The front door only briefly buckled inwards before it snapped, quickly shaping and molding around Freakenstein’s body as he went rushing like a bull into the Gold Droid Forge.

  “You have made some really fucking weird friends,” Hydramental said, his arms crossed over his chest as we watched the large man start his rampage into the building. While I probably could have flown over to the building in a flash and I knew Freakenstein was faster than he might have looked, Hydramental took his time leading us over to the far end of Chelsea Park and at least 15 minutes must have passed by the time we had stopped our walk across the neighborhood.

  It only took me a minute, but I discovered the communication channel I had acquired from Lt. Nester in the 10th precinct was still active and I was able to quickly report the existence of the base. I wasn’t entirely sure that was going to work, but the moment after what I was slowly growing to assume was an automated voice accepted my report a new alert flashed across my vision.

  “Gold Droid Forge Updated! Your temporary team will now receive a reward from the 10th precinct when you clear this Base.”

  The building, much like the Droid Forge that had been hidden next to the Guggenheim, was almost completely non-descript. Had I just been looking around, I would have assumed it was just another office or apartment building. It was tall, probably around 20 floors or so, but there were no signs or graffiti on the outside of the building that gave it away like the Viper’s logo had done to their Dens.

  It was only the fact that we could highlight the building, along with its highlighted label that convinced Freakenstein that it was in fact a base. Once that was established, he took no time at all to charge right in, leaving us gawking after him.

  “Well, I’m sure as hell not going to let that lughead have all the fun,” Hydramental said, tilting his head to the side before he rushed forward and through the hole in the wall where the door used to be. His body split into four the moment he was through the door and they all scattered.

  “This is a weird trap if it is one…” I muttered, walking slowly toward the entrance.

  “You know… we're still mostly just assuming Hydramental has been compromised by TechWarden since we don't exactly have any concrete proof. He could still just be acting like his normal asshole self,” Jon offered.

  “I guess… I don’t know how to explain his level jump though if that is the case. Unless he did technically get the kill on Grand Strike but… I just don’t think that’s right either,” I said, coming up short as I stopped just short of entering the building. “Look… I know TechWarden hasn’t exactly been around since… well since before I took on the last den and… killed SnakeBite, but…”

  “He has to be. Yeah Loophole, trust me I get it,” Jon said, the rhythmic hit of keys over the open comms echoing briefly in the silence. “I’m just saying… Occam’s Razor sometimes applies. I’m not saying to lower your guard, that would be beyond stupid. But you’re like, specifically equipped to deal with traps, like to a stupid degree being able to just rewind things. So maybe just, I don’t know, cut loose and destroy some droids?”

  I was staring at the ground for a moment before I let out an unwilling chuckle. “You make it sound simple.”

  “It can be,” he said, and I could hear the shrug. “Hell, we’ve come a long way in the last week and you’ve got an entire team around you that knows about TechWarden, one of which is actively working on a way to check to see if someone is compromised or not. Take it one step at a time and let it be simple.”

  “You know, if I get ambushed and something happens-”

  “I’d hope you would be smart enough to use your damn rewind… and if for some reason you can’t, I’d hope by now you know I have your back… one way or another.”

  My area sense had already spread out to the edges of my local area. It was a bit interesting, how I knew I could feel everything within the powerful sense but at the same time wholly ignore it if I wasn’t trying to pay attention to it. There was already plenty of organized chaos going on inside of the building which, much like the Platinum base we had already assaulted, looked completely different on the inside than it did on the outside. Right near the center of the space that I could see and on the very edge of my local area, there was a large 60% Negative Zone. It was clear that Freakenstein had gone tearing directly through the center of the room, absorbing bits of metal and causing pandemonium in what looked like an engineering test space.

  I used one of my Vibe Anchors, just as two of the Hydramental clones backtracked away from droids right into it. Several large Clockwork Gorillas were chasing them and as I strolled into the building, they entered the zone. One of them stepped right down on a space that, in a clean lab might have been just plain floor space but instead had a large cylindrical canister lying haphazardly in the way. The heavy droid stepped down, crushing the canister.

  There was a flash of light as it ignited, blowing the Clockwork Gorilla’s leg clean off and triggering a chain of other canisters rolling along the ground right in the path of the others that had been chasing after. One after another, each of the four gorillas had their legs blown out from underneath of them before they went crashing to the ground.

  “New Achievement! Sweep the Legs! Not enough people think to try and get rid of an opponent’s mobility in a fight and honestly, I’m a bit disappointed that it’s taken you this long to get this achievement, but it’s better late than never and it’s almost funnier that it happened because of bad luck on their part. Oh well, that’s a good use of the environment. This is a Bronze Level achievement. Reward: You have received a C:Tier loot box.”

