Chapter Text
Under the guise of night, a lone figure lurked in the shadows cast after streetlights. He sprung across a lit path and pressed his back against a stone column. He leaned slightly to his side, stealing a glance from behind a corner. Two humanoid omnics stood guard at the gaping entrance of a large building.
He retracted his head and pressed a finger to a small silicone device in his ear.
"Winston," he spoke in a hushed tone.
"Cassidy," a deep voice on the other end greeted back. "Anything to report?"
"Turns out the lead had somethin' to it. Ain't no Talon, but seems to be Null Sector leftovers. I tracked them down to a candy factory."
"A candy factory?"
"Might be the humble beginnings of a resurgence."
"Hm. Do you need backup?"
"Doubt we have the manpower for that. HQ's a ghost town I bet."
"A little lonely here, yeah," Winston chuckled. "I could go. Athena can watch over the HQ for a bit."
"I appreciate the offer, but ol' Cassidy’s got this. Small candy factory, probably ten men at most. No problem at all. I'll see if I can't find you some peanut butter fudge."
"Well..." A small pause. "All right, but be careful."
"Yes, ma."
He heard a small light-hearted snort before the communication device became silent in his ear. Cassidy snuck another peek at the entrance. This time he could see the patrols inside the factory—Exactly three of them inside. With the two outside, there was a total of five omnics to contend with near the entrance alone.
If he could just get them all in his line of sight, he could take them all out at once. And from his current position, it was perfect. This would be easy... Too easy.
But he needed to get in, and those omnics were there to prevent that. Keeping his back to the wall, he quickly but quietly made his way to the other end. He peeked from a corner to see a dark, empty alleyway. He continued into it and found a new, albeit a little further, hiding spot. He was to the right of the guards now, well out of their sights.
Amateurs never check their peripherals.
He skidded out of hiding and launched himself at the closest omnic, shattering its neck and head on the ground. The other omnic jumped and squeaked with shock—Definitely unused to combat. Cassidy swept his leg underneath the omnic. As the omnic hit the floor with its metallic back, Cassidy picked up the first omnic's rifle and jammed its stock into the second omnic's face. It buzzed erratically before becoming still.
Without missing a beat, Cassidy pushed himself up against the wall. He listened. Nothing but footsteps, steady and calm. He hadn't been noticed yet.
He gently pulled one of the fallen omnic's foot away from the entrance as he removed his gun from its holster. He tracked the movements of the three omnics, until all three of the omnics came within 5 meters of each other—An opportunity.
He turned on the ball of his foot to reveal himself in the middle of the entrance and fired three shots in almost inhuman succession. Three dead omnics fell to the floor with loud clangs. The sounds echoed in the dark factory. No doubt the sound would attract the attention of the rest of the guards. Cassidy braced himself for more omnic guards to attack him all at once. He found cover from behind a stack of boxes and waited.
BOOOM!
Cassidy blinked. Boom? He worried that the factory would blow up before he could figure out what was going on.
BOOOOOM!
He heard the echoes of a maniacal cackle. It came from further in. Cassidy made haste towards the source of the voice.
"Piece of junk!" he heard the manic voice shout with gleeful disdain. "Off with your... with all your limbs! AHAHAHA!"
Amidst the conveyer belts and by the large taffy-pulling machinery were two men, one large and the other scrawny. Cassidy could tell immediately that the large one was a major powerhouse, taking hits like they were nothing more than insect bites. The scrawny one was... just as terrifying, really—throwing his bombs with reckless abandon. One exploded very near him and he did not bat an eye. No, in fact, he threw a mine to the floor, triggered it to explode right underneath him, and propelled himself into the air to rain bombs from above. How he did not injure himself was a damn miracle and impossibility.
His descent started soon after. His peg leg landed on an omnic's detached chest plate, sending him slipping backwards. An omnic took this opportunity to smash the man's face with the butt of its gun.
With trained reflex, Cassidy drew his gun and shot the omnic through its torso, causing it to stagger sideways and fell its attack on empty floor instead. The scrawny man threw a grenade at the omnic before rolling away and climbing to his feet. Amber eyes turned to meet Cassidy's, confused and surprised.
The cowboy gave a small wave, hopefully received as a friendly gesture. The scrawny one did not respond, and instead tapped on his companion's back and pointed at the cowboy. The larger man only briefly looked at the cowboy before resuming the slaughter of omnics. Cassidy decided to make his way towards the duo, shooting down omnics that hindered his passage.
"Hey there," Cassidy greeted as he shot at omnic after omnic. "You two seem to be havin' a hog-killin' time."
"Oi!" the scrawny one yelled at him. "You lookin' for trouble?! Huh?! Talkin' 'bout killin' my pal Hog?!"
"So you're Hog?" Cassidy turned briefly to the larger man.
The large man grunted. "Not your business."
"I suppose it ain't, but I do have a proposition for you two."
"Oooh!" the scrawny one turned to the cowboy excitedly. "You need somethin' blown up?"
The larger man swiveled around and threw a large—horrifyingly large—hook in the direction of his companion. The scrawny one did not flinch at all as the hook zipped just a few inches above his head, piercing multiple omnics behind him.
"Talk later," the larger man warned gruffly as he retracted his hook.
The scrawny man pouted, but was more than happy to resume exploding more omnics. A little too happy, but Cassidy wasn't going to complain. He was effective and seemed to understand how to keep his grenades away from friendlies.
