a buddy of mine said that he saw jack morrison take his shirt off in the shower

[mylawn]

Who: Angela Ziegler, Soldier: 76, special guest Solid Snake, extra special guests Reinhardt and Reaper and Mei
When: Early February
Where: The Ingress entrance to Eosoros and then some other places maybe
What: Basically the part of Undercover Boss where the boss stops being undercover, except with fewer monetary gifts
Warnings: Blood, medical business, an angry old man

[76 arrives on Thisavrou very, very angry.

He’s usually angry, but generally speaking, he manages to keep said anger to a low simmer if only to function on a day-to-day basis. Arriving on this new planet after the ordeal at the Midway Hub, finding that all he can really do is sit and wait for his number to be called means that anger gets the better of him, even as he attempts to settle in (but 'settling in' is for other people). 76 takes one of the security gigs on Eosoros in a bid to do something productive, and that's sort of when things come to a head.

He’s angry, and he screws up.

It’s not really his fault, he thinks. It’s easy to blame the client (too reckless, an idiot, doesn’t listen to him, gets them both in a bad situation), but probably 76 could have handled this better. He should have bailed when things started to go south or ditched the client entirely or not taken the job in the first place—the money for a security detail wasn’t worth any of that, but he’s still boiling over with ire about the whole situation and that’s enough to make him do very stupid things, like throwing himself down in order to save both their asses when the client proves too incompetent to make it through the stupid torture gauntlet.

Hindsight, however, is twenty-twenty, and he’s not exactly coherent as he drags them both back through the Ingress and is immediately sidelined for medical attention. 76, too angry to care about decorum or not making a scene, immediately makes a scene. Someone is trying to hold him down, if only to keep him from getting blood everywhere before a medic arrives. The Savrii, however, are hard-pressed to subdue an enhanced human like him, especially when he’s in absolutely no mood to listen to reason.

Under duress, 76 becomes all but feral, hissing and spitting and doing everything in his power to get out and away, even if that means ignoring the fact that he's wounded and throwing all his self preservation out the window (said like he had any to begin with). It’s only the nature of his injury that keeps him from making an effective escape, though that doesn’t mean he isn’t going to try.]

Comments

[frostedplum]

It is a bit surprising that he's staying with this subject, and that he's offering his opinion without her having to prompt him for it. He's not a very verbose guy, but this seems like it's important to him that she knows this. Her steps slow a little so they can walk besides each other along the way.

"Thank you. It's been hard..." It's not something she wants to unload on him, even if it seems like he's all right discussing it. And yet these questions she has just won't go away. "I thought at least someone would have remembered us. But not even Athena did." And then she realizes that he probably doesn't know who Athena is. "She was the computer system we had. I don't know why she didn't alert anyone that she couldn't reach us. If Overwatch was shut down, there should have been a computer message, and one sent to us in Antarctica would have bounced back because our comm tower was damaged in a polar storm."

[mylawn]

"I know about Athena."

Maybe that's how he can ease himself into it--reveal that he's much deeper in Overwatch then any of them know, and let them draw their own conclusions from there. He'd watched the dismantling of the organization, but there was only so much he could do, and it wouldn't surprise him at all if the UN did something to Athena, if only temporarily.

"Something must have stopped the message from getting through. I don't think it was an accident."

[frostedplum]

"Oh? Yes, that's what I've been contemplating myself. They would have known so much sooner that we were stuck in cryo if they'd tried to contact us." She blows out a breath before stooping to examine several rocks more closely with her lantern. "But it's not like I can go back in time and get the answers I'd like, can I?" She'll just have to keep moving forward with the hand she was dealt.

[mylawn]

"You can ask me."

Not exactly how he wanted to segue into his confession, but the words come out easily enough. Surely that will arouse some kind of suspicion.

"I've been digging."

Among other things.

[frostedplum]

"About Overwatch?" she asks, stopping in her examination of these very interesting rocks to sit back on her heels. "Why have you been digging into that?" All Mei knows is that 76 is from her world and knows what Overwatch is. She never would have thought he had some extra interest in it. Is that why he's out here with her? Does he want to get some information out of her? If that's the case, he'd be better off talking to someone like Reinhardt or Angela. Someone who can tell him about their headquarters, since Mei was only stationed there in between trips to different research outposts.

