End of Phase Two: 25

D:21H:49M:45S

"Have fun you two," Jon called after Nate and Swansong as they headed out and into the tunnel.

Pinky had finally retreated back to her own bedroom to get changed. Though Freakenstein hadn't outright asked her out, when he suggested they grab some drinks out at The Common Ground, she was more than happy to oblige. Jon wasn't entirely sure why she was going to "change" when she would have to go back into her costume for Sanctuary Square, but he wasn't about to question it.

"So you figure out what you want me to pass along to Calypso if she happens to pass through tonight?"

"Yup, wrote a note and everything, it's a bit of a hail mary but better than nothing," Jon said, grabbing the envelope he had stuffed a short letter into and handing it over to Freakenstein through the window's passthrough. "I really hope Brain and I are right about the hunch that she and The First's squad are members of the development team. If they are, they can at least answer a letter after charging me for their Kickstarter."

"'Y'know I've been thinking about it here today. It's kind of a hell of a jump to think that this game is the same as some random kickstarter from over a decade ago just because they have the same name," Freakenstein said, tapping the envelope in his hand a few times before he slipped it into one of the pockets on his jean jacket. "Hell, there are tons of things that have the same name, what if Axio just ripped it off cause he liked the idea?"

"That's… not a bad point," Jon said, leaning back into his chair and placing his hands on his head. "I don't know though, it just seems unlikely and the worst that can happen is we're wrong and Calypso thinks we're crazy."

"Thinks you're crazy you mean, I'm just the messenger," Freakenstein said with a shrug, looking over his shoulder as Pinky reemerged through her door. She was wearing a black dress that might have been just a bit too tight, though Jon had to admit it didn't look bad paired with her pink mask. Freakenstein looked back at Jon, reaching up and tapping the glass with his fist. "Catch yah later Codex, maybe take a break from all the screens though, there's more to life than all this Augment shit, y'know?"

End of Phase Two: 25

D:21H:47M:13S

The air was crisp out, Fall almost fully in motion as the temperatures continued to dip. Though I couldn't enable my Pocket Climate without at least my mask on, there was actually something nice about the slight bite in the air as Sophie and I walked out from the tunnel and back out toward the Balto statue.

The moment we had stepped out of the base, for the first time both Swansong and I removed our masks ahead of each other. Maybe it shouldn't have been as big of a moment as I let it be, especially since we both wore masks that truthfully didn't cover all that much of our faces, but all the same, it still was something special. The freckles that always peeked out just slightly from under her mask were abundant and crossed the bridge of her nose in a near perfect line like cinnamon across her cheeks.

"Soooo, what's the plan?" Sophie asked, looking up at me as we followed the pathway up around Balto's statue.

"Heh, well… I'm kinda winging it to be honest," I said, rubbing the back of my head, causing her to giggle.

"I guess it is hard to guess what's open," she said, looking up toward the cloudless sky before shooting me a wide smile. "Given we've been taking to the sky so often though, I'm definitely up for a nice, slow walk through the park while we figure it out though."

"Works for me," I said, holding out an arm in a way I knew was probably just a bit cheesy. She looked at it before her smile grew just a bit wider, wrapping one of her own around it as we wandered further along the path in the quiet night.

End of Phase Two: 25

D:21H:23M:59S

"You have really got to get that temper of yours under control"

"I KNOW!"

Hydramental was practically seething as he stomped around the bunker, several of his forms split off and mimicking his movements as their fists balled up.

"That said, it rather did help sell a picture of ineptitude that's rather good for us," Mr. Factory said, lifting up a cup that was almost comically too small for him.

"I still think you should let me draw Loophole out so I can kill him while I still outlevel him," the various Hydramental's all spat in unison.

"If you haven't learned by now that levels rarely are the be all end all of combat, then I gave you far too much credit," My Factory said, sitting back in the drab couch they had positioned within their still mostly barren squad base. Hydramental's heads whipped in his direction, his face a mixture of anger and annoyance for just a moment before the all, simultaneously, let out a long slow breath. "So why don't you pull yourself together and have a cup of tea."

It took a few more seconds before Mr. Factory was sure Hydramental wasn't going to storm off and back into the night. One by one, each of the different forms melted into light, converging back on a single body that was nearest to the center of the group. Six colors now wrapped around the sleeves of his jacket and as he continued to take in slow, methodical breaths, his expression finally calmed.

"I'll pass on the dirty leaf water," Hydramental said, stomping over to the fridge and rooting out a cola. "Have you been able to start retrofitting the eggs?"

"It's slow going, we're rather short on materials still. We need to capitalize on the time while Loophole and his team are preoccupied with things out in California," Mr. Factory said, taking yet another sip from his cup.

