Show Me, Mercy (Kaybee x The King in the North)

[The King in the North]

Another day, another failure. Winston rubbed his eyes slowly beneath his spectacles, cursing under his breath. Ever since the fall of Overwatch he had tried to keep himself busy with his research, hoping to solve the world's problem with his mind rather than with violence. Instead he found himself wasting day after day in his lab, alone, toiling on projects that would most likely never see the light of day. He had all but lost contact with those he used to call comrades, the greatest heroes the world had ever seen. Even now, Winston knew they were out there making a difference in any way they could. United, they had been an unstoppable force for good. Now they were scattered, a shell of the once great organization.


Winston turned towards the monitor, fingers typing nimbly on the oversized keyboard in front of him. In his spare time, he had set up a secure network used to monitor the world's news organizations and ping whenever something out of the ordinary happened, sending a message to those heroes who hadn't dropped off the grid completely. Natural disasters, terrorist attacks... the world hadn't stopped having problems since the fall. If anything, they seemed to be more frequent. As he stared at the monitor, an alert flashed across the screen. Explosions and gunfire were being reported by every news outlet in the city of New London, not far from where he had gone into hiding. With a few clicks, security feeds from all over the city appeared on screen. A shadow here, a hooded figure there. Reaper. These attacks had been happening all over the world, targeting former members of Overwatch, but he knew of no one this close to him. No matter. Winston had his fill of sitting and waiting. Now was the time for action. After he punched in the code, a panel of the wall slid aside with a hiss, revealing his old tools of the trade. Tesla cannon, jump pack. It was all there just as he had left it.


The city was chaos. Screaming, burned out husks of cars, people running wildly through the streets. Winston landed in the middle of an intersection with a thud, sending chunks of asphalt spraying in every direction. The sound of gunfire and screaming rang out down the street west of him. He bounded in that direction, right arm clutching the giant weapon as his left pounded against the pavement to propel him towards the commotion.

 

[Kaybee]

In combat, Doctor Angela Zeigler was not suited to working alone, but more and more often than he world was becoming a place where violence came in pockets rather than battlefields, and she could no longer rely upon having someone to watch her back. As much as she had disagreed with the militaristic approach Overwatch had taken to peace, she couldn't deny that their violence had made it easier for her to save people from time to time...

Overwatch was gone now though, and now she was alone, kneeling as yellow light connected the tip of her Caduceus staff to a slumped and weakly whimpering form. The civilian woman couldn't be more than thirty, amazingly still alive despite the ragged holes blown in her leg and stomach. Angela knew she could do nothing for the other two -already dead as they were, and by now beyond the power of her restoration to save- but this girl had been shielded from the fire, and the technology of the staff was giving her a chance, keeping her alive for now. With any luck, first responders would be able to take over and ensure a more complete healing than the patchwork vitality she could induce like this.

A shot rang out, striking her in the back, and Mercy stumbled, the staff beam disconnecting to the sound of the civilian's scream as pain flooded her body again. Out of the corner of her eye Angela could see the deathly shadow that was realper, and pulled out her sidearm grimly, firing at the man she knew to be a remorseless hunter of former Overwatch members. It was something she loathed to do, especially as she heard the woman sobbing in renewed pain and fresh fear behind her but she evaded, leaping away, Valkyrie suit's wings flaring bright as she made for cover, firing as she went, hoping to draw the reaper's assault away from the civilian only to be forced to dive back in, screaming herself as she took two more shots to the back deliberately, shots that would have struck her charge had she not dove in. The reaper knew, and had made it clear, if Angela ran, the woman would die...

And yet if Angela stayed, they would both die...

 

[The King in the North]

The screams pierced through Winston's thoughts, pushing himself to move faster towards their source. Somehow it sounded... familiar. At the very least, he was getting close to his target. Shots rang out from around the corner just ahead of him, and as he rounded it he came upon a surprising scene. There, in the middle of the street, an angel huddled over more of Reaper's victims. Or at least, she was the closest thing to an angel he had ever seen. To the rest of the world, she was known as Mercy, but to him she was just Angela. This was no time for reminiscing as it seemed someone else had found her first.

