Monk

I woke up in my cell and stared up at the single floresant Bulb, the alarm was going off.

"Fucking hell."

I got up and cracked my neck, I looked at the Calender got up and slashed another day, then I got dressed in my familar wet suit.

"Foods here Monk."

"Yeah thanks guppy."

He slid it through the slot and I frowned, todays MRE was eggs, toast, and tea, joy. I was hopping for mexican breakfast that tended to be one of the better MRE's. I ate quickly, used the bath room and waited for the cell to open. The man looked at me.

"Hey monk, ready for another day of work?"

"Yeah Gup I am."

I walked with him to work.

"They find an opening for me yet?"

"Sorry monk their working on it."

The door of my cell opened and I looked out into the open ocean, I am a clone one of many, I got over the whole clone blues a long ass time, that and my orignials ability to put up with bullshit jobs got me here.

"Wish I had gotten better then 76."

"You got a passing score, any thing above 60% is a passing agent score."

"Yeah but I've I had gotten over 80 I would be out there instead of doing this."

"They would have talked you into doing this anyways, your not the light the fires kick the tires kind of guy."

I looked outside and watched fish swim by.

"Its not all bad."

"R12 is a shit hole, you only think its ok because you grew up on a modernist shit hole."

Guppy looked at her gun and sighed.

"Fucking hate Doctor Brown."

"She owns my ass."

"And that doesn't mean she's not a cunt? Thinks she's special because her father was an agent and her mom was a waifu. Thinks she's so much fucking better then the rest of us because our mothers were Talent, or naturals."

Guppy's mother went through a year long op as talent, they found out she was a girl so she wasn't aborted, and ended up in security. Common enough story, I was in janitorial services. A door opened Doc looked at me.

"Its been over 5 years doc."

"You will be compensated."

"I fullfilled my contract."

She glared at me.

"For old times sake?"

"5 year contract we are on year 6."

"That means more points and cash."

"I contacted legal."

She sighed.

"I know but you know how hard it is to find people willing to work here."

She pointed to her lap and I sighed as Guppy left, I endured 10 minutes of spanking and then got into a tube of water. A screen consumed my vision and I looked at my robots. I control the cleaning robots, my job is to clean the facility, and be used as a stress ball by my boss. There is no vacation, this is my life. Every single day for the last 6 years.

I get to cleaning doing my job, It might be boring and soul numbing, the pay is shit, my living quarters are shit but when this ends I will be free. I wonder where I will go? Well sooner or later they can find some other smuck to do this, if they don't find a contractor though its going to cost them a lot more. I frown as I see something.

"Fuck."

A tear opens, in front of one of my robots.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck."

I hit the emegency button.

"We have trouble."

"Monk."

"Vi vicus look through the feed."

Doc was silent.

"SHIT!"

The leader had the scalped face of a woman on his helmet, one of the elisabeths. He went in.

"Get security."

"What the fuck do you think I am doing?"

"Fuck they have a slicer."

"Doc?"

"Their hacking our systems."

"Ok shut down power."

"I cant do that?"

"Doc..."

"They have gotten the security bots."

"Call for help."

"Shit shit their high end, we are going to have to activate a scape goat protocal."

"What."

"Congratulations Monk, you get to see the greater multiverse."

"What are you doing doc?"

"These robots have to be flushed and up well sorry."

"You cant sent me out with out catalogue access."

"Right thank god your in that tube."

She hit something and a list came up.

"Your being portaled in in 5 minutes, you have that much time to pick new abilities, if you don't die congratulations your a free man."

"Where am I going?"

"Anywhere but here."

I heard a button smash and felt sick as I fell back I frowned at the list.

"Shit Halo."

I fell through the portal and clicked on my options, and then felt a crunch, I rolled and felt pain, the tube opened.

"One hour until hunter killer droids appear."

It was then that the needles pierced my skin and I screamed in pain as my body transformed. They were coming.

I heard the zipping sound of portals opening.

"Shit."

Scapegoat Protocol. Whenever you have a major security breach, and this is major, you pick some poor prick and flush them and the infection. I crawled out of the tube and started running, zig-zagging as more flush portals opened.

"One hour! you promised me one hour, Brownie, this has been only 15 minutes. This? This shit right here is why everyone thinks you're a bitch."

I went through the download, There had been a recent explosion of new Engines on the market, I had wanted an Eternity Engine but only long-standing agents, management, and the lucky few got those. Water was the most flexible, the most useful, survival tool.

"Shit."

