Adventure Anthros
Breaking Locks (Season 2 Chapter 3)
Story by TheAnnonymousKat on Furaffinity
All characters belong to their respective owners, this fanfiction is a nonprofit project for fun, please support the release of the respective series shown

“-And then I stopped time for a few seconds and absorbed Orwin’s mark, then he gave me the relic that supposedly lets me breath underwater and told me a bit about the history of Furok’s previous magi, and why it’s necessary for him to stay with me for the time being,” Kat explained as he, Furok and Panthro sat atop the base late at night, with Furok resting his head on Kat’s lap,
“I see, sounds like quite the day you had,” Panthro commented,
“Yeah, by the way Furok, you’re way older than you look,” Kat commented,
“Thank you… I think,” Furok replied sleepily before he yawned. Panthro crossed his arms and looked at Kat with a raised brow,
“Why did you summon this big guy so late at night, and not even for a battle?” Panthro inquired,
“It’s ok, I like being summoned just to hang out sometimes, I’ve been in the Dream Plane long enough to want to get out of it every now and then. Just preferably not somewhere like an airplane or a boat,” Furok explained,
“Oh? I think you mentioned a reason your fur turns green is because of seasickness, but why an airplane?” Kat inquired. Furok averted his eyes as he spoke,
“I’m afraid of heights…” Furok explained admittedly,
“What? But literally earlier today we were flying through the sky after Orwin,” Kat replied,
“Well I’ve gotten used to it for the most part, and I’m able to stow my fear if the situation is dire enough,” Furok explained,
“I know how you feel big guy, I ain’t too fond of heights myself,” Panthro explained with a smile,
“Maybe I should find a way to give you wings then,” Kat replied playfully,
“I’d advise against that, my last attempt at flying didn’t go so well,” Panthro explained sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head. Kat’s feline ears perked up as he shifted his attention to Panthro,
“How so?” Kat inquired,
“You really want to know? It’s embarrassing,” Panthro warned,
“I won’t laugh,” Kat replied, causing Panthro to give him a doubtful look,
“Well.. at least I’ll try not to,” Kat explained with a cheeky grin, causing the three of them to share in a laugh. The laughter soon died down and Panthro was the first to speak after it,
“Ok ok, I’ll tell you. So back when the Thundercats were together we were taking our new vehicle called the Feliner to this kingdom in the sky to retrieve the Tech Stone, and I thought I could handle piloting it since I thought she was like the Thundertank, but I soon found myself freaking out and cowering away from the controls, because I realized my fear of heights about the same time I attempted to fly for the first time,” Panthro explained,
“Did you crash the Feliner?” Kat asked,
“Nah, thankfully Tygra took control and got us to our destination safely,” Panthro explained,
“Sounds wild,” Kat commented with a smile as he gazed at the stars,
“Yeah, I suppose we did do a lot of wild things during our search for the power stones,” Panthro explained as he ruffled Kat’s hair. Panthro then stood up and started walking towards the stair bulkhead,
“Anyway, I’m going to bed. Don’t stay up too late, you never know when we’ll get a mission,” Panthro warned as he was about to open the door and go down the stairs, though Kat spoke up before he did, in a way that almost seemed like an instinct,
“Wait… Panthro, since things are slow right now…” Kat tried asking, though he struggled to get the words out as a blush spread across his face,
“Yeah?” Panthro inquired as he raised a brow.

An awkward silence followed Kat’s attempt to get his question out to Panthro, which was made worse when a gust of wind could be heard to demonstrate just how quiet it became on the roof. Kat soon turned towards Furok,
“Furok, I need to speak with Panthro in private if that’s ok,” Kat explained,
“Sure thing, I’m pretty tired anyway, just call on me again if you need me,” Furok explained. Kat then promptly returned Furok to the Dream Plane and turned his attention to Panthro,
“Panth… we’re officially dating, right?” Kat inquired,
“Yeah, what about it?” Panthro inquired,
“Well.. don’t you think we should go on a date sometime soon? Especially since things are nice and slow right now?” Kat suggested. Panthro sighed and crossed his arms,
“I’m sorry Kat, but I don’t think it’s the right time yet, I still haven’t decided what we would do for our first date, and really, hero work being slow right now doesn’t really help with my reservations against going on a date due to the unexpected nature of villain attacks,” Panthro explained, causing Kat to look disheartened,
“I see…” said Kat with a defeated tone. Panthro then walked back over to Kat and knelt down to be close to eye level with him as he ruffled Kat’s hair once again,
“But hey, that doesn’t mean I’m not interested, I just want to give this plenty of time, you’ve just got to wait,” Panthro explained,
“But, waiting is so hard. Especially when I have no idea how long I’m expected to wait,” Kat explained as his feline ears dropped. A faint smile appeared on Panthro’s face as his eyes became half-lidded,
“How about I help hold you over until then?” Panthro offered. Kat was about to request for Panthro to elaborate when Panthro suddenly gave Kat a kiss on his forehead, causing the hybrid to blush and his eyes to widen, the kiss was nothing more than a peck, but Kat still enjoyed the short time it lasted.

