The sirens shrieked in an endless mechanical loop. Sound waves bounced off the reinforced concrete and vibrated against the roots of my teeth. Red strobes pulsed. Each flash painted the cell block in sharp bursts of crimson. Oxygen burned in my throat. The tendons in my knees shook. I locked the joints. The spine snapped perfectly straight. The silver broadsword extending from my radius bone hummed with a microscopic eager vibration.
Zack slumped inside the shattered glass box. The bruised flesh around his left eye swelled shut. The right eye tracked my movement. Recognition burned through the dilated pupil. The ragged whisper still bounced around the hollow space of my skull. Run.
I tilted my chin. A slow grin stretched the muscles of my face.
Heavy combat boots hammered the linoleum in the outer corridor. Shouts clipped over the deafening alarms. The distinct metallic click of polymer safeties disengaging echoed through the smoke. I shifted my center of gravity. The silver edge of the blade lifted to shoulder height and caught the red strobe light.
The reinforced door blew inward. Smoke and orange sparks rained across the floor tiles. Stun charges rolled over the concrete. The detonation hit like a physical wall of displaced air and blinding white light. My eardrums popped. Vision fractured into static. The silver nanites flared. The blinding pain muted instantly into a dull pressure. Focus snapped back. Black helmets breached the smoke. Gleaming visors tracked the room. Their rifles seated perfectly in their shoulders.
I tried to step backward. I tried to pull the sword down to shield Zack.
I lunged into the smoke.
The movement wasted zero kinetic energy. The lead soldier raised his muzzle. An elbow drove upward and caught the bottom of his jaw. Bone crunched loudly. Splintered teeth scattered across the floor. I pivoted on the ball of my foot. A rising knee crushed the next throat through the heavy tactical collar. The soldier folded backward with his limbs spasming. There was no wild swinging. Tight elbows and sharp headbutts blended with brutal directness. Every single strike calculated to kill or cripple in one motion.
I felt every impact and every breaking bone. I felt the spray of hot blood hit my skin. My body refused to stop. A soldier stepped close with a crackling shock baton. I trapped the sparking cylinder under my arm and twisted the attacker's momentum. A knee pistoned into his chest plate three consecutive times. The Kevlar caved inward with sounds like gunshots. I screamed at my own hands to release him.
A second squad poured from the left flank. They overlapped their firing arcs perfectly. I dropped the sword into a low guard and accelerated. Bullets struck my chest. The impacts sparked against the silver scales rippling over my skin. The blade swept in a flat brutal horizontal arc. Steel receivers sheared in half. Kevlar parted. Warm iron sprayed across my tongue. Bile rose in my stomach. I inhaled the copper scent and smiled.
The last man dropped a ruined rifle half. He pulled a serrated combat knife. Pure panic widened his eyes. He feinted left and slashed right. I caught the wrist mid strike. A sharp twist shattered his radius bone like dry wood. A forehead smashed into the cartilage of his nose. Before his knees could buckle the silver blade punched through his sternum and slid out the back of his tactical vest. The dead weight slid off the metal.
The shattered cell door groaned. Zack dragged his battered frame upright. He pressed a bloody hand against the jagged glass frame. Crimson dripped from his chin onto his torn uniform.
"Ashen. Stop."
The muscles in my legs locked. The silver blade wavered midair. I calculated the trajectory to the hallway to find more targets. But the ragged voice snagged on something buried deep beneath the cold persona. My hands began to tremble.
Breach charges primed on the outer walls. I rolled my shoulders to prepare for the next wave.
"Ashen. Please... stop."
The blast doors buckled. Concussive waves rattled the ceiling tiles and rained white dust. A wall of fire and smoke consumed the entrance. Armored silhouettes flooded the room. Rifles barked. White hot shock rounds spat across the dark. Stun grenades popped and seared the retinas.
I coiled my legs to launch into the center of the formation.
I threw the entire weight of my consciousness against the motor cortex. I slammed my will into the muscles. My arms dropped abruptly. The blade lowered. Heavy caliber rounds thudded heavily into my torso and sent white hot agony radiating through the nervous system. The nanites surged immediately to seal the ruptured tissue. Silver veins glowed under the skin as flesh stitched and bones reforged.
"Keep firing," a soldier shouted through the smoke.
I forced my knees to bend. I took control. I dragged my boots across the floor and fumbled blindly toward the holding cell.
I swung the sword bypassing Zack entirely and drove the metal tip straight into the electronic locking mechanism. Sparks showered over my knuckles. The reinforced steel shrieked. One more strike. The glass wall exploded outward in a storm of cubic shards. Zack pitched forward and caught his weight on one knee. His good eye found mine.
"You are still in there," Zack said.
I extended a violently trembling hand. I fought the extension to wrench the arm back toward the gunfire. Zack seized my fingers with both of his hands. The grip was weak but absolute.
"Fight it," Zack said. "Do not let it win."
