Consortium Chronicles: HE’S PLAYING VERGIL!

by Titan900

Of all the Vergil variants in the multiverse, Peter Vergil Portgas was a peculiar one. Although fully human, he must grapple with his own darkness and a chaotic world in order to make the most of his new life. If only Dante would stop calling him. WC, Consortium, Gacha, Alternate Vergil

Author's note:

In the spooky spirit of Halloween, I wanted to release the first chapter of what is (technically) a crossover Devil May Cry story (if you squint your eyes enough). At the very least it has a more chill but no less grumpy Vergil being the sword wielding badass he always be no matter how different the life. Please forgive me if I take more than a few liberties with his backstory though.

In case you were wondering about the title, it is a joke about how Vergil in the Marvel vs. Capcom game was really overpowered. I heard it in a Russian Badger gaming video and I couldn't help but be inspired.

Happy Halloween!

--

Chapter 1: Fight for your Life

"Forgive me Father for I have sinned," I say as I sit in the confessional booth. "It has been eighteen hours since my last confession."

"What have you managed to do in the past day?" the priest asks with a tired sigh.

"Well, I beat up a couple of bullies," I list off. "Then, I accidentally threw a plastic bottle in the trash when the recycling bin was just a few feet away. After that, I almost hung myself from the ceiling fan in my room."

"Thankfully, it seems you are finally learning to control yourself," the priest says with clear happiness in his voice.

"Of course, Father," I tell him. "I could tell that the bracing for the fan had to be pretty weak, so I knew it would never do the trick. I would just rip it out of the ceiling and break a bunch of stuff. Instead, I chugged a gallon of bleach before I hurled a lot of it up."

"Jesus Christ," the priest says before I hear him crossing himself in the hopes God would forgive him for his slip up. "Did you at least throw it up because you realized that suicide is a sin that damns souls to the infernal pits of hell?"

"No, it was just making my stomach really upset and it tasted bad," I admit. "I was thinking about trying to electrocute myself if that didn't work, but the failure with the bleach left a bad taste in my mouth that really ruined my mood for any other attempts. I mean, an actual bad taste in my mouth. It was even worse coming back up."

"Oh boy," the priest says. "Peter, you can't keep doing this. Are you really going to stay on this path despite the universe telling you that it is a waste of time? Nothing you have tried has managed to end your life. You fall off of a building and break a couple of bones instead of dying. You try to poison youself only to get diarrhea. Why do you endeavor to die when the world wants you to live?"

"Because my world is dead," I tell him. "And it is my fault. I don't deserve to keep living with what I have done."

"Peter, it was a tragedy," he says. "There is no one who can say otherwise. Even though it was God's plan, that doesn't change the fact that the world is a little darker now. Are you truly willing to make it darker still and damn your sould at the same time? You will never see them again."

"I don't deserve to see them again," I answer. "They are better of without me. I can just do my part and head on downstairs where I belong."

"It is so frustrating to see how much families resemble each other," the priest says to me. "It is like the most self deprecating and negative parts from your grandfather and your father all combined into you. I can still remember your father telling me about how he couldn't change his cursed blood. Your grandfather still talks about the lives he failed to save like he killed them himself. Why do you keep on following in their footsteps? It wasn't your fault and there is nothing wrong with you."

"You are a good man, padre," I say with a rueful chuckle. "You try to see the best in everyone. Just trust me when I say, I deserve this fate I have set myself on. It would just be a matter of time before I ruin someone else's happiness. I should probably head out. Gramps said that he might needs some help with dinner tonight. You know how he is, completely hopeless ever since Grandma passed away. It doesn't help that his biggest critic is still around and kicking."

The priest seems to accept that he is not going to get through to me this time around. He just shakes his head with a sigh. "That cat is still alive?" he asks. "I expected Mud to be dead by now. At this rate, he is going to outlive us all."

"Don't you know Curmudgeon Cat is immortal?" I reply. "He runs on spite and the blood of his enemies. I'll be seeing you, Father. By the way, Peter is my Gramps' name. Call me Vergil."

He doesn't get another word in before I am gone.

--

I was walking down the street when I noticed the mom with her stroller. It would not normally capture my attention, but for a moment, I could not look away. A kind smile was spread across the woman's face as she looked down at her baby in the stroller. I could make out the baby giggling at his mother as she talked to him. The sight made me nostalgic for something I never had and never deserved.

Yet, as I watched, something flashed across my sight. The stroller rolling away as the mother fell to the ground. A truck bearing down on the woman as she laid on the ground. It vanished as quickly as it came and returned to the happy mother and child.

I immediately broke out into a sprint the next instant. Despite my speed, I was still not close enough by the time I saw her trip on a crack in the road as she crossed the street. She tumbled to the ground and the stroller began to roll away. My ears pick up the engine of the oncoming truck just before it came into view. The driver was looking down and didn't see the woman in front of him. If I didn't do something, she had no chance of surviving.

In a final burst of speed, I grab her by the shoulders and throw her out of the way of the truck. She looks back at me in surprise as she lands safely next to the stroller. I just smile right before everything goes black.

Blinding pain shoots through me for a moment only to vanish. Everything fades away as I feel myself at peace. Despite this, a few emotions stay with me until the end.

Sadness at leaving Gramps alone again.

Amusement that a normal truck managed to do me in.

Lastly, happiness. I didn't mess up this time.

--

(Shaggy/Green King POV)

As he watched his daughter trip while crossing the street, he couldn't help but shake his head. She was so much like Velma that it was uncanny sometimes. The poor girl could find something to trip on in the middle of an empty room.

While he could just shift her out of the way, he thought it would be more amusing to switch it up so she wouldn't know that he was still watching over her. With a snap of his fingers, the truck is possessed by the magical essence of Truck-kun. The engine of perfection known throughout the multiverse as the isekai starter would drive just to the right of his daughter without putting her in any actual danger. This would do the job of making her not realize he was helping out and trying to convince her to watch where she was going.

"Two birds with one stone, Scoob," he tells his canine companion. "Like, it's a perfect plan."

"Rood rob, Raggy," Scooby says. Through millenia with his bud, it was as simple as breathing to translate it to 'Good job, Shaggy.'

As the omnipotent Contractor reclined in his chair and basked in the genius of his idea, his thoughts about what to have for lunch were interrupted by a thumping sound, a cry of shock from his daughter, and Truck-kun's horn blaring in confusion.

He focuses back on the scene, he immediately realizes what happened. Someone had saved his daughter and moved her out of the way. As such, Truck-kun had continued on his orders and gone to the right of his daughter. This just so happened to be directly into her unfortunate savior.

The guy died pretty much instantly due to the metaphysical might of Truck-kun being engineered to sever the bonds of souls from their home reality. Truck-kun immediately left the truck behind as the spirit was trying to figure out what to do with the unexpected soul that he was frantically juggling between his mechanical hands.

"Oh, fuck me," he says. "Like, how can this get any worse?"

"Meow!"

He turns to see an angry grey cat glaring at him angrily. His day immediately got worse while Scoob ran for the hills at the cat's arrival. It was a shame he couldn't follow his bud on the way out.

It was no ordinary cat. It was Curmudgeon Cat, the Grey King of the Consortium. The feline Contractor was the first naturally occuring animal to ever become a Tier 13 in the Company. The cat had been taking a vacation from the Consortium every since his favorite Contractor decided to settle down and he went with her. If he was here, that meant the dead guy was someone that mattered to the furred King.

"Seriously, Shaggy?" a voice says from behind the cat. He looks up to see a old man with gray hair, laugh lines aplenty, and an unamused look on his face. "You just happened to kill my grandson?"

Goddamnit, this was such horse shit. It was bad enough that he pissed off Mud, his fellow King. Now, he also pissed off one of his own retired Contractors. It was the former Tier 12 God of Spiders and Weaver of the Web of Life and Destiny, Peter Benjamin Parker. The now elderly man was clearly not happy with recent events.

"Oh, how's it going, Shagster?" another voice says as he resists the impulse to give a groan of frustration. He looks over to see a man with a sharp grin no shirt and a leather cowboy hat with the symbols of a smiling and frowning face on it. "It isn't every day that my son gets run over because of my old boss."

It just had to be another of his retired Contractors. Apparently, they were coming back from their afterlives to haunt him now. He should have expected this from the former Tier 12 God of Rebirth and He Whose Flames Spark Worlds, Firefist Ace D. Portgas. There was nothing happy in that smile of his.

"Like, should I be expecting anyone else or is it just you three who are going to Christmas Carol me right now?" he asks the assembled visitors.

"Just us," Ace says. "You should count yourself lucky. If we told the women or Pops right now, they would be on a warpath for your hide."

"Small mercies," he agrees. There was nothing he feared quite so much as the return of Felicia Parker née Hardy. While she never ascended to the level of Tier 13, every King knew to be afraid of the Black Cat's silver claws. "I can assume none of you are happy by this little mixup?"

"Well...," they say as even the cat seems a little wishy washy all of a sudden.

"Oh, pick a lane!" he says as he throws up his hands. "One second, you are angry because he died. The next, you seem fine with it! Stick with one already!"

"He was trying to cancel his current subscription to life recently," Peter admits. "This is probably the best we could really hope for. I was getting kind of tired seeing how he would try to check out every day. At least this way doesn't count as suicide."

"He went out in a better way than most people can manage," Ace grudgingly agrees. "He was able to help a mom and her kid, even if they had omnipotent backup looking down on them."

Mom and her kid. Mom... and her kid. Eureka!

"I have the perfect solution to this mess," he finally says. "The best part is that this is just what he needed. This cloud has a silver lining after all."

"I am trying to find the silver lining in my grandson being run over and I am having a little trouble," Peter says.

"Oh, ye of little faith," he replies. "As a reward for a good deed, he will get what he protected. It is the same thing you both dreamed of during your own lives as well. A mother and her child."

"If you fuck this up, nothing will save you," Peter warns. "I don't care what happens. I don't care if it tears the Consortium apart. If you don't follow through with this promise, you won't live long enough to properly regret it."

"All the power in the multiverse will not be enough," Ace agrees. "You fucked around on a protected retirement world. The other Kings will turn on you for breaking the rules you all agreed on. It was supposed to be a world free of the Consortium and the Company's influence. If you end up putting him through even more than he has already gone through, no loyalty from the past will protect you. It will be blood for blood."

With those warnings and a final hiss from the Grey King, the assorted family of the recently deceased man all fade away as they return to their respective worlds and afterlives. He just gives a sigh of relief at the realization that he walked away from a standoff that could have been downright apocalyptic. If he didn't pull this off, there would be hell to pay.

As he gazes down at the soul in question, he couldn't help but wonder what fate was waiting for the boy just over the horizon. After all, the bloodlines of many powerful Contractors had combined to birth one Peter V. Portgas into the world. There was no telling how far he could go.

