Chapter Text
What began as a break from the bloodshed soon took a turn that ended in group therapy sessions. One day they were given to relax at the beach: no fighting, no prowlers, no crazy fans like the last trip they took. Just a secluded section of the beach with access to a less crowded pier. In retrospect, the beach looked beautiful, nothing like the shores of Stormpoint that had an ominous vibe, at least that’s what the pamphlet pictured on its front cover.
Mirage wouldn’t shut up about how beautiful the place looked, much to the irritation of Revenant. Who was stuck with the trickster in the game before. Mirage had made the mistake of shoving the paper in the simulacrum's face which only resulted in Revenant grabbing it out of his hands and ripping it in half. The sim then proceeded to pitch it off the cliff, not expecting Mirage to lunge after it and ending up with a broken wrist.
The simulacrum had left his teammate there, but karma caught up with him as he was hunted down by a full squad. Elliot on the other hand, was left at the bottom of a cliff unconscious before someone finally realized he was missing.
Most of the legends didn’t have plans to bring anything extra, assuming they could buy any necessities from the nearby pier. Bloodhound, despite protests from Fuse, refused to find something a little less heavy to wear to the beach. Fuse assumed Loba had the most items, ready to spend the entire day in the sun to reach the golden tan she desired to keep, that is until he saw Horizon.
"Do you think you have enough?" Fuse asked Horizon with some hesitancy in his voice. He watched as the space mom lugged 5, 10, 20 or so bags through the door and into the ship.
"You can never be too prepared darlin'. I have the life preserver in case Octavio gets stuck in the current, towels, blankets, food, umbrella, cooler, silverware, extra pairs of swim trunks, wine-"
"Woah, Woah, wine? You're gonna let Elliot or Tavi' get their hands on alcohol before they go into the water?" He asked with growing concern about how this little trip was going to go.
Horizon laughed and started walking away towards the vessel. "Oh no- that's for me."
So here they were, all 20 legends, besides poor Maggie, packed inside a cramped dropship due to the twenty bags of luggage Horizon brought just in case. How the syndicate managed to bribe the simulacrums into this as well as Caustic was a mystery. They even dragged Crypto out of his nest.
As soon as they landed, Octane was the first to the water. He ran into the salty waves with zero hesitation while Ajay silently hoped the addict didn't drown in the first ten minutes of the trip. Mirage was babbling on about the unique features of the shoreline as he held up the taped-up pamphlet that depicted the beach.
The way the water shined and the sand glowed in the afternoon sunset. Complete with palm trees that had real coconuts. Get that?! Real coconuts! The rocks along the edges of the secluded area looked full of smaller tide pools that were refilled after every crash of the waves. The pier looked inviting, containing carnival rides, restaurants, rental shops, and even ice cream. When he set the paper down he frowned.
It was a beach. That was the only good thing Elliot could say about it. Mirage looked down and noticed he wasn’t even touching the sand, there was a thick layer of plastic and trash beneath his feet. He knelt and brushed away the plastic only to find very poor sand littered with smaller pieces of debris.
“Well, maybe the pier is nice?” Obi suggested.
All hope was lost when they looked up and saw a rickety old wooden dock looking ready to collapse. In fact, the end of the pier was currently sinking into the water. Pieces of wood falling off into the ocean below. There was a single old shop that proclaimed they had ice cream, although after the state of the area the ice cream was probably poison. No fishermen were sitting on the pier and after further inspection, the legends could see why. A sign was printed: in bold letters that said ‘No fish, PH level 3.9.’ Lifeline now looked increasingly worried by Octane immediately jumping in.
“Are ya’ sure this is the right beach?” Ajay asked with concern as she picked up an old needle. She’d seen worse, but this was pretty terrible.
“Shitty, depressing, and all from the effect of humanity, yeah this seems like a beach,” Revenant added in a monotone voice. He didn’t care about this whole excursion wanting nothing more than to leave.
“We’ll make use of it,” Horizon stated with uncertainty lacing her voice.
