It was a terrible day to be a Talon operative.

Moira had received orders from Talon high command that sent her to an old Blackwatch facility nestled in the Rocky Mountains. Left derelict and forgotten by the remaining active Overwatch agents, it had been shut down many years, even before Overwatch disbanded. Too remote, too expensive, too much antiquated tech; the reasons for it's closure were numerous, but it was the lattermost that irritated Moira so. She was being placed on duty in the tiny site indefinitely, and so to be trapped for an unknown amount of time without the means to conduct any meaningful research-it was like her own personal hell.

Equally frustrating was the situation of her company. She had been paired to go with Lacroix, who while not the least likeable operative-god forbid she have to work with Sombra-was not by any means skilled at holding an idle conversation. All brusque, all business. Normally this would be just to Moira's liking but without anything else to occupy her time, it seemed another nail in the coffin on what was certainly going to be a terrible trip.

As the dropship neared their destination, Moira leaned against the window and looked out at her temporary home. From all outside perspective, it was just another grey mountain, probably with some silly name like Peak of Adventure or some similar nonsense. Moira cared not. As her ride stopped and a drop cord thrown out, Moira noted the abundant lack of nearby settlements or structures. There was nothing outside to occupy her time and her mind. She could only hope there was something inside the facility, or this would be a very long trip. Descending the cord and finding the singular doorway to the Blackwatch site, disguised as another boulder laid in the mountainside, Moira took her first steps into the facility. Widowmaker followed a pace behind. Determined to make the most of her time here, Moira beelined to the Research and Testing division down the main hallway. To her monumental disappointment, the "division" was nothing more than a glorified two-room setup, with one room full of old nanospec gear and cupboards and the other a tiled white cell only accessible through a heavy pneumatic door. Yet another nail, Moira thought.

Widowmaker has gone up ahead towards what was supposed to be a central command room. Moira decided to use her solitary moment to rifle through the assortment of drawers and cupboards for something interesting. A cupboard? Nothing. A drawer? Nothing. Another drawer? nothing. Yet another cupboard? Nothing. A drawer? Nothi-just before Moira closed the drawer, she spotted a tube at the far end of the drawer, just out of the dim light of the dusty overhead. Pulling it out and looking at it, she could see it was a vial with a deep fuchsia colored liquid in it-wait, no, it was actually a very thick gas. Simultaneously intrigued and relieved, Moira dusted off the cap to find what appeared to be a serial number inset into the metal at the cap.

Deciding to investigate further on her new distraction, Moira left the dismal research division and headed back down the main hall to the command center. Hopefully there she would find a database to reference the number, and could find some notes on what the vial was. Walking into the command room, Moira found it just as disappointing as the research division; a tiny room barely the size of two dropship passenger bays. Widowmaker was inside already toying with her heavy venom mine deployer. The heavy venom mine was a much sturdier (and much more expensive) venom mine model that could lie intact in a position for weeks, and could deploy multiple charges of venom gas from a single venom cell. Perfect for holding down the fort in a miserable hole in the mountains, Moira thought. Not for the first time, she envied the assassin's steadfast indifference to her work environment. Passing by her for the time being, Moira turned to the database, booting up the rusted mainframe, and entered the serial number on her mystery vial.

What followed were a series of disclosure forms and video logs from the old Blackwatch team stationed there. It seemed that the vial was part of a gene modifying program, designed to reach new heights beyond the old Super Soldier serum used on Overwatch Founders Reyes and Morrison. This was an enticing prospect to Moira; she was always open to perfecting her genesplicing craft, and even without test subjects, she certainly wasn't afraid to experiment on herself. The next dossier described it as the pinnacle of enhancement technology; able to respond in a specific and replicable fashion to electrostatic stimulus, it was capable of modifying muscle, tissue, and organs through the use of an applied static projector. Apparently one of these devices was installed in the side wall of the tiled test room Moira had seen earlier, and was controlled through the same interface screen that controlled the door. This probably meant she would require Lacroix to be at the panel, but nevertheless, if this gene controller was as powerful as the database claimed, it would surely have a range of applications worth researching. Just then a video log started playing. A scientist in a white hazmat suit came on and described the application method. It seemed that the gas could be absorbed straight into the skin to start modifying areas in the topical range, but deeper physiological changes would require the ingestion and inhalation of a sizable portion of the gas over a period of time. And most interesting was a footnote added at the end of of the video.

"This prototype is heavily affected by the nerve patterns extended through the brains response to trauma; to have any reaction at all, the subject must feel intense terror or the gas may be rendered inert." A small smile crept over Moira's face as she realized what had happened to the facility. The gas, while extremely potent at genetic change, required a subject to be truly terrified; not something that can be found in many willing test subjects. Undoubtedly the Blackwatch team here must have been up in arms and shut down their research over their tizzy, thought Moira. But what was a moral quandry to them would prove an excellent diversion of attention for Moira.

It was at that moment that Moira realized two things. 1.) that her deep passion for science meant that she could almost certainly not feel the terror require to activate the compound, meaning that she was back to square one without a way to use the gas, and 2.) that the proximity alarm had just gone off. Someone was here.

