[David's POV]
April, 2013
The month felt like planting seeds. I didn't make loud moves, but the foundation was laid. Two companies took shape on paper—an investment firm and another focused on security systems. I also started drafting the code for an antivirus software. It was still rough, but the skeleton looked promising. I was planning to take this slow.
I bought a brownstone in Manhattan and a mansion on the outskirts. Both needed work, so I left it in Roberta's hands and the architect, John Raymond. Duncan + Dotter were handling the design. I didn't need to oversee every detail. Roberta could manage it, she had Gideon with her. I only moved around with John when necessary.
Leaving my old apartment, I said goodbye to my landlord, then to Jayden. The kid didn't show it, but I could tell he was upset. I promised I'd keep supporting his studies. He's like a little brother to me now. Before I left, I pulled Claire Temple aside and asked if she could keep an eye on him when she had time. She agreed. I slipped in that she could call me if she ever needed help with something bigger than she could handle. She gave me a look like I was joking, her expression told me she didn't really take my words seriously. For now, my life shifted into a hotel suite.
In Chinatown, Shin finally opened his restaurant. A two‑story building—ground floor a small hotel, first floor used for storage and a lounge, and the second floor split into two houses. One for him, the other temporarily for John Bishop.
I gave both Shin and John their first real assignment. Surveillance in Chinatown. Not too flashy. Just ears on the ground, eyes open, and a special focus on the Crane Sisters. They ran a tattoo shop. The mission was about information.
Outside of business and quiet setups, the city had a way of pulling me in. One night, I caught a thug trying to snatch an old lady's purse. I broke his leg clean. Another time, a group tried to kidnap a boy. I put a few of them in the hospital before the cops could even show up. Roberta stumbled onto five men trying to rape a woman in an alley. She nearly kicked them to death. By the time the police arrived, they were half‑conscious, bleeding, and begging.
And then there was Elena. Exams had her on edge, so I took her out. Dinner, laughter, a walk that stretched late into the night. By the time the day ended, one thing led to another. I won't spell out the details, but it was a night we both needed.
By the end of April, the code for the antivirus was moving 80% done. I had a shortlist of people for the investment firm. My homes were under construction. Nothing major happened.
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May 2013
Robert and Tahani were doing fine on their own. They seemed to be taking things easy, which was strange considering where they came from. When I asked about it, Robert said this was peaceful compared to their old world. That caught me off guard, because New York in 2013 wasn't exactly a safe playground. But they didn't complain, and I didn't push further. Robert also mentioned they were quietly gathering intel on things I had flagged for them. Apparently, they had already seen some minor skirmishes between mutants. They kept feeding updates into Gideon. I also sent them to sweep through the other Iron Serpents stashes while the cops had cooled off. No sense leaving money lying around for Fisk's men to grab.
Emilio, on the other hand, wasn't going to be around anymore. After making sure his accounts were drained into my shell companies, I dealt with him personally. Clean and efficient. His body's sitting in the inventory now, out of sight, out of mind.
On the business side, I finally started the process of setting up the company. Progress was slow, though. I needed more reliable people, and without background customization cards I wasn't willing to risk summoning anyone new yet. So I decided to hold off another month before expanding my roster. For the future, I made plans: the investment firm would open in New York, while System Security would be based in San Francisco.
I also asked the System a question that had been bothering me for a while—whether my summons could assimilate characters. The answer was yes, but limited. They could do it at 50 SP points, and only one at a time. The others didn't really need it, except for Shin. He is good, but he won't survive. I called him aside, explained the option, and he accepted without hesitation. I picked Claire Stanfield from Baccano! for him. A few days later, he told me he was having strange dreams. I didn't sugarcoat it. Just told him it was the price of powering up.
Meanwhile, I finished the free version of the antivirus. It was solid, functional. The plan was to expand into premium tiers before registering and trademarking. I wanted a complete product before revealing anything to the world. I also started adding features for my other premium versions of the software.
Hell's Kitchen was turning ugly again. With the Serpents gone, the Russians were crawling out to fill the void. Business as usual. One night, while wandering through Queens, I caught sight of Spider-Man. Just a guy in a suit, swinging across the skyline, heading to stop an ATM robbery. Watching him reminded me how strange this world could be.
Then there was Elena. She asked me to attend her graduation. That threw me off. I asked about her parents. She shut me down fast, said they wouldn't be there. Her tone made it clear I'd hit a sore spot. She did mention her stepsister would show, though. Something about that gave me a bad feeling, but I said yes. I couldn't refuse her.
