I slammed the broken door shut.
Logically I knew that wasn’t going to do a damn thing, but with Hydramental on the ground and his health ticking down, I couldn’t risk the snake monster getting any closer to us. I had no idea if the poison would kill him or just knock him out, and regardless of how much of an ass he had been, I couldn’t justify letting him die.
I materialized an Enhanced Health Syringe into my hand and jammed it down into his arm. I wasn’t sure if it would work or not since the syringes were supposed to work on a cooldown system, but sure enough his health immediately returned to near full. When I looked at the syringe icon on my hotbar, I saw it had an additional line that read “Hydramental Cooldown: 5 Minutes.” I looked back to him and saw that though he was healed, his health still continued to tick down as I checked his debuffs.
“Poisoned. Type: Modified Russell’s Viper / Full Paralysis & Damage Variant. Time Remaining: 10 seconds. Damage taken per second: 100.”
“Damnit, knowing the type of venom doesn’t exactly mean I can do anything with my power about it, I don’t know how to make the antivenom, just what kind would neutralize it,” I said as I stood back up. His health wasn’t going to zero out before the timer ended now, and the best thing I could do was draw the attention away from him.
“Eh, he’ll be fine, you healed him up enough and I've heard enough of his bullshit for a few minutes,” Angie said and I could feel there was an edge.
“Huh, and here I thought you’d be encouraging me to be more like him with the whole killing thing,” I said, jumping as a fist slammed into the already weakened door. It started to give after the first hit, a large dent starting to buckle the door inward. I briefly looked down at Hydramental and saw that his debuff had only a few seconds left.
“That’s because I don’t believe in half measures,” Angie shot back. “If he wants to kill people, fine, but don’t do it under the guise of being a Guardian, just go the Miscreant route and call it a day. This whole “oh look at me, I’m an edgelord anti-hero” bullshit is painfully overplayed.”
I was just about to respond when another powerful strike landed on the door just as Hydramental started to come to. He scrambled off the ground and toward the wall as the door burst inward, the debris of the metal barrier shattering into different directions. I dodged backwards, trying to put distance between myself and Sal as he forced his way through the wrecked entrance and slithered into the room.
“Now now fellasssss, I think you’ve made ssssome… interesting choicesss today, do you really want to make another bad one?” Sal said, slithering further toward me, he was easily at least 7 feet tall, and that wasn’t counting the tail dragging behind him. His voice was like nails on a chalkboard as several of his words were drawn out into hisses that made my ears almost want to bleed. “I could usssssse a few good bruisssssssers.”
“Yeah, about that, I ain’t really a big fan of snakes,” Hydramental’s dual voice echoed from behind the hulking beast. The blue clone darted forward, jumping and blowing out a torrent of frigid air at Sal’s tail in a fluid, practically practiced motion. A thick layer of ice formed over it, but it only held for a moment before Sal flexed and his tail burst upward.
The clone tossed his body to the side off of a small bit of ice that seemed to form underneath his foot in midair, barely avoiding the massive flailing tail just before it made contact with the ceiling.
“I could alsssssso use a ssssssssssnack if that’ssss how you want to play it,” Sal hissed, turning his attention back to the pair of clones.
“Was the hissing really necessary?” I asked, trying to put together a plan in my head as quickly as I could.
“He’s a snake Loophole, what do you think?”
There wasn’t much I could do, but with Sal’s back to me, I did the only thing I could think. I rushed him, activating Sting Like A Bee as I moved. I leapt toward him, launching the three enhanced strikes as quickly as I could for his center of mass. They each connected but bounced off of him, barely leaving a blemish on his cold, scaly skin. His health bar similarly barely budged and I had to scramble backwards before a muscular arm practically the size of a girder could smack me down.
Even with the halfhearted swipe toward me, Sal kept his attention on the clones, turning quickly on the Hydramental in blue as his tail whipped back toward him. Without anywhere else to dodge, Sal’s tail connected, driving the clone through both the empty cages behind him and the window that had been barely blocked by them. A flash of light burst from the clone as he broke through the window, evaporating and returning to his other body as Hydramental yelped in pain. His health dropped by over 60% in that one hit and he quickly materialized a syringe of his own into his hand.