--

(Peter V. Portgas POV)

I wake up with a start as I am sitting in a chair. My body is mysteriously missing any aches or pains just as our environment seems to be missing any features. The environment was empty black in all directions. The only other point of substance is the chair in front of me and its occupant.

"Hello there," the man says. He had sandy brown hair with brown eyes and was wearing a green t-shirt, baggy brown pants, and leather shoes. "My name is Shaggy. In case you were wondering, you are in fact dead."

"Why am I here?" I ask. "Shouldn't I be waiting in line at the gates of Hell?"

"You would be if you had managed to kill yourself like you had originally planned," Shaggy admits. "However, you died saving an innocent stranger for no reason other than it was the right thing to do."

"I didn't do it because it was the right thing to do," I argue. "I just did it because I wanted to. No more, no less."

"Despite that, you still saved a mother from being separated from her child," he says. "To be honest, she was my daughter. Since you went out of your way to be kind to her, it would be wrong of me to not reward a good deed. What better way to reward you than give you back what you saved: a family."

With a wave of his hand, an illusion formed to the side of us. It was a girl with long brown hair and a kind smile. "After all, I thought you would want to see the love of your life again," the man finally says.

I don't even resist the impulse as I blitz forward and try to punch him in the face. My hand slows to a stop within inches of reaching him as I am suddenly dragged back by chains that bind me to the chair. I struggle against them, but they resisted my efforts to break them.

"Like, it is scary how similar your family is," Shaggy says with a laugh. "I can see Ace and Peter doing the same thing. Now, let's get back to what I was trying to say. You will be getting another chance in another world. It is kind of a shitshow of a world, but I belive in you. Now, the two souls you care about will be reincarnated in the world as well. It will be up to you to find them. Don't worry, it will be easy to recognize them when you meet. They will also be in no danger of dying before you find them. Even better, I will be giving you our newly developed Gacha System. Be warned, it is still in beta testing. You will be one of the test batch along with a few others so we can work out the bugs."

"I don't have a choice in this, do I?" I ask.

"Let me say it a different way," Shaggy explains. "Are you telling me that you will actually refuse to give the woman you love another shot at life just so you can continue to wallow in your own bullshit?"

My lack of response was the only answer he needed.

"Perfect!" he says. "Now, we are still working out the exact mechanics of the system, so I set up a fun challenge to see what kind of stuff you will get. You have to get through three areas while being hounded by opponents of my choosing. They will all be challenging in their own ways. Your job is to either defeat them or run out the time without dying. Don't be worried about anyone dying for real. Everyone will be fine afterwards. You can get access to equipment through neat loot boxes scattered around the mock cities I picked out. Sound cool?"

"It sounds like you made this entirely to amuse yourself," I comment.

"Cool," Shaggy agrees. "Now, let's see how you do against your first opponent. Truck-kun was kind of pissed you died and ruined his thousand year streak of perfect missions. He wanted to be the first boss and I thought it was kind of fitting. Good luck!"

With a snap of his fingers, I am suddenly on an empty city street. I hear the roar of an engine and I turn to see a semi truck pointed right at me. Its engine revved up in challenge like a bull kicking the ground before a charge. My muscles tensed up in anticipation for the moment it started to move.

A gunshot sounded overhead and the truck barreled down on me. I choose to sprint to the side and make it into a neraby alley. This gave me a little time since it was narrow enough to make it a challenge to easily drive into. I used this wiggle room to jump against a wall before kicking off and grabbing the bottom rung of the building's exterior ladder. I ascend it as fast as possible until I reach the first platform.

That is when my instincts scream at me to duck. I immediately drop to the ground right before a massive blast tears through the building above me. I look up to see that the ladder above me was gone and the remaining ends were glowing hot. The building itself now had a massive hole in it and the edges of the blast were scorched and burning.

I look back to the opening of the alley to see that the semi had seemingly transformed into a giant fuckoff robot with a glowing cannon coming from its arm. You know, like all semi trucks can apparently do.

I just run into the obliterated interior of the building and try to ignore the heat from the ground burning my feet through the soles of my sneakers. Multiple shots fly into the building only to miss after I got deep enough to block its line of sight. While dangerous due to how large its damage area was, the weapon didn't seem to have much in the way of penetration. That meant my best course of action was to stay out of sight and behind substantial cover.

This plan went out of the window immediately when I hear chittering sounds coming from a nearby stairwell. The door promptly bursts open as a series of smaller animalistic robots come through and fill the interior of the building. I promptly switch to getting the fuck out and sprint to a different side of the building only to see a crate with green detailing and a glowing green 'C' logo stamped onto the lid. It must be one of those loot boxes Shaggy mentioned.

I divert my path to the side and make a break for the box as the robots all lock onto my location and proceed to swarm closer. My speed gave me the advantage as I reached the loot box in time and threw it open to find quite the delightful goodie inside.

I yank the hefty 7.62mm LMG out and proceed to unload a stream of high velocity lead at my cybernetic opponents. The rounds punch holes through their armor plating and shred the bots to pieces. I don't let off the trigger until the swarm is reduced to scrap, the magazine is completely empty, and the barrel is visibly glowing from the intense heat of the continuous fire. I dump the overheated gun to the side after I see that there wasn't any spare magazines in the loot box as well. They must be a one and done kind of deal.

My momentary reprieve was over when I heard the clanking sound of more robots jostling amongst themselves as came up the stairs. I will choose now to take my leave.

I run through the empty building until I reach an external window. It was reduced to shards when I leaped through at top speed and fell to the ground outside. I land in a roll to reduce my speed before I stop in a crouch. My senses were on high alert for Truck-kun's position and it was thankfully still on the other side of the building.

I break the window of a nearby car and unlock the door while ignoring the alarm blaring through the relative quiet of the city. Once I manage to get the door open, I hop inside and flip down the visor. Like God was finally answering my prayers, a keyring falls into my lap which I promptly use to start the engine. I peel out of the parking spot in a squeal of rubber as the tires smoke from the intense friction of the takeoff.

Truck-kun had caught up thanks to the car alarm giving away my position. At least it had seemed to transform back into an actual truck instead of remaining an annoying giant robot. Despite my best efforts to floor the gas pedal, the semi seemed to have a lot of horsepower of its own since it managed to keep up even around the tight corners I was taking. If anything, it was gaining on me during the straight aways. Thank God I went through a street racing phase so that I could pull off these drifts.

My instincts flare again in time for me to swerve to the right and avoid something that crashed into the pavement where my car would have been. I glance at the semi in my rearview mirror and see that it seems to have created some kind of cannon on its back and seems to be shooting smaller robots at me like this was a high speed chase mixed with a mortar strike.

I veer left and right as I weave between the falling robots. It was a massive pain in the ass since this meant that the truck kept getting closer by the second. The only saving grace was that I was able to predict where they were coming down so I could dodge them. Otherwise, my car would already be covered with them.

I slam on the breaks just in time to prevent one from falling into the engine compartment. This had the downside of allowing the truck to finally reach me as its front crashed into the rear bumper of my car. I tried to shake it off, but it was almost like it had magnetically sealed.

This allowed several humanoid robots to jump from the truck to my car. They started crawling across to reach me from the side windows and the windshield. One punched in the glass of the driver side window and tried to rip me out of the seat. I fought back against it enough to reach over for the glove compartment. If I was lucky, there might be something I could use.

It turns out I was extremely lucky when it popped open to reveal a .50 caliber Desert Eagle handgun. This thing is called a hand cannon for a reason. I decide to demonstrate it to the robots by firing it repeatedly and forming gaping holes in their creepy skull-like faces. Once I successfully blew threw their heads, they dropped off of the car like the dead weight they were. If only there was something I could use to break free from the truck, but it is not like there is going to be something else useful in the central console, right?

My luck pulls through again when I open it up to find a circular disk inside. The only clue on how to use it is a button in the center. Dumb luck has been carrying me so far, so I let it take the wheel again. I press the button and see how a ring of green lights activates around the button. The green lights swirls down to reveal a ring of yellow lights. I quickly recognize the countdown for what it is and I promptly toss it out the window.

I look in the side mirror to see it fly back before sticking to the side of the semi truck. A second later, it detonates in a massive explosion that manages to disconnect me from the truck so that I can pull away. The truck's brakes squeal as it tries to get itself under control after the explosive sent it careening.

The vehicular clash taught me that I could not match up against Truck-kun on the open road, so I had to change it up if I wanted any chance of making it through this test. Shaggy never told me when the time would run out which means I can't trust my ability to survive long enough. That meant my only choice was to trash that truck.

I drive straight towards the front of a skyscraper since it was easily the best place to find a large quantity of loot boxes without switching buildings. It would be problematic if Truck-kun decided to topple the tower, but I had a feeling that it wouldn't be satisfied with a technical win. It wanted to crush me personally. This gave me a better chance of finding a weapon good enough to take it to the scrapyard before it ran out of patience.

I don't bother parking in front of my chosen destination. I just plow through the front doors and skid to a stop in the lobby. Since the door was busted from the robot attack, I just climb out through the shattered window and take my almost empty Desert Eagle with me. It only had two rounds left, but it was better than trusting in my ability to find a loot box immediately

I opt out of searching the lobby since it is so visible and there was nothing that stood out with a quick glance. This meant that I rushed to the nearest stairwell and climbed to the second floor to search there. I make a quick rush through the various areas, but I couldn't find anything even when I glanced in out of the way places like bathrooms and supply closets.

This was a common trend until the fifth floor when I was about ten steps out of the stairwell before I realized that the entire floor seemed to be filled with yellow robots. They had boxy bodies, thin necks to a more cylindrical head, thin arms, and held black rifles in their simple hands. The entire group turned to look at me before one of them says, "Roger roger."

This set them into action as I simultaneously sprinted for the closest cover. The stairwell was too far away and it was an easy shot down a hallway for such a large group. Instead, I ran into the janitor's closet and shoved a shelf against the door. This was not as useful as I thought since actual lasers start firing through the wood and into the shelf. Thankfully, the surrounding walls were concrete so they seemed to hold up to the lasers at least for now.

My eyes dart around for anything I can use when they land on a green accented crate like the one I had found earlier. I pop it open to find a single cylinder inside. It was silver with an opening on one end, a black grip, and a red button on the side. Out of curiosity, I press the button and was amazed at what happened. Oh yeah, this would do nicely.

--

(B-1 Battle Droid POV)

The target had hidden behind the door and it waited along with its group for signs of survival. They had utilized a large amount of blaster fire, but it was unclear if it neutralized the target. It cycled through visual spectrum, infrared, and thermal only to get no new data. Audio sensors did not pick up any signs of life either.

This was disproven when the door opens and a red object was thrown into the air. They immediately shoot it with their blasters only for it to burst in a cloud of white that fills the air and obscures their vision. They were attempting to regain a visual when an odd sound echoes through the air. It was electronic and was closest in comparison to high energy equipment being initialized. It was followed by a steady hum as a blue light glowed through the white cloud.

