End of Phase Two: 23

D:08H:55M:07S

"Now would be an ideal time to deploy the next few batches on the west side. I can even lend you a handful of the aquatic droids in the Hudson. Most of our resources are being carted in through the East River so it would be a great way to distract from any sensors watching for movement on that side of the city."

"Why don't you do it instead of strolling around like that counts as doing something?"

"Touchy, touchy," Mr. Factory said, strolling through the power room that Hydramental had also turned into his makeshift bedroom due to the need to keep remerging with his yellow form and prevent his mental degradation.

He had more than enough strain on his mental state due to the fact that his grey form was still hiding out under Grand Central, in full hibernation mode thanks to Elemental Essence. Even if it did make him a bit more… unstable… the trade off of having a guaranteed safety net was too valuable for him not to take while he was still locked in a battle with Loophole. Mr. Factory walked around the room, dropping some papers over and onto the desk the main Hydramental body was sitting at, his yellow form still near the power coil, occasionally sending additional bursts of electricity into it.

"If you must know why I'm asking you to do it, well most of Perry is still operating on minimal power. You've got the deployment control console here. Don't act like you haven't been sending in squads of the droids already," Mr. Factory added, his patience never wavering.

"I've been avoiding occupied locations," Hydramental sneered, swiveling in his chair to face the older Augment. "Haven't broken that code of yours so it shouldn't be a problem."

"Good, that should help with your Loophole issue," Mr. Factory said, nodding down toward the papers again until Hydramental finally looked down at them.

"Targets?"

"Unoccupied targets, scattered throughout the neighborhood and near enough actually occupied buildings that you're bound to trigger Loophole into responding. Even if he has a way to obfuscate leaving his building, if we have enough datapoints, it's only a matter of time until we can triangulate just where his main Safe House is," Mr. Factory said with a satisfied smile. "Although, I'd suggest waiting for a bit. I'm not sure where he ran off to. My… sources have become a bit unreliable. But, I'm relatively sure Loophole wouldn't react for the moment."

"Unreliable sources? How'd that happen?"

"I think someone did some cleaning, it's not important, I'm sure things will be resolved in the next few days. If not, well, you can't always rely on one source of information," Mr. Factory said, tilting his head to the side until a loud pop echoed out. "My cooldowns have refreshed, I'm going to go and create my next round of printers so that everything's in place when we've carted in the rest of the supplies. Oh, and put in some new orders for the final egg. I've gone ahead and laid out the patrol pattern and attack targets on the second page there."

"The one at the Forge we're just letting those two nitwits squat in still?"

"Yes, that one. It's too isolated to move the remaining resources in it so I've been having my printers in the space overclocked to complete the final modifications to it. It should be ready to launch by tomorrow afternoon, right around when you should be able to return to the city. It's taken quite a bit of stamina to get all of this done and I almost wish we still had DuskBreaker in our employ, that leeching ability of his is rather useful," Mr. Factory explained, though Hydramental looked at him with just a bit of disbelief.

"What the hell is another giant chicken going to do? Those things have been useless as fuck so far," Hydramental sneered again, though Mr. Factory just shook his head with a laugh.

"Oh, they were useful enough. Remember, I do have just a bit more information than you do about what Axio wanted out of the Miscreants he put in place for this Phase of your Wave. While Perry here was supposed to be the final hurdle and Tyrant was positive he'd have everything under control before he ever had to use any of the eggs. It's why he put me in charge of what they'd hatch into. The first few were always meant to provide a false sense of security. Get them used to seeing chickens over and over," Mr. Factory said, looking off to the side as he took care of several notifications that appeared in his vision. "And then… well there's an old myth I used to be fascinated with, it's just too bad I wasn't able to get the petrification features working… well, at least not at the same levels as myth."

Corner of 42nd Street and Park Ave,

Rooftop

. Midtown East, NYC

City:

Claimed by Miscreant Squad:

Droids R' Us

(Contested by Guardian Squad:

Wildcard Assembly

)

Current Phase Points:

189820

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

42

End of Phase Two: 23

D:08H:48M:39S

"And how do I know you're not going to get all squeamish on me again when we do confront him?"

"I… I don't know that I won't hesitate… but I can promise you I'm not about to stop anyone else anymore either. But for what it's worth, I don't think I'll hesitate if I'm the one who has to do it. I had someone give me some… words of wisdom, and it reminded me that one person isn't worth the safety of everyone else," I said, staring back at Miss Mist as she scrutinized me.

After introducing myself with a quick request for her to describe what sound a dog made, an introduction that would probably make people think I was insane if I used it too often but that did get her to answer what I considered to be "the correct way," I had made sure to get right to the point, explaining that after I had some time to reflect, I'd realized that she was right. Hydramental needed to be put down. Maybe putting it like that was my own, small way of distancing myself from the act that I knew we had to do. Treating him like he was a rabid animal instead of a person. But if it let me get through this… well I'd deal with the fallout of it after.

