A/N:
" " : Dialogue,
' ' : Thought,
"Italicized text" : Telepathy,
"Bold text": Shadows,
[ ] : System,
| | : Artificial Intelligence.
———————————————————
Location: Earth, Nepal, Kathmandu, Kamar-Taj
July 20, 2006
Omniscient POV
Ashwani had continued his hermit-like lifestyle of staying in his workspace without leaving for over the past two weeks. Some of the apprentices that knew he was staying in the pitch-black, box-shaped building, felt slightly peeved at the fact that he seemingly stayed there without once taking part in the lessons and training that they did.
A few of them brought up complaints of favoritism to the Masters, but the Masters had received instructions to silently accommodate whatever Ashwani did from Yao, so they didn't act on the complaints, only telling the apprentices to keep Ashwani out of their minds, as obsessing over his actions rather than focusing on their training would only serve to be a distraction and hindrance.
Out of respect for the Masters, and a slight acquiescence that they couldn't actually do anything to Ashwani, the apprentices returned to their training. But a few still remained irked by the circumstances. Here they were, slaving away to learn the Mystic Arts, while a single boy had seemingly gotten a magically created building to himself, and was doing who-knows-what inside.
All of this didn't bother Ashwani one bit, as he was currently drenched in sweat, with a grin on his face. "Finally!" He shouted in triumph. "Damn, little guy. Enitharmon wasn't kidding when he said you were made by pretty powerful hands." He said as he looked at the Cloak of Levitation, which was on a table that had purple circuit-like lines glowing on it.
He then looked to the left of the Cloak, where a similarly shaped cloak seemed to lay on another table. Pitch-black in color and seemingly brimming with power, Ashwani's version of the Cloak of Levitation hovered over the table. Although it was modeled after the Cloak of Levitation and had most of the magic of the Cloak, Ashwani's cloak had more abilities that the Cloak of Levitation didn't possess.
For one, he had been able to program in spells that made it imitate another iconic cloak, the K7-Leetha, giving it not only autonomy, but also the ability to create spikes, chains, and blades to strike enemies with. For the base of its autonomous consciousness, he created a new AI using the data that ELITE had swiped from JARVIS' archives, as well as a copy of his source code.
He tweaked it heavily, then made a self-contained network between it and ELITE, allowing for it to react appropriately to practically any situation he may face with it. Its physical form, however, was made through the grueling process of combining one of his Shadow Ninjas, Darkforce, and his nanomachines. This also allowed its consciousness to ever so slightly branch off from just being an AI, as it now had an astral presence.
Despite his masterful and precise control of all three, thoroughly fusing them served as a considerable challenge. A fact about the Marvel Multiverse that many people do not know is that magic and science are normally not meant to combine. This is a result of the animosity between The-Powers-That-Be and The Natural-Order-of-Things, the abstract beings that are in charge of everything perfectly magical and perfectly scientific respectively within the Marvel Multiverse.
So the fact that Ashwani even had his nanomachines was already enough of an anomaly to begin with. Add onto that the process that he had just completed, then the sheer difficulty and absurdity of what he had done would cause his current exhausted state to make sense.
Although he wanted very much to test out his creation, he was overwhelmed by fatigue. Feeling that he wouldn't be able to walk all the way to his bedroom, he created a portal underneath himself, dropping onto the bed, and conking out. Over the days that had passed, he had kept up with his daily tasks, not missing them for even a single day.
But as Ashwani slept, the countdown to the Penalty Quest showed up, getting closer and closer to midnight. Upon noticing this, ELITE instructed Ashwani's Cloak to quickly head to the bedroom and wrap itself around him, which it did. And just a few seconds later…
[00:00:00]
[Alarm!]
[You have not completed the daily quest. You are now heading to the Penalty Zone for a certain period of time.]
