Date: September 3rd, 3150
Location: Los Angeles, California
Time: 6:53 A.M.
For two years, the Kaiju had been silent.
Humanity called it peace.
Rai Larkin called it suspicious.
"Come on, bro!"
A sharp voice detonated through the second floor of the Larkin household, rattling the thin walls and burying itself directly behind Rai's eyes.
He groaned beneath his blankets.
There were alarms installed throughout Los Angeles for Kaiju emergencies, orbital attacks, earthquakes, chemical leaks, and citywide evacuation orders.
None of them were as painful as Sona Larkin before seven in the morning.
"Rai! Get up!"
He dragged the blanket over his head.
For one peaceful second, he considered ignoring her.
Then the bedroom door shook beneath three violent knocks.
"If you make me come in there, I'm throwing you out the window!"
Rai's golden eyes opened.
"She'd do it too."
He pushed himself upright, black hair falling across his forehead. Thin streaks of gold showed beneath the darker strands whenever the morning light caught them.
His room looked like a war between a teenager and a scrapyard.
Half-assembled drones occupied one desk. Holographic diagrams floated above a workbench. Mechanical components, cables, battery cells, and several pieces of equipment that were definitely illegal for a sixteen-year-old to possess were scattered across the floor.
A digital clock glowed beside his bed.
6:53 A.M.
Rai stared at it.
His brain slowly processed the numbers.
Then his soul abandoned his body.
"The test!"
He exploded out of bed.
His blanket wrapped around one leg and nearly killed him before the day had properly begun.
Rai hit the floor, untangled himself, grabbed the nearest uniform, and sprinted toward the bathroom.
"I told you to wake me up earlier!" he shouted.
Sona's voice came from downstairs.
"I did!"
"You screamed once!"
"I screamed six times!"
"That's worse!"
He showered in less than three minutes, dressed while brushing his teeth, and nearly strangled himself trying to fasten his uniform collar.
Today was not a normal school day.
Today was the K.E.A. vocational examination.
The test would determine whether he qualified to join the organization responsible for keeping humanity alive.
The Kaiju Extermination Alliance.
K.E.A.
The greatest military force ever assembled.
Also the organization Rai had spent most of his childhood secretly hacking.
He grabbed his schoolbag and rushed into the hallway.
"Sona?"
No answer.
His eyes narrowed.
The front door downstairs closed.
Rai froze.
"She left me."
He charged down the stairs.
His untied shoelace caught beneath his foot.
Rai lost his balance, struck the railing with one shoulder, bounced off the wall, and collapsed at the bottom of the staircase.
A soft laugh came from the kitchen.
Rai lifted his head.
Rosa Larkin stood beside the counter with a cup of coffee in one hand and a transparent data tablet in the other. Her white laboratory coat rested over a cream-colored shirt and blue jeans. Thin glasses sat low on her nose, and her long dark hair had been tied into a ponytail.
She looked less like a former battlefield commander and more like a scientist enjoying a quiet morning.
That was the disguise, anyway.
"Good morning, Rai."
He remained sprawled across the floor.
"Morning, Mother."
Rosa Larkin had once commanded the K.E.A.'s Twenty-Third Infantry Division.
Thousands of soldiers had followed her into Kaiju-infested territories.
Official records described her as a brilliant engineer, combat strategist, and one of the few commanders to survive three direct encounters with Type-Beta Kaiju.
The classified records told another story.
Rosa was part of the seventeenth generation of the Kaiju Engineering Super Soldier Project, an abandoned K.E.A. program designed to fuse human biology with engineered Kaiju cells.
She had never told her children.
Rai had learned the truth two years ago after slipping through the security network of a restricted K.E.A. archive.
He still remembered sitting alone in his room, staring at Rosa's file.
He remembered the diagrams.
The surgical records.
The list of failures.
The names of children who had never survived the project.
And then Rosa's picture, buried among them.
SUBJECT 17-RL.
STATUS: STABLE.
Rai had closed the file before reaching the final page.
He had never asked her about it.
Part of him was afraid she would lie.
A larger part was afraid she would tell him the truth.
Rosa looked over the rim of her glasses.
"Your shoelaces."
Rai pushed himself up.
"Sona abandoned me."
"She said you refused to wake up."
"She used psychological warfare."
"She yelled your name."
"Exactly."
Rosa smiled.
Rai grabbed a piece of toast from the counter and rushed toward the front door.
"Good luck today," she said.
He stopped.
Something in her voice caught him.
It was warm, but beneath it lay a strain he could not identify.
Rosa had always been good at hiding fear.
Rai turned back and kissed her cheek.
"Thanks, Mom."
Her expression softened.
"Come home safely."
He grinned.
"It's an exam, not a Kaiju hunt."
Rosa did not smile.
That should have bothered him more than it did.
Rai opened the door and ran outside with both shoelaces still untied.
Rosa watched him disappear beyond the front gate.
Her data tablet chimed.
A notification appeared.
PACIFIC RADIATION GRID: MINOR ANOMALY DETECTED
Rosa stared at it.
The reading vanished before she could open the report.
Her fingers tightened around the tablet.
"Rai…"
Los Angeles in 3150 no longer resembled the city that had existed before the Kaiju War.
