I jolted awake after a number hours of much needed sleep, and I'm feeling a lot better, though I could seriously do with a few more Z's, so just what woke me? Doing a reflexive check of the Swarm and the mental map, I note that night has already fallen enough that the sun's rays are gone, so I'd put it at probably an hour or two past sundown if not more.
Before I can start up on having the Overlords give me a mental download of all that's happened since I fell asleep, a noise that is WAY too close for comfort sounds off to my left, and I freeze, eyes wide, but very pointedly keeping my eyes pointed at the ground. I've got to be very careful how I handle this.
So far, the Enderman hasn't really done anything. I can see its feet out of the corner of my eye, and I can tell that it's at least on the other side of the room from me. I have no idea if it's noticed me or not, but at least it's not agro yet. The better question is, why the heck is it in here? I thought the Overlords were supposed to attract them all!?
Frantically, I order the Overlords to fill me in on what's been happening, even while I keep a careful peripheral eye on the Enderman. Who knows what it might grab if it gets close. It might warp away with my torso, leaving my limbs and head behind, or worse.
According to the playback of the mental map provided by the Overlords, they finished up 14 of the 20 Creep colonies, only ten of which are Sunken Colonies. The Overlords, to my delight, had used pragmatism when finishing the ring of colonies, so instead of having one chunk of the ring unfinished, there were only six open spots between the existing creep colonies, and the Sunken Colonies were all evenly created throughout the ring as well. If I weren't in mortal peril right now, I'd be inclined to run out and hug the lot of those Overlords for fulfilling my orders so pragmatically. I'd been worried they'd just do exactly as told and not respond to any outside stimulus or think for themselves, but my worries have been laid to rest on that front.
As for this Enderman wandering inside of my Hatchery, I can't blame the Overlords for not forseeing what would happen. Even I didn't, regardless of my knowledge of Minecraft. Evidently that 'spider sense' the Endermen have works almost too well. The Sunken Colonies had targeted all enemies within the walls of the Hive, and shoved their spike like tentacles through the ground to spear the lot from underneath. Unfortunately the Endermen have been warping away at the last moment, which surprises me since technically, the Sunken Colony's attack counts as a melee attack, not a ranged one. I know that it's technically a ranged attack, but technically so is a sword swing by about two to three feet if you want to be that facetious.
Either way, the Endermen warped off from the Sunken Colony's attacks, treating them as ranged rather than melee. This is good, since it means the Endermen didn't switch targets to the Sunken colonies, which would have been extremely bad if the Endermen had somehow killed them. However, this means that a couple of those Endermen, in particular this one, had warped inside my two Hatcheries and elsewhere throughout the few hours of the night. I was just so out of it before that this is the first one that actually woke me up as opposed to the first two, though I'm gratified to know that the things didn't come near me, and the first two almost immediately warped out. Only this one is hanging around for some reason.
First order of business is to stop the root of the problem, and I send a quick order to my Overlords to have the Sunken Colonies stop targeting Endermen. It's pointless to have the Overlords be out of reach bait for them if the Sunken Colonies can't even hit them.
With that issue out of the way, and no more Endermen threatening to randomly pop in to my Hatcheries, now I have to figure out what the heck to do with this one. How do I get it out of here?
That's when it hits me, and a devious evil grin slowly grows on my face. The Creep has been absorbing all sorts of nutrients and minerals and such, basically the buildings blocks of all life right? Well, water is one of the buildings blocks of life after all, and the Creep must have been absorbing water out of the air and the ground as well, and the Creep just happens to be carpeting the interior of EVERYTHING in the Hive.
Smirking deviously, since my Overmind side has confirmed my plan is doable, I chance directly looking at the Enderman. I'm almost shocked to see that it's been staring at me the entire time, with its head cocked to the side as if in deep thought, observing me. Even more surprising is the fact that it hasn't immediately opened its jaw and screeched like it did at the Overlords when I looked at it. Freakier still, is the fact that its eyes aren't glowing purple like the others, but white. This departure from the norm freaks me the hell out, and I immediately order the creep to dispel a layer of water over its surface. It's not an infinite source of water, but the Creep can reabsorb it and effectively use it over and over again.
