Fandom Persona 5 AU: In America! Reboot

[Gravitational Force]

The three Phantom Thieves , Hamlet, and Romeo stared at the door leading to the Treasure they'd come to steal and reflected on what had brought them to this moment.

Luna Fukushima, Markus Verenzai, and Devon Alvarado hadn't known each other before, each of them finding their own way to a jail cell awaiting trial in front of Court of Common Pleas Judge Mitchell Giles. He was known to be "Tough on crime" by sentencing anyone who ended up in front of him to lengthy imprisonment in juvenile detention centers.

Their belongings had been taken from them, but one of the teens had managed to smuggle in their smart phone. As they hopelessly searched through their Apps in an attempt to ward off their rising panic, they discovered the Meta-Nav App. Clicking it pulled up the image of an eye. Hearing the guards returning, the teen hid their phone. The phone's voice recognition software still heard "Mitchell Giles" "court house" and "train."

The teenagers vanished, whisked into the Metaverse. There they found themselves inside a train station where a horrifying-looking train had just pulled in.
The train seemed to be built out of the parts of the courthouse and human body parts, with most of the cars being jail cells. Locked inside were children with coal instead of heads (the Judge's Cognitions of the defendants who appeared in front of him), their faces visible through the barred windows of the train. As the teens watched in horror the children were marched to the train's furnace by shovel-brandishing Shadows and shoveled in to fuel the train's engine. They were unable to help though as the path to the train was obstructed by a 10-ft high fence.

Milling about in the train station itself were the Judge's cognitions of the prison owners and others who profited from inmate labor, proclaiming themselves to be "Reformers of Corrupted Youth." The Judge's cognition of the prosecutor was the train's engineer, cackling to himself over all the fuel he provided for the train and how well he kept the engine running.

The "Reformers" each had a golden ticket that they explained would gain them entry into the luxury cars. The train would take everyone on it to "Justice," a land where the evil were punished and the good prospered. From what the "Reformers" were describing though it was obvious that those deemed "evil" were just those caught in circumstances outside their control while the "good" were those with the money to exploit the "evil." The Judge's visualization of the railway to Justice was as twisted and warped as his heart.

The teens tried to fight their way through the gate, but were caught by the Shadow attendants (in the form of ticket-takers) who demanded that they produce their tickets to be stamped. Since they had no tickets they were dragged to the train's Conductor, only to find themselves in front of a distorted version of Mitchell Giles in a golden conductor's uniform.

The Judge's Shadow laughed in their faces, gloating that it didn't matter whether they were innocent or guilty or if they deserved imprisonment. The fact that they were in front of him meant they were worthless except as fuel to propel society's worthy to more glorious destinations. He gleefully explained that he got a kickback for every child he sent to a detention facility and was using the money to fuel his luxurious lifestyle.

As the teens tried to figure out what to do, a small figure burst into the room. She resembled a anthropomorphic crow and after firing a slingshot into one of the Shadow attendants, smashing the head of the other with a cartoonishly large mallet.

As the teens gaped, their animal savior called out to them.
"Come on, are you going to let this stand?!"

Each of the teens clutched their face as a personal voice echoed in their head:
Luna:
Luna backed up, her eyes wide and filled with worry only for the door behind Luna to shut automatically, the slam echoing through the area as the judge grinned maliciously from the balcony he stood above on.

"I don't believe you'll be leaving any time Fukushima," The judge announced, his golden eyes meeting her frightened blue eyes as for the first time, the composed and snarky female was silent with her fear being evident no matter how much she clenched her jaw. The male looked down at the costumed males and creature before smirking to himself. "Your friends are doomed. Though, I can leave you without a scratch. With a price of course. Shouldn't be too much considering your family."

Luna balled her hand into a fist, unsure of what to do.

"Are you actually considering his offer?" One of her companions asked harshly. Luna looked at them as if they were insane for asking her that. "What do you expect? Don't you see he's in power?" She snapped. "We're just teens. Kids! He's an adult. This is better."

"Better? And allowing many more teens suffer because of him."

Luna bit the inside of her cheek as that fact was thrown at her, the gravity of the situation to evidently set in.