After the forehead kiss, Panthro stood up and walked back to the bulkhead before descending the stairs and leaving Kat alone on the roof without another word. Kat fell onto his back and gazed up at the stars with a huge blush on his face, though small and quick, Panthro's kiss filled the hybrid with a nice warmth that reached every corner of his body. Elster couldn't help but laugh at Kat's behavior,
"Gosh, the way that panther makes you feel, he's a keeper," Elster commented teasingly,
"I know… I just want to hold him and never let him go," Kat replied with a mental infatuated tone. Suddenly though a small laminated rectangular piece of paper, blew in the wind and hit Kat in the face. Kat quickly grabbed the paper and examined it to see it was a photograph, though seeing what it was a photograph of caused the hybrid's eyes to widen. On the photograph was Winston, though looking slightly younger, wearing a dark grey and orange short sleeve singlet and holding up a large piece of paper similar to a certificate. Though what Kat found especially puzzling was the people in the photo with Winston. There was a woman with short and spiky brown hair with a glowing device on her chest, a woman with blond hair fixed into a ponytail, a short bearded man, a man with short blond hair, a man with a darker skin tone, a goatee and mustache, who curiously had his back turned to the others, almost like he didn’t want to be in the photo. A tall muscular man with short and spiky white hair and a beard, a man whose body was completely covered in silver metal armor with a glowing green visor, a man with long brown hair wearing a cowboy hat, and a woman with dark brown hair wearing a blue beret. In the background was a banner that read “congratulations” from the majority of it that was visible, and most of the people Winston was with seemed happy and accomplished, including Winston himself. But another thing that caught Kat’s eye was the symbol that was visible on the shoulder of Winston’s singlet, it was the white and orange symbol that resembled a peace sign that could also be found on the front of the base.

Kat studied the photo for a while before Elster spoke up,
“Who are those people Winston are with?” Elster asked,
“I dunno, I’ve never seen them before,” Kat replied,
“Hey Kat, you remember your magatama sense?” Elster inquired,
“You mean the ability that lets me see when someone is hiding a secret and gives me an opportunity to get the secret out of them by breaking their psych locks?” Kat asked descriptively,
“That’s the one, and if you remember Winston has a secret relating to him being on a hero team,” Elster pointed out. Kat then inferred what Elster was trying to say,
“Oh, then you think the people in this picture might be members of an old team he was in?” Kat asked,
“Possibly, there’s really only one way to find out,” Elster suggested,
“Right, let’s ask him ourselves,” said Kat with a nod before he got to his feet and put the picture in his pocket. Kat then headed towards the stair bulkhead with a momentus sense of purpose that followed the hybrid as he made his way to Winston’s lab. Questions and possible answers buzzed around Kat’s mind as he got closer to the lab door.

When Kat got to the lab and entered however, he could see Winston sleeping peacefully at his desk, which Kat didn’t have the heart to disturb. So Kat decided that he would confront Winston about the photo tomorrow, though before he turned around and left, Kat made note of the armor Winston wore during missions that was suspended in a cylinder shaped display container. After Kat closed the lab door behind him on his way out and quietly made his way to his own room, Elster once again spoke to him,
“Does he have a bed in there or does he just collapse onto his desk every day? That can’t be good for his back,” Elster commented,
“I have other concerns right now El,” Kat replied mentally,
“Well try not to lose sleep over them, we have to wait until tomorrow to get the information out of him,” Elster advised. Kat then made his way to his room before promptly getting in bed and doing his best to get comfortable and not let his thoughts keep him up. It was a bit of a struggle at first, but eventually Kat managed to chase all troubling thoughts out of his head and peacefully lose consciousness.

