Travis steps out of the Transport to find himself in a large abandoned lot, which has a huge shadow cast across the ground…and as he looks up he realizes he's standing in front of a floating fortress.
The fortress appears to be part warehouse, part haunted mansion, and part space ship—it's nearly impossible to place, with its steeple towers and hovercraft turbines. Especially since it's encased in one of Inherit's golden force fields, at the moment.
LEVEL ONE: DISABLE INHERIT'S ENERGY FORCE FIELD
"Inherit's shields are energy-based, so you best choose an attack that will deactivate or penetrate the energy signature, ya heard?" Travis hears H-Chip Aphrodite's warning feature activate in his ear and nod, ready to go.
"Alright, now let's see if Manbeast can disable Inherit's shield." Travis say.
Manbeast jumps up to strike the field, making sure to punch first with his anti-energy knuckle rings.
The punch punctures the force field, causing it to crack and dissipate in a shower of golden sparks.
With the force field down, Travis order Null to take point—just as something falls from the flying fortress.
Travis look up to find Inherit dropping down out of the sky. He has his body wrapped in a personalized energy shield ridged with spikes, and he's aimed to land on Null like a human-sized mace.
"Null use your EMP Pulse! Target Inherit's H-Chip system—that's what powers his force fields!" Travis shout.
Null calibrates and activates the EMP pulse on her wrist unit so that as Inherit drops down, his shield suddenly shorts out.
Inherit's face goes grim, but it's too late for him to react—he falls directly into an uppercut delivered by Null, knocking him out instantly.
INHERIT DOWN: LEVEL ONE CLEARED
LEADERBOARD +20
LEADERBOARD AFTER DEDUCTIONS: 20
It looks like you played Level One perfectly—he better keep it up.
As soon as the announcement clearing Level One sounds, he can feel the wind start to pick up. Within seconds, his Team finds itself in the eye of a full-on blizzard, with deadly waves of icy rain, snow, and hail all around.
Neon-colored lightning also starts to streak across the sky and it takes him a moment to realize it's not lightning, but Asrid's laser blasts.
LEVEL TWO: CLEAR SKY & ASRID'S LASERSQUALL
"Locate Sky and Asrid in this crazy lasersquall first, ho!" H-Chip Aphrodite reminds Travis.
"Alright, let's see if you're useful Jury. Use your surveillance vision!" Travis shouts.
Jury runs forward to follow the command, but as he does, a neon pink laser connects with the side of his head. Jury goes down like a ton of bricks—it looks like he's as useless as ever. Not that his limited Power set even had much to offer in the first place….
But maybe he wasn't totally useless—that blast gave up Asrid's location in the lasersquall cover. Now it's time for Bearcat to take down Asrid.
"Asrid will dodge Bearcat's long-distance attacks and launch her own laser beams, so best make him get up close and personal!" H-Chip Aphrodite says.
"Alright Bearcat, Use your Thunder claps."
Leaping towards Asrid, Bearcat slams both of his open palms together, causing a sonic boom to burst from his superstrong hands right in Asrid's face.
The immediate shockwave knocks Asrid off his feet and sends him crashing to the ground a neon-lit heap.
With Asrid down, Travis can feel the blizzard conditions getting worse—in a few minutes, they'll all be too frozen to have any hope of completing this Mission.
Luckily he jumped backwards at the last second as an ice blast landed just short of his feet—a blast that gives up Sky's position.
"Bearcat use your ground quakes."
Turning towards Sky, Bearcat slams both fists down onto the ground, causing it to erupt in an earthquake.
The shockwave trail reaches Sky and breaks through an ice-wall she erected for protection, causing ice blocks to fall onto Sky and knock her out.
As Sky goes down, the raging storm also starts to calm, clearing the entrance to the floating fortress.
ASRID & SKY DOWN: LEVEL TWO CLEARED
LEADERBOARD +20
LEADERBOARD AFTER DEDUCTIONS: 40
It looks like he played Level One and Level Two perfectly—at this rate, he'll definitely avoid elimination. Though there's still a lot of challenging stuff left….
LEVEL THREE: INFILTRATE THE FLOATING FORTRESS
As he grav-lift his Team up to the floating fortress entrance, he checked their statuses.
JURY: KNOCKED OUT
NULL:
Power 0
Health 100
MANBEAST:
Power: 0
Health 100
BEARCAT:
Power: 80
Health: 100
They enter the lobby of the floating fortress, which feels like the set of some kind of spaceship command cockpit, with sleek metal walls and computer consoles. But there are also medieval decorations everywhere: old suits of armor, color-blocked family crests, and lanterns line the walls.
Trying to stay focused on the Mission, he turned to Bearcat.
"Take point as we initiate recon," Travis say, pointing towards the entrance further into the fortress.
Bearcat steps ahead to enter the next room, when suddenly a localized explosion triggers, sending him reeling backwards.
Bearcat is too burly to let a blow like that prove fatal, thankfully. But he still crashes to the ground beside Travis, totally knocked out.
