[Ripper Tavish POV]
Wiping the sweat off my forehead, the next patient is hurriedly brought in as I replace yet another set of cyberware.
A rather crucial detail that I overlooked when the "magical awakening" took place, was that cyberware was kinda fitted to a person on a case-by-case basis.
So when someone suddenly undergoes a species change over the course of a few minutes, it could lead to some potentially life threatening consequences.
Horizon has already released their first batch of interspecies augments, but that didn't quite help these people right now as I went through and retrofitted or replaced essential organs of hundreds of people who possessed biology's that were significantly different than what I was used to.
If I had the foresight, I might have even learned a veterinarian skill to get a more generalized type of medicine. It might even help when I encounter alien species.
Vets have to deal with all manner of animals in a variety in shapes and sizes, and honestly, they were probably better equipped to deal with the "orks", "dwarves" and "trolls" that have shown up throughout Night City.
Generally, most of my patients had retained a mostly humanoid physiology, but they did have a few extra organs that did lead to some awkward situations.
Ork's, have an extra hormonal gland that effectively puts them in a seasonal "rut", while troll's have tons of extra circulatory capabilities thanks to their altered endoskeleton.
It wouldn't surprise me if there was a sudden hiring drive for trolls in the construction industry if I was understanding their biology correctly.
Highly resistant to most environmental hazards, strong, and above all else, they wouldn't require augments.
The Orks would no doubt fall into the role of personal guards, what with their imposing appearance, and strong bodies. But as a whole, I think they would have a hard time adjusting to society.
Several other of the new races however, would flourish amongst the newly created world.
Elves, in particular, would be in high demand thanks to their otherworldly beauty and extended lifespans. Demand would probably be high enough that it would increase "human" trafficking on a global scale.
Dwarves and gnomes, I would have to wait and see, because while trolls and orks definitely would have a harder time because of their looks, the smaller races only seemed to be shrunk down in stature.
The dwarves developed thicker bones and stout bodies, while the gnome's brains appeared to developed additional synapses.
Only time will tell if more races would appear, but it did make me worry about any connections I formed in this world.
David, and Lucy seemed to have remained human, but I have a strong suspicion that Rebecca is now a gnome.
Ironic considering that she's no different in size than before, but I'd have to do a full blood workup to be sure.
A sudden though along that line caused me to burst out laughing.
What are the chances that Smasher mutated into a different race?
Anyone with augments was fucked up by the transformation, and I was one of the few who could counter the effects of someone's body mutating around cyberware.
The best scenario, was that the transformation killed him.
And the worst?
He was in a hell of a lot of pain right now . . .
[Cyberdemon POV]
Gently knocking on Megan's door I can hear the shout of "go away!" as Megan continues to panic.
I felt the magic wave the same as my counterparts, but I didn't even think of who it would target.
So when Megan's ears started elongating, and she ran from the room in a panic, it tipped me off to the full effects of the magic wave.
I'm pretty sure she lucked out and changed into an elf, but I haven't been curious enough to invade her privacy and find out.
Mentally, she was probably freaking the fuck out. Her entire consciousness was trapped in a changed body, and her normally unshaken personality was having to deal with that realization.
The best I could do, is guide her through it, but it was significantly harder on the other side of a door.
My phone gave me an alert as one of my spying programs pinged me from the Arasaka network.
Paging through it, I saw a camera switch on displaying the inside of what looked to be an office of sorts, before turning to reveal a flatlined Smasher in a pile of metal and flesh.
The magic forced a huge transformation on his part, and his own cybernetics killed him from the flesh expanding to accommodate the new form.
It kinda looked like he was turning into a troll, but the magic was having to overcompensate because of how little flesh Smasher had left.
What an . . . anticlimactic end for that monster.
Here I wanted to kill him one more time.
Snapping my fingers, a portal opens, and I threw a glob of hellfyre at the body incinerating it.
Better safe than sorry after all.
"Megan, the surge granted us an unforeseen benefit." I report, hearing her still from her frantic pacing.
"W-what?" her shaky voice passes through the door, and I press on.
"My spies at Arasaka just reported Smasher's death. The transformation was too much for his implants to handle." I report.
She was silent for a few minutes, before the door slide open revealing her new features as she grabbed for my phone.
Her features had become ethereally beautiful as her blonde hair hid many of her facial features, the tips of her pointed ears poking out from the silky-smooth hair.
Tracks of mascara ran down from her almond shaped eyes, as she now focused on the CCTV of Smasher's end.
Now that she was distracted, I grabbed her makeup kit from the dresser and held it while she pulled herself back together.
"How are the other corporations reacting to the sudden change?" she asked, taking the offered makeup pads.
"Exceptionally poor. Most are still in a panicked state or hurriedly running to their nearest ripper to get implants fixed. However, an up-and-coming company has been responding in quite the "unorthodox" manner." I supply before she motion's me to continue.
