IdeasGuy

The Good Life: City of Dreams (ch. 1)

"Wallet? Check," I said, patting my ass to find my wallet in my back pocket. "Phone? Check," I continued, patting my left front pocket. "Car keys? Check," I continued, parting my right front pocket to find the key ring that also had my apartment key along with a few others. "Fifty kilos of cocaine?" I continued, my gaze landing on the duffle bag that was stuffed to the point of bursting with fifty bricks of some of the purest cocaine on the face of the planet.

"Check," I finished, tossi...

Legends Never Die: Shining Stars (ch. 38)

Strength surged in my limbs, the edge of exhaustion I had felt fading away to be replaced with power. The injuries that I had suffered seemed to close, or at the very least, they stopped bleeding. It didn't go unnoticed by the Paladins, who narrowed their eyes in response, but they said nothing of it. Roland leveled his blade at me while Rinaldo tried to hide the wound under his armpit that leaked blood down his chainmail and armor.

It was Thorkell that broke the brief standoff, throwin...

Legends Never Die: Weight of the Many (ch. 37)

The first day of the battle, I didn't fight. I sat on top of the hill with the reserves, my men seated on horseback as we waited for movement from the Paladins. However, on the first day, they didn't leave their king's side, leaving us to watch the two armies clash against each other. I watched with awe as the ground seemed to tremble underneath the many feet that charged across the field. It was almost like seeing a wall move, the air filled with war cries and defiant shouting from the Frank...

Legends Never Die: The Last Act (ch. 36)

I had never seen so many people in one place before, I thought, seated on top of a horse at the crest of the hill that would serve as the final battlefield of the war. It looked exactly as King Widukind, who was next to me, had  built it. Directly before us were thousands upon thousands of people -- a shield wall that felt like it could stretch on for miles and miles and at no less than twenty men thick at its thinnest. Fourteen thousand Saxons and Norsemen, in addition to three thousand...

Legends Never Die: Setting the Stage (ch. 35)

Jarl Aldmund hadn't quite managed to get everything into position within the time that we gave him, but it didn't matter. With such obvious bait before the Frank's eyes, even if they suspected a trap, they were compelled to still try to kill me. And because of that fact, they fell head first into it, completely missing the somewhat obvious Norse and Dutch soldiers until it was far too late. The ambush was announced with arrows being let loose from the trees that covered the small valley that ...

Never Fade Away: That Loved and Lost (ch. 23)

Things were progressing well. Almost too well, I thought as I looked out at T-7 and Kaiden, both of whom were currently basking in the sun. They both had optics, so there was no real danger of hurting their eyes by staring up at it for too long. They were joined by a good dozen others, all of them trying to adjust to the wide open spaces. Jack was with another group, as was David and Lucy. I honestly think I would be overwhelmed without them, because taking care of nearly two thousand childre...

Never Fade Away: It Was A Passion For The Ages (ch. 22)

"The outside world smells," M decided, looking around at Night City with a sense of wonder. Wonder that I had felt once, but now I was looking into every single shadow for an enemy. We were on our way back to the base in Pacifica -- everything had went as smoothly as it could have, even if the loss of A was a bitter pill to swallow. We had his body and he would get a burial. The first one among us, I figured.

"You get used to it," I told him. "Up until a few days ago, the ceiling was co...

Never Fade Away: Consumed My Hate (ch. 21)

"Your nose is bleeding," Jack remarked as we headed to our destination, flying in one of the air cars that I had commandeered. The others were following behind us, the mission already underway. I had anticipated this moment since I first escaped the Orphanage -- the moment that I would go back. I thought I would be nervous, or scared. Instead, I found that I was so focused that I hadn't even noticed that a drop of blood had trailed down out of my nose. "Did you miss a dose of your immune boos...

Never Fade Away: What Life Is Missing (ch. 20)

"I see," I heard myself say, feeling like I had been punched in the gut by the news that Lucy had just delivered to me. She had just come out of the deep dive, spending a good fifteen minutes down there while we dealt with the reinforcements. My heart clenched, pure dread gripping it and giving it a savage squeeze that stole my breath away. I tried to form a response, but my brain wouldn't work. It was stuck replaying what Lucy said on a loop. Something that I feared. Something that I suspect...

Gacha God: Dance Like No One Is Watching (ch. 21)

I opened my eyes, and it felt like I had been blind for my entire life and now the settings were kicked up to HD. I winced as Peter finished taking off the bandages while I sat on the machine that just did the transplant. We went right to cutting as soon as my plane arrived. As the last of the bandages fell away, Peter spoke, "You took to them pretty well according to Mr. Starks machine, but rejection is still something we have to worry about. So, erm, I'm going to keep your… eyes," Peter i...

