— Lucy Kushinada —
Comms buzzed back and forth as she kept them all connected on Overwatch. Here, not nearly as many people could challenge a netrunner in her prime. But those who could…? They tended to be much, much more dangerous as a result. Like, 'AI past the Blackwall' dangerous… Still, for something as simple as keeping everyone in the crew in communication with each other, Lucy wasn't worried.
"Damn, those hips, choom… Look at 'em work, work, worrrr~kkkk~…" Becca muttered.
"Focus," Lucy chided.
"I am! On dat ass!" Becca called back, and Lucy could practically hear her leer.
Lucy rolled her eyes, "Target is entering the alley now. Cameras see you three, and her. She'll run into me and Falco on the other side."
"The fixer wants her alive, Becks. Put that thing away," David snorted over comms.
"Client, babe," Lucy reminded. "Technically, Deathstroke would be our fixer for this gig."
"Huh… Yeah, I guess that's right," David muttered.
They were all adjusting to their new world well enough. But sometimes, they slipped up. Usually, when it came to slang and lingo. Or the fact that 'fresh air' was a thing at all. Or the realfood, with actualmeat and veg… Or the lack of chrome and the primitive net in Lucy's case…
Okay, there were a bunch of things to adjust to. But largely, it was leagues better than good ol' Night City. And they still managed to find work they could do, work they were good at, and used to. Mercs were always in demand. And as actual edgerunners willing to do the job in a world of heroes and villains, they were making some very good scratch these days.
"Choom, we should just go back to wetwork like we're good at," Becca grumbled.
"You're very good at it," Deathstroke cut in with honest praise. "But this job doesn't require it. And the target is something of an acquaintance of mine. I would prefer this not to get messy. Just bag Selina, deliver her to the client, and let her escape as she always does. If the idiot thinks he'll truly reprimand Catwoman for stealing from him… Well, it won't be our problem at that point."
"'Guess that's a good thing," Becca admitted. "I'd hate to have to make a mess of that ass in that leather."
"It is a very nice ass," Deathstroke agreed, his voice utterly flat.
Before any of them could really process that from their boss, Ciri called out over comms, "I see her in the alley. I think I can catch-…"
"Oh, scopshit!" David suddenly exclaimed. "How the fuck did she do that without chrome?!"
"The target has fled," Ciri reported flatly. "Up the building."
"Dat Ass can delta!" Becca added 'helpfully'.
"Hmm, isn't that a shame?" Deathstroke hummed nonchalantly, sounding utterly uninterested in the gig.
David didn't even hear him, shouting out, "Ciri! Give us a port!"
"On it," Ciri confirmed. "… Sorry, Lucy."
Lucy winced in anticipation. Ciri's portals were undeniably useful. But the net didn't respond well to them. There was always the briefest of instants when Lucy lost track of her chooms during transit. Lost track of David… And if Lucy used one herself, the disorientation wasn't pleasant at all.
The connections she was keeping track of fizzled, disappeared, and then came back just as quickly. Lucy shook off the jarring sensation. David, Becca, and Ciri were on the roof and already giving chase after 'Dat Ass' as Becca had taken to calling the target.
"Get us rolling, Falco," Lucy said.
Falco chuckled in the driver's seat beside her, "Let's hope they keep to the buildings bordering the street, yeah?"
"Doesn't much matter," Deathstroke casually interjected, lounging across the whole backseat behind them. "I suspect I already know where she's going."
"Oh, yeah, bossman?" Lucy asked. "Where's that?"
"The only neutral ground in this doomed and damned city," Deathstroke drawled, waving lazily. "It looks like we'll be putting the gig on pause for the rest of the night. But I could use a drink. And a Mr. Barkeep story. Our lackwitted client will just have to stew in his now-empty gallery a little bit longer."
IIIII
— Sean —
With a rush and a tumble, Catwoman's fine-ass form came into the bar through a skylight that most certainly wasn't there just a few moments ago.
"Safe!" She called out, laughing.
"Hey, Selina~!" Harley happily called out to her. "Running from the fuzz? The Bat-fuzz? Ha!"
