Hi! I hope you like the new chapter :D

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Rating: Mature for fighting scenes n the like, just to be safe

Warnings: none.

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Chapter 05

It was rare for Zenyatta to leave the premises of the city.

Despite how easy it was to move around even as a monster –the nanites helped disguise him if he needed it– there were still fewer spots to use to hide once in the outskirts, so he rarely went there, but… there were times his soul was in turmoil, and all he needed was a place where he could look at the sky and see the stars.

Due to that Zenyatta sometimes left the security of the underground labyrinth he called 'home' and moved to the edges of the city, where the houses were scattered apart and there were more trees, more vegetation, and a clearer view of the sky.

He missed the clear view he had when he still lived in Nepal, with nothing to pollute the stars glittering ahead on the clearest nights, so anything that could let him feel even a fraction of that feeling was welcome.

It was not just so he could reconnect to his centre, but also because with far less people in the outskirts, the sheer volume of Discord he sensed constantly from those living in the city lessened, allowing him a moment of respite.

Before the change, he'd been able to sense both Discord and Harmony in a similar way, though duller, perhaps, but now he could hardly ever feel Harmony anymore, while it was so easy to sense Discord, so much he did not even need to reach out for it. The nanomachines that were now part of him had amplified his powers in ways Zenyatta had never thought could be possible, but there were times it was all too much –the pain, the distress, the Discord…

As usual, he only kept some of his mala on himself, the others spread across the city, a continuous watch, though now he operated with only eight, as one was still in the hands of the sentai.

He had no idea where they kept it –they were actually rather competent with that, their technology was so complete Zenyatta could only receive a small set of information from the orb, and it only amounted to a masked signal that translated to a continuous white noise pulse.

At one point, the first day, he'd received a brief flicker, but nothing useful or something he could analyse –not that he wished to. That orb was now lost to him, and while he missed it greatly, he had hopes it would, one day, return to him.

After all, the orbs had been crafted together by his brother, Mondatta, and himself over long, sleepless nights at the monastery. They were part of who Zenyatta was, and though circumstances made it imperative he learned to cope with being separated from them, it still made part of him ache.

Still, he believed in the Iris.

He was already close to the last few houses of the city when he stopped, in the middle of a bigger empty lot that was a construction site, to take a break and send forwards one of his remaining orbs.

The orb floated quietly in the air, its presence masked by the nanites buzzing over its surface, and soon it was gone from his sight, though he kept receiving data from it as it advanced, checking the roads and keeping away from the streetlights, flashing him the sight of the construction site from the side, where a giant banner with the symbol of the construction corporation working for it displayed in plain view.

It took a few more minutes, with Zenyatta sitting on top of a pile of cold bricks, but then the orb signalled that there was no one in sight, so he got up and moved to follow, and then…

A flash of warning, a truck coming down the street.

With a sigh, Zenyatta waited, only to realise as he kept his optical receptors connected with his mala, that the truck was not just passing on the nearby road, but was manoeuvring to enter the construction site instead.

Tilting his head, curious –usually no one did overtime in the city, so this was quite unheard of– Zenyatta moved to the side, hiding himself from sight and feeling the nanites that were part of his body flicker and flutter, helping mask his presence with deflecting tech.

His orb following the truck closely, so he could know where the driver was at all times and prevent himself from being discovered, Zenyatta waited.

The truck stopped somewhere in the lot he'd just vacated, wheels crushing the debris and the rocks with a loud noise, then he heard doors opening, and the sound of feet falling on the ground.

"Let's move quickly, I want to get out of here as soon as possible." The voice was metallic, so it had to be an omnic speaking, while the one who answered back right after was human.

"Yeah, yeah, no need to get bossy with me. Just grab the keys and open the back, I'm going to get the boxes out now."

Zenyatta's processors received the data from his mala, and though it was dark and the construction site was unlit, he could easily see the two unload three metal crates on the ground, aided by the truck's headlights.

The omnic was a builder type, with a three-point array on their forehead and bigger pistons at the base of his head, arms built for heavy lifting, but so was the human following him, whose built was similar, if only organic.

