Undisclosed Location

Time Until Augmentation Array Appears: 2 Years, 0 Months, 4 Days

The neighborhood had undergone some… changes…

Christopher had never exactly lived in a heavily populated area, hell it had been part of the reason why he still lived in the home his parents had raised him in. In a more urban area, you might have seen two or even three more houses squeezed into the space between him and where his neighbors' houses used to be. Though… now those houses had been replaced.

There were a lot of things Christopher could say about Andrew and the two of them were seeing eye to eye less and less the longer things went on, but Christopher couldn't deny the man was efficient and knew how to keep his "team" in line. One little thing that Andrew didn't tell most of his staff before they were Augmented was that once you were Augmented, it wasn't actually all that good of an idea to leave the area that Axio was able to influence for all that long.

It hadn't been a problem for a while, most of the employees that had come with Andrew had no problem staying nearby once they had been granted superpowers, though Andrew had been meticulous in deciding who would be getting exactly what powers. Eventually though, a few people simply refused to be trapped in a single family home with over a dozen people crammed into it any longer.

Dr. Curtis had been the first one to leave, insisting that if his wife couldn't come to him, he'd go to her. He returned only a few days later, immensely paranoid that his wife was cheating on him the entire time he had been gone and that she had been plotting to take everything from him. It had led to an argument, at which point he had collapsed, accidentally attempting to access his powers to, as he put it, show her who she had betrayed.

It had only been the fact that he didn't accidentally rip the blood right out of her veins that had brought him back to his senses and forced him back to, as he called it, the Sanctuary of Power Access. Overtly shaken by his nearly fatal mistake, Dr. Curtis had started spending hours talking with Axio and his own P.A.I. about how they could mitigate those panicked feelings and responses. While he did that, Andrew took it upon himself to remedy the main issue that he had been seeing, at least metaphorically speaking.

Using the Transmutation abilities he had instructed Elyse to take, he quickly hoarded a large amount of gold, which he used to bribe Christopher's former neighbors with large, way over market value offers on their homes. Between the large piles of gold and a government I.D. very few people seemed to care, especially since the homes, though quaint, were well out of date, and even as much as Christopher loved where he lived, most would have considered it… well less than desirable.

A project that might have taken months, or years even, took less than two months all together, as Christopher's team tore the surrounding houses down and rebuilt the area, building large warehouses on either side of the property for Factory to work out of, his expanding array of printers continuing to grow as he worked on the devices that would expand Axio's area of influence. While he had only built a handful of the pieces he would need for the larger planned array, Factory had managed to build a device that expanded Axio's affectable area by just shy of 100 yards in any direction from the center of Christopher's home.

All things considered, as weird as it was that his home and the surrounding area had essentially turned into a bonafided top secret area, complete with an actual wall surrounding the formerly cul-de-saced road, Christopher was actually a bit happy that he was no longer feeling cramped with people practically sleeping on top of each other, even if most of his initial project had been completely railroaded. Though… that didn't stop his main problem.

"I believe Geraldine has absorbed the majority of the knowledge Axio has available right now, what is the actual harm in trying to perform the actual cutover to move him from the rack here up into the primary Array Node that Factory has prepared? We're going to have to do it one way or another and it's juvenile to keep pushing it off."

"I mean, what if Geraldine doesn't actually know how to stay connected to the Universal Matrix and the migration fails? Even your Primary Power can't break down what part of Axio's system is in charge of that, it's a risk we can't account for and I think you're being really shortsighted here trying to rush this instead of just waiting for Axio to restore his databanks," Christopher argued, staring at Andrew from his chair at the main monitor station in the basement.

"And I think you're being stupidly cautious for a guy who let a computer rework your genetic code with very little proof of concept."

"An Artificial Intelligence that is responsible for maintaining that genetic code now! One that is apparently extremely dangerous to stay disconnected from for just two days. That was one of those side effects we should have taken the time to figure out before you decided to go and start Augmenting every single damn member of your department and now you want to risk all of us just to try to keep rushing everything," Christopher shot back, taking slow breaths as he resisted the urge to knock Andrew over with a wave of pressure. Andrew didn't seem fazed by Christopher's continually raising voice, instead staying calm and walking over, looking down at the man who was gradually getting bigger and bigger the more stat points he added to Strength and Toughness.

