33RD ST. MTA WEST SIDE YARD. HUDSON YARD, NYC
NEIGHBORHOOD: UNCLAIMED
CITY: UNCLAIMED (CLAIMS BLOCKED BY TIMER)
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It felt… weird… doing this in the middle of the day.
“Shouldn’t he have told me to wait until nightfall or something? Isn’t that like… the typical storytelling mechanic for these sort of raids on enemy bases?”
“Please Loophole, this is real life, crime happens at all hours. It’s that kind of stereotypical attitude that lets millions of people get away with crimes every year.”
“Millions? That can’t be right.”
“And that’s just New York City! Crime statistics aren’t something I joke about thank you very much… also we might have a hand in making sure those crimes are happening. We gotta have something for you meatbags to do until you get the balls to start fighting each other.”
I had managed to find a moment when no one was on the street and slipped over the wall into the large trainyard. If Crime Alerts were meant to be, for lack of a better term, randomly generated events that had to be dealt with, the Mission Briefing Lt. Nester gave me must have been the game's version of a quest. As I snuck along the outer edges of the trainyard, I made sure to look around for anyone who might have seen me come over the wall. Once I was sure I hadn’t been seen, I highlighted the mission being tracked on the side of my vision.
“Something’s Cookin’ in Hudson Yard. Mission Type: Raid. Since you apparently either weren’t listening well enough to Lt. Nester or you have short term memory loss, let me give you the quick-ish rundown. Several sightings by Sentient NPCs have confirmed multiple members of the Viper’s Biker Gang sneaking into and out of the large trainyard in Hudson Yard. Find out what they’re doing, and if they’re up to something, do those donut lovers a favor and shut it down. Reward: The reward for this mission is Variable and is subject to how you complete the mission.”
“Couldn’t you guys have done this in a warehouse or somewhere… I don’t know, more private?” I wondered as I peaked around the side of a train in storage. There was nothing that felt outright odd about it and I quickly moved to the next one. Granted, I wasn’t looking that hard because I had a sneaking suspicion that there would be some sort of sign to indicate which one was my target.
“What and miss out on the chance for the fight to spill out for people to see? Don’t you want the publicity and the points? We know at least one of the ways to gain points right now and last I checked you’re still 9090 points from where you need to be in just a few days. You should be actively trying to gain those points. Yes, completing the mission is good, but trust me when I tell you that the Variable award is almost certainly going to be better if you do it in a way that gets you points too.”
“Yeah and fighting with an audience is one of the ways to gain points, one of, and I remember this pretty clearly, ten thousand possible activities. I think between that and the fact that I still have a couple more days I should be fine. I can’t imagine that there’s no new point opportunities hiding for me here. Hell, just look at that Tempest’s Wrath chick, with how much she’s doing already I’d bet she’s at at least 15,000 points already,” I said, checking the next train and once again coming up empty. I took another look around the yard, trying to see if I could spot anyone at all. “This place is… unsettlingly empty, shouldn’t there be employees or something?”
“What do I look like, a trainyard operator or an expert on employment numbers?”
“As helpful as always Angie, never change.”
“Why would I change?”
I couldn’t help but roll my eyes as I moved on to the next train in the row of storage. I had to stop myself from audibly saying “Jackpot” as I approached a train car with a massively out of place piece of graffiti of a snake painted right onto the side right over the windows. Sure enough, the latch on the rear door of the car was broken and, after double checking that an employee hadn’t magically shown up, I slipped into the locomotive mentally preparing to activate my Mirror Image skill if there was someone defending the entrance.
The moment I crossed the threshold into the car, the words Gold Level Viper Den - Hudson Yard flashed in the location panel before fading away. It was almost like stepping into another world and I swear the lighting even seemed to change as a natural eeriness overtook me. The car had been stripped completely clean, existing only as a hull and painted over windows. There were holes all over the ground where the seats had once been bolted down and the light fixtures across the overhead were all picked clean, even the wiring seeming to have been ripped out as I caught glimpses of them in the bits of light leaking in through the still open backdoor.
“Do I even want to know just how much of the world this game controls if this train can just be sitting here like this,” I wondered as I continued to creep forward. I stopped at the door separating the two cars and leaned against the wall.
“I’m gonna give you a little pro tip for free, I think if you have to ask if you want to know something, you probably don’t want to know.”
