Summary: A Quasi-SI character gets thrown into an amalgam-universe of just about every Superhero Comic you can think of mashed together. Given a limited choice of powersets beforehand, they make the best they can of the options before diving into a world where half their meta-knowledge is useless or outright dangerously inaccurate. Follow their adventures as they land in an altered Gotham City and try to figure out what the heck to do with the new chance at life they've been given...

Things to Know Before You Read This:

So...this story happened as a result of me needing to experiment with a few ideas. This story was supposed to be something of a throwaway as a result. If you haven't clued in on it yet, all of my fanfiction stories start as experimental ideas I want to play with. Each of them has some aspect I want to play with the concept of. From attempting a lighthearted version of the 'What is human?' question with 2B in A Very Confused Pokémon Adventure, to attempting a Gamer/Gamelit style story in One Piece: Halfway Broken. The reason this one was supposed to be a throwaway was because the concepts involved were ones I wasn't confident with. I actually write a lot of those. Story snippets that let me test something out, usually never to be published. Pure experiments whose results teach me how to integrate something into proper stories later down the road. In this case I needed to test two things:

1) I wanted to try writing a slightly grimmer setting. No, not angst-written edgelord shit. I don't enjoy that. But something more Cyberpunk 2077 baseline. A world that's dark, but CAN have positive stories in it. This isn't something I've ever done, so it was VERY experimental.

2) I had an idea for another story with a shapeshifting character, and that character was going to be a futa-by-choice most of the time. The thing is, despite the hentai stuff I write from time to time, Futa's aren't actually really a major interest of mine. They are popular enough on the vastness of the internet, and it was one vehicle I could use to explore the character concept of someone who was born generally and literally 'gender fluid.' Thing was, the very fact that I've barely skimmed that sort of story content before meant I wasn't confident I could write it. So...another experimental bit to stuff into this. 

The result was that this story was supposed to be a quick-and-dirty experiment that would let me grind some proverbial XP in a grimmish setting with a futa character.

Then...it sort of got away from me? Oops?

Somehow, I ended up with a Quasi-SI flung into an interesting-in-the-way-a-train-wreck-is amalgam world. Even then, I ended up throwing it up on my Page as a random extra, with little intention of doing anything more with it. Until, that is, my Patrons surprised the heck out of me by dogpiling onto the story enthusiastically and demanding more? Given I generally steer away from even Quasi-SI stories, not thinking anyone really wants them, so that caught me completely off guard. (No, again, for the weirdly stubborn people out there, Luffy isn't an SI in Halfway Broken. Seriously, I wasn't kidding about that when I mentioned it at the start of that story. He's nothing like me at all). The net result is I wrote more...and it was wildly popular again. So now this is a full story that has it's own entry in the monthly poll for updates.

A couple of other Quick Notes about the story itself:

1) When I said Quasi-SI, I wasn't kidding. While the character in this story is based on me to an extent, the template of things I applied to them so I could grind that writing XP I mentioned drags them pretty far from a true SI. They think a lot like I do, have a similar background and base skillset. Yet, there's as much different as there is the same. I wouldn't handle the world transfer nearly as well as they did, I just didn't want to get hung up on the drama.

The power set they chose is also not the one I would have gone with. I'm a mastermind personality at heart, not someone whose idea of solving problems is to throw hands with a supervillain. (I honestly get more than a little annoyed when people assume Luffy from Halfway Broken is an insert, as I still consider him an idiot that chose the fun solution instead of the smart one). I needed a more action-oriented character, so there's a bit of a radical departure there. The Futa template was added, as mentioned above, as an experiment. So on, and so on. Someone who knows me really well might be able to look at the character, squint really hard, and see me in it. But...well...at best he/she is a Quasi-SI. In reality, by the time you get halfway through Chapter 2, he/she is really an OC who just shares some of my thought processes.

2) There isn't a grand plan for this story. The writing Quality might well not be quite what you're used to from me as a result. If it keeps going at all it will jump from conflict to conflict rather than weaving the huge and properly connected narrative I normally focus on. Part of the reason I made it an amalgam universe is so I can handwave away mistakes and randomly insert whatever bits I need rather than doing strict lore dives and research like I normally do. Understand, this was/is a quick-and-dirty story, rather than the much more refined ones you've seen from be until now.

3) The method that was used for the character to create his new powerset? I actually did that. That was the challenge I'd thought up and decided to use. This comment won't make much sense until you read through the character creation chapter. Once you do, you'll see what I meant. I have, in fact, a compilation of the images the MC used to pick things from. The only additional things I did beyond exactly what it says? I removed a few characters that I literally couldn't ID from the images, and I weeded out maybe a half dozen images of 2B. I knew I'd be tempted to use her for her crazy powerset if she was an option, but she's already being explored in two other fics of mine. So...yeah. Removed those.

