Chapter 1: Abandon All Hope, Ye Who Enter Here
Valentino Villalba stared down at the asphalt of the helipad, the wind making his pinned back hair whip around back into his face. He would have loved to be huffing on a cigarette if the wind hadn't kept putting his stupid lighter out, and he hated a fussy lighter. Shame that he left his good one at the house. A pair of boots entered his field of view bringing him back from his thoughts, and Val lifted his head to see a young woman standing in front of him with a bag.
"Hello, I'm Madelyn Girard. The fellows at the gate said to come talk to you."
"Yeah, that's me. I'm Val, you can call me V, or whatever you want. You're the last one I'm waiting for so let's get this show on the road." Val changed his focus to the other three recruits waiting around a few feet away talking amongst themselves. "Hey! Everyone's here. Come introduce yourselves or whatever and let's go." Val raised his voice at the new recruits. One of the men stood up from sitting on top of his bag and caught up to the other man and woman walking closer to Val. One of the men was a little older than Val, the other two recruits probably about the same age, but the Madelyn girl, she seemed a lot younger. They said hellos to each other, though Val already turned around and walked toward the door of the building as they caught up to Val.
"There's only four of us? I don't know why but I thought there would be more." The older woman said, Val just barely catching the conversation he was trying to block out. Val held his watch over the badge scanner, and the door slid open for him.
"Are we all gonna get a fancy watch like that?" The younger man spoke up. Val smirked.
"If you make yourself one. This isn't standard issue. I had to make it." Val walked to a small window to the immediate left and waited for the recruits to all enter the building. "Alright, line up here at the window so Roz can give you your badges. Rule one, don't lose your badge. This is the only building you're gonna be let into if you don't have a badge and someone is feeling nice. Security reasons. It's double clearance in this building so you won't get into any other buildings or past Roz without your badge. So be nice to Roz."
As Val spoke, the four recruits each went up to the window and stated their name before taking their badge. Val waved them over to follow him, and a translucent wall with lights stretching horizontally across it stood before them.
"Um, what is that wall?" The younger woman asked.
"It's new tech they're trying out instead of two sets of doors. Solid without clearance, but passable with. Your badges will give you personal access to each room but to get into each building you have to pass one of these. Did everyone get their shots before this?" The group nodded in confusion at Val's derailment. "Great, then you should pass through this easily, if you didn't get your shots it would be like hitting a glass wall." Val walked backwards through the yellow tinted lights, the sunflower color washing over him. The group followed after him, the first person passing through easily. The second however, passed through until his duffle bag over his shoulder caught.
"What's the issue?" The older man said as the other two recruits stopped to stare at him, realizing these were not just in fact laser lights for show and the wall was really solid.
"Oh sorry, it's also our metal detector. You can leave your bag with Roz, do it now if you have anything that probably shouldn't be in this building. Like guns or knives, they won't pass through." The older man backed up and grumpily returned to the window, while the other two older recruits looked at each other, before turning to take their bags to the window. Only Madelyn was left with her bag, having already crossed.
"You already done a couple contracts with us, or are you fresh-fresh?" Val asked her as they waited for the other three to drop off their bags.
"No, I've never done contract work like this before." She said.
"You military?" Val probed further.
"No." She replied. Val furrowed his eyebrows curiously, wondering why this kid was here with no experience, before asking his next question.
"How old are you?" Val asked
"Nineteen. I turn twenty in a few months." She said, fidgeting with the strap of her bag. Val blinked, and took a deep breath to reset as the rest of the group approached again, this time passing through easily.
"Alright let's move." Val said, walking them through the office building at a leisurely pace, getting lost in his own thoughts as he mindlessly gave his tour. This building wasn't that important for them to know frankly, but he had time to kill since they gave him the whole day for training. This building was usually for the higher ups, the important people, as well as meeting rooms and offices for the contracting front. Of course the group he had wasn't here for the contracting front, they were here for the real Talon. This was more a formality, to show they had made it into the inner circle. Or something like that, he supposed.
Having skipped over much of the superfluous information, the tour went very quickly, and they already made it back to the front doors. Val stopped for the group to collect their bags.
"Is that it?" The younger man asked excitedly.
"For this building, yeah." Val said, moving to the door to the outside and opening it for the group.
"Oh." He said, his voice dragging in disappointment.
"Let's head to…" Val paused for a moment, deciding the best course of action for their tour. Val looked at his watch, seeing how much time they had before lunch, since they had arrived throughout the morning due to differing flight schedules. "The housing. Show you guys where you can put your stuff and where you will be staying for the night. Also don't start fighting in the house over the bedrooms. If you're gonna fight go outside." Val rubbed his temple before heading to the front of the group.
"When do we get our first missions?" The older woman asked.
