I knew we were expecting some level of pushback or subterfuge from the pair that still made up Droids R’ Us, but… well I guess I had thought that because of the last few encounters where the droids went out of their way to not hurt innocent people that Mr. Factory, whoever he was, was at least tempering Hydramental’s more psychotic urges.
I could see a large metallic droid off toward the east and while I briefly wondered how Pinky and Freak were doing with it, I was sure they’d find more than enough time to regale me with their fight later. Yeah… we’d all sit around the base. Pinky would make some stupid joke and Jon would…
“Loophole?” Swansong asked, her hand wrapping into mine as she floated closer to me, still wrapped in my Gravitational Field instead of her own flight. We weren’t moving at supersonic speeds, so I cautioned a glance in her direction and noticed a worried expression. “Won’t he know we’re coming with the beacon on you like that?”
“That’s sorta the point. I’m hoping it will get the purple one to peel off of the apartment,” I said, squeezing her hand once. “If they know I’m going where they think they need to attack… maybe… maybe…”
She squeezed my hand back, silently acknowledging what I didn’t want to say.
“How full is your meter for Doubling Resonance?” I asked, slightly changing the subject as I quickly scanned our surroundings, searching the sky for anyone trying to sneak up on us.
“Nearly full. It’s at 98%,” she explained. “It’s taken a bit longer to fill without visiting the clinics, but it’s close…”
“Good… that’s good…” I said, trailing off as I tried to put the thought out of my mind for the moment. “Any sign of the purple one leaving his post, Codex?”
“No but… he has to when you show up over on 52nd, right?”
“If things go as I think they will… then… well hopefully,” I said, realizing just how big of a risk I was taking. Even upping my speed while I carried Swansong along with, it still took us every bit of three minutes to cross the distance and the target was obvious.
“Well I guess we know why you haven’t received another-“
“Mission Updated! Your Where’d that Pangolin Go? mission has been canceled. Rewards will no longer be granted.”
“NEW MISSION! A Man With a Mission! Look, if you hate the name of this one, just blame Codex. If you like it, it was my idea! The stakes are set, the pieces are in play, can you stop Hydramental in time? Why’d we cancel the one with the Pangolin? Look, Axio didn’t tell me and I don’t think you’ve got the time or desire to question it. Stop Hydramental by any means necessary and, as I’ve been told in the notes for this mission… he’s been given a similar one for you. Better put on your game face. Reward: You will be granted an S+:Tier Squad Base Loot Box and a variable reward based on how you complete this mission.”
The mission faded from my vision as I looked down at the building quite literally covered in droids. From spiders positioned along the walls every few feet to gorillas standing like gargoyles atop the roof. Weirdly, that wasn’t actually a bad description since the droids were all standing almost frighteningly still. I tore my eyes away from the droids before looking to the street, finding my stomach immediately turning as I witnessed two of Hydramental’s clones pushing a few civilians out the front doors.
“Oh he’s gone full supervillain…” Jon muttered and I grit my teeth in frustration.
As easy as it was and could be to blame myself… I’d have to save it for later. Once I knew we had come out of the other side clean.
“Stay high and start singing,” I said, darting down and toward the ground. As much as I wanted to activate Earthbound Impact, and it was a lot, there were too many civilians down there and I couldn’t risk hurting them.
I came in on the ground far faster than I ever normally would, having to skid to a halt as I tried to keep myself from stumbling. The closest of the Hydramentals, one whose jacket had turned entirely red, sneered at me.
“Oh good, just in time for the show,” his echoed voice said.
“This is your last warning, Hydramental,” I spat, stepping forward and raising my arms to the side. “Face me and leave the rest of these people out of this, they have nothing to do-”
“YOU CARE FOR THEM!” he shouted before I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand up from a sudden burst of electricity. There was a yelp of pain and I looked back to find an older woman convulsing on the ground. I didn’t even think about it, rewinding by five seconds and hearing the joint sneering done by his group before they each let out a yelp of pain.
