Okaze: The house gives Vergil a LOT of maneuverability now. In theory, if he wanted to, he could just have the exit come out into his old house in the red zone when he decides to finally face Mercer. It'll be quite useful for many circumstances, I imagine.
Re: Feasible, but Virgil would never risk the House of Secrets falling into Mercer's hands. Not with his ability to [Consume] a person down to all of their memories. If you think Roy/Red Arrow in Young Justice could cause a lot of damage in the Watchtower, Mercer getting his claws on literally anyone on the League would mean the end of all mankind. In a "Worst Ending" timeline, Mercer/Pariah would basically CONSUME the entire planet, which would then have to be quarantined by the Green Lantern Corp. if not pushed into the nearest star.
To Thefallenjedi66, Virgil didn't want to show his worst side off to Zatanna. It's why he has so many "hats" to divide the labor. Any enemy that ONE of his identities makes won't automatically "carry over" to the others.
To Cousin687, Disney's properties are "fiction-within-the-fiction" (to help the world feel lived-in). Of course, since neither Marvel nor DC Comics can exist there beyond some quasi-historical "Justice Society of America" and "Captain America & Bucky" comics, in this world if I haven't said as such already, the events of The Incredibles universe is actually told in-universe as old comics in the same vein as "The Gray Ghost" that inspired Bruce Wayne to later become Batman, with the IRL movie actually being an in-universe reboot since The Incredibles largely takes place in the 1960s and at-present it's the 2010s; creating a 50-year disparity between the two.
Not to say that Bill Cipher couldn't maybe cross over, but then the issue is how he would Scale to the Lords of Order and the Lords of Chaos… That and higher-dimensional imps/djinn like Mister Mxyzptlk.
To Raidentensho, Virgil already has someone he's indirectly "reborn" from, and the hints have been subtle while also not-so-subtle. Metal Gear is filled with clones, after all. And the supernatural. Ghosts, Espers, Vampires, Ninjas, Cyborgs, Cyborg Ninjas, Demons… It's a box of chocolates of supernatural nonsense half the time~
*VEE DAY*
Virgil, after magically teleporting to the Moxxxi's Red Light backdoor and taking some time to hug his girls after the day he had, returned to The Bunker to give his report of what happened after he'd stepped out. Miller didn't ask for all of the details, only the important ones in relation to ongoing operations, and maybe it was the House's magic lingering on his skin, but somehow he was able to slip by the fact that he now owned what was essentially a magical Tardis in the form of a Victorian-era mansion with a literal mind of its own.
Given how-powerful something like that could be from a tactical perspective, the more-paranoid part of him opted to keep it to himself unless absolutely necessary. He even went as far as to lay the "Key of Secrets" on the table during the debrief, and that Miller paid it no mind implied the key itself had a form of magic that hid it from view. Like the Glamour Charm that transformed him into an albino heartthrob.
Something he'd have to test later…
*VEE DAY*
The Bunker
January 8, 12:27 EST
"So you really can't see it?" Virgil asked holding up the 'Key of Secrets' in a hallway with no camera.
"No, no I can't," Emerald said frankly as she stared at his hand which as far as she could tell was empty.
Reflected in her eyes was a raised hand, the index finger and thumb holding onto nothing.
" . . . What if I wanted you to see it?"
Blink, blink.
"What the-?" she gawped as crimson eyes went wide, the old brass skeleton key now reflecting in those lovely eyes. "How'd you do that? Was it magic-magic, or just sleight of hand?"
"Huh. That magic's potent stuff…"
"What is it?" Emerald blinked.
"Something I want you to keep a secret from the others."
"Why? What does it do?"
"It's a magic key, what do you think?"
If the House of Secrets and by extension its housekey had a similar power to The Silence from Doctor Who, she'd either forget about it as soon as she looked away, or remember it even after but forget about it if she ever attempted to divulge information about it without his say-so. He wasn't entirely sure how the House obscured itself from human recollection, and while he could ask "Sebas" himself, a more paranoid part of him wanted to collect some of his own data on the topic.
"Okay, stupid question. What does it open?"
"A magic house of secrets."
"Isn't that what all magic houses are like?"
Only time would tell how-true to its name the House really was.
*VEE DAY*
The Bunker
January 14, 18:40 EST
Around a week had passed and no-one saw fit to inquire about the House of Secrets. That either meant Emerald had kept her mouth shut on her own volition, or by the House's own compulsion.
If it was the prior, he might've seen fit to let her in on the secret, maybe get her a spare key since they were going to work together and, admittedly, he had a soft spot for cute girls. If it were the latter, he was slightly-terrified and/or awed by the House's power.
He wasn't sure if the House of Secrets had some sort of "point defenses" to it, or if "Sebas" was basically immortal until someone started ripping up floorboards, but he supposed the possibility was equally likely that the House had "infinite defense" only-as-long-as no-one wanting to attack it knew where it was.
Kinda the point of a secret base, really. If the Batcave actually used some sort of point defense, it'd likely compromise aforementioned secrecy the moment they were deployed, hence why the secrecy itself was its strongest defense.
But I digress…
"So, how's the latest batch of simulations treating you?" Mercury asked as the three of them ate together.
"Well, that Outer Heaven Uprising mission was… something."
"The one with all the weirdos in it?" Emerald blinked.
"In their defense, they probably got their screws loosened by all the abuse their respective countries gave them before they went AWOL."