Anyway...have a hopefully fun read of this 27k starter for an unholy Amalgam of DC/Marvel/MHA/Worm/ProbablyOthersI'mForgetting! Yes, you read that right. I said it was a possibly-unholy amalgam, didn't I? 

 

Why Was There No Truck?!

Novus Peregrine

Disclaimer: I am, very tragically, do not own and am not in charge of any of the recognizable intellectual property contained within. Alyssa is mine, but the setting is a wild amalgamation of DC, Marvel, My Hero Academia, Worm, and many others. All rights for the relevant bits of their settings belong to their respective owners. I’m only borrowing bits with the goal of entertaining the denizens of the internet that enjoy my particular brand of chaos.

Chapter 1: Character Creation

He stared at the screen in front of him in pure confusion for longer than he’d really like to admit. He had, last he knew, been trying to recover from yet another crunch period on a project, while still getting work done on his next project. Then, with nothing more than a typical midwestern thunderstorm as a warning, he’d been…here. He was mostly sure he hadn’t actually died. No, it had felt quite a bit more like one of those dreams where your brain convinces you that you’re falling, and you wake up in a panic.

Problem was, by now he was almost certain he wasn’t dreaming.

He had a lot of experience with dreams, after all. Both the waking and sleeping varieties, really. His brain was pretty much wired for them. If the dreams or his habit of getting lost in the telling and reading of stories had come first, he no longer knew. But it didn’t really matter right now, whichever way it had been. No, what mattered was that he’d made enough of a study of dreams to know there were certain characteristics to them.

Fuzzy details, either in what you were seeing or what you could recall, were the biggest indicator you were in one. The absence of some senses was another, though any fool that told you pain could be used as a check was an idiot who’d never being seriously injured or ill in his or her life. Pain from the real world trickled into dreams just fine, sadly. So no, pinching oneself wasn’t a useful test.

In fact, the vast majority of the things people told you about dreaming were nonsense. You could turn lights on and off in a dream, if you only believed you could. You could feel pain, you could see yourself in mirrors. Not every one of those things, usually, and not every time, but the supposed ‘truths’ of how to recognize a dream were so much gobbledygook.

Sort of.

The fact of the matter was that each of those things tended to break dreams for people because they made you aware you were dreaming. The mere thought to use them to check was the actual disruptive bit. Lucid dreams were vanishingly rare, even for him, and he’d made a point of studying them at a couple of points in his life. Generally, it was because something didn’t add up, and you starting considering that you might be in a dream, that led to you jarring yourself awake from either a dream or a nightmare.

Which is, unfortunately, why he was rather sure he wasn’t dreaming. Everything was too consistent, had been for too long, and he was too thoroughly aware. All without the freedom of movement that normally came with a lucid dream. Yet, for all that he’d fairly thoroughly convinced himself he wasn’t dreaming, he was still a little disbelieving at the situation he found himself in.

After all, there were words on the hovering screen in front of him. Ones that made in question things. Little things like sanity or lack thereof.

==============

Congratulations! You’ve successfully met the conditions of System Integration! We imagine you’re quite confused, but that’s okay! Take your time, catch your breath, and don’t panic! When you’re ready to properly learn about your situation, press continue!

==============

There was, in fact, a continue button below the window of text. Right there on the screen that was more a hologram than a screen, hovering in front of him. It was pretty much the only thing of interest in a room that otherwise seemed like a stereotypical, if high-end, office cubicle. There were even, to his bafflement mixed with amusement, several interesting fidget toys that he had, in fact, played with. He often found it easier to think when his hands were doing something.

Finally deciding there was nothing for it but to hit that continue button, he did just that, and read in increasing disbelief as new text in far greater amounts filled the screen.

==============

Have you ever wondered what your purpose on Earth was? Why you couldn’t stop dreaming and settle for something normal? Why you always jumped into some new creative project, no matter how bad the depression of failure got? Well, there is a reason!

You see, you’re one of the rare souls who was designed from the start as a firm poke in the side for another reality! Yep! There are lots of realities out there. One of them just so happens to need the you that you are right now. The one that might be a little broken, or cynical, or a little off kilter. It needs someone whose mind was expanded exactly how yours has been up to this point.

All that’s left is to give you a bit of a boost. You’re headed somewhere far from normal, and you’ll need a leg up, as it were. As for how that’s picked? Well, by you, of course! More accurately, you are what you consume. The place you put your interests and time into are the things you internalize. In your case…well…you’ve consumed a lot of media with the right sorts of powers and forms that will help you where you’re going. So, at the moment we nabbed you, we pulled the last 100 relevant images that you downloaded to your phone.

