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ax_main2018-07-07 11:36 am
ax_wolfcub) wrote in ax_main2018-07-07 11:36 am
Entry tags:
Nick and Hana, Backdated to 7/7
Nick meets one of his gaming heroes in real life. No, not one of the virtual heroes, one of the people who are actually real.
And then he gets to meet some of the virtual ones, too.
When they said the Danger Room could simulate just about anything, they hadn’t been kidding. While getting a scenario ready for herself, Hana had seen one for zombies, dinosaurs, serial killer in space a la Jason X, and a circus. All of which had immediately been added to her Must-Do List because, man, those sounded awesome! For now, though, she was just gonna play herself some good, old-fashioned Overwatch.
With her warm-up stretches finished, Hana queued up one of the many gaming lists on her iPod and hooked it up to the Danger Room’s sound system. Her favorite Lúcio song was at the top of the list, and ready to go—All she had to do was go into the Danger Room and started playing!
It was time to blow off some steam in a less conventional method. Besides, he had X-Force to practice for, and, well, there was no better place to do it than the Danger Room. Maybe he'd come up with something fun. When he was about in, dressed in a plain black t-shirt and track pants that he'd bought online, he noticed that there was music coming from the Danger Room. And that... holy shit. He caught a glimpse of D.Va as she entered. She wasn't Hana, in his mind, because he'd known her as her online persona first and foremost.
"H-Hey," Nick said, blinking as he came up behind her. "Whatcha up to?" he asked, a bit awkwardly. He was pretty sure they had some classes together, but he'd always tried to focus hard on his studies and not gawk at one of his top internet gaming idols.
Hana turned to the voice and offered its owner—Nick if she remembered correctly—a friendly smile. “Hey! Oh! Sorry, were you about to train? I can come back later.” X-Force stuff probably took precedence, right?
"I-I was just going to do some practice on my own," Nick admitted. "But if you want company, I'm down for whatever, y'know, y-you're doing." Okay, yeah, he was stuttering again. But hey, this was D.Va, and holy shit, she was here and at the school and a mutant like him, but not like him because... well, mutants were all pretty different, kind of like people. "S-sorry," he admitted. "I didn't really wanna like, invite myself. But." Yeah, okay, his fan-ness was showing, probably.
Hana had been around enough fanboying to know the best way to help someone feel comfortable with her was to ignore it and just be herself. She smiled brightly. “You kidding? The more the merrier! This will be a blast! Just one sec while I change the settings.” She left the Danger Room to update the sim to two players and returned a few minutes later. “You like Overwatch?”
"Yeah, I just haven't played a lot lately," Nick confessed. He hadn't been doing a lot of much of anything, really. Just kind of roaming around and trying to keep busy.
“Well, you’re about to get some firsthand practice.” Hana grinned and shouted out to the room, “Start the sim!”
The Danger Room flickered to life and they now stood inside a futuristic looking space shuttle. Hana knew it well. Four, equally well-known people milled around them, randomly sticking poses and quoting voice lines. Junkrat with his peg-leg and crazed laugh danced with the massive Roadhog, the former doing the running man and the latter the cabbage patch. Not far from them, Symmetra sat cross-legged on a stool, cooly remarking What…interesting ways your mind works. Mercy stood behind her, wings glowing, and caduceus staff slung over her shoulder like a parasol. It was. So. Cool.
Hana approached the shuttle’s closed door and peered out the little window. It looked like they were on the Nepal sanctum map. “King of the hill match! Nice!’
"So, uh, are we just ourselves for this?" he asked, wondering how it worked.
“Ourselves with our powers, and them with theirs,” Hana confirmed as she came back over to Nick. “We’ve got a good team comp. I wonder who we’ll be up against. I set it up to be randomized.”
"Great..." Nick wasn't as tough as maybe he looked, he feared. "I'm usually a Genji main, so..." He shrugged. "We'll see what happens, I guess." At least he wasn't at risk of dying, since, y'know, it was just a simulation. He knew the gist of the game, the various characters, and he was decently skilled at it. Not in D.Va's league, but... hey, whatever. He'd see how he ranked.