Zenyatta allowed his attention to waver –it was not his business what kind of overtime workers had to do to pay their bills– but then it refocused on the logo on one side of the truck, which he'd seen before somewhere.

It was… a spear, maybe, or a three-point trident pointed downwards, silver on a dark background, and there was no identifying name or brand anywhere on the truck. It was not the same as the logo of the construction site.

Since there was nothing else to do until the men left, Zenyatta kept the orb trained on them.

The crates they carried appeared to be heavy but not too big, and they placed them in a corner of the site, mumbling to one another.

"… are you sure it's safe?" Zenyatta tuned in as their voices carried over to his auricular receptors. "I heard we got told to handle these things with care."

"I was assured they are still dormant, but will activate tomorrow and disperse. Nothing to worry about, just open the crates and leave."

"… don't really trust that shit. What are these even for?"

"We are not paid to wonder things. Just deliver, open and run away. Nothing else. Shut up and start with this one."

"Aren't you curious though? Like… I was told nothing."

"I heard it's got to do with monsters but it's not officially paid for, so they have to do it like this."

"… makes no sense to me."

"City regulations maybe? Who the fuck knows. I don't, and I don't even live here. Let's just get this done, I have a date later."

"Ooooh, that pretty lady who was eyeing you the other day?"

"Yes," the omnic's voice coloured with pride. "So I don't want to get there too late, got it?"

"Sure thing my man. Let's get these open and done with."

Zenyatta's forehead array blinked and he brought both hands together in front of him, index and thumb pressed together, and sent his orb closer to the two, feeling a trail of discord curl inside his core.

That did not sound… like normal construction work talk.

The orb hovered behind the two, far enough above their heads that it would not be noticed, so Zenyatta had quite a good view of the two as they moved to open one of the crates.

For a moment, the human man was in front of his sight, preventing him from seeing what was inside, then he shifted away, and Zenyatta could see, snug inside the crate, surrounded with protective gear to keep it from rattling, a single black sphere, no bigger than a basketball, its surface opaque and metallic.

Zenyatta recognized it right away, and his core stuttered in shock.

He was barely aware he'd moved until he found himself stepping away from his hiding spot and out in the open, and then he hastily stopped, fans spinning so quickly he could hear them in the silence of the night, loud and obnoxious, his internal charge fizzling and crackling.

The sphere was –it was…

"Let's go now, we have opened them. I don't want to be here when these things activate. I don't really want to know what they do. Just… let's go, alright? It's a long drive home."

Stumbling backwards, Zenyatta felt the nanites in his body surge up, helping to hide him as he could not return to the safety of his hiding spot before the two passed by it.

The omnic tilted his head towards him, barely, as they walked by, servos hesitating, processors recalibrating in the dark, observing, seeking, but they could find nothing, and he moved on.

The human did not even turn his way, jumping up on the truck and waiting for his partner to do the same.

Zenyatta did not move, shaking, one hand wrapped tightly around the voice box that was hidden underneath the writhing mass of tentacles on his mouth piece to prevent any noise from coming out, the other hand clenched on the nearby wall, fingers denting the metal. The orb relayed the image of the truck backing out from where it had parked, and then for a brief moment it was in Zenyatta's direct line of vision, the symbol on its side visible to his optical receptors before it turned around and drove out of the area and back into the street.

Zenyatta did not bother with waiting, then –instead he ran, stumbling and shaking, towards the crates.

His only thought was that he had to stop them –if these were similar to the sphere that had attacked him, over a year before, then they contained nanites, and they would seek out other omnics, other humans, to turn into monsters, and…

He did not make it all the way to the crates.

Without warning, his body sang with pain. It rose from inside him, burning its way through his chassis like fire, making his servos jolt and shake, and he dropped down on the ground, a startled sound of pain crackling out from his synth.

Inside his body, the nanomachines reacted to the presence of the ones inside the crates, rising so crawl all over the surface of his frame, restless and aching, and Zenyatta arched up, nails digging into the grovel underneath him, and felt an echo of the pain he'd felt once before, when he'd been first touched by the nanites.

