《Game Designer in DC》


 References *SPOILERS*

    A list of all the properties that I will be using that I do NOT own. Will be updated as story goes on.


    - DC Comics


    - Flappy Bird


    - Geometry Dash


    - Fruit Ninja


    - Plants vs Zombies


    - Kingdom Rush


    - DragonVale


    - Mortal Kombat


    - Pokemon


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 Alright

    So, after looking through the comments between the two polls that I set up to decide which option I should pursue, re-write this story or bail and start another, I was surprised that many wanted both. It gave me more to think about and contemplate. From the polls I know most want to see a rewrite, which I''ll get to work on properly refining more. The first 3 chapters will remain relatively the same with a few edits, I''ll post them soon as a new start, everything after will be with a new storyline in mind. Already I have made the decision to drop several subplots that really weren''t working and moved around what I had planned. My OC characters will also get a redo. They Morne Family will remain, but I am putting in more though as to their actual role in my world.


    Now I want everyone to know that I have been planning to stay away from the main players in the DC Universe. Know anything about DC and you can easily tell me who Batman is, his background, and overall personality that it isn''t really fun to write. Having watched the Halo TV show has made me aware that if any deviation from the established characterization is just terrible. Paramount didn''t give us Master Chief, but a guy named John and I don''t want to do that for the beloved DC heroes/villains. However, I want to focus on lesser known characters or those who change often based on which media you look at. Examples would be Wally West and Robin. Both are established, but both have very different personalities based on which show you are watching.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    Since everyone seemed to want both of the stories, this one and the other, then I decided that I''ll do it Arc by Arc. Though to properly do a fanfic in the world of Percy Jackson I am finding myself researching way more than I thought so if anyone has monsters, gods, and whatever that you think is cool it would help minimize how long that will take. I will give you guys a little on how I am going to start it. The three, because everything is in threes in that world, main characters will have some form of physical abnormality. One has heterochromic eyes, another is an albino, and the last is blind. It is something that I am hoping will separate these heroes from the rest in the world as they don''t quite fit. If you got any more ideas, again let me know.


    Thanks you guys again.

 Prologue

    Another day.


    That was the only thing that could describe the life of Ethan Lambert, just another day in the hospital.


    Since the age of 8, poor old Ethan has been stuck in a bed usually reserved for patients in extreme accidents that require extra comfort, so they don''t scream in pain just to shift their weight. And the boy remained in one of these beds ever since. A comfy prison is what he would comment to the newer nurses who would be the ones to take care of him. He seemed to be the ''test dummy'' for the men and women who just got out of med school but had not interacted much with actual patients.


    Not that he minded, more people to talk to. To distract him from the unimaginable amount of pain always present in his body.


    Every move taken, every word spoken, and even the slightest twitch of a muscle would cause the poor boy extreme pain that would make a war veteran shed tears and a string of curses.


    The young Lambert had initially been placed into this state due to a head-on collision resulting in his predicament and his parents'' death. The only saving grace was that Darla, his older sister, had been at a sleepover with her close friend Megan when the accident occurred. Thankfully the girl wasn''t physically affected. The problem was that she had blamed what happened to herself as the family was driving to come to pick her up for lunch. Darla went into a spiral of depression that resulted in a broken relationship with her brother. Although Ethan had never put any blame on her and never spoken an ill word of his sister, she had it set in her head that she was at fault for everything.


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    And that is how Ethan experienced 12 years of his life, confined to a bed in extreme constant pain. He never once cried out when his sister came to visit through all of it. All the nurses and doctors knew he was trying to spare Darla any more guilt. Every time she left, a new box of tissues was needed as the older woman couldn''t help seeing his bright smile turn into grinding pain.


    His body, physically broken and shattered from the crash, only worsened. His weakened state made him easily susceptible to diseases. Many times, the doctors nearly called Darla to tell her that he had passed, only for the boy to make a recovery. It had been made into a formal academic study on how the body responds to infection while being so destroyed. The man in charge of it, Julio Gonzales, had agreed not to officially post anything until 2 years after his death. It was all so that his sister was not made distraught by seeing her dead brother all over her university papers. There was just one more requirement for the study that Ethan had demanded, always know when his sister was coming.


    Her visits had to be scheduled a week in advance.


    "Mind over the body," Ethan would always say. Consistently, when given the timing, he would somehow pull through whatever he was going through just so that he did not damage Darla any further than she had. And miraculously, he always managed to.


    But there were consequences.


    Every time Ethan made a staggering recovery from whatever disease he had, his body got worse. More pain, more dangerous conditions. And yet he persisted.


    Until it happened.


    At 12:01 AM, July 21, Ethan Lambert died, a minute after the day of his birth, an hour after his sister left the hospital doors.


    The start of a new life.

 Rewrite Chapter 1

    Lambert found himself lying flat on his back in an unknown location without any sound. The surroundings were black and white, yet somehow possessing all shades. It was simultaneously the most beautiful and dullest thing Ethan had ever seen. So intimately familiar and yet strange. All of this impacted his brain all at once making him let out a low groan, which echoed out into the nothingness.


    This is where he is. How did he know that? He¡¯d like to know that too.


    Leaning back down onto his back, he wanted nothing more than to go back to sleep. This is all just too much for him to deal with. Time ticked by until Ethan eventually got bored and could no longer ignore the issue.


    Slowly opening his eyes, Ethan tried to make sense of where he was, slamming them shut once more. Too much. His brain could not handle the overwhelming amount of information that was being sent to his mind. Regardless he knew one thing.


    There was no pain.


    For the first time in 13 years, Ethan Lambert was at peace. For the first time, he had no worries.


    For the first time, he was alone.


    "Are you going to just sit there?" An unknown voice called out to him.


    Snapping his head from side to side, Ethan instinctively tried to locate where the stranger''s voice sounded. He seemed to have forgotten about what happened earlier in his confusion as once again he opened his eyes. Strangely he was able to see in the every-nothing.


    There, standing in front of him, was a cloaked figure. Everything was different, so long as Ethan focused on the individual he could see. And all he could do was stare. Any glances away resulted in the same overload as before.


    Try as he might gather his words, no sound escaped him.


    Seemingly understanding something, the being waved its hand, and the surroundings changed. Now the two were residing in what looked like a standard office space with papers stacked high around the person.


    Whatever it was had seated itself and turned to Ethan. Opening its palm over to the chair opposite it, the creature asked, "Will you take a seat, please."


    Seeing no reason not to respond in kind to its politeness, the young man sat down. Luckily the chair was right next to him. Having spent so long in a hospital bed had atrophied the muscles in his legs that he never even considered walking again.


    For a time, the two just stared at each other in silence.


    "I guess I should explain as to what is happening. You have been selected to take part in an experiment." The being turned to its right and pulled out a thin file. "Now, I know that you will have some questions, but I ask you to please bear with me until I have finished."


    Opening the strangely ordinary folder, the being flicked through a few pages before apparently finding what it was searching for. "You have been selected to take part in a testing ground for a new Omniversal System. These things happen now and then as the concept of reincarnation, isekai, and whatnot have become more popular. Before I go on to the specifics, you should know that this will be 100% voluntary." Here the clocked hood pulled itself up to look back at him. "You will have the choice of going through with this experience or going directly to Heaven pertaining to your faith. Are there any questions so far?"


    Not really knowing anything aside from the fact that he apparently will not be forced into doing anything against his will, Ethan saw no reason to question at that moment. Instead, he will ask after it has at least explained exactly what he will be doing.


    Seeing that he had none, the void within the hood looked back down to the file. "Good. Now I recall that you had dreamed of being a game designer. Still, as the pain within your body went to exceedingly high levels, you were incapable of actually studying for said position."


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    Ethan had no idea how the thing could know that. He told no one of that random thought of his. But, honestly, he had wanted to be a great many things, but that was one of the most recurring he could still do from his bedside.


    "What will be given to you is a means to succeed in this field. Depending on the world you will go to will depend on how this System will show itself. In a purely technological society, this System will take the form of a superior AI that will support your endeavors. It could be unique magic or even a dungeon." The being took its time going through a few more possible scenarios to give the young man more details on what he will be working with. "Well, that all depends on your luck, of course."


    Shuffling towards the back of the folder, it turned to him again. "Now, would you like to try?"


    Ethan remained silent throughout the entire ordeal. He was trying to understand how he had gotten into this position and if he did want to go through with this. Seeing his confusion, the creature reaffirmed that the entire process was random, that it was not he that they were after.


    "Well, to tell you the truth, you were not meant to die now." His eyes widened in shock. "You would have remained in your state for another 7 years, and the pain would have only increased further. Our organization saw this as a mercy to both you and those who hold you, dear. And to answer your unspoken question, yes, we helped Darla out. So I pulled a few strings here and there to bring her back from the abyss and devoted herself to medicine after seeing everything that happened to you."


    A weight had been lifted from his shoulders. The entire time the one thing he was apprehensive about was how his sister would spiral further into despair without him. Now with that answered, he felt true peace of mind.


    "What will happen if I say yes?"


    Writing something down, the stranger answered without looking up from his paperwork. "A wheel will be spun. You will see many different worlds on it, some you might know from fiction and others that you definitely will not as they have yet to be made. Whatever has been chosen will be where you will reside in your next life."


    As the creature said this, two pieces of text appeared in his vision. On his left was YES and on his right was NO. Thinking to himself for a minute as he digested everything he received, Ethan chose YES. There was no going back as both disappeared, and a wheel replaced it.


    The young Lambert saw many that were familiar as it continuously spun until it finally stopped, DC. But it didn''t stop there as a second wheel showed up with only a few different options. So it turned for only 10 seconds before it showed Animated Special.


    The hooded creature seemed to be shocked. How Ethan knew that he would never know, but the figure slowly turned back to him with a chuckle. "Well, you get to go to the better aspects of that multiverse. That Special means that certain laws, concepts, and characters from the Comics, Movies, TV shows, and even other multiverses are added. This will certainly be interesting."


    Standing up from its desk, the figure glided past and to a door behind him. Then, with a motion of its hand, it beckoned for Ethan to follow it. The two stride together through a hallway of endless wooden doors. Or at least that is what he thought they were had all of it not been one big blur.


    They finally reached their destination as the thing stopped. "Through here, you will find your new life. I only have one more thing to ask you, would you prefer to be aware of your surroundings or awaken at a later date?"


    Ethan had never thought about it. Granted, everything had been moving fast, but even if he knew that he had signed up to go to another world, it had just hit him that he would have to interact with a whole other family. So he wasn''t entirely sure of what would be better.


    "Um, I think I would like to awaken when I turn 16, please? And if possible, could I be an orphan as I don''t want to go through losing my parents again." Ethan knew that it was a little selfish, but he couldn''t help it. He had grown up with the pain of losing both parents.


