Chapter 14: The Blood Thief
POV: Adam
Detection screamed warning before conscious thought could process the anomaly approaching his clinic. Three civilian signatures reading impossible—spatial manipulation signatures active but unstable, deteriorating with each pulse of power that threatened to tear them apart from inside.
His blood work had been stolen. Someone was replicating his abilities.
Badly.
Adam rushed through Boston's underground passages toward the distress signals, enhanced senses painting catastrophe in real-time detail. The first victim lay in an alley that smelled like copper and burned flesh, body contorted in ways that violated anatomy.
"Shambles effect gone wrong. Someone activated spatial manipulation without control or understanding."
The man's torso had been turned inside out—organs outside skin, bones twisted into impossible angles, still alive but screaming in agony that no human throat should produce. Tissue degradation spread like infection as unstable power consumed him from within.
Adam's medical training provided diagnosis even as his heart rejected the evidence: crude Ope Ope serum administered to someone without natural resistance, creating partial ROOM activation that the victim couldn't contain or shut down.
"Mercy kill. Quick and clean."
Stone Breathing enhanced strength snapped the man's neck before suffering could continue. Another death on Adam's conscience, caused by abilities he'd never asked for but couldn't escape.
Detection showed two more victims nearby—both deteriorating, both dying from powers that should never have been replicated in makeshift laboratories.
"Someone extracted my blood cells, synthesized enhancement serum, tested on volunteers. Results are killing them."
POV: Dr. Werner
The anomaly's blood called to Werner like scientific salvation. Three months of careful sample collection from medical waste, laboratory analysis revealing cellular structures that defied classification, synthesis attempts that produced nothing but failure until today.
"Finally. Breakthrough."
The serum looked promising—bluish liquid that carried faint energy signatures resembling the target's spatial manipulation effects. Three desperate volunteers had agreed to testing: terminal cancer patient, infected civilian past hope of conventional treatment, former FEDRA soldier crippled by infected attack.
All dying anyway. All willing to risk experimental enhancement for chance at extended life.
Results were... unexpected.
The cancer patient achieved partial ROOM activation before his body began dismantling itself at molecular level. Screaming lasted fourteen minutes before Werner administered merciful overdose.
The infected civilian manifested Shambles ability but couldn't control direction or intensity. Spatial swaps occurred randomly—furniture appearing inside his body, organs relocating outside skin, bones materializing in walls. Death took twenty-three minutes.
The former soldier survived longest, maintaining consciousness while reality rearranged around him in patterns his enhanced physiology couldn't sustain. Werner documented everything before the subject's cardiovascular system relocated outside his ribcage.
"I can fix this. Just need the source. Need the original anomaly's fresh samples to understand stabilization process."
But time was running out. FEDRA would notice the missing medical supplies eventually. The anomaly's allies would investigate victim disappearances. Scientific opportunity demanded immediate action.
Werner gathered remaining serum samples, activated emergency protocol, prepared for desperate gambit that would either provide breakthrough data or destroy everything he'd built.
"Evolution requires sacrifice. Understanding demands experimentation. I'm making the anomaly reproducible."
The justification felt hollow as he prepared to contaminate Boston QZ's water supply with microscopic doses of unstable enhancement serum. But scientific progress had always required researchers willing to take calculated risks.
Even if those calculations included mass casualties.
POV: Adam
"Someone's weaponizing medical research," Adam told Tommy and Tess without full explanation. "We stop it now."
Detection had tracked Werner's laboratory to FEDRA's secure research facility—infiltration impossible without massive force that would expose everyone involved. But crisis demanded action over careful planning.
"What kind of research?" Tommy pressed, military instincts demanding tactical intelligence.
"Enhancement serums. Attempts to replicate abilities that shouldn't be replicated." Close enough to truth while avoiding dangerous specifics. "Results are killing test subjects."
Tommy's jaw clenched with recognition of military experimentation gone wrong. "FEDRA program?"
"Rogue scientist. But using their resources."
"Then Fireflies should know," Tess interjected. "Marlene wants FEDRA tech disrupted anyway. Make it official operation."
The suggestion created alliance of convenience between personal crisis and factional politics. Marlene would authorize assault on FEDRA facility if it served Firefly interests. Tommy's military experience would provide tactical expertise. Tess's smuggling networks would handle equipment acquisition.
Adam's urgency raised questions neither of them voiced—why he cared so much about random enhancement research, how he knew details about classified experiments, what personal stakes drove his desperate energy.
But crisis demanded action over interrogation.
"I'll contact Marlene," Tommy decided. "Get authorization for retrieval mission."
