I froze, readying myself to rewind time as I waited. It was entirely possible that she had seen something on one of the-

Her arm whipped forward, yanking out of the connected sleeves as I caught sight of a long, curved blade where her forearm should have been. The motion should have been completely innocuous with how much space was between us. Even still, my instincts screamed at me to dodge to the side and I wasn't about to question them.

A blade of dark green energy went blazing past where I had been standing only moments prior, crashing into the equipment lining the wall and creating a long sharp cut that disappeared into the wall. Sparks jumped off of the destroyed electronics as I scrambled to get back to my feet.

"Whoa, what the fuck Mantid!? Why the fuck are you destroying the base, H.Q. is gonna be pissed!"

"Your senses are dull Tailstrike, as are these useless ants. Their olfactory systems must be broken if they weren't able to smell him," she hissed, turning again and whipping another ultra sharp arm forward. "Show yourself!"

Once again I dodged, moving closer to the doors as they inched to a close. There was no way I would be able to run for it anymore just to escape to the other side of them, but that only mattered if it was my only option. I had an idea, though how good of one it was I wasn't quite sure. Even without being able to consult with the others first, I wasn't about to waste the opportunity. I turned and looked through the opening as the doors screeched and groaned. It was just enough as the doors nearly met, but I could still see through to the other side and I activated Echo Step.

The world shifted around me as I blinked through the air to the far side of the door with only an inch left before the doors closed. I turned just in time to see an after image of me burst into pieces, another blade of green energy slicing it clean in half.

"Noooo!" Saint Mantid hissed, her voice disappearing as the doors sealed shut. I breathed slowly, watching the door for just a moment as I expected it to reopen.

"Well that could have gone better," Jon muttered.

"Loophole got caught, didn't he?" Pinky asked, her voice somewhere between amused and concerned.

"No I didn't," I shot back, planting my feet and letting my Area Sense activate. They were moving on the other side, the one that I thought was Saint Mantid pacing in front of the door while the other rushed to one of the consoles, though I was pretty sure it seemed to stop in front of the very ones that Mantid had destroyed first before rushing to the other side of the room.

"You're in a room that might not have an exit with enemies on the other side of the door Loophole…" Jon said as I slowly started to back up and away from the door. I didn't necessarily know how much time I had until the door opened but I couldn't imagine it would be that long.

"Man… I should have really pushed harder to make that bet," Pinky laughed. "Need me to start something up out here?"

I was just about to respond when I heard a long CLANG from the door followed by a round of muffled sounds. Just like when it first started to close, the door, almost painfully slowly, screeched as it started to open. I was still holding my invisibility, though at this point I knew it didn't matter and I had to make a snap decision.

I had only been in the logistics room for a minute, maybe two at the very most when the Augments had emerged. Though I wasn't quite sure where the idea came from, I knew if I played this right, I could get a ton of information while risking very little. It would be foolish to get overconfident of course, but I couldn't deny that I did feel confident.

The door was only open about two inches, just enough that I could see Saint Mantid perched a foot behind the door readying another attack the moment she had enough space, when I rushed back toward them. I closed the small gap I had put between myself and the door in an instant, launching my arm forward and punching at the still opening vault. At the end of my punch, I unloaded 2000 points of my Stamina into Mass Driver.

Saint Mantid, still close to the door, was sent skidding backwards, though halfway through the knockback, her scythe-like arms slammed downward into the ground, slowing her down and preventing her from taking the full force of the ability's Shock Spiral augmentation. Tailstrike on the other hand wasn't quite so lucky and I could hear him let out a panicked yelp as he flew backwards towards the doors on the far side of the room.

"Yesssss, show me the power He has given you, let me know your worth!" Saint Mantid said, her eyes almost filled with glee as she stared back in my direction. Her arms were just coming out of the ground, moving up to ready a new attack when I activated Echo Step again.

I appeared right in front of her, dropping my invisibility as I came out swinging. Weird, creepy insect vibes aside, my grandma probably would have fainted if she had known I was punching someone even simply dressed like a nun, but I didn't let that stop me. My fist connected with her midsection and I poured 50% of my Stamina into a Gravity Punch, intent on not letting her have the opportunity to stop herself this time.

