Revised on the 18th of September 2017


Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Mediterranean, Europe

2076

Arriving at the only door at the end of the hallway and opening it, Nathan finds himself in a completely different block of the base. Not sure where to go, he picks a random direction and starts heading off there. Weaving in and out of buildings, hugging the wall, making sure to stay out of the open. It was still dark and he wondered where the hell everyone was. Then, the sounds of rotors cutting through the air started to echo throughout the sky, causing him to hunker down next to some crate. Scanning the sky, he sees two helicopters flying above and passing over him towards another location on the base. Another helicopter comes into view but hovers closer to his location as ropes spill out from both sides. Armed men in black uniforms then started to rappel down. He wasn't going to take any chances.

Opening the door to another building, Nathan shuts it behind him and starts to go deeper inside the building. It had wide open spaces and when he looked up, some type of aircraft parked onto a catwalk. Finding stairs that led up to it in a room on his right, he goes up and plans to see if it had anything useful within. He wasn't the first one to think that, however. As soon as he entered the craft through the side, he heard the hammer on a gun click behind him.

"Hands up!" commanded a feminine voice in a German accent

Nathan did as he was told, and slowly turned to see the source of the voice. It was Brigitte, the woman who had given food these past few days and was currently pointing what appeared to be a flare gun at him. Must've been the ship's.

"What are you doing here?" questioned Brigitte, eyeing Nathan's every move.

"I was going to say the same thing…" the tall man replied.

"I mean: Why are you out of your cell?" reiterated the brunette, as Nathan just stayed silent. "Well?"

Before Nathan could even come up with an excuse, a loud explosion echoed throughout the hangar. Without even worrying about the one armed with a flare gun, Nathan moved and peered his head out from the aircraft and peered down to the lower level. He saw a squad of six armed men moving in through the smoking remains of the door. They had their rifles pointed in all directions, lasers indicating where they were aiming. One of the beams veered upwards, causing him to take cover into the ship.

"Who the hell are these guys?" he asked.

"Wait, so, you're saying they aren't your friends?" Brigitte asked, eyebrow raised but flare gun still leveled.

"I think one of them nearly choked me to death back at my cell. So, no."

"Really? Who?"

"Someone who looks like the Grim Fucking Reaper.'

"…Oh…"

"Alright. Is there anything here we can use? Any weapons, maybe?" Nathan asks, searching around the ship.

"Other than a flare gun and a monkey wrench? Nope."

Brin found the wrench she was talking about and felt the weight. It may be good for bashing someone's head in, but not easy if that same person has an assault rifle. He'd get further using this than just his bare fists, though.

"Fuck it," he declares. "I'll take one of theirs."

"Good luck with that," Brigitte wished him.

Peering out from the ship again and seeing none of them looking where he was, Nathan sneaked over to a doorway connected to the catwalk. He was in a room with stairs and was about to make his way down but he heard one of the men speak.

"I'm going topside to check out that aircraft," the man stated. "Ramos, with me."

It wasn't long until Nathan saw two red beams make their way into the room below the one he was in, making their way up the staircase. Knowing it wouldn't be long until they saw the man with the wrench and proceed to shoot the shit out of him. He had to think fast. As they went further up the stairs, the large man positioned himself over the rail and hovered there, waiting for them to be directly below him. Then, he fell directly onto one of them.

Landing on the armed man with a thud and knocking him down, Nathan quickly spun around whacked the other in the face as hard as he could. He dropped the rifle and fell to the ground as Nathan proceeded to beat his head in with the wrench, able to break through the helmet with his enhanced strength. Cracking the metal helmet, but the kinetic force was enough to damage him. That was until the first man grabbed him from behind, but the Wastelander elbowed him in the stomach to weaken his hold. Breaking away, he turned and smacked the wrench against him, causing him to twirl around. The Courier wrapping the wrench around his throat and pulled towards himself, strangling the helmeted soldier. The man tried clawing at his face, until the wrench angled and produced a sickening crack of the man's neck, his hands finally falling limp at his sides

"The hell's happening over there?!" cried out one of the soldiers outside. "Ramos? Sullivan? Respond!"