"No," Catwoman chuckled back. "Just some adorably earnest mercs. They're still a few years too young to catch this kitty~…"
A few moments later, three familiar heads poked over the rim of the skylight to peek inside the bar. A himbo, a gremlin, and a princess peek into a bar…
"Sean?!" Ciri gaped at the sight of me.
"Ciri," I smiled back. "Welcome. Come in, come in. I insist."
As I said that, the Dead End just about swallowed them whole. A twist of space, the chime of a 'welcome in' bell, and three of them found themselves sitting at the bar as if they were always there.
Ciri sighed and settled instantly, "Oh, I suppose we can stay for a bit…"
"Huh?!" The himbo whipped around in shock. "What about the target?! What about the gig?!"
"David, right?" I asked. "Remember me? Remember the Dead End? This is neutral ground, man. Just take a load off for the night and enjoy yourself."
"Gun gremlin~!" Harley exclaimed, glomping onto Becca.
"Clown choom~!" Becca glomped right on back.
Seeing that, David was forced to accept the situation as well, deflating rather dramatically, "Ah, alright, choom. I 'member you and your magic-whatever bar. We're chilled."
"We'll resume the chase in the morning, little mouse~…" Catwoman purred and chortled.
"Lil' mouse?" David's face scrunched up in indignation. "I'm a dog. Got that dawg in me. Built different, ya know?"
Catwoman very obviously indulged him, "If you insist. You'll have to prove it when we pick things back up~"
"Hey! You may have Dat Ass," Becca jabbed a finger at Catwoman before switching to point at David. "But dat ass is min-! Err, Lucy's…! So don't get freaky feely, ya feel me, freaky?!"
"Oh, you're just perfect, Gun Gremlin~!" Harley cackled. "Just precious~!"
"She's certainly… something," An amused and exasperated woman's voice said as the rest of Ciri's crew walked into the bar.
"Ah, yes," I nodded to them all, welcoming them. "The neon-pastel cyber GF, the cowboy-punk driver, and Deathstroke. Come on, sit and chill. As long as you don't go causing trouble, we're happy to host you for the night."
"You won't have to worry about that, Mr. Barkeep," Deathstroke informed me. "I've put our gig on pause to respect your neutrality. Not that it was much of a serious job in the first place. Selina certainly led us on a merry chase, though. But that's fine. The kids need the practice."
"If it were another quarry, I'm sure they would've done quite well for themselves," Didi said, offering consolation.
"Bullshit world…" David grumbled halfheartedly. "She ain't even chromed out. Pure meat shouldn't be able to move like that."
"David," Ciri deadpanned with amusement. "I'm 'pure meat' as well."
"Well-! Yeah-! But you don't count, choom!" David sputtered an excuse. "You're, like, all magic and scop!"
"And Selina is the world's newest Goddess of Thieves," Ivy pointed out.
That was about when the rest of the bar joined the conversation. Other than Ciri and her Edgerunners, the usual Dead End 'staffers' were present. Alice, Harley, Ivy, and Hecate, while Simmy casually watched over the entire bar, almost blending into the background, and Ophis napped on a stool. Then, some of the regulars were back in their regular spots at the bar — Riddler, Two-Face, and Penguin from Gotham, Barbara, Jason, and Cass from the Bats, Klarion from Limbo, and Diana back from a mission in the Mediterranean.
"Oh, yeah…" Klarion muttered. "I'd forgotten about that."
"I certainly haven't~…" Catwoman purred. "I've put my new domain to… good use~…"
"And the rest of us are just trying not to think about it," Jason deadpanned.
The Edgerunners turned to simply stare at Catwoman for a moment while she preened under the attention. Eventually, Becca nodded, "Yeah, makes sense. Dat Ass could only be divine."
Catwoman chuffed a laugh, "Damn straight~!"
"The Bat is a lucky, lucky man in this case," Penguin chuckled.
"Oh, don't fret, darling," Catwoman waved. "I made him work for it, you can be sure of that."
"(＃＞X＜)" Cass held up an 'X' of her arms over her face. 'Enough! Not a word more! No sexy stuff between Dad and Stepmom! Ick!'
Alice nodded faux-seriously, "Feel my pain."