It was the only way he could conscionably forgive such egregious names as Shoot Gunner, Machinegun Kid, Twin Shot, Bloody Brad, Coward Duck, and Fire Trooper. And even if the Sim tweaked certain variables on subsequent runs to alter the difficulty and used hypnosis to make him temporarily forget he'd done it all before, it still didn't change the fact that all those names made it sound like he was in a hammy Saturday morning cartoon.
Not to mention that every time he died in the sim, he'd be hypnotized to forget any "fore-knowledge" he'd managed to gleam and only retain what Snake himself had been debriefed on by Big Boss.
"Still, who the hell thought it was a good idea to sic a bulldozer and a supercomputer with laser-shooting cameras on a trained soldier?" Mercury asked.
"Well, it was the 90s, sooo…" Virgil trailed off. "What about you guys?"
"Mostly old missions that Philanthropy undertook," Emerald shrugged. "As long as you don't get caught, it's shockingly easy. Destroy the blueprints, plant the demo charges, maybe steal some funding…~"
The last part she sighed wistfully.
"I just hijack the Metal Gear and kill everybody that I can see," Mercury shrugged.
"Why would you do that?" Virgil deadpanned.
"Well… I don't know, it seemed like fun. I think I went a little nuts for a while there."
"Clearly."
"Well, at least there won't be two murder hobos on this team," Emerald sighed gratefully. "What're we calling ourselves anyway?"
"Mercury's Quicksilvers~"
"No, just, no," Emerald deadpanned at her peer.
"Didn't Miller come up with a name?" Virgil asked.
"It's your team. She's just here to help us reach our full potential," Emerald hummed.
" . . . We'll use 'Arrowhead' as a placeholder."
Maybe if he waited long-enough the universe would give him something better.
Wink~ Wink~
Deadpool, what the fuck, man?
Oh please, you were basically ham-fisting a request for Reviewers to drop suggestions for whatever Vee-man calls his "Anti-Young Justice".
Yeah, but I'm trying to be classy about it.
And failing because I get to run my mouth~
Times like this, I wish I could stress-eat, but I also don't wanna spend a lot of money…
*VEE DAY*
The Bunker
January 21, 13:18 EST
"Vee, you okay?" Emerald asked worriedly as they ate lunch.
Though in Virgil's case, it was more like playing with his food and unable to get into the motions.
"No. No, not really."
"You're playing through the Zanzibar Land Disturbance, right?" Mercury asked. "What, too graphic for you?"
"Let's just say whoever programmed the smell of cooking human flesh had too much damn time on their hands…!"
Having extensively studied his predecessors so as not to make their same mistakes, including but not limited to Punished "Venom" Snake… Suffice it to say, that knowledge massively recontextualized Solid Snake's final fight with his mentor toward the end of Operation Interlude F014. To make matters worse, the original Big Boss couldn't even carry through on destroying The Patriots; the entire point of using Diamond Dogs as a smokescreen for the eventual Outer Heaven Uprising...
No, that had ultimately fallen to Naomi Hunter and a prepubescent Sunny Emerich with her FOXALIVE virus.
Part of him wishes he never went down that rabbit hole, but the other part accepts that knowing this past, the story that no-one outside a select few would ever know in full, was all that could be done to honor the sacrifices of so many.
"Rest in peace… and god speed, you magnificent bastard."
"Who was that for?" Emerald asked.
"Someone who isn't around to hear it anymore."
"Tch, well obviously," Mercury scoffed.
*VEE DAY*
The Bunker
January 28, 6:14 EST
Having undergone repeated sims of the Shadow Moses Incident first-hand, a lot of what Snake told him about his accounts suddenly began to make sense. Especially the plot twist about dominant and recessive genes he only learned about long-after-the-fact.
The bit with the One-Man SDV (which he just called the "Infiltration Torpedo") at the beginning was fucking boss, but actually surviving the entire damn exercise was the hard part. It felt like the difficulty got ramped up compared to the previous batches of sims, which made having to repeat the entire thing every time he "died" an additional pain in the ass.
And while he was grateful that the "Boss Enemies" in Psycho Mantis, Sniper Wolf, Decoy Octopus, Vulcan Raven, Revolver Ocelot, and Liquid Snake were much cooler than previous batches (and thus easier to take seriously), the aforementioned difficulty spike made it so that his "deaths" against them were far more frequent. Thankfully, the more he trained IRL, the stronger he was in-sim.
It was only a little bit, but every little bit helped.
That Solid Snake could take on all six of them with almost zero breaks, as well as sneaking past an entire army of Genome Soldiers, meant the guy was an absolute beast back in his prime. And sure, Decoy Octopus only croaked because he stole the Darpa Chief's blood making him susceptible to the FOXDIE virus, but it still counted.
A shame that cloning and nanomachines were such a bad mix. From what he'd heard from Emmerich and the others, back in his prime he was basically a "Stealth Ops Captain America", with a little "James Bond" on the side before the accelerated aging really started to take its toll.
The hardest part to stomach was listening to Liquid Snake prattle on about genes for half an hour like a complete loon. The hypnagogia helped dampen any fore-knowledge he might've retained from the real world, and everyone in-sim talked to him as if he were Solid Snake himself, but he retained just enough of himself to know it was just an incredibly-realistic sim. A complete mental rewrite, even for training purposes, could have side-effects including but not limited to "identity contamination".
That or the person outright croaking from shock as soon as the simulation ended, hence the need for a line to be drawn.
"So… Who knew the Pentagon had those kind of balls?" Mercury asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that whole thing with giving Snake the FOXDIE virus so he could just… go in and kill everyone like a murder hobo," Mercury chuckled.
