Pinky and Freakenstein were still out of communication range inside of The Common Ground when Swansong and I stepped through our Phase Lounge and into the Guardian Guild Hall. When I finally announced that I was heading for the bookstore, after some prompting from Miss Mist who insisted she wanted some quiet to go back to sleep, Swansong decided to follow along.

"Ah Mr. Loophole, Miss Swansong, a pleasure to see you this morning," Mr. Gliebs, the guild quartermaster, said as we stepped out and into the quiet hall. "I have some paperwork prepared for when you've finalized your Level 20 stats Mr. Loophole, please, when you have some time I'd like to get things in motion for your initial merchandising options, we've already had quite a few queries about you."

"Wait… really?" I asked, stopping short before we could immediately head for the exit. "How does- No… No… can't get distracted."

"And I wouldn't be authorized to fully explain it to you until you had everything finalized anyway, rules are rules sir," Mr. Gliebs said, turning to stack several glass mugs onto a wooden shelf behind his desk. "I shall be here when you're ready."

"Right," I said with a nod, looking over to Swansong, "Let's hit the bookstore first, then we can check the resale shop."

"Sounds good," she responded, her voice somewhat subdued.

As far as I knew, she hadn't actually been to the shop in a few days at this point and she was sitting on nearly as many credits as I was. Between all the loot boxes and taking down the Pangolin, I had just shy of 55,000 credits. Maybe it was impulsive, but I intended to use as much of it as possible on as many different books as I could.

I might not have been the biggest gamer before I had gotten Augmented but at this point I was starting to get the hang of it. My action bars had been my biggest limiter, keeping me from making every ability idea I could think of just because I knew I'd have to remove one of my other favorite abilities just to do so. With those gone, even I could see the possibilities. I had a handful of ideas I wanted to see if I could find some books on, and Jon gave me a small list of things to look for specifically before leaving the Command Room, intent on finding something to eat himself.

The city certainly hadn't returned back to normal just because we had taken out the Pangolin, though New Yorkers being New Yorkers, it would take more than a robotic siege on the city to stop the city that never sleeps and it took the police no time at all to start making their presence known again after Perry went crashing down. Jon was willing to take the chance, hoping that Tio's was back open and serving breakfast.

We were just about to make a b-line for the bookshop, stepping out of the alleyway that led to the Guild Hall when I heard a gasp come from the opposite direction.

"Holy shit, that's Loophole."

"Wait, re- ohmygodyou'reright!"

Amusingly enough Swansong seemed to jump almost the exact same way as I did the moment these excited voices reached us, even if she hadn't been either named or-

"And Swansong's there too!!! Ohmygod, um, hello excuse-" the second voice started when something cut them off and I finally turned their direction.

While I was expecting just a pair of Augments, there were actually three standing there, two of them sporting awestruck looks on their faces that left me feeling just a little bit uncomfortable while the third stood between them, her fists firmly jabbing into both of the men's guts.

"It's rude to stare guys," the small girl said, her face hidden behind a nearly full face mask that only showed a disapproving frown. I looked between them quickly, scanning each one as I went, starting first with the girl at the center.

"Flickerstep. Level 14 Blink Duelist. Squad: Sunshine Barrage."

"Hindsight. Level 13 Tactical Archivist. Squad: Sunshine Barrage."

"Molten Jack. Level 13 Ignition Bard. Squad: Sunshine Barrage."

"I apologize for my friends, I thought their geeking had been restricted to the older Augments but apparently they've got zero manners where most anyone is concerned," Flickerstep said with an exacerbated sigh.

"Oh come on Flicker, you were right there with us looking up footage of the mecha fight last night! Talk about a friggin' show of power, not to mention just how damn close he already is to-" Molten Jack said, only staying out when Flickerstep reached out and placed a hand on his red and black clad chest.

"Not the time Jack, I'm sure Loophole is a busy man, he doesn't need to-"

"No, it's okay," I said, finally able to get a word in as I turned their way and took a step forward. "You guys uh… you saw the fight?"

"Saw it? We're basically studying it," Hindsight said, the glass socketed into his mask seemed to shine as a wide smile spread over the lanky Augment's face. "You move so fluidly, and yet strike so powerfully, I wonder just what that power of yours do- ow!"

"Don't be rude, you wouldn't like it if a stranger randomly started to pry into your secrets, would you?" Flickerstep said with a sigh before she turned her attention to me. "That said, it's also rude to lie. Loophole, it's a pleasure to meet you, you've garnered quite the reputation."

"I… have?" I said slowly hearing Swansong stifle a giggle behind me. I looked over my shoulder at her, and she immediately stopped her eyes dropping to the floor in a hurry. "Sorry… just not used to standing out, it's kind of a new experience."

Molten Jack let out a bark of a laugh. "Really? Like, you're number 1 by a friggin' mile and you keep showing up on camera making these damn speeches. Figured you woulda been like, valedictorian or some shit."

"Not even close," I said, immediately glad that Jon wasn't in the command room. He'd have almost certainly said something about my lack of enthusiasm for school.

