Some days passed and things were going well. So, I was wondering to myself why was I here? Back in Little Leto. I wasn't really upset or anything, and I don't know why I came back here. Specifically to this club.
I sat at the bar, same as last time, the wristband on me saying all the same things It did as before. I even had another hard cider.
"Why am I here…" I muttered to myself. "It's not like I couldn't just get this cider elsewhere…"
I sighed, taking another sip.
"Long time no see sexy~" I flinched a bit, turning and seeing that same Nokori fox male with antlers from last time. Suddenly it felt like I remembered a bit of why I came here… last time was admittedly a depression driven fling… this time… I wanna test something.
"Sup." I said to the fox. "How you doing my sexy fox?"
"Oh, a flirt back. I take it life for you has been well since our little escapade~" He asked, taking a seat next to me at the bar. "Happy for you but shame I won't see that adorable blush."
"Well, lot of things have happened as of late." I said honestly.
"Care to talk about them?" He asked, raising a hand up real quick as the Barkeep quickly opened and slid a cold bottled beer to him. "I have nothing but time."
"Well…I suppose it's now that travel time isn't going to be a problem anymore." I admitted. "Saves a lot of time and keeps up some promises I made…"
"Hm, broken promises to the fam? No wonder you seemed so glum last time."
"Well, broken promises with being around more, but also because I was really fretting over the Nokori God and whenever this town would get attacked…lo and behold, I was right that it would happen immediately after I left to do something."
"Oh you mean those remnants from the Majority?" He asked. "Shit. Heard the damage was bad. They shut the portals to Little Leto down once they broke through."
"Yeah…it was bad…" I sighed. "And…I couldn't do much against one of their members…an information broker was who kicked my ass mostly…"
"Well, they're an old Chaos Guilds full of batshit crazy people. Fact you're alive is a miracle."
"I'm Immortal so that helps.." I shrugged.
"Oh. Does that mean you're into some more kinky stuff or…?"
"No." I answered, blushing a bit at his immediate thought of kinks and the like. "But…by the way, what's your name? Considering we just…fucked like rabbits last time, I forgot to ask you your name."
"Ginger." He said, giving a mock salute with his beer bottle and then took another sip.
"Names Button." I nodded, playfully saluting with my cider bottle as well and taking another sip.
"So, mind if I ask what brings you to this club today? Ya look better so it's clearly not for a distraction."
"I…guess this is just a test to see how I feel." I said honestly. "How I feel about you in particular."
"Got a crush on me now?" Ginger chuckled.
"Well…maybe." I admitted. "You're the first male that I…wanted to be with."
"Oh. Happy to have been a pleasant experience." He added. "Take it you're still figuring things out then?"
"Yeah, I'm still figuring something's out, and you are necessary for all these things." I admitted, taking another sip of my cider.
"Will this include some more… hotel visits~"
"Oh yeah, hopefully many more hotel visits." I admitted.
"Then let's make a date of it my pretty." Ginger smiled as he drank some more of his beer. "If it means I get to grip those wings of yours again then I shall be your loverboy~"
"Only if you are ready for a wild ride in return my loverboy."
"For you cutie, anything." He said, giving me a wink before finishing his beer off. "Shall we say, tomorrow at nine?"
"It's a date." I smiled, downing the rest of my cider and feeling a bit better about this.
"Meet me here then. I'll be the dashing fox in the AC-DC shirt."
"Sounds like a plan." I nodded.
With that, I gave a nod and went back home. That felt… good. Finally things are going up for me.
"Finally, something simple and good is happening and going my way." I thought happily.
I went back home and decided to finally set up another date. One I imagine the kids have been waiting for for a long time.
Thankfully Barb gave me her address.
I knocked on the door, blinking as it opened and I saw Barb open the door, wearing what seemed to be short shorts and a shirt that read 'My opinions are correct, just ask the tits'. "Button! Woah… I heard you got turned into a Nokori but seeing the change is… wow." She said.
"Yeah, I'm really sorry it's been a long time." I said sheepishly, scratching the back of my head. "And the question I had is, want to go on a date?"
"Heh. Sure. I'm free Saturday."
"Saturday works for me." I nodded.
"Great. See you Saturday at noon at the cafe we were at last time." Barb said with a nod.
"It's a date." I nodded. "Oh, by the way, how have you been doing? I know it's a bit weird to ask 'how you doing' after just asking for a date but it's…been a while."
"Good. The attack was a scare but I got evacuated in time. Thankfully my building only received some cosmetic damage."
"That's good to hear…O5-1 told me how he got everyone evacuated cause of his own personal experience." I admitted.
"Yeah. New Foundation is a lot of things but they do know how to evacuate large populations. Minimalize casualty risks among civilians. Heard the guard took a bad hit though."
"Yeah…from what I personally felt, they probably had it worse though…" I sighedI sighed.
"Just hope they make it to other New Foundation bases wherever they respawn." Barb sighed. "Well, enough sad talk. See you Saturday then Button." She said, giving me a smile and a nod.
"See you on Saturday." I said with a smile.
With that, I left. Guess all that's left to do today is check on my new office.
I arrived at the new main offices of the newest edition to the New Foundation. Expansion and Exploration Department. It was a typical looking office building on the outside. Inside there was a lobby with no one at the reception desk. To the right, some bathrooms for public visitors, to the left were the main offices. Walking through that showed what looked to various desks, each one was some high tech mix between touchscreen and holographic as I saw Micheal was here messing with what looked to be a map of the known locations of the Zone so far. Next to him was Gallon sorting through papers and photos. Tina was here too, also looking through papers, and- Rom Hack?
My little brother was sitting at his own desk too, working with what I believe were camera drones.
"What are you doing here Rom?" I inquired to my little brother.
"Micheal invited me." Rom said.
"His robots can come in real handy given everything." Micheal said.
"I suppose that's fair." I said honestly.
"So the good news is that thanks to your family traveling from one far part of this zone to another, it looks like we have a large chunk of this place already mapped." Tina said. "Parts but not all."
"We can fill those out later though." Gallon said. "Right now we should focus on places that are more useful for expanding."
"Fair, there is a lot of ground to cover and not all of it will be useful for us." I admitted.
"Plus right now this new division is just us." Micheal sighed. "Bright side is the O5 council already gave us our monthly budget to try and recruit extra staff and armaments and such either from other towns they help protect or even from Greed if we feel it appropriate."
"And how much is our monthly budget?" I inquired.
"Forty trillion rem."
I attempted a liquidless spit take. It came out like a wheeze mixed with a blown raspberry…
"Excuse me what?" I asked incredulously.
"Yeah… and get this, O5-1 said that since we're a new department it's a low end starting budget until we can grow our department's numbers." Micheal said with equal incredulousness.
"That's…that's a lot for a low end budget…" I said slowly.
"Yeah. Apparently the Foundation isn't a stranger to throwing obscene amounts of money at stuff like it was pocket change." Gallon added. "Get this, according to the guide books and manuals the four of us as the heads of this department are supposed to be taking home eighty three thousand, five hundred rem a month. That's over a million a year!"
"That's literally more money than I think people off Armageddon even really need to live day to day…" Tina said.
"Probably more than anyone needs in a lifetime if the stories I hear are true that anyone can basically be completely self sufficient and not spend a rem for anything if they work for it." Micheal sighed.
"Yeah, that's fair." I nodded. "So…just a lot of money and equipment than we know what to do with…"
"Basically…" Groaned Micheal as they rubbed their eyes. "Add the other stuff O5-1 wants me to do…"
"He asked you to do other stuff?" Gallon asked.
"Mostly take quick trips to the other settlements under their protection, add them to the Township. Figure out all my other Township functions, send him reports when I do."
"Eh, that's rather simple compared." I shrugged. "Only problem is…where the hell they are."
"They already have the portals waiting. Once I'm done he wants to see if my thing with Frontier can be used in place of the normal portals since only Township residents registered to my Township can use them, it can make the travel between the settlements and zones safer, more secure and no need to fear them going out because of an attack."
"That's fair." I nodded. "So when do we head out and start doing this stuff?"
"Next week would be best. Gives us time to sort through the papers here and map out a plan of action and let's me allocate all those Skill Points between us. Divide three thousand eight hundred by the four of us that's nine hundred and fifty each I can put towards useful abilities and stat increases."
"That is very useful, plus it gives me time to go on two dates." I said honestly.
"Finally dating Barb I see?" Tina asked.
"Yeah, I finally asked her out." I nodded.
"You said two?" Gallon asked.
"The other one is named Ginger…a fox that I 'spent time with' that one time." I admitted carefully.
"You mean your club casual fling back in New Leto?" Gallon asked.
I heard Tina give a whistle. "Button gonna be swinging it tonight~" She chuckled.
"Yes, my 'casual fling' that's become a date tomorrow." I said honestly.
"Wow. Surprising." Micheal said.
"Really?" I inquired.
"I mean, no offense just… what brought this on? You didn't even want to really be there when we did go to the club and I figured you left with the guy as an excuse to get out of the club."
"Because I wanted to see if it was just some random thing that I'd hate later like with that bastard David, or if I'd enjoy it and actually like being with him." I said honestly.