The soldiers closed in quickly. A laser sight leveled directly at Zack's skull.
I spun and swept the blade upward in a tight diagonal arc. Silver met lead mid flight. The nanites hardened the flat of the sword to deflect the burst of rounds into the ceiling. A follow through slash separated the soldier's arm at the elbow. The rifle clattered uselessly onto the linoleum. The defensive motion belonged to me.
Zack coughed and spat a dark clump onto the floor. He used my shoulder to haul himself up. "We do not win this fight. We run."
Run. The directive seared through the fog. My legs moved. I wrapped my left arm around his waist and wielded the sword with my right. We charged straight through the smoke toward the breach.
Gunfire deafened the corridor. Bullets sparked and hissed against my skin. Some bit deep into the unarmored sections of my shoulders before the silver knitted them shut. Pain rolled through my chest in heavy waves. The agony kept me grounded. It meant I was still human. We hit the tactical line like a storm. I slashed the sword in close tight arcs. I rammed my shoulder into a chest plate and cracked the armor. A rising knee lifted a man completely off the ground. Zack ripped a sidearm from a falling guard. He fired blindly into the smoke. The muzzle flashes illuminated cracked visors and staggering bodies just enough for me to finish them.
"Left," Zack shouted.
I pivoted. The sword cleaved through a descending shock baton an instant before it could crack across Zack's skull. A snap kick folded the wielder's knee inward. The blade finished the arc through his chest piece.
We broke the perimeter and pushed into the main hallway.
Alarms wailed louder. Automated turrets dropped from the ceiling panels with a mechanical whir. The heavy barrels rotated and tracked our heat signatures.
"Cover," Zack rasped. He pulled me toward an overturned security console.
High caliber rounds shredded the drywall around us. Plaster dust and sparks showered down. The air filled with burning ozone. I lifted my left arm. The nanites writhed and hardened into jagged thick kinetic plating. They bloomed outward into a massive shield of solid silver. Bullets pinged and flattened against the impenetrable surface. Ricochets hissed wildly down the hall. The turrets spun down and clicked on empty magazines. The silver shield folded seamlessly back into the skin.
Zack stared at the smooth flesh of my arm with wide eyes.
We moved fast. We ran through halls of fire and smoke. My sword sang and Zack's stolen pistol cracked. The corridors bent and twisted like concrete arteries. Red alarm lights bled over the walls. Zack stumbled beside me. His grip was weak but incredibly stubborn. Each step dragged a fresh streak of crimson from his battered frame. The thunder of heavy pursuit grew louder behind us. We had cut too deep into Alpha Division to go unnoticed.
A heavy pneumatic hiss sounded ahead. Steel shutters slammed down from the ceiling and sealed us into a dead end. Troops flooded in from the side access doors. Armored shock units. Visors glowing a faint icy blue. They moved as one single unit with weapons raised.
"Containment squads," Zack cursed under his breath.
The first volley of shock rounds and stun batons struck my chest and arms simultaneously. Electricity ripped through my nervous system. Muscle fibers locked violently. I almost collapsed.
I absorbed the electrical jolt, grounded the current, and twisted the raw energy into kinetic speed.
I whirled the sword precisely. A diagonal cut severed a rifle barrel and flowed directly into a pivot. An elbow smashed across a blue visor. Forearms raised to deflect a descending baton. A forward headbutt shattered the attacker's jawbone.
Another soldier lunged low. A shock baton sparked toward my knee. I let the strike connect. The patella cracked loudly. The nanites hissed and sealed the ligaments in a fraction of a second. The leg snapped forward in a vicious low kick. The shin bone connected with the soldier's temple. The hollow pop of a fractured skull echoed over the alarms.
Zack fired his stolen pistol over my shoulder. Perfect disciplined single shots. A round shattered a blue visor a millisecond before the silver sword separated the man's arm clean off.
"Focus left," Zack barked.
I shifted my weight and covered the blind spots. My strikes flowed with tighter control. Trapped arms and twisted joints. Zack ducked beneath the horizontal swings and pressed close to my hip to fire. We shattered the squad under the relentless pressure. Bodies hit the floor. The survivors retreated and dragged their wounded back through the access doors.
We pressed deeper into the facility. Glass laboratory walls lay in ruins. Scientists scattered in terror.
"Stairs," Zack gasped. He pointed down a side hall. "Service lift is two levels down. That is our shot out."
We rounded the corner. A thunderclap detonated.
A massive anti material round smashed directly into my chest plate. The kinetic impact launched my body backward into a concrete wall. Flesh folded. Ribs snapped entirely out of place. My lungs convulsed. I spat a mouthful of copper onto the floor. Heavy response units blocked the hallway. Juggernauts. Black kinetic plating. Bright crimson visors. Heavy vehicle destroying cannons in their hands.
Zack dragged me behind a concrete pillar. Bullets tore the architecture apart. Chunks of rebar and dust exploded outward. Each shot hit like an artillery shell. They fired in disciplined bursts and walked us into a tight corner.
