If there's one thing I'm terrible at, it's publishing. Do not expect these chapters to come out regularly.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

"When you said 'let them know where we are,' this is NOT what I had in mind." Tyr said, shuffling his shell in annoyance. The two had picked up Talon chatter on a pending attack at a nearby location, part of a search for someone. Akira and Tyr had gotten there first, by Sparrow.

"Attacking a Talon base would make us known to Talon, but knowing them, they would probably keep everything under wraps," he explained, "if we do something that is guaranteed to have public witnesses, say, stopping a terrorist attack, word will quickly spread around." His face adopted a melancholy expression. "Unfortunately, this means that some may die before we get there. I wish there was another way, but…"

"I… have another question. When you saw that the Omnics were getting mistreated, you kind of got upset. Why? Given that the Omnics tried to exterminate humanity, shouldn't you be siding against them? Especially with the likes of Null Sector?"

Akira leaned back, a sad smile on his face. "Just because I am a Guardian of Humanity doesn't mean that I side only with humanity. Those Omnics that are still around today; well, most of them, are non-hostile, and trying their best at working towards peace. That same reason is why I go out of my way to help the House of Light whenever I can. Just because they're Fallen doesn't mean I have to hate them. As for Null Sector… same treatment as the House of Dusk. It's hard, but we have no choice."

A loud explosion reverberated throughout the area. "Guess that's our cue. Tyr, Ace." The ever-faithful hand cannon materialized on his hip. "You remember the plan?"

(-)

Dust. Smoke. Screams. Another blast sent rubble scattering. At the center of it marched soldiers in red-and-grey, faceless, unyielding. A force that many knew all too well.

Those that were in their way were brushed aside like ants. Human and Omnic alike ran and hid, hoping that they would be passed over and ignored. No small number of them begged for someone, anyone, to come help.

Kaping! Kaping! Kaping! Three Talon soldiers suddenly burst into flame, incinerating everything near. A baseball-sized fireball flew through the air, the resultant detonation frying several Talon soldiers in their armor..

"Split up and move out! Find the atta-" The commanding officer was cut off as he too, burst into flame. There was a pause, before a large purple explosion broke their front line. At its center stood a strange, robed figure.

(-)

Overwatch Transport.

Overwatch had already known about Talon's attack on Rio since several days before. A squad was already on their way even before the news hit the net. Who had warned them was obvious. After all, there was only one Overwatch agent that operated out of Brazil.

"Lucio, any updates?" Genji asked.

Lucio's voice blared over the sound of gunfire. "Nothing much! Currently running for my life! Can't you get here any faster?"

"Sorry, but we won't be there for another few minutes. I'm flying as fast as I can, supersonic even, but we won't be able to make it until then. Can't you hold them off?" Lena asked, tension evident.

"Excuse me? I am NOT dealing with these guys without backup! They're probably gonna focus fire on me first chance they get, and they kinda outnumber me by a lot. I may be good, but I'm not that good. Seriously, first Null Sector shows up with a command ship, then Talon? Can't Rio get one break?" Three loud shots sounded over the radio. "Whoa, what the -"

"Lucio? What's going on down there?"

"Three guys just spontaneously combusted, and then another few got disintegrated or something by some sort of… grenade? Yeah, let's go with that- Aaand their CO just got set on fire too." A strange burst of static suddenly cut through the radio, causing everyone to wince. "Okay, weird dude, weird dude! "

"Hang on, Lucio! We're almost there. Just be patient." Echo assured.

(-)

Lucio was resisting the urge to chew his nails. Hope they get here soon, he thought. He was just minding his own business, for crying out loud! Okay, well, not really, he was technically patrolling the area. No time to dwell on that, though.

Another Talon soldier, he assumed the second-in-command stepped forward. "Who the hell are you?" The robed figure said nothing. He motioned, and one of the troopers raised his rifle. "I asked who you are! Answer now, or face the consequences!" Several more weapons were raised.

The figure simply tilted its head. "I think a better answer would be, why are you doing this?" It- no, he responded.

"We are looking for the man known as Lucio. Tell us his location or face the consequences!" A barrel was pressed against his helmet.

"No." It was at this point that Lucio became aware of an inscrutable feeling of power that seemed to exude from the man. It was as if his very presence dominated the small space they were in. Several of the troopers faltered.

The second-in-command, unfortunately, didn't. "What are you idiots doing? Fi-URK!" The tip of a ridiculously ornate blade burst out of his back. A flick of the wrist, and his now-limp body was flung aside.

The man turned back to Talon, just in time for the rest of the Forces to arrive in the area. "This is your first and final warning. Leave now, or face the consequences."

"Open fire!" The response was instant. A deafening cacophony of firearms filled the air. The man leaped backward and swung. Wave after wave of purple energy crashed into Talon's forces, decimating all those caught in their path.

