“There’s two more behind you,” Jon called out and I turned, going low just in time to dodge as a robotic figure went bounding over me.

  “Okay seriously, what is with all the different animals!?” I said into the newly formed internal chat feature. It had been among the small variety of new features we had unlocked when Swansong and I had registered our squad. While the chat function hadn’t been hard to use, being able to just talk internally was a welcome change, even if the feature did require us to be within the same neighborhood to use.

  We had each, somewhat predictably, received C:Tier loot boxes from a Bronze Level achievement called Alliance Forged the moment we formed our squad and along with the internal chat feature, we received the ability to turn tracking features for each other on and off and our Temporary Team-Up was dissolved, instead creating a new window within our interfaces. Many aspects of this new window were greyed out, including one that specifically had a banner that said “Purchase Squad Base to Unlock.” What it did confirm was that Swansong and I were now considered Squadmates, with the window specifically labeling our new squad as “Level 1.”

  As long as we were within range of each other, we would automatically be granted all of the features of the Team-Up, including shared missions, but the greatest boon was one that I wished I would have known about earlier. Hell, had I known about it I probably would have been the one actively looking for someone to start a squad with much earlier on. Being Squadmates granted an ongoing Camaraderie buff that was basically a game changer. The buff worked a bit like the Team Player buff I had on my undershirt, except on so many steroids it was basically proof that the system was designed to encourage you to create these permanent squads and I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that.

  “Camaraderie. Squad Buff. Current Squad Level: 1. Gain the following benefits as long as you are within 100 Yards of members of your squad: 5% Increased Ability Usage Experience, 5% Increased Health and Stamina Regeneration, 5% Increased Damage, and 5% Cooldown Reduction. These increases will grow as your squad levels up.”

  Practically the moment we walked through the portal wall we each received matching Crime Alerts, directing us back to Central Park. Although I hadn’t seen any bits of light or capsules rocketing through the air, it was hard to miss two dozen small metallic figures as they rampaged through the park, destroying a hot dog stand in the process.

  “I mean, they are-”

  “Do not say they are cool,” I said, interrupting Jon as I stared at the pack of robotic monkeys that were hanging from the nearby trees and starting to circle around me.

  “It’s robot animals, Loophole! I mean, come on!” Jon complained, almost sounding like he was a teenager again. “You guys are fighting monkeys and there’s footage of a robot kangaroo jumping on cars over in Brooklyn. A KANGAROO, LOOPHOLE!”

  “It’s probably a good thing you weren’t Augmented… isn’t it?” Swansong said, floating directly overhead of me about fifteen feet up. Given her flight wasn’t tied to her stamina, it made sense for her to keep herself up and out of the main fight as much as possible. As I stood there with my Area Sense activated, I could just barely feel her legs dragging through the edge of my local area, but I ignored them as I felt the crowd of mechanical beasts, trying to differentiate between them and get a solid count of how many there were.

  “You should have seen how he reacted when he found out kaijus might be a thing,” I muttered, watching the pack closely as they all seemed to hesitate. Unlike the spider or the gorillas, these robots were not slow and they moved with almost practiced grace, although they had been only level 10, meaning their increased numbers really weren’t that big of an advantage for them. “Doubling time,” I said and Swansong immediately began to sing.

  Several of the monkeys started to rush toward me and I activated Float Like A Butterfly, darting in toward the closest and dodging as it extended its long metal fingers in an attempt to grab me. Even with the ability activated, I wasn’t able to get fully out of the way of the attack and several sharp claws hit my arm and nicked away at only a few points of my health. I turned on my attacker and slammed a fist into its small metal head.

  “No shields,” I called out, watching as the monkey’s health bar dropped by about 10% just from my first hit. I quickly followed it up with a few more strikes before I had to dodge another wide leap by one of the other robots.