Yes, we know some of them are naughty!

Honestly, it’s fine. You’d be in deep trouble where you’re headed if you broke down the first time some porn was shoved in your face! Really, there’s a reason you’re being sent to nudge the reality in question a bit, you know! Of course, Karma is as Karma does. So you were probably plucked out at a time where you’d learn something new from the choices you have! Let’s take a look!

==============

The screen changed again, this time loading with…well…the last 100 images he’d downloaded off places like Reddit and Twitter. Though, that wasn’t quite right? He could remember some he’d definitely downloaded but weren’t here. Others were partially dimmed down, or outright converted to greyscale when he knew they hadn’t started that way.

==============

Now, I said the last 100 images. But we aren’t quite that random about things! Accidental duplicates have been removed and sets have been condensed. Real people have been removed, since they might have parallel versions in a reality you visit in the future. Only fictional characters have been included, though even they may exist somewhere out there! Likewise, since this is the First reality we’re sending you to ‘nudge’ back into place, we aren’t expecting you to fight a universe spanning alien invasion!

Which, sadly for you, means no godlike powers.

Beings like Kryptonians and Heroic Servants have been either greyed out entirely or notably reduced in power. The reason they are still present is that they can be used for your appearance slots! Oh! And I should get to what those slots are, huh?

==============

The window moved upward, and another appeared below it. A row of boxes. Three in the first column, two in the second column, and one in the third. The first was labeled ‘Powers!’ the second ‘Appearance!’ and the third ‘Skillsets!’. The text in the top window changed quickly to explain.

==============

From your set of images, you can select whomever you want for each of these boxes! The powers of those you choose in the first column will be combined in a way that makes sense for a single power set. The second column will allow you to choose two characters from whom you can take physical characteristics. Note! It must be two! As I already stated, there might actually be originals of even the fictional characters out there in the multiverse you’re headed to, so mixing and matching ensures you won’t be their perfect twin!

That said, you’ll get a fair bit of control over which characteristics you take from each, and none will affect you negatively. Not in a medical or moral sense. Same with the powers. Even if the power was originally from an evil source, your version will be powered by us, the System Administrators that help the Creator sort all these things out! A completely clean power source, no risk of corruption or letting in demonic forces or some such horribleness!

Ah, and lastly, since you’ll be going into a reality that’s a bit more actively combative than you’re used to, you’ll also be able to select a single person’s skillset for your last choice! Their skillset will be adjusted for the technology level present at your destination, as well, so don’t fear your choice not being relevant. Well, not unless you choose someone with little to no skills!

Now, the choices are yours! Good luck, take your time, and don’t worry about locking in a choice just by dropping it in to see how it will pan out! You can add and remove options until you’re ready! Do be aware, that at least in the power set, some of your remaining options will take up more than one Power Slot, as they would otherwise unbalance you. Have fun with your next reality!

==============

The ‘chat’ portion of the window blinked out. Leaving him with just the images and the boxes, as he tried very much not to get dizzy or panic from all that had just been dropped on him. This was…not exactly fine. He didn’t quite have the horror that would fill others. He’d had precious few connections left in his old life. Fits of depression and a very strong tendency toward introversion had left him with pretty much only his family. Parents and an older sister. Along with just a bare handful of friends he mostly communicated with by exchanging memes.

He would miss them. Of course he would. But he’d been in his late thirties, his parents in their 70s, and his older sister wasn’t that close. His friends…only two of them would even notice or care he was gone, and both had much better things going on in their life to anchor them against any grief.

He’d also utterly loathed his life.

He’d refused with every fabric of his being to ever conform to the idea of working a nine-to-five. That was hell for him the few times he’d done it out of necessity. He was neurodivergent enough that, combined with a lifetime of poor health, there was little you could do that would torture him more than forcing him into an environment like that. It had, unfortunately, always meant that he’d limped along, barely making enough to get by. All while his physical and mental health slowly degraded to the point he was barely a functional human being.

So, you know, basically like most of the millennial generation, really. You were either an office drone on the good drugs, or someone like him. That was pretty much it for his entire generation. Bleak as that was in retrospect.

He wouldn’t miss that.

Frankly, the only reason he’d made it so far alive was because he was stubborn as fuck. Life would have to actually kill him to make him stop, he’d never give it the satisfaction of doing it himself. Spite probably wasn’t the best reason to motivate, but it was useful at times, in his opinion. So long as you directed it carefully.