"The company Horizon, is collaborating with that new monastery in town to make sure that people are receiving the healing required, and have gathered enough preliminary data to start releasing products tailored to the new species that present no ill effects thus far. Most of the product lines have been centered around cyberware, alcohol, medical science, and a variety of other industries." I inform, as she hands the phone back and starts fixing her appearance.
"What are their upcoming projections for the next year?" she questioned, as I leaned against the doorframe.
"Our analysts guestimate that their value will skyrocket in excess of 2.3 billion eurodollars by the end of the year. They seem to have a vendetta against Kang Tao, and possibly Arasaka, but that is just rumor."
"All of their activities have been restricted to Pacifica thus far, and there have been no attempts at corporate espionage from any of their known agents. I strongly suspect that we will not see anything until Pacifica has been brought to heel." I finish, as she straightens her blouse.
"The CEO, tell me about him." She prompted, causing my brain to halt as I tried to come up with something.
"Tavarius Ouranos, started Horizon in 2075 as a startup corporation put together by a series of like-minded entrepreneurs. An eccentric inventor, he delves into technologies and branches of knowledge that many would overlook, which in turn have resulted in the explosive growth of his company."
"He's constantly on the lookout for the hidden geniuses tucked away in the alcoves of Night City. This was further accentuated when his race changed." I supplied, quickly linking my senses to the corpo body.
I quickly suppressed his surprise, by transferring the memory, and he grudgingly sat back to watch what was happening.
"I take it his change was a bit more extreme than mine?" she asked, pulling out her own tablet to start processing the new influx of information.
"Considering that his change turned him into what could only be described as a dragon. Yes, his transformation was a bit extreme." I supplied,and a string of swear words flowed through my connection with the corpo body as he started scrambling to adapt.
"A dragon? I imagine that his initial change was quite inconvenient. I feel a bit embarrassed by my reaction to my relatively minor changes." She commented, as she scanned over her reports.
"He was able to take a humanoid appearance at a more appropriate size after some trial and error. And it was with this that we discovered what could only be described as magic." I finish prompting the heiress to give me a flat look.
Tapping a few buttons on her tablet, I bring up a video of a horizon employee throwing a fireball at a would-be mugger, setting the person ablaze.
"Magic . . . I take it that this isn't an isolated incident?" She questioned, and I shook my head as I passed her more data.
"I suspect that the first traces started occurring around Mondatta and his monastery, and is quickly expanding out from there. Within a year or two, I suspect we will start seeing more of these "magic users". Horizon appears to be leaps and bounds ahead of the competition already by releasing their general findings about the main races that have surfaced after what they call "The Awakening". One could make the jump and assume that it refers to the awakening of magic, but without talking to Ouranos directly, we can't ascertain more data on that." I finish, feeling the corpo body grumble and cut the link.
"Then we need to try to grab this opportunity that has presented itself. Please schedule an appointment with Mr. Ouranos as soon as possible. I need to meet with him and get answers no later than tomorrow." She ordered, placing calls to her different divisions for an emergency meeting.
I sigh as I pull out my phone to call the corpo body.
[Corpo Tavish]
Slamming the receiver down, I sigh in exasperation before my body morphs into my ouroboros form tearing through my suit and my extra arms and eyes form.
Mentally sending the command to the tech-priests to craft me new furniture and appliances to accommodate my size, I call to get a tailor in to custom make some new clothes.
Fucking Cyberdemon!
I knew that I'd have to come out about some information at some point, but he placed me squarely in Militech's crosshairs as they franticly looked for answers.
We still haven't determined if we can trust Megan yet, and he was pushing things along faster than I was comfortable with.
And while I think we may be able to trust Megan, the rest of Militech was most certainly in question.
Pulling out a purity cigar, I light it with a snap of my fingers and take a deep drag while thinking about our new predicament.
The Morning Star hotel had become wildly successful, often competing for the Afterlife as far as what contracts flowed through the Fixer's hands.
Fixer Tavish was a new body I had developed solely for handling the extra-legal side of my operations, which turned out to be an excellent decision based on how much of his time was quickly sucked up by the industry.
This left me the time to dedicate my efforts to Pacifica.
I had extended my reach far enough that a whole 78% of the district was safe enough for people to walk the streets.
The Voodoo Boys still infested a large portion of the remaining area, but I could now conduct normal business and hire out the local community without backlash.
Unfortunately, most of those employees were visiting the doctor right now thanks to their rather explosive change.
A very tentative knock at the door, broke me out of my thoughts and caused me to sigh.
"Come in." I call out, and the door opens revealing sheepish looking dwarf whose eyes bugged out at laying eyes on me.
"Are you alright sir?" Trevor offered and I sighed giving him a glance up and down.
"Better than when it happened, I'll tell you that much. I already reached out to the clothing division to make me some new clothes." I replied and he relaxed a tad.
