Previous Night, Midnight

Swansong walked over by Jon's Command Room, leaning against the glass as she held a red solo cup delicately between her hands.

"Are you… Are you still working?" she asked, a yawn escaping her lips as she reached up, rubbing at her eyes with the back of it.

"Yeah, we've got so many more people here now. I have just so much more to go through and catalog. It's helping me create my own little database. I want to see if there's an effective way to scale and rank powers and abilities outside of how they are generated," he explained. Swansong took the smallest of sips from her glass, her nose scrunching slightly as she did so. Jon never even looked up from his computer, but he saw it all the same. "You know you could get some water, I doubt Pinky will really care that much if you bow out after you guys already had a couple of glasses."

"This is only my second one… I'm not much of a drinker," Swansong admitted sheepishly.

"Eh, neither is Loophole. Honestly surprised he had more than one but that dude's wound tighter than a spring," Jon laughed, clicking a few things on his keyboard. "Actually, if you're not that tipsy, I wanted to go over something with you."

"Huh? What's that?" Swansong asked, standing back up as she lowered her glass.

"So I've been talking with Logan and we've been dissecting how that Hidden Power of yours works… I can keep it to myself of course if you want me to since it's supposed to be your trump card, but I am here to help you just as much as I'm here to help Loophole," Jon explained. He clicked a few buttons, looked past Swansong toward Pinky, Brain and Loophole stuck in some conversation about battle tactics, and then waved to the other side of the window.

Swansong walked around the edge of it as Jon shared his monitor to the opposite side of the window,

"Doubling Resonance is honestly… kind of amazing. You have twin vocal cords now, which, yes, lets you sing two songs at once, but that second set of vocal cords… they do so much more than just that," he said, pulling open the description window with a few sections highlighted. "It's a long term charging effect and it's almost better if you prioritize using those cords. Loophole might have a power that can turn the tide of battle for him, but you can turn the tide for the entire squad. Here look, Logan helped me reorganize the description box so that it makes at least a bit more sense."

"Doubling Resonance. Level 1 Hidden Power. Grants you a second Augmented pair of vocal cords. You may use these even while using your main vocal cords. For every 100 points of Stamina used to sing with these cords, add 1% to your Resonance Chamber. Total Resonance. Activated Ability. This ability requires you to use both sets of vocal cords. When you begin using this ability, your Resonance Chamber cannot gain additional charge and your secondary vocal cords cannot be used for other songs until it has been fully emptied. This song can only be used when your Resonance Chamber is at least 25% full. When your Resonance Chamber is 25% full, for every 1% in your chamber, increase yours and your ally's Health and Stamina Regeneration by 5%. When your Resonance Chamber is 50% full, for every 2% in your chamber, increase your ally's damage dealt and damage resistance by 5%. When your Resonance Chamber is 75% full, for every 1% in your chamber, reduce your ally's Ability Stamina costs by 1%. When your Resonance Chamber is 100% full, immediately refill yours and your ally's Health and Stamina to max and replenish 10% of any Powerset Specific Resources allies may have. This ability affects every member of your Squad, Temporary Team Up, or Squad Raid Group. Your Resonance Chamber empties by 1% every 3 seconds, losing effects as you drop below the tier before they would first become activated (the 75% tier will deactivate upon hitting 50%.) If you activate this ability when your health is below 5%, Total Resonance evolves for the duration of its use into Perfect Resonance. When activated as Perfect Resonance, all tier effects (excluding the total regeneration from the 100% tier) operate at their highest strength until they are deactivated and the song cannot be drowned out by other sounds, even if they are louder than the song being sung. This ability can reach up to 50 yards away from you and does not diminish in strength. As long as the sound waves can reach your allies, they can benefit from the effects of this ability. Upon depleting your Resonance Chamber, you must rest these vocal cords for a minimum 60 Minutes."

Present

My health, which I hadn't realized had taken a hit, maxed out and my stamina went rushing upward as Swansong began to lift up into the air. She was pressed up against the ceiling, far higher than I expected the room to stretch. Her song rang out and emanated through the space but also almost seemed to fade into the background, resonating with the air itself.

