Enraptured in Ice Ch. 1

AN: So I've developed something of an Overwatch addiction lately. In case you couldn't tell, I main Mei, and I like to think I'm pretty good with her. For those of you who don't know me, I also have quite a bit of League of Legends fanfiction, and for those of you who do, thank you for continuing to support my work. I hope you all enjoy. -Kiba

Wrapping her arms around herself, Mei's boots sank further into the Antarctic snow. All around her, the wind whipped up the snow like desert sands, but even still through the darkness she could see Watchpoint: Antarctica. The center was one of many opened to study the insane climate changes that had plagued the earth recently. "Tài lěngle!" she complained, bracing herself against the storm and turning her head to avoid the stinging ice and snow.

"Professor Zhou!" A voice called to her, barely muffled by the wind. "Professor! Where are you?!"

"I'm here!" she shouted back, digging her heels into the soft powder so that she could push forward. Just as she was within twenty meters of the entrance, she collapsed to her knees, exhausted from having to battle the tempestuous winds. It wasn't long, however, that she felt the warmth of two bodies pressed against hers as they lifted her to her feet, helping her to the lab.

As the doors closed behind them, she waved off the other two scientist. "Ma'am? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she tried to assure them pulling back her hood. Shaking the downy flakes from her beautiful brown hair, she pulled out the item she'd gone searching for: an injector gun and five vials of nanotech. "I got them," she grinned.

"Thank the Iris!" Another scientist declared, bringing her a fresh bowl of hot soup.

"The Iris?" she asked. Gratefully taking the soup, she sipped from it carefully, enjoying the way it sent warmth through her body. "I've heard the name before, but I'm afraid I'm not familiar with it."

The researcher seemed embarrassed. "It's a newer movement," she explained scratching the back of her head. "I've always hated this stupid Omnic conflict. Everyone blames them for the climate going to hell!"

"Well, that's why we're here, isn't it?" Mei reminded her, gently. "In my homeland, we have a saying: 'rén zūnxún yǔ shí jù jìn, hé shuǐ cháoliú.'"

The others simply stared at her. "Ma'am, none of us speak Chinese."

"Oh! Sorry. It means 'Man follows the times, and water flows with the tide.' Things will change. No war lasts forever." Off to the side, a console began to blip madly, alerting them. Standing up, Mei looked to see that the screen flashed red. The signal to Watchpoint: Gibraltar had been cut off for some time and despite their attempts, they hadn't been able to reconnect. This was their latest and possibly their last one. "That's not good," she sighed.

One of the researchers began to type wildly across the keys, inserting commands in an attempt to get communications back online. "Damn this blizzard," he growled, slamming his fist down on the keyboard when his attempts proved futile. Turning back to her, he frowned. "Professor Zhou, what do we do?"

Silently, all eyes turned to her. She had a hard choice to make. They were running out of supplies and with this blizzard having raged for weeks, there was no telling if Overwatch would come to their rescue before they all starved to death. That was the reason she'd set out for the injector in the first place.

Their contingency plan relied on them using cryostasis, a process that was still very unreliable in terms of effectiveness. As the head researcher, she had to come to a decision and it was not one she made lightly. "Okay, listen up everyone! I'll set the computer to send the information along with a distress beacon the moment it comes back online. We don't have much in the way of supplies left and if we wait until they're completely drained we may not have enough strength to survive the cryostasis. Has everyone eaten their share of their rations today?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Good." Grabbing the injector, she motioned for them to come to her. "Hold out your arms," she instructed, inserting a vial into it. "These nanobots are designed to protect our bodies from the cold. When Overwatch gets our signal, they'll be able to revive us." She knew that her words were empty. In truth, even Overwatch would struggle with the reversing process. "Each vial contains four doses and there are twenty of us. This means that as soon as your receive your injection, you need to head to a cryopod and activate it."

"Yes ma'am," they all repeated. As she walked around the circle, injecting each member's arm with the microscopic machines, she would flash them a reassuring smile. If she felt any fear, she didn't show it on her face.

One by one, the lids to the pods closed before, with a crackling sound, the members of the research team were flash frozen. As the last one got in, she looked to the final dose in the injector. Downing the last bit of her soup, she placed the needle to her arm and braced herself.

