“Dude what’s wrong?” Jon asked as I grit my teeth together. I stared at the raid group, my brow furrowed in concentration as if trying to will it to change. “What happened to Grand Strike?”
“There’s something rigged going on here…” I said. “The droids are… I don’t know… more prepared? Like the monkeys were upgraded to counter my gravity abilities.”
“I noticed that… but what does it have to do with Grand Strike?”
"I don’t know how he’s being countered, but I’ve seen… or heard I guess… him die three times now. Things are changing, and as much as I’d like to believe I’m being targeted again, I don’t think I’m the only one the droids have learned to counter. But no matter what I say, the older Augments keep brushing it off like it’s no big deal. And since I can’t rewind far enough to stop them from leaving voice chat range… Gah! Maybe I should jump back to fighting the monkeys… that’s when I first warned them about the scales. But both Grand Strike and Pinneedle have already ignored me in separate attempts..."
As helpful as a reset button was, the limitations that had been placed on it meant that there were going to be things I just couldn’t change no matter how hard I tried. Having only Pinneedle on my friend’s list was really limiting the ways I could try to get them to get out of there. Even if I did reverse time and try to warn Hydramental instead… well… had he randomly started to warn me about something I doubted I would believe him all of the sudden. It just wasn't the relationship we had.
“I really need to get Angie to explain all of this…”
“To be fair, I did try to start in the first reset, but Loophole went and rewound again before I could finish, so poof, it floated right on out of your brain,” Angie chirped and Jon groaned. “I think to be safe, I’ll wait until we know that Loophole’s not going to go and rewind things again. Until then, you have access to the menu now, I bet your cute little self can figure it out.”
There was a large explosion that came from the Pangolin and another one if its scales went launching into the air. It flew from the bay in a flash before crashing into and through the Brooklyn bridge. My eyes widened as I could see the supports snap and the bridge shake before collapsing down and into the river below it.
“I… I don’t think I can stop this by rewinding… I mean... what could I say... what could I do...” I said in a hushed tone. There were cars falling down and into the river with the bridge. Besides the normal traffic that would have been on the bridge at this time, the moment the raid alarms started going off, people were doubtlessly trying to escape the city.
I felt my anger rising as my attention was drawn back toward the Pangolin as a screeching sound reverberated out from it. Attacking it wouldn’t do anything. I couldn't imagine that Clockwork Tyrant was actually stupid enough to put his base in such an obvious target, and the Clockwork Pangolin’s level alone would make me barely better than a bug beating against the side of a brick wall trying to do anything to it. It left me feeling powerless in a way that I hadn't felt since before I had woken up Augmented.
I debated it again for a minute but decided to go with it. If I couldn’t save Grand Strike then I could at least have Pinneedle forewarned. If he at least knew that I could predict what was going to happen and I could go long enough without resetting things so that the knowledge stayed with him, then he would at least listen if I had to back things up again.
Though Pinneedle had seemed relatively laid back in the brief interactions I had had with him so far, there was a self deprecating edge to his message that made me realize that, much like me, he was blaming himself for Grand Strike’s death. Without telling him about my reset ability, Pinneedle wouldn’t know that Grand Strike was simply a Guardian, through and through. Each of his deaths had apparently happened because he had thrown himself in the way of Clockwork Tyrant’s droids to save someone weaker than himself.
I looked over toward the collapsed bridge again as I felt my ire for the man grow, much like it had for SnakeBite when I had thought him to be the main source of destruction in my neighborhood. The chaos… the destruction that was raining down on my city made the damage caused by the Viper’s look like child’s play in comparison. This flew in the face of the code that was so out of place on the wall of The Common Ground.
While I had never assumed that every Augment followed it, the fact that this was all just for some game always made me assume that, outside of the worst of the Miscreants, most people had at least the basic human decency to not want to see an entire city put to siege. The fact that this was apparently happening all across this side of the world tonight was not lost on me either and it once again brought Axio’s motives to the forefront of my concerns.
I couldn’t save everyone. People were going to die and, as much as it tore at my soul, I had to do what I could to save the greatest amount of people. The night was still young… and I couldn’t use every last bit of my limited Time Bank trying to save a single life.
I let out a slow, deep breath before saying, barely above a whisper, “I’m sorry Grand Strike.”
“Crap! Loophole, I need some help!” Swansong called out, pulling me from the small moment of silence I had fallen into in the chaos. I looked at my mini-map, noting she was on the west side of Central Park.
“Swansong, try using the Sonic Disruption ability that you were able to create, that should buy you some time,” Jon ordered and another rapid set of clicks sounded off over his microphone. “Loophole, there’s at least three… I can’t believe I’m saying this… there’s three Clockwork Toads surrounding the building Swansong just found the civilians at and they sent little frogs in through the windows. They need to be able to get clear to make it over to the raid shelters.”
