Nexus Event - Chapter 11: (Patreon)

I sighed and rubbed at my eyes. “That's, the... um, fuck... what was it?”

Sam took a long drag of coffee and flexed her back and neck, popping various joints before she answered. “That was the deputy head of the Hong Kong Triads. I can't remember the exact name of the group, why?”

I shook my head as I looked around the teleporter room, the individual who we'd just beamed out now in one of our secure cells. “Just trying to keep track of it all. I think that's fifty for today, isn't it?”

“Fifty even,” Sam nodded, checking her watch. “Ugh, it's past midnight. I'll have to go soon, my parents are out at a late dinner and movie, but they'll be home soon.”

“What about your brother?” I asked, leaning back.

Sam's face twisted into a curious expression, something that was mixed with regret, irritation, and nostalgia. “He's at a sleepover with a friend. Mark was teasing me about it all yesterday. I think my parents just let him go because my birthday's coming up and he's usually pretty... aggravating around that time. When the attention isn't on him.”

“Hoping he'll get it out of his system?” I asked.

Sam nodded. “Pretty much. It's going to be absolute hell when I get my letter, though.”

I winced. “Sorry about that. They didn't let me put in a rider specifying familial affinity for magic.”

Sam visibly lingered on the thought, then shook her head. “It'd certainly be... interesting to go to a boarding school with Mark, but I don't know if I could take it. I suppose I should get used to the idea in the event he actually is magical and just hasn't shown any sign of it, though.”

“Everything else doing okay at home?” I asked as she took another draw of coffee.

“Just a lot of strange not-deja vu popping up,” Sam sighed, staring off into the middle-distance as she drummed her fingers on a table. “They look like my parents, they act like them, and part of me even remembers them as my parents. But I also remember my mother dying in a car accident when I was young and my father being consumed in his work to an extent this Jacob Carter never let himself be. I'd honestly be worried at the kind of dysphoria that would result in holding both sets of memories in my head at once, but I never really experience moments of disassociation or discomfort. The technology used... ah, I'm rambling, aren't I?”

My smile widened as the faint blush on her cheeks spread. “It's fine. You do it with technology, Angela does it with medicine, Willow with magic, and me with history.”

Sam snorted. “I suppose exceptionality breeds obsession to some extent. Daniel was always-”

Frowning as she cut herself off with a pulse of anxiety and sadness through our bond, I ran a hand through my hair. “I might not be your first choice, but you probably should talk to someone, Sam.”

“Maybe... after we get to Hogwarts,” she sighed again and shook her head before setting her cup down. “I've got to get back home now, though.”

She took a step towards me before retreating that same distance with a conflicted look on her face. I rolled my eyes and stepped up to her, grabbing her bodily in a tight hug. After a moment's stiffness, she reciprocated as I spoke into her ear. “You're not alone. Remember that.”

“I-I'll try,” Sam nodded, stepping away from me and shrinking to her child form halfway to the teleporter. Turning, she gave me a shy smile. “See you?”

“See you,” I nodded, my eyes lingering on the teleporter flash an instant after she was gone before I spoke again, seemingly to the empty air. “She's not going to learn to trust you if you keep listening in on private conversations like this.”

With a sound softer than a hummingbird alighting on a vine, Cassandra dropped to the floor next to me with a look of mischievous shame on her face. I raised an eyebrow and she shrugged. “Didn't want to interrupt.”

I huffed a quiet laugh and nodded. That was one of the polite fictions the Bat Family often used. “You going to be okay getting back home?”

Cass gave me a mildly affronted look.

“I'm not doubting your ability to sneak back into a house occupied by two untrained civilians. I'm asking about your emotional well-being breaking the implicit trust between yourself and your foster parents,” I explained patiently. She could have simply teleported back to her bedroom, but we weren't quite able to do so silently or without a bright visual flare. Both of which ran a greater risk of alerting her parents than allowing her to break back into her own home.

Cassandra grimaced and looked away, shrugging in a way that told me it wasn't really okay, but she was living with it. Part of that was cheating with the psychic link. Another part, though, was the ingrained ability of the Bat Mind to read Cassandra.

After an uncomfortable moment, she nodded and replied quietly. “It's who we are.”

I grimaced slightly, but nodded. “I suppose it is.”

Cass cocked her head at me, raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head in reply to the unanswered question. “I don't think our parents, mine and Sara's, are really interested in having children all that much. Honestly, I think they're more in early retirement already than anything else...”