They all begin to fire at once, but it was like the target was able to dodge or block any blaster bolt fhat came close to hitting. The blue light shifted through the cloud before it lashed out and sent one of the droids falling to the floor in two pieces with ends glowing brightly from the strike's severe heat. Its sensors detected the signal cutting off as the droid ceased to function from the overwhelming damage.

The blue light seemed to reflect some of the blaster bolts back at other droids and led to them dropping as well. In no time, the target had already disabled over a dozen droids with no sign of taking any damage. The target rushed out of the cloud as they used a glowing blue bar of energy to slice through a series of droids in seconds before catching one of the falling blasters. They fired off multiple shots that sent even more droids out of commission as they began to use both close range and long range attacks in effective synchronicity.

It tries to fire at the target only for its shot to be deflected into its fellow droid. The target proceeded to dice through several droids until they fired the blaster at it. When it clicked empty, it let out a mechanical sigh of relief at surviving. This was cut short by the target slicing it in half with the blue blade of energy instead.

Its final words before the end were, "Roger roger."

--

(Peter V. Portgas POV)

I finally finished with the yellow robots before I shut down the energy blade. It was easily my favorite find from one of those lootboxes. There is something about slicing robots with a superheated sword of light that really does it for me.

I am reminded why I am here by sound of Truck-kun finally reaching the building. It fires several shots into the building before throwing some of its smaller minions inside to hunt me down. This is all of the motivation I need to start running and searching faster.

Most of what I found was not very useful. One crate had bat shaped throwing stars which were surprisingly accurate despite their idiotic design. I mean, what kind of weirdo goes around throwing these things, some kind of bat ninja. It sound stupid as hell. Another crate had a baseball bat which was as exciting as you would expect. The most recent one had a flamethrower which seemed fucking useless when my enemies seemed to all be metallic robots. I really doubt that they are going to mind being covered by flames.

It was not the easiest climb either. I had to fight more than a few different styles of robots. There were creepy ones that were more like advanced androids with blank silicon faces and white metal bodies. There were the robots with human flesh that all looked like the same bodybuilder dressed in leather and sunglasses. There were also skeleton ones made from dark metal that seemed to glow with green lights. Thise kind of gave me eerie vibes as I was shredding them to pieces with my light sword.

Truck-kun's hunters caught up to me several times, but I was able to cull their numbers without too much trouble. They had kept up with me as I reached the top levels and I just finished off the most recent wave as I reached the roof of the skyscraper. I slam open the stairwell door in time to hear the sound of something massive colliding with the building as the entire structure seems to shake and groan.

I race over to the edge and look down to see Truck-kun in its robot form climbing up the side of the building as its hands and feet dig into the building for support. Part of me was amazed the design of the skyscraper could even withstand it climbing up like that without its handholds crumbling beneath its weight, but I just attribute it to giant robot fight scene logic. It is as strong as it has to be to let something cool and menacing happen.

Since my prep time seems to be over, I dart over to the singular chest on the roof. I say a quick prayer to Lady Luck and pop it open to see that it appears to be a laser gun. The barrel was a hollow cylinder with bands of metal around it and the rest of the gun was minimalistic with just a stock, a grip, and a trigger. But at the end of the day, what more do you need?

I lean over the edge and proceed to empty an assault rifle I picked up from a bodybuilder robot at Truck-kun's face. The rounds seemed to annoy it, so it raised a hand to block the shots from hitting it. I just swapped magazines and kept firing only to realize the bullets didn't seem to be actually hitting anything. They just seemed to be catching on air before floating into a cluster near the robot's palm. My instincts flare up and I jump back in time for the accumulated firepower I had shot down to be returned at the same time. The mass of bullets tears a huge chunk out of the edge of the building where I had just been standing. Of course this asshole has reflection shields!

I just dump the assault rifle to the side before I back to the edge and hop off. The belt I had grabbed on the 23rd floor activates and my fall never speeds up as the technology dissipates the kinetic energy into a yellow field of light around me. As I descend towards the rising robot, I pull out my newly obtained laser gun and pull down the trigger as I aim at Truck-kun. I was worried for a second when it didn't fire immediately, but I could feel it start to vibrate as it built up the energy for its shot. This made me feel a lot more confident. Charge up weapons typically pack a lot more power by the time they actually fire.

This is proven once again when it bucks against my shoulder and a dense beam of energy blasts out of the end and shoots through Truck-kun's right wrist. It punches a hole straight through the robot's limb and leaves its hand barely hanging on. It roars in pain right before I land on its face and fire the last two rounds of my Desert Eagle into its mechanical eyes.

This makes it slam its metallic eyelids shut to protect its vulnerable eyes. This was the opening I was hoping for since I have already grabbed my light sword as I raced across the robot's arm. I bring the blade of energy down on the destroyed wrist and cleave through the remaining metal to fully separate the hand from its arm. This weakens its grip enough that it starts to fall thanks to the precarious position it entered after flinching back in pain. The side of the skyscraper crumbles as it gives into the robot's titanic weight and the cybernetic behemoth begins to fall. I leap off and let the belt protect me as I slowly descend to street level. Truck-kun collides with the asphalt and concrete in a huge crash that kicks up a massive plume of dust.

I land away from the impact site and hold my laser rifle at the ready in case I need to unleash a second shot. This was proven to be the right choice when Truck-kun charges out of the dust cloud with his right hand replaced by a sword that glowed with blue energy along the length of the blade. It slices down into the ground next to me as I dodge out of the way and land in a roll. It continues attacking by tearing through the street with a slash that rips up the ground and send chunks of asphalt flying at me ahead of the massive blade. I weather the debris as I protect my head and face before sliding under the edge of the sword.

I rush up beneath the massive robot and draw my light sword. With a press of the button, I ignite the blade and perform a spinning slash across the back of Truck-kun's left ankle. It must have sliced through the robotic equivalent of an Achilles tendon because the mechical leg buckles and the robot drops down to its knee.

It whips around with its left hand transformed into a gun only for my laser rifle to finish charging up its shot. The blast tears through the barrel of Truck-kun's gun and deep into the metal of its forearm. It roars in pain again as it tries to stab at me with its remaining weapon. I just leap over the tip of the sword and run up its length as it sinks into the street.

It realizes what I was planning to do too late to stop me. I sprint up its extended arm and ignite my light sword one last time before I jump up at Truck-kun's face. The blade sinks into the robot's eye as it sparks and melts the metal on contact. The searing energy cuts deep into its head as I push it up to the hilt before ripping it out.

Truck-kun collapses like a puppet with its wires cut. I ride the metallic behemoth down to the ground where it crushes the asphalt of the road with its weight. The robot's head now had a gaping molten hole where its eye used to be and it went all the way into whatever it called a brain.

I pant in exhaustion at finally being done. That was a lot more challenging than I was expecting. I mean, I knew that this wouldn't be easy, but goddamn!

Everything faded back to the empty space as I am sitting next to Shaggy again. My clothes were all perfectly restored and I felt like I just had a full night's sleep and a relaxing shower. It annoys me how cool his super magic god powers are.

"Part of me was surprised that you managed to kill Truck-kun, but then I remembered who your family is," Shaggy says. "This is kind of par for the course when it comes to you guys."

"Killing a giant robot is par for the course?" I ask in confusion.

"Kinda," Shaggy says as he tilts his hand back and forth in a so-so motion. "Truck-kun hasn't been in an actual fight in centuries. The last time he was in combat was in a duel for the fate of his home planet Cybertron and that was a long time ago. He quite literally is rusty."

"Hmph," I acknowledge. "I kind of feel bad for calling him an it in my mind now."

"Don't be," Shaggy says as he waves off the concern. "He doesn't really care what you call him. Now, let's get back to your next fight."

"Oh, don't be a downer, Shag," a voice says from behind Shaggy's seat before the man it came from strolls out. "I thought I was going to get to chat with my son."

"Dad," I say as I look at the face of my father, Ace D. Portgas. It had been years since he passed away and I was split between punching him and giving him a hug. I get up and decide to do both as I slam a right hook into his grinning face.

He kind of stumbles for a second before he rights himself. He looks at me with a genuine smile as he wipes off his mouth. "Damn, kid," he says. "You went and got strong while I was gone. I guess I can't call you Twig anymore."

He opens his arms for a hug and I go for it as I wrap my arms around my dad for the first time since I was ten. "It has been a long time, Pops," I say.

"Come on," he says as he pats me on the back. "That's my dad's name. You should just stick to Dad."

We pull apart as he looks me over. "Great job taking out the old junker," he tells me. "Shaggy doesn't want to admit it, but he thought it was pretty cool too."

"I am just trying to not judge him like a normal human," Shaggy says. "After all, you Grand Line humans are a different breed."

"Wait, does he mean those pirate stories you told me when I was a kid?" I ask. "I thought you were making them up like when Gramps would talk about being a bug themed superhero."

"I was way better than that old man," Dad scoffs. "I worked as a commander under Pops. He used to go by Whitebeard."

"Wait, so you are telling me your dad could make earthquakes with his bare hands and you could turn into literal fire?" I ask. "Wait, is that why it was so hard to kill myself?! This makes so much sense! No wonder poisoning myself and jumping off buildings didn't work! Apparently, I can grow to the point of destroying battleships with a single punch like you said great grandpa Garp could."

"Yeah, you would have needed to get a lot more drastic right out of the gate to manage to die on purpose," Dad admits. "It is also the reason that your instincts warn you about dangers that you had no way of sensing on your own. Grandpa Pete's Spidey-Sense carried down the bloodline a little and helped you awaken your Observation Haki by accident."

"So, can I crawl up walls?" I ask in surprise.

"No," Dad says as he bursts my bubble. "It just makes you a little more superhuman than the average person from my world. Also, your blood is a touch more radioactive."

"Did I actually inherit anything special from either of you?" I ask. "It just seems like I became a standard human from your world."

"Don't be a whiner," Dad scoffs. "You are going to get a ton of stuff from this whole Gacha nonsense. Anyhow, I got your first prize. This is the Legenday Power: Devil Arms Dealer."

He holds up a glowing red orb that he proceeds to flick at me. It sinks into my chest and I realize that I don't feel any different. What a letdown. I was hoping something cool would happen.

"I swear you act like Luffy so much at times," Dad groans. "Just because you gain a power doesn't mean that you suddenly feel like you could fight God."

"It would be cooler if it did," I mutter.

"Moving on," Dad says. "It gives you the ability to turn particularly powerful opponents into weapons when you defeat them. Don't worry about it activating against good guys. There is an activation condition that requires them to be pieces of shit so you don't have to feel bad about it. This is actually a gift from your little brother."

"Oh, so that shithead finally shows his face after all this time," I say. "At least this starts to make up for the seventeen years of Christmas presents he never got me."

"Goddamn it," Dad says. "You two haven't seen each other since the womb but you are practically the same person. You realize your brother died in childbirth, right?"