"I'm actually surprised you're taking such a large step given you never really seemed to show interests in males prior."
"Eh, I wanted to try something new here." I admitted.
"Not sure it works like that but good luck." Gallon said with a shrug.
"I'm sure it'll go fine, Ginger's nice and…well, it at least made me learn why I went back to that club." I admitted.
"So you went back to find a guy you had a one night stand with to ask out on a date, and he said yes." Gallon summarized. "Neat. Rare for club frequenters to go on actual dates with people."
"Well, he was the one that offered the date." I corrected, remembering that conversation.
"Wow, must have really taken a shine to you Button." Tina said.
"What did your other mates say?" Micheal asked. "Tina, obviously, is happy for you but what about the others?"
"Everyone already expected Barb…but Ginger might be a curveball for them to be honest." I admitted.
"Oh they're reactions might be priceless." Gallon chuckled.
"Oh you already know they had a betting pool on if Button would date a male." Micheal chuckled.
I groaned, looking over to Tina hoping they were wrong…as she was whistling 'innocently'. "Are you kidding me?"
"Yuri wins it seems." She shrugged.
"Yeah yeah." I grumbled.
The next day came and I wasn't too dressed up for anything special. Ginger did say he was going to be dressed in an AC-DC shirt so not expecting anything fancy. Still, Cream forced me into some basic lipstick and a ponytail for my mane.
I arrived outside the club, finding Ginger standing by the door. I noticed the club looked quiet today. There was no lines or anything outside. Bouncer was still there though.
"And there's my sweet feathery date." Ginger said as I walked up to them.
"Hey Ginger, hope I wasn't keeping you waiting." I said with a smile.
"You, baby, are worth waiting for." He said as he quickly leaned down and kissed my cheek. "Are you ready?"
"Ready as I'll ever be." I said happily.
"Then let's go." He said, taking my hand and leading me to the club doors.
I was confused. The bouncer opened them for us without issue, and inside the club was empty, save some mood lighting, the speakers playing some gentle piano music. A giant screen played the video of a fireplace going and on the dance floor was a fancy table, covered in cloth, some dishes, wine and lit candles.
"You got the whole club to ourselves or something?" I asked in surprise.
"It's easy when you're the owner." Ginger chuckled as he led me to my seat.
"I…really should have expected that." I said, walking over and carefully taking my seat.
Ginger sat on his seat across from me. "I also own the love hotel we enjoyed each other's company in. Both the club and the hotel are very lucrative. Especially during tourist season."
"I can imagine." I nodded. "I imagine running both is quite a pain."
"At times." He shrugged, taking the wine bottle and popping the cork out and pouring me a glass. "But some hired help has eased it, giving me time to partake in beauties like you~"
"What made you choose little old me if I may ask?" I inquired. "Cause you could have…a lot of people that are probably better than me in the looks department." I admitted.
"Ah but your looks are why I chose you." Ginger chuckled. "Many species are force fused by Violence into Nokori. Humans. Orcs." He put a hand to his chest. "Elves. ECT, ECT. You however are the first Equestrian I've seen."
I blinked, not remembering if I ever mentioned that and…most of my features were more bird like than equine. "How…did you know I'm an Equestrian?" I inquired
"You were drinking Sweet Apple Acres Cider and my barkeep said you questioned about it. It's a staple drink of the Equestrians. Not that hard to figure out. Plus, that muzzle is equine still." He smirked.
"Well…I suppose that makes sense." I admitted. "Even off Armageddon I doubt many would know about the Apple's work specifically." I shrugged, as they might know the brand but not the actual people behind it.
"It's why I hope you enjoy this wine. Apples make cider and grow apples. The Punches grow grapes and craft wine." He said as he handed me my cup. "Always did find it funny so many of your names align with your work and those cutie marks of yours."
"Yeah, it is a bit funny when you really think about it." I shrugged, taking the cup and gently sipping the Punch Wine.
It was sweet. The alcohol taste was faint and didn't overpower anything. It was good.
Some people walked out with a dinner tray, putting the covered dishes before us and they took the lids off. My tray was something I haven't seen, or smelled, in over ten years. Hay burgers. Homemade too with some fresh fried and a small side salad.
"Not sure if you partake in meat or not so I figured something familiar might be best." Ginger said.
"Jeez, I haven't had Hay Burgers in a long time." I chuckled.
"It might be a bit anticlimactic given the atmosphere but I figure it was better than nothing or just a plain salad." He chuckled. "So, tell me more about yourself Button."
"This is way better than some plain salad." I chuckled. "But about me? Well…where do you want me to start?"
"How about the same way one starts a story. The beginning?" Ginger offered with a chuckle.
"Well…it all started when I got Isekai'd to this wonderfully insane world." I chuckled. "Before I was just some average Nopony…heh, saying 'Nopony' after so many times saying 'Nobody' sounds so weird."
The following hour I spent giving a recap of my life before arriving here, then arriving here, finding my dad, who is now a mare, ending up on Armageddon and all that nonsense.
The second hour, Ginger told me about himself. He was the son of a Greedy Merchant and his Breeder, spent early childhood til he was twenty working with his father and many siblings until he left to pursue his own dreams of owning a business. He had several stores over his two thousand years of life, but they all fell short for one reason or another.
Then about a century ago he wound up walking into a trap by Violence, he considered himself lucky to end up a Nokori and released later.
That part struck me as odd. He said the Nokori they made are released… they're not making them to be weapons, they're just making them to make them.
After he became the Nokori he is now, he wound up settling into the New Foundation after finding some of their MTF agents by chance and was moved here to Little Leto. He still had his rem, so he bought this building to be a club and ten years later the hotel next door for private hookups.
"And, well, that is about it for me." He shrugged.
"Well, that is quite a lot to recap…though the fact that you were just turned into a Nokori and nothing else is…really weird."
"Well, there were a few experiments involving my power and some poking and probing. Didn't even buy me dinner first or flirt." He chuckled, then sighed. "The Y Labs from Violence from what I hear is very different from that of Isekai or the Y Labs of the past before the War. It's more… tame, but also seems to be used for some weird… unknown reason." Ginger shrugged. "Honestly I prefer this than becoming one of their monsters."
"Sounds like this 'Nokori God' has just been continuing his weird obsession than working for Violence really."
"From what I gathered while I was there, Nokori God and the Y Labs of Violence are actually two entirely different things. See, Nokori God is legit making weapons. Using powerful creatures and powerful objects to make weaponized Nokori. Like yourself, me and most others from the Y Labs, well, some of us have neat tricks but not all of them are so strong or useful."
"That's fair." I nodded. "Not everything can be winners I suppose."
"Yeah. So, where shall we take the rest of this night?"
"Depends, want to end the night on a good note with some slow dancing or want to end it on a steamy note as we fuck on the dance floor?" I asked
"As kinky as that would be, why not both but take the sex to the hotel? The bed would be comfier and if you want we can spend the whole night there~"
"Works for me." I said with a happy smile.
"Would you like to choose the song?" He asked, handing me a tablet from his Assistant with what looked to be the song lists the club had.
Lot of options here…"Hmm, how about this one?" I pointed to the song 'Perfect Day' by someone name Lou Reed.
"Hm. We don't play that one much. But if that is your choice, then play it." Ginger said.
Nodding, I hit play.
Once the music began he stood and so did I. He offered me a hand and I took it. We took some space and now that I was on hind legs I realized I was almost a foot taller than him. Well, if you include his antlers then we're even height.
The song was slow, melodic and seemed to be a love song sung in a slower tone by the singer as we danced a simple one two. The whole time Ginger was looking right into my eyes. It made me feel… a mix of emotions. Embarrassed. Flustered… special…
"Welcome to how it feels to be on the receiving end of being treated special by your love Interest Button." Cheat said quickly.
"Thanks…this is definitely a new feeling." I mentally admitted, and even with the size difference…this still felt nice.
"Finally embracing your more feminine side. About time." Cheat added with a laugh before going quiet again, leaving me to this moment with Ginger.
This does feel really nice… I should do this for the girls. To help make up for lost time and to remind them I care.
That night with Ginger was wonderful, I felt nice and the night spent together was equally fantastic. We set up another date for a week later and I asked for advice on doing something like this for my other partners. He was more than happy to give it too.
Eventually, Saturday came and I was waiting at the Cafe for Barb. Work was mostly paperwork and planning right now so all is good there. I told the girls about my plans for a date night with each of them and they loved it. Even Cream seemed to lose that gloomy she's been having for a while now. She is the one most hurt by my… my choices…
I sighed. Slowly. I'll make it up to them… it's just gonna be slow…
"Sorry I'm late." Barb said, arriving in a green sundresses. "Book reports are the worst to grade." She added with a groan as she sat down.
"Paperwork in general is the worst." I admitted myself. "So many papercuts…"
"Pfft. I wish paper cuts were the worst part of grading book reports." Barb chuckled. "No, the worst part is reading them and slowly and surely losing hope in your students futures. At least, some of them."
"It can't be that bad can it?" I asked nervously.
