“Bollocks,” Clockwork Tyrant growled and gritted his teeth together as he finished watching the recordings his system had retrieved for the umpteenth time.

  There were dozens of angles displayed over the myriad of screens he had, showcasing both of the encounters he had carefully attempted to orchestrate. He had hoped they would be the only encounters he would have to do, perfectly showcasing to the common people just how out of their league even their so-called heroes were, but it clearly hadn’t gone the way he had hoped that it would.

  At this point, Clockwork Tyrant had accounted for each of the Augments that still called New York City their home and of all of them, only three still truly stood in any way as roadblocks to his greater plans. Two of them, the ones he had been after this particular evening, should have fallen to his might. Which made it all the more infuriating to him that they hadn’t. He bristled, clicking through the files as he pulled up several additional angles.

  Both Duskbreaker and Barracuda were standing, practically frozen at attention in the room behind him as he slowly replayed the last bit of the fight one last time.

  As much as he had hated having rules that he had to obey, Axio had been clear on just what he could and couldn’t do. But, if there was one thing that Clockwork Tyrant knew very well was that if there were rules, there were ways to bend them to his will. While he wasn’t allowed to send droids out to attack the Guardians over and over again, trying to wear them into submission through sheer force, there had been nothing that said he couldn’t try to trick them into being the ones to initiate the fight themselves, something he'd be well within his rights to defend against.

  It should have gone smoothly. He had everything planned out to take Loophole and Swansong out of commission permanently. After all of the encounters he had recorded, after everything he had studied, Clockwork Tyrant had thought he knew what to expect from them. But nothing could have prepared him to see one of the few precious Clockwork Eggs he had managed to have produced so far smashed into nothing more than scrap. And unfortunately, due to the nature of Mr. Factory’s abilities, he couldn’t even reuse the same scrap for a new attempt.

  Each one of the five he had been able to gather the resources for would be enough to initiate a siege strong enough to at least take over a city like Berlin or Chicago, further expanding his foothold on his path to total control. But that was only if they could be completed without being destroyed by some up-and-coming cockroach that shouldn’t have had the power to even remotely leave a dent in his masterpiece.

  While Mr. Factory’s abilities had been crucial to his plans, this small factor was suddenly gnawing at him for the inconvenience and he had to mentally stop himself from desiring to punish the man for a failure that was only his fault due to the limitations of his powers. He had thought that he could at least mitigate this by integrating the routing into the droids to explode as a final way to use the resources and cause the most amount of chaos, but now… He clenched his jaw, turning his attention back to footage of the initial fight in front of the Guggenheim.

  Loophole must have had some ability to predict the movements of his droids. It was almost uncanny how he dodged in the only escape route he had multiple times, often without ever even looking. Between that and the sheer damage potential that the young Augment was already showing, he now knew of several more enhancements he’d have to give to the droids. With a few rapid clicks, he put in a set of commands to start cycling the droids back through his forges. He’d have to make sure Mr. Factory had the updated blueprints to load into the system before the first batch arrived.

  Clockwork Tyrant spun in his chair, staring down at the two Tenth Wave Augments in his thrall as he flexed the oppressive aura that came from his Hidden Power.

  “You know Duskbreaker, I’m starting to become rather displeased with your efforts.”

  “S- S- Sir… you told me to rile the crowd and point them toward the Guggenheim, I- I- I did exactly as you instructed and made sure Barracuda escaped as well. I- I- I- I didn’t even lift a finger against any of the droids until I had t- t- to,” Duskbreaker said, practically shaking.

  “You had quite the perfect opportunity to put Loophole down after you absorbed their electrical force, something you purposefully withheld from me that you were capable of doing, and instead you destroyed an entire array of printers. Those’ll take weeks to replace and we’ll have to stop droid production until we can mitigate those losses,” Clockwork Tyrant said, pushing himself up from the chair and walking slowly away from his console.

  “B- b- but sir, you’re the one who-”

  “I’m the one who what?!” Clockwork Tyrant snarled, his aura flexing with each step. Barracuda let out a whimper of panic as his eyes widened.