"Shouldn't that be on cooldown?" I asked, eyeing the syringe in his hand and the icon on my hotbar, still ticking down next to his name.
"Only if that's a health syringe."
“Isssss that all you got? I wassss really hoping for a challenge,” Sal hissed, breaking my focus before I could question Angie further. He slithered over toward Hydramental who was in the process of pushing himself back to his feet. His hand was still gripped tightly to the syringe as he glared up toward the approaching beast.
Sal moved to strike, a large fist driving forward as Hydramental dodged to the side. In the same motion, he jammed the syringe into his side. He had barely gotten in front of the broken door to the next train car and saw a small bit of light was starting to form from his body when Sal struck him full force. He had recovered quickly from his first missed attack, and with a powerful strike, Hydramental went flying backwards into the burning remains of the train car.
I knew I should have been moving already, but my failed first blow had thrown me off as I tried to search for a solution. Without one quickly coming to mind and Hydramental already battered, I rushed forward once more. When I had gotten close enough, I threw another punch and activated the Venomous Strike ability on my bracers. It seemed like a long shot, but I could use the skill only once per encounter and if it was going to work at all, it felt like it was going to be now or never.
The green liquid flicked from my bracers’ spikes, splattering over the back of Sal as my fist struck him once more. His health still barely budged, but a spinning yet modified version of Poisoned debuff appeared over his head.
“Poisoned. Type: Russell’s Viper / Partial Paralysis and Effectiveness Variant. Time Remaining: 10 seconds. Warning: This debuff’s effectiveness is halved due to skin resistance.”
“Damnit,” I muttered under my breath as I dodged back once more, skipping out of the way of Sal’s tail as he attempted to smack me with the massive appendage.
“OH BABY THAT’S THE STUFF!” Hydramental practically yelled. The wreckage was noticeably dimmer and I looked past Sal to see that the fire had been fully extinguished. Even more importantly, Hydramental’s clone in red was glowing. “Let’s turn up the heat, I’ve heard grilled snake is delicious,” I heard him growl before he punched forward and let out a torrent of flame toward Sal.
The snake man’s massive body took the brunt of the fire and yet still, his health barely budged.
“What the hell, is this guy fireproof or something?! Can snakes even be fireproof?!” I said as I kept backing away from the show. There was no doubt about it, if people were watching this, he was certainly going to be the center of attention.
“To be fair, Sal did survive that first explosion without a scratch too, it’s not a hard leap to make given that he’s an Augment and by definition he’d have multiple parts of his powerset, just saying,” Angie replied.
“Then how the fuck are we-” I started to say as one of the caged snakes let out a large hiss when I accidentally bumped into it. It was one of the many Russell’s Vipers the gang had kept captive here and I took another quick look around the car. My mind was racing as I focused back onto the venom knowledge that I had gained. I looked from the snakes, down to my bracers, and then back to Sal who was pushing his way through Hydramental’s barrage of fire, albeit slowly. In a flash of inspiration I highlighted Hydramental and opened a chat window.
I looked back around the train car, my gaze landing on the cabinet I had ignored when I first walked into the room. If they were going to keep them anywhere, that was going to have to be it.
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I rushed over to the cabinet, yanking the doors open to find it was somehow cool inside of it. I briefly highlighted the cabinet and saw it had an Upgrade: Refrigerated modification on it. There were several dozen vials lining the shelves each capped and filled nearly to the top with a practically clear liquid. I picked up an entire tray and pulled it into my B.E.L.T.. Once it had vanished, I found I could examine the entire thing at once when it was cataloged inside. It appeared as a miniature inventory within my inventory, and when I selected it, the contents listed were:
* Extracted Russell’s Viper Venom. Twelve 4 oz. vials.
* Russell’s Viper Antivenom. Four 4 oz. vials.
I looked back toward the broken door and could barely see the Hydramental clones getting backed toward a pile of rubble that made up the end of the destroyed car. The red clone was still throwing fire, but his glow was completely gone and he was noticeably winded. Sal was far outside of my range now, but I could clear that distance more than easily enough. I rushed into the fresh air of the now open train car, noticing a gate in the distance that a crowd started to gather near.