The water reaches up to a few inches deep in just a few seconds, and the reaction is instantaneous. The Enderman with me, along with all its brothers outside, screeches in pain and hops about, screeching each time it touches the water. Interestingly, touching the water makes the Endermen more and more sluggish while it moves, and judging from its movements, I get the feeling that it can't actually warp away even though it's trying to do so. My Overlords are observing the same thing in the other Endermen, so it's not just me.
Finally, the Enderman gives one last keening wail that would do a banshee proud and has me covering my ears before keeling over dead and dissolving into the water. The black sludge in the water drifts towards me. Disturbed even further, I quickly have the Creep reabsorb the water, at least inside the Hatchery here. It takes a moment or two after that before the Creep also absorbs the remains of the Enderman, giving me a whopping ten bio-energy for my trouble.
Shaking slightly, I slump against the wall and sink slowly to the ground, eyes wide and unseeing. I don't think I'll be getting any more sleep tonight. That had been terrifying, but the implications are so much worse. After all, what else can I think when just before the Enderman died, its white eyes gave me one last penetrating look, before flashing back to purple?
No doubt about it, my stay here in the land of Minecraft just got a whole lot more complicated.
-Chapter End Review-
OVERMIND
Health-50/50
Psi-Energy-10/100
Psi-Replenish-10pc
Control-10ucp
Abilities
Spawn Hatchery-100psi-2hours-1ucp
ZERG SWARM LVL 1
Bio-Energy-125
Bio-Replenish-200pc
Control used/provided-59/59
Strains Available
Larvae-0be-0:0:1-3 per Hatchery-25hp-10armor
Drone-50be-0:20:0-1ucr-40hp-5ga
Overlord-100be-0:40:0-8ucp
Zergling-50be for 2-0:30:0-1ucr for 2-35hp-5ga
Buildings Available
Hatchery-300be-2:0:0-1ucp-1250hp-800 m creep gen
Extractor-50be-0:40:0-750hp
Creep Colony-75be-0:20:0-500hp-500 m creep gen
Evolution Chamber-75be-0:40:0-750hp
Spawning Pool-200be-1:20:0-750hp
Sunken Colony-50be-0:20:0-300hp-40ga-700mr
Hydralisk Den-200be-0:40:0-850hp
Lair-350be-1:40:0-1ucp-1800hp-900 m creep gen
SWARM COMPOSITION
Sentients-1
Overmind
Underlings-82
2 Hatcheries
1 Spawning Pool
4 Creep Colonies
10 Sunken Colonies
6 Overlords
59 Drones
Vassals-0
Allies-0
REQUIREMENTS TO EVOLVE
Spawning Pool –Completed-
-Swarm is ready to evolve-
A/N- Phew! Sorry for the long wait everyone! And thank you so much for all the people who have favorited and are following this story. My apologies for the super late update. I'd actually written the fourth chapter a while ago, but just as I was about to upload it to fanfiction, the loader thing told me that the document was in the wrong format or something to that effect. Confused, I checked to see, and determined that the chapter I'd just written and saved was in the correct format, but the entire chapter, all four pages of it, had wiped itself clean as if I hadn't written anything at all!
Needless to say, this completely threw me off of writing for a while. Not to mention I've been a bit stuck since I honestly hadn't liked how the fourth chapter turned out in the first place, and my muse, or whatever drives me to write, seemingly abandoned me. As much as I like to keep updating since I know how much I enjoy seeing stories I favorited being updated, I wasn't going to put you through having to read crappy writing just for the sake of posting something.
Finally though, my muse came back to me and I quickly typed this up. Ironically, this section is actually something that the original fourth chapter covered in two paragraphs, but then I realized that I left out a lot of potential for those two chapters alone.
Also, for those who are curious, I actually already have a pretty good idea of where this story is going to go, though there are certainly plenty of holes open to be filled in order to get to the part I'm aiming to reach. My main problem is that along the way, I'm going to end up introducing sentient characters, and if there's one thing I'm absolutely horrid at, it's writing conversations from multiple perspectives…