“You guys haven’t left the base yet, have you?”

  BrainCraft’s voice crackled over the makeshift comms system that he relayed through Jon’s Command Room, seemingly out of nowhere. Duskbreaker had just finished descending into the shadows and while the place was still relatively destroyed, I couldn’t help but want to poke around the place, just in case.

  Regardless if Hydramental believed there would be something hidden in the building or not, it really didn’t seem like it could hurt.

  “No, I wanted to see if any of the printers survived whatever the hell that suction thing the egg did,” I explained, “Why, what's up?”

  “Printers? What size are- you know what, I’ll look at whatever piece of tech you can find in that place that’s still together,” BrainCraft said and I could hear clear notes of excitement in his tone. “Codex caught us before we got into The Common Ground to mention that you were heading into one of the droid bases and also mentioned the concentration of droids near it so I had a theory I wanted you to check. I grabbed the scan from Swansong and ran back here as fast as I could so that I didn't have to relay it through him.”

  Swansong pointed off toward one side of the room and I nodded before lifting off and heading toward the higher floors that I hadn’t gotten to see. With my Exhausted debuffs gone courtesy of Duskbreaker, I wasn’t quite as worried about using my stamina this way when I could have just taken the stairs.

  “Well you have me curious, what are we looking for?”

  “I want you to check the roof of the building. Knowing that bases existed, I already had a suspicion that any sort of network relay that Clockwork Tyrant would use would be directly attached to one of those buildings, or at least in general they would be. If I’m right, the scanner I gave you to hunt for the tokens may at least identify the frequency that it is being sent over. With that information, I should be able to modify the devices to track those nodes, which, if my theory is correct, should help you locate the rest of your targets.”

  “I think we can do that,” I said, looking down toward Swansong. “I’m gonna check these top two floors, Swansong, can you take care of that?”

  She had been picking through some destroyed bits of metal and seemingly coming up short when I called down to her and she nodded up toward me. “Yeah I can do that, this is all just scrap anyway, it won’t even let me pull it into my B.E.L.T.”

  “That’s probably not a good sign for the other stuff, but it can’t hurt to look,” I said as I came over the side of the ledge on the second highest floor.

  It was probably where the 9th or 10th floor should have been, but given that the inside of the building’s layout hadn’t matched up with the exterior’s facade at all, it was hard to tell for sure. Unfortunately, this floor was practically a mirror image of the floors I had seen so far. The entire ground of the floor was covered in scorch marks and it was clear that Hydramental hadn’t pulled a single punch which, at least in this situation, actually worked. The walls where the printers should have been at were nothing but a mess of cables and metal scraps that had been left behind when the devices were ripped out of the walls.

  “More scrap,” I said, walking up and trying to select a piece of it. Just like Swansong had said, there wasn’t even an option to bring it into my B.E.L.T. and I turned away as I wandered further along the destruction. There were pretty much no remains of the droids and I wondered just what the hell the egg would have actually done with all the tech that it had been trying to absorb.

  “It’s a shame that it won’t let you store it, I can always use raw material,” BrainCraft said with a sigh. “But it is what it is. Let me know if you find anything, I have some tech I need to put together for our bug problem here, but I am here if you need me.”

  “Wait, I already found it I think, there’s a big antenna array up here, that’s for sure. I’m going to run the scanner now, am I supposed to just press the button once or hold it?” Swansong asked.

  “Ah, perfect! Yes, hold the button for five seconds. Please repeat it a few times from different spots on the roof, that should give me enough data to work off of.”

  “Okay, I can do that.”

  “Good. I will be here if you need anything else then. Pinky was about at the Common Ground to add people to her Friend’s List last I talked with her, but I don't believe she intends to be gone for long and, oh that’s interesting…”

  “What happened?” I asked, lifting off from the floor and heading up to the top level below the skylight. I could actually see Swansong walking over it, her arm holding up the small scanning device BrainCraft had given us.

  “I just received an achievement for “tampering” with a "back-end game mechanic." It gave me an A+ box,” BrainCraft said.

  “Don’t open that yet,” I said, hoping he hadn’t already gone ahead with it.

  “Huh?”

  “Swansong and I have a few boxes to open and part of my power set lets me increase the odds of getting good stuff out of it for myself and people around me. Can’t use it that often though, so we try to open our loot boxes at the same time,” I explained. I landed on the top level, taking in a similar scene of destruction.

  “Ah, well then I will hold onto it until then, I believe Pinky has a box or two she hadn’t gotten around to opening just yet so I’m sure she’ll be excited about that feature,” BrainCraft mused as his speaker crackled over the comms channel. “Okay, for real this time. I do want to get some work done before Pinky tries to drag me into one of her nightly team building exercises.”

  “Team build- you know what, I don’t think I want to know. See yah in a bit Brain,” I said and BrainCraft laughed just briefly before the crackle of his speaker died off.

  “Sheesh, the more people we wrangle in here, the harder it is to get a word in edgewise it feels like,” Jon said, the clatter of his keys in the background. I walked along the floor, looking around it. Hydramental had made his mark seen all along the floors on this level as well and there were plenty of scorch marks and melting ice to prove it.

