Ugh… what… light? Why is there light in my eyes? I had the windows in my apartment blacked out a long time ago! Wait, this light is coming in from my left… but the only window in my bedroom is behind me…

I'm not in my apartment. I stiffened, careful not to give away that I'm awake. If I'm not in my apartment, the first most likely explanation is someone moved me to where I am. Does that mean I've been kidnapped? No, at 25, I'm too old to be kidnapped… abducted, more like.

Carefully, I slitted my eyes open and looked slowly around, just in case my abductors are nearby. Seeing no one, I open my eyes more fully and take in my surroundings.

I'm in a cave. No, too small to be a cave. More like a burrow. I'm lying on the rocky floor with the back of the burrow to my right and the opening to my left, with trees beyond. A forest maybe? Just where the heck am I?

Straining my ears, I don't hear anyone nearby. Slowly, I ease myself into a sitting position. Other than a sore back from laying on solid rock, I'm uninjured. Someone also went to the trouble of dressing me. The last thing I remember is falling asleep in my bed last night. Considering I sleep in my underwear… someone dressed me in a plain black T-shirt, and my ABU military pants and boots from my stint in the Air Force. Well, whoever dressed me forgot my glasses and my pockets are empty. Great. Least I only really needed them to read more easily.

Slowly and quietly, I got to my feet in a crouch, and slowly made my way to the mouth of the burrow to see if anyone is around. Maybe if I find someone, I can listen in and see if I can find out what's going on here.

I've only taken one step outside, when the sunlight hits my eyes and blinds me. I wince and cover my eyes with an arm, then slowly lower it hoping to get used to the light, only to stare in shock.

I'm surrounded by black. It's cold and empty. I'd wonder if I'd gone blind, but I can still see myself when I look down.

A light behind me flashes, and I turn towards it. A great ball of golden white light floats in front of me. It's bigger than I am and opaque. It's also warm, and wards away the chill of the darkness.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I'd rather be near the light than the cold black. A fleeting thought of lights at the end of tunnels has me pausing for a moment, before I shrug it off. This isn't a tunnel, and something tells me I'm not dying anyway.

Reaching a hand out, I touch the light. It feels good. I'm surprised for a moment when my hand passes through. The inside feels warm and inviting. I pause for a moment and look back. The darkness is black and cold, and an unpleasant chill goes up my spine. I don't want to go near it. Turning back, I take a deep breath, and step inside the light.

Abruptly, I'm back in the forest, lying just outside the burrow on the grass, and the sunlight is streaming in my eyes, only it doesn't hurt. Blinking, I turn from it on instinct and sit up. I feel good. Better than I ever have before. Before I can start to wonder what just happened, I blink as I realize I'm seeing two different things at once.

I don't know how, but when I close my eyes, I can still see my surroundings as if I still had my eyes open, and that ball of light I'd stepped into is surrounding me, only somehow I know on some level that the ball of light isn't surrounding me, it is me. I don't know how I know that though. Just a feeling I guess.

More importantly though, there's a block of text written on the inside of the wall of light. It's small, but I can read it perfectly, even if I'm not looking at it.

Overmind Matthew
PSI Energy – 50/50
Status – Normal

Abilities
- Spawn Hatchery – 50psi – 12 hour build
- Regeneration – Passive – Heals anything not instantly fatal; time needed depends on extent of injury
- Anaerobic – Passive – No longer requires breathable atmosphere to survive
- Temperature Resistance – Passive – Currently able to survive temperatures between -450 and 118 F
- PSI Regeneration – Passive – Regenerate energy at .5 points per second.

What the hell? Somehow, I instinctively know that the information is about me, regardless of my name on it. Overmind? Me? Spawn Hatchery… wait, the ZERG Overmind!? THE HELL!? I don't even like the Zerg!

Well… ok, that's not entirely true… but I've always been a far bigger fan of the Protoss than the Zerg. Protoss architecture is particularly beautiful, and the energy they use… everything about the Protoss just looks and feels amazing! But the Zerg… there's no one particular thing I can point out other than that they're slimey, icky, and gross, and not to mention ugly. Granted, I've seen worse. Deadites and the Flood come to mind. The Zerg though… But all that doesn't matter. I'm not sure what just happened, but there's no way that I could be the Overmind.