"This book report was on the book, Holes. It even has a movie made by Disney. I basically gave it to them and Jada wrote me a very detailed guide on how to EV train each of the starter Pokemon in Pokemon Black and White to be their most powerful." Barb said. "I gave her a C. It was not at all what she was supposed to do but the idea of a non-useless Tepig was enticing…"
"Damn it Jada…" I groaned. "Gonna need to give her a talk about that, cause while having a non-useless Tepig sounds awesome…she needed to do the report on Holes."
"You'd know all about holes now wouldn't ya!" I heard Jada yell from somewhere.
I blushed while Barb was laughing into her hand.
"Why is she around here?" I whined, looking around for the offending youngster that dared sass me like that.
"You walked right into that one…" Barb said, giving another chuckle before clearing her throat. "I guess we shouldn't be surprised some of your kids want to watch you on your date with me."
"Yeah…honestly a lot of my family were expecting me to date you and…well, here we are finally."
"Yeah. I am considered the cool teacher so, I get that a lot." She smirked. "So, how have you been?"
"I'm good, a lot of paperwork and a bunch of other things not withstanding, but good." I nodded. "Besides the book report shenanigans, how've you been?"
"Good as well. Caught up on a lot of anime and finally started some games I've been meaning to play for a while but the job is demanding. The days the kids have off from school, I veg out the whole time." She chuckled. "I'm amazed I'm not fat."
"Dragon biology, working out, all of it going to 'fun places', or it all being burned in your never ending war against grading papers." I shrugged as I listed off some things that it could be.
"Heh. That's one explanation I guess. So that aside I heard from the kids you have some new… tenants, in your place?"
"Yes, Micheal and Gallon, and Tina and Lovely Days moved in as well." I answered. "Micheal and Gallon are new Isekai in this world, they are friendly and fun to be around but Gallon is a bit…overprotective as it were." I said carefully.
"Ah. And… Tina… she and Lovely moved in with you as well?"
"Yes…considering me and Tina are kind of a thing after I knocked her up but she's still with Lovely and it's a happy relationship." I explained.
"I see…"
"What up?" I asked.
"I… It's nothing against Tina, I'm sure she's lovely but… I've just had bad experiences with Den Mother's and… Canine Races in general."
"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked nervously.
"Mostly it's just some bad exes and one very… racist Dire Wolf Alpha…" She sighed. "It was a long time ago and it's just bad memories really."
"Well, I can personally promise you that Tina is a Good Girl that would never cause harm." I said readily.
"Heh. I believe you but honestly it's not just her." Barb said, giving a sigh. "Button, mind if I ask a hypothetical?"
"Go right ahead."
"If this relationship of ours were to progress to… something more, would you want me to move in with you?"
"That depends on what you want." I said softly. "Cause I'm not going to force you to move in with me if you don't want to. The reason Tina and Lovely moved in was because there was more space and the like."
"That's good… because I don't want to… even if I was to have some children with you… I wouldn't…"
"I understand." I nodded. "You can stay in your own place if you want, I'm not going to force it."
"Thank you Button. I'm surprised you haven't asked for a reason. Little relieved too."
"You have your reasons, and you would have told me up front about it if you thought it was important." I said simply. "But I care, and how you feel is important to me."
"Thank you." She said, giving me a smile. "Feels nice to know that if things get more serious that that won't be some drama later."
"Eh, it's fine." I shrugged. "Communication and Trust are two things that are necessary in good relationships after all."
"To communication and hopefully a good relationship then." Barb said with a nod and a smile.
"Alright so there are one hundred and forty three settlements the New Foundation helps guard, this includes their main HQ and base over in a Zone called When Day Breaks." Micheal said, starting this first official meeting of the heads of the Expansion and Exploration Division.
"And what is 'When Day Breaks' again?" I asked, cause while I did some studying on SCP's I don't' think I read that one yet.
"The sun melts you alive. And when you do die your melted corpse assimilates into a massive gooey glob of melted people and animals with all your stats too so… they're strong. And are always hunting to force others into the sunlight to add to their numbers." Micheal said.
"Never been more thankful to not be allowed to have dreams or nightmares than I am now. Some of those things fucked me up…" Gallon added.
"Hence why their Main HQ and settlement is underground." Micheal stated.
"That's fair." I nodded. "So, we need to head to all these settlements and set up Frontier Portals and bring them into our shared Township." I said. "Should be simple enough."
"They have a massive portal hub in a secure area at their lowest level of the settlement for safety reasons. Thankfully we can take the portal hub here to there where we will meet up with someone who will give us a quick tour and then help us get to work."
"That's good." I nodded. "What's next on the docket for today besides heading to the main HQ?"
"Nothing for now, it's just that for roughly the next week." Micheal said.
"What about our new Skill Points and stuff!" Gallon spoke up.
"Right. Guess I should start that. Shouldn't take too long."
"It's gonna take a while." I admitted. "Even with me knowing what I was going to do with it…it's still a big pile of nonsense."
"Well based on what I learned, there are two sets of stats. Combat stats and Physical Stats. Both can be increased independently and Physical Stats can affect the numbers of Combat Stats. Combat stats increase by five percent Skill Points put into them, Physical it's one Skill Points for a One Point increase in that stat but it affects corresponding Combat stats by increasing them by two points." Micheal stated.
"Begone math!" Gallon screeched.
"And this is why you never get far in Final Fantasy games Gallon…" Micheal said, chuckling.
"Hmm…that sounds interesting." I admitted.
"So in other words, higher stats means we are better off in a battle, and they also determine our strength with Abilities and such?" Tina asked.
"Yes. For example, your Thunder Bug electricity attack is considered an Elemental Attack. Apparently this is calculated by taking half your attack damage stat, and a quarter of your total Energy resistance and adding them, and that's your energy damage." Micheal stated.
"Why can't it be its own stat?" Gallon asked.
"Dunno." Micheal shrugged.
"That's…weird that it isn't just either a separate stat all together or it just adds lightning damage to my strikes." Tina hummed. "I suppose that is a way for it to work though." She shrugged.
"At least it means your 'Charged' form you'll be stronger, not to mention when you go into an Enraged state." I said, given she was still a Monster from Monster Hunter she did have an 'enraged' state that made her faster and stronger.
"... Well in any case time to allocate them." Micheal said.
"Yeah, that would be for the best." I nodded.
"So first up let's show Button's." Micheal said. His Assistant displaying a holographic image of his Custodian Menu. There was me, at least a cartoony image of me, and under that was my stats.
Button Mash
HP: 6,900 (2,300 Base)
MP: 360 (120 Base)
ATT: 3,900 (1,300 Base)
DEF: 2,700 (900 Base)
PR: 1,200 (400 Base)
MR: 300 (100 Base)
ER: 150 (50 Base)
Status R: 0 (0 Base)
Poison R: 450 (150 Base)
Fear R: 300 (100 Base)
Bleed R: 900 (300 Base)
Acid R: 240 (80 Base)
Psychic R: 0 (0 Base)
Disease R: 900 (300 Base)
Strength: 1,440 (480 Base)
Agility: 780 (260 Base)
Vitality: 1,170 (390 Base)
Vigor: 1,470 (490 Base)
Intelligence: 300 (100 Base)
Endurance: 1,560 (520 Base)
Dexterity: 645 (215 Base)
Huh…
"That's…rather low all things considered…" I said carefully.
"Have you been putting Skill Points into them?" Micheal asked.
"No, I thought just me fighting and doing a lot of other thing's would have increased said stats." I said sheepishly.
"Well it did a lot but that takes a long time it seems." Micheal hummed. "So your weakest combat stats are Psychic and Status resistance. Both at zero. Your lowest Physical Stats is intelligence at a flat one hundred at base, three hundred after my Custodian bonus."
"Well…that's something, but Psychic and Intelligence don't fully work with what I'm building here." I admitted.
"Did you just admit you wanna be a dumb jock?" Gallon asked.
"No, why in god's name would I be one of those jackasses?" I asked. "I'm doing a Berserker Build, that is different."
"Regardless you should have Psychic resistance and Status resistance. Would really suck if an enemy manages to use those weaknesses against you." Micheal stated.
"I suppose that's fair." I admitted, even though I have some skills that while Raging I can just straight ignore it but I won't be raging all the time…"So work on those things."
"Alright so let's put… five points per skill points so… fifty skill points to each for two fifty resistance boosted by two hundred percent is… seven fifty resistances." Micheal stated.
"That's a pretty good jump." I said honestly.
"A great buffer." Tina nodded.
"What about his Fear Resistance? That is oddly low in all honesty." Gallon noted.
"I am a Herd Animal after all." I admitted. "Back on my home world we…were a bit jumpy with things…even if we were so used to Disaster we were rather quick to judge…I still feel bad about Zecora."
"It's kinda funny actually." Tina chuckled.
"How so?" I inquired.
"A berserker with a low fear resistance. Just a funny thing." She waved off.
"Does explain his reaction to the undead centipede trains in that dungeon though…" Micheal added.
Tina blinked. "I'm sorry what?" Tina asked.
"Yes…undead centipede trains…that then proceeded to become Fire undead centipede trains after I tried setting one on fire…" I explained.
"Okay never mind, that is a justifiable response." Tina admitted.
"... So, that aside, that should be how many more Skill Points into Fear Resistance?" Gallon asked.
"I suppose bring it up to my Psychic and Status resistance, might as well stay consistent."
