"One more time, Lena."
The pilot nodded at the gorilla, who was too busy looking at various screens to notice. She took a moment to breathe, before she got into a runner's position. She focused her vision on the training bot, which was steadily going back and forth.
She ran.
The world turned blue.
Everything stopped. The soft buzzing of the lights faded into nothing. Winston seemingly froze as he was pressing a few buttons. The training bot in front of her stayed right in place. Lena casually got up from her position, before jogging her way towards it. She tapped the bot on the side.
The world shifted back.
A streak of light blue suddenly traced the same path she took. At the same time, the bot jerked itself to a stop, as if it was pushed back roughly by someone at least three times Lena's weight. Behind the pane of glass that separated the testing room and the console, Winston rubbed his head as excitement bubbled on his features.
"Less than a second again!" The grin on the scientist's face could've split it whole, "Incredible, absolutely incredible!"
"Please don't encourage this, Winston." Angela stood right next to the scientist, "We still don't know if there's any side effects. Speaking of which," The doctor turned to Lena, who waved back, "I expect you to come to the clinic after this. I know you just got out, but I am not risking something happening to you when your marriage is coming up."
"Aye aye, doc!" Lena for her part saluted with a grin, one that was only slightly forced. After all, as much as she had faith in the doctor's abilities, she already had someone in her head that could tell her exactly what she was doing.
"I still can't believe you're able to do this."
'Just admit it Archer~.' She managed to get the intonation just right that time, and she was damn proud of it, 'Yooooou're just jealous.'
"Of course, of course, whatever you say." Despite that, she could hear the smirk on his face, just as he could probably see the grin on hers, "At any rate, again, with how long you say you're in that 'slow' state, you should be feeling the backlash of using Time Accel as much as you've been doing."
Time Alter. It was what Archer had called her new ability, which she'd started calling 'Blink' instead. Apparently, Time Alter allowed someone to manipulate their bodily functions to the point of moving faster than the eye could see. Not only that, but her perception, reflexes, even the blood flowing in her veins would go faster.
It wasn't without a catch, though, as the 'world' would try and correct the body of the user, causing a lot of internal damage.
This apparently didn't apply to her, as she'd been Blinking over a dozen times for the past half hour now, and she certainly didn't feel like her organs had ruptured. Archer had theorized that her chronal accelerator and her own status had something to do with it, though even he was somewhat unsure.
Still, the idea of her doing actual magic ("Magecraft." Archer interjected.) was something to behold. A thought came to her as she watched the two behind the window go over some data, Winston visibly shaking in excitement.
'Hey, Archer,' she started, 'If I can, like, speed myself up, couldn't I do something wackier? Like, slow myself down? Or even reverse myself?'
"Slow down? Certainly. It should just be a matter of focusing your body to go into a pseudo-static state. Reverse is another matter, as doing so would re…" She'd already tuned him out. He'd said 'certainly', and that's all she needed to hear. She focused exactly on what she wanted, just like how she did whenever she Blinked.
Nothing happened.
Not letting the lack of visible effect deter her, she continued to try, drowning out Archer's explanation. Apparently, her focus was visible on her face, as Angela called out on the comms, "Lena?"
"I'm alright, just trying something else."
"...ic, which is something that-You're not listening, are you, Oxton?"
'Nope!'
A sigh in the back of her head, but one that felt like a grown man being exasperated with a small child.
"Do what you want, then. I doubt it'll do anything other than make you look like you have constipation."
'Alright, bet.'
She doubled her focus, even as Archer chuckled. She didn't mind that he didn't believe that she could do it. Hell, even she doubted that she could reverse time. Such a thing would be completely absurd. There would be too many laws of physics that would break. At least her Blinking had a reasonable, if fanciful, explanation of her just going faster than everything else.
Even though magic being a thing that existed was something she reluctantly believed, such an affront to nature was impossible.
But that nagging thought in the back of her mind clawed at her. Just a small, insignificant shower thought: what if?
That was enough to at least give more than a token effort.
And, just as suddenly as when she first Blinked on the street, something happened. But there was no blue sheen around the room. Instead, Lena felt her arms move by themselves, a flurry of panic hammering her chest when they did.
She started to rapidly walk backwards, her head following suit. A whine from her accelerator punctuated the entire process. She couldn't even see the others, as she couldn't even control her eyes. Not even trying to communicate with Archer had an effect.
It scared her.
All at once, it stopped. She was slightly above the floor, maybe one or two inches, exactly in the position she was three seconds prior. How she knew that, she didn't understand, but she had a feeling that it was absolutely right.
She turned her head towards the observation area, to see Winston frantically clicking a mess of buttons, with Angela hurriedly making her way towards the door between the rooms. The moment she opened it, the doctor all but grabbed Lena and started to look her over.
"...you know, I should've expected this."
'Archer?'
"Whenever someone says something's impossible, nine times out of ten, if magecraft and magic are involved, an exception happens. Congratulations, by the way. You've got the fastest time for proving me wrong."