"(·ω<)☆" Cass winked at her. 'Well, it's different for you. Your dad's actually sexy as hell~!'
Alice's expression went utterly flat in an instant, "… Just for that, I'm going to make this hurt."
"ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ" Cass played up her shock and affront. '*Gasp!* Oppression! For speaking the truth! Help, help, I'm being oppressed!'
Alice didn't let Cass' pleas stop her. Quick as a bolt, she threw out a spell. Without even borrowing any powers. Her training was coming along nicely, thanks to me, Klarion, and Hecate. Cass, of course, ducked and dodged out of the way. Which just led to a minor chase around the bar as Alice tried to enact her righteous vengeance.
But other than for the Edgerunners, who were looking at the magical chase queerly, the two young women went ignored by the rest of the bar. Diana took the moment to smile at Ciri.
"Greetings once more, Princess Cirilla."
"Princess Diana of Themyscira," Ciri bowed back. "I have not forgotten how you fought for me just moments after we first met. It is an honor to meet you again now that I'm calling your world something of a halfway home."
"Well, that's a good thing to hear," I smiled. "How are you and your friends adjusting, Ciri?"
"Steadily and promisingly, thank you for asking, Sean," Ciri nodded. "Deathstroke has had no shortage of work for us. We can put our talents, if not to good use, then to productive use. And David…"
"David's doing much better than the last time we saw you," Lucy finished for her. "Thanks to that Cyborg choom, fresh air, real food, and much, much less stress… Cyberpsychosis seems to be a thing of the past. For all of us, though David was in the most danger from that by far."
Wincing slightly, David nodded, "It's… It's like everything from before was a dream… A nightmare. And only here did my life become real."
"I know the feeling," I shared. "But you're on the road to recovery now. Keep at it. Things can and will get better."
"Even better than they are now? With actual air to breathe and food that isn't scop?" David asked, half-joking.
I met his eyes and held that gaze to impart how serious I was when I said, "Even better than they are now."
"Oh…" David stilled as his attempt at humor left him for something genuine and heartfelt. "Oh. Then, uh… Yeah, I guess I'll just keep at it."
The Edgerunners all shot me varied looks of gratitude. Becca cracked an honest smile, no teasing. Falco nodded his thanks. Lucy's keen eyes assessed me as she mimed her thanks, looking for any hint that I was taking advantage of David. She didn't find anything, of course, and settled for squeezing his hand in silent comfort. Ciri gave me a look like she owed me a favor for just those simple words. I waved her off.
Everyone settled at the bar, soon enough. Drinks were fetched, poured, and served. Alice came back around behind the bar, grumbling at her inability to land a satisfying hit on Cass. Cass slid back into her seat with a smirk visible through her mask. Harley began chattering about everything and nothing with Becca. Deathstroke made small talk with Klarion, acting like old colleagues.
The scene was familiar. Comfortable. Friends — old and new — from every walk of life gathered for an inevitably eventful but peaceful night out. Just as the Dead End should be.
But… I felt the need to share more, to ensure David knew without a doubt that I could relate and empathize. Cyberpunk wasn't an easy world to live in by any measure. David and the other Edgerunners deserved to know they weren't alone. And while I'd never had the 'pleasure' of living in Night City, I did have quite a few stories from a world adjacent but with an even higher danger ceiling.
I shared a glance with Didi. Immediately, she knew what was coming, knew I had a story to tell on my lips. She smiled with delight and poured herself a drink to settle in as well, silently encouraging me to tell whatever story I would tell.
Nodding to myself, I raised my voice to speak to everyone at the bar, "Anyone in the mood for a story?"
"Oh, Didi…" Barbara instantly groaned. "Do we have to?"
"We do," I simply confirmed.
"I'll get my notes ready…" She grumbled back.
"Story~!" Harley cheered.
"Nova, choom~!" Becca joined her.
"(╯✧▽✧)╯" Cass joined as well… in her own way. 'Chaos! Glorious, told chaos! Knock our damn panties off, Daddy Barkeep~!'
"Grrrrgh…" Alice growled at her. "Keep pushing your luck, Bat. See what happens."
