CORNER OF 11TH AND 52ND, ROOFTOP. HELL’S KITCHEN, NYC

NEIGHBORHOOD: CLAIMED BY GUARDIAN: LOOPHOLE (CONTESTED)

CITY: CLAIMED BY GUARDIAN SQUAD: SEA AND SKY (CONTESTED BY MISCREANT: FIREFIST)

CURRENT PHASE POINTS: 7680

END OF PHASE ONE: 02D:7H:36M:27S

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Although I wanted to try to wrangle some answers out of Hydramental, his stubborn refusal to add me to his friend’s list meant the only way I could do so would be by storming down to Chelsea and hunting him down. While his possible involvement with all this raised just so, so many questions, there really didn’t seem to be any immediate benefit that would come from rushing down there to confront him.

I walked or, I guess… flew… away from the first den adding 750 phase points to my total. Since the den was Silver ranked, Basebreaker alone netted me 500 points, and I surprisingly received points for not one but two Non-Sapient Augment Kills. Even though the grunt hadn’t fully transformed, the serum he had injected made him count anyway. Between the level 6 Luca and the level 4 grunt, the phase gain was worth 250 points.

With it pretty much only a stone's throw away, I swooped into the Bronze den on the far side of the park. My new revolver bar had already proven its efficiency, and I rather quickly cleared out the few grunts that had been left to defend the place. Although I probably could have driven the fight into the streets to get an audience, I still had a natural instinct to keep fights as far away from Sapient NPCs as possible. With the Bronze den cleared out, I added an extra 250 points to my total before I found my way back to the top of the building I had spotted the yacht on.

With Jon in the Command Room, I didn’t need to pull out the physical map I had looted, especially given that the map I had only had the dens locations noted on it, whereas Jon got just a bit more information than I did. Of the remaining eight dens that I still had showing on the map, four of them were marked as Bronze, three were Silver, and one of them was Gold. Jon did a bit more digging and discovered that there were apparently three levels of dens higher than Gold still, but Angie insisted that those often didn’t show up in an Augment’s path until they had brought their level into at least the 20s.

I took a seat on the edge of the roof, letting my feet dangle over as I took in the now mid-morning breeze. Although he was quick to give me the information on the dens, Jon had been relatively quiet while I tackled the den itself. I didn’t necessarily need to banter with him while I fought, but his silence had still been noticeable nonetheless.

“Okay, so I’ve been looking into it here, searching through some of the forums and Augment watch pages and I can’t find anything on Snakebite. If multiple people hadn’t already said the name, I’d wonder if it was fake, hell, I’m still sorta wondering that,” Jon said with a frustrated sigh. “I even did some digging on Salvatore Travisi and it’s pretty much the same. There’s a few profiles out there, but none that look like the photos you saw on the ship.”

“Hmmm, well the dude is into criminal stuff now, it kinda makes sense to scrub his online presence if that’s the case. It doesn’t explain why you can’t find anything on Snakebite if he was an Augment… Wait, Angie, I could theoretically change my registered name if I wanted to, right?” I asked as I pulled the pack of gum out of my pocket and took a piece.

“Of course! Granted, unless you simultaneously change your costume, it might be hard to rename yourself in the eyes of the public community,” Angie said. “I’m still surprised no one has tried to call you Poophole yet. Am I not as funny as I think I am?”

“You’re nowhere close to being as funny as you think you are,” I said as I looked at the bustling city. Angie let out a huff of frustration that I ignored as I continued. “I wonder if Snakebite went by a different name when he started, it couldn’t be that hard to check if Hydramental is the only Augment that’s been associated with Chelsea, right?”

“Nah, that should be pretty easy to check, let me take a quick look,” Jon said. It took a few moments where I assumed he must have been searching before he actually spoke. “I’m not seeing anything concrete or immediate, though if I were trying to line up the dates he would have been starting up, it’s almost like a weird lack of news. Like, it’s almost like basically anything associated with Sal has been scrubbed from the internet. You might have been on the nose with needing to talk to Giada. Hydramental would be good too but from the way you’ve talked about him I have to assume he’s got a major stick up his ass about whatever has happened with his brother. Again, that’s assuming that that was him in the photo. It was a younger dude, how are you sure it was him?”

