Wildcard Assembly's Squad Base,

Multiple Locations

Current Phase Points:

112545

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

16

End of Phase Two: 27

D:00H:06M:17S

"Now that's how yah do it! God I am so damn pumped up, wish I coulda fought another few of those Elephants," Freak cheered as we filed into the base from Central Park.

With the knowledge of the boobytrapped facility, because that was all it seemed to be, we were able to quickly overcome the almost non-existent defenses that had been left. There were no reinforcements sent our way, no other surprises on top of the explosives left to take out the plant as a failsafe, it was simply… well… simple.

"Do we know for sure Hydramental and this Mr. Factory fellow actually inherited control of the Forges? Obviously the printers were still active and the bases were still assigned to Droids 'R Us, but you'd think there would have been some sort of reaction to us retaking a critical point of control for the city. I wonder if Hydramental's little coup has hit a snag," BrainCraft said, his attention solely on a tablet in his hands. "Not that I'm necessarily complaining of course, just thought it was important to vocalize. Freakenstein, could you accompany me back to the Mechanic's Den to place those printers. Codex, I'll need you to extend the room by five extra feet if you would, I believe that's well within our allotment still."

"Sure thing Brain, you decipher anything yet? Any chance we got locations for more of the forges?" Jon asked, shifting along his desk before coming to a stop, a faint, blurry blueprint of our base appearing on the opposite side of his window.

"The entire file system uses a non-standard encryption, it should prove quite the entertaining challenge to tackle tonight with a nice cup of tea," Brain said, a smile spreading over his face.

"I'm not like, an expert or anything, but if you need a second set of eyes on it just let me know… even if I can't help I'm curious what non-standard looks like for an Augment created system," Jon said, shuffling back along the desk. "Your room's expanded, we've got a bit over five minutes until Axio's announcement."

"Thank you Codex," BrainCraft replied, looking at Freak and nodding toward the back hall. "And thank you for your assistance as well."

"Meh, ain't a problem Brain, that's what teams are for," he said with a shrug, following BrainCraft as he navigated around the pit and toward the Mechanic's Den.

"I call distraction team on the next raid," Pinky called after them, Freak lifting a hand over his shoulder in acknowledgement.

"I make no promises, it's too damn fun."

"Well I'm going to go use the shower really quick before Axio starts. Kinda wish we woulda had the time for Dusk to portal us back across the country so I could grab some stuff from home, but I get that family comes first," Pinky said with a shrug, dropping down into the pit and reaching behind one of the throw pillows that had been placed on the couches. When her hand emerged, it held onto a large plastic bag with black and hot pink fabric folded within it. "Thank you past Pinky, it was smart of you to hide this here just in case I couldn't get back home."

"Referring to yourself in the third person is weird," I called after her.

"Bite me Loophole I was talking to my past self not my current self!"

"It's still weird," I yelled back, though she was already into the rear hallway and heading toward the bathroom. I looked over just in time to catch as Swansong veered off toward the kitchen, her attention clearly set on the coffee maker.

With the squad mostly dispersed, at least for a few minutes, I turned and walked over to the glass that separated Jon's Command Room from the rest of us. He held up a finger and I stood for just a minute while he finished what he was working on before he finally looked up, cocking one of his brows curiously.

"You good? Everyone else ran off to do something before the announcement, I'm surprised you didn't dip through the apartment to grab something or get changed yourself too."

"Eh, I think I'm gonna take a shower before I change or anything, so already gotta wait my turn. Can't go back to the low pressure nonsense in our apartment now that I got access to the base one. Figure I'll get comfortable a bit after Axio does his thing, Pinky and Freak were already talking about doing some movie marathon tonight and it's not like we got any leads until Brain's done with his work," I said with a shrug.

"Well look at you, actually hanging out and socializing with people other than me, my boy's finally spreading his wings," Jon smiled and I rolled my eyes.

"Sheesh, you make me sound like some sort of reclusive hermit."

"I mean, ever since High School can you really tell me I'm wrong?" he asked and I shrugged.

"Okay, fair…"

"I know it's fair," he said with a laugh before nodding over toward the kitchen. He was just about to say something when he held up a finger. Once he started to talk again, instead of sounding like he was right in front of me, his voice appeared in my head. "Speaking of things you've barely done since High School… uh, how's that going? You've kinda been half ignoring her since this morning. Not telling you how to live your life but…"

"No… no I know," I said, looking over my shoulder as Swan pulled the band out of her hair, letting the ponytail spread out. "I've been thinking about it today, just had to make up my mind."

"Oh? How am I just now hearing about this? Angie?"

"Hey even I've got limits to what I'll divulge without permission," she said. In truth I had explicitly told her to keep her mouth shut about it to Jon since… well, I kind of wanted to deal with this particular thing on my own. I hadn't been sure telling her to keep it between us would work, but I was glad to hear that it did.