  The Hydramentals briefly looked confused, but that confusion was almost immediately mirrored on my own face as each of the gorilla’s that had lost their legs continued dragging themselves forward. I was just about to move to react when two of the gorillas fell to pieces, only for the pieces to start to shake and rush toward the still moving gorillas a moment later.

  “They’re reconstructing!” I called out, recognizing the move from early on into the siege of the city. I finally kicked it into gear as I started to run forward. I ramped Center of the Universe up to its max and focused on the mechanical parts that hadn’t yet merged back into the mass.

  One of the gorilla’s had regained its legs and was bearing down on the red and brown Hydramental clones, but before the other could regain its legs, the metal structure of the fourth gorilla came hurtling in my direction. I made a snap decision, looking toward the far end of the room where Freakenstein was quite literally boxing with a Clockwork Kangaroo before I took off as fast as I could in flight.

  “Bringing some armor your way Freak,” I said in our internal chat, hoping that he wouldn’t be offended by me shortening his name. Then again, given he had been calling me Loopie, he probably couldn’t care less.

  Freakenstein never even looked my way as I went zipping behind him and I turned on a dime as I slowed myself, trying to make sure I didn’t need to rewind after accidentally doing a whole lot of damage to him. My initial hope was met and exceeded. He extended an arm in the direction of the metal, his other hand batting away a wide swing that came from the Clockwork Kangaroo. As each of the bits and pieces of gorilla peppered his form, they each merged and melded into his body in small flashes of light.

  The light of each piece moved up and over his outstretched arm, each extra piece stacking up and over the pieces that were there before it until the appendage looked almost identical to one of the arms of the Clockwork Gorillas. With only a brief flex of the metal fingers, Freakenstein’s giant metallic fist whipped forward with an unnerving amount of speed, moving in a sharp hook that smashed directly into the side of the Clockwork Kangaroo.

  The droid had been mid hop, preparing to kick Freakenstein when its entire midsection was blown out from the force of the strike. Freakenstein never even skipped a beat, reaching forward with his other hand and melding each and every piece of metal he could onto his form. His second arm grew larger, his shield bar slowly stacking up and over itself until the arm matched his first.

  “Nice lil armor delivery system yah got there Loopie,” he said, cracking his neck as he started to walk forward, having to hold his arms out to his side like he was actively trying to flex just so they wouldn’t drag on the floor. He didn’t charge forward, instead moving his arms out to ready himself as a group of Clockwork Monkeys were jumping down from a balcony I had missed up until then. “If you want to take out whatever the fuck is spawning these assholes, I think me and Hydrahomie over there can handle the rest of this.”

  “Don’t call me Hydrahomie,” several identical voices all called out in unison.

  Freakenstein shot me a confused look just as the first of the monkeys got close enough to him that he could backhand it away. I just shook my head and he rolled his eyes in a look that said I didn’t need to say anything else.

  I jumped back into the air, lifting up and over a few swipes from Clockwork Monkeys as they swarmed toward Freakenstein. He was like a mounted weapon, flinging parts of his metal arms with each swipe, breaking off pieces of the monkeys with each strike. It was easy to get distracted by Freakenstein’s fights, especially as I tried to mentally piece together just what his powerset was. It was obvious he could turn metal into armor, but it seemed like he had to have direct contact with whatever he was trying to merge with.

  With a shake of my head, I refocused on the task at hand and turned just in time to catch as another Clockwork Monkey jumped over the railing on a direct collision course with me. I easily dodged to the side and threw a punch. Unlike when Freakenstein attacked, the monkey didn’t just take the attack and go flying. It’s body split right where I had been moving to attack before it closed back down onto my wrist. It was just starting to vibrate, a steady heat rising when I rewound.

  I darted around the monkey, going up and over the balcony before landing with a skid. Like the Platinum Forge, there were Printers scattered along the wall. They weren’t quite as grouped up or as abundant as they were in the Platinum Forge, but there were still plenty. I landed as close to the center of them as possible and threw a combination of Quantum Echostrike and a 25% Gravity Punch.

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  There was a massive spray of metal as all of the printers around my target were shattered, breaking off their half built droids in small explosions that echoed outward. There were more than a few of the Clockwork Monkeys that had turned to try to attack me before I could move and luckily for me, or maybe more importantly unluckily for them, the destruction of the printers and the scattered metal totally ruined the vibe of the balcony.

