Reaper had to wonder just what was nowadays considered as top-notch security. Because what he and his two cohorts were doing was quite frankly ridiculous. Well, usually one wouldn't consider sneaking into a top-secret base exactly ridiculous. Some would consider it suicidal, others an adrenaline rush and someone like Reaper usually considered this at just another day at work. Emphasize on "usually".

When Sombra stole the schematics of this facility, the least any of the three Talon Agents expected to find was an old emergency exit, which basically gave them access to 90% of the entire base! Apparently, this base had been built all the way back in the 1930s, when security standards were completely different from what they were nowadays. Of course, security had been updated over the years, with the exception one little thing: the exit of the fire-escape route. It was located around a mile outside of the actual facility and clearly hadn't been taken care of as much as it should have. For starters, the ladder leading downwards was rusty and would have collapsed if any of the three people would have used it. So instead, Sombra used her teleporter, Reaper his weird shadowy abilities (Sombra's words) and Widowmaker her grappling hook in order to get down safely.

Down in the first hallway, the three silently questioned whether this was really a good idea to get into the base that way or not. There was water, presumably, from rain on the ground, the hatch door in front of them had already fallen to the ground and judging from these tiny rocks falling on top of their heads, it was very likely that the tunnel they were using could collapse any second.

There were some very old lamps attached to the side of the wall, although even if the power had been turned on, they probably wouldn't work. Reaper himself went ahead and put the door out of the way because his two companions couldn't turn themselves into smoke and fly through the cracks.

"What a gentleman," commented Sombra off-handedly.

"Get a move on," Reaper growled and walked ahead. Sombra and Widowmaker followed him dutifully, the former rolling her eyes in amusement. It turned out the inside the of fire escape was just in a bad shape as the entrance/exit. The ground was cracked, as well as the walls, from somewhere in the distance the trio could hear water dripping somewhere and they even came across an old first-aid kit, which had dropped from its spot on the wall. At one point, tiny rocks fell on top of Widowmaker's head. The French woman looked up at the ceiling, frowning.

"Let's pick up the pace. This tunnel looks like it could collapse any second," the sniper stated.

Reaper and Sombra nodded, increasing their pace.

XXX

("...I can feel them.")

Hana's body stirred a little.

("They are there… yet they are not.")

Her fingers twitched.

("They are me… and I am them.")

Her hand balled up into a fist.

("But at the same time, I am more. And they know it.")

Beneath her eyelids, one could see the eyes moving in a rapid fashion.

("This power… just what is this? It feels… so awesome.")

XXX

The easy (and wet) part of the mission was done, now came the tricky part: making their way through the actual facility. For this part, Widowmaker and Reaper would hide in the old fire escape, while Sombra made her way through the hallways, in order to create a distraction. Using her cloaking ability, she easily managed to dodge patrols, the paths being big enough to let two cars drive next to each other.

If one would look close enough, they would be able to see the subtle flicker that Sombra created whenever she moved, while she was cloaked. But like almost any guard that wasn't deployed in a war zone, they were bored out of their minds, not really paying any attention to their surroundings. This became very apparent when she came across a soldier and a woman wearing a science lab coat, who were talking to each other casually.

"... and then all of the sudden, they called me one day and told me I had seen enough. So now I'm stuck here in this shithole, trying to find a way to mind control ants of all things," the woman complained.

"Really?" the soldier asked with a raised eyebrow. "You gotta be pulling my leg here."

"Puh-lease," the woman waved off, putting her hands on her hips. "This project is so ridiculous, like, we're trying to build little machines with which we can control the ants' brainwaves, while another group tries to artificially recreate the pheromones ant queens and bee queens produce with which they control their subjects."

"Okay, now I really know you're pulling my leg here. First off, why would the higher ups spend money on that? And secondly, even if it's true, that's the kind of stuff I'm not supposed to know," the Korean soldier replied.

"I don't even care about protocol anymore," the woman huffed in annoyance. "I have been screwed over so many times, I'm actively thinking of quitting all of this and try my luck at the free market."

"Yeah, whatever," the soldier rolled his eyes. "I just wished I wouldn't spend my time wasting here when I could fight against the omnics on the front."

"The front? We should call ourselves lucky that the omnics have been holding off on their attack for so long. This has given us enough time to upgrade the MEKA division."

"Yeah, right. The kids get all of the toys, while we adults are stuck with the old junk."

Their talk continued on, but Sombra had already left. She had successfully managed to sneak into a small control room for the electricity on this floor. While usually there was a central control room for the entire building, it wasn't that uncommon for military bases to have more than one, usually when there's something important on the floor or just simply as a backup station.

