Revelations and Assimilations

(Nathan POV)

Another two days have passed, and it is now the 24th of December, Christmas Eve, a day of celebration and joy, but now it was simply another day as after waking up from that nap, I had been simply training myself in preparation for that new type of training Sensei was talking about. 

So far, I have been able to beat Shiva half of the time without the usage of my innate powers, which made me feel satisfied and her the same.

It turns out that Shiva had grown bored with all the soldiers who could not beat her in a one-on-one fight, and when she saw me that day, she asked if I could train with her. And even though I was getting my butt kicked initially, the spars have definitely helped in growing my martial prowess immensely. I was no Batman yet, but I was definitely getting up there.

Every punch, kick, dodge, parry, slash, stab, and cut was progress, as I felt an innate growth with every movement. It's kind of like perfecting a dance in a way, a rhythm for all intents and purposes. My assimilations had made progress, but my Mercer one has stagnated, and I know why.

[Loid Forger (Spy X Family): 99%]

[Taskmaster (Marvel Comics: Earth 616): 99%]

[Alex Mercer (Prototype 1&2) 28%]

I needed to expand my biomass and accept this new change as the virus has been screaming for me to consume and devour, but thanks to inviolate, I am able to keep it under control. I control my own body. This virus does not. 

It is simply a means to an end, and that is all it will ever be. I can never believe myself above anyone in this universe as, at any moment, any person in this base could become a cosmic being or wield planet-shattering power.

My other templates had finally reached 99% a couple of hours ago, and so after returning to my room, I saw a notification from the Gacha Essence appear in front of me.

[Would you like to ascend Taskmaster and Loid Forger Templates?]

I accepted the notification and felt the skills and powers slot into place within me as the powers were attached to their cards until I completely assimilated them, but now they are mine forever. So, seeing the two empty slots, I looked to Archer(Emiya) and Sheev. I placed the cards into my slots and waited for a change.

After a single breath, I felt fire traveling through my veins as green lines flowed across my being while I felt a new power attach itself to all of my cells. The regen and adaptability from Blacklight made accepting the Midichlorians seamless, but having your soul essentially enhanced to create circuits was not pleasant.

But after all of my training, I simply sat there in silence with barely a change in my expression, although a bit of sweat did form on my forehead due to the decent amount of pain I was in. 

All 27 magic circuits then formed, and the light faded, but thankfully, only I could perceive the lights and lines of the circuits, and the cameras in my room would see nothing.

Luckily, it seemed Teekl and Klarion were busy, so I did not need to worry about him for a while, but as I focused my mind, I began to feel the force, albeit with only a percent in Palpatine's template. It was like a fly landing on exposed skin. It was something light yet delicate, which then gave way to something darker.

The small touching feeling then began to turn into a whisper that promised power, wealth, Victory, and most importantly, freedom, but I forced the whispers down with willpower and perspective. 

Every single power had a cost, and as long as it wasn't too ridiculous, I was willing to pay as I would take any and all advantages. But with the whispers receding, I turned away from the cameras I could sense and took out my katana.

Placing it on my lap, I placed my fingers on the flat end of the blade, focused my new circuits, and attempted my first bit of Magecraft. In the form of structural analysis, I felt the lines spread themselves slowly, but my circuits then began to burn as I stopped and the lines receded. 

Breathing heavily, I sheathed my blade and felt my arms ache for a moment before the pain receded.

"Too early for that, it seems," I thought to myself as I then felt the weight of Palpatine's and Archer's experiences begin to weigh on me as while one became cynical and bitter by the inevitability of his contract with Alaya as well as his failure to achieve his dream the other was a madman who desired power and control.

They are two opposing men, but both use their circumstances to increase their power for their own ends, but on entirely opposite sides of the moral spectrum. So, taking my focus from my new templates, I saw something rather interesting.

[Sheev Palpatine (Star Wars Legends): 2%]

[Alex Mercer (Prototype 1&2) 28%]

[Emiya (Archer) (Fate): 5%]

My template for Archer was already at 5%. Maybe this progress is also taking into account my general mindset and how I view the world into account which was a bit alarming on how my similarity with Archer was so pronounced, but on the other hand, I was a little like Sheev, so that's a good thing. But for now, I felt someone watching me again and using my senses in the force; I could see who.

Psimon, a telepath whose head looked like a Metroid, was standing down the hallway, and now it made sense they were testing my mental defenses, but from the annoyance, I could feel from Psimon, I didn't think that it would work out. 

But just in case, I form a memory package within my mind that includes the life of this body while hiding the other more personal memories from my other life as well as knowledge of this universe.

So if I am ever forced to reveal memories, I can let down a telepath's guard by showing them what I want to show them. Although I am taking some amount of enjoyment, I sense Psimon's frustration growing as he cannot access my mind. But a question does come to mind: as Psimon was a part of the Fearsome Five, is he on loan to the Light, or is he simply doing someone a favor?

But for now, I use this opportunity to practice my control over the force as, at an basic level, the force provides enhanced senses and physical attributes while also opening the mind to the universe. It was actually somewhat similar to The Warp from Warhammer but so much less messed up, as the force in this universe seems to be a type of leftover energy from the white light of life.

Thankfully, no one else will be able to develop Midichlorians, although imagining different heroes and villains as for sensitives is rather interesting. 

But as I sensed the force, I felt how divided the emotional aspect of it was. This divide was caused by the various differences in the emotional spectrum, while the force seemingly acts like a type of connective tissue, allowing for general use or at least sensing of these emotions.