"Ah, right. That whole thing…"
Over the course of his sims, something he'd gained a greater fear, respect, and understanding of was the FOXDIE virus. And given what he learned of the Blacklight Virus from Dana and his own observations, honestly, it made GenTek's next big product lose some of its luster. Sure, the Blacklight Virus let you kill people by race, like a carpet bombing, but the FOXDIE virus in comparison was infinitely more-diabolical; the perfect surgical killing tool. Inject a secretary or a bodyguard or even a family member with FOXDIE in the guise of a flu shot, and you could insta-kill any political leader in the world. And if investigators didn't know what to look for, they'd think it was a heart attack; the Blacklight Virus in comparison left little room for doubt that it was outright bio-terrorism, and if that sucker mutated...
"So, you've been to the Red Zone and lived to tell about it. What exactly is that shit made of?"
Virgil for his part, more or less repeated his mental musings while making it more palatable to his audiencce.
"So basically, the Blacklight Virus is the 'sloppy blowjob' of bioweapon attacks?" Mercury blurted out.
"I mean… if you want to put it that way…" Virgil deadpanned while Emerald gave him a disgusted face.
All in all, the Shadow Moses Incident was a hell of a wild ride. However…
Something he was still having difficulty tying together was how Eli had not only survived the English Strain of the Vocal Chord Parasites once symptoms manifested back in the Cold War, but how he'd even escaped the island in the Angola-Zaire border region he'd briefly taken over with Metal Gear Sahelanthropus. The island was completely contaminated by the parasites following his and Venom Snake's climactic battle, something he found amazing the guy could pull off not just once, but twice, so the entire thing had had to be torched by napalm. By all rights, Eli should've been cooked alive, yet decades later he came back as Liquid Snake.
That rabbit hole or snake hole or fox hole or whatever-kind-of-hole it was, truly had all sorts of twists and turns…
And honestly, it was amazing that Snake chose to smoke instead of drink, because if he'd endured something that fucking nuts first-hand IRL, he would definitely turn to alcohol.
Hell, the decade was still young, anyway…
*VEE DAY*
The Bunker
February 4, 11:39 EST
"So… I notice you've been pretty quiet today," Emerald hummed worriedly.
"You holding up okay, Vee?" Mercury asked, he himself a bit worried too.
"I've been playing the Big Shell Incident on loop, how do you think I'm holding up?" Virgil huffed.
How-badly the Patriots played Solidus with their S3 Plan (Selection for Societal Sanity) was the stuff of nightmares. Real dystopian future crap.
"The one with the former president in it?" Emerald blinked.
"Yeah, and what the Patriots did… That shit was fucked up."
It terrified him to contemplate how-unaware he was that the country he'd lived in prior to a few years ago had been controlled by what was essentially the Illumi-fucking-nati.
"Don't you mean still is~" Mercury grinned. "La-li-lu-le-lo~"
"No. Past tense," Sunny hummed as she walked by.
"Tch, ruin my fun why don't you," the silver-haired teen huffed.
"I mean, honestly, everyone goes on about how a robot uprising will spell the doom of us all, but to be frank, it was more along the lines of I, Robot," Virgil chuffed as he furiously ate, if only because his inability-to had finally necessitated it.
It wasn't that what he'd experienced had caused him to fast. It was just that The Patriots' plans had been so-nauseating, he could barely stomach anything.
"Book or movie?" Mercury asked, unaware of his peer's inner turmoil.
"Book," Virgil hummed.
"Oh, you mean the part where the president may or may not've actually been a robot 'the entire time'?"
"Hey Em', you got a little brown on your nose."
"Oh, shut up, Merc."
"Even if I'm only able to say this because I've actually gone down the rabbit hole, I'm glad The Patriots are gone," Virgil huffed as he ate, vividly aware that right across the room from him was a girl Tina's age who'd gone and saved the world from its 'AI Overlords'.
If he were actually a fan of the Justice League, he'd wonder how the hell they missed something like that. Though, he supposed that was just another indicator of how-powerful the Patriots and the AI that succeeded them were, if they could keep people like Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman out of arm's reach. And if the Illuminati were in fact real, or a myth of a different name based on truth, what else out there was real?
Did Area 51 actually house a repository of alien tech? Did the CIA actually have a hand in the Kennedy assassination? Was 9/11 actually an inside job? Is there a hidden chamber behind Mount Rushmore filled with government secrets?
Truly, the world was an amazing, and terrifying, place.
"By the way."
"Hm?"
"Why'd you keep covering your junk with one hand while you were streaking?" Mercury continued.
"Yeah, you pretty much ghosted your way through that whole section," Emerald added. "I'm sure they would've put a censor bar or mosaic on it in-post."
"I wouldn't exactly be stealthy if my thing slapped repeatedly against my thighs," Virgil deadpanned slapping a finger on his forearm.
"That's…"
"-a fair point actually…" Mercury and Emerald admitted.
"Also, it was really fucking cold in there…"
"Its gonna suck when I have to do that," Mercury hummed.
"You think you'll have it bad?" Emerald deadpanned.
"Don't worry, we'll only review your footage the one time," Virgil said conciliatorily, Emerald giving him a grateful nod while Mercury rolled his eyes.
*VEE DAY*
The Bunker
February 12, 6:15 EST
"So, what do you have planned for Valentine's Day?" York inquired that morning as they ate.
*Clink!*
"You forgot, didn't you?"
"W-Well can you blame me?! I've spent so-much time in The Matrix, I've lost all sense of time!" Virgil yelped on the verge of panic. "Oh god, I am so fucked!"
"Did someone call my name?"
"No, Donut!"
"Okay, just checking!"
"Well, what do your girls think you've been doing?" York inquired as his younger peer panicked.
