There was a little bit over an hour until Axio’s daily announcement when I entered The Common Ground.

The moment I crossed the threshold into the bar, I lost contact with both Jon and Angie. We had expected something like this of course, and had decided to use the opportunity to test it. After waiting a minute, I stepped back outside and discovered that even though I couldn’t contact them, Angie and Jon were able to communicate without issue. None of us were quite sure what that meant, but I apologized in advance to Jon, just in case Angie… well, was herself, and dipped back into the bar.

The place was more alive than I expected it to be for the hour, with well over half the tables in the building packed. I had only just been grabbing a drink from the bar, using the second of my three free drink coupons when I heard a familiar voice.

“Well, well, well, haven’t you been busier than a bee in spring?” Silver Wrangler’s hand landed on my shoulder as the monotone system voice spoke up.

“New Friend Request: Silver Wrangler. Accept: Yes/No.”

I selected Yes and my friend’s list opened up, splitting in half to list the Guardians and Miscreants separately. Granted I only had a single name on each list, but they were still listed separately.

“Well, Axio did give us a pretty short time limit, kind of had to get moving,” I explained with a shrug and turned back to look into the crowd.

“Yeah I heard about that. We literally had a month for our first phase and we only had to have total control over our starting territory,” Silver said.

“Lucky you,” I said as I noticed a familiar pink outfit and blonde ponytail. I waved out toward the crowd in general and Silver nodded, pushing off the bar as he followed. There was the steady din of conversation and music as we moved through the building, yet somehow it never became overwhelming, nor did we have to yell to hear each other.

“Eh, I don’t know, y’all are already leveling a whole lot faster than most of us. I think it took most of my wave at least a week to even get to level 6. There’s this sort of sudden uptick in folks taking the whole thing more seriously now, none of us wanna get bypassed by any of y’all newbies, y’know?”

“Heh, yeah I guess I can see that,” I said as I thought about it for a minute. Although logically I knew that Silver and I were on different sides, I hadn’t exactly gotten a friendly reaction from Hydramental and he was supposed to be on the same team as me. Silver, even as a Miscreant, seemed nice enough, and Pinky had been right when she had said the older waves could be a good source of information. ”Mind if I ask you a question about all this early stuff? At least clearing out my neighborhood.”

“Depends on the question, I ain’t gonna get another F:Tier for helping yah now,” he said with a shrug. “But go on, shoot.”

“Ok, well I’m working my way toward clearing out the people contesting my neighborhood and I feel like I’m getting into the flow of it but I was wondering something here,” I said as we weaved around someone wearing serving attire carrying an absurdly large tray filled with buffalo wings to a table with a large man with half of his full face mask pulled up. “I know it’s different for you Miscreants, but was there like… I don’t know… a storyline toward whoever you had to drive out?”

“Hmmm, a storyline? Like one of them ol’ school Dukes of Hazzard episodes? Was someone trying to steal my sister or somethin’?” he asked with a raised brow as he looked over toward me.

“I mean, nothing so convoluted or anything, at least I think… I keep running into these bikers and they’ve talked about their boss a handful of times. I don’t know, it sort of feels like they are trying to set me up for some sort of big climatic battle or something like that,” I explained as we finally closed in on Pinky’s table. “The last few times I’ve cleared one of their bases or dealt with them they’ve been all like ‘Snakebite will rule this city, blah blah blah,’ it’s all super melodramatic.”

Pinky noticed us walking up and turned from a goggled-man sitting next to her to give me a wide smile.

“Huh, I feel like I’ve heard that name before,” Silver said as we stepped up to their table.

“Loophole you asshole! How’d you go and pass me so damn quickly!?” Pinky shouted, jumping from her chair and looking at me with fake outrage.

“I think the better question is how’d you let me? Axio did say the top 10 would get an S:Tier, that and the threat of a swift death can really put a pep in your step,” I said with a laugh as I took one of the open seats at the raised table.

“Well still, you don’t have to be a show off,” she pretended to pout before breaking, taking her seat again and nodding over to the man still sitting at the table, slowly sipping a beer. “This is my new friend.”

“If you use the term loosely,” the man said as he set his beer down. I looked over, intent on highlighting him to get his information when Pinky waved to grab my attention.

“Wait, wait, before you scan him, get this,” She said, the hint of a smile tugging at her lips. “I’m trying to convince him that we should team up. Like, our territories are pretty close to each other but he doesn’t like the squad name I’m suggesting even though it’s like, arguably perfect.”

“It’s childish. And besides, it’s literally just bad versions of our names!” The man huffed, his voice coming out in a bit of a nasally whine. Pinky pulled her hand back and crossed her arms over her chest, allowing me to finally highlight the man.

“BrainCraft. Level 5 Cogsmith Commander.”

“Come ooooooon, we can literally be Pinky and the Brain! Think about it!” She said and smacked the table loud enough to draw attention from a group a few tables away. There was a single beat of silence before Silver let out a bark of a laugh, leaving the goggled-man to groan.

“My name is BrainCraft, and besides I don’t see much overlap between our powers which is something you have to consider before jumping into things all willy-nilly. A good team has cohesion and complements each other,” BrainCraft said as he adjusted his goggles.

