There had been over a dozen crabs crawling over the side of the ship when I had arrived and I had already cut through most of them. It had taken me a few tries, more than once launching an entire group of them off of the side of the ship and into the river before I discovered that knocking them into the water somehow gave them time to repair themselves, but once I had figured out that specific skill of these droids, they had become rather easy to pick off.

I had just destroyed the first of the crabs when we received the notification that Freak had picked up the noon Token. Pinky had apparently decided to tag along which… Well it didn't relieve me simply because I knew that Freak could handle himself, but it did still feel like a good idea to have us split up into teams while we were still dealing with an onslaught of droids.

I narrowly dodged out of the way as a crab lunged at me with its giant, metal claw, taking the opportunity to punch it with a 25% Gravity Punch. The claw, along with the crab, went hurtling backwards, though not quite far enough to knock it off the end of the ship. I had already made that mistake more than once, knocking the mechanical crabs off and into the water only for them, or one that looked just like them, to reappear with full health.

As it skidded to a halt, its sharpened feet dug slightly into the non-skid floor of the flight deck in an instinctive attempt to stop itself. It didn't, however, anchor itself so well that it couldn't be knocked back again when I followed up the strike with my Quantum EchoStrike, having the afterimage strike the Clockwork Crab from behind, sending it launching back my way. Just before it could reach me, I activated the skill one more time, the afterimage briefly appearing as it slammed another strike into the crab's side and bursting it at its seams as I finally broke through its defenses.

Whether the feature had been disabled or these droids just hadn't had them installed, I was thankful to see that these specific droids didn't explode after they were destroyed. I was pretty sure the reward for the Crime Alert would get lowered if I let the droids put any holes in the ship.

"We got Mr. Pinball over here, bouncing those droids around like you're going for a high score," Jon laughed in my ear before I dodged out of the way of another Clockwork Crab that scurried over the edge of the ship. "Also Swan, for your P.A.I.'s sake, I'm going to ask you to stop looking at Loophole so hard… He's starting to complain about where your thoughts are going."

"LOGAN!" Swansong squeaked, though I don't think she meant to include me in the thought since she suddenly continued, "You shouldn't– I wasn't– LOGAN!!!"

"Codex, can you stop teasing Swan and keep looking into the rules around base entrances?" I said, trying not to focus on what had clearly been implied. I jumped at the next Crab, laying into it with strikes as fast as I could to ramp my Stamina Regeneration back up after it fell off from the Pulse Flow Augmentation to my Combat Cadence.

"You know we're not going to find anything in here, the Command Room is unique and experimental as Angie's pointed out to us like, half a dozen times."

"Eight times to be exact," she chirped.

"I don't think I remember it being that many…" I muttered, eyeing two more Clockwork Crabs that crawled over the edge of the ship. The moment they entered my Local Area, I ramped up Center of the Universe, dodging around the Clockwork Crab closest to me as I pulled the others in close. Once they were close enough, I unleashed a 2000 point Mass Driver, knocking them backwards once more as I took advantage of my ramped up Regeneration, watching as half of the Stamina I just spent refilled in just over a second.

"All I'm trying to say is there's no guarantee that what happens to a Safe House would happen to the Command Room," Jon said, though even I could tell he wasn't convinced.

"Look man, I get it, you don't want to leave. But if these attacks keep going and your in danger staying in the apartment-"

"And what about Mr. and Mrs. Greyson? The Polinov's on the second floor? You're not going to let-"

"Codex!"

I gritted my teeth in frustration before I pushed off from the flight deck and chased after the crabs that had yet to break down. Just as they began to scramble back to their feet from the crabpile they had found themselves in, I flew over them with Center of the Universe ramped back up to its full strength.

"I am going to do everything I can to stop these attacks from happening and I'm going to stop Hydramental. But it's clear he's trying to get a rise out of me by attacking our neighborhood again and again. If we can guarantee that you'll be safe in there, then yes, maybe turtling in the Command Room is the best idea. But if it's not? You're basically the only family I have left in this world… I'm not saying I'd save your life solely over the lives of everyone else in the building… but…" I said my tone trailing off in stark contrast to the continuing battle over the former aircraft carrier.

I turned up and into the sky as I flew in an arc around Swansong as she continued to belt out her Song of Hercules and Song of Hermes at the same time, dragging my captured prey like they had stumbled into a crab trap up and into the air. I took a few seconds to get myself just far enough over the actual land before I activated Earthbound Impact. I hadn't tried this particular move just yet, but since Center of the Universe didn't disable when I activated the skill, the crabs came hurtling down after me as I plummeted toward the ground. I manually deactivated the skill just a few seconds before impact and the three crabs all hit the ground with loud THUDS as their bodies shattered. There were sparks coming off of the few remains still in larger chunks and I slowly took in the rest of the area, waiting to see if more of the droids would appear.

"But…" I finally started again as I floated back up into the air and toward the top of the ship. "What if it's like, let's say… the Training Dojo? What would happen if I was in the Training Dojo and the Safe House was destroyed?"

"That's…" Jon started to say before stopping, his fingers hammering into the keys of his keyboard.

