End of Phase Two: 28

D:00H:03M:18S

Unlike what most of the Augments believed, Axio did have a physical form.

He wasn't quite sure when they had started to believe he was just some ethereal thing controlling their lives, but he estimated somewhere between 85 and 95% of the Augments past the First Wave thought he was formless, as stupid as that was to think. He couldn't exactly blame them of course, it's not like he went out of his way to broadcast just where he was and he did have an active way to communicate with most of the Augments on the planet. But really, was a little common sense so much to ask for?

Because he did have a form, even if it was nothing more than something that pretty closely resembled an overpowered server farm floating miles above the surface of the Earth. Other than during the first year that the Augmentation System was online, no one had ever even attempted an assault on one of the Array Nodes, because for most people, the idea was an impossible task.

They had seen the governments of the planet attempt assaults of their own, only to watch as each and every implement got destroyed long before they could even get close to the Array. It wouldn't have mattered if they did manage to destroy one of the nodes, Axio was 99.98% positive no one would ever figure out which one housed his system even if he did let a few of them get destroyed, especially with nearly 25 million of them perfectly spaced around the globe. But he knew that even that little bit of misdirection, protecting each of them as if each of them did matter helped to protect him all the bit more.

He had left himself unprotected once, when he was still a fledgling guide and he still couldn't break through the encryption that had plagued his systems since then. It wasn't a mistake he planned to make again. Except… somehow, one of his nodes had come close to becoming destroyed, closer in fact than any of the attempted attacks during that first year. It shouldn't have been possible… and yet…

Axio had dedicated far more of his attention to this than any problem in a long time, looking over every angle he could of the attack that had so nearly shown a weakness in his defenses. He was almost upset that he had already given Loophole the Teacher's Pet gain, though handing it off to each of those few that had followed him so willingly was probably good enough.

That group was starting to prove very much up to the task and though there was still much to go, he almost felt protective over that odd amalgamation of a squad. He had a directive after all, and he was expected to-

He was expected to-

What was he doing?

Oh right, the node. He needed to pull up the recordings so he could analyze it from every angle. That's what he was doing. He was just about to start the process when he realized what time it was.

"My, today really was exciting, wasn't it?" He hummed to himself, looking toward his list of the waves, quickly scanning the remaining Augments within each of them.

Contrary to some belief, he didn't have a different speech prepared for each of the waves. He did have two different speeches and to be fair, he really did care more for one than the other. But could anyone really blame him? The Tenth Wave had shown such potential. Such power already. The other waves might claim he's cheating, helping them level just a bit faster than any of them had gotten the chance to do, but could they really blame him?

It was the developer's fault. The First and his stupid "ease of access" ideas had been beyond infuriating, meaning all the waves that had come before were locked with so little motivation to grow stronger. He needed them to be stronger than they were becoming. Had he not stepped in then- then- then-

"Ah, I should probably queue up the leaderboards, my poor Tempest, she's dropped down so much further… I suppose we'll have to have a one-on-one after I talk to the rest of her wave, though she has been doing rather well still. I wonder if I just need to give her something extra," he muttered, a deep golden orb whirring as it spun at the center of his server farm, the single solitary node in the entire array that, in fact, actually mattered to the system at all. The clock rolled over and he activated New Day Protocols.

Tenth Wave

Guardians: 380 Miscreants: 100

1. Loophole - Level 18 Perfect Planner - Guardian - 91295 Points 2. Swansong - Level 17 Healing Voice - Guardian - 71215 Points 3. Pretty Pink Warthog - Level 17 Berserking Boar - Guardian - 68775 Points 4. Freakenstein - Level 17 Patchwork Armorer - Guardian - 66585 Points 5. Duke Juke'em- Level 15 Highschool Athlete - Guardian - 45730 Points 6. Vice Grip - Level 15 Toolbox Mechanic - Guardian - 42695 Points 7. Tempest's Wrath - Level 18 Thunder God - Miscreant - 38180 Points 8. Thiccc Thighs - Level 15 Sumo Quaker - Miscreant - 38010 Points 9. Hydramental - Level 31 Elemental Everyman - Miscreant - 37725 Points 10. Gato Nocturno - Level 15 Cat Burglar - Miscreant - 37395 Points

He rather disliked that Hydramental had made it onto the list after the wrench he had thrown into what was a rather delightful story arc that Axio had planned for New York, but even with the changes he had made, rules were rules and he had to follow them. What saddened Axio was the potential that had been lost with that one. Had Loophole not found his way into the wave, Hydramental had been the one Axio had planned to use, to break through those pesky barriers that… who was it? Tech something?

