17 Members Assembled

The next day, after having looked through all the prospective team members, Burns and Donovan met again. This time, they were going to finalize who they'd select.

"These are the four I think we should recruit" Burns said as he gave Donovan the list. "Hope Perkins is the best choice for a combat/support role out of all the applicants. Her External Magic, which allows her to heal any individual back to perfect health once a day, is strong if inflexible. More importantly, she's got some heavy-duty cybernetic enhancements and loads of combat experience. Even though her magic is centered purely on healing others she hasn't used it much as a Jack, instead relying on her enhancements to get most jobs done. In a team I think she could show even greater potential."

Donovan nodded in agreement and said "I also thought she'd be a good choice. Still, I'm surprised you didn't include Damien Young. The Dragon Jack is the single most powerful Jack on this list. Even I can't beat him in a one on one fight."

"In regards to Damien, as well as Mary and a few other people, I think we should try recruiting them into our organization but not our team, unless we create multiple teams rather than one. The key reasoning I relied on when picking the four I did was that we'd make up the last two members. As strong as the Dragon Jack is personally, we're trying to build a strong team, not a group of strong individuals. Honestly, someone like Damien would benefit the most from having a team dedicated to supporting him. In comparison, he'd be nowhere near as useful in a team with us."

"That's a good point. Actually is there any reason for us not to each lead a team?"

"Of course, in a single team we can build up trust in each other. If we were to lead separate teams the threat of one or both of us plotting against the other would always pose a threat in our minds, if not in reality. You already thought that through yourself though, didn't you?"

"Guilty as charged" Donovan laughed.

"That's a bad habit of yours, planting seeds of your own ideas into others and then leading them to believe they're their own. I don't mind if you do it to other people but you do it so often it gets annoying for me."

"Sorry, sorry. Anyway we basically have the same idea on who to pick, so how soon do you want to get started on this?"

"Right now. Every second counts. Let's head over to your place and then we can start setting up meetings for the other team members."

Donovan agreed to Burn's plan and the two promptly headed out. It took two days from that point to get everything settled but eventually the whole team was assembled in Donovan's personal training facility.

The training facility was located underground, beneath Donovan's mansion. It was cavernous, much larger than any one person would need it to be. Burns didn't doubt Donovan had been thinking about the future when he had this place built. Something like this would've cost the Steam Jack a great deal after all.

The training facility was split up into different sections. The smallest section resembled a drone control center in appearance but was actually designed for VR training. Donovan had full immersion VR booths, holographic monitors for those not in VR to observe what was happening, and a supercomputer for running complex simulations in VR. With the level of tech here, Burns had no doubt they'd be able to gain a lot from the time they spent here.

Aside from the VR section, there was also a shooting range, a regular gym, a modifiable obstacle course, and other spaces which had been left empty for future modifications. Once again Burns found himself being impressed by the Steam Jack. Most Jacks would never be able to make so much money and even if they did, would they invest so much of it the way Donovan had?

Returning his thoughts to the scene at hand, Burns observed the four Jacks that had assembled here alongside him and Donovan. Hope Perkins, the Cyborg Jack, was one of those rare Jacks whose title was based on something other than her magic. She was tall, the tallest of the six in fact, at something like six foot four or maybe even six foot five by Burns' estimation. It was hard to say if that was her original height or not due to just how much her body had been modified though.

While she still cut a feminine figure, Hope's head was the only part of her body that didn't seem to have been extensively enhanced with cybernetics. From the neck down, she was a figure of polished chrome, rune-engraved titanium, and dull, multi-colored camouflage. Her arms and legs were both longer and larger than was normal in human proportions, making her seem even more alien in appearance. Her blonde hair and blue eyes only added to the strangeness.

Paul Brownstone was far more normal in comparison. Paul didn't have any power armor, weapons, or high-tech modifications. Dressed in cargo pants, a t-shirt, jacket, and toboggan, he looked rather normal. Despite that, Paul was more interesting to Burns. Paul was a very unusual Internal Magic user with a large number of abilities even before the Third Shift. Most Internal Magic users either became common fantasy beings such as vampires or developed some other body-altering ability. Paul wasn't either. Instead, while he had transformed into a fantasy creature, it was one no one had heard of before.