I thought about it for a moment, starting to chew the gum as I pushed off the ledge and activated Personal Gravity Laws. Just the ability to float so freely was a feeling that I was quickly starting to find comfort in as the weightlessness seemed to ease the tension in my body.

“Stick with me here, do you remember what it felt like when you looked at me in my equipment before you had it fully confirmed?” I asked as I slowly moved across the sky, almost like I was literally walking on air.

“Yeah, it was that Who’s That feature on your mask, right? The amount of control that Axio has even on those of us without Augmentation is kinda freaky the more I think about it. Like, pretty much until right before you confirmed my suspicion, that blurriness that came with the mask left me with this insanely intense feeling that I was completely wrong. I was really only positive enough to actually say something about it when you just trusted me to follow up on your mute ability,” Jon said and I could practically hear him tapping at his chin. “What’s that got to do with Hydramental though? The dude in the photo wasn’t wearing a mask.”

“It was just… I don’t know… I haven’t actually been on the other side of the… well mask… but I sorta feel like it’s probably the same feeling? Maybe it’s because I met Hydramental in costume first, but when I looked at that photo it was like I had this uneasy feeling that I had met him somewhere before,” I explained, flipping myself as I floated above the park and looked down toward it. The blood didn’t rush to my head as I hung there, which I had to assume was a side effect of my Personal Gravity Laws. “I don’t know, it’s a hunch based on limited information, I’ll give you that. Maybe that’s why I’m not in such a big hurry to go flying down there to confront him. Well that and I don’t even know what I’d say… Like, how the hell do you just approach someone you’ve only met once and go, ‘Hey dude, remember that Snake dude we fought? Yeah, so was that your brother or some sort of resurrected version of him? I know, I know, suuuuuuper weird question, I just saw a picture of you with him back before…’”

“Huh? What’s up?” Jon asked as I suddenly trailed off in thought.

“Hydramental was in a picture with his brother… before he himself got involved in the game,” I said, looking around the park as I put together the myriad of details I had learned over the last few days. I could see a few people had noticed my presence and were pointing up, signaling for others to look as well. I waved at them with a smile on my face, performing a small full flip in the air before returning to an upside down lounge, eliciting cheers from the smaller children, simply excited to see someone doing something super. “I wonder if Snakebite broke the Secret Identity rule…”

“Oooo yeah that wouldn’t be a good thing to do,” Angie chirped. “You’ve been lucky enough to avoid having to deal with the Threats so far, but they are nasty things to have to confront. I’d be interested to see how many of the Augments in your wave survived the Minor Threat’s that were deployed last night.”

“You know, given how I got brought into this, I guess I hadn’t thought enough about the rule to look it up. Doesn’t it just suppress you before you can say something?” Jon asked.

“No, that was what happened when I tried to mention the game aspect of all of it. The Secret Identity rule just puts in place consequences if you actively tell someone who you are,” I explained. I was a bit surprised that he hadn’t looked it up, especially given the fact that Angie had already warned him about sharing information with online communities. Although in hindsight that may have been in regards to the actual game and not just Augments, I hadn’t actually taken the time to probe too far into what Jon had learned from her on his own.

“Huh, isn’t that kinda weird though? Like, what’s the point of the rule if you don’t get punished or have anything negative happen if someone discovers your identity on their own?” Jon replied and I navigated my way toward another roof as my stamina ticked under 50%, just as I set myself down, a notification window popped open.

“Personal Gravity Laws. Movement Ability. This ability has increased to Level 2. The base level stamina drain for this ability has been reduced to 4.75 stamina per second of use. This ability has not been augmented.”

While the speed in which the ability had leveled up compared to my other abilities felt rather fast, I had been using it far more continuously than the others, so it made a bit of sense. I could have easily gotten distracted by this and tried to probe Angie for information, but Jon had actually raised a good point.

“I suppose it is kinda weird when you actually say it like that. I guess I just saw it as a sort of loophole in the system,” I said and a laugh escaped me, “Hell, it was kinda where the name came from in the first place.”

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

“Perfectly formed jokes about your name aside, the connection between it and your powerset has always been a stretch at best,” Angie said.

“I just don’t get the point of having a rule like that if there’s a way to so easily exploit it,” Jon wondered aloud. I bit my tongue as I scanned the horizon and briefly thought I could see a speck flying far to the North but it vanished just as quickly as I spotted it.