"(> •́)ᕗ⊹ ࣪ ˖" Cass stuck her tongue out and *sparkled*. 'The only punishment I'll accept is spankings~! From your Daddy~!'
Ivy gave a throaty chuckle, "I'm willing to be entertained~"
"Always down for a Dead End story," Riddler agreed.
"Story…?" David asked in confusion.
"A story… Like the last time we were here, babe," Lucy explained warily. "Remember… Remember Yharnam?"
"No-…?" Still confused, David cocked his head slightly. Then, like a light, the memories hit him. His eyes widened and his pupils dilated. His breath hitched in his chest. "Oh, fuck. Yharnam…! Fuck! I repressed that sitch for a reason!"
"I guess that's right, Yharnam would've been the only story you guys really heard from me," I considered, chuckling. "Don't worry, this one won't be nearly so memetically hazardous. Other than the Alien Insect Spirit invaders from the Outer Planes… But we can avoid them easily enough."
"Promising," Jason deadpanned, shaking his head. "Fuck… I'd repressed Yharnam, too."
"I think everyone who could be considered sane did," Penguin shuddered.
Even Harley nodded along, "Yeah, I put that story out of my mind the moment Gothboy stopped tellin' it."
"Congratulations, baby," Ivy smirked. "You've finally breached back into sanity in at least one area."
"▓▒░(°◡°)░▒▓" Cass simply smiled, and the world around her seemed to crackle with static. 'I remember every moment of that eternal, eldritch night of blood and violence…'
"Should…" Falco glanced at me. "Should we be worried about that? I feel like we should be worried about that."
I gave a casual wave, "I'm sure it's fine."
Barbara just sighed, "I'll sign her up for a round of mental decontamination. Poor, poor Martian Manhunter…"
"Oh, there's no need for that," Didi said, reaching over the bar to bring Cass' still-smiling face onto her breast. "She just needs a little bit of tender love and care."
"(＾་།＾)" A bit of blood began to leak out of Cass' nose, and not solely from Didi's soft embrace… Though that certainly helped. 'Ehehehe~… Death's titties~…"
"As I said," I nodded. "It's fine. Just try to avoid mentioning the eldritch 'Y' word around Cass from now on. A few eyes of Insight on the inside never hurt anyone… So long as they don't come outside…"
Barbara hung her head in defeat, visibly not wanting to deal with eldritch bullshit at the moment, "Dammit, Sean… Dammit, Cass… This new story really won't be that bad, right?"
"It won't," I promised. "It's meant to be relatable to David and his crew. And it can't be that if they bleed out of their eyes when they try to think about it. Satisfied? Then, let me set the stage…"
Despite the little eldritch oopsy, my audience was quick to gather 'round. Not listening to a story in the Dead End when you were given the chance had almost become something of a taboo. That did fun things to my ego, of course. I couldn't help my smile at the thought. I liked it when people enjoyed my stories; what else could I say?
"The year is 2011…" I began, letting the lights in the bar dim as even the Dead End itself listened in. "The world belongs to megacorporations just as much as it belongs to the established nations. Technology is king. Profit is king. Pollution is running out of control as a result. But all of that is soon to change… Because the Awakening has just begun.
"On Jan. 13th, a few odd babies were born. Were they important? Who could say then? But they were certainly… different. Some were born with pointed ears. Others were born squat and hardy. Soon enough, the babies were being called 'Elves' and 'Dwarves'… Because that's what they were."
"Natural born exotics?" Lucy blinked. "That's certainly different from the 2011 we know."
"The megacorps, tech, profit, and pollution are about the same, though," Falco joked.
"So what's the deal?" Riddler asked. "Is this a cyberpunk world? Or… something else?"
"Yes," I answered.
"The Elves and Dwarves kind of point to 'something else'," Klarion pointed out.