Old highways had been replaced by elevated transit rails. Reinforced skyscrapers stretched beyond the clouds, their surfaces covered in holographic advertisements and emergency defense panels. Patrol drones moved between buildings while shield towers watched the coastline like silent giants.
Beneath all the technology, scars remained.
Some districts had never been rebuilt.
The ruins had been converted into memorial zones where the names of the dead glowed across black walls.
Rai passed one while running toward school.
LOS ANGELES FIRST BREACH
CASUALTIES: 218,493
He did not slow down.
Children in the year 3150 learned those numbers before they learned multiplication.
Rai reached the academy with seconds to spare.
He flew through the entrance, nearly collided with a maintenance drone, and slid into his classroom.
The bell rang while one foot was still outside.
His homeroom teacher slowly turned toward him.
Rai stood frozen in the doorway.
His hair was a mess.
His jacket was half-fastened.
His left shoe was untied.
Again.
"Mr. Larkin."
Rai smiled.
"Good morning, sir."
"You are late."
"I arrived before the bell stopped ringing."
"That is not how time works."
"It could be."
"Sit down."
"Yes, sir."
The class laughed as Rai walked toward his seat.
Sona sat near the window, one muscular arm resting on the desk. Her silver hair concealed one side of her face, leaving a single red eye visible.
She looked at him.
Then she smirked.
Rai dropped into the seat beside her.
"You betrayed me."
"You survived."
"Barely."
"You're dramatic."
"You left your helpless brother alone."
Sona flexed one arm.
"You are older than me."
"By eleven minutes."
"Still older."
"You threatened to throw me out a window."
"I knew you'd land."
"That isn't comforting."
Sona leaned back in her chair.
"You made it, didn't you?"
Rai stared at her.
She stared back.
A reluctant smile broke across his face.
"Unfortunately."
Sona punched his shoulder.
He nearly fell from his chair.
Third period was Kaiju Knowledge.
The class existed because every citizen was expected to understand basic survival procedures.
How to recognize a Kaiju emergence.
How to evacuate without causing a stampede.
How to identify contaminated tissue.
How long to wait before entering a radiation zone.
How to accept that rescue might never come.
The teacher stood before a holographic image of a Type-Beta Kaiju's skeletal structure.
"Can anyone identify the purpose of the secondary rib cage?"
Sona raised her hand.
"To protect the auxiliary core."
"Correct."
The teacher expanded the image.
"Most Kaiju possess multiple vital organs. Destroying the brain is not always enough. Several species can continue fighting after complete decapitation."
A few students shifted uncomfortably.
Rai barely listened.
His attention remained on the window.
Two years.
There had not been a confirmed Kaiju attack in two years.
That was unprecedented.
The world celebrated the silence.
K.E.A. recruitment dropped.
Cities lowered emergency restrictions.
People began saying the war might finally be ending.
Rai did not believe it.
Predators did not abandon a hunt without reason.
They waited.
"Oi."
Something struck his forehead.
Rai turned.
Sona held another crumpled piece of paper.
"Snap out of it."
He rubbed his forehead.
"Sorry."
"You've been staring outside for ten minutes."
"I was thinking."
"That's dangerous."
Rai ignored her.
"Doesn't the silence feel wrong to you?"
Sona glanced toward the window.
"Wrong how?"
"There hasn't been a single emergence in two years. Not one."
"Maybe they're finally scared of us."
"Kaiju don't get scared."
"You don't know that."
"They wiped out three countries in one week."
"And now we have better weapons."
Rai leaned forward.
"That's what bothers me."
Sona frowned.
"If they were afraid of our weapons, they would change tactics. They wouldn't disappear."
"Maybe they're dead."
"An entire species?"
"Hopefully."
Rai looked at her.
Sona's tone was casual, but her red eye burned with anticipation.
She wanted them to return.
Not because she wanted civilians to die.
Not because she enjoyed destruction.
She had simply spent her entire life preparing for a war that had gone quiet before she could enter it.
Sona trained six hours a day.
She ran combat simulations until her hands bled.
She had posters of famous Slayers on her wall, though she denied it whenever Rai mentioned them.
Her favorite was Hannah Jones.
America's strongest soldier.
The woman who had killed eleven Type-Beta Kaiju and survived an encounter with a Type-Alpha.
"At this rate," Sona muttered, "I'll never get to prove myself."
Rai raised an eyebrow.
"You're disappointed the giant monsters stopped eating people?"
"I didn't say that."
"You strongly implied it."
"I just want to join the Slayer Units."
"You can join without fighting one immediately."
"Where's the fun in that?"
"The living part."
Sona waved him off.
"I want Hannah Jones to see what I can do."
Rai studied her face.
He saw pride.
Ambition.
And something quieter.
A need to prove that all her training had meant something.
Rai understood that feeling more than he wanted to admit.
Sona wanted to become a legend.
Rai only wanted to understand why his own memories felt borrowed.
He was sixteen.
Yet sometimes, while dreaming, he saw cities that had never existed.
Black towers beneath purple skies.
Oceans suspended above the clouds.
A throne surrounded by creatures too large to have names.
He would wake with tears on his face and no idea why.
At times, he felt ancient.
At others, he felt hollow.
"Maybe you could try becoming a normal person," Rai said.
Sona looked offended.