Gacha God: Contractually Obligated Tragic Backstory (ch. 20)

"Well, that was particularly humiliating," Natasha Romanoff remarked, a frown in her voice as she looked at the massive pillar that had ripped through the asphalt, preventing them from giving chase to Audacity’s associate. It has been nothing more than dumb luck that she and Clint were already in Rome -- they were searching for records relating to… well, in any case, Natasha had jumped at the chance to capture someone that had connections to Audacity. He had been laying low for a few week...

Gacha God: Smooth as Sandpaper (ch. 19)

"Damn. It'd really help if I could speak or read Italian," I remarked, flipping through the instruction manual, seeing it all in a weird made up looking language. Though, I suppose all languages were made up. I just so happened to understand English. "Guess we're stuck looking at pictures," I continued, flipping through the book to find pictures that would help me fly the plane. I must have found the section for people that didn't know how to fly a plane but had to because the pilot had a med...

Gacha God: Just Deserts (ch. 18)

As far as plans went, it was a solid one. Shield didn't know about the Ring of Nine Dragons, and I doubt that me being able to produce clones would be their first assumption. Instead, I imagined they would assume that I -- Audacity -- had a team. And they were right about that, just less so than they figured. My face would be outed in connection to Audacity, nothing could be done about that, but they would have no reason to believe that I was Audacity himself.

"So, how exactly do I hand...

The Good Life: Ill-Intentions (ch. 3)

Cinder cycled through her social media pages, smirking to herself all the while. Across her feed were reposts of the video that the Vought team edited together -- and she had to admit, it was nicely done. If she hadn't been there, she would have thought that it had been an actual team-up, the transitions were so flawless. That video alone brought her more attention than she had received in the past month several times over.

With a lazy tap of her fingers, she uploaded a new video along ...

The Good Life: Sense of Purpose (ch. 2)

This world had very little in common with her own, Nico Robin was forced to conclude, and not for the first time as she took a sip of tea, gazing out to the aptly named City That Never Sleeps -- New York. At night, the sky was simply a dark curtain while the stars were instead streetlights, headlights, and skyscrapers -- another name that seemed rather deserving from her position. Most buildings were made out of steel and glass, motorized carriages stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, while a g...

The Good Life: City of Dreams (ch. 1)

"Wallet? Check," I said, patting my ass to find my wallet in my back pocket. "Phone? Check," I continued, patting my left front pocket. "Car keys? Check," I continued, parting my right front pocket to find the key ring that also had my apartment key along with a few others. "Fifty kilos of cocaine?" I continued, my gaze landing on the duffle bag that was stuffed to the point of bursting with fifty bricks of some of the purest cocaine on the face of the planet.

"Check," I finished, tossi...

From the Ashes: Glimmers of Victory (ch. 19)

Sorry, should have made it clear in my last update -- after this chapter, there will be one more chapter of From the Ashes before it takes a step back.

…

The aftermath of the battle was bad. It was downright impossible to tell how many darkspawn had been slain throughout the night but it must have been thousands. Several thousand. There were token efforts to count them, and in sure I would find out the total eventually, but for the most part, people collapsed or...

Legends Never Die: The Weight of the Many (ch. 37)

The first day of the battle, I didn't fight. I sat on top of the hill with the reserves, my men seated on horseback as we waited for movement from the Paladins. However, on the first day, they didn't leave their king's side, leaving us to watch the two armies clash against each other. I watched with awe as the ground seemed to tremble underneath the many feet that charged across the field. It was almost like seeing a wall move, the air filled with war cries and defiant shouting from the Frank...

Legends Never Die: The Last Act (ch. 36)

I had never seen so many people in one place before, I thought, seated on top of a horse at the crest of the hill that would serve as the final battlefield of the war. It looked exactly as King Widukind, who was next to me, had  built it. Directly before us were thousands upon thousands of people -- a shield wall that felt like it could stretch on for miles and miles and at no less than twenty men thick at its thinnest. Fourteen thousand Saxons and Norsemen, in addition to three thousand...

Legends Never Die: Setting the Stage (ch. 35)

Jarl Aldmund hadn't quite managed to get everything into position within the time that we gave him, but it didn't matter. With such obvious bait before the Frank's eyes, even if they suspected a trap, they were compelled to still try to kill me. And because of that fact, they fell head first into it, completely missing the somewhat obvious Norse and Dutch soldiers until it was far too late. The ambush was announced with arrows being let loose from the trees that covered the small valley that ...

