Six Rivers National Forest,

Orleans

, California

Town:

Unclaimed

Region:

Claimed by Miscreant Squad:

The Colony

Current Phase Points:

98295

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

10

End of Phase Two: 27

D:10H:05M:23S

"You know… logically I guess I sort of understood what you meant when you said you guys were dealing with giant insects and all that… but…"

"But you weren't expecting giant ant hills?" Pinky laughed.

"But I wasn't expecting giant ant hills," I admitted.

"Yeah… it's kinda freaky, I'd advise just staying away from the entrances. Unlike Clockwork Tyrant, The Colony seems to be holding to Axio's schedule and isn't really doing too much as long as we steer clear from their hive sites."

"What's this we you're talking about? I've been running up and down the damn coast here since this phase started while you've been sitting in your little den of electronics!" Pinky shot back, clearly teasing BrainCraft.

I had ended up spending far too long talking with Paul, though to be fair, Mr. Gleibs hadn't been joking when he said there were already quite a few queries in place. I ended up having to go through a dozen different potential pieces of merchandise the system already had suggested for me. There were two different shirts that I ended up approving, one that I liked with a clover embedded directly into an L as a logo, and one that Jon insisted on that looked like a classic comic book cover… that just happened to be about me.

On top of the shirts, I also approved both a charm and a keychain that looked nearly identical to the silver horseshoe pendant hanging from the zipper of my jacket. It wasn't necessarily a ton of immediate options, but it was a decent enough start and Paul insisted that I'd start seeing my stuff popping up around the city in no time.

There had been roughly thirty minutes before the next token would spawn when I met up with the others on their way back to the base. Pinky was in an overly chipper mood, throwing shots at Freak as they went before BrainCraft hurried us back into the main lounge area.

Apparently, while Jon had been helping me with the initial decisions around my merch, he had also been scheming with BrainCraft about how to handle the rest of the day and I couldn't exactly argue with their plan.

Freakenstein had proven relatively reliable at finding the general area where each Ascension Token spawned, meaning we really didn't need four of us in the city hunting them down.

While Hydramental was certainly still up to something, all of the remaining droids in the city had seemingly retreated. I had thought it was curious earlier in the morning when we had gone out for the first token of the day and even took the time to fly over toward the Astoria Power Plant to confirm that it was still marked as a Droid Forge, which it was. We would definitely have to take time to tackle it, as well as hunt down the rest of the forges in the city, but until Miss Mist was ready for it, we decided to hold back.

So, without needing all of us in the city to track down the token and our West Coast presence having far more territory to cover, Duskbreaker portaled the two of us across the country. Freakenstein had insisted that Swansong could come along with us, but she declined, citing a need to check in with the hospitals. I wasn't so sure if that was actually the case, but given we were surrounded by the others when she said it, I opted not to push too hard. It wasn't like we wouldn't have time to talk about it later after all.

With time ticking, I went without absorbing any of my new books just yet and equipped my newest pieces of gear. It wasn't like it took a lot of time to add the books to my knowledge base, but I also knew how easily it was for me to get tunnel vision. I knew very well that if I absorbed the books, there was a non-zero chance that we wouldn't have made it over to the West Coast in time to help out. Since we were only intending on hunting down the token and heading back to the base, I really didn't think it was that big of a deal, though even I wasn't dumb enough to risk it by vocalizing that thought.

Duskbreaker dropped me off in a forest that I was only able to identify thanks to the location panel in my interface before he ducked back through the shadows, heading off to meet up with our resident tech genius somewhere near the southern edge of the Northern California region. Apparently BrainCraft was planning on borrowing Duskbreaker for the rest of the day as he attempted to test some additional device he had been looking to set up, but he had been tightlipped on just what it was, citing a desire to have his device functional before fully unveiling it.

Now, Central Park was nice and it had certainly become one of my favorite places recently but it paled in comparison to the forest that swept out before me as I floated over it. Granted, the giant ant hill that sat in the distance definitely took away from its beauty but somehow that just added to the almost alien atmosphere I had found myself in.

"Is it always this quiet out here?" I asked, taking in a deep breath and feeling the crisp, cold air. Whether it was the altitude or the mid October shift in the air, I was plenty happy that my Pocket Climate passive was keeping me comfortable.

"It's nice isn't it? Though I'll admit, we rarely get the opportunity to show off in front of a crowd like we did last night," Pinky said rather wistfully. "Reminded me of Friday nights back in high school with the old cheer squad."

"Can't say that's an experience I can relate to… the cheerleading that is," I said, my attention focused on the ant hill as I slowly floated closer to it, almost unable to stop my curiosity. There were definitely living creatures moving around on it and I felt my skin briefly crawl. Something about the idea of actual giant insects really didn't sit well with me.