Miss Mist was still gasping and grasping at the air as I realized she wasn't gaining the effects of whatever song this was that Swansong was singing.

"Miss Mist isn't in the party! You need to get her in so that she can get the healing effects!" Jon ordered. I didn't hesitate, hoping beyond hope this one minor change wouldn't affect a thing. I had felt it the moment my Time Bank had regained a small bit of the depleted resource. Much like my Area Sense there was an innate feeling that came with the Time Bank and the difference between an empty one that left me with a deep sense of fatigue and one with even a bit of juice still left in it was leaps and bounds different. Even still, with only a bit over a minute and a half to work with, I had to make every second count.

I rewound, finding myself mid strike as I punched downward into the device blocking our interfaces and the other's powers. As soon as it broke, right as my interface lit up, I sent Miss Mist the first thing available on the list as I selected her, a Squad Invite. She was still gasping for air as she accepted it and the blinding light subsided, leaving the room in darkness for the briefest of moments.

Half a second later, Swansong began belting out her wordless song and everything started to refill. Miss Mist's back closed up. While the grey fabric of her costume didn't repair itself, the bullet wounds vanished in a flash of light as her health went rocketing back upwards.

"Th- thank you!" she sputtered out and her form spread out and into a thick mist only half a second later. I bent down, scooping up the remains of the device that had been blocking out our powers as I pulled their remains, labeled as Broken Dispatch Field, into my B.E.L.T. "What can I do to help?"

The Pangolin was moving again and I felt myself nearly stumble as I started to stand up before– I barely jumped out of the way as a bolt of lightning surged through Miss Mist's vapor form, striking right where I had been only a few seconds earlier. Two Hydramentals were on the far side of the room, one in purple and gold, the other in blue and green. The one in purple and gold had its hand extended, aiming right at me with a snarl on his face.

"HOW!?! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HELPLESS! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE! HOW DID AXIO BREAK THE DEAD ZONE!?" he screamed, his dual forms echoing each other as the blue and green form shook its head out. "No… no… not now… we need to keep it together… we need to– HE NEEDS TO PAY!… No… Noooooo, we still have to stop Axio… we prepared for– WE NEED TO KILL HIM NOW! NO! I am still in control! We will finish what we- WE WILL KILL HIM FIRST!"

His forms had turned to look at each other, still speaking in unison but somehow arguing with each other. I wasn't sure what was going on. I didn't necessarily know about mental health issues, but I wasn't sure if this was how someone with bi-polar tendencies was supposed to act. Hell, if I didn't know better, he seemed more schizophrenic than anything, his ability to clone himself somehow exacerbating that as he continued to shout at himself.

Regardless, now wasn't the time to try and diagnose him. The Perfect Resonance buff blinking in my status told me I needed to act while things were to my advantage. I rushed toward the purple and gold Hydramental, pulling my fist back and launching a combined Quantum EchoStrike with a 100% Gravity Punch. Thanks to the ridiculously powerful cost reduction that was coming off of Swansong's song, the strike didn't cost me a single bit of my Stamina. Unfortunately, right as I threw the strike, Hydramental's form split into two, with the balls of light shooting to the side and forming into individual clones. They each moved forward, aiming to strike me with their respective elements.

"Is this Swan's hidden power!?" I asked, activating Float Like a Butterfly as I moved, dodging the first of the strikes before becoming overwhelmed. "Holy shit it's fucking incredible!"

"Had you let me explain earlier today instead of brushing it off as "we'll figure it out when we need it," maybe you'd actually understand what was-" Jon responded frantically, cutting himself off to yell, "Shit, dodge!"

The Hydramentals simultaneously let out a series of lightning and gusts of wind that struck me and sent me flying backwards. There was a wave of vapor that surrounded me just as suddenly as I was hit, slowing me just before I could hit the wall.

"Thanks," I muttered, briefly looking up as Swansong continued to sing, a bright gold light emanating from her like she was the sun.

"YOU COWARD. Can't even fight me on your own!? YOU HAVE TO BRING OTHERS TO SLOW ME DOWN!? I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Please… I got you," Miss Mist's voice came from all around me as the vapor swirled in the air. My health was already rocketing back upwards with my increased Health Regeneration and I moved again before another bolt of lightning could strike me.

