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It turns out that nowhere was next. Looking around, there was nothing, just a featureless, empty void. There was nothing, not even me.
That was disconcerting, but I remembered last time and concentrated on materialising. Nothing happened.
Ok, now I was starting to get worried.
“That’s not going to work this time” Chan said, smirking as she unfaded. “You’re thinking of yourself as you were, not as you will be. Here, pick something nice.”
In my consciousness appeared a series of choices, similar to the Pokémon Jump, but with images of what my body would look like upon choosing and a budget of 1800.
First was the build, the first and only free choice. I picked medium, it was what I was most comfortable with. I’ve never been a lightweight, and I had a heavy gut in my first life, something of which I could be rather self-conscious.
Next was Body Types. Bodybuilder (100, not really my thing, I like strength but not being overtly muscular), Charmer (100, maybe, but I could be quite affable already and I’d rather have a body that was more suited to the physical aspects of Jumping to make up for where I was lacking), Bestial (150, no. Just no. I have nothing against furries, even though whoever wrote the choice seems to, but I’m definitely not interested in looking like an anthropomorphic animal for the rest of my life. Maybe for a Jump, but not an eternity), and Athlete (100, more toned than buff and still very fit). I think we have a winner.
After buying the Athletic body type I had 1700 for my stats and extras. The stats were Strength, Endurance, Speed, Dexterity, Appeal, Shape, and Sense, each with 4 50CP tiers. Thanks to Athletic I got two free tiers in Spd and Dex, plus one of two ranks of Flexibility from the extras, which meant I was practically a contortionist, could run 15 miles an hour (just under 25kph in metric), and do basic parkour.
I was already pretty damn good at parkour thanks to Freerunning and Phys Fitness which I picked up in Pokémon, but Chan told me that this would be my new baseline and everything else would stack.
I splurged the 200 to make me as fast as Usain Bolt on a motorcycle (not sure what that translates to, but at an estimate I’d say in the area of about 60kph, probably a bit more or less thanks to them using the imperial system instead of metric), and give me Mirror’s Edge skills (never actually played it, but I know that it had some awesome moves in it, wall running here I come).
That left me with 1500 and a plethora of picks.
200 to let me lift three times my own body weight (baseline, Phys Fit adds way on top of that) and rippling muscles.
“Do I have to have the massive muscles? I’d prefer it to be a bit more subtle.”
“Don’t worry darlin’, you picked athletic so it’ll all fit that aesthetic.”
Another 200 bringing me down to 1100 for the endurance to run all day (no exact time, but I’m guessing about 15-18 hours if we go from waking up to going to sleep rather than sunup to sundown which would be about 12ish hours) and not feel sore in the morning.
200 for the full Sense package was a steal. The first tier alone gave me much needed 20/20 vision; then 20/15 which meant further sight; then triple the range and power for sight, smell, and hearing; and finally sight and hearing beyond the human spectrum, UV, IR, HF, LF, a whole new fucking world of colours and sounds. Like I said, 200 was a steal.
I grabbed two tiers of Appeal which meant clear skin and hair, which was nice for someone who had problem skin and bad dandruff.
One purchase of shape also meant that I’d shed any extra body fat left me with 750 for the extras.
Height? Nah, I’m fine with how tall I am.
Endowed? Is there anyone insecure enough to take that? I haven’t had any complaints about my dick size (technique, yes, but that was a matter of practice which we both ended up enjoying).
Winged? I can have wings? Fuck yes! I’ve always wanted wings! 150 well spent, 600 left.
Evercleansed, another easy yes. Always as clean as if I just stepped out of a shower was worth 100. I just wish I could’ve had this during Pokémon. It’s really hard to find a place to wash when you’re always sleeping rough.
500 down to 400 for the second level flexibility, making me unnaturally flexible, more so than a contortionist.
