“Crime Alert Completed! It’s a… bird? Well maybe you had to team up with discount Sonic the Hedgehog over there, but you did it! You stopped the robots from blowing up and destroying the zoo… although I think the zookeepers might be upset that you guys let a bunch of their colorful birds fly off into the city. Oh well, I’m sure someone will fix that. Reward: Your Squad has received a Medium Reputation Boost. Each member of your team has received 2,500 credits. As the leader of your Squad, a B:Tier Squad Base loot box has been added to your B.E.L.T.”

  “Lucky Charm Feature Activated! Your B:Tier Squad Base loot box has been upgraded to an A:Tier Squad Base loot box!”

  “New Achievement! What’s Mine is Yours. A feature on your equipment meant to assist you has procced, upgrading an item that is designated for your entire Squad. Sure, you didn’t get to choose for this to happen, but who’s to say you wouldn’t have if you had been given the opportunity? You know what that kind of RNG should be rewarded with? More RNG! This is a Silver level achievement. Reward: You have received an F:Tier loot box.”

  “New Achievement! Skill Issue? Nah, Level Issue. You faced an unchained enemy more than 4 times higher than your level and even though you weren’t the Augment to defeat it, you were vital in creating the opportunity to take it down. This is a Platinum level achievement. Reward: You have received an A+:Tier Loot Box and a personal Medium Reputation Boost.”

  “Phase Points Gained! Team Victory: Complete an objective while a part of a team. This gain has a static value. Total Value: 150 points. Squad Raider (NEW!): Complete an objective while in a Squad Raid Group. This gain has a static value. Total Value: 250 points. Crowdpleaser: Complete an Encounter with an Audience of Sapient NPCs. 10 points per NPC. Total Value: 470 points. Rising Fame (x2): Your reputation has risen in rank! This gain has a static value. Total Value: 500 points.”

  “Reputation Increased! You have gone from Local Hero to District Defender. You are now eligible to claim Extra-Large Town and equivalent territories.”

  “Squad Reputation Increased! Your squad has gone from Rag-Tag Crew to Street-Level Squad. Your squad is now eligible to claim Small Town and equivalent territories. This size has been equalized and is increased to Large Town and equivalent sized territories due to your Personal Reputation.”

  “Earthbound Impact. This ability has increased to Level 2. Your speed now increases at a rate of 1.5 mph per foot dropped up to a maximum of 200 mph. Maximum possible damage from impact has increased from 1500 to 2000 points. This ability has not been augmented.”

  “Center of the Universe. This ability has increased to Level 3. Initial pull rate increased to 7 meters per second with the strength diminishing by .75 meters per second for every 5 feet from the center of your local area the affected targets are and can be increased to a maximum pull of 70 meters per second. This ability has been augmented 1 of 3 times. Current Augmentations: Burst Mode.”

  “Sheesh bud, you’ve been staring off into space for a hot minute, you all good?” Pinneedle’s voice broke through as I finally waved away the last of the large stack of notifications that came pouring in following his destruction of the large pterodactyl.

  We were inside of the zoo, with the Central Park police having created a barricade to prevent any civilians from coming in. In the brief moment that I had moved to bring down the Clockwork Pterodactyl, at least a dozen of the Clockwork Falcons had managed to dive in and detonate, creating wanton destruction and compromising many of the zoo’s exhibits. It was easily going to take weeks before the Zoo would be able to reopen but beyond the escaped birds, as far as we could tell, no other animals had managed to get out or get hurt.

  “Yeah, I just had to clear out some stuff,” I said before turning my attention back to our internal chat. We probably were safe to communicate out in the open right now as long as we weren’t yelling at each other, but it wasn’t exactly a risk I wanted to take either. “I’m surprised we didn’t level up off of that… I took down something much higher than me a few days ago and I got boosted up a few levels.”

  “Sheesh you did? Musta been some lucky as hell circumstances,” Pinneedle said with a shake of his head as he stared at me.

  “Yeah… something like that,” I said with a shrug. Trusting Swansong, Pinky, and BrainCraft was one thing, but I didn’t think it was a good idea to just outright reveal everything that had gone down with SnakeBite anytime it came up and I tried to redirect the conversation back to the topic at hand. “What’s the difference between me lucking out with that and this?”

