To my surprise I had a handful of notifications, including at least one achievement that were quick to pop up when they were no longer being suppressed. Although I knew I needed to figure out what was going on, I also knew things seemed to slow down whenever Angie rattled through these various notifications and I wanted to get them out of the way just in case there was something I needed to address.
“You have cleared this Silver Level Droid Forge without alerting the local authorities. 5 of 13 New York City Droid Forges cleared!”
“Phase Points Gained! Team Victory: Complete an objective while a part of a team. This gain has a static value. Modified by Squad Trophy: Valor Crest. Total Value: 250 points. Basebreaker: You’ve disrupted an enemy base within a territory you have an active claim on. Value equal to Base’s Rank (Bronze equals one, Silver equals two, etc.) times 250. Total Value: 500 points.”
“Quantum EchoStrike. This ability has increased to level 2. Maximum targets before damage reduction increased from 3 additional targets to 4 additional targets. Damage reduction for each additional target reduced from 10% to 9.5%. This ability has been Augmented 1 of 3 times. Current Augmentations: Temporal AfterStrike.”
“Sting Like a Bee. This ability has increased to Level 4. Successful strikes now impart 40% increased damage. This ability has been augmented 2 of 3 times. Current Augmentations: Time Adjustment; Passive Upgrade.”
“Super Luck. This power has reached Level 4. Luck within your local area is now subtly affected by .4% for every 1 point of luck that you have.”
“Super Luck. This power has reached Level 5. Luck within your local area is now subtly affected by .5% for every 1 point of luck that you have, with increased Good Luck for your allies and increased Bad Luck for your enemies. Ability Upgraded! Luck Bomb: Cooldown for this ability has decreased from 24 hours to 16 hours. You will now have an innate understanding that will occur before activating this ability that will give you a rough estimate (rounded to the nearest 5%) of how effective the activation will be before using it based on your desired outcome.”
I was just about to vocalize my surprise that my Super Luck had somehow managed to hop two levels when the achievement popped into my vision and drove the thought from my head.
“New Achievement! The Power of Friendship. A member of the opposite team has switched sides while in a team up with you and they even went out of the way to save your ass! Should you really be getting an achievement and reward just because of this? Probably not but are you really going to complain? No! I didn’t think so. This is a Platinum Level achievement. Reward: You have received an F:Tier loot box.”
“Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”
I looked over at the Neighborhood Team in my vision and sure enough, the mark that had labeled Freakenstein as a Miscreant was gone and I turned my attention to the scene around the smiling man covered in his normal patchwork quilt of metal.
Both warehouses on either side of me were bright, burning with fire and collapsing in on themselves, leaving no question where the initial few explosions came from. There was a large crowd that had gathered on the far side of the street, eagerly taking in the destruction that littered the road.
There were four of the large Clockwork Spiders that were sitting in disfigured piles, only recognizable by their bent and broken legs sticking out at awkward angles from their bodies, still smoking from their subsequent self-destructs. I could count at least another dozen smaller, unrecognizable piles that could have been damn near anything.
Freakenstein held up a hand and I went to slap it. As I hit his hand, he grasped it and pulled me close before slapping me on the back. In that moment, looking over his shoulder toward the far end of the civilians that had gathered, I briefly saw Jon of all people looking our way. He met my eyes only briefly before nodding, turning and heading for the nearest corner. While I might have wanted to chide him for coming out into the streets in the middle of all this, given he hadn’t been able to contact me, it didn’t surprise me that he did either.
“Good to see you’re in one piece Loopie, kinda surprised that Tyrant dickhead didn’t end up tryin' to blow you up too.”
“I’m sure he would have if he could…” I said, letting go of his hand and pulling back. I reached up and scratched the back of my head as I looked around again. “Uh… you said Codex got in contact with you… what the hell did I miss?”
Freakenstein’s smile grew even wider as he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Let’s take a walk and I can fill you in. But let’s make it quick, cause I think we got a Tyrant to topple sooner rather than later.”
Freakenstein punched through another one of the disappointingly weak Clockwork Gorillas, shattering them to pieces and absorbing the metal back and onto his body to further reinforce his shield. In the midst of battle, he could manage a maximum of five shield bars on top of his health bar, though each additional one slowed him more and more.
He cleared out another three waves of Gorilla’s that attempted to attack him before he eyed the message box once again, surprised that Loophole hadn’t gotten back to him just as quickly. He had been so absorbed in his battle, at least five minutes must have passed and he decided it was better to check in, just to make sure.
“I’m sorry Freakenstein, this Augment is currently out of chat range. Your message will go through as soon as they return to regular functionality,” Herb, his P.A.I. said in the back of his head. Freakenstein’s brow furrowed underneath his metallic mask.
“Huh… that’s fucking weird… shouldn’t that only happen if he went into The Common Ground?” Freakenstein asked.
“Yes… this does qualify as “fucking weird.” I am attempting to communicate with Axio now to verify what may be the cause of this glitch,” Herb replied.
