The empty syringe fell to the concrete floor with a small clatter, but the sound seemed to echo through the oppressive room. Kante stood there, eyes closed, his chest heaving like a bellows. For a second, silence fell, a silence pregnant with expectation.
"You see, Major?" he whispered, a smile beginning to form on his lips. "Perfection requires..."
He never finished the sentence.
A sickening, audible CRACK echoed, not from outside, but from within Kante's own body. His ribs seemed to bend outward from an invisible force. He doubled over, an unformed scream escaping his throat, a sound that was a mixture of supreme agony and perverse ecstasy.
The technicians in hazmat suits backed away, one tripping and falling to the floor. The MLF soldiers, those with minor signs of transformation, took a step forward, their eyes glowing with a crazed devotion, as if they were witnessing the second coming of a god.
Hunnigan didn't flinch, but Kael could see her knuckles turn white as she gripped her tablet. She was observing, documenting, a cold scientist in the middle of a sacrificial rite.
The skin on Kante's back stretched like fabric pulled beyond its limit, then tore open in a straight line down his spine. Black blood, thick as crude oil, sprayed out. From within the tear, something the color of charcoal, glistening under the lights, began to emerge. It wasn't bone. It was an alien structure, a bio-armor forming itself.
Kante dropped to one knee, his entire body shaking violently. The sound of his teeth chattering was audible. The muscles all over his body spasmed, bulging and receding unnaturally, as if hundreds of snakes were slithering under his skin. The gray discoloration on his arm spread rapidly, covering his chest and neck, and small scales began to emerge, shimmering like mica.
"Blood pressure spiking! Heart rate is over 220!" a technician yelled in panic, looking at a monitor. "He's... he's dying!"
"No," Hunnigan said, her voice like ice, her eyes never leaving Kante. "He's being reborn."
As if to prove her words, Kante let out a deafening roar, a sound no longer human. He raised his head, and his eyes were now two deep, amber pits, glowing terrifyingly. He swung his hand, and long, sharp black talons had replaced his fingernails, gouging deep furrows in the concrete floor.
Then, from the gash on his back, a complete, articulated secondary limb, jointed like a mantis leg and sharp as a scalpel, unfurled with a SNAP of bone and cartilage. It swung in an arc, cutting the air with a terrifying hiss, so fast it was almost invisible, then retracted neatly behind his back.
Kante slowly stood up. He wasn't just taller; his entire body structure had changed. Bulkier, broader at the shoulders, with the forward-hunched posture of a predator. He took a deep breath, and when he exhaled, a thin, chemical-smelling vapor plumed from his mouth.
"Power..." he whispered, his voice now a mix of a guttural growl and grinding metal. He looked at Hunnigan, a hideous smile stretching his transformed face. "Thank you, Major. Thank you for this gift."
It was at that moment of supreme tension that a sound from the outside world intruded.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three successive, deep, echoing explosions from the south. The ground beneath their feet trembled. The lights in the lab flickered violently for a few seconds and then died, leaving only the weak red glow of the emergency alarms.
The piercing sirens screamed again, but this time from inside the complex.
"ALERT! ALERT! SOUTHERN SUBSTATION IS UNDER ATTACK!" a panicked voice yelled over the PA system. "REPEAT, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"
It was Gryphon and Jotun. They had opened fire.
The chaos Kael and Wraith had been waiting for finally arrived. The MLF soldiers ran around in confusion, not knowing whether to follow Hunnigan's orders or run outside to see what was happening. The test subjects on the tables began to struggle more violently, agitated by the explosions and flashing lights.
"Lock down the entrance!" Hunnigan yelled, trying to restore order. "It's a diversion! Their real target is in here!"
But Kante had other ideas. He laughed, a booming, maniacal sound. "A diversion? Perfect! A chance to test my new strength!"
He pointed at the five partially transformed soldiers, who were looking at him with adoring eyes. "Gamma Squad! With me! It is time to show these rats what a real eagle looks like!"
"Kante, don't go!" Hunnigan protested. "You're not stable! We need to monitor your vitals!"
Kante spun around, moving with impossible speed. He was right in front of Hunnigan, leaning down to look her straight in the eye, his amber eyes blazing. "I give the orders here now, Major. And I order you... to stay out of my way."
The limb on his back raised slightly, its sharp tip just millimeters from Hunnigan's throat.
Hunnigan fell silent, but her eyes flashed with anger and calculation.
Kante smirked, then turned and, along with his squad, charged out of the lab and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.
"Damn it!" Hunnigan hissed, then turned to her own team. "Delta Squad, set up a defensive perimeter! Anyone not our own tries to get in here, you shoot to kill!"
In the midst of the chaos, Kael looked at Wraith and nodded. The time was now.
"The clock is ticking," he whispered.
