"..." For conversation

'....' For thought

(...) For author note

{ } Sound/Special Effects

{Ring Ring Ring}

"I'm up, I'm up Jesus why are all the alarm clocks I buy so damn loud" grumbled Alex as he got up, shut off his alarm, and started to get ready for his day. 

Looking out the window at the pouring rain that hasn't stopped for the past three days after a hurricane passed through Alex couldn't help but let out a depressed sigh "Another day in this weather, if there is a God up their could you let me get a shift on a day when the weather is nice and sunny."

As Alex complained he made his way to the kitchen to make himself a quick breakfast consisting of eggs, bacon, and toast alongside his morning coffee. Finally feeling alive, he soon found himself at the door preparing to head outside to drive to work. 

Making his way through the city in his small poorly maintained car he inched through traffic and finally arrived at his destination. Parking in the underground garage he checked his watch to make sure he wasn't late and then proceeded to make his way into the building, quickly entering the changing room readying himself for today's work.

Alex shuffled his way through the already crowded Locker room and soon arrived beside his own locker. As he prepared to open it a pat on his back drew his attention "Alex! Where were you man its 9:00a.m if I didn't know you better, I would have thought you skipped work today." turning his head Alex focused on the tall burly middle-aged black man changing next to him.

"Hey, John. Yeah, I know I got here as fast as possible but what do you expect with the weather being what it is? I'm lucky to be going 30 under the speed limit when driving."  Alex spoke to his colleague John as he opened his locker and started to change as fast as possible to avoid being reprimanded by his supervisor who had been glaring at him since he entered the changing room.

"Yeah, ain't that the truth, I hope this damn storm passes soon or else I might just quit this job and try my hand doing something indoors." John complained as he finished changing, grabbed his lunchbox and hardhat and closed the locker. Alex and John were both workers at a construction company. Normally, they wouldn't be complaining this much as normal construction companies don't care how long a project really takes, so the employees can just relax inside of equipment and do nothing on days like today. However, their construction company based its whole business on the speed they promised to do jobs at. So, here the employees are getting ready to go spend the entire day in the pouring rain doing manual labor.

"Who are you kidding? Didn't you just tell me the other day you never even finished high school? What place would take you other than here." Alex joked as he also finished changing and prepared to follow John.

"Ah. What do you know? I bet there are thousands of places that would hire someone of high intellect like myself. Those diplomas or whatever they are called are just worthless pieces of paper. Anyone with half a brain can get one."  John said loudly while pushing out his chest with confidence.

"Oi, John what did you just say about having half a brain."  One of their other colleagues Charlie an older looking Asian man laughed from across the room as they made their way out of the changeroom and into the garage to get the trucks.

"Shut it, you old man and get your back checked before you "accidently" drop another 50-pound beam right next to my head."  John retorted loudly as everyone started laughing before quickly getting back to work after a stern shout from the supervisor. Alex, still chuckling got into the truck nearest to him, sitting down next to Charlie. He rested his head on the side of the truck and waited for their arrival at the construction site. 

As they drove towards the site Charlie looked over at Alex and asked "Hey, Alex you okay kid? You aren't looking too good. You eat properly before getting here." 

"Yeah, I'm fine Charlie I ate a full breakfast before coming here. No need to worry about me." Alex replied quelling Charlies worries. 

"Well, if you say so just be careful, you're looking really pale." Charlie said with concern clear in his tone.

"I will Charlie, thanks for your concern." Alex said before once again leaning on the truck and closing his eyes. Alex Bernard is a 20-year-old muscular youth with black hair and dark brown eyes. He would be an attractive individual if it weren't for the paleness of his skin that made him look sickly. Alex is not aware of what caused his skin to be so pale, all he really understood from the doctor's appointment his parents had once taken him to was that it wasn't a disease or anything, everything else the doctor said just flew over his head. The news relieved his family a lot though.

Alex is a member of a family of five with both his parents and 2 siblings, an older and younger sister. His parents have always been loving and caring, but they also put a lot of pressure on him and his siblings to ensure they could be successful in the future. Alex's current situation is a result of this pressure. He and his older sister both are given separate properties during their summer break where they handle everything from cooking and cleaning to repairing broken machines and paying bills themselves. Their little sister is still only in her third year of high school, so she doesn't yet have to go through this process, but his parents still make sure that she works during the summer to cover her own spending. Alex himself was currently in his second year of university studying engineering with the hopes of carrying out his dream of making humanity a multi planet race. While Alex was lost in thought about his family the truck finally arrived at its destination. As it jerked to a stop Alex was shaken out of his thoughts and started to get to work.

... 

A few hours later just when Alex was heading towards his usual break spot so he could eat his lunch without being rained on, Alex heard a loud noise coming from above him. Looking up, Alex had just enough time to see Charlie holding his back in pain as a huge bar of metal fell right on top of his head and his world went blank.

As Alex lay there on the ground surrounded by the slowly quieting yells of his colleagues and the pounding of the rain, he slowly relived all the memories he has of his family and started to shed tears at the thought of never being able to see them again. Their sad faces once they learned about his death raged in his mind steeling his resolve to make it through this mess and see them again.

But alas, a firm will can only get you through so much and having a metal bar split your body in two halves through the middle is not one of them. As his vision started to become dark the last thought in Alex's mind was 'Fuck, I hate this job.'

.

..

...

In a vast expanse of endless light and beauty a sole orb of floating mass was beginning to fluctuate signifying the end of its unconsciousness. 

"Where am I?" Alex muttered as he slowly regained awareness and observed his surroundings. Only for him to be stunned the next moment by the beautiful never-ending galaxy of lights in front of him.

