“Another day, another six hours of Starcraft 2.” I muttered to myself, tossing my bag on my bed, throwing my coat on a hanger, sitting down at my computer and turning it on. “Time to show people my mastered Zegara.” I muttered, cracking my knuckles as I saw Starcraft 2 boot up. “The world maybe ending tomorrow but that doesn’t mean a woman in her mid twenties should bother with crap like that.” I said to myself honestly as I went to co-op and picked my favorite commander, the new Overqueen of the Zerg, Zegara.
When I checked the Mutation, a weekly challenge that adds buffs to enemies or stage hazards to missions for those that don’t know, seemed awfully...weird. I mean it at least had two normal things, Walking Infested which was whenever a unit died they spawned an Infested Terran to take their place, and Void Rifts which was basically a tower that spawned a bunch of enemy units. But the thing that was curious was the third one, it said ‘Friendship’, and when I looked at what it did it actually gave a bonus to the Commander you’ve played the most, increasing their health, abilities, and helped with their units and production. “Huh...that’s an interesting thing…” I muttered, thinking this was just a change of pace for Blizzard considering this might be the last day so might as well give a buff to the players to have fun.
So after picking Brutal cause I’m a seasoned veteran of this game I found my partner and went to work on...a new map? “Blizzard must really want their players to have fun on the last day…” I muttered, seeing it was in ‘The Badlands’ and the mission was called ‘Friendship Fighters’.
“Alright, show me what you got.” I muttered to myself, brushing a bit of black hair out of my eyes and getting ready to face this new challenge. When I got to the stage it was a massive desert, my partner was playing the Protoss Phase Smith Karax, a commander really good with machines and capable of pumping out some pretty strong units. I’m still surprised at how the Zerg and Protoss went from hated at best to actual comrades and equals after everything. While I was trying to get more Drone’s to mine more currency and Overlords to help me keep supply up for more units, what struck me as odd was when the person came up.
“We need your aid.” A green antlered...bug horse thing said. “My people were suddenly attacked by these strange creatures and we need to evacuate as fast as we can.” He said, my minimap flashing up the first area to protect to get people out.
“Well..okay then.” I muttered while making my spawning pool and sending an Overlord to scout the actual area. Thankfully Overlords were faster due to the Friendship buff and I got to know that this place was big, open, and had plenty of area’s to get both minerals and vespene gas. When Zegara spawned she had some...interesting dialogue.
“So your the one that has been guiding my actions for so long?” Zegara asked me.
“Uh…” I frowned, as I typed into chat ‘Hey, did Karax ask you anything?’.
‘Yeah, he asked me if I was the one helping guide his hand into building bigger and better things.’
“Weird…” I muttered, thinking I’ll take the bait and typing into chat ‘Yes, I am the one that’s been guiding your hand through many a victory Zegara.’
“Yes, I remember clearly all the lives we’ve saved.” Zegara said honestly as she still seemed to obey my commands in game as I sent drones to start making facilities to help make new units.
‘This is getting weird...did Blizz do something?’ My partner asked.
‘I have no idea…’ I typed back, honestly a bit worried about this sudden turn of events.
“Have you seen a place like this in the Koprulu sector?” Zagara asked Karaxlike they were actually people instead of just game things.
“No, we haven’t seen any world like this. What’s curious and worrying is the massive energy spikes I’m detecting, I’ve never seen anything like this.” Karax said honestly. While the conversations were interesting and a bit concerning the actual game was still the same, but even with the Friendship buff giving us plenty of help the Void Rifts were appearing at alarming rates, but thankfully I was playing with a well played individual and we were making good progress.
“Thank you, only two more left.” The king I guessed said thankfully. “Oh, there’s something I remembered, if you can go to these coordinates there’s a special item for the both of you given neither of you look of this world.” The king said, seeming rather calm and collected about aliens protecting them against void beings as a marker flashed on the minimap.
‘Well, if the king is so kind as to give us free stuff.’ I typed, sending Zegara and a few Hydrolisks and Banelings towards the area, my partner bringing in his own commander, with his own Immortal robotic units and Mirage air units to the point. When we both got there it seemed to be a room filled with a bunch of minerals and vespene, but the thing that made us pause was our commanders reaction to what looked like rainbow minerals.
