Wildcard Assembly's Squad Base,

Multiple Locations

Current Phase Points:

171430

Current Ascension Tokens Applied:

36

End of Phase Two: 25

D:00H:10M:38S

"Hey guys, we got 10 minutes till Axio's announcement. I grabbed us some pizzas."

Swan walked into the training room just as a loud BOOM echoed through the space that was immediately followed by a string of curses. Pinky and Freak had been dropped into a pile on top of each other, with Pinky as she pushed up off of Freak's back, clearly moving just a bit slower than she usually did.

"God damnit Loophole!" she said, leaping up and staring over at me as I rubbed the back of my head sheepishly. "I know the whole point of this was testing the last possible moment for you to react but that Hidden Power of yours is bullshit."

"It's a damn strong defense… that's for sure," Freak agreed, taking the hand Swan offered him as he got back to his own feet.

After we had taken the time to pick the time to pick up the last round of tokens for the day, we had all found our way streaming back into the base, eager for at least a little bit of quiet after a day with just a bit more action than we had anticipated. Pinky and Freak were more than happy to accompany me down and into the training room so that I could use the last few minutes of my Time Bank to test using the Slow Down variant.

It took me a few tries to really get the hang of it, as I found that while I could activate skills in the slowed time frame, they all moved at the same speed in that limited span. However, if I activated Area Sense before I slowed time down, I could not only feel every single thing within my local area, but I had the time to feel the slightlest changes in their positions. With the Read the Field passive modifier to my heightened sense, those movements, coming from Pinky most of the time as a headlong charge, also sent constant pings of danger toward my mind, even while my eyes were off of her.

Freak was a bit harder to dodge, as he tried to keep his attacks happening from a range, launching bits of metal off of his body like a makeshift rail gun. Since the objects couldn't register with Read the Field I was only able to judge their trajectories based solely on the minute space they crossed in the tenths of seconds I experienced within those few seconds I had the skill activated.

"It's only as strong as I am fast," I said, looking over toward Swan who was still patiently waiting for us in the doorway.

"Look, given that speed is sort of my thing on this team, at least on the ground, I'd say you're own speed is nothing to really scoff at," Pinky replied as we all started to wander our way over to her.

"That's not really a fair comparison though. Loophole's Hidden Power lets him react in ways that even a speedster would have trouble matching just because he can back things up," Swansong pointed out and I nodded in agreement.

"Like I said, his Hidden Power is bullshit," Pinky grumbled as we filed out of the room and down the hallway back toward the main lounge.

"Only when we're fighting it," Freak said with a shrug. "Otherwise I'd say it's one hell of a card to have in our pocket."

"It can be both," Pinky shot back as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm gonna figure out how to get past it one of these days, just you wait."

"And when you do, you should absolutely use it to win a fight," I said, looking over my shoulder at her before adding, "then you should help me make sure no one else can figure it out afterwards."

"Fair enough," she shot back, breaking off and heading right for the kitchen where several pizza boxes sat. "So where's Codex at? Do we need to save him some pizza?"

"Our building manager needed to talk to him about something," I said, though it was a bit odd that he hadn't popped back through just yet given that he had left just under an hour earlier. "Although with how much work he's been putting in, I wouldn't be surprised if he passed out on the couch. Dude has not been getting enough sleep ever since I pulled him into this. Though, it might be a good idea to save him a couple of slices if we can manage to not eat all of what Swan brought."

"I do see him dozing off in his chair pretty often," BrainCraft said from a spot within our lounge pit. "But that's a far cry from getting a good night's rest in your own bed."

"I did wonder when he slept… it felt like he was always just in that room working on something," Swan said as she started to hand out a few paper plates.

"Dude loves Augments more than anyone I've ever met and has outright wondered when he'd get the chance to be Augmented as well. Which means right now, this is the closest he's gonna get to being one," Pinky added, taking a plate from Swan before moving over to the stack of pizza boxes.

"Well I'll go check in on him before we head out to The Common Ground later," I said with a shrug. "He'll probably just be mad that I let him sleep as long as he did."

"Oooh that's right, you do owe us drinks for coming in last on the droid hunt today," Pinky said with a devious grin.

