The Good Life: Company Man (ch. 97) (Patreon)

“Firaga,” I uttered, feeling a hum in the magic circuits that I channeled the command through, and in response a torrent of fire ignited before me. A test dummy was instantly engulfed in potent flames, getting reduced to ash in a handful of seconds while the walls and floor of the test area steamed where the fire consumed itself. A slight smile tugged at my lips as I looked down at the carefully crafted magic circuit that was clamped and pointed in the direction of the test bed. 

On its silvery blue surface were engravings for three spells -- Fire, Fira, and Firaga. Each was a marked improvement on the last in terms of heat, volume, and control. It had been a long time coming, but I had more or less created what I set out to do when I arrived on Runterra. The Hexgems had been a step in the right direction, allowing me to create the proto-magic circuits, but it wasn't until I started experimenting with Materia that things started to click together how I wanted. 

Materia was a fascinating substance. It was one part magic, but I'd sooner call it a crystallized memory with the power within needing to be drawn out with practice and use. 

There were many types of Materia that were harvested from the planet -- the Lifestream -- through the Mako reactors that essentially extracted the souls of the dead to generate electricity. Literally robbing the afterlife to power lightbulbs.. And rather inefficiently, to boot. There were magic-type Materia, Materia that summoned artificial creatures ranging from the mundane chocobo to monsters to subjects of myth and legend. Materia that imparted skills and abilities with their integration into your body -- some could make you learn faster, others could teach you how to fight or perform specific moves, while others could make you faster and stronger.

Broadly speaking, Materia could be broken into three classifications: Magic, Summons, and Support. 

Furthermore, every Materia had individual classifications. An example would be the Fire Materia that I had engraved upon a magic circuit. A basic Materia could only use a basic spell, which in this case would be Fire. However, with use, more power could be drawn out from the Materia, granting access to a higher-tier spell like Fira. Then, at the final level, was Mastered Materia, which allowed the use of the highest-tier spell of Firaga. More interestingly, Mastered Materia would sprout a basic Materia of its type. 

“It was worth waiting,” I decided, taking the magic circuit and returning it to its case. Materia and magic circuits went together like peanut butter and jelly -- they enhanced each other on every fundamental level. Because Materia were fundamentally soul stuff, they paired quite well with magic circuits. The engravings that I had to make were essentially just changing the shape of the Materia. What's more, I didn't even need to change the process of harvesting magic circuits. 

I created a Synth, shoved Materia into it, and when I drew out the magic circuit, the magic spells were already etched into it. It was perfect. But it also got better -- Materia, when combined with a Hexgem, radically bolstered the quality of the magic circuits. An S-rank one was capable of pumping out a hundred units of mana, but the one before me could dish out a hundred and sixty. And they were still in the prototype phase. 

Sukuna was going to be sooo jealous when he saw what I came back with. He thought that freaky angel-looking guy was awesome? I'd show him awesome. 

The ongoing war with Wutai was a boon for me, as it meant there was a surplus of Mastered Materia. With my position in the company, it was easy enough to pocket some of the more common battle Materia -- Fire, Ice, Lightning, Barrier, and Healing. I was going to pair them with Summon Materia. As in, all of them. 

Shiva, Ifrit, Ramuh, Titan, Odin, Leviathan, Kujata, Alexander, Phoenix, Bahamut, Hades, Typhon and whatever else I could find. 

I didn't know what half of them did, and I frankly didn't care. My version of the ‘Ten Shadows’ was going to be so much better than what Sukuna had ripped off that kid. My goal was to make Sukuna cry tears of blood out of jealousy. Combined with my kick ass turbocharged magic, combined with my Room and physical enhancements? Asami would also be crying tears of blood, but out of sheer rage and frustration when she realized that failing to kill me had made me a thousand times stronger. And that she’d led me to the perfect place where I could continue to grow stronger. 

I whistled a tune as I walked away from my testing area. Midgar was absolutely filled with hidey holes that were perfect for the role of a private research lab. A year in the company, especially with the position that I had given myself with a few cleverly placed Synths and implanted memories, gave me a great deal of insight into the many secrets that Shinra possessed. The area I had chosen was once a monster research facility, but after a break in containment that saw monsters attacking the slums, Shinra washed their hands of the entire endeavor and abandoned the lab decades ago. 

It was sealed and deactivated, leaving the only way in or out being my Room. With a fusion generator, I had it online for all of my various experiments. Though, admittedly, half of the lab remained a breeding area for various monsters that had originally been experiments, which continued to plague the slum dwelling inhabitants, but that was a plus in my book. Just another reason why the lab would go undetected, as they gave the whole section a wide berth. 

The thought got an honest chuckle out of me, “Stan would have loved this company.” Stan Edgar had been my idol when it came to evil businessmen who only cared about the bottom line, but a year with Shinra revealed how badly his hands had been tied by government regulation. Shinra was what Vought dreamed of being. 