___

After an unusual dream that involved a stranger in a green cloak, Kat woke with the sunlight from the window shining on his face, Kat soon remembered what he planned to talk to Winston about and got out of bed. As Kat walked to Winston’s lab, he realized that Winston would perhaps want to discuss matters somewhere more private where the other anthros would be less likely to walk into, so the hybrid got the idea to get onto the rooftop and send Winston a message on his communicator telling him to meet him on the roof. Time seemed to slow down for the hybrid as he waited patiently for the gorilla, the desert sun beat down on him and he was hungry since in his excitement he hadn’t eaten anything since waking up. Seconds dragged on, minutes felt like hours, and Kat was left alone with his own thoughts since Elster was waiting quietly, which the hybrid was fine with considering how much anticipation he had in regards to talking with Winston.

Just when Kat was beginning to worry that Winston wouldn’t show up, he heard the bulkhead door open, and sure enough the gorilla soon joined him on the roof and moved within talking distance,
“Hi there,” Winston greeted with a wave, Kat simply waved back in response. When Winston was an adequate distance from Kat to converse he spoke up again,
“You wanted to talk to me? Any reason it had to be on the roof? Why not talk in the lab?” Winston inquired,
“There’s less chance of someone stumbling onto the roof than into the lab,” Kat replied,
“Ah I guess that’s true, so whatever you want to talk about must be serious,” Winston commented. Kat shrugged,
“I don’t know, I’m not sure what’s going to come from this conversation, really,” Kat explained vaguely,
“Huh, that’s concerning, though before we begin, would you have happened to have seen a picture of me around here? I was looking through my lab and noticed it was missing,” Winston explained. After taking a deep breath, Kat’s body glowed with a green aura that Winston seemed to be blind to,
“I need you to answer my question before I answer yours,” Kat explained,
“Well what is your question?” Winston asked,
“It’s one I’ve asked before- Were you ever in another hero team before the anthros?” Kat asked. Suddenly the world around Kat and Winston turned photo negative before completely disappearing and leaving the two in a dark void and the chains and three psych locks appeared in front of Winston with a metallic clashing sound,
“Kat, I’ve told you once, and I’ll tell you again- no, I was a freelance hero,” Winston explained, completely oblivious to the unusual things Kat was seeing. The hybrid had gone over possible ways the conversation would go countless times in his head in preparation for the process of breaking the psych locks, and he knew what his first point would be,
“Winston, I know you’re not being honest with me, I have proof,” Kat explained, causing Winston to raise a brow,
“Oh? I’d like to see this “proof” then,” Winston explained. Kat took a breath, being in the middle of the dark abyss was starting to make him nervous, especially with the knowledge that saying the wrong thing would cause him to get hurt,
“For my first piece of evidence…”

TAKE THAT!

“If you look on the front of the base, you can see a number of symbols above the entrance, including one that resembles a peace symbol, grey and orange, and minimalist in terms of design.. That’s yours isn’t it? Or I guess I should say… that’s your old team’s symbol,” Kat theorized aloud, causing Winston’s eyes to widen. Suddenly a manifestation of Elster appeared before him and punched one of the locks, hitting it so hard that it shattered into countless pieces, and each of the scraps of metal dissipated along with the manifestation of Elster. Kat was surprised to see the manifestation of Elster, but at the same time became somewhat excited from seeing the lock shatter since he figured it was a clear sign that he was on the right track. Though as Kat thought, it was too early to celebrate since there were two locks left to break, and Winston once again spoke to Kat with shaky confidence while avoiding eye contact with the hybrid,
“You’ve got it all wrong, that isn’t a symbol for a team, it’s my symbol, from my freelance days,” Winston lied calmly. Kat saw right through Winston’s lie and shook his head a bit as he responded,
“Sorry Winston, but I’m not buying it, there’s proof that isn’t the case,” Kat explained,
“And what proof is this?” Winston asked,
“The proof is what you wear,” Kat explained,
“My… lab coat?” Winston asked in confusion as he looked over himself,
“No, the other thing you wear…”

TAKE THAT!