    Whatever Ethan thought was going to happen, it didn''t. The figure seemed to soften, somehow quite expressive when not a single hint was shown. "Of course. Though I¡¯ll match it with your real birthday, which means that you will awaken during your senior year of high school.¡±


    A chill ran through his spine. High School, the bane of all teenagers. Even if he were confined to a hospital bed for all his memorable life, hearing his older sisters rants on how mean everyone was along with the cases of bullying and fights made him immediately shout ¡°NO!¡±


    The cloaked man chuckled. Ethan blushed and mumbled out his solution. ¡°Could you not just make it so I tested into school early? I heard it is easier to get into Elementary School early on than skipping grades while already in.¡±


    He could practically hear the amused grin in the darkness under that hood. A nod was given to ease the young mans mind. ¡°Very well.¡±


    Hearing that last bit he steeled himself with a deep breath, Ethan opened the door and stepped through. Behind him, he could hear the figure speak.


    "May you enjoy your new lot in life, true believer. The last three enjoyed my home, perhaps you will enjoy my friends? Excelsior!"

 Rewrite Chapter 2

    Within the first week of Ethan having been brought into the world of DC he has decided that his experiences can be summed up so far in one word. Boring.


    Honestly, you would think that living in a world full of superheroes that there would be more exciting things happening. Sure, if you looked on the news, there would be an occasional mention here or there, but since superpowers have long since become the norm, everyone treats them as such. News anchors would casually mention the Flash saving someone from a burning building or Superman taking down a group of bank robbers. Nothing seems to phase anyone about any of this. And that carefree attitude has quickly started to rub off on Ethan. And he hates it.


    "Then again, I guess that has to do with where I am too." The once again 16-year-old couldn''t help muttering to himself. He was thinking back to how his first day was.


    Ethan had been out of his mind excited and worried, looking through the computer in his late family''s apartment. He had been looking through news article after news article to get as much information as possible to build a basic timeline of his surroundings. Great news; Ethan is only a year after the official founding of the Justice League. Bad news; he is living in Gotham.


    Gotham itself is both a really good and really bad place for him to start his new life. On the one hand, Gotham is filled with various gangs capable of actually beating up and driving off meta-humans with their brutality. On the other hand, highly ruthless gangsters walked up and down the street and corrupt cops lingered around every corner just waiting to bust someone to increase the departments finances on trumped up charges. So there was no way to make decent money without doing something illegal, which would, in turn, likely attract Batman to deliver a thrashing upon you. Also it¡¯s in Jersey.


    Life is pain in Gotham.


    Thinking to himself, he had wasted so much time looking up everything when in reality all he needed to do was wait.


    -Flashback-


    As soon as Ethan put his head onto his pillow, it was off to dreamland. After spending all day, from 7 AM till 11 PM, staring at a computer screen and reading boring articles to find out anything interesting to help in this new life, he was exhausted.


    Whatever he had expected to happen, standing in a white expanse by himself was not it. Looking around, trying to make heads or tails on what was going on, he suddenly heard a monotonous voice speak. "Beginning memory assimilation¡­."


    A wave of memories slammed into him. Ethan was experiencing the worst migraine he had ever had the displeasure of going through, saying something. Perhaps whatever it was that had spoken decided to take pity on him.


    "Host in distress. Activating inherent skills [Pain Tolerance]."


    Feeling something not too dissimilar to the ear ringing disorientation of a flashbang, how the teen knew what that sounded like he couldn¡¯t say. Ethan was slowly feeling the pain settle down to an uncomfortable crawl.


    10 minutes. That is how long the young Lambert had to endure the feeling of his mind being squished and compressed, new foreign memories surging to the forefront before disappearing without any trace. That is how long he suffered until whatever spoke decided that it would pity him.


    "Host memory assimilation coming to a close. Stage 1 was successful. Disengaging automated skill activation." The automated voice had stated, bringing Ethan''s pain to an end.


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    Ethan began the wobbly effort of trying to stand back up after his brain was being melted like a cheese in an oven. If anyone had seen him, they would have sworn that he was blackout drunk with how often he fell over nothing. Ethan was just glad that he could hear his stifled groan instead of near-endless ringing throughout the entire thing.


    -Flashback End-


    A shiver ran up Ethan''s spine just remembering that encounter¡­ And going through the same thing another 6 times.


    Yeah, he had to go through that same pain every night for a whole week. Each time he fell asleep, he would return to that endless blankness. Each night experience a wave of newness that was both familiar yet completely alien. Each night taking longer to get any rest just thinking on what was awaiting him.


    Until he became whole.


    This morning he had woken up with all the memories of the 16-year-old boy, Ethan Lambert. An orphaned boy for the last month, just after his final exams, during a gang war between the Penguin and Black Mask over territory. He has been living off a government stipend created solely for Gotham as the vast number of orphans left in the wake of the City of Crime demanded some form of appeasement.


    Why would the government so readily create a law to give children money? The child in question has to be older than 13 as studies have shown they would never be adopted anyway and could live by themselves, especially in this city where the age of maturity seems to be 9.


    Now, doesn''t that seem to be nice? Think again. There was a nice little part in the fine print that made it so if signed by the recipient, they would be incapable of legally suing any of the gangs involved for reparations. Ever.


    Yeah, his former self had been so distraught that he hadn¡¯t noticed. Didn¡¯t even read it. He was all too grateful to accept the government''s help during his moments of weakness after his parents¡¯ death.


    "At least this lasts until I turn 21.¡± Ethan said to himself, trying to see the bright side.


    Right now, he is living off of instant ramen, cereal, sandwiches, and the occasional store-bought pasta for some change. He is not all that bad and saves what little he has.


    Former-Ethan had made sure to only use the money the government had given him for his rent and then use less than $100.00 for each month to slowly save up what was leftover. Thankfully starting an investment plan early. With it he could buy up some shares in some companies that Ethan noticed existed in this world as well during his week of researching.


    The young boy could only mentally groan again thinking on his predicament. He had tried everything he could think of to see if he had any powers. Jumping off high things only resulted in getting the wind knocked out of him. Punched the wall very nearly broke his hand. Testing for super speed he ran around a lot to no affect. Everything he tried resulted in nothing.


    That was until the Sunday morning wear Ethan was surprised to not be feeling any mind breaking migraines.


    ¡°Merging of Host psyche successful. Initiating system transference¡­ complete. Game Designer System now operational. Usage dictated by electronics owned by Host.¡±


    Good news is that he is not just an average civilian. Being a nobody in DC is a death sentence. With beings, good and bad, that can only be described as ¡®Gods Among Man¡¯ normality just isn¡¯t fair. Still it is hardly Overpowered.


    The Game Designer System had changed to accommodate the universal laws of the DC Universe by making Ethan Lambert a meta-human. It has only given him the ability to instinctively code and program. He could view other available options on any computer, but they were mostly greyed out until he had met specific requirements. Only one problem.


    He has no idea what he has to do!


    "I mean, I know that the whole purpose for this is to make games, but come on! How can I make a game with this!" Ethan was lamenting.


    How the System works is simple. Ethan gets 1 point to be redeemed in his Game Shop, he had a good laugh at the irony of that name, from every $200 purchased by his customers or 1 point for every 2000 hours played. Not terrible. Problem is that he only gets 1000 points to start with, and 500 were used during the System tutorial.


    Yes. Tutorial.


    That seems to be what the system has regarded Ethan''s last week long suffering. No explanation of how his powers work. No Help icon of any sort where he could independently research. Nothing.


    All he got was 16 years of memories shoved into his skull, which he can¡¯t even remember. Knowledge that he somehow has a skill and knows how to code. That. Is. It!


    Life just isn¡¯t fair.

 Rewrite Chapter 3

    The following month quickly caught up to the young teen. It had taken him 2 weeks of constant trial and error to properly code his first game, Flappy Bird. One of the simplest games to have ever been invented.


    He was incredibly proud of himself.


    Having had zero prior experience with anything related to coding and programming, Ethan danced around his room in indescribable joy for having succeeded in completing the first step to his new life. When deciding on what was going to be his start, the stepping stone, Ethan had looked first towards the technological standard that is made available.


    The average citizen of the first world countries has either flip phones or what was an equivalent to the Ipod. Was there touch screen technology? Yes, but the level it is currently publicly sold is laughable to someone like Ethan. Sadly that has drastically diminished the number of viable mobile games from the previous world which is how he had landed his attention on Flappy Bird.


    In regards to a complete novice into this industry, Flappy Bird has zero changes in scenery and a simple randomizer. Programming the pillars had taken about the same time to manually draw out and color code all the pixels for everything. Really about a weeks work total.


    Making the background soundtrack had been the part that took the longest because how the System had not given him any assisting skill like it had for coding [Programming]. Ethan had no idea that writing and producing music was so hard. With how many musicians there seems to be across the world he had initially thought it would be a piece of cake. That alone had taken 6 days to complete even considering that it hadn¡¯t been particularly complex. And his headache didn¡¯t stop there.


    Turns out the System had been a jerk. Was Ethan surprised? No.


    There is, in fact, an option to forego manually creating the soundtrack at the cost of the precious few points he has on him. Of course, Ethan had not been made aware of any of this until he had decided to publish Flappy Bird to the app stores for all mobile devices. Of the remaining 500 points: 50 had been used for the price of releasing the game to the public and 200 points to make the software available to both the WayneTech and Luther Corp phones. Of that 200, 50 points were used for the publication rights for each of the companies while another 100 had been used to adapt the controls for flip phones to use a button.


    Ethan had been amused that WayneTech had seemingly replaced Apple with their focus on their special software. In contrast, Luther Corp had done the same as Microsoft in its widespread usage of its hardware among the government officials and public school systems.


    After the long hours of researching on what games are even available for him to recreate, Ethan discovered that most of the creators from his previous world were not in DC. Instead, he discovered that many of the editors, composers, and programmers actually did exist but were hired by either of the large conglomerates.


    The primary gaming media had been hyper-focused on superheroes, for obvious reasons, so there was little need to worry. Sadly, thankfully for Ethan, most of the examples of DC¡¯s global entertainment industry has been quite stale.


    Only a few of the popular games that Ethan knew of had become just so in DC. GabeN had just released Minecraft 1.0 three days after Flappy Bird''s release. Mass Effect had gotten traction within the last year due to increased awareness of aliens on Earth. Aside from that there is a vast ocean of possibilities on what could be achieved.


    Seeing how he was left with only 150 points left, Ethan chose to focus on more mobile games for a good while. Anything more significant would require a far larger budget and time, neither of which are readily available.


    Thankfully, he has at least been able to get some back with a release. He had set Flappy Bird as a free game so it would be far more appealing. Fewer people would be willing to pay for something from a new gaming studio that only has one game. But, at least now, he could slowly build his company''s reputation. He remembered how huge its following had been back in his world, so Ethan decided to add a few aesthetic customization options that would hopefully draw even more in.


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    Although not surprised, it had been an exciting ordeal for Ethan to try brainstorming an exciting and unique name. He now had a newfound respect for those big companies that seemed to have a name that just rolled off the tongue. Eventually, he landed on the name Aurora Twilight Studios.


    The young man had tried just Twilight Studios, but it happened to have been used already. Can''t have any copyright issues down the road. Aurora was just added due to its mysterious beauty that is known throughout the globe. Twilight is the point where there is both light and dark, beginning and end. The turning point to a new day.