"Verdammt Lena! What on Earth did you do?" The doctor was still checking her over, "You disappeared for a full second! All of Winston's sensors went haywire!" She said, as she lifted one of Lena's arms.
Lena blinked, "What? I was right there the entire time. I just…reversed myself?"
"No, Ziegler's right. You completely disappeared for a full second." Archer interjected, though since he was in her head, Angela continued her examination without pause, "If you didn't ask about time reversal beforehand, I would be in the same boat as these two."
"There doesn't seem to be anything wrong…" Angela reluctantly stopped her impromptu check-up, "But, for whatever reason, if you feel something's hurting, you come to us, you hear me?" Lena audibly gulped at Angela's tone as she spoke. A clear difference from how the doctor usually spoke.
"Crystal, ma'am."
"Good. Now, come along, Winston probably has a few questions."
Hours later, and after Angela left to attend to her duties as the base doctor, they had finished their research into Lena's abilities. For that day, at least.
"It's absolutely incredible!" Once again, the gorilla exclaimed. This time though, they were no longer testing, but having their lunch in the somewhat fixed mess hall. That said, their lunch was quite a bit later than normal, as they hadn't stopped their tests till well after three in the afternoon.
"This means that the theory behind the Slipstream should have worked." The scientist continued, "Since we still don't have the actual plane, we can't really know why it didn't work, but the fact that it should have worked is amazing in itself."
"Your peanut butter's dripping." Lena absently pointed out in between bites of her own meal. While not as good as Emily's cooking, she was more than hungry enough to care.
"Oh!" Queue Winston frantically lifting his sandwich up as a large glob of peanut butter fell to the floor. Said scientist sheepishly looked at the janitor, who themselves stared at their table in annoyance, "Sorry, got a bit too wrapped up in that."
"A bit is understating it from what I heard." A male voice from behind her called out. Before Lena could turn and see who it was, the person sat down right next to her. Turning her head just as Winston looked up, she saw an older, dark-skinned man wearing an armored jacket of some sort.
He looked familiar to her, but it wasn't until her companion stuttered out a name that she realized who it was, "C-Commander Reyes!"
It clicked.
Gabriel Reyes, the first Strike Commander of Overwatch during the First Omnic Crisis. One of the original members that paved the path towards ending the Crisis. A near legendary soldier alongside the likes of Jack Morrison and Ana Amari. While the man wasn't often in the spotlight, unlike Commander Morrison, he was undoubtedly one of the most important people in the entirety of the organization.
And he was sitting right next to her.
"Bah, drop the titles, Winston." Reyes waved off the scientist, "The only commander here is Morrison, thank God. I'm quite happy with playing second fiddle." The man punctuated this with eating a spoonful of mashed potatoes.
"Um, ah," Winston, not being used to the rather lax stance of a commanding officer, despite Lena being sure the man wouldn't mind the lack of formalities, stuttered in trying to form a sentence. Thankfully, Reyes seemed to notice her friend's awkwardness and gave a friendly grin.
"Ah come on, big guy. Just call me Gabriel, I ain't gonna bite." Reyes nodded to Lena, "Same goes to you, pipsqueak."
'Pipsqueak?'
"I have to admit, the name does ring true."
'Dammit Archer, you're supposed to be on my side!'
"Um, yes, sir," The stutter was still there, but at least Winston managed to get his words out, "May I ask why you're back? I heard that you were off in Paris till the end of the year?"
"Not much to say," Reyes shrugged, "After the whole Null Sector attack, I got called back asap. Higher-ups think that something big is gonna go down. Not sure when though, so I'll be staying on base for the foreseeable future."
The casual way that Reyes threw out potentially classified information startled Lena, and Winston was no different, "Should you be telling us this, sir?" Lena hedged, not wanting to anger one of her childhood heroes.
"Probably not." He continued to eat, "But that's part of the reason why I'm talking to you two in the first place. And damn, this lasagna is good, you tried it yet?"
"No, sir." Reyes visibly rolled his eyes at Lena's insistence on formalities, "Sir, what do you mean about a reason?"
"Heard from Wilhelm about your little lightshow." Reyes said that as if he was talking about the weather. Immediately, the pilot and the scientist leaned in, eyes in a flutter of mild panic. When Reinhardt led Lena to Winston and Angela, he had warned them to keep things quiet for now.
So having someone suddenly bring it up as suddenly as they did, and in public no less, startled them something good.
"Don't," Reyes however, was unperturbed by both their reactions. Instead, they saw that his eyes were staring at them in seriousness, completely contrasting the image of him cutting his lasagna, "If you've got something to hide, don't act like you've got something to hide. Talk normally, and no one will pay you any attention."
"Sound advice. Regardless, I'll keep a lookout in case someone tries listening in."
An inner 'thank you' went unheard by anyone else, before Winston and Lena looked at each other and relaxed.
"Good. Now," The man almost deliberately took a noisy chew of his food before continuing, "To be blunt, I'm here to recruit the both of you into the strike forces." It was a good thing that Lena wasn't drinking anything, else she would've spit it all over Reyes.
