Star City
July 9, 8:03
In the Cyberpunk games and then the data pad, it had been made clear that implants were not particularly difficult to install, even by a ripper or doctor who had only dabbled in the profession.
Due to advancements in the area of surgery and general healing, a willing patient's head could be split open, have the equivalent of major surgery done on their brain, and they'd be on their feet heading home the same day.
Such was the scene below me. Through an observation window that allowed two way vision, I watched the operations of eight new recruits, each undergoing procedures as part of their agreement to join SHIELD.
In the past week, I'd scouted lots of potential members, most of them veterans with disabilities, some more obvious than others. I'd learned dozens of discomforting facts about retired soldiers in this country and the world at large.
Calling the reality shocking would be an understatement.
What did you mean seventeen veterans committed suicide every single day? Every. Fucking. Day. It could be happening right now! In fact, not could. It was happening right now. It was such an insane thing to fathom. Cause what the hell?
Something like this possibly couldn't have gone unnoticed by the people or organisations in charge of veteran welfare and whatnot. I wasn't even gonna say the government, because expecting competence from them was like waiting for rain in the desert. It was rare as fuck.
Back in my old life, eye opening truths like this hit hard but failed to stick beyond a few days or weeks. Because in the end, what could a lone person, much less an aimless one, possibly do about the situation?
That wasn't the case anymore. Thankfully. With the various construction and development projects we'd started and the purchases we'd made with the forty something million I got from the deal with Batman, that money would be on its last legs soon.
That had stopped being a problem long ago though. Not since I converted the sum of Ra's al Ghul's memories into a digital, consumable format. At over 700 years old, the defeated and imprisoned Demon's head had every right to call himself the world's richest man.
At least before I came along.
The long list of bursting bank accounts, hidden stashes of treasure across the globe, company shares, and properties so numerous I could visit a new one each week and I wouldn't stop till I was ninety had all fallen into my grasp.
I was still a lone person, but all that wealth had changed things. The ridiculous solutions to the equally ridiculous situations didn't seem so crazy anymore. Nothing or no one could stop me right now if I discreetly transferred a million dollars into every struggling veteran's account.
Except common sense and foresight.
How many movies and shows had I watched and heard the phrase "you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it" come up at least once? Too many to count.
Now that I held the position of the world's richest man, the temptation to say "if so, then you're not throwing enough of it," was strong, but it wasn't from a place of indignance, but rather humor.
Because sitting on all this money was filling my head with thoughts of distributing it. "Share it. Share it. Share it."
Already aware of how that path wouldn't be the optimum way to do things, I shook my head and focused on the various implantations going on. The giant room below had been separate cubicles, and each contained a fresh recruit with at least one doctor.
In the past week I'd personally vetted each and every one of these guys. And this was after the extensive background check Mike had done. I'm talking social media posts and stuff that went all the way back to high school.
Cyberpunk's lie detection programs were products that had already gone through repeated improvements and intense testing to ensure they received as accurate results as humanly possible.
Turns out it was difficult to maintain loyalty when your employment structures amounted to outright slavery if a few key parts were done away with. Who knew?
These programs, from Arasaka and Militech to be precise, had both been compared by yours truly, stripped to their bare nothings, rebuilt from the ground up, and then merged into a uniform whole.
A dashing of the incomplete and formerly abandoned algorithm modeled after Spider-Sense had been sprinkled into it. This, in conjunction with psi tech detectors, improved the technology beyond its original function of lie detection.
Lies were not only paper thin before it, it could predict the next words of someone under scrutiny with 97.2 percent accuracy. And next words didn't mean only those that were said.
Psi tech could already read and convert intent and thoughts behind them. But not intent and thoughts a user didn't input or didn't want to be known. The improved lie detector picked up on these hidden thoughts and unsaid words.
It had essentially become a mind reader. I had created a device that could read minds… accidentally. Sure, it was mere surface thoughts, but this showed that it was possible.
I mean, Soulkiller already proved this, but its nasty side effects were adamant in staying with the technology despite the wealth of tests and improvements I'd done. If I combined a toned down version of it with this super lie detector however, I'd have more than surface thoughts.
"Sir, we're here."
A thought connected to the comm device implanted in the area right below my ear and I opened the channel on my end.
"Received. On my way."
I spared a last glance at the surgeries, some which were coming to an end and others still in full swing. There were many things on my SHIELD to-do list and I needed men to tackle them. Hopefully, by the end of the month, we'd have the hundred man team I was going for.