  The robot stayed with me as I dodged and as I found myself almost tripping over my own feet, I came to a screeching halt, planting my feet and throwing a 25% Gravity Punch. The monkey was thrown backwards hard by the abilities knockback effect and it hit several other charging enemies, knocking them over into a metallic heap.

  I hadn’t come into the initial fight nearly as hard as I normally would have as we had wanted to see, mostly out of curiosity once we had learned there were more robots running around, if Swansong’s new Song of the Peaceful Mind would have any effect on the Clockwork contraptions.

  Unsurprisingly it had no effect at all, but I still didn’t mind that I hadn’t quite come in like a wrecking ball as I had quickly grown accustomed to doing. Sure, I had proven it was a particularly effective attack, but it really only worked if all of my enemies were in one space and the monkeys had been relatively spread out over the park, at least until we had made our appearance. It did mean I was still sitting on a good chunk of my stamina, even after throwing that last Gravity Punch. All that said, being a wrecking ball was still one hell of a way to handle a big group of enemies and I had no problem leaning on a reliable combo when I knew it would do the trick.

  “Give me some airspace, I think I have a quick way to handle this,” I said as I kept moving. I mentally toggled Center of the Universe and ramped it to full strength as I dodged between robotic hands.

  I didn’t get through the barrage unscathed, taking small chunks of damage with each swipe but the attacks were so ineffectual that I had to wonder what the point of sending out such underpowered minions was in the first place. Sure, as Angie had explained Axio was definitely limiting their strength because of the rules of the system, but something about it left me with a feeling of uncomfortably familiar unease.

  By the time I had rushed my way through the clearing, several of the monkeys who had been jeering and cheering, as if they were actually monkeys for some reason, were being yanked directly from the trees. I had to actively turn and strike at the robots that got too close to me, but as soon as I was sure I had as many of them in my zone as possible, I activated Launchpad and went rocketing up and into the sky.

  “Hercules now!” I shouted as I reached the peak of my jump. The robotic monkeys on the ground below me had been stunned by my leap, a wonderful side effect that came along with Launchpad and then activated Earthbound Impact.

  The dust cloud that spread from my landing was impressive and it completely obscured my vision as I, perhaps a bit theatrically, waited for the dust to clear. A barrage of notifications filled my bar and I let Angie go through them while I began to dust myself off.

  “New Achievement! Multikill Special. This little bouncing move of yours is really gonna need a name cause you just love doing it don’t you? And why wouldn’t you? I mean look at the destruction just from that one two punch! Then again, the superhero landing is super cheesy but I won’t make fun of you for it too much right now. You deserve it, after all, you took down over 20 standard enemies with a single attack! This is a Gold level achievement. Reward: You have received an A:Tier loot box.”

  “Crime Alert Completed! Rise of the Cyber-Monkeys. You know, I’m starting to wonder if there needs to be a robot PETA with how indiscriminate you’ve been with these fellas, but who am I to complain if you’re getting results. Reward: You have received 5000 credits.”

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  Phase Points Gained! Team Victory: Well at this point I think you’re gonna be getting this gain a lot. Complete an objective while a part of a team. Total Value: 150 points. Crowdpleaser: Complete an Encounter with an Audience of Sapient NPCs. 10 points per NPC. Total Value: 540 points.”

  “Local Area Manipulation. This power has increased to Level 4. Your Local Area’s range is now an 18 foot radius.”

  “Super Luck. This power has increased to Level 3. Luck within your local area is now subtly affected by .3% for every 1 point of luck that you have.”

  “Launchpad. This ability has increased to Level 2. The cost of this ability has been reduced to 17.5% Stamina. This ability has not been augmented.”

  “Congratulations! You have reached Level 14, please return to your Safe House to assign stat points and additional attributes!”

  “Leveled up, how about you?” I asked internally.

  “Yup, I’m level 12 now,” Swansong said as she swooped down and landed next to me.