"On that note, can I leave early sir? I'd like to get some better form fitting clothes." He asked and I nodded.
"Yes. Go ahead and pass word that if people need to leave for clothes, they can take a day or two if they need it. This is a rather sudden change, and I have a feeling we are all going to need some time to adapt. Don't worry about taking time off or any of that crap, just make sure proper security precautions are taken. I need to be here for an appointment with Megan Myers tomorrow, so I'm going to be trying to sort through this mess." I reply as he nods amicably.
"Thank you, sir. On a side note, what's it like to have five eyes?" he asked, and I lazily glance at him.
"It will take some getting used to, but I can see a great deal more than when I was human." I answer, tapping a bit of ash into my ash tray.
Trevor bows before he leaves to spread the word.
He was who I hired to serve as a secretary down in the lobby to filter out the random people we had wandering in.
I didn't exactly have a personal secretary to handle my visitors. I debated on outsourcing the task to Sasha, but she's preoccupied with various netrunner tasks that I need her on.
Maybe her mother?
Regardless, this happened right before the opening of other horizon branches in France, Alaska, Egypt and Taiwan.
The openings had to be delayed with "The Awakening", and I saw no reason not to give everyone a reprieve after such a traumatic experience.
A sudden rap on my door and it burst open, to reveal a glitzy woman, her hair balance on top of her head in a series of swirls. She was one of the few who were lucky enough to retain her human appearance, and was also who I hired to head up my clothing design team.
[Seisha Blozzwill]
Class- Designer
Lvl – 198
"Now just look at this. You sure know how to bring me a challenge Mr. Ouranos! You might just be one of the few new races that could get away without my particular talents. I mean, just look at those scales!" She gushes, sashaying over and giving me a glance up and down.
"Very kind of you to say Seisha. Unfortunately, I do look a bit alien, and I doubt the Militech representatives would appreciate me showing up naked to our meeting tomorrow." I reply, stubbing out the cigar, and breathing out the last of the cleansing smoke.
She tuts as I stand up so she can take measurements; "Their loss. Most of my team got away without any changes except for one whose ears got a bit pointy. But all these new races have given all of us in the design department a whole slew of new ideas."
"On that note, check with the biotech department whenever you get the chance. They have been compiling reports of the physical characteristics of the new races. Your department will probably find that extremely useful for developing the many new product lines." I reply, as she takes particular interest in my tail.
"Mmmm, thank you much! That's exactly what I was searching for next. Do you have a name picked out for your species by chance?" she enquired, getting a bit startled when I breath out a gentle whisp of fire.
"Dragon, my initial transformation was quite a bit larger than this. It was a miracle that I figured out how to shift forms and run damage control. Plus, I doubt I'll be the only one." I answer, causing her to hum in response.
"Apt. though you may be fairly unique with the extra arms and eyes, though you can't see the fifth eye unless its open . . ." She trails off before finally standing up.
"Alright, the suits will be done in a few hours, and we'll have some basic underclothes and lounge wear completed shortly after that. Once that's done, I'm going to just let my team work from home for a bit if they desire." She commented, and I nod in agreement.
"The surveillance drones are picking up new plants, fibers and creatures that are appearing worldwide so be ready for an influx of new materials to work with." I add and she nods happily.
"Thanks boss! We'll get this taken care of for you." She calls over her shoulder, making her way out of the room.
I lift my tablet and I barely have time to glace down before the remodeling crew arrives and starts redecorating my entire office.
And with the joint efforts of some nanomachines and a few Cryptek's, the office has been adapted for my size allowing me to get back to work.
Magi-tech devices were first on the agenda, along with a few minor potions and a handful of armor components that functioned off of magic alone.
Sighing, I think back to my meeting with Meera.
While I despise dealing with other gamers, the discussion we had was most enlightening.
Specifically, about the economics of the gamer shop.
Strictly speaking, I tried to only use money when making deals with the shop, partially because I was a loot goblin, but mostly because it was something that remained a tangible asset that didn't change in value very much.
When you start trading favors, items and other trade-like bargains, the price would rise and fall based on the popularity of genre's at any given time.
Iconic items always retained higher values because they were always in demand, such as harry potter worlds, Naruto, One piece, or other wildly popular universes.
These were the type of universes that you wanted to retain ownership of because they could generate unfathomable amounts of wealth if you had the right skills and abilities.
A perfect pair of sharingan eyes could generate hundreds of trillions of dollars if you sold it to one of the many Naruto fans amongst the gamers.
Personally, a set of eyes that can copy anything that they see didn't have a particular appeal to me. What if you see something you'd rather forget? The eyes would basically engrave every traumatic experience on your psyche whether you want it or not.
I don't particularly know if that's exactly what the eyes do, but still . . .
If I ever have to set up a meeting like that again, I'm going to push for a zoom call or something.
