Freakenstein and I were standing on Liberty Island.
“Duskbreaker said it’s gonna be almost 20 minutes, we need to be in position before that,” I said and Freakenstein nodded.
“Oh that’s plenty of time,” he said with a nod.
It took just a bit of work to get there, especially since Freakenstein didn’t have a way to fly unless we ran into another one of the flying droids. But, thanks to his ability to give armor to other people as long as he stayed connected to it, a trick he had used to trap me with the shifted earth back in the Bronx, he was able to create a stable way to hold on to me by creating a metallic band around my waste that didn’t require me to keep a steady grip on him as I flew us over.
While Clockwork Tyrant might have been letting repairs happen to the city in the wake of the initial siege, those efforts hadn’t quite extended over to the island, and Lady Liberty’s head was still laying firmly on its side in the middle of a pockmarked landscape.
“You know, I think we need a new rule. No more walking into obvious traps just to see what the trap does,” Jon said and I rolled my eyes.
“I told you… I don’t think it’s a trap. I saw his eyes. If Tyrant is able to control someone to that extent, then he wouldn’t be hiding in a Pangolin in the middle of the city bay, he’d be going out directly and making them submit.”
“I’m with Loopie on this one,” Freak said as he walked toward Lady Liberty’s head, holding his shoulder as he rotated his arm. “I like to think I’m pretty good at reading people, and that dude was basically shaking in his Hot Topic boots.”
“You guys are missing the point,” Jon groaned. “Duskbreaker said Tyrant was smart and might have realized that he had broken free. If that’s the case, don’t you think he’d have a plan for it? BrainCraft seems to think so.”
“What if he moves his base? We have to do this while we know where he is,” I shot back.
“That’s if he’s even in there! Duskbreaker told you he was only able to open a shadow portal into one spot in there because of how lit Tyrant kept it and there weren’t any windows.”
We had been having this particular argument pretty much from the moment we had split off from Duskbreaker. I dragged every last bit of information out of him that I could, wanting to go into this with as much of a heads up as I could.he had insisted that on the night of the siege, he had felt the building he was in moving. That alone didn’t prove anything, but the fact that he could still highlight the droid did.
This of course all rested on the fact that he wasn’t lying directly to us and it was a gamble, but one that I was determined to make.
“Look… Loophole… I can’t do anything if you get stuck. We got lucky that Freak is as good of a guy as he is, but that's not going to guarantee this plan of yours is going to do anything,” Jon said, his protests deflating.
“Well shucks, this really has been a hell of a good day for me,” Freak said with a laugh and I could almost hear Jon roll his eyes, opting to ignore Freak to plow ahead.
“We know he has access to the Dead Zones now. Sure, the fact that Swansong and Pinneedle on your Friend’s List aren’t marked as Unknown suggest he’s not using them there, but that doesn’t mean that he won’t have them. Even BrainCraft isn’t entirely sure if your idea is going to work. Yeah he was able to throw together an EMP since it’s not like he had to figure out how the technology worked from the ground up, but he also tested it on his own tech and it barely even blipped their functionality.”
“A blip is all I need,” I said, “Just do your part. Keep talking to Swan’s P.A.I. and let her know we are on the way, keep coordinating for us and we are going to get through this. Honestly, if we didn’t have you Codex, I don’t think this would be even remotely possible, so let’s just focus on the positives. Even thinking about Luck Bomb with this is giving me an 85% positive feeling… though I still wish I knew what that meant.”
“Yeah, I get why the system doesn’t provide a database of powers since that could be hacked so people could learn how other Augment’s powers worked, but at least give us a suite to explain what your own powers can do,” Jon complained.
“Guys, we’re burning daylight and the shadow man has a schedule,” Freak said, stopping only a foot away from Lady Liberty’s head. He clapped his hands together, rubbing them as he stared at it. “You know, given what we’re about to do, I like to think she’d approve of me doing this.”
