The air in the warehouse screamed as I moved.
I didn't have a black belt. I didn't have years of training in a Himalayan monastery. What I had was the weight of a main battle tank condensed into the frame of a twenty-one-year-old. I lunged, my fist aiming for that reinforced grey chest plate.
Batman didn't move until the last millisecond. He didn't block—you don't block a freight train. He redirected.
His palm slapped the side of my wrist, using my own momentum to send me crashing through a stack of wooden pallets. I hit the floor, wood splinters the size of daggers burying themselves in my face and chest.
[Integrity at 94%. Damage detected. Commencing purge.]
I didn't even have to pull the wood out. My skin heaved, the T-Virus literally vomiting the splinters out of my flesh as the wounds closed with a wet, squelching sound. I rolled to my feet, but Batman was already on me.
He was a blur of shadows and high-tech graphite. A kick caught me in the temple, then a palm strike to the throat, followed by two electrified batarangs that slammed into my shoulders.
BZZZZZT!
Fifty thousand volts surged through my nervous system. My muscles locked up, and I fell to my knees, smoke rising from my skin.
"Yield," Batman growled, his hand reaching for a specialized containment foam.
I looked up at him, my vision swimming in red. The electricity was agonizing, but the virus... it was learning. The Syphonis system pulsed in my brain.
[Adaptation in progress. Bio-electricity resistance: +15%.]
"Yield?" I spat, a mixture of blood and black bile spraying from my mouth. "I just got here!"
I ignored the pain. I reached out and grabbed his ankle. He tried to flip away, but I was faster than a human had any right to be. I gripped his shin and squeezed.
I heard the distinct crunch of carbon-fiber armor cracking. Batman let out a muffled grunt of pain—the first human sound he'd made. I didn't stop. I swung him like a sack of flour, slamming him into a concrete pillar.
The pillar shattered on impact. Batman hit the ground hard, but he rolled, coming up with a small metallic sphere in his hand.
"Enough," he said.
He dropped the sphere.
BOOM.
It wasn't a grenade; it was a sonic disrupter. The high-frequency blast hit my sensitive, viral ears like a physical hammer. I screamed, clutching my head as my eardrums burst, spraying hot blood down my neck.
[Sensory Overload! Host equilibrium compromised. Probability of victory: 4%.][Recommendation: Tactical Retreat. Use Biomass sacrifice.]
"Shut up!" I roared, but my legs were shaking.
Batman was closing in, a heavy-duty tranquilizer harpoon in his hand. He wasn't playing around anymore. He saw what I was—a threat that didn't stay down.
I knew I couldn't win this fight. Not yet. I was a Prototype, and he was the apex of human tactical genius. My body screamed in protest, but the Syphonis system offered a solution.
[Adaptation in progress. Bio-electricity resistance: +15%.][Sensory Overload! Host equilibrium compromised. Probability of victory: 4%.][Recommendation: Tactical Retreat. Use Biomass sacrifice.]
"You want biomass?" I whispered, my eyes wild. "Take it."
I focused, the T-Virus responding. My form began to shift, a painful process of cellular restructuring. The energy required was immense, draining me rapidly.
Batman hesitated, his lenses widening slightly at the transformation.
"Get. Back!" I screamed, the strain showing on my face.
The change wasn't an attack, but a desperate maneuver. While he was momentarily stunned, I turned and threw myself toward the floor. I didn't use the door. I used my weight. I slammed my fists into the floorboards, channeling every ounce of the power I possessed.
The floor didn't just break—it exploded downward into the sewer system below.
I fell thirty feet into the dark, cold sludge of Gotham's bowels. My body was healing, the T-Virus working overtime to knit me back together after the taxing transformation.
[Biomass depleted to 8%. Cellular exhaustion imminent.]
I hit the sewage with a splash, the cold water numbing the lingering pain. I looked up through the hole in the ceiling. Batman stood at the edge, a dark silhouette against the moonlight. He didn't jump. He knew better than to follow a wounded, unpredictable virus into a labyrinth of pipes.
"This isn't over," I croaked, the water filling my lungs. I didn't need to breathe as much as a human did anyway.
I let the current pull me deeper into the dark. I was broken, starving, and hunted by the most dangerous man on earth.
[Evolution required. Seeking high-protein environment: Gotham Zoo.]
I closed my eyes as the darkness took me. I had lost the fight, but I had survived the Bat. And next time, I'd be stronger.