20060202
3)Iron Man
I pull the microweave titanium over my head like a wool sweater. Due to a thin layer of magically augmented padding, the "fabric" doesn't shear off my skin. Likewise for the trousers. On contact the top and bottom interweave and become one. The titanium "second skin" transfers power and information throughout the suit, giving feedback through the helmet via Heads-Up-Display (HUD). Due to a meticulous weave structure, the titanium casts shadows upon itself in all but the brightest light making it effectively black in our fighting conditions. Plate armor can be attached to the suit through magnetism and sorcery. I opt for the most plate possible without overloading the system. I expect and intend to be in melee combat.

The top and bottom outer-most armor is held together by a magnetic gasket, acting as a belt. The belt's main function though, is providing
extra-dimensional "holsters" for weapons and item. A neural link allows the suit to be pieced together until the helmet is equipped, at which
point the armor's various sections glow with light. Gauntlets fit over the hands and allow for nearly full dexterity, the heavy greaves onto legs that would be crushed without suit augmented strength.

As I finish with my armor, Dahvid is already suited up with weapons, and is double-checking his sights. The lights of his suit are a threatening red, his helmet design akin to an addition symbol, a crosshairs without the circle. He doesn't wear much plate, preferring maneuverability over protection. Dahvid uses firearms almost exclusively, unless the situation absolutely does not permit it. His ability with magic is expressly for augmenting his shooting, and even his melee weapon is, in essence, a ranged weapon: a fold out, ultra-ionized staff that keeps enemies away even when firearms didn't. He uses it with skill, but much prefers either the spark rifle --which houses a miniaturized tesla coil that fires ultra-dense ozone in automatic, as an assault rifle, or single rounds that function as a sniper rifle-- or the cluster rifle... which is really just an ultra effective rocket launcher.

We are complete opposites. I prefer to feel the demons die as I cleave them in half. A Nodachi is effectively a Japanese greatsword, with a
longer thicker blade than a Katana. The one I use in combat was reportedly used in the fifth century BC to kill Oni. It's name translated to Daybreak or Dawn or something like that. I don't know if the story is true, but it kills demons really well and no one cast any spells on it. I am quick to use spells to remind those things not to screw with me- not that they ever learn. And, if the situation just doesn't call for a big sword, I carry the prototype tempest rifle. It uses superconductivity to propel magnetized particles in a random pattern from the muzzle... It's a lightning shotgun. It is effectively a close range weapon also, but that's why Dahvid's got my back. When I place my helmet on my head, my suit lights glows a celestial gold, the helmet design like a jagged X.

The armor is very versatile, and parts can be interchanged on the fly- including the helmet due to the neural link. The second-skin works as a motherboard and the rest of the armor as the hardware. Ten years ago this armor would have made a man invincible. Now we're hoping it'll be effective enough.

There are several read-outs "on screen" in the helmet, while others are impressed directly upon my consciousness. It reads trajectory and
velocity of potential threats in the room, but due to over clocked spectral scanners nothing registers as harmful. Dahvid would have if the suits weren't networked together. We have live audio to one another. My voice can be broadcast directly to him if I only will it to be.

The chief walked over with that fatherly look in his eyes to give us our briefing. He was a General in the Pentaic conflict. When asteroids headed past the earth containing precious element rich cores, all the countries rushed to put rockets in the sky. No major battles occured, but his company saw the worst of the conflicts, on the surface of an asteroid. Needless to say he's the most qualified to lead us.

"Now remember, in the train tunnels there should be some stalkers crawling around, but nothing you can't take real easy like. They would be small to get past the heavy defense systems. Now outside our perimeter is where things will probably start gettin' hairy. Right before the last scouts stopped comin back, we got a report of increased harpy activity. Who knows what that means? If it gets too ugly, you boys comeback, ya hear? And remember what to do if you find Somsien"

"We know," we say in unison, like impatient children.
He just nodded and we walked into the first "airlock" between the inside and the "outside." The door closed behind us and sealed with a
whoosh like that of a pneumatic clamp. The darkness was the first taste of the Abyss. Just before the door opened ahead of us, "Hey Xander..." With a loud shuffle in this tiny chamber, I look over at my friend, at a red-glowing cross in the darkness, a metal visage that I recognize as well as his true face. I can vaguely see his armor reflecting the golden hued light of the X that crosses my helm. "Boo."