He placed his hands against the head and a second later, there was a loud groan that emanated outward from it. The entire structure rippled as the aged green metal surged up and over Freakenstein’s hands. It wasn’t instantaneous, it took him at least a full minute to absorb every last bit of the statue’s decapitated head, but eventually he was coated in a thick layer of green. The metal never covered his face, but it did wrap up and over the back of his head, actually molding and forming until he wore a spiky looking band around his forehead that was similar to Lady Liberty’s crown.
“Yeah, that’ll do,” he said, moving his arms as the metal seemed to shift, sliding around his body as a large stockpile of it formed over his back almost like he was a turtle. He was sitting with every bit of five shield bars, the icon over his head showing an extra notch above the initial bar for each additional one on top of the first. “I’m gonna be a lot heavier now, that gonna be a problem for you?”
“Nope,” I said as I shook my head, “As long as you can make us an opening, I’ll manage.”
“No problem there, just get us over one of the spots he already launched one of them damn scales from.”
I jumped up and into the air, activating my flight and moving to float just a few feet over him. The more I used the ability the more it became almost second nature to use. I barely even had to consider what I was doing when increasing my speed or changing direction any more and as Freak jumped up, the green metal rushing up his arms to quickly create a band around my waist once more, I adjusted my angle to point us right toward the Pangolin partially submerged in the bay.
I didn’t put on the speed right away, wanting to try and get us as close as possible before it could react. I wasn’t sure what sort of defenses it had, though I knew from Grand Strike and Pinneedle’s attempt that it did have defenses. Almost on cue, as if the droid finally caught that we had started to get close, the Pangolin stood up, waves emanating outward as its body rumbled.
“Pinneedle has been removed from your Friend’s List.”
“Shit, I think something just happened to Pinneedle,” I said, my teeth grinding together as I upped my speed further. We were still at least a mile or two away from the droid and while I could move faster, even if the speed didn’t affect me, the same couldn’t be said for my passenger.
I might have been able to rewind, but without knowing how he died, where he was inside the Pangolin, or if we could even change anything, eating away at the limited resource was unfortunately not the way to do it. I held my breath, waiting to see if the same thing would happen to Swansong as I pulled open my Friend’s List and saw the exact thing I was afraid of. Her status was marked as Unknown.
“They’ve deployed a Dead Zone. Freak, hold on, I need to push us faster but we have to be careful on entry,” I said and without waiting for a response, feeling as another band of metal weaved its way around my body, I accelerated.
The Pangolin turned, three of its scales launching from its body with one on a direct course for us. I barely shifted us out of the way before the giant scale went hurtling under Freakenstein’s feet. I looked back just in time to see Lady Liberty get bisected, her torso getting flung off and into the water as the scale careened downward into the river from the impact.
“Either Duskbreaker turned on you, or Tyrant was ready for a new assault. If he has another Dead Zone, shouldn’t you be reconsidering though?” Jon asked before I heard him groan, his fingers racing across his keyboards. “Shit, two scales just hit in the city and…”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
There was a loud explosion that sent a shockwave through the air. I risked another look back and saw that a scale that had implanted itself into the ground at the southern tip of the Financial district was cleaved in half, small explosions following the shockwave along a clean line that split the scale diagonally. It was way too far away, but I was almost positive I saw an actual giant flock of birds flying around it.
“Now or never,” I said as I closed in on the Pangolin, dodging as another scale was launched with a scary amount of force as I flew up higher above where the creature’s neck should have been. Freakenstein let out a bark of a laugh.
“Well damn if I choose now," he called out. I focused hard on my Luck Bomb, focusing on the goal of saving Swansong and taking Tyrant down once and for all. That 85% feeling didn't change and I activated the ability just before Freak could make his move.
In less time than it took for him to put it into place, the metal band around my waist disappeared and he went plummeting downward toward the now bare strip on the Pangolin’s back where the scale had been. There was a small indentation that acted as the housing for the scale and it was clear that’s where he was aiming for. The metal that had collected around his back moved as he fell, turning into a sharp point underneath his feet as he picked up speed. Bits of metal were flung off from his shoulders every few feet, with each bit acting to propel him downward faster and faster until he hit his mark with a thunderous BOOM!
