I may have gone just a little bit overboard.

To be fair, even though I had seen a good chunk of credits in my virtual wallet so far, I hadn't exactly been taking the time to realize just how much any of it actually was in dollar form. And suddenly having $12,500, more cash than I've ever had at one time in my life, meant I could easily afford a handful of things I wanted to grab as well as exchanging some of the credits for actual cash. That wasn't even accounting for the fact that I had already been sitting on 25,000 credits just from earlier missions and loot boxes that I hadn't yet used either.

Angie was right of course, the moment I cashed out the credits, I received an achievement called Bank Buster for adding over 100k credits to my B.E.L.T. within a five minute period which came with an F:Tier loot box. While I could have opened it back in the Guild Hall, I instead set it aside to open up during our next mass opening session, especially since my mind was already figuring out what I could do with my sudden fortune.

Before I ever even left the Guardian Segment, I popped through The Beacon of Knowledge and picked up a handful of new tomes on things that the past me would have never considered learning about, though there was a part of me that realized I was spending hundreds of dollars at a time on just books.

Several of the options I picked up were still outside of my current Intelligence level, but with the Study Hall expansion in our base, I now had an extra way outside of leveling that I could get that stat increased. To that end, I not only dropped the 10,000 credits needed to scoop up If-Then-When-Why, which was maybe just a bit unsurprisingly still available given its niche subject matter, I ended up spending another 45,000 credits between The Gambler's Playbook, The Burden of Mass, and The Insulator's Handbook.

Between the four books, and a good bit of studying to raise my Intelligence stat, I'd be adding Level 3 knowledge in Paradox Assessment, Game Theory, Mass-Volume Dynamics, and then my Electrical Current knowledge would also get raised to Level 6. Of the four books, the last one would be the only one I could immediately use, though I only needed 2 more points before I could absorb The Gambler's Playbook which not only had the 20 point Intelligence requirement, but also a 50 point Luck requirement as well, which made it the first books outside of a Skill Book that needed an additional stat requirement.

There was of course a bit of a chance that I could have skipped picking up all of the books I had grabbed. Like I said, they felt like somewhat niche topics that only a handful of powersets probably could have utilized. But even knowing that they'd have to sit in my B.E.L.T. for at least a week unless I put some extra points from leveling into my Intelligence, there had been something about the other books that felt like they would fit right at home with my powerset and I didn't want to risk them getting lost to the wind. Especially since The Burden of Mass had been in the rotating stock and based on the provided knowledge, it seemed like it might finally give me some more weight control options, something that had been exceptionally useful for crowd control back when I frequently used my now nearly forgotten Weighted Clothes ability.

By the time I stopped in at the Registration Office to convert 50,000 of my remaining credits into cash, intent on making sure I was the one to pay for our rent once we did owe it again, I had gotten a message from Swansong saying she had stepped out of The Common Ground to let me know that everyone but Freak had gotten to the bar and they had claimed one of the large booths in spot right near the giant robot head.

"Loops! What took you so long, even these guys got here before you," Pinky said as I slid into the large, circular booth next to Swansong. "And that's even counting that Swanny had to wait until I was done with Annie before she could even start her stuff up. Apparently no double instances when you have the same Manager."

"She was really nice though," Swansong admitted, squeezing my hand under the table once I was close enough. "I guess you had already left but she reached out to your Manager to try and get us started on some collaboration gear."

"I can see it already, "Power Couple" or something cheesy cute like that," Pinky said, moving her hand across the air like she was showing it off. Swansong's grip tightened on my hand as she blushed.

"That's… I mean… that would kinda be putting it out there for the whole world to know and we uh we… well I mean…" I said, feeling my own cheeks heat up a bit as the rest of the table laughed. Even Swansong seemed to relax a bit, her free hand raising to hide a laugh of her own. "It's not a bad shirt idea… just maybe give us a couple of weeks."

"Good save Loops," Pinky smirked, perking up just a bit as she looked away from the table. "Freak over he- why is that guy wearing a speedo?"

I felt myself tense up as I followed her gaze over and toward the entrance she had been looking toward. Sure enough, Freak was walking in, a smirk on his face as he talked with a single person walking along next to him, looking practically like a child compared to his large form. Even then, I still recognized the man, with his simple costume of an ocean blue mask, a red and green floral shirt, and a black, way too small speedo. I couldn't help but highlight him, letting the robotic voice that happened when I was in the bar read it out.

"Skim. Level 16 Jetstream Striker. Squad: Droids R' Us."

I went to open up a chat window only to remember that being in the Common Ground's also disabled that access, which was a silly thing for me to forget since Swansong had to just step outside to let me know where the table was at. They were still half way across the bar, meaning we maybe had a minute at the very most before they got to us once I saw Freak point over toward our table.

"Brain, I think we're gonna want some privacy for this…" I said quickly, my mind racing as I tried to piece together what was going on. It wasn't like we were in one of the Dead Zones where even our powers were disabled, but if Freak wasn't for some reason escorting him over to us, then I wasn't sure why they'd be together either. Hell, I wasn't sure why Skim was even marked as a member of Droids R' Us given the fact that we hadn't seen him at all since the first night of Phase Two.