The day of the graduation, she looked happy. Nervous too, scanning the crowd like she was searching for someone. I stayed at the back, waved when she spotted me. After the ceremony, she brought me over to meet her sister. That's when my stomach dropped. Her stepsister was Bella. The same Bella I had lost my virginity to. The shock on both our faces was instant. The next half hour was suffocating. Elena was cheerful, oblivious. Bella wasn't. She glared at me like she wanted me buried six feet under. My danger sense buzzed the whole time. And this wasn't the type of danger I could stab or shoot my way out of. When John called me, I bolted with a quick excuse. Elena didn't mind, she had her sister. Bella's eyes followed me until I was gone.
One day Gideon showed me a video of a guy beating a man half to death in an alley, wearing a black costume. Of course he is Mathew Murdock. He was getting closer to becoming the man I knew he would. After some digging, I learned the guy he brutalized was his downstairs neighbor. The man had been raping his own daughter. If it were me, I would've killed him outright.
Meanwhile, Bella wasn't staying quiet. She'd been asking questions about me to Elena. I couldn't bring myself to tell her the truth about me and her to Elena. From how Elena is talking with me Bella also had not told about us either. So I decided to just let things play out. At the time, it felt like the easiest path forward. I didn't realize how badly that decision would come back later.
Overall, May was quiet on paper. Plans moved forward expanded, and crime kept bubbling in the city. But that reunion with Bella? That was the one thing that stuck in my mind. I could clean up gangs, break bones, drain bank accounts, even kill without flinching. But this kind of drama? That was a whole different battlefield.
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June 2013
June came fast, and I didn't wait to pull my draws.
[Rewards Received:
- Flora de la Cruz (Assassin's Creed)
- Shock Collar x10 (The 100 Series)
- Clara Lille (Watch Dogs)
- Better luck next time
- Better luck next time
- Flo Pauling (Team Fortress)
- Better luck next time
- Johan Seong (Lookism)
- Better luck next time
- Background Customization Card x3]
The rewards were solid, but what I got this time made me rethink some of my plans. The first person I decided to summon was Flo Pauling. She looked terrified when she appeared, scared out of her mind, but after about a week she calmed down. Once she settled, she became a perfect assistant and started working alongside Roberta.
Next, I summoned Walter C. Dornez—the old man himself. At first, he was a pain to deal with, stubborn and sharp-tongued. It took a while for him to accept everything, but eventually he came around. I explained the vampires, the world, and what I needed from him. Then I gave him a full potion, which boosted his vitality and even smoothed out some of those deep wrinkles. Watching him stand straighter, move sharper, I couldn't help but grin. I had finally gotten myself a butler.
With Walter, Flo, and Roberta, things moved faster. The company was no longer just a plan—we were pushing it into reality. The registration process, which should've taken a month, was done in two weeks thanks to Gideon. The only delays came from me getting sidetracked with mansion designs.
I shifted Roberta's work over to Walter, which freed her up to join Flo in recruitment. That gave me time to focus on myself.
By now, I had been working through multiple assimilations—Taro Sakamoto, Jason Todd, Raizo. Today, I finally completed Jason Todd and Taro Sakamoto. The surge of power that hit me was insane. Jonas Graymalkin and Raizo were hovering around ninety to ninety-five percent. Their powers stacked in ways I couldn't have imagined. In the dark, my strength, speed, and senses spiked to new levels. Night vision came naturally. My healing factor kicked into overdrive thanks to Raizo and Jason. Physically, I was changing too—more muscle, more height. I was becoming something beyond human.
I needed to test it, so I called John for a spar. We met in the warehouse. Hand-to-hand, I beat him clean. With wooden swords, he was a beast, but I wasn't behind him anymore. After a long fight, we broke both our swords at the same time. John was shocked, maybe even excited. From that day, we sparred often, and sometimes I dragged Roberta into the mix. She resisted at first, but once persuaded, she fought like a demon. Training with them only accelerated my assimilation rate. Soon enough, Jonas and Raizo hit full assimilation. With all those skills and boosts combined, I wasn't exaggerating when I thought: I was basically Batman with superpowers.
I also assimilated Johan Seong, stacking even more ability on top of everything else.