"What are we retrieving?" Tess asked.
"Blood samples. Research data. Anything that could be used to continue experiments elsewhere."
And Dr. Werner, if possible. The man's scientific knowledge made him dangerous loose end that could reveal too much about Adam's impossible biology. Better to capture him for interrogation than leave him free to publish findings that would attract international attention.
"Save the test subjects who can be saved. Destroy evidence that can't be contained. Neutralize threats before they spread beyond Boston."
Detection showed more civilian signatures developing spatial manipulation anomalies throughout the QZ. Werner's contamination was already spreading.
POV: Adam
The assault on Werner's laboratory came too late to prevent catastrophe. By the time Firefly operatives breached FEDRA security, Werner had already activated emergency protocol—releasing remaining serum into QZ's water supply through connections he'd sabotaged.
Detection revealed him fleeing through maintenance tunnels, carrying blood stores and research data that represented everything he'd learned about Adam's impossible physiology. The chase led through Boston's underground infrastructure while above them, civilians began developing unstable abilities that would kill them within hours.
Stone Breathing propelled Adam faster than human normal, but Werner had planned escape routes with scientist's precision. Through storm drains, maintenance corridors, abandoned subway tunnels that honeycombed the QZ's foundations.
Finally cornered in pump station that regulated water flow throughout several sectors, Werner turned with desperation of man who'd committed everything to single research project.
"I was making you reproducible!" he screamed, activating final contamination release that sent gallons of enhancement serum directly into primary water lines. "Humanity deserves your gifts!"
Scan showed catastrophe incoming—hundreds of people would develop unstable spatial abilities over next six hours, creating chaos that would destroy QZ infrastructure and kill thousands through uncontrolled reality manipulation.
"Mad justification. Scientific progress through mass murder."
Adam's fury warred with necessity as ROOM erupted around them both. Shambles swapped all remaining blood samples into controlled space where they could be destroyed rather than recovered. Werner's research data followed, comprehensive notes about Adam's cellular structure vanishing into spatial void.
But Werner himself escaped during the power display, vanishing through passages that Detection couldn't track while alarms screamed throughout FEDRA facility.
The blood samples were destroyed. The immediate threat was contained. But contamination had already begun spreading through water systems that served fifty thousand people.
"Twelve hours to find and treat everyone affected by Werner's serum before unstable abilities kill them."
POV: Adam
Quarantine enacted over water supply contamination. Medical emergency declared. FEDRA and Fireflies cooperating for first time in QZ history because crisis transcended factional politics.
Adam spent seventy-two hours performing emergency surgeries on civilians developing unstable abilities—removing Werner's serum effects with Ope Ope precision while enhanced stamina sustained him through marathon medical interventions.
Counter Shock neutralized enhancement chemicals. Scan identified cellular damage patterns. Amputate extracted foreign substances that threatened to tear victims apart from inside. Each surgery lasted hours, each success felt like stealing life back from death's immediate grasp.
Forty-three saved. Twelve lost to complications beyond even supernatural medicine's ability to address.
Tommy watched him work without rest, finally understanding why Adam maintained such desperate secrecy about his abilities. Not shame over military experiments, but protection against people who'd exploit enhancement capabilities for personal gain.
"You're not a weapon," Tommy said quietly as Adam collapsed from exhaustion after the final surgery. "You're a walking target. Every faction, every government, everyone desperate for advantage—they'd all want to own you."
Detection painted Tommy's emotional state as genuine understanding mixed with protective anger. The younger Miller brother had seen enough military programs to recognize valuable assets that became prisoners of their own worth.
"That's why you hide," Tommy continued. "Not because you're dangerous. Because everyone else is dangerous to you."
Adam nodded weakly, too drained to construct elaborate responses. The truth was simpler than his usual deceptions: enhanced abilities made him useful to people who viewed utility as ownership opportunity.
"He understands. Finally, someone who sees the real problem."
Werner remained loose in Boston's underground, carrying knowledge about Adam's impossible biology that could expose transmigration secrets to scientific scrutiny. The blood thief had been stopped, but the threat he represented would continue until neutralized permanently.
Outside the clinic, civilians recovered from brush with unstable enhancement, unaware they'd been saved by the same person whose existence had created the crisis. Another consequence of powers that helped and harmed in equal measure.
The cycle continued: save lives, attract attention, face consequences, hide deeper. Adam's enhanced abilities were blessing and curse intertwined, useful tools that came with costs he couldn't calculate in advance.
But Tommy's understanding provided anchor against despair. At least one person saw the burden rather than just the benefit.
That was enough. For now.
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