Being a climatologist was, at times, a thrilling profession. Mei-Ling Zhou had seen the spiraling clouds on all sides from the eyes of hurricanes in the Caribbean, tracked rogue precipitory downpours across the vast plains of Numbani in a half-broken safari jeep, weathered through category 5 blizzards in the Antarctic, and had ascended Mount Everest twice (although never its peak). At times, her studies in the world's rapidly shifting climate had been nothing short of adventurous.

This was not one of those times.

She sat with her chin in one hand, the other aimlessly scribbling in answers in her sudoku book as her eyes barely followed a slow-moving blob of green cloud across a holographic map, just as she had been doing for the past several hours.

For the past several months she had been stuck watching the weather patterns of the world go by from behind a computer screen, waiting for orders from Winston; orders which almost never came. The last calls to action had not even involved her at all. They always took along the veterans and more combat-intensive members; Soldier 76, Ana, Mercy, Pharah, Genji, and others. She was usually tasked with babysitting the backlines, or 'taking care of the base' when the others were away, known as the 'responsible one'. She had readily agreed to rejoin the newly-resurrected Overwatch, and it had been wonderful to see old friends and colleagues, return to her old room back at headquarters, and to catch up on the years of shows and books she had missed out on, while she had slept the years away in cryostasis…but despite her studious and softspoken nature, Mei had always craved adventure, and she was rapidly becoming bored of the whole situation.

Even worse, there was nowhere for her to really go. Her tiny quarters on the base was the only home she had left. Her parents had both passed during her sleep, her childhood home in Xi'an had been leveled to make room for a new apartment block, and all of the eco-watchpoints that she and her team had established were all gone, abandoned and destroyed. This really was all that was left…

So she sat in front of her monitor, as she had been told to do, and watched the virtual clouds go by as she daydreamed of better times.

BOOM

A rumble shook her room, vibrating through the walls and causing her to startle in her chair, her sudoku book flying off to the side and her glasses being knocked askew. Grumbling, she straightened them back upon her nose as she stood and stomped out the door, looking as fierce as she thought was possible while dressed in sweatpants and bare footed.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

Her travels took her out of the dorm area, to a nearby staging ground some distance away. The reverberating crashes and explosions didn't worry her so much as irritate her. They were a very distinctive sort of sound, and one she had learned to identify very well by now.

"Excuse me? Excuse me!? Hey! Qǐng wèn!" She tried yelling over the din as she neared, but her cries went either unheard or ignored.

"Arroight, Roadie! Same as before! Pull!"

Roadhog stood off to the side, standing vigil next to a pile of deactivated and broken target bots. As Mei watched, the massive pig-masked man lifted one of the heavy things effortlessly with one thick arm, grunting slightly as he reared back and tossed it into the air.

Junkrat stood at the front of the range, his grenade launcher lifted up on one shoulder as he took aim and fired. The grenades missed their spinning aerial target by a mile, sailing past to bounce against the far walls before exploding with the same rapidfire booming noises Mei had heard a million times before.

"Fuck!" he shrilled, slamming another handful of grenades into place in a movement that was far too rough for Mei's liking. The last thing she wanted was to see him blowing what was left of his limbs off. The lanky junker looked even more manic than usual somehow, and he gnawed and worried at his lip, twitching erratically as another bot went sailing into the air and another round of grenades went flying past.

BOOM BOOM BOOM

"Junkrat! Mr. Fawkes!" Mei waved both arms, and the movement finally seemed to catch his eye.

Immediately his expression brightened and he lowered his gun, loping forward towards her with the telltale k-thump k-thump of his peg leg. He licked one filthy palm, using it to slick back what remained of his tattered clumps of blonde and charred-black hair, coughing slightly to clear his voice before leaning on one of the nearby railings, flashing her a wink and the gun. "Hcckf! So! G'day, Mei! Didn't expect t'see your lovely face in a place like this. Er, I mean, I did! I mean, I know you live right over there. But I'm not saying I know where you live, not like that! Uh…so, how's it going? Hope it's real…good!"