"Ignore them Luna. You know better, correct?" The judge cooed, reaching her ears. Luna clenched her jaw, making her decision.

"Yes... I do," Luna replied, turning to face the judge. But her gaze rather than being filled with fear was rather filled with fury and defiance as her fuse was lit. "I know better than to listen to some undignified, greedy, trashy, cowardly pig terribly disguised by a fancy title!”

And with that announcement, Luna's flames of rebellion were lit.

"I see you finally decided to trust your sight."

Luna widened her eyes, which now took on a golden hue, as her mind exploded in pain. The female put her hand on her forehead as if attempting to contain it as a small whimper escaped her. Only for the pain to intensify as she found herself doubled over, restraining herself from screaming out in pain, gritting her teeth and whimpering as the voice continued, getting more intense over time.

"For years, you've done nothing, allowing others. But you knew. We both knew that you were better than, correct?"

"Cor...Correct."

"THEN LET US PROVE IT! USE THE FLAMES OF REBELLION AND BECOME THE TRUE STRATEGIST OF THIS GAME AND TAKE A HOLD OF YOUR FUTURE!"

Luna yelled out in pain only for the pain to suddenly cease as a pair of large goggles formed on her face. Her mask. The female panted as she straightened up, seeming to regain her composure surprisingly quickly. "Understood... Come to me Deborah!"

In a swift moment with a loud cry of pain and fury, Luna ripped off the goggles, the straps wrapped around her head ripping off. Blood dripped down her face only for her entire figure to be encompassed As the flames dissipated, a ship flew out of them, carried by three pairs of large wings as it hovered above them. Inside the ship sat a smug Luna, now adorned in clothing that seemed to match the theme of her companions, smirking as screens appeared above her.
Luna quickly pressed a button that healed her team, raising their defenses slightly in progress. "You have made quite the mistake for choosing to underestimate my team. Gentlemen, Eliza, Deborah. Let us truly start this fight."

Devon:
"So then, you've finally taken notice ..."

Devon Alvarado clutches his head, screaming and falling to his knees.

"This quiet acquiescence was simple ignorance ... Your desires are not so timid."

Sweat pours down Devon's forehead as he crumbles to the floor, vomiting from the pain.

"Now that you see, what will you do?"

Devon coughs and splutters, slipping as his hands attempt to steady him.

"Will you hide your true self as before?"

Slowly, Devon manages to put one of his feet back to the floor and lift himself up, using his knee to brace his arm as he rises.

"Or fight, for romantic beauty and freedom!?"

Devon stands up straight, wipes a speck of sick from his lips, and smirks.

Devon: "You already know the answer to that."

It is then that the enemy notices his mask - a white mask with floral engraving. Devon grabs the side underneath his bangs, revealing it to be black with a red slit for an eyepiece, and grimaces in pain as he attempts to remove it.

"Tch ... it's hurt worse before ... get out here and show them what you - no, what we are capable of!"

Devon grips the mask hard enough for it to crack before ripping it off his face, spraying his blood - and showing a single glass eye beneath his bangs.

"Come forth! ANGELO!"

Blue fire erupts from Devon's body, sending powerful winds to push back his foes. Angelo's voice chuckles.

Angelo: "Very well. The contract has been forged."

The fires fade slowly, revealing Devon in a black dress suit complete with corsage, his eyes both in plain view, the glass eye rolling in its' socket.

"Do not hide your scars. Let them bring beautiful fear to the hearts of your foes."

As Angelo rises from behind Devon's form, the latter cocks his head backwards, allowing his glass eye to roll until it stared down upon his foe.

Devon: "You have no idea what hell you've unleashed ... let's show them, Angelo!"

Markus:
A silver tragedy mask appeared over Markus’ face and a voice echoed on his head.

“Will you allow your honor to be besmirched by this enforcer of the 'natural order?'”

His head throbbed with pain and he fell to his knees.

“Will you allow yourself to be cast as the villain of this story, unfairly judged, and accept the fate they force upon you?”

His eyes bulged as he made up his mind.

“Very well, then. I have sensed the resolve within your mind, and have begun the schemes to reveal these false-hearted fools. I am thou, thou art I. Reject the role society has cast you in and write your own script!”

