Waking up the next morning, or really in the early afternoon, was like pulling back a blindfold I had been wearing my entire life. The colors, the smells, even the tastes of the world were pushing down on me, pulsing for attention, like a swirl of sensation and light. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing, slowly letting my sense of smell adjust, focusing on one sense at a time.
While we had been working on enhancements for five days now, many of them, especially the ones involving my senses, had been minimized, almost disconnected until now. Almost all of the improvements needed to be linked to my brain, which needed its own changes to handle all the new inputs. Now, as I slowly opened my eyes again, the final steps having bridged the gaps between everything, I couldn't help but think that, if all that had changed were the modifications to my senses, it would still be completely worth it.
I could see a vibrant array of colors that was shocking, making my memories seem dark and dreary by association. The smell, the taste, those were only mildly changed. For them, the improvement in fidelity and sensitivity was mostly a byproduct of my improved mental acuity. Frank had included some basic enhancements that mostly came from the Institute's contribution, but they were only minor changes.
My sight, on the other hand, had been directly and purposely enhanced to the fullest, and I could easily tell. I could make out details on the books on the other side of the room, detect minute shifts in shade and color. If I focused, I could make out a few crumbs along the edge of my desk, tiny leftovers from a meal, previously undetectable.
I had the distinct feeling that the only reason I was not being overwhelmed was that my enhanced brain was handling the overstimulation. And wasn't that an interesting sensation? I had never been dumb, and I had always been aware that this trip to the Cyberpunk world had included a bump to my intelligence. But this was more than just being smarter. My thoughts felt clearer, more precise, and deliberate. Somehow, despite lacking a proper way to really describe it, in the same way one would fail to describe color to a blind man, I could feel I was thinking better, that my brain was working better.
I wasn't suddenly Tony Stark or Reed Richards, but I was certainly better than I had been the day before. Even my memories felt clearer, details coming to me significantly easier, despite now looking desaturated compared to my current sight.
Taking and releasing another long, deep breath, I could feel my body accept oxygen significantly easier, feel the sheets under my fingers. It was clear that receiving the last upgrades had somehow tied it all together and elevated everything, making me more sensitive to the upgrades in a way I hadn't noticed while lying on the bed or sitting in a wheelchair. I'm glad Frank designed the process in this way, because I'm not sure I would be able to sit still if I had, say, gotten my sense of sight on day one.
As I stood from my bed, the new sensations continued. I moved with a fluid strength that felt good, and I could feel the sturdiness in my frame. Standing was easier, moving was easier, and as I started to stretch, slowly getting a feel for myself, I couldn't help but laugh. It was like stepping into my courser doppelganger again for the first time, but even more extreme, and more vivid, my new senses taking in every detail, even internal ones.
Still, the experience of having stronger bodies kept me from falling on my face, even if I did take my time getting dressed. I ended up just putting on a pair of sweatpants and a loose T-shirt, since most of my other clothes didn't quite fit over my new musculature or my height.
I wasn't a 'roided out behemoth, with tree trunks for legs and arms, but I was definitely much more chiseled and thicker than I had been before. I was also noticeably taller, though not near the seven-foot average that the first run of real Spartans were. Instead, I had only gained a few inches, bringing me an inch past the six and a half foot mark.
I made my way outside the apartment, spotting Sable and Cassie sitting on a bench. I smiled and waved before heading over to Jackie's apartment. As much as I would have liked to give Sable a hug and a kiss, I didn't want to get too close to anyone until I had time to really get to know my new body. She knew I would need an adjustment period, which was why she was staying back.
Just as I was about to see if Jackie was up, his door slid open, revealing the man himself. Like me, he was wearing loose clothes, his body having changed, though it was less apparent on him as he had already been pretty muscular. He was at least four or five inches taller, judging by the doorframe he stepped through. His eyes were wide as he took at every inch of the courtyard, staring at a patch of flowers for a full thirty seconds before snapping his attention back to me.
I couldn't blame him for being distracted, the flowers did look amazing with our new level of vision.