"If you are inside of a phased area that does not have a secondary exit when the main entrance is rendered inaccessible, you would be ejected from the space at the closest approximation to the location's original entrance the moment the designated Safe House or Squad Base is destroyed," Angie said, answering the question when Jon took too long.

"See! You'd get ejected and, unless I've been counting the staircases wrong all this time… WE LIVE ON THE FIFTH FLOOR!"

"That's… okay look, I'll consider it, but if I leave this room, I lose access to everything. I can't be in your ear helping…" Jon argued and I felt my brow furrow. "I know you want to keep me safe and all that… but me helping is keeping you safe too."

While I did appreciate his help, hell I might not have even survived this long without it if I was being honest with myself, I had come a long way from those first few uneasy days. I knew how my powers worked now, and I even liked to think I had gotten pretty good with them. I would never say that I didn't need his help any longer but…

"I don't want to see Mr. Blue Eyes get hurt either…" Angie said, her voice a lower whisper. When Jon didn't respond to the comment, I knew she had only said it to me. "He's really stubborn though, I'm not sure if you're going to be able to convince him to leave. I think he's in love with me and it would break his heart to not hear my voice."

"If these attacks get any closer than this… I'm flying you to your parents even if I have to force you to go," I said, ignoring Angie completely and deciding it would be better if I had this argument with him face to face instead, preferably with the Dead Zone in place so we could have some privacy.

I scanned the water for just a moment before spotting another crab that finally resurfaced. I turned and zipped toward it, activating Center of the Universe just as I passed by it. Just like all of the others, it rather easily was yanked from the water and came hurtling after me as I dragged it up and onto the deck of the ship where I could start pummeling it. Within 10 seconds, I had delivered enough blows to raise the Target debuff from my gloves up to giving my strikes a 300% increase to their damage and I finished the metallic crustacean off with a 40% Gravity Punch that sent its parts flying in a scattered mess.

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"Crime Alert Completed! An Intrepid Endeavor. Well it's a good thing those guys didn't go boom on beatdown because you might have lost a few tiers off this reward. What can I say, you did a good job beating up droids that aren't really posing that much of a threat to you. Maybe just be happy Axio is deciding to turn all of these encounters into rewardable encounters and move on. Reward: Please select between an A:Tier loot box or an A:tier squad base loot box."

It was the very first time an alert had given me an option to choose from and I thought about it for just a moment. Since the Crime Alert was labeled as completed, I didn't feel too bad about letting myself get momentarily distracted. Swansong floated down, landing next to me and stretching her arms out by pushing them behind her back. Although we had just gotten another A+:Tier squad base loot box, I was really tempted to grab this one as well.

We had gotten an A:Tier in the past for the base when it had been just Swansong and I and that box had given us a Base Level Up Coupon. If the A+:Tier's also had that chance, even if I didn't use my Luck Bomb, there was the possibility that we could end up with two of the Coupons, which would let us actually install the Relocator Panel that we had been sitting on since we had received it. That was obviously a long shot of course, and frankly a bit of a waste of one of my rather limited uses of Luck Bomb.

In truth, once we had some time where Axio was treating New York just like the rest of the world, as sad as that was to actually say– especially given all the destruction across the Americas– I wouldn't have to resort to using my Luck Bomb to force the base's advancement. We would theoretically be able to do all the "normal" things the other Augments were presumably getting to do as they made somewhat slower strides forward.

"Umm… we got a… problem, I think? If it's not a problem, it's definitely… something. Could be a trap but not really sure," Jon said, noticeably unsure. It snapped me out of my thoughts as I selected the personal loot box from the reward options and let the window fade from my vision.

"Another one? Is their goal to just fucking exhaust us at this point?" I said with a groan. "What kind of animal this time?"

"Uh… it's Barracuda," Jon said, before quickly adding. "And I mean the Augment one, not a Clockwork one."

"No, no… I figured that one out on my own," I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose. "What about him?"

"He just showed up over by Freak and uh, told him that he's got a message he's supposed to get to you," Jon explained.

"A… message?" I asked, slightly confused. I thought about it for a moment before I opened my Friend's List and clicked on the only Miscreant on it.

<Loophole: Hey, are you with Barracuda? I thought you guys were avoiding the tokens that we got to first?>

"What's the message?" I asked, pushing the chat window over to the side instead of staring at it and hoping he responded. I looked over at Swansong and nodded up and we both lifted off, rising higher into the air as I scanned the immediate area for any new signs of droids. Thankfully it at least seemed like we had a minute to deal with… well whatever this was. Especially with no new Crime Alert suddenly demanding our attention

"It's for you specifically and Barracuda refuses to let Freak just pass it on. There are civilians close enough that Freak doesn't want to try to force anything, especially since Barracuda's just hanging out on a bench out in the open. Pinky is close enough if it goes that way but… well it's not like he really came with back up either. It's just him hanging out snacking on a bag of chips," Jon explained. I looked across the city toward the golden beacon pointing out Freak's location somewhere up to the Northeast, probably in the Bronx if I was estimating right.

"That's odd… it's– wait… he's by himself?" I asked and pulled the chat window back open.