With a painful sting, the thick substance flowed into her veins, spreading throughout her entire body at an amazing rate. As promised, she remained behind for about ten minutes, programming Khione to contact Athena in Gibraltar once the weather had cleared. Standing inside of the pod, she watched as the glass closed over her.

The machine began to whir to life, the sound of various gasses and liquids combining to create the ideal reaction that would seal her body into a block of ice. The truth was, she was terrified. Her mind went back to thoughts of home in China. What would they tell her mother and father, she wondered. Just as the vapors began to pour in, the roof above the console shattered and large amounts of debris crushed the machine beneath its weight.

Their chances of rescue diminished to nearly nothing. Mei closed her eyes, praying to the universe that somehow Overwatch would find them and bring them all home. As a single tear fell from her eye, she became completely gelid, her body to be preserved by the intense cold.

Five Years Later

With a heavy grunt, Dan struggled to drag the next in a series of heavy crates from the dolly inside of Watchpoint: Gibraltar. Just as he was pulling back with all of his strength, his grip slipped and he found himself tumbling backwards into something large and hairy. Turning back to his boss, he quickly bowed his head apologizing profusely. "I am so sorry, Sir. I was just trying to move the crates as you instructed, but the dolly's hover function fizzled out so it won't come in here and…" Raising an eyebrow at him, the scientist said nothing, causing his assistant's words to simply fade away before he added one final, "sorry."

"It's fine," the large ape assured him, patting his back a little less than gently. "This cargo is extremely fragile and important, so it's better if I take it from here. Don't worry, I still have work for you, yet."

"Thank you, sir! Can I just say again that it's a real honor to…"

"Winston," he interrupted. "I'm your boss, but that doesn't mean you have to be so formal. And yes, I'm aware, you're honored, ecstatic, eager, or what was the last one you used...oh, enraptured, to work with me. We've been through this Dan. I'm glad to have the help here."

"Sorry, Winston," he muttered again, watching as the highly-intelligent primate easily carried two crates at a time. Turning from him momentarily, he took a look at his work desk, seeing a small device sitting there. It was one he'd been tinkering on for some time now, especially since Overwatch had been recalled. Well, as much as they could be recalled.

Looking over his shoulder to see the ape lost in his own thoughts, he picked up the soldering iron and began to examine the device carefully. As he began to make minute adjustments, a voice whispered into his ear. "Whatcha doin'?"

He leapt nearly a foot in the air, quickly ensuring that the hot iron that was in his hands didn't land onto the electronic device. "God, Tracer!" He protested. "I hate it when you do that!" Slipping the iron back into its holder, he turned to face the young British pilot. With a zip of light, she vanished and reappeared on the other side of the table, her chin perched in her palm as she rested on her elbow.

"You know Winston doesn't like it when you tinker with his toys," she smirked, the impish like charms simply radiating out of her. Concern flashed across the lab assistant's face, causing her to give an excited giggle.

"Tracer, please. I am begging you. Don't tell Winston…"

"Don't tell Winston what?" he asked, lumbering in to grab another set of crates.

With a playful wink, Tracer turned back to the scientist. "Why, he told me that he'd managed to find the problem with that shield generator of yours. Isn't that right, love?"

Winston's head swiveled in an instant as he gave a huff. Swinging from his tire, he landed with a heavy thud beside his assistant before shooing him away to take a look. "What in the Iris did you do to my device?" He asked, carefully checking the calibrations. Activating it, the thing released a large energy dome around them, causing Tracer's grin to grow even larger.

"I...erm...I adjusted the diaphragm of the energy conflux to .83 instead of .8. I also found a few soldering points that could use some touching up that you didn't…" Again, his words trailed away as the intimidating ape looked down on him. "Sorry, sir."

".03," he murmured, turning away from his assistant to clamber up the rope. "Athena! Care to explain to me how you neglected a 3% difference in dilation?"

"You told me to round the numbers, Winston."

"Yes, but I assumed that you would have known to use two significant digits, as I usually ask for."

"You know what they say about assumptions, Winston."

He let out a frustrated grunt, looking over the railing to look down at the two . "Good work, kid. I knew I kept you around for something."

"Tracer," Dan hissed, "what the hell?! I thought you were going to cover for me."