    Ethan had been pleasantly surprised that the System saw fit to reward him for releasing his first game. These Milestone Achievements had a set reward when specific actions are performed. Sadly, the new designer did not have any indication on what these rewards were.


    Immediately after, Ethan returned to his computer. Since the System was not helping tell him what it was that he had gotten the Lambert wasn''t going to worry about it. After all the times the thing had screwed him over, he just didn''t care. He was just mentally done with the System and decided to follow up with something similar.


    Geometry Dash had hundreds of thousands playing it for years. It was just one of those games that many would have and occasionally play for a little bit every now and then. The problem Ethan was having was that the biggest draw for the game was the upbeat, catchy soundtrack. Ethan is complete garbage at making music. He will openly admit that. Naturally this means he will have to rely on the System to do that part.


    Ethan groaned just thinking about it. "How much will this thing drain my wallet?!"


    Putting his arms up, he stretched to get out all the stiffness in his back from sitting in his chair all day. Deciding to call it a night, Ethan started his daily routine. After doing 13-16 hours a day of coding, he was practically braindead from exhaustion.


    While brushing his teeth, he was casually looking over towards his computer, just reflecting on everything going on these past weeks that he has been in DC. Eyes drifting to the small apartment left to him, he caught something that made him do a double-take. Then, walking over to his dresser, Ethan read his alarm clock.


    6:07pm


    Confusion ran rampant through Ethan''s mind. He was trying to comprehend how so little time had passed since he started this morning. Even though the young man had called it earlier than usual, he was convinced it would be at least 8:30.


    All sorts of thoughts rushed through his head, but ultimately he decided that it was nothing. He had been running on fumes for a while now; he probably had lost track of time. So, yeah, that was it.


    Turns out it wasn''t his imagination. Let¡¯s just go with that.


    The following day he did his morning ritual of cereal and milk at 8:00 AM, took a shower, brushed his teeth, and got started on his new game at 9:00 AM. He rushed headfirst into finishing the basic building blocks for what he intended to add as an optional purchase for the game.


    Ethan is adding a workshop to Geometry Dash. For a $4.99 USD purchase, anyone can get the tools for customers to create their maps. That was what the draw was going to be. Will he be pulling a Nintendo? Yes and it will allow his customers to make his maps for him all the while raking in all the profits.


    A lightbulb went off. Quickly making a note to remind himself, Ethan will add an additional option for someone to upload their own music. Then, writing out the premises on what kind of attention this will draw, Ethan could not stop the wide grin forming on his lips.


    Upcoming artists will get a chance to promote their music while at the same time bringing in a profit with little effort on his part. Only problem it would bring could be the copyright issues, but the System gives him advice when it scans over his product before release. It was, again, something he only was made aware of doing the process. Regardless, that is future Ethan¡¯s problems.


    Satisfied with himself, Ethan looked to his right and was shocked. He knows that he has been working for at least 7 hours. So why does the clock say 12:53 PM! A rub of his eyes later, Ethan faced reality in front of him.


    Remembering what had occurred the night prior, Lambert demanded the System tell him what happened. Surprisingly, there was a reply.


    "Host can be put at ease. What the Host is experiencing is the effects of the first Milestone Achievement. Now System possesses the ability to dilate time at a 2:1 rate while utilized."


    Ethan just sat there stunned. Temporal Manipulation! That is what happened to him yesterday. After the release, he didn''t get done early. He was working twice as fast! Wait¡­


    ¡°System! Is there an option where I get updates on these Milestone rewards?¡±


    ¡°Affirmative Host. Among the selection of Functions available for purchase within the Game Shop.¡±


    Ethan rolled his eyes. Of course it would make him spell it out. ¡°How much is it?¡±


    ¡°250.¡±


    ¡°Ugh, fine. Buy it. At least then I can be kept in the loop.¡± Cracking his knuckles Alex declared, "Time to get to work.¡±

 Chapter 4

    So maybe he had bitten off more than he could chew.


    Ethan had easily finished the creation of the first 5 levels for Geometry Dash in 9 days. Working under a time dilation was a godsend as he could drastically decrease the needed rest periods. Everyone needs to eat and sleep, but Ethan had discovered that as long as his screen in open the dilated effect still functions so he altered the programing in his computer to have a manual on/off button. With that addition he has essentially enabled him to continuously work at 2x speed.


    As long as he remains within the same area that is. In his experiments Ethan found that the moment he leaves his apartment the computer automatically turns off.


    At first he had been irritated, but then shrugged. He already has an immense advantage, so why get upset about something so small. Anyway, turns out that creating an option for the customers to create their own levels, upload it to a central server, download others, and play them was extremely complicated. Who knew?


    Ethan will deny ever slamming his desk in frustration at constantly working and reworking the same thread of codes over and over and over and over again. But, it did cause him to re-evaluate his entire plan. He has been wasting so much time trying to do something that he just doesn''t have the necessary experience and skills to pull of so Ethan put down a note to come back to the idea once he can.


    On the bright side he had found a way to draw more attention. When he designed Flappy Bird he had not added in one of the key money making functions, ads.


    Now when anyone thinks of ads they instinctively cringe and throw themselves into a rage, but Ethan has a plan. He had spent an entire day, not under time distortion to avoid unnecessary confusion, sending out emails and phone calls to various companies. From local mom-and-pop shops to international conglomerates Ethan proposed to place an advertisement towards all of his players.


    Most had passive aggressively told him to go away, but a few showed interest. Implementing the update to the codes framework to allow the ads to play after the player dies. Should the player watch to the end instead of skipping they will receive an extra life. This will continue for a total of 3 lives, or 2 ads, until an option will show to either purchase extra lives or restart.


    Ethan hardly negotiated when presented the opportunity aside from looking through the contracts to make sure that he hadn''t been screwed over. Only 2 out of the 13 companies had tried to do something that basically gave them all the profit from the game in its entirety. Naturally their offers were rejected and blacklisted from ever being involved with any future endeavors.


    Wonderful thoughts of how they will come back begging to be apart of his journey when he gets far more popular flooded his mind when he went to sleep that night.


    Interestingly, any watch time towards advertisements get a double value in the system as it is counting the playtime and some form of viewership payment. Sadly the system had not given Ethan any advise as to the conversion rate of views to points, but he just shrugged. Why worry about an unexpected benefit when he didn''t even try to get it?


    Unsurprisingly the system had forced him to pay an ''Update Fee'' of 20 points, but whatever. At this moment there were no more than a couple thousand total players of Flappy Birds, so he wasn''t getting back much anyway.


    -Game Designer in DC-


    The following month was when everything exploded.


    Truth be told, Ethan was slowly going crazy. See the system requires a standard publishing fee along with a fee to change minor details to allow for proper usage in both Wayne Tech and Luthor Industries softwares. Sure he could focus on one in particular, but that would ruin his ability to grow and potentially alienate an entire group of customers. Why would he ever do that?


    So when thinking in those terms the baseline cost for each game is 150 points. And even that is to not pay the system to include flip phones. Very quickly Ethan came to understand why starting up a new business is extremely difficult.


    He has been working nonstop to pump out as much content as possible only to put these projects aside as he doesn''t have the correct funds. By now Ethan has a small, barely noticeable dent on his desk from slamming his fist in frustration.


    Thankfully his efforts were showing dividends. After putting out Geometry Dash with the advertisement function already added into its software there was little need to update it. Starting out with 10 different levels with vastly different themes and difficulties has lead to it becoming a hot topic among kids. And that''s without talking about his stroke of genius.


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    He added his own creations into his ad system. Every time someone watches an ad on anything that is produced by him, they have a chance of seeing another of his games. Genius!


    Now he did run into a slight snag initially. Creating an advertisement is nothing like a game. In fact it has to be cinematic similar to watching a teaser trailer. Thankfully the Game Shop sold several skills that have come in handy for him. [Coding], [Cinematography], [Producer], and [Sound Design] have been godsends.


    Sound Design had been the first of his purchases for a low low price of 150 points, but it was worth it. It should be noted that Ethan is complete trash at creating sound tracks. He relies completely on the system to add it in when publishing and Geometry Dash required him to pay 25 points per level.


    Yeah, that hurt a bit too much.


    Now he has all the knowledge necessary for him to at least create basic tracks and has spent time practicing. Strangely the Producer skill has compounded on top of this. Initially for creating his trailer, the Producer skill encompasses everything that requires a producer. Funnily enough, there was a lack of the system shoving knowledge into his brain and instead a sixth sense type of thing. Ethan could instinctively tell when something should be done to make the overall experience better.


    Problem is that these things take time to properly implement and learn what is the right course of action. There was one particular case where he just sat there for 5 hours constantly changing two or three things because his skill was telling him something was missing, but not knowing what to fix. In the end he just left it because what else was he supposed to do.


    Cinematography naturally was bought to make the ads as well as thinking on any cinematic cutscenes or trailers for the more expensive games he intends to make later on.


    Now Coding was an interesting one. The skill that was first given to Ethan, Programming, came with the knowledge of how to code and program software. Coding has essentially given Ethan the knowledge of advanced coding techniques and tricks to make everything run faster and easier. It was with this that Ethan discovered that simply adding more code to get something to work slowed down the servers and slimming down the software allows for more players to be on the servers at the same time.


    Properly geared up, Ethan took the country by storm. Mobile game after mobile game was released and added to his company''s portfolio, gaining an increasing amount of intrigue by more businesses wanting to use his ad system for their products. He worked near constantly in the red, often times using up his points immediately when the option to publish something was available. If it wasn''t something new then he was updating everything at one time where he could to make it run smoother.


    Since the release of Geometry Dash, Ethan had been shoving more and more into the faces of the market. Fruit Ninja, Bloons TD, Plants vs Zombies, Kingdom Rush, and DragonVale. Each one published as soon as he finished it and had the 150 points. Each one had an ad system that raked in more money. Each one bringing in more players.


    With all the new traffic of kids, and even bored adults, playing his games, Ethan had gotten some more Achievement rewards. For having 10000 total players downloading his games he received another time distortion. It had taken him from 2x to 3x the temporal flow and he was over the moon. Afterwards it was 1000 players on the same game at one time, but the reward from each game was different this time.


    What Ethan had been given for each of his games that reached 1000 concurrent players was a choice between two options. He was being presented with an option between an Active Bot or a Passive Bot. What that means, he didn''t know until he tried out both.


    He learned that an Active Bot will work in the background at the same time as Ethan is working. This bot will work at around 20%, or 1/5th of his own speed and efficiency, but will know what it is that he wants to do. Great, worked like a charm in finishing up Geo Dash''s last 3 levels and fixing a few minor background issues on everything else. Sadly he had to purchase a tracking function on what it worked on from the shop, but whatever. He was already happy and there was no need to ruin it.


    Passive Bots seemed work very differently. They are always on, but are a far more long term situation. The way they operated is that for everything that Ethan can get done in an hour, these Passive Bots will take 24. Very bad if not for the fact that even when he is not in his apartment or whatever is designated as his home, these PB''s will continue to work as if they were him. Just slow.


    Between all his games only Flappy Bird, Geometry Dash, Fruit Ninja, and Bloons have gotten this achievement. Ethan current is using a set-up of 3 AB''s and 1 PB''s to help him out.