Colour? Maybe. I’m not gonna make myself look like I’m black or anything, that smacks of blackface, but I wouldn’t mind changing my skin tone so that I tan rather than lobsterfy when I’m out in the sun. I’ll come back to it.
Metavore sounds great. Lets me eat whatever I want and remain healthy as long as I’m eating enough. That’s 100, bringing me down to 300 left.
The last one was Genderswap, letting me switch between male and female bits twice a jump. Nah, if I’m turned female by the gender coin then I’m turned female by the gender coin. I’ve only ever been nominally male in the first place, I’m fine with having a female body if when it happens.
I grab Colour, because why not? And I still have 200 left. What to buy, what to buy...
“Can I buy wings again?”
“You can’t have a second set of wings.”
“Not like the ones I’ve got now, I mean like a smaller set to make me more manoeuvrable in the air.”
“Still no sweetcheeks.”
Well shit. I’ve got 200 left and nothing really jumping out at me. Maybe I should dump them all in Endowed just for the hell of it.
Looking back up at the stats, I’m not interested in the final Appeal tiers, no wrinkles and scars takes out the personality of your appearance. They show you’ve been living, and I think scars are pretty cool. Maybe that’s a little naïve, but so what, I’ve got enough cynicism to allow for a little naïvete here.
The next tiers in Shape adjust my leg/torso ratio, sexify my hips, and give me a killer bod with curves/abs to attract anyone. Well if they’re only into me for my looks then it’s likely a one night stand, never been that into those. Besides, I don’t really need any of that stuff, if I could get a couple girlfriends and a boyfriend when I was looking like I did in my first life, then I’m sure I’ll be able to find one in my new body if I want one.
Fuck it, there’s nothing else to get, and I don’t want to waste the points, so I’ll just dump them all in Endowed. I feel so weird, kinda grotty, doing it. Four purchases give me an extra 8 inches for my maleness, and a big boost to cup size for my femaleness.
“Alright, I guess I’m done.”
As soon as I say/project that to Chan, I materialise in the void. Buck naked of course. Chan looked me over, smiling almost hungrily, and stepped aside to reveal a large mirror for me to check myself out.
I looked pretty good. I was more androgynous than before, but still recognisably me, although the androgyny might just be from the lack of facial hair and excess body fat. Hopefully I’ll be able to regrow my facial hair, I like having a beard and moustache.
My skin colour has gone from English heritage it-rains-constantly-and-I-never-see-the-sun pale white to Mediterranean I-live-on-the-coast-and-don’t-burn-at-the-first-sign-of-the-sun white.
Like Chan assured me, my muscles weren’t huge and bulgey. They were still fairly large, but were more toned to fit with my athletic appearance, fit and fairly slender, but with a muscle gut rather than bodybuilder show abs. My shoulders had always been pretty broad, but now they seemed a little bulkier, and not just because of the new muscles. Oh wait...
I spread my wings and grinned widely. They were awesome. A little draconic, quite batlike, each wing was about an arm-span and a half, slightly leathery to the touch, and had very small soft yet wiry hairs covering them that would let me read the breeze. There were also two claw-like fingers on the top of the midjoint that would allow me to sort of grip to something when I had them spread. And finally, when I folded them up again, they were barely noticeable, even when you knew they were there.
Finally, there was of course my newly elongated dick. It was a lot larger than I recalled. I guess the girth had adjusted to its new length, which hung to my knee. That was gonna take some getting used to.
“I would’ve much preferred a second set of wings” I sighed, looking at Chan, who was eyeing my package with gleaming eyes.
“Don’t care,” she shrugged, “but maybe you could convince me, if you use the right tool for the job.” She licked her lips and winked at me.
“Alright, fine. No manoeuvring wings” I grumbled. Still not doing anything with a Nigh Omnipotent Being. That’s just asking for trouble, just look at anyone who slept with Zeus.
“Well now that you’ve had your makeover, how about somewhere to live?” Chan asked, causing another document to appear in my consciousness.