"Disgusting."
A familiar voice came from behind them.
"Well, if it isn't the Larkin disasters."
Rai closed his eyes.
He knew that voice.
Confident.
Smooth.
Annoying enough to qualify as a biological weapon.
Ryan Ohmar stood beside their desks, one hand inside his pocket.
His hair was pink.
Violently pink.
Rai stared at it.
Sona stared too.
Ryan's expression remained proud.
Rai pointed.
"What did you do?"
Ryan touched his hair.
"You like it?"
"Your parents are going to kill you."
"They have to catch me first."
"You live with them."
"A temporary inconvenience."
Ryan came from a family that survived the Houston Kaiju Incident.
Nearly the entire city had been destroyed.
His parents escaped through an underground shelter with less than an hour of oxygen remaining.
Ryan had grown up hearing the story.
Unlike Sona, he did not idolize Slayers.
He wanted to become stronger because helplessness terrified him.
He just buried that fear beneath enough confidence to suffocate it.
"Ryan!"
Sona rose and hugged him.
Ryan's spine cracked.
His smile twitched.
"Still training, I see."
"Every day."
"I can feel that."
She released him.
Ryan looked toward Rai.
"I didn't know you were taking the K.E.A. test."
Rai stood.
"I could say the same thing."
Ryan smirked.
"You didn't think I'd let you become the next great Slayer without competition, did you?"
A familiar tension formed between them.
It had started when they were children.
Who could run faster.
Who could climb higher.
Who could score better.
Who could survive Sona's cooking.
Every challenge became war.
Rai grinned.
"Highest score wins?"
Ryan offered his hand.
"Highest score wins."
They clasped hands.
"Please don't turn this into another disaster."
A girl stepped between them.
Zuri Bolt carried three data tablets and a stack of handwritten notes. Her dark hair faded into silver near the ends, framing amber eyes that could silence the entire group with one disappointed stare.
She had been born in Rio de Janeiro and had moved to Los Angeles after her father joined the K.E.A.'s medical division.
Zuri was the mind of their group.
Ryan was the ego.
Sona was the muscle.
Rai was usually the reason they needed an apology.
Ryan greeted her with a nod.
"Ready for the test?"
"Of course." Zuri adjusted the tablets in her arms. "Did you all study?"
Sona nodded.
Ryan nodded.
Rai looked away.
Zuri's eyes narrowed.
"Rai."
He turned back slowly.
"Yes?"
"Did you study?"
"I reviewed several important concepts."
"For how long?"
Rai hesitated.
"Define 'long.'"
"Rai."
"About forty minutes."
Zuri stared at him.
"The study guide was released two weeks ago."
"I was busy."
"Playing games?"
"Testing advanced neural response software."
"You were playing games."
"Technically."
Zuri lifted one of her books.
Rai raised both hands.
"Now, let's not do anything violent."
The book struck him in the face.
He stumbled backward.
Sona and Ryan did not react.
They had seen this before.
Then blood slipped from Rai's nose.
A single red drop landed on Ryan's shoe.
Ryan looked down.
His expression changed immediately.
"Rai?"
Zuri froze.
The book lowered in her hands.
"I'm sorry."
Rai touched his nose.
His fingertips came away red.
"It's fine."
"I didn't mean to hit you that hard."
"You didn't."
"That makes it worse."
Another drop fell.
Zuri hurried closer.
"Sit down."
"I'm okay."
"Rai."
Her voice softened.
That hurt more than the book.
He smiled because that was what he always did when people worried.
"I'm fine."
The lie came easily.
It always had.
For the first eight years of Rai's life, nobody cared whether he was fine.
He remembered the orphanage.
The cold hallways.
The older children who shoved him into storage rooms during Kaiju alarms.
The caretakers who called him strange.
The nightmares.
The sound of monsters roaring beyond city walls while he curled beneath a bed and waited to die.
There had been nights when he believed disappearing would be easier.
Then Rosa had adopted him.
Sona had declared herself his sister before he even unpacked.
Ryan and Zuri had followed.
They had given him reasons to smile.
Sometimes Rai feared that if he stopped smiling, even for a second, they would realize how damaged he truly was.
Ryan placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Come on. Bathroom."
Rai nodded.
As they walked away, Zuri remained beside the desk, staring at the blood on the floor.
Something strange happened.
The drop shimmered.
Purple light flickered inside it.
Then it returned to red.
Zuri blinked.
By the time she leaned closer, the light was gone.
Ryan stood beside the bathroom sink while Rai pressed a damp paper towel beneath his nose.
"You sure you're okay?"
"Yes."
"That sounded rehearsed."
"It's a nosebleed."
"You've been getting those a lot."
Rai looked at himself in the mirror.
Golden eyes stared back.
"Stress."
"You don't get stressed."
"I'm excellent at hiding it."
Ryan crossed his arms.
For once, the pink hair did nothing to weaken his serious expression.
"Do you actually want to become a Slayer?"
Rai lowered the towel.
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because when Sona talks about fighting Kaiju, she lights up. When I talk about it, you call me an idiot."
"You are an idiot."
"You know what I mean."
Rai looked down at the blood swirling through the sink.
"I want answers."
"About what?"
"My past."
Ryan's face changed.