  “Heh… It’s easy to forget how fresh you guys are with how quickly you jumped into action there. Sorry bud, it’s the Raid Squad effect,” Pinneedle explained as we wandered away from the police barricade. “You still should have gotten some experience, but it’s going to be a fraction of what you’d probably hoped for. I think it’s maybe equivalent to getting experience from an elite level mob at your level. I really don’t know for sure, you’d have to ask someone a whole lot smarter than me how the breakdown actually works, especially once you have multiple squads working together, but the popular theory is that Axio just doesn’t want us powerleveling you, though that begs the question as to why he’s powerleveling your wave.”

  “Well that’s dumb, I mean I sorta get it, but it’s still dumb,” Jon groaned and Pinneedle looked around again.

  “Okay what the hell is that? I’d ask if there’s a third member to your squad but I can only see the two of you in the raid group,” he said.

  “He’s uh,” I said, considering all the options I could choose before settling on going with the same story I had told Swansong. At the end of the day, since most people really didn’t know how the game worked, the simplest, most truth-adjacent answer was the best one to give. I had gotten a box that gave him access, the why of it really didn’t matter. Jon and I were going to have to have a talk about the fact that others could just automatically hear him since he was fully patched into the squad now, but if that were the case, it was just better to have an answer prepared, even if it did end up raising questions. “He’s a friend. I got an S+ box pretty early on that turned my roommate into a sort of second P.A.I. I had to take a gamble on if he’d even put it on since I couldn’t tell him about the game until he had it equipped but he didn’t even think twice. So hey, here we are.”

  “Well shit, that’s pretty cool. It must be nice to have that sort of second eyes on things all the time. I mean, if he didn’t want to have actual superpowers that is,” Pinneedle replied with a nod.

  I was still bracing for at least some sort of follow up question, but Pinneedle barely even seemed phased by the revelation, just as he had barely been phased by my casual mention of taking down something that was a way higher level than I was. Maybe I should have been glad that no one really cared to dig deeper, but the way Axio had gone about everything that had led up to giving me the box left me feeling an odd sensation in my gut. I tried not to let it bother me too much given that it was entirely possible that it was just the Acceptance Matrix at work.

  “Oh I’m still holding out hope on the actual superpowers, but this is a good start, I like to be able to manage things from this end,” Jon said with a laugh that stopped me from spiraling into a series of random what ifs.

  “Ummm… so Pinneedle… would you really have been unable to do anything to them if Loophole hadn’t knocked the big one out of the sky?” Swansong asked tentatively, landing on the pavement next to me as she looked at the older Guardian curiously. Whether she was just already aware of how easily Jon could get off topic or if she had just wanted to know more, I was glad she had spoken up. “Had we not been here, would it have just blown the zoo up?”

  “Eh, I’d have thought of something, but it probably would have been a lot messier, not to mention those Falcons would have equalized out to my level instead of yours which would have made it a whole hell of a lot harder. Flyers have always been a bit of a weak spot for me. It’s probably why the Falcons stayed up higher in the air the moment I showed up since they were much lower that I was. Their tactics changed to try and stop me from wiping through them like they were a ratty old sweater,” He said with a shrug before I caught his eyes glossing over behind the clear panel on his full face mask that showed his eyes. “These Droids R’ Us assholes have been trying to take control of the city for days, we really appreciate the help you guys have been giving us. Grand Strike, Miss Mist and I can’t be everywhere at once.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Miss Mist is in the City!?” Jon chirped, his voice raising almost an entire octave. “I thought she worked and lived in Vancouver? Wait… IS SHE IN THE CHAT RIGHT NOW!?”

  “Sheesh, he never gets that excited when I speak up,” Angie muttered and I stifled a laugh.

  “Sorry bud, Raid Group voice chats have a limited range and she’s kinda in the middle of a job. We’ve been hunting down the Droids’ base here without any luck up until she got here. Thanks to her, I think we finally have a lead,” he explained.

  “Hmmm, she is an infiltration specialist, I guess it makes sense you guys wouldn’t be having her show up on the news if you didn’t want anyone to know she was in the city…” Jon murmured and I could practically hear the gears turning in his head. “Let me guess, you guys have let a couple of the drones get away or ignored them long enough that you could have her track them and try to slip in through the ventilation systems with her cloud form?”

