History Fanfic / TheNewManAnAdamSmasherSI

** According to the author, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_A._Davis Terry A. Davis]] ended up getting a Wiseman conversion (a chassis specialized for netrunning) after getting support from the Vatican. The fact that he became a living supercomputer as well as the fact that the Vatican now uses [=TempleOS=] (which is near-indecipherable to netrunners) have effectively made them impossible to hack from the outside.

* ThrowTheDogABone: According to the author, Terry A. Davis

** While Yorinobu Arasaka does have a storied history leading a biker gang opposing his father, he was never portrayed as a physical threat in 2077. In this story, he's stated to not need any personal bodyguards and prefers to deal with threats personally with nothing but his gun and his chrome. He's shown to have a Kerenzikov constantly active as his way to be harder to see through, though it doesn't work on Saburo due to him being really perceptive.

** Adam Smasher is arguably the most evil character in the TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} setting and is typically characterized as a cartoonishly evil asshole. Here, circumstances force him to curb the worst of his excesses as he becomes David's new mentor figure.
** Saburo Arasaka, typically the GreaterScopeVillain of the series, is also affected by this where both time as well as Hanako's influence have mellowed him out. Where once he despised the USA, he now has a begrudging respect for it. That and Smasher's shift in nature has put him in a very good mood.

* CreateYourOwnHero/ CreateYourOwnVillain: While the exact cause is unknown, Kagekaze suspects that one of Arasaka's many callous projects is what caused Shaitan to become such an enemy to the corporation. He vowed to find out who caused this but it ultimately goes nowhere [[spoiler:because he dies from Shaitan's nuke not long after]]. Saburo also learns this to be the case with Lucy.

** Coming in from canon, there are Adam himself, Kagekaze, Kenichi Zaburo and Shaitan.

* RestrainingBolt: Smasher's augment-interface system is coded so that he is forced to obey and protect anyone who holds his "Long-Term Contract", with the current holder being Saburo Arasaka and eventually Yorinobu Arasaka.

* CreateYourOwnHero/ CreateYourOwnVillain: While the exact cause is unknown, Kagekaze suspects that one of Arasaka's many callous projects is what ultimately caused Shaitan to become such an enemy to the corporation. He vowed to find out who caused this but it ultimately goes nowhere [[spoiler:because he dies from Shaitan's nuke not long after]]. Saburo also learns this to be the case with Lucy.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: In her own head, Lucy chastises herself as being weak and cowardly, having to constantly clamp down on her fears and unable to do much. This is due to her Arasaka trauma button being permanently switched with the crew under the corporation's thumb. Outside of her own head, she is very skilled prodigy netrunner who can hold back Blackbeard's Kraken whereas Uriel immediately fled from Chandra Gupta's own attack AI despite his boasts of being superior to her. She is also no slouch when it comes to direct combat, despite having to do it while providing overwatch and netrunning all at the same time.

* TheLastDance: [[spoiler:Shaitan reveals to Kagekaze that his attack on Arasaka is ultimately this. Having fought Arasaka for so long, he knows he can't go on for much longer, so decides to cause them as much damage has he can before he ultimately dies.]]

* NotQuiteDead: Aryas lets slip to Adam that Blackbeard isn't dead. The Panzermasters, being chrome even up to their brains, presumably have backups of themselves somewhere in case they're scrapped.

* WorldsBestWarrior: Adam considers himself to be the single best killer on the planet. Nobody has yet been able to dispute that.

** Adam considers the PowerArmor-toting railgun sniper to be easily the most exhilarating fight he's had in years, and pays her the courtesy of a quick death as the building she was camped in collapses around them. [[spoiler: He gets a lot more ambivalent about that scrap after learning that the woman was outfitted by Morgan Blackhand]].

** Adam gets hit with this again after being restricted by Jun from using any of his weapons aside from the few he owns for himself, mainly his sword, knives and a few small arms. This means that he faced Roland and his minions with substandard armament. Danger Gal's Victoria notes just how crazy this is given that he lasted fifteen minutes and dealt his foe a heavy blow while she, the rest of the Danger Gal elites and Kenichi Zaburo could barely keep up with the master even though he's down some mooks and lacking an arm.