As the last notification popped up, Ashwani woke up, as he felt strong vibrations, which considering what his work/living space is made of, should have been impossible. And immediately he opened his eyes, the only thing he could see was a vast expanse of sand. Understanding that he had fallen into the Penalty Zone, he groaned in annoyance.
He got up, and was a bit surprised to see the cloak he had created wrapped around him, but when he considered that he had given ELITE the details of the system that he remembered, he concluded that she had sent the cloak to him in preparation for the penalty. Behind him, the sand seemingly swelled to massive proportions, before dropping down shortly after, revealing a Poison-fanged Giant Sand Centipede. As it came out of the sand, a notification popped up in Ashwani's sight.
[Penalty Quest: Survive.]
[Goal: Survive until time runs out.]
[Time required: 4 HRS.]
[Time remaining: 3H 59MIN 55SEC.]
The centipede lunged towards him, but was stopped in the air by his Ruler's Authority. "Hmm. Well, now's as good a time as any to advance them. Shadow Ninjas, come out." He said, bringing out his weakest shadows, which were headed by the shadows of Gao and Alexandra. He then created massive tendrils of darkness that held the centipede down.
"Go ahead. I don't think I need to openly tell you what to do." He said as he walked away. All of the Shadow Ninjas immediately rushed down the restrained centipede, slashing, kicking and punching it until it died. Due to their sheer numbers, they were able to take down the centipede in less than a minute. But even then, they were nowhere near finished, as multiple centipedes had erupted from the ground to attack Ashwani.
As for Ashwani himself, he had gotten off the ground already, and was now hovering in the air, 15 metres above the ground. He was using his cloak, which he knew still needed one last finishing touch for it to be as he envisioned it. He moved some nanomachines in his body towards his back, an action that was normally a precursor to him making a Boogie Pack or Blast Caster.
He created the components of both machines, but didn't put them together to actually form the machines. He then forced them to merge with the cloak, increasing its aerial maneuverability and its usefulness as a weapon. The bolas within the Boogie Pack turbines, as well as the tentacle arm of the Blast Caster, were integrated into the chains of the cloak, strengthening them and making them capable of releasing powerful streams of electricity, which were powered by the multiple micro-sized arc reactors that served as a glowing outline on the cloak.
During the time that he was working, Ashwani didn't only work on the cloak. He also worked to create arc reactors as Howard Stark had envisioned them. He also found out that the element that was created via the use of particle accelerator and colliders that he created in his workspace, was actually just a synthetic variant of vibranium, which undoubtedly peeved him, as he could already create an improved version of the material ad infinitum.
So, seemingly out of spite, he created a multitude of arc reactors, but made sure that they were so small that he could place them within the cloak, which was only three millimeters thick. So he was now moving around with the equivalent of five times the entirety of the continent of North America's electricity production on his cloak. Of course, due to the anomalous nature of his nanomachines, each of the reactors were perfectly efficient, a scientific impossibility.
Manipulating the nanomachines, Darkforce and shadows that made up the cloak, he altered its form, turning it into a flowing, hooded trench coat.[1] And for the next three hours and fifty-five minutes, he caught every single Poison-Fanged Great Sand Centipede, and had all of his Shadow Ninjas kill them.
By the time he was finished, all of them had gotten promoted to Elite rank, with the shadows of Gao and Alexandra being the closest to Knight rank. As for Ashwani, he had leveled up to Level 48 from 38, increasing all of his base stats to 147. But that wasn't what had him currently smiling. ""We give you great gratitude, our liege!!"" All of his Shadow Ninjas shouted out in reverence.
That's right. All of the shadows he had made from humans could now speak. He attributed their former inability to speak to their limited strength, since they were at an equivalent level of strength to goblins. But he no longer had that problem. Quickly putting the thought to the back of his mind, he looked to his notification window, where the time was counting down.
[Time remaining: 0 H 1MIN 50SEC]
After checking how much time was remaining, Ashwani had his stronger shadows quickly move the dead centipedes closer to each other, then he flew down to the ground. "Arise." He said, adding over 40 Shadow Centipedes to his army. Eventually, the time elapses, and shortly after, Ashwani was returned to his room, with his army returned into his shadow.
