The world burned above, but deep beneath the smoking ruins of Geneva HQ, the war never stopped, it just got quieter, hotter, more focused.
The West Foundry Hangar had long been sealed off, its blast doors welded shut, and its heat signatures masked from every scan. It wasn't on any active Overwatch schematic. It didn't exist...officially.
But Torbjörn Lindholm had never been one for permission.
The old engineer moved through his private vaults with a heavy limp, trailing ash and blood from a wound on his side. Sparks still rained from the upper levels, and the floor shook every few seconds from distant detonations. But he ignored them.
For him, today wasn't about survival. It was about revenge.
He knew of God AI programs, but his mistrust of AI was warranted. How dare one God Program takes his designs and turn them into war machines. As the Bastion E-54 units creator, it was his responsibility to destroy them.
Outside the Foundry – Eastern Hallway
Shawn walked toward the far end of the hall with S3bastian and Virginia. His coat was gone, shirt torn, and blood dried into his fingers. They followed the beacon Sojourn had forwarded.
"You sure he said west hangar?" Virginia asked, ducking under a collapsed beam.
"That's what the signal says," S3bastian muttered. "I didn't even know there was a west hangar."
"There isn't," Shawn said. "That's the point."
The reinforced wall ahead hissed and split open just wide enough to admit them.
Behind it: heat. Fire. Metal. Thunder.
And Torbjörn.
West Foundry Hangar
Massive forge arms clanked and hissed. Cranes shifted to slot armor plates into place. Welding sparks cascaded from mechanical arms. At the center of it all stood a bipedal warframe, easily twice the height of a Bastion unit, with overlapping hex-alloy armor and a cannon mounted to one shoulder like a siege weapon.
The left arm housed a kinetic blade system. The right arm was modular, currently fitted with a magnetic grappling claw. The core glowed with a red-orange furnace pulse. It was not AI-driven. It was a human-piloted exosuit.
"You built a mech?" Shawn asked, stunned.
Torbjörn, grimy and bleeding but grinning like hell, looked up from the control console.
"I built an extinction deterrent."
He gestured to the cockpit at the rear of the frame.
"Designation: MAGNI. Took me three years and three black budgets. Designed to counter any omnic from the start of the war, "
S3bastian tilted his head. "Why was it never deployed?"
"Because Adawe would've shut it down faster than a political scandal. Said it was too aggressive. Too dangerous." He spat. "Too unregulated."
He slammed his hand on the console, and the warframe's eyes lit up like two furnaces.
"Well now Geneva's burning. Regulation's dead. Let's give 'em something to fear."
Shawn climbed into the rear access lift, bracing himself as clamps secured him inside the pilot rig.
"According to your biometrics, the neural interface responds perfectly with your enhanced bioelectricity." Torbjorn said through the headset. "Meaning there won't be any delays in movement between you and the machine. You'll essential become it."
Virginia shuffled nervously. "You sure this is a good idea. Just imagine the repercussions when Madame Adawe finds out you're now involved in this."
Shawn understood her concerns but ignored it. "Overwatch is the glue that holds humanity together. Should Geneva fall, the rest of the world will lose humanity. After this, she'll be thanking Torbjorn for building this behind her back. Well... It's a 50/50 chance."
The hatch sealed shut.
Surface – Command Spire Ruins
The third Titan stood at the shattered entrance of the central Spire. It had already breached the outer shell and was winding its disruptor cannon for a final pulse.
Then something screamed from beneath the ground. The earth cracked open. MAGNI erupted from a secondary lift tunnel, trailing steam and fire as it launched into the air with boost thrusters.
The Titan turned. MAGNI hit it in the chest with enough force to shatter five meters of armor, sending both giants tumbling across the ruins along with a shockwave. Omnics that were too close to the initial engagement were instantly crushed within a second. From the bunkers, soldiers and medics turned to see the two titans clash like gods in a sea of rubble.
The Titan recovered, standing as it scanned its new opponent. Seeing that it was a mech, the Titan attempted to take control of it through its disruptor field. However, MAGNI was immune to any form of command hacks as it was manual. There was no AI for the Titan to interact with, only Shawn.
With the Titan almost in shock at its failure, Shawn aimed the cannon at it. With a resounding boom, its shoulder cannon discharged a pulse of energy strong enough to crater the plaza, knocking the Titan back several meters. Unable to immediately recover, the Titan opted to having the ground forces assist. Both Bastion and Orisa units opened fire on the MAGNI.
Inside, Shawn was still getting used to the mechs movements, but had it figured out. The MAGNI moved fluidly like molten steel. It bobbed in between gunfire, easily destroying any omnics it came into contact with. From experience, Shawn knew he shouldn't let himself get distracted with the small fry, as he knew that the Titan was trying to buy time to recover.
"You want a god?" he growled through the mech's audio as he rushed towards the fallen Titan.
"I'll show that Anubis can bleed just like us."
With one final strike, MAGNI grabbed the Titan's disruptor core, overloaded it, and detonated it from inside. A dome of orange fire rippled outward, vaporizing the upper platform and all around it.
MAGNI stood in the smoking crater, one arm gone, armor scorched to slag. But the Titan was down.
With two Titans destroyed in the course of an hour, Anubis dubbed this attack as another failure. He called back the final Titan before it too was destroyed along with the remaining obelisk factories. The ground units turned, all with the order to leave Geneva for now.
And the battlefield… was silent.
Torbjörn's voice crackled through the headset. "Now that… was satisfying."
Shawn's voice came in weak. "Don't tell Ana."
S3bastian stepped up to the rim of the crater, looking up at his friend's barely-functioning machine.
"I think we just bought humanity another day."