It took me only a few seconds to get close enough, feeling Sal as he entered my zone and I activated my Weighted Clothes ability. Though the snake creature wasn’t wearing much, he was still wearing his gang’s leather jacket, and without a single extra target in the vicinity, he was the only would to take the entirety of the skill’s 2000 lbs limit.
He was strong, there was no doubt about that and while he did take some damage, it was still barely a fraction of his total health bar. Unlike the various grunts I had faced so far, the weight wasn't enough to send him collapsing to the ground. But I didn’t need it to finish him, I just needed it to slow him down.
I didn’t stop moving as I pulled half the vials of venom from my B.E.L.T and threw them toward Hydramental. A light shimmered and jumped between the two clones before the clone in blue raised his hands, stopping the vials midway through their fall. They each shattered in a flash as the contents froze over, coming together into a spike the size of a large kitchen knife. It only floated in the air for a moment before Hydramental launched it forward at the still struggling Sal. The tip of the icy weapon penetrated through Sal’s defenses with a frustrating amount of ease, piercing through his scaly skin and disappearing into his body.
For a minute, nothing seemed to happen as Sal looked at a bit of green blood that started to leak from the now open wound. Then, practically all at once, his health plummeted, first dropping 25%, then it was at 40% and before I could even think to pull one of the vials of antivenom out, his health bottomed out and he fell to the ground with a loud CRASH! I expected him to shift back into some human form, but instead, his body seemed to steam for just a minute before it all at once cooled, leaving him to lay there stiff as a statue. In a flash, a cascade of windows flooded my field of view. I looked over at Hydramental, seemingly catching his breath with his eyes glazed over probably having his own barrage of notifications to deal with.
“New Achievement! Team Up Take Down! Look at you! You and a… well, let’s not call him a friend, maybe he’s a… colleague? No, that doesn’t feel right either. Well whatever he is, you worked together with another Augment to take down an Elite NPC higher level than yourself! Let’s be real though, without you, that guy would have been snake food. This is Gold Level Achievement. Reward: You have received a B:Tier loot box.”
“Lucky Charm Feature Activated! Your B:Tier loot box has been upgraded to an A:Tier Loot Box! Source: Fortune's Guardian Jacket.”
“Local Area Manipulation. This power has reached Level 3. Your Local Area’s range is now a 17 foot radius. Ability Unlocked! Area Sense. Activated Ability. While directly focusing on your local area, you now have the ability to feel anything residing within it. At this initial level, you will not be able to precisely identify what you are feeling just through this ability. This ability does not have a cooldown or maximum duration. As long as you can retain your focus, you can utilize this sense. Please Note: This ability requires you to remain completely still and requires your full attention. This ability does not need to be on your hotbar to be utilized.”
“Ok, what the hell is the point of the hotbar if I’m going to get all of these different abilities that don’t have to be on them to use?” I asked. Though it seemed minor, it was something that had been bothering me since I had first gotten my bracers. It wasn’t like they even had to be reloaded or like there was a button that activated them, just like my abilities, I had to just think about it and they would throw their poison.
“It’s actually rather simple to understand!” Angie chirped happily. “So far you have received four total skills that are able to be utilized without being on your hotbar. These four skills actually represent the two different ways Free Abilities can be obtained. Venomous Strike and Fortune’s Shield were both granted to you through Equipment and you lose the ability to use them when you aren’t wearing their associated items. Area Sense and Luck Bomb are both abilities built into the core nature of your powers. Think about it this way, you are always going to be Augmented now, which means that you always have your powers. Simply put, some aspects of them are just always going to exist. Augments with variations of Super Strength can’t just not be Super Strong just because they aren’t in costume and similarly you can’t turn off your Local Area just because you’re not in disguise. This newest ability of yours just grants some functionality to your main power no matter the time or place.”
“Wait, does that mean I can use those skills when I’m not in costume, at least the power associated ones? I thought I had to actually be in disguise to activate my powers… like, I distinctly remember that being a part of the Secret Identity rule.”
“I also did say there were specific situations where that rule wasn’t the case too. Plus you were just getting into the swing of things, I didn’t want to explain conditional power access to you just yet in case you died,” she laughed.
“Gee thanks,” I muttered.
