THE RUINS
The ruined district was quiet in the wrong way.
Buildings leaned at bad angles, cars were half-melted into the street, and Reaper scorch marks striped every wall. No active patrols in sight. No drones humming. Just wind through broken glass.
Which meant something was wrong.
Alloy lifted his head, nostrils flaring. Under the stink of burned concrete and metal, something else threaded through.
People.
Alive. Frightened. Moving.
"I've got them," he said. "Human. A lot of them. Kids too. Couple adults. And something big with them. Really big. They're three blocks north, maybe a little more. Reapers are closing on them."
Stryke didn't hesitate. "We move. Elle, you and I keep eyes on the whole field. Everyone else, follow Alloy's lead."
Elle nodded once and looked to the team. "You heard him. Let's go."
Alloy took off, wings snapping wide as he launched forward in a low, fast glide. Surge sprinted under him, explosions flashing under his feet with each step. Elle rose into the air on a controlled gust, staying just behind. Bul, Shade, and Vex moved together at ground level, Stryke between them, already thinking angles and lines of fire.
The sounds reached them as they closed: metal slamming metal, concrete cracking, someone shouting over the chaos.
Last turn.
Last alley.
They climbed over a crushed bus—and saw the fight.
Reapers swarmed a broken intersection, moving in steady formation. A cluster of survivors were pinned in the center behind a rough barrier of warped asphalt and packed sand. Kids huddled low. Adults stayed on their feet.
Three of those adults were still fighting.
One was a towering armored man, easily a head taller than Alloy, charging straight through Reapers and smashing them apart with his fists. When he built momentum, nothing stopped him; he hit like a living battering ram.
To his side, a woman unleashed streams of molten rock from her hands, cutting down Reapers trying to flank.
Behind them, a man whose body shifted like living sand rose and fell around the children, absorbing blasts and striking back as a heavy wave when he could.
"Targets confirmed," Stryke said. "We support, we extract, we get out. Alloy, you're point."
Alloy didn't need the order twice.
- - - -
GONE FERAL
He dropped.
He landed between a Reaper pack and the barrier, metal skin already active, wings flaring out. He drove his fist through the nearest machine, tearing its core loose and kicking the carcass back into another.
The huge armored man saw him.
New metal. Unknown. Wings. Wrong silhouette.
Threat.
He lowered his head and charged.
Alloy barely turned before the impact hit. The giant slammed into him full force. The world turned into motion and noise as Alloy was driven across the street and through a half-standing wall. Stone and metal rained down.
He hit the ground, dazed for a second.
Then he pushed himself up.
The giant was already coming again.
Surge reached the street and carved a Reaper off the right flank, claws glowing with kinetic force. "We got survivors!" he shouted, more to the team than anyone else.
Elle dropped beside him, cold building around her hands. She lifted both arms and sent a sharp blast of wind laced with ice across the front line, staggering several Reapers and freezing joints.
Shade flickered at the edge of vision, teleporting in a short blink, grabbing one of the older kids from the barrier, and blinking him back behind sturdier cover.
Bul moved up, body already hardening, armor layering over his skin. He took a Reaper blast to the chest and barely flinched as Vex's energy flared beside him, Havok's power concentrating into a tight shot that punched through a machine's core.
The battlefield tilted toward control—
Except at the center.
The armored man hit Alloy again.
This time Alloy braced, but it still felt like getting hit by a runaway transport. He slid backward, boots carving twin grooves in the cracked asphalt. The hit rattled his bones anyway.
Something hot and sharp rose in his chest.
His vision narrowed.
A low sound rolled out of his throat, not quite a word. His metal skin thickened, lines across his arms and shoulders deepening. His fingers flexed—and claws pushed out from his knuckles, curved and lethal.
His pupils thinned.
He didn't think about it.
He moved.
Alloy launched himself at the armored man with a roar, claws slashing. The big man took the hit, grunted, and swung back even harder. The blow knocked Alloy sideways, but he twisted in the air and landed on all fours, eyes blazing.
He charged again.
The two of them collided in the middle of the street—one unstoppable, one unbreakable. Shockwaves shattered nearby glass. A parked car flipped on its side. Reapers nearby staggered from the tremor.
"Great," Surge muttered, carving through another Reaper. "The two wall-breakers found each other."
"Focus," Stryke snapped, visor glowing as he fired a controlled optic blast past Surge's shoulder, hitting a Reaper about to flank the molten-wielding woman. "Keep the perimeter clear."
Elle lifted both hands, pulling moisture from the air and slamming a wave of ice over a cluster of machines climbing the rubble. "I've got left side!"
Shade blinked in and out, grabbing a girl by the arm and phasing her through a chunk of fallen concrete to safety. "Two kids secure," she called, then vanished again.
Vex stood at the rear, eyes sharp, quick-reading the field. She fired a focused Havok-style shot into a Reaper that had lost its legs but was still crawling after a child. "Down," she said quietly, then moved to another angle.
At the center, Alloy and the armored man traded hit for hit.
Alloy's claws gouged armor.
The big man's fists dented Alloy's plating.
Neither of them was giving ground like a sane person.
The molten woman looked between them, alarmed but too busy burning Reapers to interfere. The sand-man kept his shield up, kids tucked behind him. He wasn't leaving that post for anything.
- - - -
INTERVENTION
And then a new voice cut across the fight.
"Enough."
It wasn't loud. It didn't need to be.
A pale woman stepped out from behind the sand-guard and the barrier. Her clothes were dusty but clean. Her expression was calm, controlled. Her skin flashed, turning to gleaming crystal for a moment before settling back.
Her eyes locked first on Alloy.
Then moved to each team member one by one.
