“For fucks sake, how many people are obsessing over that fucking orange asshole?! He’s just a fucking loser from Hell’s Kitchen!”

  “Pot calling the kettle black Hydramental,” Mr. Factory said, shaking his head. “But if you were actually paying attention-”

  “No, I fucking get it. All of this bullshit with Perry and the droids everywhere were just some big distraction from your ‘Master Plan’ all because you were a pawn in two idiot’s dick measuring contest. Now you’ve decided it’s your job to destroy the thing you stupidly helped build up,” Hydramental said, rolling his eyes and actually using air quotes. “What I don’t fucking get is why he’s your actual target and why you’re only just now telling me after making it seem like you were just doing me a favor and helping me out.”

  “Okay, let me try explaining this one more time and see if it actually gets through that dense skull of yours. And this time, try not to get hung up on your vendetta,” Mr. Factory said with a long, tired sigh. He reached up and rubbed at his temples under his welding mask before leaning back into his chair. There were droids working in the reactor room now, even if it didn’t actually matter if they’d be finished in time, it was all for the show after all.

  “Oh please don’t fucking give me the full fucking history again,” Hydramental groaned. “Just fucking explain why it’s Loophole that you’re after when you’ve been blathering on non-fucking-stop about destroying Axio. Did we even have to fucking run off and hide underwater here with this stupid fucking droid?”

  “Yes we did,” Mr. Factory said through his teeth. “I needed Axio to believe my end goal was destroying the array. In case you haven’t noticed, if you’re not under one of these Dead Zones, he can literally hear and respond to everything. Until we had one of these and I wasn't worried that you were secretly under Andrew's thumb still, I had to keep up the fa?ade. For the last eight years he’s believed that he only thing I’ve wanted was to destroy him. Ever since he sent that fucking Critical Level threat at Lab Grown, since she died just after we found out that she was... No… I do want to destroy him but that's not enough… I want to take everything away from him, Andrew, and Christopher for subjecting me and everyone else to this bullshit, but with my powerset, I’ve had to go about it slowly, waiting for the right moment.”

  Hydramental didn’t interrupt this time, seemingly taken aback by the actual hatred he could feel coming off of the usually rather stoic man.

  “I’ve had to cultivate a good deal of patience since my powerset doesn’t exactly make it simple to raise my level up very quickly, so I’ve had plenty of time to learn how to watch for obvious weak spots. I thought it was the array, it made the most sense… until those first few days of your Wave,” Mr. Factory said, going a bit more in depth on the story than when he had first gone through everything as quickly as possible. He raised up a hand with three fingers raised.

  “Three things happened that set everything in motion. First, the systems I have that monitor system communications gave me an anomalous report. Normally, the alerts that came through there were of two types. Axio’s communications with everyone during his regular nightly announcements… and his direct connection to Christopher when he acted as his P.A.I.. So imagine my surprise when, the day after he gave up his territories, the system told me Axio made a connection to some random, nobody Tenth Waver.”

  “Yeah, Axio’s been using him as a puppet, we fucking knew that already,” Hydramental said, unable to hold his tongue any longer. “Who fucking cares if he used to talk with The First directly. That fucker abandoned the game.”

  “You’re still missing the point. I did a cursory search through the rest of my logs for his meta data, which just so happened to match up with The First’s… with Christopher’s. That data is supposed to be unique… and that’s what put me on Loophole’s trail. See, if you were listening to my history lesson, you’d realize that Christopher had closer to root level access to this game. My theory is that he passed that power on to Loophole and Axio, under the guise of strengthening your entire wave, has been focused solely on making him as powerful as possible. I’ve done the legwork, the best possible targets are on the map here. If he’s going to be where you say he will tomorrow–”

  “He will. That theatrical asshole wants to fight in the trainyard.”

  “Then, whether he can predict your movements or not, that would put him far enough away that it would be impossible for him to protect all of them. We hit the right one and he’ll be open for you to finish him.”

  “Hey I’m glad for the opportunity, especially since I have a little bit of a hunch for how to get past whatever the fuck he’s doing to predict me,” Hydramental said, a devious smirk cutting over his face. “But the real question, or I guess questions I have, is what about the civilians that might be in those buildings? What about your precious fucking code? What about the fucking array? How the fuck does killing Loophole “Stop Axio once and for all” like you insist it will? And maybe most importantly, how the fuck can you be sure about any of this when it could all just be half-baked assumptions?”

  Mr. Factory didn’t answer immediately, taking a second to formulate his response.