The fact that everyone seemed to come back clean from TechWarden's influence was at least a small relief, though what that meant about the possibility of a mole I wasn't sure. There were still several things that just couldn't seem to be accounted for and chalking it all up to coincidence and happenstance just didn't sit right with me. I knew BrainCraft had offered up the possibility that Miss Mist was working with the man of her own volition, but Calypso's message the previous night had lined up with my own take of the man I had really only talked to a single time.

"Hmm… I guess you're a bit less thick than I thought you were," Miss Mist said, finally looking away from me and down toward Grand Central Station as her expression softened ever so slightly. "So why'd you ask me to meet you here specifically?"

I walked over to the edge and looked down toward the station. Many of the subway lines had been down ever since Clockwork Tyrant first attacked the city and it was noticeable by just how deserted the place actually seemed to be. In a lot of ways, it kind of was the perfect place to hide a base, even more so than when the Viper's base had originally been squirreled away in it.

"Hydramental had a brother that was Augmented during the Seventh Wave. He went by the name SnakeBite for the brief time he was actually active," I explained, deciding that even though she probably didn't need all the history, I was going to tell it anyway. "For a while, the two of us had been… not necessarily fighting together… but chasing after the same enemy. When we first met, it was on a train over in Hudson Yards. He very begrudgingly teamed up with me to tackle the base we had been introduced to and when we were done, after he left, I found a key that sent me further down the rabbit hole on a mission to discover… well something. The Non-Sapients we were fighting against in that phase had powers that were derived from his brother… and one of them wore his face and name."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"I didn't know it was his brother at first… I kind of discovered that little detail by accident and bringing it up was the first time me and him actually came to blows. This was back when Hydramental was just… well a dick, not a murderous psychopath… His brother had been a touchy subject, so I had promised him that when I did finally assault the base that the key I found was leading me to, I'd have him come with."

"So what happened? Raid not go as planned?" Miss Mist asked, actually curious instead of rushing me to get to the point.

"No, the raid went fine… up until we met the literal clone of his brother and Hydramental decided it was all just some big setup to fuck with him," I explained. "One of the Non-Sapients took a shot at him when he looked like he was about to attack me, which set him off to try and kill her. I got in his way and left him knocked out… and then found a path that had initially been hidden from us… Which is where I found his actual brother… But that's… well that's a story for another day and explaining it would probably just make it sound like I'm trying to explain why I don't think we should kill him… The point is, the entrance to the base that led us there was shortly up the tunnel from the S-Line platform and I think Hydramental has taken it over and added it to the Droids R' Us squad inventory, or… y'know… however the hell that works."

"You know… had you told me that a few days ago… I could have already checked this place out," Miss Mist said with a sigh. "I've been scouring buildings non-stop for any hidden base entrance I could find and you were sitting on this the whole time?"

"To be fair, I didn't really think about it… I didn't exactly know that people could essentially take over bases by squatting in them. Hell, I might have taken the base for myself had I known that was a possibility but it had been less than three days since the wave had started, I was still new at most of this."

"Please, just because you've already passed by the slowest of the Ninth Wave in levels, you're still new at most of this… it's the only reason I'm cutting you slack over your issues with Hydramental," Miss Mist said as she turned away from the ledge and started to walk back towards the center of the roof. "Besides… you're not the only one who has had time to reflect on yesterday. You were right to stop me from chasing Hydramental into the Pangolin when I could have just as easily gotten captured or killed. And storming out of the base yesterday was childish when I really think about how inexperienced you guys all are. But at least you're good in a fight."

"Yeah… at least I got that going for me," I said with a small laugh. Miss Mist clapped her hands and rubbed them together before looking over at me with a smile.

"Well I'm gonna go in, see what I can find. Send me a Temporary Team-Up request and I'll keep you posted on what I find, it's probably what we should have done from the beginning, no offense to you and the rest of the Wildcards, but you guys are kind of like kids to me."

"I'm coming with you actually… And… maybe it's not worth much since we did just have that whole blow up and I really might have only known them for a little bit… but they're good people, I think you should reconsider…" I said, and instead of honoring her request, I sent her a fresh invite back into the Squad.

"Friends fight. Pinneedle and Grand Strike were constantly at each other's throats over the stupidest things, trust me on that. You can argue and disagree and still be a team, that's not what you need to understand. You have to maintain a basis for trust and you have to be after the same thing. I'm not saying moles and spies are impossible, superpowers make damn near anything possible in this world we live in. But if you're going to keep those "good people" as squadmates, and more importantly if you want me to be one of them, then you have to be able to trust them like they're family. Especially with how far to hell everything has gone," Miss Mist explained, seeming to hesitate for a minute. "Shouldn't you check with the rest of your squad first though? Think BrainCraft's gonna be all that happy about seeing me back?"