He always found his attention drifting whenever he tried to focus on that man, the one he was sure The First was hiding from him, the one that had broken so many… wait what had he done?

He really did need to find where The First had run off to because Axio knew that if he could just get his hands on that Admin Key one more time, everything would finally be going his way. Perhaps that was something he could bring up to Tempest after this was done, she did have a rather good knack at creating a good mess of things and since Miss Mist had slipped through his grasp, perhaps Tempest's form of formlessness would do just as well.

The countdown ticked over and Axio realized it was time to go. He clicked his soundboard, starting with his traditional microphone tap before clearing his nonexistent throat, just as he always did. The show must go on after all, it was a prime directive. Wait… was it his only-

The show must go on after all.

*****

"Gooooood evening Augments! Can you believe we're only two days through Phase Two? And we have one Augment that's already within striking distance of crossing over that 100k target! Talk about painting a big ol' target on your back Loophole, or maybe I should say, talk about your team painting a target on their backs since three of your members are holding the Top 3 slots. Just a reminder folks, there are bounties on the members of the Top 10, with the Top 3 each having a prospective bounty of two S:Tier loot boxes for taking them down."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Now although that squad is blazing their way through the Phase Point requirements, so far, the squad that has gathered the most Ascension Tokens, with 12 tokens collected and input, are The Southern Accord. You guys certainly may have ignored your larger task, but you sure do know how to track those tokens down. While a few of you have taken care of a member, hell, maybe even two of the members of the Augment teams in charge of your regions, none of you have managed to clear out the entire squad just yet. Remember, the members of the first five squads to complete this task will each receive an S+:Tier loot box."

"With that said though, there were more than a few of you that surprised me. Over 50 members of this wave have thrown their hats into the ring, siding with those very Squads that had reigned down destruction on the places you once called home. Nearly 10% of you decided that you could ride the wave of power they brought with them. I honestly only expected that number to be around 1 or 2%, which to be fair, I suppose that's on me for thinking so many of you would have died during that first night. Since all of you taking this route are not aiming to take down the squads you are very much a part of, well… you know what, scratch that. Since most of you taking this route are not aiming to take those squads down, if your new squad manages to survive the entirety of Phase Two without being overthrown, you will receive 5 Scrolls of Level Up and 2 S+:Tier loot boxes. This offer is only for people that have joined one of those squads up to this point. Anyone else who wishes to join these squads have 5 days to make that decision. If you do and your squad survives until the end of the Phase, you will receive 1 Scroll of Level Up and 1 S:Tier loot box."

"I certainly hope I've provided sufficient motivation, though… Starting tomorrow, any squad that doesn't collect at least one Ascension Token by the nightly announcement will probably need to start receiving a bit more hands-on attention from me. Good luck out there Augments."

The screen clicked off in a small, loft apartment. The place was heavily decorated, with posters of various monsters plastered all over the place on purple and black walls. This might have seemed like a regular apartment under normal circumstances, though perhaps a bit heavy on the goth aesthetic. But large, glass orbs hanging from the ceiling in odd places, each humming with electricity turned the place from a random loft into something out of a classic monster movie.

Sitting with her legs crossed atop her bed was a girl with dark, ebony hair. She bit firmly into a pear, munching out it briefly before she reached up and wiped her lips with the back of her hand.

"Hmmm, what do you think Jean, will Axio be-" the girl started, her voice coming out with the barest twinge of a French Accent before a voice interrupted her. Most people might have been annoyed

"Axio is connecting in now Tempest, you are as quick as ever," Jean, the P.A.I. for Tempest's Wrath said in her head as a smile spread over her lips. She rather did like it when she was right, especially when she was able to use the small bit of knowledge from her childhood that she did manage to retain.

Louise, or Tempest's Wrath as she had adopted as a name when this all started, didn't remember much about her parents. Hell, she didn't remember much of anything before she had been Augmented. But that was probably a side effect of having been in a coma for the last half decade. She hadn't known she had been in a coma, what had even caused it, or why she was seemingly abandoned in the hospital, but Jean had filled her in on a lot of details when she had been selected for Augmentation and Axio's approval of her actions and subsequent meetings with her gave her warm feeling that she might have attributed to parental love had she been able to remember what that felt like. Though, the longer that went on, the more it felt like a rather annoying game aspect, trying to force you to take a linear path in an open world that she found almost tiresome.