  “To be completely fair, it's not a a lie to say that my end goal was destroying him… but the fact that he didn’t deploy a single one of his defense measures when we first launched the scales at one of the array nodes and the fact that he’s done very little to actively stop us when I’ve been making it seem like going after it was my main goal is very telling to me,” Mr. Factory said, his tone finally starting to settle down. “And as for the code… well the world isn’t worth points for a game. Axio is coming for the world, I don’t know how or when… but I know in my heart that it’s the truth. I don’t want to kill people, but between these four buildings, there’s maybe two hundred people… I’ll make my penance when the time comes, but for now, we’ll do what we have to do to protect the rest of the world. And luckily for you, that means killing Loophole and getting rid of anything that Axio might be able to use.”

  “Swan I need eyes out but try and keep your distance too. Last time he had his brown form here as well and didn’t get here until after the token down there spawned. Codex, get Brain to scan the streets with the cameras he has access to. We need to find where his yellow and purple forms are, until then, we are still in the shit,” I ordered, casually eyeing my Time Bank. I was already down to nine and a half minutes and I knew I couldn’t risk jumping back as far as possible two more times. I took a deep breath in before I finally addressed Hydramental. “Really? Attacking the other streets too? And here I thought you wanted a fair fight.”

  “FAIR!? You think any fight you’re in has been fair!? I’ve finally figured your shit out. It’s time,” the three Hydramentals said, all sneering at me as the ball of fire continued to grow each time the one in red tossed it into the air.

  “It’s time for what?” I asked and heard Angie boo in the back of my head. Hydramental apparently also didn’t appreciate my ill-timed joke and I dodged to the side as he launched a fist forward before he launched the large ball of fire my way.

  “DON’T FUCKING PLAY GAMES WITH ME!” They roared before a cylindrical looking controller materialized into the green one’s hand. “Or do you think you can just rewind things and I won’t remember!? I’ve figured out your fucking secret and the more of my clones that I keep out of your zone of control, the less memories I lose. Now show me Loophole, is this one worth protecting?”

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

  “Wait-” I started to say before he pressed the red button atop the device. For a fraction of a second I thought nothing would happen, and then an explosion rattled off somewhere far to the north. There was a look of actual excitement in the Hydramental’s eyes and I immediately rewound things by ten seconds.

  “DON’T FUCKING PLAY- ARGH!” the Hydramentals all roared in unison, their hands reaching up to clasp at their heads. I activated Echo Step before he could collect himself, appearing directly in front of him. All of his forms were just about to dematerialize in the same way that they had when I had tried to unload a massive Mass Driver on them when I materialized and immediately activated the Dead Zone device.

  All three of the forms snapped back together before a fourth glowing orb phased through the floor and slammed into him, leaving his jacket with a band for red, green, blue, and brown. I slammed a non-powered fist into him, even though I absolutely had the option to hit him with one of my stronger attacks. He stumbled backwards, catching himself as a trail of blood moved down his face, making him look slightly deranged.

  “You think only one of me can access my B.E.L.T.?” he asked only a moment before the explosion went off far to the north yet again. “Well Loophole? That one was on 52nd. What are you-”

  I slammed my fist into his face.

  “WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!?” I bellowed, pulling my hand back and punching him again. “I told you where to find me! I told you to leave everyone else out of this! I TOLD YOU TO COME AND END THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU KILLING INNOCENT PEOPLE!?”

  My fist hit him again and again, a grotesque sounding crack sounding off after the fourth punch. I was just pulling back, preparing to strike him again when I felt a pair of arms wrap around mine.

  “Loophole!” Swan said, breaking through my anger as Hydramental began to let out a slightly deranged laugh.

  “Trap me, beat me… hell, I bet you could even kill me in here… As long as one of me is free, you won’t be rid of me. Not until I’ve torn down everything,” he snarled before another explosion went off. I threw him to the ground and deactivated the Dead Zone.

  “Codex, where were those last two bombs? Was one of them on 52nd?” I asked, looking back down and seeing Hydramental just as he materialized an injector. I activated Center of the Universe and ripped the injector from his grip before he could use it. He snarled at me and pulled out yet another device.

  “Um, it looks like it was on-” There was another explosion and my eyes went wide as Jon’s voice immediately cut off.

  “Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”

  “No…” I gasped, my eyes going wide as I felt a surge of primal anger go off. There was a flash of light and I looked behind me to see as Hydramental turned to energy and went darting off to the North. I was in shock for only a fraction of a second, but that was all it took and he covered half a block and got out of my Local Area before I could react.

  “Loophole! What happened?” Swansong asked, shaking my shoulder as she tried to snap me out of my haze. I couldn’t vocalize it, I couldn’t believe something had happened and–

  “REWIND ALREADY YOU MORON!” Angie outright screeched in my head, her normally glib attitude completely absent as she sounded unbelievably panicked. “That idiot left your Local Area, he shouldn’t remember this time! PROTECT MR. BLUE EYES!”