“For being so smart, that’s a really dumb take on team structure. Take it from a cheerleader, you gotta start with a good base to build a pyramid. You bring the brains, I bring the brawn, that’s as good a base as any,” Pinky shot back quickly before she looked at me. “Oh, I got a pass up to the second floor! We looked it up after I got the item, but according to Franky it has a random chance of appearing in any loot box awarded from a “non-standard combat” achievement. It doesn’t actually seem all that difficult to get.”

“Ah that makes sense. I just pulled mine from a loot box that came from an achievement for taking down some enemies on a floor below me without seeing them,” I said thoughtfully.

“Yeah, I broke right through a pillar and trapped a ‘roided up methhead beneath the second floor of a building when I got mine,” Pinky replied and grabbed the mixed drink she had sitting in front of her.

“I beat a man with another man,” Silver offered and we all turned to face the Miscreant who had so far remained standing. “Hey don’t go giving me that look, my boots got insulted. And trust me, you don’t go and insult a man’s boots in Texas, it's the Golden Rule,” he said.

Pinky made a show of looking around the table and down at Silver’s feet, even stopping and taking a long sip from her drink before she spoke up.

“I mean-”

“Hey now, don’t go pickin’ a fight with me pretty lady,” Silver said, holding a finger up to stop her.

“Wait,” BrainCraft said, finally speaking back up as he set his beer down. “Which man insulted your boots?”

“Huh?” Silver asked with a raised brow.

“You said you beat a man with another man. Which man insulted your boots? The one who was beaten, or the one used as a weapon?”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Yes,” Silver replied, holding a straight face as he stared right at BrainCraft for a few seconds longer than he needed to. As BrainCraft just started to squirm, Silver’s stare broke and he let out another guffaw of a laugh before looking over to Pinky. “Oh, and speakin’ of fights, be careful heading up to the second floor. The place has a “first time you show up, you gotta fight,” rule. It’s not really that big of a problem since you can’t actually die up there, there’s protections in place and all that, but trust me when I tell yah you’re gonna feel every bit of whatever you get hit with while fighting in that place.”

Pinky noticeably lit up as she looked from Silver and then back to me.

“I haven’t gone up yet! We can go together and I bet we’d have to fight each other!” She said with a wide smile that left me uneasy.

“Umm… weren’t you trying to convince BrainCraft to form a squad with you?” I said, trying to deflect. I did want to see the second floor, but I still wanted to absorb my new skill books and work on new abilities as well.

“It’s not happening,” he offered. I hadn’t noticed it before but he had a drawing pad opened on the table in front of him and there was a sketch for a device that looked like some sort of robot… or a deep fryer, I really couldn’t tell.

“Come on, pleeeeeeease,” Pinky said, clasping her hands together. “I promise I won’t hurt you that bad, and I’d be willing to bet you’d get at least some form of achievement from it, right?” she asked, looking over toward Silver for confirmation.

“Sanctioned Fighter,” He offered. “It’s a C:Tier box but those still have some decently useful items. Though the winner of that initial fight also gets 5000 credits. Oh! Also, people who watch are allowed to bet on the outcomes, your odds change the more fights you participate in and they do regular tournaments. Up until Axio went and did the whole game change up, the fight club mighta been the one place that really got some of the older waves fighting to grow stronger.”

Pinky’s eyes went wide, looking from Silver and then back to me even more eagerly.

“Come ooooooooon! It’s just one little tussle! I know you guys don’t like to be beat up by girls but like, we have super powers, you can’t be that stuck in pointless gender norms,” She said pleadingly.

“What makes you so sure you’d beat me? You don’t even know what I can do,” I said defensively.

“I mean, I know what I can do,” Pinky said, smiling as her tusks pierced outward. “We can settle this right now.”

Her energy was almost overwhelming as she stared me down, waiting for a response until I finally let out a dry laugh. “Okay fine, let’s go fight I guess,” I said. “At least I’ll finally get to know what a Berserking Boar does.”

Pinky practically squealed as she pumped her fists ahead of her.

“Y’know, if I was gonna head up there to watch, I’d be betting on her,” Silver said and dropped a heavy hand on my shoulder. “She seems to have a bit more pep in her step than you do, y’know?”

“Don’t you have friends in your own wave?” I asked and he let out a boisterous laugh that drew the attention of more than a few tables.

“I do. Actually, I'm gonna go meet up with them and rob a bank, you kids have fun now,” he said. He turned and purposefully tipped his hat toward Pinky with a wink before wandering off.

“Um… shouldn’t we stop him from doing that? We are Guardians…” BrainCraft offered and Pinky laughed before she slapped him on the shoulder.

“Feel free to try, that guy is level 49, I think he’d put any of us down without breaking a sweat,” she said before she cracked her knuckles. “Now come on, let's goooooo.”

“Yes, on that subject. I, on the other hand, have things to-”

“Oh hush Brain, you haven’t gotten a pass up there yet, you don’t have to make an excuse to leave,” Pinky said and rolled her eyes before she nodded her head my way, “Though you should add Loophole, it never hurts to have a wider network.”