So began the process of cleaning enough space for all the legends to enjoy. It took over half the day just to clean enough space for some spots to relax. The job under the harsh sunlight was enough to deter most of the legends from spreading too far from the main area. With everyone’s help, minus the simulacrums who considered it not their problem, they managed to clear a space for relaxing and maybe some volleyball. Suggested by Mirage of course.
"Suns shining brightly, eh houndy?" Fuse nudged his companion who looked very hesitant to be there. They kept glancing around unsure and disgusted by the human waste littered around. Mirage’s pamphlet was right about one thing, it was severely and deathly hot. Maybe they should’ve taken Fitzroy’s argument into consideration. The Salvonian himself was sporting swim trunks with a loud pattern and looked ready to jump right in with Octane. However, he put an arm around their shoulder to go find a more private spot in the shade.
The rest of the legends spread out, setting down their items before eventually joining Octane, who was already causing a ruckus in the ocean, not seeming to care about the poor quality of the beach. The majority of the legends were here for a good time to relax and take a break from the bloodshed of the games. The others that preferred to not indulge in activities stayed along the shoreline and in the shade.
Mirage managed to get some help setting up a volleyball net, and within less than an hour, they had divided the teams up.
"I got it!" Mirage shouted, only to be knocked aside by Gibraltar, who slammed the ball to the other side.
"Hey, that was mine!" He whined as Gibby just laughed it off. Mirage pouted but eventually got back into the game, at least, until the ball flew from the court and landed right next to Ash.
The female simulacrum didn't seem to notice the ball yet- or maybe she just didn't care. Mirage sighed after being chosen (unfairly he might add) to be the one to retrieve the ball.
The trickster slowly approached the sim, lounging in the sun. He wondered why she would even want to lay on the beach, not being human and all that, but he figured it would be best to not delve too deeply into the matter. So far, Ash had yet to notice him, and as long as she didn't see Elliot creeping up on her, then he would be in the clear.
He crept closer, and the sound of small plastic crunching under his feet caused him to panic. Even more, after hearing a small chitter. He paused and noticed the rat had peaked its little head out and was staring him down. The little rodent crawled carefully along with Ash's frame to not disturb her and inspected what Elliot was up to. He took another step causing the rat to flinch backward, the quick jolt of movement stirred the sim briefly enough to make Elliot have a slight heart attack.
Mirage mouthed the word 'no' and shook his hands aggressively to try and get the rat to stop moving. He breathed a sigh of relief and took another step closer to the ball. Then another. And another. Finally, he was so close all he needed to do was reach out and grab it.
"Watcha' up to skin-bag?"
Mirage shrieked and fell over. He looked like a goat that had just gone into shock as Revenant laughed at the poor legend's trauma. Ash groaned in annoyance and turned over to continue ignoring the both of them. Elliot watched in desperation as Revenant picked up the slightly deflated volleyball before popping it with one hand.
Loba had found a nice spot towards the middle of the beach, it wasn’t too close to the tide that would inevitably start rising, and it wasn’t in the shade. She had convinced Kairi to join her much to the dismay of the pilot who looked like she’d much rather be having fun with the others in the water. Yet she stayed, if only for Loba.
The thief set her things out one by one. First, she set a chair in the sand and settled a comfortable and plush towel over the back and bottom. She then placed an umbrella close by in case she got too hot in the sun. Her bag contained the necessary items such as sunglasses and a reflector. Once she felt settled, she set her small radio down in order to relax to some quiet music.
Valkyrie joined her a few minutes later, after slathering on some sunscreen so as to not get heavily burned. She couldn’t help but notice that the thief was getting distracted by the soldier currently playing a competitive match against Gibraltar. Even though Revenant had popped the first ball, Horizon came prepared with several backups, much to the dismay of the simulacrum who had it out for Elliot today.
Loba finally decided to take a seat only to completely collapse into the chair. She fell through and got tangled in the gaps of the cheap lounge chair, she screamed in rage after realizing the pieces underneath the towel had been cut.
The next incident occurred when she tried to put on some calming music. She surfed the channels only to have them go to creepy distortions and demonic-sounding white noise, at one point she could make out screams and pleas for help. Loba threw the damn thing into the pile of trash.
