Bastard and the Beast

by Nalledia

Ex-CTAC agent Gabriel Reyes retired to work as a police captain on a semi-urbanized planet, and is left to deal with a biotech called Jack, too smart to be an AI, too advanced to be a piloted beastie. With rising illegal biotech rings, Shimada Labs relocating to his planet, and Jack, Gabe has found excitement he thought he'd lost after retiring from CTAC. OW/LD R/Altered Carbon AU

1. Prologue

Overwatch/Love, Death + Robots Crossover

Fanfiction

Disclaimer:

I do not own Overwatch or any of the characters or game dialog, nor do I own Love, Death + Robots or any of those characters; and finally, this too, applies to Altered Carbon. The rest of the characters are mine. Enjoy and please review!

As a bit of background, this is a Sonny's Edge crossover, with a dash of Altered Carbon in the larger AU setup, that a friend and I came up with after aggressively binging Love, Death + Robots a good long while ago. We developed it further in an rp, which I eventually took and ran with to bring you this fic. While my friend is not actively assisting in writing this particular version, she has been pretty instrumental in helping me set it up.

Dialogue will work differently for the beasties/pilots-in-beastie form. Their standard speech will be in italics, subconscious thoughts or thoughts-under-thoughts will be italic with a strikethrough (if FanFic dot Net will allow, otherwise they will be underlined), and when the beasties are connected to speakers, they will have standard dialogue but everything will be in italics. I hope this makes sense, and if not, that it will make sense when you read it:)

Hope y'all enjoy it, and drop a comment if you do!

Prologue

They crashed in against the walls of the laboratory complex, as forceful and unrelenting as the tsunami that swept inland and wreaked destruction.

True, they were only human, and true, the doors and walls were made of concrete and steel and impassable synthetic fibres, but even that could break.

And it did.

But not before the last techs, mechanics, doctors, and biomechanical engineers did their best to squirrel away the likely-permanently lifeless sleeves, preserving them for a better time, more advanced technology; herding out the beasts they'd helped create and scatter them to the wind, praying they would get far enough before they were found.

Praying that they would be able to stand together.

Praying that no more would fall to madness, to instinct.

Praying that there would be no other to fall to someone's prey.

Praying that one day they could fix what their help had accidentally broken.

---

Protestors rally around the lab

Scientists refuse Colonial Tactical Assault Corps (CTAC) access

Police suppress AI biotech malfunctions: discover AI aren't really AI

Families distraught over missing loved ones; where did they go?

Lab tech 'swears they didn't mean this'

Eight biomechanical engineers, three scientists arrested following the riots

Victims' bodies destroyed in NLAPD-CTAC joint sweep

Pilot program rebooted only 3 years later with 'advanced technologies and improved safety precautions', Shimada says

"We're sorry. But we have to go. We want to try to get closer to home, to our family. See if there's maybe a way for us to reconnect with our families," Jade sighed, shaking her long, Komodo-dragon-based head. "We can't stay. We know it comes right after Sadie, but…."

He blinked, only able to watch them give their excuses before turn away.

And then he was alone.