It wasn’t long, but in that fraction of a second where they each reached up to grab their heads, I moved. I did have a plan, and I knew it was a long shot, but I was going to try it all the same. I activated Center of the Universe at max strength, focusing on just Hydramental and the droids within my area. I distinctly remembered my attack on the basement of the Velvet Coil, where the Vipers had kept Sapient NPCs as slaves sorting drugs and how Center of the Universe didn’t affect any of them when I had fought the snake-men in the enclosed space and I had to believe it would be no different this time.
I needed to get them away from the civilians and I activated Echo Step, jumping to the far side of my field as I pulled them along after me. I spun on my heel in time to see two of them dematerialize, rejoining into the third as I tried to figure out who I was missing. As the newly combined Hydramentals continued to stumble toward me from the force of my pull, he let off another of his forms, shooting it off to the side as it immediately blasted a wave of fire my direction.
I rewound again, this time only a single second in the hopes I could time things right and spun to the side. Just as the red Hydramental formed, my fist collided with his chest and I activated Mass Driver with 2000 points of my Stamina.
Every one of the enemies caught close enough to me, consisting of at least two Hydramentals and several Clockwork Kangaroos, were blown off their feet as I released Center of the Universe. They went spiraling backwards thanks to my Shock Spiral Augmentation, leaving a heap of metallic droids at the far end of my local area. Just as the group would have collided though, the collected group of Hydramentals burst into light and went zipping past me back toward the building where they slammed into another Hydramental before I could discern just what color his jacket was.
Much to my disappointment there were still only four bands of color around his arm, with the green one now distinctly missing.
“You’re a fucking coward and you brother would be ashamed of you,” I said, trying to taunt him to keep his focus on me instead of the civilians that had all rushed for cover the moment I got most of the enemies away from them.
The Clockwork Spiders lingering around the wall all seemed to boot up at the same time, their sharp, metallic limbs smacking into the walls with thuds that echoed down to the street. Several panes of glass broke.
“I told you Nate,” he spat, using my real name, “I’m going to tear everything away from-”
I activated Echo Step again, though this time I didn’t jump right in front of him. Instead, I aimed off to the side, thankful that my ridiculously high luck was keeping the ability from depositing me in the wrong spot. As I had predicted, Hydramental turned into energy the moment I vanished, just as he had each of the other times I had tried a similar move this morning.
His energy form moved to the right, just like it had each time he had dodged me before and as he rematerialized, only a few feet away from where I was appearing, I made my move.
My right hand flew forward as fast as it could and Hydramental’s eyes actually went wide. I wasn’t sure how often he could do that specific move, but it apparently wasn’t that quickly. Instead of punching him however, I did something I doubted he could have predicted.
As my hand cut through the air, I materialized the Ascension Token into my hand and shoved it as hard as I could into his chest. Between his surprise and the force of my push, he began to stumble… and instinctively clutched onto the token.
“The currently active Ascension Token has been stolen by the Miscreant: Hydramental. This Augment has 59 minutes and 59 seconds left to hold the token before he can return to an eligible Safe Zone.”
The beacon immediately burst to life above his head, just as it must have looked above me, but that wasn’t all. Three identical beacons suddenly pierced into the sky. Two of them were close, with one actually pinging on my mini-map only a block away and the other in a spot near where I thought my apartment was at based on where I was, but the third was the one that made me actually smile.
Stolen story; please report.
“What the fuck?” Hydramental spat, his eyes wide with panic as he dropped the token to the ground, forcing the beacons to all vanish at the same time.
“Codex, tell Miss Mist to contact me if he gets inside, we need to force it to rejoin with the others here but we can't do it until we have the others taken care of,” I ordered. I moved as quickly as I could to take advantage of Hydramental’s confusion, scooping the token back up and ignoring the message as I started to pepper him with punches, trying to rapidly bring up the Target debuff that my gloves stacked as high as I could as quickly as I could.
I knew where the other clones were now. If I did this correctly I could-
There was a buzz that filled the air like the static of a generator that had been overcharged. I landed just a few more punches, hammering away on the joint Hydramental’s before two of the forms split off of him. The moment I saw the light show, I made my next move and activated Echo Step again. I jumped backwards just before a bright light of gold and blue hit the ground between Hydramental and myself, arcs of electricity bounding off her reforming flesh.