"Tomorrow, you have paperwork and stuff to fill out and then you will be assigned a direct report. Your boss basically will be assigned tomorrow and they will tell you what to do from then on."
"You're not our boss?" The younger woman asked.
"No, they couldn't pay me enough to do that." Val chuckled a little bit. There was silence after as they walked.
"So are any of you military?" Val said, walking backwards through the concrete courtyard to look at the group. The older man and older woman nodded. "Cool, marines? We get a lot of marines here I've noticed."
"I was in the Navy actually." The woman stated.
"Oh, ok, that's cool too, I like something different. Just curious, I hate the quiet. Maybe it's too personal to ask but if you guys have family you are welcome to stay with them until we call you in. It's been known to get super cramped since someone started a fire in the second housing building, so you won't get lonely if you decide to hole up here for a while. Anyways, this is the house." Val turned and patted the door frame.
"I hope you remembered how to get here cause we don't have maps of the place. Let's test your badges while we are here. Let the door close before you scan your badge, you can go in but wait in the living area." The younger man went first scanning his badge and walking in. Val put out his hand in front of the older man so the door would close all the way, and when the door clicked he put his hand down and waved to go ahead. The older man scanned his badge next, Val put up his hand, doing his routine with timed precision, then the older woman, then finally the youngest, before Val followed them into the building. "Great, all of your badges work, usually at least one doesn't want to scan. Roz is your best friend so if you break it or it stops working or something you have to talk to her about it don't ask me, please." Val rubbed his forehead as he spoke, remembering the amount of new recruits asking him for a new badge and him walking them to Roz.
"So this is the house," Val said, speaking to the group looking around the living areas. "It doesn't look much like a house from the outside I know, but this is where you will stay for tonight and depending on the mission, you will stay here. Kitchen and living area need to stay clean while you are here. Follow me down the hall please." Val waved them down the hal to a closed bedroom door. "This one is the bathroom, the door at the end is a second bathroom, and these three doors are bedrooms. This lock is red because someone is staying here and has it locked. Green means it's unlocked. When the lock is blue, just scan your badge and it will program automatically to only unlock for your badge for the next 18 hours. You can program the lock for longer once you are inside. Please do not think you are clever setting the lock for 50 years, I do have a way to bypass it if need be. When you're ending your luxurious stay at the Talon resort, don't leave anything in the bedrooms; it will be gone forever. Either the next person will jack it or it's getting thrown away during cleaning. There's three single bedrooms, they're all taken right now, and this room is the overflow. This will let anyone in so please do not leave valuables out, and I do have a camera in the living area and the front door to see who's coming in and out in case of theft. And speaking of bedrooms, please no sleeping with each other in them I'm begging, or at least clean up after yourselves it's disgusting and we don't have cleaning come in enough to keep up."
Val walked back down the hallway as he spoke and waved his watch in front of one of the scanners. The door opened to a medium sized room with two bunk beds and what looked like cabinets at first, but on closer inspection were lockers along the wall, splitting the room. Very utilitarian in design, with the gray of the bed frames not quite matching the gray of the walls or the floor, or lockers.
"Go ahead and make yourselves at home. Get yourself a lock if you don't have one for the lockers. It's a liability thing. I don't want to hear anyone complain about people touching their stuff anymore." Val sighed and glanced at his watch, his throat sore from the amount of talking and the little feedback he's gotten. "Lunch is in 15 minutes, we should get there early though so you all can find a place to sit. I will show you the mess hall then and we can continue after lunch."
Val leaned against the door frame, holding the automatic door open, watching the group scatter to the bunks and place their bags on their claimed beds. As he blankly stared into the distance, mentally planning his tour day, he heard one of the doors open and a heavy pair of boots followed, interrupting the makeshift tour guide's train of thought. Val, with his back turned to the noise, looked over his shoulder at the end of the hallway, and saw a tall cloaked figure with a white owl mask making his way towards him. Val nodded at the other in greeting before turning his head away again. The figure grew closer, and Val started speaking just before the other became visible in the doorway.
"Reaper, you come to introduce yourself to your new coworkers?" Val asked with a cocky smile. Reaper paused by the doorway, now a large black cloud of smoke having formed around his feet. He slowly turned his head to the doorway, unable to discern where his eyes were focused, but clearly staring into the bedroom. Reaper then let out a long huff, a cloud of black smoke oozed from beneath the bone colored mask, then turned his head back and shuffled away without a word. Val glanced at the group of new recruits, paying no mind to the strange behavior of the masked man next to him, and smiled as the color drained from their faces at the intimidating sight of the Reaper.
Val watched with a smile as the masked man walked away, the smoke cloud by his boots dissipating as he exited through the front door. He always was one for theatrics, and he played his part perfectly.