Why then, does even thinking that seem wrong? Like I'm denying a part of myself? The closest I could describe it would be like denying I have two arms. It's utterly absurd! Of course I have two arms! But how could I possibly be the Overmind?

A large part of me wants to deny everything, to focus on how absurd it is and just turn away and ignore it and go on as I normally do, but… I can't. I've always been more accepting of strange happenstance than others. I often see things that can and can't be explained away, and even if it turns out it was just a cat hiding in a bush that made it rustle, I can't help but wonder what if, just what if it was a ninja following me around that slipped up while following me, or something equally as ridiculous. I know that's not the case… but it does make life more interesting and fun, especially considering what my life was like otherwise. No job, no girlfriend, no goals in life. I was going nowhere fast.

I shake my head away from potentially depressing thoughts and focus on my situation. If nothing else, at least getting kidnapped or whatever has certainly sent me somewhere. Let's just hope that 'somewhere' isn't a padded room with full sensory hallucinations mixed in. I can't shake the feeling that this isn't just my imagination though. Maybe I really have gone crazy? But I've heard crazy people aren't able to question their own sanity. Eh, probably better if I just don't worry about it and roll with it. Heck, there might actually be a way to prove if this is all just nonsense or not.

Sitting up, I brush some of the grass off the back of my shirt that was starting to itch. Then, having no real idea what I'm doing, I bend down and place my hands on the ground and think the words, 'Spawn Hatchery.'

Immediately, words flash across the wall of light. I have to close my eyes to see them but I don't have to look because I somehow already know what it says.

Not enough room.

Well that was a bust. I guess I'll just have to find a clearing then. I blinked my eyes a few times, causing the globe of light surrounding me to flicker on and off. It's a bit disconcerting to look at since, I'm a lot more used to everything going black when I blink. Still being able to see when my eyes are closed is a little disconcerting, even if it is through a translucent glowing ball. Slowly, the words from earlier fade to nothing once again.

With nothing else to stare at, I take in my surroundings. I remember that I came out here to see if I could find anyone, kidnapper or otherwise, but it's rather obvious at this point that there's no one around. I have no idea where I am. The sun is beating down from directly overhead, so I've no idea which way north is. I don't hear any cars or people in the distance, so whoever left me here is long gone.

Turning back around, I examine the burrow closely and notice something odd. The walls are completely smooth and circular. It's almost as if someone took a plug straight out of the rock or something. There's no way this thing is natural. Stranger still, the only foot prints in the dirt and dust in and around the burrow are my own. I'm not sure what to make of this mystery, but without further information, I've got nothing to go on.

Well that's just great. Now what? Looks like I'm on my own. Maybe if I can get a good vantage point, I'll be able to see if there's any civilization around, maybe a road or a town? That'll at least give me a destination to head towards. Now, what would serve as a good vantage point? The burrow I was in is sort of in the side of a slight rise, but that won't do me any good. I won't be able to see above any of the trees standing on top of it. Maybe if I climbed a tree? I look around examining the trees more closely. They're all about the same height, but a few are a bit taller than the others.

Picking a fairly sturdy looking oak, with some low hanging branches, I looked up and gulped. Sighing, and closing my eyes for a moment to collect myself, a gesture made futile since it didn't block my sight at all, I hoisted myself up and started to make the climb. I did my best not to look down. I hate heights…

It took some doing, but I finally reached close to the top, and got a good grip on the trunk and closed my eyes and pressed my face to the tree trunk to block my sight so I could rest and hopefully calm down. Normally, I don't mind heights. I absolutely love flying and rollercoasters for instance. It's just the idea of falling that scares me. The fact that the only thing that's keeping me from falling down right now is my own body terrifies me. Give me a seatbelt or a tether any day.

