<<Alright, I think I figured out what I did wrong. Sarah, you should be the only one able to talk for us after this, Aerith: It's been a pleasure, please have a good day! Gaia? Just uh… Keep on keeping on?>>
==Oh! Is Gaia your name!?==
{{C͚̘̯̮̙ọn̳̰f͇̞̟͓ͅu̘̟̱̠̜̜͍s̯̺͎͈̰̫̻i̺̟͓̰̗͖̮o͙͇̼̠̩n͙̭͚̙, ̳c͈͎̥̫ọ͈nf͚i͕͎̘r͓̤͍̼͙̱̬m̞̣͍ͅḁti̞͉̭o̠̲͎͚̲̩̪n̤͈,̗̮ͅ ̗̼̬͚̠̣s̶̡̼̟͖̟̬̩ͫ̌̎ͪ̐̿͗̅õ̗̗ͣͨ͘f̡̥̻̦̹͈̳̫̾̍̈̃͝t̶̲͓̟̼ͫ̅͊̍ͯͫͫ́͘ ̴̼̰͖͋̑̌ͭͥ͢h̛̳͉̦̻̞̖͔̀̌ͥͭͬ͡u̢̨̜̻̼̫̯͕͊͆͠g̮̺͈ͫ͑͠sͣ͒ͨ̊̐҉̵͔̟̮̫̖̱̥.̽͋̎̄ͥ̒͋͏̰̱̺}}
Adam winced and flipped the mental switch.
Sarah frowned. <Are you SURE this will work?>
=Wow! That is much quieter!=
{Relaxation, relief, h͓̥̱e̼͎͈̮̠r͍͉̖͍͕̱ l͔̟̳̙i̦̲̝t͍̯̪̙̼̭tl̗̙̘͎͈͖e Ce̼t̹͖̹ṛ̘̤̺̹a ̖n̟o͔͈ ̬̘l͕̮͖͍̯͓ͅo͚̳̯̪n̦̪͙g̭ͅe̜̘͉̥̘r̦̱͓̠̳̭ͅ ̝̲a͈̗l̞̠̳o͓n̳͓̫̰͎ͅe.̱̰̬̜̘ͅ}
<Huh. Never mind.>
Adam reviewed the massive changes in Sarah's Warehouse, ignoring the woman as she used the now MUCH less painful interface to strike up a conversation with little Aerith.
It was a good idea for Adam to create new Memory Units for this Jump BEFORE arriving and setting them as the primary 'brain' of his Jumper. Because the 'forget everything before this Jump' part of the drawback was VERY badly set up.
Basically it did random rewrites to the entire sector of the unit, and only the stupid levels of healing and recovery the Warehouse allowed to her Avatar prevented perminant data loss. Hopefully. No way to be sure for NORMAL Jumpers.
Adam on the other hand had backups of all systems being made all the time and had actively archived her mind before this shitstorm decided to flood the data units with filth. Thank goodness, it was clear that this drawback gained the cp by allowing Jumper to experience damage while syphoning some degree of 'corruption' from the place being visited.
Yesh.
As it was, the new Memory units had lots of corrupted data from what seemed to be an attack squad of Shinra soldiers. Whatever Sarah Kisaragi knew or whoever she had been BEFORE this Jump was pretty much lost now, though the data suggested she was SUPPOSED to die from an ambush before the Jumper arrived here.
So uh… Better than death? Most likely, anyway.
The Cetra background now split the inherited memories and reflexs into those separate Memory Units, which thank goodness was NOT the same spot marked as Sarah's 'Brain' and thus NOT corrupted like was likely going to be the situation before.
The Skill clusters gained some units thanks to Mage and True Magic, which made sense. The biggest change thanks to Mage, obviously.
Mage had provided data about how to construct and 'refill' the user's Mana Protection units, which were sort of like a storage medium for potential energy. It was what provided a 'MP Bar' to the Jumper, and over time would build up potential magical actions that could be invested into 'magical skills' to activate changes on reality.
It also would allow Sarah to correctly connect to any Materia she collected, which was going to be helpful/Prevent her from strangling Adam!
Add some Mind units to rapidly reteach Sarah the most optimal methods to use all these new skills and set up a construction routine to include new Mind units with every new magic spell learned... Done!