[mylawn]

"Because it was a setup."

Might as well come right out with it, even if he sounds like a crazy conspiracy theorist. 76 has convinced himself, at least, enough to relay all this with a certain amount of gravity and conviction.

"Someone wanted Overwatch gone. I've been trying to find out who."

[frostedplum]

Mei frowns, her gaze shifting for a moment to stare at the rocks in deep contemplation. If what he says is true, then she really should be blaming whoever wanted Overwatch to fall, instead of the people caught up in the chaos who forgot about them down in Antarctica. Well, she can blame them a little bit too, but not completely.

Now she meets his covered eyes, a serious look on her face.

"Tell me what you know so far."

[mylawn]

Now it seems like he has her attention. Good—it’s easier that way, easier for him to segue into the confession. Unfortunately, the truth of what happened to Overwatch is complicated at best, a wild conspiracy at worst. He isn’t sure if she’s just going to write him off as paranoid or crazy or both.

“I have reason to believe the UN had a hand in it.”

That’s the crazy conspiracy part, but he’s convinced himself it’s not so far-fetched.

“The organization was going off the rails. Too much of a liability. Just shutting it down wouldn’t have been final enough.”

He offers a shrug.

“Take out the leadership in a coordinated attack on HQ. Make it look like an accident. Like Overwatch ate itself.”

[frostedplum]

Immediately, her forehead creases, because this seems to go against everything the UN stands for, doesn't it? They needed Overwatch to keep the peace too. If they wanted to attack HQ, who would they get to do it?

"Do you think they hired mercenaries?

[mylawn]

"I think they collaborated with Talon."

So, worse than mercenaries. 76 has very little evidence in the way of this theory, but this is his gut instinct, and he's learned to rely on that more than anything else in the years following Overwatch's fall. Maybe he sounds crazy, but he's never been more sure of anything.

[frostedplum]

Mei's eyebrows lift in a nearly comical display. Now that seems a little too far. Talon is the antithesis of everything Overwatch had stood for! Even if the UN wanted them gone, why go to such lengths?

"But that would be so risky! Talon could blackmail the UN and threaten to release proof that the UN was involved, couldn't they?" She gasps. "Is Talon blackmailing the UN now?" Okay, she seems to be on the conspiracy theory bandwagon already. She wants an explanation for being forgotten.

[mylawn]

"Could be. Don't have enough intel, unfortunately."

Too many missing pieces in the puzzle. He's working on it, but he's only one person, and the whole world is out to get him, quite literally. Chasing ghosts he isn't sure even exist.

"Trying, though. This goes deep."

[frostedplum]

"I'd imagine so." She frowns and looks back at the rocks. Suddenly they don't seem as interesting anymore. Not in light of all this.

"How did you get involved in all this?" Because that's the part that doesn't add up. Sure, the UN being involved seems crazy, but it also seems plausible, since Overwatch had become pretty big and powerful.

[mylawn]

Here it is—the right opportunity for him to come clean, but it still takes him a moment to build up the resolve. 76 takes a breath, on that raises and lowers his shoulders in the process. Then, slowly, he brings his hands up to his mask and unfastens it, pulling it away.

“Had a front row seat.”

[frostedplum]

Mei only has a moment to register that he's taking off his mask before the deed is done and she's staring into the worn, scarred face of Strike Commander Morrison. Which -- like so many other things -- should be impossible. But that's the funny thing: nothing seems quite so impossible anymore. The fact that they're here on another planet outside their own solar system is proof of that.

But all right, so the impossible is possible and he's alive. Is it really so surprising when she takes into account that he was one of the American super soldiers? Winston had told her all he knew about the explosion at Swiss headquarters, but she had taken his word for it and hadn't considered that a man like Jack Morrison could actually survive such a blast. With a few scars, it seems.

She's almost nervous now, staring up into the face of Overwatch. They were never close, but she worked under him and was proud of the work Overwatch was doing with him in command. She always believed no task would be too dangerous for her as long as she had a soldier like him watching her back.

The nerves have her tucking a loose tendril of hair behind her ear and blushing. It's silly; she knows that. Overwatch is gone and he's been gone and she's been gone while in cryo and-- it's just silly, isn't it? To look at the Commander and feel like she has to do something impressive or hand him a report with her findings. These aren't the old days anymore.

