"You're a massive twat!" my friend, Steve, complained as I had just demolished him in the first round of a 1v1 in the newly released title, Overwatch. I chuckled as seconds before, he thought I would barely be able to touch him. He might of been a pro Genji, but a Mccree that was capable of aiming was lethal to anybody who opposed him. After the humiliation of the match he decided to get off and try to finish his armour in time for Blizzcon. We were both very excited for the upcoming week as we would be attending our first convention "Blizzcon", along with the excitement of the con, we would be meeting each other in person for the first time.
We decided to split the cost of one hotel room next to the covention. I had been saving for this occasion for nearly a year, not only for the cost of the hotel but I had decided to go as the Mccree. The process of constructing the costume took much longer than I would like to admit, but it had to be perfect. Along with Steve and I, we decided to invite the other two members of our team, Francisco and Caleb. Caleb would be going as Hanzo with the legendary skin Okami, Francisco as Soldier 76 with the Golden skin and Steve as Reinhardt with the Balderich skin. All of the outfits were fairly easy to make except Steve's. He spent so much time in the outfit that he didn't even have time to make his hammer.
The week had flown by and it was the day of the convention. We all got up two hours earlier than usual and decided to get ready. Steve, the tallest of us, required help to fit his armour upon himself. As we carefully geared him up I decided to fully analyze how everybody looked as after the convention we would be flying home and likely not seeing each other for quite some time. Steve was the tallest being six foot four with black hair in a slightly modified pompadour hairstyle and wearing a tank top and shorts. Francisco, who was only shorter than Steve by a few centimetres, had curly hair that went down to his shoulders and just wore a normal t-shirt and jeans. Caleb was the largest but not tallest of us, he was five foot ten and slightly overgrown hair with it reaching just around his shoulders and having it curl up. He never cared about what to wear and just got what he liked. I was the shortest at five foot seven and they made sure I knew that I was short be resting their arm on me and constantly picking on me. I usually wore a blackt-shirt with sweatpants and I always wore my sweater. My hair reached down, longer than everybody else's hair, and was just straight.
After the hour and a half of getting equipped and making our way to the convention I stated "You know," i took a small pause "I never thought I would actually meet you guys, but here we are, at a convention all geared up thanks to games."
Quite a few people have told me that these video games were just a waste of time but without the games, I would have never met the people who changed my life. Also I would probably still be on earth around my family and friends, but how was I to know what would unfold at that stupid vendor.
As we entered the huge lobby decorated with different segments for each game, we of cource, headed for overwatch. While Overwatch wasn't my first Blizzard game, but it was my favourite and the one I was best at. Starcraft 2 was my first Blizzard game and I played that game for nearly two thousand hours. Anywho, back to Overwatch, when we first entered they had to check my peacemaker just in case it was real, pretty comedic honestly.
Nearly an hour after we had entered the convention we had spent half our money and had around forty people ask for photos with them which told me that they were pretty good if people want photos. While still separated browsing the wares in some booths I had found the perfect booth, they had so many banners and trinkets from Overwatch, in the back I could just barely see Reinhardt's hammer. Honestly I should have noticed something was strange with it right away. The owner of the booth looked nothing like any Blizzard character that I have ever known, he looked like he belonged in Halo. He had offered to sell the hammer for $60 to anybody cosplaying and $30 for anybody cosplaying as Reinhardt. I immediately pulled out my phone and got ahold of the team and told them to meet me outside of the shop.
While waiting for my friends to arrive I had decided to check out the surrounding vendors, all of them had either small home-made trinkets, well done art or statues of ingame characters with different outfits. The booth with the hammer in it and realized how many amazing items that were there. The hammer was one of the few overwatch goods he had left, he had merchandise for mostly Starcraft and a bit of Diablo 3 merch.
When everybody had arrived outside I had told them of the goodies inside and we entered. Steve, immediately being drawn to the well crafted hammer in the back of the booth. When he learned of the price he forked over the cash before the vendor could finish muttering something that was definitely not in english. *THUD* I jumped as a loud sound had been created behind me and turned to face it while suddenly, I had received a splitting headache and heard a maniacal laugh and joined whoever was on the ground, unconscious.