"Just keep listening," I rolled my eyes. "Now, the Awakening. Can you hear the capitalization? It, of course, struck most harshly in a time of turmoil. The world was barely recovering from a terrible pandemic called VITAS. Ecological disasters were rampant. And the Mexican government had even collapsed from the inside. Luckily, the cartels had gone corpo at that point. They… 'helped' pick up the pieces. But unnoticed through all of this, Stonehenge-like structures were quite literally rising from the ground all over Europe. The silent first step…
"Then, the 24th of December rolled around. The year wasn't passing uneventfully, but it did seem to be passing into more of the same… And on an internet form, an otherwise unnoteworthy message was sent. It came exactly one second after midnight and consisted of only 10 words. 'Good morning, world. Welcome back. Play nice. —Saeletra'…"
"That's… fucking ominous…?" Hecate offered rather frankly.
"More than you could know," I chuckled. "Because later that morning, an honest to Didi and Magic Dragon emerged from its lair in Mount Fuji, Japan — the first of many Great Dragons to wake from their eon-long hibernations. The Dragon Ryumyo announced his return to the world in spectacular, unbelievable fashion, and with his appearance… announced the return of Magic. On December 24th, 2011, the world transitioned into its sixth age: the Sixth World."
But I wasn't done. I was just starting, "At the same time, a group of Native American activists raided an internment camp in Abilene, Texas. They were glowing. Bullets couldn't touch them. The traditions, practices, and rituals of cultures across the world were suddenly having very real, very tangible effects. Magic had returned, and Daniel Howling-Coyote proved that Humans could use it, too."
"Oh~ shiiiiii~iittt~!" Harley exclaimed, grinning. "We poppin' off quick this time~!"
"So that Saeletra messenger…? They must've known about Magic beforehand, no?" Diana considered aloud.
That consideration sparked a realization in Klarion, and he sucked in a sharp breath, "They were welcoming back the Dragons… They were telling the Dragons to play nice…! Who-?!"
"No idea," I cut him off with a quick answer. "As far as I knew, no one claimed Saeletra or used the name again. But yes, they must've known about Magic before the Awakening revived it. More than that, they must've had quite a bit of fundamental knowledge of how the world worked, including how Magic waxed and waned with the ages.
"And they weren't just welcoming back the Dragons. They were welcoming back the Spirits, Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, Trolls, and dozens of other magical beings and species. They were the unacknowledged, unpraised herald to the Sixth Age of the World."
"And to leave their mark on history…" I finished, pitching my voice lower for effect. "… They only needed 10 words."
Becca leaned back with a whistle, "That's hard, choom. That's hard as fuck."
"No one claimed Saeletra?" Hecate asked, furrowing her brow. "That seems odd."
"It could've been-… well, not anyone. But the list of suspects was larger than you might expect," I explained. "They could've been a Great Dragon that hadn't officially announced themself yet. Or a Passion: specific examples of Guardian Spirits from the Fourth World that embodied human passions. Or they could've been one of the few truly immortal Elves that hid themselves for thousands of years all throughout the magic-less Fifth World. Or someone and something else entirely. I won't claim to be an expert in the Sixth World, even having lived in it."
"And this transition? You make it sound natural. Was it expected?" Ivy asked.
"Oh, yes," I nodded. "See, the tides of Magic ruled that world, and they acted in cycles. Magic waned until it was forgotten, rediscovered, and utterly dismissed as a concept during the 'odd' Worlds, only to surge back to the fore in truth during the 'even' Worlds. Almost all of recorded human history took place during the Fifth World. But with the Awakening, it was firmly established that Magic was just as real in the distant past — I'm talking 3000 BCE — as it was in the new present."
"Well, that's just fascinating… Atlantis research must've gone crazy in that world," Jason muttered. "But how did all of that mix in the Sixth World? Magic and modern civilization?"
I smirked, "That's the stage I'm setting, isn't it~? A modern world trending towards dystopia, interrupted by the reawakening of Magic."
I could see the excitement in my audience as the possibilities jumped into imagination. I left their minds to wander on that for a moment, just to emphasize the effects Awakening had on the world as it transitioned from Fifth to Sixth. On a single day, the whole world's table was flipped, completely and utterly. Seemingly, anything became possible. A whole new world. But… Humanity would do as Humanity did, Magic or no.
"First, a bit more history," I began again. "Ryumyo was the first Great Dragon to emerge. More emerged as the world was reeling, confirming Ryumyo wasn't a fluke. All of the first Dragons were Great Dragons — the largest, most powerful, most intelligent, and oldest paragons of their species.
