#so u know i'm not a big fan of green but well. it kept leading me here

[nitewrighter]

I'm weak for pre-fall Gency. Could you write some angsty but soft-at-the-end prompt for them?? :3

With all this AU stuff, it feels like forever since I’ve written Gency Proper. I gotta get back to my roots.

-----

Genji sat on a bench in a locker room and nervously tested the plates of his new prosthetic arm, sliding them back and forth into place. He lifted his head to see Mercy, her back to him, putting her hair up in a mirror. Tracer was stretching and Winston was fiddling with his shield projector. They were all dressed in their black, gray and orange training jumpsuits, save for Mercy, who was in a less-armored version of her Valkyrie suit, though the lines of the training jumpsuit were visible underneath. Genji’s jumpsuit was sleeveless to accommodate for the heat sinks on his shoulders.

“Right, team,” said Tracer, “We’re staying focused, it’s just like any other training session.”

“Except Morrison is watching,” said Winston, readjusting his glasses, clearly nervous.

“And we aren’t going to worry about that,” said Tracer, putting her hands on her hips before looking at Genji, “None of us are.”

Genji apparently wasn’t paying attention until he felt a hand on his shoulder. His head jerked up to see Mercy smiling down at him.

“Just a normal training session, right Genji?” said Mercy.

“Oh--uh--right...right,” said Genji pushing up off the bench.

“Morrison wants a new strike team, and that’s exactly what we’re going to show him!” said Tracer. She stuck her hand out, palm down and looked at the other three. “New strike team?”

“Oh!” Winston stuck a hand out over her hand, “New strike team!”

“New Strike team,” said Mercy, putting her hand over Winston’s, “You’re going to be a wonderful leader, Tracer.”

“Aw, Doc!” said Tracer, rubbing the back of her head with her free hand bashfully.

“New Strike Team,” said Genji, putting his hand over Mercy’s.

“Aaaaand break!” said Tracer, pressing her hand down before throwing it up as the rest of the team followed her lead, “Let’s go!”

She darted down the corridor to the training area and Winston lumbered quickly after her, “I still think we should run through our strategy one more time--!”

Mercy and Genji followed after them at their own pace.

“I still can’t believe they’re giving me this chance,” he murmured, “McCree was the one Reyes was grooming---he should--”

“Tracer wanted you, Genji,” said Mercy, “And I wanted you too.”

Genji’s shoulder vents steamed. “Uh--”

Mercy suddenly reddened and caught herself. “Bad phrasing! Bad phrasing!” she said waving her hands nervously, “What I’m saying is, you trained Tracer. She knows how to work with you. And as important as McCree is to Reyes and everyone, you have to admit he’s been...out of sorts... since Venice.”

“Not to mention Reyes probably likes having him on reserve for more ‘vacations,’” muttered Genji.

“But you’re going to be a great addition to the team,” she said.

“...if Morrison approves,” said Genji as they stepped out into the sunlight of the Zurich training field.

----

“...I’m still not sure how good of an idea this is,” Jack murmured, standing on an observation deck overlooking Zurich’s biggest training area, watching as several maintenance workers prepped the area.

“You wanted our input, and here it is,” said Sojourn, standing next to him.

“We benched Blackwatch for a reason, and he was one of the most volatile agents on it--granted ‘Volatile’ and ‘Blackwatch’ sounds redundant but...” Jack trailed off.

“He’s made a lot of progress,” said Sojourn, “And he and Oxton have built up a strong rapport these past few months. Honestly, I’m surprised you’re more concerned about the ninja than the gorilla.”

“Overwatch has never shied away from an unconventional image,” said Jack with a shrug, “Plus he’s... y’know, cute. Kids’ll like him.”

Sojourn snorted. “Always thinking of what looks good on a poster, huh? Let’s just hope he’s as good in a fight as he is in a lab,” said Sojourn as they watched the four figures take their places at the edge of the training field.

“Is that Genji?” he said, looking at a figure in a silver helmet with only the green line of a glowing visor at his face.

“You haven’t seen the new prosthetics, yet?” said Sojourn.

“No I--It’s a good look. He’s...”

“Less terrifying?” said Sojourn arching an eyebrow and smirking.

“You know what I mean.”

