Chapter Text
The Siberian air was cold and crisp, a thick layer of snow covered the ground, being shallower along the trail that Zarya, Mei, and Hana were jogging on.
Mei and Zarya were dressed as they normally were, with Mei being her signature winter outfit and Zarya in her blue armor. Hana had borrowed one of Mei’s outfit, which was understandably too big on her.
“Um, exactly why are we doing this again?” Hana said as she stopped to take a breath, “I don’t think this is really part of our necessary training.”
“Nonsense! You will become stronger from running in these harsh conditions, this should most definitely be necessary.”
“Are you sure you’ll be alright in that clothing Zarya?” Mei asked.
“Of course, I have lived with Russian winter my entire life, I am practically immune to the cold.”
“I still don’t think this is all that necessary.” Hana crossed her arms and grumbled.
“Of course it is. It may not be scheduled workout, but I’m how I am today because I pushed my boundaries. Plus, it is good team bonding experience for us.”
“Well, I think I’ve had enough for toda- OH... MY... GOSH!” Hana starts freaking out, her eyes sparkling as she sprints in place for a few seconds before running behind Zarya and Mei. Looking back, they see that Hana is cradling a white rabbit in her arms like a puppy.
“Omigosh omigosh, can we keep iiiit? It’s so cute and fluffy!!” Hana beamed up at the two older women.
“It is indeed cute and fluffy, probably cutest and fluffiest rabbit I’ve seen. But, it is creature of the wild, put it back.”
“She’s right Hana,” Mei spoke up, “it may look like a pet rabbit, but that’s a wild animal. We can’t just take it in.”
“But-” Hana began before the rabbit wiggled it’s way out of her arms and started running off.
“Hey! Come back!” Hana started giving chase, running off aimlessly into the Siberian forest.
“HANA!!” Mei and Zarya exclaimed as they started running after her.
“Stupid girl, stupid girl. Does she not know what lurks in forest?”
“We have to find her before-” Suddenly, a high-pitched scream rang out through the forest.
“HANA??” Mei called out, panicking.
“No, it is the call of bull elk.” Zarya pointed out.
“Oh, okay. Phew, for a second I thou-” Yet again, a high-pitched scream rang out through the forest, this one unmistakably human.
“HANA!!” They both shouted as they ran towards the source of the noise.
When they came up on a narrow clearing, the two women were horrified to see a massive brown bear standing on it’s hind legs in front of Hana.
“HEELLP!!” Hana cried out as the bear growled and swung it’s paw at her, nearly missing her as she rolled out of the way.
“Hana! Keep dodging it! I need a few minutes to charge up my-”
“AAAAAGH!” Zarya cried out as she charged towards the bear just as it was about to swing both paws down on Hana.
Zarya grabbed a hold of the bear’s paws, letting Hana crawl over towards Mei.
She kept a firm grip on the bear, holding it back far enough so that it’s jaws could not get a hold of her. Believe it or not, this wasn’t her first time wrestling a bear, though she had never confronted one this big before.
Thinking quickly, she let go of one of the paws and, in one single movement, grabbed the bear's neck and pushed it onto the ground. Zarya then jumped on top of the bear, pinning it down.
She didn’t want to kill this bear, however. Not only did she respect all of Siberia’s wildlife, but she also recognized this bear to be a mature female, meaning that her aggression was probably because she was defending her nearby cubs.
Suddenly, the bear had a massive surge of strength, managing to push Zarya off from it. Zarya hit her head on the ground hard, stunning herself for a few moments at the bear reared up, ready to strike.
Suddenly, it stopped. It sniffed the air and looked around, and looked down at Zarya. Then, the bear got back on all fours and galloped away.
“Zarya that was aMAZING!” Hana exclaimed as her and Mei run up to her.
“Wow, I can’t believe you wrestled a full-grown bear!” Mei said.
“That was not first time wrestling bear. I did it several times in my athletic days. They don’t call me the strongest woman in the world for nothing.” Zarya posed proudly, grinning and flexing her arms.
Meanwhile, Mei and Hana had sudden looks of shock, confusion, and fear on their faces, looking behind Zarya.
“M-mu-mum-mu-” Hana babbles incoherently while Mei repeatedly jabs her hand forward, pointing at something behind Zarya.
“Hana? Why are you babbling like small child?”
Suddenly, a sound like a trumpet followed by loud thumps in the earth comes from behind Zarya. She turns around just in time to see a giant mass of fur charging straight for them. Snapping into action, Zarya puts her hands up just in time two grab the two long tusks of the massive beast, a woolly mammoth (weird I know but bear with me).
“Get back!” Zarya orders at the other two, who waste no time running to the treeline and hiding behind some bushes.
Zarya struggles with the giant hairy elephant, holding it in place as hard as she can.
