“I have to… I need to… I…”

  Christopher’s eyes were wide, his jaw slack, and he was altogether flabbergasted as he listened to the female echoing over all of the televisions. That coupled with the flashing warnings that every single other person in the Common Ground saw had Christopher worried about… well… pretty much everything. And he really wasn’t alone in that feeling either, made evident by the rumble of chatter moving throughout the room.

  “Look at those civies, they can hear that lady’s voice.”

  “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Okay seriously though why are all the TVs following whoever this orange dude is? Did he cause this somehow? Is that even possible?”

  “Should… should we be doing something if the Array Nodes are falling? It… Is it just isolated to New York?”

  It was that last question asked by someone standing relatively close to Christopher and Calypso that seemed to send murmurs like a wave across the Augments watching and with only a moment’s hesitation, more than half of the room suddenly went rushing for the exits.

  “I… I need to get somewhere that’s not here… If the world can hear her… shit… I… I think I can’t stay silent any more…” Christopher finally said, his eyes meeting with Calypso’s. “Although… I guess that only matters if Loophole is able to do something to fix this mess.”

  “God damn that lady knows how to put on a light show,” Freak admired, laying on his back and letting me drag him along as we went hurtling away from the Clockwork Cockatrice, which for some reason was named Chucky. Even if I didn’t look back at it, the light from the surge of electricity taking advantage of the conductive metal of Chucky was shining on every window on the streets below us. “Can we keep her? I bet she’d make a great frontliner in all these fights you keep getting us into.”

  “She’s… she’s not a stray cat, I don’t think we can just ‘keep her’,” Duskbreaker said, holding his arms as he kept his eyes firmly out toward the horizon.

  “You two do know I can still hear you, oui?”

  “Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Our boys are like, a rambunctious bunch,” Pinky giggled.

  “Huh? Why would I get used to it? I am going to defeat Loophole after we are finished here and move on to my next challenge.”

  “Oh honey, you’re gonna need to get in line… and maybe come up with a different goal,” Pinky said with another laugh and I rolled my eyes.

  “For as much as Loophole is trying to convince me that this is all “real,” you are treating this very much like a game,” Tempest shot back, causing Pinky to let out another round of laughter.

  “Really? You believe this is all a game? Have you just not talked to like, anyone other than Loophole so far?”

  “Guys, focus, we need to work on fixing this mess,” I ordered before turning my attention up to wherever my former P.A.I. now was. “Hey Angie, I appreciate hooking us up with the expanded comms, but think you can maybe let us switch to isolated unless we need it? Kinda like how I could always direct it at either Codex or the group as a whole?”

  “On it Loophole, sorry that should have been obvious duh,” Angie said. The chatter between the others disappeared as she hummed to herself briefly before adding, “Okay, that should be fixed now, also, I had some time while Brain started to poke at the Array controls and did some estimates, you’ve got about fifteen minutes at the very most until that core overloads and it’s roughly twice the size of Perry’s old one. I’m placing a beacon on where it’s hiding… now.”

  A golden spotlight pierced up from the middle of the bay and up toward one of the falling Array Nodes. It must have been at least… okay I wasn’t sure how far it was, especially not at this distance but it had to be at least a few thousand feet lower than it had started. I forced my attention away from the node before I started to ramp my speed up to something that might have been dangerous if I didn’t purposefully aim us up and over the tallest of the buildings. With only fifteen minutes to work with, I had no interest in playing it safe… though if we didn’t solve it in the next six and a half minutes, I would at least be outside of the risk of ticking up the last two beats on my Temporal Sickness.

  “So what… we just bust in there, Duskbreaker starts absorbing and then you launch me out into the ocean again? Wait, we don’t have Silver with us to toss me out there this time,” Freak murmured, rubbing at his chin.

  “Yeah I’ve been thinking… the last core was basically at the capacity of my energy storage and even with the levels I’ve gained… that storage hasn’t exactly grown…” Duskbreaker explained. “If I could let off the energy in smaller bursts then maybe…”

  “We’ll figure it out,” I said, bringing us down and onto the ground near the decapitated Statue of Liberty. We looked out at the bright beacon piercing out of the water. “First things first, how the hell are we getting down in there… Dusk, could you open a portal down into that room? You know what it looks like, right?”