“Yeah but it’s fun making you uncomfortable,” said Sojourn, rolling her shoulders, “So--what should we throw at them? I took the liberty of customizing some of the training bot AI’s.”

“Let’s not softball it,” said Jack, “We aren’t just putting this team together to sell posters.”

---

“Take a deep breath, everyone,” said Mercy.

Genji heard Winston audibly inhale and exhale and he elbowed him a bit playfully. “You’ve got this, Winston,” he said. Tracer pulled her goggles down over her eyes and readied her pulse pistols.

“I sure hope so,” said Winston. A loud buzzer sounded and Jack Morrison spoke over the loudspeakers.

“Good afternoon, agents, this is Commander Morrison. As you know, with the impending retirement of Lieutenant Wilhelm, and Chief Engineer Lindholm’s transference out of field missions, we need to restructure our primary strike team. You are our top candidates for that team, but obviously you need to demonstrate an ability to work together before we can send you out in the field.”

He means us, thought Genji, looking over at Winston, He already knows Tracer and Mercy can work together--if we blow this, I’m back on the bench and Winston’s back in the lab. I don’t know how much longer I can stand being cooped up here if I mess this u--

He felt a hand touch his arm and startled slightly, glancing over at Mercy. She brought her hand away from him and mouthed ‘Deep breath,’ then demonstratively closed her eyes and drew in a steady breath through her nose, lifting her chin as she did so, before exhaling out of her mouth and relaxing her shoulders. He matched her breath as Jack Morrison went on.

“Your test is to break through enemy defenses and secure two objective sites. The objectives are indicated on your HUD and holographically indicated in the field. The training bots will maintain an assault on you throughout this whole mission, and there is a time limit so you don’t back yourselves into a corner and hope to mow them down slowly.”

Sojourn cut in here, “The training bots’ blaster rounds are nonlethal, but they have been known to break the odd bone or cause second degree burns here and there, and your suits are equipped with sensors that recognize the damage done as equivalent to pulsefire. Basically: Once your suit reaches and registers ‘critical damage’ from enemy fire, you’ll be flagged as ‘dead’--and if you’re dead, you’ve failed the test. No miracles here, Doc.”

Tracer swallowed hard at this but Mercy just furrowed her brow with determination.

“Of course, we’ve taken the liberty of replacing Ziegler’s traditional biotics with an anti-damage ion tether that functions, in the eyes of our sensors, as healing. So your role, Doctor Ziegler, will be essentially the same, just with no risk of anyone actually dying.”

“Except for the second degree burn part...” murmured Winston.

And the risk of never having a field mission again for the rest of my career, thought Genji.

“Any questions?” said Sojourn.

“Yeah!” Tracer spun her pistols, “Is that all?”

“Don’t get too cocky, Oxton,” Sojourn playfully chided over the intercom, “Test begins in 3, 2, 1--”

A loud buzzer sounded and suddenly training bots were flooding into the training area.

“Keep it tight, loves!” said Tracer, already firing off her pulse pistols, “Winston! You and the Doc go high and head for that objective site! Genji! Cut a path for them! I’ll run interference! Break!”

Mercy kept a damage boost on Winston as he hurtled upward in a leap. Genji had to trust Winston would be able to body-block her from incoming damage as he and Tracer went low. These bots were faster, more armored, and more aggressive than the usual goofy, doddering training bots he was so used to effortlessly destroying. They must have taken some notes from the Null Sector attacks, thought Genji as he did several backhand springs out of the crossfire of several training bots before Tracer plowed through them in a blaze of pulsefire. Winston slammed down onto the objective point, crushing two training bots before hauling up his tesla cannon and unleashing a braid of sparks across the training bots, short-circuiting them. Mercy slowed her own descent with her valkyrie wings, taking advantage of her higher perspective to knock out a few training bots before their return fire forced her to drop down to the ground and take cover behind Winston, keeping a steady stream of her ‘healing’ ions so that he could draw the brunt of enemy fire.

“How are you holding up?” she called to him over the high-pitched sounds of pulsefire.

“No second degree burns, yet!” said Winston and Mercy smiled a little.

“Doc! Incoming!” Tracer called and Mercy had to pivot on her feet and draw her blaster to take out a flanking training bot before seeing a flash of green corkscrew through a mess of bots and see Genji burst out of the skirmish, sword drawn and bots exploding behind him.

