The hiss of pressure release echoed across the chamber as the capsule's seams split apart. A surge of blinding red light followed, forcing West to shield his face with his forearm. Heat burst outward like the exhale of something alive and ancient. His grip on the metal pipe tightened.
He held his stance.
The stranger behind him remained unmoved, silent, as if reliving an echo of their own past.
With a final hiss, the capsule slid open.
Inside lay a figure.
Humanoid—barely.
Its skin shimmered with armored bio-weave, translucent in places, metallic in others. Beneath the surface, veins of glowing red light pulsed like circuitry, alive and calculating. Its joints were fortified with carbon bracers, the kind built for enhanced speed and power. As its eyes opened—cold, silver, artificial—it began to scan its surroundings.
Then, without warning—
It moved.
The blur of motion was almost too fast to track. It lunged straight for West, arms extended in a trained strike. West twisted his hips and brought the pipe up into a defensive arc—
Clang!
His weapon met the creature's glowing palm. The force of impact sent him sliding backward, boots screeching against the polished floor.
"Not hostile," the stranger said abruptly, stepping between them.
The being froze, processing.
Then, slowly, it lowered its hands.
West didn't lower the pipe. Not yet.
His voice was calm, but edged. "Define 'not hostile.'"
The stranger's voice rasped through the mask. "Adaptive model. Early generation. It responds to identity signatures. You must have triggered an auto-defense scan."
Before West could respond, Aria's voice pierced through his earpiece—strained, urgent.
"West. That unit just lit up the grid. You've triggered a handshake request across the entire underground network. It knows you're there. Everything does."
The synthetic turned—toward the rear wall.
Its eyes pulsed in sync with the red energy lines flowing beneath their feet. It raised an arm.
With a thunderous clatter, the wall began to unfold.
Mechanical locks disengaged. Steel panels retracted.
Behind it: a shaft, descending deep into shadow.
Embedded in the shaft's walls—
Pods.
Dozens.
Each one flickered with life, no longer dormant. Red light cascaded from one to the next, like a slow heartbeat accelerating.
Aria's voice was sharp now. "You need to get out. Now. Power spikes across the grid. You're waking them."
But West stood frozen.
So did the stranger.
Because at the far end of the shaft, past the humming capsules, a single containment unit began to hum. Massive. Four meters tall. Covered in black alloy and etched with symbols unlike any language known to Pulse systems.
The floor vibrated beneath their feet.
From within came a sound.
A growl.
Low. Mechanical. And angry.
West's jaw clenched. He took a single step forward, eyes locked on the sealed titan.
The synthetic joined him, wordless.
The stranger whispered, almost reverently:
"You just rang the bell no one was supposed to hear."
And the massive pod began to open.
Something ancient was waking.
And it remembered war.