BrainCraft looked over to me and shrugged before sending me a friend’s request that was quickly followed by a message.

“Hey are you two messaging or something, I don’t like that look that you’re giving each other,” Pinky said and crossed her arms again. “Now let’s gooooooo Loophole, I’m all worked up and ready to throw down. It’s pretty much exactly how I felt before every game night back in High School… although that had far less superpowers involved.”

“I’d be willing to argue most things would be more interesting with superpowers involved,” I said with a shrug as I pushed myself to my feet. I emptied the Captain and Coke before setting the glass down. In a flash of light, it and all the other empty glasses on the table vanished into thin air.

After BrainCraft took off toward one of the exits, Pinky and I headed for the center of the bar where the large spiral staircase circled around the head of a destroyed giant robot. The thing was battered and dented from whatever battle it had been involved in. Jon probably knew exactly what fight this thing had been in and I was instantly sorry he’d have to settle for just my piss poor description of it.

About halfway up the staircase, as if we were passing through an invisible barrier, the lower floor of The Common Ground disappeared and we were suddenly on a regular staircase. We took the last few steps up into a space that was easily twice as big as the floor below it and filled with augments in gear of every color of the rainbow.

Monitors were scattered around the room and 3 large platforms were positioned at the direct center, each with a stadium-like display overhead. One of the platforms was completely empty and the crowd was largely ignoring it as they gathered around the other two. I looked over to Pinky and noticed she had a large red debuff over her head that read New Combatant. I looked at my own list and saw that I was now sporting a similar one and highlighted it.

“New Combatant. Debuff. Please proceed to Registration. All new visitors must visit the registration desk to register to fight within 2 minutes of arrival on this floor. Failure to do so or leaving before you have completed this will have you permanently barred from this location.”

“Over there,” Pinky said, pointing to a bar running along the wall with several screens setup behind it. We hurried over to it and a squirrely looking man hurried over to meet us.

“Well lookie here, we got us a couple of new faces!” The man said with a smile, patting the bar as he looked us up and down. He had a name tag pinned to his shirt that read “Schmitt - Manager.” Two scanners similar to the device at the ViewFinder appeared and Schmitt reached out, grabbing one of our hands each and pulling them over each of the devices before we could react. “Let’s get you two all signed up for a bout, we got a ring open right now and since there’s two of you we can throw you right on in. Before that, let’s get all the basics out of the way. Fights all go until one Augment’s health bar has been zeroed out or you have actively captured and held your opponent in place for no less than 5 minutes. All powers are allowed and encouraged and the system's safety precautions will immediately pull you out and apply a Full Restore Syringe in the event that your health bar is going to be zeroed. If you lose your bout, you will not be eligible to fight again for 12 hours, however if you win feel free to sign up in the random draw bouts or challenge anyone you might wish to challenge. Now, since this is your first fight you will both be fighting with even odds. We don’t allow you to place bets on your own fights and if we find out you’re using a proxy to bet on your own fight, you’ll be immediately banned from the facilities with extreeeeeme prejudice. Any questions?”

Even knowing that Schmitt was likely an NPC and this was just something he was programmed to rattle off, the efficiency of which he said it was impressive. I couldn’t necessarily think of anything to ask, but Pinky was quick on the uptake.

“Is it a static fighting location or does it change? And if it does change, are we allowed to pick it?” She asked and Schmitt nodded appreciatively at the question.

“Good question. For your first bout, you will be placed in a standard fighting cell. This arena will be a 30 by 30 foot room and is designed to allow viewers the optimal chance to see your abilities in action. This also will allow myself and the Oddsmaker to properly adjust your odds for future betting rounds. Any fights in the random draws are given random battlefields while you’re allowed to choose the battlefield for a challenged match. Tournaments will often list the battlefields in advance, but you’re a long way off from qualifying for those,” Schmitt explained before tapping at the bar. “Okay, now let’s get you two up onto platform three, your arena is now ready.”

Pinky slapped me on the shoulder as we turned back toward the main room. My vision automatically highlighted the empty platform and an arrow appeared above it with a 30 second countdown timer appearing over it. The crowd seemed to knowingly part as we walked over and I could hear cat calls and jeers as we made our way down.

I hopped up onto the platform, Pinky following close behind me as I looked at the relatively small ring. A small crowd was making their way toward our ring as I took a look over at one of the nearby ones with cheering spectators surrounding it.

Although the rings had arena-like monitors positioned above them, I couldn’t actually see any fighters actually in the rings. I was just starting to make out what looked like the tops of skyscrapers in the second ring when a flash of light practically blinded me. As the light faded, I found myself in a large, concrete box with light filling it from nowhere. I looked around briefly until I found Pinky standing on the opposite end of the cell damn near mimicking me.

I was just about to ask if we were supposed to just start when a slamming sound echoed in the room. Hanging in the air above us, words seemed to drop, hanging into the air as an overly enthusiastic voice yelled out.

“Weeeeeeeeee’ve got a fight between fresh meat here for you all this afternoon. Coming in at an even Level 6 a piece. It’s… Loophole veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeersus Pretty Pink Warthog… FIGHT!”