“Are you both all right?” said Genji, deflecting several shots from various angles as he backed up to rejoin them.

“We’re fine!” said Mercy, “You seem to be handling yourself well!”

Genji just chuckled as he kept up his deflection, “Well, being benched, there wasn’t much to do besides wrecking training bots,” he said with a shrug.

“Don’t jinx it!” said Tracer, darting into formation with them, “Okay, big guy! Your cue!”

“Right!” said Winston, slamming a shield projector down. The four of them stood back to back on the objective, protected by Winston’s shield, keeping the waves of training bots at bay. Mercy patched up any damage indicated on their suits before drawing her blaster and helping them maintain the perimeter with her own fire. Genji sent out fans of shuriken, just enough to split the training bots’ attention between himself and Tracer and to make up for the lack of range on Winston’s tesla cannon. Even though he could see fissures already running through Winston’s shield. there was a comfort on this team that he couldn’t remember ever having on Blackwatch.

It’s probably the shields, he thought a bit ruefully, but then he saw Mercy’s feathery ponytail bob into the periphery of his vision as she fired off her blaster, and it occurred to him how at ease she made him feel. Moira as a medic was a far less comforting presence---those unsettling heterochromatic eyes dissecting him, the fact that he could feel the amusement emanating from her as he limped after a biotic orb, and the odd rapport she seemed to have with Reyes that made Genji very uneasy with what should be ‘routine compartmentalization’ of Blackwatch’s intel. Mercy, meanwhile, would zip right to him in the thick of battle to heal him. The team clearly trusted her. He trusted her. She felt constant. Just having her at his back made him feel like no opponent was too tough. Then a loud chime sounded over the speakers.

“Objective A captured,” Athena spoke over the intercom, “Commence attack on Objective B.”

---

“Mm,” Jack Morrison watched, unimpressed.

“Yeah I agree,” said Sojourn, “Not much compared to London, huh?” She stooped over one of the monitors controlling the training bots on the field and typed in some new commands, “Maybe my buddy from Toronto can give them a challenge.”

“Toronto...?” said Jack.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Sojourn, hitting a few keys.

---

“Didn’t I tell you this was like any other training session? I don’t know what you and Genji were getting so worked up about!” said Tracer, as the four of them ran out from the previous objective.

“I wasn’t getting worked up,” said Genji, a bit sorely, but he heard a gentle snicker from Mercy and he just huffed.

“Stay focused, team! Next objective!” said Winston as they rounded a corner on the training field. They had reached a rhythm now, Tracer and Genji breaking off to flank the training bots converging on them from all sides, Winston barreling forward, and Mercy darting between all three of them to keep the damage indicators on their suits at a minimum. Mercy had to admit she felt a lot better about having Tracer flanking when Genji was backing her up--during her missions with Reinhardt and Torbjörn, Tracer could hardly stand to stay near Torbjörn’s turret--she simply wasn’t a “maintain the perimeter” sort of fighter, often to the frustration of Torbjörn and Reinhardt--but Genji and Winston greatly increased the team’s mobility. And Mercy couldn’t deny the grace with which Genji moved. When Genji talked about his missions, he usually did so in a minimal manner, as if every move was simply the next logical step, but watching him cut through training bots, run along walls, run on enemy’s heads, it seemed almost like a dance. Plus (And she would never bring this up to Tracer) Genji couldn’t recall and leave her in a patch of enemies. Which was nice. 

Her wings blazed as she kept a damage boost on Genji to quickly dispatch the high turrets pointed down on their objective as Winston touched down and lay down a shield generator.

“Taking the point,” said Tracer, darting around Winston and laying down cover fire, “Last one and we’re home free, loves!”

Genji and Mercy touched down onto the point alongside Winston and Tracer.

“Easy peasy!” said Tracer. But then a loud, droning horn sounded.

“...please tell me that was the ‘we took the point’ sound,” said Winston.

“It was not, “ said Genji as two massive steel doors just behind the objective point.

The whole team fell silent as a massive robot emerged from the steel doors.

---

“Is that pushbot?” said Jack, looking at Sojourn.

“He’s called TW-1,” said Sojourn.

“That isn’t a training bot, that’s a piece of industrial machinery,” said Jack.

“It’s a challenge,” said Sojourn with a slight smile as they both watched Pushbot slam Tracer and Winston off of the point with a swipe of its massive arm.

