“So how many tries did that take?” Swansong asked as she floated down from her higher vantage point to drift in the air next to me.
“Are you going to ask that after every one of our fights?” I asked, raising a brow as I looked over at her. She crossed her arms over her chest and just stared at me with her bright blue eyes until I sighed. “Four… I burned 30 seconds to stop the thing from destroying the kid’s playground over there. Damn thing seemed like it was hellbent on leaving it in shambles.”
“Really? Was that worth losing the time?” Jon asked with a groan. “Do you really think anyone’s going to be coming to the park when the entire city is a disaster zone?”
“Maybe not right away, but you and I both know if that playground got destroyed it would take years for them to repair it. Once this is over, people are going to need somewhere their kids can play… I think that’s worth half a minute, especially since we haven’t seen any of the droids attacking the same place twice,” I replied, turning back to our internal chat as I floated down and examined the remains of the lone rhino.
Over the last two hours, Swansong and I had encountered and taken down over fifty Clockwork animals, mostly lower leveled than us. There had certainly been more than a few tricks that the various groups had that I had to work with, and I had found myself utilizing my Timekeeper's Control more than a few times in our various fights. I had found a rhythm using it to only reverse my 10 to 15 seconds at a time in the middle of a fight and while I wasn't changing big details, I was limiting the damage that each of our fights had been able to cause and saved more than a few civilian lives in the process. While the Pangolin had launched more than a few of its scales around the city, they weren’t all deploying droids and the Pangolin itself hadn’t moved a single inch since settling into the mouth of the bay. Knowing what they had done to Grand Strike the first time, I hadn’t wanted to risk going near one of them, but I was starting to suspect they had a greater purpose than to just cause destruction in the city.
Jon had been keeping track of both local city alerts and nationwide emergencies. Axio hadn’t been lying in his mission announcement but even expecting it, I was still surprised by just how expansive the destruction had become.
Several countries in the Western Hemisphere had gone as far as deploying their militaries and National Guards to try and mitigate the damage. While I hadn’t returned back to base, even to assign my new stat points, Jon’s updates painted a grim picture. No matter how this evening ended, even if we did manage to defeat Clockwork Tyrant, which, in the span of two hours, began to feel increasingly unlikely, this was a watershed moment in history. And notably, the US hadn’t lifted a finger to deploy a single one of their troops.
Given the decimation that the Miscreants had caused to the forces in Central and South America, it made a certain amount of sense for the US to hold back, but like with everything else that had happened so far, it felt too much like a coincidence.
I had briefly messaged with both Pinky and, of all people, Silver Wrangler. Pinky and BrainCraft had found themselves dealing with a group that called themselves The Colony that was led by a Miscreant named Hive Queen and BrainCraft had apparently been more than vocal about his displeasure that they were dealing with bugs while we had robotic enemies that he felt like he could have more than easily handled.
Silver Wrangler’s team had found themselves looking down a literal barrel of zombified non-Sapient enemies as the Tenth Wave Augments in his region all began fighting against Desperado Incorporated. The band of Miscreants included Shadow Bandit, an Augment that Jon had actually immediately recognized as, like Clockwork Tyrant, a Miscreant that had been captured over half a decade earlier. After he did just a bit of digging, confirming that Hive Queen also had a similar history, it was apparent that Axio had been raiding whatever passed for a Miscreant prison to place powerful, domination bent Augments in each of the regions in the Western Hemisphere.
“How’s the map looking, Codex? We haven’t gotten any Crowdpleaser gains in the last few encounters…” Swansong said as she started to float in a wide circle around the park.
“I haven’t seen a civilian group pop up on the map in about 20 minutes now. I’m hoping that means most of them have gotten into the safety of the raid bunkers,” Jon said.
We had been using a combination of the detailed map Jon had been granted access to at the start of this, something we were going to have to circle back to after this was all over, and the Crowdpleaser Phase Point gain to track where Civilians were and so far we had managed to save half a dozen small groups that had been trapped around Manhattan. Thanks to Crowdpleaser’s requirement only being to complete an Encounter rather than an Objective, each of the fights we had gotten into qualified, so while Jon’s map would show pings for civilian sightings, the end point gain we received would more or less give us a way to count that we had each and every one of the Sapients in the area recovered and pulled out of danger.
