Lena had fought quite a few battles in her short time as a full member of Overwatch, that's for sure. More so than any of the other recruits, at least. She'd been on the field shorter than any of them, and yet, with everything that she'd been through, she may as well have been a veteran.
Even the media seemed to think so.
They'd heard of her callsign, Tracer, and had gone to town with it. Now, it wasn't 'Overwatch Cadet Oxton' that they spouted their praises for. No, it was 'Agent Tracer of Overwatch', alongside the others, performing their daring rescue of the London city mayor, battling the hostile forces of Null Sector at the heart of the British capital.
As proud as she was of their success, she still couldn't keep a straight face whenever they called her 'Agent Tracer' though. It most certainly didn't have anything to do with both Archer and Emily failing to keep their laughter in check when they first heard it.
"Oho? Is Agent Tracer having another brooding period?" It also certainly wasn't because the smirking bastard wouldn't stop calling her that.
She threw a plate right at him, said plate dispersing into blue light before it even reached him.
Yes, Lena had done a lot, and was considered a veteran. And the price of that, was the one thing that she was still battling against.
"Archer, I'm boooooreed."
"What do you want me to do about it?" The white haired man raised an eyebrow as Lena sank into the couch, "And please don't use plates as frisbees."
"Blegh." She stuck out her tongue, "You can take it."
"That doesn't make it any less rude." He rolled his eyes, before gathering up the used plates and dismissing the unused ones, "And besides, you could do anything you want in here. Why the hell are you even bored?"
"Archer, not everyone wants to shoot a gun for four hours straight." Lena's voice was dry as she spoke, looking at the other man with a deadpan gaze.
"In my opinion, not everyone needs four hours to hit one target."
Another plate was thrown.
Without even looking at it, Archer dismissed it, heading back into the small kitchen.
Sighing, Lena leaned back into her seat. Yes, after everything they had done recently, she was incredibly bored. She had tried the gun range, but like she told Archer, she had already done that for a couple of hours.
It wasn't her fault her pulse pistols were just horrible at range!
Regardless, without anything to do, what with Genji going on some errands, and Reinhardt, Angela and Winston doing some actual work, she was stuck in the newly built break room with nothing to do.
Technically, it was her day off, so she could have gone out. Except, with all the attention she had gotten, even that was just pure stress. Who knew being recognized in public would be such a pain?
If someone asked, she wouldn't exactly deny being jealous of Archer's anonymity.
Unlike her, for whatever reason, Archer's existence was kept out of the public's eye. And while there were many witnesses that could attest to him, there was a surprising lack of video and photo proof of the Spirit fighting against Ramattra.
As such, his entire involvement was relegated to nothing more than a rumor, fueled by the heads of Overwatch.
She could understand it, where they wanted Archer to be some sort of secret weapon, the same one that they could technically say what they used to fight off the Null Sector leader, and the same one that had carved out a good chunk of a London street.
Adding more to that, she was the only one that the public gave any focus to!
Everyone else that had been with her were already known factors. The public had already had their fill of the genius medic, the Omnic Crisis veteran, and the moon gorilla. What they hadn't was the time traveling pilot of Overwatch.
That they'd even figured out that she could reverse her own time was insane to her.
Or maybe the commander had purposely told them about it? Or, more than likely, and she meant no offense to her friend, Winston had accidentally spilled it? The poor scientist, though somewhat used to attention for the sole reason that he talked, was very much not good at keeping things quiet.
All of that to say that, bar her own home, the Overwatch facility was the only safe space she had as of late. With Emily out for work, she would've been stuck by herself had she stayed at home.
Well, that, and she could mooch off Archer's cooking while she was here.
Apparently, Archer was now an official Overwatch member, albeit, not a field agent. No, he'd opted to be the chef, of all things. Their reasoning was that his background as the chef from the diner was public enough that no one would bat an eye if he was to work in that same position within the organization.
Honestly, she knew for a fact that that was a crock of shit.
Archer just wanted to cook.
Well, it worked out in the end. For one, nobody outside the strike team, and Blackwatch, knew for certain that Archer even was. Everyone else thought he was just a really good chef.
She had a feeling that they'd change their minds if they'd heard what he'd fought.
The commander and the others were still likely thinking about how everything he'd told them could possibly be real. Gods, demons, Beasts. Old legends, mythology, all of them bearing some hint of truth.
Humanity had staked itself at the top of the food chain, and yet, they were shown a glimpse of the bigger pond they were in.
It was almost straight out of fiction.
Even as Archer's stories grew wilder - and how insane was that already, that a thousand year old hive mind of demons possessing the corpse of a biblical king was mentioned in the same breath as Ivan the Terrible with a giant mammoth turning the last vestiges of humanity into wolfmen.
Even through all that, Lena was certain of one thing. She was certain that Archer hadn't lied.
She liked to think that she knew him well enough by now. She could see that, on more than one occasion, he would trail off, a frown, or a smile, or even a scowl, on his face. He wasn't just telling stories for the sake of it. He was telling them of the things he had personally experienced.
And going through it all, the Singularities, Lostbelts, the existence of timelines where none of them existed, the very idea that all of this was happening in the background while they were ignorant, not once did she feel he exaggerated. In fact, she had the distinct feeling he purposely left out his own participation in all of them.
There was just no way he was just some background character, not when they all had a good idea of what he could do.
For now though, she was content to let him keep his secrets. Archer deserved that much, at least. She was sure that if he needed to tell them, Archer would be forthcoming.
That, or she'd heckle him till he said something.