"From the stories he tells, it was a lack of enthusiasm for pretty much everything," Angie chimed in and I found myself unwilling to disagree with her.

"That said, it feels good helping people… even if things have gone pretty far sideways. How are you guys doing with Phase Two so far?" I asked and Hindsight bounced on his toes just slightly.

"We're definitely trying, hell Flicker is Ranked at 23 so she's the closest of us to hitting that Top Ten list you guys have been dominating so far, but it's not like any of us have been nearly as effective as you and the rest of that team of yours has become," he said with an enthusiastic smile.

"Every night when I see that friggin' highlight reel it just makes me want to train harder," Molten Jack agreed.

"Yeah… training is definitely something we need to keep focusing on. The Beach Bandits have us over the barrel a bit… though admittedly I'm kind of okay with them destroying SeaWorld," she said before looking at her teammates. "With that said, before these two fangirl any harder and before we have to start worrying about the next Token spawn, we should really get going. It was a pleasure meeting you Loophole."

"Yeah, of course… Actually, wait," I said, selecting each one of them one at a time and sending them each friend requests. "It's a rough world out there right now, it never hurts to have a few more friends you can call on."

"What really?!" Molten Jack practically squeaked, an odd sound coming out of the husky man as he reached over and smacked Hindsight on the shoulder. "We've got Loophole on our Friend's List, Sir Fuente is gonna be jealous as hell."

Flickerstep let out along, slow sigh as she reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Okay boys, let's go already…"

The three finally turned to leave, not before Hindsight jumped forward, insistent on shaking my hand before the three circled the fountain and headed down into the main square. Swansong and I briefly shared a look, her own face a mixture of confusion and amusement before we each laughed and continued onward.

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And so it was that we stood at the counter of the bookstore, Betty White asleep in her rocking chair right behind the counter with her usual smutty magazine open on her lap. We each pulled one of the binders out, really just clever disguises for a searchable database of the books in store and got to work.

I flicked through the settings for a few minutes, setting the Intelligence requirement up to 17. This time, instead of just leaving it at that, I went to the keyword selection and started typing up options, finding that like some other searchable interfaces I had experienced in the past, this one would offer suggestions based on what I was inputting. To that end, I added Elemental - Fire, Elemental - Electricity, Probability, Physics, Gravity, Sound and then selected an option that allowed it to ignore the filter requirements to show all of the rotating stock. There were certainly more options I could have left open given the versatility of my powerset, but I specifically wanted to start by looking for Level 6 upgrades to a few of my current stat blocks.

It reduced the listed stock on the page from a few hundred pages down to less than a single page worth of results. There were a few options that I quickly earmarked, including two of the books from the Rotating Stock. They were both pricey, with Gravitational Redline coming in at 12,500 credits for the Level 6 Gravity knowledge and Rules of Engagement, a book that would give me Level 6 Battlefield Tactics knowledge, costing 10,500. I certainly had the credits to cover both, though I also had the BOGO coupon ready at hand.

My Gravity based powers were already a staple to my powerset, and I didn't exactly see a reason for that to change any time soon and I had done that all with the skill only at Level 3. I would need to put 3 more points into my Intelligence to bring it up to the 16 threshold for the book. Between Jon's forward thinking to hold back on the stat application for the last two levels and the book only costing 12,500 credits, it was something I would have gone after even if I couldn't have scooped up the extra book for free.

Rules of Engagement drew my curiosity for a different reason though. Its Level 3 prerequisite cost 1,500 credits, so it wouldn't put a huge dent in my wallet after picking up the Level 6 book for free. While the book didn't exactly give me any examples just what the knowledge would do for me, just the description alone had me curious. How could Tactic knowledge not be good for a class called "Perfect Planner?" I had remembered Angie telling me once that increasing my intelligence score wouldn't actually make me smarter, but even still I felt like I was smarter. Just based on the name alone, it felt like applying Battlefield Tactics knowledge to my Local Area provided a plethora of possibilities for Passive bonuses.

There was a third book in the rotating stock that drew my interest, a book that would grant Level 9 knowledge in Paradox Assessment titled What Not to Expect When You're Expecting to Expect… Something. Mouthful of a name aside, I could only imagine what sort of abilities I could create by applying something in that particular field. The book also happened to cost 33,000 credits. As nice as it would be to have the book, with its hefty price tag and an Intelligence requirement of 42, it was well outside of my reach for a while.

That said, I quickly refined my search, eager to see if I could find the Level 3 or 6 variants of the knowledge and unfortunately came up empty. I was just about to ask Angie why they weren't there when I remembered the Intelligence setting on the filter. With a quick adjustment, the page updated, filling out the rest of the single page of results. I found the books I was looking for, the Level 3 one titled If-Then-When-Why and the Level 6 titled Multiple Choice Reality. Unfortunately not only did both of them require a far higher Intelligence score than I currently sat at, requiring 32 and 38 Intelligence respectively, they both sat with high price tags, at 11,000 and 22,000 respectively.

