It's just another sparring match. You think to yourself as you wait in the long line of people. It's been an hour since you left the bleachers and waited down by the entrance to the sparring area. Now filling the bottom row of bleachers are the other Commanders who are judging this portion of the test. Morrison is already having meetings with other agents in the running, as the trials are in whatever order available. 

You hear the now familiar beep of the sparring match ending, and watch as two barely bruised lower agents exit the arena. You've been moved to the "A" section, the left side of the arena, and "Agent Adams" whom you're sparring is over in the "B" section. You watch your two names slowly tick down the list. You check your watch. It isn't even 10 in the morning. This is going to be a very long day. 

Nothing much interesting has happened other than the two who sparred for less than a minute before the Commanders asked them to leave. Another half hour ticks by before you hear the beep of the old match ending, and hear Athena's voice call, "(L/N) and Adams to the sparring area."

As you enter, you look across to see who Adams is. She has tattoos crawling up one arm, and a cybernetic arm on the other side. She's dyed her hair pink and put it into a high ponytail, but the roots are coming in black. She's built heavier, she's tall with toned muscles and you can't help but feel intimidated. As the two of you meet in the middle, you lock eyes and she gives you an instinctual smile.

"Agent (Y/N)(L/N), Gold, Consideration." One of the Commanders, a women with an English accent and salt and pepper hair, says, "and Agent Armani Adams, Silver, Challenger. Note that a Consideration and Challenger have been paired due to an odd amount of Considerations. Now, for the match, please both demonstrate a knowledge and understanding of combat and your cybernetic appendages."

This startles you, as you haven't given much thought to your legs since the last time they were broken. Angela had never mentioned anything about them before. 

"You may begin." Another Commander says, peering over her glasses to look at you, tablet and stylus in hand.

Armani immediately assumes a ready position, and you match it. You try to remember everything you've learned, whether it be from Lena, or Madison, or Hunter, or.... McCree. There's a lot riding on this fight... You feel the wind leave you as you leave yourself completely open for an attack from Armani. You chastise yourself, Get out of my head. Get out of your own head.

You ready yourself and make three attacks. She catches one with her cybernetic arm but takes the other two trying to stop the other. 

She staggers back a bit, and you reassume ready position. She launches at you with an intensified punch with her cybernetic arm, and you just barely block it. It takes a lot of effort to shove her arm to the side. As she staggers back, recovering, you kick, and it catches her in the gut. She falls to a knee briefly before getting back up. 

The two of you trade blows for what feels like eternity before you hear a whirring sound coming from her arm. It glows blue in some places as thin sheets of metal move out of the way to uncover the inner portions of the arm, now sparking with blue energy. She throws a punch and crackling blue force shoots out towards you. As it hits you, you fall to your knees, your legs buckling out from under you.

You glance down, trying to assess the situation, and you see small blue sparks jumping around your legs. You try to stand up, but can't. You block a couple of punches from Armani but eventually she kicks you down to the ground. You hear murmurs coming from the Commanders, and as Armani's foot connects with your face, its as if a light switch has been turned on in your mind. You feel the connection to your legs snap back and you kick up. 

You try to think back what the engineers told you were in your legs, and you can't remember anything special about them. You kick up at Armani and she yelps a bit as she stumbles back. You're able to get back up on your feet in time to see another punch fly at you. You block it and send another kick. 

Armani retreats a bit and winds up another ball of blue energy, and you will your legs to do something... anything... The bolt of electric energy comes flying at you and as you jump out of the way, you feel a jolt of energy come from your heels. Similar blue energy propels you upward. As you fall back to the ground you manage to go into a PK roll to absorb most of the impact, despite this, it still hurts a bit, and you take longer than normal to get back on your feet. 

You slide one foot back instinctually to ready yourself, and you once again feel the surge of energy. As Armani throws another punch, you attempt to dash under her and are surprised by the sheer speed at which you move. 

