I rushed forward, stopping just a few feet away from the group of droids before launching my first attack. I pumped Mass Driver up only four times, spending 1000 Stamina and launching a wave into the group. It wasn't nearly enough to reach even halfway through the group, but it was just an opening strike and the droids were so small I figured they'd make quite the perfect makeshift ammo.

Either six or seven droids were caught by the attack and forcibly lifted from their feet before any of them could attempt to anchor themselves to the ground. They spiraled backwards and into the rest of the droids causing a massive pileup of metallic limbs in awkward angles. None of the droids were taken out by my attack, though they were moving slowly as they tried to separate from each other.

I had no intention of giving them that chance and I went rushing forward, leaping up and running along the wall over the dogpile. Just as I came over the pile, I turned myself so that I was facing them, punching straight downward into the pile and simultaneously adding in a 25% Gravity Punch and activating Quantum EchoStrike. The pile of droids crushed downwards as they tried to get knocked backwards and I let my momentum carry me as I twisted over myself in midair, landing on the far side of the pile and skidding to a stop.

There were certainly still a few moving parts amongst the intertwined limbs, but other than the two Clockwork Gorillas who were on the outer edges of the mess, it didn't seem like any of the droids at the top of the pile were still left alive. The gorillas were starting to turn to chase me, but from the moment I had let loose the last blow, I had begun charging my next attack. They had barely taken a single step between them when I activated Shockwave Pulse.

Arcing electricity burst outward, with two large surges heading right for the gorillas, stopping them in their tracks as their systems seized up. I had made sure to charge the ability for at least 3 seconds just to make sure it affected the larger droids but I hadn't quite expected it to be that effective. The electric-based attack wasn't nearly powerful enough to put the Level 20 Gorillas down, but I did have a handful of Perfect Stamina Syringes still thanks to Miss Mist and my heavy hitting attacks were already dropping off cooldown.

While the Gorillas were still seized, I ensured that Swansong had flown right over me and further down the hallway before I lunged forward, draining almost all of my remaining Stamina as I threw a powerful Mass Driver. There was a single beat of a second before an invisible wave went passing through the hallway. The gorillas, along with at least two Clockwork Adapters that had been at the bottom of the dogpile, went flying back toward the now open door.

"South Entrance is clear, checking the side rooms, how are things looking?" I asked, materializing one of the Perfect syringes and using it. Swansong's Song of Hercules was still echoing down the hallway and she was floating in the middle of the doorway at the far end of it.

"Brain cracked the security on this door, there were some guards waiting inside but I highlighted them before Pinky tore through them," Duskbreaker said.

"This system has most definitely been tampered with… if the droids standing guardian the locked room weren't evidence enough that is."

"Gotta work on the quipping Brain, that wasn't catchy at all," Pinky said. "The room's clear but the alarm's still going off, looks like… yup, we got reinforcements coming up the stairs even with you guys causing all the trouble you're causing."

"Need some backup?" I asked, poking my head into the first door in the hall and finding it filled with chairs, obviously stuffed in just to get them out of the way.

"Wow Loophole, that's insulting."

"Seriously Loopie. That's not how you talk to a lady as strong as her," Freak said and I rolled my eyes.

"Not what I meant," I said, checking the other door and finding it was also just being used for storage before I turned and jogged up the rest of the hallway. I could see the dots representing my squadmates in various spots in the minimap at the corner of my vision, though Miss Mist's dot appeared more like a large, opaque zone that covered the entire area.

The alarms were still blaring throughout the complex but I could hear the sudden sound of crashing coming from the large open room I was walking toward. Just as I approached the door, a large clump of metal went flying past the door and I could hear Freak yell, "Heads up!"

I rushed into the room, looking up and seeing Swansong hovering as close to the high ceiling as she could. There were a variety of mechanical devices spread out across the floor, wires and cabling that were clearly added after the fact, first attaching up toward the ceiling before bundling together and going right through a hole in the wall that probably shouldn't have been there.

"Guess that explains how Miss Mist figured out where things were going so easily," I muttered. Maybe I had been expecting something a bit more sophisticated given just how Clockwork Tyrant had presented himself the whole time… though maybe I was just stereotyping him because of how high-class he sounded.

"I imagine if he had had a cockney accent you would have thought he was a dolt," Angie offered and I couldn't help but laugh.

Just as I was about to respond, there was a loud, trumpeting sound that came from the far end of the wide room. The ground actually shook just a bit and I heard Freak let out a guffaw of a laugh. Turning to take in just what made the sound, I almost joined him.

"Clockwork Elephant. Level 19 Mechanical Golem."

"This one feels kinda wrong…" I said.

"You were fine with the gorillas, the spiders, all of the monkeys, and even the kangaroos… but a Clockwork Elephant feels wrong?" Jon asked as I watched the elephant start scrapping one of its front feet against the ground.

"No, the kangaroos weirded me out too, especially the ones that had little joeys hanging out in their mechanical pouches… I just had more important things to think about," I said, looking over my shoulder at Freakenstein. The dude was covered head to toe in metal and must have stood two feet taller than he normally did. "You uh… you want to handle this guy or should I?"

