Temi Oh - Overwatch 2: Sojourn

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Published by Blizzard Entertainment.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN: 978-1-950366-77-4

Manufactured in USA

10987654321

TEMI OH

Her father liked to say that she was born twice. The second time, in that Toronto hospital, in a body rebuilt. New discs in her spine. Her chest, a titanium cage. Heart, a silicone fist, pounding inside.

Sometimes, on the edge of waking, Vivian Chase thinks she can hear his voice, and her mothers and Valentines, the shout of joy they all made when she came back to them.

Human or omnic?

This time, the voice that pries her consciousness open is unfamiliar.

Sorry? she says. She wakes horribly, her skull full of razor wire. Bones sore, the bruised skin on her templewhere shes been hitthrobbing.

The world comes spinning into view.

Where am I? Chase asks.

Shes lying on grass, and a scanner floats above her head, the voice from its speakers ringing in a tinny monotone. Its the kind of tech shes used to seeing at airport security or at the front doors of shopping centers.

Im not equipped to answer your question, the scanner says.

Right, Chase mutters, pulling herself up on her elbows. When she was knocked out, she was on Centre Island, part of the small chain of islands in Lake Ontario. She can tell from the trees around her that she has not moved very far. And from here, she can see Torontos skyline lit carmine, she thinks at first with sunset but then, Chase realizes, with flames.

What is she doing here? Memories are beginning to float back on a cresting wave of panic. A plane fell out of the sky. The power stopped. The last thing she recalls is the omnic attack. Shouts of violence. Terrified screams. Her niece, her sister

Valentine! she shouts now, searching frantically. She was trying to save Valentine.

This is a holding bay, the scanner says. Its an area about the size of a basketball court, surrounded by plexiglass walls. All around her are decommissioned omnics, humanoid robots with the Omnica Corp logo branded on their metallic hulls. Some of them are dented and in pieces, sparks from frayed wires winking at her. Others are slumped like drunks on the edge of the bay, or riddled with bullet holes, piled on top of each other like a litter of sleeping dogs.

Something terrible is happening. Even from where Chase is sitting now, the back of her throat burns with the acrid tang of smoke and some industrial smell, like scorched metal. The sound of gunfire tears the air, and beneath it distant shouts, cries of alarm, pain, the thunder of boots. Its as if shes on the periphery of a battlefield: sirens wail somewhere, engines roar. Terror makes her chest tight. Valentine and Chases niece, Bonnie, are nowhere to be seen.

I need to get out, she shouts at the scanner. Getting shakily to her feet, Chase examines the wall of the holding bay. Theres an electric field in front of it, she can tell without touching it, something about the almost subsonic hum its making. I need to find them, she says, more to herself than the scanner. I need to make sure theyre okay.

Im not authorized to release any omnics, it says.

With a flash of annoyance that Chase works hard to keep back, she says, Im clearly human.

The scanner activates once more, and a laser appears, sliding up then down her body before it emits an ear-piercing howl.

I am not authorized to release any omnics, the scanner repeats.

The machine is probably responding to the high level of synthetic compounds in her body. Her artificial heart renders her pulse almost undetectable, and the cybernetics in her head and eyes often trigger security scanners.

It feels absurd to her, in this moment, that she must disclose her medical history to this tin can of a machine. Especially when, somewhere out there, her sister and niece could be in danger.

Breathing deeply, Chase explains it the way she has a thousand times. I have a conditionan autoimmune disease. My spine, heart, lungs, and most of my bones were replaced with cybernetics in a medical procedure. I can prove it

Im not authorized to release any omnics, the scanner repeats.

Augh! Chase shouts in frustration, fighting the urge to slam a fist into its monitor screen. Can I just talk to a human?

Chase? Vivian Chase?

Chase turns to find a shadow emerging from the trees. Major Campbell, a man she hasnt seen since her early days in infantry. Some four years on, his height and barrel chest still make him look larger than life. But the years have left some marksa bald head and a graying stubble, blue eyes that flash like a cats in the gloom.

What is it now? Sergeant? Captain?

Not yet, she says.

Our records show youre on leave, he says, slowing as he reaches the perimeter of the holding bay.

I was, sir. Then she corrects herself. I am. I was on Centre Island when

How to describe what happened? The day was calm and bright, and then the park erupted into terrified chaos.

Campbells face is grave. Its a mess out there, Chase.

That morning, Vivian Chase and Valentine couldnt have guessed at the disaster awaiting them when they ventured out to the theme park with Valentines five-year-old daughter, Bonnie.

It was a happy homecoming for Chase, a joy to return to the neighborhood shed grown up in and to this place, the Centre Island amusement park, that their parents had loved to take them.

It feels like nothings changed, she says to her sister as Bonnie makes one more round on the Beastly Bears ride. Just the sight of the child makes her think of Valentine at that age: gap-toothed, her hair tied up in cotton-candy Afro puffs, sitting happily in the embrace of the coverall-clad bears. This is like Chases childhood too: watching from the sidelines as the joyful shouts of children peal out across the sky. She was almost always too sick to join in whatever fun her sister was having, or her parents were too overcautious to let her.