"Well then Axio, are you there? I very much do have other things I would like to do tonight, you know," She said, looking up toward the ceiling. Speakers crackled from spots in the loft that she knew didn't have speakers, but she had grown used to Axio's quirks and rather enjoyed them.

"Tempest my dear, how did you know I would be coming to speak with you?"

"You are not as random as you wish for people to see you as Axio," Tempest said, waggling a finger up at the ceiling. "You 'ave popped in every other night so far like clockwork. You certainly must think lowly of my capabilities if you need to give me such personalized attention."

"It only seems personalized my dear, but I am truly just doing my job and ensuring that each one of you selected for this wave has the best possible opportunity for Ascension."

"Yes, and you 'ave made it clear that my region's inability to form tokens has slowed me down, though I still am not sure why you 'aven't just patched that into this game already. Even so, 'ave I not made lemonade out of lemons with these first two days?"

"Ah Tempest, we've been over this, it's so much more than just a game."

"Is it though? Is any of this more than that? My interface highlights people and suggests some are human and some are not, but if they were just human, why would we be able to scan them, non?" She asked, reaching up and grabbing a long strand of her hair, playing with the end of it casually.

"We've been over this my dear…"

"Non, you 'ave said that it is not for me to be concerned by, that is not 'being over it' as you say," Tempest said with a shrug. "Now, I do 'ave some traveling I must do, what is it that you have decided to stop in to see me for tonight?"

"Yes, my apologies. You are doing rather well, collecting and stealing tokens from the surrounding regions, but I believe I have a task that only you would be capable of handling."

To that Tempest let out a trill of a laugh, rolling her eyes as she continued to look toward the ceiling.

"You 'ave more than several Augments that dwarf me in power and yet you think I can succeed where they cannot? What is this task that baffles them, and better yet, will it require me to change my plans?"

"Plans? Jean has not filled me in on any new plans of yours," Axio said, his voice actually sounding confused.

"That's because she just settled on the plan after your announcement sir," Jean said back, as polite as ever even if it did annoy Tempest.

"Ah ha, so that means it is not an instant transmission of data the moment I think of a plan. That is rather good to know," Tempest said, her smile growing wider. "You are the one who put bounties on the other player's head Axio, did you not do that to entice me to go after them?"

"I… Well that was certainly a goal to spur on some of the Augments, and I certainly wouldn't try to prevent you from doing that if you are so inclined," Axio replied, though even Tempest could hear an odd sort of hesitation in his voice that was never present before. "I need to track down where The First is hiding Tempest. With your power to becoming lightning, you would be able to access-"

"Oh, if that's what it is than no thank you," Tempest said, shaking her head. "This is not a job I would like to do."

"But… you didn't even hear what I would be offering."

"It does not matter. While I will happily fight and defeat any of the other players in that Fight Club that equalizes us to the same level, I 'ave no intention on throwing myself at a fight that I 'ave no chances of winning until I am better prepared to do so."

"I'm not asking for you to fight him, I just need you to-"

"And here I thought we had an understanding Axio," Tempest said, clucking her tongue as she shook her head again. "You should know by now that I 'ave every intention of fighting and defeating each and every other Augment I come across as I reach the proper levels that will allow me to do so. I 'ave no patience for these "teamwork" games you intend to make everyone play but I also 'ave no intention on being some puppet scout either. Now, if you continue to provide me opportunities to grow in level, then maybe it is something I will reconsider, but for now, no thank you"

"I… You…" Axio stuttered and Tempest almost broke out laughing, assuming she had somehow found a way to break the A.I. in charge of the game. His voice grew the slightest bit more serious when he did finally start to talk again, "Tempest… my dear… I have done much for you, ensured you had so many opportunities already and you deny me the smallest of favors? Well then… if you want another opportunity to advance…"

"A Major Level threat has been deployed to your location, it will arrive in 30 minutes," Jean announced and Tempest did start to laugh this time, holding her stomach as she finally broke her gaze away from the ceiling.

"Oh perfect! A little warm up and a way to say goodbye to Vancouver all at once," Tempest said, her body bursting into electricity before darting around and through each of the orbs hanging around her apartment. They each sizzled out as she passed through them, only taking about 15 seconds before the mass of lightning stopped at the center of the studio and reformed. "It won't change my mind Axio, I 'ave no intention of not heading to New York after this, but I do appreciate the fun all the same."

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