"Find the print rooms, I got Dumbo."

"Not sure if that joke works Freak, his ears aren't nearly big enough," Jon said with a chuckle. There was a sudden pounding of feet and I jumped up and into the air just before the elephant and Freak came crashing together in a powerful collision. "Though then again, I can't really think of another elephant he could have referenced… maybe Horton?"

"Which way to the print rooms?" I asked.

"There in a few places, but the biggest one that's spitting out the big droids is at the northern edge where the elephant came from. I think there's a few more things about to spawn but unless you want them at my level I can't verify," Miss Mist answered.

"I've started a file transfer of everything connected into this system, we'll need to keep things active for another minute until this completes. I'm working my way through their management programs now, I think I should be able to take control over the mainframe soon," BrainCraft announced. "This system was nowhere as secure as I was expecting…"

"Keep at it. Any signs that they were being watched or monitored?" I asked, putting on some speed as I flew toward the large opening at the end of the building that Miss Mist had directed me toward.

"There were some rather basic keyloggers installed and an active screenviewer session that I was able to spoof, but nothing past that. I do wonder if they are actively watching the cameras though… it occurs to me that blocking them out is just as much a sign that something is going on here as us just tearing through the place," BrainCraft said.

"They were always going to know we were attacking, this is about keeping them from knowing that you're trying to hack their systems," I shot back.

"Oh I'm aware, I just had to vocalize the thought… hmmm, it looks like they thought a bit further ahead than their initial security suggested. Miss Mist, is there a secondary control room anywhere in the building?"

"No, not that I found when I was doing my initial sweep, though there were a few closets filled with random junk that I admittedly didn't cover top to bottom," she replied.

"I would think there would be cords or cabling you could follow," Jon offered and I heard BrainCraft murmur in agreement.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I swooped down low as they continued to work the problem, landing and keeping my pace up as I burst into an open room with its walls lined with printers of various sizes. One of the largest ones had half of a large Clockwork Spider emerging from it and I didn't hesitate, rushing forward and throwing a 15% Gravity Punch into the half formed droid and smashing it to bits. While I wasn't quite sure when the droids were formed enough to qualify to have a health bar, clearly it wasn't when only half of their bodies had emerged.

There were plenty of Clockwork Adapters in the room, but they were all relatively weak, each getting knocked back with only a few normal punches. I had initially tested it on one just to see how much of my Stamina I could conserve, but when the third one had its health bottomed out with only a few rapid punches, something started to feel off.

"Is it just me, or are these things dying too easily?" I asked. "Did we just walk into a tr-"

I didn't even get to finish when I heard the sound of whirring clanking to a stop, a quick rumble emerging throughout the floor before an explosion started. There was the briefest of moments when I had been taken by shock where I could feel the floor give out from under my feet and I immediately rewound time.

I went back just about 30 seconds, when I had smashed my way through the half built spider and came to a halt, floating above the Clockwork Adapters that started to slowly circle me from below.

"Brain, what are you doing right now on the system?"

"Now? I'm trying to soft reboot the management interface. I think if I can get it back into its startup mode, I should be able to disable the redundancy controls without us having to-"

"Stop," I said, cutting him off as I dodged out of the way of a bit of metal thrown my way. "I think the system you're messing with is rigged to-"

The rumble began passing through the floor once more, though this time since I was floating up in the air I wasn't quite as taken off guard by the suddenly imploding building. I grit my teeth together in frustration. I had hoped that maybe Brain had just accidentally tripped something that we could have stopped but really there were a myriad of possible options. As the explosion started to take over, various shouts of panic coming from my squad, I snapped out of the mental frustration and activated Timekeeper's Control once again.

This time, I decided to just go for broke, rewinding the entirety of the five and a half minutes I could go back. The world flashed around me and I found myself back in the hallway, staring at the destroyed remains of the Clockwork Gorillas that I had just pummeled, my stamina nearly empty.

"Guys, plans changed, do not immediately start messing with the consoles in that room now that you've got the door open, this place is rigged to blow and I'm not sure what will set it off. There's apparently also a second console somewhere that we need to get access to," I rattled off as quickly as I could.

"Rigged to blow? Are you saying we walked into a trap?" BrainCraft asked quickly.

"Maybe? Or maybe the place was boobytrapped in case we did just this. It's too early to say for sure just yet."

"Wait, you guys just entered… Why didn't you tell us that before?" Duskbreaker asked.

Of the squad, only Swansong and Jon were actually aware of what my Hidden Power could do. I was relatively sure BrainCraft had figured it out on his own following our siege the previous night, but I hadn't actually explained my ability to rewind time to the entire team just yet.

"I uh… just uh…"

"It's a Hidden Power thing. Just trust Loophole okay?" Jon said, coming to my aid as I nearly stumbled over my words.

"I scouted this entire building, I only found one room with control consoles though… unless… I suppose they could have hidden it in one of those random storage rooms," Miss Mist mused and I was already on the same page. I yanked the door into the first room open, finding the clutter of chairs. I materialized the same Perfect Stamina Syringe I had used before resetting things and refilled my Stamina bar. Then, focusing only on all the random clutter and knowing I'd need to do this carefully, I activated Center of the Universe.