The Courier grabbed one of the rifles, handling it awkwardly as it was an unfamiliar design. Pressing what he assumed to be the magazine release, he popped the mag out and checked the ammunition count before putting it back in. He pulled back the charging handle and made his way to the side of the doorway, now noticing there were red dots on the wall parallel to him. He heard boots hit the ground slowly, hearing them get closer and closer. Nathan brought out the rifle and blind fired a burst and heard a thud shortly after.

"Contact! We got contact!"

Nathan peered from cover and saw one of them was down and in a pool of blood, but the others took cover and returned fire. He quickly fired back but stayed in cover as they kept peppering his spot. He fired another burst, aiming at a man who exited his cover and tried to fire his entire magazine at him. The man fell, but the other two kept the pressure on.

"Frag out!" yelled one of the men, before a round, dark object landed in the doorway.

"Shit!" Nathan yelled as he bolted from cover as the grenade exploded, evading fire as he dove to a set of crates under a tarp. However, he now had a clear view of one of the men firing at him, so he leveled the rifle and fired. The target collapsing and slumping to the ground. There was now one left.

Nathan exited his cover, shouldering the rifle as he approached where he thought he saw the last goon at. Rounding a corner, he sees him behind another corner fumbling with something. Either his rifle was out of ammo, jammed, whatever. His boot was sticking out, Nathan seeing this, aimed his rifle at his foot and was ready to make him stumble. He squeezed but was met with an audible click rather than a gunshot.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid!' the veteran Waster thought as he cursed himself.

"I know that sound, asshole!" said the last man, as he rose from cover and now had his sidearm at the ready.

"How 'bout this!" said a familiar voice from above.

Turning to face the source, a glowing, burning ball of sulfur flew and lodged itself into his vest, right next to the loaded magazine. The cartridges started to go off, popping like firecrackers around his chest. He started to panic, desperately trying to put out the fire as he screamed. As his hands violently pat his chest, multiple rifle rounds find lodge themselves into him at high velocities as a thunderous register of a rifle goes off. The last goon dies instantly and falls to the floor, his chest still smoldering. The victorious Courier stands over him, his rifle in hand with a fresh mag. Footsteps approach him as Brigitte comes to his side, observing the corpse as well.

"Thanks for the assist," Nathan lowly said examining the new weapon in his hands.

"Don't mention it," Brigitte responded before she noticed blood on Nathan's left arm seeping out of a wound. "Jeez, are you all right?"

The scarred man looked at the wound, grimacing a bit before he just shrugged it off.

"It's fine," he reassured. "I can fix it up later."

"A bullet wound can't exactly be 'fixed' with a hammer and duct tape."

"You'd be surprised."

More gunfire and fighting rang out in the distance, causing one of them to stiffen up and both to face the direction it was originating from. Nathan had a feeling that was where he would find the rest of the people on this base, along with a few fellow unwelcomed guests.

"Sounds like they need some help," the perceptive man observed. The fighting sounded tense and heavy, and he currently wasn't the most prepared for taking on an army. However, they were his only ticket out of here. He doubted he would last long in this "alien" Earth without them. He'll take his chance, like he's done countless times, before. "I might have to offer."

"Any idea on what to do?" Brigitte asked.

Nathan looked around at the corpses surrounding them, seeing all the spare rifles and ammo they had.

"How 'bout you pick up a rifle," he suggested, gesturing to the closest one. "Extra firepower wouldn't hurt."

With that, the two made their way to the sound of the fighting. It wasn't long when they reached a staircase that led up to a building roof, taking cover behind crates under a tarp. They saw the battle before them, as multiple soldiers were currently assaulting a structure embedded into the mountain rock. They were already a few bodies of fallen soldiers strewn around the area, but they were advancing onto a big door.