"You act like that's a valid excuse," I say. "He should have walked it off."

"Babies physically cannot walk when they are born," Dad replies.

"Excuses," I insist as I wave it off.

"Anyway, I thought you would want to see the note he gave me," Dad says with a sigh. He pulls out a slip of paper and hands it over to me.

Dear Vergil,

This clears my present debt. I am still waiting on seventeen years of birthday presents, you bitch.

Fuck you,

Benjamin D. Portgas

"Dante!" I curse as I crush the note in my hand.

"Uncanny," Shaggy says as he finally speaks up. "They are somehow the exact same as their alters in Devil May Cry. I thought the whole dynamic was supposed to be because they were half devil, but these two prove that Dantes and Vergils just always fight with each other, even outside of DMC."

"Moving on from my shitty brother and his shitty face," I say as I pointedly ignore Dad commenting that I have never seen his face. I don't need to see it to know that it is shitty. "I guess that I am going to start the next trial now. If so, can I get my laser sword back?"

"No, you cannot keep the lightsaber," Shaggy says as I click my tongue in annoyance. "There will be plenty of toys in the new area and you will be fighting mercenaries sourced from the Consortium's finest fodder trainer, Taskmaster. Same as before, don't worry about brutally killing them. All they will get is nightmares when it is over."

"Coolio," I reply.

"Can we talk real quick, Vergil?" Dad asks. "There is something I want to say real quick before I head back to your mom and brother."

"Sure," I answer before he leads us away from Shaggy.

"I am sorry," he says after a moment of thought. "I couldn't handle living in a world without your mom in it. I know you realized it for a while. I love you more than anything, but she was everything to me. I didn't know who I was without her. You must not think much of me for passing away in my sleep."

"Never," I tell him. "After all, I was the one who told you I was strong enough and that you could move on. It's not like I have any leg to stand on when I tried my best to get an express ticket to Hell. Not after Talia."

"I should have been there to tell you it wasn't your fault," he insists. "I saw what happened. There was nothing you could do."

"Yes, there was," I say as I grit my teeth. "I could have stayed out of her life. I could have spent the rest of my life alone instead of dragging her into my mess. She would still be alive without me."

"Sometimes bad things happen for no reason that we can see," Dad says as he looks me in the eyes. "How could we? To us, someone that we love is taken from us before we can even realize they are gone. We can't find any sense in it. Who knows if Talia would still be alive if it wasn't for you? I don't and you sure as hell don't either. For all we know, she could have gotten struck by lightning if she never met you. The only thing I can say that I know, from the bottom of my heart, is that she loved every second that she spent with you and she would have never changed a damn thing. Now, go out there and traumatize some mercenaries so you can get as strong as you can before you see her again. You don't want to be too weak to protect her, do you?"

"Thanks, Dad," I say as I rub my eyes. "You can still give a decent pep talk."

"Damn straight," he laughs before he vanishes in a burst of flames.

I roll my shoulders before I suddenly find myself in the middle of another city. Round two, let's go!

--

(Floyd Lawton/Deadshot POV)

Who the hell was this guy? As he gazed through his scope at the building his target was fighting in, he felt a hint of unease at the sight visible through a bay of glass windows. The interior was filled with semi-competent trained mercenaries. While they were far from his caliber even before being recruited by the Consortium, they were still passable for the average low level threat. They ranged from high Tier 2 to lowe Tier 4 when it came to skill and general power.

Despite them serving as decent fodder, they were being brutally massacred in a way that he had seen only a few times in his career as an assassin. Many contract killers could decimate the forces with the same lethality, but it was a rare breed that could produce such widespread gory carnage with such ease. Assassins like Deathstroke were scalpels while this guy was like a chainsaw.

It was almost fitting since the target was using a chainsword pulled straight from the grimdark future of Warhammer 40k. It was slightly downsized to fit an ordinary person instead of the massive size of the genetically engineered Astartes Space Marines, but that did nothing to reduce its destructive power as it tore through merc after merc with an unyielding savagery.

He sighted on the target while the guy was tearing through two guys at once and fired a single round right at his head. The spray of grey matter and skull fragments he was expecting does not come since the target leaned out of the way and the bullet passed by to embed itself in the floor. The target even has the balls to glance at him through the bank of windows and give a cocky grin. That was it. He was putting this cocky son of a bitch in the ground.

Despite his renewed attempts, the guy would just dodge every round like he knew they were coming. While it could be that he had hightened senses, there was one possibility that was much more likely.

"This jackass has Observation Haki," he curses under his breath.

It was bad enough that he had to have most of his powers sealed away for this job. His normal Observation Haki was refined to the point where he could predict hours in the future. He would ordinarily take jobs for exterminating corrupted planets where they were long passed the point of saving. His weapon of choice was a rifle capable of firing bullets crafted from the compressed cores of planets. He should have known that the pay for this job was a little too good to be true. It was going to be hell to take out a target with decent Observation Haki when his own was limited to sensing positions and general emotions.

However, nothing was impossible when you were prepared. Instead of continuing to fire standard rounds, he loads a bullet designed to explode a short delay after stopping. He sights the target again and fires his newly prepped round to see if it would do the job.

It was even better than he expected when the target uses the body of one of the mercs to block the bullet. He must have sensed the danger that just arrived when he immediately drops the corpse and sprint away only for the entire room to detonate in a massive fireball. The yield was so high that the upper floor came crashing down since the explosion took out the structural supports.

His hopes of having ended it quickly are dashed by the sight of the target shooting out of the smoke cloud with what looked like Batman's grappling hook gun. If there was anything that could have pissed him off more, then it was seeing the equipment of the hero who used to kick his ass on the regular.

Sure, he had killed a lot of evil Batmans since those dark days, but goddamn it, that didn't make it better! He tried and failed to hit the little shit with every sniper trick he had picked up in two centuries of work in the Consortium and all the specialty ammunition he had.

Well, some of the bullets had managed to do some damage to him either through grazes or their exotic effects. However, that was not good enough when it was a battle between a battle hardened sniper and a rookie with scavenged equipment. He knew every tool at his disposal like the back of his hand while the target had just found everything he was using. The gulf in experience should have made a world of difference, but the target's natural talent and Observation Haki let him bridge the gap enough to survive and close the physical distance between them.

This was all going according to plan though when the target was dodges a shot that he fired at him. The round goes off to ricochet against a bullet he had curved around a building and it goes right back to the target. The guy was barely able to pivot in midair to deflect it off of the chainsword strapped to his back. This proved to be his undoing since the deflected shot ricocheted off another round that he had bounced around between buildings. The target couldn't react in time before the persistent bullet impacts him in the through the back and out through his stomach.

The weakness with lower levels of Observation Haki was that the ability to sense danger was limited to the current moment. However, when there is a series of threats that only come to exist after the previous one is avoided, you can't see the next step until it is about to take your life. It wouldn't have worked on a more refined user since they could see farther into the future, but it put the kid down easy enough. Good thing too, since setting up such a mutilayered shot like that was harder than he wanted to admit with his current limitations.

The target collapses in a tumbling heap as he crashes onto the same building as him. He casually strolls over as the boy struggles to breath with the gaping wound in his abdomen.

"Sorry, kid," he says with a touch of genuine sympathy. "You just weren't good enough to play with the big boys."

"I should be sorry," the target wheezes. "You are going to get your blood all over that fancy suit of yours."

Another hole blasts through the target's side as a bullet shoots out of him and lands in a thinner section of his suit. It manages to avoid the ballistic plating and overcomes the kevlar weave to sink into his flesh and burrow deep into him. He doesn't have a chance to react before the target rolls over and fires several more times with the now revealed six shooter revolver. It glowed with runic sigils along the barrel's length that flared with each shot that fired from its muzzle. The magically enhanced shots all slip through his uniform's armor and pierce his vulnerable body beneath.

"That's a surprise," he chokes out before collapsing to his hands and knees. "I didn't think you would resort to a suicide tactic to get a shot on me."

"Well, we both should be fine after this, so I thought I might as well make the most of it," the target says as he lifts himself off of the ground and aims the mystical revolver while still putting pressure on the gushing holes in his stomach. "Any last words?"

"At least I lost to a Vergil instead of a Dante," he laughs.

"Not for nothing, you were a pretty good shot," the target admits. "But you should have seen this coming from a mile away."

After that terrible one liner, the last thing he heard was the bark of the gun before everything goes black.

--

(Peter Vergil Portgas POV)

"Oh my God," I say as I find myself back in the chair. "I have never been happier to have a functional body. Double gut shots hurt like a motherfucker."

"I have never seen someone get shot and then shoot themselves to win a fight," Shaggy says. "Then again, you are pretty suicidal so that tracks."

"No regrets," I say. "Now, gimme. I beat all those mercenaries and that douchy sniper of yours. I mean, who ricochets so many goddamn bullets? Where is my prize?"

"Oh, I thought you would want to talk to your darling grandma," a voice behinds me says.

I look up to see a pair of emerald eyes looking down at me mischievously. They were framed by the same white hair that I have on my own head, so I can tell who it is immediately. There is only one person in existence with that pairing and only one who enjoys messing with me so much. It doesn't matter if she looks like she is in her twenties again. I would recognize that geriatric granny anywhere.

"Hello, Grandma Felicia," I say. "How was death, you shriveled old hag?"

I was promptly dragged out of the chair as she pulls me into a headlock. "What was that, you shitty grandson of mine?" she asks. "Despite my youthful hearing, I couldn't quite make out what you said. I assume it was a compliment though."

"It seems you suffer from dementia and delusions nowadays too," I choke out. "It must suck being a ancient bag of brittle bones and saggy tits."

"That's it," she says. "I don't think Peter is going to mind losing his grandson too much. Felicity already has Dante so I think she will forgive me for this."

"Meow!" a cat calls out.

"What, Mud!" Grandma exclaims. "What are you doing here? Don't tell me you are protecting this little shit?!"

"Mud, save me from the psycho granny," I manage to say. "She managed to get out of her funeral home."

"Don't you mean a nursing home?" she growls.

"I said what I said," I choke out. "You are literally dead, you necrotic bitch."

"Enough," Shaggy says. We are both suddenly sitting in chairs across from him as Mud is rubbing himself against the old bag. She cooes and babies the feline as he relishes in the attention. While I might be his favorite human of the modern era, she is his all time number one despite being a fossil to put dinosaurs to shame.

"Can you two not fight?" Shaggy asks in exasperation. "It is like herding cats."

"It's not my fault," I scoff. "She always treats me like a baby."

"Is it wrong for a grandma to want to see her grandson?" she shoots back. "It doesn't help that you act the same way you did when you were three."

"Why improve upon perfection?" I ask. "It is not like I enjoy basking in the attention of an elderly lady that reeks of mothballs."

"I never smelled like mothballs!" she argues. "And I will have you know I was a knockout even when I was old!"

"Of course you were a knockout," I agree. "People saw you and they fainted from fear. It is not every day that someone sees a living corpse walking down the street."