"Don't know what has you in such a tiff," she answered back, curiously going to inspect the cargo that rested on the back of the carrier. "You know that Winston'd never do anything to hurt you even if you did botch one of his experiments. Not severely, at least. Besides," she grinned, sitting on the dolly and crossing one leg over the other, "we all know you're a whiz with machines, love. Winston may be a genius, but even geniuses need someone to look over their work sometimes."

"Yeah, I suppose so," he replied, slightly embarrassed by her praise. "Oh! I forgot to ask. How was your trip to the museum?"

Tracer's eyes dimmed slightly as she shared a glance with Winston. "Eventful," they both answered simultaneously.

Dan quickly dropped the subject, looking to the remaining crate. "So what's in these crates anyway?" he asked.

"Hmm? Oh! Yes, those are items picked up from Watchpoint: Antarctica."

"There was a watchpoint in Antarctica?"

"Oh, yeah. You bet there was!" Tracer leapt from the cart, the excitement now back in her expressions. "They did all sorts of amazing things there, but then, suddenly, all of the researchers there just vanished in the middle of a blizzard. None were ever heard from again." She wiggled her fingers eerily before jerking her thumb back at the boxes. "Well, until we found the cryopods they were stored in and brought them back here to see if they had any good stuff on them."

"We're...grave robbing?"

Winston scowled at Tracer, quickly clambering back down to grab the final two boxes. "She's just messing with you, Dan. You should stop taking everything she says so seriously. We intend to examine them to see if they're still alive. If not, we send their bodies to their next of kin. If so, we catch them up, see what they know about their experiments." Picking up a clipboard in his massive hands, he adjusted his glasses before flipping the page over. "Says they were looking into climate control." Looking up at the dark and murky sky that seemed to loom overhead often, he frowned. "Guess they didn't find much."

"So, does that mean Dr. Ziegler is coming?" his assistant asked, hopefully.

Winston cocked a curious eyebrow at him as Dan's tormenter chimed, "I think he has something of a crush on the good doctor! That or she always brings him candy. I imagine he gets sick of bananas and peanut butter all the time."

"I do not," he protested. "I mean, I do sometimes get tired of the bananas, but I don't have a crush on her. She's just really nice is all. She lets me repair the Valkyrie suit sometimes and it amazes me to just look at it."

"You sure it's the tech and not the shape that interests you, love?" Nodding to Winston, she grinned. "See? Techy candy."

"To answer your question," Winston answered, "no, Mercy will not be joining us today. Though, she did send me this message for you."

Holding out a small screen, he pressed the play button with a massive finger, causing the image of the attractive blonde medic to appear on screen. "Hey there, Winston! I got your call about the Antarctica scientists. I'm sorry to say I won't be able to swing by for a while. I fear I've a major surgery to perform on the President of Zimbabwe, and it's going to be a doozy. However, I leave you in capable hands, none the less. Tell Dan that he needs to open the pods carefully and use the Electrosonic Radium method that I showed him how to do the last time I visited." She made sure to enunciate the instructions very clearly. "With that he'll be able to check their vitals. If they're dead, all he has to do is to melt the ice by gently running water over them until it goes away. Wish him good luck for me!" With a zip, the message closed, leaving Dan completely stunned as the British pilot clapped him on the shoulder.

"She seems to have a lot of faith in you," Tracer pointed out. "See? I keep telling you you should be more confidant. You may not be a member of Overwatch, but you're just as much a part of the team!"

Winston nodded in agreement, helping to bring the last two boxes in before setting them upright in an off-room. When he returned, he gestured his assistant towards the room. "Use whatever tools you need, but be careful. Those are still people in there. Treat them with respect."

"Yes sir," Dan quickly answered, giving a small salute before excitedly rushing to his task.

"I wish I could see such motivation when I asked him to do things," Winston grumbled.

"Ah, cheer up," Tracer replied, nudging him with her elbow. "If it helps, you did teach him everything he knows. Next thing you know, he may even start calling you, 'Dad'."

"That's not funny," he huffed, returning to investigate the shield emitter.

Closing the door behind him, Dan shivered. Winston had chilled the room to the point where his breath was fogging up in front of him. "I can't believe that Doctor Ziegler is letting me do this," he commented to the first body. Scanning it with the device just as she'd shown him, he frowned when it came back negative for signs of life.