He knew better than to push too hard.
Rai continued anyway.
"I don't remember anything before the orphanage. Not really. Just pieces."
"You were a kid."
"I remember things that didn't happen."
Ryan remained silent.
"Sometimes I dream about places I've never seen," Rai said. "Sometimes I recognize Kaiju anatomy before learning it. Sometimes I…"
He stopped.
"Sometimes what?"
Rai looked into the mirror again.
For half a second, his reflection was gone.
Something else stood in its place.
A figure with violet eyes.
A crown of bone.
A smile too wide to belong to anything human.
Rai blinked.
His reflection returned.
"Nothing."
Ryan stepped closer.
"Rai."
The announcement system activated.
"All applicants participating in the K.E.A. vocational examination are to report to the gymnasium immediately."
Rai dropped the bloodied paper towel into the bin.
He forced a grin.
"Time to beat you."
Ryan watched him for another second before smirking.
"In your dreams."
They left together.
Behind them, the blood-soaked paper towel began to glow.
The physical examination began with strength testing.
Applicants lifted reinforced weights while machines measured muscle output and skeletal stress.
Sona shattered the expected score for her age group.
Ryan did well enough to brag.
Zuri completed the minimum requirement and looked personally insulted by the existence of exercise.
Rai stepped beneath the lifting frame.
"Begin when ready," the examiner said.
Rai gripped the bar.
The display began at two hundred kilograms.
He lifted it.
Three hundred.
He lifted it.
Five hundred.
The examiner frowned.
"Continue."
Eight hundred.
The frame groaned.
Rai lifted it above his head.
Silence spread across the gymnasium.
Sona grinned.
Ryan's jaw tightened.
Zuri stared at the numbers.
Rai lowered the weight.
The machine flashed red.
ERROR: OUTPUT EXCEEDS ADOLESCENT PARAMETERS
Rai looked at the examiner.
"Does that count?"
The examiner slowly nodded.
Endurance came next.
Then sprinting.
Reflex trials.
Pull-ups.
Squats.
Combat simulations.
Rai performed far better than he expected.
His body moved before he consciously decided to move.
During the reflex test, he avoided projectiles he could not see.
During the sprint, the sensors briefly lost track of him.
Each abnormal result added another line to the examiner's report.
Then came the blood draw.
A medic inserted the needle into Rai's arm.
Dark red blood filled the tube.
Blue light flickered inside it.
The medic frowned.
"Did you see that?"
Rai looked at the tube.
It appeared normal.
"See what?"
"Nothing."
The medic sealed the sample.
As Rai walked away, a thin fracture appeared in the glass.
The written examination began moments later.
Rai sat before a holographic display while the first question materialized.
Question One
Kaiju bodies are resistant to conventional weaponry. Which weapons are capable of penetrating the first dermal layer?
A. Nexus Weapons
B. AC-130U Gunship
C. Castle Bravo Warhead
D. Type 10 Hitomaru
Rai selected A.
Nexus weapons were forged from Locrite, the only known material capable of reliably piercing Kaiju armor.
The metal had been discovered within the remains of a Heaven-Class Kaiju nearly a century earlier.
It resisted heat.
Pressure.
Radiation.
Most forms of molecular breakdown.
Scientists claimed Locrite was nearly indestructible.
Rai knew better.
Everything could be destroyed.
The real question was how much force it required.
Nexus weapons were humanity's answer to the Kaiju.
Blades.
Spears.
Rifles.
Cannons.
Mechs.
Every design relied on Locrite.
There were also rumors that the metal reacted to energy from the Kaiju dimension.
Most researchers rejected the existence of such a place.
Dr. Louise Hems had not.
She claimed to have witnessed a Type-Alpha Kaiju enter a portal beneath the Pacific Ocean.
Her testimony had been dismissed.
Her research funding disappeared.
Then she vanished.
Rai had found her final message inside a damaged archive.
It contained only seven words.
They are not invading. They are running.
He had never forgotten them.
Far beneath the school, water moved through the drainage tunnels.
Traces of Rai's blood had entered the sink.
They traveled with the current.
Red slowly became violet.
Violet became black.
Blue light pulsed through the liquid like trapped lightning.
The blood reached the ocean.
For one moment, nothing happened.
Then the water stopped moving.
Not slowed.
Stopped.
A circular distortion formed beneath the surface.
The ocean folded inward.
A wound opened in reality.
Beyond it lay darkness.
Something breathed on the other side.
An enormous eye opened.
Its pupil narrowed.
The creature inhaled.
It smelled Rai's blood.
The wormhole widened.
A growl rolled through the deep.
The ocean floor split apart.
Location: K.E.A. California Mech Base
"Commander!"
A researcher rushed into the operations center.
Dozens of holographic screens displayed the Pacific coast.
One region burned crimson.
The commander looked up.
"What happened?"
"We detected an energy surge off the Los Angeles coast."
"What classification?"
The researcher hesitated.
"Category Seven."
The room fell silent.
Category Seven radiation had not been detected since the fall of New Zealand.
The commander took the report.
"That's impossible."
"It's rising."
A warning sounded.
The main display changed.
SPATIAL DISTORTION DETECTED
BIOLOGICAL MASS APPROACHING
The commander slammed his hand against the console.