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to say!” Angie complained and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Hydramental wasn’t wrong though. Even with the siege of the world, Augment nerds are cataloging everything online and someone in that mob must have had their phone out. You can only just barely see you floating out of the building after you landed that last blow, but I think that’s what caused you to get the Crowdpleaser gain,” Jon explained. I looked up toward the skylight as I thought about it for a moment.

  “Hey Swan, did you really get only the Team Victory gain?” I asked. The device in her hand vanished as she lifted off from the roof.

  “I uh, no I just didn’t really want to poke the bear with Hydramental,” she admitted a bit sheepishly. “I also got a new gain called Damage Assistant that gave me a bit under 2000 points.”

  “Ok that’s good at least,” I said, walking a bit further along the level before I jumped over the ledge. I fell for about ten feet before I activated my Personal Gravity Laws and headed for the side of the building. “It doesn’t look like we’re gonna scavenge anything from here. If you’ve got the scans for BrainCraft, I say we just head back to base for now. I have to do my level 16 stuff, plus we have those loot boxes.”

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  “That works for me,” she said, floating just outside the building and turning away from it as I emerged. To my surprise, there were a few cop cars that looked like they were on the way toward the crowd gathered outside of the building. More than a few of them held their phones up toward us and we obliged with a wave that elicited a larger cheer than I might have been expecting from a crowd that had only just recently been on the verge of becoming an angry mob.

  "Wait... I uh... I need to do something here," I said, looking over to Swansong who eyed me curiously.

  "Umm... okay," she said and I floated down toward the crowd, spotting the man, Sebastian if I was remembering his name correctly, who had been leading them on their march toward the Guggenheim watching skeptically.

  “We failed you last night,” I said, raising my voice just high enough that the crowd took notice and a hush fell over them. “We failed this city last night. Clockwork Tyrant is, well… a tyrant… he has brought death and destruction to this city in a way that hasn’t been seen since the early days of Augments. We are supposed to be your guardians, the ones that protect you from those that would use their powers to cause chaos, and last night, none of us were strong enough to do that.”

  There was a murmur that passed over the crowd as I stopped, looking over the entire crowd and then back to Swansong who was staring toward me with an expression that I couldn’t quite place. She hurriedly averted her eyes the moment mine met hers and I looked back to the crowd, trying to maintain my momentum.

  “I don’t like to fail. I don’t like that this city that I love doesn’t feel safe. And I sure as hell don’t like tyrants who come into our city and try to take away that safety,” I said and there was a quick rolling cheer of approval that came from the crowd. “The last thing I want, the last thing Swansong wants, is for any of you to be hurt if we can help it. I understand your frustrations and fears, I understand that you want to fight back and take your city back. But Clockwork Tyrant won’t pull his punches just because you’ve got numbers on your side. He’ll just send more of his droids. We can’t be everywhere at once and the less of you out, risking everything over a curfew, the easier it will be for us to do the one thing I know all of you want to see. Take Clockwork Tyrant down.”

  Another cheer erupted over the crowd.

  “This city is ours. It’s all of ours. We failed you once, but I promise that as long as I’m still moving, I’m not going to stop until I’ve taken this city, this entire city back.”

  “Warning: You have attempted to claim a territory that you do not have the reputation to claim. Your claim will be lowered to the maximum sized territory that you are currently able to claim.”

  “Phase Points Gained! Territory Claimed: Medium Town: 1500 points (Halved to 750 points, Reason: Split with Squad).”

  I was almost surprised to see that we could still claim a territory with Clockwork Tyrant’s squad technically in control of the entire city, but I had still been able to claim territories when other Guardian squads had been in control, so it made sense that it would still work the same way, even with a Miscreant in control.

  We were just about to turn away, the crowd already starting to swell with murmurs of approval from my speech when I heard a voice call out to me.

  “Hey Loophole.”

  I turned back to the crowd, meeting Sebastian’s gaze. He slammed a fist into his palm and met my eyes with a fierceness that almost took me by surprise.

  “Go kick that fucker’s ass!”

  To say the crowd went wild might have been an overstatement, but the swell of energy that came from them gave me a renewed sense of determination. Before we could shoot off back toward our base. I looked down to Sebastian, mimicking his move and giving him the most confident smile I could muster. I didn’t need to say anything else, as Sebastian let out a roar of approval that swept over the crowd and we used that as our opportunity to turn and jet away from the scene.

  It normally would have taken us only a minute to navigate back to the base, but with a few groups of the Falcons still buzzing around, we decided to take a longer, more circuitous route, even splitting up long enough to slip into the base without being seen. It might have been paranoid, especially since I was sure our actual base wasn’t sitting underground in Central Park, but it was still a risk to let any enemy know where the entrance was all the same.

  “Well, you’re definitely making a name for yourself. There’s an entire section on the sub following what’s happening in each city and the NYC page is going nuts. I swear people are uploading videos as fast as they can take them. Mrs. Cruz would have been proud of that speech of yours, though she did always say you were a pretty good public speaker,” Jon said as we walked back into the main lounge.

  “Mrs. Cruz?” Swansong asked curiously as I broke off toward the kitchen.