  “And now I think I get why Loophole called you Codex,” Pinneedle said as he looked into the exhibit for, amusingly enough, a porcupine. “You some kind of Augment nerd?”

  “He’s the king of Augment nerds,” I said, following him over. Unlike some of the exhibits, this one seemed mostly unscathed and the large porcupine wandered from one end of the enclosure to another without even giving us a second thought.

  “I think there are some people on the forums that might argue with you on that topic, though I guess they don’t know just how tapped into all of it I am now,” Jon said. “And I’m the one that picked the name Codex, thank you very much. I might not get to be out in the field, but I at least get a codename of my own.”

  “Hey, fair enough. It’s definitely a fitting enough name given the context,” Pinneedle said before his eyes glossed over again. Although I knew that was just what happened when an Augment was working with his interface, he didn’t let it distract him. “Just a heads up though, past that lucky as hell item Loophole got, I wouldn’t go risking revealing any of what you know or more specifically how you know it by the way. I used to know a dude who tried to leak the existence of the game, the Critical Threat that got deployed practically turned New Orleans into Atlantis.”

  “You know, I followed when that actually happened. People had been trying to blame uh… Rebound Artist? I think that’s what his name was… Dude never reappeared after the levees broke,” Jon replied and Pinneedle nodded.

  “Which is why I say don’t risk it,” he said, the glaze leaving his eyes just before he stepped away from the porcupine exhibit. He turned and began walking back toward the main section of the zoo.

  “While it does suck not getting to help build the Augment databases for the fan forums any more, I don’t need clout on the internet… Well… I don’t need clout on the internet that much,” Jon said, quickly correcting himself when he realized that I probably would have if he hadn’t.

  “Good,” Pinneedle said as we passed under one of the arches that separated the sections of the zoo. “Cause that kind of collateral damage would hurt the whole city.”

  “Um… Not to necessarily interrupt… but you said a squad called Droids R’ Us are the ones deploying these drones, right? What the heck are they after?” Swansong asked. She hadn’t started floating again, instead walking alongside next to me as we followed Pinneedle.

  “Axio’s been stirring the pot ever since your wave started. While I’ve only heard the spiel he gives to the Guardians in my wave, I do have a few Miscreant friends that told me he’s been offering multiple S+:Tier boxes for taking regions the size of Large Metropolitan regions,” Pinneedle explained, looking over his shoulder at us. “As far as we’ve been able to figure out so far, the drones are all just coming from the leader of the Squad, Clockwork Tyrant. Miss Mist has been able to confirm tech from at least one other Augment, we just haven’t been able to figure out who the hell they are since they’ve been working almost entirely behind the scenes. They aren’t the first set of Miscreants to try and take over the city, though I’ll admit they seem to be much more entrenched than any of the others we’ve run into since The First vanished.”

  “Yeah, not that I don’t think you guys are able to handle it or anything… but why exactly did The First’s team just up and abandon the city when he vanished?” I asked.

  It had been something that had bothered me for a while and I hadn’t quite been able to put my finger on it until recently. The statues in Sanctuary Square of the highest scoring Guardians, other than TechWarden, had all been members of The First’s Squad, The Paragons of Justice, so I knew that even if they weren’t necessarily as strong as The First was, they still had to at least be somewhat powerful. Hell, I even had a rather distinct memory of seeing Calypso outside of The Common Ground that confirmed that they hadn’t gone missing right alongside him.

  “The First and his team had a lot of territory. Like, they had regions pretty much all over the world and not all of his team was from the states. Last I heard Mandragos was back in France and Brightburst headed back to Tokyo. The First might have been the literal nicest dude in the world, but he was also a beast and really did a lot of the work to hold most of their territories here in the states. Without him they just don’t have the same reach and reputation,” Pinneedle said and he seemed to stare off into the distance. “He actually taught me a few things in my first year and really put me on the right path. I actually sorta started off as a Miscreant until he talked me out of robbing a bank. If I can protect one of his old territories, I think that’s a good way to pay back the advice and help he gave me over half a decade later…”

  “Yeah, I think so,” Swansong said, a soft smile spreading over her face that snapped Pinneedle out of whatever daydream he had slipped into.

