Blackwatch Week: Plan B
Genji hated when they had to go to plan B. That always meant that things were going to shit, that people had been killed. Of course, plan B had never actually failed them, but it still made him antsy. He never doubted his skills, nor that of his team, but people made mistakes. People slipped up. People died. And Genji wasn’t about to let himself be one of them.
“Rally to my position, I need all agents back. Now!” Reyes shouted over the comm, Genji glancing to Jesse at his side. The cowboy shrugged one shoulder, then pressed a finger to his comm to confirm their compliance.
They were crouched behind a few crates, still undetected by the Talon agents flanking most of the Blackwatch team’s positions.
“Ya ready?” Jesse asked with a wink, Genji side eyeing him coolly.
“Are you?”
Jesse laughed under his breath darkly, spinning Peacekeeper around his finger and thumbing back the hammer. Genji shifted his weight and clenched his fingers tighter around the shruiken he was gripping. Things were about to get dirty.
“How many?” He murmured, Jesse peeking out to grab a headcount.
“I reckon there’s ‘bout twenty. More heavily armoured ones than not.”
“That’s all?”
“Don’t ‘that’s all’ me. That’s just in this room. You’ll get yer fair share.”
“Hmm. Alright, winner gets shower privileges for a week.”
“Make it two an’ I’m in.” Jesse countered. Genji smirked under the mask and flexed his hand with a nod.
They didn’t need words to know when to launch from behind their cover. Genji knew exactly when Jesse would raise his gun and fire, and Jesse knew just when Genji would strike his way into the middle of the enemy to distract them. They worked as a fluid team, practice and skill showing with every calculated movement, every counter shot and every kill. They’d done this countless times before.
Genji whipped out his katana when he saw Jesse drop back to reload, cutting through each Talon agent with measured strikes. Blood glistened on his armour, but it only added to the crimson already highlighting his frame. The room fell into an eerie quiet after Jesse shot one last time, his revolver still smoking as he made his way over to Genji.
“That’s twelve for me.” He hummed with a grin, Genji raising a skeptical brow.
“Funny, but I seem to have counted thirteen myself.”
“We’ll call it a dual effort, how’s that?”
“Whatever you say, cowboy.” Genji scoffed with a slight teasing lilt to his voice. Jesse moved to the entrance of the room without further adieu, motioning for the cyborg to go first.
“After you.”
“How very courteous of you.” Genji deadpanned, stepping past the cowboy and his ridiculous grin.
They moved down the hall cautiously, staying close to one another and keeping an eye out for anything suspicious. Footsteps echoed ahead of them, and Genji slowed to a stop. They were coming from an intersection in the hall, though it was too dark to make anything out, even with his enhanced vision. Genji felt Jesse start to move again after a few moments of tense silence, and he followed.
They reached the intersection and both backed up against opposite walls, checking the corridors. Jesse nodded, Genji straining to see anything that could lead to danger.
“Which way do we need to go?” Genji inquired, keeping his voice low while Jesse leaned his head to the side, listening to his comm.
“Uh, left.” He replied, Genji frowning.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, left leads ta the front ‘a the buildin’. Reyes is there.”
“If you get us killed, gunslinger, I will hunt you even in the afterlife.” Genji hissed, crouching and running down the left hallway.
“Aw, don’t be like that darlin’.” The cowboy chuckled, following Genji and keeping his gun held defensively at his side.
Genji suddenly held up a hand, head tilting at a slight noise behind them. Someone shifting their weight. A soft click. Jesse heard it too, from the way his stance went rigid.
“Son of a bitch, not again!” Jesse shouted, booting the grenade away from them and grabbing Genji’s arm.
The ninja was yanked to the side before the explosion blasted his hearing away, and he stumbled, cursing. Jesse rolled to the side, Genji shaking his head and trying to focus on the cowboy’s face. His lips were moving, forming sounds he couldn’t process. Something was wrong. Jesse seemed fine, trying to tug Genji back to his feet, hands on his shoulders, shaking him. The cyborg blinked hard, a sudden, pounding headache flaring behind his eyes. He couldn’t move his right arm, and it was hard to breathe.