That same week, I dragged Shin into training to push his assimilation of Claire Stanfield. He lasted three days before running off, saying he couldn't take it anymore. Still, he was close—only about five percent left. Our assimilation worked differently. Mine was gradual, skills building naturally. His hit him through dreams, living in Stanfield's POV every night. I hadn't had a single dream yet.
Meanwhile, I secured an office at Hudson Yards. The area was developing fast, perfect for a fresh start. I focused the building around my investment company, Aegis Capital. By the time I walked in, the place felt alive.
Flo came with a list of potential recruits. Names like Oswald Silkworth, Sondra "Sandi" Brandenberg, Raymond Jones, Austin Cao. After running background checks, I gave the green light. Flo specifically asked if she could take Sondra under her wing, said they'd met before and she'd made an impression. I agreed—no harm in it.
By the end of June, the office was fully up and running. Just like that, three months had passed.
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July 2013
[STATUS]
Name: David Arthur Brown
Age: 25
Race: Human/Mutant
SP: 475
Skills: Hand-to-Hand Combat Mastery, Parkour Mastery, Hacking Mastery, Perfect Recall, Cooking Mastery, Bullet Time, Eye Color Manipulation, High-Speed Calculation (Psycho-Pass – Shinya Kogami's Combat Analysis), House Cleaning Mastery, Rope Mastery, Acting Mastery, Limit Breaker[1]
Character Assimilated:
Deadshot (DCEU), Jason Bourne, Chris Wolff, Harold Finch, Snake Eyes, Hikage Shinomori (My Hero Academia, Quirk - Danger Sense), L. Lawliet, Art Rosenbaum, Ezio Auditore da Firenze, Loid Forger, Agent Whiskey, Hal Emmerich, Richard Drakunovski, Harold Allnut, Jason Todd (DC), Raizo (Ninja Assassin), Taro Sakamoto (Sakamoto Days), Jonas Graymalkin
Character Assimilation:
1. Johan Seong - 85%
2. Joseph Albert Nefario - 90%
Characters Summoned:
- Shin (Cowboy Bebop)
- Agent 6 (Generator Rex) (named John Bishop)
- Rosarita Cisneros (Black Lagoon)
- Robert DuBois AKA Bloodsport (DCEU)
- Tahani AKA the Knife (DC)
- Flo Pauling (Team Fortress)
- Walter C. Dornez (Hellsing)
Night fell heavy over Hell's Kitchen when I finally decided to move. For three months I stayed quiet, watching crime rise again. Part of it was my fault. After the Serpents were crushed, the gangs thought they could take over. Tonight, I chose to step in.
I wore my Darkwear. A half mask hid my face. My sneakers touched rooftops without sound. It felt right.
The alleys were loud. Too many voices, too much trouble. The first ones I found were three thugs selling drugs to school kids. My blood boiled. I dropped behind them without a sound. One turned and froze before my fist knocked him out cold. Another tried to run. I kicked his knee; it bent the wrong way. The last one reached for something, but I hit him twice in the stomach and slammed him against the wall. The kids ran away. Good.
Further down, I heard a woman cry out. Five men had trapped two women near a dumpster. I didn't speak. I just moved. A trash can lid hit one man's head. A sweep knocked another to the ground. My fists and knees did the rest. They went down hard, groaning on the floor. The women ran fast. I let them go. I didn't need thanks.
As I kept moving, my steps felt lighter. My body sharper. Each shadow I touched filled me with power. My mutant gift—Darkness Empowerment. I had never tried it before, but tonight it woke up inside me. The darker the street, the stronger I felt. The city itself gave me strength.
So I ran. I leapt over rooftops. I cleared gaps I should not have cleared. Parkour was always easy, but now it felt like flying. Every vault and every landing was smooth. I found myself high up, in the Lower East Side, looking over the city. Lights and shadows spread under me. I had not even noticed how far I had come.
The view held me for a while. I breathed deep, mask low on my face. For a moment, I thought I could get used to this life. Then, something moved below.
A figure. Quick, smooth, careful. A woman sliding along the wall of a building, moving like the night was hers. Black leather fit close to her body, white hair shining under the streetlight. She moved like a cat—light, sharp, trained.
"Well, well," I whispered, crouching low. "What do we have here?"
To Be Continued...
[1] Allows the user to push their power to three times the current level for 15 minutes. Afterward, they suffer 30 minutes of exhaustion, leaving them weaker and vulnerable.