Introduced for the first time (again)
"Ughhhh" I groaned as I tried to slowly open my eyes and get used to the blinding light in my face, not remembering the events that occurred the previous day. What happened, I thought to myself as the headache still hadn't left since I got it. A bush being rustled to my left had forced me to at least sit up and take in my surroundings. Trees, trees and a few trees. "Great, not only am I waking up outside after going to an event that I had saved for months to go, I am also in a forest." I mumbled to myself in an irritated fashion.
More bushes rustling and what sounded like a growl told me it was probably time to get up, so I slowly backed up and stood up at the same time being cautious of any wild animals that were going to attack me. "Hello?" I called out questioningly to test if it was somebody instead of something. I knew something was wrong the moment I had said that, my voice had changed. It was now a deeper and more 'western' voice than I was used to. I had been born in and grew up in Canada so it wasn't unusual for me to hear the accent but I had never sounded like this before.
In response to me calling out to whatever was watching me from the bushes, it poked it's head out. To say I was scared was an understatement, a white wolfs head with lifeless eyes peered at me through the bushes as I just stared back. I started to, once again, slowly back up when an asian man that I was quite familiar with had stepped out from behind the bushes. "Uhhhh, hey" he said with an asian accent that sounded just like Hanzo had in Overwatch.
"What the hell!" I screamed in fear as he walked closer while also being cautious in my presence.
"How are you here?" He asked while raising his hand to his mouth as if something was wrong. "What?" He quietly muttered under his breath so I just barley understood it. He started to retreat into the bushes as I finally got up. I put my gloved hand on the ground and felt a metal object which I instinctively held it with a tight grip. The Peacemaker, I was not to fond of guns as I had previously shot my cousin in the leg with my dads old 22 rifle while on a hunting trip.
After fitting it into the holster I decided that it was time to get up. As I stood up I heard a rustling sound in the bushes beside me and put my hand on the Peacemakers grip to make myself look more intimidating. I heard metal clanking together and decided to check it out. After two steps towards the sound a large metallic object swiped at me through the bushes followed by a small trail of flames. A large suit of armour which had attempted the strike that would have most likely killed me was laughing as he brutally murdered all of the poor innocent bushes that had dared stand in his way.
I let out a very manly shriek as I fell onto my back, the scream could be compared to a cat having it's tail stepped on. The very large suite of armour jumped as the bushes had just wailed after being hit by his large hammer. He let took a few paces back and realized that it was only a person. A sudden realization of the events that just occurred caused him to plea for forgiveness as he could have ended my life in one swift blow.
"Hello there, sorry about that." He said in apologetic tone while speaking in a heavy german accent. "Mccree!?" He yells, looking shocked at my appearance while simultaneously taking off his helmet as if it was obscuring his vision. What I saw was shocking, where I expected a long-haired mexican, all I got was a tough looking old man with white hair and a scar across his eye.
"Francisco?" I asked questioningly, thinking that I may look like Mccree. He smiled as he heard his name and went to hug me out of relief of having a friend around and I backed of instinctively as I did not want to die by getting crushed by a very large man.
A few more bushes rustled and we heard a line we are all familiar with as a golden suited white haired man emerged from the bushes. "We're all soldiers now." I cracked a smile believing him to be steve; Following Steve was Caleb. We decided that it would be best to start searching for a place to stay as it was starting to get dark. We all took a vote and decided to head West.
Something about the forest was off, it was as if there was nothing living but the trees and us. The eerie silence was only broken by the occasional conversations and the sound of our footsteps.
We walked for what seemed like a few hours until we found a cave and decided to settle down for the night. There were three problems with this plan though, the first being that there was something walking around in the cave, the second being that Steve and Caleb had gone to gather sticks and stones to set up a fire at the entrance, and finally, whatever was in the cave was coming to greet it's un welcomed guests.