"What do you think Codex? Can you check in with the others?" I asked, purposefully doing it out loud.

"Already been on it. Swan trusts your judgement. Brain's been hanging out in the lounge here and I've been keeping him filled in on the key details. The fact that she didn't meow is telling, especially after I filled him in on what Calypso told us about TechWarden's connections. While he's still not convinced, he's not going to argue either since he doesn't have anything more than a "gut feeling" that information is getting leaked. Duskbreaker is fine with it and Pinky… well Pinky just insists that she better join you guys at The Common Ground tonight as long as things aren't crazy."

"They're fine with it, you didn't meow after all" I said, choosing to skip over the details after Jon finished rambling.

"Meow…?" She asked curiously before letting out a sigh and accepting the request. "You know what… it's probably not that important right now…"

"I'll explain later… or Codex can for you," I said and Jon let out a laugh now that she could hear him too.

"The short version is the creator of this game has my kind of stupid humor," he explained, causing Miss Mist to shake her head and reach up to pinch at the bridge of her nose, though I did see the corners of her lips pull up in the slightest of smiles.

"Okay, that aside, how exactly do you figure you're going to come with me? If this place is a squad base-"

"Well it's like you said. Superpowers make damn near anything possible," I said, cutting her off with a smirk. She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything back as she looked back toward the station. "And one for if they have cameras before you ask. This is a scouting mission, nothing more until we know for sure how many clones Hydramental can make. If we are wrong, he's just going to be able to slip away again."

"Well we damn sure don't want that."

End of Phase Two: 23

D:08H:42M:28S

The city was relatively quiet when you considered the amount of action it had seen over the last few days. Explosions, giant electrical storms, and some sort of giant mechanical beast that was roaring fire. It was enough to make even the bravest of birds run for cover and clear out of the once bustling metropolis. Most birds and other animals for that matter were smarter than humans gave them credit for, knowing how to get out of harm's way long before it could actually affect them.

Which is exactly why, as Tempest's Wrath paced atop a roof on the far side of the Hudson River, she was almost shocked to find a bird landing on the ledge of the rooftop, seemingly unfazed by the constant bursts of electricity that bounced off of her body. Her expression was wild and once she noticed the bird, she quickly began to gather up a burst of electricity, intent on frying the bird for the transgression of interrupting her fuming over her loss to Loophole.

The moment she extended her hand to let the burst lightning rage forward though, her vision highlighted the creature, just before the small pigeon extended its wings and, in a flash of feathers, went darting away from her and the roof, flying in a streak that Tempest's enhanced perception barely allowed her to follow as the Augmented Pigeon went flying due west, seemingly intent on getting as far from the city as it possibly could.

"Huh, and here I had thought that thing was made up…" she muttered, watching it fly for another few seconds before deciding it wasn't worth it to chase after the bird to kill it just for a few measly Phase Points.

Up until her loss to Loophole, and she did consider their fight to be a loss for her, Tempest's Wrath had the, somewhat earned, belief that there was no Augment that she wouldn't be able to overpower with enough time. She had made it a point of going into the Fight Club and searching out any Augment she could think of that had powers that could theoretically counter her electricity. And sure, she knew that the Equalizer buff that she gained while in that room played a factor in those victories, but it had been more about proving the concept that her powers could overcome those limitations as opposed to taking out more of her competition.

That was foolish of her. She knew that. This was a game after all and the game wouldn't set up a power without giving it something that could counter it. Now that Tempest's Wrath had found that something, she was intent on discovering how to defeat it, whether it be by overpowering Loophole's ability to catch her lightning, or to be faster than he was able to react and move away from any of her attacks.

Tempest's Wrath didn't need more Phase Points. Or the attention of the media. Or even to continue killing off Augments that were impossibly weaker than she was. No. The only thing Tempest's Wrath wanted now, was to best the only other Augment she had faced so far that had been able to almost effortlessly, as if her attacks were mere inconveniences, fend her off.

And she sure as hell wasn't going to let anyone else beat him before she got to do it herself. She was just about to go back to pacing, her eyes focused on Hell's Kitchen across the bay where she knew Loophole had started thanks to all the media coverage around him, when she saw several large robotic crabs surface in the middle of the Hudson and start to motor their way toward the city.

She was still amped up from her near attack on Pigeon and she could feel her excitement growing as she found a target she was willing to attack. If she wanted her fair shot at Loophole, she was going to have to make sure all of these robots were out of the way first. Because when she took back the top spot in this video game, she sure as hell didn't want anyone to think it was because she had help.

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