Title:           A Man In His Armor [WiP]
Author:          Xenobreeder
Pastebin link:   http://pastebin.com/j2ZYjQGS
First Edit:      Sunday 7th of October 2012 04:22:31 PM CDT
Last Edit:       Sunday 7th of October 2012 04:22:31 PM CDT

>Actual time was irrelevant.
>The only thing that mattered was the time left till the start.
 
>Six minutes.
>You were not hungry, had nothing to disturb you and were totally ready.
>This was the day for a great accomplishment.
>You had spent a full week gathering supplies.
>For yourself and those of your teammates that were unable to devote as much time.
>This was the day when you were going to win.
>No matter what.
 
>Five minutes. Elixir check.
>Everyone was hiccupping, quite a funny sight.
>But you would do anything necessary to get any advantage possible.
>No side effects mattered if it made you more suited for this fight.
 
>The leader was reminding everyone their jobs.
>Like anyone could forget that now, after all the preparations and training.
 
>Two minutes. Ready check.
>You had been born ready for this.
>But, as usual, there was that one man that was too slow to react and got yelled at.
>Okay, now he is here and ready too.
 
>One minute. Positioning.
>You followed your main target to the side.
 
>Time up.
>The encounter started.
>Targets had names and fancy appearances. You didn't see anything of that.
>For you they were just boxes, colored according to priority and filled to display health level.
 
>You stalked your target, making sure his health was always topped.
>Avoiding the death zones (rain of fire or something, for you they were just bright red circles).
>Throwing an occasional heal to the most unfortunate teammates.
>Depoisoning the team.
>Giving the mana restoration spell to the person that needed it most.
>Resurrecting the poor soul that had stayed in the death zone for too long.
>Tapping a rune or quaffing a potion whenever possible.
 
>You always enjoyed this complicated dance of raid healing.
>Now you could do it almost effortlessly, instantly reacting to everything.
>And it payed off.
>The enemy was going down!
>You won!
 
***
 
>You let out a sigh of relief... But everything suddenly froze.
>You were several different kinds of pissed off.
>Disconnect? Now? Before you could get your reward? NO WAY!
 
>Only then you noticed that the world itself stopped.
>You tried moving but couldn't.
>Great.
>Had you just overexerted yourself and got some kind of brain damage?
 
>Orange flash!
>You fell down, feeling the impact pretty hard.
>At least you could move, though still half blind from the flash.
>What had just happened? You rubbed your eyes, trying to figure out the situation.
>Was it an explosion or something? Were you in danger now?
>You could get burned alive in just a minute for all you knew.
 
>'I require help of someone skilled in repristination,
>might you be so kind to aid me in my preparations?'
 
>What was that? You were pretty sure you were alone in your apartment.
>No one should be able to disturb you during a raid of this importance.
>Especially not someone speaking in cryptic rhymes.
 
>The only good thing was that by now your sight has somewhat returned.
>You stood up and looked around, still feeling a little dizzy.
>This wasn't your room.
>Your room was much larger.
>Also, it didn't look like a hut of a voodoo warlock.
>You were standing in the center of something that looked suspiciously like a magical diagram,
>tricked out with various herbs, candles, bones and other incomprehensible stuff.
>And right in front of you, staring intensely at your face, there was a zebra.
>A waist-high zebra-like creature, although it was slightly different from a regular zebra.
>And it had some kind of African jewellery on.
>Makes sense. Zebras are African animals, after all. Yeah, sure. Makes perfect sense.
>You braced yourself against a possible attack. One never knows when an animal decides to charge.
>Besides, the weird rhyming person, probably the owner of the hut, should be around somewhere.
 
>'There is no need for this confrontation, all can be resolved with negotiation.'
>This zebra has just spoken. In rhymes.
>You had just found the owner of this place.
>A rhyming voodoo zebra.
>Now your mind was legitimately full of fuck.
>You did the only thing you could think of.
>Screamed and bolted for the door.
 
 
***
 
>A small cottage in the wood. Such a pleasant sight.
>But the creature hiding in the branches of a nearby tree wasn't enjoying the scenery.
>It felt food inside the cottage.
>And it desperately needed that food.
>Too weak. Too hungry to even think straight.
>After the disaster it could no longer rely on others of its kin while being unable to hunt properly.
>It could only hope that the zebra that lived there would make a big enough mistake.
 