"Genio… this is incredible," he said. "Everything feels…It looks…"
"I know, definitely worth the five days of downtime," I said, my friend nodding in agreement. "C'mon, let's go to the large-scale production cavern, the stuff we used to test the Spartans should still be set up."
He nodded, and together we headed to the teleport hub, stepping out into the repurposed field. Above us were the many arms and assembly equipment I had used to build entire starships in record time, now dormant and tucked into storage configuration. Meanwhile, set up along the ground was a large obstacle course, a gun range, a running track, and more.
"Let's start with a quick run, shall we?" I asked, Jackie, grinning before taking off, running toward the track.
Over the next few hours, we ran, jumped, sparred, and tried out the guns, getting a feel for our abilities. About halfway through, Samwise arrived with our personalized armors, mine set to take directions from my computer interface, while Jackie's was prepared to connect to his Sandevistan. It took a pair of MRVNs to get the suits on each of us, as each one was pretty complicated. I already had plans for a dedicated device for armor removal and assembly, based on what I saw in the video game, but for now, the MRVNs were more than enough. Once we were sealed inside, we went right back to running around, dominating the obstacle course.
Having just the second level of Project Tulip enhancements had been an impressive leap forward for both of us, but putting on the armor was like cranking the dial from five to eleven and tearing it off the amp. We were running laps with insane times, running longer and faster the more we got used to the armor. The obstacle course was now impractical, as we could tear through it in a fraction of the time. It was clear that we had very much underestimated just how well the combined enhancements would mesh together, especially when combined with my enhanced Mjolnir. All together, it significantly increased our total effectiveness, far beyond our expectations.
Eventually, after three hours of running, jumping, and horsing around, getting used to our new levels of normal, as well as burning off some of the pent-up energy from being cooped up for so long, Jackie headed back up to the apartment level, while I made my way to the workshop. Once I was there, I reached out to Dakota to check in on how much progress they had made toward reaching a conclusion on my question. Her response did not fill me with hope that they would reach a consensus in the next few days, which was honestly fine. I was asking them a rather big question, after all, so I wasn't surprised it was taking them so long. I didn't set an exact time limit, but I did warn her that I wasn't willing to wait forever.
Putting the off-planet developments off for now, as most of the projects were waiting for something, I called a meeting for everyone at the apartments. Of course, Jackie took that and ran with it, suggesting that we turn it into a full-on cookout with the help of his sous chef robots. His suggestion reminded me of Samwise's suggestion, so with a little planning, we set up a cookout on Avalon.
It took some poking and prodding, but soon we had a whole table laden with food, and everyone sitting at it, including Vik, Rebecca, and even Mama Welles. Everyone was a bit dazed by our location, but eventually we settled in at the table, though everyone was frequently looking out over the massive forest around us. I waited for everyone to dig and serve themselves before I brought up what I gathered everyone for.
"So… I suppose I should welcome everyone to Avalon," I said, gesturing around us. "We found this world a few days ago, by sheer luck, and we are already building a vault underneath us right now. I would like to move everyone here as soon as it's done, which should only take around two weeks or so."
"This is insane, Genio," Jackie pointed out, Misty nodding in agreement beside him. "An alien planet…"
"Trust me, brother, I know," I agreed, peaking at the forest over his shoulders. "It still catches me off guard, and I've known about it for a bit now."
"Is this what you wanted to meet us about?" Vik asked, poking at a pile of potato salad.
"No. I mean, I wanted to show this to everyone, but that's not what I wanted to talk about specifically," I responded. "Over the next two weeks, we are opening up the resort and the towers. Our distant space projects are progressing nicely, and Samwise is working on directly countering the weapon platforms in local space. It's time to make our next move here, in Night City."
"Which is what, exactly?" Kaytlyn asked.
"It's time to take down the remaining gangs," I explained. "Starting with the scav groups spread out around the city. Mary is all set to start working with Murtaugh to take down their entire infrastructure, coordinating with Sable and her real estate people to buy up choice buildings and land."
"Why do you need more land?" Misty asked, tilting her head. "I mean, yeah, it's better in your hands than with scavs squatting in them, but what do you need it for?"