  We looked over the destruction that I had caused as the dust cloud fully dispersed. Angie hadn’t been exaggerating at the absolute mess that had been caused by the Song of Hercules amplified Earthbound Impact. I looked around, briefly raising a hand up toward a crowd on a hill just a bit into the distance. Although it was in the distance and obscured by the crowd, I was positive I could make out a news van as well.

  “Well, looks like we get to make our big debut,” I said aloud as I nodded over to the crowd. Swansong got back to her feet in a fluid motion as she turned her attention away from the debris and scrunched her nose.

  “That’s a bigger crowd than I was expecting…” She said before looking back over to me. “You are the squad leader, you’ll do the talking right?”

  “I’m only the leader because-” I started to say before I felt the smallest buzz infiltrate my local area.

  One of the things I had been slowly but surely mentally training myself to do was activate my Area Sense any time I had kept my feet planted for more than a few seconds. I had quickly grown accustomed to interpreting the minor bits of detail I received from being able to sense everything within my local area and while I was still learning to differentiate different sensations, the feeling of energy powering up was one that was surprisingly easy for me to feel.

  It was because of that sense that I felt as every last piece of debris in the field around us began to whir with energy. I moved without thinking, turning and putting my arms around Swansong and shooting us up and into the air as fast as my Personal Gravity Laws and my own strength would allow.

  Swansong looked shocked as I did it but she didn’t push away until after a rapid cascade of small explosions littered the ground below us. As the explosions went off, I let her go and she floated away as we watched and waited for them to stop. When they finally did, the ground surrounding the crater I had left was covered in pockmarks wherever a piece of the debris had lain.

  “New Achievement! Dodge! You dodged out of the way of a trap left behind by a fellow Augment just in time, avoiding the surprise damage that would have been inflicted! This is a Silver level achievement. Reward: You have received a B:Tier loot box.”

  We slowly lowered to the ground before Swansong shuffled away from me ever so slightly, hiding her face behind her hair.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong… but the robots from this morning didn’t have a self-destruct protocol in them… right?” Jon asked and I nodded.

  “Nope… they definitely didn’t… Are these the only ones that did that or are you seeing any reports from other sightings?” I asked, watching Swansong curiously as she lifted a hand up to her chest and placed it over her heart.

  “Give me a minute and I’ll see,” Jon said and I took a few steps over to Swansong, placing a hand on her shoulder as I watched her try to slow her rapid breathing.

  “You okay?” I asked, my voice low. It took a moment but she finally looked up at me and I could see a bit of flushness that covered her entire freckled face.

  “That… sorry my heart’s just racing… The uh… the matrix would have stopped this before right?” She asked, her voice equally low as I pulled my hand back.

  “Yeah, that was one of its features,” I confirmed, looking back over at the crowd that thankfully hadn’t come any closer. “You… I know I just got you to turn it off… but I mean if you needed to turn it back on, we could still work together I think…”

  Swansong shook her head furiously, “No… I’ll get used to this, I… I… I just got a bit rattled. I wasn’t expecting the… I wasn’t expecting the explosions.”

  She was still catching her breath and she turned her attention back to the ground as she kept a hand on her chest. She noticeably closed her eyes again as she seemed to try to fully concentrate on her breathing.

  “Okay it looks like the self-destruct feature has been seen elsewhere. There’s some footage of Grand Strike punching a Clockwork Lion up into the sky only for it to blow up in mid air,” Jon said.

  “But no reports of things like warehouses or disposal sites blowing up? Like the stuff we already took down that got cleaned up isn’t doing this at all?”

  “Checking,” Jon said as Swansong slowly straightened up, her eyes opening up as she lowered her hand to her side and she took in one more long, deep breath before turning her attention to me and staring with wide blue eyes.

  “Thank you,” she said simply.

  “For what?” I asked and a soft smile tugged at the corner of her lips.

  “For getting me away from the bombs,” she said and I just shrugged.

  “We’re a team… Isn’t the whole point of that to have someone watching your back? I’m not gonna let anything happen to you if I can help it.” I said, looking over toward the crowd that was just starting to creep closer toward us.