As he held the hose up, starting from the top down to the base, he just stood there, continuing having his one-sided conversation.

"I mean, I get that I'm smart, you know? Well, I mean...that came out wrong. People tell me I'm smart, I'm not trying to be arrogant or anything. Even still, I like to think that Overwatch likes having me around, even if I wasn't smart."

Looking up into the pale lifeless face of the researcher, just now exposed, he sighed moving to the second and repeating the process to find they were also just a cadaver now.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. This isn't a club house, it's a world organization determined to right wrongs and stop evils. Or so the old stories say. I mean, I was pretty young when they were really big. The golden age is almost twenty years ago now, did you know that? It's so hard to believe! I was only six years old at the time, and I remember that when I was sixteen, I was so upset after they shut down. But I mean, hey! Look at me now, talking to dead people and committing crimes against the world government like a real hero."

As the head of the researcher lulled slightly to the side, Dan scratched his chin in thought.

"Don't give me that look. I know that Tracer is the same age as me, but that doesn't mean that I could be in Overwatch. I mean, she has the ability to manipulate time. That's legitimately a super power. Like seriously, she could do so much more if she wasn't so hyper and took things seriously every now and then. I know what I'd do. I'd find out the lottery numbers then go back in time and win the lottery."

A few more cadavers later, and he was still just muttering away to himself. He only had one more left to go and at this time, he was just rambling to himself.

"I mean, sure. Tracer's cute and all, but inside she's just like a little kid! What does that say about me if I were to ask her out? Exactly! That I have a thing for little kids. See, you get it. Besides, she's exhausting just talking to. I can't imagine having to spend time with her when she's not working."

Finally, he cracked open the last cryopod, causing it to let out a hiss of icy vapors, just as the others had. Boredly, he held up the scanner, running it up and down the large block of frozen ice as it began to flash and beep rapidly. Setting it down, he went for the hose before realizing that thing had indicated vital signs.

"Holy crap…" he murmured, looking towards the block. "You're alive?" Reaching cautiously to the block, he used one gloved hand to wipe away the condensation to reveal that the ice was perfectly translucent. Standing at eye level, he looked inside and found that encased was a beautiful woman. She looked so sad, he noted, before quickly reminding himself that he was in the middle of an emergency. "Athena!" he called, causing the computer to blink on at the console next to him. "Tell Winston," he began, but stopped.

Mercy had entrusted him with this and she was very busy. But...he couldn't exactly just close the crypod again. What if she died before Mercy could get to her? "Dan?" the computerized woman asked. "You had a message for Winston?"

"No," he answered, "sorry. But can you do me a favor? Find me Doctor Ziegler's notes on restoring a human from cryostasis, please."

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" she postulated. "Doctor Ziegler is a lot more experienced than you are at these situations. It may be best if we waited until her return."

He shook his head. "No, Athena. She told me once that major surgeries can sometimes even take days and have to be performed in shifts. This girl may not have that long."

"She's a woman, Dan."

"Thank you for that correction Athena; you know what I meant. Will you please get me the files on how to defrost her? Also, do you still have access to personnel files? Any idea who she is?"

"Following the break in recently, Winston has elected to keep that information in a more secure location. You do not have authorization to view them, Dan. I'm sorry."

"It's fine,"he answered. "I was just curious."

As the readout appeared on the large screen beside him, he had the scanner showing vital signs for the woman while he worked. First step was to thin out the ice using a laser, so he began to carve away the excess.

It surprisingly felt very therapeutic, like making an ice sculpture except, with a person inside. As water ran off to the ground below, he continued, his mind racing as to all the questions he had for her. She looked young. Maybe she was his age? How long had she been frozen? Soon, he had it so only an inch of ice surrounded the contours of her body.

He nodded his head, actually impressed with himself about a job well done. Scrolling through the instructions to the next part, it instructed for him to prepare a warm bath. "Athena," he called again.

"Did you kill her?" she asked concerned.

"What? No! She's fine. I need to know the approximate change in temperature a human body can undergo without going into shock."

"Calculating: the average change of body temperatures in humans that can cause shock is about 32 degrees Kelvin."