Nero and Claudia Pendragon were, to my memories, quite the characters. They'd married young, had children young, and assumed the headship of the family young. Nero's father and mother, the previous heads, had been quite the opposite, ruling the various domains under the family banner for a good three decades before producing an heir. They'd taken up the position at around a half-century apiece and very nearly doubled that before dying shortly after mine and Sara's birth due to defending part of the domain from a wild nundu.

From what I remembered, neither of them really ran the family holdings. Instead, they employed various cousins and branches of the family to do so on their behalf and played them against each other.

Which is probably why they stranded us on a heavily-warded island paradise with golem servitors to begin with... If nothing else, it would keep us out of the intrigue.

Shaking the thought off and knowing I'd have to confront the elder Pendragons at some point, I looked to Cassandra. “So, our guests are all doing well?”

Cass shrugged and nodded, sending along a pulse of righteous pride and grim determination. That was to be expected, though, since they were all the absolute worst of the world's scum and Cass was a seasoned vigilante. “Not as fun.”

“No, I suppose it wouldn't be,” I snorted. “Then again, the point is more about efficiency than letting you run around and break a few bones, you little gremlin.”

Cass' eyes widened as she adopted an affronted expression, which melted away as I reached out and petted her head, sending her into a cooing chill mood. “I'll try to find a target worth sending you after. You did well retrieving the diary, locket, cup, and ring... maybe take one of the other girls on a practice run to see how their skills are shaping up, next time.”

Cassandra blinked, then grinned smugly. Mischievous glee resonated across our bond, to which I sent back teasing recrimination.

She pouted.

Deciding to move the subject along, I asked, “What about the accounts? Sara almost done?”

The half-asian girl nodded, popping up seven fingers. Holding that for a moment, she dropped them, signaled a zero with one hand, then held up eight fingers.

I nodded slowly, thinking about our calculations. “Seven hundred mill, huh? Good, at this rate they'll be bankrupt soon. Not bad for a week's work. Tomorrow we'll pick up the last of the accountants, wipe their recent memories, and drop them somewhere they'll get a fair trial. Maybe coordinate with the British government a bit and stage it as a major bust in Hong Kong.”

Cass perked up at the idea, grinning widely as she nodded.

Really, it was almost too easy. Most of the higher-ups of the gangs were well-known and documented figures who showed up on international most-wanted lists. Scrying them, teleporting them here, raiding their minds with a combination of force powers, Sara's powers, and a little truth serum...

Well, we'd soon had all of the accountants for the major organizations on tap as well.

Sara and I were, of course, already obscenely rich. We had a net worth in the billions, easily. But that money wasn't really accessible for a number of reasons. The first, and most important, was that our parents could cut us off if we engaged in truly profligate spending. Normally, I'd say that was impossible given the amounts we were talking about, but fighting a demon invasion would actually make a sizable dent in the Pendragon Bank.

Which was an actual financial institution, even if it went by another name.

Equally problematic, though, was the fact that the vast majority of the family's assets weren't liquid. We owned properties, art of various kinds, developed and undeveloped land, companies, stock in myriad firms, and a dozen other varieties of investments. Even the 'cash' the family had on-hand wasn't actually liquid currency.

Well, not for the non-magical economy, at least.

No, the family vaults were filled with hard currency in coinages that just didn't exist anymore, for the most part. Silver taels from China, Spanish doubloons, Roman aureus, and all other manner of ancient trade currencies.

None of it was anything you could take into a store and buy goods with. More importantly for our future operations, none of it was easily transferable across modern markets. Thankfully, there was a sizable nest egg in Agency-provided funds as well, which made Pepper's job much easier to start out with, even if most of that was sunk into stocks and corporate investments for the moment. Some of the money we were currently stealing from the Triads would go there as well, but other portions would be earmarked for the various projects that were slowly coming on line.

The base's digital intercom chimed and we both looked towards the speaker by reflex. Sara's voice came over the line. “Hey Sol, Tanya's calling. You might want to get down here.”

I sighed and exchanged a tired look with Cass. “A hero's work is never done, eh?”

Amusement crackled between us as she mimed tiredness and agreed, following me to the teleporter. I mean, sure, we could walk down two flights of stairs or grab an elevator, and we had the 'Step Between' power to augment that should we get into a situation we couldn't teleport away from, but...

Well, the teleporter was right there.

 “Jesus Christ!” Sara cried as we appeared behind her, my sister glaring at us as she radiated annoyance.

I shrugged. “You made it sound urgent.”

“It's good to see you're all getting along so well,” Tanya stated, and I redirected my attention to the large monitor set over the compact supercomputers networked to conduct the prodigious calculations Bruce Wayne needed on a regular basis.

“Well enough to poke each other and not blow up at the provocation,” I replied with a nod. “Which, I think, says good things.”