Having rested long enough to finally feel my heartbeat slow and my arms to stop trembling, I open my eyes and slowly look around. Trees. Lots of trees. Trees to the left, trees to the right, trees in front, trees to the back and a mountain range a really long ways off in the distance. There's not a sign of civilization anywhere. No buildings, no roads, no signs, nothing! Not even smoke from a fire or anything!

I'm lost… closing my eyes and pressing my face back against the tree trunk, I allow myself a few seconds to freak out, then take a deep breath and let it out in a whoosh to calm myself. This isn't the end of the world. This just means I have to settle in for the long haul. That means survival. Just gotta remember the three steps to surviving in the wilderness are Food, Water, and Shelter. Find water, and I'll find food nearby, and then I'll build a shelter near both. Having a goal helps me calm down further.

Looking around once again, only this time for a lake or a river, it takes me a moment before I finally spot a river trailing along the edge of a clearing in the direction of the mountains. At least that gives me an easy landmark to make sure I'm going the right direction. I examine it for a bit to make sure I have it's position fixed in my mind once I get down. Speaking of getting down…

Sighing, I slowly and stiffly make my way down the tree. Once on the ground, I pause and rest for a few moments to make sure of my direction, and mentally bless the ground beneath my feet, then start heading towards the mountains I can just barely see through the trees in the distance.

I'm not sure how much time passed until I made it to the river. My watch is gone, but judging from the position of the sun, I'd guess only an hour or two has passed. Somehow I'd stumbled directly upon the clearing I'd spotted. I counted myself lucky, considering I was just thinking I might have to climb another tree to make sure I'm going in the right direction. Honestly, I'd figured I'd have run into the river while I was still in the trees and have to follow that to the clearing.

Kneeling on the bank of the two meter wide river, I splashed my face to cool off, not that I really needed it. Despite the sun, I don't really feel hot, but the cool water feels good anyways, and I'm thirsty. Only problem is I have no way of boiling the water to make sure it's pure. The water does look remarkably clear though.

Thirsty enough to risk it, I scrubbed my hands under the water, than scooped some up in my cupped hands. Not seeing any floaters, I took a sip. My eyes widened. This is the best water I've ever tasted! And I don't even like water! Throwing caution to the wind, I scooped up cupfuls of water in my hands and drank it down till I felt satisfied. Even if I get sick later, that was worth it. Though, if this Overmind business has any weight to it, perhaps that Regeneration thing I supposedly have will keep me from getting sick.

Speaking of that Overmind thing, I leaned back and regarded the clearing with interest. It's a rather nice meadow, with grass and flowers scattered about. It's also large enough for a Hatchery. I don't know how I know that, but I do.

Standing up, I walked over to the center of the clearing. Once there, I got down on my knees and place my hands on the ground and thought the words, 'Spawn Hatchery'. I suddenly feel a rush and a tingle shoot through my entire body to my arms, then down my arms and out my hands. It left me feeling fatigued in a way I didn't even know I could feel fatigued, though it has no effect other than me wanting to take a nap for a moment. Immediately afterwards I felt something bump up against my hand. Startled, I lifted my hands away, and then just stared.

There's a Zerg cocoon pulsating on the ground where my hands just were. I can't help but recognize it. It looks exactly like it does in the game. I blinked in shock. I hadn't actually expected that to work to be honest. Pausing, I realized that something had changed when I blinked. Closing my eyes, my wall of light is no longer blank. Instead it's gained a box of text that, from my perspective, is floating right next to the Coccoon. The info inside tells me what I already know. It's a Zerg Hatchery, newly born and growing. The text displays a slowly growing amount of hitpoints, and a progress bar counting down from 12 hours. I regard the ball of light with a trace of amusement. Is this thing a computer monitor now? Actually, a chair inside a globe shaped holographic display sounds really cool and useful now that I think about it.

Focusing back on the Hatchery, I realized with a start that it's glowing. I almost didn't notice thanks to the glow let off by my light ball. It's glowing the same golden white color as my ball of light too. There's also a strand of the same colored light connecting it to my ball of light, connecting it directly at the point between me and it. The connection looks to slowly be thickening as time passes. Curious, I reached out a finger and touched it.