Looking at her vitals, I noted her skin's temperature was surprisingly warm considering the ice around it. "Athena, do a scan of her blood for me will you? Something's keeping her warm in there, some how."

"Confirmed. Presence of nanotech found. Machines have been circulating blood at a regular pace since activation. I believe that this did not occur in the others and may be the reason for their death."

"Are you able to send them instructions?"

"Affirmative."

"Tell them to start slowly increasing the temperature of her outer skin. While they do that, I'll work on removing the ice from her face. She'll need to be able to breathe once we bring her out of stasis."

"May I offer a counter proposal, Daniel?"

"Far be it from me to argue with a super computer. What did you have in mind Athena?"

"These Nanobots are very advanced. They were experimental when first developed and even now they're still cutting edge. They could simply raise the temperature of her epidermis to a level of heat to melt the ice quickly, while keeping the inner skin cool so she will not be harmed by the process."

"Can you assure me that she will be safe?"

"I'm calculating a 0.0% chance of minor injuries being sustained by the process."

"0.0%?" he asked skeptically.

There was a slight pause before Athena replied with "0.02%"

He took a deep breath. Should he speak to Winston? Maybe he would be able to recommend...He shook the thought from his head. No, if he wanted to prove that he was capable, he'd have to make the decision himself. "Go ahead," he replied. "Just know if this goes wrong, I'm going to say you told me to do it."

"That is rather cruel."

"And a joke."

"I see." After a few blips from the sensors, the ice began to simply vaporize from her skin, sublimating straight into the atmosphere.

"She's coming out of it," he whispered excitedly, watching the process unfold. "Tell them to return her skin to standard levels." With all the ice gone, she suddenly fell forward towards him. Extending his arms, Dan managed to catch her limp body. Sure enough, she was safe to the touch. Sensors indicated her heart was still beating, she was alive. But even still, she wasn't waking up. "Hello? Miss?"

He shook her gently. Now that he could see her clearly, he was stunned by just how beautiful she was. Her eyes slowly began to open with a groan as she looked up to see him standing above her. "Hmmm?" she asked sleepily. "Who are you? Why are you waking me up?"

"You've been in cryostasis. Right now you're at Watchpoint: Gibraltar."

"Gibraltar?" the woman groaned, her big eyes opening wider now as she began to wake up. Smiling at the man, she let out a sigh of relief. "I should have known that Overwatch wouldn't forget us. They saved us."

Looking over to the tables that were currently covered with the bodies of the other nineteen scientists, he shook his head. "Not everyone, and not Overwatch," he murmured. "You've been gone for a long time, miss."

"Mei…"

"No it's not May. In fact it's," he looked at his watch, "the thirteenth of January." He wanted to transition to her change in time slowly. If he just told her it'd been five years, he didn't know how she'd react.

She giggled lightly. "No. My name is Mei. M-e-i. Mei Ling Zhou. I'm a professor at Overwatch researching causes for global climate changes in Antarctica. There was a blizzard and we were running out of supplies but couldn't contact Overwatch to request more. So we froze ourselves to wait for rescue. You said that Overwatch didn't save us. Who did?"

He paused taking a deep breath. Resting his hand on hers she looked at him with those big eyes. "Mei, I'm not really sure how to tell you this," he began. "Firstly, I'm sorry to say that the others didn't survive the Cryostasis. You were the only one."

Her fingers tightened around his nervously. "All of them?" He nodded his head. "I see," she whispered with a tinge of sadness. It was obvious she was trying to put on a brave face. "Did they at least go peacefully?"

"I'm not sure," he admitted. "If it helps, they all looked very serene when I got them out of the ice." Mei said nothing, provoking him to continue. "There's more bad news, I'm afraid." She tried to sit up, causing his eyes to widen. "Whoa, whoa. Mei, you need to save your strength," he urged, putting an arm around her back to help her.

"Is this the rest of my team?" she asked, ignoring his advice and swinging her legs off the side of the table slowly to simply look at the still dressed corpses.

"Yes," Dan said, moving around the table to sit beside her. "But Mei, about Overwatch…"

"Please give me a moment," she interrupted. "I...I'm sorry. I don't mean to be rude."

