Forenote: Welp, time to get overambitious! But my fave game getting no fanfiction kills me, I can't stand by any longer.

Clink.

The sound of metal being set down on metal. Mira Han looked at the curious object on her desk. Where was she? And why was she here, with only a handful of her mercenary army?

And what on earth was this thing?

The strange metal artefact was unlike anything she had ever seen. Some kind of... 'primitive' protoss device, maybe? Three pieces of what appeared to be bronze or brass were shaped with great angles, wrapping around a large, floating, glowing gemstone. But the gemstone seemed damaged. Well, not cracked or tarnished. But the glow had a decidedly feeble aura, like a toy low on batteries.

"Johnson, do we have any clue if this is important? We have bigger fishes to fry than a metal basketball." Mira drawled, looking out of the window of her ship.

"No ma'am. Viking squads can't find any kind of waypoint, and it looks like we're off the dominion FTL net. Radio is silent."

"Of course. I suppose it'd hardly be much fun if we were just going to take a trip straight back home." Mira said casually. "Set all systems to power-saving, and have the ship move for the nearest planet. You know the drill."

"Yes Ma'am."

Mira pondered the unexpected turn of events, coming to a conclusion she was less than happy with. "Ugh, I can't believe this would happen now. I had Horner just where I wanted him! The one time I've got him trapped in a date and I'M the no-show!" She threw her hands into the air. "Bring me alcohol." She slumped over dramatically, slapping the Singularity Shell.

There was a magnificent burst of blue light. Johnson shielded his eyes as Mira screamed for a solid three seconds, and then the light died.

"Ma'am?! Are you alright!?" Johnson blinked, clearing a few blue sparkles from his vision.

Mira was sitting in her chair looking a little frazzled. Where she'd previously been wearing a somewhat comfortable set of combat armour, she was still wearing the armour, but where there had just been metal on the chest, there was now a bronzed crest, set with a glowing blue crystal. Mira coughed once, then got up and kicked her chair aside, as a few blue sparks frizzed around her and her one good eye stopped acting as a torch.

"WHOO-wee!" She gasped. "That had quite a kick!" She clapped at her chest, feeling the new gem set onto her battle armour. "I wonder just what those sell for?" She breathed.

"Would you like to be escorted to the medbay for a checkup?"

"Ah Johnson, always the professional, my aide." Mira said, in mock care. "No. I've got the feeling that..." She pointed a finger at her chair, and stared. For a moment nothing happened, but then a blast of power shot out of her fingertip and turned the aging swivel chair into ash. "Ohoho. Be a dear and clear out the training range for me. Tell the boys they can help themselves to ONE shot of vodka on me."

Johnson had no idea that Mira had just become a lesser realm lord, but when your employer suddenly gains the ability to shoot blasts of energy from their fingertips, you tend to obey.

The Kingdom of Dragons

"So, this so-called 'Dark Nexus...' Genn Greymane crossed his arms, looking over a map. "King Varian, what do you make of it?"

"While rumours fly, I can't confirm that it's as siginificant a threat as some believe it to be... Although I am inclined to trust the judgements of the Lady Queen." Varian moved a little red hexagonal token to one area of the map. "Valeera is investigating here, and I've made some preparations for seige. But I'm only commanding a city of alliance loyals right now. My castle is little more than a large manor, and armies five hundred men. If we become involved, then I want a rock-solid plan."

"A reasonable request. Lives are difficult to come by, after all." Genn pulled some papers, and began to study them.

The third and fourth members of the meeting decided it was time to weigh in. Jaina first. "We're sure the Raven Lord is behind it? He seems reasonable, although I question his ethics."

"Yes. There's no mistaking the fact that he's ordering all this. The real question is whether he manipulated the horde into helping him or they're just being malicious, like always." Answered Varian.