"Okay," Brin started to lay down a battle plan. "You stay here and give me covering fire while I get on the ground and fight them. That should-"

"HAMMER DOWN!" they heard a man bellow, as a loud bang thundered and the ground in front of the door fractured and cracked as if the ground was erupting. Men caught in the path of the earth-shattering were knocked off their feet. Then, a large mass of metal "flew" out of the front and threw the men everywhere, except one, who was pinned by the machine and screamed until he was crushed into a wall and silenced. The metal giant, which now revealed to be a hulking suit of power armor, produced a huge hammer, and started swinging it into the soldiers, knocking a few about through the air and crushing others. They quickly fired upon the armor, causing the giant to stammer back and bring up his left arm, producing a large, rectangular blue shield of energy that blocked the oncoming fire. "JOIN ME IN BATTLE MY FRIENDS!"

"Nevermind, just shoot!" Nathan yelled as he shouldered the rifle and started picking off the soldiers, Brigitte joining him.

As this happened, others spilled out of the doorway, a few the Wastelander recognized; Dr. Ziegler, Winston, and that cowboy all came out and began fighting the intruders. He also saw the spiky-haired girl, some bearded dwarf with a hammer, and a bipedal robot, but it looked more like a pink egg with legs than a person. With their combined strength and the fire support from behind, they began to hold their own. As Nathan and Brigitte kept on firing, Nathan spotted something out of the corner of his eye and looked to see someone perched on top a nearby building. He then realized they had a rifle pointed directly at them.

"Get down!" he said, pushing Brigitte to ground as a sniper round whizzed right above them, leaving a trail through the air.

"Oh my God!" Brigitte screamed out. "That better not be Widowmaker!"

"What?!" Nathan asked before another sniper shot rang out, though he was unsure it was directed at them. Seeing a set of stairs leading down, he decided getting close and personal to the sniper would do them some good. "Stay here!"

Rifle in tow, he bolted from cover and made his way down the stairs before running to the building where he saw the sniper perched. Then making his way in through a back door and up onto a stairwell. He was about to reach the second floor up until something metal thing landed right in front. He didn't have time to react before it released a noxious, purple gas right in front of him, entering his lungs. He started coughing violently as his eyes stung and flooded with tears. Leaning against the wall as his lungs felt like they were on fire. Squinting, his watery, bloodshot eyes trying to peer through the gas and see anything beyond it. However, his eyes shot open when he saw an atmosphere of a red mist filled his vision.

It was all vivid to him; The aura of the Cloud and the blue lady of the fountain in the middle of it all. The Courier could only stare at the lady refusing to believe he was back... Back to that godforsaken resort. The blue lady, a figment of a long-dead woman, was elegant, refined as she raised her left arm to him. Nathan only stared but jolted to the side as a black cable shot out of her arm and a claw embedded itself into the wall behind him. His head turned back to the woman who was now hurling towards him, her heels connecting painfully connecting with his face. Nathan stumbles and tries to deliver a punch to the threat but is blocked by a metal barrier and sustains a blow to the side of his head, his stomach, and feet in quick succession. He falls down a flight of stairs and curls up in pain. The bruised and bloodied Courier peers up to the neutral visage of the hologram standing over him, looking at him expectantly. She smiles, and his heart skips a beat. She painfully stomped her heeled foot onto his chest but was too pained to yell out. Something pressed against his head, snapping him back to reality as he blinked rapidly.

He was back in the staircase, and above him was not a blue hologram, but a blue-skinned woman in a revealing, spandex uniform. She was pressing a sniper barrel into the side of his head as her boot was planted firmly into his chest. She was… Chuckling. Staring down at Nathan like some mere insect.

"Foolish man," she said in a thick, seductive but foreboding accent.

"V-Vera?..." he muttered in a pained voice.