Despite what one might think, Sombra did not cause a blackout. In case of a blackout, there are always backup generators, plus it wouldn't really empty the floor like she intended to do. Using the local computers, she easily managed to hack herself into the main system. The first thing she did was set the cameras on this floor in a loop. Basically, they showed the same ten minutes of activity on the monitor over and over again. This would be found out sooner or later, but by the time it did, she and her fellow Talon Officers would be long gone. After she was done tampering with the cameras, she started the actual distraction.

"ATTENTION ALL BASE PERSONNEL!" an electronic voice shouted over the speakers, while an alarm was going off. "FIRE HAS BEEN DETECTED IN SECTOR F! PLEASE GO TO YOUR ASSIGNED RALLYING POINT AND EVACUATE THE BASE!"

"Is this another drill?" Sombra heard a voice complaining outside.

"We just had one last week!"

"Oh, I hate it when my horoscope is correct…"

XXX

In the meantime, while the alarm was going off, Reaper and Widowmaker waited for the signal from Sombra to finally go into the actual base.

"Commander," Reaper heard a voice over his com system that was completely new to him. He guessed this was Sombra's doing. "What about agent song?" the voice asked. "We can't just carry her the whole way up when we're not allowed to use the elevators."

"Don't worry about her, doctor," the voice who was presumably the commander, replied. "The isolation chamber is fireproof and it's got its own air supply. She'll manage an hour without your supervision."

"Understood sir."

Reaper couldn't help but think that the plan was going way smoother than he thought it would go. So far he and his fellow agents had been pretty lucky. Stumbling across the security breach with the old fire escape and now they even had confirmation that their target would be left alone for at least an hour. That was a hell of a lot of time for him and his cohorts to carry out their plan.

He was brought out of his musings when Sombra suddenly appeared between him and Widowmaker. The latter raised her weapon and let out a curse in French when she noticed that it was just the hacker.

"What's the status?" Reaper asked.

"She's on this floor," Sombra told him. "I took care of the cameras and the automatic defenses. Once everyone has left this floor, we can move out."

"What's the condition of the girl?" the sniper asked the hacker.

"Dunno. I couldn't crack the door while there were still people going around. But I overheard some guards. She's definitely in there."

"Let's just hope this wasn't a complete waste of time," Reaper stated, after checking his weapons.

"The girl is the only lead we have left," Widowmaker reminded her colleague. "Sombra's information is usually correct. Usually."

"Hey, when do I have ever messed up?" the hacker asked with a cheeky grin. In reply, she only got two deadpan stares from the other agents.

The purple clothed hacker huffed and opened the door to the base. "This should be enough time. Follow me."

And although they had at least an hour to complete their mission, the Talon Agents ran through the now empty floor, with Sombra leading them through the maze-like structure. As expected, they didn't meet anyone on their way and although the cameras were following every movement of the intruders, no alarm was raised. Still, not taking any chances, Widowmaker listened in to the enemy radio communications.

"Sir, the firefighting team is ready."

"Excellent. We're missing a couple of people from Sector F. Keep a lookout for them."

"Yes, sir."

"Sir," another voice spoke up. "We found three people from Sector F. They just arrived at their rally point and report smoke coming out of the vents."

"Smoke?" Widowmaker repeated.

"Well, I had to make the fire somewhat real," Sombra told her from the front. "Or else they'll find out this ruse very quickly. So I overheated a couple of computers and caused the one or other malfunction in the ventilation system. Anyway, we're here."

The trio stopped in front of a huge bunker door, which was as big and probably weighed as much as a tank. Using the nearby terminal, Sombra quickly unlocked the door and Reaper being the gentleman that he was, opted to open the door himself. With that being done, the Talon Agents entered the isolation chamber, which turned out to be bigger than they thought it to be. There was an empty observation room stationed behind them, secured with bulletproof glass. The room itself opted enough space for a multitude of tanks and in the center of the said room was a glass tube, big enough for a human to be placed in. The tube was filled with some orange stuff and only a shadow inside the liquid indicated that someone was inside.

Sombra walked in front of the tube and looked down at the small terminal. "This is something else…" she muttered to herself, as she pushed a couple of buttons on the terminal. Soon enough the computer gave an affirmative noise and the orange liquid began to drain out of the tube until it revealed something that none of the Talon Agents expected to see: a human-sized puppet.

"What the-?!"

"Is this a joke!?"

"It's a trap!" Reaper realized, but it was too late. The door behind the trio slammed shut, locking the trio inside the isolation chamber. In reaction, the three almost immediately began shooting at the glass on the observation room, but as previously mentioned: it was bulletproofed.

"Sombra! Get us out of here, now!" the masked man shouted, to which the hacker immediately got to work on the door. However, since she didn't have direct access to a terminal or something similar, it would take considerably more time. And given that security was now on the highest alert, well, this added at least ten more seconds to her workload.