"They were, unfortunately, not all friendly. Some, like Ryumyo, just got themselves situated. Others rampaged. Feurschwinge, in particular, awoke in Germany and rained destruction wherever she went for months before she was shot down by the military. Then, where she landed on the border of Germany and France… Well, just think of Alsace-Lorraine as magical Chernobyl afterward."
"┐(︶▽︶)┌" Cass shrugged. 'She woke up cranky. It happens to the best of us. Just proof that Dragons are big, fire-breathing, living-WMD people, in the end.'
"That's not comforting at all, Cass," Barbara deadpanned.
"It's accurate, though," I said. "Dragons could be good or bad, but on the whole, they were simply complex creatures. Just like any human, just like any person. Only smarter than an AI, more magically powerful than a nuke, and older than all of recorded Human history. But thanks to that complexity, at least one Dragon decided it was his duty to explain things to the world."
Lucy zeroed in on one thing I said, however, "Smarter than an AI…? That… That's fucking terrifying."
'What can you do?' I shrugged without saying.
Her screwed up expresson said it all, practically screaming back: 'Something! Anything!'
Then, I picked up right where I left off, "So, the Big D. Dunkelzahn. He woke up in Denver and, unlike the other Dragons, he sought out Humanity for himself. Specifically, he sought out a reporter. And he sat down to give a full 12-hour interview on the Awakening, Magic, Dragons, and more. Without his guidance, Humanity would've been utterly lost. With it, we were only partially lost. Good dude."
Harley nodded at that, "Good dude."
Becca nodded second, "Good choom."
"ヽ(~_~(" Cass nodded third. 'Good Dragon.'
Diana rolled her eyes but didn't continue the trend, "He did a good thing. The right thing: offering guidance to the lost. It's pleasing to hear that the Dragons weren't just beings of selfish destruction."
"He became the president of the United Canadian and American States later on down the line," I elaborated. "His term lasted… all of a few hours before he was assassinated. But I'm sure that didn't have anything to do with his attempts to better the world."
"Politics," Two-Face scowled. "Not even for a Dragon."
"Assassinating a Dragon, however…" Deathstroke swirled his drink in thought. "… I bet I could pull it off."
Becca perked up at that, "New gig~?"
"Let's not," Ciri shot her down with only slight exasperation.
"Now," I brought my history lesson of the Awakening back on track. "The Dragons were the most obvious change of those first years. But they weren't the most impactful. That would be the transition from Humanity to Metahumanity.
"Remember those Elven and Dwarven babies that were being born before the Awakening? Well, after the Awakening, the Elven and Dwarven birthrates and subsequent populations exploded. Magic restimulated dormant magical metagenes in the Human genome. As you might expect, the first Elves and Dwarves didn't integrate easily. But the situation was made even worse in 2021, with Goblinization…"
"Becca, then," Falco nodded in joking understanding.
"Hey!" Harley leaped to Becca's defense with faux-outrage. "Gun Gremlin is a gremlin, not a goblin~!"
"Yeah! Wait…" Becca was quick to agree, only to settle into a pout a moment later. "Gonk, I'm still Human."
Chuckling at the exchange, I elaborated, "Funnily enough, 'Goblins' weren't really a thing in that world, except in one specific outlier situation. Goblinization dealt in Orcs and Trolls and their subspecies, not goblins. But the real kicker… was that it made them, suddenly and without any warning whatsoever, from fully grown Humans.
"A tenth of the world's population went to sleep one night and woke up with tusks, horns, green-gray skin, and a whole bunch of discrimination aimed at their confused selves. Even though Humanity was now called Metahumanity, racism had new faces, and they were squat-bodied, pointy-eared, tusked, and horned."
"Damn," David muttered. "That's rough, choom."
"Terribly rough and coarse and irritating," Didi agreed sadly. "And it gets into everything."
"That-! That's so stupid, Dad!" Alice exclaimed, very much sounding her age as she did, teenaged and righteously hopeful and not yet trapped by how cruelly uncaring the world could be.