"I'm still surprised you were able to call that. I was sure they'd be zipping all over the city tonight… I may have even been hoping for it," Hydramental said, falling down into a wide armchair. "Are you going to fill me in on how you've been keeping track of their movements?"

"While I trust you to keep a secret, this is one that's better kept just to me," Mr. Factory said, looking at the watch on his wrist. "In fact, I have somewhere to be. I trust you can make sure the printers continue their operations for the next few hours?"

"I'll leave a clone on it," Hydramental said, tipping his bottle of cola back and draining it.

"I don't need to remind you that we don't need to do anything that can draw attention to our forges tonight, correct?" Mr. Factory said, looking down at him and making Hydramental fume just a bit.

"I'm not a child Factory, I can control myself."

End of Phase Two: 25

D:21H:03M:44S

"Silver!"

"Pinky!"

"Where yah been at? I feel like you haven't been at The Common Ground in days?"

Silver had picked Pinky up in a bear hug and set her down before reaching out and bumping Freakenstein's fist.

"Red and I've been helping out The Raging Bulls. The fucking Desperados summoned a gahd damn giant monster. Honestly, it felt like something dragged right out of the fuckin' underworld with all the horns and bullshit," Silver said with a shrug, nodding over toward a table on the far side of the bar where Red Lasso and a few other Augments sat around a high top table. "Y'all wanna join us? We can always grab another table, though we've been talking plans on raiding some of their big bases."

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

"Oh please no, I have had enough of the grand conspiracy bullshit for a few hours," Pinky said before Freakenstein could take them up on their offer. She leaned over and bumped into him before shooting Silver a smile. "We're gonna go grab a bunch of food, and take a much needed break."

"Ah, well you kids enjoy," Silver said, grabbing his beer off the table he had sat it down on before retreating back toward his group.

"You know, most guys would have gotten all macho about some dude picking up the girl they brought out to a bar like that," Pinky said, waggling her eyebrows at Freakenstein who crossed his arms with a shrug.

"I graduated High School half a decade ago, I ain't got time for that kinda childish bullshit, now come on, let's grab a table and order, I need a damn dozen wings in front of me five minutes ago. Plus we gotta keep our eyes out for Calypso."

"You so owe me a good tussle for turning tonight into a stake out," Pinky said, shaking her head, though her smile noticeably never faltered.

End of Phase Two: 25

D:20H:51M:17S

"You're kidding me."

"Not even a little bit," I said, shaking my head.

"What did your grandma say when she found out?"

"Oh she was pissed, we ruined like, a few hundred dollars worth of yarn," I said with an awkward laugh. "Codex used to joke that he was going to be paying her off with computer help the rest of his life."

"I still don't get why you guys put food coloring in the water balloons too though," Sophie asked.

We had walked for some time before finally stumbling on a small gathering of food trucks littering the terrace near one of the park's lakes. While I normally knew that the trucks were really only supposed to be outside of the park, with much of the city still reorienting around the destruction Clockwork Tyrant had managed to cause, I doubted anyone was going to care about where their permits said they could park.

After we had grabbed a few things to sample, I led us to a bench overlooking the water and we got comfortable. It was almost surprisingly natural slipping out of the "Augment" mentality and just… being. For the first time since I had woken up with super powers, I finally found just a bit of normality, even if I did maybe still let my Area Sense, one of the few powers I could still use outside of my gear, drift out around us as we held still.

"Look we were kids, it made sense to us because we wanted to make sure we knew who actually scored the hits," I said quickly, Sophie lifting up a napkin to hide another laugh. "Codex was the idiot that broke the "stay on the roof" rule, though Wesley didn't have to chase after him either."

"To be fair, that does sound like fun," Sophie said before grabbing one of the Korean tacos we had on a large tray I held on my lap. "My friends and I would get in trouble for using my little brother Ryan as our dress up doll… I think it's probably why he thinks I'm a bit of a jerk."

"Ah, I had been wondering that. What'd you do, practice putting make up on him?"

"And dresses… and bows… pretty much whatever we could get our hands on," Sophie said, her cheeks flushing just a bit. "I know my parents have some pictures in a scrap book somewhere, but I think he'd actually hate me if I showed those to his favorite hero."

"Oh come on, I can't be his favorite. He grew up here in the city with The First flying around all the time," I said just a bit skeptically.

"Yeah well The First never visited him personally and talked to him like he was an equal," she shot back. "He's literally already got one of your shirts."

"Heh… it's actually kinda weird seeing those," I said, looking over my shoulder at the small crowd that moved between the various trucks. Sophie had pointed out the first of them to me when we had entered the area, but there were at least a dozen people wearing one of the two different shirts that Jon and I had designed with my marketing manager.