"Alright, so fifty from zero gave two fifty, so that's… thirty skill points."
"Sure, I have more than enough skill points to spare." I said readily.
"Alright, now that makes them with the boost even with the other two. Any other stats you want to increase?"
"Hmm…" I hummed. "Let's increase Intelligence, cause that might help with my Magic that I should try and invest in and maybe boost my MP." I said.
"Alright, another thirty skill points or more?" Gallon asked. "You do have eight hundred and twenty."
"Sure, another Thirty wouldn't hurt." I shrugged.
"Alright, so that brings your intelligence stat to one thirty, after the boost, three ninety." Micheal nodded.
"Awesome." I nodded. "At this point might as well just dump thirty into everything else."
"Right." Micheal hummed, adding the points into the Physical Stats. "That leaves you with six hundred ten."
"Right…" I hummed, thinking about what I should grab. "Hmm, well, there's either me just shoving all the points into my stats again, or I can start grabbing some skills that will help boost my capabilities." I said honestly. "Jeez…now this is getting complicated…"
"So… maybe some Abilities?" Micheal offered. "Some of these higher tier ones I can purchase for you without you having to grind to unlock them first."
"That would be great." I nodded.
"Alright let me see what's useful…" Micheal hummed. "Uhhh… Ah, this one looks good. It says it's called a Finisher…"
"What, like it happens at the end of an attack?" Gallon asked.
"Basically. Says that after at least a five hit combo the user can finish on the sixth attack for an added three hundred percent attack damage and a critical guarente of times five damage." Micheal read off. "It's called… woah… Heh… that's actually fitting."
"Well, what are some of the finishers called?" I inquired. "And also yeah that sounds like something I'd like to have."
"It… Heh… it's literally called 'Fucking Die Already'." Micheal said, laughing as he did.
"Fantastic." I laughed.
"That is beautiful!" Gallon laughed.
"Definitely the best Ability name I've ever heard." Tina said, cackling.
"Alright, now I need to grab that."I said.
"Alright, that's four hundred Skill Points. That alright?" Micheal asked.
"Yes, and damn that's a lot of skill points." I said in surprise.
"Yeah, it looks like the more out and higher up along the branches of the Skill Trees you go, the more these Abilities cost." Micheal said. "But, alright. That leaves you with two hundred and ten skill points left."
"Hmm…" I hummed. "Is there anything on Nokori or Symbiotes that seems interesting?"
"Well… It says here you're part Phoenix and that you can actually… ascend to the next rank on the Inborn Hierarchy."
"Oh I remember reading about that." Gallon said with a smirk. "Back home, Phoenixes were rare but whenever they were spotted they were documented heavily. They learned that it seems Phoenixes have a form of inborn Hierarchy that is based on their power. They think it depends on the flames they were born from what rank they are in the Hierarchy."
"Math and science are your weaknesses yet when it comes to magic and beasteology you know way more than I do." Micheal chuckled.
"Well, that's interesting." I said. "So what do I need to do to ascend?" I inquired.
"Well, based on what I'm seeing you need to have your stats be a certain strength and such. After that you need to be at least a century old."
"Which isn't happening for a long time." I admitted.
"Yeah, but by then your stats will definitely be at the minimum and it says when you do evolve it will be a Burning Planet Phoenix."
"That sounds like a fun evolution." I said honestly. "So I go from a Super Volcano to a Burning Planet, awesome."
"The Burning Planet Phoenix. Only one was ever noted back home." Gallon said. "They believe it was born when the earth was still covered in molten magma and slag back in the early years of it's formation."
"And yet you can't remember that bleach and ammonia make a toxic gas…" Micheal chuckled.
"That only happened… three times!"
"Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, fool me three times and you officially have a problem there Gallon." I joked.
"Not my fault it made the windows and floor spotless…"
"So aside the fact Gallon accidentally committed a war crime three times, what else does Button have that he can get?" Tina asked.
"Well… There is this one here. It's part of the Symbiote stuff actually." Micheal said.
"What's the thing?" I inquired, having done some stuff with the Symbiote tree but haven't really gone into it in depth.
"Well, this one is called Lifeblood. If you are capable of eating monsters out in the field, any that you eat and devour whole you can have sorta pop back out of you as a minion to fight for you or do things and tasks."
"Huh, that's interesting." I said. "Kinda like how…I might still have a special organ that can 'rebirth' a person if I devour them." I said, thinking way back to when Parker did that surgery…wonder if I still have those organs?
"... Well that's a sentence I can never unhear…" Gallon said.
"Yikes…" Micheal added.
"That is… admittedly weird…" Tina said.
"Hey, it was a whole thing that happened over ten years ago…after I single handedly burned a Human…and Equestrian Puritan Colonies to the ground…in a fit of pure blinding rage."
"Puritan?" Gallon and Micheal asked.
"Is it different here?" Tina asked.
"Puritans are turbo racist species supremacists in this reality." I answered. "And…I slaughtered all the adults…all the ones that fought, all the ones that didn't…the children were spared cause this world hates it…"
"That is… pretty hard core… also, when were you gonna tell me that I could have shot Nazi's in the face!" Gallon asked.
"That's uh… not the… nevermind. So do you want this ability or not?" Micheal asked.
"Yes, I would like the ability." I answered.
"Alright… and now that leaves you with a hundred Skill Points left."
"Hmm…should I get anything else or save it for later?"
"What can he get for a hundred skill points Micheal?" Tina asked.
"Well… let's see… Huh… well that's interesting…" Micheal said. "You said you were first an Alicorn, and before that you were an Earth Pony, gaining Unicorn and Pegasi genetic material and magic through eating some zombie versions of them right?"
"Yes." I nodded, wanting to leave out the story behind that. "Cheat helped me with all that."
"Did you know as far as any of those races or their affiliated trees and magic… you have nothing selected?" Micheal asked. "Not even the Earth Pony one. All these Abilities are unclaimed."
"Have you been using those with not even their basic magics available to you? That's actually kinda impressive." Gallon said with a smirk.
"I've been busy with a lot of other things, get off my back." I frowned.
"Well, they're pretty cheap so let's see here… Earth Pony Strength Magic, Unicorn Magic Attunement, and Pegasus Speed Enhancement Magic… and lastly Alicorn Embodiment Magic." Micheal said.
I felt a bit different suddenly-
[quote]Notice! Alicorn Race Has Gained The Magic Embodiment of Volcanos.
Title: Alicorn of Magma, has been obtained.
Pyromancy and Magma Magics cost 40% Less. You can also pull magma pockets from the earth and separate the molten minerals into their respective areas.
Notice! Secondary Title, Dragon Home, has been Obtained!
When fighting Dragons, you have a chance to tame them.[/quote]
Woah…
"Huh…well, I just got two titles which is neat. Alicorn of Magma and Dragon Home." I said. "Pyrmancy and Magma spells cost less, I can literally pull magma from the earth and separate the molten mineral's…and there's a chance if I fight Dragon's I can tame them." I explained.
"That sounds fucking awesome!" Gallon said.
"Huh… must be because Alicorns in your home reality are pseudo-gods." Micheal hummed. "Want me to put the rest into those branches then?"
"Sure, cause maybe I'll get something extra neat from it." I said honestly.
Nodding, Micheal got to work. Felt… stronger with each one he got.
"Oh you are so going to love this!" Micheal said. "And that takes care of the rest of those Skill Points."
"Cool, and I feel a lot stronger because of this." I said with a smile
"Well that and this last Ability I just got you. In the Earth Pony tree, this ability is called Earth Mage. It lets you use your Strength Stat as an effector for your MP and magic Resistance."
"Oh that is amazing." I chuckled. "And considering how big my Strength stat is, it'll increase my MP and MR a lot."
"Yes it will. And has. Alright, next up, Tina." Micheal said, displaying her stats on a holo screen too.
Tina
HP: 11,850 (3,950 Base)
MP: 3,300 (1,100 Base)
ATT: 9,000 (3,000 Base)
DEF: 2,100 (700 Base)
PR: 450 (150 Base)
MR: 900 (300 Base)
ER: 1,500 (500 Base)
Status R: 300 (100 Base)
Poison R: 900 (300 Base)
Fear R: 1,500 (500 Base)
Bleed R: 2,100 (700 Base)
Acid R: 600 (200 Base)
Psychic R: 0 (0 Base)
Disease R: 1,500 (500 Base)
Strength: 1,500 (500 Base)
Agility: 1,260 (420 Base)
Vitality: 1,200 (400 Base)
Vigor: 1,200 (400 Base)
Intelligence: 285 (95 Base)
Endurance: 1,350 (450 Base)
Dexterity: 1,020 (340 Base)
"Yeah, that checks." Gallon nodded.
"Surprise it's not a tad higher, but eh." Tina shrugged. "But all around it seems rather solid."
"Like Button, your Psychic resistance is at zero, and you do have some Status resistance at least. Oddly, your Physical Resistance is rather low compared to your overall defense…" Micheal hummed.
"From what I learned from Den Mother Biology is that I grow in power the more children I have…and I fear it somehow 'reset' when I got to this world cause…" Tina sighed, but shook her head. "I've been through enough therapy to finally get past that." Tina admitted. "So, how many Skill points do I have?"