"It's racism, dear," I said with a soothing voice. "Magical or not, it's inherently contradictory, inherently stubborn, inherently self-serving, and inherently hateful for the base ease of hatred. So yes, it's stupid. It's close-minded. It's the respite of the dull who can't think for themselves and the weapon of the coldly cunning who think too much for themselves. But none of that changes the fact that it's always been here and likely always will be in some form."
Hecate scowled, deep and true, "Magic was reawakening in the world. And the first thing some people did was repurpose old hate for the new stage. Disgraceful."
"My own hatred for Elves, I can understand," Ciri shook her head. "But there is precedent there. Old grievances. And even personal ones against the brutal creatures that hunted me. But hatred for something new, simply for being new…? Hatred for babes and victims of a transformation out of their control…?"
She trailed off, her viscerally disgusted expression saying enough.
"Tch, Humans are gonna Human, even in a brand new world," Catwoman opined with a click of her tongue.
"[Change…?]" Simmy dinged a soft, almost mournful question.
"Humanity is constantly changing. Adapting. But that change is often slow to come on the whole, and when it does, it's not always for the better, not always progress. Two steps forward, one step back," I shrugged. "As Selina said, Humans are gonna Human."
"(￣ヘ￣)" Cass frowned. 'Racist shitheels aside, how come Elves and Dwarves were born like that, but our Orc-y and Troll-y boys and girls had to suffer a probably painful transformation?'
"That's just how the dormant metagenes expressed themselves," I answered. "After the initial Goblinization, naturally born Orcs and Trolls appeared as well. And the transformation rate for adult Humans slowed but never fully stopped. The Orc, Troll, Elf, and Dwarf genes went dormant during the Fifth World due to the lack of Magic, then popped back up with a vengeance in the Sixth. So they've always been part of Metahumanity, but, of course, quite a lot of people didn't see it that way."
"Alright, that's Magic, Dragons, Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, Trolls, and a 'boga-scop' new form of racism, all before 2025," David summarized. "What the Hell is coming next?"
"The megacorps," I said simply.
That roused universal scowls from Ciri and her Edgerunners, "Fucking corpos…/Corpo gonks!/Stuffit, it's always corpos…"
"Well, really it's…" I began counting on my fingers. "The megacorps, corporate wars, Draconic takeovers, Native American independence with Ghost Dance War, Amazonian Wars, a whole bunch of other redrawn nation lines, Cyberware and other tech, the Matrix-net, the Crash 1.0, the foundings of specific Metahuman nations, Insect Spirits infest and all but wipe out Chicago, the Year of the Comet, the Crash 2.0, the technomancers start appearing in the wake of the second Crash, aaaaannndd-… No, that's about it. A lot of the major stuff, at least. It brings us up to when I was really kicking around in the world in the 2070s."
My audience just stared at me. I'd run out of fingers to count about halfway through. But I'd continued. Listing off events that they had little context for, but to be fair, they all sounded suitably heavy with history.
"( : ౦ ‸ ౦ : )" Cass began. 'That's…'
"Kinda…" Becca continued naturally.
"A… lot, Gothboy," Harley finished, like three chaotic musketeers.
"It is," I snorted. "If I went in depth into all of them, we'd be here all night. But I don't want that. I still have a proper story to tell. So instead of going into details, we'll go by vibes. Alright, everyone, pop quiz. Which of these images looks like it belongs in the Sixth World I've described so far?"
The mirror behind me shifted to a new scene. The first was a hulking, 2-and-a-half-meter man with curling horns from his head, dressed to the nines with grungy, punk, street style and armed to the quite literal teeth with a rather vicious-looking serated katana. He rode a quad-rotor drone down neon streets like it was a skateboard.
"A: A Street Samurai riding a drone that's being piloted by an AI sprite magically manifested from a hacker's mind."
That first image relegated itself to the top left quadrant of the bar's mirror, and the second was superimposed over it for a moment. It depicted a sleek and sterilized futuristic interior. A corpo boardroom. Only, one whole wall of the corpo boardroom was displaying a view of the Earth in full. From orbit. And in front of the orbital view, a Dragon impatiently drummed its claws on the table before the board.
"B: A Great Dragon attending a shareholder meeting in orbit, about ready to burn one of his corp's chief officers for skimming off the top of his hoard."