I've had way too many interactions with other gamers in the last fifty years, and a bit of abstinence is good for the soul supposedly.
Shaking off those thoughts, I pull out my most recent report of Blackwall mining.
This was the main project I had Sasha working on as we slowly sectioned off portions of the pre-DataKrash net, and scanned it for useable data. This would finish up with scrubbing the code of malicious systems and then adding the new code back into the infrastructure.
Bartmoss's RABIDS virus was always cropping up in the sandboxed environment before trying to expunge everything in the immediate area, but Sasha has gotten pretty good at purging the malicious code before it could do any serious damage.
Most of what was recovered so far was all third-tier data in the grand scheme of things. Old schedules, no longer used projects, and other data that corporations no longer deem useful fell into this category.
But this kind of data could be considered the diamonds in the rough.
Why build something brand-new when there was already a system in place for it? This data provided all sorts of exploits and back doors into preexisting software for hundreds of corporations around the world.
This gave me the capability to crash a corporation's infrastructure at the press of a button.
Overnight, I could make every piece of Arasaka cyberware useless, but that's the type of weapon I couldn't justify using right now.
One might argue that using the worldwide confusion is the perfect opportunity, but I'm not angling to pad my bottom line with the awakening.
It's far more useful to use the exploit to spy and alter their data streams to my benefit.
This has allowed me to own a whole five percent of the company in question, and I think I can take ownership of twenty-eight percent before someone will take notice.
[Monk Tavish POV]
Wandering through the Runed archway I had created, I lay my eyes on the disciples tilling the fields within this dimension.
I had created a floating island within the space that would gradually grow over time.
This was all thanks to a stabilizer that I had been working on for quite a while.
[World Tree] (God-Tier)
A tree capable of giving life to worlds and generates mana on its most natural form.
With plenty of love and care it will expand the world around you.
The massive tree towered over the island's center, as my various disciples scurried around its base.
When I initially showed them the area, many of them looked to me in reverence, and even a little bit of fear before I started showing them what the area was for.
The concept of being able to raise their own crops excited many and was a new activity that they took to with a vengeance.
Living and training area's started developing within a short period of time and it wasn't long before some of the disciples had full time jobs of just minding the farm.
Tray had come back from his travels for a little bit and dropped off a large bundle of the exotic plants that had cropped up since the awakening before departing once more.
These plants we tried to grow with some mixed results but without much in the way of a research capability, we offered a partnership with horizon to sell off our crop.
This allowed for the Corpo body to subtly reinforce our defenses against the various corporations and gangs sneaking people in.
The monastery was slowly growing to be self-sufficient, as more and more people started using this as an area of quiet contemplation.
Hopefully, we could start donating our excess crops soon. I had a few orphanages and charities that would benefit from an influx of fresh food.
Just about anywhere that had a reliable source of fresh fruits and vegetables would gain benefit from not consuming the chemical laced pre-pack that is offered throughout Night City.
And the less said about kibble, the better.
Glancing around, I open another portal and walk through to my private farming dimension and got to work with my daily tasks.
Most everything here was taken care of by drones, but I occasionally chipped in, especially for the exotic foods from the gourmet world.
The rainbow fruit tree was one of my pride and joys as I had managed to cultivate the fruit through my own efforts, and continued on to create alcohol from the fruits.
The wine and the beer were hits in the Tavern, and I tried distilling it as a vodka with limited success.
My latest experiment, was attempting to use it to create mead. I was trying two different types of honey for the brew. One originated from the rock bee colonies I've been tending to, while the other came from the Honey Dragon's that I found in the wilds of the gourmet world.
I let the rock bee colonies roam freely in this dimension, but I hadn't figured out how to pacify and bring the abnormally aggressive Honey Dragon's here.
Hmm, something to investigate when I have more space in here.
The floating island here had finally grown big enough that I was debating on adding some livestock to supplement the farm.
I produce quite a large amount of fruit and vegetables just through this private dimension, and they supplemented a lot of my income through the gamer's shop, so I started expanding on my hobby a bit.
A mill was set up to create flour and a bakery was developed to cook bread, and a large percentage of the extra produce was jarred, pickled, or canned.
My inner Foodgician was singing at the plethora of ingredients to work with as I developed new and innovative ways to work with the food I grew.
I just recently finished a batch of kimchi that I was quite happy with, but it made me think about other ingredients I could work with.
Like fish for instance.
Maybe I should work on having a small hatchery introduced into this dimension.
I'd really like salmon, but I'd feel like I'm doing them a disservice by having them in such a small area.
And that was something that may involve another deep dive into spatial magics.
Chuckling at how far down the rabbit hole my mind went, I finish checking on the crops before heading back to the monastery.
Recently, Lizzy did the ad for the tea company, and it had the additional side benefit of bringing even more attention to the Shambali religion.
Considering that it was shot right before the awakening, I think it would fall short of the most notable thing that occurred during the awakening.