"Like, are you ever going to give him his gift or do I need to call in someone else?" Shaggy groans. "This is wasting so much of my time."

"Says the guy who ran over my grandson," Grandma says as her eye twitches with barely restrained violence. She turns back to me with a smile as she holds up a luminescent golden orb. Just like Dad, she flicks it into my chest except it sinks in with a little more pizzazz as a shiver runs through my entire body like it was realigning.

"That was cool," I admit. "What the hell was it?"

"That was the Epic Power: Idle Death Gamble," she tells me. "It is a fraction of a power that was once held by the first Gold King of the Consortium, Kinji Hakari. When he retired, he gave up his power and this particular one was divided into two pieces, Restless Gambler and Idle Death Gamble. While Restless Gambler would give you the power to randomly roll a power or item and have access for four minutes and eleven seconds, Idle Death Gamble is closer to the original power. When you activate it, you temporarily freeze time and envelop a space around you in a barrier. Inside of the barrier, time is still going and you can roll on pachinko machines in the attempt to hit a jackpot. If you do, then you get completely restored to optimal levels. It is like after the trial. You were on the verge of death and a second later you were perfectly healed with restored energy and focus.

"Unlike the original, the restorative effect does not last for four minutes and eleven seconds," she explains. "This time limit is posed on the pocket space itself, or the Domain as it is called. The advantage to this is that you can keep rolling after a jackpot until the time runs out. Once the Domain collapses, you have to wait a full four minutes and eleven seconds to expand it again. The only thing you need to do to activate it is form the handseal that should have etched into your brain, dredge up as much negativity as possible, and say the words, 'Domain Expansion: Idle Death Gamble.'"

"Wait, what is that part about negativity?" I ask. "Also, is it possible to get Restless Gambler down the line? It seems pretty neat."

"The second half was already given away to another gamer in the trial run of the Gacha System," Shaggy says. "As for the negativity, it is because the power used to run off of Cursed Energy. Just think of it like spiritual energy formed from negative emotions. While you don't personally have Cursed Energy, the technique was adapted to run off of normal negative emotions."

"So, I now have a move that works off of depression and creates a place designed to help make me unkillable?" I clarify. "It is almost like God is messing with me after all of those suicide attempts."

"Don't think I don't know about those, Vergil," Grandma says. "I still have to to beat your ass for each one. I swear, you are too much like Peter. If he wasn't already a hero, I sincerely doubt that he wouldn't have tried his hand at it in the past."

"Wait, Gramps was depressed?" I ask. "He seems too peppy for it."

"You seriously think you were the only one who hit the same rough patch?" she asks with a raised eyebrow. "Peter and Ace both went through the same thing you did. You were just the only one who didn't have anything holding you back from running off the edge."

"Maybe it is in the genes?" I muse before I hop out of my seat. "Anyway, it was nice to see a mummy outside of a museum for once, but I still have my last fight."

Grandma doesn't take the bait and chooses to just give me a hug as Mud climbs onto my head. "See you in a while, shithead," she says affectionately.

"Love you too, Grandma," I say as I return the embrace. I might give her more than a little shit, but it was nice to see her after so long. I had almost forgotten how much I enjoyed arguing with her.

"If this touching moment is over, let's get this show on the road," Shaggy says. "I have already wasted way too much time on arranging this shit already. I have a lunch I have to get to soon."

Grandma just rolls her eyes before looking me over one last time. "Kick some ass, Vergil," she says. "We can't have Dante show you up, now can we?"

"I will wipe the floor with that asshole when I see him," I say. "Alright, Shaggy. Final round."

--

(Wade Wilson POV)

He lands on the ground and immediately rolls to dodge Johnny as the guy slams to the ground as well. Despite his instincts telling him to move, he takes the hit and lets Gwen use him as a cushion when she inevitably falls too. (*)

(*Who are these fledgling heroes? They first appeared in A Marvelous Mashup Adventure #1.)

"Where the hell are we?" he groans as the blonde on top of him is still getting her bearings. "I don't really see anything."

"Who the hell are you guys?" he hears a voice ask.

They all turn to see a guy around their age looking at them with a perplexed look on his face. He was wearing a black shirt with a blue flannel overshirt on top, jeans, and blue tennis shoes. One of the most noticable parts about him was his white hair and his piercing blue eyes. There was something eerily familiar about him even though he knew that he had never met the guy before.

"Ah, screw it," the guy says before he starts looking around and find some kind of crate. He flips it open and pulls out a literal katana before walking back over to them. "Let's make this quick. I have a lot on the schedule. I want to get this whole thing over and I would appreciate the consideration."

They look at each other in equal confusion until the guy draws the sword and the dots finally connect. Oh, he was going to kill them. Shit, he was going to kill them! They all start backing away from the stab happy guy that continues to walk toward them.

"What the hell!" Johnny shouts. "What did we ever do to you?!"

"It's just the trial," the guy scoffs. "Don't be such a baby."

"What trial?" I ask. "We never heard anything about some kind of trial!"

"Huh?" he asks. "Wait, Shaggy! Did you not tell these guys about the fight?"

"My bad," a disembodied voice calls out from above. "This is an initiation battle trial kind of thing. You guys didn't have one since you are all civilians. The goal is to fight each other to the death or for white hair to survive to the time limit. Anyone who dies will just be revived after the battle. Feel free to use the loot boxes scattered around."

"Why can't we just go to our world?" Gwen asks. "That seems a lot less murdery."

"If you manage to kill him, then I will give you three rolls," Shaggy says. "One roll each sounds pretty nice."

"Three rolls?" Gwen asks in amazement.

"One a piece?" Johnny asks as well.

"If we kill him?" he continues.

They all turn to see the empty space where their opponent was standing just moments before. He sees him running further up the street before turning a corner.

"Get him!" he shouts as his friends immediately start sprinting after their opponent as well. After all, three Gacha rolls is definitely worth a kiddie bumper death match in his book.

--

(Peter Vergil Portgas POV)

I did not expect what seemed like perfectly normal people to turn into bloodthirsty hunters, but I felt it was for the best to keep running instead of fighting. Battle a homicidal robot? Sounds like fun. Face off against a bunch of mercenaries? Both sides are ready and willing to face death. Kill a bunch of innocent people? Yeah, Talia would be pissed if she learned about that. I can see her angry pout already. The easy solution is just to try and run out the time, however long that might be.

It didn't help that the three seemed to have turned into bloodhounds at the idea of getting Gacha rolls. They were only ever a few steps behind me. Are they superhuman too or are they just that motivated?

I duck under a tackle from the teleporting blond dressed in white and pink as she tries to blindside me again. However, I could sense that attack coming with my Observation Haki. She squawks in surprise as she misses and goes sailing over my head.

I jump to the side and barely avoid a barrage of bullets that shreds the brick wall above me. I glance back at the guy in red cursing as he reloads the SMG that he just emptied at me. I take off down the side alley and was halfway through before I hear a whooshing sound behind me.

I glance over my shoulder to see the guy in blue is covered in fire before he pulls back his fist and sends a punch towards me. A jet of fire blasts forward from his hand and fills the alley as the wave of flaming death surges toward me. I barely make it out of the alley and dive to the ground before the fire flies past me. I pat myself off my clothes since they were smoking slightly from where I almost ignited. I grab my sheathed katana off of the ground and resume sprinting.

"What the fuck is wrong with these people?!" I shout as I try and get as far as possible from them. "They are way too bloothirsty for a couple of Gacha rolls!"

I manage to get down into a subway station and through the security before finally collapsing on an empty seat in a train. The things were apparently still running despite the lack of any staff, but I wasn't complaining. It just gave me an easy way to kill time.

I was just about to fall asleep when I hear my phone ring. To be completely honest, I am more surprised I didn't lose my phone at some point than I am at having cell reception in here. I look at the number only to see that it wasn't one I recognized.

"Eh, screw it," I say as I answer the call and put it on speakerphone. It is not like anything bad can happen. "New phone, who dis?"

"Ah, I thought you would remember your little brother," the voice says as I immediately feel myself gritting my teeth.

"Dante," I sneer. "Finally calling after dying like a little bitch? Apparently, you couldn't even manage to be born. Literal babies do that all the time."

"At least I am not running from a bunch of rookies," he says. "Then again, you are the weaker twin. I shouldn't really be surprised."

"Jokes on you," I say. "I just don't want to fight a bunch of amateurs. What is the point in slaughtering weaklings? I have already killed a giant robot today. I don't need to show I am better than some beginners."

"Yeah, but I fight demons all the time," Dante says. "It is not like fighting robots is very impressive."

I picked up on the slightest hint of emotion hidden in Dante's voice. "Oh, is someone jealous?" I ask with a grin. "Have you ever fought against robots? I get the feeling you haven't. That must be pretty embarassing for you. Big bad Dante hasn't ever fought a robot before. Maybe you can go and cry about it with those demons of yours."

"I never should have given that power to Dad," Dante says. "It's probably going to go to waste in a whiner like you."

"It is kind of sad that these are the best insults you could manage," I laugh. "Then again, what was I expecting from my loser little brother?"

Dante's comeback was cut off by the sound of a sniper round punching through the window next to me as I tilt my head out of the way. I zone in on Pinkie with her rifle on a building a couple blocks away. The subway had risen from underground onto an elevated track which must be how they spotted me. As it stands, I was pleasantly surprised that she was a decent shot despite the group's clear inexperience.

"I have to go," I tell Dante. "Something actually important came up."

I promptly hang up and prevent Dante from replying. I can practically hear his frustrated shouts from Heaven. Oh, how it warms the soul!

"Are you two going to hide over there or are we going to get this little game started?" I ask as I glance towards the connection between two of the compartments. Blue and Red step out into the opening as they both finally found more weapons to fight me with.

Fireboy had a red and blue shield with a white star in the middle and an axe which seemed to crackle with some lightning. In comparison, Red had some more guns and a pitch black sword that gave all sorts of bad vibes.

I form the handseal that came with my new power and I think back to Talia. Her smile. Her laugh. The happiness in her eyes as she looked at me. The empty look in them after her heart stopped. The crushing guilt of knowing it was my fault. I look at the two and decide playtime is over. Newbies or not, I am putting them down.

"Domain Expansion," I say as I feed the technique every ounce of pain and regret in my soul and feel it awaken.

Red must have realized what was happening from how he threw Blue back into the other compartment before summoning a golden token.

"Gacha Technique," he says as he looks back at me with his own expression of resolve.

I couldn't help but smile despite the life and death battle. It seems I found someone to give me a decent fight.

"Idle Death Gamble."

"Restless Gambler."

Time freezes around us as black stretches out from behind me to envelop the entire subway car. The only other thing in motion was that golden token that Red threw to the side. As the barrier finishes forming around us, the space shifts as dozens of slot machines slide into place and fill the area. The golden token finishes its arc and slides right into the coin slot of one of the machines before a jackpot rings out through the domain.