“What is this power?” Zegara asked in shock.
“I’ve...only seen such energy output from the Xel’naga artifacts.” Karax said in shock.
‘Um...do you know what the hell is going on?’ My partner asked, putting up a worried marine emote.
‘I have no idea...this is rather concerning.’ I typed back. The next thing i tried might have been a pretty bad decision, which was moving Zegara up to one of the rainbow materials, a...cutscene played as the Zerg Overqueen screeched in surprise and pain.
“What is happening!?!” Zegara shouted, Karax also having grabbed it and experiencing the same sensation.
“No...idea…” Karax groaned in pain.
‘Uh...I don’t feel so good…’ My partner typed up.
I was about to type what’s wrong before I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my head. “Ah fuck!” I shouted, gripping my head in pain as my screams seemed to mirror Zegara’s as everything went white for me.
“Ugh...the fuck happened?” I groaned, trying to get up but falling over. “Christ...and can whoever is talking please shut up, I have a splitting headache…” I groaned, putting a hand up to my head and trying to ease away the pain...only to feel something that wasn’t skin. “Huh?” I muttered, looking at my hand that...wasn’t a hand. “Uh…”
“What in the world?” I heard someone ask in panic.
“Huh?” I wondered, looking around quickly.
”Who are you and what are you doing with my body!?” That voice…
“Zagara?” I asked, looking over myself and…”UH!?!”
“Christ...can someone get me a painkiller or something?” I heard someone ask, as I snapped over and saw...Karax?
“What in the nine hells is going on?” I asked worriedly.
”Are you alright my Queen?” I heard someone ask.
”Yes, I am alright Izsha, just...in a bit of a predicament.” Zagara mentally told Izsha. ”Now, who are you Terran and how did you get into my head?”
“My names Tanya, and you might know me as…” I sighed out, rubbing ‘my’ temples a little. “DragonLily26.” I groaned, saying it out loud making it sound lame and silly.
“Wait, your DragonLily?” Zargana asked. ”A terran has been leading me and the Swarm on so many missions and winning so many?”
“Shocking I know but still.” I said honestly.
”Our Hive Cluster is under attack!” Izsha warned us.
“Damn it.” I growled, shakily getting up. “Okay Zagara…” I said before I blinked, seeing the same HUD as in Starcraft 2, like I was still playing the game but...not. “Okay…” I muttered while checking my forces, seeing my Spine Crawlers and Mutalisks taking care of the troops that tried to attack. “Christ….this is gonna be a brand new headache.
”If I may.” I heard someone say as I turned around seeing Karax’s machine arm move up.
“Please, go ahead Karax.” My partner said, moving the actual body.
”I believe whatever happened to us must have had something to do with that strange material. While we were unconscious my scanners showed that these minerals have in some sense the same power output as a Xel’naga artifact, if not more because the planet we’re on is radiating the same energies.” Karax explained
“That would explain some things but...it still doesn’t explain literally everything else that happened. Me and my partner here...oh I actually don’t know your name.” I said to the one in Karax.
“John, or SilverKnight.” John said. “But as she was saying, the both of us were at home working together to help...whatever those bug people are, and then suddenly we...fused?” He said nervously, not a hundred percent sure about what’s going on.
“Well whatever’s going on…” I muttered, looking over myself and seeing that the green sacs on my back were...radiating rainbow color? “Well Zegara, I think you mutated to assimilate...whatever the hell you touched.”
”Yes...I feel stronger now, and I sense the energies of this world flowing around us. It’s...different then Psionics…” Zagara said. ”More...natural and alive.”
I felt the same thing to, like everything around us was radiating life and energy even though we were in the middle of a desert. “This is so weird…” I muttered worriedly.
“Just one more group to evacuate.” We all heard the king say to us. “What do you think of the materials?”
“They...certainly did something.” I said honestly as I ordered my defense group to go off to the final group.
”Warning, Void Rift’s converging.”
“Excuse me what?” John panicked.
”Radar indicates rifts are pulling together to summon Ravagers!” Karax said quickly. ”We need to take them out before they can attack the civilians.” The protoss said quickly.
