"GET BACK HERE!"

I was shouting into the void of the hallway, just a bit stunned by the sudden turn of events before I finally got it together, trying to push down my fury.

I had… huh, somehow I had just shy of 3 minutes in my Time Bank. I was relatively positive that my Bank had only jumped up to a minute and a half when I had last checked it but that was a mystery I'd have to figure out later. I could try to rewind things, back things up far enough that I could go in on Hydramental faster, but with his forms split up, somehow even while part of him was in the Dead Zone, I had no guarantee that using up the three minutes in my bank would even manage to be enough to stop things.

Things seemed to slow around me ever so slightly as I took in a slow, deep breath, trying to come up with some sort of plan. Hostages, scales firing off to do… something, and there were still plenty of droids pouring out and into the halls. I had to assume that even more were dropping out and onto the streets below us. Silver had been right, I had erroneously believed that taking out Tyrant would put an end to the droids, I had practically been counting. But with them still active, it wasn't something we could ignore.

"Miss Mist, Duskbreaker, we need to move faster on those extractions. Red, get up to Perry's back and help them stop as many of the scales as you can. Silver, I need your help. I need you to clear me a path as much as possible to wherever the fucking core of this place is… There has to be a way to stop the core from self-destructing before it can take out the city," I ordered, pushing off the ground and taking to the air as I rushed back toward the room that we had been fighting Tyrant within.

The place was a disaster area, with the walls torn to shreds and tons of broken droids laying haphazardly around the room. Tyrant's body hadn't moved from where he had fallen over dead and while the sight sent a small shiver down my spine, I looked past it and toward the hallway where I could hear almost feral growls coming from.

"Loopie, I think we need you up top… at least two of the scales are launched and it looks like they are headin' directly for the Augmentation Array nodes above us," Freak called out, just as I started to move toward Silver's hallway. "I think you're the only one who can reach them in time, otherwise… well shit, what if it knocking out the nodes knocks out our powers?"

"It doesn't look good up there Loophole…" Codex agreed and I grit my teeth in frustration.

"The bomb though…"

"I… I… Um… I think I can help," Duskbreaker stuttered out. "I can't transport something that big… but I should be able to leech the power off… it might slow down the detonation long enough to shut Perry down… then, well… maybe we can get it far enough away? I don't know but…"

"We need you for extraction though," I said, still stalling, something I knew was a stupid choice given the minimal time the self-destruct sequence had given us.

"Miss Mist… that older couple in there with Barracuda… Can you highlight them?" Duskbreaker asked, ignoring my complaint and I heard Miss Mist humming over the comms.

"Hmm nope, restricted due to Secret Identity rules," she explained.

"Salt and Pepper black hair on the man? And the woman is Asian, right?"

"Um… yes?" Miss Mist said cautiously. "Is this…"

"Those are my parents… can you get them out of here? My shadow portals still take a while to move people, even just down to the ground… I think I'm better used to slow this bomb down… plus I, uh, I know right where it is… it was one of the few rooms in the Pangolin that Tyrant couldn't keep shadows out of."

"Loopie, they're speeding up, I think you got maybe two minutes tops if you're lucky before the first one hits one of the array nodes…"

My teeth grit together harder as I realized what I had to do. Maybe I hadn't quite realized I had been doing it, but I was trying to take on what I perceived as the "most important" task to myself. After all, if Hydramental was trying to blow up a part of New York just in some twisted plan to get back at me, as little as that made sense, than shouldn't it be my responsibility to stop that blast?

It was faulty logic… and the exact trap Hydramental wanted me to fall into. I wasn't alone in this, not any more.

"Are you sure you can take in that much energy? That electrical blast you took the other day had some bad blow back on you," I said, though I was already lifting myself into the air and up through the hole that had been ripped in the roof of the Pangolin.

"I… Yes… I think it should be fine… I'll release the energy as I collect it into smaller blasts into the shadow area I slip through to teleport… I might not be able to use them to travel for a bit… but it's better than letting this blow up the city," he replied, though I was positive he sounded a bit unsure of his own plan.

"Silver, get to him as soon as you can, I have to imagine the droids still in Perry aren't gonna like him trying to shut things down… Damage what you can as you go," I ordered, speeding myself up as I went hurtling up toward three scales blazing upwards like chip shaped rockets. There were exactly three Array Nodes positioned over where we were and each of the scales were angled ever so slightly. I couldn't be positive, but it did seem pretty likely that they were aiming to take out a single section of the array. "Swan… stick with the others, they can use that buff more than I can… I'm just gonna be a bit tired once this is all done… Help Red and Miss Mist get the hostages over the side and down to the ground as quickly as you can."