  My level 16 window opened up and while it could no longer demand my attention, I decided against lingering on it for too long.

  “One of our High School teachers,” I explained, reaching into the fridge to grab a bottle of water. “I dropped my points in Luck and Dex,” I called over to Jon and he raised a thumb up.

  “What are you thinking for your Ability Augmentation? Couple of your big ones are still locked for a few more levels,” Jon said as I walked back toward the pit, dropping over the back of one to sit.

  “It’s tough. I could obviously do something like Earthbound Impact or Launchpad, but those are situational at best. I was partially thinking about actually trying it on Float Like a Butterfly too since that is one of my most used abilities, but I also sort of think I’ve been neglecting the potential of my passives… not that I even have a lot of them,” I explained.

  “You also have your movement ability,” Swansong suggested and I nodded.

  “I considered that too, hell with both of them, but I think I’m leaning toward Misfortune Abound. It’s already a strong as hell ability considering just how high my luck is, but I feel like it could be doing more.”

  “Sheesh Loophole, do you even really need me? Sounds like you might as well pull the trigger, don’t yah think? Unless you want to try augmenting that Water into Wine ability of yours,” Jon said with a laugh.

  “Wait water into what?!” A new voice called out and I looked over to find Pinky walking down the far hall and into the room. She wasn’t wearing her normal full pink outfit, instead wearing what was essentially lounging clothes with a short pair of shorts and a tank top, only leaving the normal pink mask from her costume in place.

  “Water into Wine. It was one of the first abilities I created when I woke up,” I said, holding a hand up in a wave toward her. I briefly saw Swansong seem to jump out of the side of my vision before she turned toward her door.

  “I’m gonna check in on something really quick, I’ll be back in just a few so that we can do loot boxes, okay?” She asked and I nodded.

  “Yeah no problem Swan,” I said before looking back to Pinky.

  “You’re telling me you can actually turn water into wine and I’ve been spending my credits on drinks at the common ground this whole time?! Like, what the hell Loophole, I could have a glass in my hand right now!”

  “I didn’t think it was relevant!”

  “Wine is always relevant Loophole!”

  “Fiiiine, just give me a second and I’ll use the ability, happy?” I asked and she shot me a toothy grin before settling down onto the couch opposite of me. Her eyes glazed over briefly before three shoebox sized loot boxes materialized onto the table, though she didn’t move to touch them. With her seemingly mollified, I turned my attention back to the Ability Augmentation and selected.

  “Misfortune Abound: Level 3 Passive Ability. While in combat, cause all enemies within your local area to have a chance equal to 2% for every 1 point of Luck you have minus their current level for something "bad" to happen to them, causing various random negative effects and environmental damage to occur. This ability has not been Augmented.”

  “First Modification Option! Primer Upgrade! This modifier will give your passive ability an Activated effect! When activated, the next ability an enemy uses has a 50% chance to backfire on them or their team members. This activated ability has no cost, but has a 30 second cooldown, during which the passive ability is not available.”

  “Second Modification Option! Domino Effect! Bad luck never travels alone. When this ability triggers a negative effect on an enemy, there is now a percentage chance equal to 15% of your Luck stat that the misfortune will chain to their nearest ally within your local area. Each successive chain has its own 15% chance to continue the cascade, but each hop reduces the severity of the effect by 25%. Because who doesn't love a little slapstick chaos?”

  “Third Modification Option! Misfortune Mapper! Within your local area, indicators will now appear over locations that could cause maximum levels of Misfortune for your enemies. Causing an enemy to stumble into one of these locations will increase the detrimental outcome they incur by 50%.”

  I hadn’t exactly been sure what to expect for the Augmentations but I was actually pleasantly surprised. Unlike a few of my choices, this one didn’t seem as cut and dry.

  “I’m between Misfortune Mapper and Domino Effect, what are you thinking?” I called over to Jon.

  “It’s tough, they both have their benefits but I think Domino is better. The mapper still only hits one person and as long as we keep stacking your luck, you could basically cause an entire battlefield to get bowled over by something random with that ability,” he suggested. “The active version is okay, but it’s definitely the most specialized of the three options.”

  “Yeah… okay, I was leaning toward Domino. I do like the idea of it triggering easier,” I said and selected the option. I heard Swansong’s door open, looking over my shoulder and seeing as she walked back in also in comfortable clothes.

  “I really wish I could put this stuff on with the gear switcher,” she said, walking around and into the pit. She looked at Pinky’s stack of loot boxes and then back to me as she sat down on the couch next to me, materializing her own loot box onto the table. “Are we ready for these?”

  “Yeah,” I said and looked down the hall before I raised my voice. “Hey Brain, we’re gonna open these loot boxes, get in here!”

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

  Apologies for the exceptionally late chapter, it was a very busy day on my end here and I could not get around to editing and formatting it until recently. A quick note, the Phase Point gain Loophole received in the previous chapter has been modified slightly and he has received slightly less points. This is because when I made the stat sheet that I posted yesterday, I realized there was a bit of math I had forgotten to include into his damage calculation. I adjusted it and, after realizing how many points that would give him, adjusted the scoring for that gain to make it a little bit more balanced.

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