"Synchronicity Jackpot: Canon Recombinant."

Our clothes become shrouded in ethereal light before their structure is overwritten. My plaid overshirt turns into a long black coat as my tennis shoes become boots, my hands are covered with fingerless gloves, and a strapped vest covers my shirt. Red's entire outfit turns into a red and black full body suit with a mask. He had twin katanas sheathed on his back and several guns holstered on his body. A katana forms from blue light in front of me and I catch it on reflex as thousands of hours of sword training are seared into my mind and body like Inexperienced it.

We both look at each other once the transformation finishes. After a brief moment, we both draw our new swords and dash forward in a violent rush.

I parry his twin swords and slash through his right arm with Yamato in a strike that cleanly severs the limb. The only issue with this is that the cut was so precise that Red easily healed it back together before the arm could even fall away. I guess I just have to do some more extreme damage.

I dodge a series of shots from his pistols after he tossed his swords up into the air for a moment. In a burst of speed to close the gap, I slice up through his vulnerable arms and kick him in the stomach to send him away from his severed body parts. This turned to shit when he already regrew both arms before he even finished rolling. He land in a crouch as he catches both swords that just happened to be falling right there. As I watch even his suit healing up to cover his regrown arms, I curse my own luck. He must have bullshit comic book powers like Gramps used to talk about.

What follows next was an example of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object, or in our case, an unstoppable engine of death meets an unkillable annoying chatterbox.

As I unleash a move that rips apart his torso with over a hundred slashes delivered in an instant, I click my tongue when I see him heal before most of the blood can even escape the wounds. He just laughs and looks at me with cocked eyebrow. At least, I am pretty sure his eyebrow is raised. His mask is pretty expressive, but I could be wrong.

"Is that the best you have?" he asks. "I was worried when I realized you were Vergil, but it doesn't seem like you're all that. I doubt you even qualify as a lore accurate Vergil."

"Says the guy who can't even land a hit," I reply. "You might as well be waving around pool noodles for all the good they are doing you."

"I am pretty decent with a sword right now, but even the Merc with a Mouth knows that he can't outclass a swordsman able to cut space," he admits. "It definitely helps that my healing seems to be some badass mix of Deadpool's regeneration, Wolverine's healing factor, and Kinji Hakari's Reverse Cursed Technique. I wouldn't be surprised if it was amped up to help balance the fight."

"Let's see if you can heal from a head," I say before I decapitate him and throw the severed head across the domain. I just sigh when his body regrows from the neck stump in two seconds flat. If only his suit regenerated as fast as he did because I really wish that I did not have to see his junk.

"Wow, it really works," he says in amazement before I just unleash my most potent attack yet. A series of compressed slashes so extensive that it shreds a target down past the cellular level and leaves a red mist behind. It was a massive strain and it took too long to charge up to be practical in a balanced fight, but I hoped it would do the trick.

This dream is dashed when I see the mist seem to collect and reform my opponent. He gives me a dirty look before his face is covered once more by his mask. "You didn't have to go that far," he grumbles. "That hurt like a fucking bitch."

"It wouldn't have hurt if you just died like you were supposed to," I reply. "This is getting boring."

"You could always just let me kill you," he offers. "It would definitely break up the monotony."

"You lot are a little too eager to get some Gacha rolls," I say. "I find it genuinely troubling."

"Yeah well, I am a compulsive gambler with a history of gacha addiction," he shrugs. "I don't know what their excuses are."

"I am still going to put you all in the ground," I say. "I don't care if you miss out on prizes or whatever. Inam not letting you all ruin my best chance at getting strong quickly."

"Same here," he returns. "Don't come crying when we beat you."

With those final words, the domain's time runs out and the barrier dissolves. We are back on the train as time resumes and our outfits return to normal with a rush of the ethereal light. Yamato returns to the normal katana I found earlier as I lament the loss of that badass sword. Despite losing the extra sword fighting memories, I still retained some of the experience from chanelling the knowledge through my body. It definitely boosted my baseline skills by a fair bit. I just need to test it out on these poor saps.

The time for words had long passed. This was the moment for action.

It was almost like a dance. I parried and deflected attacks from Red and Blue as they both tried their best to land a hit on me.

Red used his black longsword with skill that he must have inherited from his transformation like me as he mixes together his strikes with shots from his different guns.

Blue used his axe and shield to provide a balanced offense and defense as he blocked my stabs before trying to cleave me with his sparking blade. It definitely helped him that the shield seemed to dissipate the impacts that he blocked.

Every once in a while, I had to dodge whenever Pink fired with her sniper rifle. I only managed the feat since my Observation Haki had become more refined over the course of the trials. This let me counter each of their moves even if I couldn't succeed with any of my own.

I see an opening in Blue's guard as he was recovering from an attack. His foot was outside his protection and I didn't want to let the opportunity pass me by. It was only after I committed that I sensed his excitement at the action and realized why. The point where my sword stabbed into his foot and broken up into flames. It was the exact same thing Dad always said happened when he was hit thanks to his powers. This combined with that fire punch from earlier tells me everything I need to know. Blue ate the same Devil Fruit as Dad, the Flame-Flame Fruit.

My moment of distraction was enough that I notice the grenade spinning through the air at the last second. The threat it poses only processes when a sniper round from Pink slams into the cylinder and triggers the concussion grenade. The shockwave blows me back into the wall of the train where I can feel a window break against me.

I was so disoriented that I barely recognized that Blue was striking down at me with his lightning axe thanks to my Observation Haki. I had dropped my sword, so there was no way I could defend against it. It was just a sparkling blur in my vision as it descended towards me. I raised my arm to block it, but I knew that it would do nothing against the magical weapon.

In that last moment, I saw Talia. She looks back at me with a smile that still tears me up inside.

"I love you, Vergil."

In that moment, I realize something. I am not fighting for me. If I was fighting for just me, then I would deserve for it to end here. That's not what is happening. I am fighting to fix my greatest failure. I am fighting for the woman I love. I am fighting for Talia. I don't get to be weak, not this time.

Like a surge of power from deep within my soul, I will myself to be stronger. I force myself to harden and remove any weakness I used to have. I don't get to be hurt and die. I have to win.

The axe stops against my arm as I push back against the force of the blow. As my vision clears, I see a look of disbelief on Blue and Red's faces as they look down at where I blocked the strike. Beneath the edge of the lightning-coated axe, my flesh has turned a glossy black as it withstands the cutting force and refuses to break.

"Armament Haki?" Blue asks in amazement.

"My turn," I growl as I knock the axe aside and let the Armament fade. I rear back my right fist and focus the feeling into my knuckles as they turn black before I send them crashing into Blue's face. He goes stumbling back with a bloody nose as the Haki prevents his Logia powers from working.

I scoop up my katana from the ground at the last second before Red finishes recoving from shock and swings at me. I block the strike before I kick at his leg. This weakens his stance enough that I can push him back and throw a solid punch into his face. His head whirls to the side from the force as I focus on dodging another shot from Pink.

Red and Blue manage to rally with the split second the shot gave them. They charge me together and unleash a series of attacks that pushed my Observation Haki to the limit. However, it didn't push me past it. I still dodged and deflected all of the attacks like I was watching a movie a few seconds ahead of everyone else. Their speed was good, but it wasn't enough to beat my precognition.

I try to land another hit on Blue with my newly unlocked Armament Haki, but he uses his shield to neutralize all of the blow's energy. Despite their teamwork, we were at a stalemate since I didn't have enough speed or power to beat them and they couldn't land a blow with my Observation Haki keeping me one step ahead.

"One minute remaining."

We all look at each other in surprise before realizing we have reached the endgame. This is the make or break time where you don't know if you will live or die. In a single motion, we clash as I hold off the axe with a hand coated in Armament Haki and my katana blocking the black longsword. My arms strain from the effort as the haki was really draining my stamina.

This was upset by the fact that a massive explosion tears through the track ahead of us. A large section of it collapses as the raised track becomes unstable and buckles beneath us.

"Did Gwen just blow the track?" Red asks Blue as he grits his teeth and pushes his longsword against my katana with all of his might. This was causing it to slowly sink into the worn blade as whatever magic imbued the black blade made it stronger than mine. I might have been able to counter if it I channeled Armament Haki through the katana, but I was focusing on protecting my left hand against the crackling axe.

"I thought you were the only one of us insane enough to collapse the subway track when we were riding on said subway," Blue manages to say. "You should have never given her that idea."

"Too late for you two now," I tell them. "Time is almost up and I doubt a little subway crash can put me down."

That is when I feel my Observation Haki blare at me in warning. It tells me there is a massive threat suddenly behind me. I push Red and Blue back before stabbing backwards towards the threat without even turning. My blade passes through empty air as I am just confused how my haki was tricked. However, it was proven right when I feel two arms slip under my shoulders and yank my arms back. I glance back only to see Pink behind me with a shit eating grin on her face.

"Invisibility and phasing for the win," she says as I realize why I didn't hit her. She phased through the attack while invisible to make me think she wasn't there.

As the train hits the edge of the tracks and begins to tumble off, we are all thrown through the air. Pink manages to stay latched onto me as she winds her legs around my waist to maintain her hold. Red and Blue slam into the ceiling and sides before they manage to reorient themselves in the falling cabin. They launch forward and slam their weapons into my body as I try and focus on my Armament Haki. Since Pink was trapping my arms, I didn't have the time to focus and overpower her hold to defend myself. This meant I had to rely on my haki to hold out just long enough against the magical weapons Red and Blue had picked up.

My rib cage creaks under the weight of their strikes as I can feel the blades pushing into my chest depite my Armament Haki. They break the skin and I do my best to keep them from piercing bone. If they get that deep, it is over.

The only problem is that they are getting closer by the second. Blue is blasting flames from his back to give his body a boost to put behind his swing. This was causing the axe blade flickering with electricity to dig deeper little by little. Red's sword must have been cursed because I could feel the death infused into the metal of the blade. The dark magic was pushing against my Armament Haki and forcing it away from the tip so it could pierce through me.

I can feel my haki finally give up as the axe sinks deep into my side and the sword buries itself in my chest. The wounds are definite fatal, yet I can't help but smile at them. They should have been watching the clock a little better. Before my heart has a chance to stop, a buzzer sounds and I am sitting across from Shaggy once more.

"I bet you are pretty proud of yourself there," he says. "You barely won even through you could have curb stomped them if you tried from the beginning. I don't think such weak resolve will cut it in your new world."

"My resolve has never been stronger," I tell him. "I chose to not kill them when they were weak because they were good people. That is not weakness. I am just resolved to live how Talia would want me to."

"To each their own," Shaggy says. "So, are you ready to meet your last guest? They came from the afterlife to give you your last prizes."

"Who is it?" I ask. "Is it Grandpa Ed? I am pretty in meeting the famous pirate Whitebeard."