Eventually, the last of the omnics fell to ground, and the scrawny man jabbed his peg leg through its face. A cackle of electricity erupted from the puncture. The man hissed and jerked his metallic leg away.
"Hoo-wee," the scrawny man shook his right leg a few times, as if trying to regain sensation. "What a doozy!"
The large man said nothing and made no gesture to indicate that he was communicating at all.
"Oh, right," the scrawny man said as if he was responding to something. He turned to Cassidy. "What can we blow ya' for?"
The large man smacked his companion across the back of his head.
"What the hell, Roadie?!" the scrawny man whined.
"Don't talk like that." The large man's deep, gravely voice was definitely as intimidating as his appearance.
"I asked him if we could blow somethin' up for him! What'd I say wrong now?!"
The large man sighed, head turned slightly to the sky in resignation. His companion crinkled his nose at him and returned his attention to the cowboy.
"Well?"
Cassidy was still processing the conversation they appeared to have earlier. While he stared, though, he realized these two looked familiar.
"Wait a darn tootin' minute," Cassidy put a hand on his chin. His eyes widened. "Why, I know who you are! You've got 25 million on your heads!"
The two strangers raised their weapons. Cassidy put up his hands.
"Whoa there! If I was a bounty killer I'd have collected you soon as we finished off the omnics. Like I said, I've got a proposition for you two."
"We're listening," Junkrat drew out the syllables, watching Cassidy with narrowed eyes.
"I know what you've been up to—Stealin' pop from vending machines, breaking into people's homes to use the kitchen, kidnapping tailors to fix your clothes... Just tryin' to fill your basic needs, eh?"
Junkrat cocked his head to the side. He turned to Roadhog. Roadhog turned his masked face downwards, and the two locked eyes in complete silence for a full ten seconds.
"You offerin' a deal or something, mate?" Junkrat finally asked Cassidy.
"How would you two like to become Overwatch agents?"
"The hell is Overwatch?"
Cassidy was far too stunned by the question to answer immediately. Junkrat turned to his companion again, as if he'd spoken.
"Oooh! That Overwatch! Yeah, I remember now! I remember hearin' about you lot right when I lost me leg! Just like yesterday!"
Roadhog's head shook slightly, as if surprised by his companion's words.
"Yeah?" Cassidy looked at his peg leg. "Must be quite a story."
"Couldn't tell ya even if I wanted to, mate!" Junkrat shook the peg leg with a toothy grin. "I don't remember how I lost it!"
"But you just—"
"Yer wastin' our time, ya' yank! What d'ya want?"
"I... asked if you'd like to become Over—"
"Right! Right. Overwatch agents." Junkrat turned to his companion. "I don't care so long as I get to blow up stuff. And, honestly, I'm gettin' a lil' tired of runnin' around and sleepin' on the ground. What d'you think Roadie?"
Cassidy squinted, trying to find any sign of communication from the larger man. There was no seeing through the lenses of the mask. He could find nothing, and yet Junkrat jumped with joy as if the large man had said something.
"It's kinda like going legit but it won't be for some stinkin' suit and these people are wanted just like us! Hm? Oh, that's a good point." Junkrat turned to the cowboy. "We can leave whenever we want?"
"Sure. Ain't like we got legal grounds or anything."
"Great! We're jus' gonna' gather up some taffy first, Roadie's been itchin' for 'em!"
"No problem. We'll go meet the shuttle soon."
The two turned towards the taffy and started to tear away chunks of it. They stuffed the candy into a burlap sack. Cassidy did not find the idea of sticky candy being held in a burlap sack appetizing in the least. He turned his back to them and pressed a finger to his communicator.
"Hey Winston, Cassidy here. I've got bad news and good news."
"Give me the bad news."
"There were at least fifty omnics here. They couldn't have amassed a small army like that over short period of time. Think you gotta' up your intel game, Winston."
"Oh... That is bad, bad news—Wait, fifty? All by yourself?"
"That there's tied to the good news! Found myself on the same side of one Junkrat and Roadhog. You know them, don't you?"
"Criminals. With a bounty worth 25 million. Yes, I know of them. Why?"
"Well you know how we're... very lacking in manpower—"
"Ah. You recruited them. Hm. Fine. We'll talk more when you get back. Shuttle ETA is 10 minutes."
"Thanks, Winston."
The gorilla wasted no time cutting off the communication line. Cassidy had a feeling his decision would take some convincing.
He turned to look at the two new recruits. Junkrat cursed, apparently his peg leg became stuck in the lump of taffy on the machine. He pressed his arm against the taffy to push his leg out, but now his left hand's sunk into the taffy too. He cursed again, louder this time.
Roadhog moved to put his foot against a part of the machine that did not have any sticky taffy as leverage. With a strong yank, Junkrat's limbs were freed along with a large portion of the taffy. Roadhog put the giggling lanky man down. Junkrat dropped himself to the floor and gnawed at the taffy on his peg leg while his companion continued to rip off chunks of the taffy, stuffing them into the ballooning burlap sack.
"Hey," Cassidy called out to them.
"Yeah, mate?" Junkrat answered as he continued to gnaw on his peg leg.
"You seen any peanut butter fudge 'round here?"
Cassidy had a feeling his decision would take a lot of convincing.