  “Well… thank you anyway, that’s very leaderly of you,” she said softly.

  “Anyway… As I was saying, I’m only the leader because you insisted on having me register the team,” I said. “Besides, there’s only two of us, we don’t need to have a "leader,” we can just be a team.”

  “Hey, I’m offended, I’m a part of the team too,” Jon snapped. “Who else is going to do the work to tell you that no, there haven’t been any reports of random warehouses blowing up. So I think this is a feature the dude must have implemented since this morning… must not like his stuff being seized.”

  “Huh… okay, thanks for checking on that… And yes, you are a part of the team too Codex,” I said and he let out a knowing laugh.

  “I’m just tech support, you can say it,” he said and I could hear the pride in his voice. “But I’m pretty damn good tech support.”

  “See, Codex works the back end, I’m the fight support, which would logically make you the leader. And the leader would be the one to talk to the media, which I really don’t want to do,” she said and I looked at her curiously until she blushed fiercely. “I don’t like public speaking…”

  I couldn’t help it as a laugh escaped me and she shot me a glare as I held up a hand in apology.

  “Sorry, just, your power is singing but you have stage fright?” I said, reaching up and wiping at one of my eyes as I regained my composure.

  “No, I don’t like public speaking specifically… put me on a stage and tell me to sing some Disney karaoke in front of a big crowd and I’ll be embarrassing myself before we get anything to drink,” she said somewhat sheepishly.

  “I get that… sorta at least,” Jon said appreciatively. “I’ve noticed that Loophole does have a tendency to get a bit quippy after fights. Not to mention he’s no stranger to making over the top speeches in front of crowds, he’s kinda got a weird knack for it. So yeah, it sorta makes sense to make him the frontman of the group.”

  “Fiiiiine, I’ll do the talking,” I groaned as we turned and started to walk away from the destroyed landscape. I felt a little bit bad for whichever company was going to have to come through and patch the area up, but I suppose that was job security for them too. As we walked, Swansong lifted from the ground again and started to float behind me as we approached the gathered crowd.

  Sure enough, there were more than a few cameras, both professional and phone, that had been raised to catch us as we approached.

  “Loophole! Where are these robots coming from?” A reporter called out.

  “How long have you and Swansong been working together?” Asked another.

  “Are you aware of other sightings around the city?” A third shouted.

  The rapid fire of questions was followed by shouts from the crowd, some for me but many for Swansong and I looked up at her, watching as she waved in a different direction whenever she heard her name. She noticed me looking up at her before she gave me a reassuring smile and nodded.

  “Hi, sorry, thank you for the questions,” I said, swallowing hard before I set my jaw. “Swansong and I have only just started working together but the threat of these mechanical creatures is one that worries us both. While I… er…. we are not sure where they are coming from, as they have been appearing around the city on a wide scale, we believe there is a dangerous Augment that is deploying them.”

  “A dangerous one? Like the villain Firefist?” one of the reporters shouted.

  “Yes, like Firefist, although this one relies more on sending out these mechanical drones to fight in his place,” I said with a nod as I waved up at Swansong floating behind me. “Swansong and I can’t be everywhere at once, but other heroes like Grand Strike and Pinneedle have largely been doing much more than either of us could hope to do right now. We are still new to this, but we believe the two of us together can do our part in keeping this city, and especially Central Park here, safe. I think we can all agree that the park here is one of the many treasures that our city has and it should be a place of peace for all that are looking for it. We have already been in contact with the Central Park Precinct, but you all deserve to know that if this place is put in danger, then Fortune’s Cadence will be here to protect it. You have our word.”

  “Phase Points Gained! Territory Claimed: Large Neighborhood: 750 points (Halved to 375 points, Reason: Split with Squad).”

  “See, I told you he has a knack for speeches.”

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  really good suggestions some of you supplied or messaged me directly for the group's squad name, but I hope you like the one that they ended up going with.

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