The air in Lab 9 was a toxic soup of ozone and corrosive steam. The human-alien hybrid had ceased to be a living creature; it was now a biological disaster. Acidic bile leaked from its triple-hinged jaw, hissing as it melted through the reinforced titanium flooring, sending thick, green smoke curling toward the ceiling.
"Keep it contained!" Rook roared, his veins bulging as he reached out toward a structural support beam. With a guttural grunt, he used his power to bend the metal, twisting the massive I-beam like a piece of licorice, wrapping it around the mutant's waist to pin it against a cooling column.
The mutant roared, its red-and-blue veins pulsing with such intensity they seemed ready to burst. It flexed, the metal beam groaning under the pressure.
"It's not holding!" Kross shouted.
He stepped forward, his body undergoing a terrifying transformation. His skin turned a deep, green , his muscles swelling until his shirt shredded, and jagged bone-spurs erupted from his spine. He wasn't wearing armor; he was the weapon. He lunged, his monstrous form clashing with the hybrid in a contest of raw, terrifying strength.
Beside him, Kahn moved like a whip.
His arms stretched nearly twenty feet, wrapping around the monster's neck to pull its head back, exposing the throat. "Now! Hit it now!"
Jaxen didn't need to be told twice. He became a blur of blue lightning, his body flickering across the room as he delivered a flurry of high-voltage strikes to the monster's throat .
Each hit sounded like a thunderclap, but the charred flesh simply knitted back together in seconds.
"It's no use!" Sora cried, her hands raised as she focused her sound manipulation.
She sent a concentrated sonic blast—a physical wall of vibration—directly into the beast's face, but the creature just swallowed the sound, its unstable Evo-energy absorbing the impact.
From the shadows, Lyra flickered into existence. She had been bending the light rays to stay invisible, but now she reappeared, her hands glowing with a blinding brilliance. She redirected the ambient lab light into a searing Photonic Lance, cutting deep into the monster's side. The wound cauterized, but the blue veins underneath simply glowed brighter, forcing the cells to regenerate.
"Renji! Find a damn opening!" NYX yelled, dodging a spray of acid.
Renji's eyes had transformed. His Star Eyes glowed with a celestial light. He shifted into the first edge, his vision turning into an X-ray map of the room, then pushed into the second edge searching for the enemy's weak points—the "kill switch" in the flow of its energy.
He froze. "I can't... I can't see it," Renji whispered, his breath hitching. "Its biology is changing too fast. It has no fixed weak point! It's evolving every time we hit it!"
Miles away, Elias was a streak of black and silver against the night sky. He was running along the side of a glass skyscraper, his feet cracking the surface with every stride. He tapped his earcomm, his lungs burning.
"...anyone... pick up... can... anyone... hear me?"
Static hissed, then a familiar, gravelly voice broke through. "Elias? Kid, is that you?" It was Dr. D. He sounded out of breath, the wind whistling past his microphone.
"Doctor! The Gala... it's over. It's was a trap , but I've killed the three aliens that attacked" Elias reported, his voice cold and steady.
There was a long silence on the other end. Dr. D was a man who had seen everything, but the idea of a single operative taking out a Zethrian Trinity was impossible. "Three? You handled three of them? God damn... I knew you were something else. But listen, —the Silver Mask—he's here.
I'm chasing him through the building He's heading for the service elevator. Don't come here, Elias, the lab is—"
"I'm already five blocks away," Elias interrupted, his eyes narrowing as the TƎll Industries tower came into view. "Hold on."
Back in Lab 9, the situation had turned desperate. Jaxen was thrown across the room, and Kross had been swiped back into a server rack. The team was bleeding, their Evo-energy running low.
Nyx looked at the monster, then at the scattered crates of experimental serum—vials of concentrated Red and Blue , which was like the hybrid own .
A wild, dangerous smile spread across her face.
"Mikasa! I need a gun! The biggest, fastest one you've got!"
Mikasa didn't hesitate. She closed her eyes, her Evolith sparking as she summoned a weapon—a heavy-duty, multi-barrel rotary cannon that looked like it belonged on a fighter jet.
Nyx grabbed the weapon and started jamming the Red and Blue serum vials into the ammunition feed. "Everyone! Get back! Now!"
"Nyx, what are you doing?!" Cipher screamed, his eyes wide. "Mixing those serums is---
"It's a party, Cipher! Enjoy the music!" Nyx pulled the trigger.
The cannon didn't fire bullets. It fired raw, unstable serums . The Red serum and Blue serum hit the monster at supersonic speeds, forcing its cells to grow and harden at the same time. It was an energy overload.
The monster began to swell, its skin glowing a sickly purple as its own biology turned against it.
"It's going to blow!" Cipher turned to his comms. "Dr. D! Clear the building! It's about to go critical! Clear the damn building!"
Nyx laughed as she dropped the glowing, overheating gun and vanished into the shadows, reappearing outside on the fire escape. The rest of the team scrambled, diving out of windows and down chutes as the air began to hum with a deadly frequency.
BOOOOM.
The entire of TƎll Industries exploaded.
The shockwave shattered every window for five miles. Debris rained down like burning snow, and the roar of the explosion echoed like the end of the world.
Elias arrived as the dust was still settling. He skidded to a halt in the middle of the street, looking up at the hollowed-out shell of the tower. His heart hammered against his ribs.
Then, through the smoke, he saw them.
Nyx was leaning against a streetlamp, looking perfectly fine. Vela was sitting on the bumper of a crushed car, finishing the last of her fries. Renji, Sora, Lyra, and the others were limping out of the rubble, covered in soot but alive.
From the darkness of a side alley, Dr. D emerged, dragging a shattered leg behind him. He had jumped from the 50th floor just as the shockwave hit, using his molecular shift to soften the impact, but he hadn't been fast enough to escape entirely.
"Nyx... the hell are you trying to get us killed?" Vela asked, tossing her empty soda cup into the fire.
Nyx just smiled, her eyes reflecting the orange glow of the burning building. "Come on. I just wanted fireworks. It worked, didn't it?"
Elias walked up to them, the tension finally leaving his shoulders. He looked at the chaos, then at his team. "You never change, Nyx."
"Glad to see you too, Elias," she chirped.
Later that night, gathered in the flickering light of a temporary safehouse, the mood was heavy. They talked about the Silver Mask's escape—relation with Baldwin and if he escaped.
They talked about the hybrid and the sheer power it possessed.
"And you," Dr. D said, looking at Elias while he bandaged his leg. "Great job, I you have my respect"
Thank you ," Elias said simply.
The team asked him how the fight went, he explained everything to them, the 9th where shocked, but he's teammates expected it from him .
"Damn those kids" silver Mask said, badly injured,
Then a car pulled up to get him .