The blue woman raised an eyebrow curiously at the name before that cruel smirk appeared again. She pressed the barrel harder into Nathan's skull, but three metal objects spun through the air and nearly sliced her face. She turned to the threat and raised her rifle and fired off a shot, and simultaneously had a shot fired back at her that took a piece of those goggles she was wearing. Knocked back and baring her teeth in anger, she threw her left hand towards the doorway and fired off a clawed cable, and was pulled herself into the direction through the air. A metal man with green lights over his body enters Nathan's view, turns around and kneels closer to the ground as if to provide assistance. Nathan weakly waved his hand in dismissal, lying that he was fine. The metal man merely nods and goes back to give chase to the blue woman, disappearing in a green flash.

After wallowing on the ground for a few moments, Nathan stands back up and tries to regain his balance. A sharp sensation of pain still emanated from his chest. He leaned against the wall for support and yelped in surprise as something razor-sharp poked him. He looked and saw the objects the man threw: stars embedded into the wall, one of their points with his blood on it. Today was not his day.

Grumbling all the while, he picked up his rifle and stumbled his way down a flight of stairs and outside, to where all the fighting was. It had died down, as the men in black uniforms were all strewn about, bodies in various positions as they laid there. Looked like they had won this fight.

"Oof!" Nathan yelled as he was pushed down to the ground forcefully, someone's knee pressing into his spine and a revolver pressing into his temple.

"The hell you doin' out here?!" exclaimed the cowboy, gritting his teeth as cold metal pressed against the side of Nathan's weary head. "You better not have caused all of this!"

"Woah, woah!" screamed Lena, as she zipped to his side. "McCree, what are you doing?!"

"He's supposed to still be in his goddamn cell! I swear if he coordinated the damn attack with Talon…"

"I didn't coordinate jackshit with those Talon pricks!" Nathan said, defending himself with a still gravelly voice. "One of them nearly choked me to death in my cell. Just ask Brigitte!... Where is she?"

"Here!" the mechanic called out a couple meters from them, sitting down as she was currently being tended to by Dr. Ziegler to what appeared to be some bruising on her face. That metal giant was also close to her but with his helmet off, showing a gray-maned man with worry on his face. "Just got in a fight with Widowmaker... Punched me right in the face... And don't worry McCree, he took out his fair share of bad guys. Saw him do it."

"Still doesn't explain how he got out," McCree said. "What happened before you got out?"

Nathan recounted the event in his mind, remembering the hooded figure arriving by his cell before the lights went out and his door mysteriously slid open.

"Some…" he started to explain. "Man in dark clothing and a skull mask appeared in front of my cell. He threw me against a wall and said he was going 'to collect'. Not me, and not right now."

The air grew silent as he explained what had happened, and he felt the pressure on his back relieve itself, but only a tiny amount.

"Where did he go? Where did you last see him?" McCree asked.

"He fucked off and disappeared through the floor, like a damn ghost. After that is when everything started getting fucked," Nathan explained.

After that, was when he felt his back be freed from the weight of a knee and revolver. He rolled onto his back and gasped for air as the morning sun slowly rose over him and showered him in warmth. It felt nice, relaxing for once. It wasn't bearing down on him like the Mojave but was a nice temperate sensation. He lied there on his back until a shadow cast over him. He looked up and see that a metal man with the neon green visor was looking down on him.

"Do you require assistance?" the "man" asked, his accent both foreign and robotic. "Or are you fine where you are?"

Nathan huffed at his question.

"Don't need a hand," he said as he got up on his feet. "Just need to plug some holes on my body… Where's my stuff?"

"Follow me," said the metal man, walking to a set of stairs.

Nathan followed and made his way up the steps. Stepping through the large doorway, he finds himself in a large room, equipment is strewn about and computer equipment everywhere. This place seems familiar.

The metal man led him to a table, one of many in this makeshift workshop, and noticed his entire inventory was all laid out onto it. The Waster hoped they didn't help themselves to his stuff. His eyes scanned over the table trying to find what he needed. They eventually landed on a group of syringes, filled with a red substance, and fitted with a pressure gauge. His hand reached over and picked one of them up. He rolled up his left sleeve, revealing a bullet wound that got worse from constant action. Thankfully it was a clean wound so he didn't have to get the pliers out. He was about to jab the needle in before the man, who was observing everything he did, interrupted him.