Grinning, Hana said, “DPS, nice. I’m flex, but I tank mostly.” Which had made her mutation oddly fitting, but that seemed to be the story for a lot of the kids here. Speaking of… She took a look at their team again. The Danger Room had set them up with two DPS, a tank, and a healer… She’d obviously be their second tank, but, she realized, she had no idea what Nick could do. “Does that badass werewolf look come with anything?”
Behind them, Junkrat crowed out What a bunch of misfits and freaks we got here: I love it! and cackled wildly.
He would've been blushing if she could see it past the fur, and he was glad she couldn't. "Claws, teeth, I'm kinda strong and kinda fast?" he offered, a bit helplessly. "I'm also kinda tough. I'm a good tracker..." He'd been working on that... "Might come in handy, who knows?" The Danger Room had all kinds of crazy simulation crap. Now he was wondering if he'd ever smelled anything the Danger Room simulated. Which was kind of a weird thought.
"I guess the Danger Room will handle our respawns and stuff if we get taken out?" he asked, curiously, scratching the side of his head. They were always adding new tech, and what it couldn't quite do, it could simulate rather well. So teleportation of any kind was possible, he figured.
“I don’t know! Guess we’ll find out!” Hana summoned her mech with a thought. It rose up around her, lifting her off her feet, until she more or less sat inside what amounted to the cockpit of its pink, opaque form. It stood on two feet, its triple-barreled gun arms at the ready.
Well that was freaking amazing. And borderline unfair, frankly, but still. This was... going to be interesting. He figured there wasn't much more to say, so he took up a position next to the door, awaiting for the match to begin.
The voice of Overwatch’s AI, Athena, started to countdown from ten. At zero, the door lowered and their team went streaming past them in a mad dash for the point. A land mine went off at Hana’s left, hurling a laughing Junkrat into the air.
“Alright!” Hana cheered, and she fired her telekinetic mech’s rocket boosters, launching herself forward.
It's just a game, Nick reminded himself as he gulped, trying to siphon some of D.Va's enthusiasm into himself. He decided, frankly, that it was best to just follow the procession for now, get a feel for the map. He'd strike out on his own or in a smaller group to harass or take up choke points later. There was time. First and foremost was the point.
Their team made it to the point before the other team did and immediately began getting ready to defend it. Junkrat through a bear trap down, while Symmetra threw up some turrets with a laugh and said, “Setting up the carwash!” The others took up positions within the area, Mercy immediately buffing Roadhog with her caduceus staff in preparation for the incoming assault. Hana trained her mech’s guns ahead of her.
Moments later the other team came pouring through the choke. Soldier 76 lead the charge, sprinting ahead of the group. Zarya was next, impossible to miss with her pink-hair and the massive Particle Cannon she carried in her muscular arms. Two smaller forms dashed past her—First Somba who disappeared with a wave of her hand, then Hanzo who quickly darted up a wall. Zenyatta floated brought up the rear, his orbs floating around him.
Except—Hana frowned—that was only five. Where was… There was a shout and Winston leaped ahead of everyone, landing on the point with a grunt and tossing down his dome shield.
Nick took up a spot just behind Roadhog, taking inventory of the enemy team. Hanzo was going to be a problem; his maneuverability was one of his key strengths, but if Nick could get in close...
He took a look around the landscape. He didn't know if Junkrat would stay, but between Symmetra, D.Va, Roadhog and Mercy, Nick felt confident that if he broke off, they'd be fine.
"Cover me," he said, as he doubled back to go up a ramp that would take him to where Hanzo had gone. "I'm gonna deal with Hanzo." It only felt right, since he was a Genji main.
Hana—nah, she was totally D.Va now—left the rest of the team to deal with the monkey and turned to lay down some suppressive fire for Nick. When he was safely out of view, she swung back around to take care of Winston. He went down quickly, the others had done a good job of chipping his health away on their own, but a blast of helix rockets against the side of D.Va’s mech announced the arrival of the rest of the team.
