The air was thick with smoke and the stench of ozone. The last echoes of gunfire faded into the metallic hum of alarms. Crimson lights pulsed across the corridor in rhythmic flashes, painting everything in feverish red and shadow.
Zander stood in the half-ruined chamber, chest heaving. Beside him, Aethros crouched low, muscles coiled, eyes gleaming like molten gold through the haze. Around them, the freed hybrids still roared and fought—massive silhouettes clashing against armored guards. Metal crunched. Flesh tore. The entire facility felt alive with chaos, a storm born of human arrogance and animal rage.
Then, through the smoke, a new figure stepped forward.
At first, Zander thought it was another soldier. The armor—deep red and black, polished yet scarred—caught the emergency lights with each slow, deliberate step. But as the haze thinned and the angle of the strobing lights shifted, the truth became apparent.
The silhouette was wrong.
Too lean. Too elongated. The way it moved was too fluid, too graceful. Like a predator pacing before the kill.
Zander's grip tightened on the plasma saber he'd scavenged. "What the hell…"
The figure halted a few meters away, the red glow washing across its frame. The armor clung to it like a second skin, designed not for a human form but for something… else. Beneath the plating, veins of muscle shifted unnaturally. The head tilted slightly—just a fraction—but enough for the light to catch the features beneath the visor.
A sliver of flesh.Spotted fur.And eyes that weren't human.
Aethros let out a low growl. His ears flattened, his claws flexed, tail stiffening like a drawn blade. Zander felt the vibration through the ground—a warning rumble that came from instinct alone.
He didn't need words to understand.The creature standing before them wasn't entirely human.And Aethros knew it.
For a long moment, the red-armored being said nothing. It only watched them, head twitching slightly from side to side, studying, evaluating.
Then came the voice—distorted through the helmet's vox-speaker, deep and rasped, like a growl forced through a man's throat."Unauthorized breach detected. You… should not be here."
The tone wasn't quite human either. Each word carried an undertone—a faint purr, a hiss of restrained feral energy.
Zander raised his saber, blade humming to life in a wash of blue plasma. "You're one of them, aren't you? Another experiment."
The visor flickered—amber light pulsing from behind it, like the flicker of a beast's eyes in torchlight."I am… beyond them," the voice replied. "You can call me… Korran."
Aethros's growl deepened. Zander caught the faint, rumbling note beneath it—a mixture of confusion and something close to recognition. His instincts screamed that the thing before him was feline, but not entirely. Something about its scent, its posture, its energy—familiar, yet off. Twisted.
Korran tilted his head again, as if hearing that unspoken realization. "So… you're the new pet they made." He crouched slightly, the servos in his armor whining. "Let's see what the scientists built this time."
Then he moved.
Faster than Zander's eyes could track, Korran lunged. The floor shattered under the force of his takeoff. Aethros roared in return, meeting the charge head-on. Claws met gauntlets, muscle met alloy, and the sound that tore through the corridor was a thunderclap of violence.
Zander darted aside, barely avoiding the collision. Sparks and blood mingled as the two titans clashed—Aethros's raw power against Korran's precision and speed. Korran's movements blurred, flickering in and out of the flashing lights, his strikes surgical yet feral. Each blow pushed Aethros back a step, armor groaning under the pressure.
Zander didn't wait long. He dashed in from the flank, saber humming as it sliced through the air toward Korran's exposed side. The hybrid twisted impossibly fast—catching the blade between armored claws. The plasma hissed, burning into his gauntlet, but Korran didn't flinch.
He turned, eyes narrowing behind his mask. "Impressive… for prey."
He kicked out. The impact hit like a battering ram. Zander was thrown back, crashing into a steel pillar. His Titan-lace suit absorbed most of the damage—but not all. His ribs ached, breath hitching.
Before Korran could follow through, Aethros was on him again, slamming him into the wall with a snarl that shook the air. Dust fell from the ceiling. Korran's claws tore into Aethros's flank, scoring shallow lines across his fur. The beast roared in pain and rage, headbutting him so hard that the wall dented.
Zander forced himself upright, gripping his side. "Focus, Zander," he muttered. "Think." He scanned the room—broken weapons, dead guards, half-melted steel. He spotted a fallen plasma rifle and grabbed it, switching it to burst mode.
He took aim.
Korran noticed, even mid-fight. His helmet snapped toward Zander, pupils narrowing behind the visor. He twisted his body just as Zander fired—the plasma rounds grazing his shoulder, blowing chunks off the red armor.
The smell of burnt metal filled the air.
Korran hissed and retaliated, hurling a jagged shard of debris. It spun like a blade through the air, slicing through the smoke toward Zander's head.
Aethros moved first.
He leapt sideways, slamming his body into Zander's, shoving him down. The shard missed by inches, embedding itself deep into the wall. Zander rolled, landing hard, then looked up to see Aethros crouched protectively before him—blood streaking down his side, but eyes burning with unyielding fire.
Zander's breath hitched. For a second—just one—he realized the beast wasn't just a weapon. He was something alive. Something that chose to protect him.
But there was no time for awe.
Korran charged again, claws flashing. Zander got to his feet, saber igniting with a hiss. The fight became a blur of motion—Zander slashing, Aethros pouncing, Korran dodging with inhuman agility. Each hit sent shockwaves through the corridor, sparks raining down from broken lights.
"You're not supposed to exist," Korran growled mid-combat. His helmet was cracked now, showing part of his face—a man's mouth, but with fangs too long, skin marred by faint fur."The hybrid program was shut down years ago. They said it was… unstable."