"If opportunity arises, then I'll find out, but as it is I think the only one of them who would hear me out is Thrall... and he seems to be avoiding me ever since Garrosh arrived." Jaina could recall the shift well, after that brute had been drawn into the nexus. Garrosh had been the worst of the orcs, living solely for violent conquest in the name of glory. There was difference in building a glorious nation through blood, tears and sweat, and blood alone. And he was beyond racist. Jaina was used to orcs hating her for being alliance, and humans hating orcs, but Garrosh... She cast the train of thought aside. All that mattered was that he'd told Thrall something that made her best diplomatic ally in the horde avoid her.

"At this rate, then we'll need more men." Added Uther. He was a general as well as a priest. He had faith and compassion, but he had the ability to look at a map and see armies destroying each other, with him leading one of them. "We have to arm and prepare, regardless of the Dark Nexus. The horde have gotten too bold. And with the way the struggle for Alterac is proceeding, we'd be easy pickings for a third party like Arthas."

"Arthas seems to be biding his time for now." Said Jaina. "I wouldn't want to try and speak with him the way he is, though..."

"That's exactly what we don't want. Biding his time how?" Asked Genn.

"I'll have Valeera find out. Uther, what are you proposing for an armament plan?"

The conversation didn't continue along the intended path much longer, as there was a blue cracking, then a glow, and finally a portal overlaid in a strange triangular effect blossomed in the corner of the room, effectively ending the discussions.

"A realm portal?" Said Uther, quickly grabbing his trusty hammer. "Varian, we weren't scheduled to meet anyone today. Get behind me, this may be a trap."

There was a slight 'shing' as the Shalamayne was drawn, Varian stepping up to Uther's side. "I think we have a better chance if we all fight."

"It may not be malicious!" Jaina shouted. She went to one corner and picked up her staff, before walking over. "Don't be hasty, please. It could well be a cry for aid." She bent over, looking at the portal carefully. Through the swirling miasma of blue, she could just make out a strange grey room... Perhaps made of metal?

"...Your thoughts, lady Jaina?" Said Greymane.

"Safe, to the best of my knowledge." She concluded. "It looks like a world not our own, with technologies beyond my understanding. I'll head through first. Varian, you and Uther are more important to the alliance." She stepped through before anyone had a chance to protest.

"Jaina! ...I won't let her go in alone. Come, Uther, Genn." Varian looked on in exasperation. "You're all armed and armoured?"

"Ready for anything, my king." Confirmed Greymane.

Varian marched into the portal, followed by his two closest allies. Apart from Valeera. But she was elsewhere.

Garden of Terrors

Malfurion was deep in thought. This place was such a small corner of the realm, but it was growing. The energy here was chaotic, and while it was nature, it was unlike any of Azeroth.

Was it linked to the curse upon the Queen?

Or, to come to the concern Malfurion was currently dwelling on- would it be destroyed on suspicion of relation to such a curse?

The answer eluded him, for the moment. At ten thousand, he was wise enough to know that panic would only make his fears worse. He had to find the truth of the matter, and then he could either break the curse or make the people leave nature be. Of course, Lunara was already quite a strong deterrent to anyone that wanted to come here.

"Brother. She's bothering me again." Illidan said, voice holding back seventeen kinds of fury.

"Brightwing, I have told you that Illidan does not appreciate your commentary." Malfurion said sagely. "He only refrains from killing you because I would kick him out."

"Why not just let me have at her? The natural consequence for provoking a demon hunter is Death!" Illidan pouted.

There was high-pitched giggling at a distance. "Nature thinks that demon hunters are bad!"

Malfurion sighed. "Why not march on Alterac, with Lunara? I may offer you a place to stay, but I am not going to indulge your tendency towards chaos."

"You sent the general of your armies off, when you could have sent away that whelp?" Asked Illidan, folding his arms disapprovingly.

"She wanted to ensure that there was not excessive environmental destruction during the war. You know how she abhors it, much like her father... and myself. Besides, nature hardly has armies, brother." Malfurion chucked. "We have treants, and some night elves, and the other residents of the forest, and they simply fight to survive. That is how life works."