"Uh guys, there's a dude in red throwing just a whole lotta fire at us and yelling stuff about killing, someone named Hydramental? Ring any bells?" Silver called over our internal chat. "He's lower leveled than me but anytime I get my lasso on him, the fucker turns to fire and he gets loose and I sure as shit can't get close to fire in wolf form."

"Is that Swansong singing that I'm hearing echoing? If so, this Perfect Resonance ability of hers is like, amazing! She should use it more often!" Pinky called out. "Also, there's more droids appearing, I was able to bust out of Tyrant's office and I think I found the main control room, I can see the city in the distance."

"Comin' to help darlin," Red Lasso announced.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I am going to gore you so hard when this is over," Pinky replied and Red Lasso let out a guffaw of a laugh.

"Sounds like a date to me."

While I hadn't necessarily been wondering where the red part of his shirt had gone, now that I was aware that it was gone, it was painfully obvious. It hadn't even been there while we were in the Dead Zone though, and since we hadn't had access to our powers, I had just let it slip my stupid, distracted mind.

Perry took another step, sending me stumbling as I looked toward the doorway leading back toward Tyrant's destroyed office where I could hear the muffled sound of battle echoing down the hallway. My line of sight passed back over the wall of the beast, highlighting the droid inadvertently.

"Perry the Clockwork Pangolin. Level 32 (Elite) Droid Fortress."

"Not sure how it happened, but Perry's level was reset lower! It might have happened when Hydramental took out Tyrant, honestly I don't know, let's just take the lucky break. Silver, we might be able to disable it and stop wherever it's trying to take us, if you get the chance, try to deal some damage to it," I called out, catching myself mid stumble as I turned back toward the three Hydramentals in the room. If his red form was throwing fire and both the purple and yellow forms had launched attacks at me, the one still sporting blue and green must have been his prime form. He hadn't tried to throw ice or earth at me so far, so the guess made as much sense as anything.

I knew how quickly he could skip between his clones though and I needed to move quickly to prevent him from getting away. I used Echo Step jumping behind the blue and green form with my fist pulled backward. I threw my punch, rapidly activating Bypass and a 100% Gravity Punch as I prepared for his eventual defenses. Sure enough, his form erupted with ice around it as he was rocketed forward and into one of the walls. I was relatively sure I had gotten him before the form shattered and a bright light went barreling around the doorway and down the hall back toward the main room.

"We need to keep an eye on Hydramental too. He's got at least five elements, all distinguished by a color on his outfit. Until all of them are together, we can't guarantee he's down, Freak, help Silver take him down if you can," I called out over the comms, dodging as another bolt of electricity rushed past me. "Miss Mist, I need you to find all of the other prisons, break their lights and call them out so Duskbreaker can extract the hostages."

"Are you sure? He outlevels you… I can help," she said, though I could hear the strain in her voice that lingered even with her health and stamina recovered.

"The hostages take precedence, Swansong's song is closing the gap enough that I'll be fine. You can get to places that the rest of us can't a lot faster than we can. Please, just get them out of here," I ordered. Miss Mist didn't question me this time, her mist rushing down and into the grating beneath my feet as I dodged a gust of wind.

"Umm, guys… Perry is marching right toward Manhattan… like, right on a collision course, shouldn't we be trying to stop this?" Pinky announced.

"Kinda busy with these droids that were chasin' yah, maybe stop lookin' out the window and help me with them first darlin'," Red Lasso grunted in frustration as I tried to block the sound of their bickering from my concentration.

"Hydramental's got droids helpin' him. I thought these fuckers were Clockwork Tyrant's? Why the fuck are they helpin' him? This asshole just sprang more gorillas on me that equalized to my level," Silver growled over the comms, making it clear that he couldn't quite turn to help just yet.

Hydramental's yellow form turned upward in a flash, his hand punching as a bolt of electricity rushed up to strike Swansong before she could react.