* CreateYourOwnHero/CreateYourOwnVillain: While the exact cause is unknown, Kagekaze suspects that one of Arasaka's many callous projects is what ultimately caused Shaitan to become such an enemy to the corporation. He vowed to find out who caused this but it ultimately goes nowhere [[spoiler:because he dies from Shaitan's nuke not long after]]. Saburo also learns this to be the case with Lucy.

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: In her own head, Lucy chastises herself as being weak and cowardly, having to constantly clamp down on her fears and unable to do much. This is due to her Arasaka trauma button being permanently switched with the crew under the corporation's thumb.

* WorthyOpponent: Adam considers the PowerArmor-toting railgun sniper to be easily the most exhilarating fight he's had in years, and pays her the courtesy of a quick death as the building she was camped in collapses around them. [[spoiler: He gets a lot more ambivalent about that scrap after learning that the woman was outfitted by Morgan Blackhand]].

* LoveHurts: It's implied that Smasher's relationship with Michiko Arasaka ended on a very bitter note. By the time of the story, it affects him enough that he avoids anything and everything involving her, such as pointedly not approaching Danger Gal to look into the attack on Arasaka Tower despite his respect for their capabilities.

* AdaptationalBadass: While Yorinobu Arasaka does have a storied history leading a biker gang opposing his father, he was never portrayed as a physical threat in 2077. In this story, he's stated to not need any personal bodyguards and prefers to deal with threats personally with nothing but his gun and his chrome.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: Smasher is typically little more than TheBrute and a psychotic thug who has little talent in anything save for violence. While still brutal at his core, the story also portrays him as having the experience, professionalism and tactical abilities one could reasonably expect of a near century-old corporate mercenary on top of being educated in the Japanese language and business etiquette. His stats also reflect this, by having him have an intelligence of 7 compared to his original 4 in the original Tabletop.

* NotSoOmniscientAfterAll: While Uriel has a fair amount of knowledge regarding the Cyberpunk setting, his metaknowledge primarily consists of the original TRPG and Edgerunners. His actual knowledge of the events of 2077 is fairly limited aside from Smasher's fate, meaning he can't simply tell Smasher to track down Jackie Welles or anyone V would know (which isn't helped by various different "V's" showing up throughout the story). Notably, he also doesn't have any particular reactions towards Panam Palmer and the Aldecaldos, who in 2077 are potentially major allies of V.

** Valerie is Corpo V.

* TheStrategist: Aryas is noted to be one of the weaker personal combatants among the Ordo Panzer grandmasters, and sees himself as more of a commander.

* BigDamnHeroes: When Aryas 88 has Adam dead to rights, Kenichi Zaburo and a group of Danger Gal operatives come to his rescue.

* BroughtDownToBadass: Adam decides during his three-week vacation and preliminary training of David to only fight with a handgun, a knife or sword, and sparing use of his Sandevistan and Panzerfaust. That still leaves the 8 foot tall, 600 pound full-borg with 80 years of combat experience as the most lethal thing in Night City, and more than a match for any Militech assassin or high-grade cyberpsycho.

** Coming in from canon, there are Adam himself, Kagekaze and Shaitan.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Over the course of the story Smasher ends up wiping out the Scavs and the Wraiths, who are two of the most explicitly evil gangs in 2077.

* NotQuiteDead: Aryas 88 lets slip to Adam that Blackbeard isn't dead. The Panzermasters, being chrome even up to their brains, presumably have backups of themselves somewhere in case they're scrapped.

* OneManArmy: Adam Smasher can tear through an enemy armored battalion by himself, and executes squads of gangers in a split-second as a hobby. David is rapidly learning to match his lethal efficiency.

* WillfullyWeak: Zaburo has not learned Panzerfaust and doesn't intend to because of a bet.