The simulated terrain was a bit odd under his feet; it was like his toe claws could grip easier. While he was contemplating that, he had to thank his luck that Hanzo was aiming below, looking like he was taking aim at Mercy. Which was smart; take out the support first, which was precisely why Nick was going to stop him.
Spotting him wasn't hard, though, considering the lack of cover up here. But Nick at least had an advantage of still being at a full-tilt run at Hanzo. The bow-wielding ninja corrected his aim to Nick and let an arrow fly. Nick had never dodged arrows before, in real life. But apparently, his mutant reflexes were all the practice he needed in the art. He ducked it, briefly grabbing the floor to pull himself along, again surprised at how readily his claws dug into the simulated terrain. Another quick arrow was loosed and Nick darted to the side, as Hanzo began to backpedal. Recklessly. Which was good; if he could pressure him...
A third, quick-fired arrow nearly struck Nick in the forehead, but Nick jumped upon hearing the snap of the bowstring, lunging at Hanzo and grabbing him by the arm and his kimono. The force of Nick's impact sent the pair of them over the edge, with Nick atop of Hanzo, the latter unable to draw his bow. Nick punched him twice on the way down, and landed with a grunt against the assassin. He didn't know if he had actually downed the assassin or not with the damage dealt, because Zenyatta was throwing some exploding orbs his way. Nick had no real choice but to flee, hoping to wrap back around to either finish Hanzo off, or start working on their back line.
They had less than ten seconds before Winston would respawn, and D.Va intended to take advantage of it. She’d left Zenyatta for their DPS to deal with, knowing Sym’s and Junkrat’s damage could handle his low HP without a problem, and gone for their Zarya as Mercy buffed her with her staff. Getting rid of her shield bubbles would make it way easier to take out everyone else. She had her about halfway, her telekinetic shield eating up the damage from Zarya’s particle cannon at the same time as she fired on her.
“I could use some assistance!” Mercy called out from behind her.
D.Va spun around to find Mercy had been hacked by Sombra and, unable to fly away now, was getting the brunt of her fully-automatic machine pistol. “Hey, not cool, man!” she shouted and turned her guns on Sombra who immediately used her translocator to teleport away.
Winston would be back any moment (along with Hanzo), Nick knew, and keeping Mercy up would be integral to their defense. Sombra needed to go, but Nick couldn't track a teleporter (sadly). So that left Zarya, because her particle cannon was now aimed at D.Va's back. So that was plan B, as Junkrat and Symmetra took care of Zenyatta. Between the three of them, they could probably take down Zarya. So he charged in, figuring the others would follow suit since Zenyatta had just gone down.
With a whoop, D.Va turned back around to rejoin the fight, unleashing a spray of rockets on Zarya as Mercy flew off to give the rest of the team some support. She healed Junkrat, then bounced back to Roadhug to buff him as he hooked Soldier.
“Go get ‘em, team!” D.Va cheered maybe a little too soon. A spray of bullets from Sombra took Symmetra down, and a flurry of rapid-fire arrows took Roadhog out. “We got this! Hold the point, guys!”
That was a premature celebration if he'd ever seen one. Freaking Hanzo was back, which was not a surprise, but Winston was... not in evidence. Which was also bad. Not to mention Sombra was still lurking around.
He needed to fall back. Which meant taking cover, essentially, behind D.Va as he fell back. "Man, this is non-stop," Nick breathed. It was... fun, but god damn was it wearying too.
“Right? It’s awesome!” D.Va said, throwing up her shield so Mercy could glide in and rez Roadhog.
They had the advantage, and D.Va knew they had to move fast before they lost it. Now was the best time to break out the big guns. The telekinetic shell of the mech was vibrating with energy around her, ready to blow.
Yup. This was totally happening.
D.Va grinned. “Activating Self Destruct Sequence!” she called out playfully, then rocketed up into the air, and ejected herself from her mech. It kept going, green energy pulsed around it, then fell back towards the earth as the pulse grew stronger and stronger. It hit the ground and exploded in a wave of telekinetic energy. Zenyatta, Somba, and Hanzo went down. All that left was Soldier.