"I called it 'work training'."
"You've been going back for weekends, right?"
"Alternating weekends whenever I didn't have photo shoots."
"Hey, speaking of which, how has that been going?" Emerald asked laying down her tray.
"You work there too. Wouldn't you know?"
"Yeah, but we're industry veterans," Mercury waved off. "How's the new guy handling it?"
"Well, Gwen and I have been doing a lot of stuff together."
"Ooooooooh~"
*Slap*
"Ignore him," Emerald chimed in. "So, what do you know about this girl?"
"She's got a crazy uncle that's dressed like a burn victim, but she's a lot of fun to be around."
He kept the fact that she propositioned him for sex with a completely straight face to himself.
"Sounds like she could be good for your brand. A little 'will they, won't they' eye candy," Mercury hummed in all seriousness.
"Well, she did flirt with me pretty hard before the New Years party, but I'm not sure how-serious she was being…" Virgil hummed fighting down a blush.
Earlier that month, he and Gwen had gone to a photo shoot to accompany the release of the latest trendy clothes ahead of Valentine's Day, and as much as he didn't want to admit it, he had way more fun with that girl than he should've. Sure, Athena and Gaige came up with the "Accords" and there was a line-item for more in the event a girl needed "pampering (of the sexual nature as-applicable)", but he was still hesitant to add to it…
And it didn't help that Gwen played up the "girl next door" vibe better than Athena did since they didn't actually live together.
"You're a lucky bastard, you know that, right~?" Mercury grinned.
How the hell he of all people found out about the Poly-"Pampering" Accords, Virgil would never know.
"Considering both of them are probably legally 'nuts', I'd say it's a mixed bag," Emerald hummed.
"Gaige isn't crazy; her parents had her checked," Virgil replied before blushing.
"What about blondie?" Mercury asked.
"She has multiple personality disorder, but she isn't crazy either."
"Two for the price of one…? Niiiiice~"
"Oh go eat a bag of dicks…"
"Hey, Vee. If you don't want that weird… whatever-it-is with your two girlfriends to go up in smoke, I'd suggest getting top-side and setting aside some time for them," York hummed.
"Says the guy skirting around Carolina like a middle schooler."
"Urk," the man choked.
"Hah, sweet burn~" Mercury grinned.
"Says the literal teenager with no girlfriend either."
"Please, I'm a sexy beast. I can get into whoever's panties I want," Mercury huffed, Emerald rolling his eyes while Virgil's mind raced for ideas.
*VEE DAY*
Moxxxi's Red Light
February 12, 7:01 EST
*BAM!*
"Athena! Gaige! I love you both!" Virgil shouted as he kicked the door to the stairwell open.
"Awwwwww~ I love you too~" Gaige cooed from her place at the breakfast table.
"I-I like it when you're spontaneous, but it's still embarrassing when you say it so-close to the bar!" Athena yelped.
"S-Sorry, but I really wanted you to know by saying it out-loud," Virgil blushed at the two.
"Happy to hear it! So, what sort of work-training are you working on now?" Gaige asked.
"Oh, you know… Just more practice."
"Huh. Neat," Gaige hummed.
"So, what do you have planned for V-Day?" Athena asked.
"Hmmmmm… I thought we'd play it by ear. What's important is we spend time together."
"You forgot until the last minute, didn't you?" Gaige hummed knowingly.
"The 'last minute' would've been if he came in tomorrow," Athena countered.
And Virgil was grateful. Underground as he'd been for the past week, time really blended together. It took a while for his circadian rhythms to get equalized down there and the slightly-accelerated timeflow of the VR muddied matters further.
"How does a picnic at Overlook sound?"
"A romaaaantic picnic~" Gaige grinned cheekily.
"Well, we could screw like randy teenagers with no-one looking~" Athena grinned.
"Th-That was not the first thing that came to mind!" Virgil squeaked.
Technically it was the second thing that came to mind, but that was beside the point.
*VEE DAY*
Moxxxi's Red Light
February 13, 7:27 EST
*Br-r-r*Br-r-r* *Br-r-r*Br-r-r*
*Breen*
"Zee, how are you?" Virgil hummed after seeing the Caller ID.
"I'm doing fine. Listen, can you pass the phone to Athena?"
"Hm? Oh, sure," Virgil hummed. "Athena, it's for you," he said passing it to Athena, his other arm wrapped around her waist, the two of them channel surfing.
"Zatanna, how are you?" Athena asked. "Hm? Hold on," she said pressing a kiss to Virgil's cheek before getting up and walking into her room.
"Huh… Guess she wanted some privacy," Virgil hummed aloud.
"Must be girl-talk," Gaige hummed as she snuggled into his now-vacant side.
While they technically could've snuggled into both sides at the same time, one of the articles in the "Accords" stipulated that time be set aside for "one-on-one action", with whoever got the first timeslot decided by Rock/Paper/Scissors.
Several minutes later, Athena came back into the living room, the phone hung up.
"So, what did Zee need to talk to you about?"
"Get dressed. You have a date."
" . . . I'm sorry?"
*VEE DAY*
Happy Harbor
February 13, 8:43 EST
As it turned out, aforementioned "date" was as much for Megan's benefit as it was Zatanna's.
For Megan's part, it was because she'd always wanted to "hang out with a boy" on Valentine's Day ever since watching that one special on Hello, Megan! For Zatanna, even though she accepted she was below his "strike zone", she didn't really need an excuse to hang out with her "first crush". Also, the two girls didn't want to get in the way of Athena's (and Gaige's by extension) time on the 14th, hence why they asked to "borrow him" for the Saturday before.
