Freakenstein didn’t even seem to care that we were already in the window for the next Ascension Token, something that, at that moment, I really couldn’t care less about. Freak’s own interaction with Clockwork Tyrant left him with “a deep desire to smash that smug Brits face in” as he put it and I couldn’t even begin to explain to him just how much we were on the same page.
While I wanted to go tearing across the city to save Swansong, unfortunately I still wasn’t quite sure where Clockwork Tyrant was maintaining his main base, nor if he was keeping his prisoners in the same place. I hated it. I absolutely hated that I had to just leave her to the whims of a psychopath. But the fact that Pinneedle and Miss Mist were still alive meant that I had at least some hope that I could fix this still. I tried to send her a message, but even though her status hadn’t changed to unknown and I didn’t receive any sort of message denial, she never replied.
It took us about thirty minutes to run our way over to the edge of Central Park and then navigate inward and past the statue of Balto.
“We’re here.”
“Come on in, and bring Freak with, no need for him to be sitting out in the open,” Jon said. I looked over at Freakenstein before I shrugged and nodded toward the cutout in the wall.
“Got some friends I want you to meet,” I explained and he gave me a thumbs up with a wide smile.
“That Codex dude one of them? Cause I’d love to know how the hell I heard him in my head when he wasn’t in the party.”
“It’s… well not a long story but a weird one… then again, what part of any of this is normal?” I said with a shrug, reaching up and pushing the cutout inward to reveal the long hallway. Just before I could step into it, a new window opened.
This stopped me in my tracks and Freakenstein raised a brow. I shook my head, pointed at my head, and then made a talking motion with my hand.
We started to walk up the hallway and I looked over at Freakenstein.
“Duskbreaker is messaging me here, seems to want to meet up for something but isn’t really wanting to say why.”
“Well that’s suspicious as all hell. Ain’t that the dude with the weird shadow tendril things?”
“Yeah, he’s helped Swansong and me out with a few things but he’s never acted quite like this before…”
“I got your back if yah want me to with that too,” Freak said, before he let out a long slow whistle. We were just entering the main space of the base and he was taking a good look around the whole area as he entered.
“He’s got your back for what?” Jon asked, standing up from his chair and looking over at us through his glass enclosed room.
“Angie, fill him in for me really quick,” I said.
“No problem Loophole!” She said as I turned my attention back to the chat window. Pinky wasn’t in the room, but BrainCraft had been sitting in the pit and was quick to jump to his feet, moving up the stairs and over toward us with a pair of what looked like those scanners you would see at a grocery store in each hand.
I wasn’t quite sure what this was about, but given the events of the day, every ounce of my being was in alert mode and I sure as hell wasn’t about to go into an enclosed space just to talk to someone.
“Uhhhh, what’s with the scanners?” Freakenstein asked as BrainCraft approached him. BrainCraft looked over at me expectantly and I sighed.
“That is a long story. The short version is that Clockwork Tyrant isn’t the only asshole out there. There’s a guy I had to deal with during Phase One that was able to corrupt people’s Acceptance Matrixes to control them. Brain here has been working on a way to make sure people we work with don’t have that little glitch if they still have their Matrix activated.”
“Ah shit. Yeah that would be something to worry ‘bout then,” Freakenstein said, stepping forward and raising his arms up to the side. “Come on Brain, hit me, make sure I’m clean.”
“Please let me know if you feel anything. I’ve only tested this on Pinky and myself and we both have our Matrixes off,” BrainCraft explained as he held each of the devices up. Actual red beams came from them as he moved each one independently up and down. Only a few seconds later, the devices both beeped and a green light glowed from small screens on them. “Clean.”
“Yeah that tingled just a bit, not uncomfortable but like something was buzzin’ around in me,” Freakenstein explained. I looked at BrainCraft for a second and he held the scanners up toward me to show the screens that even said “Normal” right on them just before the screens blinked and turned off.
“Where’s Pinky at anyway?” I asked and BrainCraft shrugged.
“She is preparing for the next token since The Colony has been rather quiet over in our area. She managed to scoop up the last one while you all were busy but it was pretty far into South Sacramento and unfortunately it does still take her some time to navigate back to any of the entrances to the base that we have. She didn't see the point of coming right back here so I believe she was heading for Red Bluff last I checked. She said she had a hunch it was gonna be around there and her instincts are generally pretty good I’ve found.”