Axio was only stopping Angie from hearing my internal thoughts on his comments to me, but he hadn’t necessarily said there would be a suppression effect if I did bring it up. I was tempted to try, but Axio’s implication that there was someone else that could be listening was still stuck in my head. The worst part about it was that it felt like a catch-22. While my gut was telling me that he wasn’t, Axio certainly could have been lying just to keep me from saying something for whatever reason he could think of, but I wouldn’t know for sure unless I did say something. And even then that would only be if there was some sort of immediate reaction to my revelation. Hell, even if there was a reaction, it could just be something Axio himself deploys.

Simply put, there really were just too many factors to consider. With the mystery of Sal still at hand, I didn’t think it was prudent to get sidetracked on things that seemed leagues out of our control. And if Axio’s plotting and tinkering behind the scenes was anything, it was definitely leagues out of my control.

“Okay, let’s work on the theory that Snakebite broke the rule instead of Hydramental figuring it out… Angie, would Axio utilize Augments that have died to… I don’t know, clone NPCs? We never have really gotten into how they are made… grown… Look I just have a lot of questions, especially given that Giada back there thinks that the current Sal we’ve been seeing is her husband. Can you give all the information that you’re allowed to give me on the Non-Sapient’s…. Production, I guess?” I asked as I walked over the empty building top, letting my stamina slowly rise back to the top.

“Okay that is quite a lot, but let me try to explain in the most logical order. To head off one of the first questions I’m sure you or Codex will want to ask in follow up, the original source of this technology is from a classified location and I am not able to provide information on that. However the actual process itself has not been deemed classified as it is often expected for Guardian-coded Augments to find spawning locations to shut down. While the overall process is rather complex and I don’t believe you have the necessary knowledge levels to fully comprehend, I can give you a generalized explanation that should satisfy your question,” Angie said before she cleared her non-existent throat. “Non-Sapient NPCs are vat-grown, combining dead tissue and biomass into full sized human forms. over the course of a few days, depending on the variety that is needed. The NPCs capable of being Augmented require more genetic material than the run of the mill NPCs used as cannon fodder. As I’ve mentioned those augmentation shots we have been seeing are new, so it’s possible the growing process for the simpler models hasn’t been adjusted to allow them to access those injections safely. To the best of my knowledge bases, NPCs are not generally cloned from pre-existing humans, though no formal rule about it has ever been established.”

“Sheesh… I get I shouldn’t be surprised by the technology existing or anything, especially with all the Augments that are running around, but it’s still almost creepy to think that these folks are just… among us, and are essentially little more than puppets,” Jon said and I was surprised to hear him sounding less enthused than normal.

“You know, it’s kinda nice hearing you not immediately geeking out about at least a part of this craziness. I was almost starting to think you were going full super-villain when you got excited about the prospect of kaijus destroying a city,” I said with a laugh. I thought about it for a moment and then decided to add, “Thank you Angie, I appreciate the rundown.”

“That is my job!” Angie chirped back, clearly pleased with herself before her tone turned. “If I may offer an opinion on this situation though.”

“You? Offering up something freely? Color me both surprised and skeptical,” I asked, trying not to sound too incredulous. “Okay, let’s hear it and the bad punchline that comes with it.”

“I believe you two may be jumping to conclusions,” she said rather flatly.

“How so?” Jon asked.

“Well leaving aside that as you’ve pointed out Codex, Hydramental’s involvement is only suspected at best, your assumptions so far are being based on your own limited knowledge. I was not given the time to fully explain on the yacht, but when a Miscreant takes control of a local NPC contingent, they are giving access to a suite of controls that allows them to control the flavor and type of NPCs that their gang will provide, this includes fine control over the powerset suites available for the Augmented NPC henchmen that comes with those contingents. They are even able to customize the name of their men, as long term observation has proven some Augments are more prone to theatricality than others.”

“So… you think this is just a major coincidence? The real Sal is actually hiding out somewhere and has an NPC with his name and powerset just roaming around?” I asked as I looked over the edge of the roof. My gut still twisted when I looked down while my flying ability wasn’t activated and I averted my eyes quickly.