"Contact K-Team."
"They're deployed near Moscow."
"Recall them."
"Sir, the Moscow anomaly—"
"Los Angeles has twenty-seven million civilians."
The commander's voice shook the room.
"Bring me K-Team now."
Two hours, forty-one minutes, and twenty-three seconds after the exam began, Rai answered the final question.
He leaned back.
Despite barely studying, he felt confident.
That worried him.
When Rai knew something without learning it, the answer rarely came from a good place.
Around him, students submitted their tests.
Zuri finished with several minutes remaining.
Ryan looked smug.
Sona looked bored.
Rai was about to speak when a cold sensation traveled along his spine.
His breath stopped.
The gymnasium disappeared from his awareness.
Something was looking at him.
A presence vast enough to drown the room.
It carried hatred.
Fear.
Desperation.
And hunger.
Rai's fingers tightened around the desk.
The lights flickered.
Every screen in the gymnasium went black.
An alarm screamed.
Students jumped from their seats.
A mechanical voice filled the school.
"Emergency alert."
Red lights activated.
"This is not a drill."
The ground moved.
Desks slid across the floor.
Windows trembled.
Several students screamed.
"A Type-Alpha Kaiju has been detected within the Los Angeles metropolitan zone."
Panic erupted.
Teachers shouted for everyone to remain calm.
No one listened.
The main screen activated.
A live aerial feed appeared.
Something enormous moved between the skyscrapers.
Crimson armor covered its body in overlapping plates. Black tissue showed beneath the shell while jagged spikes ran from its skull to its tail.
Every step destroyed a city block.
The emergency broadcast identified it.
KAIJU DESIGNATION: CRIMSON REX
ESTIMATED HEIGHT: 350 METERS
THREAT LEVEL: TYPE-ALPHA
Sona stared at the screen.
The excitement she had carried all morning vanished.
This was not a training simulation.
It was not a heroic broadcast.
Buildings were collapsing.
People were dying.
Crimson Rex released a roar.
The sound reached the school seconds later.
The windows cracked.
Students covered their ears.
Rai stood.
His heart pounded.
The Kaiju moved through the city with purpose.
It ignored military towers.
It ignored evacuation transports.
It ignored the crowds.
It shoved buildings aside and continued in one direction.
Toward the school.
"We have to leave," Rai said.
Ryan looked at him.
"That's what the alarm means."
"No."
Rai pointed at the screen.
"It's coming here."
Those nearby fell silent.
Sona looked at him.
"How do you know?"
Rai did not.
But the certainty sat inside his bones.
The Kaiju was not searching for something beneath the school.
It was searching for someone inside it.
Pain tore through his skull.
Rai staggered.
Images flooded his mind.
A black ocean beneath a dead moon.
A creature kneeling before a throne.
Purple blood falling across white stone.
Crimson Rex running through darkness.
Not hunting.
Fleeing.
Then an image of Rai himself.
Standing among thousands of dead Kaiju.
His hands covered in violet blood.
He grabbed his head.
"Rai!" Zuri rushed toward him.
"Someone's blood…"
"What?"
Rai looked at his hands.
"Whose blood is it?"
The building shook again.
Attack helicopters surrounded Crimson Rex.
Missiles struck its armor.
Fire rolled across the creature's body.
It barely reacted.
Cannons opened fire from nearby defense towers.
The Kaiju continued forward.
The attack was not meant to kill it.
Only delay it.
Above the city, a black K.E.A. dropship descended through the clouds.
Its hangar opened.
Hannah Jones stood at the edge.
America's strongest soldier wore red and black combat gear with several Nexus blades secured across her body. Her short red hair moved in the wind while her eyes studied Crimson Rex.
She did not look impressed.
She looked concerned.
"This beast is hunting."
Xavier Beaufils stood behind her, checking the ammunition feed of his LMG68-1X.
He was broad, scarred, and older than most active Slayers. Europe called him its sharpest shooter.
He preferred simpler titles.
"Type-Alpha after two years of nothing," Xavier muttered. "And it ignores every military target in the city."
He studied the route.
"It's heading toward the school."
Hannah inhaled slowly.
Her senses had been modified by Kaiju-cell treatments.
The air carried the stink of radiation and burning steel.
Beneath it lay something worse.
"Toxicity levels are wrong."
Xavier glanced at her.
"Too high?"
"Not from the Kaiju."
Across the hangar, Ashon tightened the wraps around his hands.
The young Swahili warrior wore a red combat jacket over dark clothing. A prototype weapon rested across his back.
He was the third-in-command of K-Team.
He was also the only fighter besides Hannah who had ever survived sparring with her without being hospitalized.
Xavier nodded toward the weapon.
"Ready to test Africa's newest masterpiece?"
Ashon looked down at the city.
"The creature wants something."
"That's what we said."
"No."
Ashon's eyes narrowed.
"It is afraid."
Then he stepped from the dropship.
Xavier stared after him.
"He could at least wait for the pilot to slow down."
Hannah walked toward the edge.
"Ashon and Xavier, engage the target."
She looked toward the school.
"I'll handle the evacuation."
Xavier lifted his weapon.
"Try not to frighten the children."
Hannah jumped.
The school evacuation had collapsed into chaos.
Students crowded the exits.
