Chapter Text
The new Magnetic Energy Meso-sonic Equalizer bullet train, (Commonly known as MEME) was announced three years ago to be replacing every Hypertrain that ran through the city of Numbani and every major city in the planet. It was proclaimed and herald to be one of the finest work of engineering coupled with the collective effort of both humans and Omnics alike. It could take you from Paris to Egypt within minutes. It's said to be one of the final pieces of technology recovered and reused from the government raid on an old Winston Lab. Some people were quick to say that in that case neither humans or omnics put any effort into it, But those people changed their minds real quick when a briefcase filled with money landed on their doorstep.
And on this particular day, I had the honor to ride the "crowning achievement of Omni-Human kind". However, what they didn't mention in the grandeur speech of unity is that there were different trains for different classes, and not all of them are well maintained. Especially the one that travels between Germany and Numbani, which I luckily had the chance to sit in. The immense G-Forces exerted on the human body in the train is far greater than any astronaut or pilot would ever experience, so you have to be wearing a dorky safety-orange vest that pulsated with electromagnetic fields to keep you from having your shit pulled out of your intestines due to the forces. It wasn't already insulting to have to be sat down and be strapped to a vest, its more insulting that they NEVER wash them. The feeling of having a sweaty Germans chest sweat go up your nose at mach speed makes me want to reconsider every decision leading up to me boarding the train. The sweat didn't help considering I was trying to focus on what I was going to do for the next few weeks.
My parents had shown me a scholarship opportunity a few months ago for a pilots school a few kilometers north of Numbani, for which I applied for and instantly got the thumbs up. The small moment that I had of happiness was thrown out the window, because my parents refused letting me live under their roof as a 22 year old adult while I attended college. I had to get a job. Ew. Thinking about it now, I think that's the real reason they even showed me the scholarship.
The train finally halted to a stop over the course of 100 miles, so that we wouldn't catapult out the window. The pulsing fields that allowed the train to hover finally settled over clamps in the station, where they locked into place. My skin started to feel tingly and my ears began to loosen.
"The cabin must be depressurizing" I thought to myself.
After a few minutes of waiting, and me scrolling through my Touch Bracelet looking at funny pictures of Omnics dressing up as frogs, The doors slid open, and 4 Omnic attendees poured in and began to unbuckle our vests. Soon after they began pulling out carry-ons and luggage out of the overhead compartment. I didn't have much to my name; a few textbooks for school, A laptop, and some pairs of smart-clothes, so I was traveling light. But then again, so was everyone else in here considering this was the cheapest train on this route.
I lugged the bag over my shoulder and started to tread on through the door. The second I stepped into the open-roof terminal, a blast of searing savanna air nearly seared my face off. I winced due to the heat, but that wince quickly turned into amazement. Now, I've seen Numbani in VR tours and Holograms projected in Virtual chambers. But seeing the sheer size of it all in real life made me stop in the middle of a crowd. People shuffled and poured around me with cusses attached, but I didn't care. I was sorta in the moment. I was no stranger to technology and cities in general, Germany has plenty of large skyscrapers, but our family never visited any of the larger cities to get to see any up close. The lush green imported trees flowing up and down every building, with a small smog haze looming over the city; Made all the colors from buildings and vegetation to pop out. The sun was around high noon, casting shadows directly down the sides of the coneish-beak like buildings with trains running through them. The station itself had a spiral staircase with a Magnetic elevator running in the middle of two towers that went up 100 feet, and then connected into this large glass dome where you can see every building for hundreds of miles.