“The armor you wear on missions that resembles an astronaut’s suit, the peace symbol is nowhere to be seen on it,” Kat commented,
“Uh… you’re right! I got my symbol changed to the blue planet symbol you see on it now,” Winston lied desperately as he began to sweat a bit,
“Oh? You did that before you met Panthro?” Kat asked,
“Yep,” Winston replied with a smile, hopeful that Kat was buying his story,
“And yet the symbol on the front of the base is your old one?” Kat asked skeptically. A moment of awkward silence was shared between the two before Winston let out a noise that was a mix between a sigh and a growl, a clear sign of frustration at the transparency of his lie. Once again a manifestation of Elster appeared and broke another one of the locks before disappearing,
“Two down, one to go,” Kat thought to himself happily. Winston turned his attention back to Kat,
“Kat, all you’ve brought to the table is circumstantial evidence, so what if I’m indecisive when it comes to my symbol? That isn’t hard proof that I was on a hero team,” Winston explained,
“Maybe, but I have one last piece of evidence that ties everything together,” Kat explained,
Causing Winston to sigh in frustration,
“Fine, let’s see it,” Winston replied with mild annoyance in his tone,
“This!, is the last piece of evidence…”

TAKE THAT!

Kat took the photo of Winston out of his pocket and offered it to the gorilla. Upon seeing the photo, Winston’s eyes widened,
“My photo!” said Winston with a mix of relief and surprise,
“Yep, and as you can see, there’s a number of people standing on both sides of you, not only that, but you and a number of other people in the photo have the peace symbol visible on your outfits, you all seem like you’re celebrating something together… almost like a team,” Kat explained. Winston didn’t reply, but rather remained silent and avoided eye contact with Kat, whose demeanor changed from investigational to empathetic,
“Winston... I don’t understand, why keep it hidden? Why is you being on a hero team before the anthros something that you feel like you’ve got to keep secret?” Kat asked,
“That itself isn’t the problem…” Winston explained,
“Then what is?” Kat asked. After a bit of silence, Winston struggled to get his reply out,
“I’m.. scared to say…” Winston explained,
“Winston, it’s me, Kat, whatever it is, I won’t think less of you, I promise,” Kat explained with a genuine tone. After one more moment of silence, Winston sighed and looked at Kat with his golden eyes,
“Ok,” Winston replied simply before the Elster manifestation appeared and broke the last lock, and the world around Kat returned to normal, as well as Kat’s green glow disappearing, a clear sign to the hybrid that the unlocking was a success.