Standing up, eyes glowing brightly yellow, dressed in strange costumed garb, Markus smirked.

“Let the show go on, Don John!”

As the teens ripped off their masks costumes appeared on them and strange beings came into being behind them. The masked crow did the same, summoning a Persona resembling a rainbow hurricane holding a massive hammer she called "Gideon." Seeing that he was outnumbered and overpowered, Judge Giles's Shadow used an emergency lever to eject them from the train and sent the train moving in reverse away from the station. This left the three teens and crow stuck on the train tracks as the "Arrival Time" sign on the train station reset one week.

Introducing herself as Eliza, the crow explained the nature of the Meta-verse as Humanity's collective unconscious, how it worked, and what they could do (Shadows, Personas, Palaces, stealing hearts etc.) to the teens. Hardened by their determination to right the wrongs they had experienced and that were spread throughout society, they banded together as the Phantom Thieves.

Appearing back in their jail cell, the teens learned that their cases had been postponed a week due to the judge being sick and nobody being able to fill in. Using that time to infiltrate the Judge's Palace (managing to forge a ticket into the luxury cards by stealing a letter from the local prison to the Judge and then bringing it into the Metaverse) and find his Treasure (having defeated the Engineer, battled through the ticket takers, and broken into the Engine), the Phantom Thieves only had one thing left to do: send a Calling Card and steal the Judge's Treasure.

The local paper reported the letter that had been mailed to the judge and attached to every surface near the courthouse not watched by security cameras.

Written on red and black paper with cut out letters from magazines, the letter read:
"Two-faced Sinner of Avarice Mitchell, your corruption ends here. You sell kids like property and rob them of their future with no regard for them as people. You take advantage of others under the guise of justice. We will show you that judgment is not truly blind. We, the Phantom Thieves will steal your heart and make you confess your crimes with your own mouth."

While it didn't get much attention outside the city, it did get enough attention to be a topic on social media right when the Phantom Thieves broke in to the Palace to break out with the Treasure.

When they arrived at the station the train was already leaving it. Thinking quickly the Thieves managed to reroute the train onto an unfinished track and off a cliff. From their they climbed down through the cars.

Making their way to the Treasure in the engine car (an opulent space easily the size of a courtroom with tacky expensive furnishings and the Judge's seat on top of the massive furnace), the Phantom Thieves went to seize the Treasure (a massive, solid gold conductor's cap) when it was snatched out of their hands by Judge Giles's Shadow.

"You little shits don't get it, do you? You're society's waste, only good to fuel the truly deserving like me along the fast track to riches! THAT is Justice! Accept your fate and feed the furnace! I DECIDE ALL THE DESTINATIONS! GET OFF MY TRAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The Judge slams his fist down on a button on his podium, and the Phantom Thieves are sent flying out of the compartment yet again. Feeling confident they can just go back down again, the Thieves are shocked as a massive metal hand slams down on the edge of the cliff and starts dragging the rest of it up. The train has twisted itself into a new monstrous shape that towers over them with murderous intent.


MITCHELL MOLOCH EXPRESS NON-STOP PUNISHMENT MECHA!!!

The furnace pumps steam through pistons with a sound like a mechanical heart in the middle of the monster's chest. Train cars make up the limbs with shadows oozing to form hands (each holding a massive gavel) and black sludge flowing from the 'feet'. Where the head would be is the engine car, with the Judge's Shadow inside piloting the mecha. At its feet the coal-children are still being pushed forward by the Shadow ticket takers in a coal-cart.

The Judge's voice booms out over the train mecha's speakers: "FEAR THE WRATH OF THE PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX! "

(ARE YOU READY?!)

Eliza calls out to the other Phantom Thieves: "We've got to take that thing down. The furnace looks like the weak point, but we've got to take out his fuel first and it's covered by the other limbs. Take out the coal carts, cripple the limbs, and then shut down that furnace! Let's go! Blow them away Gideon!"
Eliza's Persona appears and blasts the coal cart with a mini tornado, mildly damaging it.

