(Scrapped) Overwatch: Playing With The Enemy

Chapter Four: Trail

Belgrade, Serbia

August 9th 2081

1:48pm

Jack had been following the trail of Talon for the past 3 days, it was starting to get cold. "Shit. You are becoming an old man. Slow. Tired. Missing simple tricks." He cursed to himself aloud. There weren't many people about. Odd, it's not exactly a small city. "Where is everyone? Oh, Shit!" He exclaimed, again to himself. As the words left his mouth he heard the boom of a rifle and dived into cover behind an old market stall. The round tore through the edge of his sleeve, spitting flakes of leather into the air and then burying itself into the cobbled street. "Damn. My best jacket too. That's definitely a snipe though, very long range. There's not a decent rooftop for at least 2 if not 3 miles. Shit. It's got to be Widowmaker." He thought. "Oh goddamn it." He called realising that he was lost in thought, again and took heel across the street, diving to the ground and rolling into an alley as he heard another round fire. It too buried itself into the cobble stone after passing through his previous cover, right where his head had been. "She's scary good with that thing, Damn." He got to his feet and ran down the alley. He knew that if she could see the square he was just in, it'd be unlikely that she could see this side of the houses. As he charged closer to where he had assumed Widowmaker was posted, it dawned on him that there was likely a Talon base here, and if it was indeed Widowmaker then they had reconditioned her again and she wouldn't be in full control. Judging from the fact that this sniper had him pretty much dead to rights twice in a very small window, his assumption was probably correct. That being said, if she was here, and reconditioned, then this place was a substantial base. As he rounded a corner he heard another boom and skidded to a halt before diving backwards, landing on his back in the street. Another boom forced him to roll left and the stone that had been beneath his head exploded under the velocity of the shot. He was closer to her. Good. He got to his feet and stood waiting and turn his tactical visor on. He stood waiting patiently and it paid off, another boom from the rifle sounded and the visor picked out the position of the sniper and Jack dodged the bullet. Only a few streets away from him now. "Let's pick up the pace old man." He said motivating himself. He didn't really need to motivate himself at all, at the end of the day he felt like this was for Lena more than anyone else and that meant that no one was getting in his way. Just under half a minute later he was kicking open a wooden door to a rooftop on some random building and he instantly had to drop to the floor as a sniper pointed her gun in his direction and fired. He rolled backwards through the door he'd just booted down. "Widow, stop. Talk to me, for a second." He called out, the only reply was the shattering of the stone that made up the archway of door as another round rocketed through it like it was butter. "What the hell kind of gun is she using?" he thought. How was he going to get through to her? And then a thought popped into his mind. "The cavalries here love." He said unsure of if that would do anything. There was silence. Not a reply but no bullet either, no shot fired. He poked his head around the corner slowly. He knew full well if she was waiting then he'd be dead, or she was remembering. The latter happened to be the case as he saw Widowmaker doubled over both hands on her temples and gun on floor. He took a step out and from nowhere was met with a quick boot to the face. He stumbled back and steadied himself. "Slow. Too slow. And she's not going anywhere. They can finish reprogramming at another site" A deep voice mocked and Reaper stepped into view. "They ARE reprogramming her, again. Shit, poor kid." Jack thought. "Mer..Angela, is half dead thanks to you. Fighting for her life." Jack informed him as he stood straight. Reaper seemed to hesitate. "Whats this?" Jack thought to himself. "You are not apart of my agenda, Leave. Thanks to your meddling she can't take another shot today and I have no interest in playing games with the elderly." Reaper growled as Jack took a look at Widowmaker still double over. She looked up and was crying, tears were flooding down her face and she mouthed something to Jack. 'Don't let me hurt her. I don't want to ever hurt her again.' Jack made out. "Agh shit." He thought with a sinking feeling in his stomach and anger filling his head. Before he had time to procees his thoughts more Reaper had taken a hold of Widowmaker's arm and began to disappear into one of his inky portals. "All she did was love you Gab! Gabriel!" Jack yelled as Reaper sank away with Widowmaker in toe. "GOD DAMN IT ALL TO SHIT! YOU SLOW WITTED, HOBBLING OLD BASTARD!" he screamed disappointed with himself for not being faster, not paying enough attention. He hated the fact that he had now seen first-hand that Widowmaker was fighting back and had all but confirmed his assumption about her emotional state and that was all going to be washed away because he was passed his prime.

Overwatch Alpha, Gibraltar

August 10th 2081

00:04 AM

Jacklocked his weapon back into place, it had been a long and sobering flight back.He was still thoroughly annoyed with himself and while lost in that train ofthought he didn't even notice that Winston had walked in. "Jack?! You there?"He called out louder. Shaking out of his own head jack looked up. "Yea, sorry.Not in the mood to say, 'told you so' but that was not a fun trip out." Jacksaid plainly. Winston took off his glasses and pondered on what to say. "Wellwe can go to the break room and talk it over with a coffee. I would say medicalto bring them up to speed too but both of the girls are asleep." He finally putout there. "How are they? Lena doing ok? Think it hit the youngster harder thanshe's letting on." Jack said as he and Winston walked down a few corridors. "Ididn't go in to check on her personally as I didn't want her to feel like achild or as a burden. I did however check through the camera's and you'reright. With her own personal upsets and then the Berlin incident. Well, I thinkit finally became a little too much. She's only asleep because she criedherself into it." Winston told him with sadness. He'd been close to Lena eversince he made her her Chronal Accelerator and helped her stay anchored in thenow. She'd always come see him, just to hang out as good friends or forbirthdays and Christmas, even if he said he was alright, she'd never let him bealone, never let him be sad. But right now, he knew that she was alone, feltalone, felt abandoned and she was terribly sad. And he couldn't help her. Itbroke his heart. "Damn it. Poor kid. Never any good news for her. Heart of goldand keeps that big smile on her face so much you forget what she's dealt with."Jack said and Winston noticed that he felt exactly the same. That made himthink for a moment. "How many others? How many other members of the team hadLena Oxton helped in one way or another?" A topic for later. He and Jack took aseat in the break room and drank a coffee, which turned into several coffees asJack filled Winston in on what had happened on his mission. "It's despicable.Downright despicable." Winston said on the verge of being enraged. "I agree butthe problem is this. If we tell Lena this, one of two things will happen. One,break down, and it'll be soul crushing to watch. Two, she flies off the handle,blinks out of her all half-cocked and gets hurt or killed or worse. And we bothknow with Talon there are worse things than getting killed but we also knowthat we can't not tell her." Jack said as he stared into his coffee, lettinghis thoughts run through his head. "Ok, for now, we tell her bed rest is theimportant thing and we'll let her know once Angela has cleared her. As for therest leave that to me." Winston said as he rose from his seat and started tomake his way out. "Angela give her the all clear? That's a few weeks. I don'tthink we can keep Lena in the base that long let alone in the dark about this."Jack said with considerable concern. "Oh right, no. Angela is up and almostfully recovered. Our estimate of 3 to 4 weeks should have been 5 to 6 days. Shehad upgraded her Nanomachines before Lena even arrived her for their mission aspart of the continued 'maintenance' she has to do on them. When I said, theywere asleep in there I meant that Angela refused to leave Lena's side afterwhat happened." Winston clarified and the walked on out leaving Jack with histhoughts. "Well, at least that bastard thinks she's half dead. Gives us an advantage one way or another i guess." Jack thought as he took a swig of his coffee.