Okay. So…no crying over spilled milk and a life he wouldn’t really miss. Now to deal with the Karma he’d been left with. Though, thankfully, it wasn’t a particularly harsh Karma.  From a quick glance at the images, he’d already known what he would find, though he could have guessed it without the glance if he’d had to. Specifically, the little detail that there weren’t any guys in those images.

That wasn’t to say they were universally ‘naughty’ as the text had mentioned. It was just that, well, he’d been 100% heterosexual. No attraction to men, at all. Not even because they were the same sex as him, either. No, he just literally didn’t find the male form appealing. He didn’t hate it. He’d been male and perfectly content with that. But he found the curves of the feminine form aesthetically superior to look at. Though…huh…that might be a bit of an issue. He wasn’t super attached to his personal concept of his own gender, more a comfortable neutral really. But he had no intention of being into guys. Was his body going to mess with his mind in that regard?

==============

Nope! Your mind won’t be affected! Go live your lesbian dreams! Or something like that. You’ve got a few ‘girls’ in that list packing heat, after all!

==============

…Okay. Somewhat embarrassingly, yes he did. There weren’t very many futas in the images, as it hadn’t really been his ‘thing,’ so to speak. But he hadn’t hated all of the art with them, at least specific varieties. It was, in his current position, also objectively a possible solution of sorts. Also, good to know that the System Administrator of the Power-That-Be was still listening. Enough to apparently chime in before he had a panic attack about whether or not his physical form was going to fuck with his mind.

Okay. Where the fu—err heck. Probably should knock off the cursing if he was mind-sharing with said Administrator? Well, whatever the wording, how the heck did he work this out. Could he…

“Can I write on the screen? And move things around?”

Instead of another text answer, a stylus simply appeared, hovering next to the ‘screen.’ Well, that answered that. The best way to start something like this was also to list the options, then start discarding the bad and organizing the good. Then work with the results of what was left. First, who all was even in all of these images? While outright ‘duplicate’ images had been weeded out, there were plenty of variants of the same characters. There were a fairly high number of Raven, from DC Comics, for example.

Disappointingly, dropping her into the power slots immediately fill all three slots. Along with that came mental feedback indicating this was because her powers were so stupidly broad, not to mention potent. He got the impression that she’d been nerfed a bit and, even so, was still pushing the limits of what was allowed. Still, that was quite useful information. The feedback he got seemed to indicate that the ‘slots’ were less firm than he’d expected. Like he was really filling up a total ‘capacity’ in the background. Did that mean that some overflow was allowed if there was room for it?

Quickly removing Raven and selecting two characters that ought to synergize somewhat, he nodded in satisfaction as Luna Snow (Marvel) and Elsa (Disney) gave off the impression of leaving the last spot ‘extra-large.’ He also noted, with fascination, that the abilities didn’t just add to one another, but fused to create a new power. It was even a power that was quite tempting, as it apparently would allow him to create Ice and Snow golems that could use Luna’s damaging and healing ice respectively. Technically, he could make an army with that power…while still having room left over for an ‘extra-large’ third.

Well, now he was concerned about just where the fuc heck he was going, that such was a justifiable power. Well, no matter. He’d gotten distracted. Time to sort out who all he had to work with. Just doing that one step took him several minutes, with him flat out not being able to identify one or two and having to drop them into the power slot to figure out who they were and what they could do. Eventually, eliminating his own ‘duplicate’ options and looking at the list that resulted, he was both glad and daunted that he’d had wide tastes.

Out of 100 images, he’d had 73 unique characters. Admittedly, part of the reason he’d gotten up to that number was that a fair few images had multiple characters in them. The single largest in that regard had included seven girls of the X-men line up, for example. Though three of them had been repeated elsewhere as well. Still, it meant he had a fair bit to work with, though not all characters were created equal. Jasmine of Aladdin fame, for example, might be his single favorite Princess…but she didn’t exactly have any powers. Skills, possibly. No Powers though.

Amazingly, only a bare handful were ‘greyed out’ indicating that they were too powerful to use for anything but appearances. Ishtar from Fate being one such made blatant sense. As did a version of Supergirl. A few others were ‘dim’ rather than greyed out, and dropping one of those into a Power slot showed that the characters in question had been ‘nerfed.’ Wanda Maximoff, Atom Eve, Jean Grey, and Magik were all like that, with the first two having their reality warping abilities stripped and the latter two having their non-mutant abilities similarly eliminated. No Phoenix Force levels of power for him.

Which…fair.

Looking at the list with a sigh, he quickly decided on three categories to help him pair the main list down. ‘Not useful’, ‘Appearance Only’, and ‘Useful Skill Templates’. That allowed him to rapidly reduce the number remaining on the main list for possible ‘Powers’, at least. Even if he did agonize over a few favorites that he sadly put aside. Characters like X-Men’s Jubilee or Cyberpunk 2077’s Rebbeca went straight into the ‘no’ category. Insufficiently useful powers, or no powers without a useful skillset/appearance he felt he’d be likely to use.

