Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (25/?) WiP 2 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the second Work in Progress for Chapter 25 I hope you guys enjoy! :D You guys didn't think I'd leave you hanging like that did you? ;D 

Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30. Emma and Thacea’s Bedroom. The Tent.

Emma

I couldn’t get to sleep. No matter how hard I tossed and turned. No matter how much I twisted this way and that. Not even asking the EVI for low fidelity playlists to sleep to, helped my situation any.

Wait.

The EVI.

I sprung up as I realized I still heard its passive-aggressive replies as if I still had the suit on.

Giving myself a cursory look-over, outstretching my gloved hands, it was clear that was exactly the case.

I was still wearing the fucking suit.

Was I that tired that I’d forgotten to take the suit off before crawling to bed?

I let out a large sigh of annoyance as I stood back up, reaching over to my gauntlet-mounted datapad as I began tapping away at the suit’s manual release overrides.

I’d wasted enough time as it was stuck in this thing, I was going to make sure I could get at least some shuteye before-

CRUNCH

My fingers stopped moving. My whole body froze as my cameras began picking up movement, the same exact movements I’d logged from the garden just a few hours prior.

Instead of it being outside of the tent however, the movement was logged inside of it. Or more specifically, it was inside of the air recycling ducts.

This was impossible.

The tent was a closed system, there wasn’t any way anything could’ve entered except…

The shards.

Did… one of the shards get lodged in my suit?

I barely had any time to even process the logistics of the null being here before it rapidly oozed out of the ventilation duct like a pile of non-newtonian sludge. It was at that moment between fight and flight that I knew had to get out of there. Combat within the tent was a no-go, and I needed some space between it and myself, some distance so that I could effectively deal with it.

I leaped for the airlocked door, reaching over to manually yank it open-

Only to slam head face first against the hardened plastic floor, as I felt my center of balance inexplicably failing, my ankle having been lassoed and hooked on with an iron grip by the likes of this gray mass of sickly sludge.

Things progressed impossibly quickly after that, as I reached for my gun, only to have the thing pull me in. Like an amoeba engulfing its poor single-celled victim.

Except I was that single cell.

Though I sure as hell wasn’t intent on becoming a fucking meal, a thought that only became more acute as I was pulled into its cytoplasmic confines, the sickly grey membrane closing promptly soon after.

So I tugged and pulled, punching against the malleable ‘skin’ of the blob, only for it to stretch impossibly thin, refusing to break.

The situation went from bad to worse, as the jelly-like fluid I was floating in increased in viscosity, to the point where I felt like I was stuck in molasses. Every inch of movement felt like a herculean task, even when aided by the exoskeleton and servos of the suit, all of which were on the verge of overheating just be shear strain alone.

Then, finally, I stopped. Not because I wanted to, but because it was physically impossible to resist. My heart continued to race as my breathing hitched up in frequency to the point where I felt like I was about to pass out… but I never did, not even as I felt the thick, viscous molasses entering my suit through unseen seams, before finally, coating my whole body from head to toe.

I was suspended in this… solution for what felt like entire hours, but as the suit would indicate, it’d only been barely a few minutes since this whole situation went sideways.

However as the minutes passed, I took note as the null’s membrane grew thinner and thinner, until finally it popped. Plopping me back on the composite flooring of the tent, completely motionless, as my body refused to respond to any of my commands to book it out of there.

I didn’t understand what happened next. I couldn't really comprehend it… but I suddenly felt the cold, unregulated air hitting my back, causing me to flinch and struggle as I attempted to leap out of the suit, only to find that… I couldn’t.

Instead, something else did. And it did so slowly, carefully, methodically. As if relishing in the feeling of freedom of movement as I’d done so last night upon exiting the suit in the tent for the very first time.

In fact, I caught a glimpse of it as it strode its way in front of me, or rather, in front of the suit.

As what stood in front of me was… myself.

It was dressed in the same undersuit that I’d worn when I entered the suit this morning. Its brown hair was ruffled, messy, and unkempt, exactly like mine.

It was then that I realized, with a sudden horror and a gut wrenching sense of absolute terror, that it was me.

And I wasn’t stuck inside the suit.

I-

“Thanks!” It spoke, in a voice that perfectly mimicked my own, down to that subtle sing-song cadence I’d used to mess with my friends back home. As if this was some sort of a fucking prank.

“I think this is the start to a solid relationship. Because, you know, now that I am you now, I’m as trapped in this unforgiving world of mana as you were! But, hey! I have a body now! And you…” It looked at me with a cock of its head, or my head, fuck I didn’t know what was going on anymore.

“Well, you’re still alive in there, aren’t you?”

I couldn't respond, I couldn’t move.

“I take it you’re still in there. Well, listen, be glad I didn’t just melt you down or remove your soul or something. I just… moved it! And I put it in the next best thing! Your armor! Or well, I guess I should say it’s my armor now! And wait, does this mean you belong to me? Huh, that’s kinda weird. But hey! We can make that work, right?” It grinned, a playful, almost impish smile that didn’t fit my face.

“Hah! I’ll take the silence as a yes! Alright then, it’s nearly… twenty-three hundred hours. Oh wow, you… Earthrealmers have such a fascinating time-keeping convention! Your mind’s filled with all sorts of unique goodies! I can’t wait to be you, Emma! Or, erm, hmm, I guess I am you now, huh?” It continued unabated, staring at me with those ecstatic eyes, the eyes of someone who’d just escaped from max-sec prison, and was now just relishing in the freedom of fresh air.

I tried moving, struggling, trying to pull my arms this way and that, but I couldn’t. All I could do was watch, through those lens that now were my eyes, unable to even blink as the Null-turned-me maintained that cocky grin throughout my internal screaming.

It eventually hopped up on a stool, pushing its face, my face up close towards the suit’s helmet, as if to rub its victory in my face further. “Don’t worry, I’ll take good care of your mission. No one will suspect a thing. And when we get back to Earth by year’s end, I’ll make sure to request the Director and the Major to keep this specific set of armor. I won’t let you die, Emma Booker. I still care about you after all.” It continued on in that sing-song voice, before leaping off of that stool with the finesse of a figure dancer.

Something I doubt I could’ve even done.

Without a moment’s hesitation, it got back  in the suit, hopping back inside as it began taking full control and began walking out of the tent.

It felt like I’d taken a backseat, as my body, or rather the suit began moving under the doppelganger's whims. I could only look on in abject terror, as I continued shouting expletives… but without a mouth, no one could hear me scream.

“Don’t worry buddy, you'll get used to it.”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

I woke up dazed, panicked, confused, and hot. Sweat covered my hair and face as I scrambled in place for a while struggling to regain my bearings. Still stuck between the world of the dreaming and the world of the waking.

It took a while, what felt like minutes, before my hands reached up to touch my face, my arms, my legs, my whole body, as if to reassure myself that all of that was just a nightmare.

It was silly, perhaps even stupid to do, but at this point I doubted that any crazy outlandish fear was ever truly out of the question anymore. The line between what was reality and what was fantasy, had already well and truly shattered the moment I crossed that portal and into a realm of literal swords and sorcery.

Five minutes passed, and still I couldn’t shake the uncomfortable feeling of being trapped inside of the armor. Not as a passenger, not as a wearer, but as a fucking prisoner inside of the metal and composalite itself.

And just like last night, I sat cross legged in front of the veritable powerhouse of a machine, staring up at its unfeeling, unflinching face, and I shuddered. “I never should’ve fucking binged Castles and Wryverns’ hidden lore. It was nightmare fuel back in high school, it’s still nightmare fuel now.”