    Ethan can''t be doing everything and this was his saving grace on not having to run the risk of sharing the secret of the system with anyone else. Perhaps he may find someone that he could trust in the future, but this is still Gotham. There is no way in hell that he could ever let anyone else know about this in the city.


    Though, he is running into a bit of an issue lately. The system shut him out.


    Apparently holing oneself up in their home for 72 hour long work days, every day tends to lead to insanity. At first Ethan found the notion that the system, the thing that started this whole mess, is concerned for him hilarious.


    He even asked the system where this new found love came from. He shouldn''t have been surprised at the response.


    ''Host is a human.''


    "What does that mean?" How is that supposed to answer anything?


    ''Humans are social creatures. Should the host be met with a lack of social interaction, the sanity and continued efficiency of the host is in jeopardy.''


    Yeah, it all is because he might not be working at his best. Not any real concern at all.


    Never.

 Chapter 5

    Within a few days, Ethan had found himself experiencing all 5 Stages of Grief.


    At first, the teen refused to even acknowledge the systems existence. As if denying there was even a problem to begin with would solve anything. He just decided ''Fine, I''ll just get on my computer and wait until this is all over.'' Yeah, no. The system had even cut him off from just using his laptop.


    Quickly anger surged but this time, right when he was turning red in the face, the system responded by noting how dependent Ethan was on his computer to just function. How he had made it his entire world. What made the entire thing worse was how right it was, striking home just how alone Ethan truly was. Which only made his anger worse


    He had been extremely angry with the system for locking him out of its functions, but now it boiled Ethan to his core. Several hours had been spent ranting and raving over what he could have been doing along with what projects will need to be finished soon. How much time is being wasted because this stupid thing wouldn''t let him use the very tools it had given to him.


    When every complaint, insult, and whine had failed to get another response from the system Ethan eventually got on his knees and started pleading to his ceiling. Looking in, anyone would have thought he was losing his mind as he pleaded to the sky that he could use his computer. He was even weeping! Rivers of tears streaming down his face that he couldn''t even get on the internet.


    As the aches and pains of kneeling on the hardwood floor of his room, crying out to the formless authority that had been governing his new existence, reached a painfully uncomfortable high, Ethan just soundlessly dragged himself to his bed. Depressingly curling himself into a ball, wrapped in his blanket and went to sleep knowing that he likely wouldn''t be able to do anything to change what is happening. But he was going to hope anyways.


    As the sun rose, peaking through his blinds, Ethan rubbed his awake to a new day. Rushing over to his desk, he turned it on with a hopeful light in his eyes. Nothing had changed.


    Ethan could still do nothing on his computer. He is still locked out of the system. He can only do what the system wants for his situation to change or go on and live an ordinary life. For a moment he considered, out of sheer spite, doing that. To go on and find a normal job and live as anyone else, but no. Why would he? This is a fantastical world, so why would he ever actually want to be at the bottom of the social hierarchy?


    The only consolation that he could bring himself was remembering that he had paid the points to schedule the release for the 2 new additions to his companies portfolio as well as a software update across the board that allowed his games to work on the latest WayneTech phone model. Ethan could only accept his situation and move on at this point. Not like he will be losing points until another month or so with how fast his company''s popularity has been rising and rising.


    And so for the next week Ethan had been doing anything to ''socialize'' with the local Gothamites. But how could someone as anti-social as him do anything in a city that he doesn''t know? For all the time he had been living in Gotham, Ethan had never once gone anywhere other than the local grocery store to buy his food and basic utilities. He would walk there and walk back. That was it.


    Ethan did whatever he could think of to interact with people, but nothing worked. He always felt either left out or like he was bringing the mood down and left. When he went to a nightclub, he just kind of stood in the corner with his drink. Did he try to talk to people? Sure, but the way he carried himself reminded everyone of a lost puppy who had no idea what to do or where to go. The laughs and stares that he received just made him want to crawl into a hole the rest of the night.


    It wasn''t until now that he realized that he had no idea how to carry a conversation, how to meet people, how to be human that he was willing to admit he had a problem. Spending so much time huddled over his computer, typing out code had left him a shell of a person. The kind young man who did everything to brighten up his sisters day regardless of how much pain he was in was nowhere to be seen when he looked himself into the mirror.


    Sighing to himself, Ethan walked over to the local pizzeria for some lunch. He was hoping that a good New York slice would be able to brighten his day up, even if just a little.


    Ordering the lunch special of 2 large slices or pepperoni and a drink, he just sat there are a table against the wall. Memories of times when his parents brought him and his sister to places like this and played at the arcade in the back led a small smile surface on his face. How competitive he and Darla were over the silliest of things. He sat there reminiscing until his food came.


    Still dwelling on those good times, Ethan let his eyes wander. He was hoping to see something similar here, an arcade in the back that would grab the attention of the children and let the adults mingle about without a need to constantly watch their charges. All pizza places seem to have those to attract more customers or keep hold of those regulars. And this place was no different.


    Really, with how much of his life in this world has revolved around games and the like, he hadn''t really played anything. He hasn''t had allowed himself to just enjoy what they were supposed to bring to a persons day.


    Using an ATM in the corner, he got a nice amount of quarters and took a minute to walk the area. He observed what kind of options were available to him and found that only half were familiar. There were the standard racing games, air hockey, and even a football table that you paid to unlock the ball. Sadly, those were the kinds that would require another to get the full experience out of as there is just no enjoyment in easy wins.


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    Looking around some more he saw many examples of how much superheroes have engrained themselves into this worlds culture. There was a WWII game where the player was a soldier being led by Wonder Woman through the battlefields, blasting Nazi''s as you progressed. There was a ''flight simulator'' except you were Superman flying around the city of Metropolis and had to dodge obstacles along your path. It was interesting and intrigued the young developer.


    He soon lost himself in the flow of slamming joysticks to the sides to dodge something or furiously clicking buttons to get your shot in. It was what he had been missing. For what felt like hours, Ethan spent his time exploring the worlds of these new examples of his craft. Sure he could find problems and had run into not a few deaths thanks to janky controls, but that was part of the fun of it.


    But when things came to an end he went back to old faithful. That arcade game that everyone knows the tune of. "Mortal Kombat!" He couldn''t help himself from singing the theme song to himself under his breath as he played a blast from his past, the first Mortal Kombat.


    As he was getting back into the swing of things, relearning the combos with the joystick he heard two voices entering the arcade.


    "-lly I''m telling you that you are going down today."


    "Yeah right, like you could beat me."


    Entering in were two kids rushing over, knocking against one another hoping to be the first in. The two ground to a halt when they saw that the source of their competition was being occupied and just stood there like a pair of deer in headlights.


    Smirking to himself, he went slower on the controls. Hearing the excitement in both boys'' voices only to realize someone was already there made Ethan decide to take a dive. When that deep voice echoed out ''You Lose'' Ethan was already moving towards a bench in the back where his cup was.


    "Sweet, it''s open!" The taller red head blew past his friend and got on the player 1 side, shooting the other a giant smirk.


    Ethan could have sworn he caught sight of the smaller boy with black hair give a grateful smile. It was like he knew that Ethan purposefully lost so they could have their fun. Though it didn''t last long as the kid got over to the other side and chose his character.


    Sitting down, Ethan took out a small notebook from his a pocket inside his jacket. Within were a bunch of notes to himself that he needs to update his games on, brainstorming ideas, or reminders that has steadily increased over this last week. He found that after the first from coming to terms that he can''t do anything productive, Ethan has been thinking about what he could do more than ever.


    Perhaps this is why the system forced him out?


    He just shook his head. Thinking about all of that would just put him back into a depression spiral again and he didn''t want to ruin the kids'' fun.


    As both friends got louder with each win/loss, Ethan just continued to write more in his little journal. He had been trying to figure out for the last month when he should start going into the mainstream market, but hadn''t really seen the right timing as he couldn''t even begin until he had amassed a sizable amount of points.


    See the thing about making all the ''big'' games is that Ethan couldn''t just program it all himself off the top of his head. At least with mobile games, he either had played them so much on his phone back in his other life that he knew them like the back of his hand or were so minimal in their design/functionality that he could do it himself just by going off of the general theme.


    It was how he was able to get something like DragonVale up and going even though most of what he knew was because Darla liked it when she was younger. By the time he actually got a phone and played himself it had been one of many examples that made it big then faded into obscurity. Everything that he made in this new life was based on what his sister explained to him about how it worked along with the various dragon characters.


    There wasn''t really much to it. Build and upgrade habitats to house dragons that makes the player gold. Build and upgrade farms to feed then level up the dragons. Hatch dragons then breed two together to try and get the rarer species. See simple.


    Things like guilds and the like were interesting mechanics in theory, but really just decreased the upgrade time and let the player show off their base. Ethan had added a bit more on top of the original design by allowing players to text their coordinates to others instead of just the guild.


    Something else that Ethan had added that provided a massive draw in popularity was the ''Tourist'' feature. By clicking on the button, when visiting another players island you could only walk along the pathways that were set up. The camera angle was designed to be as if the dragons in their habitats towered over the ordinary humans and encouraged more artistic decorations as there was a leaderboard on how many upvotes an island had each week.


    All his games had a leaderboard added to them after Ethan saw how many loved it. The were divided into the categories of Local, National, and Global; all his games showed where a players score was placed in their city, country and around the world. In the case of DragonVale, players could see the top 100 islands and their coordinates were automatically shown which encouraged more to play/tour their islands. To get in the Top 100 players had posted their cords in social media which again brought in more players. The never ending cycle will continue until eventually people lose interest, but at least it will prolong how many will be playing which will give Ethan even more points.


    Still, for something beyond a mobile game the Game Shop provides templates. These are a massive collection of data ranging from characters, maps, weapons, magic, and lore. Everything that Ethan would need to set up these huge projects. The only problem is that there is just so many that he has no idea what to start with.


    See the first big game he plans to release needs to be special. It will be the defining piece of information for most of the world and will be his cornerstone into mainstream development. He just can''t squander this opportunity!


    Which is why Ethan had been steadily making a list on possible options that has only grown over the last three days. He had put as many titles as he could think of down and has only now started crossing off names to at least narrow down his choi-


    "Hey." A voice broke his train of thought.


    Snapping his head up, Ethan realized it was the loud ginger. Raising an eyebrow at the boy, he silently asked what he wanted.


    Rubbing his hand through his hair, the boy asked Ethan. "You want to play? I mean you were already here and I don''t really want to be the reason for anyone to not have fun. And I mean, I am pretty good so I don''t think you could win or anything. But-" The other kid elbowed him in the ribs.


    "What blabber mouth means is that we noticed you took a dive when we walked in and wanted to know if you wanted to do a tournament?" Though as he said that the younger boy with black hair was taking subtle, curious glances into his hands.


    Ethan was taken aback. "Um, sure. Why not."

 Chapter 6

    Hearing that he was going to play with them, the red head slapped him on the shoulder with a grin then held out his hand. Grasping, Ethan allowed himself to be pulled out of his seat and put the journal back into his jacket pocket.


