Central Park,

Manhattan

, NYC

Neighborhood:

Claimed by Guardian Squad:

Fortune's Cadence

City:

Claimed by Miscreant Squad:

Droids R' Us

(Contested by Guardian Squad:

Wildcard Assembly

)

Current Phase Points:

171430

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

36

End of Phase Two: 24

D:05H:55M:39S

I was starting to get just a little bit annoyed.

It was just past noon and Freak had managed to scoop up what would be our second token of the day for our group in the city, the beacon shining bright to the south of us even with the dreary grey overcast that had settled in. While Freak had gotten to the 8AM token without any interference and had an "overall boring hour" waiting for anyone to try and fight him for the token, Skim had once again beaten us to the token that spawned at 10AM and we once again gave him the space to let Barracuda try and lure Hydramental out. Apparently Barracuda had thought the only flaw in his plan had been that it had been first thing in the morning when they had tried to goad him into action and not because Hydramental just didn't seem to care.

Pinky hadn't exactly been having much more luck than us out in California though, having only managed to claim the 10AM token that had spawned for them. Tailstrike had managed to get to each of the first two tokens of the day and while Pinky did rush the beacons down, each time she found her way close enough to put her eyes on them, she found him accompanied by a Level 41 Miscreant named Sergeant Sting.

As much fun as she had had fighting with Silver, the Fight Club did come with the Equalizer buff that at least brought the two of them into a range that made the fight relatively fair. Pinky might have liked to brawl, but she wasn't going to go into a fight she couldn't win just for a handful of phase points when we were all already so far ahead and none of us could really blame her.

I offered to go and help her out, but even though Freak was the one picking up the tokens, we still didn't have a plan to deal with Hydramental past me trying to talk some sense into him. Freak was relatively sure he could take Hydramental in a fight if he chose to show up when I wasn't around, but the level difference alone made it risky to do on his own and that wasn't even accounting for the possibility of Hydramental using the droids to create an uneven battleground. And if I was around when he showed up, there was always the chance I could get under his skin or get him talking just enough that he might accidentally slip up and reveal… well, something. Which was why I was all the more annoyed when Swansong and I stepped out of the base, trying our best to ignore a very light drizzle of rain falling from the sky as we ran right into yet another small horde of Clockwork Gorillas.

At this point I actually would have preferred some sort of variety.

"Swan, you do realize I can see your POV… and can hear Logan complaining about where your thoughts are going… right?" Jon asked as I dodged over top of a pair of thick metal arms as the Level 24 Clockwork Gorilla attempted to crush me. "I didn't realize the P.A.I.s could be so sheepish, Angie finds any reason she can to try and lust after me."

"What?! Why are you- I'm just focusing the song toward him. Logan!" Swansong shot back in our internal chat, her songs never skipping a beat. There had always been a part of me that had wondered how she was able to multitask like that, but even that wasn't giving her enough credit since she was able to sing two songs at once thanks to her Hidden Power.

Then again, I routinely was finding myself having full conversations while casually manipulating gravity and fighting against small armies, so maybe my perspective was starting to get slightly skewed. Thanks to my practice with the Slow Down variant of my Timekeeper's Control and working to incorporate the moving version of my Area Sense, my own multitasking skills had grown by leaps and bounds.

"Behind-" Jon started to say before I finally disabled Area Sense already a step ahead of his warning. I jumped straight up and into the air, briefly activating my Gravitational Field to give myself just a bit more height to clear my pursuers before I punched downward and unleashed a Mass Driver with 3500 points of my Stamina.

I had been slowly dodging and diving out of the way of the various droids, trying to get them all to group together as close as they possibly could while conserving as much as my Stamina as possible. At this point, I was relatively certain I knew just what these particular droids could do and even though they were keeping up with me in level due to the system's variable design, they just weren't really that much of a challenge. That thought had actually made me need to suppress a laugh, realizing that Pinky and Freak really had been rubbing off on me if it had been the lack of a challenge that had annoyed me and not the fact that they were apparently continuously camping around our base.

My strike hit the center of the group of six Clockwork Gorillas that had been trying to pin me down. In an instant, they were all sent collapsing to the ground with loud bangs and crunches echoing outward. Their bodies all tried their damndest to pull inward in the short time they were able to before they hit the ground due to the ability's Shock Spiral augmentation, but the rough movement only worked to drag them harder against the ground as they crunched down into it. Between the sheer amount of power I threw into the single attack and the Song of Hercules that Swansong continued to sing doubling the damage of the attack, each one of the gorilla's health bars bottomed all the way out.

I zipped up and into the air just before they could each detonate, leaving fresh pockmarks in the landscape only a few dozen yards away from the tunnel entrance. The melodies continuously coming from Swansong finally cut off as she floated her way over toward me, the twin tails of her white and gold cape fluttering out behind her. Once I felt her presence next to me, I looked over and shot her a wide smile.

"Those new songs of yours are honestly pretty amazing, kinda odd so many of them are named after Greek mythology, but cool all the same," I said, materializing an Enhanced Stamina Injector and using it.