While I didn't necessarily plan to get them, I marked If-Then-When-Why along with the two rotating stock options to pick up from the shelf before I reset the Intelligence requirement and turned my attention to the rest of the listed books. There were unfortunately no fire based options, though I did already have Thermodynamic knowledge in my repertoire. It just might have been nice to have a way to redirect any blows that Hydramental were to throw my way. And while I had managed to create a skill that had let me redirect the shock of lightning his electrical form had sent my way, I was happy to see a book titled Static Field Awareness that would at least give me Level 3 Electrical Current knowledge for 5000 credits.

There were certainly a few books that fit into my other requirements, including a Level 3 book on Reverberation that came from the Sound filter I had put in place and a Level 3 book on Inertia Physics. A quick mental check confirmed that even if I bought both of the books at 4,000 and 7,000 credits each with the rest of the books I had put aside, I wouldn't necessarily empty out my entire wallet and that was enough for me to mark them as potential pick ups as well, though doing the math, I realized I probably wouldn't be dropping over 10,000 credits on a book I couldn't use for nearly a dozen levels and, with a bit of trepidation, I removed If-Then-When-Why from my tracked list just to put it out of my head.

I was just about to clear out the filters outside of the Intelligence limit, just to see what random options might have been available to me when I noticed Swansong murmuring to herself next to me, seemingly fidgeting with the binder but barely even using it. She hadn't even adjusted the first of the settings on the page just yet.

We hadn't been alone together in a while now, especially as the squad continued to grow and when we were traveling from the base to here, nothing had necessarily seemed out of the ordinary. But there was a palpable energy in the air now as we stood there with only a few inches separating us. It wasn't like she had overall been any different, though to be fair, getting kidnapped and nearly getting killed was enough to leave anyone a little bit scarred, especially with her Acceptance Matrix disabled.

"I'm-"

"Loophole-"

We both started to talk at the same time, turning from the barely touched bases to look toward each other, only for Swansong to jump slightly and look back down to the counter. Her hair draped down over her face as she shifted her weight. Silence overtook us again as I looked down toward her, trying to find the words for the guilt that I was feeling. It had been my fault that she had even been put in the position to be kidnapped in the first place, and past that… it had been me that had convinced her to shut off the one thing that might have been able to make this all just a bit easier.

"I'm sorry I convinced you to turn off your Acceptance Matrix… and sorry that I got you involved in all of-"

I was just about to really get into a good, spiraling rant to try and apologize for everything that had happened just because she had joined up with me when Swansong turned, pushed up onto her toes, and kissed me in a single, fluid motion. I felt myself briefly freeze as I felt a small jolt pass through my body, her lips lingering for a few seconds before she stepped back, her cheeks nearly as red as her hair.

"I-" I started to say, though I found myself coming up short as if my brain had reset.

"Thank you…" she said when I failed to continue, her eyes never leaving mine even as her cheeks continued to burn. "You saved my life last night… Everything was so overwhelming… I never actually stopped and said it…"

"I didn't-"

"You did… and please… let me finish. I'm not exactly good at these sorts of things," Swansong said, her hands grasping together. "I know this isn't the time for it… but honestly, I don't know when it's ever going to be time for it anymore with everything we've been pulled into. I know it's only been a few days and at first I wanted to tell myself it was just admiration for you. You jump into these fights, these situations, sometimes without a second thought… but there never seems to be an ulterior motive. Everything you've done so far... it's always just to protect people. Even those guys we bumped into before we got in here could see it… I think after last night I can finally admit that it's more than admiration… you… you're a real hero Loophole… and I kind of have a huge crush on you…"

I wasn't quite sure when it happened, but she had averted her eyes, looking toward the ground as she rambled longer and I found myself grateful that Jon had decided to go grab breakfast. I could feel the heat in my own cheeks and I, admittedly, wasn't exactly sure what to do. I had told both myself and Jon that I probably wouldn't do anything until she had actually spoken up, it was just who I was as a person, I hadn't expected it to happen so quickly, and I found myself mentally scrambling to say anything instead of letting the silence continue to linger.

"I…"

"You don't have to say anything now. I didn't say this to put you on the spot or anything like that," Swansong interrupted, finally looking back up at me. "I just… With everything going on and how quickly things keep changing, I needed to finally say it. At this point, who knows what's going to happen by this evening?"

"Codex has entered the Command Room, communication has been restored."

"Anyway... I'm not seeing any books that are immediately calling out to me, I think I'm going to go take a look in the resale shop. Meet me at The Common Ground after you're done with all your stats and stuff? Maybe Pinky and Freakenstein will be done by then and breakfast does sound pretty good before we have to go chasing down the next Ascension Token," Swansong said, taking a few steps backwards towards the door.

"O…k," I said slowly, still a bit stunned. "I'll uh… I'll catch yah in a few."

"She find something she like?" Jon asked, clearly in our direct chat as Swansong slipped through the door in a hurry.

"Something like that," Angie giggled maniacally, making me jump as I realized that while Jon might have missed it, she had been watching the whole time. "She finally told Loophole she has a crush on him."

"Oh damnit…" Jon groaned, "And here I bet Miss Mist she wouldn't go through with it."

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