Then back to Alloy.
She didn't guess who they were. She didn't ask.
She read them.
The hybrids felt it, like a cool pressure at the back of the mind. Not a violent intrusion—more a hard, clinical sweep.
Intent.
Purpose.
Fear.
Control.
She saw the fight, their arrival, their choices. She saw the edge of Alloy's mind fraying under the feral surge, rage trying to drown reason.
The big armored man drew back for another charge.
"Stop," she said, this time to him. "They're not the enemy."
He hesitated.
Just a fraction.
But enough.
Alloy didn't.
He lunged again, claws raised, instincts screaming for more.
The woman's eyes narrowed.
She pushed.
The pressure in Alloy's skull tripled for a heartbeat—sharp, precise. His vision jerked. The roar in his chest tore off halfway. His claws halted inches from the armored man's faceplate.
Breath sawed in and out of his lungs. His muscles trembled against an invisible grip.
Her voice slid into his thoughts, cold and steady.
You are not a beast. Not unless you choose to be.
Alloy blinked. Once. Twice. The wild edge receded, step by reluctant step.
His claws retracted. His stance shifted from attack to defense.
The armored man watched him, still ready if things turned.
The woman let out a slow breath and pulled back from his mind.
"…better," she said.
Elle stepped closer, still keeping one hand raised in case Reapers circled back. "We're here for the people. That's all."
The woman glanced at her, then at the rest of the team.
"I know," she said simply.
Behind her, the molten-wielding woman finally let the heat die down from her palms. The sand-man loosened, his form dropping from a shield wall into a more relaxed human outline. The children stayed close to him, eyes wide as they peeked around his side at the armored newcomers.
Stryke lowered his hand from his visor but didn't deactivate the glow yet. "You were pinned. We got a location from our… allies. You're lucky we were close."
"Or you are," the pale woman said evenly. Her gaze returned to Alloy. "He wouldn't have stopped. Not without help."
Alloy said nothing. His jaw clenched once. His armor stayed on.
Vex stepped up next to Elle, eyes on the survivors. "We need to move you. There's a safe place."
The sand-man spoke for the first time, voice rough from grit and strain. "There a reason we should trust you?"
The pale woman answered before anyone else.
"Yes," she said. "Because they came here to get you killed… or saved… and their minds don't know how to lie to me about which."
She looked back at Stryke, studying him a moment longer than the others, something flickering behind her eyes.
"You," she murmured. "You remind me of someone."
Stryke met her stare. "Good or bad someone?"
"That," she said, "depends on the day."
A corner of his mouth twitched. "Fair."
Reaper scrap still smoked on the street. The wind shifted, carrying distant echoes of the lattice overhead. But for now, this intersection was quiet.
Elle straightened. "We're getting you out of here. There's a hidden sanctuary. You won't make it there on your own with kids. With us, you might."
The molten woman looked to the big armored man. He grunted once, short and decisive.
The pale woman nodded. "Then we go."
Stryke looked at his team. "Shade, start plotting teleport hops with Vex for the smallest and the injured. Bul, you help carry anyone who can't walk. Surge, Alloy—you two stay on point and rear, in case more Reapers swing back."
Surge cracked his neck. "Finally something simple."
Alloy rolled his shoulders once. His armor creaked back into a more controlled form, claws fully retracted. Whatever had flared in him was quiet—for now.
The pale woman watched him one last time, her expression unreadable.
"We'll talk later," she said softly.
He didn't argue.
There would be time.
If they survived the trip back.
---
XIMERA NETWORK // POST-ENGAGEMENT REPORT
Location: East Coast Ruin Zone
Event: Survivor Retrieval – SUCCESSFUL
Hostile Forces: Echo-Reaper Patrol Group
Complications: Unexpected Enhanced Hostile
---
TEAM STATUS
Elle — Elemental Node
Evolution Level: 1.05
Stability: 92%
Performance Note: Maintained wide-area control under urban pressure. Team coordination response rated high.
---
Stryke — Tactical Node
Evolution Level: 1.10 (Shield DNA Integration Stabilized)
Stability: 90%
New Trait: Shieldmaster Adaptation – Improved kinetic redirection and defensive precision.
Mission Sync: Leadership assessments increasing.
---
Alloy — Magnetic Node
Evolution Level: 1.07
Stability: 68% (Unstable)
Event Flag: FERAL SURGE DETECTED
Notes: Emotional trigger destabilized regenerative and metallic layers. Temporary override achieved externally. Monitoring recommended.
---
Surge — Kinetic Node
Evolution Level: 1.05
Stability: 89%
Performance Note: Close-quarters suppression effective. Adrenal output elevated but within expected range.
---
Bul — Titan Node
Evolution Level: 1.02
Stability: 98%
Performance Note: Crowd-control and civilian shielding optimal.
---
Shade — Stealth Node
Evolution Level: 1.04
Stability: 94%
Performance Note: High-efficiency extraction of minors. Teleportation accuracy improved under pressure.
---
Vex — Hex Node
Evolution Level: 1.22 (Arcane Skill Tree Active)
Stability: 85% (Recovering)
Performance Note: Power output stabilized during combat support. Emotional load decreased compared to previous flare event.
---
TEAM LINK — SYNCHRONIZATION
Current Value: 27%
Increase due to:
• Multi-front coordination
• Successful civilian extraction
• Balanced leadership distribution
---
MISSION LOG APPEND
Objective: Rescue survivor group
Status: COMPLETE
Additional Data:
Survivor leadership presence confirmed (identities pending).
Unknown telepathic entity assisted in conflict resolution.
No casualties within extraction group.
Next Directive: Return survivors to Atlantis Sanctuary for integration and debrief.