"Life is more complex than that. And- wait..." Illidan's head snapped around as if he'd locked onto his next target.

There was a rustle and then a flap of wings, before Illidan grabbed one of his warglaives, and spun. Brightwing hovered in the air next to him, looking out at something. "Brightwing sense something!"

Malfurion was the last one to detect the opening gateway. "An invitation from a realm lord? Nature is not at their beck and call." He said sternly, before relaxing his voice. "...But it may be wise to-"

Illidan reached over to one side, and put a hand behind Brightwing. "You check it out." He gave a shove, trying to push her into the convenient portal.

"Into adventure!" She shouted gleefully, grabbing onto Illidan's arm with both of her back legs and accelerating forwards. They both tumbled into the gateway.

Malfurion watched them both go in and ever so slightly shrugged. He got up, and calmly walked into the portal.

Braxis Outpost

"So Artanis, how's Tassadar these days? Haven't seen him since that last rumble down on the earth realm." Raynor leaned back into the bar, careful of the half-full glass of whisky.

Artanis neglected to sit, finding the bar stool ill-designed for a protoss. "He is currently on alert in case Zeratul requires an evacuation. I take it Tychus and Nova are on the very same mission?"

"...Yeah. I guess when two leaders mutually call for an emergency meeting it's serious." Admitted Raynor. "So. I don't intend to beat around the bush. The Dark Nexus looks like it's originated from Ravencourt, and the Raven Lord is clearly in control."

"You think he's in control? Zeratul was quite suspicious that there was something afflicting his mind. As if there were a worry implanted there."

"That may not matter for the moment. The real question is what we're going to do about it. I have no problem allying with you, and regardless of some of my crew's pasts with the protoss, they'll listen to me."

"Strength in unity. But neither of us have the full power commanded by our armies. I have been looking into things, and there are many more peoples like yours. Can you recruit them?"

"Well, that's what I want to know. I'll go visit around. Until then, you just get your army's strength up. Maybe give your arkship a fix-up."

There was a knock at the door, before someone else threw it open. Morales and Hammer were both out of breath. "Commander, we have a problem."

"Are we under attack?"

"Yes!" Shouted Hammer. "And by half the goddamn galaxy by the looks of things!"

Morales had a better summary. "There's a large battlecruiser that seems to be partially made of scrap broadcasting every distress frequency we know, and some we don't, so we flagged it down. As it turns out, it was being followed by zerg- leader unknown."

Ravencourt

Xul watched as the dark energy washed across the ground.

Darkness meant nothing without light. Light meant nothing without darkness. That was the very simplest part of The Balance. But when it came down to it, the balance was the ecosystem of all life and aspects of it, looked at objectively. You couldn't introduce major changes to delicate systems so suddenly...

What if light were to be extinguished? Or darkness illuminated, when light no doubt pushed back against this dark tide? The winner would soon become meaningless.

But there was another shift in the balance. Even to a master necromancer such as himself, it was difficult to detect. For this balance was not his own, but one of another reality entirely.

And it was his solemn duty to ensure the disruption did not upend the balance. Ravencourt would have to wait... for now.

Volskaya Industries: Break Room

"Hey, hey hey. Watch this." Lúcio said with the widest smile. "Alexa. Unleash the roombas."

Zarya snorted, as Lúcio's phone registered the message. "I fail to see the point of these antique machines." Four or five small circular robots trundled across the room, as Rejúvenascia started to play from the phone, sucking up some of the dust in the foundry's break room.

"They're useful, right? Look at them go, haha!"

"I'd rather take a broom to any dust." Zarya said dismissively. "Did you travel to this realm only to show me some children's toys?"