Ok, Aura, Bending, Magecraft, Chakra, a quirk, and magical brilliance so I would know what I was doing, healing herbs, a Z-sword, and a knife. As my lungs burned, I had a thought.

"I'm a fucking retard."

Should have picked optimization! The z-sword could have been a knife, I wasted a perfectly good point. I mean the herbs were important, healing item to let me not die right now, but the knife was a waste of points, I looked at a cliff, and struggled to think.

"FUCKING HELL!"

All of my mystic training was water-focused, other than some basics I was a one-trick pony. Doesn't matter! I have hundreds of killer robots chasing me. My lungs burned. Even with Aura, chakra, and reinforcement working as one I was just barely faster than them, just barely avoiding the superheated plasma bolts being fired at me. I got to the cliff and jumped off, the robots jumped after me.

As I fell I summoned water and forced it around my legs, slowing down my fall.

"Oh thank god."

I rocketed to a cave in the canyon walls and rolled. My feet hurt, everything hurt, and I was tired as hell. I blinked, 56 HK's down. Apparently they couldn't fly, which made sense as R12 was an aquatic basing and the Canyon was deep. I took my breath and sprayed the walls with water, as much as I could, and created ice walls and barricades but the cave wasn't that deep. The falling stopped and I heard a crunching sound.

"No choice then."

Only one way in and out, the robots crawled towards me and into the cave. I blasted them with waves, kicking them out. There was no way my ice could shred their armor or beat them, but I didn't have to beat them. I just had to knock them out of the wall and let gravity do its work.

"Fucking Vickys! Fuck you and fuck your self-righteous bullshit."

Summon water, wave push, build up defenses, I kept my thinking small and kept it to the task at hand. My heart pounded until I heard a dinging sound.

"Congratulations on surviving! You have 340 points to spend as a part of your severance package and we here at the Slut Life Corporation are sad to see you go. We hope you'll have a pleasant day."

I looked at the glowing orb and collapsed in the cave.

"Well... that fucking sucked."

I looked up. I was free. By company bylaws, I was free. If you survived a scapegoat protocol, you were free to go. I could do whatever I wanted now but I had no idea how canon this universe was, what part of the timeline I was in nor did i have a fucking clue what I was doing. I scrolled down.

"The squad?"

I frowned.

"The fuck, Brownie!"

Only three companions, shit... Ok, remember what your grandfather said: if you can have multiple women, remember the Andrew sisters protocol. Redhead, Brunette, Blond. I looked at the list, it was a limited system and I needed to spend my points wisely because I didn't have a chance in hell of getting more. It was then I noticed I was bleeding.

"Shit."

I created an Ice bowl I needed those herbs now.

"You have purchased:

Sick ride -15 points
Island in the sea of time -20 points
Armory -10 points
Size upgrade for both -20 points
Military upgrade -10 points
Machine Spirit -15 points
Maidroid crew -15 points
Jumpdrive -20 points
Teleportarium -20 points
Luxury -10 points
Defense systems -5 points
Workshop -5 points
Zippy -1 point
Storage -1 point
Holding cells -1 point
2 swimming pools -2 points."

It paused.

"You have spent 170 points, we will combine options and provide you a Washu class Vessel. Searching databases."

Fuck yeah! Washu class ships were damned good, that should get me to civilization. I leaned back, I only had three companions... these would be my wives, my friends, the mother of my children. And I couldn't get more. I needed to make sure they did not murder me.

"You have purchased Conditioning, Perk sharing, True love, Obedience, Adjustments, and mind control. You have spent 60 points."

I had 110 points left. I looked through the options, Tifa Lockheart was only 15 points.

"Yoink."

Athletic tomboy with a nice personality and a killer body? Yes, please! Plus I had no idea how to fight hand to hand, so having her around to run security was a good idea. The Blond and Redhead options were something I had more issues with, but Tifa? Had to pick her. Ok, maybe I didn't have to but... hey, you know, Tifa. I mean, sure, clone Tifa but still you know better than spending 6 years as Browny's stress ball.

I had to wait though; couldn't pick her now. You know with the whole currently homeless thing.

"Any information about my current verse?"

"Inquiry blank; no information."

Well, fuck. Still no idea where I was, that wasn't ideal. Lots of things about this weren't ideal, overall this was a shit situation. But you know it wasn't all bad: I had my own spaceship incoming, I was alive, I had superpowers, and I was going to have hot women at my beck and call. All I had to do was keep some aliens from fucking this up.

And the humans from fucking this up too... Could I remain neutral in this conflict? No. But I could wait and get more information. No need to get into this blind after all.