>Then the cottage emitted a pulse of magic.
>Not like such occasions hadn't happened before.
>But after this one the creature could sense more food inside.
>Maybe this improved the chances of getting some?
>Yes! The new food ran out of the building and scrambled through the bushes.
>An ape, having an almost hairless body, short-haired head and wearing some loincloth.
>Not like any of that mattered. This was food.
 
>The crearure followed the ape, stalking it from above and carefully probing its mind.
>Being weak like this, it probably had only one attempt.
>Better make sure nothing goes awry.
 
>This ape sure was weird. But... Not like there could be any other choice.
>Gathering all the remaining power the creature pounced.
 
***
 
>You were doing your best to put some distance between you and the voodoo den.
>Too bad you weren't doing a very good job at it.
>Trying to scamper through a wild forest while being barefoot and almost naked...
>A bad idea, to say the least.
>Also your skinny form wasn't too fit for any serious strain.
>In about five minutes you were already bearing some scratches from snags and thorns
>and breathing heavily.
 
>This was no good.
>If you were to be summoned by this crazy warlock animal, why did it have to happen
>with you only wearing your boxers?
>Everything would be so much easier with your hiking clothes on.
>And a backpack of survival gear would certainly come in handy.
>You would definitely need it, being in the middle of an unknown forest and all.
>Hell, you were probably not even on Earth anymore.
>There were no rhyming voodoo zebras on Earth last time you checked.
 
>But what was the point in thinking about your clothes?
>You were most definitely not getting any right now.
>Unless you wanted to come back to the hut and ask the zebra to summon you some.
 
>However, you were not too pissed off by the situation.
>On second thought it might become an interesting experience.
>If only you were not naked, yeah.
>Pointless dreams.
>Meh, you might as well be wishing for the bio armor suit from the tabletop rpg
>you used to play. Equally unreachable.
>Ouch! Getting too distracted wasn't a good idea either.
>You tripped over a root and hardly managed to stay on your feet.
 
>Yeah, that suit would be most appreciated right now.
>You couldn't help recalling all the little shticks of its design.
>The suit wasn't that detailed in the rulebook, but in the course of the years you
>had been playing the game you worked out every small part of it.
>Your had roleplayed through your character getting into all kinds of situations
>while wearing the armor.
>You could imagine it in great detail.
>You...
 
>You got knocked to the ground.
 
***
 
>After a couple of seconds of trying to wrestle the powerful amorphous mass that
>overwhelmed your body you were freaked out even more.
>By the transparent 'It is strongly recommended to run setup now. [Go] [Later] [Eject]' promt
>that appeared hovering before your eyes.
>Sure it is possible to become addicted to the game...
>Now you were pondering the possibility of a heavy overdose.
>Because there was no way this could be happening for real.
 
>You blinked a few times, but the promt didn't disappear.
>Maybe... Just maybe... It *was* real?
>You thought about the possibility of that zebra playing mind games with you.
>Or being in a coma while having a vivid dream.
>Or just good old insanity.
>But... Did it even matter?
>If it was just a dream, you didn't want to wake up.
 
>With a shit-eating grin you did what you had many times imagined doing before.
>Visualized pressing the 'go' button.
 
***
 
>The creature... No, the changeling was bathing in wild energy surges.
>Concentrating on doing what the ape expected to happen was hard, yet very rewarding.
 
>After weeks of slowly starving to death the drone had almost given up any hope.
>But the abandonment hurt even more that starvation.
>Of course, it knew that its connection to the Queen had been severed for the greater good
>of the hive — so that the remaining energy could be distributed between the more valuable drones.
>That knowledge didn't help at enduring the sudden loneliness in the slightest.
 
>But there was one thing that had been able to make sorrow subside.
>Hunger.
>Excruciating hunger, overtaking the forsaken changeling and clouding its psyche.
>Stealing the very ability to think about anything but food.
 
>Now that the threat of starvation had retreated,
>the crushing realisation of being alone was creeping up again.
>Trying to hide from its own thoughts, the drone focused on pleasing the ape to the best of its ability.
 
***
 
>You were somewhat disappointed.
>Not with the armor. It was in every little detail exactly what you had imagined.
>With yourself.
>You were not remotely fit enough to perform the awesome stunts your character could.
>Trying to enable all-around vision left you with vertigo and headache.
>The 'operator test' left you ashamed with the amount of limits that were auto-set
>to prevent you from hurting yourself. Pathetic.
>Still, the armor was awesome. It was not its fault you couldn't keep up with it.
 
