"Why is everything so dark," I thought as I tried to move my body, only to not feel anything at all, as if I was a brain floating in nothingness. Maybe I was; I tried to remember what happened before everything went black. I remember a plane, then lots of screaming and the sickening smell of smoke, but not much else. "Am I dead," I thought.
I began to panic as the implications of this lack of any sensation or feeling dawned on me: was this the afterlife? No salvation or damnation, just an endless black nothingness that I was doomed to stay in until I go mad from loneliness and boredom.
"It depends on how you define death," I heard a voice, neither male or female, speak. Despite the fact it seemed oddly familiar, try as I might I found myself unable to find who the speaker might be.
"Who are you, what are you, and what did you do to me?" I shouted in a growing alarm.
"First off I need you to relax, my friend. I mean you no harm, and second off you are not dead, at least your consciousness is not. Your physical body, on the other hand, has been utterly destroyed beyond recovery I am afraid," the voice said soothingly. I could almost feel a glimmer of sadness in its tone before it continued in a reassuring tone. "I can make you a new one if you would like, though."
I was very tempted to say yes, if only because I thought having my body back would help me calm down, but I remembered in time that I have no idea who I am dealing with here. Restoring my body might very well come with strings attached. "Thank you, but I think I would rather have an explanation. I am asking again, who are you, and why am I here? "
"'Who am I?'' is not a question so easily answered, but as a start you can call me X'xora. I am part of a race called the Well Keepers, we are not "alive" as you would conventionally think of it. We have no physical body, existing purely through quantum mechanics and perturbations in the space-time manifold. I can explain further, but that would take me at least a century, and I believe you do not want to hear me talk for that long, do you?"
I was tempted to say no if only to confuse him, but he sounded sincere enough that I think he would have gone through with it. "No thanks, I think that will do for now. So, what do you want from me? Am I some sort of pet, slave, or court jester to you?"
"Oh I assure nothing of the sort. We are a peaceful race, and only desire to make the multiverse a better place."
Wait! What? "Did you just say multiverse?"
"Yes, which brings me to my second point. My race exists across multiple plains of reality, which to put it simply means we do not inhabit one universe, but all of them simultaneously."
"How is that even physically possible?" I just could not wrap my head around all of this, I am smart but nowhere near an Einstein, hell I was mediocre in "normal" physics at best.
"Like I said it is complicated, and would take years for you to even begin to comprehend it," it said before quickly adding, "Meaning no offence to your intelligence."
"None taken, but I still do not see how this all relates to me."
"Well, remember what I said about making the multiverse a better place?" I mentally "nodded", even though I technically did not have a head or a neck at that moment. "Well, unfortunately we cannot directly interact with the physical plane of existence. We are limited to mostly observing things as they unfold, and can only work through agents which we induct in very specific circumstances."
"And I am one such agent, I think" I said as things started clicking together.
"Correct," it said. There was silence for a moment before X'xhora continued. "Know that I am truly sorry and regret having to recruit you into this but I have little choice. There are many lives that are at stake in my corner of the multiverse, and I just cannot stand idly by while they are slowly but surely falling under the influence of malevolent powers."
It said this with such force and anger in his voice that I was actually afraid for a second before X'xora calmed down again. "But this does not make what I am doing any less questionable. I have chosen you to do this because I see immense potential in you, and I think you are apt for the task at hand. I would, however, very much prefer that you accept to do this willingly."
That was surprising. "Wait, YOU chose me," I shouted with anger as a frightening idea came to my head.
"I know what you are thinking, and no I was not in any way responsible for your unfortunate demise in your original universe. As I said before, we can not interfere with the material universe. Your plane accident was just that, an unfortunate coincidence, and yet one that happened in such a way that I was able to recruit you."
My anger abated, though I still did not trust him one hundred percent; after all, he could very well be lying. Sure he seemed genuine, but the best con men are always the ones who you least expect to con you.
"I still don't see why you would recruit me of all people. I'm an above average college student with not much in the way of special talents, it's not like I am some sort of chosen one or gifted with some great power," I said truthfully. I really could not see why this entity would ever choose me to be its "champion" as this seemed to be.
To my surprise it laughed, a warm laughter of fondness. "Truly you underestimate yourself, which is part of the reason I chose you. I know this sounds "cheesy" as you humans call it, but you often find the greatest of heroes where you least expect it. Indeed, if only you knew how many go on with their lives without having the chance to shine. Though...in some cases I consider it a mercy." His tone suddenly turned melancholic.
"Look, I know this is not something you imagined yourself doing, and i know that i am essentially forcing this on you, but i implore you to think about it. I know you always desired to do some good in your world but never got the chance to do it on a large scale, but now you have the chance to influence entire universes for the better!"
Oh, he/she/it is appealing to my ego, and true to form it was working. I am only human after all.
"And besides, aren't you tired of feeling helpless all the time, to have to go through the motions of life while knowing that so many wrongdoings go unpunished and you are powerless to stop it."
Okay, that one hit a nerve. I have to say this guy/gal knows how to press my buttons in a good way. Well I am probably dead in my world, so what do I have to lose? Still, I needed to be cautious.
"Okay, I will humor you for now."
"I see you do not trust me, which is understandable. I will tell you what about how you help me out with just one world, and if you do not like it or fail I will release you. Consider this a trial run. So, do we have a deal," it asked softly
Well at least it wasn't unreasonable. "I accept, but I am warning you I am not the hero you seem to think I am."
A snort of amusement rung through the void.
"We shall see about that, very soon now."
There was an awkward silence for what I assumed was a couple of minutes (very hard to tell time in a formless void). "So what is my task anyway," I asked.
"I wish I could tell you, but doing so might cause changes to the events that I have foreseen."
"Oh great, are you gonna give me the 'this information is too dangerous for you to know' speech?"
"Not really. I am certain it is best you find out on your own, but for now all you need to know is that I will grant you incredible powers, powers great enough that you would be as you say "overpowered" in the setting I am sending you to. Just be careful not to get too arrogant with them."
Superpowers are always fun, right? i thought "What kind of powers am I getting?"
"Something akin to a mix of an eldritch god and what one of your timeline's video games call the Blacklight Virus. Be warned though, to safeguard your sanity you will start off relatively weak and have to learn to master your abilities, so your mind can handle the full knowledge of what you can do without undue strain. I know it sounds like I am purposely weakening you, but I ask you to take a leap of faith please" it said half pleading.
"Alright fine, can I at least know where i am going first?"
"I believe there is a video game in your world called Overwatch.
A/N : Hello everyone, some here might be familiar with my earlier SI work which while valuable in setting me on the path to writing as a hobby i now just find to be full of cringe , this is my second attempted multicross self insert so hope you enjoys.