 

[ThatGuyWithSouvlaki]

Christina sat in her room, reading through a script her mother had signed her up for recently without her knowledge. The role was boring, a supportive best friend in some godawful by the numbers romcom. Old fashioned, clich and lacks any effort or attempt at artistry... Just like the usual trite her mother gave her. Christina would have rejected it out of hand but her mother already signed for her and cost for breaking the contract would greater than either her or her mother could pay. Her mother assured that by spending every penny Christina earned in shopping sprees and parties.

She sighed at the thought. Just less than two years until she was free of her mother's control and she could better chose the roles she wanted and use the money how she wanted. For know she would take her little victories were she could. The door opening and slamming was an indicator of her mothers return and the success of one of her victories. She set the script aside and sat on the side of the bed and waited for his mother to come in one of her rants.

On queue her mother burst in looking irate as she held a local gossip mag in her hands. "Christina what the hell!?" She began and went on to scold her over and incident in a pride protest a couple of days ago Christina and a friend decided to participate. Christina didnt react just smiled expectedly. "....Dont you care about your image!? My image?! You want us to be kicked out of L..." She paused suddenly noticing a drastic change in her daughter. Christina had cut her long locks of red hair was cut into a short spiky style and she wore jeans and a tshirt. Christina breast were bound and she wore no make up. All of which combine to give Christina the appearance of a teenage boy.

"What the hell did you do yourself?!" Her mother called in mix of fury and shock.

"Just trying a new look." Christina said calmly. She will have to pay dearly for this but this but it was worth it but this was her now. She will not change it until she was free.

Her mother frowned but remained quite for a little while. "Fine. This maybe still salvageable... the director owes me and can organise an rewrite..." She took out her phone and dialled a number. She turned to Christina with a cold glare. "Get your bag ready we are going to the city, no more funny... Hey, Julian, darling! How are you?" She said quickly switching to cheery tone before stepping out of the room.

Christina sighed and obeyed, standing up and gathering her bag from under her bed and filled with some of her essentials. At one point she paused and looked at a frame one the wall above her bed. In it were two colt revolvers with there barrels crossing each other like swords. Underneath them was a picture of her of young girl holding one of the revolvers with both her little hands pointing it at the camera man and wearing an oversized black cowboy hat. Next her was her grandfather, wearing one of his old costumes and pointing the second gun at the cameraman as well and his free hand around her. Both of them were smiling happily.

"I should have listened to you."She said sadly to the picture. "I miss you..." She took one of the pistols and twirled around in her finger effortlessly before tossing it in the are and catching it in her other hand and continued to twirl it in one smooth motion. She twirled a little more before holstering the pistol in an imaginary holster. She looked at the pistol for a moment before putting it in the bag and than did the same thing with the second one. She closed the bag and stepped out.

 

[quadraxis201]

Victor sat on his bed, a headset resting on his head as he had his eyes practically glued to his television screen. He was playing a video game that he had taken quite an interest in-- a first-person-shooter called Fatebringers. While he didn't advertise it anywhere near as publicly as he did his tutoring, Victor was also willing to assist others in the world of video games as well, as someone who had been gaming since the age of 6 and had experience under his metaphorical belt. He wasn't too fond of letting this become public knowledge on account of all of the friend requests he would inevitably get. To top it all off, the particular missions that most people asked for help with were especially lengthy, sometimes taking at least an hour and a half to a couple of hours to complete, optional content included. If one were to consider how many people would be asking for Victor's assistance combined with how long each run would take, the combination would easily tire the young man out. He had a life of his own to live, and there had to be a point where he needed to draw the line. That wasn't to say he didn't enjoy taking the time to help when he could, however.

"Alright, so here we are in the Royal Well. Who here doesn't know how to complete this part? Don't worry-- I can explain what to do." Victor spoke with his five teammates, all of which were complete strangers. A group of three had posted on a forum board requesting an experienced player to guide two of their friends, who had never completed the mission they were presently in, through the entire affair. Victor, naturally, jumped at the chance. Now, if Victor were speaking to these people face-to-face, there was a great chance he would never be speaking anywhere near as confidently as he was at this moment in time. That was something he was somewhat fascinated by-- the ability to talk to someone through a headset without having to maintain any amount of eye contact at all.

"I don't, Vic." Someone responded to Victor, referring to him by part of his screen-name, "Vic_Rocketman".

"Nor do I." Another teammate added.