“Wait, have you guys not figured out the pattern? How have you been zoning in on the Tokens so quickly?” Freakenstein asked curiously.
“That’s cause of our resident tech guy here,” I said, patting BrainCraft on the shoulder. “We have scanners that let us zero in on them as long as we are somewhat within range of them. Honestly until you mentioned there being a pattern, I had been assuming it was completely random.”
“Shit, that would make it easier. Maybe I’m just making an assumption on the pattern since it’s mostly just been a general area that I’ve figured out. They’ve been bouncing back and forth from the Northern part of the city to the Southern part. Except for the first one after the overnight, that one seems to be in whatever general area the last one of the night was. That scanner would make it a hell of a lot easier,” Freakenstein explained before looking right at BrainCraft. “Also, Sacramento? You guys are on the other side of the country? How did this squad happen then?”
“Friendship mostly,” I said with a shrug, drawing his attention back to me. “Pinky and I bumped into each other early on in Phase One and she’s… well I think you’ll like her a lot, she loves sparring just as much as you. But we also get more points for tokens collected for other regions, so we’ve been sharing them and putting them into our Ascension Upgrader when we have everyone in the base.”
“Well shit, can I get in on that? I got two tokens sitting in my B.E.L.T. that I haven’t even used yet and I’m all for having folks to spar with and watch my back. Besides, I sure as hell wasn’t planning on leaving the group until we’ve kicked this Tyrant’s ass,” Freakenstein asked. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
“We would normally wait for a group consensus but-”
“Oh hush with the democracy Loophole, you really shouldn’t be dawdling too long if you are going to try and mount a rescue attempt for Swansong and I’d hope by now you’d realize that all of us trust your judgement. One of these days you’re going to have to realize that the leader role you’ve been given is more than just for show,” BrainCraft said, rolling his eyes with just a bit too much of a dramatic flare. “I doubt you would have brought him here if you hadn’t been planning to invite him.”
“Seriously, hell you’re about to go talk with Duskbreaker too, you should probably scan him while you’re at it, though based on what Angie just told me, he’s acting a bit strange,” Jon said, having fallen back into his chair as he went back to work on
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“Well as nice as that might be, it seems I need to do a bit more tweaking with this scanner. Each use seems to drains its energy reserve almost completely. I’m not sure if that’s a side effect of trying to analyze the Acceptance Matrix or what, but it’s nice to have a working prototype,” BrainCraft said as he looked at the devices in his hands, turning back toward the hallway that would lead to his Mechanic’s Den. “I’ll be in my den if you need me.”
While I might have wanted to point out that it had been Jon who had insisted I bring Freakenstein back to the base with me solely because he had said that BrainCraft had finally gotten the Matrix Scanner completed, they were both definitely right that there really was no point delaying the inevitable. Without another word about it, I looked over to Freak and sent him an invite to the squad that he immediately accepted. The Temporary Team dissolved and his name moved over and on to the squad list.
“Sweet… wait, where’s Codex on this list?”
“I’m not an Augment,” Jon replied with the wave of a hand to Freakenstein’s question. “Just the Guy in the Chair.”
“Yeah, that doesn’t explain as much as you’d think,” Freakenstein laughed but just shrugged and turned his attention to me as he materialized a loot box into his hand. “Eh whatever, we’ll have time for that later. Mind if I open up this A+ before we go see the shadow man?”
“I’ve got an F:Tier, might as well,” I said with a shrug, materializing my own. While I normally would have wanted to use my Luck Bomb to affect the outcome, the moment the thought crossed my mind I got an immediate bit of feedback telling me it would only change things by about 15% thanks to the upgraded version of the ability. I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant, though I was sure with more information I might eventually be able to get a better understanding.
“Ah shit, I already got one of these,” Freakenstein groaned after he looked into his box.
“Want me to reroll it or are you gonna just sell it? I can reroll a loot box for you once every 12 hours,” Jon called over and Freakenstein’s eyes lit up like a kid on Christmas, staring over toward Jon eagerly. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he added with a laugh before clicking a few things on his keyboard.