They climbed out of the hatch quickly, urgency now overriding caution. They were on a maze of pipes and metal grating, just below the ceiling. The heat from the generators was like a furnace now, making the air thick and hard to breathe.
Below, the room was a mess. Technicians were running back and forth, trying to stabilize the equipment. Hunnigan's Delta Squad was setting up mobile barricades near the entrance, their weapons pointed outward. Hunnigan stood in the center, yelling orders into her comms.
Their targets, the three massive diesel generators, were on the opposite side, their roar a constant soundtrack to the chaos.
"Stay with me," Kael said quietly. "Follow the main pipe. It'll give us the most cover."
They began to move, a dance of ghosts right above the enemy's heads. Kael went first, each footstep placed on the metal grating without making a sound. He could feel the vibration of the floor with every step, feel the heat on his face.
His eyes never left the people below. He tracked the path of every soldier, anticipating their movements. He saw one soldier look up vaguely, perhaps hearing a strange noise, and Kael immediately froze, holding his breath, until the soldier looked away.
Wraith followed right behind, as light on her feet as a panther. She trusted Kael's lead completely, her own eyes focused only on the target ahead.
They passed over a failed experiment that had broken its restraints and was trying to crawl off a table. It fell to the floor with a wet smack. Two soldiers immediately turned, aiming their weapons at it.
Kael and Wraith froze again.
The two soldiers unloaded a burst into the monster, finishing it off. Blood and tissue sprayed everywhere. The attention of the entire room was drawn to it for a few seconds.
"Go!" Kael commanded.
They used that moment of distraction to cross the remaining distance. Finally, they were in position directly above the generators. The noise here was deafening, and the heat was almost unbearable.
They had arrived. But the hardest part was still ahead.
"Faraday cage," Wraith said loudly, trying to be heard over the noise. She pointed to the thick metal mesh surrounding the generators. "I anticipated this."
"What's Plan B?" Kael asked.
"There is no Plan B. Only Plan A, executed the hard way," she replied, a faint smile on her lips. She took out the C4 block. "I can't throw it. I have to place it by hand. The detonator needs physical contact with the control panel."
She looked down. There was a small gap at the top of the cage where the power cables entered. It was too small for a person to fit through, but maybe enough for an arm.
"The problem is, I need both hands to do it," she said. "One to hold the charge, one to arm the manual detonator. I can't hold on and do it at the same time."
She looked at Kael. "I need you to hold me."
Kael understood immediately. "Alright. But if we're spotted..."
"Then at least we'll die together," Wraith said, her voice full of dark practicality. "Come on, we don't have much time."
Kael lay flat on the main pipe, a large, solid metal structure. He wrapped his legs around a support strut for balance. Wraith lay down beside him, facing the generators.
"Ready?" Kael asked.
"Born ready," she replied.
Kael wrapped his arm around Wraith's waist, holding tight. He could feel the tension in her muscles. He slowly pushed her out from the pipe, until her upper body was dangling in mid-air, right above the cage. Her entire weight now depended on Kael's strength.
"Damn, you're heavy," Kael grunted through clenched teeth.
"Less complaining, more holding, you ox," Wraith hissed, completely focused on the task.
She snaked both arms through the gap, trying to reach the metal control panel below. Her fingers were just centimeters from the target. Sweat began to bead on her forehead, dripping into the darkness below.
Kael focused on keeping Wraith steady, but his eyes never stopped scanning the room. Most of the guards were still concentrated at the exit, worried about Gryphon's attack. Good.
But then, a movement in the corner of the room caught his attention.
Underneath a lab table cluttered with discarded metal instruments, something was moving.
It wasn't like the other experiments, the ones that screamed and thrashed wildly. This thing moved with quiet purpose. It slunk out from under the table, and Kael's heart nearly stopped.
It was a hideous fusion of human and spider. Its body was thin and emaciated, its skin a sickly, glistening white. It moved on all fours, but its joints were bent the wrong way, giving it a bizarre, unpredictable scuttle. Its head was bowed, and long, black, matted hair completely obscured its face.
It didn't charge. It was hiding, moving from one shadow to the next. It was sniffing. It was looking for something.
It's smart, Kael realized. It knows how to hide.
The spider-creature began to crawl towards a pile of broken equipment, directly below Kael and Wraith's position.
Kael didn't dare breathe. He could only hope the roar of the machinery would mask their presence.
"Almost... there..." Wraith whispered, completely unaware of the approaching threat.
The creature stopped. It lifted its hairy head slightly. It was listening. It must have heard Wraith's whisper.
Kael tightened his grip on his weapon. Firing now would be a death sentence. But doing nothing could have the same result.
The creature slowly turned its head, aiming in their direction. Its matted hair parted slightly.
Kael saw an eye. A single, large, milky-white eye, with no pupil.
It stared into the empty space.
Then, it slowly tilted its head higher.
And that eye.
Locked directly onto Kael's.