Victor gave a small, ephemeral smile. "Alright, what are your screen names? Just follow me-- I'm 'Vic_Rocketman', the guy wearing the dark green samurai-looking armor with the laser gun in his hands. See? I'm jumping." He proceeded to start tapping a button on his controller to make his character, a Space Wizard, hop in place. As he did that, two of the remaining five players ran over to Victor's character. Victor saw who they were, and responded, "You two? Okay. So, here's what you've gotta do. The whole point is to fill that huge cistern up with water. We do that by standing on these plates, but the catch is that while we're doing this, enemies will-"

Victor was suddenly cut off as his bedroom door open and his father peeked in. "Hey, Victor."

Almost immediately, Victor pressed the mute button on his headset and turned to face his father. "Hi."

"How was school?"

"Uhh... okay. Same as usual."

"Everything going alright?"

"Yeah..."

"You got homework?"

"Well, yeah."

"Want something? A drink, or a snack, maybe? How about some chips?"

"No."

At this point, Victor was getting quite annoyed with all of the questions his father was asking him. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing for a father to want to interact with his son, but what he kept failing to realize was that Victor didn't act like most other boys his age. He didn't like social interactions that were effectively forced on him, and he would sometimes ask to not answer any questions at all, even if his father wanted to simply know how his day went. This was what happened when someone like Victor was "on the spectrum", as he would like to say.

"Look, Dad. I'm with some guys right now, okay? I promised them I would help them get this done. So, if you could please leave me alone... I would appreciate it. I'll get to my homework right after this. " Victor said at last with clear irritation in his tone.

"Oh, okay." Victor's father responded, a frown gently creasing his face as he closed Victor's door.

With his father gone, Victor's head practically snapped back toward his screen, his hand flicking the mute button on his headset once more to un-mute himself. "Sorry, I had to take that. Where was I...? Oh, right. So, the thing is that enemies are going to spawn from these tunnels all around the area." Victor made his character switch to a different weapon, a semi-automatic rifle, and then shoot at a series of holes around the ruined setting of the room the group was currently in. "While three of us are doing that, the other guys are gonna have to defend us. Sniper Rifles are good for this, but if you have a good Launcher or something like the Sleeping Dragon, that's even better."

Victor proceeded to finish the rest of what turned out to be a particularly long-winded explanation before his group made it through the Royal Well encounter flawlessly. Though lengthy, it was apparent to Victor that his detailed explanation was getting through to the two newbies of the group. They then proceeded to finish the rest of the entire mission before long. As Victor and his team laid the final shots on the final Boss, he was showered by a raucous collection of shouts and cheers. "That's how it's done! Nice work, everyone!" Victor practically shouted. As his group-mates thanked him for his efforts, Victor replied with, "As I said before, it's an honor and a privelege to teach two newbies the ropes. Everyone's gotta start somewhere, right? Besides, if you were to get someone else in the community instead of me, chances are they'd be arrogant pieces of crap that would ask your friends to have, like, maxed-out guns or some nigh-impossible-to-get Exclusive weapons or something. But, you see? We don't really need those to get this done. That's why I'm here."

The group returned to the game's hub world, and with a salute, Victor's character left the others. "Good luck with your adventures, you two." He said as he turned his system off, but not before receiving a few friend requests along the way. With a stretch, Victor slid off of his bed and over to his desk. "Now, what do I have to do? Let's see... not Environmental Science, I already typed that out in the Resource Room... Math... it was Limits today. So, here we go." Victor thumbed through his Math textbook until he reached the relatively-early-on chapter about Limits, and then the practice problems. "So, I need to do this... this... this... this... this... and this." He tapped each numbered problem with the rubber of his mechanical pencil. "So, the limit as X approaches infinity for this equation is... yeah... yeah, I get this! Why couldn't Mr. Rosen just show it to us like this?"

 

[5eedless]

All that time spent agreeing to whatever anyone else said … all that time spent helping anyone and everyone that came his way, trying to be the model friend to the whole world. Looking at it now, Devon could easily see how foolish he’d been all those years. He hadn’t even been doing any of it because he liked helping people, he just did it so that they would like him. All so he could be a “good boy,” like his parents always wanted him to be.