The second image was relegated to the top right, and the process was repeated with a third. A trio of high-society ambassadors talked business while attending a sporting event. One was Elven and supernaturally, gracefully beautiful. The second was Orcish and rather striking in a perfectly tailored suit. And the third was Human and so cybernetically augmented that it was impossible to tell where the meat ended and the metal began. Or vice versa, as was likely the case with him…
The sport they were watching was a fascinating merger of roller derby, capture the flag, motorcycle stunt driving, and biker gang war called Combat Biking. The drivers were armed with smart guns, stun batons, blunted lances, and even a single grenade launcher per team. It was an awesome testament of entertainment, only made possible in the magically cyberpunk future.
"C: Ambassadors for Tír Tairngire, the Orc Underground, and the UCAS taking their business discussions to a pleasant afternoon of Combat Biking."
The third image dropped to the bottom left, and the last image of my little pop quiz appeared. It showed a towering, futuristic, and dystopic pyramid of chrome and glass and carved stone over dense urban sprawl. A massive Aztec-styled face stared out from the side of the pyramid, carved so its eyes always bled… And at the top of the pyramid, corpos in pristine suits did methodical, routine, but quite literal blood sacrifice rituals to power their corp and nation's magical workings.
"D: The Aztechnology Pyramid Arcology, Capital, and Corporate Headquarters in Tenochtitlan — formerly Mexico City — with Aztechnology Blood Mages performing their usual sacrifices at the peak to bloody and power their corpo-national empire from Texas to Columbia."
There was a short moment of speechless silence as I finished. But then, Barbara ungracefully snorted and confidently answered, "All of the above."
"Correct!" I grinned. "I hope that helps convey the dichotomy and ridiculousness of the Sixth World. Everything I showed you was real. Everything belonged. By the 2070s, Magic was corporatized, the Matrix-net was magic-itized, and both, along with everything else from cybernetics to sports, were blended together into a beautifully unique stew called the Sixth World."
"Dragons with corpo hoards is pretty preem, I gotta admit," Falco chuckled.
"It is all too fitting," Diana chuffed along with him.
"Fucking corpos… Always knew they were one step away from doing blood sacrifices," Lucy muttered.
"Me-Damn-Them…" Hecate groaned, burying her head in her hands.
Klarion nodded along with her, "Ritual blood sacrifice for magical and monetary profit. I'm… sorry you had to see that, Goddess."
"I mean…" Jason desperately looked for the silver lining. "The Aztec vibe was pretty cool…?"
"Oh, sure," Riddler agreed. "But maybe they're taking the imitation just a bit too far."
"That… shit… was… preem…!" David said slowly, awe blooming in his eyes.
"Combat Biking~!" Harley exclaimed. "Ivy, Ivy~! Combat~! Biking~! I need it~!"
"Honestly? It did sound like a pleasant and entertaining way to spend an afternoon," Penguin admitted, chuckling.
"Dad?" Alice turned to me. "Can I have a drone skateboard?"
"Ask your mother."
"Mom?"
"Yes. Yes, yes, a dozen times yes. You'd look so cute and cool, my dear!" Didi just about squealed in excitement.
Smugly, Alice stuck her tongue out at Cass.
"(￢_￢;)" Cass didn't take it sitting down. No, she went nuclear. 'Yeah, whatever. I'm still gonna fuck your dad.'
Becca was suddenly giving Cass a hilariously approving look, "Oh, damn. I didn't know choom was chill like that."
"Wha-?! You bit-!" Alice squawked.
"Alright, enough of that," I quickly cut them both off before the situation could devolve further. It would've. Because honestly? Cass was probably right… Regardless. "Does anyone want to hear about my career running in the shadows of the Sixth World?"
"Like running on the edge?" David asked with audible interest.
"It's just about the same thing, chummer," I smirked.
"Eh, 'choom' is better," David pretended to grumble. His growing smile ruined it. "C'mon, 'choom', tell us some solo stories."
"Then first," I began. "I'll have to introduce you to the Shadows of Seattle, the city of primetime for Shadowrunners… And how I got sucked into that gray world almost completely by accident."