In that instant, I can feel the Hatchery waking up. I can feel its senses turn towards me, and for lack of a better term, it purrs. The connection of light pulses against my finger, and I can feel an outpouring of love, admiration, and adoration, from it towards me. To say I'm floored is an understatement. My eyes widen and my breath catches in my throat. To directly feel the strength of this little thing's love for me… the shock of it caused me to pull my finger away from the strand, but I can still feel the Hatchery over the connection. It's… it's overwhelming.

Almost without conscious thought, I bring my finger up and brush it down the side of the cocoon, stroking it. It shudders and leans into the touch, and my heart simply melts. I never thought a Zerg could be cute, but I've been proven wrong, though I have to wonder if it's going to be this small, why there wasn't enough room for it before? That's when I remember that feeling that the clearing would be big enough, and I realized that it's probably going to grow a lot bigger over the next 12 hours. After all, this clearing isn't small. I could probably fit an entire baseball field here, plus stands.

The Hatchery sends another burst of love at me, and my heart jumps at the feeling of it, while at the same time I recoil a little. Why is it doing that? Why would it do that? Confusion threatens to overwhelm me along with the overwhelming instinct I feel to wrap the thing with my own love in return. It's like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day with a hot mug of cocoa. I don't understand what's going on at all. The little Hatchery sends another burst of love at me, and I unconsciously send a burst of love for it right back, and it practically quivers under my touch. I realize with a start I'd been stroking my finger down the side of the cocoon's membrane the entire time without even thinking about it. Unbidden, a smile starts to slowly take its place on my face. I don't know what's going on, and I can't even begin to understand at this point, but whatever it is, I don't want it to stop. As the connection to the Hatchery widens, I can feel the love and warmth it's sending me stronger and stronger, coming almost in pulses, like a heartbeat. Some part of me at least knows what to do, so I give over to it and simply give back what it's giving me in return. At this point, my smile is so wide, I fear it'll split my face, and I want nothing more than to smother this little thing with affection and protect it from anything and everything.

In the meantime, my mind tries to throw up random ideas for what's happening and why. The most plausible catches me off guard at first, then I consider it. Is this how a parent feels? I wonder… is this anything like how a father feels, when they see their child for the first time? I am technically the Hatchery's parent after all. I made it. Is this just a natural parental response to a child? It's the closest analogy I can come up with for what I'm feeling right now, and I latch onto the explanation like a lifeline. I lament for just a moment that I've never married and had a child before this point. I feel the sadness of it, but it's muted compared to the feelings being transmitted to me from the Hatchery, and slowly the sadness is pushed away, leaving me with a feeling of simple warmth and happiness. If this is what I can look forward to for being the Overmind, I think I could get used to this. Although, if creating more Zerg makes this feeling any more intense, it really might just overwhelm me. I don't fancy being stuck somewhere lying in a drooling mess on the floor, but at the same time, I don't think that's going to happen. I don't know why I know that, I just do. Call it a gut instinct I guess, though I've never really had one before this point.

A growl interrupts the moment, and I startle only to realize that I'm hungry. The feelings from the Hatchery fades a bit as I focus on something other than it. The feeling doesn't go away entirely though, and it's buoying me up, keeping me feeling rather cheerful rather than the depression that was nagging at me before. Yes, I could really get used to this. My stomach growled again. The water satisfied my thirst, but I could really use something to eat. I've no access to fire, so meat isn't an option. No animals are around anyway so that doesn't matter. I must've scared them all off as I walked over here. It's so quiet… the only sound seems to be the wind rustling through the leaves and my stomach growling again.

Looking around, I nearly do a double take. There, sitting under a tree next to where the river meets the forest edge is a big red juicy looking apple. That's… convenient. I scan the area for a moment, before deciding paranoia in this instance isn't really necessary. Walking over, I pick it up and shine it on my shirt. It nearly fills out both hands, it's so large.