"Nh–"

Without warning, he felt a burst of energy from the crates as one by one, they reacted to Zenyatta's presence.

In his haste to get to them, he had not considered what the nanites inside him would do when placed in proximity with the non-activated ones within the orbs, and now he could see that he'd just triggered them from their dormant state far earlier than expected.

The black spheres hovered out of the crates, buzzing quietly, as dark as the darkness around him, but Zenyatta could do nothing, overwhelmed with the painful vibrations inside his chassis, barely able to look at the orbs, unable even to extend an art towards them, and then–

–then they shot into the air, a vertical flight that lasted only enough for them to raise above the buildings of the construction area before all three of them flew away in a straight line, towards the city, and disappeared into the distance.

It took Zenyatta a few long minutes for the pain to finally lessen, though he spent them trying to crawl forwards anyway, the part of his brain that wasn't glitching at the pain busy trying to reconnect with his mala from around the city.

He needed to find the spheres before they could claim someone else.

Winston observed with wide eyes as Athena directed her cybernetic arms towards the orb.

He had worked to expand the masked area to include an entire room of the base, making sure the orb could not escape, in order to run more experiments on it and hopefully extract a sample of the tech it was made of, but it was still an incognita, and Winston kept his distance, just in case.

"I will now proceed with the experiment," Athena's voice warned him, and Winston nodded. "Attempting to extract a sample of nanomachines…"

The orb spun lazily in the air, an energy field surrounding it, but when the mechanical arms extended towards it, the eye pointing their way moved slightly, pupil constricting to focus on it.

"I wonder what the eyes are made of," Winston muttered, his eyes flickering from the orb to the screens at his side. "Are the nanomachines functioning as a camera, to record information, or are they connected to something?"

The idea that an organic monster could own nanites was still surprising, and Winston had no idea in what way the Cultist could control them, though he had to admit that he looked somewhat mechanic in the recordings he had saved up from the sentai meeting with him.

It was preposterous to believe that monsters could be anything but organic, and though they had observed some of them to have parts that looked mechanic, at a closer look they had realised it was just an appearance, and none were truly mechanic at all. They still knew so little about monsters even now, three years since they had started to appear on Earth, that any information would be welcome.

Still, if the monsters had some sort of higher intelligence, as shown in the way they could communicate with people in order to scare them, it was no stretch to assume they could create mechanical amplifiers or other tech, though so far they had never seen any… except now.

There was not enough data to understand if this was normal or a rarity among monsters, though.

When the first hand reached the orb, one thin, needle-like finger touching its surface, just an inch away from the eye, the orb twitched and the eye made a small, aborted mission to look towards the hand, but did not react in any way to the touch.

Emboldened by this apparent calm, the needle prodded at the metallic surface, and tiny fingers spread apart to attempt to suck and collect a fragment of the orb away.

Again, no apparent protests from the orb, which remained almost dormant, and allowed them to take a sample.

"That… went fine," Winston murmured, surprised. "Almost too easy. Maybe the distance between the Cultist and his weapons make them less responsive to his command… I wonder if this would be a way to incapacitate him… and yet… how much distance is needed?"

"Sample secured, Winston. Proceeding to absorb nanomachines to analyse them."

"Maximum security activated, Athena. We're not taking any chances to have you infected."

"Sample acquired successfully. Beginning preliminary scans. It might take a few hours, Winston. You should head to bed."

Blinking at her words, Winston glanced over at the wall clock, only to realise it was past midnight. "Well, I can always stay up a little longer, in case something goes wrong–"

"Negative. Your reaction times slow down whenever you miss sleep, so it would be preferable if you could follow my directive instead. I will wake you up should something happen."

Far too used to Athena's blunt, curt comments whenever they had to discuss his rest times, Winston decided not to protest and just let her win –this time. He had been working on the orb for most of the day with little success, and if he messed up something due to lack of sleep, he would just give Moira more arguments on whether she should also pick up the sentai from him.

Which… no, he would never allow that.

"Just… do wake me up, alright?"

"Of course, Winston. Now please allow me to concentrate on this."