Jesse was talking to him, brows furrowed low over his eyes. Was that concern? Fear? Genji couldn’t tell, couldn’t process it. He looked down at his body to see why it wasn’t obeying him, noticing little flashes of electricity jumping between the nodes and joints of his prosthetics. He shook his head slowly, flexing his left hand. It was fine.
“—Nji. Hey, come on! Can ya hear me?”
“What...?”
“We gotta m—Shit!” Jesse cut himself off as a bullet streaked past their position.
The cowboy grabbed Genji’s arm and slung him over his shoulder, the ninja’s head lolling with the movement. He didn’t understand what was happening, didn’t know why that explosion had only affected him. It was like everything was in slow motion, his internal processes not doing a whole lot for him at the moment.
“Damn, didn’t know EMP’s would effect ya like that...”
Oh, so that’s why he wasn’t working.
His whole body was tingling, pins and needles where his nerves connected to the sensors of his prosthetics. It was a strange feeling, but it was a feeling in them nonetheless.
“Jess...”
“Hang on partner...”
Genji felt them tilt a bit, Jesse ducking under something and sliding the ninja off his shoulders. He hit the ground gracelessly, the fingers on his prosthetic hand twitching minutely.
“Alright, hey. Hey, ya still with me?” Jesse asked, taking Genji’s face in his hands and looking it over.
“‘M getting so...Some feeling back...” Genji slurred, piecing together words slowly. He groaned and tried to force his legs to move, getting rewarded for his efforts.
“Listen, ya gotta hurry, or I gotta carry ya outta here. But I need ya coverin’ my back, so can ya please hurry?” Jesse murmured, voice carrying a note of distress. Genji glared, flexing his left hand and curling the arm up.
“Sure Jesse, why don’t I just completely reverse what this EMP did to me real quick. It’ll just take a second.” He gritted out sarcastically, albeit slower than he would have liked.
“At least ya got yer snark back...”
Genji hissed as his legs clicked painfully but moved the way he wanted them to, the rest of his senses sharpening in increments. Jesse helped him stand shakily after a few prolonged moments, gun in one hand and eyes darting around the hall.
“Ya good?”
“Good enough.” Genji bit out, shaking his arms out and repressing a groan at the spike of pain in his head. Jesse didn’t look convinced, but Genji stood up straighter to prove his point. He tried to flick some shruiken into his hand but failed, and he growled in frustration.
“Fuck it, I don’t need them anyways...” Genji growled, pulling his katana from it’s sheathe and lowering his stance. Jesse pursed his lips, then motioned with a little jerk of his head to start moving. The ninja followed him, stumbling a bit as he walked, and that only made him more angry. What use was he if all the enemy had to do was throw some pulse bomb at him and render him completely unable to move?
Gunfire started up as they passed into a foyer, though it wasn’t aimed at them. Their team of Blackwatch agents were surrounded, Reyes in the center fending Talon agents off with precisely aimed shots. Jesse began shooting, and Genji immediately grabbed his wakizashi in order to deflect any oncoming fire once the enemy realized they were there.
That moment came not a second later, a few of them turning and shooting at the two of them. Genji stood in front of Jesse protectively, deflecting with some difficulty.
“I can’t hold them off like this, get behind something!” Genji shouted over his shoulder, Jesse immediately moving. Genji ran to the side and scaled a wall when he saw the gunslinger was safe, pulling himself up to a raised platform and crouching in order to survey before striking. He flipped his katana to his left hand, not fully trusting the prosthetic one to work with him yet.
Taking a steadying breath, Genji calmed his mind just enough to feel the power of his dragon. It was slight, most of it out of reach, but he only needed a bit. He could work with just a sliver of the power he should have possessed for now.
With a low growl, Genji lept down into the fray, katana slashing through one Talon agent after another, none surviving the sure swipes of his blade. He let his previous frustration and anger fuel him, that ever present rage held in his chest boiling and adding to the brutality of his attacks.
