Undisclosed Location

Time Until First Wave: 2 Years, 10 Months, 27 Days

"Okay guys… I'm going to try spinning it up in three… two… two and a half…."

"Come on Chris, that's not even how countdowns work, just hit the button already," Cal said, stepping forward and clicking the mouse when Christopher hesitated for a moment too long. The code on his screen started to move, the mouse turned into a loading icon and then… there was a pop and Christopher jumped out of his seat.

The server rack mounted in the corner of his garage had a sudden burst of smoke coming from the device and Christopher scrambled for the fire extinguisher he had kept nearby but unfortunately found its regular spot empty.

"Shit! Where's the fire extinguisher?! We need it quick!" he called out and the others looked around the garage in a panic. He found it near the open front door and groaned. "Who moved it over there!? Jeff, quick grab it!"

Jeff, having been standing almost dumbstruck, finally reacted, rushing for the safety device. He grabbed it up and dashed back toward the server rack. He went to activate it and…

"Pull the damn pin!!" Christopher hollered. Jeff fumbled with the pin for a minute before Cal shoved him out of the way, grabbing the device and wrenching the pin free. He lifted the hose and pointed it toward the blazing rack before pressing the trigger down. It took a moment, but the fire extinguished, leaving the three guys staring at the rack with various stages of grief.

Christopher spent a moment, waiting for it to cool down before he moved in closer to check the equipment. It was an old, old chassis, but the equipment inside had been the absolute best they could afford on the limited savings they had been able to scrape together… and in that small blaze of fire the components inside were clearly damaged, some even melted beyond repair.

They took their time still, pulling the chassis off the rack and standing around it, each of them looking at the mess with a wide range of emotion. Needless to say, none of them looked pleased. After a few minutes had passed, Cal and Jeff shared a look, each nodding before looking back to Christopher.

"Well fuck… that's the game then, even if we could afford another server, I think this proves this project is so far out of our leagues," Jeff muttered, pulling his glasses off and wiping them on the bottom of his shirt. "Maybe we should have, I don't know, started with something a little less ambitious."

"Seriously, who thought we could design a fully artificial, procedural system from the ground up?" Cal agreed, shaking his head in frustration. "I think I'm with Jeff, I think we gotta call it here."

"But… but you… why was the extinguisher over there?! Who moved it!?" Christopher demanded, staring between them, looking for something… anything to blame.

"Dude I don't know. That thing went up fast as shit. Like… in a way that almost literally shouldn't have been possible. This kind of technology might just be something way out of the range of what a few grand can buy and be built up by three dudes in a garage," Cal said, quelling Christopher before he could start trying to point fingers.

"Look Chris… we got bills to pay… We've been at this for six months with nothing to show for it… If you ever want to try something a bit.. you know, simpler, give us a holler, but I think Cal and I are done."

He could have begged, or bartered with them to stay, but Christopher knew it wouldn't do him any good. Cal and Jeff took a few moments, gathering up their gear from the garage and inside of the house.

Christopher walked over and fell back into his chair, watching as his two friends walked through the open garage door and toward their cars. He looked over at the server, teeth grit together in frustration. Truth was, while he might have wanted to consider some sort of weird, utterly pointless sabotage, he knew this was largely his fault. They could only afford so much without selling everything any of them owned, and he had gone maybe just a bit too overboard in trying to milk every last ounce of power as he could out of it.

Of course it was going to overheat in the poorly ventilated garage. It was a stupid, stupid risk to take, but he didn't have another place to put it. They had fans running, those were off now of course with the breaker tripping, but without being in a fully cooled area, trying to spin up a system that logically would have taken every last bit of power the server had to operate was bound to fail. He was just getting himself revved up to go into a real panic spiral when he heard a door open. A few steps echoed in the room before a hand fell on his shoulder.

"So… guessing the power up didn't go as planned?" A voice asked. Christopher looked up to her, finding Cassie looking down at him with a curious gaze, taking in the deep bags plastered under his eyes.

"I'd be sarcastic if I had the energy for it…"

"Well you still got me," Cassie said with a soft smile.

"You're not gonna quit on me because you have bills to pay like the others… are you?" Christopher asked tentatively and she let out a laugh.

"Don't look at me, I still have a day job… I mean I work from home, but I do still have a job I get paid for," she replied, quickly correcting herself. "And hey, the Kickstarter even got a few new pledges too."

"Yeah we can't exactly touch any of that money until we close the campaign though, and it's really only coming in based on your art… maybe we should have done this as one of those Patreon things… though it's not like we have much to offer anyone," Christopher groaned.