Winston walked past Kat and went over to the ledge before sitting with his back against it, Kat almost immediately walked over to him and sat beside him. Kat’s tail idly swished around as he waited for Winston’s explanation, the hybrid could see the troubled look on the gorilla’s face and began to wonder if he made a mistake by interrogating his friend on a potentially sensitive matter, though he knew it was too late to turn back now, and decided that whatever Winton was about to tell him, he’d still accept him and try to understand. Winston stared off into the distance as he began talking,
“It’s true, I was on a hero team before the Anthros of Justice, this team was called “Overwatch”. It was an organization filled with a number of extraordinary individuals who were brought together to put a stop to the omnics, a legion of robotic entities that threatened to drive the world into chaos. After much fighting, we were able to put a stop to the omnics, and the world was at peace for the most part, which led to the golden days for Overwatch. It started with rogue omnics, but eventually we decided to fight against whatever we could to keep global stability, be it omnics, terrorists, natural disasters, or anything in between. But as time went on, things became more complicated, do you remember when I told you about the Horizon Lunar Colony?” Winston asked,
“Oh yeah, when we went to that theater, you said something about the colony being a place to study prolonged space habitation and its effect on genetically enhanced gorillas,” Kat replied,
“Right, but what I didn’t tell you was those same gorillas eventually led a rebellion against the colony and killed a number of the scientists. I managed to escape however with the help of a rocket, and thankfully I found a new home with Overwatch. At Overwatch I made so many new friends, Genji… Lena…” Winston explained,
“Are they in the picture?” Kat asked. Winston reached over and pointed towards the picture which was still in Kat’s hands,
“Yes, Genji is the cyborg over here, and Lena, codename- Tracer, is the energetic girl right next to me,” Winston explained,
“Were you and Tracer close?” Kat asked,
“Oh definitely, you see that device on her chest? That’s a chronal accelerator, a device I made to help her stay anchored to the present, ever since I helped her, she’s been an amazing and kind friend to me, but that’s neither here nor there. The point being that I made a number of friends in Overwatch, and though there were difficulties from time to time, it was nothing we couldn’t handle… at least, that’s what I thought. Between a number of incidents with Blackwatch, Talon, an omnic extremist group named Null Sector making an uprising, things seemed to be going downhill for Overwatch, made even worse by an investigation revealing that Blackwatch, under Overwatch’s leadership committed a number of crimes including killing, kidnapping and torturing. Eventually, Overwatch was disbanded by the United Nations due to the negative reputation it had received from all the allegations of the organization becoming corrupted, and eventually we got the Petras Act, a law that deemed any and all Overwatch activity illegal.” Winston explained,
“Wow, sounds like you guys have gone through quite a lot,” Kat commented with a sense of empathy,
“It gets worse, a few years later there came a second omnic crisis, and Talon was gaining a rise in power, and eventually I sent out a call to get Overwatch back together, even knowing that we could get in serious trouble thanks to the Petras Act, and much to my surprise my call managed to get a lot more heroes to come back than I thought… but just when I thought things were looking up, everything went wrong,” Winston explained with a sense of dread and sadness,
“Were your teammates arrested by law enforcement?”, Kat asked, causing Winston to laugh a bit,
“I wish that was the case, it would’ve been a lot less horrible than what actually happened. No, what happened was, soon after Overwatch had come back together, a mysterious dark energy began to consume my world at a ridiculously fast rate, within less than a day everything around me was lost, and like with the Horizon Lunar colony, I narrowly managed to escape, though this time it was through a gate of light. It wasn’t until after the fact I learned that what happened was my world became “lost to darkness”, something that happens when someone with godlike powers wants to completely encase a world in darkness to somehow further their own goals.” Winston explained. Kat then saw with a heavy heart as Winston began to get choked up with his words as he blinked back tears and kept avoiding eye contact,
“That’s why I don’t go on missions too often, that’s why I don’t wear an outfit with the overwatch symbol on it anymore. I was the one who called for overwatch to get back together, and look what happened, we got together just to witness our entire world fall apart. Tracer… Genji… Reinhardt… Mercy… Mei… Echo… Brigitte, they gave my idea a chance because they saw hope in it, but because of my idea they’re all stuck in a state of stasis in a dark void that used to be our world,” Winston explained with regret in his tone as tears began rolling down his cheeks,
“So they aren’t dead?” Kat asked,
“No, I’ve been explicitly told that the people in a world lost to darkness aren’t dead but in a state of suspended animation, but I’ve also been told that it’s basically impossible to save a world that’s in such a state,” Winston explained as he wiped his eyes with his thumb, slightly lifting his glasses in the process.

“They were my team, my family, and I let them down. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you about Overwatch, it’s a very loaded subject for me, ” Winston explained. Kat scooched over to Winston until their sides were touching, then patted the gorilla on the back,
“Winston, it isn’t your fault, your world being lost, your friends being caught up in that, none of that is your fault, and don’t feel regret for bringing everyone back together. I don’t claim to entirely know what was going on in your world, but by the sound of it, lots of terrible things were happening in Overwatch’s absence. You didn’t see the world for what it was, you dared to see it for what it could’ve been, and it’s no wonder your allies joined you because of that!” Kat explained hopefully. Winston looked at Kat with a sense of surprise in his wet eyes, as though the hybrid said something that stuck with him, though Kat continued,
“But that’s not all, look at what you’ve done since you’ve lost your world, you haven’t just been sitting around feeling sorry for yourself, you help us out in whatever way you can, and you’re a great help, I don’t know where we would be without your Gate Hopper or your computer,” Kat explained. Winston took a brief moment to clean his glasses and wipe his eyes before he continued,
“And as for your world being lost to darkness, I can try to help you with that,” Kat offered,
“That’s kind of you to offer Kat, but I doubt you can do very much for me there, no one has ever undone the effects of a world being lost to darkness before,” Winston explained,
“Then I’ll just have to be the first,” Kat replied,
“But-” Winston tried to argue, though Kat put a hand on his shoulder,
“I’ll help you see your friends again, I promise,” said Kat with a kind and genuine tone. Winston could help but sigh and smile,
“I have so much trouble understanding you, why do you care so much about helping me out?” Winston asked,
“Because you’re always so kind and helpful to everyone, so I want to return the favor,” Kat explained.