“Quite,” Tanya snorted, then sighed as she grabbed a tablet from her desk. “As I don't have time for pleasantries, we'll be skipping them. First off, I can assure you that the base's communication systems are clean. We also ran several remote diagnostics and no problems showed themselves. Given the situation we've found ourselves in, I would expect any rogue Company assets to have already moved against you if they had your location. Keep an eye on things, but all of the data we have access to says it's just the phone that was bugged. This line of communication should also be safe.”

Tension flowed out of all three of us. Relocating to an alternative base would have been doable, but also incredibly painful and likely to set us back months. At least.

There was a lot of stuff that it simply just wouldn't be practical to take with us.

“So what happens now?” I asked after taking a moment to internalize the information.

The young blonde woman on the other side of the screen sighed and put the tablet back down. “I've reviewed your assessments of the previous mission attempts personally and called in a few analysts I trust implicitly to do the same. We also reviewed confidential Agency records you don't have access to and concur with your findings. Several of the previous attempts were either sabotaged or their team-leads were outright assassinated.”

...and there's the other shoe. A heavy, steel-toed work boot, to be exact.

“It's extremely likely that it is, in fact, The Company trying to ensure this operation doesn't succeed.” Tanya's expression grew stormy at that, her scowl furious. “We don't have the time to get into the byzantine and eldritch power structures of The Company's upper-management, but suffice to say the manufacturing world you're protecting by waging this proxy war is under the administrative umbrella of a... more junior ownership partner, let's say.”

“And if they were to suffer a massive blow to their infrastructure, it would trigger something akin to a fire sale or liquidation of assets in order to restructure,” Sara surmised aloud. Tanya, on the other end of the line, raised a single curious eyebrow, to which my sister waved a hand negligently. “I have experience investigating financial crimes. The tactics are familiar, even if the scale is...”

Struggling to find a fitting phrase, Tanya nodded. “That's often the way of things when dealing with the factions we are.”

“Can we expect more interference?” I asked, more concerned with the tactical and strategic implications.

Blessed is the Bat-Mind.

Tanya made a non-verbal noise of irritation. “Unfortunately, I believe the answer to that question will likely be yes. We don't have enough evidence to force a branch-wide audit of the faction that we believe to be responsible for the attempt on your life and, even if we did, it's very likely they're using off-budget 'black' stock to conduct this entire affair.”

I'd expected as much and, judging by her expression, so had Sara. Cassandra, though, looked some combination of disappointed and aggrieved by the news. “Do you have any information about the threats we might be facing?”

Tanya gave a quick jerk of her head. “We'll be sending you a dossier on what you might be able to expect. Consider it an advisory statement, though. Not everything is guaranteed to be used and there may be some surprises the being in question outsources that we don't expect.”

I hummed thoughtfully. “I'm assuming no extra support on the mission, then?”

It was unlikely, but I'd have to ask.

Tanya shook her head. “It's unlikely, though there are a few... well, let's just say that there are attempts to clandestinely reach out to this faction leader's own less-than-friendly factions within The Company. In the possible event I am able to communicate a preference of compensation, though, is there something you had in mind?”

“What are my options?” I asked plainly, rubbing at my chin in thought.

“Assuming you haven't tragically acquired amnesia in the past few months, you know the Premium Catalog well enough to answer that question yourself. I might be able to work a mid-tier-” Her face scrunched up for a moment in distates, Sara and Cass' following a moment later. “-waifu purchase or equivalent. Nothing in the heritages, those are top-line items with high demand.”

Mentally, I reviewed the options as well as our current load-out.

“My first option would be a heavy for the team,” I stated, the idea slowly forming. “In particular, either Eris from Konosuba or Glynda Goodwitch from RWBY.”

I'd built my team as something of a utility knife concept. They were a flexible assortment of individuals with talents and skills that made them able to tackle most situations and respond in an appropriate manner. However, I'd constructed the team with a specific threat in mind. I hadn't foreseen too much direct combat, though. The strategy I'd been working with didn't entail that. We were to go in, get the native civilizations on-side, and use them to fight the majority of the battles. My people and I would be an emergency strike team for mission-critical targets, which was something that many of them had experience with.

It was also a reason I'd wanted an aura-user, because they were multiplicative advantages. I had a medium-sized, bordering on large, team and I intended on picking up a few more natives here and there. Being able to awaken aura and teach the locals how to do it would be an enormous power multiplier.

Which, now that sabotage is all but confirmed, probably explains why I was specifically denied any of those personnel contracts.