In the midst of the chaos, the man seemed to vanish, as if he had blinked out of existence. The soldiers whirled around to find him atop a roof, a large, unwieldy compound bow in hand. Thwip! A heavy bolt embedded itself in the skull of one of the Heavy Assault units, detonating in a blast of purple light. The soldiers opened fire once more. The man leapt into the air. Not a half-second later, the fury of Thor was unleashed onto the poor souls. A blinding beam of pure lightning blazed forth from his palm with a mighty roar, vaporizing everything in its path. Those that were lucky enough to escape were gone before the smoke cleared. Oddly enough, so was the man.

Lucio blinked twice, slowly raising a hand to his ear. "Did- Did you guys see that?"

(-)

"Did- Did you guys see that?" There was a moment of silence as the occupants of the transport gathered their jaws up off the floor. "Guys?"

Genji's voice was unsteady as he responded. "Yes, we saw that. I've never seen anything so powerful. What kind of technology was that? It couldn't have been magic… Could it?"

Lena snorted. "Says the man who can summon a dragon."

"I don't think that was tech of any kind," Echo interrupted. "From what I can tell, all that power came out of nowhere."

The radio crackled, before Winston's voice came through. "Okay, uh… Get back to me with your findings. Lucio, I want you here for the report. Take some rest now, we can figure out exactly what happened back at ba- Wait, hang on…"

A satellite feed of the airspace appeared in the ship. On it was a small, but noticeable black dot. "Can you see if you can get closer?"

"Zooming in," Echo responded. "Closer… Closer… Hang on, what the - It's that ship! That weird ship!" Before they could do anything, the ship pulled up and away, shrinking until it was no longer visible.

"Uh, Winston, I think we found our alien," Lena said, with an air of uncertainty.

(-)

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

"So, once again, let's review what happened. Athena, footage, if you would.?" Various screens of the encounter appeared all around the table; some security camera footage, others from news coverage, and so on. "Talon attacks Rio, looking to sow chaos, as usual. We dispatch a team, but on the way, this man appears, and wipes them out, and then goes missing soon after. Not a minute after that, the strange ship leaves Earth's atmosphere, and could be anywhere right now."

Lucio sighed. "Tried to catch him, but he's gone as soon as he comes. Anyone know where he came from?"

Winston and Echo exchanged a look. "If it's any help," Echo began, "I did find some very odd residual energy readings in the area after he left." A report appeared, showing a very odd spike in unidentified energy. "It isn't electromagnetic, it isn't heat, it isn't x-rays, it isn't radioactive, and yet it somehow can overcharge atoms, generate heat comparable to that of the sun, and atomize anything it can come into contact with. It's also near-impossible to trace. If he hadn't let loose like that, I don't think I would have found anything."

"Anything we can do?" Lena asked.

"I've already contacted everyone I know, and am monitoring the globe as we speak. If he turns up again, I think we'll know."

(-)

Low Earth Orbit

"Well, Guardian, I think our little gambit worked. Right now, newsfeeds and message boards are blowing up with activity related to our little stunt in Rio." Several of said newsfeeds floated around the cockpit.

Akira put a hand to his chin. "Hmm… We have that, yes. We still have to make our presence known to everyone else."

"Right - It's rather unlikely that anyone outside of Rio is going to notice." Tyr's shell twitched for a moment. "If it's alright with you, I do have a few ideas…"

Two weeks later

Route 66

"Stay there, don't move, don't call for help, and nobody has to get hurt!" The bandit leader yelled, gun levelled at a group of hostages.

Pow!

"What the hell?" the Bandit leader muttered to himself, his hand suddenly vacant. The hostages were confused as well.

Pow! Pow!

Two of the bandits went down like sacks of bricks.

Pow!

Another bandit went down. The leader caught sight of a hooded figure. "There!"

Gunfire erupted upon the figure. "Get the cart moving! Best run with what we can get right - "

Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!

The four bandits guarding the cart found holes in their chests. The leader grit his teeth. "Biggs!"

A large, heavily-armored man stepped forwards, a gatling cannon in hand.

Before the weapon had even spun up, however, four shots hit his hands and shoulders, going straight through the armor like it was paper. A fifth went through his skull.

Pow! Pow!

The bandit's sniper found their hands vacant of a rifle. Soon his perch was vacant too.

The leader suddenly found a golden gun pointed at his face. "I surrender!" he squealed, raising his arms.

(-)

One Day Later

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

"McCree, repeat that again - You said that, and I quote, "a man with a golden gun" showed up and dealt with the bandits before you could do anything?"

The cowboy nodded. "It was weird as hell. Every one of the hostages said the same thing - Guy in armor with a golden gun shows up, deals with the bandits, and then leaves. There's video too - give me a second."

There was a pause as the video appeared.

Winston froze the video just as the man appeared. "That's our guy! What's he doing all the way over there?"

"Hell if I know."

(-)

Three Days Later

Hollywood

A trio of crimson beams struck one of the Null Sector troops. A scream of agony as red tendrils encased his form. The scream turned to a guttural growl, before petering out. His head snapped up.

Where there had once been the thoughts of a sentient machine, a single directive ran through his head.