<Loophole: Skim? Are you okay?... Do you know anything about some message he's trying to pass on?>

This time I didn't close the window, instead staring at it for a few extra seconds as my brow furrowed, trying to will Skim to respond.

"Loophole?" Swansong asked, her voice coming out lightly as she drifted closer to me. "Is everything okay?"

"Skim's not answering messages… He's still on my list, so he must be alive, but…" I said, looking at her for a moment before I mentally grabbed her with my Gravitational Field. While she certainly had gotten faster, her base flight still only topped out under 100MPH and if Barracuda, or TechWarden for that matter, was up to something, I sure as hell wasn't going to leave Freak to deal with it on his own. "Codex, tell Freak and Pinky we are on the way and will be there in a minute or two. I'm going to put some speed on for us."

"And here I thought you guys might actually get a lunch break," Jon groaned.

"Me too buddy… me too," I sighed, feeling as Swansong took my hand just as I really ramped our speed up.

We crossed the ten mile gap in a bit over a minute before I slowed us down and released Swansong, leaving us to hover about a thousand feet up from the beacon that Freak was putting off.

"Stay up here. It'll keep you out of trouble and you can save my ass if something goes wrong. You know… just in case I have to use the Dead Zone device. I'll keep the range down so that it won't hit you if I have to activate it," I said and Swansong nodded in agreement.

"Well you two lovebirds got here fast," Pinky giggled into the internal team chat. "And what about me and Freak? What if we get stuck in that zone?"

"I mean… Just walk out of it, it's not like you guys will be trapped in it? I can keep Barracuda stuck in it, though I'd rather not reveal to TechWarden that I can use my powers in a Dead Zone if I don't have to. If I do end up using the Dead Zone device, if anything, it might let me free Barracuda from TechWarden's influence enough that we can get him to disable his Acceptance Matrix," I explained. "Obviously it's a long shot, but if he's gonna come out into the open like this, it might be a good shot to take."

"Well hurry your ass up and get down here then, I hate this dude's voice. It's giving me a damn migraine," Freak huffed as I noticed the sun glinting off of part of his armor when he moved to stand up. I wasn't quite sure where Pinky was, but it was more than likely she was hiding off to the side, just in case she did have to respond.

Freak had been sitting off to the side of a rather large intersection, right near where the rubble of the overhead train platform had collapsed, effectively blocking the road from even the bravest of drivers. Several nearby stores were clearly open and I could clearly see one case where a kid had their nose firmly pressed against the glass, even starting to jump as I came in for a landing.

Barracuda almost immediately jumped to his feet the moment he saw me, his hands clasping together as a rather disturbing looking smile spread over his face.

"Loophole! Thank youse for coming sos quickly," he said, his grating voice sending a shiver down my spine. His hands separated as a white light flashed between them and a large, device with a speaker on the front appeared firmly held between them.

"Where's Skim?" I asked, ignoring it. I had my mental finger on my Timekeeper's Control just in case I needed it. I had been relatively lucky with it so far, with my Bank still mostly full.

"Hims? That lil snitch that was giving youse information! Went and tried to tells me that youse were gonna come over and "save" us. You don't need to worry about him and youse don't need to worry about mes either," Barracuda said, his smile briefly faltering as his eyes narrowed. "Wes went ahead and got him fixed up so that wes would be on the same page, and my boss has saids once I pass on this message, youse should be too."

"Someone needs to get this guy a fuckin' dialect coach," Freak muttered and I suppressed the urge to laugh, not wanting to escalate the situation as I turned my attention to the box in Barracuda's hands.

"He was your friend… he just wanted to help-"

"Really Loophole, I knows youse thinks youse can get through to me and alls that, but mys instructions were very clear. Just gots to get youse here and activate this here device thingamajig," he said, reaching up and pressing a button on top of it before I could react.

I was just about to rewind, prepared for some sort of bomb or just… random attack, when I heard the clear sign of feedback, almost similar to whenever Axio started one of his evening announcements. While I didn't take my mental finger off the trigger, I did relax slightly, a bit surprised that the message was actually a message. Or… at least I thought it was.

"Well, well, color me surprised. You actually succeeded for once Barracuda. Go ahead, take a seat and knock yourself out. I don't need you listening in on any of this and you're more useful to me as an incentive than a voice.".

At first I had thought it had been a really, really weird way to start a message… Until Barracuda's eyes seemed to glaze over and he followed the instructions to the letter. He first set the device down onto the ground before he walked right back over to the bench. In a fluid motion, with a bit of water appearing out of thin air, he sat down and then punched himself as hard as he could in the face. It actually made me flinch, nearly jumping to rewind things only to realize that I'd have to sacrifice any chance at information just to prevent the KO debuff now floating over the fish-man's head.

"Good, I don't think any of us needed to hear that voice chiming in every few seconds," the voice said. It was posh and beyond overly smug, and while I had only really heard it once before, well over a week ago now, I still recognized it. Even though I knew exactly who might have wanted to use Barracuda to send me a message, even knowing exactly what I had been flying to, I still found an almost unexpected bit of anger well up and I felt my fists clench, nails biting into the fabric of my gloves.

"TechWarden," I growled. "What the fuck do you want?"

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