They had all silently come to the conclusion that this was a trap. They had suspected as much during the initial planning, but the sheer number of Talon personnel shooting at them proved it. It wasn't just a few dozen of them, either.
Hundreds came out of the woodwork. Gunships and dropships, forcing Chase to focus her fire to drive them off. Heavyset, thick armored, and minigun-wielding troopers running at them, keeping pace with the car they rode in. Invisible assassins jumping at Genji whenever he wasn't paying attention. Snipers taking potshots at the window next to her as she swerved to avoid more damage than was strictly necessary.
Lena's hands tightened on the wheel as the chaos around them escalated. The truck skidded around another corner, just barely missing a lamppost as she did so. The distant roar of an engine alerted her to another incoming threat, and she slammed on the brakes just in time for a Talon gunship to streak overhead, narrowly missing the truck as it rained down suppressive fire.
Chase didn't waste a second, leaning out of the window to take a shot at the gunship with her railgun. The bolt of energy struck true, disabling one of the engines and sending the gunship spiraling into a nearby building.
The resulting explosion shook the street, but Lena had no time to process it as she hit the gas again, just in time to see another gunship heading their way.
The second gunship came in fast, its cannons spitting fire as it bore down on them. Lena cursed under her breath, weaving the truck through the narrow streets to avoid the worst of the barrage. The alleyway was way too narrow, and she grit her teeth as the truck's sides grinded against the walls of the surrounding buildings.
"Captain, I can't keep this up forever!" Lena called out, glancing in the rearview mirror. Genji was still fending off the occasional assassin and sniper, his blade flashing in the dim light of the alleyway as he deflected bullets with precision.
"Just a little longer, Oxton." Chase replied, her voice strained as she fired another shot at the pursuing gunship, "Reinhardt's beacon is just-take the next right, here!"
With a jerk of the wheel, Lena did so. She saw Genji get tossed to the side, only managing to stay on as he stabbed his sword into the side of the truck. She winced at that, and made a mental note to apologize later.
If there was a later.
Lena's heart pounded in her chest as she followed Chase's directions, the beacon's signal getting stronger. They were close, but the onslaught from Talon was relentless. Another wave of troopers emerged from a side street, RPGs at the ready. There wasn't anywhere else to go - a single lane volley like that would annihilate them, for sure.
Chase's railgun hummed, charged and ready to fire, but before she could, Genji moved. He jumped onto the hood of the truck, just as the rockets were fired. Lena couldn't do anything to avoid them.
Genji threw up his smaller sword, and, defying the very laws of physics, deflected the rockets back to their owners.
Deflecting bullets, she could understand. There was an entire programme, back when those were still relevant, that with the right set of cybernetics, it was possible. A fucking rocket, made to explode on impact - and she was sure as all bloody hell that it made contact with Genji's sword - being deflected, only to blow up the guy that fired it? Not even just once, but several at the same bloody time?
On any other day, Lena would call it absolute bollocks. Today? She was glad that said absolute bollocks was on their side.
They were close enough to where the others were that they could hear the fighting. There, on a red painted building in front of them, blasts of electricity, no doubt from Winston's tesla cannon, could be seen. Before Lena could even turn to ask Chase what the plan was, a loud crash and flying debris right in front of them made Lena slam the brake.
A groan from the rubble, a familiar one.
"Reinhardt?!" Lena gaped as the man stood up. His armor looked trashed, the shiny blue that she had seen earlier tarnished by the sheer number of dents on it. Plates were shattered, even missing in the case of a shoulder plate. His hammer's rocket was sputtering flames, whatever the mechanism to keep it going having been damaged.
The man's helmet snapped towards them, before a meaty smack above them garnered their attention. Another crash, and another groan. Not like Reinhardt's though. Wet, pained. Weak.
Reinhardt was immediately within the dust cloud before it could clear, calling out a shout tinged with panic, "Angela, quickly!"
Lena's heart thundered as she started to realize who it was that was lying on the ground.
"Winston…?"