Nick took the opportunity to rush Soldier 76; the visor-wearing mercenary (he was a mercenary, right? Nick wasn't big on the lore of the game in some areas) swiveled to fire at him, instead of D.Va. He was expecting a burst of gunfire, but what he got was Soldier's helix rockets flying toward him. In a bit of a panic, Nick slid, sliding underneath of the trio of rockets before coming to a halt just a few feet away from Soldier, who adjusted his aim.
"Aww, crap," Nick murmured, feeling a burst from Soldier's rifle impact on his body armor. It stung like crazy, and he hissed through the pain as he clawed the ground into a strafing run. He had lost his opportunity; if he remembered correctly, Soldier's rockets would be off cooldown soon and he'd be free to fire them off again. Nick didn't have much of a chance dodging them at close range, so it was best to break off and seek cover.
It really, really sucked playing a melee character in a shooter game, he decided.
D.Va’s mech was gone for the moment, so she ducked behind Roadhog for some cover. She hadn’t seen Soldier get eliminated, but they were capping the point, so wherever he was it wasn’t here. They’d gotten a tick when Winston came leaping back in.
“Take out the monkey! Quick!” D.Va shouted.
----
Nick felt like he wanted to collapse and never get up. He leaned against the door outside the Danger Room, panting and sweating through his fur. "Holy crap," he managed, shaking his head. He couldn't believe, somehow, that they'd won that. It had all seemed so... frantic. It was a completely different perspective than just sitting around and playing the game in his room.
“That was awesome!” Hana was grinning ear to ear with breathless excitement and she clapped Nick on the shoulder. “You did great, man! We should totally do that again some time! You kicked major ass.”
Nick smiled, even though he was basically breathless. "Y-yeah?" he asked, sheepishly. "You were the amazing one. I just... had to..." Phew, it was hot doing all that running around inside. "Y'know. Improvise.”
“Improvising is one of the most important parts,” Hana countered with as she started cool down stretches by bending over to touch her toes. “You did great, dude. The team couldn’t have done it without you.”
Yeah, okay, she had a point. And god how had he not processed the fact that he had just done a practice session with D.Va? "Thanks," he murmured, smiling just a little at her. Man, how was he just sitting here talking to her? He had barely thought she was even real when he'd first come across her. But man, she was... just as awesome as the videos suggested. "You were amazing, too," he said.
Hana beamed at Nick as she straightened and stretched arm across her chest. “Thanks!” She switched to the other arm. “My telekinetic mech is crazy intuitive. I think I could use it in my sleep. And, man, that baby can turn on a dime!”
"I could tell," Nick said, finally getting his breath back. He was still way too hot, though. The body armor breathed just fine, but... still, he was wearing a layer of fur, so to speak. "It was like watching some sci-fi action flick in there.”
That made Hana grin even more. “It felt like one! Who needs virtual reality, am I right? This makes the Oculus look like Duck Hunt.”
"Yeah, it's... it's crazy," he agreed, nodding. "I, uh..." Jeez, he'd almost said a half-dozen embarrassing things to her, just then. "You, uh... wanna make this a regular thing?" he asked, going with that, as the least cringe-worthy thing he could possibly go with in his mind at the moment. "It seems like a... a real good way to keep in shape."
“Sure!” Hana planned on doing this a lot and it’d be a ton more fun with another person. “Same time next week?”
"S-sounds good to me," Nick said, honestly surprised she was okay with him more or less inviting himself along for it.
Grinning, Hana held up a hand for a high-five. “Awesome! Next time we’ll take it in half the time, yeah?”
Nick laughed, but it was a bit weak. "Yeah, half the time, sure," he said, giving her a high five. Boy, this was... going to be a lot of exercise.
Hana whooped when they high-fives, then said, “Alright, I’ve got to get going. I have a stream starting in an hour and a half that I need to get ready for. See you next week?”
