Chapter Text
For security reasons no one was allowed to actually go and upload anything to the internet without Athena and thereby Winston approving it first. This put a serious damper on Hana’s streaming but more so on what gaming consoles they’d managed to put together for entertainment. Athena created a closed network to fool the aged systems into believing they were connected to the right networks but it made any created content difficult to get. Winston liked to remind everyone that they were technically all not just vigilantes but some were fugitives with prices on their heads and powerful people looking for just a slight slip up to cause them harm.
Hana resigned herself to having to create the majority of the Mario Maker levels once they got the game running since she needed something to do. Genji made a few, pulled from memory of things he and Hanzo once built for fun but not too many. Zenyatta crafted a few but they were fairly easy. Lucio tried his hand at things but had gone back and made it easier when someone struggled too long. Everyone seemed to give it a shot as time went on (Tracer’s speed runs were insane) but one afternoon a few of the younger members sat down to play and discovered over a dozen new crafted levels.
They were all made by one person though no one recognized the gamertag nor the Mii that accompanied it. No one had a clue who ‘AlwaysFifth’ was but their levels were varied and amazing if infuriating at points.
Some were labeled with nicknames and numbers as if they were challenges. The first they tried were all labeled ‘LittleFrog’ and featured a lot of music blocks. It took the fifth try on one of them, struggling with the time and the bizarre pathing that allowed for no missing of any blocks or falling into burning lava death for Lucio to figure it out.
“DUDE! It’s the Song of Storms! Look look…” He bounced in the chair, moving at the right timing for the music and bouncing along the notes which played the song as they went. When they got to the end and punched a block it turned the 16bit Mario into Link. The rest of the LittleFrog series played along similar themes- using notes or sound effects to make music -ranging from a ghost level full of ‘Lament of the Highborn’ to a very fast paced level featuring some of Lucio’s own music. Once the gimmick was discovered they were easy to beat but super fun to play. A little of everyone’s favorite music was hidden in there including some old Yoko Kanno from Cowboy Bebop.
The next series was labeled ‘RamenKing’ which they guessed was for Genji. The name gave him a hint but the first level he attempted which was rated very difficult clued him into the author. He said nothing, keeping his faceplate on, as he ran through a level named ‘Hurry Up Sleepy Head’. It was a castle run with a bright pink background and piranha plants lining every pitfall. It took Genji a few tries before he gasped “it’s… our old training run.”
“Who’s old training run?” Hana asked as she watched Genji try to speed run the thing making great progress.
“I don’t want to say it’ll ruin it.” He muttered and finished the level. Little Mario was met by bigger Luigi at the end. The next were levels he’d forgotten he had made and growled in frustration as he remembered all the tricks to try and survive things only to fail when he forgot something else. One level looked like a Flappy bird rip-off but it took Genji a day or two of trying it to realize it was the twists and turns of the old road leading from the palace up the hills to the family’s mountain retreat where their Grandmother used to live. She always had tea and ginger cookies waiting for them since the car ride sometimes gave the brothers sour stomachs. One of them more than the other.
The levels for ‘SonicBlue’ were all speed runs that included some doubling back required to beat the level with small puzzles that required Tracer to figure out then go back and continue the run. Every time she finished with a few seconds to spare she squealed, elated and excited ready to try another.
‘PBBuddy’s levels were full of puzzles to figure out, things to have to attempt to do, tricks that let you work out the rest of the level or progress past a point. Winston wasn’t one to play but when Athena informed him no one had beaten the levels completely he crafted a modified controller and tried it from his lab. “How wonderfully innovative.”
And so the levels went, some new appearing every few days sometimes weeks separated at a time before someone got a new level. No one knew when or how the author AlwaysFifth got time to come in and work it and some even theorized it was Athena.
The hardest ones, the most unforgiving and ‘skill capped’ according to Hana were the ones she assumed were for her. ‘DoritoGremlin’ was a pretty clear callout and she decided to tackle her levels (with Winston’s permission) on her weekly stream. Genji sat perched on the back of the couch with his faceplate off so his voice didn’t sound too distorted. Lucio sitting beside Hana keeping an eye on the chat and playing music in the background between attempts or during breaks. Her stream LOVED the fact Lucio was making so many appearances and they loved ‘GnG’ as Hana referred to Genji as in chat, often just calling him G. There was no face cam, much to the stream’s dismay, but she only did those when she was by herself for security reasons now. They were trying the ‘So Easy you can do it’ which had the lowest success rate. She’d even snuck a copy out to her fans and it boasted only a .03% success rate. Everyone who had managed it hadn’t been able to do it a second time and no one seemed to think that there was anything that could sneak through it easily.
“I don’t care if I have to be here all night long I will finish this stupid thing!” Hana proclaimed and the chat went mad with excitement. They’d been at it for three streams and two hours so far.
The game systems were in the common room, which attached to the kitchen and dining space they’d wrangled together. Once the room had been a conference space, an area to deliver speeches and mass briefings. Now it was split between recreational public space and food prep area. It was nearing 3am when quiet feet shuffled into the space.
“What…are you all doing?” Hana glanced over to spot Hanzo, looking disheveled and tired, standing in the doorway.
“Oh look it’s the Grumpy old man.” Hana said “Say hi to the Sour Wolf everyone!” She called into the mic as Hanzo wandered into the kitchen to make some tea.
