LucyKitsune

  Vanguard in many ways are simir to wild animals. Perhaps one of the most obvious ones being that they are at their most dangerous when cornered. The animal, because it has nothing to lose, the Vanguard, because they have no reason not to dump all their points into something purpose-built for the situation. Neither can be controlled and both should not be trifled with.

  - Excerpt from an insurance agencies risk-assessment guidelines regarding Vanguard, 2031

  The good news was the BEES helped. The bad news was, they didn't help quickly. Or enough.

  The situation was still very bad and getting worse. The 5s had started dying mildly faster than repcements were being made, but the horde of ground-troops was closing in on us too fast to allow us to wait out an opening. If I could close the gap safely, that wouldn't be an issue but unfortunately my helmet was not quill-proof.

  The only good thing about our situation was that we had points for days with no signs of the supply running dry anytime soon.

  The problem was of course that we didn't have time to spend them.

  Naruto could, via his AI's estimations, hold back the horde on his own with his shuriken-uncher, which had apparently cost 3000 points and was a Css II weapon.

  “So why aren’t we doing that?”

  I had to pause shooting to reload my pistol. I didn’t bother to pocket the empty magazine.

  “I kinda…” he sounded pretty apologetic, “I don’t know how to use it.”

  I paused shooting and slowly turned towards him. If that wasn’t an absolutely horrible idea, I would have taken off my helmet so he could see my deadpan stare.

  Judging by his flinching, he got the message.

  “Look, it was shiny and right there!”

  “Three. Thousand. Points,” I shook my head, “That’s almost a year’s worth of daily supply! That’s 6000 D?ner!”

  “I thought it would be more intuitive to handle- Wait a D?ner costs half a point?!”

  “You can get two for one point. Haven’t done that yet, but I absolutely will. And they will be without tomatoes AND with the exact right amount of scharf.”

  “I know, RIGHT? They can never add chilli powder in moderation. It’s all or nothing with most D?nerbuden!”

  A model 5 quill suddenly bouncing off of my visor reminded me of the situation we were in.

  “Can you learn how to use it?”

  “Daymo says an hour of dream learning should do it. Or just uploading the knowledge into my mind instantly. Exceeeept I don’t exactly have a port for them to connect to.”

  He had looked unfocussed for a bit, before responding. It might be nothing, but my ADHD-senses were tingling.

  “Lyona, do I-”

  Affirmative. You do indeed possess the necessary hardware for me to directly interact with your brain and deposit knowledge there, however there may be side-effects if this practice is overdone. Nothing concise can be said about humans yet, due to a ck of data, but cross-referencing with sapphonts with simir brain-structure leads me to conclude it is possible, if not likely, that your brain will create fake memories of training that never happened to expin where the purchased skills come from.

  I threw a grenade into the general direction of ‘far away’ because everything else didn’t really matter. Frankly us being this swarmed also came with the upside of Naruto not missing most of his shots, because it was genuinely hard to miss everything.

  “Okay so I could have that knowledge deposited into my brain, but I feel like that’s a bad idea, because I will never use it again. Let’s keep it in mind for if we get really desperate?”

  "Maybe I should have gone for Sage-Mode..."

  I once more turned to look at him, after which both of us flinched, when the grenade I threw earlier exploded.

  "You had the option to go for Sage-Mode and passed it up for a toy you can't properly operate?"

  He defensively raised his hands.

  "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

  "Let me guess: That's also a no on every Kyuubi-Chakra-Mode and Six-Paths Sage-Mode?"

  He nodded.

  "Do you at least have Shadow-Clones?"

  "That I do."

  Okay, that was an avenue worth exploring.

  "Do they work like in the show? Like do they copy your stuff?"

  "I- Yes? Why is tha-" I shoved a belt of frag-grenades his hand, "Oohhhhhh"

  'Lyona, how long do we need for the stuff we've discussed earlier?'