"Sure!" Nick said, making a mental note of it and the time her stream would start. He was watching it for sure. And an hour and a half seemed like enough time for a shower and a nap…
“Awesome! Later, dude.” Hana flashed him her trade-mark peace sign, then raced off to get showered and changed for her stream.
And then he gets to meet some of the virtual ones, too.
When they said the Danger Room could simulate just about anything, they hadn’t been kidding. While getting a scenario ready for herself, Hana had seen one for zombies, dinosaurs, serial killer in space a la Jason X, and a circus. All of which had immediately been added to her Must-Do List because, man, those sounded awesome! For now, though, she was just gonna play herself some good, old-fashioned Overwatch.
With her warm-up stretches finished, Hana queued up one of the many gaming lists on her iPod and hooked it up to the Danger Room’s sound system. Her favorite Lúcio song was at the top of the list, and ready to go—All she had to do was go into the Danger Room and started playing!
It was time to blow off some steam in a less conventional method. Besides, he had X-Force to practice for, and, well, there was no better place to do it than the Danger Room. Maybe he'd come up with something fun. When he was about in, dressed in a plain black t-shirt and track pants that he'd bought online, he noticed that there was music coming from the Danger Room. And that... holy shit. He caught a glimpse of D.Va as she entered. She wasn't Hana, in his mind, because he'd known her as her online persona first and foremost.
"H-Hey," Nick said, blinking as he came up behind her. "Whatcha up to?" he asked, a bit awkwardly. He was pretty sure they had some classes together, but he'd always tried to focus hard on his studies and not gawk at one of his top internet gaming idols.
Hana turned to the voice and offered its owner—Nick if she remembered correctly—a friendly smile. “Hey! Oh! Sorry, were you about to train? I can come back later.” X-Force stuff probably took precedence, right?
"I-I was just going to do some practice on my own," Nick admitted. "But if you want company, I'm down for whatever, y'know, y-you're doing." Okay, yeah, he was stuttering again. But hey, this was D.Va, and holy shit, she was here and at the school and a mutant like him, but not like him because... well, mutants were all pretty different, kind of like people. "S-sorry," he admitted. "I didn't really wanna like, invite myself. But." Yeah, okay, his fan-ness was showing, probably.
Hana had been around enough fanboying to know the best way to help someone feel comfortable with her was to ignore it and just be herself. She smiled brightly. “You kidding? The more the merrier! This will be a blast! Just one sec while I change the settings.” She left the Danger Room to update the sim to two players and returned a few minutes later. “You like Overwatch?”
"Yeah, I just haven't played a lot lately," Nick confessed. He hadn't been doing a lot of much of anything, really. Just kind of roaming around and trying to keep busy.
“Well, you’re about to get some firsthand practice.” Hana grinned and shouted out to the room, “Start the sim!”
The Danger Room flickered to life and they now stood inside a futuristic looking space shuttle. Hana knew it well. Four, equally well-known people milled around them, randomly sticking poses and quoting voice lines. Junkrat with his peg-leg and crazed laugh danced with the massive Roadhog, the former doing the running man and the latter the cabbage patch. Not far from them, Symmetra sat cross-legged on a stool, cooly remarking What…interesting ways your mind works. Mercy stood behind her, wings glowing, and caduceus staff slung over her shoulder like a parasol. It was. So. Cool.
Hana approached the shuttle’s closed door and peered out the little window. It looked like they were on the Nepal sanctum map. “King of the hill match! Nice!’
"So, uh, are we just ourselves for this?" he asked, wondering how it worked.
“Ourselves with our powers, and them with theirs,” Hana confirmed as she came back over to Nick. “We’ve got a good team comp. I wonder who we’ll be up against. I set it up to be randomized.”
"Great..." Nick wasn't as tough as maybe he looked, he feared. "I'm usually a Genji main, so..." He shrugged. "We'll see what happens, I guess." At least he wasn't at risk of dying, since, y'know, it was just a simulation. He knew the gist of the game, the various characters, and he was decently skilled at it. Not in D.Va's league, but... hey, whatever. He'd see how he ranked.