Finally, when she tried to put on some tanning oil it only took one sniff to realize it wasn’t the right smell. When she examined it further, it turned out to be vinegar mixed in with the oil. She knew there was only one legend responsible for all the mishaps but unfortunately, he was nowhere in sight. So she tried the next best thing, but even Valkyrie admitted it was a stretch.
“Where’s the demon?” Loba asked in irritation as she approached the female sim.
Ash pulled up her sunglasses enough to glance at the two women approaching her, she adjusted them back on before laying back down, ignoring the two. After several moments of silence, she finally answered.
“Why?”
“He’s been-” Loba started but was quickly cut off by Valkyrie, who signaled to her that there was a better way to do this.
“Let’s just cut to the chase, do you know where he is?” The little viper asked with some patience. As much as she didn’t care for either of the sims it was best to not anger them.
“No.”
Loba groaned in frustration as Valkyrie led her away from the sim. It was pretty obvious that even if Ash knew where he was, she was no help. Valk figured that Revenant would show his ugly mug at some point.
Mirage laughed as Seer popped up all of a sudden to scare Crypto. The poor hacker had finally given up on the suspicious-looking trench coat and decided to join Elliot and the others, who were in the water. He watched Crypto recover from the incident only to be dragged under seconds later. After a few curses and panicked yelps, Crypto came up for air after being dragged down by the Octane. The adrenaline junkie breached the surface with a snorkel and looked as proud as can be that he managed to scare Crypto.
“Haha, you should've seen your face, compadre!” The speedster continued laughing at Crypto’s misfortune alongside Obi. Mirage would always be amused by Crypto finally getting bullied rather than himself; it seemed the experience also managed to mend some tension between Octane and Seer. The two high-fived as Crypto started swimming towards the shore.
Mirage felt a tug on his leg but thought nothing of it. He figured the current might've been getting stronger or some fish was at fault. His theory was unfortunately proven wrong when he remembered that the sign had said there were no fish in the area. He glanced around at the others, but they didn’t seem concerned. Octane and Seer’s laughter and Crypto’s misfortune seemed to get dimmer and muffled. It took him a second before he realized he was slowly sinking beneath the waves.
He tried to get back to the surface but was stopped by a sharp tug on his ankle. He kicked, but to no avail and was pulled underneath with nothing except a small yelp. He continued kicking and flailing back to the surface but was being dragged further down and further from the shore. The pressure of the water was pushing down on his lungs as he fought against the creature pulling him further under. He glanced down and could only make out a humanoid figure covered in seaweed, Mirage paused a second before letting out a shrill scream underwater.
Crypto turned back around after hearing a yelp and noticed they were missing someone. For all the legends spread out among the waves, there was no sign of Mirage, and he swore Elliot was there a second ago.
"Where's Witt?" Crypto did a full scan of the area around before realizing they maybe should start panicking.
"Maybe Octane grabbed him?"
"Uh... I'm right here."
They all turned to see that Octane was indeed still floating next to Seer. After a moment of silence, everyone started panicking. They started calling for him and looking underwater. Unfortunately, the water was so poor that it burned the legend's eyes, and everything became too blurry to make out anything. A few of the other legends, who had been wading in the water closer to the shore ran out of the water to the legends inhabiting the beach asking around if they had seen Mirage.
"MIRAGE!"
"ELLIOT?!"
“Wait, I think I see something!” Rampart shouted amongst the legends searching the beach and shoreline for any signs of Elliot.
They all crowded around and watched as something larger began emerging from the shore. It was covered by a mass of debris and trash. They all waited as something was plopped onto the sandy shore and was slowly revealed by the water pulling off some of the trash. It was a giant fish. Dead. Everyone quickly began screaming for the legend, who may or may not have drowned or been killed by whatever attacked the beastly fish.
Octane, who was still searching in the water alongside Crypto and Seer kept checking left and right. He wasn’t helping much, but he did suggest waiting just in case Mirage came back up for air. Seer argued that by now it’s probably too late and they could be wasting precious time by just sitting back and waiting.
Several moments later, Mirage broke to the surface, gasping for air, flailing his arms around in exaggerated motions proving Octane’s point correct, much to the irritation of Obi. Elliot looked stunned but mostly deathly terrified and in shock, as if he’d just seen a ghost. They didn't have any time to ask what happened before the poor legend started racing towards the shore.