    Walking over to the arcade machine, the three boys were all smiles until they reached a dilemma. Who would go first?


    ¡°Well, it¡¯d be rude if we asked you to play then had you sit out. So~¡± The younger kid drawled out.


    Looking from one to another, they both smirked. What else could possibly have been the solution, but some good ol¡¯ fashion Rock, Paper, Scissors. The shorter one won, though considering how overly dramatic the red head was it must have been a normal occurrence.


    Throwing a mischievous smirk, the boy walked up and chose his character. ¡°Ready to lose?¡±


    Oh it is on! Ethan looked over at who his opponent chose and thought ¡®it couldn¡¯t be more perfect.¡¯


    Moving the joystick, he chose the only option that should fight the other character. Scorpion.


    A predatory smile broke out across Ethans face. If there is one thing he is certain to win in, it is a fighting game. That his victim decided on rival to his preferred character just made it all the more perfect for when he destroys him.


    Round 1. Fight.


    Immediately Scorpion charged his opponent, throwing out punches and kicks. Ethan had learned the timing on when a character is able to move, by waiting to the exact moment he is able to get in a few hits before the other player could even register the moves. Sadly his lead didn¡¯t last long.


    After taking his blows, Sub Zero slid underneath a punch and countered with a kick to the other ninjas back. Seeing an opportunity for a bit of revenge, the other boy performed the Ice Freeze combo to lock down Scorpions movement. Quickly Ethan was finding that his health was down to half.


    Needing to get away he Teleported away, hoping that some distance will allow him to build up some momentum back. The blue clad fighter however did not allow it to be that easy. A fist of the pursuer was what ended this round in a loss.


    ¡°Aw, don¡¯t worry. I¡¯ll go easy if you just ask.¡± Ok this brat needs to be taught a lesson.


    Round 2. Fight.


    Unlike before, Scorpion jumped back. Predictably, the other character displayed an impatience that denoted his younger age. Ethan was hoping the other would fall to the classic pride of someone who managed to beat an older player, naturally they would want to press the attack. Show that it wasn¡¯t a fluke.


    Playing far more defensively, Ethan manipulated his character to block the more mundane hits and jump away from all the low blows. The kid was smart enough to know that jumping attacks would just leave him open. Ethan was happy to get in any hit he could, choosing to focus more on slowly chipping away at his enemy¡¯s health.


    Teleporting away behind Sub Zero, Scorpion managed to leave with half health while the opponent still had only a quarter taken away. However unlike last round, a spear was thrown from his hand and dragged the ninja to his position. ¡°Get over here!¡±


    Smirking to himself, Ethan let the kid have it. He moved his character to begin pummeling at the other, leaving no opening for a single move to be thrown. The blue ninja would get a few blocks and dodges, but the momentum was all held with the yellow fighter from hell.


    ¡°Thanks kid, couldn¡¯t have done it without you agreeing to go easy on me.¡± So maybe he shouldn¡¯t be snarking at a kid at least 5 years younger than him, but Ethan couldn¡¯t help it. The kid really knew how to get under his skin with those snide comments of his.


    Glowering at Ethan, the young ravenette refused to say a word. Though that didn¡¯t last long when he heard some snickering off to the side. Whipping around to his friend, he turned the focus of his glare.


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    A slice of pizza in his hand that Ethan swore wasn¡¯t there earlier, the red head just smirked while continuing to take slow, deliberate bites. Just to annoy the smaller boy.


    Final Round. Fight.


    Both of them quickly whirled back to the game, determined to end this. Both players went for the old fashioned, beat ¡®em up quick n¡¯ clean strategy. Neither player wanted the other to get enough distance to blindside them and pretty much resorted to a flurry of kicks and punches from both sides.


    The red head zipped back and forth over each side from behind them, letting out a low whistle as he watched the blur of their hands furiously smack around the joystick and pushing buttons. Quiet whispers into the younger kids ears were met furious whispers of what essentially amounted to ¡°shut it¡± and ¡°leave me alone !¡±


    Eventually Sub Zero went down with his opponent only barely managing to squeak out a victory, a sliver of health left on the screen. A smile on his face, Ethan shoved his arms up into the air as if he were trying to punch away the clouds covering the Gotham skyline. ¡°WooHoo! Yeah, haha.¡±


    ¡°Don¡¯t worry Richy, you can always buy me some more food to make yourself feels better.¡± The red head playfully shook his friend, Richy, while giving him some faux advice on how to overcome this devastating loss. Richy was about to rebuke his friend, but was interupted.


    Finish Him.


    Smirking over at the two friends, Ethan controlled his character to do the only thing appropriate for a Mortal Kombat victor. Scorpion moved back a step then ripped off his mask to reveal a white skull. Opening its mouth, the skull roared a stream of flames at the feet of the poor victim. The fire raged, the ninja screaming in pain through the machine until only a blackened skeleton remained and fell to the ground in a pile of ash.


    Fatality. Scorpion Wins.


    For a few seconds neither boys said anything until the taller one grasped both of Ethan¡¯s shoulders and started shaking him. ¡°What was that? How did you do it? Can every player do it? Tell me!¡±


    Apparently they didn¡¯t know about fatalities. Who knew? Really Ethan should have known considering that only Mortal Kombat 1 was in this pizzeria, but even then it wasn¡¯t like that could have been any blatant indicator as there were definitely places that will keep old games to not waste money on replacing them constantly with the newest version.


    ¡°Uh, I read it in a forum. Every character has a finishing move that is different from each other and quite complicated. As the story went, on the first day of testing a kid managed to get it to work once but nobody believed him. The creators even played it off like he was crazy and that they didn¡¯t know what he was talking about.¡± Fun fact, everything was true. Just with a few extra steps missing.


    ¡°Woah, awesome.¡± Immediately both of them abandoned any notion of playing another round with Ethan as they went to ¡®work¡¯ finding out the Fatality for each of the characters.


    Shaking his head with a smirk, Ethan decided to leave. Seeing the two being so amazed and clueless about something as integral as a Fatality really hammered home how strange the cultural progression of DC is. In a world with the integration of alien tech and magic into civilian products, they are surprisingly behind in entertainment. Touch screens have exploded into the world, but Mortal Kombat 1 is ¡®new?¡¯ Nothing makes sense.


    As he left two men watched him from a corner. A man with short brown hair and a slim build looked over to his companion. ¡°I¡¯m glad they were having fun.¡± He clearly knew what the kids were doing somehow.


    The person opposite him rolled his eyes. ¡°Barry, there wasn¡¯t a need to spy on the kids playing an arcade game.¡±


    Even as the handsome man, who any lady would instantly fall for, said that Barry just stared at him. ¡°Bruce, are you alright? You of all people would be the last person that I would hear that from.¡±


    This man wearing a flat cap covering his midnight black hair was Bruce Wayne, one of the most famous individuals in the entire world. He was wearing a rather simple disguise to come out in public like he was, dress like a normal man. It is surprising how much someone famous can go unnoticed when they just dress normally with a hat on. Most will only look and congratulate him on looking like the Wayne heir instead of actually thinking that it was the man himself.


    ¡°Yeah. Had Alfred run a facial recognition on everyone who entered within a mile of us. That kid is a recent orphan who has been living by himself about 5 miles from here and spends most of his time within his home. Only within the last week has this Ethan Lambert abandoned his routine. ¡°


    ¡®And he says that using super speed to watch out for the boys was overkill.¡¯ Barry thought as he just stared incredulously at his friend. ¡°Well regardless the Wally seems to like him. I¡¯ve never seen him that excited of something not ¡®work¡¯ related.¡±


    A nod was all the billionaire gave the young man. He was glad that Dick got to talk with another boy his age too. Bruce noted the boy, Ethan, talked about the game was as if whatever it was should have been common knowledge. Dick may be missing out on many things that average boys his age would know because of his hero work, but games were not one of them. Especially those that Wally took a liking to.


    Interesting.

 Chapter 7

    Ok, so maybe the system had the right idea. Will he admit it aloud? No, but it permitted Ethans thoughts.


    He had experienced the very thing that his games have been trying to capture. The pureness of someone being able to play with others and laugh and rage in equal measures with each other brings out a unique joy. Just walking back to his apartment Ethan couldn¡¯t keep himself from smiling, from thinking fondly of the two.


    Ethan really should have gotten their numbers or something as he had no clue who those two were other than that one of them was ¡°Richy.¡± Hindsight was always 20/20 but seriously, Ethan was kicking himself for being so rude to not even introduce himself.


    Sighing to himself, he shook his head. ¡°Whatever, if we¡¯ll likely never meet again. What are the chances of meeting with two people in this huge metropolis.¡±


    A second later Ethan was chuckling at his joke. Was it terrible, yes. Was he ashamed, never. And with that, the last part of his walk was dominated by a mental rant on the stupidity of naming a city after a description of any city with a large urban population.


    Sitting back down in his ¡®work¡¯ chair, really the only chair in his room, Ethan booted up his computer. He couldn¡¯t keep the anxiety that maybe it would kick him out once again off his face. Thankfully it didn¡¯t take too long for his login screen to pop up and wipe out any of his doubts. He quickly went to pull up his projects calendar to check if the single Passive Bot he had assigned offhandedly had progressed anything.


    Ethan let out a sigh of relief when he saw that the bot had completed the final updates on his next game that was actually supposed to be published today. But with him not being at the helm for a week, he¡¯ll be spending a day or two double checking the operating systems and code to make sure there weren¡¯t any details the PB missed while left to itself. Turning back towards his progression calendar, Ethan pulled up a notepad and made reminders on what the logs stated the bot completed for later.


    Finally pulling himself away for a moment, he found himself not knowing what to do. For all the excitement and desperation to get back into the grind of unleashing his mark on the market Ethan didn¡¯t know what else to do. For the life of him, he couldn¡¯t figure out why he was hesitating.


    Why couldn¡¯t he bring himself get back to the mindless typing of his computer for hours on end to bring the public more quality entertainment? He didn¡¯t move as Ethan just stared at the screen.


    Shaking his head Ethan pulled out his notebook from his pocket, carefully reading through the reminders and brainstorming he had been doing in his spare time that he took from being a lost idiot. He just spent the next several hours reading and re-reading through everything that he noted down the last week. So much information that was sporadically jot down that he couldn¡¯t comprehend it in the moment and was now trying to figure out what his next move will be.


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    Two mobile games have already been made and are going through checks and updates for public release, so now what will he do? Will Ethan continue to make some more of these mobiles that will come and go through the majority of peoples lives, never to be remembered again or more something memorable. He chuckled at how stupid that sounded in his head, but really that is where he is at. Twilight Aurora Studios as a company already has a large consumer base that have been drawn in through their quality mobile entertainment, but is there enough for a good foothold into the mainstream gaming world?


    The book in his hands has a list of the various examples from his previous life that had blown the minds of the entire world, providing fun for everyone who touched them. Quite a large number had unfortunately proven to not be in his current skill range, better left for later on where he can properly tell their story without ruining the experience with sup-par graphics and functionality. Which left Ethan with an infinitely small range to go by.