“Eris is out,” Tanya stated after tapping a few things out on her tablet. “She's Tier 8, which is more than I'll be able to get as immediate compensation. After all the dust settles and, assuming you survive-” Again, something I accepted as her usual cold-blooded calculations, but bothered both Cass and Sara. “-there will be an extensive hearing and discovery which will likely conclude with a settlement. I might be able to get a Tier 7 purchase for you.”

“Goodwitch is 6, if I recall correctly.” Which, again, The Company had wonky power-scaling, but at least this time it was to my advantage. Even if I'd had to bite my tongue and turn down the potential of getting Ruby Rose herself on the team. As, well... fun as it would be, even late-game Ruby was still a pretty naive young girl. Knowing The Company, though... we'd be getting a fresh clone, though, it was probable we'd be getting an early-season Ruby who was either just going or had just gotten to Beacon.

Untested, Untried, Inexperienced.

There were points in her favor, though, especially if she came with her own workshop and dust reserves. Ruby would also get along extremely well with most of the current roster, exempting possibly Illyana and even then, only if they hit it off poorly. I'd wanted to grab her for the team for just those reasons, originally, especially since she'd have plenty of time to grow into a more capable and experienced combatant over the next few years. Given that I was now anticipating needing a front-line combatant much sooner...

Well, Cassandra, Sam, Angela, and Illyana weren't slouches in that department, but it wasn't their focus. Even up-armored and up-gunned with both technology and magic, I'd feel much better about having an anchor we could pin the formation on.

Goodwitch, though? Seasoned veteran huntress with a versatile semblance and teaching experience. With a little work, I might even be able to slot her into the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts and have someone capable running the show as well as an agent on the inside of the school's power structures able to cut my team slack and face off against the other staff to save us time and aggravation.

“Goodwitch is popular, but she's more niche than the main teams,” Tanya noted with a nod. “I'll see what I can do. Even if I can't get her, I'll see about someone who can awaken aura.”

Glad to see we're on the same page. Then again, with mentioning Eris, the goddess who ran Konosuba's leveling system, it was obvious I was looking for a multiplicative power-up.

“Anyone but Raven Branwen,” I stated firmly, meeting her gaze steadily. “I'd rather receive nothing than Raven Branwen. She's an albatross I don't need around our neck, especially when I already have teleportation covered from multiple angles.”

Tanya snorted, but I was pleased to see an undertone of agreement in the veteran's own expression. It was one thing to choose not to take part in a battle, even one for the sake of your world. Some people just weren't suited to it. Raven Branwen? She actively sabotaged the defense of innocent settlements and the people fighting the oncoming waves of extinction-beasts.

Fuck.

That.

“If it comes to that, I'll ensure the care package never arrives,” Tanya promised with a hint of a smirk. “The Nexus is causing all sorts of havoc with inter-world transportation, after all. Even if The Company's a bit more skilled in that regard than we are, accidents still happen.”

I exhaled, both Sara and Cassandra looking at me with interest and morbid curiosity, but neither willing to interrupt the conversation. For Cass that was a given, but I was surprised by Sara's lack of meddling and nitpicking. Instead, my sister merely watched and listened.

...perhaps a lack of a conflict drive in the back of her head is doing her some good?

“Anything else on your wishlist? I might be able to weasel some equipment to go along with whoever The Company sends. It really is the least they can do,” Tanya snarked coolly, glaring down at the tablet.

Would an entire tech-tree be too much of an ask?

Meditating on the problem for a few moments, I realized it probably would. More than that, though, I already had Stargate's tech tree at my disposal through Samantha Carter, Batman's through my build options, a few bits and pieces of Starktech through Pepper Potts, and a surprise or two I was still working on besides. That wasn't including Angela's own medical-focused tech as well, and the non-medical application some of it had, like powered flight, forcefields, and other such things.

A Star Trek Replicator? Hmm...

 Long-term, that would pay off. Even if, ironically, we weren't able to replicate the technology and were limited to a single industrial replicator for in-house use. However, the base was already equipped with refilling stockpiles of mission-critical consumables and raw materials. If we did reverse-engineer it to the point the locals could manufacture it, though, there was the question of power. Those things ran off compact fusion reactors native to the setting.

Working on a purely hypothetical scenario, once Carter gets to the point where she can achieve permanent conjurations, we'll likely be able to solve that problem. Our base runs on an advanced fusion reactor from her world that's normally put in starships... hmm...

“Star Trek Replicator?” I asked, taking a shot in the dark, enjoying seeing Sara and Cass' eyes widen. As much as I disliked the franchise for personal reasons, their tech was incredibly useful.