I started to walk outside and holler for an Umlaut, a taxi based drone system. I saw I got one of the drones attention and it began to fly towards me. It started to slow down and slowly descend, shining some flashing yellow and black lights on the ground in front of me to signal caution. Finally, the rotors stopped and it extended landing legs to park. I went to the trunk and scanned my fingerprint so that it would allow me to pay for the ride and the ability to open it. I shoved the a few bits of luggage inside, and started walking to seat in the rear right and closed the door behind me. I pulled down an interface with a layout of the city, typed in the destination in the search bar, and sat back into my seat. The rotors under me start to whirl faster and faster until they were just a constant rumble under the soles of my feet. The higher we got, more and more buildings would reveal themselves behind the stacks of skyscrapers. We rose quickly up a few hundred feet and started to drift to the South of town, which is where I marked my destination and where i was staying. The ride was nice and gentle as we flew over the commercial and financial districts beneath, bustling with autonomous cars whilst streaks of light whizzing by on the tracks.
In the middle of watching a news video on my Bracelet, I felt the drone jolt a little.
"The fuck?" I whispered to myself.
Again, it jolted, this time more uneasily. It did NOT feel like the standard air pocket you would encounter. Maybe we bumped into a bird?
It struck again, this time making a noise under the carriage, shaking the entire drone.
Then the alarm started to go off.
Once that happened, My primordial sense of being a little bitch kicked in and I started to panic.
"Shit, whats going on," I whispered to myself.
I began hyperventilating, a neat trick I picked up in middle school.
My adrenaline kicked in and I started to tap every button in the interior in hopes of some emergency descent system..
"There's nothing IN HERE". I started to scream. Shrieking, even.
All my nerves suddenly dropped and sank when I felt the left rear door start to move and creak.
Now I was sorta praying on the idea that this is just a bird who happened to crash into the drone about 9 times in a row. If it wasn't, this is probably the end for me.
Without any grace, The door blasted open, giving me whiplash. I held for dear life to the seat in front of me so I wouldn't be sent hurtling 700 meters. While holding on, I forced myself to peek out the window.
We happened to be hovering over the largest building in the district. Long bright blue LED lights ran down the sides of the building, with white girders and beams creating somewhat of a pistachio shell around the cone building. Lights were positioned on the interior of the shell to create this web-like shadow casting over the city.
In the midst of my panic filled city viewing trance. A woman jumped up to the seat next to me and slammed the door behind her, creating a few brief seconds of tension while I froze in place wondering what the hell just happened over the course of 30 seconds. I sat there in shock while the woman began shuffling around and tapping buttons.
"Sorry bout' the entrance luv'. Very dramatic." The woman said in my direction. Her voice was very British and high pitched but not to the point where it was annoying. . She began to tap on the interface to stop the alarms.
Even though I heard the voice, I still didn't look at her, I was still trying to get my heartbeat under control.
"Luv, you alright?" She placed a hand on my shoulder. "I know you must have a zillion questions right now, and i'd be happy to answer them, but right now I have to get out of here ASAP"
I looked up from my leathery refuge and finally looked at her. She looked young, in her early 20's, with short yet still luscious brown hair. She seemed to be sporting some retinal goggles, which tinted her eyes and nose bridge with orange light. Her face was short and narrow, but soft. She was wearing an aviator jacket, which wasn't too common nowadays. The real showstopper was her chest; In the very middle was this large circular metal casing, pulsating with blue energy and light.
All of this is irrelevant however, because just from looking at the circular light in her chest, I could already tell who this was. I had just stumbled with Lena Oxton, or more commonly known as 'Tracer'. The charming and witty pilot from the Overwatch squad. Her Chronal Accelerator (The blue metal casing in her chest) was her most recognizable feature.
I would be understating if I said I've heard about her. She was my biggest idol growing up and one of my biggest influences to becoming a Pilot. I had figurines of her, Posters of her face with the quote, "Keep calm and Tracer on", I even had all latest comic issues of her in my Laptop. To have her right here in front of me, looking at me, was amazing in it of itself.
"Man I must've really spooked you. You can't take your eyes off me" She playfully said.
I quickly bounced back into the real world and realized I had been staring at her for a minute in complete silence.
"I-I uh, sorry, I just uh" I stammered, still trying to get with gripes that I'm actually in front of her.