Grinning, Hana said, “DPS, nice. I’m flex, but I tank mostly.” Which had made her mutation oddly fitting, but that seemed to be the story for a lot of the kids here. Speaking of… She took a look at their team again. The Danger Room had set them up with two DPS, a tank, and a healer… She’d obviously be their second tank, but, she realized, she had no idea what Nick could do. “Does that badass werewolf look come with anything?”
Behind them, Junkrat crowed out What a bunch of misfits and freaks we got here: I love it! and cackled wildly.
He would've been blushing if she could see it past the fur, and he was glad she couldn't. "Claws, teeth, I'm kinda strong and kinda fast?" he offered, a bit helplessly. "I'm also kinda tough. I'm a good tracker..." He'd been working on that... "Might come in handy, who knows?" The Danger Room had all kinds of crazy simulation crap. Now he was wondering if he'd ever smelled anything the Danger Room simulated. Which was kind of a weird thought.
"I guess the Danger Room will handle our respawns and stuff if we get taken out?" he asked, curiously, scratching the side of his head. They were always adding new tech, and what it couldn't quite do, it could simulate rather well. So teleportation of any kind was possible, he figured.
“I don’t know! Guess we’ll find out!” Hana summoned her mech with a thought. It rose up around her, lifting her off her feet, until she more or less sat inside what amounted to the cockpit of its pink, opaque form. It stood on two feet, its triple-barreled gun arms at the ready.
Well that was freaking amazing. And borderline unfair, frankly, but still. This was... going to be interesting. He figured there wasn't much more to say, so he took up a position next to the door, awaiting for the match to begin.
The voice of Overwatch’s AI, Athena, started to countdown from ten. At zero, the door lowered and their team went streaming past them in a mad dash for the point. A land mine went off at Hana’s left, hurling a laughing Junkrat into the air.
“Alright!” Hana cheered, and she fired her telekinetic mech’s rocket boosters, launching herself forward.
It's just a game, Nick reminded himself as he gulped, trying to siphon some of D.Va's enthusiasm into himself. He decided, frankly, that it was best to just follow the procession for now, get a feel for the map. He'd strike out on his own or in a smaller group to harass or take up choke points later. There was time. First and foremost was the point.
Their team made it to the point before the other team did and immediately began getting ready to defend it. Junkrat through a bear trap down, while Symmetra threw up some turrets with a laugh and said, “Setting up the carwash!” The others took up positions within the area, Mercy immediately buffing Roadhog with her caduceus staff in preparation for the incoming assault. Hana trained her mech’s guns ahead of her.
Moments later the other team came pouring through the choke. Soldier 76 lead the charge, sprinting ahead of the group. Zarya was next, impossible to miss with her pink-hair and the massive Particle Cannon she carried in her muscular arms. Two smaller forms dashed past her—First Somba who disappeared with a wave of her hand, then Hanzo who quickly darted up a wall. Zenyatta floated brought up the rear, his orbs floating around him.
Except—Hana frowned—that was only five. Where was… There was a shout and Winston leaped ahead of everyone, landing on the point with a grunt and tossing down his dome shield.
Nick took up a spot just behind Roadhog, taking inventory of the enemy team. Hanzo was going to be a problem; his maneuverability was one of his key strengths, but if Nick could get in close...
He took a look around the landscape. He didn't know if Junkrat would stay, but between Symmetra, D.Va, Roadhog and Mercy, Nick felt confident that if he broke off, they'd be fine.
"Cover me," he said, as he doubled back to go up a ramp that would take him to where Hanzo had gone. "I'm gonna deal with Hanzo." It only felt right, since he was a Genji main.
Hana—nah, she was totally D.Va now—left the rest of the team to deal with the monkey and turned to lay down some suppressive fire for Nick. When he was safely out of view, she swung back around to take care of Winston. He went down quickly, the others had done a good job of chipping his health away on their own, but a blast of helix rockets against the side of D.Va’s mech announced the arrival of the rest of the team.
The simulated terrain was a bit odd under his feet; it was like his toe claws could grip easier. While he was contemplating that, he had to thank his luck that Hanzo was aiming below, looking like he was taking aim at Mercy. Which was smart; take out the support first, which was precisely why Nick was going to stop him.
