Wildcard Assembly's Squad Base,

Multiple Locations

Current Phase Points:

98295

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

10

End of Phase Two: 27

D:08H:47M:42S

"God damn that hurt like a bitch."

"Errg… you're telling me," Pinky groaned, agreeing with Freakenstein as they pushed apart from each other and slowly pushed themselves back to their feet.

Although he hadn't exactly been running around the city for all that long after scooping up the token, when Jon told him I wanted to test some new moves, he was more than happy to ditch his so far unsuccessful Forge hunt for, as he put it, "some light sparring."

"How did it react to your defenses though?" I asked, pulling out one of the many Enhanced Stamina Injectors I had. Since we had the Dojo in Sparring Mode, our Health and Stamina regeneration wasn't as accelerated as it would have been in its simple Training Mode, but it did at least protect our Health Bars from dipping below 25%, something Pinky and Freak were sure to appreciate.

"Didn't hurt till the end there, did you have to make it toss us into a dog pile? No offense Freak but you're heavy as all hell," Pinky complained, materializing an injector of her own.

"None taken, friggin' blow wiped out my entire damn shield, gimme a sec to reload," he said, wandering over toward a corner where BrainCraft had left a large pile of gadgets and gizmos that he had apparently deemed "useless." It was kind of a perfect system since BrainCraft never had to worry about unusable materials piling up because Freakenstein was more than happy to recycle it.

"To be completely fair, the other option I was considering would have still smashed you down into the ground, just without the big dude covered in metal," I explained, tilting my head to the side until it cracked. "Now, I still have a few more abilities I need to test out, how bout a little free for all?"

"You'd have to drag me out of this room before I turn down a fight with you Loophole," Pinky said, a wide smile splitting her face as she rubbed her hands together. "We gonna come at you at the same time again or what's the plan?"

"Nah come on that ain't fun, how bout we have a little free-for-all brawl? That'll let you test your stuff, right Loopie?"

"I mean, I won't be able to test out the feature on my new bracers if I don't have an ally to bounce off of, but Pinky and I can do that later if we find some more bugs," I said with a shrug, slowly taking a few steps backwards.

"That said… you are the big target," Pinky said, her eyes briefly darting over to Freak who gave her the smallest of nods.

It would have been super easy to miss, if I hadn't already let my Area Sense wash over the area. I still hadn't quite gotten used to using the moving variant of the skill, but it had become natural to activate the ability the moment I stopped moving. It had gotten to the point that I barely even had to think about it any more, and it was thanks to that reflex that I could feel as two people that I never would have expected to befriend shifted their weights.

"You're getting too many friends, you almost never have time to just banter with me any more," Angie complained just as a loud BOOM echoed in the room as the two pushed off in unison.

I couldn't help but smile, though I pointedly didn't respond to Angie as I zoned into the battle. They were fast, really fast in fact, but for once I had actually tried to live up to my powerset's name and I had more than a few new tricks up my sleeves. I took a deep breath in, channeling a current throughout my zone.

"Shockwave Pulse. Level 1 Channeled Ability. Modify the electrical field within your zone to send out a burst of electricity. This ability deals damage to all enemies caught in the field equal to 25% of the Stamina you use to activate it, charging at a rate of 500 points of Stamina per half-second. For every half-second you channel, Shockwave Pulse Stuns or Staggers any enemy caught in the attack for 3 seconds based on the enemy's size and resistances. This ability has a 1 minute cooldown."

I didn't have long to work with, but the goal of the attack wasn't to be a fight ender. It was all about utility, something I was extremely happy to add to my arsenal. The two were quickly closing in on me when I released the pulse and two bright arcs of electricity went surging out from me. The ability had had a lot of built in text explaining exactly how the Stun and Stagger effects would work on various types of enemies, but there was a difference between a written description and seeing it in action.

Pinky was standing in place, slightly shuddering with her teeth grit together as a small arc of electricity bounced over her skin. Her slightly more slender size placed her in a category below the large Freakenstein and left her quite literally stunned, even if it barely put a dent in her health bar. Had I maybe had an extra second or two, I might have been able to stop Freakenstein as well, but the relatively minor shock only slowed him down. In the brief moment I confirmed that Pinky had been stopped, Freakenstein finished closing the gap, striking me right in my chest.

Instead of getting knocked back from the force of his blow, metal quickly surged up and over his hand, creating a band around my body and briefly giving me a small bit of an armor bar. The addition was short lived as Freak whipped his arm to the side, releasing his metallic grip at the exact right time to send me careening into Pinky. Still stunned, she was knocked down and to the floor as I came to a stop atop her just from the force of Freak's throw. Our eyes met briefly as her stun finally subsided and I quickly scrambled to get off of her.

In a different situation, I may have been tripping over my words to apologize, but in my dash to not be pressed right up against her, I had gotten up to my feet and planted them. I always had the option to rewind things to avoid his attack completely, but my Time Bank was a limited resource and I couldn't justify wasting any of it just because I got hit while sparring with my team.

