It had been far over a day since Nate had returned home and he hadn’t said a single word the entire time. After having vanished for nearly an hour, Jon had expected some sort of celebration of success, but the only thing Nate had said was that he needed some time alone.

  Although Nate didn’t actively choose to open his notifications, Jon was still able to scroll through the sudden wave of new information that his friend was quite actively choosing to ignore. Not only had he gotten a massive 4300 Phase Point boost to his score from defeating SnakeBite, something that launched him into First Place on the leaderboard, he had gained not just one, but two S:Tier loot boxes. One from completing the Snake Key mission and the other for reaching First Place.

  His luck didn’t stop there either, as his jacket’s Lucky Charm feature procced, upgrading the Achievement granted S:Tier box up to an S+:Tier. Jon was beyond excited to see what the highest ranked tier could hold but even that discovery was met with silence from Nate. The last thing that surprised Jon was that Nate’s claim over Community Center 4, the game designated 'Medium Town', lost its Contested status, granting him the remaining 750 points from claiming it. He wasn't sure how defeating SnakeBite had completely wiped out Nate's opposition, but he certainly wasn't going to question it that much.

  While Nate was still outside of the Safe House that night, Jon found he didn’t have access to what he had been jokingly calling Nate O’Vision to himself, though the map feature of the Command Room still worked. So while he couldn't see exactly what Nate could see, Jon could still see exactly where Nate had run off too. Angie, while she could still talk to him, found he wasn’t responding to even her most annoying of attempts as he descended into Central Park. It wasn’t even until the next morning that he came walking in through the front door, dropping a bag of groceries onto the table before heading into his bedroom, locking the door behind himself without a word of explanation.

  Jon had only seen his best friend like this once before, when his Grandma had passed away, and although Angie had wanted to talk with him about it, Jon decided to give Nate space, at least initially. Nate had never been the most vocal about his emotions, and that was before he had more superhuman problems to deal with. Even then, Jon had thought that by noon Nate would make an appearance and finally fill them in on what had happened after he went silent, but that came and went without a single word.

  When dinner was finally coming around and Axio’s End of Phase announcement looming, Jon decided to go with an old reliable and ran out to the deli. It only took him about a half hour to make it out, place the usual order, and make it back to the apartment with some time to spare.

  “Any update on him?” Jon asked as he walked in through the door. He found it incredibly frustrating that he was limited to hearing Angie from within the Safe House, especially since he knew the gear that made him The Guy In The Chair was still technically on him, but there really wasn’t anything he could do about it unless there was an upgrade for his gear coming in the future.

  “Not a peep,” Angie said with an uncharacteristic sigh. Unlike with Nate, Jon heard Angie like she was coming out of invisible speakers that were floating near wherever he was walking, at least while Nate was inside of the Safe House, otherwise he had to be seated in the Command Room to hear anything. “I would really like to know what happened that made him decide to turn his Acceptance Matrix off… One of my primary protocols is to do everything I can to prevent exactly that from happening…”

  “Yeah you’ve been awfully cagey about everything happening here…”

  “Honestly Codex that’s not out of some malicious intent on my part. I’m still doing my best to figure these changes out myself. As best as I can understand, Axio has been… restricting the information on just what the Acceptance Matrix controlled,” Angie explained, clearly just a bit frustrated. “For instance, it would seem I can no longer monitor his unspoken thoughts. Even before when he asked me not to respond to them, I could still hear them. Now it's just a constant drone of static. This means I can’t provide information based on things he doesn’t realize are important enough to ask.”

  “You didn’t do that before,” Jon offered as he set his sandwich down at the coffee table. He was going to set Nate’s down there as well but looked over toward his friend’s door uncertainly.

  “Yeah but now I can’t; there’s a very noticeable difference,” She shot back.

  “Does that have anything to do with why he has been able to just sit on five level ups instead of the system forcing him to choose things?” He asked as he walked around the couch and toward Nate’s door.

  “Yes, that seems to be the case… As his last placed points were at level 8, I couldn’t say for sure if this has eliminated the enforced time limit on the Ability Augmentations or not and we won’t know for sure until he places his level 9 stats and moves on to the level 10 selections.”

  Jon thought about it for a moment as he stopped at Nate’s door and held up a fist. He knocked three times and leaned in, listening for any sort of movement or response.

  “Hey bud… Axio’s daily announcement is gonna be starting soon,” He called out, staring down at the door handle and debating if he should just try to force it open. “I’ve also grabbed some Cubans from Tio’s… might be a good idea to eat…”

  “He’s still not responding to me as well; it’s possible that he’s asleep as I’m not registering any movement from his system, although now I'm questioning if that is governed by the Acceptance Matrix as well,” Angie said, another wave of frustration passing through her tone.

  “I’m gonna put yours on the table out here, come grab it whenever,” Jon called through the door before he turned and walked over to the kitchen to place the sandwich down.