"Well isn't that because you still got a lot of stuff to get right before you can even offer some sort of shabby initial version? Jumping right to something of this scale was probably just a bit… much. The guys actually might be right, couldn't we just back up and build the game as a basic MMO?" Cassie asked, walking over toward the open garage, lifting a hand to wave at a car passing by.

"There's already been Superhero MMOs… and Fantasy MMOs… and shit, regular old slice-of-life MMOs. If we want it to stand out, if we want it to make a splash like no other game ever has… then it has to be unique. We need an edge and I thought creating a procedural power system would do that. I thought it would make the experience unique for every single player," Christopher said. It was the same argument he had been making for weeks now, even when both Cal and Jeff tried to get him to see reason. They all wanted to make the game together, to bring their love of comics and the silly idea they had at the comic shop to life, but Christopher simply wouldn't budge on the core concept.

"Well then what's the plan? Because if the server is as fried as the guys seemed to think it was…"

"Ugggghh," Christopher let out in a long, pained groan. "I have a few collectibles I've kept stored away… some comic books too… If I sold them, I could probably scrape enough together to buy a new server, but I still can't do this level of project on my own and there's no way it would be anywhere close to as powerful as what we just had. Shit, I had to reach out to a few people online even with Jeff's skills to get the initial learning algorithms built."

"Well you could always reach back out to them? I've been exchanging some of the initial versions of my sketches with a pen pal of mine over in Japan, she seemed really interested in what we were working on. I know it's a long shot but I could ask if she has any friends or knowledge on programming artificial intelligences if you want me to," Cassie offered. "After all, it's always better to have a team behind you."

Wildcard Assembly's Squad Base,

Multiple Locations

Current Phase Points:

91295

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

7

End of Phase Two: 27

D:11H:15M:39S

"Okay guys, we've got three tokens and a shit ton of-"

"Loot time. Loot time. LOOT TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIME!" Pinky called out, interrupting Jon mid-sentence before throwing her arms up in the air. Her hands rustled past her bright blonde hair, pulled into a set of braids on either side of her head instead of the ponytail she had previously been keeping it in. She fell back onto the oversized couch that sat in the large lowered pit at the center of our lounge next to BrainCraft, who only seemed to get distracted from his tablet in the brief moment she made impact with the cushion.

Things had changed quite a bit overnight with the base. With the addition of Miss Mist and Duskbreaker to the squad, the base leveled up to Level 3 and we were granted just a bit more space to be allocated. Jon, with Swansong and, surprisingly, Freakenstein's input, rearranged things to accommodate our growing team.

The pit that had once only hosted two separate staircases and matching couches ringing the edges now split off into four staircases, the pit having been widened to add in two extra couches to accommodate the larger roster of the squad.

"Pinky, we haven't added a single token since… well shit, before the attack on the Pangolin… Loophole hasn't even added his damn stat points or his new Ability Augmentation for some stupid reason… Don't you-"

"They're literally not going anywhere, Loophole's a big boy and can take care of his stat points after this, and we've been waiting since last night to open these loot boxes because someone insists it's a better idea to do that instead of throwing caution to the wind," Pinky shot back, cutting Jon off once again. Freakenstein let out a guffaw of a laugh as he walked from the kitchen, having grabbed a large glass of orange juice out of the fridge.

"I'm with Pinky, I got a damn S+ box, I want to see what's gonna be in it and Loopie insisted on waiting to use his Luck Bomb thingamajig," Freak said, stepping over the couch and taking a seat next to Miss Mist as she sat up from being sprawled out on it, scooching over to make room for him and rubbing at her eyes.

"When did we get OJ?"

"Brought some on my way in, shit's so nice being connected right back to my Safe House. There's this bodega 'round the corner from my place so figured I'd grab some for the base. You can never go wrong with a good glass of OJ," he said, holding the glass up. Once he caught her staring at it he let out another laugh. "It's for the base, Misty, help yourself."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Miss Mist's body erupted into a cloud that floated up and behind the couch before reforming, her hands rubbing together as she wandered toward the kitchen. Like all of the others in the room, she was wearing her normal mask, though unlike the others who had donned their entire costumes, she had on an overly large shirt that hung down to her knees.

This was the scene I took in as I walked back into the enlarged lounge from the hallway that had connected to our base bathroom. We had gotten up bright and early to chase down the first Ascension Tokens of the day, though Miss Mist had still been fast asleep at the center of the base when we had split up to track them down. I was honestly actually surprised to see her awake after she near immediately passed out the moment we brought her back to the squad base.