“Well Loopie’s strong and he’s still showing up on my list, dude should be good till I can get this shit cleaned up.”
Freakenstein continued to move, taking down another group of the Clockwork Gorillas that attempted to flank him. He never even turned to face them, instead ejecting several large shards of metal off of his back like a gunshot. The largest of the scraps tore directly through the closest of his enemies, blowing them backwards and piling the weak droids on top of each other.
This made it easy for Freakenstein to jump high into the air, the metal around his feet pushing down and into the ground to send him up far higher than he should have been able to jump before he came down like a meteor on top of the pile. At least an entire shield bar evaporated in an instant as he landed with a THUD in the center of the pile that echoed in the spacious warehouse.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
“You have cleared this Silver Level Droid Forge without alerting the local authorities. 5 of 13 New York City Droid Forges cleared!”
“Man, that was stupidly easy,” Freakenstein complained, extracting himself from the pile of metal. He still had two of his shield bars and without the need for the extra, he opted not to absorb the pile as he left it.
“Well it is a Silver level,” Herb said.
Freakenstein shrugged and moved to turn toward the door. He could hear the slight sound of metal scrapping that had become almost soothing to him as he looked at it and found a shutter that was trying to close. It was bouncing up and down on the misshapen door that had been left when Freakenstein burst into the building. He was just about to start heading for it so that he could check in on Loophole when he heard the distinct sound of hands clapping together.
“My, you are strong,” a voice he had only heard a few times said. “You know, that power of yours is being squandered running around this blight of a city.”
“Man, I know you sure as hell ain’t insulting my home. You wanna try again?” Freakenstein replied, turning to look at the screen at the far end of the warehouse that had suddenly turned on.
“And spunk too! I’m surprised you’re even associating yourself with those pathetic Guardians.”
“Okay dick, read the fuckin’ room. What the fuck did you do to the others?”
Freakenstein didn’t move to walk toward the monitor, nor did he seem to need to. He looked up toward the edges of the ceiling, trying to figure out where Tyrant had hid the speakers. Clockwork Tyrant let out a slow sigh.
“What is it about this new generation that makes you all so infuriatingly noble? Aren’t you a Miscreant? I had left you alone through all of this and you just decided to insert yourself into it all. I mean really, where’s the gratitude?”
“Gratitude?!” Freakenstein spat, finding his anger actually rising. “You call sending droids to my neighborhood to destroy the damn place “leaving me alone?” I gotta know, how’s the goddamn smell up there?”
“The smell?” Tyrant responded, clearly just a bit confused.
“Yeah the fuckin’ smell that you must be aware of with your head shoved as far up your ass as it is. I mean really, how fuckin’ egotistical are you?”
Clockwork Tyrant’s collected demeanor seemed to break as he actually stared through the screen with a look Freakenstein was unfortunately more than used to seeing when people looked his way. It wasn’t his fault he was as big as he was, and it really wasn’t his fault that his powerset made him look relatively a bit scary to regular people. He never got angry with the civilians though, it wouldn’t have done him any good and his image would have just been sent further down into the Miscreant pile, but for the look to be coming from a fellow Augment? That raised every bit of the ire he had been able to push down so far.
“You know what, it ain’t worth my time to deal with a fuckin’ snob like you, especially after you just blew up one of my teammates and I’m pretty damn sure you’re the reason why I can’t talk to the other one. Hell it couldn’t be more obvious that you’re just trying to keep me distracted, but I trust my buddy to be able to take care of himself. That said, fuck you loser, I’m gonna go help Loopie and his team fuckin’ crush you.”
He turned and started to walk away before Tyrant let out another sigh.
“Ugh, just another noble baboon. Good thing I can just take care of this now,” he said.
Freakenstein never even got a chance to look back to see what he was talking about, not that he even would have given the man another ounce of his attention. He had just gotten past the main pile that he hadn’t bothered to absorb when the explosion went off. The force sent him hurtling forward, directly toward the broken door like he was nothing more than a cannonball. He was sent skidding across the ground, the various bits of metal that had been fused to his body crumbling away each time he skipped over it until he came to a stop flat on his back with nothing more than a single point left on his shield bar.
There was a loud ringing in his ears and his vision was just a bit blurry as he forced himself to sit up, reaching up to rub the side of his head as he tried to collect himself.
“God damn… that fuckin’ hurt like a bitch. It’s a damn good thing I hit level 15 last night…”
“True, that Plot Armor Hidden Power really has been pulling its weight for you today, though I’d say using two of its charges in the fight with Loophole this morning was probably unnecessary,” Herb said.
“Well I needed to test it with someone I didn’t think was gonna kill me on purpose. Though I honestly still don’t think I really get why it’s called that.”
“Eh, don’t worry, a few people will,” Herb said with a laugh. “I think you still got a few more things to be concerned about besides what your Hidden Power is called though.”
