Dewey Deftones

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

Angela thought to herself for a moment, thinking on what would happen if she were taken away from the soldiers for longer than need be. She was the reason many still lived, and if the wounded didn't have her, then... well, they would be more than just wounded. Normal medics couldn't do what she could. Often times, extremely traumatic injuries like loss of more than one limb, head trauma, or sever internal injuries were too much to handle even for the most well trained.

She grit her teeth, not only in pain but in frustration. She was exhausted. There was no doubt that if she tried to use her suit, something would go wrong. She'd never tried before, never actually tested the limits of her own capabilities. She tried to always stay within reason, and never push things further than what she could physically handle.

But she didn't want to be a burden on the other doctors and medics. Doctors shouldn't have to treat other doctors.

"Fareeha... I... I'm going to try to treat myself in my current state. I've never tried doing so when I'm this tired, but I don't want to be a burden. I don't want others to waste supplies on me. So... bear with me. And please don't let go of my hand." She took a breath to steady herself, closing her eyes to focus. The hand gripping her abdomen was her tool, her scalpel, her gauze, her syringe and stitches. She flattened her fingers over her injuries and where the pain was the worst, beginning to heal herself very slowly. The pain worsened at first and she gripped Fareeha's hand very tightly, but it began to ebb away slowly, like ice melting.

Her face contorted in pain for a few moments before she was able to relax, her grip on Fareeha's hand loosening. She felt dizzy, but not in so much pain as she had been. She hadn't fixed everything, but it was enough not to cripple her.

However, her exhaustion now reached a point where she could hardly move. She opened her eyes slowly, letting go of Fareeha's hand to clasp her own head, as if holding it would somehow bring relief. "Okay... I can't do any more... I can breathe again but... I feel faint. But at least no one will have to waste anything on me... now I can just sleep... and heal on my own."

She moved to stand up, but immediately it felt like the room was spinning. She sat back down quickly, shaking her head.

"No use... I'll just fall if I stand up." She inhaled deeply. "God, even when I saved Genji from death and rebuilt him from scratch I didn't feel this way... I wish that I had the strength to heal you right now as well, Fareeha. I know you want to be with your soldiers."

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

@Ambiguity

I'm loving the D.Va buff. It's such a small thing to add the movement speed while firing, but it's actually so much better.

I've played Sombra a few times. She's a ton of fun, but is actually pretty underpowered and easy to defend against right now. She has a vast lack of damage in her kit. Her only damage is from her gun. So, it's very rare right now to find a decent Sombra player who can properly use the utility her kit provides while being able to efficiently get kills. I've only seen one Sombra POTG, and she only got one of the four kills that were featured. The rest were her team's doing.

Meanwhile, I'm still that douche that plays Bastion all the time. He's gone untouched for quite some time.

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

@Ambiguity

Yeah, sometimes it's great to just go nuts. Ever gone to space with Junkrat? Just repeatedly toss your concussion mine below you and you pretty much become Pharah.

No limits is just old QP, so I don't even play it. I like the new QP better. Much less Sombra.

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

@Ambiguity

How are you doing? Enjoying the changes to Overwatch? I know I definitely am. And as expected, I'm beyond into 3v3 Elimination. And 1v1. I usually win 3v3, but lose 1v1. I guess I need a team to carry me. Or I just need to get better at Symmetra vs Symmetra in 1v1. :P

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

Angela shook her head. There was likely no point in her being seen anyways; not only could she take care of herself, but her injuries weren't something that anyone had the time to remedy. She'd heal them on her own when she had the strength to. There were others who needed attention more than her.

"No, I haven't been seen yet. There's not much of a point to anyone putting time into my wounds anyways. I healed myself as much as I could, though I'm certain there are still some internal wounds that are sorting themselves out... An explosive shell landed only a few feet away from me. It could have been much worse. I think the soldiers near me took the brunt of the blast. I was knocked unconscious for... I'm guessing a few minutes. From what I saw through my pain, Kalte's forces are continuing forward. The battle is in our favor right now. I think it's okay for us to rest. We did our part the best that we could, but..." Angela paused, tensing as a wave of pain tore through her. She cursed to herself, hand gripping her wounded abdomen. "Scheiße..."

She reached for Fareeha's hand for support, holding it tightly. "I may be a doctor but pain is not something I experience often.. Not like this, anyways."

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

Angela wasn't one to sit still for long, even in her wounded and tired state. She was wasting space, sitting here on a cot in the hospital tent where a more seriously wounded individual could lay. The blonde woman stood up, hand clutching over her abdomen. It still hurt quite a bit. It was likely that the wound wasn't completely healed, that there was still some internal damage that she'd have to be cautious about. The blood that stained her suit was now mostly her own, but she'd pay it no mind. It was the blood of others that bothered her most.

She stepped out into the middle lane of the tent, the cots lining the walls giving space for transport. There were thin partitions set up between beds so that there was a meager amount of privacy, and as well so that each wounded person wouldn't have to look over and possibly see the mangled body of a comrade. Angela soon spotted Fareeha, laying in one, stripped of her armor, battered and bandaged. Nothing too serious, it seemed, but enough to take her out of the fight. She couldn't imagine how much more it hurt Fareeha to be forced away from her duty.

The Swiss woman walked over to the side of the cot, sitting down on the edge of it. She likely looked like hell, but had to see if there was anything that she could do to ease the Egyptian jumper's pain, whether it be mental or physical. She cared too much to just let her lay here.

"Fareeha... How are you feeling?"