  “I do but… Um… so I’ve only ever opened a portal into and out of it when it was standing specifically where Clockwork Tyrant had it blocking the bay…”

  “Wait, is that why you never suggested trying it after they ran off with Perry?” Freak asked and I couldn’t help but look over at Duskbreaker at the same time, causing him to squirm in place.

  “I… I mean… It’s just… I… It's not like I teleport people directly. We step through the shadow realm I connect to and different places take different times… I guess I just thought if I tried to open a portal where I thought the rooms were… it wouldn’t work because there wouldn’t be shadows there.”

  “Okay, I guess that makes a bit of sense,” Freak nodded.

  “But… we know where it is now,” I said, pointing over toward the beacon. “Sure, maybe it’s down… uh… Hey Angie, any chance you can tell us how deep that thing is? Or how a droid that big is even hiding underwater? Isn’t the bay only like… fifty feet deep at its deepest?”

  “Sure is! But that pangolin seems to have the ability to contort and move its body around so that it can mostly just lay flat,” Angie explained. “Short answer, I can’t quite give you exacts on where the room itself is, but I can tell you that Perry is basically laying on its stomach partially in the ground with the upper parts of it about thirty feet below the surface.”

  “Well,” I said, looking over at Duskbreaker. “Think you can work with estimates about where it all is? If it doesn’t work that’s fine just… it’s the best place to start without me having to figure out how to create a pressure bubble on the fly.”

  “I… Yeah… I think I can try,” he said, swallowing hard before his hands raised and the shadows on the ground around us all started to pull in and pulsate together before they pooled up and started to turn into a round, pitch black portal coming up and out of the ground.

  It took all of thirty seconds before the dark circle fully emerged and I looked around at the others, getting a quick nod from all of them, albeit Duskbreaker’s was a bit hesitant. Without waiting for another word, I stepped through the portal and into the darkness first.

  Traveling through Duskbreaker’s portals was always a weird feeling. You didn’t exactly walk when you were in the pitch black realm but at the same time you could feel yourself moving like you were on one of those conveyor walkways at the airport. It also wasn’t even like I was blind while I was in it, because the moment the others stepped through, they were all crowded onto the invisible platform around me, waiting as we got pushed through the area slowly but steadily.

  While the silence was maybe a bit uncomfortable, there was an electric energy bouncing between the four of us that was palpable. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was excitement, maybe it was Duskbreaker clearly bouncing back and forth like he really had to pee and was just holding it in. Regardless, I was just happy we were only getting portaled a short distance away. Having been inside of the shadow realm for over twenty minutes while getting transported over to California, I knew time felt like it slowed even further when you couldn’t see more than the person right next to you.

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  When a light finally broke through the darkness, opening from the center in a tight spiral that pulled open a bright white wall of nothing, I stepped through it, opting to go first just in case. It didn’t seem likely that Mr. Factory would be expecting an assault given the fact that, unless even Angie was lying to us, he was dealing with a possible meltdown scenario that he couldn’t have been planning for… Well… not one he could have been planning for while he was inside of the thing in the first place.

  “Clear,” I said internally as I looked around the rather barren room that I had entered and the rest of them appeared one after the other. “This place look familiar at all Dusk?”

  “Um.. not entirely,” he said and scratched his head. He looked up toward the overhead, the sound of creaking coming from somewhere nearby. “Though I didn’t exactly get a tour of the place either… I tried to put us near the main command room though… so we should be close.”

  “Well as long as they didn’t already repair all the claw marks, if we can find those we can follow them right down to the generator room… or whatever they called that place, I really didn’t look for signage last time,” I said, nodding toward the only door in the room. “And since we’re on the clock, we should probably get to moving instead of admiring the… er… lack of decor.”

  “Why is it that you waited until after I was out of your head to start acting logically? I mean come on, you’re giving Peter the impression that you’re actually competent!” Angie groaned as I moved up and through the empty hallway, lights shining bright throughout it.