Legends Never Die: Choosing the Battlefield (ch. 34)

"The boy isn't King," Jarl Aldmund voiced as soon as we left the city, a deep frown in his voice. "He couldn't be more of a puppet if he had strings attached to him and a hand up his arse." I nodded along at that, having noticed much the same. It could be that we didn't share a common tongue, but it seemed that the man took the liberty of answering questions for the king. But, more than that, my impression of Authun was that he was bored.

The only thing he seemed to have any interest in...

Never Fade Away: It Was A Passion For The Ages (ch. 22)

"The outside world smells," M decided, looking around at Night City with a sense of wonder. Wonder that I had felt once, but now I was looking into every single shadow for an enemy. We were on our way back to the base in Pacifica -- everything had went as smoothly as it could have, even if the loss of A was a bitter pill to swallow. We had his body and he would get a burial. The first one among us, I figured.

"You get used to it," I told him. "Up until a few days ago, the ceiling was co...

Never Fade Away: Consumed My Hate (ch. 21)

"Your nose is bleeding," Jack remarked as we headed to our destination, flying in one of the air cars that I had commandeered. The others were following behind us, the mission already underway. I had anticipated this moment since I first escaped the Orphanage -- the moment that I would go back. I thought I would be nervous, or scared. Instead, I found that I was so focused that I hadn't even noticed that a drop of blood had trailed down out of my nose. "Did you miss a dose of your immune boos...

Never Fade Away: What Life Was Missing (ch. 20)

"I see," I heard myself say, feeling like I had been punched in the gut by the news that Lucy had just delivered to me. She had just come out of the deep dive, spending a good fifteen minutes down there while we dealt with the reinforcements. My heart clenched, pure dread gripping it and giving it a savage squeeze that stole my breath away. I tried to form a response, but my brain wouldn't work. It was stuck replaying what Lucy said on a loop. Something that I feared. Something that I suspect...

Never Fade Away: We Had To Pay The Cost (ch. 19)

Predictably, the Tyger Claws were pretty pissed about their leadership getting zeroed like a bunch of chumps. They swarmed the building, flooded the streets, tearing through Night City in search of them. Jack leaned back in a chair while she listened to the radio, watching Becca swing around the blade she got from Miyamoto Musashi while making 'wahh' sounds. The two of them were safe back at Kiwi’s apartment and the security systems were activated.

"Word of warning Night City - stay o...

Gacha God: Contractually Required Tragic Backstory (ch. 20)

"Well, that was particularly humiliating," Natasha Romanoff remarked, a frown in her voice as she looked at the massive pillar that had ripped through the asphalt, preventing them from giving chase to Audacity’s associate. It has been nothing more than dumb luck that she and Clint were already in Rome -- they were searching for records relating to… well, in any case, Natasha had jumped at the chance to capture someone that had connections to Audacity. He had been laying low for a few week...

Gacha God: Smooth as Sandpaper (ch. 19)

"Damn. It'd really help if I could speak or read Italian," I remarked, flipping through the instruction manual, seeing it all in a weird made up looking language. Though, I suppose all languages were made up. I just so happened to understand English. "Guess we're stuck looking at pictures," I continued, flipping through the book to find pictures that would help me fly the plane. I must have found the section for people that didn't know how to fly a plane but had to because the pilot had a med...

Gacha God: Just Deserts (ch. 18)

As far as plans went, it was a solid one. Shield didn't know about the Ring of Nine Dragons, and I doubt that me being able to produce clones would be their first assumption. Instead, I imagined they would assume that I -- Audacity -- had a team. And they were right about that, just less so than they figured. My face would be outed in connection to Audacity, nothing could be done about that, but they would have no reason to believe that I was Audacity himself.

"So, how exactly do I hand...

Gacha God: Hero In Action (ch. 17)

Grenades were pretty handy, I decided, jury-rigging a daisy chain of grenades along the walls of my apartment. Everything of value was already inside of the Cave of Wonders, though Past Me didn’t know that yet. As far as he was aware, everything was as it should be -- he would meet Black Cat, make a deal with Tony Stark, and then he would head here to get some sleep while Ned tried to figure out exactly where Shield was keeping the Rising Tide hacker. As well as where Dr. Hall was being kep...

The Good Life: Sense of Purpose (ch. 2)

This world had very little in common with her own, Nico Robin was forced to conclude, and not for the first time as she took a sip of tea, gazing out to the aptly named City That Never Sleeps -- New York. At night, the sky was simply a dark curtain while the stars were instead streetlights, headlights, and skyscrapers -- another name that seemed rather deserving from her position. Most buildings were made out of steel and glass, motorized carriages stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, while a g...