Vergil is suddenly thrown from his universe into another after a mishap with a Qliphoth root and an old enemy. The new dimension he finds himself in is one very similar, and yet so different. In this dystopian world, humanity has clawed itself to the very pinnacle of technology and yet finds its feet fully cemented in the trash heap that is its hubris. There is only one thing that the megacorporations of this world understand; power. And power is something that Vergil is intimately aware of.
Shortcuts To Power is a Crossover fanfic of Devil May Cry and Cyberpunk 2077 written by Strike_Freedom in both AO3
& FF.Net.
Beware of unmarked Spoilers!
The story has the following examples of:
- Adaptation Personality Change: Ever since Rory is hired to be Vergil's bodyguard, she's become more...Chuunibyou.
- Applied Phlebotinum: Hellmnium/Amrita, the substance that Arasaka's scientists created from researching and harvesting Yamato's energy, is currently the best fuel for cybernetics.
- Badass Longcoat: Vergil's usual outfit, which he makes into the standard uniform for the Counter-Intel division.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Vergil has two Bodyguard Babes, Valerie Pondsmith & Melissa Rory, that serve him out of loyalty.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Vergil is this to the other Arasaka Division leaders. The guy rarely attends inter-division meetings, his chair in the meeting room is a monobloc, he has a former cyber-psycho for a bodyguard, the only non-Japanese among them, and it's an Open Secret that he is Dark Slayer and conducts The Purge within Arasaka company, but his division is the most successful in managing order within Arasaka's territory, and he has Saburo's favor for saving his life.
- Composite Character: In this fic, V is Vergil's cover identity in his first few years in Night City.
- Death by Adaptation: Both Jenkins and Abernathy were killed by Vergil in his act of purging the Arasaka's employees.
- Decapitation Presentation: Vergil asked Valerie to display the head of the people who secretly planning for usurping him she decapitated in front of the Counter-Intel building.
- Decomposite Character: While Vergil is V the badass Edgerunner who is friends with Jackie, Valerie Pondsmith has Corpo V's backstory, and also used the nickname V without knowing about Vergil.
- De-power: When Vergil arrived at Night City, his Devil Arms and Yamato were lost in the dimensional leap, plus the dimension-cutting slash from Yamato that caused this in the first place severed a good chunk of his demonic power in the first place. What he has left is still more than enough to face off against the strongest this world has to offer.
- The Dreaded: Vergil, both as Head of Counter-Intel and the Dark Slayer.
- Faking the Dead: Vergil sends his clone to attack the Arasakas as V, then kills it to look like he's saving them from an Edgerunner attack.
- False Flag Operation: Vergil sends his copy, as V, to attack the Arasakas at a hotel so he can "save" them, assuring Saburo's trust in him, allowing Vergil to get a position in the company's Counterintelligence division.
- Gone Horribly Right: Hellminium is proven to be the key to progressing the Secure your Soul project when an engram is infused with it, causing the engram's identity to fully take over the body. The catch? It's Johnny Silverhand's, and he gains pyrokinetic powers with it, causing him to rampage all over the lab before the body runs out of blood for its fuel.
- Hallucinations: Those that become cyber-psychos using Hellminium-fueled cybernetics sees themselves and their surrounding as demons.
- I Owe You My Life:
- Vergil owes one to Gloria Martinez for saving his life, even if she does it hoping that he'll pay her as a reward. When he learns of it, he spends months taking Solo jobs collecting eddies for her.
- Valerie Pondsmith owes Vergil for killing Jenkins and Abernathy, who were both planning to use her as a scapegoat.
- Melissa Rory also owes Vergil one after he stops her while under a cyber-psychosis rampage and calms her down, and the fact that Vergil's devil nature could keep her calm.
- Oh, Crap!: Yorinobu gets paler & breaks into a nervous sweat after witnessing a Hellmnium-powered engram chip that he just stole actually containing Johnny Silverhand that can possess those that use it along with teleporting and shooting fire.
- The Purge: Vergil conducts this within the Night City branch of Arasaka Company, which Saburo seems to approve, before branching out to the streets and other corpos.Saburo Arasaka's letter, addressing the employee's complaint of Vergil's slaughter: Sometimes, one has to trim the fat.
- Secret Identity: Vergil has two in the public eye: V, the legendary Edgerunner who was thought to be killed in an attempt of assaulting Saburo Arasaka, and Dark Slayer, a serial killer with a high body count, which is actually the name Arasaka employees called him behind his back due to his duty as the Head of Counter-Intel and the fact that he purges a lot of Arasaka employees under Saburo's approval before branching out.
- Secret-Keeper:
- Jackie, his first friend in Night City, is the only one who knows that he is a half-demon and that he's planning fake his death as V to work in Arasaka to find out where Yamato is.
- Melissa Rory has some awareness of Vergil not being completely human due to having seen his true nature during her Hellminium-induced cyberpsychosis.
- Self-Duplication: One of Vergil's abilities that he uses both in and out of combat.
- Shame If Something Happened: Vergil threatened Rogue to keep her from telling anyone that he's both V and Dark Slayer by assuring her that he will go after her son if she does.
- Shrinking Violet: Miyashiki Itane, Vergil's secretary, who he choose for the unlikeliness of her to be someone used to keep an eye on him. But Vergil does his best to teach her to be more assertive.
