It was stupid.

  Logically I knew it was stupid. But I did still have three minutes in my Time Bank, so if this was stupid, well I at least could test my theory without having to worry about lasting consequences if there were going to be lasting consequences. I probably shouldn’t have already been looking at this new aspect of my abilities as a ‘Get out of Jail Free’ card, but it was also a bit hard not to.

  What sort of name was Clockwork Tyrant?

  It was something that had been bothering me for some time now and I was starting to figure out why. The first part I understood, at least where his droids came in. I wasn’t exactly sure what his powerset was, but it seemed like he was some sort of Engineer, much like BrainCraft. That part hadn’t been the issue. It was the second part had been bothering me since I had first heard it. He hadn’t named himself Clockwork King. No. He had specifically called himself a Tyrant.

  It was the sort of name that was meant to instill fear. To make those that heard it cower before they even began to fight back. And while the siege on the city hadn’t been his first strike, it had been a devastating one. One meant to demoralize us, and make us feel like we couldn’t fight back.

  I knew that it was a long shot, and stupid to try to provoke him, plus it was weirdly the exact same tactic I had tried to use on the person I had thought was SnakeBite back when a small army of Snake Augments had been unleashed on the neighborhood. But I felt like I had to try it all the same. Because at the end of the day, super powers or not, the way that Clockwork Tyrant was acting reminded me of one simple thing. He was a bully. Murderous and megalomaniacal for sure, but at his core, it didn’t change the fact that he was just a super powered bully.

  Or at least, that’s what I was counting on as I floated up and into the sky directly between the falcons that had been circling.

  “Hey Asshole, I know you’re listening,” I said and then waited. The falcons slowed to a stop, each turning in and facing toward me as they each hovered about a dozen feet away from me. While there wasn’t a vocal response that came, this felt like as much of a sign as anything. “What’s the goal here? World domination? Think you’re gonna be turning your little foothold in the city into the launching point for some giant conquest? Or is this just some narcissistic pipe-”

  There was a loud, piercing sound that suddenly emitted from each of the falcons at the same time. It was almost like the sound was digging deep into my body and rattling my bones. I’m not entirely sure how I managed to do it, but as the sound faded, I was still managing to stay afloat. Though I had fallen about 10 feet downwards. I looked up at the falcons, noticing small speaker protrusions that were raised just above their heads.

  There was a short burst of feedback that came through the speakers and I started to prepare myself for another sonic attack when I heard a mocking laugh.

  “Oh that is cute. Do you think this looks like a schoolyard, boy?”

  “Well, it certainly feels like it when all you Miscreants do is go around acting like you can just bully people into giving you your way,” I said, trying to goad the man as I slowly rose back up into the air to float even with the falcons.

  “And you Guardians act like dogs for our lessers,” Clockwork Tyrant shot back, making the word Guardian sound like a slur. There was a light hum that accompanied his words that filled the air around me and it made the air feel thick. “My offer does stand you know, join me, acknowledge our superiority and-”

  “Wow, so you’re that kind of prick, huh?” I said, gritting my teeth. “Okay sure bud, let’s team up. How about we grab a cup of coffee and shake hands, you know meet face to face. I’d love to shake your hand. And by ‘shake your hand,’ I mean punch you in the face.”

  Clockwork Tyrant let out another laugh that grated at my nerves. “My you have spunk don’t you. I almost wish that you were a threat, these other so-called heroes were so easily disposed of.”

  “Don’t you fucking worry, I’m going to be a-”

  Another piercing sound hit me, this time going deeper before it finally shut off and I had to mentally reactive Personal Gravity Laws before I could plummet toward the ground. The falcons swooped down lower, moving in closer as I righted myself. They followed me as I slowly moved back toward the ground.

  As my feet hit the ground and I came to a stop, I activated Area Sense, trying to split my attention as I felt through the approaching falcons. I hadn’t moved the specialty passive from my bar, and I leaned into it as I let the innate understanding of mechanics guide my sense through the droid’s inner workings. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was looking for, but I was positive I’d know it when I found it.