Zack looked at me. He was pale and shaking. "We cannot fight them head on."
I formed the silver shield again, dropped my center of gravity low, and sprinted in sharp erratic zigzags to blur their aim. We closed the distance in mere seconds.
Up close the Juggernauts were mountains. They swung the heavy rifles like steel clubs. I trapped a massive plated arm and twisted until the thick armor buckled completely. Knees and elbows hammered directly into their soft joints. The silver sword struck a chest plate with a deafening screech. The nanites lengthened the blade into a massive silver cleaver.
A Juggernaut locked his arms around my chest in a crushing bear hug. Thick armor ground against my silver veined skin. My healing ribs snapped again. I pushed the nanites outward. A jagged spike of solid silver erupted from my stomach and impaled him entirely through the gut. The grip loosened instantly. I spun the dying giant into the line of fire. Zack utilized the blocked sightline to place a 9mm round cleanly through a cracked crimson visor.
The Juggernauts dropped to the floor. The corridor became a complete slaughterhouse of steel and gore. When the last body dropped the hall was finally ours.
Zack leaned against the wall. His chest heaved. "You are not just the weapon."
The floor vibrated beneath our boots. Bulkheads slammed shut across the upper levels. The sound of steel locking into steel reverberated through the bones of the Division. The alarms changed from a frantic pulse to a slow steady methodical rhythm.
"Lockdown," Zack rasped. He wiped blood from his mouth. "They are sealing us in."
I adjusted his weight on my shoulder. We navigated the gutted security posts. The hallway widened into a stark square staging chamber. Searing white floodlights eliminated all shadows. The service lift sat embedded in the far wall protected by heavy reinforced doors.
Between us and the exit stood the final squad. They were not hulking Juggernauts. They moved with terrifying total silence. Smooth completely faceless black armor. Crackling shock pikes. Curved serrated blades. Perfect fluid stances.
"Execution detail," Zack gritted his teeth. "They do not miss."
I eased Zack down against the cold concrete. "Stay low."
The lead assassin blurred across the white tiles. The shock pike thrust directly for my larynx. I snapped my head to the side. The electrical charge sizzled the air beside my ear. An elbow cracked hard into the smooth black faceplate. A knee sank into his abdomen to double him over. I drove the broadsword cleanly through his back.
The remaining three attacked in total synchronization. Steel shrieked heavily against silver. The air filled with the hiss of nanites and the sharp crackle of electricity. A high slash aimed for my collarbone while a sweep targeted my ankles. I wove through the negative space. The blade flashed in tight brutal arcs. Forearms raised high to deflect a descending strike before smashing outward with bone shattering force.
They pressed closer. An assassin hooked my right arm and twisted the joint to drive a curved blade toward my ribs. I rolled directly into the grapple instead of fighting it. An elbow snapped back into his windpipe and wrenched the arm free. I carved the silver edge horizontally across his chest plate.
The final killer leaped from the blind spot. A knife angled for the base of my neck.
A single pistol shot rang out loudly. Zack's weapon smoked. The 9mm round tore through the assassin's knee joint. He collapsed to the tiles screaming silently behind the faceplate. I stepped forward and thrust the sword through the black visor in one clean mechanical motion.
The chamber fell still. The stench of ozone and fresh blood was suffocating.
The lift loomed ahead. It was our only escape.
Zack staggered forward and stared at the absolute carnage.
We reached the lift doors. They were electronically locked and heavily reinforced.
I buried both hands deep into the center seam. The nanites shrieked and pushed outward into jagged tendrils that burrowed into the thick steel doors. I pulled. The metal warped, buckled, and tore apart with a deafening screech of failing hydraulics.
Sterile white light spilled from the lift interior. We stumbled inside. Zack collapsed against the back wall. I slammed the control panel. The ruined doors ground together and sealed us in. The external alarms muted into a dull thrum.
Zack slid down the wall to the floor. His good eye stared up at me. "Ashen. I do not know what is happening to you. But you saved me. Not that thing. You."
I swallowed. Dry dust coated my throat. The silver metal crawled and hummed beneath the surface of my skin. Restless and hungry. "Do not thank me yet."
The lift shuddered. The gears groaned as we ascended. The seconds stretched. I stared at my reflection in the polished steel panels. Silver veins pulsed under pale skin. The eyes flickered with a cold detached light. I closed my eyelids. I listened to the ragged wet sound of Zack breathing beside me. It was absolute proof I had not vanished completely.
The lift jolted. Pneumatics hissed. The doors parted.
Cold night wind slammed into my face. Sweeping searchlights fractured the black sky above. Thick pillars of black smoke rose into the atmosphere. The Alpha Division compound sprawled below us. A massive landscape of roaring fire and wailing sirens.
Beyond the perimeter wall lay total absolute darkness.
Zack gripped the fabric of my sleeve tightly. "Run."
We stepped out of Alpha Division and disappeared into the night.