"Look," The male Duskkin- who introduced himself as Oliver four hours ago, - had an exasperated look as he stared me down while holding out a gun to me handle first, "You can't expect us to trust you when you say that you'll be fine going into a room full of armed, modified men and women." He flicked his wrist and the gun he was holding twitched, "You should at least try to carry some sort of weapon- and no, your throwing knives don't actually count."

I stared at the weapon in his hand, with it being Techie tech, I didn't recognize what it was and any semblance that the weapon had to the gun it was before getting modified by a techie is lost to all the upgrades and augmentations the man had put into it with his power. It was slim with a streamlined look, the material that it was made with gave it a black sheen that reflected the dim light around us. Several lines on the surface showed that the parts are separated and which one is which, I can especially tell that the handle and the body are separated yet the body and the muzzle were connected.

"Okay, so," I started, crossing my arms, "You want me to handle a gun that you made-" I paused, that sounded way too aggressive. I stared at Oliver's expression- and thank god it remained neutral - before continuing, "Sorry- what I mean is that, I don't know what the gun does."

"I don't think you need to?" The female Duskkin, Anissa chimed in. Just like everyone else, she looked the part and had clothes ready for our work; a Kevlar vest replaced her casual shirt while her shorts turned into padded black pants that ate up all the light. A black trench coat made of carbon chains went over her entire body.

Anissa raised two arms, which, despite them being nothing but cybernetics, got covered up by the sleeves of her trench coat. She grinned and pointed two hands covered by white gloves at me, "Bang, Bang," She mimed a finger gun and started shooting, "That's all you need to do, get me?"

"Yes?" How do I answer that? I shook my head, "my actual problem is that I don't know how to shoot-" I do. I'm pretty good at it in fact. "-Is that I don't know what the gun does." I said, emphasizing my point and gesturing to the weapon in front of me, which is still being held out by Oliver.

Oliver nodded, "Well, it's not like I wasn't gonna tell you," He said, holding it out again. I took it. "Good. So, you said you don't know what the gun does correct?" I nodded, "Flick the safety."

I did, "Okay? It moved."

"That's the magazine loading pressurized gas into the chamber." My eyes widened and I was tempted to return the gun to him right then and there. 'Did he just give me an actual bomb?' I narrowed my eyes through the mask and boosted myself without making it obvious, "You're probably worried about the whole gas thing right?" Damn right I am! "But don't worry, most of that is just oxygen,"

I nodded, "That... doesn't really inspire confidence."

"It doesn't, no," He admitted with a painful smile, "but I only do it because Oxygen's pretty reactive in large quantities while also being safe, you can light that thing up and it won't blow up, just burn." He explained, "And I won't really go into specifics but it also has a few safety features-"

"People are moving," Inga- the Tusk, - cut off Oliver's explanation. We both turned to the guy right next to her, the team's scout, Fred, who was currently sitting down with an enchanted magnifying glass on his hands, "We should start soon."

Oliver sucked in a deep breath and nodded, "Okay." His eyes steeled as he faced me, "We don't have time so here's what you need to know about the weapon, you flick the safety once, it shoots out regular bullets. You do it twice and it shoots bullets that explode on impact," I nodded. Because of the oxygen cartridge, I assume, "You flick the safety thrice and it shoots out superheated gas or- Plasma," I nodded again, "Flick it once again and the guns off, it can't fire for shit."

I nodded and held the gun close, "Got it. Once is regular bullets, two makes them explode, and three is plasma."

"You got the gist of it, great. Now get into position." Two pats went into my shoulder as he passed me to go and consult Fred.

"Or, in video game terms-" I stopped walking to the edge of the slope and faced Anissa, "-One is piercing, the other is blunt, and the last one is armor pen."

"You play video games?" I asked, cocking the gun. It clicked, the plates moved, and I got a glimpse of a bullet moving into the chamber.

"Yep! You don't? You look like you come from the upper parts."

I shook my head, "I wish. But I guess I did play once." If you can call dodging holographic attacks a video game.

"Cool, cool. So, you just go and distract them kay? I'll be back up when things go bad for you."

I smiled, "Thanks. I will."

"Oh, and one more thing," A holster heading straight for my face was the first thing I saw when I turned- I snatched it a foot away from my face, "Oh, good catch! You changin' already?" She asked, her accent changing Tuskish at the last moment.

I chuckled, "Sort of."

The conversation died and I was soon crouching at the start of the sloped street we decided to prepare on. Down at the bottom, directly in front of me is a warehouse that stood at 45 feet tall, the roof at the front is slanted, with several openings for ventilation- Oliver said that they're perfect for when someone wanted to infiltrate the place back when were were planning. Oh, and they're also bait. - going up by a little bit and following the slant, the roof becomes flat and according to what Fred said, there's also another opening up there, a single, large hole used for shipment drop off.

That place is also bait and going in there meant that you'd be in the perfect spot for the armed turrets to take a shot at you without casualties, The shipments needed to be protected, after all.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

With no available entrance for an inside attack, and with the warehouse being aware 24/7, we had no choice but to plan for a distraction and that is where I came in- With "my penchant" for showmanship as well as my potential to have a body as strong as Wave 8, I can easily soak up all the damage gun will throw and survive while the rest prepare for an actual, planned attack that'll bring the warehouse down- something that's pretty hard to do when the place is well guarded.

I watched the dozens of armed men and women walking back and forth in front of the warehouse, from time to time, electricity ran through the fence they were hiding behind while the closed gate had two guard towers armed with turrets on either side.

I sighed, "Fuck." Am I ready for this? Probably. 'This is what a Wave 8 is supposed to be doing.' I tried to console myself with no results, 'This sort of thing is normal for my tier of power.' I did it again, then something happened.

