Bioshock 6.5

January 28, 2011, Holodeck ID, 9:31 PM

[Embarrassed]"Guys, I really don't want to interrupt, but the mercs are going to start waking up soon."

[Eyeroll]"Yes Mom. We're not doing anything! Wait, let me come out and I'll tell you about this new ID mode that was unlocked." I messaged Taylor back. Our spar had finished a while back, Lisa's power-enhanced perceptions added to her high DEX score to give her almost preternatural reflexes. It was very hard for me to land a hit on her while unboosted. After the spar I'd started fiddling with the holodeck settings while Lisa had sat down to meditate and was absorbing skills like a sponge. She'd also gotten Taylor's message.

For now the holodeck only accepted memories as input, I figured the options would broaden as I leveled it up. Lisa got up, looked around and smiled, I was currently using the memory of the boardwalk cafe where we first met. Unlike the blank IDs the environment was fully immersive and not gray-tinged at all, it also cost 3000MP to instantiate. Lisa ambled over, gave me a peck on the cheek and grabbed my hand, "Back to work then. Let's not keep the henchmen waiting." I nodded and took us out. Seems that when you dismissed the holodeck, you'd always arrive where you entered from.


January 29, 2011, Coil's Base - Brockton Bay, 2:23 AM

"So my contract remains unaltered?"

"Certainly, Miss Xhao. I hope you have no problems with your skills being used in less violent methods?" Swarm's buzz replied, eight eyes glowing.

"No problems at all, while active combat is exciting, I do prefer more subtle tasks. As long as the contract is unchanged, you're the boss."

"Excellent. Looking forward to working with you, feel free to retire to your quarters."

Miss Xhao, Lvl. 23 infiltration and enforcement specialist, good with blades, bullets, and words, too proud and honourable to join the ABB, wanted in 3 states for fraud and assault - hid her emotions well, but it was clear as she nodded and left that she was both interested in what new jobs she'd get and extremely relieved to get away from the woman who was a glowing mass of bugs.

We'd already gathered a substantial background on Coil's mercs from his servers, my observe results and Lisa's deductions. There were 41 men and 8 women in total, most of them were thorough professionals. A surprising number of them in fact had never committed any violent crimes outside of jobs! We interviewed 33 mercs one by one, waking them up in restrains, letting Swarm do the talking while Lisa and I watched them through holes from the ID. Swarm told them that Coil had 'taken an indefinite leave of absence' and she was currently in control of his infrastructure. They were offered the option to stay or leave.

26 chose to stay on. 3 politely asked to be let go and mentioned that they'll honour their contracts (Of course Coil had them sign ironclad contracts with non-disclosure clauses!). The remaining 2 also asked to be let go, but Lisa told me they'll try to turn on us. So while the former three were allowed to leave, the latter two joined the inventoried biomass of the 16 mercs we never interviewed.

12 of these 16 (Which included Lisa's ex tails) would be dropped off at the BPPD HQ nicely tied up with a list of crimes they were suspect for in various states, the nature of said crimes being quite distasteful to us. And the last four... Well, they were shit-stains in the collective picture of humanity, they were never coming back. Funny how having the option to revive these people made erasing their existence so easy on the conscience.

"That was the last of the mercs. Head over to the dorm where the Travellers are. They've had enough time to recover. Might as well finish debriefing them too." Taylor messaged us. I closed the peepholes in the ID and started walking with Lisa towards the dorm.

As we neared the door, I opened a hole, created another Maker clone, who was wearing the last of my two spare undersuits. Then Lisa and ID/I went into the dorm, found a corner which would give us a good view and opened peepholes. As we settled in to watch, I swapped primaries with the body outside the gate and equipped my armour, half face version.

"Damn, does the first aid box here have some rubbing alcohol or something, these stings are prickly!" Oops, I'd forgotten to heal Ballistic's bug bites. I knocked on the door.

Trickster removed his hand from Noelle's waist, "We should mask up." They were sitting in the beds of the dorm.

Noelle frowned at him, grabbed his hand and put it back around her waist, "You were the one to tell me that Swarm had an eye on us for days and you want to mask up now?"

Trickster gave her a sheepish smile, "Yeah, I'm just still... You know."

"Still trying to save the undying shoggoth?" That was Sundancer, she seemed upset.

"Hey! I said I'm sorry!"

Genesis sighed, "Um, guys, there's still someone outside?"

Oliver shook his head, "Come in please!"

I entered the dorm, Swarm formed beside me. As agreed, she was going to be the spokesperson, I had to admit that talking to her kept people unbalanced much more than talking to me, "Travellers, I hope this is a good time to talk?"

There were scattered nods and affirmative noises, Trickster stood up. "Swarm, Maker. Firstly, thank you for healing Noelle, whatever we can do for you in return, anything you ask, it's yours." The others nodded, but they seemed a bit miffed at him promising that on their behalf, he continued, "Secondly, I'm extremely sorry to have posed a problem in your way of destroying Noelle's power. I don't know what came over me..." He seemed shaken.

"That's alright Mr. Krouse," I interrupted, "that wasn't your fault, the Simurgh did it!" I just wanted to say that phrase once and have it be truth.

"WHAT?!" Trickster's outburst was accompanied with collective gasps. "Is she still..." His hand unconsciously touched his head.

Swarm shook her head, "No. The influence has been negated. It was done back in Madison, an obsessive attitude towards assisting Noelle's monstrous part. It had sat behind the guise of your general protectiveness of her." How'd she know that? Oh, Lisa must have messaged her. Back in the ID, Lisa nodded at me.