  I anchored the 75% Negative Zone in place and quickly hit Float Like a Butterfly as I dodged through the few Monkeys and… apparently frogs that hadn’t been caught up in the first round of explosions. I test a few punches, rewinding by just a few seconds each time one of the droids split apart to try and trap my wrist within it. I never let any of them go far enough that they blew up, mostly just because I really didn’t want to know what that felt like.

  It took every bit of fancy footwork I had, including a good bit of the knowledge I had acquired from the parkour book I had picked up days prior, but I dodged around all of the droids, focusing on them and wishing I had a way to activate Misfortune Abound or, hell, even have a way to further weaponize the negative energy floating around us.

  “New Ability! Burst the Bubble. Quickly harness the misaligned energy of a Negative Zone to randomly activate Misfortune Abound’s effects on enemies within the Negative Zone. For every 33% of the size of the zone, activate Misfortune Abound on 1 random enemy. After using this ability Misfortune Abound’s passive effects are disabled for 2 minutes. Any % of the Negative Zone not used by this ability will remain if the zone was anchored prior to this ability being activated. This ability costs 5% of your Stamina. This ability has a 2 minute cooldown.”

  “Huh, why not punch them?” Jon asked curiously and I had to mentally remind myself that he wasn’t remembering each of my short rewinds.

  “I think Tyrant’s modified them to counter my punches by literally just catching me and trying to explode,” I explained, activating the new ability after dropping it in place of Fun House. Though the ability was absolutely useful, the last thing I wanted to do right now was add to the confusion of the fight with multiple versions of me for the others to have to operate around.

  One of the frogs had just started to shoot out its long, metallic tongue when a monkey jumped right into its way. The frog’s tongue hit the monkey, immediately letting off a burst of electricity. In a flash, the monkey exploded, triggering another unlabeled canister at its feet that shot off to the side in a burst of highly pressurized air. The canister acted like a missile, firing through three of the monkeys in a row, causing explosion after explosion as I continued to move, dodging errant scraps of metal as they whizzed past me.

  “Going up!” Hydramental announced before his red form went hurtling upwards under a large burst of fire.

  “Yeah, yeah, leave the crab to me! Shit, that gives me a good idea for dinner,” Freakenstein replied with a laugh before I heard a sharp metallic crunch from the floor below.

  The cascade of bad luck around me seemed to be coming to a stop with only two of the Clockwork Frogs still left standing once the last of the explosions stopped. The empty canister thunked to the ground somewhere in the building though neither of the frogs paid any mind to their fallen comrades.

  In fact, the few remains that were still mostly intact began to shake, spiraling toward the two remaining droids as they both shot their electrified tongues in my direction. I activated Center of the Universe and tried to wrench the broken droid parts away from the pull of the frogs. More than a few pieces reacted, turning and starting to fly in my direction when both of the frog’s tongues detached from their sources.

  The tongues, still electrified, were already nearly to me when they were identified as eligible to be dragged with my ability. They both smacked into me and before I could even move to rewind, I felt my entire system seem to shake as a jolt of electricity surged through my body. I seized up, unable to focus enough on my abilities to activate any of them. The current lasted for what felt like an eternity but in reality must have only been about 10 seconds when I managed to catch my breath and shake off the shock.

  The frog’s had each added more than a few layers to their bodies, and they were significantly larger as one of the two hopped in my direction, actually managing to make some dust hop into the air when it landed just a handful of feet away from me. I was just about to rewind things once again when I heard a loud snap of metal coming from the floor below, followed closely by what I’d only ever be able to describe as a war cry. Freakenstein went hurtling up and into the air, his leap powered by a pair of legs that must have been stolen from one of the Clockwork Kangaroos.

  Going up seemed like the best possible option, and if I couldn’t hit these guys without risking them trying to grab my arm in retaliation, I was just going to have to let the environment do the work for me.

  “If you’re on the balcony above me, I’d really suggest getting out of the way!” I warned.

  I reactivated Center of the Universe, though I was careful not to max the skill out. Not wanting to overshoot it, I settled on about half power before I activated Launchpad. The frogs were both stunned mid jump, one of them actually seizing up in midair and crashing down onto the ground in a small heap. Since I was trying to focus on the task at hand, I had no idea if it did any damage to them. I was quickly hurtling up toward the underside of the balcony and I threw a 30% Gravity Punch hoping the doubling effect of Launchpad on the ability would do what I needed it to do.

  The concrete was blasted to pieces and while a solid chunk of it was sent hurtling upwards, lifting several droids with it to smash them into the ceiling above them, more than a few pieces began to crumble and fall down and past me toward the Clockwork Frogs stunned below me. If the fall didn’t do the trick, being buried under a small pile of concrete was more than enough to put the Frogs out for the count.