Freakenstein didn’t need another explanation as he looked over and saw a small army of droids marching their way toward the only warehouse that hadn’t exploded yet. It seemed odd to him that Tyrant would start with Hydramental and then jump over to him before targeting Loophole, but like his Hidden Power, that was a question for later. He hopped to his feet and smacked his hands together, looking at the smaller Monkeys on the outskirts of the army like it was an all you can eat buffet.
There was a small crowd that was starting to form on the far side of the street, clearly moving to keep their distance from the marching droids though for some reason stupidly being out on the street. Freakenstein wasn’t entirely sure what compelled the civilians to have to go and look at stuff that they should be smart enough to avoid like the plague, but he had his theories. He might not have disclosed them to anyone, but he had them all the same. Them being there just meant he had to make sure to keep the fight as far away from them as possible, just in case the droids started doing their obnoxious self-destruct thing yet again.
He was just about to take a step forward when a new voice entered his head.
“Hello? Freakenstein, can you hear me?”
While the voice did stop him short, he forced himself to continue forward now that he was already in motion. The droids had all turned toward him now that he was back on his feet, seeming to turn their attention away from Loophole’s warehouse.
“Uh, yeah, who’s this?” He asked, pushing off the ground hard and rushing toward the nearest Monkey. The monkey’s robotic face almost looked like it gave him a look of surprise just as his fist crashed into it. Before the droid’s defensive self-destruct feature could activate, he pulled as much of the metal on its destroyed body toward him. He maintained his momentum, leaving the small core of the monkey that he couldn’t absorb behind as he moved on to the next two closest ones.
The small core detonated behind him just as he cut through his next targets like they were nothing more than butter.
“Long story that I’ll explain later, my name is Codex and I’m a friend of Loophole. Angie, his P.A.I that is, wasn’t even entirely sure if I would be able to contact you since he's out of comms, but you didn’t leave the team and I had to try. Guess some of his luck is still paying off. I know how this might sound but I promise I’m not trying to lead you into a trap. I think he could use your help, he got locked into that warehouse with a zone that’s not letting me talk to him, plus his powers have been nullified so he can’t get out. I heard two explosions already and I’m worried he’s next,” the mysterious voice said.
“Well shit,” Freakenstein said, smashing through yet another pair of monkeys and adding them to his reserve. His first shield bar had mostly refilled at this point and he turned his attention to one of the large Clockwork Spiders. Two of the four had turned their attention to him while the other two had continued a slow walk toward the standing warehouse. “I was gonna break all these fuckers just for the fun of it and I sure as shit wasn’t about to abandon him now.”
“Okay… thank you. I uh… I have to go now, I can’t see anything from here and I need to get a better view,” Codex said before the weird staticky sound that had been coming with his communication disappeared.
“No problem bud,” Freakenstein replied.
There was a glint of sun hitting metal that drew his attention to a large bird-like droid swooping down toward the crowd that stupidly wasn’t looking up. Freakenstein let instincts take over and he used his Armor Launch ability once more. The metal around his feet sent him hurtling from the ground on an intercept course for the bird. He slammed a fist through the center of it, the sound of the crunch finally drawing the crowd’s attention.
He absorbed every last bit of the metal that made up the bird, taking the undamaged wings onto his body as they merged onto his back. He couldn’t maintain full pieces of the droids for long, but he had known since he first encountered the droids that he could use them as they were intended to use ever so briefly. Still in midair, he twisted his body as rapidly as he could, never taking his eye off the core that he knew set off the self-destruct. His metal cover foot hit it hard and, with a surprising amount of grace, he kicked it right toward the closest of the giant spiders.
It hit the metallic monstrosity dead center, exploding on impact and sending the spider stumbling, though notably not putting it down for the count. Freakenstein dropped to the ground directly in front of the crowd. He looked over his shoulder toward them and to his surprise, he saw more than a few looks of awe rather than terror in their eyes.
“Guys, I know this is cool but I really need you to back up. These assholes explode after I destroy them and I don’t want any of yah getting hurt,” he said. Without waiting for an affirmation and wanting to take advantage of the Spider’s stumbling, he pushed off the ground, his temporary metallic wings flapping hard as he went speeding toward it.
“GO FREAKENSTEIN!” A single voice called out, breaking the din of battle before the entire crowd joined in on their cheer as Freakenstein planned his route of attack. There were only so many droids, and anything with metal put him at a steep advantage. Still, he knew better than to be cocky, even if the sudden swell of support might have made him want to be.
All the same, as he smashed into the first of the Spiders, he couldn’t help but feel just a bit of pride knowing the pendulum had finally swung back the other way and two notifications popped into his view, slightly transparent to not stop him from fighting. One of them was an Achievement that was called Reformed that gave him an A+:Tier loot box, but that wasn’t the one that had sent him up to Cloud Nine, invigorating him as he tore through the droids.
“You have performed an act of heroism in front of a large crowd of NPCs, due to Public Perception you have been reclassified as a Guardian.”
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