Taking a big bite, I'm careful not to chew, and pull the piece out of my mouth and inspect the 'meat' of the fruit. It's perfectly white with a little bruising. No rotting and no bugs. Satisfied, I eat the chunk of fruit and bite into the rest. Finishing it off, I looked up, only to see even more apples. Grinning, I pluck one down and subject it to the same test before eating it. That would explain the bruising from the first apple. It must've fallen off the tree.

Having eaten my fill, I take another drink of water, before looking around. I'm hoping I find more than just apples, since nothing but apples would get old really fast, but until then I now have food and water taken care of, and once the Hatchery is done I'll have a shelter, but considering how much time is left, it'll probably be the middle of the night before it's finished. I should probably make a shelter to sleep in for my first night here.

It takes a bit of foraging before I just use my weight to break a rather sturdy and fairly straight branch off of a tree. Taking a somewhat sharp rock I'd found in the dirt, I used it to hack off the smaller branches. With that done, I pocketed the rock and took the stripped branch back to the clearing. I dug a small hole in the ground somewhat near the edge of the clearing, close to the apple tree and the river. I then stuck the branch in the ground and filled the hole back up around it and tamped the dirt down. That should serve well as the center support pole for a makeshift teepee.

I started gathering up a large amount of even larger branches, having to break a number of them off of trees. These ones I left the smaller branches on, then I leaned them against the branch I'd stuck in the ground, making sure to lean two against each other from opposite sides at the same time so it wouldn't fall over. Balancing them against the center branch isn't really how a Teepee works, but I don't have any rope or strips of fabric to lash the branches together, and I'm not about to rip my only shirt into strips if I can help it. Good thing I left a Y shape at the top of the center support pole for the rest of the branches to settle in so they wouldn't fall. I took extra care to dig the ends into the grass and dirt just to make sure they wouldn't fall though. It wouldn't do for the wind to blow the whole thing over in the middle of the night after all.

Doing this, I set up a leafy teepee of sorts, with the branches I'd left on the 'walls' interweaving each other to give it more stability. Surprisingly it worked better than I thought it would. The end result looks more like a rough shaped igloo than a Teepee, but whatever works. I used a few extra leafy sticks to patch holes here and there, and left myself an opening in the side for a door. I then grabbed some sticks with lots of leaves and wove them together in a rough square shape to use as an actual door. The whole process took up the rest of the day, and I stopped to get plenty of water so I wouldn't dehydrate. Finally finished, I inspected my work. It's not particularly large or well crafted, but it'll do for the one night. I just hope the interior of the Hatchery isn't slimy or wet. Sleeping in the dirt is bad enough, but I'd take that over laying in slime. I shudder at the thought.

Despite a certain bleakness to the situation, I couldn't help but feel optimistic about the whole thing. It's really hard to feel down when a certain Hatchery keeps sending me bursts of love anytime I start to feel depressed. Even being in such a tough situation, I can't help but feel that this is far better than any time in my life that I can remember. And if all the Zerg are like this? I take back any thoughts I had about not liking the Zerg. Zerg are awesome!

As the day waned, I couldn't help but notice that I hadn't gotten sunburned at all. Normally I burn rather easily, and I have been working rather hard out in the clearing quite a bit, but I'm not burned at all. Heck I don't even really feel that hot either, despite wearing black! It's probably something else to thank my new Zerg Regeneration for and probably the Temperature Resistance as well. I haven't even gotten all that sweaty!

I've definitely gotten plenty dirty though. Walking downstream to where the river meets the forest, I stripped and stepped into the water. It's only a meter deep in the middle so I have to get on my knees to get the majority of myself under the water. It feels cool and refreshing. I wonder if this would feel cold if I weren't the Overmind now? Speaking of which, does that mean I'm not human anymore? I contemplated that for a few moments before deciding it doesn't really matter. I never really defined my existence on my race or species anyway. I always figured choices were what made a person. Besides, considering a majority of the humans I dealt with over the course of my life rejected me for simply being myself, I don't really feel the fact that I might not be able to call myself human anymore as any large loss. There are far more important things anyway. Such as love and kindness. What you are hardly matters if you're a good and decent person.