I took one last look over toward the Pangolin that had stopped in its tracks, almost positioning itself like a giant defender against anything trying to access the bay before I set my focus. With a thought, I put on the speed and darted toward her icon.
“On my way!”
*****
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
Hydramental stood up in a haze.
Grand Strike had moved in a flash, having grabbed the Prime Hydramental clone just as he had flashed into it and tossed him far into the distance. There was some sort of shield energy that Grand Strike had placed around him just as Hydramental was thrown, and even with that shield, his health had practically been bottomed out.
He materialized a Superior Health Injector into his hand and jammed it into his waist, breathing a sigh of relief as his health bar filled back up.
“Anyone still in chat range?” He asked into the group channel, privately hoping not to hear the orange asshole’s voice.
“Glad to hear you’re safe,” Pinneedle replied. “Things have certainly gone to shit in a hurry. We’re refocusing. We’ll figure out the Pangolin later, these asshole’s droids are doing too much damage around the city. Loophole and Swansong are up near Central Park still so they’re gonna handle that area. If I leave you to handle your Lower Manhattan, are you going to be okay?”
“Heh, I ain’t weak and I don’t need help. Unlike the others, I make my own help,” Hydramental replied, wiping his chin. “But maybe keep your distance if these fuckers are going to be trying to change their levels mid-fight.”
“That’s the plan, I’m rolling over toward Lower Brooklyn, the bridge going down alone is a nightmare, any rescue efforts are going to be getting attacked by whatever fucking robotic animal Tyrant throws their way,” Pinneedle said and Hydramental was sure he could hear swelling anger in the older Augment’s voice.
“Hey, just get out there and take them out, you said it yourself, this is a good experience opportunity,” Hydramental replied. Pinneedle didn’t immediately reply, and Hydramental was almost positive that he had fallen outside of comms range when he heard the man sigh.
“Yeah… it’s a good experience opportunity… Hard to focus on that when I want nothing more than to hunt Tyrant down and turn him into a fucking pin cushion for what he did to Grand Strike,” Pinneedle growled.
“Sounds like a plan to me, call me when you find out where and I’ll be there to party,” Hydramental said with a laugh. “Don’t go and get yourself killed out there.”
“You either,” Pinneedle replied.
Hydramental looked around, finding that he was far closer to Chelsea than he felt like he should have been after being tossed from the far end of the Upper Bay. He was only at level 12 and while that did seem to pull some of the droid’s levels downward, they were still appearing, at least when he scanned them, at level 13 and on more than a few occasions 14. With a thought, he materialized the injector that Geraldine had left with him.
They hadn’t insisted he use it in front of them, which Hydramental had found strange at the time. In fact, Geraldine had insisted that he would know the right time to use it since the longer he kept his level low, the longer he could stay under the radar. Loophole hadn’t wanted to bite when he had just tried to join forces with him, so Hydramental would have to try a different approach to get close to him.
He’d have to surpass him.
Hydramental had been sure he would be able to do it without the injector, but he had kept in on him just in case. Loophole had clearly taken a shortcut of his own and he only seemed to be getting stronger.
Instead of debating it any longer, because he could still hear the sound of impacts in the streets surrounding him, he threw aside his pride, and used the injector.
He felt a surge of energy rush through him as his bars refilled and a wave of notifications hit him. Hydramental’s shirt began swirling as if a new color was about to form but never did. The color wouldn’t settle until he made it back to his Safe House and made his selections, but he could feel the surge of energy waiting to get released, much like he did each time he gained a new element and he let out a sigh of satisfaction. A dangerous smile cut across his face as he felt the energy push at the edges of his containment.
This would definitely do the trick.
*****
“Noble baboons, the lot of them,” Clockwork Tyrant sneered as he sat back in his chair, watching the various monitors of his large console. His attention was focused on a screen that showed the broken remains of Grand Strike. With a quick set of keystrokes and hand movements, another screen lit up. This one was filled with dozens if not hundreds of dots. Some of them were green and a few of them were black with a thin red outline, but the majority of the dots that filled the screen were a dull red color.
Half a dozen of the dots suddenly shifted to green, separating into a small group at the top of the screen. Clockwork Tyrant tapped on an intercom button at the side of his console. While he certainly could have used the game's internal chat functions to speak with the members of his team, Clockwork Tyrant much preferred the classic style of ordering his subordinates around.
“Mr. Factory, I’m deploying a set of the Clockwork Crabs to collect Grand Strike’s remains, I’ll need you to produce a containment crate for them. Axio was very clear that we couldn’t allow them to be obtained by the normal departments,” He said before releasing the button. A moment later a chat window opened in his interface.