Tanya grimaced. “Knowing what you're looking for with this, I'll have to veto it. While we're willing and able to sneak a new team member on-world, handing over that kind of technology would be... problematic.”

Sara perked up at this. “You'd be tipping your hand. Something... The Agency doesn't have access – no, not access. Some kind of agreement-”

Tanya held up a hand with an irritated look at my sister. “Ugh, Tattletales.” Ignoring the mildly affronted expression on Sara's face, she continued. “That's neither here nor there. Choose something else.”

I flipped through the mental index of media within my mind, tabling the 'why' for now. If I couldn't use the OP Hax of cutting the logistical chain and moving to post-scarcity, I'd do the next best thing.

Power generation.

Something comparatively simple that wouldn't take the advanced semi-alien technology that went into Carter's reactors and used exotic materials because of it. More functionally, something that used an advanced power source, so we'd get the power plant and something else.

So... something comparatively low-tech. Able to be mass-produced with only moderate effort by 90's-era baseline humanity with a pinch of magic. Hmm... 90's-era. Macross/Robotech? The VF-1 Valkyrie has not one, but two thermonuclear generators and just one of them produces more power than a Nimitz-class Supercarrier. It has an advanced weapons suite, can hit mach 3, reach escape velocity without assistance, and has a bunch of other technology buried inside it with broader applications. Moreover, although it was based on OverTechnology of alien origin, Valks were built with exclusively man-made components. For practicality's sake, I don't think the locals will actually go for a transforming mecha, but leaving the veritech component out it's still a damn fine aerospace fighter.

What else was there that would give me a leg up. Battle Angel technology? Cybernetics wasn't a bad idea, but between Angela and Sam they had more mundane and mass-producible versions available.

Force multipliers... power armor? Hmm, the Mjolnir armor is too advanced, so is the Iron Man armor. Both would be far too expensive to outfit the kinds of numbers we'd need to make a difference. Samus' uses alien tech. What about the Power Loader from Aliens? Or whatever the battle mechs were in the Avatar movies? Hmm... no. Those are both too slow and have relatively open cockpits. No, maybe Mobile Infantry Armor from Starship Troopers? The ones in the book weren't that advanced. Or...

“My two choices would be the VF-1 Valkyrie from Macross and a set of Hard Suits from Bubblegum Crisis,” I stated finally. It had been a while since I'd read Heinlein's work and couldn't remember the specifications on the MI armor anyway.

Tanya tapped away, nodding as she focused on the tablet in front of her. “The 2032 or 2040 variant?”

“The 2040,” I responded instantly. The 2032 was a classic and much-beloved, but it was also relatively light on plot. The 2040 remake, though... especially with the reveal of what the Hard Suits actually were...

“I'll see what I can do. It'll likely be one or the other, not both,” Tanya nodded, then sighed as she looked up. “Unless you have any other questions?”

I paused, wracking my brain, but found nothing. “No, thanks for the update.”

“Alright then. Next calm window we'll transport the captured Kens out from your holding cells. It's unlikely, but they might have some information about their creation facility or who sent them,” Tanya stated.

“They won't be... dissected or anything, will they?” Sara spoke up, looking disgusted with the idea. “I feel like I have to ask, what with the whole corporate shadow-war apparently going on?”

Tanya snorted and shook her head. “The Agency doesn't go in for things like that on nominal innocents. The most they're in for will be deprogramming after they're looked over by our analysts, likely given low-security jobs or offered contracts for our less intense job listings.”

Sara relaxed at the news and Cass seemed to lose some tension as well.

After a quick wish of good fortune, Tanya cut off and Cass took a quick step up to me, kissed my cheek, and stuck her tongue out at Sara before prancing off. My sister gave a huff and shook her head. “That girl... she seems so nice, but give her an inch...”

I rolled my eyes and turned to her. “Speaking of which, we need to have a conversation.”

Sara blinked, meeting my gaze and wincing before turning to laugh awkwardly. “Ah... would you look at the time? It's past one in the morning! Better get to bed!”

My hand came down on her shoulder as she was about to rise from the chair. A bit of the caped crusader came into my voice as I spoke. “You've been avoiding me, Sara. We're sitting down and having a talk together. Now.”

~~~

Uhh... so, this one got away from me a bit.

And the scary thing is I actually wanted to keep going and do the full conversation with Sara at the end, but... it's already at 4.5k and should have been posted yesterday.

Thankfully, I'm already working on the next chapter of Winning Peace and should have that out Sunday or Monday, at the latest. Looking to have two chapter of WP out this week as well.

Other than that? Stay awesome and rock on. Hope everyone has a good weekend!