To say that the gorilla was in bad shape was an understatement. Reinhardt had the benefit of wearing more armor, which had likely dampened the damage of whatever they were fighting. Winston only wore the bare necessities, relying on the genetic enhancements he had been subject to for durability.
Likely, those enhancements were the only reason he was alive, and just barely.
His head was bleeding profusely, an eye already swollen shut. The jump pack he wore was torn apart, leaving only half of it still on his person. The few pieces of armor on him were cracked and shattered, the shards digging into the gorilla's body.
And in the middle of his chest, a massive imprint of a fist.
"Hm. You've arrived."
A voice from atop the building. Captain Amari struggled as a single man held her by the throat. Cybernetics, the way that Talon had stopped shooting them and were obviously deferring to the man. And the massive gauntlet, almost bigger than Lena, glowing blue with power.
Akande Ogundimu. Doomfist.
…
"I was almost wondering if my men had managed to kill you." Casually, the Talon leader walked off the building, landing with a loud thud. Reinhardt took position in front of Winston and Angela, who'd at some point that Lena didn't notice gotten out of the truck to heal Winston.
Ogundimu wore a practically pristine suit of white and sunglasses, not a single blemish on it. It was at odds with the sheer destruction around them. She couldn't see his eyes, but it was obvious that he was staring at them individually, frowning at the end of it all.
"Is-"
He was interrupted as Genji threw shuriken at him. Reinhardt took this as his queue to charge with his hammer, Chase joining them only a moment later with her railgun's charged shot.
The shuriken were blocked with the gauntlet. The railgun fire was stopped when Doomfist kicked up some debris to intercept it. Reinhardt's hammer was held in place, Doomfist snorting, before the Crusader was pushed back.
All while still keeping hold of Amari.
"I see that none of you are willing to talk? Very well, let me quickly rectify that." His non-gauntleted hand, holding Amari as she struggled against it, tossed the woman upward. Without even looking at her, she was punched hard enough that she flew several meters back, skidding along the road, unconscious.
She was punched with his non-gauntleted arm.
Doomfist proved his name as he flew forward then and there. The gauntlet tore into Reinhardt's armor, the metal groaning in protest as the German roared and tried to punch him, only for Doomfist's other hand to catch it easily. Then, with growing horror, she watched as the man was lifted up with ease.
Reinhardt was easily two hundred fifty kilos. His armor, another four hundred. His hammer, a good hundred. Seven hundred kilos, lifted with one gauntlet.
The idea that the Doomfists of the past could destroy skyscrapers didn't seem too far out there, seeing that.
The Crusader was thrown upward, similar to Amari, only, instead of punching him away, Doomfist grabbed the other man by the leg at the apex of the toss, before slamming him to the ground, then reversing and slamming him again. Once, twice, three times. On the third time, Reinhardt was once more thrown up, before being uppercut into a building. Judging by the sound of it, he had gone through at least a couple of walls before stopping.
The fact that Doomfist only sported a mildly annoyed frown convinced Lena that they had no chance of winning this, not as they were. Chase was obviously of the same mind, though she still kept her weapon pointed at the Talon leader.
"What do you want?" They needed to buy time. No doubt, Morrison or Reyes must've heard what had happened by now, and would have sent backup. All they needed was time to make sure they live when they arrive.
Lena felt her hands numb, gripping the wheel tighter and tighter as Doomfist remained quiet, looking around for something. Her hands jolted to her pistols as Doomfist gave a disappointed sigh.
"The man you call Archer is not here, is he?" Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Doomfist took off his sunglasses, ones that he didn't even need considering that the sun was still not up, he stared at Chase, "I hoped that my men were mistaken, but if he was here, I would have expected him to interfere by now."
"What do you want with him?" Lena was the one to talk, much to her own surprise. She couldn't help it. What could Doomfist possibly want with Archer of all people?
Her short-lived confidence wavered as Doomfist turned to look at her, eyebrow raised. She could hear the soft clicking of cybernetics from Genji as he subtly shifted, no doubt to try and intercept the Talon leader should he do anything.
"Ah, Lena Oxton. The woman of the hour, if you'll pardon the pun." Giving a small chuckle, Doomfist waved his non-gauntleted hand, "As for your question, tell me, how strong do you think Archer is?"