  “I- I- I-”

  “Because I sure as hell did not instruct you to blend in by destroying my equipment and I am positive my commands included specific instructions to keep the others from reacting to the Egg’s deployment. Must I remind you just what will happen if you displease me? Must I remind you where I’ve put your family?” He said, stepping forward and holding up a hand toward Duskbreaker. The shadow around the quivering man shrank in toward his body as if it was running from Clockwork Tyrant’s grasp. Without warning his hand clenched together and he pointed a finger toward the fish-man that was looking less like a shark and more like a minnow by the moment. “And you. Why the hell haven’t I already done away with you if all you’re going to do is be taken down with barely even a fight?! I know what makes you tick, I know what makes your squirm. Have you forgotten that already?”

  “Mes? Sirs youse just said to signals the droids when Loophole was surrounded, youse saids to me, “Stay outta the ways of the actual fighters and lets yours droids do their jobs,” and I listens sir. I tried to get ‘im to to destroy the droids likes youse said, but he didn’t!” Barracuda whimpered, shrinking away from the extended finger. “Please sirs, I told youse I’d do as you said! I told youse I’d be loyal!”

  “And what good has it done? That so-called partner of yours still refuses to remove his gear, still refuses to give in to my order. Need I just kill him and be done with it?” He was practically towering over Barracuda when a new voice harshly cleared its throat.

  “Is this how you treat your team members? Fuck, I wouldn’t want to be one of them.”

  Clockwork Tyrant’s head snapped, looking toward one of the two entrances to the room. Standing in the doorway, looking wholly unimpressed, was the one Augment he hadn’t expected to be drawn in by his attempt on Loophole and Swansong’s lives. The one Augment that he had been sure he'd be able to deal with separately from all the rest of this nonsense. He dropped his hand, turning toward the intruder as he started to extend his aura out, already planning his next move.

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  “You know, if you weren’t planning on pledging loyalty to me, then you should have tried to kill me when you had the chance, Hydramental. Though you’re hard headed to a fault, aren’t you,” he said before he gave the newcomer a smile that could only be described as predatory. “Oh, but I do enjoy it when they beg.”

  Hydramental either didn’t notice the threat or he didn’t seem to care. That didn’t matter to Clockwork Tyrant though, even within his wave he had largely been looked down upon simply because his abilities weren’t nearly as flashy as the others. His powers, the abilities he had been gifted spoke directly to his nature to conquer, to rule and take his place at the top. With each new Augment he could take into his thrall, he could feel his own power amplify, multiplying his own potential.

  Before the young Augment could react, in a motion that had become as simple and easy as breathing for him, Clockwork Tyrant shoved his aura over the man and waited for the begging to start.

  A moment passed.

  And then Hydramental started to walk forward, completely unbothered. Clockwork Tyrant’s eyes widened before he looked over toward Barracuda.

  “You… Did you lead him here? Does he have something like that pathetic burnout you call a friend? What are you trying to pull?!”

  Barracuda shrunk backwards, cringing toward the unblocked exit on the other side of the room.

  “No sirs, I didn’-”

  “You’re looking at the wrong weak spot,” Hydramental said, cutting Barracuda off as he casually strolled into the room. He stopped, taking in his surroundings before turning back to the older Augment, wholly unimpressed as he held a hand up and pointed toward Duskbreaker as if his point wasn’t clear enough.

  In an instant, Duskbreaker practically collapsed into the floor as Clockwork Tyrant turned on him, shrinking as the entire weight of Oppression was brought to bear against his meager resistance. Barracuda rushed away the moment he felt even a bit of relief, sweat pouring down his grey skin as he jumped to get behind the open exit.

  “You shouldn’t be able to resist, I knew I should have just strung you up the moment-”

  Clockwork Tyrant reached out, his fury rising as he realized… he couldn’t access his abilities. He had long since escaped the need for something as constricting as his action bar, but the feeling of them being always at the ready, the feeling of constantly releasing his aura had just… vanished.

  At the same moment, Duskbreaker finally moved, scrambling as far from the man who had buried every last desire he had ever felt behind an ocean of fear. Clockwork Tyrant watched, almost incredulously as the weakling escaped from his vicinity, turning to face the newcomer once more.

  “What is this trickery?” He spat. He had already long since lost the composer he had often held himself to and Hydramental’s practically mocking grin was salt on top of the wounds of his failed plans for the evening.

