Origins (Overwatch Ashe x Male Reader)

018

"How exciting was that finish, folks?" Jaya's voice rang out with genuine excitement. "Everyone give a cheer for our first-time racer, and now first-time winner, Calamity!"

The audience's approval rose again, turning thunderous.

She won.

But despite that, I could tell she was hurt badly. On the track, all three of them appear by her side while I am still up here in my secluded spot. I twist my lips to the side as I watch the crowd go insane at the spectacle.

I should be down there to congratulate her but I still have this sour taste in my mouth. I know full well that I haven't been practising to keep myself active to be able to use half of my powers nearly as efficiently.

How long will I last this time?

Who knows?

I push myself over the railing, to the crowd below. I manage a soft landing by creating enough force underneath my feet to make me break the speed of my fall. Then over the next, I was on the track and approaching them with my hands dug into my pockets.

Ashe instantly spots me, smiling at me from the distance. She nods at me and I return it all the same.

***   ***   ***

"I'm gonna be honest," said Julian. "When Frankie dropped who you were, I expected you to live in a slightly nicer place."

"You don't like it?" Ashe played along as she threw open a set of shutters on the old barn that sat on the edge of Lead Rose's grounds.

Honestly? It wasn't much, but it was a wide-open space with plenty of room to work— once we cleared out the dust and old hay. More importantly, it was private, in a place where they wouldn't encounter any prying eyes.

"And here I was going to give you a nice spot to sleep in the loft, in the corner without the leak."

Frankie laughed as she set up a pile of equipment on an old worktable. "Fine with me. I've operated out of worse places."

"Me too," Cole laughs. "But ... we're not really going to start sleeping here, right?"

"No, Cassidy, you don't have to give up your nice featherbed and private bathroom," said Ashe. "But this is where we are going to keep anything related to our plans. No one has been out here in ages, it can't be seen from the main part of the estate, and there's a private road that accesses it. Perfect for staging our setup."

The four hoverbikes Ashe won from Dezba sat in the centre of the space. We spent the whole night at Cutthroat Trout's, and now the morning sun glinted off the bikes as it streamed through the open barn doors. They weren't the worst bikes but they definitely weren't the best either.

But getting them ready seemed like part of the challenge.

Frankie had already begun work on hers, tearing out its electronic guts and strewing them across the dusty concrete floor.

"Speaking of heists," said Julian, "when do we start?"

"Gonna be soon."

Frankie looked up from her work. "How soon? I've got a ton to do here. I can hold off on any major reworking of your bikes, but mine will need a full systems upgrade, and then some."

"How quickly can you do it?" Ashe asks.

"Well, we're going to need to do some shopping, but ..." Frankie thought for a moment. "Four days."

"You have three." Ashe brought up some documents on her tablet and set it to project so that the rest of us could see them. A map appeared, showing a highlighted route.

"First job should be a piece of cake. Arbalest is doing an automated transport of the schematics for new rifle scopes from one of its satellite locations to a local factory, in order to avoid any online piracy. Drones only, no humans or omnics involved. Since it's the plans and not the actual product, they won't be expecting the local gangs to try and steal it, but there are plenty of folks on the virtual black market who would pay nicely for them."

She pointed to a highlighted stretch of the map. "This is where we are going to hit the convoy. It's the middle of nowhere, right before they get to the Brisco Tunnel. Any time after that and we'll be too close to Bellerae. Not to mention we don't want to get boxed in inside a long stone tube."

"I'll go over the rest of the details as we get the bikes ready."

Cole crosses his arms, looking sceptical. "You sure we're up for this, Ashe? Maybe we should, I don't know, practice a little? After last time—"

Julian perked up. "Last time? What happened last time?"

Ashe glared at Cole. "LAST TIME we didn't have the kind of skills you and Frankie have. But we do now. I have a plan, one we're going to go over and over and over again until we can say it in our sleep. That's all the practice we'll need."

She paused I can feel her gaze settle on me.

"But if anyone has any reservations if you don't want a chance at the kind of money that will ensure you'll never have to see the inside of a barn or a workhouse or a processing plant again, now's the time to walk away."

Everyone stayed in their place.

"Okay, then," she said. "Let's go shopping."

Everyone does their last little deeds, I head outside only to have Ashe meet me in the barn.

"I can tell you haven't been the same after I lashed out at you."

I don't look at her. "You are only as useful as your weakest link and if I'm only useful for a slight moment then what's the point of me sticking 'round," I cock my head. "Seeing this is what you are going to be spending a lot of your time on."

She sighs. "You told me you know what your limits are. You know you could have walked out but this is where you want to be... or are you just sticking with it because of me."

I turn to her. "Mostly."

Rubbing the bridge of her nose. "I know what I said was uncalled for. Just-"

"Caught you at a bad time, I get that."

"I said something stupid, regardless of why I said it, I shouldn't have."

I arch my brow at her. "Yeah, you did."

"Happy?"

I snort. "Now you are making it out like you came all this way to say that as a favour to me." I smile at her, she shakes her head sharing the same smile.

"Been nothing but lenient with you."

I lift my hands in defence. "You're the boss. I am the... Ace that passes out after a little bit of effort."

She rolls her eyes at me. "You know, at some point, I am not going to know if you are still upset about what I said or if you are just using it to make me feel bad."

I chuckle. "Just pointing out the irony."

"Yeah yeah."

"Ashe."

"Hmm?"

"I'll be ready when you need me to be."

"I am counting on it." She turns around and headed towards the rest to start our shopping trip.

One can argue that we aren't fighting, but it looks like that there might still be a little something there. I drop it before I end up making it worse on both of us and quickly rush to join the group before they decide to leave me behind to do all the cleaning.