    Superhero storylines and tones were the first thing that Ethan had thrown to the dogs. How could anyone make that their first large scale game and tell a competitive story in a world where their entire culture is hyper focused on them? His would just get drowned out among the other and maybe Ethans game will be better, but in the end not enough will get to see it over the already established companies. It is for that same reason why he scratched out the military genre as, while great as a sub plot or supporting genre, there is no way an indie company like him could establish a proper foot hold with both of those.


    With both of those areas set aside for later Ethan had himself a more reasonable list of options, but he still found himself needing to narrow down his focus. Scratching the back of his head, Ethan started thinking on what makes the best franchises last for years.


    His eyes lit up, children! Children are the make or break of a great game; if it¡¯s good then they will attach all their attention on and never let it leave their lives and even come back to in their adult years. The only problem is that if the game isn¡¯t good enough then it will quickly be forgotten; kids won¡¯t play it and adults will refuse to buy based on the principle of it being a kids game.


    Thankfully Ethan already had the knowledge of amazing pieces of fiction that captures the joy a child experiences and persists till they will be an adult. Marking out more of the names from his list in the margins he is left with only a few to select from. Smiling with himself, Ethan turned to a part of the GameShop that he had yet to use. Game Templates.


    See Game Templates is something the system has available for purchase that will directly download all the data of a game into the computer. Maps, characters, lore, monsters, magic, and anything that can be found in a video game from his old world down to the last 1 or 0 of coding will be made viewable.


    But that is why he hadn¡¯t used it before, viewable. Why would Ethan waste tens of thousands of hard earned points on a template of a mobile game that he could re-create, to the best of his memory, himself without needing it. Anything that he had forgotten about the original, Ethan just adds his own. Simple and easy.


    A mainstream product will require far more than he can get done by just his own memory. The sheer quantity of minor dialogue and sub-quests alone would break his brain if he were to try to remember everything. And if those bits that he forgot were to allude to the final battles? Boom! All that work ruined!


    Scrolling through, Ethan found his cornerstone for this new chapter of his life. Something that he knows will carry him for years if nothing were to happen. Pushing the Purchase Template button, Ethan now had everything he needed to get started. He was confident that he will be able to change the state of this world, one game at a time.


    DC will never be the same.

 Chapter 8

    A young man was enjoying the rare peace and quiet that this day was bringing him. It was unlikely he wold be able to just sit down and read his book with how hyper energetic his friends and teammates were. He has allowed the discipline that was hammered into his training throughout his childhood to slip as he perused the fictional story that these surface dwellers create seemingly out of nowhere.


    If that was something that Kaldur didn¡¯t miss about his life beneath the waves was how boring life was. Most of his friends would believe that Atlantis was similar to their own nations, and perhaps that is true, but they never quite understood. All Atlanteans have a distinct path set out for them based on the interests and talents demonstrated during their schooling. The trainers and scholars would constantly monitor and analyze what role each child would best fulfill.


    While his friends understood it was different, they wouldn¡¯t accept such vast philosophical differences. There was a need that the surface didn¡¯t require. Everything below the crashing surf was in a constant battle with each other, the hierarchy of predator and prey were often challenged and the only one who didn¡¯t need to worry about their place changing was his king. Aquaman was many things, a proud warrior, loving husband, wise leader, but a True Atlantean he was not. There were things that his king just could not understand from his childhood being raised by his father.


    Not to say that was a bad thing. Rather, more times than Kaldur could count that perspective was precisely what Atlantis needed. But-


    Recognized, Robin B-01. Kid Flash B-03.


    The Zeta Tube¡¯s transportation radiated a golden glow that purged all shadows from sight. Aqualad had long since learned to never look at the teleport while it was functioning. On the bright side, he had ample light as he memorized his page number then bookmarked his place. A chuckle rumbled as he his thoughts subconsciously made a joke, maybe he had been spending too much time with Wally?


    A boy in a flexible leotard came running, cape billowing behind him, before he reached the couch. Not even stopping his momentum the younger hero placed a hand on the sofas spine then flipped over. All that to sit down.


    ¡°Show off!¡± Seems Kaldur wasn¡¯t the only one who though so. Turning to the voice, it came from the yellow and red speedster who ran over to the kitchen. If there was one thing that the Atlantean soldier did not envy about his team member, it was the nutritional expenses to fuel such speed.


    Robin just waved a hand dismissively from his lounging position, not even caring if Kid saw it. He seemed exhausted and had already closed his eyes to relax the bruises that definitely are being concealed under his costume.


    Smirking to himself, Aqualad scanned over the place that has become his home for many months now. Underneath Mount Justice, the Teams base of oppositions consisted of a utilitarian bunker space from the remains of the former League safe house. While there were plenty of space and training equipment, it sadly lacked many of the amenities that most other such location possessed. But that had been added later. Over time each member had steadily been gathering items and decor to make the place seem like an actual home.


    Himself, Superboy, and Miss Martian have been the primary resident as they were the only ones who did not have places to stay outside of the mountain. Artemis had a family, he¡¯d met her mother once before when she called her daughter, while Robin and Kid Flash stayed with their mentors. For the most part at least, Robin and Batman never go into any detail on their personal lives so Kaldur could only speculate there.


    Now that he was thinking of them, the Atlantean glanced over to the two other tenants. Both seemed to have their heads buried into a handheld device with the WayneTech logo proudly displayed on the back. Quirking his head to the side Kaldur sent questioning looks towards them. That was strange.


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    Superboy isn¡¯t one to normally care about video games. Every time that any of the other members tried to bring him in to play something it tended to end with broken controllers, a TV or two, and a bunch of growls. So to see him playing something on his own was¡­interesting. Though to be fair, M¡¯gann could have roped the Kryptonian clone in. Poseidon only knows how often she talked the various heroes on the Team into doing something with her. The martian in question currently had her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, furiously pushing buttons.


    Aqualad just sat there and stared. He observed the fluctuating emotions that crossed her face with every going minute. With each passing minute, his curiosity was growing. ¡®What could have captured so much of their attention?¡¯ Placing his novel to the side, Kaldur stood up.


    Walking pass the coaches and observed what they were playing from behind them. He noticed the interest from both new arrivals, but neither chose to speak up.


    What Kaldur saw puzzled him. The game that they were playing was identical. It seemed to be a battle between pixelated animals. The furious tapping of buttons resurfaced from his green friend and he saw that the beast she was fighting disappeared from the screen. In its place was a small blue ball. It rocked back and forth until sparks shot out from its sides.


    Apparently succeeding, M¡¯gann pumped her fist in victory. Then she saw the dark skinned Atlantean looking at her screen.


    Smiling she started talking about her game. She went through a basic run down on her journey she called it since meeting the Professor Oak that gave her a Pokemon. She showed off her green turtle, dinosaur?, with a plant on its back. ¡°Missy was so cute!¡±


    As the martian girl excitedly retold her battles and captures, off to the side Robin was lost in thought. ¡®Where have I heard that name? Pokemon.¡±


    Pulling up his wrist mounted computer, the Boy Wonder started going through the last few months worth of data. Since it didn¡¯t sound particularly mission related he went directly towards the miscellaneous folder and searched. Part of the fun of having Batman made gadgets was the features. Robin used a scanning function to an in-built search engine on his personal files. Inputing ¡®Pokemon¡¯ only one result popped up.


    Pulling up the source, Robin was immediately hit with an enjoyable memory. ¡°Oi, Kid! Take a look at this.¡±


    Rushing over, the speedster peered over the smaller boys shoulders. ¡°What am I looking at?¡±


    ¡°Remember that guy that showed us that Fatality?¡±


    ¡°You mean the dude that completely destroyed you, then mister wonderful couldn¡¯t take that he knew something you did and we stayed in that place for 2 hours before either of us did our first one? Yeah, I remember.¡± Robin could hear the ego grinding smirk his friend was throwing his way.


    Nodding he continued as he pointed to a certain spot. ¡°Well I may have nicked his notebook. And look what it says.¡±


    Understanding dawned on Wally¡¯s face. ¡°No way! You saying he made that stuff that¡¯s got Supes and M¡¯gann?¡±


    Rocking his head from side to side Robin agreed. ¡°Or at least worked on it. Hey M¡¯gann, who made that thing?¡±


    ¡°Um, I think it was Twilight A- something studios? Didn¡¯t remember too much. Hold on.¡± She quickly saved her game then rebooted it. Once the title screen popped up, towards the bottom it proudly showed Twilight Aurora Studios.


    Looking up the company, Robin could stop himself from laughing. KF glanced over at his friend with an expression that radiated confusion. All the Boy Wonder did was turn his phone towards the red head. A picture of the older boy that they played Mortal Kombat with a few months ago was smiling at him wearing a professional looking suit. ¡°Seems he¡¯s the founder. Huh.¡±


    With a grin, Robin couldn¡¯t help himself from wanting to know if he was the one to program the Fatality finisher. Probably not, but it would explain how he knew something so completely obscure and complicated like the back of his hand.


    Kaldur¡¯ahm smirked as he announced. ¡°Well it appears as though we now have a new team bonding exercise.¡±


    Everyone, even the normally dour Superboy, started laughing. The three uninitiated were asking question after question to the two who had been playing for the last couple hours when a sound broke out.


    Recognized, Artemis B-07.


    The blond archer walked through to see everyone gathered on the couches, excitedly discussing something. Confused, the heroine still relatively new to the group called out. ¡°So, what did I miss?¡±

 Chapter 9

    Congratulations, Host has received an achievement.


    1 DC Character added to player base. Review updated profit rate.


    1 DC Character added to player base.


    Ethan has been staring at the message that lit up his phone out of nowhere. He shocked into a state of disbelief. He started getting side tracked by who among the various characters who could have possibly played Pok¨¦mon. Because what else could it have been?


    What heroes in DC, because why would a villain bother with his childish products, play his stuff. "I mean, I guess maybe Shazam, but then it would probably record all the others in his foster home. How many were there, like 6? Maybe more?"


    And thus started a long, long mumbling musing on who could possibly have been the one to play his games. The list of who grew longer and longer as Ethan attached even the slightest, most obscure reason he could think of as to why any of them would bother. I mean really? Superman playing because he was trying to impress Lois?


    1 DC Character added to player base.


    His thoughts came to a screeching halt when the second notification popped up. ''Another one?''


    Shaken, Ethan pull himself back from the chaotic thoughts threatening to surge into the forefront of his mind again. Scrolling back up through the logs, he returns to the note of him acquiring an achievement. Is it like the rewards that he had already gotten? Only one way to find out. He physically pushes on the screen before him.


    Congratulations, Host has received an achievement. Host has received the ''First Steps'' achievement for adding one character from the DC Universe into Hosts player base. Please review updated profit rate.


    "Huh. Uh, I guess show me the updated things."


    Updated Profit Rate


    A Character is more valuable to the system than a normal citizen. As such, the system has seen fit to update Users exchange rate. Normal Citizens will continue to be worth a 1:200 ratio as has been the case previously, however DC Hero and Villain alike will be valued at a rate of 1:20. Overall, the power and influence of these individuals within this worlds Universal Laws dictate them as being 100% more valuable.


