John, Angela, Reinhardt, and Brigitte worked their way through the warped Omnic army as quickly as they could. The bots were tenacious and took a beating like they never saw before, but they still went down, leaving an ichor-like residue behind.
"How close are we to the ammo dump?" John yelled over the battle.
"It's not far! But why?" Brigitte asked.
"Because I'm on my second to last mag!" John yelled out before taking a shot at a nearby omnic.
"We'll head there then!" Reinhardt yelled as he dropped his shield for a moment to launch a firestrike through the closing mechs.
"Damnit!" John yelled as a shot clipped his shoulder, before he emptied that magazine into the group that shot came from.
"I've got you!" Angela yelled as she turned her staff onto him, quickly healing his wound.
"Thanks, Angel!" John yelled out as he looked her direction.
"Sweetheart, your eyes!" Angela gasped as she saw the telltale crimson irises.
"Good! We need it right now!" he bellowed as he launched a torrent of flame past her towards the encroaching bots, melting the metal and frying the insides. "Brigitte! Toss me!" He yelled.
"Alright!" she said as she turned around, briefly paused as she saw his eyes, then readied herself to launch him in the air with her shield.
John began speaking an incantation as he holstered his pistol and ran to Brigitte. He quickly jumped onto her shield which she then bashed upwards with, sending him ten feet up. He forced the spell into the palms of his hands and fired it into the ground between his group, forcing streams of plasma to spread outward and torch the Omnics nearby, though leaving his friends untouched other than the smell of sulfur and ozone.
"Why didn't you lead with that?!" Brigitte yelled as she caught him before he collapsed to the ground, catching her off-guard.
"Because the stonger the spell, the more energy it drains from me..." he panted before he felt the relief of his lover's healing beam wash over him. "Thank you, Angel." he said to her as he finally stood up a minute or two later.
"To the armory then?" Reinhardt asked.
"Let's go." John replied.
...
The group arrived at the armory fairly quickly as most of the bots appeared to be moving towards the detainment center. John quickly loaded the minigun with a long belt of ammo then triggered his armor to open and lept inside, sealing himself from the outside world. He picked up his heavy weapon and readied himself for the fight that was coming.
It only took a couple minutes before they were waist deep in warped omnic drones, but by that time the telltale sound of a minigun cutting through them like butter could be heard across the base. Angela and Brigitte kept the two tanks healed up as best as they could, though the debris from the mechs were becoming difficult for them to move through.
"We're almost there!" Reinhardt shouted as he launched another firestrike through the masses before bringing his shield back up just in time to block several shots from hitting Angela.
"Closer to those who have use for you..." came a voice from within their own skulls.
"What in the absolute FUCK was that?!" John yelled out in between bursts from his minigun.
"It, it felt like it was in my head!" Brigitte said as she shook her head quickly before resuming her protection of Angela with her shield.
"It sounded familiar, like I'd known it before..." Reinhardt said before he shook it off.
"Whatever it is we need to hurry!" Angela said as she resumed using her staff on Reinhardt.
They continued onwards, fighting through the horde until they finally arrived to find the door to the building ripped apart and covered in some sort of mucus, similar to what drained from the warped drones.
"Weapons ready." John said as he took the lead. "God only knows if she got out already."
"Oh, but I DO know... and you shall see soon enough..." the voice spoke again.
"Fuck off!" John yelled out in annoyance as he began walking down the hallway in his armor, the others trailing behind.
They continued onwards, taking the stairs down two floors and walking through slime covered halls until they reached what was once the entrance to the holding cells. These doors too were now in shambles, the ichor-like residue everywhere. Inside they could see a gaping hole in the floor, and floating over it was Moira, smiling and laughing as large green tentacles slid up through the hole and surrounded her for a moment before sliding back down revealing the first of potentially many new servants to this horror.
Her flesh was replaced with what looked like the void of space itself, and her prisoner's clothes were replaced with some form of organic wriggling armor. Where her face once sat, now distant stars and a mask resembling a skull replaced it. With a snap of her fingers she disappeared, leaving the group puzzled and disgusted at her.
"She becomes my pawn as you shall too..." the voice rang out in their heads, causing everyone to hold their's in pain. "You shall serve me in my conquest of this world, be it by choice or not..."
"We have enough to deal with between Nullsec and Talon! You can fuck all the way off!" John shouted out through the pain before he began firing rounds into the pit before the unseen force tore the weapon from his grip.
"Your minds are laid bare to me... You are different, but you shall soon serve, or I will take possession of you by force!!" The voice rang out as John was pulled up from the ground and his armor was shredded to ribbons as he floated there.
"FUCK YOU!!" John yelled out as he was drawn closer to the pit.
"Resistance will prove to be painful for you, but entertaining for me..." It spoke, gutteral laughter echoing through the halls. "But perhaps claiming your mate shall make you reconsider your resistance to my gift..." it said as Angela screamed as she floated off the floor and drew closer to her lover.
In a panic, John began chanting the incantation of the most powerful spell he knew as a maw of teeth slid up through the hole and began sucking the air from the room. With every ounce of strength he could muster, he forced his hand out and released the beam of plasma he onced used on a Nullsec Titan, searing down the hole and leaving a foul stench of burning oil and flesh as the entity screached out in pain, releasing the lovers from its grasp. Angela got up from her knees and began dragging John back towards the doorway so she could grab her staff and help him as he panted in exaustion and pain.
"So you have tricks from the lower planes of existence... How interesting..." the voice spoke again. "You will be a most useful tool!!" it shouted throughout the building as tentacles burst out of the walls and floor, reaching out to grab him.
"I TOLD YOU TO FUCK OFF!!" John yelled out in pain and fury as his fleshy hand reached outward towards the ground, a pentagram forming in his hand. He quickly raised that hand as high as he could when the symbol finished forming, summoning pillars of hellfire to burst from each of the wriggling appendages, frying them to a crisp and causing the horror to once again screech in pain.
"I will have you someday when you least expect it, Hellwalker... Mark my words well..." The voice said, fading into the background.
Reinhardt groaned and picked himself off the ground before reaching a hand out to Brigitte, who gratefully took it and heaved herself off the ground.
"Is it gone?" Brigitte asked as she looked around the smoldering room, her flail firmly in hand.
"Angela? Are you alright?" Reinhardt asked as he carefully walked closer to her, and saw her arms wrapped tightly around John and her face buried into the back of his neck in fear. He carefully placed his hand on her shoulder, causing her to flinch before she looked over at him carefully.
"Is... is it over?" she asked quietly, her hold on her lover never faltering.
"I think so...?" he replied tentatively. "Is Longshot...?"
Angela gasped as she grabbed her staff off the floor from beside her and pulled her scanner out of its pouch before using it to check her lover. "That thing did a number on him... he's got a minor concussion, cuts and scrapes from it destroying his armor, and he is thoroughly drained of energy." she explained as she triggered the healing beam on her staff to heal his wounds. "He may be unconscious for a couple hours to even a couple days with how drained he is... I'll need to get a saline and nutrient solution in him when we get to the medical bay..."
"Do you think that thing might come back?" Brigitte asked.
"I have no idea what it even was. Anything is possible, but at least we know John can hurt it..."