“Shit.” I muttered while sending Ultralisks and Hydralisks towards the four spawning Ravagers. “I just sent my forces towards the Ravegers...damned hybrid.” I muttered bitterly.
“I sent the order with my units to. We need to head towards the civilians while our people are fighting against the ravagers.” John said while I nodded in agreement as we both, with our small group of units, rushed after the point to help the bug people get out of here. We thankfully got there in time but…
“Holy hell in a handbasket those fuckers are huge!” I shouted in shock, having seen a video of the ‘Real size’ mod in Starcraft 2 but damn.
”Our lives are just a game to you!?!” Zagara shouted, apparently being able to see my memories.
“The zerg don’t play games Zagara, you know that.” I stated bluntly as I spawned more Banelings. That felt really weird but the Banelings looked...a bit different. “The hell?” I muttered, taking a Baneling and looking it over.
The Baneling had the same small rainbow coloration in it’s acid sacs, and I could tell there was a bit more energy in this thing than normal. It also seemed a bit more intelligent. “Zagara...is Abathur alive?” I asked.
”He wishes.” Zagara growled. ”But I took his essence and started to make someone better than Abathur, and with less chance of betraying me and destroying all the hard work we all made!” Zagara said in rightful anger.
“Right then.” I said while putting the Baneling down. “Well we’re gonna need to have that checked out…” I muttered while Zegara was taking control of motor functions and firing serrated darts at void terran soldiers and killing them.
“That’s the last of the civilians.” The king said as the void portals seemed to disappear and all the enemies were swiftly routed. “Thank you so much, I’ll be there in a moment.” The king said as he seemed to disappear.
“Um…” I started as the anterled bug thing appeared in a flash. “Wah!” I yelped.
“Thank you so very much.” The king said. “My name is King Thorax of the Changelings, mind if I ask the names of my people’s saviors?” He asked.
”He has a hive mind with his people...interesting.” Zagara said in my head.
“Well...that’s a rather complicated question.” John said nervously.
“You see…” I sighed out. “Here, do you have a place where we can relax? My forces would like to have a break after such an intense fight.”
“True, my forces would also like a moment of reprieve.” Karax said actually. “I would also like to ask you some questions your majesty.”
“Alright.” Thorax nodded. “I better send a letter-”
“Let’s not tell anyone else about us okay? We’re...not exactly from around here.” I said quickly.
“Why? You helped save my entire kingdom from ruin.” Thorax said.
“Trust me...too much too soon wouldn’t be that good.” I said honestly.
”Slow and Steady win’s the race correct?” Zegara asked me mentally.
”Sometimes you can’t just rush through things all the time. Better to stay out of the spotlight and plan for what’s to come next...cause if Amon’s forces, and Hybrid of all things are here on this brand new world...then we’ve got a serious problem.” I mentally told her as me and John were lead into the ‘castle’ that was kind of ruined due to the attacks.
“So...mind if I start with what you two are?” Thorax asked politely, the Protoss warriors and Zerg not attacking each other and seeming more calm around each other at the moment.
“We’ll...we’re not exactly from this world to begin with.” John started nervously.
“Yeah…” I said nervously.
“Let me speak.” Zegara piped up, Thorax noticing that this was the second time he noticed a voice change between me and John. “I am Overqueen Zegara of the Zerg.” Zegara said.
“Are the Zerg insects or…?” Thorax asked nervously.
“No.” Zegara shook her head. “The zerg are filled with many sorts of different creatures from the Koprulu sector, all to push for more strength and survivability.”
“Okay then…” Thorax nodded, not fully understanding but having a good enough idea. “And what about you?” He asked.
“My name is Karax, a Phase Smith for the formerly nomadic race called the Protoss.” Karax said. “My people are highly advanced technologically and very powerful psionically.”
“Psionic? Is that a form of magic?” Thorax asked.
“Excuse me, magic?” I asked.
“Yes, magic.” He said as his antlers glowed and seemed to levitate some things.
“Interesting…” Karax said, looking over the aura. “It’s like normal psionics, but the energy readings are completely different, and the aura…” Karax was heavily intrigued.
“And...is this why the Banelings are multicolored now?” Zegara asked, showing said Baneling that was multicolored. “Careful, they explode when agitated.”