    Ethan just blinked at that very confusing explanation. "So, someone who appeared in a comic, movie or show is essentially multiplying how many points I''m getting from them. Right?"


    Yes.


    Hmm, for a second he thought that he''d heard a bit of exasperation in its monotonous tone there.... Meh, he''s probably just projecting his frustrations.


    "System, what does this achievement ''First Steps'' give me?"??With all the stuff that he had been given, Ethan couldn''t help the excitement building up. He ha been given time powers and the ability to split part of consciousness off to act independently. They may only work while he works, but still awesome.


    Nothing.


    What.


    "What do you mean nothing? Explain." There can''t be nothing right? The system always gives him something for his efforts.


    Host has yet to possess the functions that this achievement empowers.


    Ok so he does get something, but hasn''t unlocked it yet? Now Ethan was even more confused. "Can you tell me when the ''function'' that this is supposed to upgrade is unlocked?"


    Yes.


    Sweet! Wait a minute. Something doesn''t feel right.


    "Can you tell me what the function is?"


    No.


    The familiar anger of the system messing with him was starting to build. "What do you mean No?!"


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    System cannot provide data on unknown functions.


    "HUH! How can you know that you can''t explain something without even knowing what that thing is?"


    System is aware of possibilities, but cannot give information that it does not have access to.


    Ethan narrowed his eyes at the response. "Cannot or will not?"


    Cannot.


    ''Deep breath. Just take a deep breath Lambert and calm down. exploding at the emotionless AI will do nothing, but cause needless headaches.'' Ethan thought to himself.


    "So is there anything you CAN tell me about these functions?"


    ...


    Strange. The system always responds, even if it is only to say that it can''t respond. So why is there just nothing. "System, why aren''t you saying anything?"


    Requesting permission from Admin. Permission denied.


    "Explain what? You never tell me anything! The only info I ever get from you is whenever I''m just bored and look myself."


    Correct. Host had not asked in previous examples.


    "Not asked?! Of course I asked! What was different?" Seriously, why did this thing have to be so rude.


    When Host asked on subjects that Host is remembering, the proper functions and/or data had not yet been revealed. The system cannot act on data not present.


    "So why can''t you just tell me?"


    Host did not ask when functions became available.


    Eyebrows twitching madly, Ethan decided to save what little of his sanity. He started chanting a calming mantra that never fails. ''Change the subject before I break this computer. Change the subj-''


    "Hey system, tell me about Pokemon FireRed and OceanBlue''s weekend profits."


    This weekends economic data analyzes that 107,378 copies have been sold.


    Yes, FireRed and OceanBlue. It was a way for Ethan to pay homage to the original Red and Blue without compromising the quality that the people are expecting.


    See while he loves the originals, they are still very much products of their time. For one they are in black and white. That alone would be seen poorly since it doesn''t really serve to enhance anything like a noir style detective game would, so Ethan chose to purchase the templates of FireRed and LeafGreen. Both have sufficient graphics that the cuteness of the softer Pokemon and the coolness of the more intense species are able to shine through. It is all about connecting to the audience.


    By the way the Template for FireRed alone had cost him 10,000 points. By far the most expensive purchase he has ever had to make. Thankfully the cost of the LeafGreen template decreased to only 1,000 after, but still. Why did it cost that much?


    And they were just the templates! It is like purchasing a guide book, but then playing the game. Sure it helped, but you still had to deal with the AI and stupid spawn rates. Everything had to be programmed by himself at the end of the day even if he knew what 1 goes where and which zero goes there. But there were other problems that came from his purchasing the template of a game that was the tenth and eleventh main game in the Pokemon release timeline. Lovely.


    See, he may have forgotten how much extra content there was in the post game. The Sevii Islands were a problem as it had been designed as a way to allow for both Johto and Hoenn Pokemon to be caught. The work that he had to do to cover up those stupid islands had given him a migraine that refused to leave until the week after.


    I mean it is just covering up a massive portion of code that he actually wanted to keep, but not in its previous form and making it still worth while to explore. Instead he had to completely restructure everything that will be a challenge area as well as an expeditionary quest. What Ethan created was a mode to foreshadow Gold and Silver as Johto Pokemon become rare spawns throughout the islands and Kanto. In addition, he made it so that there is a 1% chance to encounter a Hoenn Pokemon randomly on the Sevii Islands however they will appear as question marks. Once the player captures one of these undiscovered Pokemon, Professor Oak will appear where ever they are and tell them that they will need to fill in these new entries by capturing them.


    This way Ethan can create new intrigue by planting them in advanced while still maintaining the fun of the sequels. Sure it''ll only be 30 Johto Pokemon out of the 100 new entries. Though to be fair it''ll be 15 to each the FireRed and OceanBlue as he had to make the different spawns matter for the purchase of the different games feel more worth it.


    Perhaps either in a moment of sympathy, or possibly evil who knows, Ethan made it so that there were going to be 10 Hoenn species that are running around with no changes to spawn rates. Both games will have the same ten. Regardless, the payer would never encounter the pseudo-legendaries or legendary/mythical Pokemon. And he will be operating on Gen 3 rules as the Dark Typing crucial for the mechanics to work properly.


    Seems that he chose well considering the big numbers appearing for the first 3 days of its release. Granted he had been doing a bunch of advertising on his mobile games. Side note, both products that were scheduled when he had gotten the boot from the system had done very well and quickly got 4 more employee bots.


    Subway Surfer was his way to perfect 3D platforming, kinda, and he is experimenting with better character cosmetics as well as accessories. Angry Birds was a necessary release in forcing Ethan to stop procrastinating and properly construct a proper physics engine. That had been a frustratingly mathematic disaster that proved to be very helpful when finalized as he could now use the parameters for future endeavors.


    "Forget it." He was done with this thing. Ethan thought that he would feel better after hearing the numbers, but it just ended up reminding him of his migraine inducing issues. "I''m out."


    And then he walked out the door.

 Chapter 10

    Passing through the still profoundly unnaturally dirty buildings of the Gotham Industrial Zones that he has recently called home, Ethan marveled at how the Gotham sky was under a nigh eternal overcast as he walked toward his objective. The overhead blanket cast the already grimy city streets an even duller tone that never seems to get brighter as he progresses inward.


    He needed to get out of the systems overview. As it is localized to his computer it can''t follow him everywhere, allowing for the newest addition to his weekly routine work to act as his taste of freedom just fine.


    See, Ethan has become increasingly concerned with how unfit he is. It was one of the many topics that he had contemplated on when he had been on his ''Meditation Week.'' All the time before he had done absolutely nothing to improve himself and was doing the lowest amount of exercise as physically possible. Several months of nonstop coding and programming, in the same chair, in the same room as he sleeps and eats so that he doesn''t have to move anywhere is extremely unhealthy.


    Taking stock of himself, Ethan saw that he had indeed gained weight since he had arrived in this world. While before he was tall and lanky, not necessarily fit though definitely skinny, his baby fat that still hadn''t left his teenage self had only become more accentuated. Perhaps any onlookers could still call him skinny, but he couldn''t look himself in the mirror without noticing the gut that had developed.


    Considering that he still was operating on a frugal budget for his expenses, he didn''t particularly want to waste money on more expensive food. Was it the right course of action? Probably not but to Ethan, his economic stability is what will determine his success. Most of what makes Batman so incredibly effective is because he possesses all the funds necessary to make gadgets for any possible scenario. If he didn''t have his bank account then would he not be a good hero? No, but he definitely won''t be nearly as useful.


    His relying on the apartment given to him by the government had taken care of the largest source of his economic drain, but he did not think that would last for long. It will only be a matter of time before his business makes enough of an impact that officials will start to wonder why an orphan who became a millionaire should be living off their wallets.


    It was why Ethan had started researching on where he could find a warehouse that could be cheaply purchased. In a large urban city like Gotham there were a bunch of rundown and abandoned warehouses of bankrupted companies that ran afoul of the local crime lord. Happens every now and then, Vicky Vale would be seen for about 5 minutes on the news detailing a gang fight and then the death of a few high ranking members of said company, then leave the employees jobless. The real problem is finding a gang that will let him have his freedom.


    Ethan had to expend a deal of his time contacting different lower end gangsters who would be willing to talk about their bosses. Wasn''t really that big of an issue, a few drinks was all it cost him to get the mouths moving. His solution?


    Near him there was a new, up and coming criminal organization that had presented themselves as the legal criminals. Why is that important? There may not be any truly innocent businesses within this city, but at least there are those who place the majority of their time and effort into cultivating reputable places of business. These groups focus on their money makers, normally casinos.


    Stereotypical right? See the three most well known criminal businesses that show themselves to the light of day are their gambling hotels as the house will always win. Even when they lose, they still win. Sadly, these places are scattered throughout the entire city; rich and poor alike were being taken advantage of by these money printing buildings.


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    Second was easily the restaurants and bars. You have no idea the amount of income that selling good food and tons of alcohol brings in every day. And if there is one thing that you can be certain about any mafia, they have great taste. Wine, beer, vodka, margaritas and anything that can give you a bit of a buzz to drown your sorrows could be found in these places. With everyone drunk in these places no one ever cares about what the actual gangsters are talking about.


    Except the police, but the GPD is so corrupt that there isn''t any real threat of anyone getting more than a few months in jail. Why worry about low level thugs when they can direct their attention on putting the supervillains into Blackgate Penitentiary.


    What Ethan was walking towards at the moment was the third most beneficial business in Gotham for the mob. Gyms.


    Most wouldn''t think so, but there are various gyms that are seemingly everywhere in Gotham as there is no way anyone would want to close them down. Unlike every other metropolitan city there is an ever present circle of violence that has corrupted every sphere of influence. Sure, cities like New York and Detroit has serious problems with violent crime, but there are at least people within their society that are trying to fix things. Here the ordinary people on have Batman and Jim Gordon.


    These gyms are places where normal people can get themselves some muscle and at the very least develop some confidence in themselves when trouble comes knocking on their doors. The gangs even outright encourage ordinary people to train by offering boxing and martial arts training, for a price of course. Every gym has 4 ways that these places get their income; standard membership subscription, personal/group training, and then there are spectator and fighter fees.


    See, these places also possess fight rings. Every. Single. One. The only difference between each is based on how close to the official rules they''re following.


    This particular gang that Ethan is planning to buy a warehouse from happened to have a branch gym located nearby that he had taken to going to. By going to work out at McGilley''s Muscle, Ethan is able to get a closer look at the internal culture of how these people interact with their customers and hopefully overhear a few snippets of information. Enough to know if signing anything would trap him in something he couldn''t get out of .


    The McGilley is an Irish mafia family that was just as likely to buy you a drink as they were to intimidate you out of your money. It was just how they were. Hot headed and bold sure, but not without their principles. They have even been noted to have sent for official UFC inspectors come out to provide legitimacy for their fights and keep is as above board as they could to bring more clients.


    And it was working.


    Many of their customers had come to watch these totally legal fights in their underground arena. And as with every sporting event there has to be proper amenities to give the viewers an enjoyable and comfortable experience that will have them crawling back for more. A bar in a gym doesn''t seem like a good idea, but a bar at a MMA fight? Perfect.