"Same as Button, nine fifty."
"Wait, wait… you seriously get stronger… the more you get knocked up?" Gallon asked.
"Yes, cause we are supposed to be the strongest to protect our Young, given we always birth the max amount of children as a 'extinction reset button' as it were, gotta be strong enough to let a species repopulate in peace." Tina explained. "My stats probably went up with the kids my cute stud here gave me." She motioned to me as I blushed a bit.
"Well… that's a thing. So, Psychic, Physical and Status resistance boosts?" Micheal asked.
"Yep, gotta make sure all the resistances are in decent shape." Tina nodded.
"Alright. That's done, leaves you with four hundred Skill Points." Micheal said.
"Right, so let's go with Skills instead of normal Stat's this time, what nonsense can I get?" Tina inquired.
"Well, let's see… in terms of your Race based skills, there's various things here and even branches that allow for the use of sister, sub and offshoot species of Zinogre abilities. Oh this one looks neat…" Micheal hummed.
"What up?" Tina inquired.
"This one ability here. Storm Flier. During Thunderstorms, you not only can pull the lightning right out of the air but it will also heal you, and you gain the ability to fly while it's storming."
"Oh now that sounds useful." Tina said readily. "Now all I need is an ability that forces it to Thunderstorm so I can have it on demand."
"Tina, that's literally my power." Micheal said. "Admitably, as it is, it's useless since it can only make a small rain cloud but with a boost from Gallon, it's a full on thunderstorm." Micheal stated.
"Yup." Gallon nodded.
"Still, it would be easier if I could somehow create a Thunderstorm with my Charged form instead of needing you to take a moment to get some of your hubby inside you." Tina admitted.
"... Don't make me put all your skill points into something useless…" Micheal said through his red blush. Gallon chuckling next to them.
"It's just a joke my friend." Tina said with raised hands.
"I know. So get it, and that's three hundred left for you." Micheal said.
"Right. Three hundred more and is there more fun nonsense?" Tina inquired.
"Hmm… well, there's some stuff here that's kinda odd… this branch is very far off from the rest too…"
"What's that?" Tina asked.
"Well, this one here says it's called 'Artificial Evolution' and gives you the power to control low level technologies."
"That sounds interesting." Tina said. "Sure, let's start taking some of those things, cause if we're going to be roaming around the place might as well be able to control tech without needing to become a hacker or something."
"I don't think that's how that works, unless you mean the non-reality warping Hacker. It will wipe you out on Skill Points."
"Really? Hmm…well it is rather interesting, sure why not." Tina shrugged.
Nodding, Micheal purchased it.
Instantly, Tina looked different. Her eyes looked like… screens. Joints looked like metallic and artificial ones, her tail was now completely metallic. She looked almost like a cyborg…
"Woah…" Micheal, Gallon and I all said.
"Okay…this is not something I expected…" Tina admitted, as she grabbed her breasts and squeezed. "Okay, the girls are still full flesh and fun."
"That's your top priority or worry… really?" Micheal asked.
"Hey, when you are both a fun loving woman and a mother, you'd prefer your breasts to be all natural and not some cyborg stuff." Tina stated.
"Right… well, now onto Gallon." Micheal said.
Gallon
HP: 105 (35 Base)
MP: 12,000 (4,000)
ATT: 30 (10 Base)
DEF: 15 (5 Base)
PR: 15 (5 Base)
MR: 60 (20 Base)
ER: 0 (0 Base)
Status R: 0 (0 Base)
Poison R: 0 (0 Base)
Fear R: 45 (15 Base)
Bleed R: 15 (5 Base)
Acid R: 0 (0 Base)
Psychic R: 45 (15 Base)
Disease R: 30 (10 Base)
Strength: 12 (4 Base)
Agility: 12 (4 Base)
Vitality: 15 (5 Base)
Vigor: 15 (5 Base)
Intelligence: 306 (102 Base)
Endurance: 60 (20 Base)
Dexterity: 45 (15 Base)
"One of these things is not like the other." I said in a small sing song tone of shock.
"Two of these things are egregiously high here." Tina added in the same song of shock.
"In regards to the MP, that's likely because, back home, Gallon's Magic Base Affinity is Chaos. This means he has a high level of mana but any spells he tries to cast won't work or won't be what he cast, or might even be too powerful for him to use safely. He bypasses this with Artifacts. Magic items that can cast a spell by using the mana of the user." Micheal stated.
"As for Intelligence there… no idea." Gallon shrugged.
"Gallon, you built a mana powered generator that powered all of Leto and all it takes to run are basic shock runes and your blood to amplify their power… blood you had mixed with the metal of the runes to ensure it lasted…" Micheal stated.
"So?"
"That sounds like a pretty smart thing to do there my guy." I pointed out.
"Eh." He shrugged.
"Gallon has trouble understanding his magic talents are… basically genius." Micheal said.
"Doubt it." Gallon said.
"Well in any case as far as Gallon and I are concerned, we should have all these Skill points dumped into stats to start getting us on even footing with you and Tina. At least Gallon gets the Custodian Boost, so that will help him out a lot."
"That's fair." I nodded. "Always good to start with stat's."
"You can dump it all into my Physical Stats, and I'll work with whatever those give me as a bonus towards the Combat skills work." Gallon shrugged.
"And again… this is why you never get far in RPG games…" Micheal sighed.
"He's not a real gamer." I shook my head.
"I game for lore and to blow stuff up." Gallon stated. "Numbers and stats can bite me."
"But you would need to care about Numbers and Stats in the 'blow stuff up' kind of games cause having bigger and better weapons means bigger and better explosions."
"Easy there. I'll do it as Gallon wishes but I'll be monitoring his stats to ensure he gets those explosions." Micheal said with a chuckle.
"Explosions are always fun." Tina chuckled.
"Alright, evenly distributing those, that's fifteen points leftover Gallon." Micheal said.
"Sweet. Any cool powers I can get off the bat?" Gallon asked.
"For fifteen points, a few things." Micheal said.
"Well, what can he get?"
"Well, Gallon fights with firearms and Artifacts he's created. We didn't arrive here with them and he hasn't made any new ones yet… maybe…" Micheal said as he seemed to be looking through his Husband's potential skills. "The Assistant has a built-in crafting mechanic, right?"
"Yes, but you might still need to have a crafting table shoved in it." I admitted.
"Alright well in that case…" Micheal said. "This one, Material Recycler. It will let Gallon see anything in the dungeon, it's base materials and if he takes it he can break them down into their base components and materials and then use them to craft other items and such."
"Sounds useful. Was always a resource hoarder in games." Gallon nodded.
"Yes, your ever grinding quest for materials from enemies in Kingdom Hearts and other similar games proved that." Micheal nodded. "Three hundred hours and literally hundreds of the materials in his inventory…"
"Holy hell." I said.
"And I only needed like, three Mythril Stones!" Gallon huffed.
"Well hopefully this can help you a lot." Micheal said. "Worth the fifteen points."
"Heh, sure. So, what about yourself?" Gallon asked.
"I guess I can do the same as you did and use the leftover fifteen points on somethings I wanna see." Micheal said, showing his stats too.
Micheal
HP: 20
MP: 40
ATT: 5
DEF: 1
PR: 1
MR: 10
ER: 2
Status R: 0
Poison R: 0
Fear R: 5
Bleed R: 0
Acid R: 0
Psychic R: 5
Disease R: 5
Strength: 2
Agility: 3
Vitality: 3
Vigor: 2
Intelligence: 150
Endurance: 20
Dexterity: 12
"Well…I suppose that makes sense." I admitted.
"So that's mostly beginner stats…" Tina hummed.
"That's my smart fluffy hubby~" Gallon chuckled.
"Heh… yeah, so I'll do what Gallon did real quick and then…" Micheal hummed as he began allocating his points. "And now for the fun stuff."
"What you going to get?"
"I wanna see if, since Null goes by Void here if there is… oh hell yes!" Micheal grinned, clearly finding what he wanted and getting it.
"What did you do?"
"Check this out!" He said, I noticed his hand became covered in Void energy… then he vanished. Uh? "Yo!" He said, behind me and tapping on my shoulder. His hand was still covered in Void and he then appeared next to Gallon, giving him a kiss before appearing next to Tina and quickly petting her head, then appeared back in his chair. "Oh that is so much fun!"
"So…you can teleport between our shadows?" I inquired, guessing because of our shadow's positions here.
"Nope! It's a power called Blink from one of my favorite games, Dishonored."
"Oh you lucky bitch!" Gallon yelped as Micheal just grinned.
"Heh. Basically, it lets me teleport anywhere within my field of view. I also grabbed Possession, which here lets me possess monsters and enemies weaker than myself, Domino which, as long as the targets are equal strength or weaker than one another I can link together and take one out takes the rest out in the same way the one I actually took out was killed. Then Far Reach which gives me basically some Void Spiderman stuff to swing and pull myself up structures. Devouring Swarm which lets me summon swarms of rats that eat my targets alive, and lastly, Dark Vision, for some helpful night vision stuff. And other stuff. They can all level up but fifteen skill points got me all them at base level."