"Ahhhh, I see" She gave me a smirking look
"Judging by your flustered face and perky blush marks, You know who I am. That's good, that means I don't have to go through the formalities of introducing. I bet you already know all about me".
I was just about to respond and let the cabin fill with my excitement, however she stopped me.
She rose her index finger up. "Up up up, Hold ya tongue. Just because I don't HAVE to go through the formalities, doesn't mean I wont. I'm still a sap for good old fashion hello's, I was raised right y'know." She cleared her throat.
"Hoi' there, I'm Lena Oxton, You can just ring me as just 'Tracer' though." she bowed her head, slightly bonking it on the seat in front of her due to the lack of cabin space. She giggled to herself, which was so infectious I had to laugh on top of my already Joker-esque grin.
The laughter slowly faded away and I cleared my throat, making solid eye contact with Tracer.
"So, um, What' with the jumping into a hover-car 600 feet above street level?" I asked.
"Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Didn't mean the little spook, Wait did I say that already? Sorry about that. Oops, said sorry again." She stopped and looked straight at me, clearly flustered and embarrassed.
"Now where was I... Oh, right! I sorta, maybe, kind-of broke into a government science lab located at the bottom of the Numbani UN Agency. Phased my way past all of the bald goons, and they were all like 'Blah blah blah, get back here, Blah blah blah, etc.' On the topic of goons, have you ever seen how much wax they put on their heads? I swear its like they want to make a walking wax museum."
I could've sat there and listened to her ramble without direction for hours, but then common sense clicked and realized she had just used this drone as a get away ride.
"Hold up, Did you just say you broke into the UN Agency??" I pressed.
"Oh bugger, I knew I was getting off track. Any who, Yes I did just break into the UN Agency building. Anyways on a more important note, seriously how do they keep THAT much wax on their head? And why are they always bald?"
I tapped her on the shoulder, "You just broke into an international government building, please elaborate".
She nodded "Alright so-"
As soon as she began to talk, A small explosion happened 30 meters away from the drone. And then another.
Then I remembered, Police must be hounding Tracer after breaking into a government agency.
"Fock, Looks like we're gonna have to take manual control of this drone if we don't want to live inside a cell".
She quickly got a knife and slashed the upholstery of the seat in front of her, revealing a control panel that folded out into a steering wheel and a cockpit. I backed away into the corner, trying to not get in the way of the controls. This meant I was really awkwardly positioned with my hands stuck hovering above my head.
In the midst of flicking a load of controls, A few that i recognized from skimming through my pilot books, she occasionally looked at me and gave me a grin. Probably to not put me on edge, but it wasn't helping considering all the gunfire outside.
"Hey you, uh, um..." She stopped.
"You never did tell me your name? What is is luv?"
I stuttered, "Um, I- I'm (Reader's Name)."
"Ah, alright then, (Reader's name), glad to meet your acquaintance!" She reached out to shake my hand gleaming, but she let go of the steering wheel as a result. We almost immediately started to nose dive.
"BOLLOCKS" she turned away her hand and held onto the steering wheel, regaining control.
"Heh heh, sorry, I sure do have a habit of spooking ya'" She quipped, focusing on the screen in front of her, acting as a windshield.
I made the mistake of looking in the rear window; There was a crew of 3 or 4 black drones, each piloted by which looks to be high-ranking officers and specialists. Each of them probably trained in hand to hand combat, years of experience, and a very extensive list of people they have neutralized, captured, or worse, both.
And we were being chased by 4 of these fuckers.
"Alright, (Reader's Name), Hold onto literally anything. We're gonna try to out maneuver them." Tracer said urgently.
The seat-belt light turned on above me, which I found funny considering our current predicament. I held onto a handle on the cabin roof.
We started to do aileron roll, which immediately sent my head hitting the roof due to the slacked seat belts. Once we recovered, we did a nose dive. By now we've left the high-rise districts and now were flying above the industrial district.
We dived straight through two giant steam towers, narrowly dodging the side of either each. This didn't shake off any of them, and Tracer noticed.