They were joined, after aforementioned agonizing, by characters like Jade (DC) and Toga (My Hero Academia). Both of whom were awesome, with cool powers, but a quick check had confirmed that the drawbacks of those powers would remain. That hadn’t been true with Raven, so it seemed to be a case-by-case thing. But for those two examples, a weakness to wood of all things was just silly, and he didn’t really want to drink blood in order to shapeshift.

Quite a longer list were rapidly piled into the Appearance Only subsection. Mostly, it had to be said, for similar reasons as the ‘no’ category. Too weak of powers, too much drawback, or no powers/skills he was likely to want. They avoided the ‘no’ simply as he could see using any of the baker’s dozen he put there as fuel for his appearance choices. Though some of those with useful powers certainly hit that mark too.

The ’Skills’ field got its own set while he worked on the others, ranging from Barbara Gordon to Liara T’soni. Though at least a few he included in said subsection he wrote in as copies of the main list instead of dragging them over. Psylocke, for example, was powerful as heck but also had an insanely broad skill set that he might want.

Finally, he was left with just those with powers that might make good choices, and he groaned as he saw how large the list still was. Forty-two. The answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything. But also the migraine inducing number of options he needed to pick, at most, three from. Well, time to see if he could eliminate a few more by dropping them into slots and seeing how much space they took up, as well as exactly what powers they gave.

That took…the better part of an hour, if he’d had to guess. Though he didn’t have a real way to tell time here. It also really hadn’t helped as much as he’d hoped. A few more characters got reluctant reclassifications as they just didn’t stack up compared to the others, and one got dropped as a near power-duplicate of another. But he was ultimately left with a lot of confusing choices and very little idea how to prioritize.

Leaning back, he ran a hand over his face, not physically tired but already mentally a bit fatigued. Okay. He’d managed to cut the list roughly in half, at least. But he needed another way to filter things. Like, what were absolute ‘must haves’ for survival and what were just nice. The problem, of course, was…

“Not even a hint of where I’m going?”

The echoing silence was his only answer. Darn. Without knowing that, he was forced to assume…what? The ‘worst’ could be very different in different realities. If he was unfortunate enough to be dropped in something like Worm or Warhammer 40K…well, he hoped it was nothing that bad. Those weren’t just Death Worlds, they were No Win Condition Worlds. In which the best you could hope for was not to lose, rather than to actually win. Hopefully, his lack of access to the really high-end powers meant he wasn’t going to end up trying to solo Zion or the Emperor of Mankind.

Okay. So…don’t assume the worst. But assume that all he was going to get going into this is what his powers could provide. No identity, no money, no other resources. That’s a huge hurdle, and something he could mark out as a ‘need’ to overcome. In fact, two characters immediately jumped out at him in that regard.

Momo Yaoyorozu and Atom Eve.

One had matter creation ability which, shockingly, still only filled a single power slot. Likely because it was the only power Momo had, though it did at least come with a decent intelligence and memory boost to help use it. Atom Eve on the other hand, filled two entire slots despite also being nerfed. Partially, he was pretty sure, because she’d also been un-nerfed at the same time. No mental limiters on her biokinesis, meaning he would be able to heal people pretty much at will.

So, those two were earmarked as good choices. But what else could he filter the list by? Mystique was seriously tempting, given she’d actually solve the whole gender thing. He’d checked her version of shapeshifting and it was one of the most comprehensive versions he’d ever seen. Still, it wasn’t an absolute ‘must.’ What was?

Mental protection.

That’s bloody well what was.

He wouldn’t do anyone any good if he dropped into a world with freaking mind control and immediately got brainwashed. That meant the various characters with telepathy got pushed more towards the top of the list. Thankfully, there were several good options there, and even the most powerful only took a single slot. He’d wondered why Jean Grey only required a single slot at first, but the answer had been obvious when he’d slotted her in. Even aside from not having the Pheonix Force, he’d also only get basic control of her abilities. He’d also get guidelines for training them, apparently. But reaching the character’s level of control/skill wouldn’t be automatic.

The same was true for several others. Yamato from One Piece would grant a basic understanding of all three forms of Haki, along with a pretty serious basic strength boost. But it wouldn’t be mastery. Also, if he wanted her Devil Fruit, it would require a separate slot. Morrigan, from Dragon Age, was honestly one of the most interesting ‘trainable’ powers that he’d noted. It was explicitly stated she would provide a Magic Template, which he would have to grow into. Though, again, thankfully one that came with a guide on how to do so.