Shinra was the government. They were a true megacorporation that dominated the entire planet, and they had been at war with the very last holdouts who were steadily being ground into dust. Oh, what Stan could have accomplished with this company. Because it was an Evil Megacorp down to its core. 

Monsters escaping from Shinra-controlled labs eating poor people? Shouldn't have been poor lol. Lmao, even. Perhaps even rotfl. 

Creating artificial scarcity to charge the public out the nose? Engineering social and economic issues for the sake of selling a solution? That's just smart business, baby.

Kidnapping people and conducting inhuman and illegal experiments on them? You better believe that happens on the daily, especially under Hojo's direct supervision. 

Honestly, it felt like I learned a lot working for Shinra. I naturally leaned more to the chaotic evil side of things, but Shinra was an excellent role model on how to behave as a systemic evil entity that self-perpetuated its cruelty. That alone made me thankful for Asami bringing my attention to this world, because outstripping the Mako reactors or Materia or the SOLDIERs and killer robots -- Shinra alone made the trip worth it. 

Putting the magic circuit back into a vacuum-sealed coolant storage facility, I made sure that all the lights were green before taking a step back. Provided I got everything that I wanted -- and I always got everything I wanted -- I would leave Final Fantasy 7 with twenty SSS tier magic circuits engraved with powerful spells and summons. I was still fine-tuning them, seeing if I could eke out even more power, but even as they were, I'd be willing to graft them to my soul. 

Making a Room, I Shambled my way up to where my office was. My Synth was plucking at a computer, typing up a report, completely unaware of my presence. It was actually alarming how oblivious I was without my enhanced senses or power. As, for some reason, the Synths struggled to use Haki. But that was a feature rather than a flaw, I thought to myself, jabbing the Synth in the back of the neck with a syringe as I used my Room to hit the internal off switch I’d embedded into him. Drawing out his most recent memories, I injected them and replaced him in the seat as the Synth was put into storage back at my lab. 

From the Synths perspective, he would just be activated every time I brought him out to handle my busy work. Like the reports that he was writing up. But, I couldn't have delayed the transfer much longer, because just as I assumed position, there was a knock at the door a half second before a familiar face barged in. 

“Yo! Doc!” Zack Fair erupted into the room with a carefree smile. “Here to escort you to the fancy meetin’! You're going to tell me what it's about, right?” He asked, clasping his hands and bowing his head. 

“Not sure why you're asking me -- You're Class Two. Your security clearance should be higher than mine,” I noted, standing up and stretching as if I had dealt with a long day of tedious filing and research. 

“Yeah, but they don't ever tell us SOLDIERs anything that doesn't pertain to a mission. I wanna know when we're getting shipped back out,” Zack said as we left my office and there were stars shining in his eyes at the prospect of committing unholy amounts of war crimes against a nation that was obviously false-flagged. 

I liked Zack, but at the same time… the guy swallowed the company's propaganda whole and didn't just come back for seconds, but thirds. It was a little amusing how completely he bought into the moral righteousness of the war, and thought every soldier slaughtered defending their homeland from corporate interests was one step closer to his becoming a ‘Capital H Hero’. 

Shinra was great. I almost wished I put myself in the propaganda department just so I could get firsthand experience with whatever magic they were using on the general population. 

“I'll tell you the juicy bits, but it's probably just another staff meeting,” I said as we walked the halls. There was a fear in the air that made me wonder if I had been a little too hasty in detonating that bomb on corporate premises to ensure my promotion. That, and to ensure that the war with Wutai continued for a bit longer. Nothing made people more bloodthirsty than getting attacked in their ivory towers where they thought they were safe, after all. Pearl Harbor was an adequate example of that. Kinda.

“You're the best, Doc!” Zack declared, offering a fist pump and a grin. Another reason why I liked him -- the guy was the human equivalent of a Golden Retriever. No thoughts, just good vibes. “And don't you worry -- my lips are sealed!” 

“Sure they are,” I replied, knowing that he'd fold like a house of cards under zero pressure. “Just leave my name out of it when you inevitably spill the beans, okay?” 

“Inevitably?!” 

There was a reason why I chose this path of infiltration into Shinra. It gave me unfettered access to their super soldiers. The only ones that I hadn't met yet were the First Class SOLDIERS. Those Hojo still saw himself, and after seeing how he worked typically… Well, I had a clue or three on what caused Sephiroth's descent into madness. 

For my end, however, it was simple enough to start planting the seeds to engineer loyalty. The very same kind of blind loyalty that Zack displayed for Shinra in heroically fighting for their bottom line. None of them paid much mind to the occasional extra shot, as compared to Hojo's ‘check ups’, mine were a breeze. 