"I mean... they're not all named after Greek stuff, just the ones that buff my allies. I think it's cause I like Greek mythology though and the abilities are supposed to fit who we are. Though you should probably be thanking Codex, he's the one that's suggested most of the basic ideas at this point," she said, her cheeks flushed as she smiled back at me.

"No, no, definitely thank Swan, I think she'd appreciate if you got out of those wet-"

"CODEX!" Swansong practically yelped to cut him off as he started to laugh.

"Codex don't tease Swan, she's not as used to your… sense of humor, just yet," I said, rolling my eyes as I looked back toward the beacon lit up to the south. Based just on where I could see the light, and the fact that Freak hadn't spoken up, I knew that he must have been at least a few neighborhoods away, possibly even down near the Financial District.

"Fiiiiine," Jon finally said, his laughing dying down as he worked to calm his breathing. "I didn't think she'd get so shy about it."

"I'm not- it's not- ugggh, I'm going to need to have a word with Logan about what he tells you," she sputtered out, her cheeks practically burning as she followed me up and into the air.

"How's Freak doing?" I asked, trying to redirect the conversation. I was relatively sure I knew what was going on, but I certainly wasn't going to be the one to respark that conversation… well, at least not now while Jon could still hear us talking. I felt my own cheeks redden at the thought alone and I quickly shook it from my head before I heard Angie let out a giggle.

"Sheesh, you need to relax, Loophole."

"Not now, Angie… but I know," I said, letting out an internal sigh.

"He's… He's eating a hot dog and chatting with some civilians that are passing by. Apparently not even a bit of rain is stopping some folks from trying to take selfies with him. Dude's reputation has taken a turn for the better that's for sure," Jon finally said, his voice crackling back into our internal chat. It was a subtle thing, but I had finally seemed to notice when he was, for lack of a better description, changing the channel to talk with someone outside of a chat I was involved in.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

"I guess Hydramental is trying to maintain a "heroic" persona right now given that last interview he did. Maybe he's not gonna risk getting into a fight with someone with a good reputation… by sticking near civilians, Freak might just have given himself the perfect armor… er… though that makes it sound like he's using them as human shields," Swansong said, clearly happy the conversation had taken a turn.

"I don't think Freak has thought it through that far, I honestly just think he's enjoying the limelight a bit. He was telling me he saw someone wearing one of his "Get your Freak on" shirts," Jon explained. "I think we are good on surprises for now, maybe you guys can take some time to figure out where the hell all these droids keep coming from, or at least clear some of them out. Loophole the system is starting to do the whole "Level Up Imminent" alert over here so I say crush those droids like soda cans and see if you can cross over to 24."

"Took the words right out of my mouth," I said, looking away from the beacon and down toward the park. Just like earlier in the day, I could see a handful of other metallic forms moving about the landscape. "It's not like there's a lot of time between them showing up, it's gotta be somewhere close…"

"What do we even think the plan is with these guys though? I mean, if Hydramental knows where our base entrance is, why not throw one of those giant droids at us, or just come out here and wait to ambush us himself? Loophole just took out six of those gorillas like it was nothing at all," Swansong said, her face scrunched up as she started scanning the area herself.

"See if it were just Hydramental I'd think he was actually just trying to annoy you, but I have no idea what Mr. Factory is after… this just feels like a waste of resources," Jon murmured. I looked over at Swan before gesturing toward the nearest group of the droids. She gave me a small nod as Jon continued to mutter to himself and we went racing forward.

Although I liked it when the whole group was together, there was something nice about fighting when it was just Swansong and myself. While it might have seemed easy to believe the only thing she had been doing was singing to buff my attacks, I had learned she had slowly been expanding on her abilities through trial and error with Jon. Thanks to her dual vocal cords, while she almost always kept the Song of Hercules activated, she bounced between secondary songs as needed.

From her Song of Hermes that granted the speed boost, to her Song of False Echoes that actually delayed the activation time of enemy abilities, something that had been letting me get well out of range of the final last ditch self-destruct feature they were each equipped with, Swansong's arsenal of songs were, while nowhere near as flashy and destructive as some abilities, without a doubt incredibly useful. I barely even knew what she was singing half the time, just trusting that she was making the best possible choice for the occasion as I took on the grunt work of beating the metallic enemies down and into the ground.

I was just dodging out of the way of another round of explosions, the rain just starting to pick up as the drizzle turned into a steady beating rain when Jon finally spoke up again. I hadn't been keeping an accurate track of time and there was a part of me hoping this was just him reporting that Freak was on his way back. I was, for what would not be the last time that day, wrong.

"Guys, we got an update, We've got eyes on Hydramental but he's acting kinda weird... Well... I guess weirder than his normal. He's just uh... kinda staring Freak down, almost like he's waiting forsomething. I don't think the civilians see him though."

"He's just, what, standing there?" I asked, my head whipping back toward the beacon lighting up the sky. Swansong dropped down close to me and I grabbed her with my Gravitational Field as I lifted us higher up into the air, already aiming south.