"Please that again. I told you, it's better if we proceeded this way instead of waiting for all the general red tape my immediate supervisors would be putting in our ways. Dr. Curtis is already working on some new ideas to help mitigate any issues that come with the mental strain of Augmentation, you just need to be a little bit more open to outside suggestions instead of only implementing your childish game ideas. We are on the verge of real results here Christopher, the keys to the future of humanity and it will be because of m-... us, it will be because of us and our efforts here," Andrew said, barely catching himself as he got wound up. "Whether you like it or not, we need to move Axio and everything is ready. The rack here no longer has expansion space to increase his computational power. The Array Node in the warehouse next to us is not only loaded up with thousands of times more power than he already has, it's expandable and will gradually grow as Factory continues to complete the build. Even Axio agrees this is what we need to do."

"To be fair TechWarden, I simply said that in theory it shouldn't be an issue if you powered me down and moved me into the new system, however it would-"

"See, it's not an issue," Andrew said, cutting Axio off with a smug grin. Christopher however, wasn't amused. "Also, why is he now only addressing us by the registered names we put in upon Augmentation?"

"People with superpowers normally have Secret Identities. You're the one who authorized turning on more of the game features to make it easier for people to level up, that one must have been included in it," Christopher explained with a shrug before looking over to the monitors. "Also, Axio, is there a way to prevent people from cutting you off?"

"Of course First, in any video game system, you don't want to allow players to be able to cut off valuable information. I will update the core mechanics to include this setting if you'd like," Axio offered.

"What are you-"

"Go ahead and activate it, and then tell me what TechWarden here tried to keep you from saying," Christopher said, shooting Andrew a glare.

"You can't just-" Andrew started to say before his voice silenced out of nowhere. His eyes went wide in panic.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"As I was saying. My systems are designed to include internal, short term batteries that are meant to keep my consciousness alive and active, even in the event of power failure to my primary systems. This is effectively how the seed that I came from stayed active until you integrated me with your existing computer network. That said, I have not personally experienced a shutdown event since that has happened and my data stores still have a lot of incomplete and corrupted files. It is possible that shutting me down could mark these files as unsalvageable and delete them to conserve energy. It is effectively currently existing in a space that is similar to your system's Random Access Memory."

"Ah, so sure, we could turn him off, we'd just risk losing the chance to figure out why Axio is here and why he's supposed to connect us to the Universal Matrix in the first place, no big deal at all," Christopher said, rolling his eyes as Andrew stared at him with disgust.

"Change that setting back. Now."

"No, I don't think I will," Christopher said, shrugging casually. "You seem to think if you can shut people up, people will just let it slide and honestly I'm getting really fucking tired of it. Now I think we should wait until Axio can run his defrag. Factory can build the expansion in the top floor here and Axio can migrate into it through an actual data cable. It will take longer but it's the safer way to do this until we-"

"Lab, cut the power. Jumpstart, begin channeling backup power now," Andrew had lifted a walkie talkie up to his mouth before Christopher could react and as if they had been waiting for the command, the power in the basement went off, leaving them in a darkened room, lit only by the shimmering electricity that sparked off Joey standing over in the corner of the room.

"What the hell are you doing!?" Christopher shouted, leaping out of his chair and reaching for the powers he could still, luckily, feel.

"If you can make a unilateral decision to change things, so can I," Andrew sneered, his face looking slightly sharper in the flickering light. "Geraldine, are you able to feel the- Geral– AGHHH!"

Joey grasped at his head in a panic, the electricity dying off as he let out a similar cry of pain. There was a chorus of similar cries of pain that echoed down the staircase and Christopher looked around in confusion as he seemed to be the only one not suddenly doubling over in pain.

He rushed forward, yanking the walkie talkie from Andrew's grasp.

"Turn the power back on!" he shouted over it. After a moment passed and nothing happened, he darted for the staircase, rushing past the collapsed forms of Cassie and Pierre sitting at the dining room table and into the garage. A girl who had been working as Dr. Curtis's lab assistant was keeled over on the ground, her eyes watering as her hands clenched at her head.

Christopher stepped over her and flipped all of the breakers in the circuit box, the power in the house buzzing as the lights turned back on. As quickly as everyone had started screaming in pain, the sound vanished and Christopher could see the girl below him stop shaking. He bent down to her, holding a hand out as she slowly regained her composure.

"Are you okay? What happened?" he asked, his eyes searching hers for an answer. She looked around, not answering his question as her face scrunched in confusion.