Virgil wondered why Zatanna didn't call Athena directly, but she was either too embarrassed, or just didn't have the girl's number and didn't want to ask her dad for Moxxi's.
Thus, Virgil had driven his Mercury Coupe down to Happy Harbor, the sheer difference between its and Bludhaven's atmosphere quite bracing, even after all the times he'd made the trip.
"I'll never get over how great that car looks," Zatanna hummed as she and Megan met him on the driveway, the two of them wearing cute, trendy clothes.
"Hey, Vee. Sorry we made you come all the way out here," Megan apologized cutely.
"It's fine. Sometimes a drive down the coast can be relaxing by itself."
With how-expensive a Zeta-Tube was to install and maintain, as well as how-little meta-criminal activity went unchecked in Bludhaven, there wasn't actually much of a need to install one there. The nearest Zeta-Tube to Happy Harbor was in Gotham, and since both were equal distances away from Bludhaven, Virgil simply opted to drive down to Happy Harbor itself instead of leaving his luxury car unsupervised in Gotham for any length of time.
While it was true that he could've always "teleported" using the House of Secrets, that Athena was basically loaning him out to take the two girls for a day on the town before Valentine's Day, he felt it'd be disingenuous if he didn't bring his own car. Especially since outside The Beast, there likely wasn't a safer vehicle to ferry them around in on this half of the Atlantic.
"So, a day on the town as practice for future Valentines Days?" he asked.
"Kinda-sotra," Zatanna blushed. "Also, I didn't wanna intrude on things with Athena."
"And Gaige," Megan hummed innocently, Zatanna pouting cutely off to the side.
'Huh. Maybe polyamory is common on Mars…?' Virgil blinked, but kept it to himself. "So, where do you want to go first?"
*VEE DAY*
Happy Harbor was an almost nauseatingly wholesome municipality in Rhode Island, but for someone like M'gann who was immigrating from Mars, it was a good place to get her feet wet. While not really representative of what life on the rest of Earth would be like, Virgil certainly wouldn't want a sweet girl like her to live in a place like Bludhaven, let alone Gotham. Metropolis, maybe; but the drawback of meta-criminal activity couldn't really be ignored, even if it was considered "the city of tomorrow".
And thus, Virgil took a driving tour for himself as much as for her. While J'onn could've easily driven her around as well, she opted to leave the man free to pursue his League and detective work in Chicago.
Truly, the girl was too pure for her own good.
"So that's where you'll be going to school?" Virgil asked as he pulled up to a red brick building, the placard Happy Harbor High School off to the side, unironically in the same spot a parent would drop their kids off.
"Yup!" Megan smiled excitedly.
"Place looks like it could be from a sitcom," Zatannna hummed looking out the window. "Definitely different from where I go to school."
"OH! You could transfer and we could go to school together!" Megan suggested eagerly.
"Ah, thanks, but… I don't really wanna take away from your 'high school experience'," Zatanna waved off politely. "Besides, it might be a little hard to explain."
"Awwww," Megan pouted like a kicked puppy. "What about you, Vee?"
'Must… resist… cuteness!' he thought in the face of her expectant look. "Sorry, but I'm kinda attached to Bludhaven."
"And besides, Bludhaven doesn't have a Zeta-Tube," Zatanna added.
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Megan pouted. "Still, a girl had to try."
"Megan, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll make loads of friends when you start school," Virgil said patting her shoulder. "So, where else do you wanna go?"
"How about the mini-mall before lunch?" Megan offered.
*VEE DAY*
The mini-mall, such as it was, was just a line of niche and chain stores facing the bay. Maybe about a dozen stores, apart from the Sunglass Igloo, a sunglasses chain store segregated to a portion of the east coast, the other store that caught his eye was the local GameStop situated between an internet café and a DVD rental place. To his pleasant surprise, Megan too expressed an interest in the medium, which prompted a fascinating telepathic conversation about how media was stored on Mars outside of stone tablets and the rare instances of papyrus-like materials.
'Sooo… telepathic coins, basically?'
'More like telepathically-conductive data drives in the shape of coins,' Megan replied as they looked at the used games rack.
Kinda putting the cart before the horse since she didn't have a console yet, but Megan was interested in the box art as much as the content of the games, so Virgil didn't feel fit to correct her.
'Originally Kuru Pendants were reserved for storing the genealogical memory of prominent and later well-to-do bloodlines, but once we started importing rare earthen materials from off-world and the manufacturing process got refined, we started storing things on them like plays, books, and even the memories of those that've been off-world for a sort of meta-vicarious-tourism,' Megan explained, projecting the phantom image of a golden coin with two concentric rings around an alien face, the center ring finely decorated, before his mind's eye. 'Purely digital media is actually quite rare, largely reserved for government officials since the data on them needs specialized equipment to read them.'
'Well, if you wanna hide something from a telepath, it would make sense not to put it on a data drive you can read with your mind,' Virgil hummed, fascinated by the idea of storing legit memories on something like a thumb drive.
'Mhm,' Megan nodded. 'I actually wanted to play Earth video games ever since I saw the Nintendo Entertainment System on Hello, Megan!, but I guess it's out of stock here.'
Virgil didn't have the heart to tell her that as a third-generation game console, she'd probably be better off at a retro-game store in the big city…
"Sooo… Any games that catch your eye?"
"Well, a few," Megan admitted.
Zatanna of course, having never shopped for video games herself, made the mistake of asking which was better between Playstation and XBOX, inciting a verbal war between two of the employees who were advocates of one apiece.