And speaking of Hojo…

The doors to the senior staff meeting opened, revealing a long table that was divided by division and importance. The head of the conference table was empty, but most of the other chairs were filled. Near the head of the table were the heads of divisions -- Commercial Sales, Robotics, Research and Development, Military, and Internal Affairs. Then each of them had representatives for the subdivisions of their various divisions. 

For example, I was now the head of Mako Research and Materia Development. I was placed directly under Hojo, as I had made sure that I became his favorite lackey, with a broad range of responsibilities. 

Hojo himself sat near the head of the table, showing off that he was super important. The man had dark hair, large round glasses, and a perpetual frown on his face. He hardly took any notice of me as I took my seat next to him, favoring going over a file that contained rather gruesome experiments on kidnapped Wutai citizens. And, naturally, he spread the pictures out on the table for ease of reference. 

From the looks of them? Their passing hadn’t exactly been peaceful. Actually, it was about as far away from peaceful as one could get as they died with expressions of agony. 

“Must you?” A woman’s voice remarked from across the table. Scarlet Redfield, the head of Shinra’s Weapons Development Division. She was in her early thirties, with blonde hair pulled up, a bright red dress that revealed a sea of cleavage, and an expression of exasperated disgust with Hojo. 

“I must, if I’m having to take time away from my experiments with these pointless meetings,” Hojo replied, flipping through a report. “The data has been… intriguing.” 

Hojo was… interesting. Honestly, he was something of an inspiration for me -- the man was a mad scientist, and he was perfectly aware of that fact. No- more than that, he was proud of it. He was an undeniably brilliant scientist, possibly one of the smartest people I had ever met, and he was entirely unconstrained by ethics or morality. The guy just loved science and experimenting, regardless of what the results were. 

He just… did things to see what would happen. 

Needless to say, he was high on my recruitment list. I hoped he and Singed got along. 

“Well, so long as the data is intriguing,” Scarlet said with a sneer, and it went entirely ignored by Hojo. “Just keep it to your side of the table? I can’t stand the sight of your failures.”

“Yet you can stomach your own?” Hojo questioned, getting his own little dig in. 

Scarlet was another that I intended to recruit -- frankly, I intended to integrate all of Shinra into my empire, but failing that, I wanted at least Scarlet and Hojo to fill up my carton of eggheads after Asami had gutted it. She was the queen bee behind Shinra's Weapons Development, in particular, their war machines that ranged from the humble tank to giant robots strapped with as many guns, missile launchers, and buzzsaws for close range encounters that she could strap on. 

It was before she could retort that another door opened, and the idle chatter cut off instantly. An older man entered the room dressed in a sharp suit -- he was a bit unassuming for a man who took a small arms company and turned it into a megacorporation that dominated the world in mere decades. He was on the smaller side at 5’6, a thick handle bar mustache that was as white as his hair.

Yet, he could certainly command a room, I would give him that. Everyone stood up, waiting for him to take his seat at the head of the table, which was pulled out by his chief spook -- Verdot. Officially speaking, he was the head of the Department of Administrative Research, which was a lot of words to say that he was a spy. Most knew the whole organization as the Turks. 

I had my eye on them, and I made sure to Synth a handful of their members to ensure that my cover remained intact and undisturbed. 

President Russell Shinra took a seat and his cold gaze swept over the various faces. “The Ancient -- where are we with her recovery?” He began with little preamble, turning to look at Lazard Deusericus, the head of SOLDIER… and his bastard son. Though there wasn't an ounce of familial warmth between them. 

“We have several potential leads, and we are examining them with care,” Lazard answered as he adjusted his glasses. “Our movements have been noticed, and I do not wish to lead Wutai into discovering her existence. The net will be closed slowly but with certainty.” 

“Hm. So long as she is captured,” President Russell uttered with a sense of finality. That was a little ace up my sleeve -- it had taken me a little bit, but I had found the ‘Ancient’ that he was looking for. 

Aerith Gainsborough. 

She dwelled in the Sector Five slums with her adoptive mother, but not unobserved. The Turks had found Aerith years ago, and since then, they had Shinra chasing their own tails looking for a girl that was right under their noses. 

I was naturally curious about her, especially when she was so integral to my future plans with this world, but our inevitable meeting had better be held off until I had a secure grip on the company. That being said, I had been a little curious about her for another reason, and it was in observing her from afar in that run down church with a flowerbed that I was able to place how far away I was from the start of canon. 

About ten years. Which was a bit longer than I would have liked, but it was something that I could work with. 

“It's imperative to my research that she is found!” Hojo interjected, his tone impatient. “The number of delays I've been forced to endure… I should have never listened to any objection on breeding the prior subject.” He uttered more to himself than anyone else, but there was a wave of uncomfortableness that swept over the room that I nearly laughed at. 