Thorax paled at that. “Um...okay.” He said nervously as he looked over the Baneling like it was a nuke about to go off. “I mean...I can sense magical energy coursing through it, but I just don’t know how that’s even possible when I saw the other...banelings?” Thorax asked, while Zegara nodded. “Well, even though I was helping the best I could with the evacuation, I did notice all of your soldiers…” He said, looking over Zegara and blinking. “Wow...you have tremendous amount of mana.” He said in surprise.
“Excuse me for a moment, but mana?” I asked, starting to put my voice in. “As in...like Sorcerer’s causing fiery explosions, stopping time, and summoning monsters to their aid?”
“Fireball spell, time magic has been exclusively banned due to obvious problems, and yes there are summon monster spells.” Thorax nodded.
“Oh no…” John said worriedly. “Where did you find those rainbow minerals?”
“It’s strange, cause originally I had no idea it was there.” He said honestly. “But I was given this from my messenger explaining somethings to me.” He said while levitating over a letter to the both of us.
When me and John looked at the letter it looked like a blank sheet of paper, until we both felt...something come from it. As we looked deeper it showed us…
“Wait, where are we?” Karax asked, looking around to see that we were somehow teleported into a vast white void.
“Greetings.” A man said while walking up to us. “I see you two have been getting along with our new buddies.” The man said.
“Okay, who are you and where the hell are we?” I asked, Zegara taking control and getting into a fighting stance.
“Yeah, it’s not everyday you just get sent into a white void looking at a piece of paper.” John frowned.
“Every molecule was placed with meaning.” The man said, reminding me and John of when Artanis told Kerrigan about the Xel’Naga. “The paper talked about things to the Changeling King, but to those with powerful Psionics, such as Zegara and Karax, could see beyond it and get you all sent here.” He said.
“He...does have a point.” Karax said nervously, still not understanding the situation at all.
“But to answer your question, I’m God.” The man said, causing the four of us to look at him. “What? I know two of you can actually sense my power, and the other two should be thinking about who put those materials there and set the entire thing in motion.”
“Wait, your the one that did all this?” I asked in shock.
“Bingo.” He said while waving his hand and a cup of soda appeared in his hand.
“But...why us?” I asked curiously.
“Well you two were going to die anyways.” He said while a TV appeared and showed that when the two of us split screen the day of the apocalypse and died either from a bomb or gunshot. “This is what happens when insane people decide to take the end of the world seriously.” He said honestly, tapping on the screen and showing Earth. “And this is Earth a few hundred years later.” He said, the entire place was nothing but a barren hellscape with undead and wraiths moving around.
“What the…” Zegara muttered, knowing Terrans can go off the deep end sometimes but turning an entire planet into little more than a burnt husk was something she didn’t fully expect from them.
“Man can do a lot of horrid things when it has the time and energy.” God said honestly.
“Yeah…” John sighed out. “So...you saved us from certain death...but you put us into the bodies of Karax and Zegara...why?”
“Well originally I bring the people chosen here and tell them what they want and what world they want to be thrown in for a new start, but I thought of changing it up a bit.” He said honestly. “Besides, you two basically gave consent when you started that Mutation Challenge.”
“And...the hybrid and Amon’s forces appearing here?” I asked worriedly.
“That mineral you saw before? Yeah that’s basically mana made physical. I won’t get into the details, that would be spoiling, but you four can figure that out later, but someone’s been doing a bad thing, someone stronger than Amon ever could be and it’s up to you four to make sure Equestria doesn’t fall.” He said honestly.
“And what about us?” Zegara asked. “Me and Karax here never agreed to this.”
“Did you agree to be with your friends?” God asked.
“Well…” Karax tried to think of a rebuttal as when he looked into John’s memories he did find a certain kinship to the guy who damn near exclusively worked with him to solve pretty difficult objectives.
Zegara sighed out. “And what is this…’magic’?” Zegara asked.
“Basically it’s Psionics but more...fluid and alive.” God said honestly, and now that I got a better look at him given my eyes adjusted to the blinding lens flare he looked like...Morpheus from the Matrix? “Not to mention you both have literally basic Psionic abilities, mostly telepathy, minor domination and levitation.” He said honestly. “Psionics can go much further. But you’ll both figure that out. Also, if you ever get the thought of making Hybrid to fight Hybrid, that can actually work, just need to make sure no one else gets their hands on them.”