“/Brother? Couldn’t sleep?/” Genji asked, sliding off the back of the couch to check on Hanzo. He’d been… distant. Difficult to approach as of late. The missions 76 kept sending him on read more like Blackwatch operations than anything Overwatch ought to be doing but Hanzo never complained. Only came back weary and sometimes injured.
“/Rough night./” Hanzo poured himself some water from a bottle and put the mug into the microwave. It had to be bad if he was forgoing his usual rituals. Genji moved around him to pull out some stashed gingersnaps Reinheardt had purchased for his own tea.
“/Here. Are you getting any sleep?/” Genji asked. “/76 is pushing you too hard./” Genji frowned as Hanzo waved a hand at him to dismiss his concerns, yawning behind the other one.
“/Trying to sleep when I can. McCree had a nightmare. It must have been contagious./” Hanzo scrubbed his face with his palm, jumping a little when the microwave dinged. He and the cowboy shared a room and Genji was too familiar with the howling terrors the gunslinger occasionally suffered.
“/I got it./” Genji gave Hanzo a little smile and got his hot water, putting the teabag Hanzo had pulled out into the water to steep. “Why don’t you join us? A little distraction maybe?”
“I doubt the gremlin would appreciate it.” Hanzo mumbled as he munched on a cookie.
“Come on maybe you can show her old school is the better school.” Genji walked over to the others, Hanzo’s tea in hand. With a sigh Hanzo followed holding onto the sheath of cookies. Of course Genji would hold his tea hostage.
“We have a special guest.” Genji leaned into the mic as he put the tea down beside Hana on the side he usually perched. He sat back up on the back of the couch and forced Hanzo to sit between his legs on the couch. “The sour wolf who couldn’t sleep. Say hi!”
Hanzo plunked down on the couch, grabbing a pillow to put on Genji’s legs and leaned back into them. “Yo.”
“Pffft don’t try to be cool.” Hana said before howling in frustration as she hit the exact same spot she did last time only to die there.
“Not cool. Ice cold.” Hanzo reached out and grabbed his mug. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to beat our mystery crafter’s hardest level.” Lucio explained. “We’ve been at it for three streams now.”
“Has everyone tried?” Hanzo asked, watching Hana try again only to mess up so early on she nearly threw the controller.
“Genji went first, then I tried it for like an hour after,” Lucio explained, recapping the attempts “Even big banana tried it and broke his own controller. D.Va here said she’d beat it tonight come hell or high water.”
“Gerrrahahahah!”
“High water is on the rise I see.” Hanzo said sipping his tea.
“You think you can do this hot shit!?” Hana snarled and brandished the controller at him.
Hanzo took another sip of his tea, leaned forward to put the mug down, and then took the controller.
“What does A do again?” He asked as he started the level and promptly died. “Humm that didn’t go well.”
He continued this way, fumbling with the controls, calmly and sleepily muttering as he messed up. The chat was going nuts, Hana was making fun of him endlessly as he died again and again and again. Each time he said something about how that didn’t go well, wasn’t what he intended, or muttered ‘I died’ in Japanese. He was tired enough it seemed to Genji that his English wasn’t working well. Not that he blamed his brother.
“Oh…/I died there again./” he muttered and chat kept telling him to ‘git good’ or saying he sounded like an adorable little old man.
“Wow you’re horrible at this.” Lucio even said “But keep trying. Just a little rusty right?”
“Anija never was terribly into video games. Not like I was.” Genji said, glancing at the chat as it EXPLODED. “Yep that’s right the sour wolf is my older brother.”
“You burned through a month’s allowance on DDR to impress girls.” Hanzo said before murdering Mario again. “Ah…/I died./”
“I did impress girls.” Genji beamed. “Brought three home at once.”
“You did and I had to escort them out before they were seen in the morning.” Hanzo said “Ah…. /I died again./”
“Going to give up?” Hana asked, reaching for the controller. Hanzo swatted her hands away in a very un-Hanzo way.
“Nope.” He chided. He stood there, at the start, time running down quickly. “… Nope.”
“Nope what?”
“I am, as you say,” Hanzo said as he backed up a few steps. The world was built in Mario 2 fashion just full of all the worst monsters there could be there. He crouched down by what looked like just another radish in the background, one in which everyone ignored. The little Mario struggled and ripped the radish out of the ground. Only it wasn’t a radish. It was a spaceship. “Noping out of all of this.”
The little Mario climbed into the little space ship and it sailed over the very top of the screen only to appear somewhere nearly no one had gotten to. Hanzo hopped out of the ship before it exploded and walked into the little eagle faced door at the end of the stage. The chat was full of brightly colored ‘Ooooohhhhh’s and little pictures of air horns.
Everyone was silent as they stared at the victory screen.
Hanzo put the controller in Hana’s hands then leaned forward to retrieve his tea, taking a long, loud sip.
“Well that was not too bad.” He got up, tea and cookies in hand. “I should try to get some sleep. As should you.” He waved to the computer “Good night internet.”
Genji, Hana, Lucio, and the Internet all went quiet as Hanzo left the room.
Hanzo could hear the saint FFFF sounding whistle before Hana lost her damn mind. He sipped his tea and went back to his shared room with McCree. Phase one complete.