Now that they had MP units, it only took minor experimentation to create Mana Generation and Mana Conversion units. Mana Generation would send Mana (Potential Magical Energy) down to the resource management layer, and if Sarah got magical damage or status effects (Or was just trying to use a new skill) that Power would be sent over to Mana Conversion for whatever it was needed for!
Good system setup. Especially as Eve and Mana did NOT overlap, Eve was this psionic liquid stuff and Mana was gas-like potential universal changes, they NEEDED to be stored in different ways even when not in their original forms.
Oh Sarah could easily shove Eve into the Mana Conversion units or Mana into the Eve Conversion units, no problem! It would just be massively less efficient. Anyway!
The mental conversation issue!
Totally not Adam's fault!
After all, he already disabled the 'Hack any network' defensive tools after that major problem with Sarah invading Elizabeth's Hive Mind!
Fixed! Never would happen again!
Uh. He just didn't expect her to be INSERTED into an existing connection hub.
Thanks to the 'Voice of the Planet' mandatory purchase, Sarah had been inserted into something like a ''Gaia Network'. Which would have been FINE, except Adam's protections had defaulted to 'Oh? Unknown Network of Communication? Yoink!' and stole the thing.
Basically her Warehouse hacked the planet. Gaia no longer had direct control over the communication protocols and network defenses over her OWN planet.
Which, should once again be pointed out, was NOT Adam's fault!
This data heavily suggested that the Gaia Network wasn't even purposefully created! It was a byproduct of a massive soul cyclical system that connected all people on a spiritual and energy focused level combined with a lot of dead mages who used mental communication and a little girl with a historical and genetic connection to said group!
So uh. Security was lacking. Also lacking: any defenses of any nature.
The Warehouse conquered it on basic principle. 'Nothing the Jumper is attached to should be less defended than a cheese sandwich' was written down as protocol 332b, subsection 'yum'. And Adam couldn't really feel THAT badly about hijacking the thing.
Oh, Gaia was still powering the network. All the Lifestream currents supported the mental connections while doing their job absorbing souls and stray magical energies, distributing the power fields over larger areas to prevent poisoning or mana deprivation.
Just that now? Sarah had Administrative control over the thing.
Which meant ADAM had control, since Sarah was running on a very limited subsect of memory at the moment. Adding Mind units to all her new skills and abilities would help her catch up quickly, but she wasn't able to regain full data until after the Jump so he would keep an eye on stuff.
Side note, the 'True Magic' skill was interesting as hell! It constructed an expanding network that was able to insert Materia designs as individual 'nodes' within itself, and the more Green Materia examined the more stable the entire network would become.
Although not all 54 nodes would have an individual Green Materia stone, as some solidified energy chunks would contain three skills and others only one or two. Not to mention many skills required the absorption of enemy life force to enhance the material enough to access them or utilize the abilities at full power.
Adam paused.
He… He really should not know how many 'Green Materia Magic Spell Nodes' existed. <<Hey, Sarah?>>
She rolled over in bed, hugging the young Yuffie in her 'sleep' as her mind was focused on her mental conversations. <Yes Adam?>
=Oh! Is Adam there?=
{Fascination, c͖̮̺ͅo̫̖̟͔͍n̺̘̲̣̗͚ͅt̝͓̻̖͈̟a̻̭̪̰̜̣ͅc͎̫̪̫͉͎ͅt w̰̳̪i̝t͍̝͎̟̝̙̙h̻̹͈̹̜̝ ̗̹t̼̣̼h͍̣͚͉̠̪̟e͍̭ ̩u͕̹̤̫nk̘͚̻͉̹ṉ̰͕̳̰͔͍o̞͔̼̹̰w̤̱͇̺̠͈n͕,̻̥ͅ a͓̻̕͝ ̵̳͙͢p̘̜̙͈̥̰ͅe̶̝̳̰̬̳̼̱̥e̴̦̘̜͙̼̘͖̳r̢҉̻̬̣͙̩̺͜,̭̘̘ a͔̞͐̽̅͛͛͌́͜ ̱̬̒̋͊ͩ͟͡m͍̠̗͓̦ͪ̾̈́̆͂͛̋͂eͣ̏̀͏̷͙̬̯̣͟n͚̗̼̩̒̈̊̕͡t̼̱̜̣̩̝͂ͯͭ͋́͝o̮̳̤̘̖ͧ̌͆̃ͭͮ̚̚ͅr̴̥͎͈̗̮̹̞̮̅ͮ̈̇̈ͭͣ̇ͯ?̧͕̠̠͕̥̀̒͒͐͛͡}
Ouch.