Athena waited until Winston was gone before following him through the camera circuit of the base, suspicious about his compliance, but was pleased when she saw him actually go to his bedroom, closing the door behind his back.

Satisfied with that, she returned her full attention on the nanomachine, while making sure the orb was placed once again inside its protective dome, so she could lower the amount of power needed to keep the entire room masked from external interference and use the extra boost to keep herself separate from the nanomachine.

Most of her analysis came back negative –the nanomachine appeared dormant once separated from the orb, and since it had been already activated, it would not attack anything else, nor corrupt other things as they had been afraid it would. It was a relief, because it allowed Athena to be a little bit more free in which extra experiments she could do on it. The tests also allowed Athena to list the components of the orb, and much to her surprise, most of them were in fact materials available on their planet.

From what little blood and tissues some scientists had gathered after vicious monster attacks in other cities, it was apparent their bodies and cellular DNA structure was different and had elements that were not present on Earth, which usually comprised between half to 90% of the monster's gathered samples. The orb, though… there was only a minimal fraction of elements that were extraneous in it, and those were the organic parts that Athena had learned to associate with monsters, and it was mostly focused on what counted as the 'eye' of the orb.

The rest, though… was mostly mechanical compounds that could be found, and manufactured, entirely on Earth.

It was… weird.

It meant the monster was using materials he found here, and had not brought the orbs with him from… wherever he came from.

It also meant it had to have been built on Earth, and had ended up in the Cultist's possession later on, unless the monster, as Moira had suggested, had a way to go back and forth between dimensions.

What surprised her though was the amount of mechanical parts on it, it was… advanced, and even with the few things she could not fully analyse this quickly, it still revealed a complex set of skills that should have been entirely alien to the monsters.

If more of them had the chance to pick up on this…

Absorbed in her research, at first she did not notice the red alert flashing through her sensors, dulled by the protections placed in the room she was in, until finally it nagged enough that her processors read the alert and made her aware of the warning.

She pulled up a screen and connected her mainframe with the outside sensors and was left puzzled by what she felt.

Something flared up –some sort of energy, maybe, but nothing she could read– and then, just as she was scouting the area to understand what had triggered her alarms, the orb floating in the dome dropped on the bottom of its container, suddenly inert.

"Well, then." With a sigh, Athena prepared to switch to Winston's bedroom to wake him up, but was stopped by the thought that whatever had caused the orb to fall was probably responsible for the alarm warnings she was still receiving.

Deciding that checking what was happening outside was more important than waking up Winston, at least for the present time, she decided to switch to the view on the outside of the base, the cameras installed there ready for her to monitor its surroundings.

At first, she could see nothing. The streets were well lit despite it being so late at night, and there were plenty of cars and people walking around as usual. She zoomed a bit, searching, waiting…

And then she saw it.

It was hard to notice, black against the already black sky, but it reflected the light of a streetlight on its dull surface, and Athena was not human –her optical receptors were rather advanced, and could see in the dark.

It was a sphere, floating in the sky, but not at all similar to the ones the Cultist used. It was bigger in size, approximately three times in diameter, and completely black, with no eyes on its surface or anything peculiar, at least at this distance. It hovered above the streets, wobbling slightly and moving out of sight.

With a sigh, Athena looked at the available sentai in the base. Lucio was gone for one of his concerts, and Hana was in the middle of one of her all-nighters to play, as she'd been psyched up about it all day. Angela was sleeping, and Athena did not wish to wake her when she was close to one of her exams, so… "Genji? Wake up. There is an emergency."

He answered instantly, startled up from his slumber. He had been in his bed, but looked just as groggy as if he'd been sleeping on a chair.

"Wha– what? What emergency?"

"There is an unidentified flying object floating outside in the sky. It is slowly going out of range for my cameras, but it had… it is possible it had a weird reaction with the nanomachines we were studying –the ones from the orb you got from the Cultist."

Genji wiped his face with one hand, looking partially more awake at that. "A… reaction?"

"The orb dropped down, as if it lost all its energy."

"And you… what do you want from me?"