“We’re not going to make Hybrid.” Zegara hissed. “They are abominations!”
“I agree, the Hybrid maybe powerful but they are unpredictable and ruthless.” Karax said.
“You’ll see soon enough.” God said.
“How far are we from the Koprulu sector?” Karax asked curiously.
“Surprisingly not that far, maybe about 7 light years away.” He said honestly. “But Artanis does know you were sent off on an expedition to find a strange distress signal outside the Koprulu sector.” He said honestly.
Karax thought for a moment, checking something real quick. “Oh, I did make a Psichain to make sure I was able to communicate with Artanis and the others.” Karax said, glad that he could still communicate with his Hierarch.
“Well, have fun you four. Try not to do anything too stupid.” God said while snapping his fingers, us four were back in the changeling castle.
“Okay...that’s a thing…” I grumbled a little. ”Izsha? Can you hear me?” I mentally asked, hoping I can send messages as well as receive through the mental link of the Swarm.
”Yes I can.” Izsha told me. ”What do you command?”
”How big is this planet?” I asked her, not knowing much about this world as John and Karax talked to Thorax about some things.
”It is an Terrestrial class planet, the same size as Korhal.” Izsha said from the Leviathan in Orbit.
”That’s big.” I thought to myself. ”I was told from Zegara that a replacement of Abathur was in the works. When will they be ready?”
”They will be prepared in four days, twenty hours and fifteen minutes ma’am.” Izsha told me.
”Thank you.” I mentally told her. “So, mind if I ask where the hell we are?”
“Oh, your in the Badlands.” Thorax said.
“Okay, what planet are we on?” I asked.
“Your on Equis.” He said. “Home to many races such as ponies, griffons, minotaurs, diamond dogs, us changelings and so many more.” The changeling said honestly.
I took a moment. “Ponies...is for some reason the weirdest one out of all of the ones you just said.” I said honestly.
“I mean, ponies are pretty diverse, between unicorns, Pegasi and Alicorns, heck even the normal Earth ponies are physically strong.” Thorax said honestly.
I wanted to say something about how this is getting weirder...only to remember that I’m now literally sharing the body of a video game character with a guy I have never met and that I’m damn near a stone’s throw away from many other strange things. “You know what...I’m gonna go on a walk.” I said while leaving.
”What’s wrong? Is all that too much for you?” Zegara asked me mentally.
”There’s a phrase we humans have, ‘going from zero to sixty’, and that means going from calm and sensible to bat shit insane in mere moments.” I told her. ”So you can understand why I just need a walk to try and calm down here...not to mention I need to think of how to introduce myself to any other royal’s at the moment, figure out who’s worse than Amon and are using his subordinate’s to aid them, and now realise that I’ll be single forever cause of this shit.” I ranted, Zegara knowing full well that I was on the verge of panicking at just being thrown into god knows what without being prepared at all.
”Take a deep breath.” The zerg overqueen said to me. ”I may not fully know Terran phrases and customs but I think that is the proper phrase.”
”Yes, yes it is Zegara.” I told her honestly. ”Just...so much is happening way too fast. You’d think I would be well prepared for the unexpected...but since you can probably see into my memories you can easily tell that this isn’t the same.” I said honestly, having access to Zagara's memories as well but not wanting to go into that at the moment.
”I thought I would be serving my Queen for the rest of my life...but things change, much is what the Zerg are.” Zegara told me honestly, looking around and even though the desert was really hot the Creep and Zerg seemed to be doing fine. ”This new world is strange. Creep wouldn’t normally be so unaffected by this desert heat, and this strange new power flowing through me…” The zerg said curiously, the zerg around us looking at us as if waiting for instructions or to see if we were doing okay.
”It really is…” I agreed. ”But...something’s not right...the objective was to save all the people, but that wouldn’t have stopped the attacks…”
”When the objectives are complete the enemy forces retreat due to their ranks being so short, their plan failed, or we outlasted them.” Zegara told me. ”Simple battle tactics is all.”
I sighed out, looking over the entire area. “This...is gonna be a long journey.”
To be continued...