Spotting him wasn't hard, though, considering the lack of cover up here. But Nick at least had an advantage of still being at a full-tilt run at Hanzo. The bow-wielding ninja corrected his aim to Nick and let an arrow fly. Nick had never dodged arrows before, in real life. But apparently, his mutant reflexes were all the practice he needed in the art. He ducked it, briefly grabbing the floor to pull himself along, again surprised at how readily his claws dug into the simulated terrain. Another quick arrow was loosed and Nick darted to the side, as Hanzo began to backpedal. Recklessly. Which was good; if he could pressure him...
A third, quick-fired arrow nearly struck Nick in the forehead, but Nick jumped upon hearing the snap of the bowstring, lunging at Hanzo and grabbing him by the arm and his kimono. The force of Nick's impact sent the pair of them over the edge, with Nick atop of Hanzo, the latter unable to draw his bow. Nick punched him twice on the way down, and landed with a grunt against the assassin. He didn't know if he had actually downed the assassin or not with the damage dealt, because Zenyatta was throwing some exploding orbs his way. Nick had no real choice but to flee, hoping to wrap back around to either finish Hanzo off, or start working on their back line.
They had less than ten seconds before Winston would respawn, and D.Va intended to take advantage of it. She’d left Zenyatta for their DPS to deal with, knowing Sym’s and Junkrat’s damage could handle his low HP without a problem, and gone for their Zarya as Mercy buffed her with her staff. Getting rid of her shield bubbles would make it way easier to take out everyone else. She had her about halfway, her telekinetic shield eating up the damage from Zarya’s particle cannon at the same time as she fired on her.
“I could use some assistance!” Mercy called out from behind her.
D.Va spun around to find Mercy had been hacked by Sombra and, unable to fly away now, was getting the brunt of her fully-automatic machine pistol. “Hey, not cool, man!” she shouted and turned her guns on Sombra who immediately used her translocator to teleport away.
Winston would be back any moment (along with Hanzo), Nick knew, and keeping Mercy up would be integral to their defense. Sombra needed to go, but Nick couldn't track a teleporter (sadly). So that left Zarya, because her particle cannon was now aimed at D.Va's back. So that was plan B, as Junkrat and Symmetra took care of Zenyatta. Between the three of them, they could probably take down Zarya. So he charged in, figuring the others would follow suit since Zenyatta had just gone down.
With a whoop, D.Va turned back around to rejoin the fight, unleashing a spray of rockets on Zarya as Mercy flew off to give the rest of the team some support. She healed Junkrat, then bounced back to Roadhug to buff him as he hooked Soldier.
“Go get ‘em, team!” D.Va cheered maybe a little too soon. A spray of bullets from Sombra took Symmetra down, and a flurry of rapid-fire arrows took Roadhog out. “We got this! Hold the point, guys!”
That was a premature celebration if he'd ever seen one. Freaking Hanzo was back, which was not a surprise, but Winston was... not in evidence. Which was also bad. Not to mention Sombra was still lurking around.
He needed to fall back. Which meant taking cover, essentially, behind D.Va as he fell back. "Man, this is non-stop," Nick breathed. It was... fun, but god damn was it wearying too.
“Right? It’s awesome!” D.Va said, throwing up her shield so Mercy could glide in and rez Roadhog.
They had the advantage, and D.Va knew they had to move fast before they lost it. Now was the best time to break out the big guns. The telekinetic shell of the mech was vibrating with energy around her, ready to blow.
Yup. This was totally happening.
D.Va grinned. “Activating Self Destruct Sequence!” she called out playfully, then rocketed up into the air, and ejected herself from her mech. It kept going, green energy pulsed around it, then fell back towards the earth as the pulse grew stronger and stronger. It hit the ground and exploded in a wave of telekinetic energy. Zenyatta, Somba, and Hanzo went down. All that left was Soldier.