And while I might have wanted to give in to my inner awkward side where it came to getting knocked onto Pinky, Freak wasn't going to give me the time to pointlessly apologize to her either. I activated Float Like a Butterfly, dodging just in time as Freak tried to follow up his attack and watched as his attack barely missed Pinky who rolled to get out of the way. I hadn't been looking at him, but thanks to the Rules of Engagement book I had absorbed, one of my newest passive abilities was already showing its potential.

"Area Sense: Read the Field. Level 1 Passive Ability. While using your Area Sense, you now have an innate sense of ability usage within your local area. Enemies and Allies within your visual range will have color indicators appear over their head whenever they target you with an ability. Red indicators will appear for any ability directly targeting you with harmful effects. Yellow indicators will appear when you are in the danger zone for any ability that does not directly target you. Green indicators will appear when an ally is targeting you with a helpful ability. Enemies and Allies not within your visual range will still give you a general sense of their intentions if you are their target but the distinction between area and direct targeting will not be available. This ability does not grant you advanced knowledge of what ability will be used on you, only that you are a target."

"Come on Freak, we can beat each other up after we take him down," Pinky complained as she pushed herself back up to her feet. Her tusks had grown up and outward, their points angled downward to present a large, blunt face to them.

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"Not my fault he got outta the way!" Freak shot back as he pulled his fist out from a small hole he had left in the cement ground.

I might have pointed out the fact that this definitely didn't feel like a free-for-all, but doing so would have squandered a golden opportunity. They were still relatively close to each other, and I decided to use their mistake against them as I moved. I only had to take a few steps, and barely had to even use 10% of my Stamina. I had gotten so used to thinking of Gravity Punch in terms of percentages, mostly because that was exactly how it worked, but Mass Driver had far more fine control and "10% of my Stamina," was just 1000 points, ensuring the reach of the ability would hit both of my sparring partners. While the Overload Launch augmentation would have been helpful in a lot of ways, I was positive Shock Spiral was superior.

It might not have been a guaranteed way to knock my enemies down to the ground, but forcing people to collide was sure to be disorienting and with enough of them in the mix, I was pretty sure it would end in a dog pile most of the time. And while Overload Launch would have done more damage to both Pinky and Freakenstein in this specific situation where I only had two enemies, in any other one where I was facing more, the stacking bonus to damage for each enemy that collided with Shock Spiral was the Augmentations biggest selling point for me.

Pinky's health didn't even budge from the initial blow, though I had gotten used to that specific quirk of her powerset. It was unfortunate for her though that she had still been on the ground when the knockback took effect and she was sent skipping over the floor like a flat rock in a calm pond. Each bounce took out a relatively small portion of her health until she hit the wall on the rear edge of the room. A moment later, Freakenstein crashed into her as well and they both took another round of damage.

It wasn't a lot, and it didn't seem to keep them stunned for too long either, though I hadn't expected it to with how little Stamina I had used on it. The goal had mostly been to put a bit of distance between us as I tried to decide how to push forward. I did still have a few abilities I had managed to generate but I still wasn't quite sure how useful they'd be in this specific fight. I was just about to let myself get distracted when I heard a loud crash coming from where Pinky and Freak had collided.

I was just about to wonder what was going on when there were two more crashes that quickly followed the first and pink sparks started to shoot outward. I started to ramp up Center of the Universe, aiming to pull Freak away from Pinky before he could charge up her kinetic storage too far when bits of the metal near his legs drove into the ground, anchoring him in place. There were two more crashes before a rapid burst of pink shot out from around him.

Leaning into the pull of gravity that came with Center of the Universe, Pinky charged right toward me. I deactivated the ability but it was too late and I tossed my arms up in front of me just before she struck. As I felt the blunt metal of her tusks collide with my wrists, I simultaneously activated my jacket's Fortune's Shield ability and then activated the sole ability I had created so far with my new Inertia Physics knowledge.

"Rapid Rebound. Level 1 Activated Ability. This ability can only be activated within half a second of being struck by a physical blow. If activated in time, the enemy delivering the blow is struck with recoil equivalent to 75% of the damage they deal to you. Additionally, for every 10% of your health their attack deals to you, they are knocked backwards 5 feet. If they collide with another Augment or physical object, they take the additional 25% damage that they dealt to you in recoil damage. This ability costs 15% of your Stamina. This ability has a 5 minute cooldown."

There was another rapid series of crashes that filled the room. First when she struck me, then when we were both sent rocketing backwards in opposite directions, and finally as I hit the hard concrete wall on one end of the dojo and as Pinky simultaneously crashed back into Freakenstein. Even having used my jacket's shield, between Freak's earlier attack and Pinky's massively charged up blow my health had dropped all the way down to 25%.