"Oh come on, I took down that chicken kaiju! That's gotta put me over Freakenstein at least!"

"Yeah well sorry, but that still only counts as one," Swansong said, looking over at me with a teasing grin. Freakenstein looked over at her almost approvingly.

"And here we were worried she was gonna side with Loopie on all the important decisions," he guffawed, slapping me on the shoulder. "Sorry bud, no advantage to you."

"More importantly, was that a Gimli reference, Swan?" Pinky asked, her face practically lighting up. Swansong smiled back at her.

"It's a comfort series," she said. Pinky was just about to start bouncing in her seat when BrainCraft let out a sigh.

"We don't have time for a marathon Pinky… especially since I'm sure you'd insist on the extended editions…"

Almost as if he had cued it up, a spinning logo appeared above the hologram table, disappearing as the highlight reel of the day started.

Unsurprisingly, though it felt almost arrogant to think that, it was my own fight that was showcased first, with the massive set of attacks I used to put down the Giant Clockwork Chicken leading the footage before changing to Pinky's charged up attack. Swansong was belting her chorus overhead before the footage shifted to Freakenstein fighting his way through a small army of Clockwork Gorillas like they were nothing more than butter.

To my surprise, mostly because the last time I had seen the leaderboard she had been nearly dropped off the board entirely, a wide shot of Tempest's Wrath appeared on the screen. She was facing off against two other Augments that I knew only through these highlight reels, Vice Grip and Duke Juke'em. At some point, Duke Juke'em, who had been a Miscreant early on, had teamed up with Vice Grip, a Guardian that pulled modified weapons out of nowhere in vicious attacks against his enemies.

The two of them combined actually seemed to put up a fight against Tempest's Wrath, Vice Grip pulling out a weapon that looked oddly like a lightning rod and redirecting the rushing woman before she could hit his teammate. Duke Juke'em, decked out in an actual football helmet, dodged around her, somehow managing to land blows on her intangible form. They might have even been able to beat her… if it hadn't been for the suddenly appearing girl… er… boy? that appeared behind her.

The form moved into the light, now identifiably a girl wearing a stark white outfit. With a flick of her wrist, Vice Grip was frozen in place, unable to keep hold of his lightning rod as a shimmering light seemed to cause Vice Grip to become intangible for a moment. Duke was just about to turn on the girl when her form shifted, her outfit turning black as a taller man appeared in her place and grappled the man who I had never once seen even get touched by an enemy in the highlight reel.

Tempest reformed in front of the caught Guardian, a wicked smile on her face as one of her arms turned into a blade made of lightning. The footage cut off just after she thrust forward, a bright spurt of blood covering her smiling face.

"That was… brutal," I muttered, hearing murmurs of agreement from the others around the lounge.

The rest of the highlight reel, while impressive, didn't leave quite the same impact as Tempest's cold murder of another Augment. BrainCraft got to show off manipulating his tech for Pinky's massive attack and even Duskbreaker made the top 10, with his highlight reel being the constant leeching of my own Exhaustion debuffs. The last spot was taken by the odd shifting Augment that had appeared to help Tempest's Wrath, the figure dodging out of the way of the lightning blade before surging forward and cutting Vice Grip's weapon to pieces, opening the way once again for Tempest's Wrath to surge into the man and take him down for good before the reel finally gave way to the actual Top Ten list.

Tenth Wave

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Guardians: 351 Miscreants: 114

1. Loophole - Level 23 Perfect Planner - Guardian - 171430 Points 2. Pretty Pink Warthog - Level 21 Berserking Boar - Guardian - 143025 Points 3. Swansong - Level 20 Healing Voice - Guardian - 135465 Points 4. Freakenstein - Level 20 Patchwork Armorer - Guardian - 130835 Points 5. Tempest's Wrath - Level 23 Thunder God - Miscreant - 101280 Points 6. BrainCraft - Level 20 Neural Forge - Guardian - 97225 Points 7. Thiccc Thighs - Level 19 Sumo Quaker - Miscreant - 72010 Points 8. Gato Nocturno - Level 19 Cat Burglar - Miscreant - 71395 Points 9. Duskbreaker - Level 20 Eclipse Leech - Guardian - 68975 Points 10. War and Peace - Level 19 Yin Blade and Level 19 Yang Balance- Miscreant - 67715 Points