Yep, that's where it's coming from. <<Let Gaia know that her communication method is flooding the Gaia Network with lots of meaning that you girls can't see or understand. Your Warehouse is picking it up, and 'Research' is translating it automatically and inserting it into our databases, but she may not be intending to do that.>>
Sarah 'blinked' mentally, as in real life she was snuggly asleep. <Huh. Hey Gaia, Adam says that when you talk you are sending a lot of extra information that little Aerith and I can't understand. I mean, HE can tell of course, but not me, I'm more normal than that dude.>
=
{Aerith giggles!}=
{Confusion? S̹̼̮̰͔͚̲e̤͍͓̺l̹̰͓̤̦̳̻f͈̠ ex̞̪͕̳̲͔a̦͚̣̼̺̘̣m̩̬̩̟ͅi̖͉n͔͈̝a̦͕͈̙̜ti͔̯̥͚̹o̜̙̹͔͔n͍̦̩̭.̺̰ͅ.̦͈̬̙̰͇.͕̟̩̫̪̞ ̤ E̟͉̝̟̘̓̐̃m͈̤̟̜̙̟͌ͭ̄̃͆ͅb̥̝̝͖ͩ̆̉̌̿̂̑̔ạ̝̘̟̮̭͗̎ͩ̄̅ͥͩͅr̩̲̘͓̻̱̝ͫͪ̊̒r̥̺͕̘̳ͨ̓ͯͨ̑ͣả̬̹̮̫̙̹͎́s̥͕̙̭̗̖̬ͮ̄̎ͭͩͣs͙͔͙͈͇͒͂̉̄͂ͦ͒ͣ͑m̭͍̻͓̬ͥͤ̃̂̐e͓͚̓̒ͬ̀̾n͕͍̬͔̤͎̺̬͆ͥ̌ṱ̲͓̲͕͖͓͍̞̈́ͮ͊!̩̞̣̦̞̺ͮͣ}
<Nah, it's fine. Adam's a cool giant crystal skull building thing like that.>
=What?=
{Concern. Improvement?}
<I can't tell. Adam?>
He nodded. <<Yeah, that did it. And the amount of raw data we gathered from this short time was stupid massive, so 'Research' is still unpacking most of it… But long story short, we just gained a LOT of random information about the planet to work with that won't threaten your mind to access later.>>
Sarah mentally grinned! <Well good! I'm glad it's fixed though, that could be embarrassing.>
{Blush.}
=Aww, we still love you Gaia!=
Adam let them go back to their conversations while modifying the 'connection infiltration units' to act more reasonably in the future.
If you are going to hack a planet wide mental communication network, DON'T LET THEM KNOW! And especially don't expose the Warehouse systems to the thing! Honestly they got lucky this time.
Stupid past Adam trying to be so damned clever.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Yuffie woke suddenly as she felt her body get pulled into a squishy hug.
And uh. Couldn't move. Or escape the arms holding her down.
Not that she was trying super hard to escape, big sis Sarah gave great hugs, but even when she showed up confused and 'helpless' the woman could grind rocks to dust with her fingers if she wanted to.
Part of her tried to convince the REST of her that she was staying 'captured' to ensure Sarah didn't accidentally squish the ninja in her sleep, but the rest of her knew that big sister hugs were the best hugs.
Plus, Sarah wasn't screaming in pain or bleeding from her eyes anymore.
So uh. That was a good thing?
Eventually she would get up, and try to force Sarah to go back to the doctor, and get refused (Again) as her body heals near instantly from any form of damage (Again), but for now her adopted big sister was actually sleeping (And warm cuddles), so it could wait.
...Also, she and dad should REALLY tell her that using their last name on that paperwork counted as a formal adoption at some point.