Teachers struggled to maintain order.
Emergency doors jammed after the building shifted.
Rai carried Zuri across his back after she injured her ankle during the first tremor. With his free arm, he supported an older teacher.
"Put me down," Zuri said.
"You can't walk."
"I can limp."
"Slowly."
"This is humiliating."
"You're lighter than my backpack."
"That was almost sweet."
"It wasn't."
They reached the courtyard as something fell from the sky.
Hannah Jones struck the concrete hard enough to crack it.
She rose without a scratch.
For one second, everyone stopped panicking.
The strongest Slayer in America had arrived.
The principal hurried toward her.
"Are the civilians secure?" Hannah asked.
"No. Two exits collapsed and the underground transit tunnel is blocked."
Hannah scanned the students.
Her gaze landed on Rai.
"Young man. Are you injured?"
Rai opened his mouth.
Pain stabbed behind his eyes.
The world slowed.
He saw a block of concrete flying toward them.
Not with his eyes.
With something else.
Rai lowered the teacher, turned, and kicked Hannah in the chest.
The courtyard erupted in shocked gasps.
Hannah moved backward.
A massive piece of debris tore through the space where she had stood.
It crashed into the ground.
Dust exploded outward.
Rai stared at it.
"That was close."
Hannah looked at him.
Most trained soldiers could not touch her.
Rai had not only touched her.
He had moved her.
"You have good reflexes."
"I hear that a lot."
He glanced around.
"Right, Sona?"
No answer.
Rai's smile vanished.
"Sona?"
He searched the courtyard.
She was gone.
Ryan came running from the building, holding his phone.
"Rai!"
He showed him the tracking display.
A blinking marker moved away from the evacuation route.
Toward Crimson Rex.
Rai stared at it.
"She didn't."
Ryan's face said everything.
"Sona went to watch K-Team fight."
For a moment, Rai felt nothing.
Then fear hit him.
Not anger.
Not annoyance.
Pure terror.
He saw the orphanage again.
Empty beds after Kaiju alarms.
Names removed from lockers.
Children disappearing without funerals.
He saw Sona's room.
Her training gloves.
Her stupid posters.
Her grin whenever she called him bro.
He could not lose her.
Not her.
Rai lowered Zuri into the arms of another student.
"Stay here."
Ryan grabbed him.
"Where are you going?"
"To bring her back."
"There is a Type-Alpha out there!"
"I know."
"You can't fight that thing!"
"I don't need to fight it."
Rai pulled free.
"I just need my sister."
He ran.
The city had become a burning maze.
Smoke buried the streets.
Cars lay overturned.
Fragments of buildings rained from above.
Rai moved through the destruction, following Sona's tracker.
Every roar from Crimson Rex shook his ribs.
K-Team fought in the distance.
Xavier fired Locrite rounds into the creature's joints.
Ashon moved beneath its legs, striking with enough force to crack armor.
Other Slayers attacked from rooftops and aerial platforms.
Crimson Rex bled.
It did not fall.
Rai found Sona standing behind an overturned transport.
She stared at the battle.
Not with excitement.
With horror.
A civilian evacuation vehicle lay crushed nearby.
A child's hand extended from beneath the wreckage.
Sona's entire body trembled.
This was the part the broadcasts never showed.
The silence after impact.
The blood beneath the smoke.
The people who did not get back up.
"Sona!"
She turned.
Rai crossed the street and grabbed her shoulders.
"What were you thinking?"
"I…"
Her voice failed.
Rai saw the fear in her visible eye.
His anger collapsed.
He pulled her into his arms.
"You idiot."
Sona gripped the back of his jacket.
"I thought…"
"I know."
"I just wanted to see them fight."
"I know."
A shadow covered the street.
Rai looked up.
Crimson Rex had turned.
Its eyes were locked on him.
Everything else became irrelevant.
The Kaiju ignored K-Team.
Ignored the weapons piercing its body.
Ignored the city.
It saw Rai.
And it screamed.
The sound carried something beyond rage.
Recognition.
Crimson Rex raised one foot.
Rai pushed Sona away.
"Run!"
She stumbled.
Rai remained beneath the shadow.
His body refused to move.
He was sixteen years old.
He had not joined K.E.A.
He had never killed a Kaiju.
He had barely studied for the test that morning.
Now a creature taller than most buildings was about to erase him from existence.
Rai smiled.
It was instinct.
The same smile he wore when the orphanage children hit him.
The same smile he used whenever Rosa asked whether he was okay.
If death wanted him, he would not let it see fear.
"Bring it on."
The foot descended.
"NOT ON MY WATCH!"
Sona seized his arm.
She dragged him aside.
Crimson Rex's foot struck the road.
The shockwave threw them through the air.
They crashed behind a ruined building.
Rai rolled across the ground.
Sona landed beside him.
He pushed himself upright.
"SONA!"
She grinned weakly.
"You're welcome."
"You are in so much trouble!"
"You were standing there!"
"I had a plan."
"Dying isn't a plan!"
"For me, it's usually step three!"
The ground shook.
Crimson Rex turned toward them.
Rai looked at his wrist.
A control display glowed beneath the skin.
He had hoped to reveal the weapons after they passed the exam.
There was no point waiting now.
He pressed the command.