This one was for an extradimensional warehouse, and gave me a budget of 450. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but looking over the document it was more than enough to buy everything. I pointed this out to Chan, who just shrugged.
“That happens sometimes with supplements. Don’t worry about it, you’ll still feel like you’re short on a lot of jumps.”
Alright then, I guess. I bought the whole lot. I got the basic utilities: plumbing, electricity, heat/air con; I got a hookup to the local world’s internet, a forcefield to stop people coming through to the warehouse after me, even adjustable gravity.
Then there were structures. Free shelving, an inventory computer, sorting robots, a fully furnished house, a medbay that can fix anything short of brain death, and a fully stocked workshop. That last one was nice, I might be able to make Master Balls here. In Pokéworld, the best I could manage with parts I bought, found, and scavenged were just shy of Ultra Ball quality, I did make them reusable though if the Pokémon broke free. It was just a minor issue of having it rewrite the unfinished codon stream information that was DNA locked to a single Pokémon. Since the information left from the escaped Pokémon was incomplete it couldn’t identify the Pokémon it was supposed to be linked to. It was a fairly simple fix that I think wasn’t done so that the pokeball companies could turn a bigger profit. Anyway, back to it.
After the structures was Misc. Always a fun jumble to look through is misc. There was a portal I could use instead of hijacking a door, and a second portal that I could open to anywhere I had been in a world, letting me fast travel through the warehouse. There was a food supply that constantly gave enough food for five people at a time, a hardsuit that let me carry twice my base strength and was specifically useless in a fight, extra space which doubled the size of my warehouse to 100,000 square feet (a touch less than 9300m2), a loft that let me stack things possibly nigh-infinitely, a return button which let me go back to a previous jump for another decade, and stasis pods for when social fu isn’t enough to get a companion or you feel like kidnapping world leaders and replacing them with pod people. Since I still had a pile of points and the stasis pods were the only thing I could buy multiple times, I got seven of them to spend myself out.
As I confirmed my purchases, the warehouse faded into existence, as did - to my great relief - my clothes.
“Awesome. Thank you,” I said to Chan as I looked around the huge space. There was a small house in one corner, a large swath of empty space, and a fuckton of floor to ceiling shelves taking up most of the rest of the place. “There was one more thing you said I could have.”
Chan rolled her eyes at me. “Your cat is in the house” she said, waving a hand towards it. “I’ll give you a couple of hours before you need to fill out your choices for the next jump.”
I ran to the house as fast as my new body could take me. I opened the door and there was my Evil, looking confused as to how he got here. He saw me and started meowing at me telling me how much he didn’t appreciate his transdimensional relocation in the middle of his nap. I was so happy to see him, I missed him so much over the years.
I picked him up and cuddled him and gave him kisses on his little fuzzy face. My mostly black cat was a little annoyed at this, but he took it as his due, even though for him it was less than an hour ago that he saw me. I buried my face in his white patched chest while he groomed my hair.
All too soon Chan cleared her throat pointedly, dangling a jump tablet between her fingers at me. I gave my pretty puss a kiss on his sleeping head and sat up properly on the couch.
This one had Infamous across the top. I knew a little about the games, but never actually played them. The main character had lightning powers and could absorb electricity from various sources to recharge and power up. I think there was some sort of uprising in the sequel where a bunch of people with powers made themselves known and wanted to be treated equally, or maybe I’m confusing it with the plot of X-Men. I dunno, I just know that there were lightning powers involved.
The people with powers are called Conduits and I’m being dropped in after the end of the second game, according to the document, and it assumes the good karma ending for both games, so that’s nice. I don’t know what the good or bad karma endings are for either, but good karma is always preferable.
First up is location, and a little map of America appears with various cities lighting up. I tap the screen and it zooms in on Chicago. That’s nice I guess, apparently the pizza is really good there.