“Fair point,” I said, taking another breath and trying to ease the nerves I felt oddly creeping up. I hated the lack of specificity for this mission and walking right into their base? That felt equally bad. But my powerset wasn’t the type to go bursting through walls, at least not until I could get the right knowledge skills. Even then, I was finding a rhythm in being an up close fighter and if it wasn’t broken, why fix it?
I kept my mental trigger finger at the ready and pushed the door to the next car open. The metal of the door scraped as it slid inward before the sound of voices reached me. I bit back the urge to jump right into the fight as I held my position.
“What was that?”
“The door, what th’ fuck you think it was you dumb fuck?”
"I ain't a moron, I meant what the fuck opened it?"
"Go check it out."
I still wasn’t sure how many there were and while I felt like I could probably handle the basic grunts at this point, I would have to be a fool to think that they weren’t going to get harder. There was the sound of heavy footsteps and I held my place at the door, holding my breath as a grunt walked right past me and into the empty cart.
“Place is empty, musta been the-” The grunt turned around, his eyes immediately meeting mine as I simultaneously clicked both my Mirror Image and Mute Button skills. I wasn’t even sure if that was going to work given that I hadn’t tried to activate multiple abilities at once before, but luck was on my side as they both took effect. With his attention still on the illusion that was left behind, I faded into invisibility. I slipped around the corner and into the next train car, almost immediately coming face to face with the second, and lone other, grunt in the room.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
My invisibility still had 5 seconds left as I slammed my fist directly into his face, feeling the crunch of bone under my knuckles as he went sprawling backwards. His health chunked down immensely with a Surprised! icon floating over his head. I quickly highlighted the new debuff as I skidded past the downed enemy, taking the last few seconds of camouflage to find out just what it was.
“Surprised. This NPC was struck with a blow by a force while completely unprepared for it! Damage was amplified by 2x. This bonus will be applied again to the next strike against this target only if done before they discover the originating source.”
I didn’t hesitate, spinning on my heel and driving my fist downward, right into the grunt’s chest, causing a spray of saliva and blood to come from his mouth as his health dropped the rest of the way down. There was a trail of blood leaking from the side of his mouth and just a sliver of red in his health bar. Floating almost directly over his crooked and broken nose was a spinning KO debuff.
Before I could start to move or even attempt to stand back up, a foot collided with my chin. It sent me flying onto my back as sound started to come back into the room and my body faded back into existence.
“Fuckin’ invisible bitch,” my attacker spat as I reached up and felt at my bloodied face. My health had gone down by nearly half and I briefly saw that I had the Surprised debuff. It faded away the moment that I looked at the grunt now kneeling next to the man I had just put down. He materialized a syringe in his hand and jammed it down into his friend’s stomach.
To my surprise, the downed grunt’s KO tag disappeared, his health moving back up to 50%.
“Wait what!? They can get back up?” I was scrambling back to my feet, materializing an enhanced syringe of my own and shoving it into my leg.
“Well you’re too much of a pansy to just kill them, so yeah, they can get back up. I’ve tried to tell you, it’s soooo much easier being a Miscreant.”
The grunts rushed me, one of them materializing a pipe in their hand and swinging wide as I activated Float Like A Butterfly. I probably didn’t necessarily need to use the skill, but the extra dodge percentage definitely couldn’t hurt my chances either. Like the first car, this one had been mostly stripped clean, with just a few metal seats still in place and a crudely made wooden gate stretching between two of them. I nearly tripped over the gate as I moved to escape the still chasing grunts.
I slammed Weighted Clothes and watched as both of the grunts crashed to the ground under the weight of a thousand pounds each. The grunt at half life immediately dropped his metal pipe, the KO reappearing over his head. I had been trying to avoid blowing all of my cooldowns this early on into the train, but the sudden resurrection had caught me off guard. It was far better than risking getting my head bashed in. I’d just have to hope I could move silently enough to stall for a few minutes after I finished this.
“So, do you want to tell me what you assholes are up to, or do you just want to go to sleep like your friend over here?” I asked, regaining my composure. I stepped over the unconscious grunt, looking down briefly just to make sure he wasn’t going to have a repeat performance before I stopped next to the struggling form of my only remaining enemy.
“Fu- Fu- Fuck. Y- Y- You,” the grunt stuttered out. I highlighted him out of curiosity and found that he was only level 2, which explained why the weight took him down by over 75% of his health.
“Well if that’s the way you want to play it,” I said, before stepping forward and driving the tip of my boot into his stomach, chunking down the rest of his health. I breathed a sigh of relief as I took a better look around the cabin. “These guys are supposed to give me a false sense of security, aren’t they?”