"On it buddy, you do your part, we'll do ours," Silver said before anyone else could hop into the conversation. "Dusk, you in position? I got you locked on my minimap."

I zoned their conversation out, watching my buffs as closely as I could to see when Perfect Resonance would drop off. I pushed myself as fast as I could, easily going upwards of 300, maybe 400 miles per hour as I sped toward the closest of the scales. At a certain point, the speed became nearly impossible to tell thanks to Swansong's song reducing the stamina cost almost completely and the sky around me provided little context clue to just how fast I was going. I had caught up to it in only 30 seconds, pulling my fist back and throwing a 100% Gravity Punch while the buff still lingered. To my surprise though, the attack seemed to reverberate back, hitting me hard as I let go of my flight and started falling.

I didn't let this slow me down, even as a wave of pain passed through my body. Instead, I rewound, sending myself back 20 seconds and turning my speed up higher. I threw myself up higher into the air, releasing my flight as I began to fall along the outside of the scale. As I fell, I activated Area Sense, letting my zone penetrate into the scale. After just a few seconds passed, I could feel a significant weak spot right near the bottom of the massive device, a spot that should damage the booster system launching the scale up and into the air.

I rewound again. Sending myself back 30 seconds and putting on the speed even faster this time, wanting to preserve every last second of the residual buff as I could. I whipped my body around, making a sharp arc as I aimed right for the spot I had felt. Perfect Resonance was starting to flash, the exact same way one of Swansong's buffs did when they were about to fall off. I had maybe 15 seconds to take advantage of it still, and I damn sure intended to use it.

"They are weakest at the center of the scale's base, right near the main boosters, hit them as hard as you can there," I called out, not wanting to keep this bit of knowledge from them and hoping it would keep me from having to chase down any more of the scales.

If I had topped 400 miles per hour when I first chased the scale down, I must have added on an extra 200 miles per hour as I threw the punch, crashing into the bottom of the scale as I hit it with a 100% Gravity Punch. There was an impossibly loud CRUNCH that reverberated through the air as the scale went crashing off to the side. Its bottom went careening upwards with the force of my strike, the multiplied knockback causing the massive metallic scale to start tumbling over itself as it went hurtling down and toward the bay.

"New Achievement! Ten Mile High Club! You took an enemy to pound town over ten miles up in the air. You know, while there are plenty of Augments with flight powers, you'd be surprised to find out only a handful of them are really equipped to fly and deal damage at the same time and that's not even starting on how many can really get up this high without freezing. This is a Platinum Level achievement. Reward: You have received an A+:Tier loot box."

I twisted in midair, trying not to lose my momentum as I reignited my flight, only now realizing it did feel perfectly pleasant even though I knew that it should be well below freezing at this altitude. With my action bar gone, I had to assume that my Pocket Climate passive was simply, well, working, though with each breath I took, I knew I wouldn't be able to stay up here long, even with the controlled temperature. I pushed my speed as fast as I could, trying to bury the curiosity of my missing action bars as I focused on the task at hand.

I could have gone for the next closest, but the farthest of the scales was quickly closing in on its target floating impossibly in midair. I had only ever seen one of these things from afar and from the ground they looked closer to floating oversized cubes spread out in a grid-like pattern across the entire world.

As I rocketed toward them, Perfect Resonance began flashing faster before falling off of my status bar. I knew it wasn't going to last forever, but knowing I was without the massive boosts it was providing meant I had to be as strategic as possible with the last few moves I was going to be able to make. I was surprised to find that they were simply oversized cubes floating in midair.

No noticeable boosters were keeping them afloat, no intricate patterns or mysterious written language was scrawled all over them, providing some minor hint to their origin. They were just shining silver panels with perfectly smooth edges leading to perfect, sharp looking edges. The sun glinted off of them and I had to briefly close my eyes as I pushed myself even faster, rocketing above the scale closing in on it. I had no idea what would happen if one of the Array Nodes got destroyed and the thought of letting it happen just to see was pretty strictly out of the question in the event that taking it out somehow interrupted my powers while I was so high above the ground.

"Pinky quick, knock those other two out, shit!" Freak's voice called out. Breaking through my concentration as I dodged around random scraps of metal that were being shed from the scale. "Loopie, you got one more coming your way!"

I had one more Superior Stamina Injector in my B.E.L.T., though even if I had more it wasn't like I could use them in rapid succession. If I was going to take out all of these, I was going to need to use Quantum Overclock, I was just going to have to hope it was enough. I twisted my body in midair, flipping my feet over as I approached the side of the Array Node. My feet made contact with it as I rapidly shifted my Personal Gravity, staring down at the scale rushing toward me as I held myself there for just a few seconds, ignoring the bite of cold in my lungs.