"I would suggest checking in with Dr. Zeigler, first," he recommended, a bit concerned Nathan's self-medicating.

"Relax," the Waster grumbly reassured. "Not my first rodeo... Uh...?"

"Genji," the man with the sword answered, with a slight bow.

"Nathan," returning the gesture with a nod to the shorter man.

He pierced his skin into his arm and injected the contents of the Stimpak into him, the syringe hissing as it does. He removed the needle and looks at both the entry and exit wounds slowly close, healing at an accelerated rate. It wasn't long until they had both fully healed, leaving nothing but a red stain.

Genji's head cocked to the side, silently curious and intrigued by what the syringe did and how quick it achieved it. He didn't bother asking questions, though.

Before he could answer, another voice sounded from above.

"Shimada?" said a glass-wearing gorilla, peering over the rails. "What is he doing here?"

"Do not fret, Winston," the Ninja reassured. "He helped fend off the intruders. What are you doing up there?"

"I need to discuss something with the entire team. It's rather urgent, so, can you please call all of them over here?"

Genji bowed to the gorilla and nodded to the Courier, before walking out of the room and leaving them behind.

"Oh," Winston said, getting Nathan's attention. "You can have your stuff back. You're going to need it rather soon."

"How so?" Nathan asked, curious as to why the gorilla wasn't very reluctant in giving his weapons and gear back.

"I'd rather give the explanation when everyone else is here."

Nathan squinted at him and scrunched up his features, before hesitantly nodding and going back to sorting his inventory and putting it back where it needed to be. If he needed to be prepared, right now would be the time. He wasn't going to question it further.

He rummaged through his supplies before an idea popped into his head, and he began to search the table for a device. The device that got him here in the first place. However, he could not find it. Starting to rummage through the table, swipe things away, and upturning everything unturned. The Wasteland Veteran started to worry with every passing second of not finding it.

"Where the hell is it?" Nathan asked himself, even going beyond the table and scouring the entire floor. "Where the fuck is it?!"

"Where's what?" called the glasses-wearing gorilla from up top, wondering what Nathan was worried about.

The tall man was standing in the middle of the lab, spinning wildly as he tried to look over every corner in hopes of spotting the device. After several moments of silence, the man looked up to the gorilla with a look of worry and rage through his eyes.

"The Transportalponder... It's gone!"


Widomaker and Reaper sat in the tail end seats of the Talon dropship, the surviving Talon operatives occupied the seats furthest away from them - out of respect and fear. Reaper focused on the demeanor of the French woman, who was staring at the floor of the ship for the past few minutes. She seemed deep in thought about something. She seemed irritated.

"Something the matter?" he asked.

"Another failed mission," she muttered, shaking her head at the outcome of their deployment. "And a kill taken away from me by that damn cyborg."

"Who was the target?"

"That tall man with the beard. The one who looks like he does not belong there."

"No shit?" Reaper blurted out. "Had a run in with their 'prisoner', too. Intel didn't say anything about them having anyone else at their base. I wonder what gives..."

Widowmaker's ear twitch when she heard that, so she reaches behind her to retrieve a device. She tosses it to Reaper, who catches it in his clawed hand with ease. He brings it up to his cowl and examines the device, tilting his head to the side. It was black, had a yellow cap at its rear and had a trigger like some detonators, even with the red safety cover. However, it had some sort of antennae sticking out on top and was encasing a clear glass tube. It looked like a... Vacuum tube? Didn't look like it was working, though, as the tube was just dim and there seemed to be no power surging through it. Even clicking on the trigger a couple times, resulting in nothing. The R&D department at HQ might find some use for it...

"I retrieved it from the lab of that ape," the Widowmaker explained.

"Was that all you could carry?" the Reaper asked. "Seems a bit light for a raid."

The blue woman only narrowed her eyes at the cloaked man.