"No, no! Take your time, I'm sorry," he quickly apologized, causing her to look at him surprise. "I wasn't trying to rush you. If you like, I can catch you up later. Or, if you'd like a moment alone, I can do that, too. I'm sure Winston would understand completely if…"

"Winston?" she asked in surprise. "Winston is here?"

"As is Tracer."

A sigh of relief escaped her lungs. Placing her hand over her chest, she realized that her Parka had been unzipped and opened. "Did you…?"

Dan blushed, profusely sputtering more apologies. "Y-yeah, I'm s-s-sorry. I swear I wasn't try to be pervy or anything. When I first got you out, you seemed to be having trouble breathing, so I opened it and…" he paused bowing his head, "I'm really, really sorry."

She laughed, shrugging off her coat and setting it beside her. "Sorry, I'm not laughing at you," she swore, "it's just so odd to hear someone apologize the same way I do."

"Doesn't everyone say 'sorry'?"

"Yes," she giggled. "I have the habit of apologizing many times for things. You've no need to apologize though. You saved my life, right? I'm grateful."

Dan smiled politely, pulling his gaze away from the beautiful woman to look back over the long row of metal tables. "If it helps at all, some good things have happened too while you've been asleep."

"It does help," she assured him. "Sorry, you were saying about Overwatch?"

"Right, sorry. Overwatch was disbanded, Mei. Any Overwatch activity is deemed illegal and anyone caught doing so would be arrested and prosecuted."

"What?! But...the war! The Omnecs?"

"War's over. Humanity won. As for the Omnecs...well that's a pretty hot button issue right now in regards to equality."

"So...if Overwatch doesn't exist, and sorry if this sounds rude, who are you?"

"Oh man," he chuckled nervously. "Well...where should I begin?"

"Your name," she suggested playfully.

"Oh, right. Sorry." He offered her his hand to shake with a gentle smile. "I'm Daniel McQueen. Most people just call me Dan though."

"A pleasure to meet you, Dan," she beamed shaking his hand eagerly. "What is it that you do here?"

"This and that. One day it may be grabbing extra jars of peanut butter and bananas for Winston, other days it may be assisting him with grabbing things his hands are too big to reach. The other day he ended up putting his armor on wrong and couldn't reach the release to get out of it."

"Oh! You're a temp?"

"His assistant," he corrected. "As to who we are as an organization, I suppose you can call us the new Overwatch. Though most of our activities are involved with sneaking around and not getting caught by the authorities when we're saving people. I guess we're more of an Underwatch."

"I see," she commented. "I do recall hearing news that there were some scandals that had come to light. I never dreamed they would shut down all of Overwatch though. How long have I been away?"

"Five years. The truth is, Overwatch must not have received your distress beacon. I'm sure they would have helped you if...DOWN!" Grasping her, he quickly pulled Mei from the metal table, just as a series of bullets riddled the wall behind them.

"Going to have to do better than that, love!" Tracer beamed, appearing in front of them momentarily before vanishing and reappearing elsewhere.

"Annoying pest!" a feminine voice called out, firing more bullets wildly around the room. It was a voice that sent a chill down his spine. He knew it all too well.

"Shit," he muttered under his breath, peering out from the corner to be confirmed by the sight of the dark-skinned beauty. "Widowmaker."

"Who?"

"Talon's best assassin. Damn it, I can't believe they're attacking again."

"Shouldn't we help them fight?" Mei asked over the gunfire.

"Two problems: One, I don't know how to shoot a gun. I'm just a lab assistant. Two, even if I did, we're in the med bay. We don't have any guns here." That was when Dan smelled the awful stench of sulfur in the air. The foul smell was enough to make him retch, but he knew what it meant. "And now Reaper is here," he groaned.

Sure enough, in the middle of her taunting, Tracer had neglected to watch her back. Appearing behind her, the phantom-like assassin leveled a shotgun and blasted her straight in her harness, causing it fizzle out as she collapsed forward on to the ground.

Just as she was about to get up, he stomped down on her back, leveling the other gun at the back of her head. "Wait," Widowmaker interrupted, holding up her hand. "I want to draw this one out slowly."

Reaper said nothing for a moment before drawing back his gun and slamming it down hard on the back of Tracer's skull, knocking her unconscious. "Do not forget why we are here," he instructed ominously. "Handle your personal vendetta after we've secured the girl. I'll see if I can take out the monkey." With the last sentence, he vanished in a cloud of smoke once more.