On the surface, Paul still looked normal but his Internal Magic had actually changed him drastically. For one thing, the fifty-something man looked like he was in his early twenties. That was just the tip of the iceberg too. Paul's list of abilities went on and on. He had night vision, an acute sense of smell, great strength, inhuman speed, skin tougher than a rhino's, the ability to hold his breath for several hours, high-speed regeneration as good as Burns', and toxic bodily fluids. That was all without any gene mods too.

Unfortunately, Paul also had his weaknesses. He could only subsist off of human flesh, like a ghoul, and experienced extremely strong cravings for food. Worse still, the more he ate the weaker he'd become. Strangely enough, to reach his peak strength Paul had to stop eating entirely. As for how his body sustained itself without food; that was a mystery even Paul didn't have an answer for. Paul also suffered from sunlight, though not in the way a vampire typically would. Sunlight caused him great pain but no actual bodily harm.

Ultimately, Paul's magic made him incredibly powerful but he was constantly fighting to remain in control of himself. If he gave in to his hunger at any point he'd become little more than a starving beast. Knowing this, having experienced it before, Paul had made great efforts to remain in control but even now, years after the first Shifts, he was forced to eat regularly to maintain complete control over himself.

Although Paul did pose a threat to the rest of the team, Burns wasn't concerned. He and Donovan both saw the potential in Paul and had decided to include him in the team. If he could master his magic he'd be an impressive asset.

Besides that, there was another reason they'd decided on recruiting Paul. Clarissa Goodwin was that reason. Her External Magic allowed her to form a telepathic web which could connect up to thirteen people at once. People connected by the web could exchange thoughts and monitor each other regardless of distance. With this ability not only would it be impossible for the team's communication to be shut down by jamming, it'd also be possible for them to keep an eye on Paul at all times.

Clarissa, like some of the others who'd been considered for the team, didn't have much experience as a Jack. In her case, Clarissa had decided to join the team due to her poor relationship with Aceron. Although what that relationship entailed wasn't something she'd explained Burns wasn't concerned with her history.

Clarissa was a short woman, especially in comparison to Hope. She had raven black hair and brown eyes. Although she was wearing power armor, it was a bog-standard Aceron Frontline series. While relatively affordable as far as power armor went, the Frontline was one of the worst suits of power armor sold on the market. It would've been better for her to have purchased a Winter&Steel Solid series or perhaps even a repair-job. The way Burns saw it, it would be hard to find a worse set of power armor, especially for a Jack.

The last member of the team was Orthos. Whoever he'd been before the first Shifts, he'd long left that identity behind. Orthos was a self-labeled "Necromechamancer;"someone whose External Magic combined aspects of necromancy and technomancy. More specifically, Orthos was able to create drones, droids, and mechs with necromantic capabilities. At the same time, he could summon zombies and skeletons capable of wielding technomancy to varying degrees.

As for the man himself, he wasn't really much of a man at all anymore. Hope had taken cybernetic enhancements farther than most people ever would but Orthos had gone far beyond what she had. Aside from his brain and some other organs that were carefully maintained, his entire body was a massive machine.

Orthos body was shaped like a spider, with eight legs extending out from the main body. Orthos wasn't taller than Hope but in terms of mass he was assuredly the largest and heaviest person in the training facility. His metal body, aside from being large, wasn't actually that visually impressive. It was clearly a custom design and seemed to have been constructed from a junk yard's random scrap. Between the rust, multiple colors of faded paint, and oil stains, Orthos seemed ready to collapse at any moment.

In this case though, Burns knew that appearance was a partial deception. While the outer layer of Orthos body was actually composed of subpar materials, everything underneath was quality work. Orthos had incorporated technologies from most of the major powers in the Americas when he'd designed his body.

Orthos' mechanical body had impressive defenses and multiple stealth technologies for hiding himself away, despite his size. On the other hand, he didn't have any weapon systems. For him, any attacks he wanted to launch would come from his minions; that also happened to be where Orthos' greatest strength and weakness lay.

Although his External Magic was powerful, Orthos needed resources on a massive scale to get the most out of his magic. Aside from his main body he only had a couple drones, custom flyers capable of raising and controlling up to one hundred zombies each. On his own, it was difficult for the Necromech Jack to accomplish much, but with a team to help support his growth, he also had a great deal of potential. So long as he had enough machines and corpses, Burns suspected he'd prove more than capable.

Overall, the team seemed great on paper. The real question was how things would work out in reality. Although Burns felt confident in his choices for the team members, he was well aware any number of issues could crop up. All he could do now was work hard and adapt to any problems, foreseen or unforeseen.