Not a single racial change occurred amongst the disciples.
The only reason I can possibly think of as to why it didn't happen, was that the followers were already learning how to harness a type of mana before the transformation, and that may have prevented any additional changes from taking hold.
This caused hundreds of people to flock to the monastery in hopes of a "cure" for their changes, but outside of altering their existing cyberware to their new form, we had no help we could give them.
I felt a bit bad for some of them so I thought up a way to transfer their mind into a race of their choice using my stolen Relic tech.
Just copy the existing mind into the flesh clone of the customer's choice, and your good to go.
The corpo body would be able to utilize that, but I have a feeling he'd have to put a very high price tag on that particular procedure.
[Fixer Tavish]
Hello world! One might be wondering how yet another body was brought into existence.
My hypothesis mostly centered around the fact that I think the corpo body simply said "fuck this shit" and created another mechanical body.
I don't mind the data processing and chess games that I have to play for my roll, but I could have done without some of the creative liberties he has taken with my form.
He was probably thinking that he could kill two birds with one stone by having me test out the "dryder" cybernetics from the mythos line, but it did make it harder to meet and interview new clients.
I had to make some personal modifications to my chassis to grant myself a bipedal set of legs for some of the day-to-day tasks, but I did see some of the benefits of the altered form.
The body itself contains a massive amount of additional processing power with additional data ports.
Its possible that I was needed because corpo Tavish needed to have "Tavish's" decision making capabilities in this roll, but couldn't do it himself.
Regardless, I barely have enough time to record in this journal in addition to the information that is being fed into my brain.
It started as a bit of a side project during my adventures as a dragon, but I decided it would be beneficial to leave a copy of all my knowledge to be stored at the fortress in case something devastating should occur.
All of my advancements in magic are currently being categorized in the data base "Akashic Grimoire", which when activated will allow the free use of all my magics.
I'm slowly developing the entire network of databases categorically with safeguards that will allow for quick disconnect in the event of system compromise.
Is this the equivalent of a wizard keeping multiple spell books?
The Cyberdemon class is just about maxed out, so maybe I should try a mage next to find out.
I have about four weeks left before Eleanor's birthday, so I imagine I have until then to wrap up any of my more pressing activities.
With Smasher dead, and Faraday's body recently found in a scav haunt, there is precious little left for me to mess with.
David seems to be backing away from his edgerunner activities, allowing me to free up monitoring resources for other projects.
Oddly enough, the corpo body is stuck on a "spider esq" theme for all of his designs, his latest creations being the "Arachnoid", the "Spyder's", and the "Spider tank".
The arachnoid is a large predator that was added to the Zero Dawn machines as a machine hunter, designed to hunt down rouge machines if their programming goes haywire.
While it is an impressive machine, it is simply a redundancy on top of another redundancy for our strict tracking system for all machines. I think that he's going a bit overboard with safety measures, but I digress.
The Spyder, is a drone type that can vary from the size of a soda can, to the size of a large dog depending on mission requirements.
This one makes a lot more logical sense, as it could serve as the perfect espionage tool for long term missions, or even assassinations if we can't be bothered to deal with issues ourselves.
Then there is the Spider tank . . . .
. . . . I can think of no other reason than Tavish was bored.
Think of a tank or armored vehicle, and then imagine a madman making a giant robot spider and attaching as many of those armaments as possible to said robot spider.
The Chaingun, grapple launchers, and missiles I could understand. Maybe even the bladed appendages on the front . . . but how the holy fuck did he manage to install the 110mm cannon on that thing?!
There is no way someone isn't going to question how the hell that happened, or why horizon needs such weaponry, and that's without even looking at anything under our black budget divisions.
Antimatter weaponry, plasma armaments and nano virus bombs are just toys compared to the planet breakers we have in development.
I had to start developing some space-based real-estate after I became aware of the last one.
Looking back through the designs for Rapture, they were quite close to having built what amounts to a functioning space station at the bottom of the ocean, so building habitats on inhospitable planets wasn't out of the question.
It wouldn't suffice for the construction of satellite's however, so I've been experimenting with several habitation modules floating in Earth's orbit, and trying to come up with long term solutions.
I seriously doubt anything on this planet would push me to destroy it, this was more for deep space mining expeditions, or settling uncharted worlds.
Either way, I'm getting reports of a surge of gang activity, so I better wrap this up for now!
[Monk Tavish]
Funnily enough, the Tyger Claws had managed to escape pissing me off until just as I was getting ready to leave.
I needed to let the world catch up to my very thorough preparations so that I could react accordingly, and I figured I'd be gone a few years if Eleanor wanted to go to magic school.
But at the moment, I needed to resolve this shit.
My followers come from all walks of life, from the depths of the slums to the most vaunted towers in corpo plaza, so various gangs were no exception.
