Chapter 397 - My SI Stash #97 - Barbarossa by Brian Boru (OverwatchXMulticross)

-Halfway thru this Jumpchain fic and I just realized it's written by Brian Boru, the same author of that SI HOTD fic which hasn't got an update sadly after almost 3 months but still really glad to know that he's still up and writing~

Synopsis: ???

Rated: M

Words: 23K

Posted on: forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/barbarossa-an-overwatch-jumpchain-si-overwaifu-cyoa.12983/ (Brian Boru)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics/originals mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

But many say that Frederick Barbarossa is now resting under the Kyffhausser Mountain, where he will sleep until the Ravens have left the mountain and Germany needs their emperor the most. Then he will rise from his sleep and return to the world to save his nation and lead Germany to a new age of Glory.

-German Folklore​

Reinhardt Wilhelm turned away from the mortal remains of his old friend and general one last time. A week ago, he had gotten a message from Winston, the hyperintelligent gorilla had sent out a call to all former Overwatch operatives that he was going to restart the old organization. The world was teetering out of control and they were needed again. He had come to visit this place one last time to say his good-byes and pay his respects before he went out to do whatever was needed. It was likely that he would never come to Eichenwald, his first and greatest failure save for Overwatch falling apart, again, at least not in this lifetime.

As he strode for the front gate, a strange beeping sound came at the very edge of his hearing. Turning around he walked back towards the old Throne of the Lord of Eichenwald, if he was hearing it right, the sound was coming from somewhere around the throne itself.

Looking around, his old but experienced eye finally spotted a strange little glow along a crease where the great stone seat was flush against the column behind it. With years of experience he ran a thumb along the edge of the chair and found what he was looking for. A small break in the stone where a little button was located.

Pressing the button, the entire throne suddenly swung away, revealing a large stairwell going deep into the bowels of the castle and the rock that Eichenwald Castle stood on. The air was stale but not the sort of musty one would expect with these sorts of places, either there was ventilation somewhere down there, or there had been recent activity. His suspicions for the latter were confirmed when in the fading afternoon light, he saw several footprints going up and down the stairs leading into the darkness. There was also a small cable that ran across the roof of the tunnel where small blue lights would occasionally flash blue and beep in a set pattern.

Someone was using the Late General Balderich von Adler's ancestral home and final resting place for some sort of nefarious purpose. Well he would not let that stand.

He turned to his squire, Brigitte Lindholm, the daughter of his old friend and fellow Overwatch member Torbjorn, who had remained silent during his examination and discovery of the tunnel. She was staring in mild wonder at what the old man had found.

Grinning he said, "Still got it." Then his face turned serious. "We need to suit up. Anyone who made something like this is going to have some means of defending it if they're discovered. I'm not going to leave his final resting place disturbed like this."

Brigitte nodded, "Good thing I managed to finish repairing your armor yesterday." Good girl, still a little rough around the edges but a good head on her shoulders and a strong and brave heart. He would have been proud to serve with her in either the Crusaders or in the Old Overwatch.

A few minutes later both fighters in their neo-knightly arms and amor made their way down the tunnel. Reinhart's massive frame, augmented even further by his armor, slowly navigated his way down the tunnel, the only lights being their visors, the glow of the jets of his hammer and armor and the occasional flashing light from the cable above.

He could feel his heart beating in his chest, it was as if they were sneaking into a dragon's lair like Beowulf or Siegfried. Already he could see the glow ahead, was it the glow of a dragon's fiery frame and the Golden treasure it rested on?

As they reached the end of the tunnel, he encountered a plastic tarpaulin that covered the opening to some well-lit cavern. He raised his hand, silently halting his young squire, then he carefully poked his head through to the other side, ready to explode into the attack if something hostile was there.

What he found was a well-lit laboratory of some sort. There were the usual machines and computers with the usual blinking lights and lists of numbers, but what they were researching he wasn't entirely sure, he wasn't a scientist, he got a 4.0 in all of his science classes growing up, History, Literature and Physical Education were his specialties. Then he saw the tube. There was a large tall tank of some sort of fluid with a vaguely human shape floating in its semi-opaque depths. There was a tall slim figure standing in front of the tank, their back was turned so he couldn't see their face and figure out who they were but there was some large apparatus on their back that glowed ominously.

The figure was studying a frame connected to the tank, reading some sort of information from the device. Whatever they were doing, he knew it wasn't good.

Taking one last glance around, he saw that the stranger was the only one in this cave, some mad scientist doing some diabolical experiment, like that of Frankenstein? Well either way they needed to be stopped and since he and Brigitte were the only ones present, they were the ones to do it.

Glancing back at Brigitte, he raised one armored finger indicating to her how many people were in the room, he then jerked his thumb towards himself then gestured to the right, followed by pointing at her and gesturing to the left. She understood the command to encircle the stranger.

On the silent count of three the pair of them burst through the opening and split apart, making their way towards the tank and the stranger.