Okay, he was vaguely, sort of, starting to get somewhere here. Add in some strong wants that were survival focused. Regeneration? Fucki, freaking yes please! That was both a practical survival thing and a strong want in general. So add it to the ‘if at all possible’ list. Physical strength? Useful, but not something he absolutely had to have. Durability was honestly more important, as was speed or reflexes. The ability to heal others? That would be nice…and very, very dangerous.

Great. Now he felt bad about thinking that. He, however, knew himself well. If he had the ability to heal others, he’d never stop trying to heal more people. To the point of self-destruction. He probably wouldn’t even actually regret it, since trying to help was just part of his nature and he couldn’t hate that about himself. It was, in fact, one of the few things he liked about himself. Unless there was some sort of limit on a healing ability, however, he’d likely destroy himself focusing on it, and he kinda doubted that was the ‘nudge’ he’d been meant to make?

Reluctantly, hesitatingly, he removed Atom Eve from the possibilities list. Much like Panacea from Worm, she didn’t have any sort of limit other than her own sanity, and there would be nothing to pump the breaks if he had that power. Others were less drastic, Luna Snow’s powers used her stamina, and the other healers present all had a similar issue. Well…except Princess Zelda. He struck her from the list too. Insanely potent light magic was insanely potent and there could be all sorts of issues with being able to heal or purify en masse. Including a Sailor Moon like temptation to make everyone ‘better.’ Yeah, nope. He didn’t think he’d do that, but better to remove the temptation entirely.

For time that stretched on seemingly forever, he played with combinations. He discovered some utterly fascinating combos in the process, and slowly whittled away at his list. Several mixes that were almost right were made and reluctantly discarded as lacking something. He almost settled on Momo + Gwen Stacy (Venom Symbiote version) + Emma Frost. It was very tempting, as it covered all the spectrum he could hope for! But two things stopped him. Guilt at completely removing any ability to heal others, and a lack of ranged combat versatility.

The truth was that he wasn’t the type that liked to get in close and punch people. He actually did know some martial arts. But even there, he’d focused on both weapons and an unarmed combat style that kept people away from him rather than drawing them in close. A bo-staff, and a mixed martial art that focused on dodges and striking with feet and hands.  None of that getting-in-close-enough-to-elbow-someone, thank you very much. Let alone letting them close enough to throw or pin. He didn’t like people inside his personal bubble even when they weren’t trying to hurt him. Let alone when they were.

He was well aware of the fact there were holes in his combat style as a result, but he’d never been a serious fighter. He’d learned enough to have fun and to defend himself if needed. Not to get up to serious mayhem. Which meant that the highly physical build of Gwen and Emma Frost’s secondary mutation just didn’t quite click. Frost’s psionic abilities and Momo’s ability to imagine a railgun into existence were only a partial patch. Good enough to get by with, honestly. But it just didn’t quite feel like him despite how well rounded it would have been.

Yamato, Morrigan, and Momo go a similar close examination. Ultimately, it only got discarded out of frustrating uncertainty that Haki would offer mental protection. It was, so far as he knew, something that didn’t really come up in One Piece much. It might offer such protection, particularly Conqueror’s Haki, but it might do jack shit against a telepath, too. Finally, after having to stop and take some time to pretend-nap to clear his head. Just closing his eyes to let his poor, abused mind rest for a bit, he hit on something he thought would work. It was odd and he was kinda uncertain about the matchup, but it was passing his litmus tests?

Ahsoka Tano, Momo Yaoyorozu, and Starfire.

Honestly, he was amazed that the three of them fit in together, even if they were straining at the seams a little bit. They did fail on a single point he’d considered as part of his filter, with no regeneration ability being present. That was pretty thoroughly offset by Starfire’s sheer durability, both to physical trauma and energy of various forms. Tamaranean’s weren’t Kryptonians, a high enough caliber of armor piercing bullet would still be a serious threat. But she had the speed and reflexes that, combined with a Force Sensitive’s Precognition, he was darn unlikely to be hit in the first place.

Of course, Ahsoka was the key to long-term fulfillment of a lot of things he’d wanted off his ‘it would be nice’ list. Even one of the big ‘must haves,’ for that matter. The version of the ‘Force’ that he’d be accessing wasn’t the real deal (thank goodness!), but it would act much like the Template that Morrigan would have given him. In other words, he’d have to actively train in the usage of the Force to really make use of all it could do. Probably for years or decades to really plumb the depths of what it offered.

Some basics would be included, which thankfully included a solid set of basic mental defenses that could be farther improved later. But he’d have to learn much of the rest the long and hard way. He could sort of ‘feel out’ the extensive list of the sort of powers that he could gain, which included a degree of healing ability and even some elemental control. He wouldn’t start with them, though. Just some decent telekinesis, mental defenses, and limited precognition.