Maelstromers tended to clash with us, while the Valentinos followed the good teachings of Santa Muerte. The Animals were generally neutral along with 6th street, bringing us to the subject of the last two gangs.
The Mox was generally neutral, but a few of its members had found their way amongst my followers.
So when a few of them came stumbling through the doors sporting bullet wounds, it certainly raised some eyebrows, but they were gang members so they were patched up without much of an afterthought.
It was only when they revealed the tale of the ongoing Tyger Claws attack at Lizzy's Bar did I debate on taking action.
I was hesitant on getting involved in a gang war again, I was supposed to be running a religion after all.
But the Tyger Claws were most helpful in resolving that particular dilemma.
The rounds of machine gun fire from the street, the handful of grenades, and the vandalism of the walls outside was quite the incentive.
Looks like we're off to help out the Mox.
Perk Activated!
[Doom Cycle]
My robe flapped in the wind behind me as the tracks of the bike ripped me towards its destination.
Not too far behind, several of my more advanced students followed as we went to resolve this issue.
The sounds of gunfire got louder as we rolled into Kabuki, reaching a cacophony when you turn onto the street of Lizzy's Bar.
The Neon sign flickered dimly in the rain, part of it shorted out from the resulting firefight out front.
SMG's rattled out onto the night as the battle continued, and I drifted the corner to reveal the fight itself as the bouncers fired shotguns at the cars the Claws were hiding behind as they exchanged bullets.
Reving the bike, the front track ripped up asphalt as I roared towards the surprised Tygers, the track hitting the first ganger square in the chest, ripping him open like a feral animal.
The monk off to my left veered off and parked running towards a downed Mox member, his hands glowing gold as he closed her wounds.
On my right, I can see my disciple get of the bike before her muscles bulk up and a swarm of nanites surrounds her, tearing into the remaining Tyger's.
Hitting the brake on the front track, I pivot the bike and slam the back track through another Tyger's head, splashing his friends with skull fragments.
"Peace be upon you, bitch." I growl, throwing an orb at a ganger struggling to get away.
The ganger's head explodes and I recall the suspiciously clean orb back to my hand.
Turning back around, I can see Mizzy, and Corvus finishing up the remaining gangers, and the Mox coming out from behind their cover.
"Well ladies, I think I've seen everything. A bunch of monks forgoing their ways of peace and harmony in favor of kicking the shit out of some Tyger Claws." A familiar voice joked and I turned to lay eyes on Rita.
Unfortunately, not the version of Rita I know.
In the other reality, I hung out with both Rita and Judy periodically, but here I had no association with them.
Still, its good to see that she's doing alright.
"We strive for harmony in all things, up until they decided to toss a few grenades my way, then the prayer beads came off." I reply diplomatically, and the bouncer chuckled.
"Seriously, thanks for the assist. These firefights are really causing our business to drop." She commented, as the other Mox started cleaning up for the arrival of the NCPD.
Those guys needed to get their shit together, I realize that they were probably bought off so that they'd show up after the matter, but seriously, they could make it less obvious.
"Hell of a lot friendlier than the last group of monks anyway." She stated airily, causing me to sigh.
"Look, I'm all for that kumbaya bullshit, but they need to accept a little bit of change in the world. Their asinine views towards cybernetics isn't winning them any friends. Especially after the awakening." I reply, scanning my eyes over the Mox.
Most of them appeared to retain a human appearance though I can see a few of them possess pointed ears.
"Speaking of which, were the Mox hit by the same transformations plaguing the rest of the world at the moment?" I question, watching several of the ganger's glance between each other guardedly.
"That would depend on why you want to know cutie!" Rita answered, swinging her bat up onto her shoulder.
"No particular reason. I just thought it would be neighborly to pass on that the Shambali temple is treating those with cybernetic issues in regards to the transformation. I also happen to know a Ripper that is quite capable of replacing the cyberware for changed anatomy." I comment airily, and Rita gives me a cocky grin.
"Your quite altruistic today Mr. Mondatta. What might you be expecting in exchange for such a tidbit?" She asked, faking a posh accent, causing me to cackle internally.
"Ah, just take it as the idle musings of an old man, and maybe lend a hand as we exterminate a mutual pest problem." I answer, and she shrugs.
"We'll take your offer into account, but we will have to decline your generous offer for now." Rita comments, and I shrug.
Honestly, I was just giving them lip service, I fully planned on just simply eradicating the entire gang tonight.
The newly created spyder drones were being released in mass, as they stealthily took up positions around the city.
I imagine that by tomorrow morning's news, the mystery deaths will draw attention away from whatever shenanigans that I will have done to take over their assets.
[Time Skip]
[Ripper Tavish POV]
"Hello, I'm Arif Iqubol and you're listening to WNS News!"
"Night City is still reeling from the very sudden purge of the Tyger Claws gang from Night City."