"Wow, he's in a good mood today." Val laughed, and a couple of the new people seemed to nervously laugh with him. The youngest of the group approached Val at the doorway.
"Is he... always like that?" She said in a quiet voice, leaning to see if the cloaked figure was still in the building.
"Oh yeah. If you mind your business he minds his though. The people who aren't nosy he decides to eat last." Val replied casually. The young woman opened her mouth to say something, but only furrowed her brow in concern.
"He's messing with you girl, don't listen to him." The younger man spoke up, and came to elbow the young woman in the arm. Val smiled maliciously, ready to tell the tale of the Reaper to a new group of agents.
"Oh, you don't know? That's why he's called the Reaper, he eats the souls of his victims. Wherever he goes only death follows. Some say there's nothing under the mask." The younger woman didn't seem to buy into that one as much, although Val did seem to catch the curiosity of the older man. "Some of the agents told me though that they've seen him eat their bodies too. That's why they can't catch him, he eats the evidence." The young woman's eyes widened, and so did the younger man's standing next to her.
"Nuh uh, you're lying." The young man said.
"Well, that's just a rumor, but I will say I've never seen him eat in the mess hall. Allegedly it's because he has a taste for something more… human. Although you didn't hear that from me, I don't like the mess hall food either, I make my own lunch." Val said, and spun his way out of the room as he heard the new agents argue amongst themselves about the legitimacy of a cannibal amongst their ranks.
Speaking of lunch, Val had packed his lunch already, and went to the fridge to pull his lunch out of the fridge. After grabbing his lunch bag, he walked back to the room and knocked on the door before opening the door.
"And that's how we found out my uncle had eaten human flesh before." The younger man had been saying as the door opened. Val frowned, somewhat glad he missed the story as it didn't sound very appetizing.
"Uh, looks like I missed a good story. Let's head to the mess hall. Remember how to get there, 'cause I'm only showing you once and most of the agents here are not super keen on giving directions." Val said and led the group out of the front door and down the pavement to the mess hall.
The mess hall consisted of six tables, each seating four. Along the far wall was an alcove, and a counter separating the kitchen from the dining area, with a large sign above advertising-
"Is that really an Olive Branch restaurant?" The older man asked, pointing at the script sign with grapes as a logo.
"Yup. We have a contract with them, and our boss really likes fried mozzarella. Eat it at your own risk. I'm gonna go eat my lunch, and we will be back to it in an hour." Val said, walking over to one of the tables where a certain colorful haired hacker was sitting, and also happened to have a familiar masked man standing next to her, impatiently tapping his foot.
"Hey." Sombra purred between bites of her slice of pizza, giving a small wave with her long nails.
"What's up you don't usually have lunch in here." Val said pulling out a chair, giving a nod to Reaper again.
"It's pizza day, even smiles won't make me miss pizza day." Sombra said, gesturing towards the tall man standing next to her with his arms crossed.
"Where's the spider? I need to watch her eat lunch." Val asked as he sat down.
"Avoiding me like usual. I wasn't going to miss out on pizza for her." Sombra said, very preoccupied by her pizza. Val pulled multiple tubs out of his lunch bag, doing so very slowly. As he did this, he watched Reaper huff and Sombra hold up the slice of pizza to him, to no response.
"Can I sit here?" A voice spoke. Val turned his head to find the young woman from his little tour group standing with a plate of food next to him. He felt kind of bad for the poor thing, and let himself speak without thinking.
"Yeah, go for it, I bite though." Val said, half smiling, his mind turning back to where his lunch buddy was. He looked at his watch, and scrolled through to send a quick message to his coworker, who didn't seem to like him at lunch very much. Maybe it was the coerced eating, maybe it was having to sit with Sombra, the spider never seemed to be in a good mood at this hour. His gaze was drifting to the young girl sitting next to him, and Val's train of thought was brought back to the present as he noticed her head was shyly tilted down, but glancing upwards straight at Mr. Steal-Your-Soul.
"Oh god." Val thought to himself, rolling his eyes. His watch buzzed and taking the opportunity he pulled out his phone to subtly observe the young woman at his table. That man would eat that poor girl alive. Metaphorically, of course. Maybe literally too. Texting Widowmaker and glancing between his lunch mates, he found this whole scene very intriguing, as Reaper was too busy intimidating Sombra to notice he was being leered at, and Sombra was hurriedly shoving food in her mouth, not paying any mind to the young woman across from her.