"Ah damnit," Pinky groaned. The dust around me was settling and as I focused on her, I noted that her health bar had also hit the dojo's mandated floor.

"Holy hell, what are you guys doing in there?! Sounds like a damn war zone out from out here," Jon said over the intercom system that was built into the dojo. Since we were in the squad base, he couldn't directly see through any of our POVs and surprisingly the dojo didn't come with a built in camera system. Granted Jon's Command Room was a unique upgrade, but it had come with so much built in functionality that that limitation had just seemed odd.

"Oh nothing, I'm just winning a little brawl," Freak called back with a laugh. Sure enough, though his health bar had taken a serious beating, unlike both Pinky and I, he was technically still up.

"Please, Pinky did most of the work there," I said, rubbing my forearms as I slowly walked back toward the others.

"Thank you!" she shouted, dusting her leggings off before materializing a few injectors. "I'm surprised you didn't do your normal illusion disappear thing though… now I've gotta worry about whatever the hell that recoil shit was too?! Every time I think I'm catching up you just have some new shit to pull out."

"Well to be fair, I was testing some new abilities, kinda pointless if I lean back into stuff that you've seen before," I said with a shrug.

"You guys wanna charge up and go aga-" Freak started to say before Jon's speaker crackled back to life.

"Hey guys, we've got some droids spotted. There's a couple leaving the Astoria Power Plant according to a post that just went live on one of the subs I'm tracking," Jon said, several rapid clicks audible in the background. I looked up toward the invisible speakers before looking back to Freak.

"Are those the first ones since last night?"

"Yup. Not even a damn bird in the sky all morning, think they are already making a move?"

"Does the post say how many we are seeing?" I asked, nodding over toward the door before I started to walk that way, assuming Pinky and Freak would follow.

"Only a couple, the photo they uploaded looks like it was from across the street on the roof, maybe 4 or 5… though they look more humanoid than the ones you were dealing with before," Jon explained, his voice moving from the intercom to coming down the hallway the moment we exited the room.

"Huh, wonder why the design change," Freak said. I walked around the pit and over to Jon's corner of the room as he clicked a few buttons, the picture of the droids moving from his side of the glass to ours. "Those things look tiny as hell too… are they s'pose to be some sort of stealth units?"

"Honestly, I got no idea. There's no other photos on the post but the poster said it looks like they are heading south from the plant," Jon said with a shrug.

"Want me to go take a look? I know we haven't exactly been lookin' all that long or anything, hell I jumped ship the moment Codex said you wanted to spawn… but it feels like the more time that passes, the more chances Hydra-douche has to pull more of his crazy bullshit. Kinda feels like a bad thing to leave that alone to get out of control if yah know what I mean," Freak said. I was still staring at the picture, trying to think things through just a bit.

"Is Duskbreaker still out with BrainCraft?"

"Yeah, Brain's been having him hop all over Northern Cali for some big project he's working on. Says he's quite hopeful to do some testing with the next token spawn," Pinky answered and I frowned.

"So even if I could get to him, it would take at least 15 to 20 minutes to get back to the city…" I said, reaching up and rubbing my chin. "Okay, Freak, I think you should take a look and see if you can find where they went. You're right… I wanted to take some time to breathe after last night's bullshit but it wouldn't be right to leave this alone. Whether you figure out where the droids went or not… once you have that taken care of, head back to the power plant and do a bit of scouting."

"Want me to help me that?" Miss Mist asked with a yawn and a big stretch as she sat up on the couch in the pit. "I think I've gotten enough sleep if I can't stay down through your guys chatter anyway."

"Definitely," I said with a quick nod. "Although… didn't you get caught over there last time? Is it safe for you to go back over there?"

"I never got inside actually… But I won't get caught in the same trap twice, just… trust me on that, I'd rather not explain exactly how it works," she said, dissolving into mist and rematerializing walking toward us. "Once I'm in, I could easily get the layout and see if there's any immediate threats."

"If you keep your POV open, I can create a digital map as you go, it would basically give us a cheat sheet for assaulting it," Jon said, bouncing out of his chair and leaning onto his desk as the idea struck him.

I wouldn't exactly say I had the pieces of a puzzle falling together, but that was mostly because this didn't exactly feel like it needed an elaborate plan. That wasn't to say I was going to let myself get overconfident, but we had a rather wide variety of powers now and even though I really only barely knew anyone in the room outside of Jon, there had been something about saving the city from a kaiju sized mechanical pangolin that really helped to establish a layer of friendship and trust

"That would… shit that would be great actually," I said. "Hell, we did the last Platinum Forge with just 4 of us… with advanced knowledge and the team we have now, we might be able to just tear through it."

"Are you trying to tempt Murphy's Law?" Miss Mist asked, a brow raising as she stared right at me. "Because saying shit like that is basically just as bad as saying something like "well what's the worst that can happen"."

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