Nick took the opportunity to rush Soldier 76; the visor-wearing mercenary (he was a mercenary, right? Nick wasn't big on the lore of the game in some areas) swiveled to fire at him, instead of D.Va. He was expecting a burst of gunfire, but what he got was Soldier's helix rockets flying toward him. In a bit of a panic, Nick slid, sliding underneath of the trio of rockets before coming to a halt just a few feet away from Soldier, who adjusted his aim.
"Aww, crap," Nick murmured, feeling a burst from Soldier's rifle impact on his body armor. It stung like crazy, and he hissed through the pain as he clawed the ground into a strafing run. He had lost his opportunity; if he remembered correctly, Soldier's rockets would be off cooldown soon and he'd be free to fire them off again. Nick didn't have much of a chance dodging them at close range, so it was best to break off and seek cover.
It really, really sucked playing a melee character in a shooter game, he decided.
D.Va’s mech was gone for the moment, so she ducked behind Roadhog for some cover. She hadn’t seen Soldier get eliminated, but they were capping the point, so wherever he was it wasn’t here. They’d gotten a tick when Winston came leaping back in.
“Take out the monkey! Quick!” D.Va shouted.
----
Nick felt like he wanted to collapse and never get up. He leaned against the door outside the Danger Room, panting and sweating through his fur. "Holy crap," he managed, shaking his head. He couldn't believe, somehow, that they'd won that. It had all seemed so... frantic. It was a completely different perspective than just sitting around and playing the game in his room.
“That was awesome!” Hana was grinning ear to ear with breathless excitement and she clapped Nick on the shoulder. “You did great, man! We should totally do that again some time! You kicked major ass.”
Nick smiled, even though he was basically breathless. "Y-yeah?" he asked, sheepishly. "You were the amazing one. I just... had to..." Phew, it was hot doing all that running around inside. "Y'know. Improvise.”
“Improvising is one of the most important parts,” Hana countered with as she started cool down stretches by bending over to touch her toes. “You did great, dude. The team couldn’t have done it without you.”
Yeah, okay, she had a point. And god how had he not processed the fact that he had just done a practice session with D.Va? "Thanks," he murmured, smiling just a little at her. Man, how was he just sitting here talking to her? He had barely thought she was even real when he'd first come across her. But man, she was... just as awesome as the videos suggested. "You were amazing, too," he said.
Hana beamed at Nick as she straightened and stretched arm across her chest. “Thanks!” She switched to the other arm. “My telekinetic mech is crazy intuitive. I think I could use it in my sleep. And, man, that baby can turn on a dime!”
"I could tell," Nick said, finally getting his breath back. He was still way too hot, though. The body armor breathed just fine, but... still, he was wearing a layer of fur, so to speak. "It was like watching some sci-fi action flick in there.”
That made Hana grin even more. “It felt like one! Who needs virtual reality, am I right? This makes the Oculus look like Duck Hunt.”
"Yeah, it's... it's crazy," he agreed, nodding. "I, uh..." Jeez, he'd almost said a half-dozen embarrassing things to her, just then. "You, uh... wanna make this a regular thing?" he asked, going with that, as the least cringe-worthy thing he could possibly go with in his mind at the moment. "It seems like a... a real good way to keep in shape."
“Sure!” Hana planned on doing this a lot and it’d be a ton more fun with another person. “Same time next week?”
"S-sounds good to me," Nick said, honestly surprised she was okay with him more or less inviting himself along for it.
Grinning, Hana held up a hand for a high-five. “Awesome! Next time we’ll take it in half the time, yeah?”
Nick laughed, but it was a bit weak. "Yeah, half the time, sure," he said, giving her a high five. Boy, this was... going to be a lot of exercise.
Hana whooped when they high-fives, then said, “Alright, I’ve got to get going. I have a stream starting in an hour and a half that I need to get ready for. See you next week?”
"Sure!" Nick said, making a mental note of it and the time her stream would start. He was watching it for sure. And an hour and a half seemed like enough time for a shower and a nap…
“Awesome! Later, dude.” Hana flashed him her trade-mark peace sign, then raced off to get showered and changed for her stream.