"For one, I can turn it into high-quality, affordable housing," I explained. "On top of that, the more land we own, the more we can push for control of the city. We can even start to clean up the space around the city. The dumps, the trash heaps, the abandoned buildings."
"What happens after the Scavs?" Vik asked.
"Then we move on to the other gangs, one by one," I responded. "Using the same process as we did with the Scavs, though probably with bigger numbers. At that point, land will probably start to spike for us, making it harder to buy as we go, but hopefully by that point we will own plenty of space for apartments and the like."
"Genio, what about the Valentinos?" Jackie asked, as if nervous about my response.
"As a courtesy, and an acknowledgement of how they do actually do their best to protect the people of their territory, I will meet with Padre to see if we can reach some sort of agreement," I responded, leaning back in my chair. "But we cannot afford to hold back Jackie. Any bad elements we do not cut out now will only fester."
He nodded, clearly a bit subdued, but understanding where I was coming from. I knew he and his mom had connections to the Valentinos, as did Gloria, but I was not leaving them out just because of that. The best of the worst was still on the list of the worst, after all, and all of them needed to be removed. I had no idea how Padre or the other leaders of the Valentinos would react to me making ultimatums beyond simple refusal or anger, but by the time we reached that moment, we would likely have some proof that they didn't have much of a choice.
"Are we sure now is the best time?" Sable asked, sitting across from me with a chunk of barbecue sauce-smothered chicken on her fork. "Our workers are just settling in, and with the grand openings scheduled to happen in one and two weeks…"
"The best time? Probably not, but the idea of a 'best time' is a figment of fantasy, unlikely to really happen," I pointed out, shaking my head. "We have everything we need to start, and pushing it off will only delay things. Our tech base is solid, our soldiers are finally reliable, we've consolidated our cyberware and bioware into a solid program, we have the people, the skills, the infrastructure… Every day, we are pumping out more and more Spartans, and at this point, we could march into the city and take it by crushing force. A lot of people would likely die in the crossfire, and the city would likely struggle for a while, but we could do it. It's actually plan C, in case plan A and plan B fail or destabilize."
"What's plan B?" Rebecca asked, sounding mildly curious around a mouthful of food.
"That would be me!" Mary said, standing above a holoprojector at the end of the table. "I could infiltrate the entire city's infrastructure and begin neutralizing key gang targets. I calculate I could locate and eliminate the top three layers of all gang leadership in just three hours."
"Why is that not plan A?" Vik asked with a frown. "Sounds a lot less risky."
"For one, it would reveal we have a powerful AI at our disposal," I explained with a frown. "Netwatch would be on our ass within the first hour of her crusade. Considering AI safety is one of the few things that the various governments on the planet are willing to work together against, we would likely end up fighting the whole world at once. We would own Night City, but without prep time, fighting the rest of the world would be a lot messier."
"The weapon platforms in orbit," Sable said with a frown, and I nodded.
"Among other things, yes. Like I said, Samwise is working on countering them, but it will take time," I repeated. "In the meantime, we start with the scavs and work our way up."
"I'm always up for scav hunting," Jackie said with a grin. "It will be just like old times."
"We've come a long way since then," I said with a smirk. "Either one of us could likely win an arm wrestle with the original version of the Warden armor I made, without any armor at all."
"That brings up something else," Kaytlyn asked, leaning forward. "When exactly are we going to start using your better tech?"
"I think that after we are running Night City," I said with a frown. "Once we are in control, we can integrate some defenses, turn Night City into a bastion. The fighting to take Night City shouldn't really require anything special. Fighting the rest of the world, on the other hand, likely will."
The conversation continued for some time, discussing the side effects of our actions and the real official timeline. We would likely be done eliminating the scavs by the time we open the beach resort, and by the time we open the towers and start moving people in, we would already be knee deep in our second gang.
It was a bit nerve-racking to be finally making moves, and a large part of me wondered if we could just push it off more, or if maybe it would be better to just… leave. Avalon was free, and I had the tools to make it a paradise. I could escape there, never coming back, slowly having Mary look for people to move with us, bringing the people who deserved second chances….