*VEE DAY*
"Well that was a bit of a disaster…" Virgil sighed as the three of them sat at the Sandbar internet café around an hour later.
While Virgil could've just personally recommended she get the used XBOX 360 on the rack and been done with it, Megan was actually interested in the verbal discourse between Humans, reminding Virgil that for a member of a primarily-telepathic species, watching non-telepaths crudely bicker to get their point across was actually considered fascinating.
Eventually it was time for lunch, so Virgil put his foot down, grabbed the 360 and a stack of games, held onto the receipt on the off-chance he could get J'onn to reimburse him, and walked them next door to get lunch.
"I had no idea that video game consoles were so… divisive," Megan hummed aloud as they ate comfort foods, the sounds of keyboards serving as white noise in the background.
"Well, they did have a whole war over it," Zatanna hummed, at the least knowing that much about the medium.
"Still, I never thought you'd be a gamer girl," Virgil hummed toward the shapeshifter.
If he ever did make it back to Manhattan, he'd have to see if he could retrieve his old games and console once his business with Mercer was concluded. As long as they weren't exposed to the elements and hadn't been looted, the chances were actually quite good he could get that piece of his past back.
In all likelihood, wanting to put the bodies of his family to rest would be little more than a fool's errand at this point. But that was a reality he'd accepted when he swam for the border…
"Well, I just want to experience a little bit if everything, you know?" Megan asked cutely.
"Fair enough," Virgil shrugged.
He chose not to ruminate on the fact that he'd basically spent the past month or so playing video games non-stop.
*VEE DAY*
After a quick lunch, Megan's purchases were tossed in the trunk and the three friends made their way to the rest of Happy Harbor's landmarks. The yacht club stood out among local institutions, and the waters were certainly idyllic-enough that they could do a fair amount of business. The boardwalk also offered its own novelty for a girl that'd never seen an ocean until coming to Earth, and while Mars did have aquatic fish-analogues, to reel in actual fish from a line instead of plucking them from the water with telepathy could easily become a new hobby for the alien girl.
Wanting to have a nice sit-down meal together before the dinner rush and so Virgil could be sent home at a reasonable hour, the three decided to end their day at Sam's Seafood Restaurant; a chain establishment that was frequented by Aquaman back in Amnesty Bay both before and after he became King of Atlantis.
'Hey wait, do Martians have seafood allergies?' Zatanna asked, remembering that while Mars didn't have oceans, she did have something like an allergic reaction to Oreos.
'Not me, but once we started importing foodstuffs from off-world, we learned that some of us have more-severe allergies than others.'
'How severe we talking about?' Virgil asked curiously, always fascinated by what M'gann had to say about her homeworld.
Having been to space himself after becoming besties with a legit alien, massively recontextualized... everything, really.
'Not that bad. My uncle only turned into a purple puddle, but he was fine after an hour,' Megan waved off as she ate some fish & chips.
This of course, reminded the two of them that Martian anatomy was complete bullshit.
*VEE DAY*
Bludhaven:
February 14, 8:42 EST
To Virgil's surprise, Miller had zero issues giving him the day off from training.
Maybe it was just so he wouldn't have a psychotic break from too much work. After all those sims concerning The Patriots and the like, he could certainly understand the high-stress world that one found themselves in when military and political intrigue crossed over with supernatural nonsense like ghosts, vampires, demons, and so-on.
He still had no fucking clue how Raiden summoned a bolt of lightning inside what was essentially a nuclear submarine…
And the fact that Raiden could body-check a 640 meter-long submersible battleship, was only testament to how-powerful some of The Patriots' ninja cyborgs could be.
"Are you sure you have everything?" Rina asked as Virgil, Athena, and Gaige all loaded supplies in the back of the Coupe.
"Yes, mom," Athena deadpanned as she loaded the large blanket and tarp atop the cooler, the large picnic basket off to the side in front of the 'emergency camping supplies' further in the Trunk of Holding.
"Just making sure. It's a hell of a drive from Overlook if you have to double back."
"Make sure to get me a souvenir!"
"Tina, this isn't that kind of daytrip."
"Awwww…"
"Anyway," Rina coughed. "Don't do anything mom would do, and don't do anything she wouldn't do. There's a little gray area in there, that's where you operate."
"I'm not really sure how wide or narrow that margin actually is…" Virgil deadpanned as the girls did rock/paper/scissors over who'd get to sit next to him.
*VEE DAY*
Bludhaven: Overlook
February 14, 12:17 EST
After hitting the mall in town and having their fill of couples being lovey-dovey, Virgil drove Athena and Gaige into the Highlands and up to Overlook. Surprisingly or maybe unsurprisingly, the three of them weren't the only ones with the idea to have a romantic picnic up in the mountains "overlooking" Bludhaven. They were the only people that came in a group of three, but there were few-enough groups in Overlook that they were able to get some space to themselves, coincidentally at the place where the House of Secrets first made itself known to him.
'Should I tell them…?' Virgil thought to himself as a hand went to his breast pocket, feeling the Key of Secrets resting there.
"Hey Vee, something on your mind?" Gaige as she carried the picnic basket, Virgil holding the cooler and Athena holding the blankets.
"Just thinking how… unusual this Valentine's Day is gonna be for me," Virgil hummed as he gave Athena, and then Gaige a significant look.
"A pretty girl on each arm, I'd say this is a win~" the Mechromancer grinned.
"Admittedly, that one view of Earth helped recontextualize things…" he admitted.
"I'm surprised this place isn't more-popular," the red-head continued.
"It's a little out-of-the-way, and most times people come up here at night," Athena hummed.