"Hey, Vergil," I hear from behind me. I turn to see a woman with long white hair cascading over her shoulders as she looks at me with soft brown eyes that remind me of Gramps. "You are so grown up now. I wish I was there to see it in person."

"Mom," I whisper. "I am so sorry."

"What do you have to be sorry about?" she asks.

"All these years, you were stuck with Dante as your only son," I say. "My condolences."

"How are you both like this?" she asks with a sigh as Shaggy snickers off to the side. Finally, she holds her arms open. "Come give your mother a hug, young man."

I listen to the lady as I pull her into a tight hug and I let myself relax in her embrace. I try to memorize her warmth, her scent, the feeling. It was the first time I had ever met my mom, Felicity Parker Portgas, and I knew it would be the only time for a long time.

"You are so big," she says as she rests her head against my chest. "I never got to hold you as a baby, so this is nice."

"You are so small," I reply with a laugh. "I alway pictured you as taller."

"Don't be rude to your mother," she says with a stern voice as she smacks my back. Afterwards, she gives me another squeeze. "I missed you everyday."

"I missed you too," I tell her. "Even if I couldn't remember you, I still missed you."

"Do you hate me for dying?" she asks as I can feel my shirt get wet with her tears. "For leaving you and your father alone?"

"Never, Mom," I say as I nuzzle the top of her head and my own eyes water. "I just wish I could have had a little time with you."

"I might not be able to stay with you, but I got you something to remember me," she says as she finally pulls back from the hug and wipes off a few stray tears from my cheeks. "I know you love them already and they really missed you."

I am immediately bowled over by a pair of large masses that crash into me and send me to the ground. I can't even see through the tongues licking my face and the paws that keep me pinned. It took a lot of effort but I manage to push back the furry faces enough to actually get a good look.

"Shadow?! Moon Moon?!" I ask in shock. "What are you too doing here? And why are you wolves now?!"

"Well, these two couldn't help themselves when they figured out I was coming to see you," she says with a laugh as the two giant wolves acting like puppies continue to pin me to the ground. "Apparently, they got rather attached to you after I passed away and they wanted to help you on your adventure."

"Oh yeah, they were yours originally, right?" I ask. "Grandma always blamed Gramps for you liking dogs more than cats."

"How could I not with these fluffy monsters?" she asks before Moon Moon wanders back over to her and enjoys having her face rubbed. "They got a boost so that they could come with you. Now, they are classified as Rare Summon: Divine Dogs. They can live in your shadow and they are released when you form a handseal that looks like a dog shadow puppet. Their new status also gives them boosted damage against those who use shadows or darkness. On the off chance that they get hurt enough to kill them, they will respawn from your shadow after three days."

"Awesome," I say as I stroke the black fur on Shadow's head. "It is nice to know that my puppers are immortal."

"That's not the last of it," she says before she holds up two items. One was a white orb that glows with ethereal light and the other was a sheathed katana.

She tosses the orb towards me and it sends shocks of electricity through every nerve in my body as they all seem to flare at once. I shake it off and catch the sword when she throws it to me.

"The sword is Rare Item: Kitetsu III," she explains. "It is a sword from your father's homeworld, a place called One Piece. It is known as a cursed sword since it has a history of getting its users killed. I would watch out. A sword's purpose is to kill and that sword is better than most. Now, the power is Rare Power: Overclock. It is a superspeed ability that comes from a world called My Hero Academia. It works by boosting the brain and nervous system so that you can process and move at superhuman speeds. Just be careful about the effects. It burns through oxygen the more you use it and you can suffer from hypoxia if you don't control yourself."

"Nice," I admit. "This is going to go a long way. I needed a good sword to put my new skills to use."

"From now on, you will have to earn new gifts with gacha rolls," Mom says. "You get rolls based on your achievements. I know you will do okay and find Talia. I always thought you made a cute couple."

"Thanks, Mom," I say. "It was really nice seeing you in person. Tell Dante I said 'Suck it.'"

"I love you too," she says with a smile before she fades into silver light.

"Okay, Shaggy," I say to the man. "Send me to this shithole world of yours. I have guys to fight and a girlfriend to find."

"I thought you would want to hear about your curses, but oh well," he says. "Your wish is my command."

"Curses?" I ask before he snaps his fingers and I am falling in the gap between worlds.

--

(Danny Hebert POV)

It was another shitty day at the union. A few more of the workers had given up and fallen into the gangs. It seemed like it was only a matter of time before the union was just a distant memory like the days when the docks was bustling with trade before the ships were crashed into the shore.

He was thrown out of his own thoughts when his path was filled with a black wolf that was bigger than any dog he had ever seen. It looked at him with calculating eyes before walking closer.

Despite every instinct in his body telling him to run away, he knew that his only chance against the predator was to stay still. If he tried to run, it would chase him down with ease. As long as he didn't run, it might decide to leave him alone.

It reached him and sniffed the air. After a moment, it seemed to make a decision and grabbed the cuff of his jacket. He froze in fear, but it just gently tugged on him like it was trying to lead him somewhere. For a brief moment, he hesistated before allowing himself to be guided. For whatever reason, it didn't seem to want to hurt him and he would prefer that it didn't change its mind.

It leads him down an alley where there is a second wolf waiting next to a body. The wolf had white fur that matched the white hair of the boy that was leaning against the wall. The boy's clothes were stained with blood from a clear injury in his side that had soaked the shirt through with blood. His head was hunched over and clearly unconscious from blood loss.

The white wolf barks once before picking something off of the ground and disappearing into the boy's shadow. The black wolf looks back at him one last time before fading into the shadow as well.

As a man who had lived in Brockton Bay for so many years, he knew better than to get involved in anything to do with capes. However, as he looked down at the teenage boy, he couldn't help but picture his daughter in the same situation. As such, he sighs before he reaches down and lifts the unconscious boy up and carries him towards his truck. This might come back to bite him, but it was better than turning his back on a kid who needed help.

--

(Armsmaster POV)

He looks around at the remains of the ABB brothel and allows his suit's sensors to scan the interior and parse through the data. It was filled with the mutilated bodies of seventy three members of the ABB. Even without the sensor data verification, he could see that they were all killed in the same way. Each body was in several pieces after being slashed with some form of blade.

He considered if it was an Empire attack by Hookwolf, but he discards the idea without hesitation. In simple words, Hookwolf was unrestrained brutality. He would destroy his enemies and everything around him with no discrimination.

However, there was nothing unrestrained about this. Every cut was made with focused intent and spoke of violence refined with purpose. There were no wounds designed to induce pain for its own sake. Each slice was designed to eliminate the opponent as quickly as possible. Arms and hands were removed to prevent gunshots. Legs and feet were severed to reduce their mobility. Heads were separated from necks to end a threat as simply as possible.

If there was one thing that revealed the difference more than anything, it was the fact that the women and girls who were in the brothel as well were completely uninjured. An entire violent battle was undertaken without a single one dying in the crossfire.

It was only when analyzing the women more closely would one realize a simple fact, they were healthier than they should have been. It might have made him question whether or not they were lying if there wasn't video evidence from interior security cameras to show they had indeed been held captive here.

Despite this verification, it did not make sense to him how they seemed to be lacking any visible signs of prolonged captivity. There were no bruising or scars, no residual drugs in their system, and many of them even seemed to retain their hymens despite the impossibility in an ABB brothel. This was particularly odd when comparing their scans to medical records. Scar tissue that was noted in their files as a result of past surgeries was gone as well as the healed damage recorded after broken bones. It was as though they were restored by a parahuman with a healing ability. The only one that was recorded on this level in the area was Panacea and he had verified reports that she was at a hospital during the attack.

The correlation program referencing the cut damage and comparing it to different weapons finally gave him a ninety nine and a half percent result. Whoever attacked was using a katana or had some ability which mimicked the properties of one.

Additionally, there was a discrepancy in the recorded videos. It was like the cameras has failed to record what happened for a distinct interval of time. Between individual frames, the ABB members had all died and the women were seemingly healed. The cameras had seemingly functioned for four minutes and eleven seconds of time that did not exist and where they could not sync the data to the online storage. Since there was no evidence of video alteration in nearby areas, it was unlikely to be a hacker affecting the recordings and more likely a form of temporal manipulation localized to the area. Sadly, the cameras did not have local storage, so the footage appeared to be lost.

The numerous powers at play would have normally made him think this was the actions of a group if it weren't for the video showing what initiated the incident. In the middle of the brothel, a blue orb of crackling energy had appeared. It surged for around fifteen seconds before fading as a man seemed to drop from it. The footage was low quality and there was substantial distortion in the recording which prevented a identification.

In an instant, the man was walking out of the front door of the brothel while the girls who were trapped there were hiding in a unified group in the central area where the orb had appeared. Anyone else in the building was dead. Everything seemed to be caused by that one intruder.

When Hannah had talked to some of the women, they all said the same thing.

"It was an angel from Heaven. God heard our prayers and sent him to protect us. He bled so we could be redeemed and born anew."

What might have sounded like religious babble could contain clues to the unknown cape's powers. They mentioned him bleeding in connection with their physical restoration. Possible blood based healing? He needed more data and there was a distinct lack of blood that didn't belong to any of the dead bodies. Potential cleanup or blood degradation?

The angel connection was also peculiar. Angel iconography had seen a drastic drop in popularity since the first appearance of the Simurgh. After all, no one besides fanatics willingly wanted to be connected to the Hope Killer. Could the unidentified cape have a physical trait such as wings or a halo? It might also be possible that some among the women were Christian and made a connection between their savior and a symbol from their faith. It would not be out of the ordinary if they used this belief to help calm down the more hysterical members of the group.

As it stood, Ms. Milita could not get any additional information out of the women. When he wanted to press them for more data, she stopped him and informed him that it would be best for them to leave the women alone for now so that they could calm down and rest. She had the belief their memories would likely be sharper if given time to settle.

While he thought that the tine would degrade more information than it clarified, he could tell that she was not going to compromise on the matter. It would be a waste of time to attempt to change a foregone conclusion. Instead, he wanted to recover as much data as he could before it was contaminated. Somewhere in this mess, there was more information on the new cape. It would be the key to understanding his abilities or his motivation.

The latter would help them understand if he had the potential to be an ally or an enemy. The former, however, would let him be sure that the man would not win a fight between them if he turned out to be a villain. No one was truly invincible when you get down to it. You just need to be more creative.

--

(Felicia Hardy Parker POV)

"So, Shaggy," she says after she returned to talk to him. Her daughter and grandson had already left, so it was just the two of them. "I know you did something to make sure he wouldn't get killed as soon as he makes ripples in their future. After all, Worm has quite a few precogs even before all of the changes you made. I can already think of one who might not like the idea of the future changing in unpredictable ways. Her and her buddies have quite the influence on that world."