Honestly this city hasn’t changed much since Conduits started popping up. Crime has increased, but the D.U.P. effectively purged Chicago of Conduits. The D.U.P. has since up and left. Public Opinion: Mixed. Crime: Moderately High. Military Presence: Low
D.U.P.? The fuck is that? Department of Ultimate Policing? Special fascist department probably from context. Well at least I won’t have to deal with them much during my tenure in Chicago, the trade off being a bunch of wannabe crime lords running around. Meh, I’ll have Conduit powers (presumably) as well as psionics and half a dozen elemental monsters to make sure nobody fucks with me too much.
The Wheel of Ageing and Coin-Flip of Gender made me a 23 year old girl. That’s gonna make it interesting, I’ve never been a girl before. For origins, I can be a drifter, a student, a soldier, or a prisoner. I think I’ll go drifter, it’s free and the others don’t really appeal to me all that much.
Free Conduit power, alright! Can only pick one... I think I’ll go with cryokinesis. Ice is very versatile if used right, and it’s pretty cool too.
Chan groaned loudly. “Did you pick it just for that pun?”
“Maybe. You’ll never know for sure” I grinned.
Now come the perks. As a drifter I get Strength free, enough to bench press a car. That’s pretty good. I dish out 300 for Durability, Stamina, and Regen so I can take a dozen bullets, heal from them in seconds, and keep running. Since stamina stacks with my bodymod endurance, I could probably run for 24 hours without rest. Run, Forrest, run.
Toggle is discounted, 150 to be able to switch off my ice powers so I don’t wreck my stuff. Focus and Analytics are both 300 and will give me near perfect situational awareness and let me slow my perception of time. It didn’t let me move any faster, but I could react faster, and that makes one hell of a difference.
So that’s 1050 down, 1950 left to spend.
Make that 1350. I splurged 600 on Extra Power so I can have Pulse Heal from the electrokinesis line. Instead of healing people with lightning I’ll do it with frost.
So a bit less than half my CP to spend on Gear. I use 100 to import my Pokémon bag as a super durable Extended Space Bag that could survive Conduit powers and another 200 to make my extendable baton a Conduit Weapon. I got a Safe House free, pretty nice that they give me a bolt hole where I can go to my warehouse discreetly. I looked over the 50CP items and tossed in a Kevlar Vest. I didn’t need a wing suit and I had a parachute and rebreather already. Besides, better safe than sorry.
That put me at a nice even 1000.
Importing my pokégear as a sturdy mobile phone, my laptop to be Conduit resistant and nigh bulletproof, and my hypervisor for a minimap and tactical info upgrade was 300 all up.
I spent 400 for an untraceable handgun and sniper rifle. I was going to America and could probably pick some up at the corner shop with my milk and eggs, but untraceable guns would come in handy at some point during this jump, so again, better safe than sorry.
With 300 left, I went down to check out the drawbacks before making any more purchases.
I had to take two, so I took Greenlit and Habit for 400. One put a local gang after me, which would probably happen anyway, and the other made me addicted to draining energy. I could handle that. Cold showers every day and fighting jerkwads sounds like fun.
Chan chuckled at that in a way I didn’t like, but didn’t say anything
With my new 700 CP, I dumped 400 into getting a Biocapacitor and Bioconverter. The first let me store energy for later, and the second turned sunlight into Conduit energy. Both very useful.
I put down 100 for a Tracking System that came with 20 trackers, a handheld locator, and blueprints for more. I could think of a few uses for that.
With my last 200 I could get a hand crossbow and import my parachute and rebreather, or I could get a bug out bag. Hmmm... I went with the bug out bag. Better to have it and not need it than importing things that wouldn’t change at all.
“Alright, let’s go” I said and hit INSERTION. Before I disappeared, a message showed up that told me the Stalker drawback had been chosen for me and a dangerous Conduit would be hunting me down. Shit shit shit shit shit.
Everything faded away as Chan laughed to herself.