It was a terrible, terrible day to be a Talon operative.

Dashing to the cameras, Widowmaker and Moira looked at the feed. One by one the outer cameras were cutting from their serene outdoor subjects and turning to black. Someone was taking down each camera, one by one. Someone fast enough to do so without being seen in the video feed. It could only be-

"Miss Oxton." Moira said tersely. Widowmaker nodded, pulling her heavy venom mine back onto her deployer. She reached for her gun until Moira hissed at her.

"We don't know how stable this facility is, and your rounds my dear, are rather penetrative." Moira said through clenched teeth. Considering how a wayward explosion had done in the original Overwatch headquarters, it seemed prudent to assume similar explosive materials could be lying about. Widowmaker seemed nonplussed at being unable to use her gun in such a ramshackle environment. "Fine." she said, arming the heavy venom mine. A good melee strike, a well-placed mine, and gun or no gun, the assassin would have her mark. Just then an explosion shook the facility. It seemed the enterprising Overwatch agent had used her pulse bomb to break down the front door. Unfortunately, in a facility this small, there wasn't much of a walk from the front door to the command center, and at someone Tracer's speed, well, it wouldn't be inaccurate to say she arrived in a second. With a blue flash of light, Tracer entered the room guns blazing. In the split second Moira had to react, she judged that Tracer had seemingly come alone. That being the case, Moira and Widowmaker probably had the means to take her down-provided the agent didn't just run away. Hoping that Widowmaker would understand her plan, Moira faded, become both invisible and intangible, and with great speed sped past Tracer as she came through the doorway. Once just outside the door, Moira cast a bio-orb in the doorframe, causing it to bound back and forth extremely rapidly in the small frame. Not much of a barrier, but for someone as lightly armored as Tracer, it would probably do the trick.

On Widowmaker's end, things were going a little rougher. Moira's fade had been timed perfectly enough that Tracer hadn't seen her, and had instead only seen Widowmaker. Perhaps embolded by the idea of a one-on-one duel with her nemesis, Tracer failed to notice Moira setting up a containing trap behind her. Instead she brought up both pistols and turned them on Widowmaker.

"Time's up!" she said, in a bizarre twist, considering she had used her ult just seconds before. Appropriate voice line or not, Widowmaker was hard-pressed to defend herself at such a close range. Thinking quickly, she raised her mine deployer up as a shield to block the shots aimed at her head. The heavy mine she had loaded, while not nearly as effective as a projectile barrier field, was able to take a few shots without falling apart. Widowmaker rolled behind the desk, stealing only a moment to catch her breath. Noticing blood on her arm, she thought at first she had been shot, before realizing it was actually a glass cut, from the broken venom charge she had loaded into the deployer. Evidently upgrading the strength of the mine did not make the actual venom tube at the center stronger. Knowing that Tracer could easily fire into the desk to take her down once and for all, Widowmaker opted to move one more time in the time intense battle. Leaping out from under the desk and kicking off of the edge, Widowmaker fired her grappling hook opposite her trajectory. The bolt whistled right past Tracer's head, who was rather bewildered, as she didn't think Widowmaker was armed. That didn't stop Tracer from smirking though.

"Missed me!" she said, feeling playful as the Talon agent seemed massively off her game. That feeling faded as Widowmaker smiled in turn. Instead of stopping to make a clever one liner, Widowmaker, in one fluid motion, caught in her open venom mine the tube that her hook had been reeling in over Tracer's shoulder, and fired the mine itself at Tracer. The heavy mine caught her right in the center of her chest, and so great was its weight that it pulled the agent over, flinging her against a wall. Just the the mine itself went off, deploying a viscous gas over Tracer's lips and nose, causing her to cough and close her eyes. Not one to go down so easy, Tracer rewound to where she had been just three seconds before. Unfortunately for her that was the doorway where Moira had laid her biotic trap. The damage to her suit cause her to try and blink backwards in panic, and as she did so, she came out of the blue flash in a massive trip. Her blink had been pulled entirely off balance by the mine still attached to her chest! It seemed that the heavy mine had a strong enough grip on her Chrono-Accelerator to follow her through her recall! It was just then that the motion sensor on the mine triggered a second time, and for the second time in moments, Tracer was enveloped in a thick cloud. Dazed, disoriented, and blinded, Tracer had no way to fight back as Moira brought her gauntlets down on her head, on final time, knocking her unconscious.

With the agent subdued, Moira turned to Widowmaker.

"Day one, a rogue agent comes after us. What an ominous portent." Moira said, exhilarated from the lighting-fast fight. She stood up, surveying the bullet holes in the wall and the large dent in the desk she herself had sat at not five minute prior. Her first day certainly hadn't been boring. Overwatch agents coming after her? She was no thrillseeker, but Moira wasn't feeling too picky about her entertainment at the time. And that wasn't even the only thing that had Moira excited. The other thing that had her blood pumping was the steel spider clinging between Tracer's breasts. Because the venom that the mine had just deployed two doses of, was actually Moira's mystery vial.

She had just found herself a test subject.