The dark, hooded figure was slowly strolling towards Ziegler and civilians she was trying to protect, reloading his shotguns as he walked. A rage began to build deep inside of him at the sight, the kind of emotion he hadn't felt in a long time. Winston let out a deafening roar, causing the glass on the buildings next to them to shake in their frames. Reaper turned his attention towards and scoffed. "Two for the price of one, my lucky day. I've been looking for you ape." The jets strapped to Winston's back burst to life, kicking up the debris on the street as his hulking form launched into the air. Reaper disappeared in a puff of black smoke a second before he landed on the same spot. He quickly scanned the street but couldn't find any sign of the madman. An uneasy peace descended upon the street as the danger seemed to have passed for the moment. The rage subsided, giving way to clearer thoughts, including the old friend standing a few paces from him. "Angela, are you hurt?" There would be time for catching up later.

 

[Kaybee]

"Winston?" Mercy had already reignited the staff and had focused the healing beam upon the civilian woman again, quieting her cries. Her own voice was obviously pained though, and he would easily see blood seeing from shattered armour. On anyone else it could be assumed that the wound was not serious -or at least that the wounded believed the wound non-serious- but Angela knew wounds to well and cared too much for either assumption to hold much weight. All that Winston could be sure of that Angela was at less risk than the civilian woman she was trying to save for the moment, and given the wounds on the latter...

The valkyrie armour had it's own built in trauma support systems but those were intended to stabilize and revive rather than truly heal. "Winston." Angela's breathing was ragged, and she barely looked at him. "She needs surgery, proper care... I can't do this forever." A weak smile. "I probably need it too..."

A motion, a momentary shift in attention as she tapped something into a wrist-mounted panel of her suit, and Winston would see a message flash up, numbers, coordinates. "My base, Help me get there?" It was her own sanctum, a private hospital, albeit a largely roboticized one. She rarely went there, except for the worst cases where no others would be able to bring sufficient care, but here and now she needed the privacy. The reaper would come again if she was to be easy prey helpless in a public hospital, and besides, it behooved her as a medical professional to take whatever weight she could off a system that was already about to be overtaxed by the numbers of injured struggling in these streets.

 

[The King in the North]

As much as Mercy cared for others in pain, she never let others know when she was hurting herself. She had always been that way when in the field. The wounds on her back were already bleeding though her suit, though the woman on the ground was in decidedly worse condition. He could have easily carried them both but there was no way to safely move the civilian without causing her more harm than good. That was when he heard the sirens making their way down the street.

Emergency services would undoubtedly be busy, but this are had been hit the hardest in the attack. While that was a good sign for the victims, attention for former Overwatch members only meant a bigger target on their back. As soon as the display flashed to life in front of him, the HUD on his spectacles analyzed the coordinates and mapped them out. Luckily the location wasn't too far which explained how she had arrived before him. "Of course, come with me. We'll have to let them take it from here." He said, nodding towards the ambulance was making it's way through the rubble on the street, following a police cruiser as it's escort. The Tesla cannon clattered to the ground as he reached out with his large arms and gently scooped up her lithe form. He reached down and picked his weapon back up off the ground. "It's good to see you, just hold on tight. I don't want to lose you again." Together, Winston and Mercy blasted off into the clear blue sky, leaving a trail of vapor behind them.

What they hadn't noticed was Reaper watching them from a window just down the street, but he wasn't alone. A shapely female form holding a large rifle stood next to him with a smirk on her face.

 

[Kaybee]

Angela winced as Winston cradled her gently, pain stabbing from her wounds despite the tender touch. "W-wait... Can't leave her..." She heard the sirens coming then, and relaxed again. The girl would live at least...

Then Winston took off, and she silently held on to her own fading consciousness. The suit would keep her alive most likely, but staying awake would only improve her chances.

She just needed to get home...