The chairs all started shifting and tumbling my direction. I didn't power the ability up that far, but even shifting some of the chairs made it clear that this room was quite literally filled with nothing but the spare furniture. I deactivated the skill and turned back toward the door.

"Ok… Brain, get to the console but don't start the overtake process until we have eyes on the second console. Freak, you're on cleanup duty now. Beat down that Elephant and get through to the main print room on the other side as soon as you can. Miss Mist, see if you can find any rooms that are barricaded off or hidden, did you check if this place has a basement? Hell if there was one, that could be where the secondary console is too…"

"A basement? I didn't find anything immediate when I did my initial sweeps but I also didn't exactly try going underground. I guess I just felt like all this gear needs a thick layer of concrete to sit on… Though I guess when Augments are in play, physics and typical building standards don't matter as much… okay, let me look… are you sure you want to open up the cameras though?" Miss Mist asked.

"I mean… I'd rather not but it's the only thing I can think of here," I said.

"I could… I normally need to know where I'm going, but I could try opening a portal straight down… maybe I'll appear in the basement?" Duskbreaker offered.

He had explained just how his shadow portals the night before when we had been planning the Pangolin raid. His explanation had made it seem like he needed exactly three things in order to create a portal between places. Shadows were the most obvious given that they seemed to be the natural source of his powerset but he also needed to have at least traveled to the place in the past or had a picture of exactly where he was trying to go. The last thing he needed was both the easiest and the hardest; time.

That time factor had at least seemed to already be getting shorter ever since he had gotten his newest bit of gear this morning, but I wasn't quite sure what might have changed.

"Are you… Can you do that?" I asked, not wanting to outright ask him to spell out what his power was capable of but needing at least some form of confirmation.

"I… uh… yeah… I used my Level 16 Augmentation on the ability… I haven't quite been able to test it this way yet but it should work… in theory," Duskbreaker said nervously.

"Ok… go ahead and try it, but if something goes wrong… just… you know, let us know," I said walking over to the other side of the hallway and going through the same process of focusing on all the clutter and shifting it toward me with Center of the Universe.

While I didn't see anything that even remotely looked like computer equipment, under several stacked desks I found half a dozen large crates that my interface immediately highlighted. They were each only labeled as a Material Storage Chest. While probably unimportant in the long run, I still took the few seconds necessary to float over the remaining clutter, grabbing each of the boxes one at a time and pulling them into my B.E.L.T..

"Becoming a hoarder then?" Angie asked curiously and I just shrugged.

"Codex's been saying if I can loot it I should loot it for a while now, would be dumb to not grab these when they were obviously being hidden," I said, opening my B.E.L.T. interface and then choosing the option to see the contents of one of the chests. It had several rows worth of space and every single slot was filled with stacks of Unrefined Ore. "And I'm sure Brain will be very happy to have more raw material."

"See Angie, he can learn," Jon said smugly into our direct chat. "Was it just the bomb? Is there anything else you saw?"

"Just the explosion… I thought Brain had tripped something but even stopping what he was doing right before it happened didn't prevent it. Figured it would be easier if folks knew what we were getting into before Brain got his hands on the console. Hell, maybe him just logging in set off the chain reaction," I explained.

"Hmm maybe. You still could have done it incrementally, your bank does reset in an hour here and you can't roll it over," Jon said.

"Is what it is now... Even if I probably shouldn't, it might be smart to bring the squad in on my Hidden Power... would just make it easier for them to trust me when I warn about something," I said with a shrug.

"There's a basement!" Duskbreaker announced, a little bit of pride replacing the nerves he had only just been showing. "Okay I found the secondary console, there's a shit ton of cables and a core about half of the size of the one in the Pangolin down here. I think I could portal it somewhere else but it's a risk…"

"We could do the damage shift thing like we did last night, though not sure how you'd get me far enough away that there wouldn't be collateral damage," Freak offered though I shook my head.

"It's not about to explode right away, is it?" I asked.

"Not that I can see," Duskbreaker replied.

"Okay, then we don't need to go into full panic mode. We caught it before it became a problem so we can go about this the careful way," I said, trying to keep my composure. It was really easy to freak out and make a rash decision, but that didn't have to be our only strategy. "Dusk, Brain, coordinate and get this place under our control. Freak, how's the big print room coming?"

"It's my own personal rage room right now," he laughed.

"Do try to save me one of them," BrainCraft requested, once again vocalizing a request he had made while we were quickly planning this raid. "Duskbreaker, open a portal back here. I have a device that should render the core inert and then we can proceed with the take over."

"On it," Duskbreaker said quickly. I looked past the wreckage of the giant Clockwork Elephant, or what I assumed was the wreckage given how much of the metal Freak had probably absorbed into his own armor, before letting my attention drift around the room.

"Okay Miss Mist, point me to the next print room or spot to clear. No point in me sitting around when everyone else is pulling their weight."

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