"Yeah, Freak was looking around and I saw a burst of flame on his P.O.V., he looked back and the red one was just landing on top of a ten story building across the street from where Freak has been hanging out. He's been looking around and managed to spot two others so far, but they aren't making a move yet," Jon reported. "If you're going to head that way, try to keep your distance, we don't know what he's- oh god damnit…"

Jon's voice was cut off as a new window lit up in my display and Angie was as quick as ever as she jumped to read it.

"NEW MISSION! Droid Rampage! Sheesh, someone just isn't playing by the rules anymore are they? A Droid Forge in the Financial District has burst open! What are they after? What's the goal here!? Do I look like I have all the answers Loophole? Axio's not even sure what they're doing and at this point I think he's pretty pissed off that these guys keep trying to launch events before they're supposed to, which is probably why he's offering you a reward for going and taking care of it. Reward: This reward is variable based on how you deal with this unexpected event."

"Well fuck... how many are there?" I asked as soon as Angie stopped talking, holding us in the air as I stared toward the south. I didn't want to jump into action if it looked like Freak was going to be able to manage it, especially if the droids weren't any more powerful than the ones I'd been fighting so far. But that would have been ignoring one very crucial detail. "What the fuck is Hydramental doing? Does Freak still have eyes on him?"

"There's too many to count, Freak was mid conversation with a group of civilians when the entire face of a building sheared off of it. He lost track of Hydramental the moment it happened," Jon explained and I could hear the panic in his voice. "Freak is trying to get the civilians to cover. Luckily they were close to a building so most of them went rushing for the door the moment Freak leapt into action, but he's... he's going to... what the fuck?"

"Codex?" I asked as he trailed off, looking over at Swansong who looked just as confused as I did.

"Three Hydramentals just jumped into the fray. They are… helping… I think? A big Clockwork Kangaroo was about to attack Freak and the blue Hydramental froze it before it could happen," he finally explained.

"He's… what? This has to be some sort of trick," I said, my gut turning as I felt my suspicions rise. I knew all too well that Hydramental was sometimes overly free with his attacks and while I was sure he hadn't fooled any of the reporters when we had last seen him on the news, I could imagine a situation where he "accidentally" hit Freak with an attack and had to talk his way out of it.

"Oh fucking hell. Freak just noticed that Hydramental is purposefully scanning all of the droids he can. They're all equalizing to his level instead of Freaks, you need to head that way now!" Jon said quickly and my gut immediately sunk.

Even if he hadn't gained any new levels since we had last seen him, that still meant the droids spilling out would register over Level 30 at a bare minimum. I knew more than well enough that level wasn't everything, but that was in a one on one fight, not when you were facing down droids that were "too many to count."

"We're on the way," I said as I ramped up the speed though I didn't want to move us too quickly. Between the rain falling down and the heightened speed, things were quickly getting a bit difficult to track and given that I hadn't actually had to navigate in the rain while flying so far, I didn't want to let myself get turned around because of a new variable. The beacon luckily was doing the very job it was intended for, giving me a guiding path to follow and I was shooting us toward it in as straight of a path as possible, hoping to get Freak into comms range as quickly as I could so that we could coordinate.

I had just crossed us over the southern edge of Central Park when I heard several loud BOOMS followed by flashes of light as lightning danced across the sky just off to the west. Barely a moment passed before there was another loud rumble. I felt an odd sort of energy that started to pass through the air. This wasn't like when I was using my Area Sense. It was like… when you had accidentally rubbed against a bit of carpet for too long and were dreading touching the next bit of metal.

The rumble continued to build and I could feel the hair standing up on the back of my neck as I finally realized I had unconsciously slowed down to take in the light show dancing across the clouds. I was pretty sure that Jon was trying to say something, but the blazing light was nearly impossible to ignore as I felt an odd sense of dread.

Another flash blazed across the sky and I had to raise an arm to shield my eyes against it as an explosion of a boom echoed across the sky, rattling me down to my bones. There was a ringing that filled my ears as I finally cautioned a glance… just in time to see as a building started collapsing inward and down toward the ground.

The problem was… it wasn't down toward where Freak's beacon was. No… it was somewhere I was very familiar with.

Just off to the west, in Hell's Kitchen, rain fell and tried to squash a suddenly erupting blaze. A completely unnatural looking series of electrical arcs went running up the crumbling building as I felt my eyes widen in shock. Had we been anywhere else, maybe I wouldn't have been able to see things as clearly. Hell, it was entirely possible my eyes were playing tricks on me.

But those unnatural arcs seemed to grow and surge, rushing up the building toward a neighboring roof before forming into a vaguely humanoid looking form. The rain was falling harder and I couldn't quite make out just who it was, but I knew Hydramental had an electric form, and now I knew where he was going to strike.

I wasn't sure what sort of bullshit he was up to, but I still had a good bit of time in my bank for the day, and I was not going to let a building in my neighborhood get destroyed if I could help it.

Zeroing in on the building one last time, realizing I was about to have to explain a lot in a very little amount of time to get everyone on the same page, I swallowed hard, and then rewound time.

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.