"I would like a closer look at the sphere, so if you could act as an intermediary that would be perfect. I intend to inspect the object from a safe distance, but close enough that I can investigate. If possible I would like to bring it back to study it here, or at least a sample, to make sure it is not something else that belongs to the Cultist."

"Oh. Sure. Give me a second, will you?" he hastily rolled out of bed, still in his pyjamas, and a second later he'd morphed into his sentai costume. "There. Let's go!"

Athena detached herself from the communications of the base, downloading her conscious directly into the communication device in Genji's mask. A percentage of her processors remained behind to deal with the base's protection and with the ongoing analysis of the orb and its nanomachines, but the main part was now with Genji, ready to leave. "I'll guide you to the black sphere, so follow my instructions."

With a nod, Genji jumped out of the window.

"So what do you think is it? Something… that the Cultist sent to seek out his orb?" Genji asked, glancing around.

He had no night vision, nor was it equipped to his visor, but it did have an augmented processor that made everything look a little sharper, though not as clear as it would have been with night vision.

"Up," Athena answered through his communication device. "It is possible, either that or some kind of device that might disable the orb, making it impossible for us to study it. It has managed to bypass the shielding of the base, somehow, which should not be possible, yet it has made no attempt to come closer, and in fact it is– turn right now!" Genji followed her abrupt order, jumping over a ledge and then twisting in mid-air, using a railing to aid himself as he quickly bounced past a balcony and over the rooftops. "It is moving away, but its movements are… slowed down now. Almost unsure."

"We'll catch up quickly with it if that's the case," Genji still could not see anything, but was grateful that this far up, the flying object was still far enough from people that even if it proved to be dangerous it would not hurt anyone. "How are your sensors working to find it?"

"It is emitting a… radiation, almost, and–" Athena paused, then the communication device made a small sound, like a hiccup. "I do not think we should ge –t too cl – o se–"

"Athena? Is there a problem? Is that thing shielding you?"

"No, I… I feel like the radiation it is producing is affecting my processors, but thankfully my main servers are still at the base. If needed be, I will return there and you can make your way back as well. Do not attempt anything with it if I leave. It might be dangerous for you as well, and Winston might not like it if I endanger his precious sentai."

Genji knew Athena was just attempting to ease the tension with a joke, but he laughed anyway, amused by her words and even more by the fact that they rang true. Winston was not just their commander, but a friend. He cared for them, and Genji and the others cared back for him just as much.

"Alright, it's just up ahead. Slow down, we need to keep a safe distance."

"Understood."

And now Genji could see it too, black against the dark sky but still visible enough even with his human sight.

It was a black sphere, moving slowly, haltingly, wobbling a little, yet as he got closer, the sphere seemed to regain speed, vibrating slightly and setting its course back to a straight line.

"Whatever caused it to stop working is not affecting it anymore," Genji murmured. "It might have been the masking devices around the base. Athena, is this close enough?"

"I… yes. My sensors are detecting something familiar, not unlike the nanomachines inside the Cultist's orb, and yet, this feels… different. I really need a sample to understand but–"

"Can you still work if I get closer still? I might be able to make a grab for it."

"Did you hear what I said, Gen– Green Sentai? You are not to get too close, especially not enough to touch it. I will send forth a probe and we will stay back and observe."

"But where's the fun?" Genji did not move despite his words, and watched as a small fluttery nanobot detached from the side of his mask and buzzed forwards, similar in size and shape to a little hummingbird. "Was that inside my helmet all along?"

"It was constructed through the same technology that made your suit, yes."

Genji observed the small probe flutter forwards, curious and excited. If this sphere was tied to the Cultist, this was yet another tiny piece of a puzzle he hoped to unveil, and maybe securing a sample would help them –him– understand more about the elusive monster and his goals.

Unfortunately, the moment the probe was close enough to the sphere, it stopped, and–

The sphere shifted in mid-air, giving him the impression of turning around to look at him, and then instead of continuing on its way, it changed directions…

Pointing right at the probe, him and Athena.

Zenyatta had a plan.

It was not a good plan, but it was a plan nonetheless.

This was the first time in over a year that he had a chance –a hint to follow, a lead to understand his change and its causes.