Zander parried a claw strike that nearly tore his chest open. "Yeah," he spat, twisting his blade and countering with a downward arc that cut into Korran's shoulder, sending molten armor splattering. "Looks like they lied."
Korran snarled and struck again—too fast, too close. His clawed hand ripped across Zander's abdomen, sparks and blood flying. The Titan-lace suit held, but the pain was real, hot, deep. The sensors in his armor flickered warnings across his HUD: Damage: 17%. Structural integrity: compromised.
Aethros lunged from behind, tackling Korran to the ground. The two rolled across the debris-strewn floor, claws and fists clashing. Korran's speed began to falter—his breaths growing ragged, his movements more erratic. For a moment, Aethros had him pinned, jaws clamping around his arm.
Then, in a blur, Korran twisted, driving his knee into Aethros's gut and kicking him off.
Both creatures rose slowly, panting, circling each other. The red lights strobed faster now—sirens screaming overhead.
"You smell it too, don't you?" Korran rasped, his voice shifting between man and monster. "You know what you are. What we are."Aethros's growl was low, vibrating the air.Korran grinned, sharp teeth flashing beneath cracked armor. "They made you better… but not complete. You're still their slave."
That was when Zander moved.
Korran had taken his attention off him for half a heartbeat—and that was all it took. Zander lunged, sword raised, bringing it down with every ounce of his strength.
Korran barely turned in time. The blade sliced through his pauldron, cutting deep into his shoulder. The scream that followed was half-human, half-beast, raw and feral.
"You talk too much," Zander hissed.
But victory was short-lived.
With a roar that shook the chamber, Korran spun, backhanding Zander with bone-breaking force. The blow sent him crashing to the ground, his saber skittering across the floor. He struggled to rise, pain lancing through his body. His vision swam red.
Korran raised his arm—claws gleaming, ready to strike.
Aethros moved again.
He tackled Korran full force, slamming him through a glass panel. Both fell into the next corridor, landing amid shattered equipment and sparks. Zander staggered after them, grabbing his saber again.
The corridor now was a nightmare of flashing lights, fire, and shattered machinery. The freed hybrids could be heard fighting elsewhere—snarls, gunfire, the crash of breaking walls. The entire facility was collapsing into chaos.
Korran rose, half his armor melted off, revealing the truth beneath—flesh partially covered in sleek spotted fur, muscles moving too fast, too fluid for a human frame. His face was twisted, half-man, half-predator. The experiment had never been meant to reach this stage.
"You don't understand," he growled, voice warping. "I am the next evolution."
He blurred forward—so fast Zander barely saw him. Aethros intercepted, claws meeting claws, but Korran's momentum carried them both through a row of steel lockers. Sparks exploded. Zander ran after them, saber ready—but Korran was relentless. Aethros was slowing. His wounds were deep, bleeding freely.
Korran grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the wall. "You could have been like me," he hissed. "But you chose them."
Then Zander shouted—raw and desperate. "Aethros!"
He ran forward, ignoring the pain, and shoved Aethros aside just as Korran's claws came down. The blow meant for Aethros tore across Zander's side, slicing deep enough to spark the suit's emergency seal system. Pain flared white-hot through his body.
The Titan-lace reacted—metallic threads weaving rapidly to close the tear—but blood still seeped through. Zander dropped to one knee, gasping, saber slipping from his grip.
Aethros froze, eyes wide, and then something in him snapped.
The roar that tore from his throat shook the corridor to its core. It wasn't just sound—it was fury incarnate. He pounced, faster and stronger than before, slamming Korran backward. Every strike came like thunder, claws tearing, jaws snapping. For the first time, Korran was forced to defend rather than attack.
But even that wasn't enough.
Korran recovered, catching Aethros mid-swipe, twisting his arm painfully. Both stumbled—locked in a deadly grapple. Zander tried to rise, but his leg gave out. He could only watch, breathing raggedly, as the two predators clashed in front of him, sparks and blood filling the air.
Then Korran gained the upper hand—his claws raised for the killing blow.
That's when the world exploded.
A plasma round tore through the corridor, slamming into Korran's back. Another followed, then another. Korran roared, spinning around, stumbling under the barrage.
Through the haze of dust and light, Vanguard-7 strode in.
"Master Zander," the robotic voice rang out, calm and resonant even amid the chaos. "Are you injured? Emergency signal received. Sensei Slade has been notified."
His shoulder-mounted cannons rotated, firing again. Korran dove aside, armor smoking. The plasma bolts scorched through the corridor, tearing chunks from the walls.
Korran landed in a crouch, panting, half his armor melted, one eye burning gold through the smoke. He glared at the three of them—Zander bleeding, Aethros growling beside him, Vanguard-7 standing tall with weapons trained.
The beast-man's lip curled. "This isn't over."
Then, with a blur of motion, he leapt through the side corridor—vanishing into smoke and flashing red light.
Zander slumped against the wall, clutching his wound. Aethros crouched beside him protectively, his eyes still glowing faintly. Vanguard-7 knelt, scanning the damage.
"Suit integrity at eighty-one percent," it reported. "Emergency medical patch deploying."
Zander managed a shaky breath, nodding. "Good… work, Seven."
Vanguard-7's optics flickered. "The target's genetic readings indicate hybridization—feline origin detected."
Aethros's ears twitched, and Zander glanced toward him, eyes narrowing."So… there are more of you."
Aethros only rumbled lowly, gaze locked on the corridor where Korran had vanished.
Smoke curled through the air.The alarms screamed.Somewhere deeper in the facility, more explosions echoed.
And as the three of them stood amidst the chaos, blood and fire painting the walls, Zander realized one thing for certain—
This was only the beginning.