"Nah, just everyone else is out. Dva just set up the roombas. Not sure where Tracer and Genji are, but Hanzo's still crushing on Alex, or uh, trying to figure if he's crushing on her. Better leave him to do that stuff. And Junkrat is... y'know. You wanna do some exercise? I've got just the track." Lúcio offered, knowing full well that Zarya's one true love in the world was working out.

Now if only he could work out what Dva liked aside from Starcraft... because as it was, she spent half her time chasing after her heroes. That poor probe had been photographed enough to charge a solar battery.

"Do you have anything that can last for five hundred pushups?"

"Yeah, there's..." He fiddled for a bit, until a track started playing. "How about... hmm..." A hint of a frown crossed Lúcio's face, and he leaned towards his phone. "Aw man! Have the speakers already started to go?! That's static in there, I'm sure of it!"

Zarya heard the sound next as a full portal blossomed in the corner of the room. "I don't think that was the speakers." She started clapping her hands. "If you don't have permission, get out of my realm, blyat. I have to keep it in order for when Katya arrives." She stomped over to the corner of the room, and grabbed her particle cannon.

"Whoa, whoa whoa whoa. Maybe they're trying to call us over? Don't wanna just blow up some guy's living room." Lucio got up very quickly, scrambling to grab his gear in case it actually was a threat. The nexus kept you on your toes that way.

"..." Zarya cranked the handle of her gun, and a veil of energy bubbled her. "Going in." She did exactly that, and went about halfway in before stepping out. "Seems like a gathering of some sort. Very you."

"Whoop, let's get this party started!" Lúcio leapt up, roombas forgotten at the prospect of a good crowd.

The Depths of 'Hell 2'

Valla clicked a new hungering arrow into her crossbow. You could magically reload a normal bolt, but not magical bolts like the multishot.

There was a hissing to her left, and she reflexively vaulted backwards, bringing her bow up and sending twelve inches of hard oak tipped with steel through the skull of a demon.

"We're close! I can feel the presence of terror!" Cassia shouted, as she kept a few lesser demons off their flanks.

Valla knew that, but the demons of hell were exorbitantly strong with so many of their adversaries present. Herself, Cassia, Nazeebo, Sonya, Kharazim, Johanna and Tyreal himself. A full nephalem raiding party, with the wizard replaced by justice incarnate and the most skilled amazon since the founding of Skovos. Death closed in on them at every corner, waves of demons were slaughtered like nothing more than target dummies, and not one of them showed the slightest crack in psyche.

Valla did admit, that so far the raid had been much more successful than she had expected. Normally the enemies came in patterns that were difficult to deal with, or were at least somewhat organised, but they were running around like they were leaderless.

Yet she was certain this was where Diablo was hiding this time. The lord of terror had a blessing most unfortunate for the rest of the nexus, and ironically she wanted him to get as much use out of it as possible. Fast resurrection was a nuisance, but it gave her all too many chances to have the vengeance she desired.

Of course, her many vengeances didn't quell her greatest worry.

Death was not permanent within the nexus. That was common knowledge. You would always be revived, one way or the other.

The question was how.

If you died with a realm lord nearby (or a conduit of their power, like a core), then they could use that power to revive you in a short amount of time, ranging from a minute to ten seconds, just as you were before your untimely demise, memories and inventory intact. Resurrection this way was signalled by the body, or whatever was left of it dissolving into nexus energy, full of triangles and blue.

Or you could die the normal way, and suffer the consequences. When you respawned, then all memories you had of the nexus were forfeit. At first glance that was nothing, a tiny price to pay for eternal life. But Valla was on her second life, or so she was told. The thought that there were promises she'd made, experiences she'd shared, and lessons that she'd learned, wiped away without even a trace... was there any difference to a real death? There were times when people would talk about days past, battles she had been in, and she would know nothing. Yet still, everything from before her entry into this place was as present as always. Her discipline, and the horrors that required it were never to be lost.

And of course, if you died that way, then the respawn time was between six months and a full year.

"This is the door." Sonya annouced. "Are you ready?" She held her greatsword up high, as if the metal was weightless.