My stomach growled, 3 days to delivery always sounds so much better in theory than reality.

I looked at my smartwatch, no food for 3 days. If I couldn't summon my own water I'd be in pretty serious trouble.

The Ahava, my own personal ship, was a Washu class ship designed by a Washu clone. From the reading, it used to be owned by someone in management and went through the family line for a bit then the family got slaughtered to a man during a black Dragon raid. With all heirs dead their stuff was divided up and sold along the company.

My watch beeped.

"Oh, finally! Port me up."

A portal opened and I crawled through it, the bridge was empty. My suit had caked blood on it and, god damn it, I was hungry. A glowing orb sat there. I got up, it didn't matter if I felt like shit, I walked to the captain's chair and sighed. A small needle was there, as explained, and I pricked my hand on the chair.

"Blood sample confirmed. Agent Monk Fish is provided with Captain privileges and authorization. Welcome to the Ahava, please enjoy your stay."

I looked at it.

"I want a steak dinner."

"Bringing up options."

I picked the one with fries and a salad. I smiled, I hadn't had a decent meal in 6 years. This was going to be good.

"Message incoming."

"Patch it in."

A man looked at me.

"Monk Fish?"

"Yeah, not an agent so I'm stuck with a nickname."

"Right, so I'm from legal."

I leaned in.

"And?"

"And Doctor Brown's actions were a violation of your Slut Life contract. You signed up for a 5 year duration and extending it is a violation of Slut Life policy."

"Compensation?"

"Your ship has an industrial-level food materializer."

I took that in.

"That's it?"

"No... it isn't, you're getting a full sweet of Plasmid and Gene tonic manufacturing capability. All of it safe for human use. That's your compensation."

"Anything else?"

"The Covenant attacks next year. You're a free agent now, what you decide to do is up to you. Once you're finished buying whatever your points cover your company access ends."

"There's a slight problem."

"Yes."

"The number of waifus. Shouldn't I have more?"

"Waifus are a reward for active agents, as per Scapegoat Protocol you only get a maximum of three upon completion of the mission. Sorry, Monk, thems the rules."

He vanished and a robot tapped me on the shoulder, I hobbled my way to the kitchen and sat down. It was the best food I've had in years and, as I ate, my thoughts went back to my options.

"Pick waifus first, budget later."

I had time to rest and recover, time to use that while I thought about what I would do next.

Monk

I showered. A real shower, not a sonic shower in a chemical room.

I cracked my neck and looked around for something to wear, company had provided sweats and a T-shirt. I put them on and relaxed on a bed that had a decent mattress, then I just went to sleep. When I awoke, I decided to walk through the ship that I owned, It was nice, I had a garden, swimming pools that I used, a spa with robots that knew how to give a good massage. I didn't understand how it worked, all of it was beyond me, but this was quite possibly one of the most powerful ships around. Enough to shift the tide of most battles.

So 110 points and only three choices, Tifa was a lock so that was 15 points well spent. That left me with a budget of a maximum of 50 points to spend on the other girls. I was leaning towards Starfire as my second choice. She was familiar with space-based combat and living, had a pleasant personality, and was cute. Was she capable of having my children? She was human-compatible in her home universe. It was worth asking about and I honestly thought she would be a great mother. The blonds... I was going to table that for now.

I toweled off and went to a room and smiled at the sex dungeon, lots of toys. I noted it for the future and then went to the captain's deck.

"Any civilization?"

"None, though there is planetary life."

"Look for signals of civilization."

"Can do, Captain."

The indecision, I think, was natural. Deciding who your life partner was going to be for the rest of your life...

"We have signals."

I now had access to the Covenant's extranet and to the human side of things. There was a lively debate happening on the Covenant side of things.

"We're going to have to warn them."

The human government were assholes, your standard authoritarian bullshit, but the fate of the local human race was at stake. Still, I couldn't trust them. I had the AI turn through channels, doing a decrypt.

"Insurrectionists, uh?"

I went through the files and thought about it, I couldn't trust the Earth government but the outer colonies could use my help. The UNC had their super soldier program and what do you know: I was fully capable of creating my own super soldiers. Splicers versus Spartans.

I checked the internal data, my ship had some interesting manufacturing capabilities... If I contacted them we could create our own fraction.

"Look for lines on the Insurrectionist movement, we're going to create our own faction."

"Can do, Captain."

I had a year before the aliens invaded. I continued going through the files, could I build up enough in time to make a difference? Hell If I knew, but I could definitely change things for the better.