Madness and Meihem in the Outback

Chapter Ten

Roadhog was busily messing around with a motor on a nearby table, the mallet beside him getting quite a bit of use as he attempted to, Mei assumed, fix it. Sitting across the room from him, she'd watched him almost the entire time, curiously trying to figure out what it was he was doing. Finally, she stood up and simply walked over for a closer look, grasping the edges of the table and leaned forward to see past his large arms.

His face turned to her suddenly, as though he was surprised, but he quickly returned to doing whatever it was he was doing, silently, the only noise from him coming through his mask, his labored breathing sounding almost mechanical. Mei eyed his hands as he shoved them into different valves, working with different bolts, and just generally running around the motor's edges.

"Do you need some help, Mister, uh... Hog?"

He stopped, slowly turning to her, drolly, which she could even tell with his mask on, her body slowly pulling back subconsciously. His hand reached over across the desk, pointing at a picture frame that held a nametag within it, for a Mr. Mako Rutledge. Mei relaxed, nodding along.

"Ah, gotcha. You don't talk much; is it because of your lungs?"

Roadhog suddenly dropped the wrench in his hand, shaking his head, annoyed, looking deeper into the cavern to find Junkrat, though Mei quickly spoke up to help absolve the scrawnier of the two, "N-No, it's okay! He just mentioned the radiation screwed with your respiratory system or something."

The large man groaned, shaking his head as he grasped the motor with both hands, as if supporting him as he turned to Mei, his voice coming across angrily, "Did he mention it unscrewed a few of his screws?"

Mei nodded, unsurely, though it seemed to satisfy the man, who groaned again before picking up his wrench, returning to his work. Mei was left a bit more uncomfortable than she had been, but Roadhog suddenly began to cough, violently, turning away from her and bending over, instinctively covering his face as if his mask wasn't there.

"Are you okay?!" Mei asked, quickly, trying to help him, but he pushed her away, shaking his head.

He remained still for a few moments, breathing lightly, before once again grappling at his wrench, far more weakly than before. Mei quickly turned back to where she'd been sitting, eying the laptop before running over to fetch it, starting up a text-to-speech program before returning to Roadhog's desk, his head turning to watch her, curiously.

"Okay, I don't want you killing yourself trying to make conversation," she grinned, "So you'll just type it here and Sam with speak it for you, alright?"

Roadhog peered down at the laptop, almost as if critiquing it, before reaching over to grab at it, expertly typing with one hand as his other held it in space.

Sam: "That dolt never mentioned this."

Roadhog's head dipped into a slow shake, a sigh escaping his mask as he laid the laptop down, carefully. Mei grinned nervously, though carefully hid it as Roadhog went on working. She leaned back over, watching him, pointing out different things that he hadn't been aware of.

"Yeah, this is a foreign make," Mei noted, "I'm not one for cars, but I can certainly tell that this isn't German; it might be Japanese, maybe. See this ridge here? Most German models don't have that."

Roadhog nodded, shrugging as he reached for the laptop,

Sam: "I can't fix it then."

He shook his head, seeming to have rolled his eyes as his head fell backward, slightly, before Mei could speak, carefully grabbing for the laptop, "Let's see; if I can find the right- AH!"