He jumped off of the spike as it drilled downward, “Now Loopie!”
I activated Earthbound Impact, following his lead as I aimed right for the top of the spike still sinking further into the Pangolin’s body. As I smashed into the spike, I heard the metal crunching and breaking away. Freakenstein never missed a beat, jumping back into the spike and absorbing it back onto his body to reveal we had indeed created a hole down and into a large open room with more than a few Clockwork Monkeys scurrying around.
“Time to make a mess!” Freak yelled out as he descended down into the room, reforming his metallic armor to increase the size of his fists.
“That dude is eager to a fault, but at least his powers are still on. The Zones must be isolated to the room they are deployed in… or let’s hope that’s how it works. Do not let a door close behind you again,” Jon said. I couldn’t help but agree and followed Freakenstein in, noting that Diamond Level Droid Forge flashed in my location panel.
I aimed for a grouping of the monkeys that were rushing toward one of a few different hallways branching off of the room, determined not to let them get away. While I was sure that there were probably cameras everywhere, it was a distinct possibility that Clockwork Tyrant had just been that conceited to believe no one would ever find their way into this specific part of his base. I hit the closest one with a combined Quantum EchoStrike and 25% Gravity Punch combo that blew through the small grouping.
I wasn’t entirely sure what the space was being used for. There were long cables hanging from the ceiling in tangled and unorganized runs that were probably making Jon cringe in frustration and the walls were all made of the same shiny silver steel as the rest of the Pangolin. There were no printers to be seen, though there were more than a few racks similar to those in the Silver Forge that spoke to the room possibly being used as storage.
My Stamina had already taken a bit of a beating and I was lingering just shy of 40%. I rushed the next closest group, activating Float Like A Butterfly as I bobbed and weaved through their arms as they tried to claw at me, landing blow after blow on each of them before I activated Center of The Universe and began to drag them all back toward me. I didn’t look back at them, rushing in a wide arc around the room and dodging through as many of the isolated droids as I could before moving in toward Freakenstein.
The man was a one man army. Or maybe calling him a walking tank would have been the better way to put it. His giant metallic fists both crushed and absorbed the closest of his enemies, simultaneously launching off bits of metal from his back as other droids attempted to flank him.
“Ready?” I asked and I could see him smile and nod.
“Make sure you get outta the way,” he responded.
I rushed right toward him, dragging the struggling monkeys behind me as I jumped up and into the air, taking flight with the last bit of my limited Stamina as he brought his arms together. In a single motion that made me dizzy just watching it, he began to spin like a top, throwing his arms out as metal scrap went flying outward like a gatling gun. It ripped and tore through the droid army, flattening them as his shield bar went plummeting downward.
As the last of the droids stopped moving, Freakenstein stumbling slightly as his spinning and the last of his armor fell away, I descended back to the ground and looked around. We both materialized Superior Stamina Syringes, recognizable by the slight change in design each level of the syringes had if you knew what you were looking for and injected them. It topped my bar off, though noticeably it only seemed to bring Freakenstein up to just over 50%.
We looked between the three obvious hallways we could see and I pointed over toward the one the monkeys had been trying to escape toward.
“They must have been going to alert someone that way… right?” I asked, though he just shrugged.
“Logically it makes sense, though it’s possible that was just to send us on a wild goose chase,” he said, walking forward toward the closest droids so that he could replenish his shield stockpile. Just as he began absorbing them, there was a loud klaxon of sound that began echoing from all around us.
“Sounds like they know we’re here.”
“Well we did make a hell of an entrance,” Freak laughed, kneeling down as he kept absorbing. “Should we split up and-”
“Have you seen horror movies Freak?” Jon cut him off and he laughed again.
“Point taken.”
“We stick together until Duskbreaker finishes. Speaking of, with that hole in the roof, this room isn’t going to work,” I said in agreement, looking between the paths. “Let’s take the one they were going to run down, if it’s wrong, I’ll see what I can do.”