* HonorBeforeReason: Eren Shepard sees the NCPD police chief recall all officers to bunker down and weather the chaos wrought by Shaitan's Arasaka bounty free-for-all, for which he arrests the chief and tells his colleagues that they need to deploy.

* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: Kerry Eurodyne and Red Menace of Us Cracks state in interviews that they believe Smasher to be a soulful individual whose sudden music career is his way of expressing decades of emotional pain, when the truth of the matter is that it's all part of a PR campaign that he personally finds deeply humiliating.

* SympathyForTheDevil: Smasher's music career manages to make Kerry somewhat sympathetic towards him despite having killed his old friend Johnny Silverhand out of a misguided belief that he's deeper than he thought. The same goes for Red Menace of Us Cracks, who happens to think that [[SilverFox his new look is pretty hot]].

* {{Troll}}: When confronted by Rogue when he visits Afterlife (a place he's considered PersonaNonGrata), Adam allows Uriel to go on a tirade about Rogue's fashion sense and get into a petty argument with her. This serves the purpose of de-escalating tensions while still royally pissing her off.

* NamesTheSame: Victoria Armstrong and Victoria the Danger Gal operative. Despite their shared name being rather common, the latter feels like the former is infringing on her turf.

* CulturedBadass: On Saburo's orders, Smasher is fluent in Japanese and has a working knowledge of the Tea Ceremony and traditional Japanese etiquette, enough so as to give a crash-course to David, Lucy, and Rebecca on the flight to Tokyo. Saburo then goes on to also order Adam to continue his music career because, in his opinion, "a samurai must be a poet as well as a warrior".

* EarlyBirdCameo: Doctor Vik and Jackie show up in chapter 30. The former being one of the ripperdocs to answer Adam's call to be on standby as he goes on patrol to massacre some gangoons on patrol and the latter being a bystander during one such fight whose motorcycle becomes an unlucky casualty.

* StraightEdgeEvil: Shockingly enough, '''Adam Smasher''' is revealed to be this. One of the main reasons his Dragoon frame does not use any drugs or suppressants is that Smasher absolutely ''despises' anything that alters his mind and mental state. This mostly stems from the fact he abused drugs himself when he was young and, coupled with seeing many of his friends die from overdosing, led to him quitting and developing a hatred for drugs.

* BullyingADragon: Jugemu Jun, president of Arasaka Corporation's Night City branch, actively antagonizes Adam Smasher. First, he does some corporate posturing using some executive restrictions, and then he restricts him to Pacifica with the full intent of deploying only the [=DaiOni=] jockeys because he hates Adam on a personal level.

* BadassNormal: Falco considers Vincent to be "the strongest man without chrome I ever met." This bears out when Brosef gave a rough tier list of the characters' general combat capabilities and Vincent, despite being just some completely organic nomad, is on par with Ordo Panzer Grandmasters.

* FullConversionCyborg: Aside from Adam himself, Vee is also a full-borg but it's not readily apparent. [[spoiler:Or so it seemed at first glance, as chapter 9 revealed that the murderous little joytoy is actually a fully artificial Arasaka assassin.]]

* LeeroyJenkins: Despite being a senior member of a 'secret'' order, Roland is this. His attack plan against Adam Smasher is to crash a public event hosted by Netwatch and is attended by corpo executives from around the world, thus reminding them of the devastating power of this secret art.

* AdaptationalIntelligence: Smasher is typically little more than TheBrute and a psychotic thug who has little talent in anything save for violence. While still brutal at his core, the story also portrays him as having the experience, professionalism and tactical abilities one could reasonably expect of a centuries-old corporate mercenary on top of being educated in the Japanese language and business etiquette. His stats also reflect this, by having him have an intelligence of 7 compared to his original 4 in the original Tabletop.

** Arasaka releases a brain-dance of Adam's fight with Roland. People can and do die trying to process the sensory input of Adam's perspective, and the survivors need to immediately pop immunosuppressors except for David, and even he just barely handles it.