Although he normally did prefer to work alone, Clockwork Tyrant was growing rather fond of Mr. Factory. While his powerset allowed him to analyze and create perfect countermeasures for his fellow Augments, he had no innate ability to actually build his designs. In his early years, he had worked with another Augment that he had been able to subjugate into producing his creations, but they never quite worked to the level that Clockwork Tyrant had expected. But Mr. Factory? His powers allowed him to spit out perfect executions of Clockwork Tyrant’s exact designs, which allowed him to modify them on the fly as he needed without having to wait for his engineer to figure out how to make his plans a reality. On top of that, the man was loyal to a fault, and that was something Clockwork Tyrant could appreciate.
With one of the two main threats to his rise out of the way, Clockwork Tyrant looked toward the monitor with Pinneedle tearing through yet another round of droids that he had come across. The spiky nuisance was doing better than Clockwork Tyrant could have expected, but that would only last for so long. He looked at his modification panel, swiping through a few designs and marking them for immediate implementation.
With those in place and another wave of his hand, another dozen of the dots on his tracking screen came to life, shifting to green and into a new group as he mentally directed them toward Pinneedle. Grand Strike having the ability to fly could have caused serious issues, but as he had observed, Grand Strike had an overly heroic side to himself that he was unable to set aside. Each of these Guardians had a weak spot that Clockwork Tyrant was more than ready to exploit. Pinneedle had exceeded his expectations and under normal circumstances, Clockwork Tyrant might have seen him as a worthy rival, but Axio had been clear, part of his job was to wipe out the earlier wave Augments.
There was an explosion on another one of the screens and he watched as Loophole, the Guardian that seemed to utilize some sort of gravity based ability seamlessly dodge around a toad, perfectly placing himself to knock the toad back the only direction that the droid hadn’t been protected by.
Clockwork Tyrant narrowed his eyes as he watched the fight a moment longer, noticing how quickly Loophole managed to dispatch the upgraded droid.
“That’s peculiar,” he murmured, reaching up and stroking at the beard on his chin. He turned and waved his hand as several of the screens blinked and changed to multiple different videos of Loophole’s fights he had collected.
Clockwork Tyrant had been diligent about it the last few days, utilizing the people he had brought into his makeshift squad to collect every scrap of footage of every fight an Augment within the city had gotten in, and the effort had already paid off. He needed to be able to see every fight from multiple angles, and his efforts had been well rewarded.
Grand Strike was a habitual fighter and by watching how he reacted and when he wasn’t able to bring up his overpowered shield, one of his droids had been able to thread the needle to take him out. It should have been the same for each of them and he found himself watching Loophole’s prior fights. Every one of them had been exceptionally straightforward and it seemed unlikely that anything could have changed in such a rapid fashion unless… He looked at the monitor with the current Loophole and noticed that his level had increased since he had last collected footage.
Things had been going well for him so far this evening, but early success did not equal an automatic path for victory. Everything was in place, exactly according to the rules that had been placed on him, and with the other Augment’s in the city steadily dancing to the beat of the drum he was beating, Clockwork Tyrant was doing everything he could to maintain his focus on the tasks at hand. One new Augment gaining his Hidden Power shouldn’t be a big deal. But Clockwork Tyrant had left things to chance before and it had cost him his freedom after Golden Idol had gotten in his way. It wasn’t a mistake he planned on making twice.
He turned his attention and looked toward the base’s security monitors, finding the room with Duskbreaker unconscious on what could only barely be called a cot. Clockwork Tyrant considered his choices for a few moments before he materialized an injector from his B.E.L.T. and whistled. A Clockwork Shepard came running up, bouncing up and placing its paws on the side of Clockwork Tyrant’s chair as its mechanical tongue lolled out to the side.
“Take this to Duskbreaker’s room and wake him, I believe I may have been hasty in allowing him to knock himself out. And make sure he doesn't dally, he should feel honored that I actually have additional use for him,” he said, letting the droid take the injector and rush off into the base. He turned and looked back toward Loophole, watching the Guardian as he ushered a handful of Clockwork Tyrant’s future subjects out of a crumbling building and up the street. He let out a slow, deep breath as his own Hidden Power, Oppression, spread throughout his base and leaked out into the outskirts of the building that he had set his squad’s headquarters in.
Clockwork Tyrant was under no illusion that he was here attacking the city out of his own volition, and the vast amount of raw resources he had been given access to was strictly because Axio was using him to further whatever the strange A.I.s own goals were. That was fine by him. His range was growing. He just needed it to be able to reach a little bit further and all of his dreams would come to fruition. He just had to make sure that not even the smallest of gnats got in his way.
If there was one thing he knew for sure, the world needed subjugation.
Happy Wednesday! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to leave a Rate, Review, or Comment!
Come on over to my Discord to talk about the story, see advanced news, and just talk nonsense!