"And I'm gonna have to ask you hide or disable my POV if I step out later too," I said. Jon started to laugh but I must have looked more serious than I intended because it quickly died down.

"Yeah man, I gotcha."

There was the sound of trumpets that filled the room, drawing my attention back over to the hologram in the pit. Freakenstein and BrainCraft were both just stepping back into the room. I tapped the glass twice before turning and walking over to the pit, jumping over one of the seats and landing just as the highlight reel moved from a shot of Pinky fighting a group of Clockwork Adapters inside of the power plant's control room to an array of camera angles witnessing Freak go barrelling into a charging Clockwork Elephant.

The footage changed again, showing two men, one wearing an actual football helmet and the other wearing a pair of overalls in a shade of yellow that Big Bird might have been flattered by. The pair fought off a group of what looked like actual yetis… using giant wolves as sled dogs… As much as I wanted to question it, the shot changed and the room erupted in a cheer, even if the footage was all together a bit boring as it watched BrainCraft typing away furiously at a console.

"You need better action shots Brain," Pinky said, scrubbing at her hair with a towel as she dropped into the pit and onto the couch next to Freakenstein. Brain actually blushed just a bit, squirming in his seat until the attention was finally off of him.

It didn't take long before the footage changed to a large man wearing very little as he battled against two Augments that I recognized from earlier in the day. The man seemed to make the earth shake with every step he took and with a massive step, he sent a fissure straight towards the two, catching them by surprise as he charged them down in their attempt to dodge the broken earth.

The next bit of footage was almost entirely pitch black, the sounds of scratches and a few squeals of terror breaking through before it abruptly ended and changed to, finally, Tempest's Wrath. There were military grade helicopters surrounding her and she burst into electricity just before they could fire. Unlike when I used Shockwave Pulse, she seemed to dance through the air, arcing around missiles and bursting through the helicopters one after another in a fierce display.

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Before she could reform, the footage stopped, the leaderboard materializing in its place.

Tenth Wave

Guardians: 361 Miscreants: 116

1. Loophole - Level 20 Perfect Planner - Guardian - 112545 Points 2. Swansong - Level 18 Healing Voice - Guardian - 85465 Points 3. Pretty Pink Warthog - Level 19 Berserking Boar - Guardian - 83025 Points 4. Freakenstein - Level 17 Patchwork Armorer - Guardian - 80835 Points 5. Duke Juke'em- Level 17 Highschool Athlete - Guardian - 55730 Points 6. Vice Grip - Level 16 Toolbox Mechanic - Guardian - 52695 Points 7. BrainCraft - Level 16 Neural Forge - Guardian - 42225 Points 8. Thiccc Thighs - Level 16 Sumo Quaker - Miscreant - 42010 Points 9. Gato Nocturno - Level 16 Cat Burglar - Miscreant - 41395 Points 10. Tempest's Wrath - Level 19 Thunder God - Miscreant - 41280 Points

"Goooooooooood Evening Augments! I am pleased to see you all are continuing to chug along so I think tonight we can keep things relatively short and sweet. First things first, congratulations are in order for Loophole, for being the first to go sprinting across the Phase Point requirement for Phase Two! I honestly was not expecting anyone to hit this requirement for at least a week but I am just oh so pleasantly surprised to see the results of motivating you all. If only I would have been able to do this from the start we'd be much further along in preparations. Oh well… it is what it is. Now you're already so damn far ahead of everyone else, I don't want to give you that much of an extra boost, but you do deserve a reward. So for being the first one over the finish line Loophole, you will receive two F:Tier loot boxes at the conclusion of this announcement."

"Don't forget everyone, there's still plenty of time to stack those points and hunt down tokens, the hare isn't always the winner in every race, though who the hell organizes a race between a tortoise and a hare? Talk about a weird thing to turn into a competition. Oh well, like I said, we were going to keep things short and sweet tonight. As a friendly reminder, the Augments in charge of your region have orders to move every fifth day, use your time wisely and as always, good luck out there."

The leaderboard vanished, changing back into the logo before the entire thing faded back out. Freak clapped his hands together pushing himself up off the couch as he looked around at everyone.

"Well that was a bit mellow, y'know, relatively speaking," he said, stretching his arms up and over his head. A moment later he started pointing around the circle. "Movie marathon? Take some time to grab some snacks, pizza, all that stuff and just chill for once? Who's in?"

"It was my idea, obviously I'm in, ooooo we could have Loophole make some more wine!"

"Loophole can make wine? How the hell is that an ability?" Freak asked curiously and I let out a groan.

"You know, it was better before you knew I could do that," I said, reaching up and pinching the bridge of my nose. "It's an ability called Water into Wine. I made it during the tutorial when I was still getting the hang of how things generated."