"Goooooooood Evening Augments! We have reached the first milestone of Phase Two and boy am I just so pleased with the results so far. You guys are chugging along nicely and if you keep up the pace, you'll be passing those slow Ninth Wave Augments in no time. I had hoped it would kick some of them into gear and it certainly has, but it really seems like I'm going to have to start offering them some ultimatums…. Hmmm something to consider. Though perhaps not now, I doubt any member of any of the older waves would be capable of the growth you've all seen in such a short time!"

"Now you may have noticed I gave our dear Tempest's Wrath quite a bit more time on the highlight reel tonight and really, can you blame me? Call it an in memoriam if you'd like for the valiant Augments who attempted to take her down, but it should also act as a reminder for the possible gains any one of you can have. Her and her new little partner both gained massive boosts from claiming the bounty on those two members of the Top Ten, and any one of you could grab those boosts for yourselves if you just had a little motivation.."

"Seeing that I've been so nice the last few days and haven't been offering any of the motivation from Phase One, starting with today and on the day following every fifth day, I'll be switching things up just a little bit with some sort of special modification to the rules! These modifications will only be active during that specific stretch until the next fifth day event. The first modification will beeeee Target! Once an Ascension Token is picked up, the person who retrieves it cannot enter their Safe House or leave the region they are in for 1 hour. During this hour, every Augment within your region will be able to easily locate you. If the token is stolen or handed off to a squad mate, the timer is reset. All tokens during this period are worth 50% more Phase Points."

"Keep growing, you're all making me so proud and you're getting more and more ready for what's to come! You're gonna need every ounce of strength you can muster, that's for sure and I want the best of the best of you to be our shining stars. Have fun these next few days, I sure do hope we get some fun action out of it! Good luck out there Augments!"

And with that the logo reappeared and Axio's booming voice faded back into nothing as we all sat staring at the table. I could feel my brow furrowing and BrainCraft's own expression was similar as he reached up to rub at his chin.

"Okay, well see I was about to say this sounded like it was going to be fun but the way you two are looking makes me feel like I'm missing something," Pinky said after apparently taking in our expressions.

"While this Phase has seemingly been about gaining levels quicker and coming together as teams, I had always assumed that there was a greater goal that Axio had in mind. I think I've finally figured something out that is rather… unsettling," BrainCraft explained and I looked over curiously. While I had thought we were on the same page, his mind had apparently gone a different direction than mine had entirely.

The idea that we could be tracked with the tokens meant that Hydramental would be able to easily deploy droids to attack us if any one of us grabbed the token and were isolated. I suddenly wasn't sure just how often I was going to want to separate myself from the city to help Pinky chase down the tokens on her side of the country, though with BrainCraft's array in place now, maybe that wasn't as big of a concern as it needed to be. I was just about to prompt BrainCraft to explain when someone else beat me to the punch.

"I mean, I think we all assumed that crazy asshole was up to something we didn't know about," Freakenstein shrugged. "How's this any different?"

"It's not that I believe it's necessarily different, I think it just raises a lot more questions than we really have access to answers, especially as I believe most of us had been under the impression that Axio was simply an A.I. with… well as you put it, crazy asshole tendencies," BrainCraft said, shaking his head. Without Jon there to put things a bit more simply, he seemed to realize he was going to have to be the one to spell things out and he let out a sigh. "Here, let's look at this logically. When we were first introduced to this phase, two things were made clear. The Ascension Tokens gave us the opportunity to power level and Axio had selected high leveled Augments to act as foils and villains for each of 100 distinct regions on this side of the planet. It was only after a bit of tinkering that we figured out that there were benefits to gathering and submitting tokens from other regions, something he didn't outright explain to us."

"Which definitely makes it seem like he wanted us to team up to take out those very Augments," I said, eliciting a nod from BrainCraft.