You had never recieved any information about the abilities that your legs possessed, and it startles you as you dash to come behind her. Using that momentum, you swing your leg around and do a sort of jumping kick, and your leg glows blue and swings faster than you could move it. As it swings at Armani, you hear a loud crack noise as your leg connects with her torso. She yelps in pain, and falls to her knees. You stand there, a bit dumbfounded, and not wanting to injure her further. 

You approach slowly, but she rockets another shockwave of energy toward you, and this one hits. Your legs again buckle from underneath you, and Armani takes a moment, catching her breath before punching you straight across the face. You hear your jaw pop. That can't be good. You can't do much to defend yourself, but you try to focus on defending yourself for the time being. 

You hear your legs whir back to life and you try to get them to rocket you upwards as you stand. They do so, enhancing your jump. You leap over her, and bring a kick down onto her shoulder as you land. 

"Enough." One of the Commanders calls out. You glance over and see them all writing various things onto tablets.

"Need a hand?" You extend it to Armani. She looks up at your through her pink hair currently in her face. She grins and takes it. 

"You fight well, (L/N). Dope legs." She speaks through a thick New York accent.

"That arm of yours is impressive too." You say as the two of you exit the arena.

Armani looks at you through kindly narrowed eyes and says, "You just figured them out, didn't you."

You chuckle and give a sort of shy nod.

"Yeah. They didn't tell me anything about this either. I figured it out when I went on a mission and my weapon got broken. Suffice to say, I'm not much of a tank anymore. Prefer to punch my way through things." She smiles, "You should test yours out and find their limits. Might surprise you."

"Well, thanks for the advice and explanation. Hope you get the position."

"No need to be nice. Good luck (L/N)."

"(Y/N)."

"Ah, sorry. (Y/N). I'm Armani."

"Hope I see you around, Armani."

"You too."

_________________________________

You find yourself waiting for the next set of tests after going to the medic area to get your jaw checked out. You run into Armani again as you exit the medic tent, totally fine. She's clutching her side and gives you a small smile.

After some direction from Overwatch staff, you head to the next place where you're to wait for one-on-one training. The four categories between the Considerations isn't an even split, and the wait list for Attack Agents is much longer. You and Armani were the last to spar, so it takes awhile. You watch the clock tick to noon before you're called in by Upper Agent Amari. 

"(L/N)." She calls as you enter. She's wearing traditional Upper Agent Attire, aside from the Blue Pauldron from her armor set that she's wearing on her left shoulder with a belt traveling vertically across her body. You realize very quickly that this is used to store the rocket launcher hanging from said belt on her back. You're clueless as to how she's holding it up, much less how the belt is sustaining its weight, but you shrug off those thoughts as she begins to speak again.

"(L/N), during this hour, we will spend time forming cracks in your armor, and then destroying your armor. You can build it back up later. Being an Upper Agent is a serious responsibility and everything you do has to be a conscious decision. Reading your file here, some things have been handed to you. You've worked hard to overcome the trials that got placed in front of you, but to even face those trials you had help. You will not have help here. Do you understand me?"

You stare a bit for a moment, slightly offended but mostly shocked at her forwardness, and then say, "Yes ma'am."

"Good. Grab that pistol over there and let's get to work."

You spend the next hour running intensive drills. Every mistake you make costs you. Once, after missing a mark, you had to do twenty push ups while Agent Amari (who insisted that you call her "Pharah" or "ma'am" on the "battlefield") yelled at you about how your teammates were dying. By the time a half an hour had passed, your arms were shaking, and you were having a hard time aiming. 

Beads of sweat fell down your face, but despite the constant physical and verbal barrage incoming, you try to stay absolutely focused. You're allowed to take a break at the half hour mark, a short two minutes, and during this time, Pharah asks you some questions.

"Why are you here, (L/N)? Why do you think that you deserve this?"

"I came here in a way that was a bit unorthodox, but I want to protect the people around me, and now that I know what's out there, I can't just sit by and do nothing. My intentions at first weren't so altruistic, but now I see what has to be done."

She simply nods. 

"What changed?"

"My mission in Santa Fe." You say, trying to avoid the subject.

She glances down at the holographic tablet in her hands and chuckles a bit.