He had at first believed that since the monsters were all appearing at random, the causes for his own transformation had to have been similar, and not caused by someone. Even if the thought had passed through his processors more than once, he had never, not even for a moment, believed that the cause could be someone in this universe.

All this time, he had sought out other monsters, creatures that maybe could lead him to where the first monster had appeared, and understand who had sent the orbs that changed him.

He knew nothing about whether or not monsters had the knowledge to create nanomachines, nor had the thought ever crossed his processors, but with new data came new possibilities, none of them good.

Now, he had seen a symbol, and that was enough –but he also knew there were people who sent those orbs out, people who belonged to this universe, who were… humans, or omnics, or both. Who had caused his transformation, and that of other countless unlucky ones.

Yet, that would have to wait –the spheres now wandering over the city, triggered by the presence of Zenyatta's nanomachines, had the precedence. It was his fault, though he had no idea they would react this way, and now he needed to make sure to keep them from others.

Still, if they had reacted to him this way, he could use that to direct them away from others, and he'd left enough of his orbs around the city that he could attempt just that.

Zenyatta was not fast –when he could still float he was used to moving calmly, but he had not been quick even before then, due to extensive damage to his legs caused by some anti-omnic protesters in his earlier years; the nanomachines had changed him yet they had not fixed the damage, so even as a monster he did not move much, but he used the nanomachines' powers to cloud himself and make it seem like he moved faster than he could.

Sadly that did not really help whenever he needed to be quick.

He kept a steady connection with his orbs and then sent the remaining ones he had on himself to join the rest, all eight scouting the city for a chance to see the black spheres.

He caught up with the first one quickly, two of his mala chasing it in the air, grateful when he noticed it was floating unsteadily above an empty park, closed down at this time of the night. The city was populated enough that there were people out and about at any time, but if he was quick enough…

With a flick of his wrist, Zenyatta sent forwards one of his mala.

The moment it got close enough, there was an instant reaction –his mala seemed to lose consistency for a split second, vibrating and dropping down onto the grass below as Zenyatta lost control of it. He kept his optical receptors on the black orb, and could see it had also accused the closeness, as it started wobbling and moving slower, almost sluggish, though it did not stop.

This would not do. He needed something more radical in order to fully stop the black orb, and yet… he was one mala down. Zenyatta had to consider his next move carefully.

He decided to take a gamble. Instead of approaching the black sphere slowly like before, he directed his remaining mala to descend onto it from above, hoping gravity would help.

As expected, the moment the mala got close enough he lost control of it, though he could still see through it. The mala dropped down, gravity making it fall faster, and hit the orb.

This close, Zenyatta had enough time to register and secure some footage of the sphere's exterior and its composition, so he could analyse it later, but he kept his sensors and processors trained on the sphere, observing the way its surface shivered and shimmered in a manner identical to the way the nanomachines that were now part of him moved.

He felt a phantom pain through the mala but he shouldered it with a flinch, and much to his relief, the nanomachines clashing with one another seemed to react as he had expected.

The sphere plummeted to the ground, nanomachines buzzing together with the ones of his mala, and into the foliage of a tree, motionless and inactive.

Zenyatta waited, core whirring, but neither his mala nor the sphere moved from there, though he could feel the nanomachines of both mixing together, connecting–

He cut off the contact with the mala at the first hint of pain, fans spinning quickly.

That… would be enough, for now.

There was no way to tell what would happen to the nanomachines, if they would react to the ones already changed by mixing with Zenyatta, or if one type would overpower the other, but he had some time now to focus on the remaining two orbs.

With a soft sigh, he focused his attention on the other mala, relieved to see it answer once again to his orders. It was still sluggish, but active, so he directed it to the tree, far enough that it would not be caught up by what was happening, but close enough so he could keep… an eye on the situation.

His gamble had paid off, but he now had to operate with two missing mala, and with a third one in possession of the sentai, Zenyatta would have to work with only six of them. Hopefully he would be able to stop the other two spheres before they were found by someone else.

Standing up, still feeling the twinges of pain from the barest contact with the raw nanomachines, Zenyatta ran forwards, as quickly as he could, to find the second sphere.