"Oh, you mean like 'Makeout Point'?" Gaige blinked.
"In as such~" she admitted.
"Um… Message received…?" Virgil blinked, Athena giving him a tender pat on the cheek and a winning smile.
*VEE DAY*
The picnic wasn't anything overly-unusual or garishly Valentine's Day-themed. It was just drinks, sandwiches, and snacks. Stripping away the commercial implications, Valentine's Day wasn't about how many hearts and/or pink was in/on the food you were eating, or an excuse to have sex for a failing relationship; it was about the people you spent it with, and while his foster families had been dysfunctional in one way or another, the wide range of lifestyles he'd been a part of had given him a broader perspective on American life that most never got to see. Hell, few people ever left the town they were born in let alone the state, thus what they knew about the world became rigid or stale.
And it was why, even though their picnic was completely ordinary, with Athena in front of him to the left, and Gaige off to the right, passing one another food like at a family table… Virgil was having the best Valentine's Day he'd had in years.
Some schools he'd gotten cards that weren't for pity, some schools he hadn't gotten any cards at all, but to spend a meaningful day with a girl he was really fond of, let alone two, was a paradigm shift he hadn't been expecting. And it made him think…
Would he have gone as-far with Gaige as he had, with an expectation to go farther at a later date, if he hadn't gone to space and had that eye-opening "Eureka!" moment?
Thoughts for another day, he supposed. Though if Pepper ever took issue with his lifestyle, he supposed he could blame Tony for any sort of "corruption".
"You know, this fresh air stuff ain't so bad," Gaige hummed.
"What, have you spent all this time cooped up indoors?"
"I am kinda on the lamb, remember?"
"Right, that…"
The girl was wearing her hair down for their outing, but if he was honest with himself, Virgil thought she looked cuter with her pipe gauge pigtails.
"Still though, I heard the stories about Bludhaven on the way here, but from Overlook… It looks like any other port town, to be honest," Gaige hummed as she looked out into the distance.
"Distance and a high vantage point does put things into perspective."
"I guess you'd know all about that, wouldn't you, Mr. Astronaut?" Athena grinned.
"A once-in-a-lifetime experience, to be sure," Virgil admitted. "Friday emailed me pictures, if you're interested."
"Your onboard AI… emailed you the pictures…?" Gaige blinked amazingly.
"Not sure how she'd fare on a Turing Test, but if Red Tornado can be made in the age of vacuum tubes, AI must've gotten pretty damn smart by now."
"Like Filyss, you mean," Athena hummed, amazed that someone Sunny's age could pack an AI with such a robust personality into something the size of a gaming cartridge.
" . . . Weird V-Day conversation, huh guys?" Gaige hummed after a minute.
"It sure is~" Virgil and Athena said in tandem, the two chuckling at that.
"So, what's next on the itinerary?" Gaige asked. "You wanna make out~?" she suggested, some of the couples they'd past canoodling off in the rest of Overlook's skeletal husk. "Get a little naughty, maybe~?"
"How about a walk after we pack up?"
"I like where this is going~"
"And I thought Moxxi was one for innuendos."
*VEE DAY*
"This should be a good spot," Virgil hummed as he came upon a forest clearing.
"I like where this is going~" Gaige repeated.
"I feel so-so about it," Athena said looking at the grass and the dirt.
"This isn't that," Virgil blushed, taking out the Key of Secrets from his pocket before making a slashing motion through the air, the veil that obscured the House of Secrets from mortal sight falling away, the structure somehow occupying a space not meant for it.
" . . . Adaptive micro-opto-electronics combined with phase shifting?" Gaige inquired.
"No."
"Oh, magic. Got it."
"You're taking this… remarkably well…" Athena hummed.
"Hey, magic is just a science we don't understand yet. Like errors in the source code of the universe."
'Huh. Makes sense that a non-conformist would have this kind of view on magic,' Virgil hummed as he climbed the steps and gestured to the door. "Ladies first."
*VEE DAY*
House of Secrets
February 14, 12:34
"You know, I'm not normally one for old Victorian-style houses, but I'll admit, I kinda like it~" Gaige hummed appreciatively at the architecture and the old wood.
"So… I assume you intend to share?" Athena hummed as she turned to her boyfriend.
"Let's go to the parlor."
"You have a parlor?" Gaige blinked.
"The House of Secrets has many amenities."
"AAHHGH! Where the fuck did you come from?!" Gaige shrieked as Sebas seemingly materialized behind them.
"I am the 'from' of which you speak."
"You're the house itself?" Athena blinked. "Like, we could attack 'you' as much as we wanted, but you'd only feel it if we started ripping up floorboards."
"As such, though I'd take exception to that."
"Sebas, has anything changed while I was out?"
"Not as such. All is as you've left it."
"So then… the parlor?"
"Simply choose a direction, and you'll inevitably arrive."
"Like, what, the rooms move around?" Gaige blinked.
"I think he means the rooms move to accommodate us…?" Athena groused.
"Something like that," the butler(?) replied.
*VEE DAY*
"Nice portrait~"
"I didn't commission it…"
"But it does bear a striking resemblance."
Aforementioned portrait, situated above a large hearth with a rug in front and a number of lounge chairs besides, was of Virgil himself angled slightly to the left (his right) clad in his Wildcard regalia only without the Glamour Charm to obfuscate his identity. The background was black along the edges and growing cyan towards the center, and for some reason there was butterfly imagery intermingled in the transitioning color…
"I'm just going to accept that it's magical, and move on…" Virgil hummed as he took a seat, which for some reason transformed into a Chesterfield sofa, to which Athena and Gaige took his right and left sides respectively.