"Hey (Your name), You eva' shot a gun before?" She said to me.
I was about to say no, but at the same time I wanted to impress her and help her out.
"Yeah, Pft, of course. I've done plenty shooting in my life. I shoot guns ALL the time. I'm a real.. Cowboy.. Yeah, Air Cowboy" I felt the blood rush to my face.
She grinned at me, which meant she saw straight through my lie, but she shrugged. She unhooked a pistol with a scope on the top from her belt and tossed it to me. She grabbed a knife and hit the rear window, launching glass to the outside and leaving a hole in the cabin.
"Just press the button and it'll become a rifle. Keep your cool out there though, alright 'McCree'?" She giggled to herself, continuing to fly steadily.
I pressed the button on the side of the pistol, then I heard the whirs of pistons and motors as the gun began to extend and elongate. In a matter of seconds, the 8 inch pistol became a 17 inch rifle, with a scope and a digital counter displaying the bullets.
I poked my head out of my seat, staring straight behind of the drone. I looked at the chaos behind us. The four black drones maneuvered precisely and with unison, two in the middle angled towards us, and the other two were positioned to either side strafing to the sides angled towards us.
As soon as I poked my head out, they turned on a PA system and started to talk.
"TRACER AND UNKNOWN COMPANION, STOP RESISTING AND LAND NOW. I REPEAT, STOP RESISTING AND LAND NOW."
I decided I should surprise them with a few pot shots. I pulled out my rifle through the window and aimed for the one on the far left. I aimed towards the cockpit and fired. The recoil and power of the gun surprised me; I had never shot a gun before. The bullet bounced off the windshield.
"IF YOU FIRE ONE MORE TIME, WE WILL OPEN FIRE."
I lowered down to the inside of the cockpit, and pulled back the rifle. I faced towards Tracer.
"What now? The bullet didn't even make them flinch."
She glanced at me from the corner of her eye. "I got just the thing that'll make em' blink and fall asleep." She pulled out a barrel extension that was blue and glowing.
"Add this to the tip. It'll REALLY get them moving."
I did what she said, and hopped back to my knees pointing the rifle outside.
"AIM FO' THE ROTORS" Tracer yelled through the loud wind.
I aimed for the one on the far left, and fired a shot at the rotors that extend from the sides.
A giant pulse beam shot out my rifle, which condensed into this energy infused ball. It split in two, both energy balls positioning themselves inside the rotors, not affecting the rotors.
"WHAT?" I screamed inside the cabin.
"WAIT FOR IT..!" Tracer yelled back.
Immediately, both energy balls swelled and then exploded in a giant purple and blue cloud. The rotors flew off in pieces, rendering the drone immobile. The drone began to fall down rapidly and exploded on top of an abandoned warehouse.
I aimed again, this time on the drone on the right. This time however, the officer dropped down and landed near the bank of the river and began to run to avoid the explosion.
I started to laugh and my hands stopped shaking. I looked back at Tracer and gave her my thumbs up. She clapped and bowed; again bonking her head, this time on a screen.
I eased myself and went to aim again at the two remaining drone ships.
But the officers were no longer steadily piloting the ships, they were doing flips, turns, ailerons, anything to make it impossible for me to land a shot. It didn't help that they were firing a barrage of bullets at our drone.
I was just about to complain to Tracer, who was now trying to override a remote takeover by the owners of the Umlaut who by this point must have had the Numbani police force breathing down their necks. But then at closer inspection, I saw a small switch near the scope. I flipped it out of curiosity.
The gun monitor where the bullet count was being monitored, changed layout and now displayed the two drone ships under thermal imaging. A prompt appeared asking;
"Trget, Y/N?"
I tapped "Y", and immediately the gun jerked towards the drone ship on the left, aiming directly at the ship without failure. It followed the ship, even when it performed flips and did the best it can to make aiming difficult.
