Anti-antithesis

The ride back to the Tower was very fun and enjoyable, something I didn’t know was possible in a vehicle. Everyone was in conversation with someone else, filling the limo with life and laughter. The only negative comment I had was that it was too short, given that Roger loved to abuse the Samurai traffic privileges. I had only just gotten into a conversation with Gimbal when we pulled into the garage.

Roger turned his seat around, gaining our attention. “Alright, everyone! We have a little more than an hour before we have to leave to make it to Cafe Nobu Shite before the dinner rush hits. For those who wish to go, please meet back at Rache at least five minutes before we have to leave.”

With that, everyone hurried out of the limo and split up. Jim, Leman, and Morrigan made their way to different lower floors, as they didn’t wish to attend dinner tonight, and to also deliver the many different armies to the rest of the commanders. We had decided to designate a few of the common room sections as war gaming rooms, with our first game set to start next week.

Yerlette, Alice, Opal, and Cari grabbed Jill and made their way to Yerlette’s assigned room, with Gimbal and Outsider following shortly behind. Gimbal did try to head to her room on the twenty ninth floor, but Outsider dragged her to her room, insisting on having her join. She put up a token resistance, as even I could see she wanted to continue hanging out with us, but also recognised that she was, technically, still an outsider to this family. Jill was the one to shatter that preconception, telling her that even if Outsider broke up with her or vice versa, she was still family.

Everyone else made their way to their rooms to change into something more practical for a bar setting, while I made my way to the room with the Bio-shifter in it. The room itself was closer to a storage room, with a number of Cari and Tsubaki’s things still in boxes around the shifter, while the heavy machine took center stage.

Synaptic’s eye phased through a nearby wall, hovering to a stop next to me.

You know that we cannot start this if you have any intention of joining your family tonight, correct?

I smiled softly at her. “Of course I know that, Synaptic. But, considering that I don’t need an hour to change clothes,” a statement that I punctuated by having my armor flow from my room where Cari made me leave it and back onto me, my Collector swarm carefully folding my previous attire and placing it to the side,” I figured I could at least go over a few options for my new body now.”

Synaptic rolled her eye at me, but still pulled up a screen that contained a full body scan of myself.

Your base, human form can be left untouched, design wise, while its internals will be fully upgraded to Class II. This does not mean you can suddenly move at the speed of thought, however, as that requires specialized biological functions that the Command Type Slytherians do not possess normally. You will be considerably tougher, and your requirements for food will be reduced.

“Does that mean I won’t be able to eat as much?” I asked, as that was a genuine concern, considering we had all gotten used to simply eating a lot more.

No, Victor. What I meant was that the calories and nutrients that your body needs to function will simply be reduced as your body undergoes a more comprehensive optimization. Your metabolism will remain unchanged, other than the fact that it will be considerably more efficient. This does also answer your desire to use the restroom less often, as any waste will be produced at a fraction of its current output, and any excess can be used by your bio-nanites to produce healing agents.

Nodding in relief, the only thing I adjusted on my exterior was to make my defined muscles less defined. I didn’t hate my new muscles, but having them be quite so… Noticeable did bother me on a few occasions. And while Opal might have liked to look at them, Cari expressed her opinion that they were a bit much when I brought it up.

Internally, I saw that a number of my organs would be removed or replaced by bio-mechanical counterparts, with my bones and nerves receiving a direct upgrade in materials and connectivity. I also noticed a subspace pocket being attached to my new lower intestine, labeled excess storage, so that was cool.

A difference between Commander types and other Slytherians was in their venom sacks. Theirs were smaller and more limited, but the trade off was the ability to emit pheromones to buff nearby allies. Calming effects, caffeine like effects, even a rage effect, plus many, many more that had to be set up beforehand. It might be helpful to whatever crew I have on the bridge, let alone the possibility to funnel the pheromones to other sections of the Pandora.

I also saw a new organ, one different from the bio-nanite housing next to my heart. This one was labeled Bio-shifting mass storage, which made a considerable amount of sense. When Cari shifted, she gained mass, not merely shifting her mass around to grow her tail and scales, something I knew for a fact, considering how often we cuddled in both of her forms. This organ, one that sat just below the epidermis, must have been where that extra mass came from.

Finally, I shifted the model to show the Slytherian Commander form, taking a deep breath as I saw the transformation. The legs merged together and grew longer as deep royal purple scales covered the new tail. It was only slightly longer than Cair’s current tail, but I knew that would change, as the Grappler type had a tail at least twice as long as the Commander’s. The scales covered the arms, parts of the pectoral muscles, as well as the neck and sides of the head. The most striking aspect was the eyes, both as they were reptilian in nature, as well as the color of molten gold.