"Deploy the containment module," I mumbled and made my way to the building's roof. Outside, I took a few steps forward, looked around and then straight up with a hand shielding my eyes from the sun.
The cloaked form of the larger Zephyr II and the module I asked for were picked up by my special contacts and I took a step back. A rush of wind and dust hit me and the module decloaked, its white doors opening.
Briefly, I wondered if white was the way to go and went inside, using my higher clearance to send it back up. It flew into the ship's ventral bay and docked with it before getting pulled into its interior.
The doors flew open with a hiss and I stepped out, only to be greeted by two of the five new agents that had gone through the required processes of vetting, a full health checkup (physical and mental) and finally, cyberware upgrade.
"Sir," one of them, Amos, saluted and stood at attention when I walked into the cargo hold. As I'd related with them since the very beginning, I showed no emotion at the gesture and simply nodded at him and the rest while they chuckled among themselves.
They all knew who I was—just some rich guy who wanted to play hero another way—so they took it pretty easily when I told them salutes and the like weren't necessary. However, Amos… dude was a stickler for hierarchy, so I let him.
Amos relaxed after my nod and opened his mouth to say something, but Rin beat him to it.
"Heard you have a mission for us sir," the Korean-American woman said, her arms crossed over her chest, looking much more athletic and muscular than when we first met.
No one said synthetic muscles that gave you the strength of a strongman didn't have to look good.
"Yes," I answered and glanced at the two SUVs parked on the ramp. "Hugh and Laski. Where are they?"
"Training sir," answered Amos.
"Hm," I nodded and started walking. "Get them and meet us in the command area. Rin, with me."
""Yes sir.""
Zephyr II's size eclipsed its predecessor's own by more than a hundred percent. In this way it was more accurate and closer to its inspiration, especially when you took into consideration the similar design and compartments, emblem, and color scheme.
"How are the implants?" I asked when we reached the command area and slotted myself behind the giant touch screen table in the middle of the space.
"They're perfect," Rin responded and caressed her skin. "Can't even tell the difference between this and the real thing."
"Hmm… that was the goal. To create as little disconnect as possible. And why I mandated those therapy sessions."
"Sir… I—"
"You didn't miss yours. But you were purposely late."
"Si—"
"I'm not done," I held a finger up and kept tapping away at the screen. "What did you say you wanted when I came to you with the offer?"
"...That I wanted to put my skills to use again. To make something of the life I'd chosen. To do this again."
"And what did you agree to in exchange for getting that?"
"Total adherence to the conditions stipulated in the contract."
Amos and the others—including Economos, our Analyst, walked in, silent and observant.
"Good. I won't ask why you're resistant to the idea of therapy or even blame you for being late. That isn't what this is. I just need you to be aware of what's at stake. What we're doing here, what I'm trying do… has a lot of potential to go wrong. That's why I put all those measures in place so some of those preventable things do not happen."
"This goes to everyone here. What we do here has the potential to save a lot of lives. But only if we're at the top of our game. So please, let's take every part of this, even the ones that might seem bothersome or easy, as seriously as possible. Am I clear?"
""Clear."" "Loud and clear." "Sir yes sir."
"Okay," I nodded and brought up a couple of maps on the table. Everyone huddled up without me telling them to and I started the briefing.
"You all are aware of the attack three weeks ago," I said and pulled up videos of the Kobra brutes.
"Yeah. I remember these guys," said Economos. "They wreaked havoc in multiple cities, attacking anyone and everything like a bunch of animals."
"People died," Laski added.
"Yes. And many more were injured. Some who will may recover."
The mood in the room changed slowly. Everyone was suddenly seeing things from my perspective, especially when they saw the League members tangoing with the brutes.
"The League successfully defeated and contained them, but the person who supplied the drug that transformed them is still at large."
"Do we know who they are? And what drug it is?"
"Yes and yes," I said, earning surprised and intense stares from across the table.
"What? You didn't think I was joking when I said I had connections did you? Come on, focus."
Placing a hand over an image of a Kobra-Venom vial, I lifted and turned it into a 3D hologram and continued my explanation.
"This is Kobra-Venom. A mixture of the steroid Venom and an unknown second component. A single injection permanently changes you into this—" I brought up a hologram of a brute. "Ugly but with super strength and the ability to ignore bullets."
"This is where we come in. I am working with STAR Labs to create a treatment that can reverse the process. For that, we need the DNA of the brutes from before they transformed. And that's where you guys come in. Economos…" I gave him the floor, or in this case, the table.