To his mild surprise the stranger did not immediately move, despite having had to of heard the thundering clank of their armored feet on the stone floor of the cave.

They were about twenty feet from the stranger when they turned around and Reinhart jerked in surprise when he saw who the stranger was.

She, for it was a very slender woman, had red hair that she wore short and swept back in a combed style. One eye was a natural ice blue while the other was an unnatural blood red, her features were very long and austere, pretty if you were interested in the school-marm from hell type. Which he wasn't, even at his age give him an Oktoberfest girl with a round blonde face and a body you could mistake for some old fertility statue.

It took him a moment before he recognized her, "Well Guten Tag Fraulein O'Deorain, surprised to find you here."

"Reinhart, how good to see you," the snark in the woman's tone was sharp enough to cut a block of wood with.

She then turned to Brigitte who was approaching her from the other side of the room, effectively blocking her on the platform which the tank was sitting on, "Well, well, who is this? Some new child you've swept up into your Teutonic Tales of Don Quixote?"

That annoyed him more than it really should have, yes, since he'd been forcibly retired from Overwatch, he'd become something of a Latter-Day Knight Errant, wandering across Germany and writing wrongs and stopping villains that he came across, like that Dragon gang from a few months before. But he was nothing like the mad Spaniard of Cervantes' story. For one thing, while he might have a vivid imagination during combat, he certainly never charged at windmills or mistook a herd of sheep as a host of brigands.

Gritting his teeth, he said, "She's not your concern Moira, what does concern you is explaining what you're doing here?"

Moira just grinned and said, "Why fund-raising."

What? What on earth was she talking about?

His confusion must have been apparent on his face because Moira continued, "It's actually rather simple. You may not know it but General von Adler, the dearly departed Hero of Eichenwald, was actually from an extremely wealthy family, with properties, castles, businesses and other investments in a portfolio worth billions. Without his personal contributions your own Crusader program would have never gotten off the ground."

The old man grimaced at the moniker Moira gave his old mentor, he wouldn't have been a dearly departed hero if he hadn't been such a hot-headed glory hound that day. "Well the General was rich what is your point?" Young Brigitte had come to a stop at the bottom of the platform, effectively blocking the left-handed stairwell while he was covering the right.

Moira didn't seem to care that she was bottled in since she said, "Well if you must know there is an interesting law that was passed in Germany in the wake of the Krupp Decision back in 2060."

Reinhardt remembered that one, in the late 2020s a branch member of the Krupp family had managed to wrest control of the Thyssen Krupp company back into family control and had successfully managed it for twenty years until the start of the Omnic Crisis where it was believed the entire family had been killed during the opening days of the war. As it would turn out, a grandson of the second founder had survived and had popped back up after the conflict was over and made to reclaim his inheritance. It took years before he was finally able to get back everything that had been sold off but other similar instances had popped up as Germany and the rest of the world had been putting themselves back together.

In the wake of that it had been decided that the property of wealthy families would be held in their name for at least thirty years until it was beyond a shadow of a doubt extinct. Then the property and holdings would be sold off.

"Well the good General's nephew passed away three years ago in a car wreck and with his passing the entire von Adler line had died out, a shame really they had some impressive staying power. Or at least that is what people will think until my little experiment here is finished." She then caressed the tank behind her.

"von Adler never had children officially but you know how wealthy men are, always so many skeletons in their closets, a bastard son who had their own son before dying right at the end of the crisis is not impossible. Records ARE so vague from that time. What is one more child being added to the list of war orphans." She then grinned, "it was lucky for me that von Adler's body was never removed, harvesting a genetic sample was child's play and with a few other donations to prevent accusations of cloning and Voila! A new von Adler, ready to step forward and claim the title of Lord of Eichenwald as well as the massive portfolio that comes with it. I'm not an economist but I do believe that the portfolio still makes up a quarter of the entire German economy."

He blinked in amazement at the sheer audacity of her plan. "And what do you have planned for such a great amount of wealth your puppet will give you? I know you were desperate for funds but surely you don't need that much, and neither are you any good with money, I remember from back in the day. You couldn't even budget enough money for food."

"Maybe not, but I have others who can handle that for me." She said with a smirk. "And it isn't like this physical superman is going to be an idiot. I've been downloading a complete education into him for the past few weeks. When he awakes, he will be a true Renaissance man for this new era. Bigger, faster, stronger, smarter than any before him, and of course he will always obey his dear 'mama'."

She then began laughing at her poor joke. Reinhart snarled in rage at this modern-day Dr. Frankenstein. No, he would not allow this to happen.

"Not on my watch!" He bellowed then charged at the mad woman. The cables connected to her arms began glowing and suddenly a great beam of sickly yellow and purple light blasted from her hand and slammed into him. It ignored his shield and his armor and plowed right into him. He suddenly felt weak, every ache, every injury he'd ever suffered suddenly came roaring back as he felt tired. He was too weak to roar in pain, instead a low m.o.a.n escaped his lips as he tumbled to the ground.