"You're the one who designed them," she teased, drawing my attention back to her.

"Yeah… I guess I did," I said, meeting her eyes. "But let's not think about that stuff right now… it's nice pretending we're normal for once."

"Agreed," she said with a soft smile before turning and resting her head on my shoulder.

End of Phase Two: 25

D:20H:43M:31S

"Wow it is oddly quiet in here," BrainCraft said as he walked into the squad base through his Safe Room door.

"I know, I've actually been able to get a bit of work done," Jon said, looking over from the spreadsheet he had been filling out. "What have you been up to?"

"Oh, just checking in on some things. Personal matters, you know?" BrainCraft said, choosing not to elaborate any further as he approached Jon's partition. "Are Freakenstein and Pinky at The Common Ground?"

"Yeah, keeping an eye out for Calypso. Hopefully our hunch about them is right and we can root around for some information. Like how the hell Loophole lost his Action Bar or how he was able to use his abilities in a zone designed to cancel powers."

"I'd like to know if they have any idea on how those were made in the first place," BrainCraft said, crossing his arms and tapping his finger against his elbow. "If they have even the rough blueprints for any of this, I could potentially reverse engineer things, maybe even make adjustments that could help us along even faster. Imagine if I could alter the code of the Ascension Upgraders to give us a level for each token we input instead of every ten?"

"That would be a quick way to power up, though that could also be a bit much a bit fast if we're not careful. I sort of assumed Axio would have shortened the time if he could since he does seem to be after powerleveling you guys," Jon replied looking up toward the colorful orbs swirling in the space above him that only he could see. They were lighting up, communicating between each other now that their respective Augments seemed to need them less and less.

"Hmmm you probably have a point," BrainCraft said, slightly dejected. "That said, I do have some tinkering to do. I suppose we probably won't be touching loot boxes until the morning with everyone scattered and I do want to take advantage of Loophole's luck."

End of Phase Two: 25

D:20H:25M:10S

Hydramental felt squirrely.

It was a feeling he had slowly forced himself to get used to because as long as a part of him was separated, he never quite felt whole. But he had promised Mr. Factory he'd keep an eye on the printers, even if he did still intend to take a walk.

He felt rather lucky that he was able to keep one of his clones detached, even when he wasn't fully in his Augment gear. Since his separation was directly tied into his primary power, the system allowed him to use it without an issue. So while his grey clad form stayed back, keeping the factory going, Hydramental was taking a stroll through the city, trying to find just a little bit of peace.

Unfortunately, more and more of the bodegas, shops, and carts that were keeping their doors opened were starting to have displays of that orange clad asshole. The last thing he needed right now was to blow up in the middle of the city and give away his identity in a spot where anyone could see him. So Hydramental went to the one spot in the city where he was at least relatively sure he wouldn't run into a random shop full of Loophole merchandise, Central Park.

The park was never completely devoid of shops, there were always carts and stands that found their way around the place, though Hydramental was pretty sure that there wouldn't be that many of them out and about with how late it was.

For a while he was right and he only passed a handful of people meandering along the trails. Although the city had found itself under siege, found itself isolated due to the collapsed infrastructure around the country, the people of the city hadn't found themselves wallowing in despair. Families were out and about, several small picnics had been set up in the open fields under the dark night sky, and just up the path he could see a handful of Food Trucks giving off a smell that made his stomach rumble.

Although Hydramental never felt whole while part of him had been cloned off, as the sounds and smells of the evening hit him, for the briefest of moments, Hydramental felt at peace.

"It's a bit of a walk, are you sure you're up to it?" a voice said, breaking Hydramental's concentration as a couple wandered up the sidewalk, moving off to the side to give Hydramental some space as they passed. He ignored the two, his eyes briefly glancing at the girl's flower covered black dress before he turned his attention to the food trucks, trying to find the one that smelled like barbecue.

"Hey you're the one who offered. Besides, Hell's Kitchen isn't that far away," a second voice reached Hydramental's ears and he found himself freezing in his tracks. He had heard that melodic voice before, it was almost unmistakable.

Looking over his shoulder, he caught the couple, still walking away from him as they headed further south. The girl's red hair glinted under the lights that illuminated the walkway as she leaned into the taller, brown-haired man's arm. Hydramental narrowed his eyes, letting his interface highlight the man, only to receive an error he hadn't encountered before. It didn't matter if it wasn't going to confirm it for him just because the man wasn't wearing his gear, Hydramental knew exactly who he was looking at.

"Loophole," he growled, his teeth smashing together as the thought of food was completely abandoned, a different hunger taking hold entirely.

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