To be fair, she had been awake for the better part of forty hours while she had been trapped in a permanent state of using her mist form. She only managed to keep it up because her gear increased her stamina recovery the lower her stamina got. Meaning she was able to just barely recover enough to maintain the form without expanding and getting crushed by the small box she had been forced into.

I felt a bit sheepish over the fact that I hadn't touched my Level 17 or 18 upgrades, but with the Acceptance Matrix off, something Freakenstein opted to do almost immediately after hearing that it got rid of the time limits that came with the usual level ups, I put it off in favor of taking a mental break from the chaos that had come with the game. I resolved myself to take care of it after we handled both the loot boxes and Ascension Tokens, especially given the fact that once we did use the tokens, we'll have inserted our first ten tokens and most of us would be getting an extra level out of it.

"How's the skill lookin' Loopie, we able to Luck Bomb this shit already and open stuff up?" Freak asked, having been the first one to notice my reentry.

"Just refreshed," I said, dropping down into the pit and taking a seat next to Swansong. She looked over at me briefly before quickly averting her eyes.

She had been even quieter than usual after what could only be described as a near death experience. I hadn't noticed it during Hydramental's ranting, especially since we had been disconnected from our interfaces due to the broken device that BrainCraft was still trying to reverse engineer, but Swansong's health had dropped down to a single remaining lifepoint when she had finally activated the Perfect Resonance ability that came from her Hidden Power.

Pinky swiped her hand forward, two loot boxes appearing ahead of her before Freakenstein followed, his pile having two more than hers, matching the four I materialized from my own B.E.L.T.. Although Freak and I had the same number of boxes, technically one of mine was an S+:Tier Squad Base loot box, meaning Freak ended up with the most loot boxes from our assault on the massive Pangolin that's body was still laying on the edge of the Financial District.

"You guys are getting way too damn many of these boxes," Miss Mist said, hopping over the couch with her glass of juice as she settled back into her spot. She held up a hand, a single box appearing in front of her. "Up until you guys showed up, we maybe got a few boxes every other week and I think it took like, two months before any one in the wave got an S+... and here you guys have three of them just sitting at the ready."

I broke my gaze from her and looked back. Sure enough, other than the S+ box Freak had received and the Squad Base one that had come from my jacket's Lucky Charm feature upgrading an S:Tier, there was also an S+:Tier box sitting in front of Duskbreaker. It was the only box he had, but the shining box was impossible to miss given that it was the only type of loot box that looked outright different from the others.

"The bomb absorption?" I asked and Duskbreaker nodded.

"Technically "survived" an attack that should have obliterated me a million times over," Duskbreaker explained, reaching forward to open it.

"Wait," I said, stopping him just before he could touch it. I took in a slow, deep breath and concentrated on my Luck Bomb ability. It had originally been one of the few abilities that I didn't need to have on my ability bar to use, though that had gone out the window since the previous night. Neither Angie nor Jon were sure what to make of that, though I knew it happened in the brief moment that I rewound time even while I was stuck in the Dead Zone that Hydramental had deployed.

I shook the thought from my head as I felt the ability, thinking about my desire for all of our loot boxes to provide gear or items that would be outright beneficial to us. The ability had only recently been upgraded to let me better know just how effective using it for my desired outcome would be. It was like a swirling feeling in the pit of my gut that just felt right, though my senses magically put a number to that feeling. This specific outcome had a 90% likelihood to work in our favor if I used it and I pulled the trigger.

"Okay, that should do the trick, remember we each got a reroll with Codex if yah need it," I said and Pinky immediately let out a whoop of a cheer.

"Remember I have to reroll it within 30 seconds of opening, make the decision fast if you do have an item you don't want," Jon explained.

"Wait guys, I know we all wanna go wild, but Loopie, open up that Squad one first, that one is for all of us, ain't it?" Freak said, reaching across the staircase and shoving my shoulder just enough that I bumped into Swansong. I quickly righted myself, looking around at the expectant gazes of the others before shrugging and reaching for the ornate Squad Base Loot Box.

There was a flash of light before a window opened in my vision, listing only a single item. I let out a low whistle before swiping forward and sending the window into the holographic display directly in the center of the pit's table.

"Relocator Panel. Rare Squad Base Upgrade. Install this upgrade into an available Squad Display Case to unlock Relocator Panel's on all Base Exits. When installed, these panels allow any Squad member to exit through any Squad Base Exit by scanning through the relocator panel, when used members may not scan back through to their original location for one hour, including through Safe House exits. Warning: This upgrade requires a Level 5 Squad Base to install. Your base is currently: Level 3."