"EXO deployment authorized."
Two pods launched from a hidden compartment beneath the city.
They tore through the sky and struck the road.
Metal shells opened.
Sona stared.
Inside the first pod rested a crimson-and-black greatsword.
The EXO-761 Apocalypse Blade.
Its massive Locrite edge glowed red while mechanical plates shifted along the weapon's spine.
The second pod contained a white spear with a brilliant blue core.
The EXO-523 White Lotus.
Sona looked at Rai.
"You built these?"
"I may have borrowed some classified designs."
"You hacked K.E.A. again?"
"Focus on the monster."
"That isn't a no."
Rai lifted Apocalypse Blade.
The weapon was enormous, yet it felt strangely natural in his hands.
As though he had wielded it in another life.
Sona took White Lotus.
Blue light spread across the spear.
"I made them for us," Rai said. "For when we became Slayers."
Sona tightened her grip.
The fear remained in her eye.
But something stronger rose beside it.
Trust.
"Thank you."
Rai rested the blade against his shoulder.
"Brother and sister for life?"
Sona struck her spear against his sword.
"Brother and sister for life."
Crimson Rex roared.
Rai looked up.
"Let's make sure that lasts longer than five minutes."
They moved.
Crimson Rex attempted to crush them again.
Rai slid beneath its foot and struck the rear ankle.
Apocalypse Blade carved through the outer shell.
The impact nearly tore his arms from their sockets.
Sona attacked the opposite leg.
White Lotus moved like a silver flash, piercing between armor plates.
The Kaiju collapsed onto one knee.
The city shook.
Sona shouted.
"We hurt it!"
Rai looked toward the tail.
"Move!"
The tail struck him before he could escape.
Rai flew through a building.
Glass and steel shattered around him.
He crashed through three walls and slammed into a support column.
Pain devoured his body.
For several seconds, he could not breathe.
His left arm hung uselessly.
Blood filled his mouth.
"…Ouch."
Outside, Sona stood alone.
Crimson Rex rose.
She looked toward the shattered building.
"Rai?"
No answer.
The Kaiju raised one claw.
Sona looked at White Lotus.
Rai had warned her about the final system.
The spear could amplify its output through biological resonance.
The easiest fuel source was blood.
He had never finished the safety restrictions.
Sona dragged the edge across her palm.
Blood touched the weapon.
The blue core turned white.
Energy exploded around her.
She screamed and launched herself upward.
White Lotus struck Crimson Rex's skull.
The spear penetrated one layer.
Then stopped.
The Kaiju's armor tightened around the blade.
Sona gripped the weapon with both hands.
Her muscles strained.
The skin along her arms split beneath the pressure.
"Move!"
Crimson Rex opened its jaws.
A glow formed inside its throat.
Sona could not pull free.
Then red light erupted from the ruined building.
Rai emerged through the smoke.
His left arm was broken.
Blood covered half his face.
Apocalypse Blade burned in his right hand.
Something inside the weapon responded to his blood.
Or perhaps to something beneath it.
The blade transformed.
Mechanical plates shifted.
The red edge extended.
Violet lightning moved along the Locrite.
A warning appeared across Rai's vision.
APOCALYPSE CORE OUTPUT: 121%
OPERATOR SURVIVAL PROBABILITY: 8%
Rai laughed.
"Better than zero."
He leapt.
For an instant, the battlefield disappeared.
Rai saw himself standing beneath a black sky.
A different sword rested in his hands.
Countless monsters knelt before him.
A voice whispered from somewhere inside his skull.
Kill it.
Rai swung.
Apocalypse Blade struck Crimson Rex's head.
Sona drove White Lotus deeper.
Red and blue energy collided.
The Kaiju screamed.
Its armor split.
The cut traveled from the crown of its skull through its chest.
Crimson Rex separated into two halves.
The massive pieces crashed onto opposite sides of the street.
Rai and Sona fell.
Their weapons deactivated.
Sona reached toward him.
"Rai!"
He tried to move.
His body refused.
Then Hannah caught him.
Ashon caught Sona.
They landed among the ruins.
For several seconds, only fire and distant alarms filled the silence.
Ashon looked toward the divided corpse.
"Not bad."
Sona stared at him.
"Really?"
"Reckless."
Her smile faded.
"Illegal."
It vanished completely.
"Nearly suicidal."
Sona lowered her head.
Ashon patted it.
"But impressive."
Xavier approached while scanning the Kaiju's remains.
His display flickered.
"That explains it."
Hannah lowered Rai carefully.
"What?"
"The radiation is dropping."
Xavier adjusted the scanner.
"This creature wasn't naturally Type-Alpha."
Rai coughed.
"What does that mean?"
"It was Type-Beta."
Xavier looked toward the body.
"Something amplified it."
The red armor began losing color.
Flesh beneath the shell collapsed.
Radiation bled away from the corpse in violet streams.
Hannah looked at the two teenagers.
Then at their weapons.
"Dr. Larkin's children."
Rai's golden eyes narrowed.
"You know our mother?"
"I know what she built."
The answer felt wrong.
Apocalypse Blade had been designed by Rai.
Or so he believed.
Hannah studied him.
She remembered his kick.
She remembered the speed.
The force.
The way Crimson Rex had ignored an entire city to reach him.