"Welcome Talon," a voice greeted them over the speakers in the room. "We have been expecting you."

"We figured," Reaper replied with a growl, looking at one of the cameras in the room.

"Now, now, don't be upset. I mean, you had quite the obvious interest in one of our projects. So I figured, as a sign of goodwill, I would help you out just a little bit."

"Help us out?" Sombra asked while working on the door. "How generous of you."

"Thank you very much, Sombra. You see, our experts weren't sure whether our security measures would be enough to stop the best hacker in the world."

"So you fed us false information?" Widowmaker asked while sending a glare at Sombra.

"Impossible!" Sombra shouted. "Even if you issued wrong orders, I would have easily found out about it and find the real ones."

"That's what I thought," the disembodied voice told them. "And I was thinking to myself: 'How can I possibly stop a hacker who can hack anything and anyone?' And that's when the answer made itself obvious."

"Oh, do tell," the purple hacker challenged. "What is there that I possibly cannot hack?" she asked. "Almost there," she whispered to her cohorts, who readied themselves for the opening of the door. No doubt, there was already a surprise waiting for them.

A chuckle could be heard through the intercoms before the voice spoke again. "Tell me, Sombra. Have you ever written a good old fashioned letter?"

Sombra actually stopped her fingers dead in her tracks and looked up at the speaker system in shock. "A letter?"

"You know, ink, paper? Oh, you can't believe the logistical nightmares we went through. But I would say in the end, it was well worth it. Wouldn't you agree, Mr. 76?"

XXX

In the meantime, inside a completely different military installation, Commander Park was hurrying across the hallways of his own base, dodging the base personnel, as he came across it. Most people were smart enough to quickly get out of his way, but a few unfortunate souls ended up getting shoved aside, without so much as an apology. This went on until he finally reached the elevators. He rode it all the way down to the last floor and once down, he exited it as quickly as he entered it.

In a matter of minutes, Commander Park arrived in the observation room of the isolation chamber. What he found was that all of the lab coat wearing men and women were either glued to their monitors or the window allowing a view into the isolation chamber.

"What's going on here?!" the commander shouted into the room, although given the urgency with which he had been called down here, he already had a pretty good guess. Everyone in the room turned towards him, upon hearing his voice.

"Commander," the lead scientist called out "you have to see this!" The man urged the Commander to come to the window, which the man did. Once he looked down the chamber, he almost gasped in shock, when he saw what was going on. Where once was the special containment unit in which they had put Agent Song, now was a human-sized, pulsating ball of flesh.

"What in the seven circles of hell is that?!" the commander shouted. He also noted that civilian personnel had been evacuated from the isolation room and only military men and women remained down there. Each of them wore a biohazard suit and had their weapons pointed at the flesh thingy. Automated turrets had been activated and were on standby. Someone went as far as to deploy heavy weapon teams down there. Given what they were dealing with, it probably would have been a good idea to deploy one or two tanks down there as well.

"That is the cocoon Agent Song is in," the lead scientist explained. "It grew practically in a matter of minutes around her body and continued expanding its size these past minutes, until now. We think Agent Song's transformation is as good as complete."

"I see…" the commander spoke slowly, his gaze fixated on the cocoon. "What are the chances of her going berserk?"

The lead scientist frowned. "It's hard to tell, hence the security measures. She'll probably be disoriented for a time and might panic when she sees the weapons. At the same time, we cannot risk-"

"Somethings happening!" one woman at the monitors shouted. "Her heart rate is increasing rapidly! The scanners detect rabid movements inside the cocoon. She's about to hatch!"

Indeed, one could see the cocoon pulsating faster and faster as if it was a heart itself. Acting quickly, Commander Park pressed a button in front of him, activating the speaker system. "Listen up, soldiers. Hold your weapons ready, but don't shoot unless you absolutely have to. Remember, we need this girl alive."

The commander hoped this would stop the more trigger-happy soldiers from firing their weapons too early. From what he had heard from the briefings, it would probably take several thousand bullets in order to kill Agent Song now. Of course, this was only speculation at this point, as no one had any idea what the virus had truly done to her. However, given what he read in the reports about the Zerg specimen, it took a lot of force to break the armor of a Zerg. Conventional weapons were pretty much useless unless you hit the weak spots of the individual Zerg you were fighting. Hence the heavy weapon teams. Although, a couple of bazookas would probably be a good idea too.

But it wasn't like they had any time to reequip the soldiers or anything. Because only a couple of seconds after the commander had given his orders, the cocoon finally burst or rather, it exploded, revealing the newborn Hana Song. The only problem was, no one could see her because they were all covered in Zerg-goo or in the case of the commander and the scientists, the windows were covered in goo, flesh and blood.