The city looked like… well it looked like a map from this high up and I shook my head out as I looked for the next closest scale. It was still at least a half mile below the scale on a crash course with the Array Node… I couldn't be positive it was going to work… but I had to try. With a slow, deep breath in, I maxed out Center of the Universe and then activated Launchpad.

I went hurtling off the Array Node, almost positive I felt the device shake under my feet as I pressed off of it. I cranked my speed up higher as I rushed toward the scale. It was entirely possible I was going to have to try this a few times to get it right, but all the same, I hoped my luck held out. I came at it from a slight angle, crashing into the top tip of it. Mentally, I had hoped I'd be able to activate everything rapidly enough, but even then, I felt the pain in my arm as my fist crashed into the metal of the scale.

See, while I knew the scale's biggest weak spot was right near the engine, I had gotten a good feeling for the inner structure during that solitary pass. If I hit it from the top, going just fast enough, I was almost positive I could forcibly redirect the scale mid flight. I threw every last bit of my remaining Stamina into a Gravity Punch and then immediately materialized my Superior Stamina Injector. I jammed it into my arm and immediately began activating Paradox Chain, allowing my strike to get followed up with three more powerful afterimage strikes.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

The top of the scale started tilting, tipping it's way over until the engines pointed itself at a sideways angle. It wasn't enough and I grit my teeth in frustration as my stamina nearly bottomed out yet again. I activated Quantum Overclock and pushed myself faster, chasing the tip of the scale. I could feel my breathing getting tight, the higher altitude starting to cause each breath to come with a sharp sting.

"Get… fucking… down there," I growled out under my breath, lining up my strike as I looked past the scale and down at the next one hurtling upward. I threw a 70% Gravity Punch, taking advantage of the extra stamina that came from Quantum Overclock as the tip of the scale pointed further downward. It was just too far down and I quickly rewound, scaling my punch back to only 60%.

I could hear creaking in the scale as I flew up and away from it, watching carefully as it careened down and into the lower scale. Luck was going my way as a loud series of explosions went off and then I immediately realized why them now collapsing toward the ground wasn't as lucky as I had thought it was.

"Come on think…" I thought to myself, watching the conjoined scales plummeting down toward the ground and the city below it. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the fourth scale that had managed to lift off from the Pangolin and I took in another deep, painful breath.

"Fuck! There's another one," Pinky announced, yet another scale lifting off from the droid's back.

"We got the next batch of hostages out, Miss Mist has located the last room, we're trying to navigate them out now," Swansong said.

"Dusk ain't- huh, oh uh… So these fuckin' droids really ain't happy we're in here… We need to clear this place out asap. Red, if you're on the ground and people ain't trying to make a goddamn run for it, put the fear of the south into them, I don't know how much this boom is gonna be contained," Silver added in.

"That'd be my pleasure," Red Lasso responded.

Everything felt like it slowed down in that moment and my eyes darted between the various targets. I needed to take everything out at once, and we needed to stop Perry before it could get any farther into the city. It had only just started to crawl out of the bay, its head pushing in between two large buildings that I knew had to have far too many people inside of them. We had to move fast, otherwise, even if the explosion didn't go off, a lot of people were going to die.

"Everyone, get out of the way of the back, move to the evacuation of everything and everyone!" I ordered and didn't wait to hear confirmation from the group. I trusted them to listen, it was an odd feeling to admit, but they hadn't let me down so far.

I put on the speed, watching as the first Exhaustion debuff appeared on my status bar. I moved in a wide arc, moving myself into a collision course with the tumbling scales as I tried to eyeball the trajectory as much as possible. I activated Earthbound Impact, being at just the right angle to keep myself hurtling down and into the massive object. As I hit it, I reactivated Quantum Overclock, took a deep breath before punching down and into the mass with a 90% Gravity Punch.

The metal went flying away from my feet as I rushed to catch myself with Personal Gravity Laws. I held my breath, watching closely as the metallic meteor went hurtling down and toward Perry. As it went, it crashed first into the fourth scale that had been launched before and explosion went off, the extra piece getting knocked out of the air. The force of the impact slowed the conjoined mass I had struck, redirecting its trajectory ever so slightly as it tumbled down and into the next scale down.

I was rushing down toward the ground, trying to limit how much of the last 40% of my Stamina that I used. The debris crashed down and into the back of Perry, a large series of explosions going off across the back of the beast. There was an ear grinding screech that rang out as its foot froze mid step, the Pangolin freezing in place just as the two buildings around its head started to shift, their foundations struggling to hold in place while large panels of glass went tumbling down toward the ground.