Suddenly, she sees it’s trunk rearing up, ready to strike. She quickly snaps her hand up, grabbing a hold of the trunk while putting her foot over the tusk she let go of.
“Just hold it in place Zarya! I need to charge up my blaster!” Mei called out, frantically setting up her equipment.
“Could you do it faster? I don’t think she can hold it much longer…” Hana said, her eyes glued on the conflict at hand.
Zarya was sweating heavily, her muscles burning as she struggled to keep the mammoth in place. She had faced many strong opponents before, but none were as strong as this massive beast.
Just as she felt like she was about to give out, a sound of ice crashing rang out as the mammoth’s legs were frozen into place.
Zarya let go, looking the mammoth in the eyes one last time before running over to her friends.
“Zarya, once again, that was AWESOME!!” Hana cheered.
“Thank you Hana, but without Mei I would not have won that battle.”
“Oh, n-no problem.” Mei said, turning her face away to hide her creeping blush.
“Oh by the way what is THAT?!” Hana exclaims.
“Oh, yeah.” Mei said. “You know how I’ve been traveling around a lot in the past few months?
Zarya and Hana both nod in response.
“Well, I’ve been involved in a sort of, *ahem*, ‘rewilding’ program.” You see, we’ve done enough research recently to be able to clone animals, as long as we have the DNA of one species, and in the case of extinct species with fragmented DNA, their DNA along with that of a related one.”
“So, kinda like that movie with the dinosaurs on the island?” Hana said.
“Yeah, exactly. But instead of putting them in a zoo or something, we let the animals go in their natural habitat. I was worried about the mammoths, since Siberia isn’t exactly the wide open plain it used to be. But it looks like they’re doing okay in the forest.”
“What others beasts are roaming around here?” Zarya said, uncertain what to make of this.
“Well, not many really. We’ve reintroduced bison, wild horses and tigers in the area, and we cloned a small herd of woolly rhinos, but we have big plans for the future as well.”
“Why are they so close to our base?”
“Well, I asked Winston about it, since this area is so secluded, and he agreed so...”
“Doesn’t it seem kinda dangerous to let those animals out when people like us are around?” Hana said.
“Well, we’re pretty far from the trail now, and most animals don’t usually go around there.”
“We should be going now, before the mammoth breaks out from ice.” Zarya says, looking back at the hairy elephant as it seems to be cracking the ice.
“Um, y-yeah we should.”
* * * 36 minutes and 12 seconds later * * *
Back at Watchpoint Siberia, Reinhardt and Angela were in the kitchen preparing a large serving of currywurst for the team’s lunch, while McCree was sitting on the couch with a paperclip over his nose.
Just then, the elevator door opened and Zarya, Mei, and Hana all walked out, looking very exhausted and dirty.
“Oh thank goodness you're alright!” Angela said as she hurried over to them, “you usually aren’t gone this long- er, what happened to you?”
“I do not wish to talk about it.” Zarya said as she plopped down into the armchair.
“We had an… interesting morning, to say the least.” Mei said.
“Hey cowboy, got another one?” Hana said to McCree, who handed a paperclip to Hana.
“It does not smell that bad.” Angela exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips.
“Hate to break it to ya darlin’, but it really does smell that bad,” McCree said.
“Whatever, I know you all like it anyvay.” Angela said with a smirk on her face.
Reinhardt looked up and saw Hana sneaking away while the others were engaged in conversation.
“Hana, where are you going off to? Lunch is almost ready!”
“Um, just going to change into some more comfortable clothes is all...”
“What, do you not like the taste of German?” Angela joked.
“What is in your bag?” Zarya said, noticing a slight movement in Hana’s backpack.
“What? Nothing’s in the-” Hana was interrupted when a white rabbit poked it head up out of the bag. She tried to hide it but everyone had seen it at this point.
“What did I tell you about taking wild creatures from their home?”
“I-I know but… he didn’t run away when I came up to him the second time. He likes me!” Hana took the rabbit out of her backpack and held it in her arms. Just as she had said, the rabbit made no attempts at jumping away even though it had the chance to.
“Well... I guess you can keep it,” Angela said, “it does seem to like you, afterall. Just make sure it doesn’t poop all over the floor.”
Hana grins joyfully at this response, rushing off to put the rabbit in her quarters.
“Alright everybody, ze lunch is ready!”
Hana comes back into the room with a grin on her face.
“Oh, by the way Doc, how can you criticize me for not liking German when you clearly prefer the taste of Egyptian?”
A chorus of laughter erupts from the other members when Angela’s face turned as red as a tomato.
“Uhm, I uh, let's just sit down.” Angela says, managing to calm down her blush as they all sat down to enjoy a very odorous, yet delicious lunch together.