She let out a small chuckle as she stood up. Stretching, she made her way out of the break room. She's been here long enough, maybe Winston was done with whatever upgrades he was making after Archer mentioned some guy named Tesla and his own propensity to shoot electricity?
…
Winston was not done when Lena had gone to meet him, sadly. He was still deep into his projects to the point where she didn't even register on his radar. Unfortunate, but it was common enough that Lena knew that she wouldn't be getting through any time soon.
Luckily for her, someone was just finished with their errands.
Three shuriken flew. With a blink of blue, they missed entirely. Her pistols were up in an instant, unloading them towards her target.
Forty pulses of rapid fire energy. Not a single one hit its mark. She had to scramble to her side as the cyborg came up from his crouch, lunging straight at her, dulled blade in hand.
Dull as they may be, Lena knew firsthand how painful those blows could be if they hit. She Recalled immediately before the blade could make contact. Genji didn't hesitate, using the momentum he'd built up to spin towards where Lena reappeared.
She barely leaned out of the way as he did so. Her reloaded guns trailed with her as she Blinked side to side, pulsing with staggered barrages.
As always, Genji was unperturbed, and Lena would somehow find that he had already thrown shuriken right at where she was going, before she even did.
"You're predictable, as always." His cybernetic voice called, relaxed if anything, "I keep telling you to work on it for a reason, you know."
Despite their initial meeting being less than ideal, Genji had somewhat mellowed out, likely due to the not-so-secret late night talks that he and Angela totally didn't engage in, well past the time when it would be considered a doctor-patient meetup.
Turns out, fighting together to stop an Omnic uprising made for a decent bonding experience.
Now if she could just wipe that damnable smugness that she could feel radiating out, they'd be peachy.
'Predictable, huh?' She dodged another blow, one aimed for her leg, by jumping back. She needed something to get through the seemingly impenetrable wall that was Genji. For a moment, it felt like it would end in yet another defeat on her part.
The problem wasn't that he was even wrong. It's that the cyborg was right and she knew it. She still had those tells, the ones that told everyone and their mother where she was going, that she desperately tried to hide.
That only made things worse, as it was then more obvious where she was going when she refused to even look in that direction!
So, she needed to think outside the box. Genji was very much a close combat specialist, more than a pilot-trained Lena could ever hope to beat. However, just as he had his cybernetics, she had her chronal accelerator.
She needed to use it to the fullest extent if she wanted to win one of these spars.
Backing up while shooting her pistols, she mentally counted. She could only Blink a total of three times, and Recall once before her accelerator needed to recharge. She had to time it just right.
First Blink. She appeared in front of the cyborg.
Second Blink. To his side, shooting all the while.
Recall. Make him miss his intended strike.
Back in front of him. Move forward. Genji raised his blade, intending on hitting her as she expended her last Blink.
She didn't. Lena gave a whoop as she slid right under him, unlatching the paint bomb she had on her. With a wicked grin, she threw it at Genji's unprotected back, before Blinking back to watch the fireworks.
She didn't expect to see the ninja perform a feat of acrobatics that she was certain would have broken a normal man's back had they tried to attempt it.
Lena watched in almost slow motion as the bomb missed his back as he bent backwards. Turning his blade, swinging it from the side. The bomb was hit, deflecting it, somehow not detonating it, right into her.
SPLAT!
"Bloody hell!"
Lena stumbled back as red paint found itself on her. She could even taste it! She tried to wipe it off, glaring at the amused Genji next to her.
"So, I believe that makes it twenty to none?"
"I'll show you twenty to none!" She held up her hand, stained red from the paint. She knew first hand just how annoying it was to get rid of, doubly so when it came to metal. And it just so happened that a good fifty percent of the cyborg's body was made of metal.
With wide eyes, Genji dodged the full body tackle from the pilot.
"Get back here!"
Despite her words, Lena sported a massive grin on her face.
It was times like these that she committed to memory. It wasn't the moments that she fought for her life. God only knows how much she'd have to do that when they really started to go on missions. No, it was moments that reminded her that, for everything that they were hyped up to be, Overwatch was still filled with people like her.
People that she could call her friends. Close enough at times to feel like a second family.
And it may sound cheesy coming from her, but she wouldn't trade that feeling for the world.
…
Archer snorted as he watched Oxton and Shimada run around. Unbeknownst to them, he, alongside Morrison, was watching the entire duel. He had to admit, for someone with limited training, to fight against Shimada with some level of success was impressive in its own right.
"Why did you call me here?" Calmly, he shifted his gaze towards the old soldier. Ever since he had arrived, Morrison had stayed quiet, despite having been the one to call him over.
For a moment, it felt as though they would be thrust into an even deeper silence, up until Morrison met his gaze with a firm stare.
"Why Oxton?" Morrison all but demanded, "Of all the things you could have asked for, why ask for her to join you in meeting de Kuiper?"
"Honestly? She's the least likely to shoot me, while still being able to defend herself if need be." Not to say that Ziegler and Winston couldn't defend themselves if they wanted to. It was more so Oxton knew what he wanted.
Not that he would say that to Morrison.
He clearly didn't believe Archer, not that anyone would. Clicking his tongue, the commander shook his head, "Doesn't matter anyhow."
"Oh?"
Turning to the door, it opened automatically. Morrison walked on through, his back to Archer, "Your request to meet with de Kuiper, under unanimous decision from the United Nations, has been summarily denied."
Ah.
That was annoying, wasn't it?
…
A/N: If you like what I do and want to support me, check out my P-atreon at P-atreon•com(slash)Almistyor.
And a special thanks to: FireRogueWolf25, brutalcrab and Tassimo.