"Token's live in 30 seconds guys, hopefully we get a ping in this area to confirm if the pattern Freak noticed in the city is the same out here. Mighta been nice if we could have gotten one this morning to give us a start but we'll take what we can get," Jon piped up, stopping me in my tracks before I could float too far away.

I shook my head before materializing the Token Scanner that BrainCraft had built for each of us. We all went silent as the last few seconds ticked away before the clock rolled over and I pressed the tracking button. The screen spun briefly, before… nothing.

"Got it!" Pinky announced. "It's pointed north of me at… oh… oh this is gonna be fun."

"What's going to be fun?" I asked, looking away from the screen and rotating to try and point myself in the right direction.

I knew Pinky was only about 20 miles southeast of me and our trackers didn't exactly have the best range, so if she had a ping on it, it was probably within 3 miles or so of her. Given my potential speed, I knew I could cover that distance in a few minutes if I was willing to sacrifice most of my stamina, though Miss Mist had given us a few Perfect Stamina Injectors that she had collected to help us out. That said, I only wanted to have to use it if Pinky actually needed the help.

"Well, obviously I won't know until I run over there, but I'm 90% sure that the tracker was pointed right near one of The Colony's ant hills," she explained.

"Whoa, should we really be messing with that right now?" Jon asked before I could vocalize the same thought.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Pinky asked. Though Jon's voice always came through with whatever ambient noise was in his Command Room, the rest of our internal chat really only sounded like whatever emotion we added into our thoughts. Even so, I was relatively certain she was already moving.

"I think what Codex is trying to say is that we just survived an assault on an enemy base, it might be prudent to hold on poking that particular beehive until we have the team all together," BrainCraft added.

"No I said it was an ant hill, not a beehive," Pinky said, causing both Jon and BrainCraft to let out sighs even while I stifled a laugh. "Also I said it was just pointed toward it, maybe I'll run into it before I get to the place."

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Loophole…"

"Already heading that way," I said before BrainCraft had to make the full request. Perhaps subconsciously, I had slowly been putting on speed as I used the mini-map in the corner of my vision to make sure I was mostly pointed in the right direction.

"Sheesh, I don't have that bad of a reputation," Pinky complained, pausing for only a moment before adding, "though if Loophole did come over here and this hill was only a Silver level…"

"How would something that big only be Silver leveled!?" Jon shot back causing Pinky to let out a laugh.

"A girl can dream," she said rather wistfully. "A girl can… oh shit, I see the token but there's bugs nearby… heh… looks like a girl can get her wish."

"Loophole…."

"Seriously, I'm moving pretty damn quickly already, but I'll get there as fast as I can without burning everything to do it," I said, though I still upped my speed just a bit faster.

I didn't actually have a real way to gauge just how fast I was moving, but I still pushed myself faster and watched as my stamina continued to drop. It was ticking down each second as I rocketed over the unobstructed landscape and toward another ant hill that I could make out in the distance.

"There's about a dozen ants and maybe a mantis," Pinky announced. "The token is sitting in the middle of a quarry, it looks like the bugs are mostly ignoring it for rocks and, ah shit they see me."

I could hear the faint sound of a BOOM before a cloud of dust sprouted up peaking out just off to the side of the ant hill. I pushed myself just a bit harder, my stamina dipping closer to 50% from just how ramped up I had gotten my speed.

"I'm there in 10 seconds," I said, pushing myself higher into the air as I soared over the top of the ant hill.

"Looks like they opened a hole in the cliff face, you got more ants pouring out. Loophole, you're gonna hate this, these guys are fucking gross to look at…" Jon reported.

"Yeah, you guys got lucky with the robots, those bugs make a hell of a mess," BrainCraft said, causing Pinky to snort.

"I'm the one getting covered in bug guts!"

"Hey Loophole's almost there Pinky, and we all know how big of a mess he likes to create," Jon added, just as I came to a stop right above the mess of ants swarming around Pinky.

From the height I was at, they still did kind of look like regular ants… and that thought alone made my skin crawl because even without a knowledge book, I understood how perspective worked.

"Yeah, brace for impact Pinky, I'm coming in hot and I'm gonna yo-yo," I said before activating Earthbound Impact.

"You're gonna wh-" was all Pinky managed to say before I crashed down and into the ground right in the center of the mess of bugs.

There was the sound of crunching as the force of my landing crushed the giant ants down. While the dust was kicking up around us, I could see a few of the insects' bodies getting crushed down and into the ground as their legs gave out from under them. In a move that was basically a reflex now, I quickly activated Center of the Universe, ramping it up to max before activating Launchpad. It occurred to me that while Pinky did know a lot of my moves, we didn't have nearly the same amount of joint combat experience together as Swansong and I had and I was almost worried that she had gotten caught up in the attack as well. That worry lasted for maybe a second as I went hurtling back up into the air.