  Almost as soon as Jon plopped own onto the couch, the television in their living room clicked on as the game’s stylized logo started to spin on the screen. Music started to swell, letting the logo fade away as various clips of fights started to play. Like the last few announcements that Jon had seen, this was a collection of different surveillance and cell phone footage of the members of the top ten list, some of the best shots of each of them that the game's system seemed to have.

  For the third night in a row, the shot of Nate launching into the air and smashing down into the giant group of snake-men was played from several different angles and Jon still watched it with just a bit of awe. In just the few days he had been active, Nate had really made a name for himself in their neighborhood. Jon wasn't too sure if that was something that Axio had been somehow influencing, but he chose to believe that Nate had just started inspiring the people around them. Even just walking down the street to Tio’s, he had seen more than a few businesses with “We Love Loophole!” signs and he found himself feeling just a bit of pride in knowing that he was a part of his friend’s team.

  Even before the list was displayed on the screen, Jon noticed that Hydramental had fallen off of it, replaced by a man creating a wavy path of ice between two buildings, sliding along it with a wild smile as he tossed bolts of icy blue energy toward what looked like a giant, mutated, two-headed bear. As images of this Augment and then the ever confusing Pigeon finally faded from the screen, the list finally generated, and Jon once again found himself somewhat surprised by the ever decreasing player count.

  Tenth Wave

  Guardians: 195 Miscreants: 312

  1. Tempest’s Wrath - Level 14 Thunder God - Miscreant - 21500 Points

  2. Loophole - Level 13 Perfect Planner - Guardian - 21450 Points

  3. Swansong - Level 11 Healing Voice - Guardian- 14670 Points

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  4. Freakenstein - Level 10 Patchwork Armorer - Miscreant - 13890 Points

  5. Quizmaster - Level 10 Gameshow Host - Miscreant - 13850 Points

  6. Duke Juke’em- Level 10 Highschool Athlete - Miscreant - 13525 Points

  7. Vice Grip - Level 9 Toolbox Mechanic - Guardian - 13230 Points

  8. Pretty Pink Warthog - Level 9 Berserking Boar - Guardian - 13150 Points

  9. Alpine Bob - Level 9 Iceflow Dynamo - Guardian - 12975 Points

  10. Pigeon - Level 9 Pigeon - Miscreant - 12955 Points

  Jon wasn’t necessarily surprised that Tempest’s Wrath had overtaken Nate once more, but the fact that it had been so close was still noteworthy to him given that Nate had been locked away in his bedroom for the entirety of the last day of the phase. Had he actually been active, it was probably likely that no one would have been able to catch up with him. Before Jon could start thinking too much about that however, as always, there was a familiar crackle of a speaker and mic tap.

  “And 3… 2… 1! That’s it folks, that’s the end of Phase One,” Axio called out, a fanfare of trumpets blasting in a triumphant rhythm as the screen started slowly splitting into hundreds of smaller screens, each appearing with a portrait of a different Augment inside of it that became harder and harder to differentiate the more that appeared. “At the end of Day 4 I am so proud to say that not a single one of you left has missed the point deadline, though some of you cut it rather close. Seriously, Applejack, that was impressive but maybe don’t wait so long to actually do your job during the next phase. Regardless, it's quite nice to know that I don't have to unleash Critical level threats as a punishment on any of you! While this might be one of the smaller groups moving from Phase One to Phase Two, it is also the first group that won't be losing another member due to failing the Phase! See, first round of my testing has improved the quality of you Augments, providing regular motivation does breed results!”

  “As promised, the current top ten will each receive an S:Tier Loot Box. And I know, I’m sure some of you are thinking, ‘is it really fair that you’re giving the people farthest ahead such a big bonus?’ No, it’s not fair. But I’m not here to reward mediocrity, that would be a waste of my time. That said, given that you all did pass this last day without further casualties, not to mention what comes next, what’s the harm with throwing a little random chance to the wind. For completing Phase One, each of you, including the Top 10 members, will receive three F:Tier loot boxes.”

  Jon found his eyes widening as he considered the ever growing stack of possibly valuable items that Nate was sitting on. He knew whatever the funk his best friend was in was serious, he didn’t doubt that for a minute, but it was going to pass eventually and when it did, those boxes were still going to be waiting to further propel Nate's position.

  “Now you have all gotten so much stronger already, and again trust me when I say that I truly am proud of all of you for rising to the challenge. Some of you may have met those fallen members of your wave and while you may mourn them, I highly recommend you don’t waste too much time on that. Maybe you’ve noticed it, maybe you haven’t, but you all aren’t as far spread as you might think. In fact, this year even before I knew I was going to have the chance to fiddle with things so much, I made the one little modification my old programming had allowed me to do. The Western Hemisphere got split into 100 distinct regions for the purpose of the Tenth Wave. For those of you that can’t do basic math, that means in each of those regions there are 10 of you and more often than not you’d be surprised to find that you all have pretty perfectly split between Guardians and Miscreants, granted erring on the side of the Miscreants in some of the more spacious regions. I really do appreciate when things work out like that. Oh, though I guess one of the regions started with 11 rather than 10, although that’s down to 8 now, so I guess it really doesn’t matter all that much.”