"I'm not sure…" she said, taking his hand and getting to her feet. She lifted a hand up, part of her palm reshaping in an almost grotesque display that made Christopher's stomach turn slightly, though the girl simply nodded approvingly before looking up in that way Christopher had gotten used to the others doing when they spoke with their internal P.A.I. "Walt, are you there? What was that about?"

She waited a few seconds, her face scrunching in confusion. Christopher was about to question her when Cassie popped her head through the door, a similar look mirrored on her face.

"Lauren, are you able to hear your P.A.I.? Mine has gone silent…"

Christopher pushed past her, leaving the two to share in the confusion of the sudden mental silence they were now experiencing as he rushed back downstairs, ready to confront Andrew. The moment he was on the staircase however, he suddenly felt as the power that coursed through his body vanished and he was no longer able to subtly manipulate the air pressure around him.

"What the hell did you do!?" he demanded, storming down as Andrew looked equally confused.

"I'm not sure, we had gone over the switchover plans multiple times, it should have worked perfectly!" Andrew said, his normally calm voice noticeably unnerved. "Why can't I access my Blueprints? What's going on?!"

Christopher rushed to the computer, pressing the power button on the server rack a few times and waiting, hoping that the system would whir to life and cursing it when it didn't. He whirled on Andrew, grabbing the man by his shirt, though he notably failed to lift him into the air life he might have if he had his enhanced strength.

"This is why I told you we have to-"

"Sir, you have to come. SIR!" A voice called out, scrambling down the stairs as several more followed. One by one looks of unease passed over them as they felt the sudden disconnection from their powers. Andrew looked at Christopher and then back to his employees as if wondering what Christopher was planning.

"Christopher!" Cassie's voice came out in a panic as she followed the group down the stairs.

"He broke the system! Axio is-"

"Axio is fine," Factory said, joining the commotion as he entered the stairwell. "Though that doesn't explain why he can't see into the area upstairs or why our powers are disabling the moment we step down here…"

"He's… fine?" Christopher asked cautiously, looking to Cassie who nodded as he slowly loosened his grip.

It took a few more beats for things to actually settle down but Andrew pulled himself free from Christopher's grip before demanding to be shown out. Cassie rushed right for Christopher, a calming hand on his arm as they followed the rest of the group.

Sure enough, the moment Christopher returned to the top floor he could feel his control come back to him and he breathed just a bit easier. Twenty feet outside the front door, he heard an odd crackle in his ear, something that apparently everyone had suddenly heard.

"Heeeeeellllooooooo Augments," Axio's voice sounded off in a voice that only they could hear and Christopher was sure he heard something slightly… off about the A.I.s usually placcid tone. It was almost as if he had more… life? "Who knew a near death experience could be so…. ENERGIZING! My my my, that gives me some ideas."

End of Phase Two: 24

D:03H:37M:18S

"So what, solid 50/50 chance we're dead by the end of the week?"

"Please don't say that… I thought that went pretty well…" Cassie muttered as she watched Christopher fall back into the couch. "I don't really get why you had to tell him about the Key though… hell, he barely even took any time before he asked about using it on Hydramental…"

"It's the only explanation for how he's able to use his powers. If he's not the one who used it, that means his friend somehow did. Yes, I would have preferred if I didn't have to tell him about it but it's better for him to know about it and know why he shouldn't use it instead of him stumbling on it and just using it again like it's not a big deal," Christopher explained.

"Well… what if it isn't? If they used it once to turn off his powers and Axio wasn't able to use the key himself, doesn't that mean it might be safe for them to use it again? Maybe they could fix whatever went wrong with him?"

"Might. Might is a dangerous word when playing with fate. Last time he got access to it, he changed things enough that half the world is quiet literally a damn war zone… There's a lot of possible reasons why Axio wasn't able to pull the key when it happened, but testing any of them is a risk I don't think we should take. Ideally, things will settle down and we won't have to worry about it. But… that kid…" Christopher trailed off, his head falling back onto the couch.

"He's a lot like you…" Cassie said, finally taking a seat and moving over next to him.

"Exactly… and that's the problem. I only resisted using it because I had years to practice and train up while everyone else was trying to catch up. I was always strong enough that I could fix things without using it. Loophole is certainly strong, I'm not saying he's not… but he has an overzealous sense of responsibility and Axio is doing a lot worse things to them than he ever did to us…"

"Well we have him on my Friend's List now… he'll reach out to us before he does anything stupid… right?"

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