  I hated the idea of doing it, but I listened and rewound as far back as I could, knowing I was eating away at my Time Bank.

  I found myself back on top of the train yet again and I took yet another breath in, slowing time down as I tried to collect myself. Jon was okay. He was going to be just fine. Why had I been so stupid!? Why didn’t I force him to go to his Aunt’s? How the fuck was I supposed to handle this?! I half expected Angie to speak up, urge me to protect him but she was uncharacteristically quiet.

  “Angie?” I tested cautiously, without letting go of the ability only to find that she didn’t answer. That was certainly odd, but I wasn’t sure now was the time to be worried about it either as I tried to think of how I could protect Jon. If I flew off now and went right there… would Hydramental know? Was Mr. Factory doing something behind the scenes to control the explosions?

  Time was still moving, even as slow as I was able to make it. I couldn’t even count on Hydramental approaching things exactly the same way unless… Angie’s insistence that I rewind after he was out of my Local Area had been random, but it was her job to pay attention to things even when I wasn’t. For once, since Jon’s life had been put at risk, she apparently decided to take that seriously and I resolved myself to treat her just a bit better… assuming we were able to pull ourselves out of this rat’s nest.

  “Codex you have got to get out of there, NOW!” I ordered just as time started back up. This time, I didn’t lift off the train, instead trying to walk as if nothing was happening. I wasn’t sure just how many memories Hydramental was able to retain, though it did explain how he had held onto my name and I was going to have to figure out a way to work around that.

  “What? Why would I-”

  “The building is going to fucking explode! If I go there now, I don’t know if I can stop it from happening, especially if they know I’m going to that one specifically…” I said, seeing Swansong pushing off the roof she had been sitting on from the corner of my eye. “I… maybe I can trick them…”

  “Hydramental is coming to you,” Swansong called out and I looked around quickly, finding his fiery form descending down before the other three lights joined him.

  “So who’s at 52nd street that you don’t want me to kill? Must be someone important if you rewound twice to stop me from doing it. Maybe I should send my lightning form in there and round everyone up. I can take them out one by one until we figure out who it is and I can make you beg,” he said, clearly filled with glee.

  I didn’t respond to him, weighing my options carefully since I knew whatever I did was going to decide… well… everything. He had the wrong street, but only because he had reacted impulsively to get away from me earlier, meaning that if none of his forms were in my local area, then he only remembered the rewind from the last time I had rewound. Maybe there was a way to use that, I wasn’t quite sure, but I did know one very important thing. I still really wanted to punch him to wipe that shit eating grin off of his face.

  I rushed forward, moving to swing at him when several lights blinked off of him. Instead of materializing into their full aspects though, they each went darting off to the north, leaving only his green air version behind. A sudden torrent of wind hit me, knocking me off balance the moment both of my feet were on the ground and I was sent tumbling over the ground away from his as he smirked down at me.

  “Well Loophole? Aren’t you going to run off to stop–” I activated Echo Step again, using it to teleport myself back to my feet as I landed and slammed my fist into the green form’s stomach. I added in a 50% Gravity Punch that launched him backwards and into a train car, causing a rough, airless sound to escape his lips before he dematerialized, his light racing off after the rest of them just as his forms always did when I overwhelmed it with damage.

  I waited for a few seconds, expecting maybe that his other forms would turn around. I was only brought back to reality by a sudden pulse of light that happened just a few feet away from me as the Ascension Token spawned.

  There were no explosions that came this time, no random Crime Alerts that occurred either and it hit me. It was because Hydramental thought he was going to the right spot.

  “Codex, tell Brain to look at the street cameras on our street is there-”

  “It’s the purple one, he’s standing literally outside the front door threatening anyone who comes close. I don’t think I could leave if I wanted to,” Jon explained, anticipating my exact question. “Also, the egg just hatched over by Pinky and uh… yeah I don’t know if we can peel them off… it’s not like any chicken I’ve ever seen before.”

  “It’s a cockatrice!” Angie said, her sorrow gone now that Jon was here still.

  “Shit, could really use their help right now…” I muttered, once again weighing my options. The token glinted out of the corner of my vision and an idea passed through my head. It was a terrible idea, logically I knew that… but it was also the only one I could think that might help without accidentally leaving Pinky and Freak to the whims of a giant… cockatrice… whatever the hell that was. Well.. it would either help or give me a reason to cut further into the five and a half minutes I had left in my Time Bank.

  “The currently active Ascension Token has been picked up by the Guardian: Loophole. This Augment has 59 minutes and 59 seconds left to hold the token before he can return to an eligible Safe Zone.”

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