---

Both Winston and Tracer thudded hard into the walls bordering the end of the training field. Winston pulled himself up and tried to shake off his disorientation from the blow.

“Are you all right?” said Winston, looking over Tracer.

Tracer grunted, shot a training bot over Winston’s shoulder, and popped up to her feet. “Why is pushbot here!?” she said, firing off her pulse pistols on a few more training bots.

“Move!” said Genji and they all dove out of the way of another swipe from Pushbot. Tracer zipped around the heels of the robot, unleashing bright bursts of pulsefire until it pivoted and swiped at her and she recalled back to the team’s previous position before blinking over to them. Genji lost count of how many shuriken he had embedded into the robot’s plating, but still it lumbered around them, protecting the objective like an oversized goalie. He felt a tingle jolt up his spine from Mercy’s damage boost, yet even with the additional force, the robot’s movements weren’t slowing in the slightest.

“That armor’s too thick---” said Genji.

“My HUD indicates less than two minutes to take the point,” said Winston.

“That’s not enough time for any of us to get through that robot’s plating!” said Tracer.

“Is this part of the test!? Do they want us to fail?!” said Winston and Genji’s stomach lurched at the thought.

“Just stay calm--I can figure this out--” said Tracer.

“Violence isn’t the solution--” said Mercy, suddenly.

“Doc--Now’s not the time to go all pacifist--” said Tracer, shooting off several more training bots.

“No, I mean the test is about taking the point, not taking the robot down!” said Mercy.

“We only need one person on the point,” said Genji.

Tracer’s face lit up.

“60 Seconds remaining,” said Athena.

“Doc! Genji! You go high! Winston, knock him off-kilter!” said Tracer, darting off.

“Oh! Uhhh right!” said Winston. He took off his glasses, tucked them into a protective pouch, cleared his throat, then let out a near deafening roar as he leapt at the pushbot in a primal rage. Tracer dipped past the pushbot in a blue flash and darted about on the point, doing her best to keep the waves of training bots from overwhelming it. Genji quickly scaled the body of the Pushbot and drew his sword while Mercy flitted about its head, firing at it with her blaster. Between Winston at its midsection and Mercy at its head, Pushbot didn’t even notice Tracer holding down the point, but it did notice Genji jamming his blade through its shoulder. Winston, still in a haze of primal rage, was now working on knocking back several training bots from Tracer. Pushbot suddenly seized Genji and threw him hard. Genji sailed through the air, partially regretting how easy the lightness of his prosthetics made him to throw. He braced for the impact of a wall, but Mercy tackled him in mid-air instead. They tangled in the air only briefly before she loosed him from her arms and he found himself below her, her holding onto him by his forearm, his shuriken-bearing arm free.

“Are you all right?” she said, breathlessly.

“Ryū-Ichimonji is still jammed in its plating!” said Genji as Mercy tried to keep Pushbot’s attention on them by firing her blaster at its face. Genji did his best to back her up with his shuriken. Slowly the robot lumbered toward them.

“As long as Winston and Tracer are holding down the point, we can--” Mercy cut herself off as there was a high-pitched chirping sound from the point. Tracer had apparently set off one of her pulse bombs to knock back another wave of training bots, and caught the attention of Pushbot. Pushbot pivoted and started heading back to the point.

“Oh no--” said Genji.

“...I’m going to try something stupid,” said Mercy.

“Stupid?! Stupid how?!” said Genji. Mercy was not a ‘Try something stupid’ kind of person. 

“Just trust me and get your sword!” said Mercy, holstering her blaster, wrapping her other hand around Genji’s arm, spinning around hard in the air, using Genji’s own inertia to swing him around and increase her speed until she let him go like a hammer throw. A surprised yelp escaped Genji as he hurtled through the air, limbs flailing, but he turned a somersault to re-orient himself before making impact against the pushbot. He scrambled up and took ahold of Ryū Ichimonji’s handle and yanked down. There was a scream of metal and a blaze of green as Ryū Ichimonji tore down through Pushbot’s chassis. Genji yanked his blade out and pushed off or the robot, backflipping through the air to bounce back on his feet. Mercy aimed her blaster at the new fissure funning down the side of Pushbot’s chestplate as she drifted to the ground next to Genji. The robot lurched toward them and Genji instinctively stepped in front of Mercy with his blade in a defensive position, but then a loud chime sounded.