>Speaking of awesome...
>Was *that* function present? In game it was mostly just used for laughs, but...
>Your curiosity got the best of you.
>You uttered the code that activated the 'easter egg' of the suit.
>Feeling it starting to adjust in the crotch area, you giggled.
>The so-called 'armorjob' did, in fact, work too.
>Life was good.
 
***
 
>The changeling had never experienced this level of power before.
>All the previous food sources had been much weaker.
>This ape — no, human. He called himself human in his thoughts — was really enamored by his dreams coming true.
>Also, most of the energy extracted previously went to sustain the not-so-successful drones of the hive.
>None of these sources had lasted for too long.
 
>The survival of the hive was much more important than the survival of the food.
>And more important than the survival of each individual hive part.
>That's why this drone was now alone.
>There was no possible way of being reattached.
>Even though all the energy provided by the, uh, human would probably be very useful for the hive.
>Any drone that somehow lost connection to the hive even for a couple of minutes had to be killed personally by the Queen.
>This changeling was alive only because she didn't want to waste the valuable energy ending the one that was going to die anyway.
 
>But now that it had managed to survive... What was the purpose of its life now?
>The Queen had always been the mastermind and beacon of the hive.
>No drone could ever do anything she hadn't appointed it to do, except when acting on pure instincts.
>But wait. This 'human'. He didn't have a queen or a hive to live for — and still wasn't depressed.
>Maybe given enough time it would be possible to understand how he was able to live this way?
 
***
 
>Having calmed down a little after the initial hype, you leaned against a tree.
>What could you do at the moment?
>You weren't hungry yet, but soon you will be.
>Better find some food now.
>Stealing from that zebra would probably be a bad idea.
>You could get a bowl of oatmeal (or what do these creatures eat?) at best.
>And stealing from a warlock was a bad idea anyway.
 
>All the trees and plants were strange.
>You had never seen anything like that before.
>Trying to blindly eat whatever berries you might find...
>Probably even worse an idea than stealing from a warlock.
 
>Maybe you could try hunting?
>Yeah, like you would be able to catch a hare if it jumped right into your face.
 
>You looked around for any possible hints.
>A-ha! There was a nest up in the branches of a nearby tree.
>Eggs. Definitely better then nothing.
>You vaguely remembered how to start a fire from your childhood games, but raw eggs were fine too.
>Now you just had to get to your future meal.
>Of course, it would be better if it could come down instead...
 
>All of a sudden the whole nest got enveloped with a green aura, emanating from you.
>Then it took off and flew down to your feet, the green aura disappearing shortly after.
>What.
 
***
 
>The changeling instantly realized its mistake.
>Trying to do anything that this human wanted, it ended up using an ability the 'armor' it was imitating should not have.
>It needed to think up a solution.
>And better be quick at this, because if he freaked out — this fantastic flow of power would stop.
>Unacceptable.
>Luckily, in its frantic delving through the human mind it quickly managed to grasp a concept that could work.
>Actually, it could help with the things that the drone was unable to mimic, too.
>And it would not have to carefully divert this bothersome prey's attention from these anymore.
>Not bad.
 
***
 
>Before you had a chance to properly think about what had just happened, the answer jumped right into your face.
>Literally, on a pop-up.
>These were becoming slightly annoying...
>You scrolled through the text.
>Your armor turned out to be an experimental model, made for testing only.
>It didn't have a number of standard functions — booster glands, projectile spikes, even most built-in reflexes were missing.
>But instead it had better brains, better morphing, an ability to sync with user's mind and, yeah, telekinesis.
>It was... A great tradeoff, if you were the one to ask!
 
>Still, you felt slightly uncomfortable.
>It was almost like you were a character of some generic anime — this sudden summoning, finding prototype armor and all.
>Meh, you weren't exactly able to do anything about the situation.
>Better just go with it and hope to be the *main* character.
 
>You looked at the fuckhuge manual on the nonstandard functions of the suit.
>Why read it now?
>The overview was quite simple, learning by doing is always better.
>After all, it will always be easy to look up anything you need.
>So you just pressed the 'sync' symbol.
 
***