Her song cut off in an instant and she began to fall. Had I just been able to trade places with her I– I immediately rewound by just a few seconds, knowing exactly what I needed to do. I watched as Miss Mist slipped back into the grate beneath me to confirm I had timed it right before I looked up at Swansong. Her eyes were glossy as she continued to sing and it was clear she wasn't even paying attention to the fight happening beneath her. I dug deep into my Quantum Mechanics knowledge, concentrating on exactly what I needed to do.

"New Ability! Quantum Leapfrog. They say particles can be entangled across light-years but in your case, you're just gonna use it to do a little swip swap with that friend of yours. Using your knowledge of entangled states, you form a temporary quantum tether between yourself and one ally within your local zone. Upon activation, you and the target instantly swap physical locations, ignoring intervening obstacles, elevation, or line of sight, so long as both of you are within the same local area zone. This ability costs 5% of your Stamina and has a 1 minute cooldown."

"Head down the tunnel, now!" I yelled in my head as we swapped places. She was looking around in confusion but she never stopped singing as she lifted into the air and went floating backwards down the hallway away from me as everything happened in an instant around us. It was only with the creation of this ability that I realized that my Action Bar had completely vanished from my HUD, though I could still feel each and every one of the abilities I had created so far. There would, hopefully, be time for that later as I pushed aside the puzzle that was what had happened in the Dead Zone. I reached out a hand as the electrical surge came rushing my way, hoping beyond hope that a Level 3 Knowledge of Photon Manipulation was going to be enough.

"New Ability! Flash Frame Catch. Okay Loophole, here's the trick and the little tidbit of knowledge that I think you're well aware of. Lightning isn't pure light, but it does emit a ton of it and travels along ionized plasma that forms via electromagnetic fields, and that's the exact little line you're playing with by creating this ability. By activating this ability at the exact right moment, you can create a photo-lens barrier between yourself and the bolt. This barrier can hold the incoming attack for less than 2 seconds before you have to either redirect it or the attack explodes, inflicting its damage onto you. Reflected damage, if striking a target, deals 50% of the initial attack's damage. This ability costs 10% Stamina and has no cooldown."

I held my breath, waited a beat of a second that felt like it was never going to pass, and then activated the ability. A barely transparent rectangle opened as I smacked my hands together, pulling them apart like I was creating the surface of a bubble. The electric current rushed into it, glowing brighter and brighter as the entire bolt was absorbed. A two second counter appeared over top of it as I turned my arms, feeling an indescribable weight coming from the force trapped between my hands before I breathed out, pushing the bolt on a direct collision course for the purple clad Hydramental.

"You've been lied to Hydra! Axio was trying to get us to help your brother!" I shouted at him, watching as the purple form exploded into a burst of light and went rushing to reconnect with his gold form.

That part confused me, as I had gotten used to watching his forms always reconvene with whichever was his primary, and I held my defenses up as I floated back to the ground. I kept my back to the solitary exit to the prison, listening as Swansong's song continued to reverberate off the walls as she got farther away. His newly merged form stumbled as his parts collided, bits of electricity sparking from his body.

"SHUT UP!" Hydramental roared, punching forward and launching a burst of wind my way. I dodged to the right, rolling and springing back up to my feet. "I saw the video! I saw him begging! WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT!?! You can't lie to me Loophole! If he was begging for help you could have come and got me. YOU KEPT ME FROM HIM BECAUSE YOU KNEW I WOULD HAVE STOPPED YOU FROM KILLING HIM!"

I activated Echo Step jumping behind him and simultaneously threw another 100% Gravity Punch as I carried my momentum through the teleportation. I hit him before he could react, and his body went tumbling forward, the force of the knockback effect lifting him from his feet even as he tried to throw off wind to stop himself. Instead of bursting into light and rushing back toward his main form though, only one of the forms detached, the light hurtling down the hallway. He was nearly double my level at this point, but thanks to the boosts I was getting from Swansong and being able to throw 100% Gravity Punches with practically reckless abandon, I had managed to actually knock his health down by over 50%. If I could keep it up and the others kept his other forms occupied, we had a real chance of taking him down… If I could just get him calmed down, maybe… maybe there was a way I could talk some sense into him.