"Already on it," BrainCraft replied, the spiky privacy device we had used a few times appearing in his hand, though I was pretty sure it looked slightly different than it had the last time he had brought it out. Within a few seconds, it began spinning, rising into the air as he shoved it forward to hover a few inches above the center of the table. "For the record, I believe there's two possibilities on why he could be here."

"Huh?" Duskbreaker said, looking past Pinky at him. "Only two?"

"Well two plausible possibilities, at least given the fact that Skim is actively talking with Freakenstein and isn't trying to branch off like they just bumped into each other on their way in," BrainCraft amended. "In fact it's rather simple I'd think. He's either here to try to spy on us under the guise of "switching sides" or he's actually trying to switch sides the same way Duskbreaker did."

"That's… a bit black and white, don't you think?" I asked and he shrugged in response.

"Perhaps, though I don't believe so. When you put everything into context, such as the fact that he's with the group Hydramental has co-opted and where he's choosing to make his approach, it narrows the possibilities rather dramatically."

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"I don't think we really need to speculate too much," Pinky said, nodding her head over just as Freakenstein stepped up, a look of confusion on his face as he said something that we didn't hear. I looked over and BrainCraft briefly disabled the Privacy zone.

"-the hell can't I hear you guys?"

"Sorry Freak, Brain pulled this out when we saw who you were with, figured we wouldn't make this any more public than we need to," I said, looking from him over to Skim as I narrowed my eyes. "Long time no see Skim."

"Hey dude," he said, raising a hand up with a mellow smile, his tone every bit as relaxed as I remembered it, grabbing one of the chairs from a nearby table and sliding it up next to the booth as Freakenstein took a seat. I briefly made eye contact with BrainCraft before his Privacy device started to spin back up.

"Decided to pick up a straggler?" I asked, looking over at Freak.

"Something like that, bumped into him over at Greg's, told me he had been trying to figure out how to get in contact with us since he didn't have any of us on his Friend's List."

"So, you're working with Hydramental then?" I asked, deciding to skip right to the point as Skim took his seat, leaning back into the chair as he looked around the table.

"Er, uh… well that's uh…" Skim said, apparently expecting some sort of lead in. He didn't straighten up or anything, instead keeping his relaxed posture as he looked toward me and rubbed the back of his head. "It's uh… It's a bit more complicated than that."

"We've got a pretty smart group here, I think we can keep up," Pinky interjected, placing an arm on the table as she leaned over it toward him. "Or do you think we're just a bunch of pretty faces?"

"Uh… well your name is Pretty Pink Warthog…" Skim replied, looking over at her for a moment before looking back toward me. "You uh… I'm assuming you remember my buddy Barracuda… right?"

"Looks like a fish but talks like a bad New Jersey caricature?" I asked, unable to keep the sarcasm out of my tone. "Yeah, I remember him."

"Y'know, he didn't use to talk like that," Skim said, for the first time perking up since he sat down. "Like, yeah he always had this way of talkin', but it was only after we got Augmented that he started to have the weird lisp with all the extra s's."

"After? Are you saying you two knew each other before you were Augmented?" Swansong asked curiously and Skim immediately nodded.

"Yeah, since we were in Pre-K. He's like a brother to me… and it's why I wanted to talk to you guys," he said and I immediately thought about Jon. As much as I knew I wanted answers out of Skim for exactly what this was about, another question escaped my lips before I could stop myself.

"Wait, so you guys were Augmented at the same time? How the hell did that happen?"

"Um… I don't know? Does anyone know how people are picked?" Skim said with a shrug. "Honestly, the two of us got into a big bar fight a few weeks before we were Augmented, or that's what our P.A.I.s told us when we woke up. We managed to get back to our apartment but after that we were out cold until it happened. Heh… our landlord even thought something had happened since he hadn't seen us for a while."

I felt my brow furrow and I looked over toward both Pinky and Freak. I had distinctly remembered that just like me, both of them had been in some sort of accident prior to being Augmented, and apparently, so had Skim and Barracuda. I was just about to vocalize the exact thought that this had brought up when BrainCraft spoke up first.

"Wait…" BrainCraft said, moving his hand as the privacy device shook, a light pulsing from the spinning device that distracted me before I could vocalize my own thoughts. He held up a finger in Skim's direction who looked suddenly just a bit confused. "I've adjusted the privacy barrier so that he's right on the outside of it, probably paranoia but no need for him to hear this. How many people here were in some sort of accident before they were Augmented?"

"You already know what happened to me," Pinky said, looking around as one by one each of us confirmed that we had in fact gotten injured in some way before we were Augmented.

