Bioshock 6.4
January 28, 2011, Coil's Base - Brockton Bay, 7:47 PM
"He complimented me!"
"Yes dada, we all heard."
"Tch, you don't get it bro! The Number Man complimented me!"
"And we've been hearing it since the last half hour... Just, get back to work now. We'll celebrate later."
"It's Number Man! The Number Man!"
"Congratulations Dev, now can we get back to work? The transfers won't wait for anybody."
"Nooo Taylor! You just don't get how big this is! The Number Fucking Man thinks my methods are creative!"
"Right on! Dev my man! Wasn't that awesome? You owe me big time for that!"
"Lady Lisa, I swear eternal fealty to you, but do you realize what just happened? The Numb..."
"I get it dada! It's big, huge, humongous, ginormous! Get over it now you big fanboy!"
"But the Num..."
"Oh fuck it! Taylor, please deal with this overgrown child, Lisa, stop egging him on and come over here."
"Fine! Spoilsport!" Lisa rolled her eyes and checked a phone from the desk, she'd just finished jotting down all the passwords and details they were going to need, "Taylor, how long till the bank in LA closes down for the day?"
"12 minutes. Dev, you hear? The Number Man won't be able to help us if we can't make this transfer to the offshore account."
"THE NUMBER MAN! YES! Anything for THE NUMBER MAN!" Dada stopped bouncing around the room and skipped over to the desk. "Muhahahaha! Transfers! Here we come!" He rubbed his hands and picked up the list Lisa had written.
Both Taylor and I heaved long sighs, Lisa chuckled and joined me at the middle of the room, "Finally! Are we going to do it? Are we going to do it now?"
"Yes, we are." I grabbed her chair and made her sit facing me.
Lisa's grin had reached her ears, "Are we going to do it here? With your brother and pseudo-sister watching?" Argh! I realized everyone was still high on post-shock endorphins, but seriously?
Taylor tried and failed to hide her giggle, dada was already busy with a laptop, paying us no heed and humming some random song about transferring millions.
I sighed and nodded, "Yes, Lisa, we're going to do it right here, with Dada, Taylor and thousands of bugs watching us."
She guffawed, "You're such an exhibitionist!"
I shook my head, no use hiding my embarrassment, "Yep, that's me. So, are you ready?"
"I died and got cremated for this, of course I'm ready!"
"N..No need to remind me... Ahem! So, Lisa, I'm quite sure if you watch the process, your power is going to punch your brains out. So you have to keep your eyes closed, and just say 'I accept' when I ask you to."
Dada piped up, "Back in my day they used to say 'I do'"
"Oi! Mind your own transfer!" I yelled at him, then turned back to Lisa.
Her eyes were already closed, "Go on, I'm ready."
I sent out the party invite and started scanning her, I wanted to analyse the process later. The window opened in front of her, I could tell she was dying to open her eyes but she was controlling herself, "Lisa, do you accept?"
"I accept." Nothing happened, I got a prompt saying informed consent was needed. Rob dammit AI! This is not the time to grow a conscience!
I cleared my throat, "Wait, don't open your eyes. Let's try again, Lisa, I'm going to share my power with you, it'll change you in ways you're not aware of, but your ego will remain you. Do you accept?"
She took a deep breath, then smirked, "I do." Dada chuckled.
Blue flash, Lisa slumped into the chair, I got a slew of messages.
Party member Added, one more not-so-innocent corrupted by you!
Attention: Party slots full, next slot opens up at Lvl. 30.
Quest completed: Smite the Snake!
Coil has been dealt with, his infrastructure usurped. Lisa is free and added!
Success:
1.5M XP/3
Hidden Objective: Disable ALL of his failsafes and deadman switches before confronting Coil.
Failure:
Trouble.
Level Up! You've reached Lvl. 22!
Level Up! You've reached Lvl. 23!
Level Up! You've reached Lvl. 24!
Level Up! You've reached Lvl. 25!
Level Up! You've reached Lvl. 26!
"Whoa!" That was Taylor, must've gotten the alerts too. I quickly pushed one point to my INT and regained Telekinesis.
There were also a whole line of windows of those alerts in front of Lisa, she'd also gotten a ton of levels because of the shared XP from the quest. She opened her eyes, took one glance at the windows in front of her, and fell down to the floor laughing.
"What? Why're you laughing?!"
"Bwahahahahahaha! Video Games! The most ridiculously bullshit power in the world is video game themed! Hahahahahaa!"
"Oh shove it!" I huffed.
"Bahahahaha! It actually annoys you that your power is a bigger nerd than you! Pffahahaha!" She was literally rolling on the floor.
"That's what I said!" Dada joined in with a guffaw! Taylor just rolled her eyes.
"Ha! Such refined humour! You guys done with the transfers?"
Dada gave me a thumbs up, "Done for the day, some smaller transactions to be carried out in the next few days, don't worry, I'll take care of it."
I smirked, "So, you're fully our cash-cow minion now?"
Dada made grave face, stood up solemnly and spoke in a booming voice, "I am the hidden hand behind Fortress! I am the profits that are made in the dark! I am Vengeance! I am the night! I am... Bankerman!"
Taylor and Lisa groaned in unison, I gave him my best blank stare, "Lame, dada. Extremely lame."
"Kids these days, don't have any appreciation for the classics. Anyway, I'm off to get a drink with Danny, he didn't know the details, but he could smell something was brewing the last few days. He'll appreciate the news. Taylor, be a dear and light up a path for me through the tunnels?" Dada headed for the door.