The three basking in the warm glow of the fire, not too warm or cloying, Virgil divulged as much as he felt comfortable. How he helped close the case on a gang war, how he rescued Zatanna Zatara from some performance arts rejects after bouncing from town for a while, how he got some legit magic, how he got some magic clothes, his "training camp" at the behest of his benefactor, all the way up to the incident with The Lodge.
Out of everyone in his life, these two were the most-important, but at the same time, the safety of everyone in The Bunker was also paramount. So, he finally figured out where to draw the line in the sand.
Gaige didn't know about "the suit" nor did she need to know since Moxxi nor Athena saw fit to tell her. However, after the life-changing nights the three of them had had together, with what loomed on the horizon for him, he felt the need for some disclosure.
It was very possible that to go into the Red Zone was in of itself a one-way trip. Even if the most he could do was deliver the Wormhole Fulton to Dana to get her free and clear, more than Mercer, Blackwatch and GenTek were the greater threats to humanity. Possibly, they were leftovers of The Patriots' machinations to control mankind from the shadows; that or the edge of those shadows where darkness met light.
Then again, people could be complete shitheads without evil AI telling them what to do from the fringes of reality.
It's why his best chance to make it out alive was the "don't get caught" approach, and the best way to not fuck it up was to have his affairs in order so he could be 1,000% focused on the task at hand.
"Soooo… This your new digs?" Gaige asked.
"More like a summer cottage. That just happens to be able to move around…" Virgil admitted.
"So you're still gonna pay for what you got for free?"
"Also, I want to keep the IRS off my ass."
"Makes sense. The Joker might be crazy enough to take on Batman, but even he doesn't fuck with the IRS," Athena hummed furtively.
"Still, slap some blue paint on this bad boy and you've got your own Tardis," Gaige nodded.
"The Tardis was a copy of me."
"AACK!" Gaige squealed as she went over the front of the sofa.
"Refreshments?" Sebas asked from behind a tray of finger sandwiches.
"Hm, thank you," Athena hummed as she took one and imbibed, her nose twitching before she let out an *Achoo!*
"Whoa! What the heck!?" Gaige yelped as the blond's hair swapped to blue. "Hold on, is this some Dr. Jekyll levels of weird, or are we talking Botan from the original Dragon Ball?" she asked before double-taking. "Wait, is this why you finally caved? Because you and him on your own is a weird two-and-a-half-way?"
"Not that weird. This change isn't chemically induced from tainted salts."
"Oh, like in the book?"
"Well, at least you're quick on the uptake."
"I prefer to think of it as being 'mentally flexible'."
"Like what you two did on the plane because you forgot the pills?"
"Hey, anal for my first time wasn't that bad. Sure, there was a bit of chaffing, but-"
"You certainly keep interesting… company," Sebas whispered into Virgil's ear as the girl's compared notes and asked if Athena's 'condition' was or wasn't weird/ironic.
"Well, I'm certainly not normal by myself," Virgil conceded.
"So then in summary, you're Athena's inner badass."
"In as many words."
" . . . Nice," Gaige nodded. "So, magic house. What're you gonna do with it?"
"Well, if anything, I want to treat it as my fallback option, not my Plan A," Virgil answered. "I've got a bit of money saved up and a good job with plenty of work. Figured I might get something in the city."
"You're moving out?" Athena blinked.
"Wouldn't you want something a little more… intimate~?"
"W-Well, when you put it that way…" she blushed.
"Huh. Never knew your inner badass could blush like that~"
"G-Gaige! Could you not?!"
"Still, though, if we're going to be living together-"
"L-Living together?!"
"-no ordinary apartment will do. Maybe something in Hotel Moscow territory?"
"That… could be interesting," Athena found herself admitting. "We'd need a moving van. And a crew."
"We could probably get Brick to do it for a few pizzas and a six-pack."
"Um… I can come too… right?" Gaige asked raising her hand.
"Hmmm… Well, you are his 'Polyamorous Secondary'…" Athena admitted after a moment's thought.
"Why don't you two start compiling a list of features. I'm gonna check out the ensuite," Virgil said with a wave as he stepped out of the parlor. " . . . Sebas."
"Yes?" the man(?) asked materializing beside him once he was out of earshot.
"If anything happens to me… if I can't weather the coming storm… I want the two of them to be able to retreat to this place."
" . . . "
"Is that not possible?"
"Not at all. I'll prepare the spare keys immediately."
"Thank you."
"There is no need for thanks, I am simply doing as all houses were meant to do."
To offer shelter, permanent or temporary, from the outside world.
"I'd have thought you would be more-opposed to this sort of thing."
"A secret held by one person and one alone is only a thought. A secret shared among a select few; that is what has value."
"Hm. Never thought I'd spend Valentine's Day talking shop with my own house."
"You wouldn't be the first."
*VEE DAY*
AN:
Now that I've laid the groundwork down, it's gotten easier accelerating the time table. It also helps that I've been reminded of how-powerful VR in the Metal Gear universe truly is. Admittedly, the first game in the series I ever played personally was Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but for the others, I loved the story but didn't have the consoles at the time, so I watched playthroughs. But there's definitely something you can't substitute for the storytelling of playing the game yourself, like I did with Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain.
Anywho, see you all next time on Chronicle of Zhu, next release featuring a combo of violence and social commentary. The best chaser for "violence" there is~
Post-Script:
The next instalment of Young Justice: The (Tail) Hunter on AO3 is ready to go. Still a mite rough around the edges, but that's what reader commentary is for; helping me hone my craft.