  “Nope, not trickery… technology. Isn’t that supposed to be your whole schtick? The big bad master of droids? The puppeteer commanding the army that’s stoked fear into the heart of New York? Isn’t that the lie you’ve carefully cultivated so that no one discovers what your powers actually are? I mean. It’s clearly a good one that’s been working. Even the name you’ve given this little squad of yours. “Droids ‘R Us.” It really drives home the point while keeping you safe in your little hidey hole, away from the rabble as you’d call it you pretentious mother fucker,” Hydramental said, the grin fading as he came to a stop. He nodded toward Duskbreaker. “If I were you, I’d make sure my lackey’s started checking for bugs before someone dangerous finds you.”

  Clockwork Tyrant, for once, felt unsure. Even his P.A.I., ever hissing encouragement in the back of his head, had fallen silent. What surprised him the most was the lack of a feeling he hadn’t been able to put into words. It had been there since Axio had first freed him from his imprisonment and with it now missing, even with his powers frustratingly barred from him, he let out a breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding.

  “Who the hell sent you?”

  “Heh, looks like even without your powers fully activated you’re quick on the uptake, supposed you’d have to be to get that specific Primary in the first place,” Hydramental said, looking past him at Duskbreaker with a disappointed sneer. “You really should take some acting lessons, you’re lucky Loophole is too dense to have seen you sneaking things just out of his grasp. My employer has asked me to meet with you, said that you may have some mutual interests and wanted to extend an olive branch. Although, maybe you don’t want your loose links to be here for this part.”

  Clockwork Tyrant looked back toward Duskbreaker, matching Hydramental’s sneer. “Get Barracuda and get the hell out of my sight until I call for you again.”

  “I- I-... Yes Clockwork Tyrant,” Duskbreaker said, his breathing rapid and his eyes wide. As he rushed toward the exit, grasping Barracuda and dragging him along behind him, Clockwork Tyrant watched, his sneer breaking ever so slightly before he dropped it all together and turned his attention back to Hydramental.

  “So then, pray tell, why are you here after assisting that little cabal of do gooders in destroying one of my forges?”

  “Please, that one should be obvious. Appearances,” Hydramental scoffed, sauntering toward Clockwork Tyrant’s console curiously. He seemed to stare toward the frozen footage of Loophole’s fist crashing into the egg just before it went flying. “This olive branch I’ve been told to extend, there is a… caveat. Beyond betraying Axio of course.”

  “Oh, a caveat? Something more than betraying the force that can call down doom on any of us at any moment? You have a rather large amount of courage for being so fresh, or is this technology you’re using to rob me of my powers like that of the cesspool of a facility in Sanctuary Square? Perhaps you only have the courage because Axio can’t hear your insolence. Who exactly is this employer of yours?”

  “Fuck me, I thought that much was obvious what with our lack of powers,” Hydramental laughed, turning away from the screen. “My employer is someone who knows the value of discretion and not painting a target on himself by shouting about his own self importance. He knows you have big plans and he thinks that they align with his vision for the future. I personally think you’re all fucking insane, but as long as I get what I want… Well, I’m happy to play along. That’s the caveat by the way. That neither of you get in my way either.”

  “Hmm,” Clockwork Tyrant said. His mind wasn’t moving nearly as fast as he was used to, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t working at all. After such a powerful start to his conquest, the last few hours had been wholly infuriating and it would have been so easy to maintain that fury. It would have been so easy to play along with this pest’s intrusion and wait for the opportunity to show him just what happened to those who tried to outsmart him.

  But Clockwork Tyrant wasn’t a short-sighted man.

  Being at Axio’s whim had been a choice he made out of convenience, but his continued frustration with having to be beholden to the computer’s schedule was the only reason he hadn’t been able to move forward with his efforts, he knew that much to be sure.

  Even with the insolence and lack of respect that Hydramental was showing, Clockwork Tyrant didn’t scoff. Because clearly this boy was being played every bit as much as he was trying to play the people around him. So instead. Clockwork Tyrant would do what he always did. He’d plan. And if this employer was only trying to use him? Well, he had made the mistake of having all of his eggs… metaphorically speaking… in one basket in the past. And that wasn’t a mistake he was planning on making again.

  “You have my attention, Hydramental. Let’s hear what your employer has to offer.”

  Hydramental’s smile reappeared as he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder.

  “Well to start. I know exactly how to take that specific nuisance out of the game and make this whole thing so, so much easier for us. That hero wannabe? He can’t stop himself from having to save people in some attempt to prove just how righteous he is. It’s a weakness, and one that’s just so, so easy to exploit.”

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