"Right," he said and set a case down on it. "Most of the uh… Kobra brutes do not have any addresses listed. Those we managed to locate are–" he changed the display on the table back to the maps, "-here. Thirty four locations spread out in all these cities, and only eleven of them have other occupants."
This is when I jumped back in.
"Your first mission is to visit each and everyone of these places and obtain the DNA we need."
Economos opened the case and pushed it towards me.
"You'll have these to help you," I said and removed the devices from it and passed them to the guys.
"And I've contacted the residences with occupants so they know to expect you."
I looked at Economos, nodding in appreciation. "Good work."
"Thank you sir."
"Alright," I focused back on the four. "Inside the tiny cases you'll find contact lenses. Put them on."
I waited for them to finish and continued. "The HUD should be coming online now. The lenses can identify things and people. Just focus on what you want to know more about and it'll work. For this mission, they have been updated with guides that should help you obtain what we need."
"These," I removed multiple of two devices, one the size of a lighter and the other a matchbox. "Will help you get past any lock and also confirm the validity of the DNA you do find in the field. I passed copies to the four and continued.
"You'll be split into teams of two. Rin, you're with Amos. Hugh and Laski, you guys go together. Economos will assign you the locations and be your eyes and ears up here. This is a simple retrieval mission, so civies only and all rounds should be set to non-lethal. Any questions?"
"One, sir," Amos raised his hand. "What if we encounter resistance?"
"I'll leave that up to you guys. Exercise your own judgement. Just know that your performance will be evaluated and will go a long way. Remember what I said; I don't want soldiers. I want people who can do things heroes do. Just without the costumes. Any more questions?"
Amos stood at attention. "No sir."
The others nodded and I dismissed all of them, including Economos.
"Get going."
They left me alone in the command area and I did a quick check-in with the pilot, Sam, informing him of the mission. As a first assignment, it was relatively low risk, and it kinda reminded me of the Cadmus mission.
That one wasn't low risk however, just with variables that were easily predicted. But that wasn't what I was interested in. In a few months, I'd gone from being assigned missions to assigning them, and boy did that leave me feeling unprepared.
"Who did I think I was?" is what I asked myself too many a time, but the answer remained unchanged. Just someone who doesn't want to waste his life a second time.
So in an effort to quell these doubts, I did what one could do in this situation; improve.
Ra's al Ghul's deciphered memories were a treasure trove of knowledge, not just related to wealth, martial arts, business practices and whatnot, but organizing a large group of people and the use of strategy and tactics.
Mike was only halfway done with the information, but there was enough to occupy my time. Something that I'd become familiar with had another thing in mind though.
Action: Create SHIELD and issue your first mission as director.
Reward: Mystic Eyes of Permanence (400 CP). Shadow Name (100 CP).
Information surged into my mind painlessly, some of it explaining why I was suddenly blinking uncontrollably.
When the uncomfortable sensation in my eyes stopped, the world looked no different, but I had fully understood what my latest reward entailed.
Without hesitation, I left the command area and went to a store room. Right outside the door which I held open, I chanted the words of a dimension altering spell and seeped my magic into the room.
Reality bent to my desires and the room expanded, the space that made up its interior suddenly magnified. The walls and the shelves that stood close to them grew farther apart and the closet space became the size of a small room.
And this had taken a single application of magic and nothing else.
Faust would've needed to constantly funnel his own energy to maintain the change or use an external font. The mystic eyes I just received did that for me, locking the alteration in time, and I couldn't wait to see what other possibilities it had opened up.
[New Perks]
Name: Mystic Eyes of Permanence
Description: Your unusual blood has manifested in the form of a unique set of eyes. These eyes give you the ability to see the structure of magical effects, and spend your own mana to optimize those effects, extending their duration indefinitely. You can create magical flames that burn without fuel, force walls that endure for years, enchantments that never fade, perpetual constructs, and more. Magic you create or modify with the Eyes can still be broken or dispelled, but will remain forever if left undisturbed.
Cost: 400 CP
Source: Celestial Forge
Name: Shadow Name
Description: All mages possess a shadow name, one different from their given one so as to minimize the threat of a sympathetic assault. Yours is a bit better than that however. Your real name is completely obfuscated by your shadow name. Any attempt at mystical divination of your true name reveals only your shadow name and any mundane attempt to find your real name finds only strangely edited but impossible to decipher records. The only way anyone can find out your true given name is if you tell them. Any other attempts are categorically doomed to failure.
Cost: 100 CP
Source: Celestial Grimoire
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