“What?” Angie seemed caught off guard for just a moment but I didn’t give her time to finish her thought.
“They’re level 2 and this place is a Gold level den. Given that the folks I fought during the Crime Alert last night had been the same level as me, I was kinda assuming that trend would just continue. Also, should I tie these guys up or something?” I said, reaching down and picking up the metal pipe that the grunt had been trying to strike me with. To my surprise, it wasn’t just a pipe.
“Bruiser’s Baton. Melee Weapon. +3 to Strength when in use. For the grunt on the go, this metal pipe is quite literally nothing special! But we can’t have someone with superpowers just wailing on this poor, sweet unarmed man who just happens to be lower level than you. Though, that’s not to say only these weaklings will be armed and if you were really worried about these guys coming back for you, you’d… you know… just take them out.”
I ignored the last bit of the description as I turned the crude pipe back and forth, taking in the various dents and bits of rust that showed the weapon’s age. There was no way I was going to go around wielding a metal pipe but it was going to be worth something.
Though I hadn’t taken the time to loot anything up until now, I was going to need to start making it a habit. Even if the gear wasn’t necessarily the best, I could still sell it. I looted the two unconscious grunts, coming away with 500 Credits, a few Basic Health Injectors, and a single Resuscitation Injector. I materialized the last one and highlighted it.
“Resuscitation Injector. This injector removes the KO debuff and returns the injected target to 50% health. Just to be clear. This injector will not do anything to you if you do not have the KO debuff. That means it’s pretty much useless on both yourself and anyone you accidentally (or maybe on purpose if you suddenly become fun) kill.”
“Sheesh, pretty much useless is right but I guess that can be a down the line tool,” I thought as I walked toward the next car. My skills still had a few minutes left on cooldown and I would be a fool to believe these were the strongest guys I was going to come across, especially given the context clues.
I wasn’t going to be able to use the same entry method every time, even if it was only two enemies in every car, and that was less likely than Angie becoming even a little bit less crazy.
“Hey, just because I don’t comment on all of your inner thoughts any more doesn’t mean I don’t hear them,” Angie huffed before her voice lowered. “I’ve held back on at least five good jokes and he thinks I’m crazy.”
“Not helping yourself, but yes, you’ve gotten better. Just wish you weren’t always pushing the “kill” option,” I said. I risked peeking through the small window in the door and was able to see three grunts and a pair of brutes huddled around a literal trash can fire. I ducked out of the window as one of the brutes started to turn toward the door and held my breath, waiting to see if he was coming to investigate.
I could hear the footsteps approaching and I eyed my hotbar, seeing that three of the skills I had used were still on cooldown for another few minutes. I felt for my pocket and cursed myself for not taking the time to pick up a pack of gum. Had this been a normal New York train, there would have been half a dozen pieces of chewed gum on the wall I was leaning against alone. Sure it was a bit of a gross thought, but without the gum, the only abilities I could actively use were purely offensive, and I wasn’t sure if that was going to be enough to take down the-
A small explosion came echoing through the car and I instinctively dove to the ground expecting a follow up attack. When it didn’t come, I looked up, finding that there was a bright light now leaking through the window to the next car. I didn’t even try to be sneaky as I scrambled to my feet to look through the window, seeing two of the grunts' lifeless forms collapsed next to the still on fire remains of the trash can they had been huddled around. The others in the room didn’t seem to be doing much better, with both remaining grunts trying to put out their flaming clothes and one of the brutes with a nasty looking burn across half of his face.
I slid the door open, expecting to use this unexpected bit of luck to my advantage when I finally noticed the hole in the side of the train car.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting help,” a pair of identical voices said in near unison. Two forms jumped into the car and I couldn’t stop myself from doing a double take at the twins standing in front of me. They each wore a pair of basic blue jeans and a nearly identical looking black mask to the one I was already wearing. The only difference between the two was that one wore a blue long sleeve shirt and the other wore a red one.
Without warning, the twin in red dissolved into light before remerging with the one in blue. His shirt was the last thing to fade, with the light disappearing to reveal the color was now split down the middle, half red and half blue. I highlighted the stranger and immediately wished the information provided included team affiliation.
“Hydramental. Level 4 Elemental Everyman.”
“What, you just gonna stand there and fucking gawk?” He said, pausing only to crack his knuckles. “Cause I’m about to stomp these Hell’s Angels wannabes.”