  Although he had been slacking just a bit on his Augment research, Jon had so far found some information on two of the other new Augments in New York City beyond Nate and Hydramental. Somewhat surprisingly though, they were both people that were in the top ten, Swansong and Freakenstein.

  Swansong appeared to be a sound based Augment, though unlike a hero like Calypso, she seemed to be almost entirely non-combat oriented, making her rank on the leaderboard all the more impressive. Most of the footage he had found of her was of her strolling through various hospitals, her white and gold costume shining like wings as she spread her arms and quite literally sang terminal children back to perfect health. It only took looking up the hospitals that she made her appearances at to determine that she was probably working out of East Harlem.

  Freakenstein was a rather odd monstrosity to watch, his body a quilt of molded metal and weapons that he tore and used with brutal efficiency against police officers and what Jon hoped were non-Sapient private security forces. He hoped that even more when he saw Freakenstein rip parts of their bodies off to absorb their bio-mass into his own hulking form. There were at least two separate roads in Downtown Brooklyn that were closed for repairs due to the sheer amount of damage that he had delivered.

  Other than that, just based on the random footage of Pigeon during the nightly announcement, Jon had a sneaking suspicion that he, or it… Jon still wasn’t exactly sure what Pigeon was, was somewhere in New York City as well, though he couldn’t find any evidence in the news of people being terrorized by an Augmented Pigeon.

  “While I’m sure there are more than a few of you eager to jump right on into Phase Two, there are just a few final quirks I’m needing to finish working out. I’ve gotta say, I’m loving just how much more compliant you guys have been than the older waves. I really didn’t push them hard enough and now I think they’re in for a rude awakening, but I think you all are going to be up to the task. In the interest of letting you all discover just what other Augments are in your region since that is going to be very important in the coming phase, there will be a three day interlude where I encourage you all to keep working to grow stronger and do some exploring. At the end of this announcement, you will all receive a map showing the boundaries of the region you are in. Trust me, this will be important.”

  “And I am feeling rather benevolent, so I’ll go ahead and warn you now; be careful before you look at this break without a point requirement and decide to slack off, I promise that won’t end well for you. To answer the first question I know that some of you may be waiting to ask: Yes, you can continue to gain points during this brief period and yes doing so will give you a leg up in the next phase. But just in case that's not enough to get you all going, let’s give you all some extra motivation. The three Augments that gain the most Phase Points during the next 72 hours will each receive an A+:Tier loot box. Strength, skill, and teamwork… yup… I think that’s a good enough hint. Congratulations again, you’ve done so well to grow strong enough to survive this far, let’s hope you all continue to rise to the challenge. I’m going to need as many of you as possible to get as strong as possible. Good luck Augments.”

  The television clicked off and Jon let out a long breath that he hadn’t realized he had been holding. He still wasn’t quite sure just how serious all of this was supposed to be. While he had certainly been flippant about some of the things that Nate had been dealing with, he did recognize the ever shrinking player count in the Tenth Wave proved that it wasn’t a perfectly safe game. At the very least this was the first night that Axio hadn’t levied some level of threat at the members of the wave.

  Jon was just starting to get up from the couch when he heard the click of a door opening. He turned and saw Nate stepping out of the room, his Fortune’s Guardian jacket not on his shoulders, but instead being held in his hands as he gripped it tight enough that his knuckles were turning white. There was a certain amount of hardness in his expression that Jon wasn’t sure what to make of.

  “You good, man?” Jon asked. Although he had a million questions he knew he needed to ask, he also knew better than to overwhelm Nate. Even then Nate just nodded before the jacket vanished in a flash of lights and reappeared overtop of Nate’s clothes. “You, uh… you wanna talk about it?”

  “I have more than a few questions that I really think you need to-”

  “Not now, Angie,” Jon cut her off and she huffed as Nate’s expression broke ever so slightly, one of the edges of his lips starting to curl upwards. Jon gave him a look, knowing more than anything that while it probably wasn’t the healthiest way to deal with things, his friend would talk when he was ready. He decided to give him the chance to redirect the conversation. “Okay, what’s the plan, bud?”

  There were a few moments of silence that passed and Jon almost wanted to ask if Nate was actually pausing for dramatic effect when his friend finally spoke. His voice was hoarse, like he had been crying for far longer than he should have, but it didn’t matter, Jon could still hear the resolve in his tone.

  “We get to work. This is far from over.”

  Happy Friday! And that is all for Book One! I know I've been saying this over and over this week but I truly do appreciate each and every one of you for reading this far. I have so much more planned and I hope the teasers here in these three epilogue chapters have gotten you eager for more.

  please take some time and leave a Review telling folks just what you liked about the story as that is one of the best ways you can support The Augment's Code. Well that and shouting about it to everyone you can (hey I gotta be shameless about plugging this stuff sometimes!)

  One last question for the comments. Who was your favorite MINOR side character that has appeared (or not appeared) so far?

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