Mei sighed at his over the top mannerisms. The junker had been mooning over her since before she'd even met him. Tracer had teased her that the first thing he'd asked about in his tour of the facilities was the name of that 'cute Asian shiela'. Others had reported him staring and sighing a lot during their communal dinners in the cafeteria. The first time they had been officially introduced, Junkrat's voice had actually cracked like he was a teenager again, and he had stuttered his way through trying to tell her just how much he was looking forward to working with her, before Winston had taken pity on him and given an excuse to drag him away. Even still, every time she tried to talk with him, his failed attempts at flirtation and smooth-talking left her bemused and more than a bit uncomfortable.

"Well, I was trying to get some work done before you started shooting grenades at my window."

"Aw, Mei darl, that's what the target range is for! Can't get mad at me for practicin'! Not like there's anythin' else to do around here right now," he grumbled, snorting and scuffing his boot in the dust. "Asides, I got some real stress I gotta work off. Nothing better for stress than a few big booms!"

She pursed her lips, but couldn't help but agree with him. Even coming out here to scold him for the noise had been a distraction she'd openly invited. "Well, still. You should be more careful anyway. Ah…Are you all right? What has you so frustrated?"

The junker frowned down at her, rolling another grenade around in his mechanical hand. Mei couldn't help but watch it nervously. "Aw, it's nothing. Personal matters," he muttered, "Just heard about some troubles back in our old stompin' grounds in Oz."

"Troubles?" she echoed.

"Roadie, tell 'er!"

Mei turned to Roadhog, who stood staring down at her in ever-present menace, silent save for the faint muffled rasp of his breathing within the mask. He said nothing. Mei looked back to Junkrat.

"Too roight!" Junkrat nodded up to his bodyguard in agreement. "Just heard a bit ago that some big bonzer of a storm took out another couple junker towns outside the Broome. Red storm, they say, one of the real bad 'uns, wiped 'em all out to a man. Roadie and I used to get out that way a lot, wasn't all bad folks there. Think I had a girl there once or twice, when Roadie n' I hhhh-" His breath came out all in a rush as Roadhog shook his head quickly. Mei was giving him a very unimpressed look from the sidelines of the range, eyes lidded and arms folded. "Er, y'know, real long ago. Point is, s'all gone now. So, not one to whinge, thought I'd just come out here and blast a few rounds. Ya know, in honor of the ones we lost who weren't complete bastards."

Mei was looking thoughtful. "You said it was another of the red storms?"

Junkrat nodded. "Yeah, yeah. Nothin' but red dust and radioactive lightning. Junker towns can usually deal with 'em but must've been one dooly of a storm to take out so many."

"Could they not evacuate?"

Junkrat snorted a laugh. "Evacuate? By the time someone sees one up on the horizon and tries to radio it in, all you can do is hope that the signal can still get through. All you can do is hunker down and try not to breathe in too much of the red dust. I mean, I'm sure I breathed more than my fair share when I was a mite, but I turned out all roight."

Roadhog sighed slightly.

Mei's brows knitted. "You mean the junkers still use visuals and radio? Does nobody monitor the storms there? Especially if they are that severe?"

"Who would? We don't have cutie-patootie weather gals like you just runnin' around the outback, ya know. Kinda wish we had…"

Mei spun around, tapping her fingers against her chin. She had done some paltry research on the storms in Australia, but details had been sparse at best. The junkers described the storms as some sort of omnic revenge, radioactive tempests that kicked up gales of poisoned desert sand, with hurricane force winds, and rain that burned like fire. But nearly the whole continent had been evacuated decades ago, and the weather patterns there were chaotic and unstudied, leaving the place's few inhabitants to its mercy.

Her attempts at accessing the Australian eco-station's data had been fruitless. It had likely been destroyed, or dismantled by the desert scavengers if not. She herself had never visited. It had always been deemed too dangerous for anyone but the older members of her old organization. But they were long gone now, and it sounded like the struggling residents of Australia's outback needed a skilled climatologist now more than ever. An entire continent's climate patterns had gone ignored for decades and there would be a treasure trove of data to discover there. Plus, it would be a good-will mission that would get her out of this awful base.

She turned and reached up to grasp onto the startled Junkrat's bony shoulders. "Wǒ yǒu gè zhǔyì!"

"Uh?"

"I have an idea!" she clarified, before turning and dashing off back towards the base proper.

Junkrat watched her go, slumping his chin down to rest in both hands and sighing aloud. "Think I'm in love, Roadie."

Roadhog patted him awkwardly on his bony back and gave him a thumbs up.

