Ch. 1: Within the storm.
Explosions tore through the air. A few incredibly powerful mages hurled various spells at each other from the relative safety of behind their side's warriors plated head to toe in armour. Occasionally a combat medic or magical healer could be seen darting between lines, removing burns, bruises and cuts. The aggressors from the west had a distinct upper hand, having toppled several lines of defences courtesy of their hybrid tank-artillery, dubbed a 'siege tank'. Said tank was happily blasting away at the last line of defences until one of the eastern defenders conjured a small desert above the tank, which fell unnaturally fast and sheared through the solid steel body, causing the machine to explode. Despite the loss of the artillery, the aggressors still held a massive numbers advantage in foot soldiers and had four of their 'heroes' present, as opposed to the defenders' three. The fifth of the aggressors became visible directly behind the offending mage, energy blade in hand, and gave them a break from existence. Two to five, the defenders were rapidly overwhelmed and forced back to the core of their base. But even as the automated cannons of the core began to discharge volleys of energy into the opposing army, the aggressors pushed in and brought the building down and it exploded into regular fire, magical wisps, electronic sparks and somewhat confusingly, golden coins.
It was a completely normal battle, for the nexus.
In the middle of a field, in the middle of everywhere and nowhere at the same time, ten beings and a siege tank materialised out of nowhere and began to congratulate each other with varying degrees of sincerity. "Well played" and "Good game" were tossed out nonchalantly by a few of them before they left, whilst three of them stayed.
"You know, that was a really neat trick with your Ring of Frost! I know you put a lot of time into it, although I can tell you're going to keep practising." Said a petite mage in a yellow dress.
"Well, I mainly spent the time creating the theory for the figure 8, but learning the spell wasn't too bad. I'm hoping that I can create a flexible version in the future. Can you see anything helpful?" replied a taller mage robed in blue.
"Mayyybe. Or I could just, you know, do my job of keeping time in order."
"Do you two ladies want a lift back? 'cause I don't have all day, you know. My baby needs a wash!" Yelled Sgt. Hammer from atop her tank.
"I still think it's a bit weird to call your tank 'baby'…" Replied Archmage Jaina Proudmoore, climbing up the rope ladder that was thrown out the top of the vehicle. She was followed by Chronormu, Bronze dragon, master of the sands of time and holder of the secrets of past, present and future. Though she preferred herself as the gnome Chromie.
The tank revved and left the field at a good speed for such a heavy vehicle. The pair of spellcasters sat on top of the tank, watching as the land shimmered and changed around them. The world of the nexus, if you could call it that, was a very confusing place. It was a patchwork of places that had been, were, or would be from many worlds, and the places stopped and started abruptly. You could be driving through a desolate, ruined town, blink and you were on the surface of the forgotten planet of Zerus for a few hundred meters, before passing into a forest and so forth. The places never stayed the same either, apart from a few select areas and places which currently had any form of sentient life. On the plus side, the fact that reality was either broken or taking a break could be used to the advantage of a traveller. Distance could be bent, although not negated. Trips that could take hours in a supersonic jet could be completed in the same time by a dedicated cyclist with a strong mind. Not that there were many places to go for most people, there were only a few notable settlements. One of which Hammer drove into. It was a small, technologically advanced town that incorporated design techniques from a total of three worlds to create a unique aesthetic. She rolled into a garage that was custom-designed for a tank, complete with a plethora of tools and electrical equipment to perform any kind of repair that could possibly be necessary. All installed before anyone had been aware of the special power bestowed upon the ones who'd entered the nexus as heroes: somewhat technical immortality. Their equipment never broke. They didn't age. They could be injured, but they were resistant to most kinds of damage. And in the unlikely event one of them did die outside of a battle world, they would wake up the next day, in the place they felt safest, feeling perfectly alright. Though some of the more scientific individuals argued that since this had only happened twice, it could not be proven beyond doubt.
The town of Anchor, as it was dubbed, was confusingly idyllic. As one of the only places fixed into the realm, almost all the people who escaped reality, or in just over fifty cases were specifically invited to leave reality, found their way there and settled. Given the huge mixture of ages, races and religions, everybody getting along should have bordered on impossible… But for some reason, even the extremists didn't want to mess with law enforcement composed of an ex-military commando and the literal embodiment of justice. It was situated on perfectly flat plains, and sustained itself through gathering. After all, what good is access to infinite resources if you don't use it? The town was protected by a simple stone wall. About two metres high, and mainly to stop wild animals from getting in. If the town actually needed to defend against a threat, then they had over 30 of the most powerful fighters in multiple histories living within, and another few dozen willing to come to its aid.
Lena Oxton, more commonly known as Tracer, was performing parkour throughout the city rooftops when her radio beeped. "Tracer here!" She responded, performing an acrobatic leap onto a chimney.
"This is Jimmy, I'm gonna need a professional opinion on something…" Crackled Raynor's voice.
"Fire away love!"
"I was thinking about organising some research into the exact nature of this place… Do you have any idea where to start?"
A/n: Okay, for this fanfiction I'm going to accept some pairings for future chapters. I'm looking for pairings for the following characters:
Jaina, Brightwing, Nova, Sonya, Lt. Morales, Sgt. Hammer, Li-ming, Valla, Chromie and Tracer.
I've got nothing against LGBT, but I'm going to need straight pairings. Please PM them if you can.
Update: Minor capitalisation changes, slight change of phrasing when talking about the town defences.