I smiled over at the Zerg Hatchery. It's grown in size over the hours. It's almost as big as a two story house now. It's certainly not like anything I'd expected. I'd certainly not want it around if it felt any desire for destruction or blood shed, as I'd figured the Zerg would, considering their moniker of 'Scourge of the Universe'. I frowned at that thought. If the Zerg are real, I might just run into other races like the Protoss or Terrans. Their first instinct would be just like mine would have been before I became the Overmind, to kill them all. Better safe than sorry. I don't know about any other Zerg that might be out there, but when it comes to mine… I know better now, and I certainly don't want anyone killing the first creatures to ever make me feel as happy as I do right now.

In that case, what should I do? Keep my Zerg hidden? That's not really going to solve the problem. Plus, if they're ever discovered, they'll just be mowed down like the rest. I could try and change their appearance so they don't look like Zerg anymore, but I wouldn't even know how to begin to do that. Better save that for later. In that case, my best option looks to be to simply make my Zerg as powerful as possible so no one will try to hurt them. Works for me after all. When I was younger, I was just a shrimpy kid, but then I hit a growth spurt and jumped to my height of 6'6". Now everyone is intimidated by me and leaves me alone. Makes it hard to make friends, but it's better than the alternative.

Climbing out of the water, I debated washing my clothes, before deciding I'll save that for morning when I can hang them out to dry in the sun, rather than now since the sun is going down and I'll have to lay in the dirt anyway soon. I shook myself dry and slipped my clothes back on. I feel a bit gross, but it's better than lying on the grass and dirt in nothing but my birthday suit, and climbed into my shelter, and fixed the door in place. I contemplated using leaves as bedding, but the idea of bugs crawling from the leaves to me sends shivers up my spine. I'll take dirt over bugs.

I can't really stand up in the shelter since the ceiling is too low. Instead, I stoop over and I crawl over to the spot of grass I'd decided to sleep on and laid down. I'm not really tired, but there's nothing else to do really until the Hatchery is done, so I might as well try to get some sleep. I'm actually a little surprised I don't feel tired or sore from all the work I did building this thing since up to this point, I've lead a fairly sedentary life style. I guess being Zerg now has more perks than I expected. At least I don't look like a scaly bug or a formless blob with some armor and spikes. That's certainly a plus.

Tucking my arm beneath my head, I closed my eyes. To my surprise, the vision I have with my eyes closed starts to fade till the only thing I can see is the ball of light, and then even that disappears. I opened my eyes in surprise, then closed them again. The ball of light and being able to see despite my closed eyes is back. What happened? Does that mean if I focus on looking at nothing, I'll actually see nothing? Giving it a try, my sight again fades just like before, until I can't see anything. As an exercise, I try to go back to seeing everything as well as the ball of light while keeping my eyes closed. All I have to do is focus, and it's all back immediately. This is going to take some getting used to, but it's better than learning how to sleep with my eyes technically open. It took a bit of practice, and occasionally I'd hear the creak of a branch in the wind that would jerk me back to being alert. The only thing missing is my eyes stinging from the sudden switch from darkness to brightness over and over again. I can only assume it's because I'm not actually seeing with my eyes right now. Eventually though as darkness falls, I finally get the hang of it and I soon dozed off to the warmth of the love the Hatchery is steadily feeding me.

-END CHAPTER-

Overmind Matthew
PSI Energy – 50/50
Status – Normal

Abilities
- Spawn Hatchery – 50psi – 12 hour build
- Regeneration – Passive – Heals anything not instantly fatal; time needed depends on extent of injury
- Anaerobic – Passive – No longer requires breathable atmosphere to survive
- Temperature Resistance – Passive – Currently able to survive temperatures between -450 and 118 F
- PSI Regeneration – Passive – Regenerate energy at .5 points per second.

Zerg Swarm
Bio-Energy – 0
Support – 0/10

Entities
1x Hatchery (Non Sapient; Unborn)