Had it been under different circumstances, it would have been a cool discovery in how to use the system. By the time they heard Swansong singing, the Sapients would count toward our point total and we would be able to at least know they were nearby. After we had cleared out the droids, Swansong would sing her Song of the Peaceful Mind to coax them out so that we could lead them to one of the bunkers littered around the city. Up until this evening, while I might have been passingly aware that the bunkers existed, I hadn’t realized just how prolific they were until they were necessary.
We had only briefly dropped in and out of chat range of both Hydramental and Pinneedle, and even then it was only for quick checks, from Pinneedle at least, that we were doing okay. I pulled open my chat window briefly.
“Okay, I just talked with Pinneedle, it looks like it’s quieting down around him a bit too, might actually be the best time for us to finally go and apply those level ups we have. Codex can see any problems that pop up close enough to the base,” I said, cracking my knuckles as I stretched my arms out.
“Oh good… I was just thinking that this probably wasn’t the right time to hope for a break with the city as it is… but even without using any of my stamina, this flying is starting to leave me feeling a bit… well drained…” Swansong said as she finally set herself down. “Have you even looked at what your latest book from the Tome is?”
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“It’s a book called The Weaver’s Hand: A Guide to Living Threads. It gives Fabric Manipulation Knowledge which could theoretically be useful if it lets him actually take control of someone’s clothing, but it could be like his poison knowledge and just let him know about everything fabric related. Plus there’s the factor that if he skips this one, he’s one step closer to a Level 6 book which could be better.”
I hadn’t actually checked what book had spawned into my B.E.L.T. when the timer had rolled over, that did sound like a book that I wasn’t really sure I’d want to absorb. The first one that had appeared after the cooldown on the tome had finally expired had been on The Basics of Origami which would have only given me Precision Folding knowledge of all things and it had been easy to let that one go given the rules of the trophy that had created it.
There was a small throbbing sensation that passed through my muscles as my Stamina ticked back up over 75%. Although I hadn’t been thinking too much about it, I knew what Swansong had meant when she talked about feeling drained and while my Stamina was still topping out, it didn’t exactly relieve the stacking mental effects that came with continued activity. It wasn’t impossible to deal with, but it was like becoming aware of an itch that you just couldn’t quite reach.
As much as I had wanted to buck against the idea of taking a breather or a break with things on fire around us, I also knew that both Pinneedle and Swansong were right.
Even with that thought in mind though, I found myself eyeing the time. It had been nearly two hours since the phase kicked off. While I probably shouldn’t have cared, especially knowing this phase would be going for a month, something in my gut was gnawing at the fact that Axio had still chosen to have an Ascension Token spawn when all of this began.
He had made it clear during his rant the previous night that they would only be appearing during the daytime under normal circumstances, and yet for some reason, it had still been important for him to have one deployed right when all of this had started. It didn’t even seem like it would be a useful distraction technique if the idea had been to get us looking for it in the middle of this chaos, because I couldn’t imagine who would be able to ignore all of this just to go hunting for a token worth a few points.
“Uh… You okay Loophole?” Swansong asked, finally breaking me from a trance I hadn’t quite realized I had fallen into.
“Do you guys think the Ascension Token has been found yet?” I asked.
“Huh… I honestly kinda forgot about it… I know Axio mentioned it when we got the mission, but with everything going on it seemed… unimportant,” She said, reaching up and scratching at the side of her head. “Then again… other than Hydramental, we haven’t exactly run into the other Augments, I guess one of them could have been searching for it while we have been taking care of protecting the citizens and destroying the droids…”
“For what it’s worth, most of the normal news stations are still running but they're operating in diminished capacities. Freakenstein is apparently all over Brooklyn tearing droids apart on his own given the reports I’ve dug up and seen,” Jon chimed in. “Hell, if he wasn’t tearing cop cars to pieces and just all around causing his own wanton destruction I’d say maybe go and see if you could talk some sense into him but it might be better to just leave him to himself and let him keep taking out the droids, at least until things settle down.”
“Yeah, that’s still only four of the eight Tenth Wave Augments in the city accounted for though,” Swansong said, counting them off on her fingers.
“Five,” I corrected her. “Pigeon is in the city too and whatever the hell it is, it’s still been destroying the droids it comes across, so that at least gives us a little bit of help…”
“I’m still upset you had to rewind meeting him, I bet we could have figured out a way to enlist him onto the team,” Jon complained and I rolled my eyes. “But cool super pet possibility aside, Loophole’s right, that leaves three unaccounted for that could have been hunting for the token all this time… I don't reall think it's that big of a deal if you guys miss out on the first one, don'tcha think?”