Her expression never changed as she went hurtling backwards, her arms extended in a way that made it impossible for her to recreate her last grab. She flew over the prone Tailstrike before slamming into and threw the swinging doors on the far side of the room, her blades slashing through them as she tried to find purchase. My Stamina had been nearly emptied and without missing a beat, I simultaneously materialized a Perfect Stamina Syringe, used it, and then used Echo Step to jump back to the other side of the door.

"Dude holy shit," Jon muttered and I shook my head as I turned away from the creeping open vault door to look around the room I had so far ignored. I might be able to stop the doors from opening but that was unlikely to stop them and I really didn't want that either.

"That won't stop them for long, though I really just need to goad them into coming at me, I need to see what they can do," I explained as I took in the room.

The place was absolutely massive and I did my best to not get distracted by the literal waves of bugs crawling along a massive wall on the far side of the room. I could hear the skittering and it almost made me want to hold my breath as if even the slightest sound would draw their attention to me. It was only a moment later when I realized the absolutely massive amount of noise I had just caused should have been enough to do exactly that and I let the breath out.

"Talk about an infestation…" I muttered, knowing I really didn't have time to waste. I needed to figure out why this place was locked behind such a big door and I needed to do it fast.

"Get back here!" Saint Mantid's ear piercing voice reached me as I rushed deeper into the room. About fifteen feet from the door, I found a steep ledge, dropping down into a deep exceedingly dark pit.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Give the fact we were in the middle of where a theme park should have been, it would have really just been a rather large, completely out of place pit if it had been empty.

"What… the fuck… is that…"

"Ummmm, it kinda looks like that Clockwork Egg you saw a few days back," Jon offered. While the large… well… egg-shaped mass ahead of me did at least match the shape of the massive device I had punched through a wall, this one was… convulsing. It was covered in a matte, white substance that wrapped around it all in layers, overlapping and weaving its way around the egg. I tried to focus on it, seeing if the system would highlight it, but nothing came of it. It was certainly possible it was simply too far away though, as it sat easily thirty feet down into the pit.

I was so entranced by the waves of motion coming off of the egg that I, rather stupidly, let myself forget that I was still basically in the middle of a fight. It was only thanks to reflexively activating Area Sense whenever I came to a stop that I felt as a wave of force cut its way through my zone. I jumped up and into the air, dodging over the wave of green energy and flying out over the pit. Even if Saint Mantid could keep throwing these energy attacks, whatever the hell they were, the more space I had between us the better.

I still had time and while knowing there was some sort of egg here was good, it still wasn't quite enough. I turned in midair, floating over the pit and staring down at the two forms that approached the ledge I had leapt off of.

"So… what's the plan here guys?" I called down, my eyes moving from them to the other surfaces that I hadn't been able to see from my prior position. Much like the far wall, these ones were covered with skittering, moving bodies that were hard to make out in the low light. "And what's that big thing down there for that matter? Mind sharing with the class?"

"You'll know soon enough what that is! Or maybe you won't. Maybe I'll just gut you for having the gall to trespass somewhere you have no right to be!" Saint Mantid spat. Thankfully, in the wider room her screeching tone was far less grating on the ear, though that still didn't make it pleasant.

"True, I never did purchase tickets for this Six Flags place," I said, reaching up and scratching at the side of my head. "Are you guys passholders or something?"

Saint Mantid's eyes narrowed as her arms flared out to the side. She was more than obviously about to throw an attack when a bark of a laugh came from the man standing next to her. She looked over at Tailstrike, his hand moving up to cover his face as she glared daggers at him.

"What? It was funny, sue me, don't take it so seriously all the time, it's okay to play with your food," Tailstrike said with a shrug.

"You don't take this seriously enough! We serve Him! Hive Queen takes order directly from the one who delivered us unto this world!"

"Wow, she's kinda crazy," I said, purposefully floating a little farther back, though I made sure to keep my distance from the far wall with its continuous sound of skittering. "You're from the Tenth Wave, why are you working with these assholes Tailstrike?"

"Heh, don't get it twisted Loops, you ain't about to shake my resolve just cause you can tell a joke," he said.

"Your resolve? That's a weird way to put it… What's the resolve for?" I asked, trying to pry any information I could out of them.

"Heh, wouldn't you like to know," Tailstrike said with a sharp smile. In a flash, his tail jutted forward and a glob of black goo came erupting from the hooked tip. Though the glob was rather large in size, it was actually moving in an unnaturally slow arc, far slower than it seemed like it should have for how fast his tail struck out.