  “I don’t think you understand your position boy. The only reason you’re still alive is because I’m allowing it. And the only reason I’m allowing it, is because Axio isn’t done with you lot yet,” Clockwork Tyrant spat through the speakers. There were a few things in the falcons that were foreign to me, at least at my knowledge level, but I did at least notice that the speakers that he was speaking through weren’t the only ones on the birds. “Now, as entertaining as this paltry attempt to goad me was, I am a very busy man, I do have a city to rule after all. As much as I do welcome anything that would be a real challenge, there is nothing you can do that is going to stop me, so I’d be careful if I were-”

  I moved as quickly as I could, smashing my fists through two of the three falcons and launching them far to the sides before each one exploded in a small ball of fire. The last one turned to escape, but it clearly hadn’t been anticipating my response, allowing me to get my hands on the large bird droid. I could hear the sting of the sonic attack just begin to start as I adjusted my grip, moving my hand to the droid’s undercarriage and smothering a speaker right under where its tail feathers were supposed to be.

  “Hehe you’re grabbing its-”

  “Not now, Angie!” I growled in my head, gritting my teeth as I braced my body against the pulse of sonic energy coming from the falcon.

  Even with only one of them still around to emit the noise and my hand covering where the sound had been coming from, I still felt a stinging sensation that reached deep into my bones. But this time it was far, far more bearable.

  “I. Don’t. Care.” I said and ignored as the sound continued to try to slow me down. I could feel the falcon struggling in my grip, its wings shifting enough that I could make out small propellers that had been helping it stay afloat. “I don’t care if you think you’ve won. I don’t care if you think there’s nothing that I can do to you. This city isn’t yours to rule. This city isn’t yours to control. I know that Axio isn’t done with us. You think all of this is your grand plan, you think it’s your ascension, but it’s not. You think you’re special and chosen to rule by Axio but I don’t think you truly understand what’s going on. He’s not done with you either. We’re not stepping stones on your path, you’re just a stepping stone on my path.”

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  “Ah that is the spirit Loop-” I threw the droid with every bit of force I could muster directly at the ground, smashing the bird into the ground below us. I skipped backwards before the follow up explosion could happen, then watched as the hunk of metal burst into flames, setting the grass around it on fire.

  “Well that was… weird,” Jon said after a few moments of silence passed without another droid appearing. I walked up to the small mark in the ground that the explosion had caused. Interestingly, there had been a few bits of metal and twisted remains left in the crater, and that was something that felt important. “I’m almost surprised you didn’t use any time there… those falcons didn’t even expect that attack. What, uh… what was the point of that?”

  I looked from the wreckage and back up toward the skies, trying to spot if there were any of the other droids in the area but found none.

  “Do you remember Eric from Freshman year?” I asked, scanning the horizon slowly.

  “Mohawk Eric or Pottery Eric?”

  “Lughead Eric,” I said.

  “Sheesh, how many Erics do you two know?” Swansong asked.

  “A few,” Jon answered with a laugh. “But yeah I remember him, almost thought he had some sort of Strength Augment with how big he was back then. What’s he have to do with what just happened though?”

  “It’s the same, er… I mean, I’m not saying Eric is Clockwork Tyrant, but that they have the same mentality,” I explained. “Eric was loud, obnoxious, and made a big show at throwing that table during our first week in Biology, remember? Well isn’t that basically exactly what Tyrant has been doing? Putting on some big show and expecting us all to become subservient to him just because he’s ‘the biggest fish in the pond’?”

  “I guess? It’s a bit of a loose association and I still don’t fully see what that has to do with you going and shit talking Clockwork Tyrant up there.”

  “Bullies don’t like it when you fight back.” It was Swansong that said the obvious and I nodded even though I knew she couldn’t see me.

  “Huh… I mean yeah I guess, but most bullies also don’t have access to an army of droids to endlessly throw at you,” Jon said.