"That would do it. Well, enough chatting, back to work."

The next half of the hour was spent running simulated team drills. Pharah acted as your Primary as you lead your own Secondary team of bots. She ran your through scenario after scenario until you almost can't move. You hear a faint chime as Pharaoh checks her watch. 

"Well done. You can continue to your quarters until your meeting with Morrison."

"Thank you." Out of breath and covered in sweat, you head back to the Gold quarters. You swing open the door to find the rest of the non-considered team sitting in the common room. 

"Woah! You look awful." Hunter remarks through bites of an apple.

"Shut up." Ginger says before standing up to meet you in the middle of the room.

"How did it go? Madison never really tells us much."

"Well, I have more respect for Fareeha Amari than before. She's a beast." You remark, before leaning on a wall.

"Don't get sweat on the wall, go take a shower!" Hunter says from across the room, currently engaged watching Marcus and Alta playing a fighting game on the television. 

"That's true. The smell isn't great." Ginger says.

"And I caked on the deodorant today. Yikes." You chuckle. "I'll see you guys at dinner then. My meeting with Morrison's soon."

"Good luck!" Ginger says as you go into your room to get a fresh change of clothes and head to the showers. 

__________________________

You wait anxiously outside of Morrison's office as the clock on the wall slowly ticks toward 4:30 (16:30 as listed on the schedule). Soon enough you're called in as Hera leaves. She gives you a small smile before heading back to the Gold quarters. 

"(L/N). It's been awhile since we've spoken." Morrison says as you enter the room, "How have you been?"

"Well, sir." You say.

"Glad to hear it. (L/N), this isn't how this conversation usually goes. Normally I have little interaction with agents up until this point, but you have been fighting with me tooth and nail since you arrived here. I'm going to make this plain: you lack the technical skill to be an Upper Agent. Normally I don't express this during this meeting, but you're the exception here, as you tend to be. 

"You do have something, however, that I don't see a lot. You are the fastest and most dedicated learner I have seen in a long while. I think the only person as driven to succeed as you would have to be McCree."

"Not to interrupt sir, but respectfully, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you'll go places. Not now, certainly not now, but I have a dilemma. Overwatch is growing. Legalization is simultaneously the best and worst thing that has happened to us. We need new positions, and I wish you put you on the track for one. I want you to be the test run. Not now, we don't have enough people to face that issue yet, but soon. 

"I want you rise through the Gold ranks like any other would, and then I want you to have a test position." He pauses for a moment, before locking eyes with you and saying, "Gold Commander."

This startles you a bit, but you keep listening as he says,

"You will be both an Upper and Lower Agent. Your responsibilities will vary, but it is essentially a position midway between Primary and Upper Agent. I have a feeling that Overwatch will grow to the point where each "Team" will have two different sections, more so than it does now. Two teams of twelve, four teams of six, however you wish to say it. Maybe even more to come, but this is what I want to propose to you.

"You are incredibly unorthodox in both your methods of arriving here, and the way you have handled ascension through the ranks, and I'm willing to put my chips on you, (L/N), in time. For now, you've been promoted to Tertiary. I don't normally tell the results so soon, but your Primary, Agent Haal, has always been an incredible agent. I just wanted to see her be a leader first, and I want the same for you."

He stops, and you stare for a moment, a bit dumbfounded before saying, "Thank you, Commander."

He smiles a small smile and says, "I don't believe that anyone is more special than another, (L/N), but you have a drive that I haven't seen in awhile. Take this time to grow in the technical aspects of the job, and I'm sure you'll make a great Upper Agent one day. You and I will speak again about the logistics of this position when you become Primary. It's only a matter of a few cycles. You're dismissed."

"Thank you sir." You stand up and exit his office.

You resist the urge to jump up and down as you leave the office. You flashback momentarily to the time when McCree stuck out his neck for you, and you can't help but smile a bit as the becoming-familiar feeling of victory comes over you. 

You can't help the stupid grin that grows on your face as you walk to the Gold Quarters.

You have a good feeling about this.