I shook my head slightly, clearing the thoughts of running aside. I refused to give up on Earth and on that large a percentage of humanity. It might be the significantly more difficult option, but I was still determined to drag humanity back to at least a semblance of its former glory.
Locking down Night City was the first step of that process. After that, I planned on opening recruitment up, slowly bringing in people who could be trusted and believed in my dream. Fixing Earth was not something I could do on my own, even with the support of the group I already had. I would essentially need my own small government to oversee everything, and I wasn't willing to build a small army of AI or a few dozen Smart AIs to do it. Not only would that defeat the purpose of trying to get humanity back on its feet, but I still believed that just printing out living beings en masse, even if they are AI in origin, was not fair or ethically sound.
When dinner was over, we made our way down to the edge of the forest to let everyone touch the huge trees and walk through the underbrush. We didn't go far, we still hadn't cleared too deep as safe, but just that was an experience for the people whose only experience with flora was cactuses and fake house plants. Well, Sable and Cassie had both visited the Memorial Park at the heart of the Corporate Plaza, but they were the only ones, and that hardly compared to a living, growing forest biome.
Eventually, we all returned home and turned in for the day. It was a bit early, but with full stomachs and the walk around the forest, everyone was more than ready for bed.
Over the next few days, I only worked in the workshop for a total of eight or nine hours. I mostly copied down random luxury items from the Westworld tech tree. I had already put together the two versions of hosts and built my own empty pearl, so I started gathering up plans for high-tech, advanced items, like mattresses, showers, furniture, and everything in between. By the time the fifth day of this cycle was closing, I was an expert in furniture making, advanced bathroom architecture, as well as dozens of other small things. While none of them were truly groundbreaking, I was hardly going to crush Arasaka with climate-controlled, self-sterilizing, and self-repairing couches, but I was expanding what we could produce on our own.
Not to mention that some of these things were unique designs that I could make and sell to the public. Nothing advanced, just things no one had thought about building in this world. I held off from updating anything in our apartments, both to keep production focused on other projects and as a sort of incentive and apology for having everyone move to the new vault on Avalon.
When I wasn't working in the workshop, I was working with Murtaugh and Mary, picking targets and setting up a raid schedule for the largest Scav locations. The hope was to catch as many as possible at once, before they could get the hint that they were being specifically targeted and go to ground. By the time we were ready, Sable's realtors were ready, and Mary had finished her magic, we had a total of thirty-five buildings to hit, ranging from old warehouses to residential homes with some large unregistered basements.
It was going to be a massive effort, by far the largest, most complex operation we had ever engaged in, but I was certain that we could handle it. The Spartan teams would be split so that every target had enough assigned to them, and so we wouldn't send groups of fifty Spartans to a single building. I was not worried about their capabilities, as the robotic soldiers and the hubs that controlled them had proven they could fight an elite force of high-level soldiers, backed by Arasaka and armed to the teeth. Some scavs, even with a few choice bits of cyberware, were not something they would struggle with.
On the night of the fifth day of my Westworld cycle, it was finally time to engage the mass, anti-scav assault. We had managed to purchase over two dozen buildings, all across the city, basically everywhere but the City Center. None of the spots were huge, but most of them would hold a decent-sized vertical apartment building. I would have to build a parking lot under each one, but once we were done, we would be able to offer quite a few affordable apartments.
They would also allow us to patrol a decent portion of the city, as privately owned buildings were permitted to supply their own private security, which the NCPD was happy to let put down threats to workers or tenants. As long as we didn't go on killing sprees, murdering innocent people, they wouldn't even look twice at us clearing gang hideouts or scav dens around our property.
Not that they would care anyway, now we just had an excuse.
The only thing that didn't line up with our plan was the fact that both Rebecca and Kaytlyn were now in the middle of their own improvements. Rebecca was getting level three of the Project Tulip, while Kaytlyn was getting level two, the same as Jackie and myself. Rebecca had wanted level four, but Vik had talked her down to level three, with the caveat that she would try it for a while and switch to level four if she wasn't satisfied.