"Perry's not moving!" Pinky announced, a cheer clear in her voice.

"What's the status, Dusk? Have you been able to leech enough energy off that this explosion might be a bit more controlled?" I asked, flying down and toward the frozen droid.

<Silver: Hey bud, Dusk didn't want me to say anything but uh… you might want to get in here… it ain't quite as simple as he made it out to be. I think Perry gettin' frozen stopped the droids from deployin' though, I got a path cleared for yah.>

<Loophole: On the way, is the way to go obvious?>

<Silver: Just follow the claw marks.>

"Get those buildings around the head evacuated, scales have gone dormant and so has Perry, I think we did it guys," I said. I darted down and into Perry, hitting the ground and taking off in a run to conserve my stamina.

It took me 30 seconds to follow the very clear path the Silver had left, finding him standing in the center of a doorway, a cowboy hat perched atop a wolf head as he gave me a sharp nod of acknowledgement. He pointed a claw over his shoulder and I came to a stop as he let me past. Duskbreaker's feet were sunken down and into the shadows as several tendrils connected him to a large black device spinning at the center of a round room.

There was a deep black aura that surrounded it and a deep indigo color that barely emanated off of it, pulsing slowly. Duskbreaker was practically glowing a shade of orange that almost looked like my jacket and sweat was pouring down his face.

"You… what are… what are you doing here?" he asked, struggling to get the words out as his eyes moved from me and then over to Silver as the realization hit him. "That's not what I asked…"

"Sorry buddy, I know we just met but I ain't exactly feel comfortable tossing you out into the bay like that, not without a second opinion and Loophole's been on top of this since it started," Silver responded, shifting back down into his human form.

"Huh… wait, I thought you were going to let out the explosions into your shadow area?" I asked and Duskbreaker let out a grunt.

"I… I did but… well…" he started to say before lifting one of his feet up and out of the shadowy depths they had been plunged into. Or… he would have lifted it out if there had still been a foot there. "I let out a small burst of it just after Perry stopped moving… I knew it was going to do a bit of damage but… I… I wasn't… wasn't expecting this much… It also froze my ability to sink any further into the shadows… so… so I figured if Silver could throw me far enough…" he grunted out, pushing his leg back down into the shadows and his tendrils pulsed once again.

"Wait… did you know you'd be hurting yourself this much by absorbing the energy? I thought you could let it off in small bits... What the hell was your plan? To just… to just blow yourself up?" I asked, staring down at the ground and then back up to him. He was clearly struggling to keep his eyes from spilling over, though given the carnage that was his foot, I doubted anyone could really blame him.

"Tyrant made me do terrible things… he made me kidnap kids Loophole… Once he knew they could be used to lure Swansong… he had me keep them stockpiled, waiting to drop them off when he was ready to spring his trap… I let so many people get hurt… I could have told someone… anyone what his plan was but… but I didn't Loophole," Duskbreaker said, his voice breaking. "I can do this… I know I can… It will make up for… for at least some of what I've done."

"That's…" I started to say as I stared at him. He wanted to atone for crimes, crimes I hadn't even been aware he had committed but… "That wasn't you Dusk, Tyrant was controlling you."

He shook his head hard. "His ability… it's… it's… it's only as strong as it is when you're right near him… The effects linger for a good while when you got away from him, but they weren't nearly as strong… I… I was a coward Loophole… I kept going back-"

"Buddy, that asshole kidnapped your parents, being a coward woulda meant leaving them behind and runnin'," Silver said, just as Duskbreaker collapsed down to one knee, the light around him growing brighter.

"You… you… you need to... to get me to the roof and... and toss me now," Dusk announced and I shook my head furiously.

"No… I…" I started to say before I stopped myself. He needed to hear something, but more importantly, he needed to remember it. I rewound time, finding myself falling through the air as the group of scales careened down toward Perry. "Dusk! DO NOT try releasing the energy just yet, hold it just a bit longer!"

"I… how did you… I'm getting overloaded Loophole… If… If I don't release it into the shadows I… I'm-"

"I'll be there in a few seconds, just hold on a bit longer," I cut him off, speeding up as the explosions started going off along the Pangolin's back before any more of the scales could be launched. "Freak, I need you to follow me in, the rest of you, work on evacuating the buildings that Perry is about to knock over."