"Water into Wine…? Isn't that skill name a little… you know, in bad taste?"

"I mean… maybe? I'm not exactly religious but I also didn't name the ability either," I said with a shrug.

"Ah… yeah true," Freak responded. "Well regardless, I don't drink wine so I think I'll just grab a six pack at the bodega. Meet back here in thirty?"

"Brain and I will get the movies queued up, maybe remodel things to make it easier to watch instead of sitting in a big circle since we can't get back home till Dusk is back," Pinky said with a shrug, sauntering over to Jon's command room. "Come on, pull up the blueprints, I wanna see what we can fiddle with."

"Swan and I will grab the pizzas, she does think she knows the best pizza place in the city," I said. Swansong crossed her arms over her chest in a huff.

"I don't think it's the best, I know it is."

"Oh then we are gonna have a good ol' fashion taste test cause the shop I go to next to the bodega makes the best pie in the city, hands down," Freak shot back and Swansong shot him a look.

"You're on," she said and Freak gave her a wide smile.

"Ok folks, thirty minutes," he said again, turning and heading for the door to his Safe House.

Swansong was just about to head for her own Safe House door, clearly intent on taking the same short cut that Freak did when I instinctively reached out, grabbing her hand and stopping her. She looked back, first down at our hands and then up at me when I released her.

"Er uh… sorry, just thought maybe we could go grab the pizza together, figure it might be easier to carry a couple with an extra set of hands," I said, feeling my nerves. She looked at me carefully, her green eyes flickering briefly when she looked over at Jon before they settled back on me.

"Um… yeah that would be nice actually… as long as you promise not to tell anyone where it is," she said with a smile.

"I can agree to that," I said, gesturing toward the exit and following as she redirected. Jon gave me a knowing look and I shot him a glare. I could just see him laughing as several windows on his side of the glass were closed.

We made our way outside, into the tunnel that hid the entrance to our base and into the quiet of Central Park. The sun's rays were disappearing behind the large buildings and night was starting to take over. While we could have immediately gone airborne, when neither of us lifted off right outside of the tunnel, we just continued to walk. We only walked a short distance, stopping in front of the bronze statue of Balto.

"So uh…" Swansong started to say, her hands clasping together in front of her as she kept her attention on the statue.

"I'm sorry," I said, watching her carefully.

"Sorry? I'm the one that-"

"Swan…" I said, cutting her off and finally getting her to break her gaze and look my way. "I'm not good at these kinda things. I'm sure Codex could have told you that."

"He, uh… he kinda did," she said with a laugh.

"Great…" I said, trailing off as Swansong rolled her eyes, gesturing for me to continue. "I'm sorry I didn't say anything earlier today… All of this… The game, the powers, the insane other people hell bent on causing destruction… I kinda let myself get hyperfixated, which might be a bad habit of mine."

"You're persistent… and maybe a little bit hard-headed."

"She's not wrong," Angie chimed in, nearly causing me to jump.

"For the love of… Angie just… not now."

"I did tell you I didn't need you to give me an immediate answer though… I meant that when I said it," Swansong said, skipping over my brief moment of perceived quiet from her perspective.

"Yeah, I know, but it felt wrong to just leave it alone," I said, looking away and up at the statue. "I uh… You're pretty amazing yourself you know… You got the offer to have super powers and you chose the one that would most immediately actually heal people… Most of us can just punch hard or get into big fights… you literally cured kids of cancer…"

Swansong's cheeks were as red as her hair when I cautioned a glance back in her direction and she squirmed the moment she noticed me do it.

"I like you too… but…"

Swansong's eyes lit up for just a moment before I said but when she deflated like a balloon. "But…?"

"But we don't really know each other…" I said. "I mean… we know who we've had to become because of, well… all this… but other than a few little things, we're still kind of strangers…"

"I… I mean…" Swansong said, her eyes looking down at the ground and I turned my attention fully toward her. She looked up at me and I immediately realized I could have worded that better, mentally scolding myself for being as bad at this as I was.

"Sorry… that came out wrong…" I said, reaching up and rubbing the back of my head. After tossing it around in my head all day, I had known the one thing I knew I would have to do if I was going to actually admit I had a crush. It wasn't anything big… not in the grand scheme of things, but I did still ignore the brief warning that flashed in my vision. "I just… I don't want you to just like me or have a crush on me because I'm Loophole…"

"Oh… I guess that makes sense," Swansong said, realization seeming to pass over her face as I held out a hand to her in an extremely awkward gesture. She stared at it briefly before meeting my eyes again.

"Hi… I'm Nate, it's been really amazing working with you, and... well, I kind of have a crush on you," I said, mostly repeating her own words to her with a smile. Her eyes lit up in that moment, a small hand reaching forward to grab mine.

"I'm Sophie… it's nice to meet you Nate... I think you already know how I feel."

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