"You don't have to worry about Contessa and those schemers in Cauldron," Shaggy assures her as he waves off her concern. "I fudged the numbers a bit and tweaked which curses he would get. Since none of his gifts give him a resistance to those who can see the future, I thought it would be helpful if he had one in his corner. It also helps that another powerhouse will be watching his back like someone watched your husband's in his early days."

"Tell me you didn't," she says. "Do you have any idea how much trouble that will give him in the long term? You know how clingy she gets. It was a miracle everything didn't turn out so much worse than in canon Marvel. Everything would have been simpler if she never fell in love with Pete. Why in God's name are you tempting fate?"

"If you want the truth, blame your daughter," Shaggy says with a shrug. "She was the one who thought it would be amusing to give a white haired guy named Peter a superspeed quirk. I just made an innocent joke about how all he needed was a crazy sister before she got a gleam in her eyes. My guess is that she wanted to speed up the timetable with getting grandkids. Don't act all high and mighty when we both know you are excited for great grandkids."

"That doesn't make this a good idea," she scoffs since she can't say he is wrong. The idea of more adorable great grandbabies sounds incredible.

"No, that makes this a great idea," he says. "At the very least, it will be amusing as hell to watch. Vergil will be pushing her brother button and her Peter Parker button at the same time."

She hated how she agreed with him yet again. Despite how annoyed her husband would be when he learned about it, it was still going to be funny as shit. She glances down at the paper as two lines of text stay seared into its surface.

Major Curse: Curse of the Dommy Mommy

Major Curse: Curse of the Brocon

--

(Wanda Maximoff POV)

As she looks down at his resting face, she can't help but run her hand down his cheek. Her fingers trail across his handsome features before sliding along the hardened edges of his muscles and relishing in the warmth that they feel.

"We cannot stay for long," her mother says. "The path requires that we leave in the next two minutes. Otherwise, it could cascade into greater problems in the future."

"Of course," she says. "I just wanted to see his face now that he is so close. I cannot wait for the day he will be with us forever."

"It will be soon enough," her mother assures her. "He is not ready yet but he will be in time. Then, we will bring him home."

"It will be perfect," she whispers as she runs her hand through his hair. "Grow nice and strong for me, my darling Pietro. I will be counting down the days until you to return to me, but I am nothing if not patient. I would wait forever to be with you, my love."

She leans over to press her lips to his forehead with a gentle kiss before she gets up from the edge of the bed. With a final glance at his sleeping form, she follows her mother through the glowing door and back to Cauldron.

--

(Taylor Hebert POV)

She walked closer to the door of the room with more than a little trepidation. Her dad had brought home an injured guy last night after he got off of work. Apparently, he said it was someone her age who had been hit by a stray bullet from a shootout. He had taken the guy to a friend of his who used to be an EMT and they pulled out the bullet and stitched him up.

Now, said guy was sleeping in a spare room in her house. Her dad had asked if she could wake him up since food was almost ready. It made her happy to see that he seemed more alive today, even if it took him finding a bleeding guy to make it happen. Now, she just had to wake up said bleeding guy.

She eased the door open and winced at the loud squeak the hinge made as it swung open. She looked over at the guy laying on the bed who was only covered in jeans and bandages. The only injury that seemed to be on him was on the lower left side of his stomach. There was a large pad of guaze faintly stained red and bound to him with multiple strips of bandages.

She creeped over and couldn't help being distracted by how muscular he was. He looked like a professional athlete with how defined each muscle seemed to be. Her eyes seemed to unconsciously settle on his abs. She didn't think anyone outside of movies had abs like that. It was almost like an unconscious reflex when her hand stretched out and tapped one.

She barely had time to process how solid the muscle was before he had rolled out of bed to the other side. It was only a moment later when two massive shapes jump out instead that she lets out a yelp of surprise as she falls to the floor.

--

(Peter Vergil Portgas POV)

Last night had not gone well. I had landed in some kind of brothel, but it felt more like a prison. My Observation Haki forced me to be bombarded with the countless feelings of hopelessness, fear, and pain that seemed to fill the air from the girls trapped here. As I saw that some of them were barely teenagers, my blood boiled with burning rage that I fueled into Idle Death Gamble.

When I had enveloped the entire building, I began to carve my way through the twisted fucks who populated it like cockroaches. At one point, right before I hit my jackpot, a girl collapsed to the ground with a shot to her chest from a round that I had dodged. As she fell to the floor, it was almost like my domain reached out to me with a feeling. If I sacrificed being able to heal from jackpots, I could spread the power out to the girls here and prevent them from getting hurt. As I agreed, I felt the change settle in time for a jackpot to land and the girl to gasp in shock as the hole in her stomach closed up and pushed out the malformed bullet.

However, partway through my pest control, my prey seemed to realize that the girls were being healed by the jackpots. This caused them to try and kill the girls to spite me. While the jackpots every now and then were helping any that happened to get injured, I had a feeling that it couldn't fix death.

I let my Observation Haki guide me as I sensed how to save everyone. I followed the path that I saw in my mind as I threw Kitetsu in a spin towards two of the men aiming their guns at some of the girls. It slices through their necks and causes their head to topple to the side as they collapse. I grab a gun off of the floor and fire at three more. Each shot strikes them in the head and blasts their brains out the other side.

Sadly, the gun clicks empty after the third shot. I just use it like a hammer and slam it into a guy's temple hard enough to kill him before rushing into the line of fire focused at a group of five girls cowering in a huddle. They were closer than the man himself and he was about to fire so I rushed in front of them before the first bullet flew. I saw the paths the bullets would take with my haki, so I focused my Armament Haki to the parts of my body that would be hit as I reached out to protect them.

One shot glances off of my arm before another sparks off of my chest. Hits bounce off of me as they strike futily at my reinforced skin and fail to penetrate. At least, that is what happened before the last one. The drain from directly blocking consecutive shots was more than my current ability to handle. Because of this, I had to focus on the areas that would get hit the most so that I wouldn't falter before he was out. This meant that I had to let the final round sink into my stomach as I protected the women.

The criminal looks at me in shock as I withstood the barrage released from his Uzi. I was lucky that he hadn't found something with more kick. I doubt I could have survived the shots if they came from an assault rifle.

As it stood, I just picked up a rock from the ground and threw it into his eye. It shoots through the weakpoint and embeds itself into his brain before he collapses. I stumbled away after I retrieved Kitetsu from where it was lodged in a wall. Upon reaching the entrance, the domain finally ends and I wander out into the streets as I keep pressure on my wound. I need to get far away from here before I pass out.

Once I get into an alley, I summon Shadow and Moon Moon who help carry me away. My last memory before I woke up was lying across Moon Moon's back as Shadow carried Kitetsu.

Now, I was lying on a bed without a shirt and my gunshot wound mended decently. I feel the spot and I am relieved to see that it had closed up for the most part. It would be a good idea to wait at least until the afternoon before I did anything major so that it finishes healing.

My thoughts were disturbed by the feeling of someone approaching the door. It was a bundle of nerves and fear that felt weird to sense. I choose to just lay back down and close my eyes while I pretend to sleep. Hopefully, they will just go away and I can find a way to sneak out of here.

Instead, I am treated to the squeak of old hinges and a flash of sensed embarassment. The emotions get more tumultuous as they get closer before I feel them finally reach out and touch me.

Since this is a hellhole world and I literally got dropped into a fucked up brothel that had more than a few underage girls, there is a distinct nonzero chance that whoever helped me is secretly an organ harvester planning on gutting me when I am healthy again. That is not my idea of fun, so I roll off the bed before summoning Shadow and Moon Moon again.

The two wolves immediately leap over the bed and attack whoever was on the other side. I hear a yelp of surprise before everything gets kinda quiet. There was a distinct lack of screams and/or mauling sounds that was more than a little troubling. This feeling got worse when the sound of giggling begins to fill the air.

Did they get distracted by food? I wouldn't put it past Moon Moon since she would do anything for some bacon, but Shadow has more self control than that. Well, unless they have maple sausages. If they do, he is liable to switch sides too.

I peek over the side of the bed to see them licking the face of someone who was laughing on the floor as the two wolves seemed to be smothering them in furry affection. When I see it is not someone who is blatantly an organ harvester, I am not sure whether I am more happy or disappointed.

As I fully stand up, I feel my jaw drop. It was like I was looking into the past. I could see Moon Moon and Shadow when they were still alive burying a girl in snuggles. She laughs as she rubs their fur and pets their heads. Then, she looks up and smiles at me. A name rested on the tip of my tongue: Talia.

Just as it appeared, it was gone in an instant. Moon Moon and Shadow were once again wolves and the girl was different. However, I can still see the similarities. The lines of her smile. The way she crinkles her nose. The cadence of her laugh. The sparkle in her eyes. It is the same as it was in her first life.

Finally, she notices I am watching her and her cheeks redden in embarassment. "Um, hi?" she awkwardly says as she tries to avoid looking directly at me. "My name is Taylor. My dad found you when you were hurt last night. Are you okay?"

"I am doing great," I say as a weight that was crushing my soul seems to fade away just a little. For the first time in close to a year, I am not lying when I say that. "It's nice to meet you, Taylor. You can call me Vergil."

--

Achievements:

Make an enemy of the ABB. (One Roll)

Get on the PRT's radar. (One Roll)

Become Armsmaster's newset obsession. (One Roll)

Survive your first night in Brockton Bay. (One Roll)

Find your lost love. (One Roll)

--

Author's note:

I have done it once again! I made another monster chapter even bigger than the last! Tremble before my lack of self-restraint!

This big boy took me a straight week to finish, but I am happy how it turned out. It tells the story I wanted to tell even if it might not be perfectly polished at times. I hope you see through its flaws and enjoyed Vergil and his new beginning.

In case anyone was confused by the appearance of Wade, Johnny, and Gwen, they are from my other gacha story, A Marvelous Mashup Adventure.

There was a lot that I tried to do and a lot of crossover weapons and tech that I tossed in to make a pretty varied loot box experience. For those cameo hounds who want to know it all, here is the full list:

Lightsaber from Star Wars.

Icarus Fall tech from Deus Ex.

Laser rifle from Titanfall.

Chainsword from Warhammer 40k.

Grapple gun from Batman.

Magic revolver from Wynonna Earp.

Ebony Blade from Marvel.

Jarnborn (Young Thor's axe) from Marvel.

Captain America's shield from Marvel.

I kind of phoned it in for the last trial with it all being Marvel weapons, but I thought it would fit since the trio was from Marvel.

As for the robot enemies, I sourced them as a combination of fodder Predacons from Transformers, B-1 Battle Droids from Star Wars, T-100 Schwarzenegger Terminators from Terminator, and Necrons from Warhammer 40k.

Feel free to write me a review and let me know how I did. I am practically fueled by reviews, so don't be shy. I always make sure to take all reviews to heart and respond to any questions at the beginning of each chapter.

If you liked the story and want to keep up to date, favorite and follow to get notifications when new chapters are released.

If you are interested in my other work, you can find my stories through my profile.

Happy Halloween,

Titan900