“No problem buddy!” Angie laughed. “Now, only abilities directly linked to one of your powers can be used when you are not in costume. That means that yes, your Area Sense and Luck Bomb ability are on the table when you are just out and about.”
“Hmm, well that’s pretty neat,” I said as I turned my attention to the next notification.
“Weighted Clothes. This ability has increased to Level 3. Your maximum distributed weight is now 2500 pounds. This ability has been augmented one of three times. Current Augmentations: Party Mode.”
“Phase Points Gained! Kill Elite Non-Sentient Augment (NEW!): You participated in the kill of an Elite Non-Sentient Augment. This is worth points equal to the defeated Augment’s level times 100. Total Value: 600 points. Upgrader (NEW!): You used a feature or scroll to increase the level of a received reward! What, you weren’t happy enough with what you got?! This has a static value. Total Value: 250 points. Team Victory (NEW!): You completed an objective while teamed up with a fellow Augment. I guess we are rewarding you for needing help now? Eh, I guess we gotta fill out those ten thousand point opportunities somehow. This has a static value. Total Value: 150 points.”
I certainly hadn’t meant to kill him but I had made a guess based on limited information. I had no idea how heavy the creature was so getting a perfect dose would have been damn near impossible, and undershooting it was an even worse idea. In the distance I could hear a holler of cheering coming from the fence. I lifted an uncertain hand in a wave at them before turning my attention back to Sal’s unmoving form.
To my surprise, when I attempted to loot him, the only thing he had available to take was his vest, a Ratty Biker Vest to be specific. I took it into my B.E.L.T and looked back toward the cart we had come from. The cabinet still had a few more trays filled with vials of poison, but I knew I could circle back to those after we were done here. Though the mission was shaking with a notification, it only mentioned the defeat of Sal and had no signs of being completed.
“What the fuck was in those vials and how did it take this dude down?! My fire wasn’t even burning him,” Hydramental said, walking over as a Health Injector evaporated from his hand.
I pulled one of the remaining vials of poison from my inventory.
“It’s the venom they were extracting from the Vipers back in there,” I explained as I tossed him the vial and walked toward the next doorway. I had to push through a bit of debris before I could reach the door. It took some effort but I was able to get it to slide open.
“You can kill a snake with its own venom? How the hell is that possible? It’s always in their mouths, shouldn’t they be immune?” He followed me as I pushed my way into the room.
“Drinking it and having it stabbed right into your blood are two very different things. It’s… well it’s sorta a loophole. Nothing we were throwing at him was working, and in most games, all “bosses” end up having some sort of weak spot. When I attempted to use my bracers, he wasn't outright immune to the poison they apply, so it got me thinking,” I explained, looking around the dim room. The explosion had clearly left this place disheveled, but with several maps of New York tapped to the walls, it looked like some form of planning room. I pulled a few of them off the walls and into my B.E.L.T. I wasn’t exactly sure what Lt. Nester or the Mission considered good, but this felt like the right track.
“Shit, it looks like this marks hideouts all through Chelsea, that’ll give me more than enough to drive them out of the neighborhood,” Hydramental said, looking at a map I hadn’t gotten to. He grabbed it and pulled it into his inventory as he dropped from the Temporary Team-up. After he grabbed a few other items from a table before I could make out what they were, he turned back and started to walk for the door.
“Whoa, where are you going?” I said, jumping and moving to get in front of him. “Shouldn’t we take this stuff back to Lt. Nester together? Or like, add each-”
“Fuck no,” He said, holding up a hand to stop me. “Look, I appreciate the assist this time but I don’t want or need any more of your help. I came here underpowered, that's on me and I know that now. I ain’t going to do that shit again.”
Hydramental stepped past me before I could argue with him and he pushed his way back through the debris. I expected him to immediately take off from there or to go and make a show for the crowd that had formed, but instead, he just came to a stop. I waited a few moments, assuming he might have just been doing something in his interface, but when he didn’t move, I couldn’t stop myself from investigating.
“I thought you were taking off,” I said as I navigated my way back out to the destroyed car. For all his attitude, Hydramental was speechless and as I followed his gaze, it was easy to see why.
Because where we had left Sal’s body all that remained was a large, empty husk of shedded skin.