Unless he chose someone with suitable combat skills for the skills slot, he wouldn’t know how to fight like a Jedi. Nor would he have a lightsaber to work with. That was fine with him, though. Starfire’s powers included her Starbolts, Physical Power, and ability to fly. Meaning he’d be able to defend himself or run-the-heck-away pretty well in the short term. In the medium and long-terms, he could expand on Momo’s ability, which would require training, and the number and types of Force powers, which would also require training. Both of them filling gaps he’d have at the start.

Short term safety, with a lot of long-term room to grow. He could dig it.

Clapping his hands together, he nodded firmly and settled himself on the choices. Now, skillsets. Thankfully, that should be easier.

He did consider slotting Shaak Ti, who he also had an image of, into skills. It would instantly fill in a lot of Force stuff, along with quite a few soft skills. He didn’t consider it for long, though. Even with Momo’s abilities, he had doubts he could make a lightsaber, and without that a Jedi combat style was more hindrance than help. Likewise, while he’d been told the tech type skills would adjust, Shaak hadn’t had a particularly large number of them for a character living in a sci-fi universe.

No, he had better options, but here he got only one choice. Overwatch’s Mercy was very tempting, given she’d actually developed all her gear herself. There, the technology adjust could easily bite him in the ass, though. If her abilities were adjusted down to a lower tech base, he might get screwed on that.

Barbra Gordon was tempting as she came with a note that her photographic memory was included. Solid combat skills, grade A hacker and information specialist, detective, and photographic memory? Not a bad set list. She lost out quickly to Motoko Kusanagi, though. Who had all the same skill, only better, and with several additions besides.

After some quick eliminations and comparisons, the choice here came down to Psylocke or Motoko. Psylocke would have some serious crossover with the mental and telekinetic aspects of Ahsoka’s powers, and she had a long, long list of skills. Master martial artist, assassin, spy, pilot, and more. Yet, she lacked one area that Motoko was beyond Master Class in. Hacking. Something which could be insanely useful if the place he was sent was in any way high-tech. Motoko had all the physical and technical abilities of Psylocke, along with the hacking, but would provide no real boost to telekinetic and telepathic understanding.

Slotting both of them one at a time to compare, he frowned. Crud. The system explicitly said that Psylocke’s knowledge of telepathy and telekinesis would massively synergize with the Force abilities. Choosing her would push him nearly instantly to mastery with both sub skills. Which mean…did he want technical skills or easier/quicker combat skill mastery? That wasn’t an easy choice, particularly given that feeling out what Motoko would give him had caused him to realize she possessed a lot of purely mechanical and technical knowledge in addition to the hacking. A lot more than Psylocke did.

Frowning, his eyes traced back over to where he’d slotted his powers. Well, he’d already made this choice once, right? If he’d been fine with taking time to build himself up before, then that should be the case again, and Motoko’s Grandmastery of everything hacking would be far harder to come by the long way. As would her knowledge of advanced cybernetics and the like. Nodding, he slotted Motoko and moved onto the last thing he had to do.

Groaning as he realized what was left, he wondered if he was allowed to take an actual nap instead of just resting his brain. After all, character creation had always been the slowest part of a video game for him, and the moment he’d slotted two images to test with, a character creator controlling features and details of each had popped up. Whimpering, but knowing he would be stuck with this appearance for potentially a very long time, given Tamaranean life spans, he set to work…

-----

He really didn’t want to know how long he’d just spent on ‘character creation.’ Yet, as he stared at the end result, one that he’d made darn sure to examine from every possible angle so he didn’t end up with that nonsense of looking awesome at creation then terrible in 3D, he was satisfied with the result. Mind you, he was also a little concerned with some of the choices he’d made. It had, unfortunately, been another case of not knowing where he was going being detrimental to easy decision making.

It wasn’t a really big shocker that his biggest puzzler had been ‘to Futa or not to Futa.’ Out of his original 100 images, there had only been 3 with Futa characters in them. That, however, wasn’t really the issue. No, the issue had been the same one that had been causing everything else to drag along at a crawl as he’d done every step of this process. He just didn’t know what sort of place he was going to be landing in. His final build lacked shapeshifting, so if he landed in a particularly judgmental time period or reality, it might well fuck him over if he went with the futa thing. Likewise, it could wildly affect his chance of finding someone ‘into him’ for either the good or bad.

Ultimately, he’d thrown up his hands and said ‘fuck it, I’ve chosen having more options in the long run for every other choice so far, so ‘to Futa’ it is!

