Agent Jason Suthers woke with a start, thinking that the only way he could feel this way would be if his face were on fire. From what he could tell, his head was covered in heavy bandages and he felt as if his whole face was disfigured, his nose swelled up and his mouth feeling like it had been torn open. Sitting up, his instincts screamed at him to get a good look at the surroundings and figure out where he was.
Well, it looked so far like he was in an empty surgery room at the Site 18 Medical wing. It was completely empty save him, a some medical equipment, a briefcase on a nearby counter, and a dozen or so television monitors mounted on the far wall. Only one of these was actually turned on, and on it was a man in a similar room with bandages covering his head, much like Suthers.
Peering closer at the one active screen, he realized suddenly that it was him. Glancing down at the rest of his body, Suthers saw that his whole body had went through some kind of surgery, he could barely recognize himself. What the hell had happened?
Oh….right. The raid.
Earlier that day, Suthers had been working on moving some of the more dangerous Items to new containment units with several other Agents, supervised by none other than the legendary Dr. Clef. Suthers had always idolized the infamous stories about the good doctor, and being one of the most senior Agents on site, jumped at the chance to actually be able to work under him.
The move had started off so smoothly, too, right up until the hallway they were moving through exploded, blown apart with a monstrous clang. It was a Chaos Insurgency raid. The agents had tried to mobilize, but the terrorists came in like the hammer of god, tearing through them before absconding with a highly dangerous Item. Suthers and Clef were hit the hardest, both of them caught in the initial blast.
Thanking his luck that he was still alive, Suthers tried pulling himself out of the bed, testing to see if he could stand on his two feet. As he got up, the other monitors that were on the wall flickered to life, each one with a barely visible figure covered in shadows. Suthers stared. He had seen the occasional glimpse of one or two before, whenever he had to report a particularly important mission or engagement. But never so many before, he counted ten…eleven…twelve. All twelve of them.
O5s. The entire Overwatch Council had decided to speak with him.
"Welcome back to the world of the living, Agent. You are very lucky to be alive today." From the way they were covered in shadows, Suthers couldn't tell which one of them was speaking, or if any of them were speaking at all.
"Uh, sirs." He saluted, noting that he could barely hear his own voice from under the bandages.
"No need for that, Agent, we're here to inform you that you've been promoted to a considerably unique position within the Foundation. You have an exemplary record, hundreds of successful missions under your belt, along with numerous Items captured and contained, and in light of the recent raid, it's been decided to give you a higher ranking position, namely, that of Dr. Clef."
Suthers paused. "Excuse me?"
"Dr. Clef was killed in the raid earlier today. You have been chosen to replace him."
"That's impossible, Dr. Clef is a person, not a position."
"Dr. Clef is a collection of stories and legends. His….antics….have often worked favorably towards the Foundation, giving us a certain image of employing people with seemingly super-human capabilities. The original Clef's savviness, cunning, and history for flagrant lies, such as claiming he was Satan, had a tendency to inspire others and awe those he worked with. Therefore, we decided to maintain the idea of certain personas under our employ to keep up the image Clef had given us. When the original Clef died fifteen years ago, it was decided that the best course of action was to cover up the death and find a way to continue the legends. So far, it has been successful. You are the fourth man in line to take over the position of Alto Clef."
"I….I see." Suthers looked at the monitors. "I understand now, I'll be more than willing to take this position."
"Excellent. In the briefcase before you are all the necessary documents needed to become Dr. Clef. From this point onward, Agent Jason Suthers died in an Insurgent raid. Remove the bandages, take the documents, read them, and destroy them afterward."
Tearing at the bandages over his head, he looked at the monitor viewing his room. It was the same, except the man sitting in it had a bright red tomato where his head would normally be. He felt the bulbous nose and grinned, feeling the corners of his mouth reaching up towards his ears. And while it was Agent Suthers that was first brought into the room, out of it walked Dr. Alto H. Clef, Father of Lies.