I went ahead and confirmed that I had been on the wrong side of a dumpster that smashed me into a wall. Duskbreaker told us about how he had taken a tumble down the fire escape of the building he lived in while running from some bullies, BrainCraft had apparently had a brain aneurysm that had nearly killed him while riding his bike one night, and Swansong… well she didn't quite tell us what had happened, diverting her eyes when it was finally her turn only telling us that she had been admitted to the hospital before she was Augmented. None of us wanted to press the issue since it didn't really matter that much and she seemed grateful for it.

"Sorry about that, we needed to discuss something within the squad. So, moving past that, what exactly are you looking for us to do? As far as I'm aware, Barracuda was working with Clockwork Tyrant, or for him I suppose I should say," I said, finally getting back to the topic at hand after BrainCraft readjusted the privacy barrier.

"Barry… he wasn't in control of himself," Skim said, shaking his head before looking over at Duskbreaker. "You experienced Tyrant's power, didn't you? I was safe cause my mask has protection from Mind Control, but Barry…"

"It's not a pleasant feeling…" Duskbreaker agreed. "But that doesn't explain why you guys are still in the Droids R' Us squad either."

"Barry and I… we're not bad guys," Skim said, shaking his head. "I mean, I ain't saying we're heroes or anything, but we've had to look out for ourselves for a long time. Had to make some choices you guys wouldn't understand… But we're not bad guys… Or… we weren't supposed to be…"

Skim diverted his eyes, looking down at his lap as his shoulders slumped. While he might have briefly perked up once, this was the first time his relaxed demeanor had completely collapsed.

"I don't know if Tyrant's powers had some sort of side effect… I was kinda hoping Duskbreaker might know for sure… but even after that asshole died, Barry hasn't been himself," he continued, his hands moving to grasp together. "He hadn't been kicked out of the squad when you guys took down the big mech thing, and when we finally got clear of the area, he had this sudden huge desire to get in close with the remaining members of that squad. I followed him cause… well cause we promised we'd always look out for each other. I don't think they trust us exactly cause we've never actually been to the main base, but Mr. Factory was happy to have more hands."

"More hands for what?" I asked. This all seemed way too convenient and BrainCraft's initial theories were making more and more sense to me as I furrowed my brow. Maybe it was his demeanor, but it didn't feel like this was some sort of rehearsed act.

"Random stuff. Like I said, I don't think they fully trust us… although I think that's fair cause Barry's been like… really annoyed. He's been trying to reprogram some of the droids in the Forge they assigned us to and keeps telling me that he has to get closer to them. I know it might sound weird but I think he's trying to kill Mr. Factory since that dude had been one of Tyrant's partners. And like, sure Barry somehow managed to put on 5 levels randomly but that's way too little to take out someone as high as that dude is and I just… I don't know how to stop him."

"He… put on 5 levels?" I asked hesitantly and Skim nodded.

"Yeah, I don't know how it happened cause I remember he had come into the prison Tyrant had been keeping me in and was still at level 15 when you guys were starting to attack. He was gonna try and break me out so we could get outta there when he just randomly collapsed. Next thing I know, we were in some random alley and he was level 20. Almost thought he had killed Tyrant with that level jump but he said he had gone running the moment he heard you guys attacking," he explained and I felt my gut starting to turn. I couldn't help but look around and I saw similar looks of concern on both BrainCraft and Swansong's faces.

"That's a bit odd… though jumping up in level from taking out someone higher does happen," I said, not trying to give anything away. "What exactly do you want us to do though? Try to talk him out of it?"

"No… he wouldn't listen," Skim said, shaking his head. "I uh… I want you to capture him… hell me too to be honest. If he knew I was doing this, he'd never forgive me… but I can't let him get himself killed, y'know?"

"Uh huh… and I bet you want us to do that somewhere at a specific time? Maybe make it easy for you guys to spring a trap on us?" Pinky asked with a raised eyebrow as Skim started to shake his head.

"Oh no… hell I'd prefer if you guys waited a few days. Barry might seem slow, but he'd put two and two together if you guys busted down the door tonight after I told him I wanted to spend the day hanging out here in the square. Honestly I didn't know for sure if you guys would be through but I had to take the chance since finding you in the city is a bit hard," he explained.

"Hmmm… okay," I said, reaching up and rubbing my chin before tentatively opening up the menu and sending him a friend request. "I'm not making any promises, because honestly I don't really trust any of this, but you tell us where we can find him… hell where we can find this Forge you're working out of, and we will consider it."

"I… yeah okay thanks," Skim said, nodding his head as he realized we probably weren't going to agree to anything right away. A waitress was just starting to walk toward us finally as he started to get up. "I'll uh… I'll let you guys have your lunch then, sorry bout interrupting, but I appreciate that you took the time to hear me out."

Skim departed and the waitress came through, grabbing orders from all of us as we each sat in silence. Though the waitress probably wouldn't have cared if we immediately started talking, no one quite wanted to vocalize the thought that I was positive a few of us were having. When the waitress did finally leave, I looked around the table once more, unwilling to leave it alone while BrainCraft's privacy device was still active.

"So… Barracuda's Acceptance Matrix has been compromised… hasn't it?"

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