“Objective B captured,” announced Athena.

Winston and Tracer were whooping and cheering on the objective point as the remaining training bots shut down and slumped over. Even Pushbot powered down to a slumping position.

“Sorry about the, um... throw,” said Mercy, twisting her grip on her staff nervously.

“No--that was--that was incredible. You’re really strong,” said Genji, sheathing his blade.

“Well, you’re pretty light so...” Mercy was pushing her hair back from her face and smiling.

“.087 seconds remaining,” Jack Morrison’s voice came in from the periphery and all four agents turned around to see him walking amidst the mess of broken training bots, “Cutting it a bit close, but... congratulations.”

“Uh--thank you, sir,” said Winston, clumsily putting his glasses back on.

“That shield generator’s very impressive, Winston,” said Jack, walking past him.

“Thank you! I mean--I already said that--not that I don’t mean it again!” Winston was nervously stammering before Tracer playfully elbowed him and he eased up a bit.

Jack Morrison came to a stop in front of Genji.

“Agent Shimada,” he said.

“Commander Morrison,” said Genji.

“Your combat style has gotten more... collaborative,” he gave a glance over to Mercy.

“Most of the credit should go to Doctor Ziegler,” Genji started on reflex, “I was just--”

“Genji was reviewing strike team mission logs from under Lieutenant Wilhelm’s command for months,” Mercy cut in, “And he trained Tracer in close quarters’ combat. He possesses incredible intuition with regards to the team.”

“...right,” said Morrison, before turning back to Genji, “I hope you understand this team won’t be operating like Blackwatch. There’s going to be a lot more eyes on you.”

“I understand,” said Genji, “I am thankful for this opportunity, commander.”

“Spotlight’s not easy, Shimada, the spotlight isn’t easy,” said Jack.

“How about we lighten up and just be happy for ‘em, Jack?” said Sojourn, stepping up alongside Jack, “We have our strike team.”

“We’ll see how they do in the field before we pop any champagne bottles,” said Jack.

Tracer’s shoulders slumped slightly but Sojourn cleared her throat “Buuuut,” Sojourn added.

“But...we... did take the liberty of getting a cake in the event that you passed this appraisal,” said Jack, “Which... you did.”

“Cake!?” Tracer’s face lit up.

----

Genji wasn’t in the habit of eating in front of other people, but Tracer still insisted on sending him off with a slice of cake. He stood awkwardly with the plate full of cake for a few minutes in the conference room, watching as the others mingled and answering the odd question from Sojourn or Jack, until their attentions trailed over to WInston and Tracer. Genji quietly excused himself from the room and started walking through the hallways of Zurich headquarters. He stared at the quaint little slice of yellow cake with chocolate frosting with flakes of toasted coconut as he walked away from the conference room. He heard Mercy’s valkyrie boots tok-tok-tokking up briskly behind him and he slowed his pace and turned around.

Mercy was holding her own plate, already a few bites taken out of her own slice of cake.

“You should be celebrating with the others,” said Genji.

“Jack’s doting on Tracer and Sojourn’s interrogating Winston,” said Mercy.

“Jack dotes?” said Genji with a slight chuckle.

“Only on Tracer,” said Mercy with a smile, she gestured over her shoulder, “If you wanted to eat alone I can...”

“No--” said Genji, “I--um...I mean, I’d appreciate the company.”

“I imagine we’ll be spending a lot more time together,” said Mercy.

“Really?” said Genji, his visor brightening.

“Well... yes,” said Mercy, looking at him a bit oddly.

Genji suddenly caught himself, “Oh--Strike team,” he said after a beat.

“Yes, strike team,” said Mercy, smiling wryly, “I’m looking forward to it.”

Genji looked out the hallway window out over Zurich headquarters. Custodial workers were still carting out training bot wreckage from the practice range. His initial discomfort at first, standing with a piece of food he didn’t really feel comfortable eating in front of others, but now it was hitting him that he was off the bench. He would be going on missions again. Suddenly the world past the window glass seemed so much larger. He gave a glance back to Mercy, chewing on a bit of cake and following his line of sight nonchalantly.

“I’m looking forward to it, too, Doctor Ziegler,” said Genji.

#gency