"That's cool." I nodded. "Glad you grabbed some really fun things."
"Yeah. Since we both got some Void Gems and that whole thing happened, next batch of Skill Points I'll get you them to. They're all mostly stealth based but they are very cool!" Micheal laughed.
"Yeah…I should probably see what I can do with Void now that I think about it." I hummed.
"Doesn't it hurt?" Tina asked.
"No, why? Is it supposed to?" Micheal asked.
"From what I learned unless you have an affinity for it, yes?"
"Huh… maybe, back in the dungeon, Button and I absorbed a Void Gem each and it mentioned adding a Magic Base to us… Maybe since we're Nokori it adds the Magic Base, which is an Affinity for us, and bypasses that?"
"Oh you lucky…" Tina huffed. 'I've heard Void is some super Overpowered stuff…"
"Got one for me?" Gallon asked, Micheal tossing him a Void Gem.
"I mined a huge Vein of it at over three hundred and sixty times multiplier…so we have enough." I said, tossing one to Tina as well.
"True… but it will hurt me since I'm not a Nokori…" Tina huffed, still absorbing the gem.
"Maybe there is a way to get you a Base Magic Core like us?" Micheal offered. "Button says anything is possible, and hell, having two Base Magics back home was impossible so… there's gotta be a way."
"Well, all I know is that it should unlock some Skill Tree right? If you have the power than maybe you can get a skill that let's you use it properly?" I inquired.
"I'll look into it." Micheal nodded. "Welp, that was that, now for the rest of the work. Time to see how the New Foundation main HQ is."
"Yep." I nodded. "Let's go see the main HQ."
"This place is huge…" Micheal said.
"WAY bigger than an airport…" Gallon added.
"I can't even tell we're underground…" Tina said as we could easily mistake the many lights on the high, high, HIGH up ceiling as the daylight… "And this is just the portal hub…"
"Yeah…this is…really big…" I said slowly.
"Ah, you four must be Button Mash, Tina, Micheal and Gallon." A man said, human, as he walked up to us. He wore a lab coat with messy light brown hair. "Hi, I'm Dexter. I'll be your guide and such while you're here."
"It's nice to meet you Dexter." I nodded.
"Pleasure's mine. I read about you all in my debriefing file. Sorry about what happened with your girlfriend Diamond Tiara."
"She's doing this to help us…even if the 'victory' will be bitter sweet." I said honestly. "I'll find her sooner or later, but right now, our tour?"
"Yes, right, this way." Dexter said, motioning for us to follow. "As you can see, this is the Portal Nexus. It's fifty thousand miles long and ten miles high for atmosphere and because when this area was being mined there was a large deposit of titanium and copper here, once all that was mined they filled it in with this."
"That's a lot of metal…" Micheal said.
"So how big is this place in it's entirety?" I inquired.
"The base has various sections that take up most this entire Zone actually. Travel between them is either via portal or via lightspeed/faster than lightspeed trains." Dexter stated.
"Woah…" Gallon said.
"That's…that's pretty big…" I said weakly.
"Took almost all of Era One from what I hear." Dexter said. "We're in Sector 99. Most of what's here is food and transportation. Either people or cargo. This is where you'll be most likely setting up your Frontier portals from Township. We do have some rooms set up for you in Sector 44, it's basically a temporary residential place for travelers or people who are traveling or visiting New Foundation. The only facilities that are off limits are the Negative Sectors. That's where we keep the SCP's and other Prisoners."
"That's fair, I'd rather not see what nonsense is in the 'Negative Sectors'."
"It varies… some are… way more deadly than others and some are… just plain weird…" Dexter said. "Anyway, this way to your hotel rooms."
"From what few times I've read up on SCP's…yeah." I admitted.
Dexter brought us through a portal and a short walk later, Tina and I were shown our shared room while Micheal and Gallon were taken to their shared room.
I chuckled, the fact they gave the two rooms to us like this was kinda neat.
"My god this bed is so soft~" Tina said, almost puring at she laid in the bed.
"Yeah, this is really soft." I sighed happily as I enjoyed the feeling of the bed.
"Hmm… We gotta buy these beds for the house…" She hummed as she tried to dig herself into the fluffy mattress.
"Yes…yes we are going to be buying these beds." I said readily.
"So, how long do you think we're gonna be here since that portal hub was way bigger than we thought?"
"No idea, we'll take the tour, we'll set up a Frontier Portal and…be on our way I suppose." I shrugged. "Just…maybe after a nap cause this bed is comfy as hell…"
"Heh, yeah." Tina said, grabbing and pulling me under/against her. "At least things are good right now."
"Yes, so many things are good right now." I chuckled, cuddling up to my fluffy thunder pupper.
"Yeah. Hopefully things keep up like this for a while. Definitely should start up the exploration and expanding part of our new division."
"Yeah, it's gonna be a whole thing but I'm sure it'll all go well." I said readily.
"Shall we cuddle like this for a bit before heading off?"
"Yes please."
Tina hugged me tightly. "You know, sometimes I do miss being human."
"How so?" I inquired.
"Well, I miss being the little spoon sometimes. Kinda hard to do when you're ten feet tall." She chuckled.
"Can't you change your size at will though?" I inquired.
"...Oh yeah!" She said, suddenly shrinking to a size just a bit smaller than me. She then cuddled up her back up against my stomach as I wrapped my arms around her. "Oh yeah… I missed this…" She sighed.
I chuckled, wrapping my arms around the smaller fluff ball. "Always happy to be the big spoon here."
"Can't wait to show this size off to Lovely. Be nice to not have to worry about accidentally suffocating her when uh… heh." Tina said, blushing a bit.
"I mean…that's an amazing way to go I will admit." I chuckled.
"Yeah but she's non-super powered and such. All she has is that magic eyes power she was born with, and her book."
"Fair." I admitted.
"Yeah… I worry about her sometimes."
"What's wrong with Lovely?" I inquired.
"Well, like me, she misses her home and old life. Even if she was… I guess mad when it happened that she arrived here, there was this thing where she talked to some nature spirits and she had an argument with her specific spirit…"
"Let me guess…she was told her problems would get solved by someone else?" I asked, having seen and talked to her enough to know that she was a rather stubborn and headstrong mare.
"Yeah. Apparently she wasn't the one that was supposedly destined to stop the evil spirits that broke out into the world… her child was. She didn't take kindly to learning that."
"Yeah, that would do it." I admitted. "Either her being a mother and having her kids fight thing's is wrong, or she thought she was supposed to do it…being told you're not good enough is always a bad thing."
"She said it was a mix of not wanting to put something that dangerous on her child and that she was the one to challenge the spirits, so she should be the one to destroy them… then she woke up here sometime later. She doesn't know how, but she always feels almost… guilty when she thinks back. Like she regrets something. I kinda get that too when I think back to before I got here. I know I… did bad, before showing up here, but I can't help but feel guilty and regretful for something else… something I can't remember…"
I looked at Tina. "From personal experience…there's only two things that made me feel Guilty…that's breaking my promise with my family and not being around when I really should be…and that deal I made with that bastard David." I said carefully. "Maybe it's different for you and Lovely, but that's my best guess, either you broke a promise you can't remember, or you struck a deal that you'll regret for a long ass time."
"We don't know. All we do know is that we miss our friends and families… my kids… Wonder if Shopkeeper is here?"
"Who's Shopkeep?" I inquired.
"He was… Huh, you know, thinking back I am positive he was a member of The Family." Tina hummed. "He sold and bought… basically anything and everything."
"A member of The Family is a part of Greed?" I asked. "Also, the hell was The Family doing in your world?"
"Well, there was Genie and Demon who sorta sent my brother and I to Equis as Zinogre and our… other to a world Voodoo, another member, sent Tony to and… it's a whole convoluted mess but long story short I know most likely… six members of the family."
"Huh…that's interesting…" I said in surprise. "So…who did you enjoy meeting the most?"
"Babe." Tina answered. "Before I got here I was in Shopkeeper's shop and he said there was thing thing called a 'Build A Mate' machine…best invention ever." Tina chuckled. "And…well, she was super excited to hear me say it was the greatest thing ever and we got to talking…then she made out with me and oh boy did I ever learn that a kiss can be so mind blowingly amazing." Tina shuddered in what I can only tell was bliss.
"Wow…" I said.
"Yeah… haven't seen her since I got here. Shame really, I can only imagine that sex with her would have gotten me addicted like out of some trashy hentai." Tina chuckled. "Maybe that's for the best I haven't seen her since then…"
"Eh, I'm sure you'll see her someday, and with your brother as well cause I have a feeling she's the only one to satiate your massive libido." I chuckled.
"She did agree to my offer of me and Tony having a go with her so…there's that." Tina admitted.
"So it'll only just be a matter of time before you meet this embodiment of horny."
"Yeah, still… sometimes… I remember what Tiara told me that day and… It still hurts…"
"I know it's bad…but look, you won't make the same mistakes." I shook my head. "Even if you did keep up breeding instincts, you are different than before, you are better than before, and I'm glad to have you here with me Tina." I said with a warm smile.
"Thanks… Feels nice to have someone to help me get through this…"
Tina and I stayed here for a while, even falling asleep for an hour before we got up.
