Zero stepped forward, extending her gloved hand toward the young newcomer. "Liam... or Light. Welcome to the Unit. I look forward to working with you."
Both Liam and Ethan looked at her in unison.
Liam took her hand, offering a polite, practiced smile. "Thank you, Ms. Zero. The honor is mine."
Stinger and Scorpion stepped up next, clapping Liam on the shoulder with casual greetings, while Cheetah eventually drifted over from the far corner to size him up. Throughout the entire round of introductions, T-Rex remained standing near the center of the cabin, silent and unmoving.
Ethan stole a glance up at the monolithic Vice Leader. In an instant, T-Rex's eyes shifted down, his gaze locking directly onto Ethan. The sudden, razor-sharp focus caused the boy to flinch, a cold chill running down his spine.
T-Rex studied Ethan for a few silent seconds, his face an unreadable mask of hardened iron, before turning away.
After a few minutes, T-Rex raised his voice, cutting through the squad's chatter. "Now that Light has arrived, he will rest and calibrate his gear. Once he is prepped, we will review the mission plan."
The squad nodded in agreement, dispersing to their assigned positions around the safehouse.
Liam lingered near the center of the room for a moment, his eyes drifting toward the couch where Ethan sat partially hidden behind T-Rex's frame.
Is that kid the Vice Leader's son? Liam wondered, analyzing the boy's clothes and frightened demeanor.
Ethan felt the young operative's gaze and looked up, their eyes meeting for a brief, heavy second. Before Liam could process it further, a firm hand landed on his shoulder.
"Get some rack time while you can, kid," Scorpion said smoothly. "Once Boss gets here, we move fast."
Liam nodded. "Understood." He turned and walked toward the designated quarters.
With the room clearing out, T-Rex turned back to Ethan. His expression remained entirely unreadable, sending another wave of dread through the boy's chest.
What is he planning to do? Ethan thought, clenching his fists.
T-Rex pulled up a heavy wooden crate, sitting down opposite the sofa. "The Boss will be arriving shortly. Once he is on-site, he will decide your fate."
Ethan swallowed hard, forcing a single, rigid nod.
"Stay put," T-Rex added flatly, before rising to his feet and walking toward the perimeter entry to check the watchpoints.
As T-Rex walked away, a heavy blanket of despair settled over Ethan. He stared blankly at the floorboards, a small, somber smile touching his lips.
Nothing can save me now... Father...
"You're going to burn a hole in the floor if you keep staring at it like that," a quiet voice said.
Ethan looked up startled. Zero had silently taken a seat beside him on the sofa, holding two tactical field rations in her hands. She extended one of the insulated containers toward him.
"You must be starving, Ethan."
Ethan hesitated, then took the warm lunchbox. He opened the lid, staring down at the hot meal as his stomach let out an audible rumble. Before he could overthink it, Zero placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Go on," she said softly. "Eat."
Ethan didn't need to be told twice. He began eating ravenously, the warm food instantly cutting through the bitter cold lingering in his bones. Beside him, Zero unlatched the lower portion of her ballistic helmet, sliding the faceplate back just far enough to uncover her mouth.
Ethan watched her out of the corner of his eye as she ate.
She's so different from the rest of them... Ethan thought.
She isn't crazy like that other woman. From everyone in this squad, she's the only one here who feels human.
Setting his empty container down, Ethan looked up at her cautiously. "Excuse me... Ma'am?"
Zero paused, glancing over with a faint, amused smile. "Ma'am? Aren't you quite the little gentleman."
A small, genuine smile flickered across Ethan's face before fading back into anxiety.
"What's on your mind, Ethan?" Zero asked, sensing his hesitation. "You can tell me, you know."
Ethan looked down at his hands, his voice trembling slightly. "I... I wanted to ask..."
Zero nodded encouragingly. "Ask away."
"Why are you helping me?" Ethan whispered, searching her eyes. "Why do you care what happens to me?"
Zero's soft expression didn't change. "Helping you? I suppose you could look at it that way. But for me... I simply don't believe innocent children belong in the crossfire of warfare. And you look entirely innocent, Ethan. Like someone who got terribly lost in a country he doesn't belong in."
Ethan's breath hitched. He nodded slowly, his eyes dimming. "Ma'am... I am lost."
Zero listened quietly as Ethan continued, his voice barely audible. "I'm from Canada. I came here with my father... and then..."
Zero leaned over, gently patting his head. "Hold onto that, Ethan. I hope you find your father."
Ethan didn't reply, the light in his eyes fading as the dark reality of his situation pressed back in.
Noticing his sinking spirit, Zero cupped his shoulder, her red eyes glowing with soft warmth behind her mask visor. "Don't lose hope, Ethan. Not yet."
Ethan offered a small, grateful nod as Zero rose to her feet, gave his head one last gentle pat, and stepped back into the shadows of the room.
Inside Dr. Philip's Manor...
Dr. Philip sat alone at his mahogany desk, surrounded by towers of research binders and encrypted hard drives. He scanned through the final pages of his experimental data, double-checking the core files one last time.
CRUNCH.
Philip slammed his fist down onto the desk, a sinister grin spreading across his face. "YES!"
He leaned back in his chair, chuckling darkly. "All these years of research... and not a single shred of it will ever belong to DWO."
He turned to his primary terminal, running a rapid military-grade purge algorithm. Within seconds, the screen flashed black, wiping every bit of data from the local network.
"The mainframes are scrubbed clean," Philip muttered, his eyes gleaming with mad satisfaction. "DWO will find nothing in this facility except their own graves."
Reaching beneath the rim of his desk, Philip pressed a hidden hydraulic trigger.
HYDRAULIC HISS!
The reinforced steel wall directly in front of his desk split down the middle, sliding open to reveal a hidden sub-level chamber. Inside stood a row of heavy glass cryo-capsules, thick white fog swirling within their reinforced chambers.
Philip stared at the shadowy silhouettes suspended inside the mist, his grin widening. "Let's see how DWO copes when they run face-first into my completed 'Knights' project."
He stood up, tearing off his white lab coat and tossing it carelessly onto his chair.
"Now then... time to check on my patient and ensure he's okay before DWO's strike team breaches the perimeter."
Philip walked down the quiet corridor into the private medical bay where Damian lay hooked to life-support monitors. Stepping up to the bedside, Philip checked his vitals and shone a penlight into his pupils.
His vitals have stabilized completely... so why hasn't he awakened yet? Philip pondered, checking the neural readouts.
"Wake up, man" Philip whispered under his breath. "If you want to live, you need to be on your feet before this place turns into a warzone."
Philip ran a secondary blood analysis, his eyes widening as he noticed a rare biochemical anomaly lingering in Damian's circulatory system.
Wait... when I first brought him in, his condition was purely severe blood loss. But these cellular markers... someone injected him with a paralytic neurotoxin.
Philip rubbed his chin, a sudden spark of realization hitting him. "You lucky man... you survived a lethal dosage of neuro-inhibitors."
Turning on his heel, Philip rushed back into his private laboratory, rummaging through a temperature-controlled vault until he retrieved a single vial containing a glowing blue compound.
He hurried back to Damian's bedside, drawing the liquid into a heavy syringe.
"I only have one dose of this antidote left," Philip muttered, positioning the needle over Damian's neck. "Let's see if this brings you back to life."
Without hesitation, Philip plunged the syringe directly into Damian's jugular vein, depressing the plunger completely.
Step back, Philip sat down on a nearby stool, watching the heart monitor intently as Damian's heart rate began to accelerate.