"What the hell. What is this place? Wait, how can I still see? Didn't I just die?" Alex began to question his current circumstances as he continued to watch the flashing colors in front of him. Alex raised his arms to try and move forward only to be struck by the realization that he did not have a solid arm. Looking down he realized he didn't have a solid body at all and was just a floating mass of some type of energy. He also realized that it was this energy's feedback that was providing him with the visual details about this space.

"Whoa! Cool, is this my soul?" Alex inspected the glowing mass that made up his body and concluded that the mass must be his soul. As Alex looked at his soul the reality that he died begin to sink in and he could not stop himself from crying at the thought of everything he had left behind. As his soul took on a dark depressing blue hue, he started to shout his grievances.

"Fuck! Are you kidding me? Charlie, that stupid old bastard, he should have just retired like everyone told him to. Now I'll never see my family again." As Alex shouted over the unfairness of his death, the images of his family members came to his mind.

"Mom, Dad, Lily, Violet." Alex choked out the names of his family members before breaking into all-out sobs at the idea of never getting to see them again. Never being able to go camping with his dad or taste the incredible homemade meals his mother makes that beat any restaurant. Never being able to kick back and drink with his older sister as they both complain about all the bullshit they have had to deal with during the week. Worst of them all, was the thought of not being able to see his little sister accomplish her dream of winning a best actors award. 

Alex stayed like that crying out all his regrets and sadness for what felt like hours. After, finally managing to calm himself down to a level where he could think properly again, Alex noticed that the space around him seemed to be pulsing. The space as if alive seemed to pulse at a steady rhythm. He also observed that he was getting steadily closer to the area where the pulse spread from. Looking in that general direction he noticed a pitch-black sphere that seemed oddly out of place in the expanse of colors. As he watched and moved closer the pulsing around him grew more intense and started occurring at shorter intervals. By the time he was beside the pitch-black sphere that seemed to be generating the pulses, the whole realm he was in looked like it was constantly shaking and would collapse any minute. 

When Alex finally was within arm's reach of the sphere, he felt an irresistible desire to take it into his form. The feeling the sphere gave him was like nothing he had ever experienced before. Magical and incomprehensible but at the same time logical and easy to understand. Alex was completely baffled as to how one object could make him feel two opposite ways, but he did not think about it much longer before he stretched out his hands to grab the sphere while his mind was still partially occupied by the loss of his family.

Right when Alex's hand was about to touch the sphere. It suddenly imploded creating a suction force that dragged Alex's soul into its depths. Going through an endless vortex of pitch black for what felt like thousands of years for Alex as he was squeezed, stretched, cut, and shredded in every conceivable way, till finally as he felt his sanity begin to collapse, he saw a bright light ahead of him and the next thing he knew he had an overview of a planet.

Before he could even gain his bearings, he was suddenly moving downwards at an extreme speed. Crashing into the atmosphere he began to finally slow down a little before arriving a hundred meters above 'Christ the Redeemer' a statue located in Rio de Janeiro. Stabilizing his body and taking a few deep breaths, Alex didn't notice the strange mist that he breathed in. The mist that had followed him through the tunnel and had surrounded him upon his arrival. After Alex had properly inhaled some of it, the mist faded out of existence as if it was never there. 

Alex, who suddenly felt his mental clarity returning began looking around, noting that he had all 5 senses once again. But before he could start an earth-shaking explosion occurred, and he watched in fear as the statue under him started to fall towards the ground. Hurriedly looking farther under him he froze, seeing millions of ugly creatures swarming towards Rio destroying any semblance of life in their path. Looking up and into the distance he could see an endless number of these creatures rushing to Rio. However, right before the Swarm could enter the city or the statue could flatten it, a barrier made of energy shot into the air before covering all of Rio. 

Shocked by this movie type scenario Alex quickly looked down towards the city only for his mind to be blown once more. The city was much more advanced than the modern society Alex was familiar with. Looking around he could see robots throughout the city, flying vehicles, and even something that looked like a hologram but as Alex watched people interact with them like they were real people he confirmed that these holograms were much more than what he initially thought they were. However, the thing that shocked him the most was the group of 34 individuals who stood on ramparts surrounding the city overlooking the incoming horde of monsters.

Rubbing his eyes to double check if what he was seeing is real. Alex immediately started squealing in excitement when he confirmed that the group in front of him really were members of the game Overwatch!

(Author Note: It's 34 includes Sojourn and Junker Queen from OW2 and then all the OG from OW. Will be updated as more are added most likely)

Alex back on Earth was a huge fan of the franchise and had been dying of excitement when he learned about OW2 from his older sister. He was especially excited for the story mode where he could finally learn more about the Overwatch world and put some of his theories to the test. Taking a couple of minutes to calm down his fanboyish excitement Alex was finally able to take a good look at the in-person version of his hero's only to be interrupted when the barrier around the city suddenly started to falter.

Alex watched the barrier repeatedly being beaten on by the monsters as it began to crumble. The monsters committed suicide trying to force their way past it. He watched as Winston stood in front of Overwatch and began to give orders to all the members, who began to take various positions around the city preparing for their inevitable clash with the monsters once the barrier fell.

Alex attempted to go down and try to help them. Even though he knew that he would not be able to do much but looking at the desperate citizens of Rio who were all together in the center of the city within another barrier on the ground praying and sobbing made him want to at least try to help them somehow. However, he was shocked that when he floated down in front of Winston that he had gone right through him without even noticing him. Looking at himself again Alex realized that while he had his senses again, he was still made of the same transparent energy.

{Shattering}

As Alex attempted to get over the uncomfortable feeling of having someone walk through him, he turned around when he heard the loud sound of something breaking. Looking behind him a chill ran up his spine.

The barrier had fallen.