  “Hey don’t put words in my mouth. I said, he was less of a mess than Hydramental kept trying to make him out to be,” Peter shot back and I let out a long sigh, stopping in my tracks long enough that Freak actually bumped into me.

  “Whoa bud, why’d yah stop? We under attack or did you have to rewind something?”

  “No… no… just… questioning my life choices…”

  “Way too late for that Poophole,” Angie giggled and I let out a groan as Freak guffawed.

  “Heh, hey why’d I never think of that for–”

  “Okay moving on!” I cut Freak off and started forward again, starting to jog as I followed the long curved hallway. Luckily, things were on our side, or my Luck Bomb was…

  I had to stop myself from stopping in my tracks again as I realized, in the panic and craze of everything, I hadn’t used the one skill I had purposefully left available for this exact situation. Though… even if I had used it, I couldn’t think of a way that things could have possibly gone better with just how prepared for chaos Hydramental had been. I was just about to start spiraling on it when I saw the telltale signs of claw marks.

  “There,” I said, slapping the wall as I passed by it. “Swan, be ready to start singing if things go to shit, is Total Resonance ready? Maybe the increased regeneration will help… I’m not too sure… Hey Angie, any chance Brain is free yet, maybe we should have brought him with us.”

  “Almost there, I think I’ve–”

  [Alert: Augmentation Array stability recovered! Failed nodes not yet at terminal velocity will begin reascent immediately. Total nodes at terminal velocity: 0]

  “Got it!” BrainCraft finished triumphantly. “That’ll show-”

  [Alert: Augmentation Array stability lost. Backup systems activating… Backup systems activating… Backup systems activating… Backup Systems Activated: 88.3% Success. WARNING: Failed nodes will begin descent immediately.]

  “Oh, come on! Who writes code to self correct back to a broken file! It’s completely illogical!” BrainCraft complained before he started cursing in a way that was very unlike him.

  “Okay so he might not be any help right now,” I muttered, turning down another hallway and rushing down a flight of stairs.

  After only one more turn and a final flight of stairs, we finally reached our destination and I barrelled through the door, fists up and ready just in case. As I came skidding to a halt though, I was instead met not with a wave of droids ready to defend the place, or a core shaking and rattling as if it were about to explode– though, the one sitting in the cradle on the far side of the room was starting to shine bright enough that looking at it hurt the eyes just a bit.

  Instead, seated in a rotating desk chair, facing directly toward the bright light sat a lone man in overalls. One of his hands sported a thick looking glove and there was a welding mask that sat atop one of his knees as he swiveled the chair back and forth. His other hand, free from the glove, held a cigarette up to his lips as the man took a long, slow draw from it.

  “Did you kill him?” the man asked, the smoke coming out in a large, opaque cloud that wafted up to the overhead. There were very few people this man could be and with a quick scan, my vision confirmed that he was in fact Mr. Factory.

  “No. I didn’t, though it probably won’t ever stop Hydramental from wanting me dead,” I said, looking over at Dusk and then pointing toward the core. “Go see if you can gauge the energy levels and if it matches up with how much you can draw. We just need enough to stop it from overloading… if that’s even possible… see if Brain has a minute to at least talk it through with you to see if that’s at least a viable option.”

  “I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” Mr. Factory warned, lifting the cigarette back up and taking another draw. The man looked… tired, with deep bags under both eyes and his salt and pepper goatee unkempt. “I already tried to shut it down… got a warning that it would immediately blow if tampered with.”

  “Dusk… confirm if you get that warning... We need to make sure just in case,” I ordered. Duskbreaker swallowed hard before quickly scooting past me. Mr. Factory let out a sigh and just shook his head.

  “I didn’t mean Hydramental… Axio… did you kill him?” he asked as he let out a long puff of air.

  “That’s…” I started to say before stopping myself. “Why does it matter?”

  “Because if you did I might just have to say thanks… or at least apologize for egging Hydramental on with his vendetta against you.”

  “The warning’s there…” Duskbreaker announced and I grit my teeth together in frustration.