…
Location: Earth, USA, New York, NYC
The NYPD had sent some officers scrambling to get to a warehouse, which used to be one of Gao's drug dens. A 911 call had been dispatched over to their precinct, with them being told that a hostage situation was underway. The details of the caller that they had been given was a teenager that had been kidnapped, and was being held in the warehouse.
However, when they got to said warehouse, it was empty, save for a single black box that was in front of its door. Out of caution, they still took the time to search the place, but still found nobody. "Goddamn it. If this shit was a prank call, it ain't funny." One of the officers said in annoyance.
Suddenly, the sound of someone retching out their guts came from one of the officers. The others looked at him, and saw that he was placing the box's lid back on it. "Booker, what's wrong?" One of the officers asked him. He didn't say anything, and just pointed at the box, as he continued heaving.
The officer that was checking up on him signaled to the others to check what was in the box. One of the officers stepped closer to the box, gun in hand, and opened it. Inside it was a tablet, and what seemed to be minced meat. "What's the problem, Booker? You lettin' some kids' prank get to ya?" The officer that checked the box asked, while the one that was attending to Booker had a realization.
"You guys probably don't know, but Booker here happened to work on a case where one of the Mexican cartels was involved. He told me he saw something like this then." The officer said, as he looked into the box as well. "They took anyone that double-crossed 'em, broke their legs, and put 'em in a mincer." He said grimly.
The other officers' faces scrunched in disgust as the implications of his words registered in their minds. "Ugh, fuck. That's really fucked up." One of them said, then looked straight at the tablet. "What's this though?" He said as he grabbed it. The tablet 's screen immediately turned on, playing a single video.
"My name is Alexandra Reid. And if you're watching this, I'm definitely dead." The video began. "I have been involved with Gao and her drug operation for a very long time now." The video continued, with Alexandra listing out her crimes, and the different things that she was involved with. The hidden predatory practices that she had implemented in Midland Circle Financial, her involvement in the deaths of the Rand family and her accomplices.
By the time she was done talking, the officers had their jaws low, disbelief on their faces. With the way that the video was going, they thought that Alexandra was the minced meat in the box. That was until they saw her walk away, then return with a bucket filled with a viscous, clear liquid, which she then turned over and poured onto herself. After that, she took out a lighter from her suit jacket, then lit it, causing the liquid she poured on herself to immediately ignite.
As it ignited, one of the officers understood that she had just poured napalm on herself and essentially immolated herself. But that left them with a question. Who exactly was the person who was minced? Who amongst the people she had listed as her accomplices had died or gone missing at the same time as her?
They would have been able to figure out the answer, if their minds were in any way settled. But given how shaken they were by what they had just witnessed, that didn't seem to register whatsoever. They replaced the tablet and covered the box, then took the box into their patrol car as evidence. Through all of that, a shadowy figure dressed in an all-black ensemble watched them from a roof a mile away.
This was none other than Ashwani who merely wanted to ensure that they actually took the box and its contents to their precinct. He didn't care all too much about exposing Alexandra's accomplices, but he did want to let them know that someone, somewhere knew of them.
Chapter End.
Word Count: 2,320
Thanks for reading!
[Item: Abyss Cloak
Item Class: SSS
Type: Armor
Defense +250
Vitality +150
Agility +100
Perception +150
Effect 1 'Black Armory': Creates weapons from shadows, nanomachines and darkforce to defend the wearer.
Effect 2 'Flight': Allows its wearer to fly.
Effect 3 'System Shock': +60% chance to paralyze enemies upon hitting, +50% chance to cause an additional random debuff.
Effect 4 'Absorption': Absorbs energy upon collision.]
A/N: Please read the creator's thoughts, and give me your opinions.
[1] It basically looks like Albert Wesker's trench coat.