Taylor smiled and nodded at him, then tapped her keyboard, the exit opened up, firefly arrows already visible behind it. As dada left, I heard him murmur, "The Number Ma..." I shook my head, it'd take at least a few days to get him out of it. Meanwhile Lisa had managed to sober up and was closing the windows in front of her one by one, muttering to herself. I heard snatches of it.
"Windows illusionary? Yes, but all party members see them... The messages will become purely mental when power matures... Power is affecting my mind? No, interfacing with my mind... changed my body? Changed to a different kind of matter?... Fueled by energy from Aveek... Energy source is beyond our universe, energy source is beyond parallel universes... Not the same as the source of parahuman powers... How come I'm getting answers now? Why don't I have a headache? Answers not coming from my parahuman power.. Answers coming from the Akashic Records, huh? what the fuck is the Akashic Records?!"
That assuaged a lot of my worries. But raised a few interesting questions. Before I could ask any, she finished closing the windows, then turned to look above Taylor's head and raised an eyebrow, "So, Queen of Escalation eh?"
What? where did she get that from? Did her gamer-ified power tell her that? But she glanced above Taylor's head... Was it possible?
"Lisa! Do you see the blue tags?"
"Yes? Was I not supposed to?"
"I don't see them!" Taylor's eyes were wide, "Aveek, check if she can use Mana!"
"Lisa! Check your action skills!"
"What? What's mana? Oh! The blue thing! How do I check? Wait, don't tell me! Skills!" She started tapping open her action skills from the window, Taylor came over and we both peered at her skill windows.
The Gamer's Mind: (Passive) Lvl. 3 - 34.3%
Your brain is part of a mana hypercomputer:
Allows you to interact with the Gamer System.
More benefits at higher levels.
The Gamer's Body: (Passive) Lvl. 1 - 6.2%
Your body is a persistent mana construct:
Gives your body regenerating HP and lets you grow with status points.
More benefits at higher levels.
Pericognition:(Parasite Power) Lvl. 2 - 15.6%
Ask and ye shall recieve:
Lets you deduce huge amounts of information from minimal cues.
Subskill: Query Inputs Lvl. 1 - 0.1%
Current input specificity: Any sensory input.
SP Cost: increasing with input complexity.
Subskill: Query Precision Lvl. 1 - 0.1%
Current precision: Any curious thought.
SP Cost: increasing with query complexity.
Subskill: Intuitive Range Lvl. 20 - 14.3%
Lets you make bigger intuitive leaps the higher the level.
SP Cost: increasing with intuition range.
Analyze: (Synergistic Power) (Passive) Lvl. MAX - 0.0%
Like Observe, but better:
The high synergy of Pericognition's nature with the Akashic Records has allowed the AI to give you limited access.
Gives extra information for pericognitive queries with gamer aspects, often includes extraUniversal knowledge.
Ah, so not mana, but it was still quite interesting. Lisa looked at us in turn and narrowed her eyes, I could almost see her mental gears spinning, her eyes lit up "Hey! I can see your power descriptions when I focus on it! And those are... character build points, right? Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom and... Charisma! Wow! That answers so many questions! Wow!" Lisa turned to me, "How do I see my, what do you call it? Character window?"
"It's called status."
"Status." Her status window opened, it was pretty much the same as before, except for a few lines added to her description summarizing the latest events and the fact that she'd gotten 120 stat points to distribute for the level gains from the quest reward, she was Level 24 now. "Damn right I'm the smartest in the room... SP dips everytime I use power... No answers if insufficient SP, no more headaches, fuck you power parasites!... Hmm, I was always a nimble child, should've tried the ballet more seriously..." She was muttering again as she glanced through the data, smirked at the description (it said she died but got better), frowned at the parasite shard thing, then her eyes found the new window that had automatically opened below it.
Knowing what was coming, I started scanning her again.
"Hell yes I want to spend the points!" She jabbed at the button that asked if she wanted to get rid of the parasite influence. "Wow! It was like an itch I never knew I had! And it's gone now! Foof!" She sighed with relief.
Taylor nodded at her, "I know right? It was this constant jittery feeling for me. Though I only had to live with it for a day."
"I get exactly what you mean, just imagine, all the capes have to live with this." Lisa turned to me, "Aveek, is there a way for you to rid others of their influence? You just scanned me right?"
I shook my head, "Not without adding them, yet. I'll have to check out the scan and experiment later."
Lisa nodded, "I'm sure Amy can help. She can decode brains and coronas, which you can't yet."
"That's actually a good suggestion, I'm still afraid I'll spook her with some idea or the other, let's see."
Lisa nodded, "Anyway, all these other skills, why're they greyed out? Hmm, Martial Arts..." She tapped the box, the learning prompt came up, "Of course I want to learn!"
"Lisa, wait!" I tried to stop her, but she tapped accept anyway, her eyes rolled up inside her head, she swooned, what's with these girls and impatience?
I sighed and gave Taylor a 'this is what happens' look, she shrugged, then pointed at Lisa, I turned and looked, hardly 10 seconds had passed, and she was already getting up? How come everyone learns skills faster than me?!
She stood up straight and looked me square in the eyes, "I know Kung fu."
I suppressed my spark of unbridled glee and smirked at her, "Show me." I grabbed her and dropped us into an ID.
We emerged in a beautifully decorated dojo...
...What?
The skill: Instant Dimension, has reached level 30.
New ID type unlocked: Holodeck ID
Lets you program environments and scenarios.
A/N: Okay so there's a google sheet where I've been maintaining the stats for everyone, do you guys want me to post the stats every chapter? or at the end of every arc? or whenever there's significant change? Or do you just want access to the sheet?