"The infamous gang all had an identical method of death; a single plasma wound to the head, which has the NCPD up in arms about a mass murdering cult.
"However, even four weeks in, there is still no sign of who could pull this off at the exact same time in thousands of different locations."
"Police's initial suspect, Tavarius Ouranos, the CEO of the company Horizon, was finally cleared of suspicion after they found no evidence to actually link the CEO or his company to the crime."
"Mr. Ouranos, was initially suspected because of how quick he acquired some of the former gang's assets, was very forthcoming in assisting the police to clear his and the companies name from the suspect list."
"The most notable thing about this case was it the first blatant use of plasma as a weapon. Many corporations are rumored to be developing energy-based weapons, but this was the first indicator of it succeeding.
"We now go live to our expert from. . ." the newscaster was cut off as I turn off the TV and go back to decorating Eleanor's cake.
She asked for a carrot cake, which was fairly easy to make, I was just reflecting on the Corpo bodies actions in the past few weeks.
Apparently, the dragon body has a couple of hidden perks that waited to reveal themselves.
Did I say perks? I meant detriments . . .
[Lair]
If you reside in one place long enough, you can designate an area as your "Lair". This infuses a location with your power, and allows it to grow with the more treasure you add to your horde.
[Territorial]
You are fiercely protective of your territory, and will go to all costs to protect what is yours.
[Treasure Sense]
You can now detect items of value, thanks to your inner loot goblin!
The dragon body never resided for very long in a single place, so it never came up before, but it was definitely noticed when the corpo almost lost his shit when someone borrowed his stapler.
Apparently, items of value was very subjective when it came to the dragon.
This didn't, however, stop the corpo body from going on nightly "loot" hunts to expand its valuables.
It didn't stop until he was stretched out over a pile of gold bars that was quickly stashed away in an underground facility.
Thankfully, his meeting with Megan was without issues, and we were able to set up a mutually beneficial partnership.
She was especially insistent that Militech have no involvement, but that was fine by me.
I'm just glad that she didn't notice any of the spatial anomalies that were prevalent in Pacifica.
Since the corpo body had established his "lair" in that area, the environment would occasionally display pockets of power associated with the dragon form.
This had the small positive effect of suffusing Pacifica with origin energies, breathing life into the once devastated plant life.
But the other energies were the problem.
Time, Space and End energies could be found in little pockets all over the district. And while they have been benevolent thus far, I know its only a matter of time before it starts causing problems.
Best case scenario, a few people accidentally get wiped from existence.
Worst case . . . I might need to move realities.
Regardless, I am in the process of developing methods to harness the excess energies so they aren't interfering with other people.
Finishing the frosting on the cake, I raise a hand over it and a magic circle of gallifreyan forms over it as the frosting straightens out and shifts into a highly complex design.
One might think I was just toying with some Foodgician magics, but this was in fact a leap forward into the realms of magic.
Transfiguration!
[New Class Acquired!]
Mage (Common) (1/500)
A beginner that studies the intricacies of magic and can use this knowledge to affect the world around them. They have just set foot into the realms of the arcane, and typically know only a few schools of magic.
Unfortunately, I was having to invent magic as I go, considering I had next to no grimoires to study, so I was just channeling as much mana as needed to affect the world around me.
[Basic Household Magic]
A Mage sometimes does not have the time to clean, so they invented a special branch so they could get back to their studies.
The one true grimoire I possessed was the Oceanic Record. This grimoire possessed spells developed by Oceanus's kingdom, that were developed during the Titanomachy, and were more on the scale of natural disasters than proper spells.
My Elementalism, while a nature magic in its own right, focused more on bending the elements to my need's verses proper spells.
Mind you, I still knew how to cast fireball.
I'm not barbaric for fuck's sake!
[Time Skip]
I open a portal into the empty halls of Rapture, closely followed by Eleanor, as we go to visit her mother.
She wanted to visit after the festivities, and I wasn't going to refuse.
This dimension isn't frozen in time thanks to my active projects in the background.
Skitarii finished cleaning out the city, and proceeded to switch to repair duty, restoring the underwater city to its former glory, allowing me to implement certain projects while keeping a careful eye on Rapture's final resident.
Harley occasionally made the trip down to work her magic as a psychologist on Lamb, but she was working at a disadvantage considering her patient was also a psychologist in her own right.
"Dad, am I doing the right thing?" Eleanor asked breaking the silence that had settled as we walk towards her mother's prison.
"Probably? Its been awhile since we've been back to this place. Who's to say if she's changed at all, if any. The only reason she still resides here, is at your request, so the question becomes, do you think this is the right thing?" I return, the bulkhead door opening as we approach.
"It's been a few years, but if she truly hasn't changed after all this time, I see no purpose in extending the olive branch." She replied cooly, causing me to nod in acknowledgment.
The final door opens revealing Sofia Lamb in her cell, several books lay scattered around the room as she stands facing away from us.