I pulled the trigger, but this time the energy ball didn't split into two and explode in the rotors. This time, It flew at top speed towards the cockpit and started to melt the carbon fiber glass protective windshield. It burrowed deeper and deeper until it finally cracked into the interior, at which point it began to expand and thus exploded. The ship went down hard and crashed straight into an empty parking lot.
The second ship saw his mate fall down and must have decided he didn't want to have the same fate, because he pulled back and started to retreat fast.
I began cheering uncontrolably.
"HELL YEAH, DID YOU SEE THAT TRACER? THAT WAS AWESOME" I screamed excitedly. "That was like an action movie".
"That was brilliant (Reader's Name)!, I couldn't have pulled it off any better myself. Noice' job; Keep that up and you might be enlisted to Overwatch." she said, laughing.
I started to laugh as well. As IF I could ever be in a group like Overwatch. I just scoffed at the thought and moved on.
Our celebration didn't last long though. As soon as we started to settle down into our seats, I heard sirens in the distance. I jumped back up (again), and peered out the window.
Oh no. Oh god no.
The thing following us could only be described as a larger version of a VTOL jet.
I tapped Tracers shoulder, and she tapped a screen to see the rearview camera.
She gasped. "Bloody hell. They plan bomb us to death in mid air." Her tone was serious and concerned.
It didn't last long though, "I have just the thing for these tosspots." She smirked viciously, and began to tap wildly through the control scheme.
"Alright, Listen er'", She turned her head towards me while still guiding the pilot stick
"I'm about to perform something that I haven't done in well over a decade. No need to worry, but if we do mess up, We'll probably drown in a river. No pressure right?"
I chuckled nervously.
I decided to look outside the window and saw the river she was talking about. The river flowed to a hydroelectric plant. It was enormous, the width of 3 city blocks. The concrete walls held back millions of gallons of water, while on the other side it pushes out gushing water so that the water continuously flows uninterrupted by the dam.
I noticed something strange. It was one of the holes where the water would flow through to the side of the dam. It was blocked up in the middle, leaving a semicircle of space to the other side. It was surrounded with steel beams and construction girders.
Suddenly, It clicked. that were Tracer wanted to fly us through.
I suddenly began choking on air.
I turned to Tracer, "You can't be serious, This drone looks too big for that opening".
Still smirking, she looked over at me and said, "Let's hope you're wrong"
Behind us the VTOL jet began raining bullet hell, making holes in the roof and hull but no serious body damage.
I was wincing at every shot that hit our drone.
"Alright, (your name), I'm about to push this drone to the max." Tracer said.
I grabbed the nearest handle.
"HERE. WE. GO." She paused between each word to create dramatic effect, but lacked the seriousness.
"Lets do this with style, hot stuff" she add.
My mind immediately reacted in a panic state.
You would think the most important thing on my mind would be the possibility of death by either collision or bullet fire, But no. It was Tracer's one-off comment that threw me off the most.
"Wait. WHAT? ME? HOT STUFF?" I yelled, but the gunfire overpowered my voice
I had no time to react. We started to nose dive. Hard.
I held onto my seat as we started to curve back upwards, about to enter the hole VERY fast.
Then I felt a large crunch of metal beneath the cabin.
"FUCK FUCK F-" Tracer and I yelled.
We heard the engine and rotors make grinding noises, clashing against the hull of the rover. I think I also heard a very large snap, but i'm not sure. That could have also been my mental health.
Alarms started to blare out of control, filling the cabin with a series of glowing red and yellow lights.
I felt the cabin hover slightly due to the immense speed we were traveling at prior to the fustercluck. That didn't last long, because in an instant it started to drop very fast. I tried to see outside, with everything still spinning very fast. We were heading towards a fork in the river near a few docks and some cheap residential housing.
I turned to Tracer hoping for some backup plan or quirky remark before we died, But she had fainted. Her Chronal Accelerator began to flicker red. Without thinking, I pushed aside the controls between us both and shielded her body from the coming impact.
Then all I heard was a loud crunch fill my ears, followed by bursting glass and water.