The Overwatch strike force. As revered as its soldiers, the strike force was considered by some, Lena included, to be the best of the best. It was this team, after all, that Reyes himself led all those years ago. Despite that, not much was actually known about that branch of Overwatch, as the training and missions were mostly classified, with some exceptions.
All that was really known to the public was that they'd never failed a single one of the publicized missions, of which there were a fair number of.
"Us?!" She whispered loudly.
"Mhm."
"I'm sorry, sir, but I think you're making a mistake." The gorilla was visibly shaking now, his nerves most likely getting to him. Reyes shook his head in negative.
"Winston, I've seen your tech. Your work on that tesla cannon is phenomenal. That prototype AI? Absolutely astonishing. I don't think anyone other than Dr. Liao could've done something better. And I hear you've been working on some new portable shield bubble. Even if you don't fight, you joining the strike force would still give us the tech advantage more than anyone else, so don't sell yourself short." He glared at Winston like a father would to a misbehaving child. Said gorilla looked down in embarrassment at the praise.
"Meanwhile, you," He continued while looking at Lena, "Wilhelm told me you moved fast enough to dodge an entire truck, plus the whole thing that you three were testing earlier. Hell, just your experience as a pilot is more than enough to earn you a spot, everything else is just icing on the top."
"But…why us sir? Surely there's someone more suited to this?"
At this, Reyes grimaced as he finished his food, "Do either of you believe in destiny, Oxton, Winston?"
"I," Lena's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "I can't say I do, sir." It was hypocritical of her, maybe. The fact that she survived the Slipstream, that she'd managed to get Archer as a contractee, all of that could have been attributed to a chance of destiny.
"I do." Reyes continued after nodding at Lena's answer, "Us three, and everyone else like us. Extraordinary individuals. We don't live normal lives. That attack yesterday only proves it. I heard the report. You two were caught in between a few Bastion and OR-14 units, right?"
A nod from the both of them, though Lena had to fight to keep a straight face.
"There's no reason for either of those to be anywhere near the British Isles - so how the hell did you two get cornered by a significant number of them in the first place? Call it whatever you want - destiny, fate, coincidence, whatever, extraordinary individuals always live extraordinary lives. Living through that only cements it.
"What I'm saying is, I'm trying to recruit you two because you will be caught somewhere with your pants down, and I ain't letting a bunch of kids die when I could have helped them in the first place." Reyes sat down with a heavy sigh of his own, and right there and then, he looked as though he'd aged years before her eyes, "Something big is going to go down, I can feel it. It's just like the First Crisis, but this time, people aren't taking it as seriously as they should."
Lena's mind wandered through Reyes' entire speech. And she could honestly say he was right. Her life, from the moment her prodigious ability to pilot was found, had been nothing short of extraordinary. Youngest RAF pilot, piloting an experimental plane, being displaced in time, meeting Archer.
Had anyone else been told that story, people would've just assumed it was just that - a story. The amount of coincidences that piled up was just too far fetched to really believe without a first hand account of it.
That's not even mentioning sitting right next to the talking moon gorilla.
"Can, can we think about it?" Lena's voice was quiet.
"All the time you need. One last thing though," Reyes nodded one last time as he stood up, tray in hand, "No matter what you choose, know this: the world could always use more heroes. But not all heroes need to put themselves in danger. Whatever you choose, I won't disparage you for it."
"You're thinking of joining?" She couldn't bring herself to be startled by Archer's physical voice right next to her. She was now sitting in the comfort of her own home, having gotten permission from Reyes to take the rest of the day off.
"You have to admit, Archer, a lot of shit has been happening to me the past few days. If they can help me prepare for that, then joining them wouldn't be such a bad idea."
"Hm. I won't deny that. And I won't deny Reyes' view on fate."
"Archer?"
"...Power, no matter how little, will always attract trouble. Your life, whether you choose to join the strike force or not, will be full of peril. While I can watch your back, I can't alway be there, so joining would quite possibly benefit you all the more."
"And? You still don't sound convinced I should join."
"My existence. If you were to join a fairly tight knit group, as I suspect that the strike force is, and considering the amount of modern surveillance systems, hiding myself would become increasingly difficult. Even my actions yesterday are already being investigated." Archer breathed out, "Regardless of your choice, I shall do my best to support you."
Lena was silent for a while, still deep in thought. Her head was just a jumble of 'should' and 'shouldn't'. She would probably need to sleep and think about it tomorrow morning.
"Emily's here."
Her head snapped to Archer, who had started to fade away into his astral form. The gears in her head started turning, as a thought, coupled with one of the problems that Archer brought up, reared its head.
"Wait, stay. I've got an idea." A smile started to work its way on her face, "We can't really keep you a secret right?"
"Yes?"
She grinned as she communicated with Archer through their link, even as Reyes' parting line struck its way into her head once more.
'The world could always use more heroes, huh?'
A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
Huge thanks to: Oliver vazquez. You're the best.