The pair, even with their bickering, seemed to have some bit of coordination. While Tailstrike's weird attack drew my attention, Saint Mantid made her move. This time I was too slow as a blade of green energy crashed right into my chest, sending me flying backwards end over end as I lost track of the black goo. I managed to catch myself before I could hit the wall and I rushed back forward before any of the bugs could get any bright ideas. While I wasn't exactly sure why they weren't attacking, I was going to count myself lucky that they weren't and call it good.

There was a glint of light that brought my attention back to the black goo, now at the peak of its arc. It started to pulsate much like the large egg in the pit below me and before I could make heads or tails of what it was doing, the goo erupted. I threw myself to the forward, dodging out of the way of a large glob of the black substance as it went sailing past me in the blink of an eye. I kept moving, dodging past a few more of the big globs as they rained outward.

"What the hell was-" I started to say, slowing to a stop when I was pretty sure the goo rain had stopped. Suddenly, without me prompting it, Earthbound Impact activated and I went plummeting downward toward the egg.

I was unable to disable the ability or reactivate my flight as I fell, striking the surface of the quivering structure hard. There was a ripple that waved out around me as my feet sunk into the white, wiry surface, though as far as I could tell, no damage was dealt… or there was simply nothing there that could be damaged. Even standing atop it, the quivering mass wouldn't highlight in my vision, leaving me feeling vaguely uncomfortable. A debuff fell off of my status bar before I had the time to examine it and a POP drew my attention as a small bit of black goo evaporated from the sleeve of my jacket.

"Some sort of power that lets him activate my abilities if he hits me with it? How the hell did he know which one to-" I started to wonder when I felt the ground below me shake, cutting me off as I held my arms out to maintain my balance.

"What's the plan, Loophole!? Are you okay in there?" Pinky asked, almost a bit frantically.

"He's fine… kinda getting his ass kicked a bit… but fine," Jon answered for me.

"I'm not getting my ass kicked. Just got surprised, I'll be fine, I have this under control," I said. I activated my flight, moving to get out of whatever the hell this egg was covered in. I made it all of a foot up before I felt resistance, the white substance keeping me from lifting off. "Ummm…."

"Okay Pinky, now he's been caught," Jon said with a laugh as I set myself back down.

"Oh shut up," I muttered, looking up as a flash of movement caught my eye. Saint Mantid was floating in the air above me, two long, translucent wings erupting outward from under her black cloak as she stared down at me. "Of course she can fucking fly…"

I took a deep breath in, I was running out of time and I knew it. I still wasn't quite sure what the hell was going on, though I was starting to doubt that the giant thing I was standing on was actually an egg. The sticky substance wrapped around it seemed more like what I imagined a spider's web would be like, though I wasn't quite sure why it would be wrapped in a giant ball… unless it had some sort of prey in there.

While I wanted to make sure there wasn't a giant spider crawling around, I knew I didn't have time for it. Saint Mantid's wings were starting to shimmer as she flew above me and while I wanted to know more about what she could do, I did not want to be a sitting duck. I ramped up Center of the Universe as fast as I could and then, hoping the white surface wasn't actually that strong, I activated Launchpad.

Thankfully, my legs weren't torn from my body as I went hurtling upward right toward Saint Mantid. Her eyes grew wide as I threw a punch right up and into her gut, activating and throwing a 25% Gravity Punch that sent her flying up and toward the roof. I didn't follow up and I didn't look around for Tailstrike either, because I knew I was out of time if I wanted to give myself as much space to change things as possible.

"I'd love to stay and play, heck I hate to admit it but this is actually kind of fun, though I'm really not a fan of whatever is going on with all those bugs you guys are keeping as pets. I'm sure we'll see each other again," I called out, catching as another blob of black goo glinted in the light. Right before it could explode, I activated Timekeeper's Control.

I stepped into the Logistics room, the doors swinging closed behind me as I took in the pristine controls and monitors filling the space after I backed up time every bit of the five and a half minutes I could go. I didn't have all the answers we needed, but I was pretty sure we were in the right spot for whatever was coming for their fifth day attack.

"Jackpot?" Jon asked and I let out a laugh.

"Something like that."

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