“I’m just pointing out it’s the most logical answer given the scope of normal Miscreant/NPC relations. I’d also like to point out, you are only assuming Snakebite and the Sal you have fought so far have the same powerset,” Angie explained.

“She brings up a good point, Salvatore isn’t exactly a common name but it’s not like it’s super rare either, especially in New York,” Jon jumped in. “Plus she’s right, I wasn’t exactly here when you dealt with Hydramental, so we are really trusting that your hunch about the dude in the photo is right. But unless you saw Sal before he transformed we can’t even be sure if the Augment in the photo you saw is the same dude.”

“Maybe…” I said and trailed off. Maybe I didn’t want to admit they were right, but Angie’s explanation felt too neat and it didn’t explain everything either. I shook my arms out and cracked my head to the side as I tried to refocus myself. They were right, we really were getting into the weeds of things. “This probably is more of a mystery than we can figure out in a morning… I guess all we can really do is just keep knocking out the points to push me over 10,000, then we can focus on this bigger mystery. Hell, with 8 more dens, maybe I’ll find some more clues. I have a notebook I scooped up after fighting Sal the first time, plus this burner phone I managed to snag in the fight before you got dragged into all of this. I haven’t really even taken time to really investigate either of them with everything going on. We can probably drop it all for now, at least until Lt. Nester contacts me whenever Giada is processed and I can start by trying to get her to spill what Snakebite's powers are supposed to be, at least to see if him and the Sal I have fought have the same powerset.”

“I’d say that is a very prudent way to go about it. Mysteries are all well and good, but I’d rather you not twiddle your thumbs just because you’ve happened to make good progress on getting to the 10,000 required points,” Angie said.

“Hell, if he takes care of all of the bronze and silver dens, just from Basebreaker alone he’d cross the line, I think that alone makes that course of action the best laid plan.” Jon added in as I heard him let out a loud yawn. “Okay, Angie, I know he has the map but it’s not like he’s gonna fly around with it out. If I give you the addresses to the 4 bronze dens, can you please properly relay them to Loophole here without sending him running in circles for the rest of the morning? Even though I want to throw myself fully into this, I do still have to finish the wiring job for Mr. Greyson since that’ll cover our rent for two months. I can’t exactly back out of that commitment now.”

“Well if you’re going to ask so nicely, I suppose I certainly could do that for you Codex. Plus I have to admire just how responsible you are,” Angie responded with a purr before she suddenly started to giggle. “I mean, it would be funny to send him running in circles, but that wouldn’t necessarily be prudent for the time being.”

“Okay good,” Jon said. “I think you should probably hit level 7 by the time you get through at least a few of those dens. I’m not seeing a ‘Level Up Imminent’ message but I’d have to assume it’s coming soon. Once you do, shoot me a text and meet me back here. It’s just your stat points but we should be able to unlock that Refractions of Reality book and I really want to see what that’s going to do once you absorb it. Sound like a plan?”

“Yeah that sounds like as good of a plan as any,” I said as I pushed off the ledge and started to float again.

“Good… and if you do happen to discover anything else that is like, obviously pressing, shoot me a text that just says something like ‘CR Now’ and I’ll know to get back to the Command Room, okay? Now I gotta run, later man,” He rattled off quickly. Before I could even fully tell him 'later' in return, I could briefly hear a door close before a new message appeared.

“Codex has left the Command Room, communication has been lost.”

“Okay Angie, looks like it's just you and me again,” I said as I turned and looked over the rest of my neighborhood.

“I’d say just like old times but it’s barely been 24 hours since it was just you and I,” she giggled. “Should I start with further comments about how attractive I think Codex is or should we go with the old classics and I just lob random insults at you to see which if any will actually finally bother you?”

“How about you just tell me where the closest of these dens are,” I suggested and I heard her sigh.

“Fiiiiine don’t be phased by my jokes, that’s not annoying to me at all… There’s one three blocks to the east on 8th street, just on the edge of the neighborhood. If you head on over, I’ll highlight the correct building for you when you are within range,” she said. “Just because you’ve learned to ignore me thanks to Codex, don’t think that means I’m going to drop it… Just means I have to try harder.”

“Trust me Angie, at this point I think it’s strange when you are just helpful,” I said, orienting myself and then taking off, quickly hurtling toward the east.