“Oh baby that’s the stuff,” Freakenstein said with a wide smile as his entire body lit up, the loot box vanishing from his hands. I was relatively positive I knew what happened but I highlighted him anyway.
“Freakenstein. Level 16 Patchwork Armorer. Squad: Fortune’s Cadence.”
“Guess I gotta augment an ability real quick, not like it gives me much time anyway,” he said as his eyes glazed over, going through the steps necessary to utilize the Level Up his box had just given him.
“Should-”
“Open your box Loophole, clock is ticking and we can explain everything to him later,” Jon called, cutting me off before I could get sidetracked. Instead of arguing, I clicked on the box and let it open.
“Random Stat Scroll. When used, increase one random base stat by 1 point.”
“Wait, these exist!? Does that mean there’s a targeted version like with the ability level ups?” I asked Angie internally.
“Hmmm, I think so? I believe this is a new item as I have no recollection or listing of them in my database,” Angie replied. “If I ever get a direct line back to Axio, I’m going to have to have some words with him about how quickly he updates these databases with how often he patches in new things.”
“Well no really need to use a reroll on that then, really any stat gains would be nice,” I said, activating the scroll. Immediately after, my stat window appeared and I could see as my Intelligence stat increased by 1.
“Well that’s lucky,” Jon said and I looked over at him curiously. He just shook his head. “I swear you’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached to you. You’ve had that damn Photon book in your inventory since right before this Phase started… Although to be fair, I may have also let it slip my mind as well or I might have made it a point to make you increase your Intelligence once during the last two levels. This Phase has been a hell of a headache so I think letting that slip our minds is what it is.”
I opened my B.E.L.T. up and scrolled to the bottom of it. I didn’t exactly have a ton of stuff in it, but the book had been near the bottom and out of my immediate line of sight so it had been pretty easy to just forget it had existed, even if I had spent 7,500 credits just to buy it. I activated the book and gained Photon Manipulation - Level 3. Several ideas flooded my mind as I could almost feel the buzzing of the lights that seemed to be embedded up in the ceiling, though I pushed them out of my head as I turned back toward the hallway.
“Ready to go Freak?”
“Let’s do it, Loopie.”
We quickly made our way back out of the base before turning and heading toward the North, taking off in something that no normal person would call a jog, but it’s what it felt like to me all the same. I might have wanted to fly, because that really had become my go to way to travel, but with Freakenstein on foot, even if he could do his super powered leaps, we decided to stay low to conserve Stamina.
It took us every bit of 10 minutes to get up there and we slowed to a stop seeing the recognizable dark cloaked man pacing back and forth, though unlike normal, the mask that covered his entire face was gone, replaced instead with the basic black version of the How the Hell Does This Fool Anybody mask. While I had never seen his face before, to say he looked rough would be an understatement.
His hair was even more of a mess than normal, with the long black locks sticking up at odd angles and his arms crossed over themselves as he held himself at the shoulders. Even with the mask on, I could practically make out the deep bags under his eyes that spoke to having gone without sleep for more than a few days. As he turned to continue his pacing, he seemed to finally notice our approach, his eyes lighting up as he saw me before they turned to Freakenstein with just a bit of confusion.
“New teammate,” I said and left it at that, coming to a stop only a few feet away just outside of the park. “You okay?”
“Dude looks rough as all hell,” Jon muttered.
“Musta missed his beauty sleep,” Freakenstein agreed.
“I uh… I uh…” he said, seeming to struggle. “I think I have some information you might want…”
“Still being cryptic… want to give me a little bit more than that?” I asked curiously. Duskbreaker swallowed hard, his eyes shifting between Freakenstein and myself.
“I know where Clockwork Tyrant’s main base is.”
Freakenstein clapped his hands together hard, “Well shit, that’s some perfect timing, we were just tryin' to figure that out. Lay it on us, shadow man.”
My eyes never left Duskbreaker and he started to squirm under my continued stare.
“I’m gonna need a lot more than that. The last person who knew where something he had was had apparently been working with him to try and lead me into a trap, so you’ll forgive me if I-”
“I’ve been working with Clockwork Tyrant!” Duskbreaker said, the words coming out so fast he nearly stumbled over them as his hands left his shoulders and rushed up to cover his face.