Trickster sat down in shock, the others were gaping at us, possibly because we just revealed we knew about their background. I chose another distraction, "By the way, who needs healing here?"

Ballistic jumped up, "Me! These bites are itchy!"

"Luke!" Sundancer was glaring at him.

He immediately quailed and glanced at Genesis, "Sorry, her please."

I nodded and walked towards Sundancer, on my way I poked Ballistic's arm and healed him anyway. His face broke into a grin, "Whoaa! I feel awesome! Thanks man!" (As per habit I'd added a Cleanse, Scan and Refresh to it.) he stole a glance at Sundancer, who was still glaring at him, "Shutting up now." He retreated back to the bed he was sitting on.

I extended a hand towards Genesis, "Jess, right? May I?"

"Yes... Yes please." She nodded shakily and gave me her hand, I'd already healed paralysis once in the hospital, this should work, I kept a running scan and applied the heal package. Blue flash, Genesis looked startled, her legs started twitching immediately, I continued, "Not done yet." There was a lot of leg muscle atrophy, I Fleshcrafted them manually to give them a good musculature matching her upper body. It took about 20 seconds, "There, now slowly and carefully, try to stand."

She stood up shakily from the wheelchair, I let her hands go and stepped back, tears were welling up in her eyes. Sundancer walked up to her and engulfed her in a hug.

Swarm picked up the pitch again, "Guys, for all the healing, we have one thing to ask of you." She had everyone's attention. That was such an excellent hook, the kids grow up so fast. Back in the ID I wiped a metaphorical tear from my eye, Lisa smirked and patted my shoulder.

"Y-yes?" That was Oliver, I guess amongst the others he was the least invested in whatever he expected to be signed up without consent for.

Swarm spoke again, "Whatever we decide today, whether you choose to leave or stay, just promise to avoid damage to civilians and property."

...

Ballistic snorted, "Oh c'mon! That can't be it!"

"It isn't. That is only what we ask above everything else. Our goal is to expand, make profits, gain influence, but above all, we want to help people. We're gearing up to fight some enemies which are worse than the Endbringers. Enemies which pose danger not just to Earth Bet. We're assembling a team..."

"We're in." Noelle was standing.

Trickster looked a bit cross, "Wait, you can't decide that before..."

Noelle interrupted him, "Krouse, before I was a crippled monster, I was the leader of this team. As of now I'm relieving you of command."

"Damn I like this girl!" Lisa messaged me.

Trickster was sputtering, "But... You don't even have any powers!"

"He's so gonna get the couch." Oliver piped in.

Ballistic grimly nodded, "Krouse, I'm not saying you've led us badly, but I'm far more comfortable taking orders from someone who I know to be an excellent strategic commander. Tentatively, I'm in."

Sundancer stepped forward, "I have some other things to talk about, but I'm more than glad to have Noelle back as commander, and especially because she doesn't have powers to worry about." Genesis just nodded, she was too busy hopping on each foot in turn with her hand on Sundancer's shoulder.

Trickster deflated, "I never said I have any problems with Noelle taking command... I... I'm in." He looked hopefully at Noelle and visibly flinched at her disappointed stare.

Noelle cleared her throat and addressed us, "Swarm, Maker. You have my sincere thanks too for getting me out of that hell and dealing with a lot of trouble for it. I do realize that it was possibly just a side-quest in your goal to get Coil. Also, I heard about your friend, I'm sorry for your loss. What you asked of us, it's an ideal we definitely can get behind. As for enemies beyond Endbringers..." She frowned, "I honestly just want to call you out on your bullshit, but for the life of me I can't figure out the motive for such bullshit. And whatever little contact I've had with both of you makes me believe that ascribing your offer to a mix of naivete and wild conspiracy theories would be an insult to your intelligence. So yes, I'd expect more clarification later, but as of now, you have us as allies."

"Wow, I know what you mean! The Politics runs strong in this one!" I replied to Lisa's previous statement.

Swarm nodded, "Excellent, so, continuing what I was saying. We'll probably find a way to send you to Aleph sometime. Then Noelle can take command of our operations there too."

The stunned silence was only penetrated by the mild buzz emanating from Swarm's body.


January 29, 2011, Holodeck, 7:15 PM

Lisa was sitting between me and Taylor, shivering in shock, she'd asked us to share the memories we had, starting from eavesdropping on the kill order from Coil - till her resurrection. We were in the bedroom of an ultra luxury suite whose memory Lisa had supplied us with to instantiate the Holodeck.

"Shit. I feel terrible." Yeah, she'd upped Gamer's mind to Lvl. 14 already. She'd feel all the emotions associated with the memories too. Well, it was her request to begin with. She'd already gotten a debrief from miss Xhao, who'd posed as a bystander to keep an eye on the Casino hit. After that Lisa had perused the recordings from the listening devices that Coil had planted in the Undersiders' loft. The only gap in her memory left was what happened after she went back to her apartment.

I could feel the distress and horror rolling off her. "How can I help?"

Lisa looked at me... Then smiled, Taylor suddenly stood bolt upright, "Oh, I forgot I need to make dinner for dad. Aveek, can you let me out?" Her face was flushed.

Huh, that was sudden... I made a hole big enough for her to leave, damn that took a lot of mana. Taylor looked at me and smirked before leaving. After I closed the hole, still confused as to what made her bolt, I got a message from her:

[amusement, embarrassment]"I hope you have stocked your inventory with proper protection..."


A/N: So yeah, the stats are maintained at (remove the space after bit) bit. ly/2mHblWD

Will also update stat chapters after each major arc. That won the majority vote.