"Boooo we can't even use that yet," Pinky said, crossing her arms in frustration before jabbing a finger over toward Duskbreaker. "Besides, Dusky can portal us around now."

"It still takes time…" Duskbreaker responded, moving his hand the rest of the way forward and clicking on his box.

"A lot of teams would kill for that upgrade so honestly I say just hold onto it for now, you can never have enough travel options," Miss Mist said with a nod of approval. "If you guys start running jobs in the guild hall you could probably get this place upgraded in a week or two… though then again, my frame of reference might be off…"

"I'm not saying it's bad… just feels like we would have gotten something a bit more immediately usable," Pinky said with a shrug before she followed Duskbreaker's lead, reaching for her loot boxes, stopping only briefly to look over at BrainCraft. "We really need to get you into the field more so that you don't miss out on all the gains we are getting…"

"I'll manage, I'll have my day to shine, especially if I can reverse engineer any of this stuff you all collected," he said without looking up from his tablet.

"Holy shit… this cloak is amazing…" Duskbreaker muttered, a flash of light before his trenchcoat disappeared and a long violet cloak appeared over his shoulders and tucked under his seated position with the hood pulled up and over his head. "It both doubles the strength of the shadows directly connected to me and lets me make shadows appear even in lighted areas. Plus, it's doubling my Ingenuity… that might actually speed up my portals a bit…"

"Ahhhh okay, enough talk, let's open stuff up," Pinky squealed, finally grasping the first of her boxes.

The others were just as eager and I couldn't help but follow as I looked at the three boxes I had remaining. While I might have waited to do it last in the past, I decided to grab the S:Tier first, leaving the two A+ boxes on the table.

"Metallic Skin. Diamond Tier Equippable Undershirt. So, just a heads up, I'd probably wear a shirt under this one still. This undershirt is made, as described, out of a thin, form fitting metal that should feel like cloth. Look, don't ask me how it works, it just does, I just can't imagine Axio somehow also managed to fully get rid of the chafing. +15 to Toughness, +5 to Strength. This shirt comes with the Blunted feature."

"Blunted. Take 20% reduced damage from all physical based attacks."

It had been the only item in the S:Tier, though it did also come with an additional 15,000 credits. The shirt was definitely an upgrade to the Spotter's Tank that I was currently wearing, though Angie's warning about chafing, whether it was a joke or not, did at least stop me from immediately equipping it, even if I wasn't going to have Jon reroll it. I turned to the first A+ box and clicked it. The first of the two items in the box was one I had gotten before, a Beacon of Knowledge Bookshop: BOGO Coupon, while the other was a belt.

"Giant Slayer Belt. Platinum Tier Equippable Belt. I want to make a comment about how this belt is going to look, but as far as I can tell it's pretty damn basic. That said, I think you'll be pretty happy with the stats. +6 to Strength, +3 to Dexterity, +1 to Toughness. This belt comes with the Underdog feature."

"Underdog. This feature grants you increased damage when you're fighting outside of your weight class. IF your enemy is higher level than you are, for every level difference between you and your enemy, deal an additional 10% of all damage types. This increase is applied to the total after all other percentile increases are accounted for."

While I might have scoffed at the option for a new belt just a day prior when I wouldn't have given up my Belt of the Action Hero for anything just because of the Action Star feature, I wasn't quite as stuck on that now. Given the complete disappearance of my Action Bars, I didn't quite need the feature that would expand them any longer. I almost had to laugh, even when I was trying to not think about the sudden disappearance, even the random loot I received was trying to put it back front and center.

I once again shook the thought from my head as I turned to my last box. Only a moment after I clicked it, there was a bright glow of light that surrounded me and Pinky let out a groan.

"Oh come on… you got a Scroll of Level Up… didn't you?" She said, just as the message flashed across my vision.

"Congratulations! You have reached Level 19. You will need to apply your stat and ability selections for Levels 17 and 18 before applying these upgrades."

"This is ridiculous, I was just starting to catch up and now you're two– oh, wait," Pinky was just gearing up to complain when her hand bumped into her last loot box, causing a similar glow of light to surround her. "Well then, guess I can't complain after all."

"Good," I said with a smile, rubbing my hands together as I materialized the Ascension Token that I had hunted down first thing this morning. The others looked over at me curiously for only a moment before Freakenstein and Pinky both materialized the ones they each had. "Now let's get these dropped in, might as well proc the Powerleveler gain while we're at it, don't yah think?"

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