Crack. I shot the dummy with perfect accuracy and even made a headshot. The bullet pierced directly through the fluff of the target, leaving a hole in its head. I did a small dance of victory for hitting my first headshot of the day.
"This rifle is insane," I remarked. It was my first time using a real gun, Ana's old battle rifle. Although slightly dented and the scope marks fading, it was still in great condition, at least for me to use in practice.
Ana, now old and growing more wrinkles on her forehead than I had ever seen, gave me a thumbs up from the side of the shooting range.
Fueled with ambition, I reloaded the sniper rifle and prepared for my next shots, hoping to make headshots again. The dummy moved from side to side, with a speed that was unpredictable; sometimes extremely fast and other times slow. When it finally reached a slow enough speed to aim correctly, I pulled the trigger, hoping for another good shot.
Almost as if it knew I had fired, the dummy suddenly started moving quickly again. The bullet missed by a few inches, hitting the supposedly bulletproof metal wall behind it and bouncing off.
Disappointed, I almost dropped the gun but realized that I could get my rifle privileges taken away. Determined that I could make another headshot, I positioned the gun and shot two bullets, entirely guessing their spots. When neither of them hit, I groaned and set it down on the table behind me.
"Y/N, I think that's enough for today," remarked Ana as she walked around and behind me. "You seem to be getting quite tired."
"...And frustrated," I added.
"Yes, I can certainly tell. You'll get another chance to work with the gun tomorrow," she stated while typing on a keypad on the wall, making the dummy go away. "As of now, let's break for the night; I can tell you another one of those stories."
"I was hoping you'd say that," I replied as I placed my rifle in the automated machine that cleaned and reloaded it for me to use the next time.
Ana typed a code into another small keypad, opening the back door of the shooting range, leading to the rest of the Overwatch base. The pristine white walls of the halls glistened under the bright fluorescent lights as we walked up a set of stairs that I had never been up. Or maybe I had, but I didn't remember, since all of the base's stairs looked identical.
At the top of the stairs, there was a holographic computer, with Winston's AI, Athena, installed on it. As Ana and I approached, it flashed to life and ordered for either one of us to scan our IDs. Ana placed her badge on the screen and the doors slid open.
"Thank you, and have a nice day," reminded Athena. As soon as we walked through, the doors slid closed ensuring that no tailgaters could follow us.
Even after 17 years of living at Overwatch headquarters, I was still amazed by all of the advanced technology that the base contained, discovering new things every day. Every room, including the lavatories, had some sort of crazy system that did the things that most would never think of needing. Once, Athena popped up on the bathroom mirror; it was quite a moment of surprise. Sometimes, I felt like there would be enough places in the base to explore that I could go to a new room every day for a year and there would still be more.
The room we entered was one of the few rooms I recognized immediately, due to its large floor space and a vast selection of chairs: the common room. Ana often would take me here after classes to tell stories or meet some of the other people. Although I've been here my whole life, I knew only a few other agents due to the constant missions and adventures that most employees were assigned to.
Inside, a few agents sat at a table playing poker, others conversing with each other. There seemed to be much fewer people than usual, but I didn't think much of it. Our favorite corner of the common room was taken, so we resorted to our next preferred spot, one of the couches beside the fireplace.