"Okay Mirage, stand here and guard the sandcastle, make sure the ocean doesn't get to it! I'm gonna be right back..." Octane announced his little idea with Mirage and he quickly ran to Ajay. She frowned, seeing only Tavi' approaching.
After Mirage had calmed down they decided the best course of action was to build a sandcastle to calm down his nerves. It worked… for now. They were 90% sure the poor guy wouldn’t be able to sleep for weeks after how badly he was shaken up.
"Elliot didn't want ice cream?"
"Uh- he um, he's just gonna stay there."
"You told him we were gonna go down to the pier right?"
"Um. Yes." Octane looked back at Mirage just sitting criss-cross next to the sand castle, he looked bored yet slightly determined to make sure the ocean didn't touch it.
Ajay shrugged and started making her way to the pier still slightly concerned about Mirage, who usually loves ice cream. Octane kept silent and winked as he left poor Elliot to sit there.
Mirage watched the sandcastle diligently. He kept his eyes strained on each little piece as he glared at the water that slowly approached the sandcastle. He looked back at the masterpiece they had somehow managed to scramble together, the base was mostly made of trash but on the outside was packed in wet sand. He turned around and looked longingly at the pier, there was ice cream there, and he knew it.
After only turning his back for a second, he has the sinking feeling that the ocean was slowly creeping up on his building. He let out a small yelp as he quickly dug a moat and a stream leading back down to drain the water. He stuck his hand in the moist sand and made a small 'bleh' noise as he felt one of those creepy things in the sand.
"Hey, Elliot."
"Oh Hey, Ramya." Rampart looked down on the depressing scene. Witt was just sitting there picking at the sand.
"What are ya' doin' mate? This is just depressing."
"Well Tavi' came over and said he and Ajay were going somewhere and wanted me to guard the Sandcastle."
"Witt. Lemme ask ya' somethin. Did Octane tell you why he was leaving?"
"Well he- uh, no- no he didn't."
"Did he tell you why you needed to guard the sandcastle?"
"Uh no," Mirage replied slowly as he soon came to realize he'd been quite possibly bamboozled.
"Come on mate, let's go get you some ice cream, my treat." Rampart offered him a hand and he reluctantly got up with her, still depressed about the whole scenario.
"Next time we're in the ring, remind me to give Tavi' a good kick in the nuts."
"Ramya!"
She laughed and started walking away with Elliot. They'd end up going to an even better ice cream parlor than the one on the pier that had supposedly given Caustic ice cream made of 3-month-old milk that was starting to curdle.
"Oh! One more thing." Rampart let go of Mirage and ran back to the sandcastle. She proceeded to kick the sandcastle over and completely decimate the thing.
"RAMYA! It took us so long to build that!" Mirage whined as he watched all his hard work go to waste.
"Well, now it's gone. No sandcastle, no need to guard it."
Mirage looked at the pound of sand and garbage realizing maybe it was for the best. He almost felt a sense of rebellion as he watched the ocean wash it away complete with a mound of trash.
"Is this what it feels like to be a rebel?"
Ramya chuckled. "Not even close, mate. But with your cinnamon roll personality... maybe a little bit."
Rampart wrung an arm around Elliot's shoulder and guided him away from the beach. It's been a long day anyway.
Ash looked up as she saw the simulacrum approach her, covered from head to toe in seaweed and dripping water.
"Looks like you had fun today."
Revenant grunted as he started peeling off the seaweed from his chassis, feeling uncomfortable and ready to ditch this body. His gears felt waterlogged, and his smaller prices of clothing were soggy.
"What'd you do all day? Sunbathe? You know you can't-"
Ash held up a hand as she collected her things. She would hear none of it coming from the simulacrum who obviously spent his entire day at the bottom of the ocean.
"It's better than playing Sea Monster with the incompetent assets we call co-workers."
Revenant chuckled, thinking about the pure terror on Mirage's face as he dragged him down into the dark abyss. The legend almost drowned if it wasn't for the fact that Revenant's systems were adapting poorly to the water and pressure. Maybe next time, he could drag the addict down too.