Other than Jon, I had so far only revealed my Time Control power to Swansong and while I did trust Freakenstein, I didn’t quite want to let that particular bit of knowledge out just yet.
Once Freakenstein was back on his feet, we headed toward the hallway the monkeys had been running toward. It was a long, curved path that seemed to follow the form of the Pangolin. This place could have easily had multiple floors, and finding our way through the maze of the place was going to be the hardest part. I mentally pulled open my Friend’s List again as we ran, checking to see that Swansong’s name was still there.
It was and it was even lacking the Unknown status that it had when I had last checked. That was reassuring, though the sound of alarm made it only barely so. If Tyrant knew we were here, I had to assume he was going to try and use her as a hostage and that thought alone pushed me forward. Even if he thought he knew what I could do, I would just have to pull out all the stops to surprise him.
We burst through the door into another open room, this one filled with half a dozen Level 17 Clockwork Gorillas that were at least double the size of the ones we had gotten used to seeing.
Freakenstein rushed forward to meet the first of the Gorillas that had already moved to attack us. As he did, several panels in the walls opened up and another half dozen gorilla’s appearedI looked around the room, trying to find any source of shadow but as Duskbreaker had told us, Tyrant kept the entire place almost obnoxiously bright. I focused on the pulsing energy of the lights that my local area touched, feeling the buzzing that kept them on even within their hidden compartments.
“New Ability! Pulse Beam. Look, even I can recognize this isn’t the time for random banter, so let’s get to what you made this ability for. Gather the contained energy of up to two dozen light-producing objects within your local area into a critical mass in the palm of your hand at a rate of 40 watts per second. After at least 5 seconds, you may throw any gathered energy forward in a blast that deals damage equal to 10 points per watt of power you gathered. This ability costs Stamina equal to 1 point per every watt of power you gathered and threw. This ability has a cooldown equal to 2 minutes plus an additional 1 second for each watt of power used.”
“That’ll do,” I muttered, dropping it in place of Launchpad since I didn’t think I’d be using it in this enclosed space and immediately activating it.
I could hear the sound of glass shattering around me as I raised a hand up into the air. Streams of light started pouring downward toward it, starting with the light sources nearest to me. Freakenstein was being surrounded, the various droids trying to overwhelm him with attacks that he kept dodging and parrying. The ball of light forming above my hand was starting to emanate a distinct feeling of heat and I lowered it toward my side, letting more and more of it build up with each passing second.
While the area around me was actually getting brighter, shadows were starting to become noticeable near the wall racks directly below the bulbs I had already stolen from.
After 10 seconds had passed and the sound of shattering glass stopped, I let out a deep breath and did something that the kid version of me probably only ever dreamed of doing. I fired an energy blast. My hand lunged forward, the beam of light shooting in a perfectly straight line as it burned a hole right through the head of a Gorilla that Freakenstein had only just knocked backwards.
“Did you just make a kamehameha?!”
“Not now, Codex!” I barked back, even though I knew I had a smile plastered on my face as darkness descended on my side of the room.
Freakenstein was still battling the droids closest to him and I rushed forward to join the fray, but not before the shadows around me began to pulse and ripple. There were at least two distinct circles rising from the ground that I did my best to ignore as I barreled forward, slamming my fist into the chest of the Gorilla with a hole in its head to deal the last bit of damage needed to put the droid down for the count.
“Behind you!” Jon called and as soon as I turned to face the gorilla that had been about to punch me right in the back of my head, a lasso came out of nowhere and grabbed the droid around the arm. Before I could trace it back to its source, a pink blur crashed into it, taking the gorilla’s legs out from underneath of it as Pinky came screeching to a stop.
The action of the room seemed to halt ever so briefly as she shot me a wide smile and I heard an amused laugh come from the shadowy portion of the room.
“Now this is my kinda party,” Silver Wrangler said, stepping out of the shadowy portal the rest of the way just before it descended into the ground. “Thanks for the invite.”
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