"Commander?" she says tentatively, a shy smile coming to her face. "It's very good to see you. I'm glad you're alive."

[mylawn]

"Didn't mean to keep up the act for so long."

He sounds a little contrite, shoulders sagging.

"Was trying to find a good way to tell you."

But it's out now, which means things are going to get a little easier. Jack watches Mei for a long moment, taking in her reaction--he doesn't expect the waterworks he got from Angela and Lena, but then again, he'd never been particularly close to the scientists in the Ecopoints. An Overwatch initiative that he'd had a hand in launching, but otherwise let them operate fairly independently. A necessity, given how remote some of the stations were.

That doesn't mean he hadn't been proud of the work they were doing. He finds himself wishing he'd let them know that more.

"I really am sorry about what happened."

They all deserved better than that.

[frostedplum]

"I appreciate you telling me," she says, knowing that since she wasn't in any search and rescue or special ops divisions that she's at more of a distance than some of the others here in Thisavrou are. They all worked together often on missions and she was just one of the many faces passing by in white coats that were there one day and gone the next on scientific expeditions.

"It's okay. You've been through a lot too." Though that does beg the question of where he's been since Overwatch fell. "What have you been doing these last few years?"

[mylawn]

"Laying low, mostly."

Regrouping. Digging. Thinking about what he was going to do next and how to go about it. Uncovering a great deal of things that went on right under his nose.

"Then I started hitting old Overwatch bases. Needed equipment."

[frostedplum]

"Equipment?" she asks, before it clicks and she goes, "Oh, weapons?" Like that fancy gun he has, right? But everything he's doing is of interest to her, because she too wants to know what happened to Overwatch. She wants to know who to blame for getting left behind.

"I suppose there's nothing you can do here to look into what happened; only go over the information you already have. But if you want any help, you can count on me!"

[mylawn]

He offers her a smile that's meant to be reassuring, but it seems more exhausted than anything else. It's kind of her to offer, but the sentiment is misplaced. This is something he has to do on his own, and he needs to keep the rest of them out of the crossfire.

"Thanks, but--

Hopefully she won't take this as poorly as some of the others, but what else can he say, really?

"--this is my fight."

[frostedplum]

She blinks owlishly at him behind her thick frames before a frown settles on her lips. She might not take this as poorly as others, but they were both a part of Overwatch, and that means she doesn't like him claiming this one for his own. Not after what happened to her as a result of the organization going under.

"Is it? Because I recall being abandoned and forgotten down at the bottom of the world while my colleagues' cryo tubes all failed and killed them, so I have some interest in who tore Overwatch apart that led to us being left behind."

It's not meant as a dig at him, especially since she does understand he was laying low so people thought he was still dead. He couldn't just launch a rescue operation, even if he had remembered her team was down there.

[mylawn]

He gets it, of course. Knows what Mei has lost and knows she wants answer as badly as he does.

"I know you do."

But he'll blame himself--he always does, and part of his revenge quest is atoning for the many, many mistakes he made over the course of twenty years that cost them all so much.

"I'm gonna find the answer, but it's not a road I want the rest of you walking down."

Because he's already compromised so much of himself in the process, and he knows where this ends. It's not anything good.

[frostedplum]

Mei's eyes narrow behind her glasses and frown lines appear on either side of her mouth, but she takes a moment to consider him. He's probably forgotten what it feels like to have a whole host of people ready and willing to help him for a cause greater than themselves.

"You don't have to do it alone just because it's dangerous. Besides, without someone to run things by, you might overlook something."

[mylawn]

"I have some help."

The only help he'd accept in a situation like this, of course. Ana has a full understanding of what she's getting into, and Jack had been so lost without her that he'll selfishly drag her along either way. It's flattering, perhaps, to know that his people still want to be part of this, but Jack will be adamant that they deserve much better than any of this.

"You don't need to worry about me."

[frostedplum]

"I don't need to, sure," she begins, a hand moving close to touch the sleeve of his jacket. "But I probably will anyway." Because he's Strike Commander Jack Morrison, even if he's Soldier: 76 now. He's a good man who always tried to do the right thing, and someone tried to have him taken out for it.

"When we get home, what will happen when you find out what you need to know?"