Man, was I an idiot. Throughout all that time, Devon had never really given thought to what he wanted, what his dreams and ideals were. He let everyone else walk all over him, and for what? To be able to say “I’m a good person?” No ‘good’ person would ever treat themselves so terribly, and no ‘good’ society would ever let the things that happened in his schools slide.

But of course, Devon wouldn’t look at it that way. He could see it, oh lord could he see it. I lost my damn eye to that kind of world, and training to live without it was no cakewalk! But it wasn’t the damage to his sight that made him aware … he had to get thrown in a cell to open his mind to the truth. One wrong stop on the way home, one wrong crime to bare witness to and suddenly he was being charged with assisting a robbery.

Even that alone wouldn’t have been enough though. The way he thought about it in that cell, if he went down for something he didn’t do then all that meant was society wanted him in a cage. And who would he be to refuse that? The people know best, after all. The jury knows best, the police know best, the judge knows best …

What a load of shit! They didn’t know anything.

A lucky trip to the Metaverse was the last thing Devon needed to learn that lesson. It was weird as hell, sure, and there were a lot of things that didn’t make sense at first - talking coalheaded people, freaky conductors, easily the wackiest train ride ever conceived by man … and with a talking bird riding in to save the day at the last second.

But then, things started to change. Then, Devon got to hear Angelo’s voice … and then he finally saw the truth. He’d always hated the way the world treated him, the way it taught him to treat himself. How he was expected to help other people get better and stronger and smarter, and expected to give up parts of himself to make that happen, all because he was the “good boy.” If that was the path the world laid out for him just for wanting to be nice to people, then that “good boy” attitude might as well burn to ashes! And I’ll ride the smoke ‘till I rise to my dreams, no matter how much hell I have to raise!

Of course, he couldn’t have even gotten that far without the help of his comrades - people he didn’t know too well, but knew well enough to call them friends. That’s actually the first time I’ve called someone my ‘friend’ and meant it, huh? Luna, Markus and Eliza had done a lot for him over the course of this infiltration, and even more for him as a person.

Luna … who knew the snobby, top-of-the-class rich girl had such a wild side to her? She was the last person Devon could see going against authority - which was probably why he picked her out to ask for help with homework before all this happened. After all, he wasn’t exactly the rebellious type either, maybe a little inattentive but not disrespectful in his eyes. He could really identify with her desire to be what was expected of her … and her subsequent denial of the validity of those expectations.

Markus, though, turned out to be more or less what Devon expected of him - the loners always tended to be the most hurt on the inside. It was why Devon sought them out, and why he’d bothered Markus even before all this started at least a couple times. What surprised him though was the guy’s cool head and theatrical attitude in combat. As a big fan for the theatrical himself, Devon had to get to know this guy better … after this was all over, of course.

And then there was Eliza … Devon knew so little about their new Crow friend. Where did she come from? Why was she like this? How did she know all that she did? So many questions flooded Devon’s mind every time he looked at her … far too many to nail down where to start. Maybe there’d be some chances when all this was over. But first, they had a job to do.

In front of them now stood the enemy they’d been chasing this whole time - win this fight, steal that treasure, and they could all go home with a 'happily ever after.' Romeo grinned a nigh maniacal expression as he looked at the coal cart. "What's the use of coal without fire? Let's light 'em up, Angelo!" Rising up from Romeo's shadow, Angelo fires off a jet of flame from his hands, blasting into the coal cart in an attempt to catch it alight.

 

[Gravitational Force]

The fire seems super effective against the coal cart, igniting it and causing an explosion that takes out it and the Shadows pushing it. The explosions spread, taking out each coal cart in turn before blasting apart part of Moloch's left leg.

Giles's Shadow roars in outrage.
"HOW DARE YOU?! You little brats are stopping the passage of Justice! Our great society can't be expected to take care of everyone who slips through the cracks! And that's where I come in. Nobody cares what happens to you, you're worthless except as what I turn you into: fuel to keep the engine of progress moving! FEAR THE WRATH OF THE PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX!"

Moloch opens the door to its furnace and blasts a cone of flame at the Phantom Thieves.
"Hold still, the prison-industrial complex needs you to die!"