"I knew you'd come back to me Eleanor, my daughter." Sofia said serenely, turning to face us only for her face to morph to one of shock at Eleanor's new appearance.
The extra age lines made her scowl much harsher as the actual time that had passed was reflected in her face.
"Eleanor, what have you done to yourself?!" Sofia's voice echoed out in a deadly whisper.
"What I needed to survive. Your little experiments were causing my body to fall apart at the cellular level. So, Dad adopted me properly to ensure that I didn't die." She bit back, and Sofia looked at me darkly.
"Don't look at him like that! He effectively is ambivalent to your entire existence. The fact your even still alive is thanks to him." Eleanor snarled, red argent arcing around her fists.
"I take it that all my work towards the perfect utopian is lost then?" Sofia replies scathingly, and Eleanor's face suddenly loses all emotion before turning to me.
"I think I'm done Dad. I don't want to come back here." She states blandly, before she turn's and walks out of the room.
I observe lamb for a moment, before I snap my fingers and she freezes in time.
"I could guess at the direction today's meeting would take Lamb. I really thought about what to do with you. A penitent machine came to mind. But your mind is too dangerous to leave you to your own devices. So I guess this is goodbye forever." I state, her prison walls vanishing.
A wall of End energy wrapped around her and removed her from existence, leaving not a single spec of Rapture's last resident.
Turning and following after Eleanor, pulling a present out of my inventory.
I found her sitting up against the wall in the reception area, drumming her fingers against the table in contemplation.
"I don't know what I was expecting, but she's still focused on her perfect utopian." She said, flipping up a pencil that she had found, and watched it clatter into a cup.
"Still no excuse to make our birthday girl sad, so I got something special." I state cheerfully, setting the present down in front of her.
"You're the only person I know who could be so cheery after offing someone." She replied dryly, as she started unwrapping her gift.
She reached into the box and pulled out the token, a Hogwarts badge, and a stuffed owl.
"What on earth?" She asked, puzzled by the token.
"Not ours to be precise my dear. Care to go on an adventure to visit some wizards?" I ask, as her expression dawns in realization.
"How did . . . ?" she starts to ask, and I hold up a finger to my lips.
"Lets just say dad had to make a few deals. Just be aware stuff might be a little different than what your expecting." I reply, quickly getting engulfed in a hug.
"You know, most parents don't gift their children with trips to another reality." I hear her muffled voice in my shoulder.
"Yeah, well don't expect it every year sweetheart." I reply chuckling.
She holds the token for a moment before she holds it out to me.
"Ready to go Dad?" She asked, and I grasp the other half of the token.
"Always Ellie!" I answer, and we snap the token together, and we fall through the portal that opens beneath us.
[Omake: A Happy New Year!]
[Tardis Tavern]
[Tavish POV]
I hum to myself as I set out more food, almost bumping into Hestia as she maneuvers around my kitchen.
"You know Tavish, whatever happened to Father after you imprisoned him?" She asked curiously, as she started slicing pies and cakes for the party roaring around us.
"Stripped him of his power and kinda implanted it into myself." I stated offhandedly, as Macha approached the preparation area.
"Really? Is he faded then?" She asked as I make a so-so gesture.
"The Titan is dead, but I have yet to see if he'll come back or not." I answer, and I feel Macha's arm wrap around my waist.
"Hestia, I hate to ask, but can I borrow this delightful young man for a bit? The young gods you brought to the party keep eying me over, and I'd hate for them to get any idea's." She interjects and the motherly goddess waves her on.
"Run along you two, and make sure to get a few dances in!" She said, shooing me away from my own kitchen.
My arm was quickly enveloped by Macha's as she spun me out onto the dance floor.
"Even after all this time, you'd think I'd have managed to find out how you got to be a good dance partner." She whispered in my ear as I match her step for step, as we dance onto the floor.
"Believe me, the stories not that special. I was very drunk and my friend liked to go clubbing." I mumble back and she tosses her head back in laughter.
"Aw Tavish my dear~! Those stories are always the best ones!" she replied, the countdown for the end of the year appearing on the moon far above.
How the mortals didn't see what the moon gods do for celebration, is beyond me, but that didn't stop me from joining in for the countdown.
10!
9!
8!
7!
6!
5!
4!
3!
2!
1!
Happy New Year!
Macha grabbed my face and planted a kiss directly on my lips as the surrounding visitors of the Tavern brought in the new year.
"I'll see you soon love!" She whispers, and vanishes in a swirl of black feathers.
"I always forget that she's the representation of the Morrigán." I chuckle as I mull over what she might mean.
Spotting a glass, I pour myself a tall glass of rainbow fruit wine.
Glancing up at the faceless beings staring down at my existence, I raise the glass to them.
"Cheer's folks! Thanks for taking the time to read my story, and have a wonderful New Year!" I call out, quaffing the entire drink.