    Turning the corner, Ethan arrives at his safe haven. A big neon sign announced its presence to all passerby''s.


    It was a big building with a cleaner exterior than the surrounding stores, but still fitting in with the filthy streets. Unlike the walls, the places windows were wiped twice everyday to give ample view of all the clients working out through them. A wide table could be seen with a clerk on his computer, probably just playing some games or something instead of doing any work, but no ones going to bother him about it with biceps as thick as a human head.


    "Morning Frank."


    Hearing?someone calling out to him, the dark skinned man popped his head out and smile. "Mornin'' kid. You got anything specific you''re workin'' on today?"


    "Nah, thought about to doin a bit of everything today." He didn''t have a plan at the moment. Ethan''ll just figure it out as he goes.


    The bald man hummed to himself as he stroked his stubble. "Well I figured I''d give you a heads up. Garry''s entering the ring in an hour."


    Oh. Yes.

 Chapter 11

    Of all the names to inspire fear in the hearts of other, Garry would never be the first to pop into a persons brain. But oh if you could see this man fight.


    Garret Ordinofsky was the son of a Russian immigrant who married a saleswoman here in Gotham. His father was a hard working man, never really having much time to spend with his son as he was just always off supporting his family. However, every possible moment that Ivan was able had been spent trying to make up for lost time. He truly was a good father.


    Upon growing into a man, the younger Ordinofsky chose to spend his senior year of high school working part-time at the steel mill that his father did. It wasn''t often that the two would be capable of seeing each other, but any extra time together was more precious than any other chance he could have gotten. It was the happiest time of his life.


    Sadly, like all good things that happen in the City of Despair, Ivan Ordinofsky had been fatally injured one night. The insurance company had said that it was an accident, something that was a complete anomaly and the family would been paid handsomely on the condition that they rescind their ability to cue the company. That night Garret had seen more zeros than he thought they could ever receive. If they took it then their family would be secured.


    But Ivan didn''t take it.


    He saw it as a bribe to silence him. When Garry had started to argue with him, Ivan began his story. Everything had started out as any other day; igniting the furnaces, checking the conveyor belts if they were operating smoothly, inspecting the molds that the steel would be poured into. All things that were standard operating procedures.


    It was during these inspections that Ivan had noticed that a few of the axels in the final belt system were loose. Immediately, he had called over his supervisor to note down the damaged parts and check if they had any spares in their inventory. His superior had looked up on the computer in his office and responded that they only had 2 available. Ivan and his coworkers had been ordered to fix what they could with them and he would place in an emergency order for the remaining pieces.


    Not seeing a way to fight it Ivan and his friends complied, replacing two out of the seven damaged axels for the massive conveyor belts in a manner that would hopefully still work for the day. Just to er of the side of caution he had set the machine to its lowest speed so that there wouldn''t be much of a strain placed on the broken parts.


    Several hours had passed uneventfully, beam after steel beam was smoothly being transported from one side of the factory to the other. That was until the supervisor had come back to the site with the location manager and a hired engineer to check the damages. When the suited man saw how slow production was progressing veins could be visibly seen crawling across his red face.


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    When Garret had heard that part of the story he vaguely remembered yelling from his end of the facility even over the screeching of grinding gears and striking metal.


    While the manager had begun chewing out Ivan and his workers over their slow production speed, the engineer silently analyzed the problem. He quietly got some of the information from Brian, a man in his early 30''s and was known among all the workers for being the biggest complainer for even the smallest of issues. He explained why they were keeping the belt slow and even showed which of the areas had broken axels.


    Once he was found whatever it was that he was looking for, the engineer walked up towards the manager who was heaving from how much the older man had screamed expletive''s. Ivan told Garret that the two got in a fierce war of words if how violently they were whispering to one another. The back and forth had lasted for a couple minutes until eventually the manager had apparently come out top with how he smiled towards the workers. The man had ordered that production must be pushed forward and accelerated to at least make up some of the lost profit of that day.


    It had no correlation to the fact that location managers receive a cut of the profit from all their manufactured products. None at all.


    When the men had argued that the higher speed could be dangerous the manager just scoffed. "Just do as you''re told. THAT is your job."


    And that was it. There was no way for them to argue against a man that clearly was just looking for an excuse to fire any one of these proud workers who had lost him so much money. So the only thing left to do was flip the lever controlling the belt speed.


    Ivan, the de-facto leader of there little group, was the one who walked up to the panel. He hesitated long enough to look at the damaged parts and sigh before changing speed. With an order sent out to his co-workers, Ivan went back to his station to finish out the last couple hours.


    It hadn''t even been 30 minutes since the change that something happened. A slight screeching of metal on metal had been the only warning when a snap echoed out through the facility. Ivan looked up long enough to see a large black shadow engulf his vision before nothing.


    The next time that Ivan was aware of his surroundings, he was lying in a hospital bed with his left arm missing at the elbow. He hadn''t even been able to see his family before solicitors had come knocking at his door with contracts in hand. Of course the Ordinofsky patriarch refused to do anything until he saw his family, to make sure that his son was safe.


    And that is where Garret found himself at this moment. His proud father, never going to take the money of an incompetent fool to stay quiet. The father who had always been the best example of what a man is for the young man. A father who was going to hold the ones who wronged him responsible and inspire change.


    A father who had been taken away for standing up against the powerful.


    "And let''s welcome, Skyfist Garret!" A voice broke him out of his pre-fight meditation. There was no better way to get himself in the mood to beat someone to a bloody pulp like imagining them as that manager.

 Chapter 12

    As time ticked on, the crowd within the basement floor of McGilley''s Muscle grew bigger and bigger, chattering on in anticipation for the upcoming entertainment to be had. Fathers were taking their sons around the arena, explaining what would happen and pointing to the posters hung everywhere the excited boys could see. Bets made and drinks in hand, the only thing left to do for these people was to see fist meet face in a bloody spectacle.


    Ethan walked around the side of the raised platform, acting as the fighter''s stage. It was a sturdily built thing, metal with stiff rubber padding atop it, but unlike the more televised examples of the sport, there was no cage. The familiar high-rise fencing was nowhere to be seen, so should one of the fighters be thrown over, nothing stopped them from rolling over the crowd. Which has made it uniquely attractive. To have a combat sport raise the stakes even more immediately drew attention from adrenaline junkies. What could be better than watching two expert combatants beat the life out of one another with a bit of added risk?


    Just as Ethan descended that particular rabbit hole, all the lights lowered. All noise was instantly silenced as everyone focused solely on the stage. The announcer stood ramrod, gazing down at the audience with a calculating gleam in his eyes. Lowering down from the ceiling was an old-fashioned microphone that was the size of his entire hand. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to this week''s event. Presenting-"


    The man started by introducing each individual who would be warming up the crowd first, their pictures displayed on a large monitor on either side of the arena. These men and women looked as if they lived in the gym, having a wide variety of figures. Still, everyone radiated power like only a fighter could. The announcer went through the roster; the lightweights received a polite welcome. However, the crowd hadn''t come for them, and the reception for the middle-weight combatants was just a little better. No, it wasn''t until the heavy-weight roster for the day was announced that the audience completely exploded.


    Only one had been scheduled that day, but it was the main draw. Garret "Skyfist" Ordinofsky was going to fight "Big Boy" Barry, 5 rounds of 5 brutal minutes for the audience''s pleasure. When the match-up was announced, the avatars of the fighters on the two screens faced each other. They got into ready stances, their eyes deadlocked on one another. Ethan could hear a crowd of young boys squealing like school girls in meeting their idol.


    Chuckling to himself, Ethan was preparing for the coming match. He hadn''t been able to come to see any of the heavy-weight champion''s matches as the last had been 3 weeks before he purchased his subscription. The only glimpses of the Gothamite warrior were in the couple of public training events that McGilley''s used as an advertisement.


    Going over to the concessions stand, Ethan purchased a large popcorn and Dr. Pepper. The third lightweight match was currently ongoing, nearly over with, as he went to sit down near the East side of the ring. Popping a clump of the buttery kernels into his mouth, Ethan couldn''t keep the ironic chuckle from coming out. "Came to get a workout in, but instead am sitting and snacking."


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    - Game Designer in DC -


    "OH! And he''s down. Darles is out for the count. We have our winner!"


    The announcement caused a wave of cheers that shook the ground. Not from how great the fight went, as shown on the middle-weight fighter''s strained smile, but knowing who was next. It was time for the Main Event.


    A rolling snare drum drew attention to the South side locker room.


    "Ladies and Gentlemen. Standing at 6 foot 2 inches and 248 lbs, a walking tank of a man. Make a warm welcome to BIIIIG BARRY!"


    A rocked-up version of the military cadence, C-130 Rolling Down the Strip, resounded the arena. The army airborne ranger PT song drew in the crowd, with each booming footstep ringing from the speakers as if a drill sergeant were calling everyone to the waterfront. Big Barry came out in step to the cadence adding his own weight to his unseen brothers and giving him their support. His green camo jacket bounced and billowed on his shoulders, making his already large frame even more imposing with the wide-brimmed hat that cast his face in shadows.


    Reaching his next battlefield, Barry stopped and marched in place. The exact moment a whistle blew through the music, he came to attention. Somehow the giant soldier had smoothly shrugged off his jacket in a snapping salute. He stood there, fingertips knife-handing right at the edge of his brim, waiting.


    "At ease, soldier!" A commanding voice roared from the speakers.


    Grabbing his hat, Barry twirled it to his side. Members of the audience could only now see the glaring intensity held within those brown eyes. He did not even acknowledge the crowd coming to see him fight, only focusing on the entrance of his approaching enemy.


    Suddenly a symphony of orchestral strings cut through the last semblances of the snares. The surge of the instruments grabbed at each person''s heart in its wave, taking them along for the ride. Horns blared behind the soft melodies, contrasting heavily and oh so beautifully. It sounded like absolute chaos in the greatest senses.


    A perfect reflection of its champion.


    Eyes cold and calculating. Not a single flicker of emotion could be seen from within those dead eyes as the Skyfist casually strode forward. To all who bore witness, they could see the sound waves wrapping around Garret''s body and clinging to him like specters from beyond the mortal plane.


    Every sound ceased when he stepped on stage, reaching his destination. A testament to his journey.


    The announcer and referee approached from either side of the two, sizing each other up, not once phased by the new arrivals. With a playful smirk, the announcer whirled around so he could see each individual who had come out for the night. Each match fought filled more seats and more eyes to behold the outcome of this glorious battle.


    "I welcome you all to this wonderful evening." The man spoke out to the surrounding crowd. He gave additional information on the official guidelines when he saw how many kids had been brought. "Have both sides been notified of tonight''s rules?"


    Everyone knows that asking was a tradition purely meant for show. How could anyone get to the level of these two without knowing the UFC rulebook through and through? Regardless, it makes for a great dramatic pause for the cameras getting their close-up shots.


    A nod was all either needed. The announcer had to catch himself, trying his hardest not to chuckle when a child in the front row was shaking from excitement at his father''s side. It never grows old how pure children''s reactions can be in such moments.


    "Then, LET''S GET READY TO RUMBLE!"