As the explosion clears, Lucky steps out into the entranceway, her body coursing with energy. It looks like they're going to have to take down Lucky to clear this level…
And as adorable as Lucky might be, Travis know she is equally dangerous. Lucky can cause each one of her limbs to detonate in a localized explosion, which obviously packs devastating force. Lucky's limbs then instantly regrow, temporarily coursing with extra strength and energy.
"That limb regrowth is hella painful for Lucky," H-Chip Aphrodite interjects. "Best mess that process, but without getting too close for explosive comfort!"
"Alright then, Beast use your bow and energy arrow."
Manbeast opens up a mini archer's bow—one that self-equips with regenerated energy arrows.
Taking aim, Manbeast shoots an energy arrow directly at Lucky. She tries to react defensively with a limb explosion, but the arrow catches her in the shoulder before she can.
Energy ripples across Lucky's body on contact, giving Manbeast the chance to knock her out with a swift flip-kick.
LUCKY DOWN: LEVEL THREE CLEARED
LEADERBOARD +20
LEADERBOARD AFTER DEDUCTIONS: 60
His Leaderboard could be as high as 60 by now, but he don't have time to dwell on this. He needs to focus on his Team status and finishing this Mission.
Team Status:
JURY: KNOCKED OUT
NULL:
Power 0
Health 100
MANBEAST:
Power: 0
Health 100
BEARCAT: KNOCKED OUT
LEVEL FOUR: FIND & DISARM THE WEAPON
They move deeper into the fortress, wondering just how big this place could possibly be.
Travis gets his answer as he push open two massive wooden doors and emerge into a grand hall.
What he sees takes his breath away.
In the center of the hall, there's a platform which holds a metal device made of silver rings, all spinning in different directions—that must be the weapon they've been tasked to deactivate.
And at the base of the platform stands The Crush, his arms folded across his chest, looking unconcerned.
That's probably because the rest of the hall is littered with a maze of white windmill turbines, each with rapidly spinning blades several stories long. It's a mesmerizing sight, looking over the sea of turbines—one that is equally intimidating.
It immediately occurs to Travis that there's no wind in here, but then he realize just as quickly that The Crush must be powering all of the turbines with his telekinetic Power.
So all that stands between him and victory is the most dangerous Unique Powered alive, with dozens of deadly wind turbines at his disposal.
Manbeast and Null step up to attack at his command, but before either hero can move another muscle, The Crush sweeps them aside with the flick of his wrist.
Travis feels the telekinetic pull on his own body, but luckily he roots himself to the ground with his gravity Powers at the last second.
Still, he can only watch as Manbeast and Null are telekinetically flung across the room and sent careening into one of the spinning wind turbine blades, their bodies colliding with a smack that then sends them shooting into the ground.
He has to look away—just how Powerful is The Crush, whipping around deadly heroes like rag dolls?
And more importantly, how is he going to find a way to take him down?
Seeing Travis standing there, The Crush begins to unhinge several still-spinning wind turbine blades. They hover in the air for a few menacing seconds before The Crush starts flinging them…
Directly at Travis.
Travis jumps in the air to dodge the massive turbines, hearing the sound of wind rushing as the blades cut through the air around him. This could actually be one of the most awesome sights he has ever seen, a fact he's not able to appreciate fully since it's directed at him.
With more blades coming at him by the second, he knows he can't keep dodging forever. Which means he's going to get one shot to take down The Crush.
"If you're Pumping, go Unique! If you ain't, keep it quaint!" H-Chip Aphrodite shouts in his ear as he gears up for his attack.
Once Travis alter the gravity patterns in the hall, The Crush's telekinetic Powers seem to go haywire. He loses control of the turbines, which begin to float through the air like giant lollipops. When they collide, the turbine blades crunch and explode in a fury of twisted metal and fire.
Disoriented from Travis gravity warping, The Crush can't help but be caught in the turbine crossfire.
Watching The Crush go down, Travis feels incredible—like hd could do anything. Like he's invincible.
And he didn't even need a pump to make it happen.
Ten Minutes later.....
After successfully deactivating the weapon, he was swept away for some post-Mission interviews (being the only member of his Team to make it out without needing a health boost).
It's definitely a big deal that he managed to take down The Crush single-handedly—a feat he hope racks up his Leaderboard score.
Before he gets a chance to talk to the cameras, however, Rebellion pulls him aside on his way back to the judges' panel.
"Just think of how much better that would have been if you had taken my advice and gone Unique," Rebellion whispers. "And how much higher your Leaderboard could have been."
As Rebellion walks away, all Travis can do is wonder where his Leaderboard score ended up. He was taken from the great hall so quickly after the Mission ended, he has no idea what his final score amounted to.
All he knows is that everyone else will receive their Leaderboard scores for running their own Mission simulations—which means he have a very long day ahead of him.
So he tries his best to put this little chat with Rebellion behind his back and get back to work.