Ashon looked at Rai and Sona.
"You should join K.E.A."
Rai blinked.
"Just like that?"
"You helped kill a boosted Type-Beta."
"We killed it," Sona said.
Xavier cleared his throat.
"Officially, K-Team killed it."
Rai stared at him.
"You're taking credit?"
"We always take credit."
"That's robbery."
"That's public relations."
Rai tried to stand.
His vision blurred.
Thunder filled his ears.
The burning city vanished.
He saw a vast chamber beneath the Earth.
Chains larger than mountains crossed a black abyss.
Something slept at the center.
A creature with no shape Rai could understand.
Lightning moved beneath its skin.
Its eyes opened.
Rai heard a voice.
Not spoken aloud.
Not human.
Found you.
His body went cold.
Then he collapsed.
Location: Private K.E.A. Bunker, Utah
Two Weeks Later
Rai awakened beneath white medical lights.
For fourteen days, he had drifted between dreams.
He saw Crimson Rex.
He saw the wormhole.
He saw himself standing before armies of Kaiju.
Every dream ended with the same voice.
Found you.
When his eyes opened, the first thing he felt was pain.
The second was absence.
Sona was not beside him.
Neither were Ryan or Zuri.
The room was too quiet.
Machines monitored his heartbeat.
Reinforced glass separated him from the corridor.
This was not a normal hospital.
It was a containment room.
A man sat beside the bed.
Eric Coleman, Chief Executive of K.E.A. America, wore a formal military coat and peaked cap. Age had hardened his face into something almost carved from stone.
Rai looked toward him.
"How long?"
"Fourteen days."
Rai's throat felt dry.
"Sona?"
"Alive."
His body relaxed before the rest of the explanation came.
"She scored high enough to enter the Slayer program. After what happened in Los Angeles, K-Team requested her directly."
Rai stared at the ceiling.
"She must be unbearable now."
"She asked about you every day."
His smile weakened.
"My mother?"
"Studying Crimson Rex."
"Ryan and Zuri?"
"Safe."
Rai turned toward Eric.
"What happens to me?"
Eric rested both hands on his cane.
"You scored higher on the examination than any applicant in the United States."
Rai blinked.
"Even Zuri?"
"By eleven points."
"She's going to murder me."
"That may be the least of your problems."
A holographic display appeared.
Rai's medical data filled the air.
Several results flashed red.
"Your physical performance exceeded enhanced-human standards," Eric said. "Your reflexes surpassed our sensors. Your muscle density increased during the examination."
Rai looked at the blood analysis.
Most of it was marked unknown.
"And your blood sample destroyed a Locrite-reinforced container."
Silence filled the room.
"That's impossible."
"Yes."
Rai looked at Eric.
"Can I still become a Slayer?"
"You want to?"
"I made my decision."
"What about your friends?"
Rai's eyes lowered.
"We promised we'd stay together."
"Promises made by children rarely survive war."
The words struck harder than they should have.
Rai clenched his fists beneath the blanket.
"Zuri chose the medical research division," Eric continued. "Ryan qualified for active Slayer training, though barely."
Rai smiled faintly.
"He'll hate that you said barely."
"He can hate it after improving."
Rai looked toward the reinforced window.
"Tell them I'm safe."
"You can tell them yourself once the medical division clears you."
"And if they don't?"
Eric did not answer.
Rai understood.
The room was reinforced for a reason.
The guards outside were armed for a reason.
K.E.A. did not know whether he was a patient.
Or a threat.
Rai remembered Crimson Rex looking at him.
Not like prey.
Like recognition.
He remembered standing beneath its foot.
He remembered smiling because smiling was easier than admitting he was afraid.
"If I had stayed with the evacuation," he whispered, "none of this would've happened."
"Sona would have died."
Rai looked toward Eric.
The older man's expression remained severe.
"You did something reckless," Eric said. "But do not confuse guilt with responsibility. The Kaiju attacked before you entered the battlefield."
"It was looking for me."
Eric's silence confirmed it.
Rai's heartbeat increased.
"You know why."
"We have theories."
"Tell me."
"Tomorrow."
Eric rose.
"The medical division needs to examine your physical condition."
"What condition?"
Eric walked toward the door.
Rai's voice followed him.
"Why did that Kaiju know me?"
Eric stopped.
For the first time, something resembling fear appeared in his eyes.
"Because Crimson Rex was not the first creature to react to your blood."
Rai went still.
Eric opened the door.
"A team has been prepared for you."
"What team?"
"One designed to determine whether you can protect humanity."
He looked back.
"Or whether humanity needs protection from you."
The words settled over the room.
Cold.
Heavy.
Final.
Eric stepped into the corridor.
Before the door closed, he spoke once more.
"The world is changing, Rai."
His weathered gaze remained fixed on the boy.
"You need to start thinking beyond your friends and family."
The door sealed.
Rai remained alone.
Outside the bunker, thunder rolled across the Utah sky.
A thin streak of violet light moved beneath the skin of his arm.
Far beneath the Pacific Ocean, the wormhole opened again.
Dozens of eyes stared through the darkness.
And deeper still, beneath continents and oceans, something dormant listened to Rai Larkin's heartbeat.
For the first time in thousands of years—
it smiled.