"Beware traps. They're simple but effective." Valla said automatically. She was the master of trapping, not the reverse.

Sonya nodded. She slammed the sword down hard, putting a giant crack into the doors. She rolled out of the way of any potential return fire, but nothing came.

The follow-up attack from Tyreal blew the doors clean off the hinges, sending them clattering across Diablo's chamber.

Valla looked around. Her immediate suspicion was that this was a diversion, an ambush, but this was quite unlike anything she recognised.

The circular stone room had many scratches in the walls, and scorch marks in many places. And aside from that, there were splatterings of black blood and a stranger substance, like some kind of putty that had since dried.

Johanna went in cautiously, shield up. "There are signs of a struggle. Diablo has clearly been here, but I cannot feel his power."

In the centre of the room, a portal started to open.

"Again, it may be a trap. But it may lead us forward." Noted Valla.

"Do not fret." Johanna stepped into the portal, prepared to call on her holy power to survive anything Diablo could throw at her. She stepped back out. "It's... a most curious room, filled with many other heroes."

Alterac Pass: Horde Camp

"We should attack there. The spirits speak of a lowered Alliance presence." Drek'thar gestured far out into the distance.

Thrall shook his head. "While I trust the spirits, sending a full force attack there only leaves us open for them to charge. We need a better defence."

"I can quite easily stall an Alliance army in the central pass." Drek'thar assured. "If you take your sworn warriors, then you five should be more than capable of toppling a fortification. I will make sure any fallen are revived quickly."

Thrall nodded.

Gazlowe put a hand up. "Sworn warriors? Look, nowhere in my mercenary contract does it say I fight for anything but a nice fat bag of coins."

Rehgar cuffed him on the back of the head. "Could any Alliance retch convince you to defect?"

"Ow! Mind the face, it's worth a thousand bucks! And... eh... nah, market regulations are for chumps." Gazlowe admitted. "Alright, for the horde, there's a paycheck with my name on it at the end."

Drek'thar suddenly tensed up. "The spirit of the raven... I hear a message!" He gazed to the sky, trying to decipher the voice. "Thrall, change of plans. I will win the fight for Alterac alone. You have an urgent task."

"..." Thrall looked intently. He didn't want to leave a battle so equal. "How urgent?"

"You must defeat a growing threat at all costs. Take your warriors, and..." Drek'thar channeled power through one hand, before the floor in front of him started to glow, and a rift in reality began to grow. "Recruit or slay she who commands the endless army. For the horde!"

Thrall took one look at the portal and fiercely responded with a cheer of "For the Horde! I will see you again, my friend." He ran through, followed by Rehgar and Gazlowe.

Author's notes: So to make everyone got the message, this is completely separate from Stormclouds, my previous story. I will try to be canon-compliant at all times, but we are still a bit thin on the ground for lore- hence why I'm making some. The main focus of this story will be on the heroes available for Escape From Braxis and Deadman's Stand, so if your main is missing... sorry, but I have limits to what I can feasibly keep track of. Not that many heroes will even get a lot of time in spotlight.

So please ask if you want me to focus on a character a little bit. There's a list below of the available heroes for the brawls. I know I didn't write the introduction for all of them, only the major ones and Xul.

Warrior: Artanis, Arthas, Johanna, Muradin, Sonya, Tyrael, Varian, Zarya

Support: Brightwing, Kharazim, Li Li, Lt. Morales, Lúcio, Malfurion, Rehgar, Uther

Specialist: Azmodan, Gazlowe, Sgt. Hammer, Nazeebo, Xul

Assassin: Cassia, Falstad, Greymane, Gul'dan, Illidan, Jaina, Kael'thas, Kel'Thuzad, Ragnaros, Raynor, Thrall, Valla

This fic will not be updated frequently, because the Heroes archive is so quiet. If it gets really popular for some reason then I'll prioritise it, but it still probably won't update that fast.