Caught off guard, Lena glanced at Chase for help. Instead of doing anything for her, she just nodded and whispered, "Just go along with it, the longer he talks, the more time he spends not trying to kill us." And for Angela to heal both Winston and Captain Amari went unsaid. Indeed, Lena could spot the medic subtly use her staff to heal the gorilla, and with how she was eyeing the blue-clad sniper, she would be heading there as soon as she was done with him.
Right then and there, Lena hated having a chain of command. If it were anything else, she would have slapped them and screamed 'fuck no'.
"P-Pretty strong, I guess?" She winced as her voice stuttered.
"Now, now, no need to be nervous." Placing his hands behind his back, he strolled forward, debris cracking under his shoes, "Yes, Archer is indeed strong. Strong enough that I am sure that he would understand me."
"There's no way that Archer would agree with you." Lena hardened her gaze as she glared at Ogundimu. She knew Archer. Had spent enough time that she was confident that she understood the Spirit's mindset, at least to a degree. There was no chance that Archer would ever agree to the destruction that Doomfist, and by extension Talon, caused.
"Ah, but I don't need him to agree. I want him to understand." A wistful smile from Doomfist, "When I was younger, I had thought that the thrill of the fight was all I needed, and when it was taken away from me, I had lost my purpose."
Gesturing to the Talon troopers now arriving en masse, Doomfist continued, "My predecessor proved me wrong. He invited me to join him, and Talon opened my eyes. Humanity can only progress with conflict. War is the crucible by which we evolve."
Throwing his arms around, he gestured to his surroundings, "Look around you and tell me what you see. Destruction? Chaos? No - I see the fires that will temper humanity to its limits. To forge the sword that is humankind to go above and beyond its shackles and achieve greatness. I will be the smith hammering that sword to perfection. To make sure that when the time comes, when the karma of human progress rears its head and stares us down, the sword I made by my hands would be enough to survive the storm.
"Archer understands this, of that I am sure. And that is why I hope that he will join us. For he and I are on the same side. The side of Proper Human History."
Lena sucked in a breath as the words clicked something in her head. The same title by which Archer described the timeline. How did he know about it? The only other individual that she would have thought knew about it was-
"Ramattra." Another raised eyebrow from Doomfist, "You're working with Null Sector."
Giving a loud laugh, Doomfist grinned at her, "A sharp one, truly."
"How?! They hate humans!" How the bloody hell did Doomfist, a terrorist that wanted humanity to survive, team up with a terrorist organization that wanted the exact opposite.
"An ally of convenience." He shrugged, "Null Sector's methods are exactly the type of conflict humanity needs to succeed. Should humanity fall, then we were clearly undeserving of survival."
Lena had gotten out of the truck at some point, glaring at Doomfist all the while. She could barely hear the whispered orders from Chase to stop, the beating of her own heart blocking out everything else.
"Tough bloody luck then, cause I know for a fact that Archer will never join you, you pretentious fuck!" She spat out, "Conflict is needed to survive my bloody ass. All I can see is a fucking lunatic taking Darwinism to the extreme!"
Giving another laugh, Doomfist waved her anger off. Lena was sorely tempted to shoot him there and then, "We shall find who is right sooner or later. Still, I can see that your spirit has remained unbroken despite the trials that you have gone through. What was it? The Slipstream Incident?"
Lena amended her desire to shoot him. She wanted to plant a bloody bomb right down his throat.
"Yes, yes. I can see it now. You are already tempered by your own conflict. What say you then? Would you join Talon?"
"Fuck you."
"Think about it for a while." With a shake of his head, Doomfist turned around and started walking away, "Go on then, gather your wounded and get out of here."
That took the wind out of her sails immediately, staring at him in confusion, "What?"
Looking over his shoulder after putting his sunglasses back on, Doomifst told her nonchalantly, "I want Archer to join me as an ally, not an enemy in disguise. Killing his current allies would only hurt things in that regard."
The Talon troopers soon followed after him, leaving Lena and the others alone as the early morning sunlight peeked over the horizon.
…
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.