Of course, they both needed replacement parts, and their other enhancements removed, so they would likely be down and out until the opening of the beach resort. Now ordinarily, that would have been fine. I was more than satisfied with Rebecca's role as Vik's bodyguard, and neither of them were required to fight anymore, especially now that we had the Spartans. The problem was that Jackie still wanted to participate, and I refused to send him out without multiple people backing him up.
I had been hoping he wouldn't even ask, despite his comments when I revealed it was time to start making progress on Night City. Even with him spending most of his free time designing, building, and preparing his restaurant, which he decided to open at the same time as the resort, it still seemed as if he wanted to make a name for himself as a Night City Legend. He wasn't nearly as reckless, and his "die trying" attitude was gone, thank god, but his dream still hadn't left completely.
So, rather than send him out with just the Spartans and Riggs, I was going with him, targeting the largest scav base we could find. Thankfully, I had options. Not only did I have a now-heavily reinforced ALEO Doppelganger, but I also had a second-level and a fourth-level Project Tulip-enhanced doppelganger ready and waiting.
When I realized I would need to accompany Jackie to watch his back, and that Frank had completed the fourth-level doppelganger before starting on Kaytlyn and Rebecca's enhancement process, I knew I needed to try it out before we left for our mission.
While my experience using enhanced bodies made getting used to my own level two enhancements relatively easy, I didn't think for a minute that that would apply to the level four. It was built on a whole other level, with everything we knew about cyberware and bioware poured into it. It was meant to be a full resleeve, meaning it had more in common with a full conversion than the three lower levels of Project Tulip.
To keep me from stumbling around like a drunken bear, I set aside some time to try out the doppelganger, which of course attracted the attention of Jackie and Sable. Pretty sure more people would have come to watch the "demonstration," but were either still under Frank's care or busy with their own things.
The two settled into the remaining seats in the baseball stadium, sitting on either side of me while I slotted into the doppelganger.
To say it was an experience is vastly underselling.
First, the doppelganger was seven and a half feet tall, a foot taller than my new height. Every inch of the doppelganger was stuffed full of muscle, cyberware, bioware, and whatever else Frank could think of.
If the first two levels of the enhancement made someone a super soldier, then level four made you a superhuman. Metal bent against my hands, concrete shattered under my fists, and every scrape, cut, and bruise I got as I jumped, dove, ran, and stumbled, getting a feel for the body, healed before my eyes. I could fire a mag cannon one-handed, and it wasn't even hard. There was no doubt I could tear through whatever poor asshole got in my way while clearing the scav buildings. Hell, I was a bit worried for the buildings themselves.
Then there was the monster I became inside the level four MJOLNIR.
It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, though. My sense of sight and hearing were incredible, but my other senses were muted, especially my sense of touch and pain. According to Frank, it was because of the heavy reinforced skinweave, and it wouldn't matter much cause the armor covered me up anyway, but it was noticeable enough to be annoying. On top of that... I didn't feel human. Maybe it was because I knew I was just piloting the doppelganger, or maybe it was because I inherently disliked that level of chrome and enhancement, but controlling the level four monstrosity felt unnatural in a way that controlling my other doppelgangers didn't. Either way, I wouldn't be spending any more time inside the level for behemoth than I had to.
When I was sure I had a firm grip on the level four enforced doppelganger, I headed back through the vault to leave it in the same quarters I left the others. As I left, both Sable and Jackie stayed with the actual me, and when I "woke up" a minute or so later, both were quick to inform me how impressed they were.
"Genio, that this is a monster!" Jackie said, wide-eyed and with a smirk. "Almost makes me want to get that head implant thing so I can give it a shot."
"It's certainly made me consider the idea a lot more seriously," Admitted Sable, glancing at a car I had thrown around, now in two pieces after I tore it in half.
I assured them that they could both get the surgery whenever they wanted, as we made our way up to the apartments, heading to our rooms for the night.
It had been a while since I had gone to bed with anything but the intent to recover or sleep through a treatment, and I was glad not to be anesthetized and unconscious as Sable joined me.