There was a moment of silence that followed before Winston stood up, and Kat followed his lead. Winston turned to face Kat and offered a hand to the hybrid,
“Kat…” Winston began, Kat thought Winston just wanted his picture back so he placed it in the gorilla’s hand, but Winston promptly grabbed Kat’s hand and pulled him in for a hug. The hug caught Kat off guard and caused him to blush, especially since Winston, while friendly, didn’t usually go so far to express affection from what Kat had seen. Winston was so much larger than him that Kat didn’t doubt that if he hadn’t been gentle he could easily crush the hybrid in his large arms, and his dark fur felt warm from being exposed to the desert sun,
“Thank you… even if saving my world turns out to be impossible, the fact that you have such a strong desire to help me, and you say such positive things about me despite the self loathing means a lot to me,” said Winston with a gracious tone. Kat smiled and finally hugged back,
“Don’t mention it big guy, though I’m sorry I forced that info out of you, especially since it makes you sad to think about,” Kat replied,
“No it’s ok, it feels refreshing to finally talk about it with someone,” Winston explained.

After a bit Winston broke the hug and accepted his photo back from Kat,
“So have you told the others about this?” Kat asked,
“No, though to be fair they haven’t asked, I guess you're the first one to care so much about my story,” Winston explained,
“Well, I think what really matters is who you are now and who you choose to be going forward,” Kat commented,
“Yeah, maybe I will tell them,” Winston thought aloud,
“You don’t have to, especially since it’s a heavy subject for you,” Kat offered empathetically,
“Nah it’s ok, I don’t feel as bad talking about it as I did, though I suppose I should only explain if they ask since that seems less awkward than bringing the whole history of Overwatch out of the blue. Though Kat, since we are a team you shouldn’t be afraid to talk about any past experiences either,” Winston explained. Kat was tempted to tell Winston about his past as he had told Panthro, but decided against it since the story would take a while,
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Kat replied,
“So was that all you needed from me?” Winston asked,
“Yeah, thanks Winston, sorry for keeping you from your experiments for so long,” said Kat,
“It’s ok, I needed a bit of time outside the lab anyway,” Winston explained as he walked toward the bulkhead,
“Anyway I’ll see you later Kat, thanks for giving me my photo back,” said Winston with a wave before he disappeared from descending the stairs.

Kat stayed on the roof and decided to lean against the ledge and look into the distance of the desert, the conversation with Winston had been very informative, and he felt a sense of satisfaction from finally breaking his psych locks. Kat heard Elster finally speak up after remaining silent for so long,
“You happy now?” Elster asked,
“Yeah, finally put my magatama sense to use and learned a lot about Winston,” Kat replied,
“Would you like to know more about yourself?” Elster asked,
“What do you mean?” Kat inquired,
“Kat, I think it’s time I finally told you what it means to be the thief of darkness,” Elster explained, causing Kat to slightly gasp,
“Really? You’re finally going to tell me?!” Kat asked excitedly,
“Now seems like a better time than ever. The role of the thief of darkness is to steal the darkness and despair from hopeless situations and leave people with hope,” Elster explained. Kat’s eyes lit up when he heard Elster’s explanation,
“Really?” Kat asked in disbelief,
“Yes Kat, really, you were destined to be a hero and inspire hope, despite what you might’ve thought of yourself for the longest time,” Elster explained,
“El… thanks, I think I needed to hear that,” Kat explained with a smile,
“I know, though be sure to always live up to that title, get stronger, never break promises, show them you’ve got what it takes to be a hero,” Elster instructed inspirationally,
“I will,” Kat replied before he went back to looking into the distance. Kat had been on the roof for a while, and despite the warmth of the sun, he wanted to stay up there for just a little longer. He had shared things with his allies on the rooftop and learned more about them, which got him excited for the future and what else could be in store for him and the Anthros.

End of Chapter 3