The city streets were quieter now — not peaceful, but waiting. A storm suspended mid-breath.
Liam moved quickly through the alleys and narrow roads, keeping to the shadows. Every flicker of movement set him on edge. His grip tightened around the pipe he'd recovered, its weight now familiar in his hand.
He turned the final corner to his building, and immediately froze.
The neighborhood had changed.
Trash bins were overturned. Fences torn open. Blood smeared along a mailbox. But the most disturbing thing were the *sounds* — low, guttural growls and strange chirping echoes that reverberated between buildings like whispers from something... wrong.
Then he saw it.
A Shiba Inu — or at least what used to be one.
Its fur was now coarse and patchy, its shoulders broader, spine arched unnaturally. Its eyes glowed faintly with a pale, bioluminescent blue. Its jaws twitched open, revealing far too many teeth. It stood in front of a garden gate, not aggressive... just watching.
On a nearby roof, a fat orange cat stalked along the tiles. Except now it was longer, leaner, with twitching tendrils where its whiskers should have been. Its body shimmered slightly — almost translucent in patches, like it was halfway between flesh and mist.
Liam swallowed hard.
Everywhere he looked, he saw more of them.
A parrot with feathers sharpened like blades watching him from a broken window.
A rabbit, ears flattened, crouched under a car — its eyes far too intelligent.
They weren't attacking.
But they weren't *pets* anymore.
He moved slowly, carefully stepping around the Shiba Inu, which sniffed the air but made no move. When he reached the building entrance, he found the glass door shattered inward.
Cautiously, Liam climbed the stairs, pipe raised, ready.
His apartment door was ajar.
He edged it open with his foot, heart hammering.
Nothing jumped out.
Inside, everything was still. But the air was heavy — saturated with the metallic scent of ARC energy and something more primal. A strange pulsing sound echoed faintly through the walls, like a heartbeat deep underground.
Liam locked the door behind him and secured it with a chair. He dropped his bag, hands still shaking slightly. Every muscle in his body was coiled, alert.
He looked around.
Everything was the same — yet the world outside had changed. He had changed.
And somewhere out there, evolution was accelerating... rewriting biology in real time.
Liam sat at the edge of his bed, staring at his glowing reflection in the darkened screen of his laptop.
He wasn't just surviving anymore.
He was evolving.
And so was everything else.