Winston folded both muscular forearms. Just to drive the point home, he folded his feet as well, all digits tapping impatiently against his armor. "Absolutely not. You are not going to the Australian outback."

"Winston, it is a good idea! Just hear me out! Think of all the valuable data we can find, think of all the people we can help!"

"Australia was all but abandoned, Mei, and the people that are left are…" The enormous gorilla cleared his throat politely. "I would not be comfortable sending you there."

"You were comfortable enough to bring two of them here," she answered slyly, having already anticipated his reaction.

Similarly anticipated, he became immediately flustered. "Well that was…a suggestion by Athena at first, when I put in parameters about needing skilled combatants. And they have performed their functions well, after some initial frictions, which honestly were to be expected, considering the- All right, Mei, I see what you did there. But the answer is still in the negative, we don't need you heading into who-knows-what kind of chaos by yourself when we still need you here."

"That is the thing, Winston, you don't need me here. I haven't had a call to action in weeks. I could be doing so much more, I could be helping people. That's why I originally joined Overwatch, was to help people!"

He sighed, dragging his fingers down his face uneasily. He and Mei had always gotten along very well. He even considered her one of his closer friends, and the thought of knowingly sending her into such territory clearly unsettled him. But the way she was looking at him now, with that kind of fire in her eyes and that pleading tone, he could already feel his resolve slipping. He turned hurriedly back to his computer. "Well, we have plenty of other missions we could send you on! There…might be something coming up in a few months, actually, for the science team! And you never know when there might be an emergency…"

Mei gave him a very hard look. "Winston, I can not just sit here waiting for any more 'maybe's. I signed up to do my job and to help preserve the world. I can't do that from here…"

"But Australia? By yourself?"

"I won't be by myself…I'm here to request that Junkrat and Roadhog accompany me."

"Mei!"

"They are the best candidates we have! And I do not like that prospect any more than you do! But they know their way around the outback and can protect me while we travel inland to set up a spot for the eco-monitors. Plus, they know me well enough that I would be safer putting my trust in them than any mercenaries out there. I know what I'm dealing with, I know what sort of dangers might be out there. But there are innocent people out there are dying, Winston. We have to help."

Winston stared her down. Mei stared back. Both adjusted their glasses at the same time.

Finally, Winston sighed aloud and leaned back in a gesture of defeat. "Well I can't have three of Overwatch's agents missing for too long. I can give you two weeks, Mei, but that's all."

"Xièxiè! I've already researched places where I can put the monitors and safe places for the beacons. Two weeks is…it's cutting it close, but I am sure we can do it. Erm. Winston, could you do me one more favor?"

"Two weeks is all I can-"

"No, that's fine. Could you just…call the junkers in and let them know officially?" She fidgeted slightly, scuffing the toe of one boot on the floor. "You know Junkrat. You know how he...ah...gets?"

The ape let out a rumbling chuckle, nodding before reaching for the microphone and flicking it on as his deep voice blared through the intercom. "Would agents Roadhog and Junkrat please report to briefing."

Several minutes later, Mei was leaning outside the door to the briefing room, tapping away at her phone as she prepared her notes and lists of supplies. The door popped open, and Roadhog's immense form bent over slightly as he exited, ducking his head from the doorframe and straightening once out in the hallway. The pig mask turned towards her, and the blank white lenses of its eyes glinted in the light. As usual, he said nothing, but a very slight movement of his head indicated a thoughtfulness as he regarded her.

She swallowed hard, shoving her phone behind her and nodding formally, head down. "Nǐ hǎo,Roadhog. I hope Winston has debriefed you on exactly how w- WAAA!"

She was cut off as a flash of movement launched out from behind Roadhog's giant form, a gangly set of arms, one flesh and one metal, wrapping around her and abruptly lifting her off her feet. Junkrat swung her about in a circle, giggling maniacally.

"Mei! Mei, darl, you don't gotta worry about a thing. Me and Roadie, we got you. You want to plant some doohickey on a whatever, I got your back. We'll keep the mongrels off ya, swear it." He shook her back and forth slightly before outright hugging her, his soot-covered face smushing against her once-tidy bun, seemingly ignorant of the hairpiece that was most certainly jabbing him in the ear. "We'll show ya how junkers really do it. Gonna have fun, you n' me."

Mei dangled from his grasp, looking to his larger bodyguard for help.

Roadhog shrugged.