The gigantic beam suddenly ended and he was left gasping for air on the ground. Brave young Brigitte charged forward to avenge her master, the grabbling hook end of her mace erupting forward. Moira suddenly flashed away from her position, blasting bolts of purple energy at the younger woman.

Feeling every one of his sixty-one years, Reinhart managed to get back onto his knees, using his hammer as a crutch. He didn't think even with his armor reinforcing his strength he could even get up to destroy the tank, let alone help Brigitte who was still fighting for her life against their opponent.

Think, think, what to do. Then he noticed a particularly large cable extending from the pod and snaking along the ground to an especially large main frame. A thought formed in his mind, the rocket hammers were never the most accurate devices if let loose but he had literal decades of practice with the devices.

Pressing down on the toggle for the rocket he aimed his hammer at the mainframe computer. "It's hammer time." He muttered, then let the rocket loose.

Brigitte had fought bravely but she was inexperienced and unused to a teleporting opponent, it also didn't help that the purple beams of light were constantly scoring glancing hits, sapping her strength and topping off Moira every time they hit.

She had jumped behind a large cabinet wondering what to do next when a large purple orb suddenly floated right through her protection. Suddenly a bolt of purple lightning struck out from the orb and hit her full on in the chest.

She screamed in agony before dropping to the ground.

Moira all but waltzed around the debris and aimed her hand at Brigitte's face. "I thought I recognized you. I'll be sure to tell Torbjorn I met his daughter the next time I meet him.

All of a sudden there was a massive explosion to their right. Moira snapped her head in that direction. The triumphant look in her eyes turned to horror as she watched every computer in the room suddenly go up like a roman candle, unable to handle the surge that came from the mainframe when it was destroyed.

She screamed at all of her lost work. "You fools, don't you know what you've done? He was in the middle of an education program, if you interrupt that now his mind will be complete mush! All that hard work and planning, ruined by a pair of muscle-bound idiots! I'll make sure you die screaming you little bitch!"

Her hand began glowing again, this time both yellow and purple. Brigitte closed her eyes and waited for the end, suddenly a massive steel shape body-checked the mad geneticist and sent her flying through the air before slamming into a wall of the cave.

Brigitte rolled over and saw that her master was standing over her, like a wolf defending their cub. His hammer was not in his hands and he was breathing heavily, clearly, he had not recovered yet from the first large blast Moira had hit him with.

However, it seemed that Moira had had enough as she only stood up, spat blood at them both, and then fled up the stairs and out of the castle.

As soon as she was gone, Reinhart all but collapsed to his hands and knees, he quickly pulled his helmet off and kept trying to catch his breath, his face was pouring sweat and he was as pale as a sheet under the dimming lights of the cavern.

Brigitte, being much younger than her mentor, managed to recover quicker and make her way over to her master. She silently helped him to his feet, "Are you alright?"

He turned to her and that same devil-may-care grin spread across his face. "Don't worry child, I'm not injured, just really tired, going to need some rest before we leave."

Behind them a large klaxon rang, coming from the direction of the tank.

Turning their heads, they could see that the display screen of the tank was reading EMERGENCY ACTIVATION in bright red letters. The fluid in the tank was emptying out, revealing the massive male shape inside of the tank.

Both Brigitte and Reinhart prepared for another fight, Moira had said that the sudden interruption of his programing had likely scrambled his brains so they had no idea if the man coming out of the tank would be a berserk monster or a child-like idiot, or even the amoral genius that Moira had intended to make.

The glass of the tank suddenly receded into the ground and the big young man was exposed to the open air.

They could hear his breathing, like that of a bellows. His feet, even bare, were like the thud of a massive beast pounding across the ground, like a giant from the tales of old.

His eyes were a brilliant blue and his hair was the same red color as Moira, but his face. Reinhart stared in shock at the near carbon copy of his old friend, General von Adler, minus about a few decades. If he had not known that this man was an experiment of science gone wrong he would not have batted and eye if he were told that this man was a grandson of von Adler's.

The huge man staggered his way towards them, no real hostility on his face, but really more confusion. As he got closer, they could get a better appreciation for his sheer size. Out of his armor, Reinhardt was a good seven feet in height and his armor added another eight inches. This man was easily that tall and his massive frame looked like it could snap both of them like a twig.

Brigitte then look a little lower on his muscled frame then her eyes bulged before an involuntary blush spread across her face.

Reinhardt was confused for a moment, then looked down himself….oh…well apparently this guy was proportional.

Their starting apparently got the giant's attention because he stopped to look down himself. Apparently there was a mind inside that big head because he recognized his n.a.k.e.dness and flushing red himself he clapped both hands over his ground and all but flung himself behind one of the piles of scrap that used to be computers.

He then popped his head out from the rubble and said, "Alright, could someone tell me where I am and what is going on here? Also….could I get some pants?"