“Well no… but I don’t think they have been hunting it,” I said, staring out into the city that, even with the sound of fires and sirens in the distance, was far quieter than it normally was. “I think what happened to you and me happened to everyone once this started. I’m willing to bet that it’s still out there. Remember what Axio said when he explained how the Tokens worked. If no one’s found it after two hours, we’ll all get a notification.”
I looked at the timer for The Long Night mission in my tracker and noticed we only had a few minutes left until that two hour timer hit.
“Is this one of those situations where you saw what happened and rewound back here to change things? That’s the kind of thing you can do with that power of yours now, right? Codex, how much time is left in his bank?” Swansong asked, eyeing me cautiously.
“He’s still at 4 and a half minutes, same as when you guys finished the Rhino,” Jon said, though I could hear the curiosity in his tone. “What’s the plan then? Gonna wait for it to appear and then rewind a minute so that you can get a headstart to the location?”
“No…” I said and I could almost feel the wheels turning in my head. “Think about it… Whatever the hell Axio’s been up to, he’s made it clear that this phase is about squads, and he’s actively trying to make us stronger… What better way to do that then to round up some powerful, morally flexible Augments and throw them at us while offering a way to quickly level up? Sure, maybe somebody found the Token already and we won’t get a notification here… but I bet it’s going to pop up… and I bet more than a few people will go running for it.”
“Isn’t that Codex’s point? You can rewind and get to it before them?” Swansong said and Jon let out a laugh that caused her to scrunch her face in confusion.
“No, this crazy bastard wants to be there when everyone gets there…”
“Is that such a bad idea?” I asked.
“You’re not thinking about making one giant squad are you? How are you going to convince all of them to turn off their Acceptance Matrixes?” Jon offered.
“I mean… if we could do that it would be cool… but no that would be unlikely to do, especially outside of The Common Ground,” I said, shaking my head. “Think about it, if we get there early enough, we can wait and see who comes. Not all Miscreants are psychotic assholes trying to watch the world burn, maybe the others in the city are somewhat reasonable. And logically there should be one other Guardian in the city if Axio wasn’t lying about the split being even.”
“Technically he said mostly even,” Jon corrected. “If all of the others are Miscreants, then the only other Guardian in the city is Hydramental, who we are basically treating like a Miscreant anyway. Unless something has changed on that front in the 10 and a half minutes you’ve rewound that we have no knowledge of.”
“No… nothing on that front,” I said with a frustrated sigh, eyeing the clock again.
“So are we back to the “rewind after it appears” plan?” Swansong suggested, reaching her hands up over her head as she stretched. I tapped at my chin, considering our options.
“I don’t think it’s worth it to waste the time for a small head start…” I said. “I think we just rush it the moment we get the alert… and then I think we should wait and see who shows up. If it’s Hydramental, well we’ll see him coming thanks to the Raid Group, then we can just grab the token and bolt. But if it is someone else… then hell, maybe we will get lucky and find a new ally. And if not that, then we can at the very least see who else is in the city and not be moving so blindly.”
“And if something goes wrong, he could always just rewind time,” Jon added and Swansong rolled her eyes.
It hadn't just been our synchronicity in fights that had surprised me where it had come to Swansong. She seemed to have gotten used to the rhythm of the conversations that almost always tended to happen whenever Jon and I got going and was surprisingly rolling with it all really well. Although we had only been working together a few days now, there was something about how our group had quickly meshed together that had made it all feel perfectly natural.
“One way or another, we’re about to find out,” I said, watching as the clock ticked down. There was a loud DING followed by a pulse of golden energy that spread out over the city in a large wave that might have been the craziest part of the evening had it not been for the assault of robotic animals.
“Ascension Token Revealed! This Ascension Token is a real shining light in the city. No we aren’t going to make these riddles, but wouldn’t that be a trip? While Lady Liberty’s head might have been taken off of her, she’s still got that torch raised toward the sky, and if you hurry up, you can get there in time to scoop up your very first token! Location marked on your Mini-Map.”
Swansong and I briefly locked eyes as our P.A.I.’s voices faded from our ears. Given the statue’s location on an island, that might limit what other Augments could get out there, but neither of us felt the need to point that out before we briefly crouched, and then rocketed up and into the air, pointing ourselves for the decapitated statue and putting on the speed.
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