  “It’s not just that he’s a bully, though it’s a part of it. I’m not sure what Axio told him or any of the other Augments that he’s using, but they clearly think they’re running the show now… and that’s just not right,” I explained. “If Axio wanted that, then why the hell would he still have generated missions for us to stop them? Why would he have given us a clear path toward increasing our levels with the Tokens? Like I said, I’m not sure what Axio might have told him, but I have a feeling that he truly believes he’s the one that Axio is intending to win.”

  “He could be lying to you guys too though, we’ve established that he’s kind of weird and seems to be going out of his way to fuck with everyone,” Jon offered and I nodded again.

  “Oh I don’t doubt it, but…” I started, finding myself stopping as I thought back to the one time I actually talked directly to Axio. I still hadn’t actually talked to anyone about my full conversation with him, especially given that the mysterious A.I. had made it a point to tell me not to bring it up because there was no way to tell who was listening. “Axio has his own plans… I’m not sure what they are and I think anyone with eyes could see that he has his own plans… but I’m positive that our wave is far more important to him than any of the others before us.”

  “I mean, that’s a good hypothesis,” BrainCraft spoke up through the crackle of the speaker in Jon’s command room. “Based on my research, prior year waves had very long phases where their only goals were to gather territories. There’s an arc toward these wave’s leveling patterns with each subsequent wave having noticeably slower growth rates. Now the question remains if Axio’s continued focus on our strength has something to do with a looming threat or if there’s something more nefarious he intends to try to force us to do.”

  “I guess it’s a good thing you all have your Matrixes disabled then, probably would make it harder for him to control you if that’s the route he goes,” Jon said thoughtfully. “Although speaking of the Acceptance Matrix… how are you guys going to handle that with anyone else that might join the squad? I don’t know about the other Augments over on the West Coast, but Duskbreaker didn’t seem like a bad dude from the little bit you guys interacted.”

  “I’m not sure,” I said truthfully. “It feels like making the biggest squad we could make, just to share tokens, is probably the best plan. Hell I’d bet Pinky could bully at least a few groups into joining with us now that we know about the point gain. But TechWarden has been quiet and after the show he put on for me with SnakeBite, I can’t imagine he’s just going to let it go either… I really wish we weren’t having to deal with shit from multiple angles…”

  “That’s just called being a hero,” Jon said and I sighed.

  “For what it’s worth, I do intend to do some further investigation to see just how that Matrix works. The fact that we can disable and enable them by our own control indicates that there is some setting that we should be able to manipulate, I believe that opens a backdoor to the system, which is coincidentally exactly what this TechWarden has probably exploited based on what you’ve explained to me,” BrainCraft said.

  “Huh, wait, are you saying that you want to try to create some sort of Acceptance Matrix control?” I asked as I lifted off the ground and into the air to make my way back toward the base. My stomach turned at the idea and I was just about to get angry with BrainCraft for even thinking of it when his speaker crackled again.

  “No! Not necessarily a control at all, I'm not interested in overtaking people's wills. Besides, I think that would be a bit hypocritical for us to ask folks to let us mess with their system when that’s exactly what you intend to protect people from by telling them of the threat,” BrainCraft explained. “But, the existence of the back door means that there should be a way to actually view the code that creates the Acceptance Matrix. It would take some tinkering on my part and probably at least a bit of guesswork until I can figure out how the system is accessed. But if I can see that, preferably one that we know hasn’t been tainted by TechWarden, then we will have at least a baseline that I could use to create a device to scan potential members for infection. That way you can be positive they aren’t secretly working for TechWarden but then we also don’t have to go through the process of convincing each new possible teammate of the threat.”

  “Huh… that’s… that actually might work,” I said thoughtfully. “But, er… not to be insulting or to dig too deep into your powers but like… is that something you could actually pull off?”

  “I don’t necessarily believe it will be easy, but that’s because I’m smart enough to know how layered this process will be. It might take me a few days to crack the process, but having Super Intelligence does give me a certain amount of perseverance for tasks like this.”

  Happy Monday! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to leave a Rate, Review, or Comment!

  Just a bit of a shorter chapter than normal for today but one that might still see some edits. But didn't want to keep y'all delayed for too long.

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