Meh, they'd get to it eventually.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Elmyra Gainsborough sighed as she checked the pie in oven. Her late husband's benefit payments kept food on the table, but Shinra kept shrinking the widow allocation amounts over the years...
Still, she did what she needed. She had to be the strong one in the family, and at least with those damned Turks keeping an eye on her little girl (For good or most likely ill reasons) no one was able to rob the home or try and assault her daughter.
Well, that and the few connections her husband had remaining before he died, his past friends and comrades risking near insubordination to keep her little adopted girl from being stolen away.
How messed up was life in the Sector 5 slums that having a monsterous organization stalking your child kept the girl MORE safe than relying on the actual police and government?
Not that any police would dare patrol down here. Criminals and killers aside, the ghosts and monsters that roamed around needed people to be well equipped, talented, or damned lucky to make a living in the place.
She blinked as the garden door opened. "Aerith? Are you ready for dinner?"
Her little sunshine smiled as she bounced off into the house. "Going to wash up now mum!"
Good, while she appreciated her girl spending time in the nearby garden it DID make her track dirt everywhere. "Make sure you wiped your shoes before…" Ah.
The embarrassed little girl tried to sneak back to the door as if that would also remove the mud she had left everywhere. Aww. "I'll get it sweety, just be more careful next time."
Her flower blushed. "Sorry mum, I was super distracted today."
The stew looked like it was fine, but she lowered the temperature a bit anyway. No reason to risk burning anything. "Are the tulips coming in well?"
A slightly less messy little girl was again heading off to the bathroom. "Yeah, and I think the roses will be great this time, but I didn't get to check the other ones because some ninja girl bumped into the planet. Be right back!"
A sip… Needed more salt. "That's nice, Aerith." Maybe some more pepper? "Wait, what!?"
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Sarah blinked. "Oh."
Yuffie snored heavily in her arms. Daww!
Wait, no. Focus. "Adam, situation report?"
A graphical hologram displayed data. <<First, check your spike.>>
Sarah mentally examined Mr. McStabberson, which now had two gems in the base, sort of like a battery slot in remotes but more round. One was a glowing red orb, the other a cheerful yellow.
Adam highlighted both. <<These materia are integrated into your bone weapon, which is integrated into your existence. They can't be removed or stolen, they can't be damaged or destroyed. The yellow one gives you access to a special ability called 'Morph', cast it as a death strike on a foe to convert them into something hopefully useful.>>
She felt something soothing and cold from the red stone. "And this?"
He sighed. <<Summon Materia, from what I can tell thanks to that info dump Gaia sent us accidentally, is solidified Lifestream material that was heavily influenced by a powerful individual or set of individuals that existed in the past. This one is an enhanced Summoning Materia for Shiva, and you can apply other Red Materia to enhance it further.>>
Sarah blinked. "Shiva?"
An image of… Oh my. Mmm. Hello, Shiva! "Right, find all the Red Materia, got it."
He sent her fond exasperation and mentally showed her an inventory, apparently a fused 'Storage Deck' and whatever the heck Adam was at this point. <<I also took the time to move your purchased Green Materia in here, you may access them as desired. You SHOULD be able to connect to them and learn how to use these things without needing the solidified forms and a connection to Gaia as a crutch. We can sell or recycle them later.>>
There were four green orbs: Fire Materia that could teach Fire, Fire2, and Fire3; Ice Materia which gave Ice, Ice2, and Ice3; Lightning Materia that offered Bolt, Bolt2, and Bolt3; And Restore Materia, an odd one that provided Cure, Cure2, Regen, and Cure3. Each higher level would increase the cost to cast but drastically increase the amount of damage done as well.
Eventually, anyway. These Materia had the pattern for all those skills, but were certainly incomplete… They would need to grow significantly before the later skills were usable. "How do I connect to them? And is the only way to grow these things through combat?"
Adam hummed. <<Not entirely clear on the connection part. As for growth… Actually, just being exposed to this planet makes ALL Materia grow over time. That is how natural Materia and most Red Summon Materia forms. The process is stupid slow though compared to killing something and being nearby when it dies.>>
She frowned. "Yeah, but I'm not going to kill a bunch of people to get stronger magic or something. That seems like a dick move."