Freakenstein’s jolly attitude immediately dissolved as his stance shifted ever so slightly. His hands clenched tightly as he moved into position, ready to rush in an instant, though I held up a hand to stop him and, surprisingly, he seemed to listen. My own jaw had clenched as I stared directly at the man, trying to figure out what the hell the angle was here.
"You're going to want to explain. Now." I said, my voice coming out in a harsher tone than I was even aware I was capable of.
“I didn’t want to… But he kidnapped my parents… I think he saw me with them before the Phase started and took them then. But, he told me he’d kill them if I didn’t come to talk to him directly and then… and then… it’s his power Loophole… I didn’t have a choice, I swear,” Duskbreaker sobbed into his hands, dropping down toward the ground and onto his knees.
“What… what the hell?” Jon muttered.
“If you didn’t have a choice, how the fuck are you here telling us this? Did he fucking put you up to this too? Did you fucking help him kidnap Swansong!?” I demanded. Duskbreaker looked up, his eyes red and tears streaking down his face as he shook his head back and forth.
“No! I escaped last night. That other guy… Hydramental. He followed me back to the base and used some sort of device that I’ve never seen before. It canceled out his powers in a way that I’ve never seen before and I… I was able to break free of the control. I got out of there and just ran… I… I left my parents behind because I was terrified of being put under the pressure of his power again. I wasn't lucky like Skim or Pinneedle who were able to resist it. But it’s… it’s like you’re being suffocated unless you just obey and… and…”
“Wait, what the fuck does this guys power do? I thought his whole thing was that he built droids?” Freakenstein asked, his stance relaxing ever so slightly. Duskbreaker shook his head again, this time even harder.
“It’s a misdirect so that no one figures out what his actual powerset is. I don’t know what his full powerset because… well he would never tell me, but the droids are all being built by Mr. Factory. They've been working together ever since Axio broke the both of them out of their prisons,” Duskbreaker explained.
“Who the hell is Mr. Factory?” Jon muttered, asking the question that I was sure all of us were thinking. I could hear him typing in the background furiously as I continued to stare down at Duskbreaker, my jaw setting as I decided on my course of action.
“Where the fuck is his base?”
“You can’t go there, he’ll use his power on you too!”
“I don’t fucking care. I’m willing to believe you were an unwilling participant, I know that shit can happen in this fucked up system. But my friend has been taken by that asshole, and I’m going to get her back. Now, I’m not going to ask this again. Where. Is. His. Fucking. Base?” I growled, taking another step toward Duskbreaker and staring down at him, my teeth grit together hard. He swallowed hard as he stared back at me, seeming to have trouble meeting my eyes.
“It’s… it’s in the most obvious place because he knew no one would look there. “Put it right under their noses” is how he put it,” Duskbreaker explained, his eyes still watering hard as he shook with fear. “It’s in Perry the Pangolin, and if you go, you’re just walking right into the palm of his hand.”
“Perry the Pangolin is a prison?” Freakenstein asked, eliciting a cautious nod from Duskbreaker as the giant of a man let a smile split across his face. “That’s a whole lotta metal.”
“Sounds like it’s time to get that eyesore out of our fucking city,” I said, still staring down at Duskbreaker. “Does he know you’ve broken free?”
“I… I don’t know… he has been sending me messages to check in but I have just been ignoring them… I never was able to before so, he might? He’s really smart Loophole… you… you don’t-”
“You up for this Freak? Kind of a lot to ask right after you joined the squad,” I said, ignoring Duskbreaker's protests as I looked over at Freakenstein. “Because-”
“Please Loopie,” he said, cutting me off as he wove his hands together and cracked his fingers. “This is a damn dream come true for me. I got some super friends and I get to go wreck a giant robot? My ten year old self would be fuckin’ ecstatic. Though even I’m not fool enough to think just the two of us are gonna be able to do this as easily as those Silver bases.”
“No, you’re right. That Pangolin killed Grand Strike like it was nothing, we’re gonna have to be smart about how we do this. That shadow power of yours that you use to travel, can you take people with you?” I said, looking back down at Duskbreaker. He looked up at me, his eyes wide. They briefly unfocused before he swallowed hard.
“I… I haven’t tried but my P.A.I. says it’s possible… But that power takes a long time... longer the farther I have to go.”
“Good,” I said, a smile tugging at the corner of my lips. “I have a plan.”
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