The ninja heard the sound of shotguns closer now, and he made his way through the veritable sea of enemies to join the rest of the team. Jesse had somehow gotten to his side in all the chaos, shooting over Genji’s shoulder as he cut down another agent. Genji deflected a few errant bullets with his katana, Jesse reloading and stepping back into the ring of Blackwatch agents as he did so.
“Heya boss! How’s it goin’ fer ya?” Genji heard Jesse call through the din of gunshots.
“Oh, you know how it is. Everyone seems to love us.” Reyes yelled back, Jesse laughing. Genji rolled his eyes at their banter, then backed up to join them.
“I hope you have a plan of getting us out of here, Commander.”
“Of course I do, it’s called Plan B!”
“Sounds fantastic.” Genji muttered under his breath, head still feeling dizzy from the EMP. He’d have to talk to Dr. Ziegler about this.
“We got everyone here? Yeah?” Reyes shouted when they had finished off the last of the Talon agents for the time being. Genji looked around, noticing that a few people were missing, and he had a feeling they would stay that way.
“Alright, let’s move before they come back.”
Genji jogged after the commander along with the rest of the agents, noticing that Jesse was staying close to him. He turned his head slightly, about to say something when one of his knees buckled beneath him.
“Kuso—!”
“Woah there, darlin’.” Jesse murmured, catching his arm before he could fall flat on his face and slowing. Genji struggled to get his feet back under him, eyes narrowing in frustration.
“Do I seriously have to watch out for EMP’s now? How the hell did they know to throw that at me?!” He hissed under his breath.
Jesse pursed his lips and shook his head, unable to give an answer. Genji huffed an angered breath, shaking Jesse’s hand from his arm when he could stand properly. He didn’t like any sort of physical contact when there were others around, especially since it was there to keep him standing, of all things.
Pathetic.
Genji glared as he picked up his pace once more, the gears turning now that he had asked himself that question aloud. Who would possibly know an EMP could work on him? Sure, he didn’t look completely human, but why go out of the way to disable him and him only? Why not just use a regular grenade and kill two birds with one stone, literally?
He internally shook his head, leaving those questions for when the mission was over and he could actually focus. The Blackwatch team burst through the doors of the building they had been caught up in, everyone automatically shifting and looking to corners and high places for potential enemies. It was quiet though, too quiet, in Genji’s opinion. Jesse caught his eye, obviously thinking the same thing, the silence being broken by Reyes.
“Stay close, I have a bad feeling about this.”
“Commander, drop-ships comin’ in.” Jesse called, Genji looking up to see more than enough hostiles incoming. He gripped the hilt of his katana, suddenly glad that they were going with Plan B. No one was going to be left to know Blackwatch was there, and Genji was going to let some anger out. --
By the time the Blackwatch team was seated safely on their extraction ship, Genji was splattered with blood. His senses were all back to normal, and he flexed his crimson-coated prosthetic hand without trouble. Funny that the effects all wore off as soon as the fight was over, he thought bitterly. Jesse took his hat off with a sigh next to him, and Genji glanced at the cowboy.
“I don’t think that grenade was a coincidence...” He murmured softly, Jesse’s brows furrowing.
“I was just thinkin’ the same thing, partner. Might wanna tell Gabe ‘bout this.”
“And have him sit me out?”
“Better than gettin’ yerself killed. Talk ta Angie ‘bout it, see if she can fix it.”
Genji glared at the metal plating on the floor, hands balling into fists. He hated feeling so helpless and out of control of his own body, hated not being able to trust himself to get out of a fight alive. But Jesse was right. Better to stay alive, even if it meant more hours spent under machinery and needles in the medical bay.
“Hey, relax a bit, hon. It’ll be alright, we’ll fix this.” Jesse whispered, taking two of Genji’s fingers with his own and giving them a little squeeze. The ninja forced himself to calm down, eventually giving a reassuring squeeze back. Jesse grinned a bit, then let go, knowing Genji got uncomfortable if there was the chance someone might see.
The gunslinger slouched down in his seat and put his hat over his face, settling down to nap on the way back. Genji watched Jesse’s breathing even out, the steady rise and fall of his chest oddly relaxing. In little moments like these, Genji could believe it when Jesse said everything would be okay. ~~