Once we were through we went to see if Micheal and Gallon were still in their room.
I knocked on the door. "You two awake in here?" I called out.
"You two looking for Micheal and Gallon?" Tina and I turned, seeing an MTF Agent nearby. "They left with Doctor Dexter half an hour ago to begin the portal upgrades and such."
"Ah, we missed them then." Tina said.
"Eh, that's fair." I nodded.
"Would you two like to catch up with them or explore the Foundation areas?" The MTF asked.
"Yes, we would like to continue to explore." I nodded.
"Alright. You two can follow me and we can have you look around some." The MTF said.
With a nod, Tina and I followed him around through some portals and to several of the sectors. All their farming, gardening, trash disposal and recycling, water filtration and production, even air production was all down underground in every sector that had some form of means to produce the things that were needed. There was even several planet rooms that were used and reset regularly for materials, organic matter, air and water, food, ect. So long as you hit reset when you take what you need it makes new stuff all the time.
"And this is Sector Zero." The MTF said as we exited this new portal.
"This is all incredible." I admitted.
"So what's Sector Zero have?" Tina asked.
"Well, as you know originally the Foundation contained and if need be, eradicated Monsters and Anomalies. After the war and this new Reality was made, the New Foundation hunkered down on the Contain aspect, and some of the things we used to contain weren't actually deadly or dangerous. Some even come to us to keep them safe from things they are escaping. Sector Zero here is where all the safe and friendly prisoners are kept. Well, I guess they aren't considered prisoners since most of them have free reign of the sector."
"I suppose…999 would be here?" I asked, having to think a bit about the brief reading on the most 'well known' of the SCP's, and that orange blob of joy was a common thread I kept finding.
"Unfortunately no." The MTF said. "After this reality was created, all the Foundation across it's reflections from the former Multiverse, most all the containment cells were vacant. Apparently most were taken by whatever or whoever does the Monster Spawning stuff, and since the vast majority were all spotted on Armageddon when it appeared, New Foundation split. One group stays off Armageddon to search and contain any that show up in the greater outside worlds and realities, and the rest all came here, settling in When Day Breaks since it was both familiar territory and lots of Foundation facilities appeared here as part of the zone. Regrettably 999 hasn't been found on or off armageddon as far as anyone knows."
I frowned, wondering why nobody found the thing…or…any of the thing. "That's…rather weird and concerning that there hasn't been any signs of even one 999…"
"Yeah. We suspect they might all either be hiding somewhere, or perhaps prisoners in the Scarlet Kings Dominion. We don't know of the latter, then it's gonna be a long time before we can even attempt to free them."
"I'll need to read up on the Scarlet King after this…" I said carefully. "So…all of these are the 'Safe' prisoners?"
"Yes. Some are former anomalies we managed to recapture, some willingly came back looking for us, some are new faces, and the rest are all from former Nexus, Violence, Lust, ect facilities. Former high ranking members of the Chaos Guilds and even some of the bigger Puritan colonies that all defected."
"That's neat." I said, looking around the place and seeing so many people. "Wonder if AJ's mom works in this area?"
"AJ, you mean Able Junior? No, she works in Sector negative fifteen. Still guarding his father."
"That's fair." I nodded, wondering if I'll see anything neat in the 'Safe Grounds'.
"Do those two use her position for more private time?" Tina asked with a smirk.
"No. Usually Able attempts to break out, and Franky fights him to either get him back into his cell, or kill him and he appears back inside that coffin of his." The MTF said.
"Yeah, that seems to fit…still wonder when they decided to have a ki-who the hell is that?" I asked, looking to see a…rather beautiful lizard creature.
"I see them too…dayum." Tina said in surprise.
"That is 682, or rather, a version of them we found. She was being hunted by Lust since on top of their… appearance, they're also naturally friendly, lacking any and all of the hate and rage towards life others of her species are infamous for having. They are completely passive and friendly." The MTF said.
"So what you're saying is…" I started carefully…but then felt a gun to my back. "I didn't say anything yet!" I whined.
"First time?" Tina chuckled as I noticed there were…a lot of MTF on us all of a sudden. "But seriously, what's with the sudden violence?"
"Firstly, you two aren't the only ones who have tried to bed her. Apparently it's a common issue for her as part of the reality she came from. That being said, while she might be friendly, she has stated that she knew others of her kind from her original reality that were not. In Fact she was the only one to be friendly. Meaning that if she does have children it's highly likely they will be in some way similar to others of her species, on tops of that their process of aging and such is… rather unique. As a result, she asked us that anyone who even makes a passing suggestion of the desire to be with her be removed from her vicinity. Come on." The MTF said, leading me along as Tina followed.
"I'm sorry." I said sheepishly. "Plus I wasn't going to say 'bed her', I would have said 'date'."
"Ruling Armageddon with Horny sounds hilarious though." Tina admitted
"...Hate that you're right…" One of the MTF mentioned.
"Move it." Another MTF said, whacking the one that spoke with the butt of their rifle.
"So you two got kicked out of sector zero… because you saw some busty lizard lady and immediately got horny?" Gallon asked as he, Micheal, Tina and I met up for lunch.
"I didn't say shit and they immediately assumed I was horny." I frowned.
"I made a joke saying conquering Armageddon with the power of Horny would be hilarious." Tina shrugged.
"I mean, Tina is always horny, so…" Micheal said.
"Meh." Tina shrugged. "Still, kinda sad we didn't get to talk to her."
"Hell, I was about to say 'so what you're saying is we can talk to her', but they put a gun to my back and didn't let me finish my statement." I frowned.
"Well, so far in terms of the township stuff it's been going alright." Micheal sighed. "Repetitive but all in all alright. Also, turns out I can do other stuff with Township, like allow others to use features of it by giving them delegated roles."
"Really? Like if I went off by myself I can make Outposts?" I inquired.
"Yes, and like hell you are going alone anywhere." Micheal said. "The delegated roles are Agriculture, Construction, Production and Security."
"That all works, but why am I not allowed to go alone? I've been doing stuff by myself for a long time."
"Your partners made me promise that one of us goes with you anywhere at any time when you are outside the settlement."
"Of course…" I grumbled.
"Yeah, they asked me the same too." Tina nodded.
"Ditto." Gallon nodded.
"Traitors, the lot of you." I whined.
"To be fair, do you trust yourself?" Tina asked.
…
"We both know you don't." Cheat said.
"Why is everyone picking on me?" I whined.
"Heh. Guess it's just that kind of day." Micheal shrugged. "In any case, aside from that O5-1 said later he has a meeting with us and someone he wants us to meet."
"That's good to know, who's the person we're supposed to meet?"
"Not sure. He just said it was someone important." Micheal shrugged. "Given this is one of the O5's, and O5-1 at that, it's rather… interesting to hear him refer to another as someone important to meet."
"Yeah…" I said carefully. "I've got a bad feeling about this…"
Our meals arrived and after we ate, we headed off to the meeting.
The meeting room was fair sized, O5-1 was sitting at the end of the table, with a man, he wore a shabby, torn and hole riddles suit. His skin was pale and he had orange hair, yellow eyes and was maybe… nineteen, at least that's what he looked like physically.
"Greetings, have a seat." O5-1 said.
"And…who's the teen?" I asked carefully, cause if he was important than I doubt saying he looks poor would be a good thing to say.
"This is Midas, the founder and owner of the Greed Guild." O5-1 said.
"Sup." Midas said with a mock wave.
"And…why is the owner of Greed here?" I asked worriedly.
"Greed is a neutral party amongst the Chaos Guilds Button, his visitation today was cleared and he specifically asked to speak to you, Tina, Gallon and Micheal." O5-1 said.
"Why would you want us?" Tina asked. "We haven't done anything that would warrant a Greed's attention."
"But you have, mostly my personal interest in him." Midas said, pointing at Micheal and then over to me. "And you."
"What did I do?" I asked worriedly.
"You, my silly little pony, picked a fight with Dark Gray, right to his face at that. I like that moxy." Midas smirked. "And you," He said, looking over at Micheal. Gallon quickly taking Micheal's hand. "An owner of Township and the Perfect Custodian title. Well now there's only one other person on Armageddon like you and I'll be meeting with them too."
"Really? There's another Perfect Custodian?" I asked, honestly more surprised he didn't mention Micheal being a Mother's Daughter if he knew I personally told Dark Gray to fuck off.
"There's many but I'm referring to someone who has this unique two together. Township and Perfect Custodian. Township is a new Legendary Ability and it's quite an Ability. Perfect Custodian, the power to make others so much more stronger, and the stronger the person is the stronger the power makes them. Such a fascinating combination."
"Does that combination give some weird Combo Ability or something or is it just weird circumstances to have both of those at the same time?"
"That's what I'd like to learn and find out." Midas said, still smirking. "The basics of why I am here is because of your new Department. I'd like to… invest in its growth."
"And…why would you want to invest in our growth?" I inquired, finding this a bit fishy.
"Why? Why because it's simple really. I want you to win your game against Dark Gray, the panic buyers have been almost ransacking the shops in their areas and once you win and Dark Gray loses, we all get to leave Armageddon and I can take my products off planet for the first time ever."