He could hear the sounds of the remaining killer as her heels clicked along the floor. "Come out, come out, little fly," she purred. "I know you're in here. All we want is the girl. We promise we're not here for you or your friends. Surrender her and you'll be spared."

"Yeah, right," He mumbled under his breath. Chancing another peek, he looked out again to see her peering beneath another table, three rows back. She was humming softly to herself, cradling a hybrid assault/sniper rifle. He had to do something.

Mei looked at him before peering around her side. "How's Tracer?"

"Alive," she replied softly. "Her guns are on the far wall. I may be able to make it if I'm quick." Noting his look, she waved her hand, "I'll explain later. You figure out a way to disarm her, I'll go for the guns."

Looking for anything he could use, Dan peered up to see the powerful high-grade laser still hanging in position from when he'd cut Mei free from the ice. "All right, I have an idea," informed her. If this didn't work they were both dead. But he also knew that if they did nothing, the same result would occur. Talon was not known for leaving witnesses.

Mei held her her fingers, silently counting down from three. On one, she quickly stood to dart for Tracer's discarded weapons. Just as Widowmaker turned to fire, Dan shouted out, "Athena! Activate laser! Full power!"

The beam of light roared to life as Dan swiveled it quickly, slicing the assassin's gun in two, just as Mei swept up the guns and began to fire wildly at her. Grabbing one of her poisonous mines, Widowmaker quickly hurled one in the direction of the laser, causing him to go into a coughing fit before she fired her grappling hook to escape through the sky light.

Crawling to the other side of the table, Mei continued firing at her until she vanished from sight before rushing back to his side. "Are you okay? Dan, speak to me!"

"I'm fine," he coughed, still trying to reach the fresh air. "Athena," he wheezed, "deactivate laser. Initiate circulation and quarantine storage."

"Complying," the computer stated, quickly dispersing the poison gas away from them before filtering it into a small canister.

Mei handed him one of Tracer's guns, nodding behind them. "Let's check on Winston, he may need our help. All you do is aim, take a deep breath, and pull the trigger."

The two dove out of cover, moving quickly towards the main workshop to see Winston combatting fiercely with Reaper. Just as he fired his tesla cannon, Reaper became ethereal vanishing and reappearing behind him to fire at him with the shotgun. Mei and Dan opened fire on him, causing him to look up at them in surprise before ducking for cover.

"Winston!" Dan called, grabbing the shield generator and tossing it to him. His boss easily caught it, giving him a thankful nod before activating it just as Reaper began firing again.

Realizing he was outnumbered and outgunned, he let out a snarl before disappearing once more. This time, he didn't come back. Rushing to his side, Mei shook the giant beast gently.

"Winston, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he groaned, clambering to his feet. "It's not a productive day at the office until Talon attacks us...who are you?" Winston asked, realizing he didn't know the woman speaking.

"She's one of ours," Dan swiftly explained. "Winston, meet Professor Mei Ling Zhou from Watchpoint: Antarctica."

"Holy hell," he grunted. "I didn't expect any of them to still be alive. Where's Tracer?"

"Alive, but unconscious. Her harness is pretty badly damaged though. How much time do we have before she destabilizes?"

Lumbering towards her, the ape lifted her in his arms, gently carrying her back to the main workshop. "It looks for the most part salvageable," the ape sighed in relief. "She'll be just fine. Any idea what they wanted?"

"They said they came for 'the girl', I assume they meant Mei."

"How did they even know I was here?"

"Athena, run diagnostic sweep of the base to see if there's any bugs." Sure enough, she chimed soon after that she'd found and disabled the devices. "Damn it," he grunted. "I knew I should have been more careful. Excellent work you two. Dan, place in a new core for Tracer's harness. Mei...you and I have things to discuss."

As Mei and the lab assistant parted ways temporarily, she flashed him a reassuring smile that made him feel weak and warm inside. Pausing just outside of Winston's office, he watched in awe as she looked up at his board and without saying a word, erased and changed one of the numerals. Giving him another grin, she disappeared inside.

For the first time in his life, Dan thought he may very well be in love.

To be continued...