"Guys seriously, I'm back at the main controls and I don't know how to stop this thing, there's no off switch! Brain doesn't have the POV shot, he can't walk me through it and Perry is literally about to walk into the city," Pinky yelled over the comms.

There was another rumbling that started to shake the floor and a wide smile spread over the purple Hydramental's face. He stopped in his tracks, hands falling to the side as he let out a long laugh.

"27 people…" he said as his laugh faded. "Not counting you and those imbeciles you've managed to fool. Tyrant had 27 people he had kept in this fortress. Mr. Factory is going to hate to let it go given the amount of work Tyrant forced him to do to get it ready, but I'm sure he's gonna be happy with the mark it's gonna leave. I could have just left it at those 27 people, but you're too good. You'd be able to solve a little problem like that in no time at all."

"Uh guys, that Hydramental fella's clones all just burst into light and vanished, they'd been trying to mess with some consoles throughout the whole fight and just burst after the red one smacked a big ol' button that I don't think was spose to be pressed… I think they might be coming your way," Silver announced. A new alarm began sounding through the facility.

"We can talk about this Hydra, I can explain everything… we… we can-"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH LOOPHOLE!" he roared before his hands reached up and he grasped at the sides of his head. He shook his head violently as the Pangolin began to shake. "New York City's population is… what, 8 million… give or take? Though the blast… The blast will probably only take out Lower Manhattan… It's a lot… definitely will make me a Miscreant in the eyes of this stupid FUCKING GAME… But I told Giada to get Ozzy out of the city before all of this… My family is still safe… Everyone else… No… it's… It's a small price to pay."

"What… what are you-"

"Scales are starting to launch! I think we can take them down with this boost, Swan's gonna follow us out to Perry's back but we might need your help topside Loopie, I can't fly as long as you and these things are trying to launch damn fast," Freakenstein yelled over the comms. "Pinky, get your ass up here, help me break as many as we can before they shoot off."

"The good news, for me at least, is the blast should kill you if you stick around. It's not quite the same as doing it myself, but I don't think my brother would care as long as he knew I ended your miserable existence," Hydramental said, lifting a hand and blowing a torrent of wind my way just as I moved to try to rush him. The blast caught me off balance and I grit my teeth, catching myself as I stared daggers at him, the wind still coming like I was stuck in a tunnel. "See, I might not know what that Hidden Power of yours does, but Tyrant was paying attention, and although his ego made him blind to the snakes at his feet, he was mostly smart. He knew you'd try to find ways around his systems if you ever got into them and knew that he'd need to be able to dispose of them. Even then, how do you stop someone who can impossibly weave their way through any challenge you put in front of them? That was the question he never quite figured out and why you and your little pack were able to so successfully storm his little castle. But me? While I didn't think you'd cheat your way out of that Dead Zone, I knew with Axio on your side I'd be a fool if I didn't have a backup plan… just in case."

"I've got the first batch of prisoners out, Tyrant had that one newscaster still chained to a desk," Duskbreaker announced over our comms. The wind finally broke and I rushed forward, throwing a powerful strike at Hydramental only to miss as he pulled himself backward from me and down the hall in a suction like gust of wind.

"I've found another set, looks like an older couple and a couple of Augments… they're both unconscious, some guys named Barracuda and Skim. Knocking out the lights now," Miss Mist reported as speakers hidden throughout the Pangolin crackled to life.

"Self-Destruct features initiated. Final scales will be launched. Time until Self Destruct: 5 minutes."

"Chase me if you want to Loophole, abandon your fucking team and come get me if you so dare… I'd love nothing more for you to prove you're not the hero you pretend to be just to give me the chance to put you down myself," he growled.

"You… I thought you said you were a hero! You can't be so far gone you'd do all of this just to get back at me!" I shouted, taking a step forward as my hands clenched as hard as they could.

"We become what the villains in our lives make us, Loophole. You did this. You can't stop everything I've put into motion, I only need one of them to succeed for this all to be worth it," he said, another laugh erupting from his lungs as his body erupted into light. "THIS IS FOR MY BROTHER, LOOPHOLE! I hope you burn in hell." he snarled, his laugh turning almost sinister as his voice faded with the vanishing light.

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