"God damn that's a charge!" Pinky howled with excitement. I was just reaching the peak of my leap when I could see a streak of pink burst out of the cloud of dust that had been left in my wake. The bugs were getting tossed to the side as she went careening around through a small horde of ants that had emerged.

"This is way more than a dozen Pinky!" I shouted as I reactivated Earthbound Impact.

Though it shouldn't have been off of cooldown just yet with its normal 10 minute cooldown, Launchpad had the nice side effect of refreshing it for the briefest of moments. It was a lot easier to track back when I still could see my action bars since a quick glance would give me all the information I needed but I could still track it. It was almost impossible to explain but even just casually thinking about an ability left me with a distinct feeling that was just… there.

I crashed back down and into the center of the group a second time, crushing the few ants that had withstood my initial attack before I materialized an Enhanced Stamina Injector. My stamina had dipped down near 30% of my bar and while the Enhanced version of the injector wouldn't bring me back to full, it would do more than enough for now.

"To be fair Loophole, it was only a dozen when I first got here," Pinky said.

"What they lack in the versatility of the droids you've been facing, they certainly make up for in overwhelming numbers," BrainCraft said. I wasn't entirely sure what he and Duskbreaker were up to, but his attention certainly didn't seem to be that distracted.

"Did you already grab the token or is it in the middle of this horde?"

"Already grabbed it, that's how I got surrounded. I wouldn't be too worried about the horde though. The ants are easy, though they do make a pretty big mess when you splatter them," Pinky added just as I pushed off and went rushing toward the nearest of the critters.

"Colony Ant. Level 17 Worker Class. It's a giant ant Loophole, I don't like looking at it anymore than you do… in fact, can you punch that thing and get it as far away from me as possible, it's giving me the heebie jeebies."

I came up short, planting my feet only a foot away from an ant that's head was easily at chest level. Its mandibles were clicking together and a gooey looking saliva dripped away from it. For once I was in near complete agreement with Angie as I looked around and toward the various ants that were well within range of my target. With focused determination, and a laser focus on the spot above the ant's pincers, I punched.

As my strike hit, I added in a 25% Gravity Punch and the ant practically burst into liquid from the force of the strike. With the target destroyed, none of the side effects of the ability took effect and while I could have made it work, I rewound things for the first time since my Bank refilled the prior night.

I was back with my feet planted and this time, remembering that I no longer had to pass a threshold to activate Gravity Punch's knockback effect, I only threw a punch with 15% of my stamina as my fist struck. This time, the ant was sent skidding backwards as its legs tried in vain to grab at the loose dirt below it. While my initial strike didn't turn it into mush, as eight nearby ants were caught in the Attraction augmentation I had just added to the ability, it was quickly crushed by the dogpile.

With the field around me briefly cleared and the nearby ants struggling to extract themselves from the small pile I had forced them into, I took the briefest of moments to take in the rest of the field. Since Pinky had grabbed the token, we didn't necessarily have to squash every bug in the area, though she was certainly doing a good job of that as she continued to sprint across the quarry in wide arcs that left a trail of bodies in her wake that would have made an exterminator proud.

My eyes settled on a giant praying mantis that was making its way across the quarry in my direction. I was just about to prepare to charge it when a sharp, almost shrill sound echoed out around us. The sound was painful enough that I winced and reached up to cover my ears until it finally subsided. The disorientation took a few seconds to clear before I finally was able to take in the makeshift battlefield once again. The surviving ants and the mantis I had noticed were scurrying as quickly as they could back toward several holes in the cliffside near the ant hill.

While I easily could have chased after them, a quick look toward where I had last seen Pinky saw her altering her running path as she came hurtling toward me, skidding to a stop a kicking up dust as we watched the remains of the swarm disappear. I was just about to say something when, almost in choreographed succession, each of the holes they escaped through collapsed inward, leaving the cliff looking pockmarked and even more hazardous than it had been when I had first arrived.

I was taking in slow breaths as I scanned the battlefield, trying to understand what the hell had just happened. There were several dozen ant corpses littering the area and I was immediately glad I didn't have to take part in the clean up of it. When I finally looked at Pinky, the question was probably clear on my face as she let out a laugh.

"They get aggressive if we get too close but have a tendency to retreat if we kill enough of them. Brain thinks it's some sort of "protect the swarm" mentality," she said, shaking a bit of viscera off of her hands.

"I guess there's that at least," I said, though even I could hear the disgust in my tone as Pinky let out another laugh.

"Yeah, the smell's pretty bad, isn't it?"

"This might be the one time I'm happy I'm not an Augment cause yeah, that can't be pleasant," Jon added in. I looked from Pinky back to the ant hill as I tried my best not to smell the mess around us. After a moment passed, I said the only thing I could think of, unable to compare this latest enemy to the few I had already had to tackle.

"Robots and snake-human hybrids are one thing… but whoever the hell thought giant bugs were a good idea is one creepy asshole."

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