"Whatever, fuck it." I stood up and fixed my mask while throwing on my metaphorical one. I- am now a clown.

I snorted, 'So much for a fucking title huh?'

I coaxed the Theikos surrounding me and took them in, with a thought, I started absorbing the energy into my body and my power started to roll. I grinned when I felt my body loosen and got the buoyancy boost- which is my strongest power for the time being.

I started stretching, a roll of my shoulders there, a kick here- my joints popped one by one and I felt my tense muscles relax as my blood started to pump.

I looked back to the pensive look of Anissa, "Nothing like a warm up before running down and getting shot by a bunch of bullets, am I right?" I grinned and then sprinted down the slope.

Back when I bought those things for that kid, there is something I never tried when I got my buoyancy, and that's me stretching my legs while I moved. I raised my leg and extended them as far as I could, watching it stretch before me is weird, and watching my pants go along with it is even weirder. When I took a step forward, the world suddenly got smaller as my own legs elevated me up to the second story. I felt my other legs stretch and soon, I felt as if I was walking on stilts.

The belt of the holster went around my thighs and on top of my pants halfway through the walk, the warehouse was getting closer now, just two more buildings away and I'm done.

"Be careful, they've taken notice." Oliver's voice went straight to my ear.

I tapped the circular bud inserted in my ear- another Techie invention, - and asked a question, "What are they saying?"

"Really? That's what you're concerned about?" He asked back, voice in disbelief, "Not how many are there, what are they doing? Even the guns they have?"

"Hey, if you're assessing me, you should do it when I'm not a distraction." Did I feel bitter about my role? Not at all. I mean, I'm only gonna get gunned down as a part of it.

"Distraction or not, those things are important." He argued.

Anissa's voice entered the call, "But if you're curious, then they're calling you some monster wannabe, that with your mask and overall creepy look and all."

I smiled, "Really now?" Guess I found my opening act.

My training as a clown kicked in and I started taking the longest, most fucked up stride I can think of, I put legs my forward, but, instead of taking a regular, totally human step, I bent my knees so that they looked like they were leaning. Following that, my hands started to get longer and when they were able to touch the wall, I started waving them around slowly and in a similar way to a tube man that one can typically find in front of a gas station.

The reaction that I got was immediate, the people in the warehouse started to move and gather in a formation while holding out their guns. Someone moved to the front, even from this distance, I can tell that he was larger than the rest of his fellows. He raised his gun, a giant of a thing that's clearly a shotgun yet has the circular magazine of a Thompson.

"Whatever you are, don't come any closer."

"Whatever you are?" I said quizzically, offended. I tilted my neck back and got a new idea at that very moment- I felt my neck move and my vision swam forward before circling around and eventually settling back to being normal.

"That's what you get for being fucking creepy. Man." Oh, hey look! Fred actually speaks. He has a gas-station-stoner-cashier voice too.

"Hey, I'm the distraction remember? Tell me I'm not doing a swell job." I replied.

"Maybe a little too well." The voice of Anissa came full of concern. "Shut off your comms, we're going dark. They're moving." She ominously added not a beat later.

I did what she said and turned off my comms, looking back to the warehouse, I saw that everyone there is starting to prepare a formation with the half-giant at the forefront. The massive mouth of his shotgun got pointed up at me, "This is your last chance."

I took a deep breath, 'Well, here goes nothing' - I decided to ignore his warning and start crawling forward.

Gunshots rang out and echoed across the torn down buildings of the slums, near the warehouse, the light from the guns bristled and flickered, turning into a chaotic light show that peppered the streets around it in a series of yellow that created a gnawing shadow from the 8 foot tall fence surrounding the warehouse.

A bullet was fired and it sailed across the sky, going up and passing through cracked buildings before reaching me and whipping past my elongated neck, like a circus lion, it flew past the ring that is my neck, perfectly centered.

"WHY ARE WE NOT KILLING IT?!" Someone from the group of guardsmen yelled in panic moments before someone right next to him turned their gun and pointed them at his head- Bang the man's body fell to the floor like a doll whose strings had been cut. His friend (Who in my opinion overreacted to his yell.) went back to shooting at me a moment later, keeping up with the barrage of fire like he didn't just kill someone.

The guy had the right to yell, too, because the bullets just bounced off my body like they were nothing but droplets of rain. Hell, they didn't even damage my clothes.

As I crept closer, I noticed four shadows crawling on the rooftops in the distance, one of them jumped, then disappeared under the darkness of the night once more. They did that one by one until the only remaining shadow is a tall, lanky thing that turned its head at me and nodded before jumping off and disappearing.

Two more steps, that was all that I needed to do to reach the warehouse- I can now see the guards clearly, they wore black combat gear with an ace to the right of their chest, just where the heart should be. Another step and I saw that the aces were all hearts. 'Guess I'm in the Queen's Territory, then.' Is it bad that I'm not feeling scared of a lieutenant of a powerful gang leader? Definitely, but soaking up bullets like nothing that does to a normal person.

I stepped past the fence and into the warehouse's general vicinity- A deafening gunshot and I fell-

My body went back into itself. My other leg went taut, short, and I was soon on the floor, clutching my leg. To my right, the half-giant stood with a scowl, shotgun at the ready, and all around me are the remaining, normal guards, guns pointed and fingers on the trigger.

I pushed my remaining healthy leg off the ground and jumped before extending my arm out and grabbing the body of a street light near the warehouse, with a bit of effort, I pulled myself out of the encampment of guards and into safety. A bit more effort got me to fling myself onto the slanted rooftop.

I winced when another deafening gunshot rang out and when I looked back, I saw that the floor I was just on had now turned to dust, there was no more asphalt- it was just a crater.

I looked at my bleeding leg, "Fuck." I cursed.