<Loophole: Your power… just how much damage can you take and still hold onto your armor?>

<Freakenstein: Well the Tyrant asshole tried to blow me up and I got up without a scratch, though I only got one more charge of it before the new day rolls over at 6, why?>

<Loophole: Duskbreaker's about to do something really stupid, and I think that's more up our alley than his. Think you can be our tank one more time today?>

<Freakenstein: Please, that's what I'm here for buddy.>

I dropped the chat from my window as I hit the ground hard inside of Perry, rolling as I landed and quickly jumped back to my feet as I rushed down the now familiar path down to the core room. I could hear Freak's heavy footfalls after a loud BOOM echoed out upon his own landing but didn't look back to confirm it.

I had no idea if this was going to work, but I knew I had to try. I burst into the room, rushing past Silver as he shifted back down into his human form.

"I'm gonna need you to wolf back up. Create a path right up to Perry's back and get up there. Stand by until I give you the next part of the plan," I ordered and Silver was already starting to shift back up.

"Wolfin' back up," he snarled, not even waiting for an explanation before he crouched low, then launched himself upward as his claws tore through the metallic city like it was sheer cloth. Duskbreaker looked at me, the shine around him growing even bright as he winced in pain.

"What are you-"

"I know what you're about to do Dusk, it's going to kill you if you go through with it," I said, cutting him off and looking back over toward Freak. "Follow Silver up, but stay a floor below him at least… I need to be able to reach you."

"On it Loopie," Freak said, heading right for the hole Silver had made.

"I… I'm the only… only one who can do this," Dusk struggled to say, another pulse of light reverberating down his tendrils and amplifying the glow around him. "I have… I have to… to make up for-"

"Dying is easy Dusk, it makes things final… for you. Living and atoning for the things you've done? That's hard… But that's what a Guardian would do," I said, holding out a hand. "I have a plan… you just have to trust me… you just have to trust that you have a team that can help you with this. Put a tendril around my wrist, I don't know if I'm gonna need to be touching you or not, so better to have it done already."

Duskbreaker hesitated, staring briefly at my hand and then back at the core before he swallowed hard.

"I… it won't-"

"MAN JUST TRUST LOOPIE ALREADY!" Freak yelled out from his spot just above us, his voice echoing down the misshapen hole in the ground. I could still feel him on the edge of my zone and I could barely put into words just how much I appreciated the immediate trust he seemed to put into me. A moment later, slow enough that I almost wanted to tell him to hurry up, Duskbreaker put a tendril around my wrist.

"Silver, lasso Freak and get ready to toss, I don't know how delayed this is going to be, but for once I really hope this ability creation works exactly as I want it to," I said, concentrating back onto my Quantum Mechanics knowledge before thinking, "Come on Angie… make it happen."

"Well since you asked so nicely…" She said, trailing off before the window appeared.

"New Ability! Decoherence Protocol! Reality is stable because we agree where things are. But just for a second, you disagree. By tapping into local quantum decoherence and imposing your own localized observation field, you can force an explosion's outcome to be redirected to a secondary location. You don't let one person dodge the explosion, you convince the universe it went off somewhere else with just a bit of a delay. The moment an explosion starts to go off within your Local Area, you can redirect it to one singular target within your Local Area. The explosion will be delayed for 10 seconds before going off. This ability costs 35% Stamina and has a 2 hour cooldown. This ability adds one Exhaustion debuff to your status bar."

"Dusk, let the explosion go off, now!"

"What, are you-"

"NOW!" I yelled and he jumped ever so slightly, small bursts of light already pockmarking his skin, making it clear he couldn't hold onto the energy any longer. He listened and the light began to grow as I looked up at Freak. "I really hope you can take this. Silver, toss him as far into the bay as you can!"

I activated Decoherence Protocol, the orange glow that had been growing into a crescendo of blinding light rushed up the tendril and through my body like a blazing hot wave. I had unconsciously raised a hand up, pointing up the hole toward Freak as the bright orange light shot like a laser up to hit him. The glow enveloped him, little flashes of fire sparking off his side as the glow fully overtook him.

A moment later, I could see as Freak was yanked from his spot blocking out the sun above us. I heard him actually whoop with joy as he was tossed off and out into the bay. Duskbreaker collapsed to the ground, his tendrils sinking back into the shadow as a small sob escaped him. Only a few seconds later, a loud BOOM reverberated through the air, Perry's body began shaking violently as the sounds of energy all around us died, leaving us in an eerily quiet room. I briefly checked my squad list, confirming that while his shield was entirely gone, Freak was 100% okay after taking the blast. There was a small stack of notifications that were added to the side of my interface that I ignored for the moment, knowing I'd have time to get to them once things were a bit more settled. There was the distant sound of cheering that filled the empty space only a few seconds later as I walked over to Duskbreaker, extending a hand out to him.

"Come on Dusk, there's still so much work to do. Time to get to it."

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