“Ah ha, so you ‘ave gone and gotten yourself into a conflict,” she said, her voice twanging slightly as she looked from me over to the trio of Hydramentals all staring past her in contempt. “Oh but perhaps this one needs to be taken care of first, no? Excuse you, Loophole here is mine to ki-”
There was a rush of fire and clumps of earth that were sent flying her way and I watched as her entire body turned back into electricity, the attacks more or less harmlessly passing through her.
Tempest’s Wrath was just reforming, her body far more petite than the power she gave off suggested as she looked from the Hydramental’s that were staring death at her, over to me, and then up to all of the droids that were smashing windows behind me.
“This is not quite what I was expecting to find,” she said, genuine confusion passing over her features. “Is this Hydramental the one whose robits I ‘ave been destroying?”
“Close enough. Look, help me take care of him and these droids and I’ll give you whatever fight you want. Just don’t let the civilians die…. please!” I shot over to her, eyeing my minimap. There was every chance they’d be moving and I couldn’t risk letting that happen either. There was next to no chance Hydramental would let me pull the same trick twice if he did remember. “I need to stop the rest of this, but–”
Hydramental’s yellow form launched a massive bolt of lightning from off to the side, this time aimed right for me.
“I WILL NOT BE IGNORED!” his forms screamed. I slammed my hands together, pulling them back apart as I used Flash Frame Overcharge. The strike was powerful, there’s no denying that, especially since it leaked out enough to cause me just a bit of damage too. Hydramental looked like he was about to react when his blue form burst into light, Tempest’s Wrath piercing through him like a missile with an arm that extended into a spear that radiated electricity.
“You ‘ave yourself a deal Loophole,” she said, sending me a Friend Request of all things. “I can make you no promises from the fight, but I vill not intentionally kill these NPCs today.”
I took that as everything I needed, accepting the friend request before I shot myself up and into the air.
“Swan, move closer to a rooftop... just in case, but stay near Tempest, we need eyes on the fight incase of-”
There was a massive explosion that rattled the windows, only a few blocks further to the North and I felt my eyes go wide again as I screeched to a halt in midair. It wasn’t our apartment but I hated myself for feeling relieved by that. I was just about to rewind things again… when the second explosion went off.
“Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”
My eyes went wide again and I moved to rewind, certain I was going to be okay just because I had already gotten high enough in the air. Once again, it was only a fraction of a second… but I immediately regretted that decision as I started to rewind and spotted a yellow clad Hydramental reforming from electricity right near me.
“I can make you no promises from the fight, but I vill not intentionally kill these NPCs today,” Tempest said again, though I wasn’t paying attention to her as Hydramental seemed to light up with glee.
“I got the wrong one I see,” his forms growled, causing Tempest’s Wrath to snap her head back toward them in confusion. “Unless you want them all to die, you better make your move, Loophole.”
I didn’t wait for another comment from her before I darted up and into the sky. I immediately angled myself to the north, knowing and hating myself for what was about to happen.
“Codex, get to the roof, now! He knows he’s at the wrong building,” I said, rushing toward the north in the general direction that I had heard the first of the two explosions at. Even though I knew exactly what was going to happen, I had made my choice. I didn’t have enough time to save everybody.
“What? The roof, how are–”
“JUST FUCKING LISTEN AND DO IT!” I shouted, looking behind me and seeing as several shots of light were chasing after me along with a violent amalgamation of electricity surging behind it.
“I… I…. okay… I’m going,” Jon said, a scrambling and clattering of stuff echoing over his comms for just a few seconds.
“Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”
"Swan get near a roof! I might have to use the nuclear option!" I commanded, knowing I had to try to be prepared for everything I possibly could.
Hydramental’s attention was still hyperfocused and his apparent belief he had the right building was enough to stop him from going right for the bomb. I wasn’t entirely sure, but if Mr. Factory was still in control of this at all, it felt like a stipulation he had to be enforcing. I was mentally ticking away the seconds, moving a few blocks up at a fast pace, but nowhere near as fast as I could actually go.
I had gone just a few blocks up when, as fast as I could, I changed directions.