  In a pinch an hour and a half, ideally two hours. That way I can slot in dream-learning to teach you how to use your new directional hearing. I do also recommend going for Css II ears instead of Css I. And while we're at it, make your skin tougher, since you have the points and it will not take longer. I do recommend you purchase a field-surgery tent for this however, as it is ultimately a small investment and it brings a lot of security.

  Ignoring the fact that there were apparently risks involved in this, because of course there were risks with undergoing open brain surgery in the middle of a combat-zone, I strongly considered it.

  "I need two hours. Can you hold the line alone until then? What about two and a half hours?"

  "I- Yes? To both, if I buy more clones, probably. The biggest bottleneck to clones is repcement batteries if I don't want to wait for the recharge time but I don't think points will be an issue."

  I found myself agreeing.

  "Buy as many as you can afford, leave some points for emergencies. Lyona, put 300 more points in my medical emergency funds, spend whatever you need on the upgrades and the rest on two more foxes, however much ammo you think will be needed for them and the rest on BEES, grenades and explosives for Naruto. Also enough stuff for 10 of the swords we were discussing."

  New purchase!

  Field surgery tent - 300 Points

  Css II Snow Pouncer Hearing Bionics - 750 Points

  Css II Snow Pouncer Bionic Brain repcement - 1500 Points

  Css II Snow Pouncer Armoured Skin - 200 Points

  Css I Dream-learning Catalogue - 100 Points

  Dream-learning impnt - 100 Points

  Various Dream-learning Lessons - 250 Points

  Css 1 Antigravity Engine Catalogue - 500 Points

  Mind-Controlled Bde x10 - 1500 Points

  BEES x25 - 1250 Points

  Various grenades and explosives - 2465 Points

  Fox-Drone x2 - 300 Points

  Ammunition - 400 Points

  Medical Emergency Deposit - 300 Points

  New Point total: 3 Points, 1 Token

  A bunch of stuff popped into existence between us, including two foxes that immediately started supporting Inari and Kurama, causing my point-counter to tick up a little faster, though still quite slowly.

  I was going to have to name them if they were still around after I came out of surgery. Problem for future me.

  "Right, you hold the line, I'll be there to bail you out in two hours."

  "I'll do my best!"

  I entered the tent that had appeared a bit off to the side. Inside, I found a surgery-table and a bunch of surgery-equipment mounted to gantries.

  "So do I just y down?"

  Ideally yes. Vanguard Naruto has the tools to hold the line until your upgrades are done. Then you can buy him time to do whatever upgrades he needs to do or tackle the hive on your own. Both should be well within your capacity then.

  “Alright that seems fair. You’re not gonna touch my ‘tism or my ADHD, will you?”

  I would have asked beforehand, but your profile does suggest you would not wish to get rid of it. One suggestion I do have though is an addition to your new brain that will provide stimunts for your ADHD and allow you to consciously control and direct the state you refer to as hyperfocus.

  Sounds of explosions rang throughout the tent. Probably Naruto using my grenades. Hopefully.

  Also that was an option?! Yes fucking please!

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea? Like doesn’t that make me too powerful?”

  I do indeed think it is a good idea. It is not a significant increase in the potential threat you would pose to the future of humanity, if you were to go rogue, which you are very unlikely to do. On the other hand, your potential as a scientist is staggering and this upgrade will help you realize it.

  Your mission as a Vanguard is to destroy the Antithesis and to uplift humanity. You will be rewarded for both. And out of every Vanguard currently on your pnet, you currently have the highest likelihood of pushing humanity further along the tech-tree so to speak.

  Before I could speak, a particurly loud explosion shook the tent, followed by Naruto shouting ‘Sorry!’

  This will not be a problem, the tent can withstand grazing shots from most weapons you provided Vanguard Naruto with.

  Lyona had responded to my worries, before I could even voice them.

  “Alright, fuck it. If you don’t have any objections, do it!”

  New purchase!

  Css II ADHD Stimunt Organ x1 - 150 points

  New point total: 0 points, 1 token

  LucyKitsune