  I had to catch myself with Personal Gravity Laws and I quickly moved over to the third balcony, landing as I moved to catch my breath. With the brief respite, the floor around me littered with charred and crushed droid parts, I materialized a Super Stamina Injector into my hand and immediately used it. Freakenstein landed with a thud on the balcony next to me, several pieces of metal shedding from his body with each move.

  He was living up to the name of his powerset, with his body looking like a robot barely holding itself together.

  “Man, this is what I call a party, we’re definitely hittin’ up more after this, right?” Freakenstein growled, looking around at the destroyed remains with a look of approval.

  “Well there is the one Platinum we definitely have the location for. We might want to round up Swansong and maybe Duskbreaker for that just to make it even easier and spread some experience around,” I suggested, rotating my arm to stretch my shoulder out. There was a torrent of fire that spit over the edge of the balcony one floor higher than us, followed immediately by a blinding flash of sparking electricity.

  The surge made me almost instinctively pull back from the wild energy as I remembered the recent shock to my system. Only a few seconds later, the electricity came to a stop as a chorus of explosions echoed down through the rest of the building.

  “10th Precinct Assignment: Gold Droid Forge - NYC : CLEARED! You and your team have successfully cleared out all Droid forges and Droid production capabilities from this forge. Police are not currently dispatching clean up crews. NYC Droid Forges Cleared: 2 of 13. Reward: You have received 250 credits and a B:Tier loot box.”

  “Sheesh are you two seriously standing around while I do all the work?” Hydramental’s echoed voice asked as I felt the heat increase nearby. His red form slowly descended onto the balcony before his other light forms merged back into him.

  I wasn’t quite paying attention to him though as I stared at the notification, my brow pinching as I stared at the remaining forges.

  I knew we had only cleared one of the forges so far, so seeing it only go up to having two of them cleared hadn’t been a big deal. I knew after all that we still had plenty of work to do to stop Tyrant. But I had also remembered very clearly the amount of forges that I believed we still had to clear after we had handled the first of them.

  “He’s making more forges,” I said, muttering it under my breath without intending to. Hydramental let out a scoff of a laugh that snapped me out of my worry and I looked over to him with confusion.

  “Not forges, warehouses,” he said, holding up a map that he had rolled up in his hand. “Found this up on the top floor and had to basically unload on a group of droids trying to stop me from getting to it. Looks like he just added a handful of warehouses, though there’s no notes all that conveniently telling us what they are being used to store… The good news is, they’re actively marked as Silver levels and there’s three of them on the shore only a few blocks away. You guys wanna keep this party going and have a little race?”

  Freakenstein clapped his hands together, the metal covering his skin banging and echoing in the hollowed out building as he let out a whoop of approval.

  “Oh I am so in,” he said and looked over at me expectantly.

  Every single alarm bell in my head was going off and if I only merely had a hunch that this first forge was a trap, this felt like a neon sign blinking only a handful of feet in front of my face.

  “Sure,” I said with a shrug before I turned my attention inward, “Swan, I’m heading to another forge over on the river. It’s silver level but Hydramental is clearly trying to get us to split up. Are you at the hospital?”

  There was silence for a moment and I waved for Hydramental to lead the way. He rolled his eyes, apparently annoyed that I had suggested we moved before he jumped off of the balcony with Freakenstein following close behind him. I waited for an extra second, waiting for a response.

  “Hey Codex, you got eyes on-”

  “Hey, yeah sorry, I just got in with Dr. Hill. There’s at least a hundred and fifty kids here, all with varying stages of Leukemia. I have no idea where they found them all because I could have sworn we had cured all of the ones in the city,” Swansong said, a note of worry in her tone. “It’s gonna take me at least an hour to cycle through all of them since I have to do them in batches to let my Stamina restore… Are you sure you want to go handle this right now? If you wait an hour I can come and help out.”

  “Hey Loopie, you comin’ or what?” Freakenstein called back up, meeting my eyes as I looked over the ledge. I heaved myself up and over it, quickly dropping toward the floor.

  “Freakenstein is going with Hydramental no matter what here. The dude’s a bit odd but he’s a good guy and I’m sure as hell not gonna leave him to walk into a trap if this is one. Maybe that’s an odd thing to worry about, but I can’t get this feeling out of my gut and I can’t let anyone else get sucked further into this,” I said, coming to a stop only a few feet above the ground, setting myself down with what had quickly become a practiced move. “You take care of those kids, maybe it’s lucky they managed to get found amidst all this chaos,” I offered, following Freakenstein as he moved to chase after Hydramental who hadn’t stopped to see if we were even following.

  “Yeah,” Swansong said, the thin layer of worry still in her voice. “Maybe it is…”

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