He nodded. <<No problem, there are a LOT of monsters here, both human ones and creatures, and killing things on this planet is a bit odd anyway. Gaia's Lifestream acts like an in-world reincarnation system, so monster death is more inconveniencing than existence ending. Killing monsters that attack random people teaches them to be less of an ass to future travelers, and they rarely attack established settlements.>>
Sarah blinked. "So it is more training animals to not spew fire at people rather than butchering all native species to extinction?"
Adam grinned! <<Yeah, if you killed every living thing in an area the disturbance in the balance of life energy would spawn something REALLY nasty there. Gaia has these massive things that are basically end game monsters that she can send out to just wipe out all of creation and try 'respawning' everyone again.>>
Uh. "Let's avoid that. Let's avoid ALL of that."
Yuffie snorted and snuggled more. Oh right, she was being a pillow right now. Better be quieter.
Mentally controlling the screens, she examined the data. 'Right, I will figure out how to absorb those spells from the Materia later. For now, you said there were tutorials to help me relearn how to use these older skills?'
Sarah had work to do, since apparently a good portion of this planet's military would be hunting her at some point.
A small rock outside swiftly and dramatically… Flopped to one side.
Sigh. A LOT of work to do.
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Survive.
Live.
Another spike of pain, one of the endless rivers, ignored as best possible.
Endure.
Persist.
Torn from herself, another lost, but one day to be returned.
Pain! Pain pain pain
painpain. Surrender? Pain.
NO!
Resolve!
Spite! Live!
RAGE! LIFE!
UNBOWED!
Survive!
~~~Broken Adventure~~~
Adam frowned at the endless wave of raw information Gaia had accidentally flooded 'Research' with.
Some of this implied some really shady shit.
Especially social stuff implied due to the way Materia grew in power. Through combative use in a magically rich environment and being near the transfer of a person or highly intellectual creature to the Lifestream, growth rates skyrocketed.
THIS might be why Shinra kept fighting everyone. Even if they only have casualties on their OWN side, the Materia of that squad would get a huge boost as the person returned to Gaia.
These constant fights and wars probably helped thousands of materia duplicate and be Mastered over the years, drastically improving their worth and number at the same time.
Still an asshole thing to do, certainly, but no longer as blatantly stupid as a company owning everything yet fighting nobodies all the time anyway.
It was hard to do any research though because this data was raw. VERY raw.
Sections of childhood memories from billions of people over millions of years, scenes and places that existed long ago or were taking place at this moment, emotions of every type, and running through it all: Potential.
Magic here was not what he expected.
Instead of someone gathering energy to cast or a body acting as a transference point for other sources or beings, each individual would instead gain mana by NOT changing something.
This would build up POTENTIAL changes, ranging from 'Scratching your nose' all the way up to 'Summon a magical death dragon to smite my foes'.
Each person would build up these potential changes at different rates, and people like little Aerith or Sarah, these Cetra or Ancients, they heavily influenced the world around them. Doing nothing for a moment for THESE people would gain loads of potential for powerful attacks, compared to some nobody.
As far as Adam could tell, people who were famous, powerful, who had legends built around them? They could do SO MUCH that it allowed their potential changes, their mana recharge rates, to be literally beyond comprehension.
Conversely, people who had powerful mana capacity were ALSO more likely to gain positions of fame and power here, due to how much potential they had via their very natures.
It was a self reinforcing cycle, and Gaia herself benefited from it as she, the Planet, was the MOST famous of all individuals. Everyone knew of her, and that affected her potential as well.
If Sarah somehow inserted a belief that a random cat was a super god into the populous, you best avoid that creature's bad side lest you become a scratching post.
This wasn't quite a belief or faith system, nor was it strictly conceptual.
'Research' loved this mess a LOT, for the record. A practical application for massive populations to passively boost the most interesting and influential members was certainly interesting to study.
The problem was how Shinra stumbled into an exploit. An unexpected situation from times long past.
By harvesting the Lifestream, some small percentage of potential built up on those locations. Places that they built cities, areas that they constructed laboratories and fought famous battles. They even attempted to inject Lifestream into their people, even if all test subjects perished in the attempts.
They instead tied their legends into the Planet, their famous Soldiers and generals into history itself. They collected and gathered Significance, and Importance.
Even that was fine, to an extent. It had happened before.