“It has been an unfortunate setback,” Russell agreed, ice in his tone. “This Promised Land of limitless Mako… it cannot be found without an Ancient. Even if they were half breeds, they could be good for something.” Hojo seemed mollified that his complaints were heard and validated, adjusting his glasses with a finger. However, the President moved on, “Our SOLDIERs. This damn war has ballooned in scope and cost -- what is the progress on their maintenance?”

That was my cue to speak, “Their degradation has slowed by fifteen percent, sir.” I informed, feeling a ripple of surprise, interest, and frustration from Hojo. SOLDIER had been his brainchild, but the work was… half finished, I suppose I could call it. The Mako enhancements came with a pretty hefty price tag, which dissuaded me from getting them for myself in addition to the serum that already enhanced me. For the extreme strength, speed, and regeneration came with a time limit. 

Roughly twenty years of active service, thirty at the high end if one was particularly compatible with the Mako enhancements. After that, the degradation set in -- which was a combination of AIDS and cancer. The body lost its ability to fight off infection, organs shut down, all the while, errors in the genetic code rendered the previous super soldier into a husk that was barely human. 

“It’ll buy them a few more years of active service, but no more than that. I will continue fine-tuning my research, but I will need materials,” I uttered, and President Russell inclined his head to me. 

“With this latest… escalation,” he uttered the word with a sense of venom. I had to struggle to not laugh -- He was a ruthless bastard, but one entirely uncomfortable with someone shooting back at him. What made it even funnier was the fact that the ‘campaign of terror’ that the ninjas were waging against Shinra… every third ‘act of terror’ was Shinra themselves bumping off some competition or removing a thorn from their side. “The war will continue for a few more years. Keeping them operational is of paramount priority. Speak -- what do you need?”

“Huge Materia,” I answered swiftly, making his eyes narrow ever so slightly. It wasn’t exactly a small ask. Huge Materia was exactly what it sounded like -- where normal Materia could be as small as a marble or as large as a baseball, Huge Materia was the size of a person and it was more than three hundred times as dense, meaning three hundred times the power. “My current theory is that SOLDIERs begin to degrade without infusions of Mako energy, which leaves them to cannibalize itself and the cells, leading to the death of the subject. With Huge Materia, I could pinpoint in a controlled environment the exact dosage that they need to offset the damage.”

He held my gaze for a moment, “To what end?”

“Theoretically, provided that they are constantly infused with Mako energy, it may be possible for SOLDIERs to live forever,” I stated, and there was a stir at that. “However, the issue is cost. My research indicates that it’ll take larger and more frequent infusions as time goes on- it could take decades, potentially, but if there isn’t a cap then a subject would eventually consume the daily output of a reactor.”

It was even mostly true. Probably. And if it wasn’t, then I could fudge the numbers a bit. I needed this song and dance to last a little bit, but not forever. After all, I already had a method to live forever. 

That being said, no one in the room knew that, and I saw the greed in the President’s eyes. Few things had more allure than the prospect of immortality. 

“You’ll get what you need, Dr. Waterloo. However, Huge Materia aren’t exactly something easily come by,” he noted, leaning back into his chair. And, to that, I smirked. 

I opened my briefcase, took out a folder, and presented it to Verdot, who inspected it before passing it to the President of the company. When he took it, I began to summarize, “I have a number of theorized locations for Huge Materia to form naturally, and the most likely candidates are Cosmo Canyon, the Ancient Forest, and near a sleepy town called Nibelheim.” 

That got a reaction from Hojo, even if he hid it pretty well. That was where he stashed his dirty little secret -- an alien mistaken for an Ancient. 

It was actually incredible how much I remembered about Final Fantasy 7 once all the scraps of information had been brought to the forefront of my mind. It was the little things -- the conversations I hadn’t remembered, listening with only half an ear. Or the glimpses of wikis I looked up as a favor. Information that I thought I hadn’t retained, but was all lurking in my noggin.

Because of that, I knew some prime locations to look for Huge Materia in addition to finding some of the boss summons that I fully intended to graph onto my soul. 

“You intend to go yourself?” Russell eyed me with an approving gaze -- he liked go-getters. The type to pull themselves up from their bootstraps as he had. He also liked those that took a direct hands-on approach. 

“Someone else would get it wrong,” I replied, earning a faint smirk before it was wiped away as he closed the folder. 

“In that case, you’ll need an escort. And given the nature of your mission and the war… only the best shall do,” he decided, tossing the folder onto the table. “Take your pick of the squad.”

I let out a small laugh, “I don’t suppose Sephiroth is available?” I asked, as if it had been a joke. One that T’d the President up for an opportunity to show how seriously he was taking the prospect of immortality. 

“Done,” he decided and I threw on a suitably shocked expression even as I cackled on the inside. 

I really did love it when a plan came together.