Unlike the normal Star Wars Universe, which is split up into light, gray, and dark, this universe is split into multiple patchworks of emotions and various domains. 

The amount of esoteric potential is immense, to say the least. But the amount of time I would need to dedicate to learning the ways of the force would be a decent time sink.

However, as the paracausal weight seemed to just keep adding on to my already decent load, Psimon got fed up and left while I meditated. I feel as if I'm going to be meditating a lot when trying to increase the assimilation progress with this template specifically.

So, as I decided to turn in for the day to allow my body and soul to recover from any possible damage, I decided to do something I had not done before. 

While the essence of the gacha allows me to roll for 10 using 30 points, there is another form of it that allows me to roll 10 cards for free, but they will be of low rarity, and since I had been busy getting my ass kicked and learning the ways of comic martial arts, I did not want to use it yet.

But since my new templates are mostly involved with either straight-up eating people, consuming knowledge, becoming stronger, or simply learning Magecraft, I wanted to take a chance at the free gacha. So I pulled up the gacha screen and, mentally clicking on the free daily gacha, I saw the same summoning room and platform.

As the platform began to surge with energy with rings forming around the center, ten cards revealed themselves to be:

1. The Jackdaw (Fully Armed And Stocked Pirate Glory) (AC4)

2. Twin (Hook)Hidden Blade (AC: Revelations) (Two Parts: Hook And The Blade)

3. 100 Pounds Of Flex Tape (The Best Material To Fix A Lotta Damage)

4. $1,000 (U.S. Currency)

5. Charles Dorian's Pocketwatch (Get Your Revolution Here!)(AC: Unity)

6. The Art Of War By Sun Tzu

7. Spy Makeup Kit (Spy X Family)

8. Nokia Phone (Unbreakable And Untraceable)

9. Five Pounds Of Gold ( In A World Without Gold, Men Could Be Heroes)

10. Iroh's Tea Set (Problems In Life? Have Tea.)(ATLA)

Well, that was definitely something, as while none of them are groundbreaking, all of them are definitely useful. The gold will definitely act as an amazing way of making money if I'm ever forced to go on the run. 

And the fact that I got myself a vessel of all things is definitely useful in case I ever find myself somehow stuck in the middle of the ocean, that is.

Out of all of them, the makeup kit will be amazing for missions as it holds various mask creation materials and will be restocked every day. This is definitely a great alternative to straight-up eating the person I want to impersonate using my black light virus.

So, as I closed the screen and went back to sleep, I wondered how the Light was reacting to my mental defense skills.

(Shiva POV)

A prodigy is nonexistent, for there is always someone better than a prodigy. This was something my Sensei told me, yet I found it hard to believe as no one could ever match up to me in martial arts other than Ra's and Sensei. Although I have yet to cross blades with men like Sportsmaster and Deathstroke, I welcome the challenge of facing them if need be.

That was until I met our newest recruit. I did not know his name as I was uninterested in such worthless things, so I just called him blank. This is because his expression always seemed to be blank and unreadable, as his face was often covered, and his eyes revealed nothing but a cold and dark color. Even though his eyes were a bit unnerving, it did not really make a difference, but then I began to spar with him.

 And I saw what a monster looked like with each passing second. He grew at exponential speeds, learning moves and skills that took me years to master or even attempt. Not to mention how his body was so much more flexible than a normal man's, which allowed him to dodge or parry my moves much more easily, and he seemed to have some resistance to poisons, but I wasn't using anything lethal as it was just a spar.

 But for the first time, I felt true excitement fighting someone who could not only keep up with me but possibly surpass me if I ever let my guard down. But even to this day, I have not seen his face, and Sensei would not allow me to follow him into his room or look at the camera feeds.

This has been one of the few times when I have felt frustrated at being denied something, but this may have been some form of hubris that had been forming within me that I had not noticed. My skills had never been denied, nor my requests until now, as they had found someone more skilled, at least in their eyes.

Yet, as my mind was filled with questions, I saw the psychic come in as Sensei, Ra, Talia, and I were speaking of future missions. And from his state, he was annoyed, which then showed itself verbally as he asked, "Ra's, who is that boy?!"

His tone made Sensei frown but Ra's put his hand in the air stopping him from doing anything reckless. "I asked you to test the boy mentally, so what happened, Psimon?"

"it's not what happened. It's what didn't happen. I was unable to reach his mind as it was guarded by an unbreakable wall. All of my tricks and all of my psychic might were useless in front of it, and when I thought I had gained access, it just led me into an infinite maze where I was assaulted by multiple copies of your student as some kind of mental defense as if not only his mind but his entire body was fighting against me." His answer left even Ra's shocked as Sensei held a small smile of pride for his student, and I may have hidden a bit of pride myself.

"This was not a development I knew of. were you harmed in any way?" Psimon shook his head and sat down.

"Regrettably, the only thing harmed was my pride has a psychic as the mind is usually an open book to me. Has he shown any signs of supernatural abilities?" Ra's then walked over to the table and said.

"No, he had not other than the ability to learn martial arts at a rapid pace, which may have been due to some mental advantage that we had not known about. Maybe his mind is special, and with his ability to block you out, this brings a new aspect to our recruit. But worry not, as he is under my thumb as the heart bomb is still in place. I thank you for lending us a favor and training our newest recruit. Your payment has been sent to your account." Psimon smiles and does a slight bow before leaving the room.

But as he left, Ra's seemed unnerved, and his face showed a myriad of emotions. Who or what did he bring back from Gotham City?