"Exactly. Even if we haven't made use of it, he even backed up that theory by immediately giving us the Phase Lounges for being one of the squads to figure it out as a way to spread the wealth of the tokens' powerleveling features. Ignoring that though, under the threat of a greater enemy, we have had quite a surge in Guardian membership, something that until that point, had been dropping rather quickly. A lot of Augments in the first phase were simply having fun with their new powers and some were like Freakenstein, where public perception made them appear to be Miscreants. But when their morals were put to the test, many of them chose to stand on the side of protecting the people of our planet. And then what happened the day that we took down Perry? What did Axio announce during his nightly monologue?"

"He said the Miscreants who teamed up with those squads in charge of attacking our regions could get rewards if they survived the whole time," Swansong said and I looked over to find a rather serious expression on her face. "Which means he probably didn't plan for that from the start…"

"Bingo," BrainCraft said, snapping his fingers. "Axio is quite clearly making this up as he goes. How he's able to do that is obviously up for debate, but that is what he seems to be doing. For some reason, I believe he assumed that giving us a greater threat would cause most, if not all of us to turn to the Guardian side…"

"Wait… the crazy A.I. guy that keeps trying to kill us… wants us to be heroes? Why? And why encourage people to go after the bounties on the Top Ten if he's not trying to kill us?" Duskbreaker asked, his nose scrunching and I could tell that he was actually just a bit worried, something I assumed was because he was on the Top Ten list now.

"Look, like I said, things can be multifaceted. Encouraging the best of the best to go after each other simply means the strongest of us will only continue to get stronger. Since Axio does keep alluding to the fact that he's preparing us for something, the odds are likely that that has something to do with it," BrainCraft explained. "But think about it. This modification to the tokens is more than likely meant to encourage us to fight with the thought that it'll be Miscreants trying to fight Guardians to take their tokens or vice versa. While yes it will create conflict, it also offers the opportunity for Guardians to try and either convert or capture the remaining Miscreants to get them out of the way. And think about it. That whole, "trying to kill us" thing hasn't been quite as true since we made it through Phase One, don't you think?"

"We have lost a few people every day or two though," Swansong said and I found myself nodding.

"Yeah, but it's been nowhere near the giant dips we'd see every night in that short, short window of Phase One," I said, feeling my gut turn as I looked back over at BrainCraft. "But… you can't be trying to suggest that Axio is up to something… good… are you Brain? That's one hell of a stretch to make."

"I'm not saying that it isn't, simply that that's what all the evidence is leading me to believe which is why I find it rather unsettling. There are certainly more than a few despots throughout history who committed atrocities under that guise of 'the greater good.' It's certainly possible that whatever Axio's prime directive is has him believing strengthening us is the only way to accomplish that goal and he's approaching it with an 'by any means necessary' mindset," he replied, his expression still concentrated as he reached up and scratched the side of his head. "Without knowing more about his creation, there are just so… so many questions that even I can't quite find the answers for."

My mind jumped back to the one-on-one conversation I had had with the A.I. all those days ago, back when I had thought Jon was going to be hurt simply for circumventing the "no outside people can know about the game" rule. He hadn't exactly seemed stable and he also hadn't exactly seemed like he was working in tandem with what "the original developers" had wanted for the game.

Axio had been the one who had wanted to figure out a way past the secrecy rule too… said he had wanted to show us things. Sure, he had also said multiple times I'd be dead if it weren't for those rules too, but the main thing I had taken from that was that he was being bound and controlled. I couldn't fathom how the A.I. I had talked with could want us to be heroes, but the way BrainCraft laid it out felt… well… convincing.

I still hadn't brought that conversation up with anyone, especially since I had been afraid of what would happen if Axio did manage to overhear it. With everything that had happened, I hadn't considered that the Common Ground, with BrainCraft's privacy device included, might just be the perfect place to fill the others in on it. I was just about to say something cryptic, maybe prompt us to head that way when someone else beat me to the punch.

"You know, I think that this means now more than ever, we really need to get that meeting with The First so we can figure out what the fuck they were thinking when all of this started," a new voice said and I looked over my shoulder to see that Jon had entered the Command Room at some point, apparently having heard at least a portion of our conversation. "Also, I'm sure I must have missed something really good if you guys are somehow suggesting Axio is a good guy, someone want to fill me in?"

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