I took a few moments to breathe, failing to calm my heart as excitement grew within me. Unfortunately for me, I failed to notice Cari entering the room, as I jumped and shouted in alarm as she placed a hand on my shoulder. The look on Cari’s face as I turned to face her was an amusing combination of concern while struggling to hold in a laugh.

“I thought you were able to bypass my electronic camouflage?” She said as I pulled her into a hug.

“I can, but I was lost in thought.” I explained.” While my mind might be expanded, my attention is still something that I need to train, it seems.”

Much like my ability to control my swarms, I was going to need to train my ability to actually utilize every aspect of my new brain, including the ability to focus on multiple tasks at once.

Cari looked at the bio-shifter, her gaze wistful. “Just a few more hours, love.” She whispered as she kissed my head. “Now, come on. It's almost time to meet up.”

As Cari pulled me out of the room, I was shocked as I glanced at the clock in my augs, seeing that an hour had, indeed, passed while I was focused. Crazy.

****************************************************

Getting to the bar was surprisingly challenging, even when we knew exactly where it was located. Alice laughed, mentioning that it was part of the charm for upper city folk, while the middle and under city regulars had their own shortcuts.

The closest parking, you would think, would be in the building above it, but that would be incorrect, as Abigail's uncle was a frustrating man and physically blocked many of the normal, simple paths. We had to park half a plate away and cross over a dozen sky bridges, three freight elevators, and numerous service corridors, to eventually descend into the center of the plate and pass through two different gang territories, only one of which hassled us.

Opal, Jill, and Outsider made sure the second gang knew not to try us, as the first became a series of new bloodstains and the first official example Real Dreams Limited had to make.

But eventually, we made it to a slightly larger than average steel door, one surrounded by graffiti, tags, and stickers, but one that also had the name Café Nobu Shite welded to it in large, blocky letters.

Yerlette, who had exchanged her light green dress for dark green tights and a puffy, fluffy jacket, smiled as she opened the door, taking the lead. The door opened with a light squeal, my swarms telling me that it was lubricated, but designed to make this sound instead of an electronic signal.

Instantly, the sounds of old age Electro-Swing slammed into us as the scent of alcohol, fried food, and a slight hint of rust flowed out of the door. The bar itself was rather large, yet paradoxically cramped, as the square footage of dining area was decently large, but it was packed full of tables and customers.

The clientele appeared to be mostly made up of the local gang members, the Iron Wombats, identifiable by the rust red wombat shaped tattoo visible on every member, and quite a few younger street runners.

From the information Buddy shared about this bar, it was used by mercenaries and runners as a watering hole and a secure place to accept jobs, due to the, quite frankly, absurd levels of anit-survailence measures that were installed. They were Protector grade, in nature, something gifted to Abigail from Doma as a signing bonus, and thus made sense as to why a bunch of Samurai would have a hard time finding this place.

We were led to a rather large booth in the back, one that had a good line of sight into the kitchen from the massive viewing window, and there we saw Buddy, moving rapidly between three different cooking stations, flipping burgers, stirring rice, and filling fry baskets with synth-chicken and fries. The group put in a massive order of everything, both due to the fact that there were ten of us, as well as to mess with Buddy a bit.

The drinks were drinkable, if only just, the music was loud and only slightly irritating, yet once the food came out in waves, the minor irritations of the night faded away with the tastes of perfectly fried food and the slight spice of the fried rice.

We spent a little over two hours in Cafe Nobu Shite, talking about our pasts and our desires for the future. Alice was very excited about working with Cody in the Gremlins as a hacker, which brought the attention of a Meshrunner and her pod to our group. She was very interested in the possibility of stable work, if the fact that she was practically hanging off of Cody was any indication.

Gimbal opened up about her past, drunkenly talking about a few of her past “clients” and how terrible they were in bed. While the rest of us laughed, I could see Outsider was plotting another hunt of her own, which was kinda cute in its own fucked up way.

By the end of our dinner, Roger stood up and raised his beer stein. “Thank you, all, for this amazing day of simple, easy pleasures, and for agreeing to this somewhat selfish request to bother our brother at work.” A round of chuckles emanate from the table, “With that said, I would like to use this opportunity to officially celebrate the beginings of Real Dreams Limited, with each of you, and Buddy a few others, being equal shareholders in this ambitious project of mine.”

I saw Gimbal register that information with a decent level of shock, causing her to look at Roger with a comical expression of incredulity. “Wh- Wait, me too? But, but you literally just met me? And all I am good for sex…”

Roger simply shook his head. “And? Outsider has vetted you, which is more than enough for me. You are not required to do anything official if you do not want to and can simply accept the credits coming your way. If you wish to do something, you can. As for the rest of us, heres to us, and our ambitions to make our dreams real!”

He raised his glass high, and we all followed suit.

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