"Alright I'm done, you can stop yelling now." Sombra said, and got up, taking her plate with her, Reaper and his stompy boots close behind. "Well, I thought that was funny. You're no fun, viejo." She continued, smiling while they walked away, the new agent Madelyn turning her head a little too far to watch them walk out. What a shame, all those theatrics just for her to be even more curious. As the pair walked out they passed by Talon's favorite sniper, Sombra giving her a small wave. Widow simply gave a stare in return and headed toward the counter for her meal. Val stared looked down at his phone, immediately texting Sombra.
💻Sombrita
Did you see the eyes new girl was making at 💀
YES LOL
I didn't say anything cause he's mad about waiting on me to eat
He would've killed her
Widow returned with a plate of food and took her seat next to Val.
"Nice of you to show up finally." Val said, opening his containers now that she was here.
"Why do we have a child at our table." Widow said, staring directly at Madelyn, who simply blinked and stared at her plate.
"She wanted to ogle Reaper with me." Val joked as he started putting his salad together. The brown haired young woman lifted her head up very quickly at the comment.
"W-What? No I wasn't."
"I saw the eyes you were making at him. It's ok, big, muscular, mysterious guy, I'd look too." Val said smiling, taking a bite of his salad. He noticed Widow leaning away from her plate, not having touched it. "Are you gonna eat your food today or you gonna fight with the doctor again?" Val said, side tracking himself from his teasing.
"You can tell the doctor I'm not eating the pathetic food from here anymore. The cooks put something in my food I know." Widow said, making Val sigh.
"Alright, what is it this time?" Val said, putting his fork down.
"I don't know. I haven't been able to sleep every time I eat here though, and when I eat I feel like my heart is racing."
"Last month they were putting sedatives in your tea, this month it's adderall in your pizza. They don't put adderall in my pizza, do you want to trade?" Val picked up the large container and held it out to the other. She stared at the bowl, then looked up at him unsure. "I took a bite so it's not poisoned. You and I also have to tell Moira that the other ate so it's better than the tube feeding right?" He said, waving the tub at her.
"You better say that I ate." Widow said, taking the tub and pushing away her plate with the other hand.
"I will text her right now cause I don't trust you to say that I ate after this, and I'm gonna be pissed you made me eat pizza." Val said, taking a picture of their hands next to their plates, before picking up the pizza and biting into it. As he chewed, his glance drifted over to the young woman again, staring into her plate, her face pink. Val couldn't help but tap her on the arm to her attention.
"Huh? I wasn't looking!"
"Hey calm down, I was just teasing you. Look, let me be straight with you," Widow scoffed at him, and Val glared at her before continuing his sentence. "I'm not saying you were looking. I'm just saying that if you were curious, like we all were when we started, that man is 60, he's old enough to be your father. And he's ugly under there anyways, that's why he wears a mask." Madelyn blinked a few times in surprise.
"Um, I- I wasn't- isn't that kind of shallow?" She said, tucking her hair behind her ear.
"Well he's definitely not the kind of guy to buy you flowers, you've seen that. I heard his last girlfriend left him because he collected rat skulls and kept leaving them on the bed." Val said. Madelyn made a look of disgust. "That's totally just a rumor though. Although, I've never seen a rat within a mile of this base." Val looked into the distance perplexed, before going back to eating his pizza. He glanced over at Madelyn, who picked up her empty plate frowning and walked away from the table. What a strange kid.
"Really, rats?" Widow said flatly.
"He'll think it's funny." Val smiled.
"You've never even seen him under the mask, you're getting very comfortable."
"You think he wants nosy girls old enough to be his daughter trying to hit on him? He doesn't like anyone talking to him as it is. She won't last a month anyways." Val said, finishing his food.
"I say less than a week." Widow replied.
"I'll bet you ten bucks on it." Val leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms.
"Deal." Widow said, looking at him over her fork.
Once the two finished their food, Val took his containers back, and shoved them into his bag. The two stood up, then he and Widow walked out of the mess hall together.
The rest of the day turned into a blur. Of talking, and of introductions, and reintroductions.
A clockwork retread of the same base he walked every day, the same tour he gave every few weeks.
Telling the same information, adding more information each time, as if the new recruits will listen.
Telling the same jokes, hearing his coworkers laugh a little less each time, groan a little more each annoyance.
And eventually, Val found their little group back at the house, where they all were staying for the night. He didn't even remember how he got there, his mind checking back in as he walked into the doorway of his room. Pulling the hair tie out of his long hair, he rubbed his tense scalp. He sat on the edge of the bed before taking off his jacket and shoes, then tossing them out of the way. Finally, he flopped over onto his side, then rolled onto his back, making his back ache from finally being able to relax.
He stared at the ceiling with his hand hanging over the side of the bed, recalling his first day at Talon. He laid down in one of these same bedrooms, he couldn't remember which one anymore, but he remembered how tiny the bed felt at the time.
"How wide the bed feels now, when you don't have anyone to share it with."
