My first story, and it's first chapter. Please R&R, and FYI: I don't own Halo OR Naruto.
Black-Armored Warrior: Spartan NULL
You know, when people get into a game, they start sympathizing with their character, wincing when he (or she) is wounded, smiling when they triumph. But, what if it went a step further? What would happen if a normal, geeky teen suddenly found himself in another world, in a setting at once alien… and familiar?
Chapter One
[USER VITAL SIGNS STABILIZING… SYNCHING WITH NEURAL IMPLANT… PLEASE WAIT.]
"Whazzat? OW! Jeez, that hurt!"
Matt says as he curls away from the sting, reflexively.
"Dammit, why couldn't I be woken up like a NORMAL PERSON!"
He was used to odd wake-ups, but little did our protagonist know that he was about to have one that could have never have been expected or predicted. He opened his eyes to see what had stung his neck, and was rewarded with a harsh white light and a burst of harsh static.
"Gah! Okay, I'm up! You can stop with the noises and the lights and the pain stuff, okay!"
When there was no reply, he looked again, with a somewhat reduced lance of pain as the static in the helmet (I have a helmet on? Wait, WHAT?) seemed to have cut off. As he tries to move and rub his eyes, he ends whacking himself in the faceplate as his arm seemed to be MUCH heavier than he remembered.
[USER CONSCIOUSNESS CONFIRMED. STARTING MOTION TRACKER AND BEGINNING OPTIMIZATIONS FOR SPARTAN'S DOCUMENTED PREFERENCES.]
[!ERROR! NO SPARTAN DESIGNATION FOUND.]
[TEMPORARY NAME ASSIGNED:]
Spartan: NULL
[DOWNLOAD OF BASIC MAINTENANCE, SUPPORT, AND COMM FUNCTIONALITY TO NEURAL IMPLANT HAS BEGUN. ]
[ESTIMATED TIME TO COMPLETION: 5 HOURS, 21 MINUTES, 37 SECONDS.]
"What?" His brain seized in disbelief. In hindsight, that was probably normal, since that was the first time he would read text from the in-helmet HUD; it IS a peculiar sensation; The text seems to be in front of you, but it also echoes in your head, as well. The Neural Interface does that, as it uses spare "Wetware", or brain capacity, to operate.
"Huh? This is mondo weird. Maybe I'm dreaming still?"
[USER READINESS CONFIRMED; BASIC SUPPORT DOWNLOAD WILL CONTINUE IN BACKGROUND. UNLOCKING ARMOR ARTICULATION; ACTIVATING HUD. ENABLING MOTION TRACKER: RANGE, 150m.]
"Okay, NOT a dream; I NEVER have freaky floaty text in my dreams."
As he looks around himself, he observes his surroundings, ignoring the slowly pulsing circle in the lower right corner of his vision.
'Also, my dreams don't usually include dense forests; they usually include random buildings or zero-g floating zombies.'
Then, the HUD software detected a state of confusion in it's controller, and issued the following onto the screen, startling Matt badly;
[RECOMMENDATION: USER SHOULD MOVE THROUGH BASIC MOVEMENTS TO ASSURE FULL ARMORSUIT AND REACTIVE-CRYSTAL LAYERS ARE FUNCTIONAL.]
"Gah! That sounds familiar; Hell, this whole predicament sounds like it came from a stereotypical sci-fi game tutorial." he grumbles as he slowly climbs to his feet, slightly overbalanced by what seems to be a set of armor at first glance.
[ALERT! UNKNOWN MOTION SIGNATURES CLOSING IN AT HIGH SPEEDS! COMMENCING FULL EMERGENCY TACTICAL UPLOAD. PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THIS WILL CAUSE TEMPORARY PAIN AS THE CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM ASSIMILATES THE NEW INFORMATION. NEW ASSESSMENT FOR DOWNLOAD TIME TO COMPLETION: EIGHTEEN SECONDS.]
"Geez, all I got from that was 'Pain' and 'eighteen seconds'. Wonder what that was about-AGGHGH!"
Our unsuspecting protagonist doubles over as a sudden stream of information overwhelms his mental state and is assimilated into his conscious thought patterns.
"Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow OUCH. THAT'S what the HUD software meant by eighteen seconds of pain. Wait, HUD software?"
He only had time to blink before the information became foremost in his mind, and that brought a sudden outburst to the fore;
"I'M IN A FREAKIN' MJOLNIR ARMORSUIT! HOLY SHIT!"
Although that was what stuck in his mind first, he processed the other information on a subconscious level; the workings of the suit, the combat information that was "written" into his muscle memory, and most of all, the sudden and complete knowledge that there WERE odd motion signatures, and they WERE on an intercept course.
"Oh boy. GPS unit, any fix on my position?"
[NEGATIVE. NO ELECTRONIC MAP MARKERS OR SATELLITES RESENT. SCANNING NIGHT SKY… NO CONGRUENT STAR PATTERNS FOUND. LOCATION: UNKNOWN. OTHER INFORMATION: GRAVITY IS AT 1.1567 Gs, ATMOSPHERE IS 99% IDENTICAL TO EARTH NORM.]
'Okay, so I can at least breathe if the suit gets breached. But those motion signatures worry me; they moved far too fast to be normal humans, yet each is no larger than a teenager, so likely not vehicles.' He quickly calculated.
"Damn, I got used to this tactical shit faster than I would have thought possible; thanks freaky mind download!'
Out loud he asked his onboard computer: "Armament status?"
[WEAPON CRATE SIGNATURES DETECTED WITHIN 20m OF SUIT, CONTENTS UNKNOWN.]
[ARMAMENTS ATTACHED TO SUIT:
ONE .45 CALIBER SUPPRESSED MAGNUM WITH SMART-LINKED 2.5x SCOPE, INTERNAL CLIP OF 10 ROUNDS.
FIVE EXTRA CLIPS IN STORAGE COMPARTMENTS.]
-GRENADE AND AMMO COUNTER ENABLED-
[WARNING: NO GRENADES DETECTED WITHIN ARMORSUIT COMPARTMENTS.]
"Well, a pistol is better than nothing! Still want the 'nades, though. Could be handy. Suit, please bring up translator, incase it IS humans, and they don't speaka da englisha."
[CONFIRMED. TRANSLATOR ONLINE.]
"Well, let's see what the welcoming committee has in store for me!"
Our good lad suddenly is a little hot under the collar; as a giant fireball impacts him, square in the back, sending him reeling.