That, ironically, had actually made his life easier. Otherwise he might still be working on this. After all, it had narrowed down at least one of his options to a fairly generic Elf, a Futa version of Miruko from My Hero Academia, and a Futa version of Shaak Ti from Star Wars. Since his next real choice had been to narrow down if he’d wanted to deal with having a truly alien appearance or not had farther narrowed that down. Ultimately, he’d chosen ‘no,’ as it made him more likely to be able to blend in if he could pretend to be human. Assuming, of course, that humans were even a thing wherever he was going.

That choice had eliminated the Shaak Ti Futa image. Apparently, there was a set percentage of each image he had to use, and there was too much of Shaak Ti that was alien to make it work easily. Everything passed that step, of course, was where the choice paralysis had kicked in. As everything else was really personal choice…and he’d originally saved most of these images because he found the characters attractive in the first place.

As with the futa choices, some options had been easy to discard for his second slot. Characters like Karlach from Baldur’s Gate 3 were too inhuman to be useful with his previous decision, just as one example. Ironically, the two Futa images he’d been left with both had Oversized Tits of Doom. Which, while he was a breast guy and liked to look, really could be taken too far. That let him focus down on some of the girls with more modest sizes that could be used to limit the ridiculousness a bit. He was apparently allowed to adjust somewhat freely, but needed two significantly different examples to work with.

Ultimately, despite being tempted by the status of Boa Hancock and her ‘most beautiful woman in the world’ status effect, he’d fallen into the allure of letting his future body look at least a little exotic. To that end, he’d ultimately chosen an incredibly nice image of Medusa from Fate. Then crossed her with the Miruko Futa image. He’d swapped Medusa’s pink hair for Miruko’s white, but kept the striking pink eyes. That could always be covered with something like contacts, and the hair could always be dyed if needed. Likewise, the combination of pink eyes and white hair could probably be blamed on albinism?

He wasn’t actually sure if that was how albinism worked in humans. But if he wasn’t sure, most other people probably weren’t either. So it would probably work if he said it with a straight enough face.

He’d tried both skin tones and the range between them, but settled on something pretty close to Medusa’s pale skin. The white hair went with everything, but the pink eyes just looked silly on darker tones. Breasts he’d gone just a bit bigger than Medusa’s, not able to resist the allure, even if he didn’t want to go over the top completely. He shifted more toward Miruko’s muscle tone, though. Eight pack with just enough fat over it to soften it? Heck yes. He’d discovered, happily, that he should shift testicles to be internal and he had, of course, kept a female set of genitals as well.

Seriously, why did people make Futa’s with just a dick? He’d never been able to figure that one out. To him, the whole point is you wanted the extra variety, right? So why the frick would you swap one for the other when you could have both? As for his new dick…okay, yeah, he’d gone with what he called a pornstar+ model. If he was going in this direction, might as well commit. Doubly so since he’d gone with the image Miruko’s 5’11” height.

It always amused and occasionally annoyed him that artists just could not wrap their brain around the fact that the badass amazonian battle bunny was actually only 5’2”. It just seemingly would not compute for most of them. Since it had worked out in his favor this time though, he could forgive it.

Regardless, after one last check over the figure, plus some surprising options he’d found that related to his other choices, he locked it all in. Those extra options had included control over his own fertility and a fully prehensile tongue, apparently both Tamaranean things. As well as eidetic memory that had come from a combination of Momo and Motoko both having heighted memory in one case and flawless in the other. A few more such titbits had been useful and he’d checked them off or not with careful thought. Now, he just waited to see what would happen.

For a heartbeat, it was nothing. Then, he was falling again…

... ... ... ... ... ... ...

A/N 1: This is honestly the only portion of the story where the character is even mostly an SI. Even here, I've made some major personality tweaks, in order to get the sort of character I needed. But the thought process during character creation is at least mostly similar to my own. Albeit with some of the reasoning edited out for publication, as it got too rambly. 

A/N 2: As I said at the top, I really did do what the character did. I pulled the last 100 images I'd downloaded from various places off my phone (excluding 2B and the in-story exclusions) and used them as a pool of options to choose from. This was one of dozens of random ways to initiate a story that I'd had just floating around in my head. A story prompt really. One that could even include the world, if you wanted, by using a fourth slot to choose a character whose world you'd travel to. I can actually supply the pool of images I used, if people are curious, but it's not really important. 

A/N 3: I...honestly probably ended up overpowering the character? Starfire PROBABLY should have been a 2-slot character. But she was borderline. Given how many high-level characters there are in the Amalgam world, it's probably fine long-term, but Alyssa is going to be a bit OP in the short term. ?Since this was originally a near throw-away story, I wasn't as careful with the balancing act as I usually am.