I had moved fast in the past, but I had almost always gradually ramped up my speed slowly to keep things as clear as I could. This time was nothing like that. I poured Stamina into the ability and went shooting forward in a way that should have left a massive sonic boom in my wake.
Maybe I should have been more careful, maybe I should have tried to be trickier, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I just had to be fast enough.
I was barely keeping track of the roofs, angling myself based on my minimap alone before I started to slow down to make sure I was nearly there. But slowing down was a mistake and in rapid succession… two explosions went off and I watched as my apartment building erupted in an explosion that quite literally shook the buildings around it as debris and detritus were sent out in all directions.
I rewound again, backing up only fifteen seconds as I tried to move faster. Jon had been on the roof. I was sure I had seen his beanie up there and I just had to be fast enough.
The explosion went off just as I got over the building. I had only slowed down fast enough to make sure I could see where I was going and Jon, who must have deduced exactly what I was trying to do… jumped. The explosion knocked him over in mid air, just as I smacked into him with a force that no human should ever be hit with. It took several more rewinds before I hit him soft enough that I didn’t immediately see a spattering of blood. He let out a massive oof from the strike before the wave of debris hit me with full force.
I moved my body, trying my best to shield him from the damage as my abilities like Orbit Me were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of broken building and concrete. I hadn’t been paying attention though, and as we began to fall out of the sky, I realized that the effects of my Combat Cadence hadn’t been nearly enough to keep up with the massive amount of Stamina I had been using to try to both overwhelm Hydramental and get to Jon in time. We had fallen halfway toward the ground when I activated Quantum Overclock.
My stamina burst full and I reactivated my flight… only to remember Jon didn’t count as an ally. I had tried to keep him in my grip but it wasn’t enough when another chunk of debris hit him with full force, wrenching him away and down toward the ground. I rewound again, this time seeing as the Temporal Sickness debuff appeared on my status bar.
I hadn’t thought I had used the ability that many times, but the debuff was clear as day and I knew that while I could still use the ability it was becoming a ticking time bomb.
Even as I held on tighter to Jon, believing I had caught him and was going to get away, we were blasted by a powerful beam of dark black… something. I felt all of my powers stop from the attack and we went plummeting down to the ground. It had been like a Dead Zone had smacked into me, except even my Timekeeper’s Control was refusing to activate. I managed to grab hold of Jon and turn my body in mid air.
We hit the ground with a massive CRUNCH as even more debris rained down on us. I rolled us over again, getting my back between Jon and the debris as I let my heightened toughness work to protect him when I saw just how he looked.
There was a small bit of blood coming from his mouth and his arm… it was broken and bent in a way that it shouldn’t have been. I could feel the slightest tingle of my powers again and was just about to rewind when I was hit by another wave of purple energy.
“How,” I groaned, trying to shield Jon again.
He was breathing heavily and I was barely even paying attention to Hydramental, even though the decision was a terrible idea. He however, apparently decided he had time to gloat.
“According to this game, Shadow counts as an element, and my version lets me lock your powers down, just like you were trying to do with your stupid attacks on my main body. Too bad for you, all my forms have separate cooldowns.”
Jon coughed again, a bit of blood spattering out of it as one of his hands, the good one, shook, lifting up before tapping me on the chest.
“Tu- Tu- tutor…ial… fo- fo- folder…” he wheezed out before collapsing back again, another cough.
“So is he the one you’ve been protecting? Oh this is delicious,” Hydramental sneered as I heard his footsteps walking up from behind me. “Let me–”
I turned on my heel and punched him as hard as I could right in his face. My powers still weren’t listening to me, though the length couldn’t be too long if he had to redo it as quickly as he had. But with Jon coughing behind me, his body clearly barely holding on from getting smashed around by both me and the debris, I didn’t have time to make this a fight.
Even though my powers were still quiet, my B.E.L.T. and HUD were both still fully engaged. I materialized a device in my hand and Hydramental let out a guffaw of a laugh.
“Haven’t you been paying attention? You can’t stop me with a Dead Zone if you can’t get all of–” he stopped as he looked off to the side. “You fuckers! How did you–” he was cut off again as I slammed a finger down onto the Dead Zone device, with its range set to cover the entire city.