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

@Ambiguity

Yeah. I play QP and Comp about equally, just because sometimes I don't like to risk my rank. I'm really exciting for this upcoming competitive season. I'm happy being in Plat, but I guess they screwed up the algorithm for placements this season and people were placed higher than they should be, however, I started off in low gold and solo'd my way to plat. It was a hell of a struggle.

I just want my golden hammer, but I'm nowhere near 3000 points. I'm at like 1000.

Don't worry about matching post length! I just get really into my responses sometimes. :)

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

@Ambiguity

My post wound up being way longer than I thought it was gonna be. It was really flowing, I guess.

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

Kalte's forced quickly moved into position, spreading out over the battlefield and taking ground inch by inch. With the omnic forces having to focus on multiple targets spread over a wide area, it was much easier to take them out. Grenades were lobbed into fortifications, rifles fired slews of bullets, chipping away at walls and soon busting through what soon became nothing but heaps of scrap. However, despite their success, the wounded were piling up. Where Fareeha was taken, most of the medics were taking care of people who had sustained very severe injuries or had been knocked completely unconscious. Jumpers that fell from the sky with minor wounds often had very hard landings that turned to more serious injuries, breaking bones, or at the worst rupturing internal organs.

Angela was still doing everything she could for those on the frontlines, dashing from soldier to soldier, mending their wounds and either letting them continue fighting or having another medic drag them off to the backlines. Sweat dripped from her face and blood stained her Valkyrie suit, but she pushed onward. There was no time to rest.

As she had both hands on the thigh of a woman whose femoral artery had been severed, she was almost done with the process of healing it when an explosive shell landed only a few feet away. The few who were in the area, three soldiers, Angela, and the wounded woman, were all knocked away from the blast. Angela slipped into unconsciousness.

-flashback-

"Ana, do you ever make the decision between life or death?"

"Hah... I am no angel of mercy like you. Most of what I deal is nothing but death."

"And yet you brought life into this world years ago."

"Indeed I did, Angela. Life is a wonderful thing. I try not to think about what I take away when I kill. Someone's mother, father, daughter, son... I don't know what I would do if I ever lost Fareeha."

"And what if she loses you?"

"The dead often come back as a shadow in a dream. She won't lose me forever. You are her friend, you know. What if she loses you?"

"I... don't know."

"Grief is burnt as fuel for life. The shadows in dreams become shadows on the walls and sometimes it feels as if you're fighting alongside them again. Hopefully Fareeha will come to terms with the pain she will feel when I go. Hopefully she won't have to see the day when you leave as well."

"You sure have some profound thoughts about death, Ana."

"They are only profound because you have yet to experience them."

-

Her ears rang as bullets rattled around her, shouts and commands were incomprehensible and muffled. Explosions in the distance and the stench of blood. Angela opened her eyes, blinking away the blurriness, looking around. A few soldiers were protecting her while a medic leaned over her torso. Jumpers in the sky rained down Hell on the omnics. Angela moved to sit up, but a wave of pain stopped her. The medic said something to her, pushing her back to lay down, but the Swiss woman was too dazed to understand what she'd said. The doctor lifted her head and peered at her body, seeing blood staining her abdomen. She was wounded, pretty badly from the looks of it.

She reached her hands down, feeling the wound, trying to focus what strength she had to heal it. It hurt, immensely. She cried out, gritting her teeth. She was sure there were tears in her eyes but it didn't matter. So this was how it felt for the nanotechnology to heal your body. It was far from painless.

After a few moments, the pain became only a dull ache and Angela grabbed the medic to help herself sit up. From the look of things, a few minutes had passed. Kalte's forces were farther forward than she'd remembered them to be, pressing even further into omnic defenses. The battle was still in their favor.

"Come on, Ziegler, we've got to get you out of here!" The female medic pleaded. Looking at her nametag, it said Kantor.

Angela finally understood what she was shouting at her. The doctor nodded her head, standing up with Kantor's help. She wrapped her arm around the woman's shoulders, allowing herself to lean on the medic for support as they walked to the backlines. Angela would have to resign herself from this fight. The exhaustion was too much at this point, and having been wounded... She'd need a bit of time to recover.

As she was sat down with the other wounded, Angela vaguely remembered the bizarre dream she'd had while unconscious. It was a memory. A time when she'd spoken to Ana back when the sniper was still around. She wondered now, if she understood what Ana had been talking about. In a flash, she recalled that she'd seen Fareeha get taken down, but only for a moment.

Before Kantor could leave, Angela grabbed the sleeve of her fatigues. "Fareeha... Is Captain Amari okay?" She asked. Kantor nodded her head.

"She'll be fine from what I saw. Sneak got close, and she got hurt, but she's being taken care of. I've got to get back out there, doc." She said before hurrying back to the frontlines.

The Swiss doctor breathed a quiet sigh of relief. If Fareeha was okay, the jumpers wouldn't lose hope. Angela herself wouldn't lose hope.

Ashes Beneath the Burning Sun

@Ambiguity

And it's not like the people who like to do hero stacking can complain; No Limits mode is all for them.

Oh, and now people can't say "omg dude chill it's just QP not like it's competitive or anything", because QP will be practice for competitive. I'm sure people will still trollpick with hero limits, but it should be less prevalent. Hopefully the trolls will migrate to the No Limits queue.

Now, if people take No Limits seriously, that's when there's an issue. I understand people not taking the current QP seriously because it's really the only place to screw around outside of Custom Games (and let's face it, trolls don't have enough friends to fill a Custom lobby). But now there's a place for everyone, and then some. I'm reeaally gonna get into the 3v3 mode, I just know it.

And fuck Mei.

Such a frustrating hero.