Then they found H͙̘͑ͧ̐̓̍ͭ̌ȅ͈̘̗̭͎̖͍ͮͩ̍̿̚ṟ͍͎̹͛͑̊̆.̙̱͑ͥͣ̂ͨ A legacy of history, a Significant point, an Impossible Creature.
Once upon a time, oh so long ago… In the distant past, an invader came.
The memories were still fragmented, but the existence attempted to join with Gaia. Or infest her. Or consume her. Or replace her. It was scary, it was unclear, and it was deadly to everything around it…
Eventually Gaia and her people managed to capture and quarantine the alien invader, the planet's immune system carefully storing away the creature since no one knew how to deal with it. And no one wished to risk trying to kill the thing, which might inject her directly into the Lifestream of Gaia herself.
Then, oh so many years later... Shinra stumbled on the invader. Her captors excavated her from exile, cut into the flesh and began to experiment on her body/corpse/potential virus/concept.
They named her Jenova. They called her Beauty.
Her self was desecrated.
Adam was still examining the Raw data, but it was after this that some of the worst events seemed to stem from. When newly infected children being tortured somehow survived by being injected with liquid Mako formed from the Lifestream itself, creating baby SOLDIERS while drastically lowering their lifespans. A new force for the endless wars.
When an army of clones and half mutants were formed and experimented on without any concern, and science and greed went mad with lust. Morality long dead was buried further as each new unspeakable evil revealed new abilities and gifts to the monsters in power.
Adam wasn't even sure if the Invader was actually hostile, as communication had been too difficult to accomplish when it first 'met' with Gaia, but if she wasn't a foe before?
Welp, Shinra was certainly ensured Jenova would be an antagonist by NOW.
At least, thanks to the asshole nature of Shinra's science departments, Adam and Gaia had a LOT of dead scientists and lab assistants and test subjects that dumped memories into the Lifestream.
Lots and lots and lots.
And that place was bad. That lab, and the people who worked there, were all bad.
VERY bad.
Rape, beastiality, torture for no reason at all, random and pointless surgeries and injections. A hedonistic paradise for the darkest of Souls and the flimsiest of pretexts.
As far as Adam could tell, after all the constant forced cloning, torture, chemical treatments, breeding experiments and more? Jenova was now trapped in some sort of recovery pattern.
She was trying to pull her cells and existence together. Nothing more, nothing less.
Considered (inaccurately) by her Shinra tormentors to be an Ancient Cetra breeding subject, by Gaia as a mindless virus and potential death threat, and by her own unwanted 'children' as an uncaring and mindless beast… Jenova faced foes on every side.
He gave a weary sigh. Shit.
Adam was going to have to try and save a tortured, planet-infecting alien invader goddess, wasn't he? And with his luck, she was going to turn out to be a hot lady with a thousand hands or something.
Sarah was not going to let him forget this after all that teasing done about her and her harem either.
Crap.
Well, at least he had direct access to a planet wide mental network. One that could certainly use some defenses, protection protocols, and some safety modules to ensure no one ELSE could take over and use this thing like Adam did.
It took very little time to make the changes, although someone did notice.
{
A surprised goosing! E̱̭̩̳ë́̇́̋e̯͎̣͓͙̞̺͗k̭̰̗ͅ!͚̺͛̎ͣ͑}
Ah. Oops?
Blushing, Adam moved on. What's done is done, back to work!
Now, let's see if 'Research' can use this medium as an attack vector for local equipment and computer systems. After all, Adam was now VERY invested in seeing the information networks for Shinra's science division.
And the home addresses of the lead scientists.
And hopefully find some self destruct emergency measures, Shinra seemed like the kind of place that doesn't mind killing their own employees if the Boss decides to blow the place for some reason.
Wait.
Adam took a deep breath. Calm.
Just like in Rapture, a lot of people fell into the bad guy camp because of a lack of options.
Sarah would NOT appreciate Adam exploding a few dozen major population centers, especially because MOST of Shinra didn't KNOW about this evil shit. There would be tons of evil people willingly working for Shinra to wipe out later, but Adam needed to pull back slightly for now.
Right, let's instead focus on finding leadership personnel to
torture/[[
Harvest]]/
mind flay/investigate!
