finally broke from her icy fort, only to find herself standing face to face with the womanly psychopath herself. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came out, finding herself so terrified she could do little but stare with wide-eyed abject horror as Kiriko slowly sauntered up to her. Her eyes were cold and empty, a glint of sadistic joy visible once their eye contact lasted long enough.
Kiriko flicked her wrist, sending a kunai directly into Mei's kneecap, finally eliciting a noise as she screamed in pain, and then a second noise when she flicked a kunai into her other kneecap. Struggling to stay standing, Mei finally couldn't support herself any longer and fell to her knees, crying out in even worse pain as the kunai were driven further into her plump leg, the points emerging out through the other side. With two more flicks of her wrist Kiriko sent kunais into both of Mei's elbows, practically severing her arms and forcing her to keep them at the exact angle as when they were pierced. Brigitte and Lucio appeared on the rooftops above, looking down at the Kiriko as she finally finished the job, flicking one final kunai directly into Mei's heart and bringing her nightmarish torture to an end.
Brigitte dropped off the rooftop directly behind Kiriko and swung her mace onto the back of her head, her blow deflecting right off of the demon's short green hair, a faint golden glow the only explanation. Kiriko departed as Lucio dropped down as well, leaving a small metal orb where she had been standing, her protective suzu dutifully having done its job by shielding her from harm at the precise moment of Brigitte's strike. Firing off a four-round burst of music which she easily side-stepped without even looking, Lucio shouted several Portuguese obscenities as she disappeared into the indoor portion of the studio lot.
"We have to stop her!" Lucio called out, providing a boost of speed to both him and Brigitte as they gave chase once more.
As they passed by the fake prison, they caught a brief glimpse of something inside the dimly lit jail cell. Doomfist's lifeless body was pinned into the wall with his own giant metallic fist. His intestines seemed to have been puked out of his mouth from the powerful hit to his stomach where the fabled fist was left visible sticking out. It was a gruesome sight, but no worse than any of the others either had witnessed that day, so they pressed onwards without breaking stride, adding him to the list of names they were hellbent on avenging.
As soon as they stepped into the building they were met with a horrific sight, as Dva's mech stood in the center of the moon set piece with the pilot herself draped across the top of it. She was posed in a manner reminiscent of the casual pose she often took during downtime, lying on her back with her legs crossed at the ankles and a peace sign offered to anyone she saw passing by. However now her ankles were pinned together on top of the mech by a kunai stabbed through them, her arm hung limply in front of the cockpit glass with every finger except for her pointer and middle amputated at the knuckle, and her face twisted in pained horror rather than a laidback smirk.
As they stopped to take in the macabre display they were beset upon by the artist who orchestrated it, a pair of kunais soaring through the air from the side and slicing Lucio's Achilles tendons, his skates providing no protection from the impossibly sharp blade. Immediately retaliating as Lucio screamed in pain and fell to the ground, Brigitte charged towards Kiriko with a war cry reminiscent of her mentor and idol. Raising her shield she launched herself forwards in an attempt to slam into her and disorientate her, however her target merely stepped aside. As she passed by Kiriko, Brigitte felt a sharp pain in the side of her neck that shot all the way through and seemed to emerge on the other side.
She reflexively made to scream, but the kunai piercing through her throat blocked her airway, making it impossible to make any noise at all as she stumbled to a stop and tried to recollect herself. Brigitte was fading fast, a terrifying moment of realization dawning on the young squire as she realized she could physically feel her life beginning to drain away with every passing second. Jerking around to face the silent assassin that now stood behind her, she swung her mace and hit the latch to allow the head to eject itself in a desperate last-ditch attempt to retaliate. Once again Kiriko merely stepped aside as the mace's head flew through the air and clocked Lucio in the head as he struggled to sit upright.
Terrified of her impending death and feeling the weight of shame for harming her own friend and teammate with her final attack, Brigitte collapsed to the floor. Her lips moved faintly in a silent apology to Lucio, the gurgling of blood the only noise she could muster given the steel blocking her windpipe. Stunned from the sudden blow to the head, the Brazilian DJ found his consciousness fading slightly as he desperately began crawling away from Kiriko, his arms struggling to pull him along as his legs screamed at him to stop trying to use them to push forwards.
The terrifying sound of soft footsteps following along the trail of blood he was leaving in his wake was almost enough to give him a heart attack, though such a death would be a mercy compared to what awaited him. As the Japanese ninja-shrinemaiden stood over him, her kunai reflected the bright light from the fixtures on the ceiling directly into his eyes, mercifully blinding him so he need not witness his own brutal death approaching. Stabbing and slashing mercilessly into his unprotected back, Kiriko relished in his pained screams and cries for help. Using his last ounce of strength he called out a warning for anyone who might be nearby, hopefully saving others from suffering the same fate as he and the others.
"Kiriko's gone krazy!"