~consume enhance replicate~

One of his former comrades found themselves on the receiving end of a lunge. They fell to the ground, head crushed like a tin can.

More beams rained down upon the rest of the army. Those lucky enough to be killed by the beams exploded into a swarm of red nanites that ate away at those around them. The others suffered the same fate as the first, and were consumed even as they turned against their former allies.

~directive = KILL while enemies = PRESENT: executive(directive)~

It wasn't long until the invading Null Sector force was wiped out by its own. As for those infected with the strange tendrils? They disintegrated in a cloud of red.

Those who were there to witness the event noted a figure wielding a black-and-red rifle at the scene.

(-)

Three Hours Later

Watchpoint: Gibraltar

"Whatever it is, it's nanotech, it eats things, and I don't want to be anywhere close to it!" Echo said, panicked. "And would you stop poking at it?"

Winston was currently tapping at a strange black-and-red crystalline structure, one of many that had appeared at the scene. All of them had dissolved into red particles, except the sample he had in front of him. "I've been poking at it for the past two hours. I think we're fine."

Echo's face brightened for a moment. "Oh, by the way, people spotted the alien again. It's all over the news."

"First Rio, then a train heist, and now stopping an attack at Hollywood. Is he trying to get noticed?"

(-)

Two Days Later

Havana

"Alright, idiots! Money, bags, now!" a robber yelled, firing his rifle into the air. Not even Overwatch's return would deter some from committing crime.

"We found the vault, boss!" another supplied. They all grinned. They had raided an abandoned base and found some pretty nifty stuff. Nothing was going to go wrong!

That is, until, an orange beam speared through the head of one of the robbers, bounced off the floor, and hit another. There was a low whirr outside. A second beam hit a wall, then split into five seperate beams that bounced around like pinballs before scoring hits on three more.

As the dust began to settle, the door flew off its hinges, revealing an armored figure, foot extended, holding a very bulky, angular rifle. He leveled it at the leader. "So, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Your choice."

(-)

Five Hours Later

Watchpoint Gibraltar

"Say that again - He was using an energy weapon that charged up and fired a beam that could bounce off walls?" Winston asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Yep. He was finishing up just as I got there. On that, what am I doing here?" Lucio asked. It made sense. Overwatch wasn't exactly known for dealing with things like bank heists.

"Our alien," Winston supplied. "We're trying to track him down, see his motives, and see what he can do. If he's dangerous, possibly deal with him before it gets worse."

"Deal with him? Seeing what he can do, I'm not sure if we can deal with him. Even if he didn't have his freaky power-"

"The tech really isn't an issue. Seeing what he's used so far, his weapons seem to be fairly similar to what's around right now." That was true. Their alien might have access to some pretty advanced technology, to be sure, but most of his weapons functioned fairly similar to those from the current age - ballistics and energy weapons functioned fairly the same. However, that did leave some discrepancies - for example, blades don't exactly launch waves of energy, and energy projectiles certainly didn't bounce around like that. He adjusted his glasses.

"I would say, however, that he's getting more conspicuous as time goes on. I already posed that he might be trying to get noticed, but now? I'm certain. But the question is, who?"

"I think I can answer that," Lucio began, "Going from face value, he's not Talon. I doubt they'd pull something like wipe out an entire army. Not efficient. Definitely not NullSec either - don't think they'd take kindly to nanotech that eats things. And probably people. Yikes. Plus, he's shown that he has the public interest in mind. If anything, I'd say he's trying to get our attention."

Winston put a hand to his chin. If the alien's trying to get their attention, then maybe he was trying to ally himself with their organization, if not join it, going from his previous actions. If so, how should they let him know? His features brightened. He had an idea. "Athena? I need you to do me a favor…"

(-)

Low Earth Orbit

Tyr was busy monitoring radio chatter. Most complex encryptions were dismantled in seconds under the eye of a Ghost. "Let's see here… news, people talking, blah blah, argument in nullsec, crush… Oh?"

Akira leaned forward. "What is it?"

"I found something interesting - gimme a second." A screen appeared. Footage of Akira in action played, one after the other, some from the news, others pulled from released camera footage. "It's some sort of video being broadcasted over a wide-area transmission in space - no, directed towards space. Someone knows we're here."

"Alright, who is it?" As if answering his question, the feed switched to a video of a… gorilla? Winston, the current leader of Overwatch, if he remembered correctly. The image on-screen shuffled a few papers, then looked at the camera.

"Thirty years ago, the Omnics declared war…"

And that's Chapter 3! Honestly, it's not the best. Kind of rushed, in my opinion, but I still hope you enjoyed it.

As for abilities, Akira is as strong as Guardians are in canon, aka, more powerful than they are in gameplay. Hence why he can juggle abilities and exotics easily in the first battle.

Please RR. Flames will be used for my barbecue.

Also, to anyone who guesses all the weapons used - you get a free hug. Should be fairly easy.

6/16: Slight edit due to a research blunder.