  “Okay, well I’m getting pinged by some other incoming threats, so since I’m sure you guys are going to want to get some actual experience, I’m gonna roll out before all the mobs equalize to my level instead of yours. There’s more than enough experience to go around for all of us,” Pinneedle said, turning and holding out a hand to me. “Thanks again for the assist. That really was some quick as hell thinking on your part.”

  “New Friend Request: Pinneedle. Accept: Yes/No.”

  “If you do need a hand, give me a holler,” Pinneedle said after I accepted the request and shook his hand. At the same time our Squad Raid Group was disbanded. “Things are getting crazier around here, hell that much is obvious with how quickly you all are leveling, this whole Raid Group aside. I swear, I think it took us three months before anyone in my wave hit level 10, let alone being on the cusp of level 15.”

  “Yeah, any chance you can tell us anything about what exactly to expect with those Hidden Powers we will unlock? Are they basically just a whole new piece to our powers?” I asked. Although Angie had said that others would be suppressed if I asked about the mysterious level 15 unlock, she also had lied to me before and I felt like it would be foolish to not at least try. Unfortunately Pinneedle shook his head.

  “Sorry bud, the most I can say is to not expect any fundamental change to your abilities, just a good trump card. For some people it finally helps them understand exactly why their powerset is named how it is,” he explained before his hands raised up over his head. He leaned into a stretch and twisted his body, causing several rather loud cracks and pops to emanate from his body.

  “See, I told you other people wouldn’t tell you anything,” Angie said smugly.

  “That’s not nothing though, even if it is painfully unspecific, it’s something to go on,” I shot back at her. Although it didn’t explain why the power had to be hidden for so long, his description was actually helpful and I didn’t even need to check with him to know that Jon was probably already trying to use that meager description to figure out what my Hidden Power would be.

  Pinneedle held up a hand to us as he took a few steps towards one of the side entrances to the zoo. Not every one of the entrances had as large of a crowd as the front entrance had garnered from Swansong’s evacuation of the zoo, and it was clear he was heading toward a small exit empty of all but a single police barricade. “Anyway, there’s no telling just how many more of these drones Tyrant is gonna be sending out, his squad seems to just be going for overwhelming numbers to try and take the town, so as long as we all work together and take out the drones we can, I think we can handle it. Stay safe out there.”

  Before any of us could respond, he started to move forward, jumping after his third step as his body pulled into a tight ball and he rather quickly rolled away. Angie had called him a discount Sonic and it was painfully hard to argue with her. He wasn’t exactly moving at super speed, but it was far, far faster than just running could ever be, and the fact that his outer body was covered in long spikes that actually seemed to be what was holding him up as he rolled, I doubted anyone would want to be standing in his way while he was trying to get somewhere.

  He zipped around the barricade that had been in his way without even grazing it and was out of sight before we could even count to five.

  “Huh… I feel like that can’t be a comfortable way to travel…” Swansong said, crossing her arms over her chest as she watched him go and I couldn’t help but laugh.

  “Well I guess they can’t give every Augment the ability to fly,” I said with a shrug before I started to lift off from the ground. “Though I wouldn’t trade it to roll around on the streets of New York of all places. This place is filthy.”

  “Agreed,” Swansong said as she moved to follow me into the air. “So, do we want to head back to the base and open-”

  “Crime Alert! Revenge of the Gorillas! A small group of robotic gorillas has been seen near Belvedere Castle! Stop them before they can lay siege like it’s Medieval Times! Reward: Your Squad will receive a B:Tier Squad Base loot box and you will receive a C:Tier loot box.”

  “Guess we'll just have to have an opening party later, we got work to do,” I said, and then without waiting for confirmation since I knew Swansong would follow me, I took off for the castle.

  Happy Friday! If you're enjoying the story, don't forget to leave a Rate, Review, or Comment!

  In case you read the chapter before I added it to the Author's Note, there is an updated Stat table along with a list of Nate's Equipment provided in the Author's Note of Wednesday's chapter.

  Come on over to my Discord to talk about the story, see advanced news, and just talk nonsense!