  “Ugh, where the hell are all the droids, I was expecting some big final battle damnit,” Freak complained as he walked away from me to investigate the core.

  “Sorry to disappoint,” Mr. Factory said with a shrug, slowly lifting his cigarette back up to his lips once again, the thing quickly getting burned through. “I’m not much of a fighter in case that wasn’t obvious… Honestly though… if it’s just this place that blows up… maybe it’ll be wor-”

  Mr. Factory stopped midsentence as I stepped forward and smacked him, the cigarette flying from his lips as I stared down at him, a sudden fury rising in me as I immediately guessed where he was going.

  “I’m not letting this place explode. Enough people have fucking died today. There has to be a way to fix this,” I said, my tone cutting through the air like a knife. Everything seemed to hold for a minute before Mr. Factory slowly reached into a pocket on his overalls and extracted a pack of cigarettes.

  “I can see why Christopher picked you. You’re just as stupidly optimistic as he is. What about this situation makes you think we can win? Even if Hydramental had succeeded in killing you, I clearly wouldn’t have been any closer to my vengeance. Axio probably would have blown me up anyway. At least this way I can know I went out with him dead too.”

  “Well stop fucking thinking that way because I didn’t kill him,” I spat, Causing Mr. Factory to stop before he could light his new cigarette.

  “You… what? You didn’t? What the fuck are you waiting for? Don’t you have the code or access or whatever the fuck Christopher had that let him make changes and alterations to this fucking thing?” Mr. Factory asked, jumping from his chair fast enough that the welding mask went tumbling across the floor.

  “You know about the Admin Key?” I asked, a bit surprised and Mr. Factory shook his head in disgust

  “That’s what he called it? What a dumb fucking name… I mean, I didn’t know for sure but I always had this nagging hunch that he was able to do things past just implementing game functions, you just confirmed it for me. So? Why aren’t you using it to fix all of this?”

  “Yeah, I’ve kinda been wondering that too, if you did all the weird shit that’s started all this failsafe nonsense, shouldn’t you be able to make another change?” Freak asked, tilting his head to the side.

  “Er… That’s cause I… uh… well I don’t have the key anymore… Axio kinda moved it the moment he knew where it was so I couldn’t hide it from him again… and since I assumed he put it onto his file system… I assume it’s probably with him right now…” I said with a slightly nervous laugh.

  “Wait… so why isn’t he… Loophole… what did you do?” Swansong asked, stepping toward me cautiously. Almost on cue, the core started to hum louder.

  “Look, maybe we could focus on that after we stop this place from blowing up?” I said, trying to deflect. Maybe I should have just deleted Axio, it might have been easier… but I also didn’t know how to move my P.A.I. into his place without replacing the one I had either since my system seemed to need one to function. When all was said and done, the script was just easier if I shuffled everyone around instead of trying a delete and replace. The fact that it also meant the Administration Key got lost... well that wasn't something I had considered...

  “Loophole…” Swansong said slowly.

  [Alert: Augmentation Array stability recovered! Failed nodes not yet at terminal velocity will begin reascent immediately. Total nodes at terminal velocity: 1]

  “So uh… I think I have it fixed… but the node that I couldn’t save… well it might just be the one falling right toward you guys…” BrainCraft reported and I let out a groan.

  “I really should have used my Luck Bomb…” I muttered, reaching up and pinching the bridge of my nose before looking at the others.

  “A big bomb followed by a massive, asteroid-like impact… yeah that’s not going to end well…” Freak said, his brow furrowing before he looked over at me. “Wait… how much of that thing is made out of metal do yah think?”

  “That’s… I’m not sure… Mr. Factory?” I said, looking over at the man as he finally lit his cigarette.

  “About 95% of it. There’s some plastic in there but not a whole lot. The designs Axio gave me mostly used iron, gold, and copper,” he said, taking a draw before raising an eyebrow. “You guys seriously think you can stop this shit?”

  “Maybe,” I said with a shrug, noticing a large, wicked smile crossing over Freak’s face as the starts of a plan formed behind his eyes. “We can’t do this alone. No one can save everyone. But together… well… maybe we can save a hell of a lot of them.”

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