"Yeah…so that part is a problem though…" I said carefully. "I don't want Dark Gray to Lose, I want me to Win, it might sound weird with my wording but still."
"In order for you to win he must lose, there is no third option." Midas said. "I've lived here long enough to learn the game and learn the rules. You want to win, he has to lose. There's no such thing as a game with no losers Button. Thinking otherwise is… wasted effort."
I frowned, as I wanted to play this game my way and not Dark Gray's. "Well, I'm still going to be playing it my way, and part of it is going against some established bullshit."
"And what is that way if you don't even know the game he's playing?" Midas asked.
"First, I'm going to save Diamond from getting needlessly executed for joining this 'Game'." I frowned. "If she wasn't allowed to do this, her Oath wouldn't just be some 'promise' that could be broken, it would be a binding Oath that can't be broken." I admitted. "She decided to play his Game, and he doesn't like it, so I'm going to save her in the first step to stopping this nonsense."
"Now now, see, that's where you're already fucking up." Midas said as he leaned forward. "He's ecstatic that you, Diamond, that you're joining in. New players really shake the game up and believe it or not, the Time Walker's Oath isn't some soul binding contract, it's completely based on the Time Walker's willingness to blindly obey with nothing but self locked shackles. After all, there is no greater resistance to a law or a rule when the restraints are physical and heavy. Forcing ones self to follow based on their own devotion now that's when you have the loyalist of followers. That's what makes Tiara a criminal. She wasn't willing to put her devotion and loyalty to the guild over her love for you and her family."
"So she's a criminal because she realized being a mindless corporate slave was retarded and bailed?" Tina asked. "Wow…Time Walkers really need some overhaul with that nonsense."
"That's the greatest of evils. Bureaucracy and politics." Midas chuckled. "Leaves a bit of a sour taste in my mouth but even I can admit there are times where such ways are… necessary." He said. "Some Time Walkers that I know used to joke that the head of the Time Walkers was an honorary member of the part of the Family that dictated evil in reality. His name really helps sell it to."
"And what's his name?" I inquired, cause now I'm wondering who's the asshat that's causing a lot of this bullshit.
"Peccator the Deceiver."
"Peccator… that means Sinner in Latin." Gallon said.
"Indeed." Midas nodded. "Many wonder who is actually more evil, Dark Gray, or him. Even I'm curious."
"Well…that depends on what his Sin's are, and why he's a Deceiver." I admitted. "Cause he's the leader of the Time Walkers, so something has to be up with that."
"Well, if you believe the legends, Peccator was once a Keyblade Master, way back in the old reality. He set things in motion to start a Multiversal War that nearly brought Keyblades and their power to extinction all in an effort to destroy one Keyblade that his fate was bound to. It failed, and in the end he became part of Kingdom Hearts. If you ever heard of The Admin of Heart's, Peccator is one twentieth of that All Maker. As an All Maker he took over the control and oversight of Time. He created things that The Family had to destroy back in the War, including the infamous Void Key."
"So… yeah he's very evil…" Gallon said.
"All that death just to destroy something he was bound to by fate?" Micheal said.
"Self Fulfilling Prophecy." I stated. "He tries to fuck with something that he's scared of, thinking it would cause him harm, ends up suffering for his actions by the very thing he was afraid of."
"Hm. Wonder if history repeats itself with a whole different cast?" Midas asked as he looked at me.
"What? Where I try to make a third path only to play into the games of others?" I asked.
"Wouldn't that just be beautifully ironic?" Midas smirked. "But, onto business. I can supply you four with rem and supplies that you and your New Foundation associates here can use to your hearts content. This includes Data Drives of locations of Nexus, Lust and Violence facilities in the zones New Foundation has territory in."
"And in return?" Micheal asked.
"Keep them scared. Scared customers buy anything even at mark up prices."
"Does this include any info about Time Walker activity?" I inquired, because if there's any activity from them that means Diamond wouldn't be too far behind and I can start to pinpoint where she is…and bring her home.
"I'm afraid I can't. That information is private, as per my contractional agreement with a certain Rogue Time Walker."
Fuck… she's using her powers as a Time Walker to keep the distance between us as far as she can…
"Alright…" I sighed. "So, this seems like a rather…one sided deal don't you think? We're getting all these resources and money to fund our battle against the guilds and you just get panic buyers?" I asked, feeling like there's some catch here.
"Well, when the game is over and we can all leave Armageddon, that's the main reward I'm getting out of this deal." Midas said with a shrug.
I sighed, really wishing there was something I can do about that. "Yeah yeah, but it still depends on what this Game really is." I admitted. "Cause a lot of this has just been said about being Dark Grays 'entertainment'."
"Tell me, what is the oldest game in any reality? A game even mindless animals have played?" Midas asked.
"War…" Micheal muttered.
"Correct! War, a game of battles, strategy, and bloodshed. And in the game of war, there are pieces."
"This is some twisted take on chess?" Tina asked.
"More or less." Midas nodded.
"So the better question is…Who, or What, is the King?" I asked carefully, cause there's so much to this planet it's kinda hard to pinpoint, even if there was a weird niggle in the back of my mind like I should know what it is, like I was told it before.
"Now that is the first part of the game." Midas said. "I don't know everything, but I do know Dark Gray can have as many pawns as he can influence. But his Rooks, Knights, Bishops, Queens and King are limited."
"How many?" Gallon asked.
"Twenty Rooks, ten Knights, five Bishops, two Queens, and one King. Unlike in a normal game of chess, all thirty eight of these finite pieces of his must be eliminated before he loses the game. His pawns are easily replaceable and don't count."
"That's fair…so what's David, the leader of Lust?" I inquired.
"No idea." Midas said. "Like I said, I don't know everything. Only ones who know that are Dark Gray and the pieces themselves."
"Right…so just cleave through this place as much as we can until we find someone that can't be normally cleaved through, got it."
"Spoken like someone who has never played chess." Midas chuckled.
"Can confirm." Tina nodded.
"While Dark Gray is trying to play his fifth dimensional rocket chess I'm over here playing Checkers and wondering why he's complicating shit." I frowned.
"That…doesn't help your case there buddy." Tina admitted.
"It does when I'm wanting to play by my own rules and not suffer his bullshit any longer." I countered.
"Hm. We'll see." Midas shrugged before pulling out some papers from his Assistant. "The following is our agreement and of course, something for Micheal there." He said, handing me the papers and Micheal his.
"... This says you'll be sending me abilities to test their chances of creating Combination Abilities with Township… and I get a Guidebook to Titles…" Micheal said.
"An investment. Nothing more."
"And in return I sent you detailed notes about the combination abilities I may or may not get…"
"Information, second only in value to one's own interests. In this case, both are applicable to this transaction."
"Well, at least we'll learn some neat things, cause if Perfect Custodian and our Dungeon Veteran Titles are anything to go by, then they're probably really good."
"This guidebook was created by me, personal documentation both from second hand sources and confirming the information for myself." Midas nodded.
"... I'd like to add something." Micheal said.
"And what would that be?"
"You're a resourceful person, I'd also like a list of every dungeon in this and every zone you've ever explored or set up shop in."
"... And what makes you think I have such a thing?"
"Midas, a tragic lesson in history back on my world of a man who lost everything because of his own greed. I'm willing to bet you share more than just a name with the Midas of my world… I'm willing to bet you share, maybe even surpass his greed."
"... Heh. I knew I liked you. True, I have a complete catalog of dungeons all across Armageddon. And I plan on updating it after the new upgrade reality gets come new years. And I'm always updating this book since there's so much land, air, sea and deep underground territory to explore. What would you use this information for?"
"Increase my Custody's strength, end this game quicker. After all, the faster you get to leave Armageddon, the more money you can earn once you do."
"Hmm, true… It's a deal then." Midas said, the contract floating back to him as he seemed to make the changes to it quickly before giving it back to Micheal.
"Hmm, mind if I ask if there are special 'Bonus Rooms' that give some pretty rare and strong loot?" I asked.
"Yes, they are well hidden and hard to get to but if you make it, you can get their treasures. Either locked in a chest or guarded by a beast."
"Do you think you can throw in either a list or a compass that can lead us to such places?" I inquired.
"That's easy." Midas nodded. "Will that be all?"
"I think that should be it, unless you have anything else." I mentioned to everyone else here.
They shook their heads. We quickly signed them, even O5-1, and with that, Midas put them all into his Assistant. "And that will be that. I'll send your supplies, shipments and such to your Department office. And in terms of the items for Micheal and you Button, will be mailed to your home within a week, in Micheal's case, weekly or so."
"Cool." I nodded. "Pleasure doing business."
"That's my line." Midas said. He then phased through the ground like nothing, vanishing as he did.
"Well, that went well." O5-1 said as he stood up.
"Surprisingly well." I admitted. "And with all the Dungeon's we'll be hunting and my stupidly high item multiplier, things will get even better."
"Looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us." Gallon said with a chuckle.
"Possibly." Micheal nodded.
"Just…wish this happened sooner than it practically being at the last minute before all these changes happened." I admitted.
"Well, better late than never." Tina said.
"Well, Gallon and I are gonna get back to the portal thing and Township stuff. Wanna join?" Micheal asked.
"Might as well." I shrugged.
