093 BREAKING FREE
Kaiser didn't even look up.
"Impossible. That glass is impact-resistant—military grade. Even a bullet barrage couldn't crack it. He'll stay in there until the fusion process is complete," he said.
But deep inside the tank, the blue glow around Damen's body intensified until it lit the entire chamber like a storm lantern.
His veins pulsed with light. His muscles swelled and rippled beneath his skin, fibers stretching, bones cracking as alien power rewrote his flesh.
"Argghhh."
He screamed soundlessly into the fluid. Bubbles burst from his mouth, rising like sparks through the liquid. His skin shimmered, shifting from pale to deep cerulean as the alien DNA asserted itself.
Damen could feel it — his body was no longer his own.
The rhythm of his heartbeat was changing, morphing into something inhuman. His fingers clawed at the restraints, not from will but from reflex, as if the alien inside him was waking.
"I can't stop it. It's taking me over."
Fear swallowed him whole. "Am I going to die this time… for real?"
He closed his eyes and thought of the one thing he still believed in …. his guardian angel. "If you can hear me… I don't want to die like this. Not as a monster."
Then, suddenly—something answered him.
-----
Zairgid stormed into the GenSyn building and made straight for the front desk.
"This video is a fake," he said sharply, slamming a data pad on the counter.
The clerk blinked, caught off guard. Then her earpiece chimed—she was receiving instructions.
"Please follow me to the meeting room. Someone will attend to you shortly," she said in a rehearsed tone.
Zairgid tapped his comm discreetly. "Where do I put the tag?"
"Drop one near the pottery by the left wall," Lander's voice replied through the static.
He did it swiftly before keeping pace with the clerk down a corridor lined with sterile white lights.
Inside the meeting room, he slid another micro-transmitter beneath the table's edge.
"Tag placed," he whispered.
"Still no contact with the intranet servers," Lander muttered. "You'll need one closer to the main node."
Zairgid clenched his jaw. "That's as far as I can go without getting caught."
The door opened. A woman in a white lab coat entered, poised and calm.
"My name is Dr. Dara," she said. "How may I help you, sir?"
"My friend came here yesterday. He never returned home. Where is he?"
"I'm sorry," Dara replied smoothly. "Your friend already left. We have the video feed as proof."
"The video's fake," Zairgid shot back.
Her smile didn't waver. "Our records say otherwise. Please, go home and wait. Your friend may already be on his way."
Zairgid didn't move.
The mission was failing—without getting the tag near GenSyn's intranet hub, Lander couldn't breach their systems.
The door hissed open again. Two android guards entered, their eyes flashing red.
"I'm sorry, sir," Dara said. "We'll have to escort you out."
"Hell, what do I do now?" he asked himself.
Then he got an idea.
Zairgid stood up, his tone suddenly light. "Alright, alright—I'm going."
As they walked, he turned to Dara with a grin, his hand over her shoulder. "You're a pretty one. What time do you clock out?"
Her face hardened. "I don't date visitors, especially not at work."
"Worth a try," he said, raising his hands playfully before heading for the exit.
Outside, Lander's voice came through again. "Still no signal. You didn't get close enough to the server core."
Zairgid smiled faintly as he stepped into the sunlight.
"Just wait a little longer, it's on its way," he said.
-----
Damen braced himself for the worst when, suddenly, the machine's humming died. The lights flickered. Silence filled the chamber.
Something stopped it.
Outside the tank, muffled voices erupted.
"What's happening? Why is the machine stopping now—during the critical phase?" Kaiser shouted.
"Someone's taken over the control system," Dr. Stacy yelled back, her fingers flying across the console. "It's not responding to any command!"
"That's impossible!" Kaiser snapped. "Our intranet's buried fifty meters underground—it can't be breached from outside!"
Inside the tank, Damen's eyes snapped open. "Now's my chance."
The sedative's hold on him was fading. He clenched his fists, then brought his palms together— A pulse of sound exploded from his body.
"Sonic Wave"
The tank trembled violently, liquid rippling as the shockwave struck the walls of the tank.
"There is pressure spike inside the chamber!" a technician screamed.
"What's causing it?" Kaiser demanded.
"It's… it's coming from the subject!" Stacy stammered.
Another wave hit, stronger this time.
Tubes snapped loose and sensors tore free from Damen's skin immediately. His muscles tensed, his veins glowed faintly blue as meta energy surged through him.
With a snarl, he broke the steel restraints on his wrists and ankles like paper.
"Let's see if I still got this," he muttered.
He drew in a deep breath, gathering every drop of power.
"This is my last shot—better make it count."
The sonic wave burst out with a deafening BOOOOM.
Hairline fractures crawled across the glass, webbing outward in seconds.
Damen grinned.
"Great."
He kicked once…then the entire tank imploded with a thunderous crack.
Air rushed inward with crushing force, collapsing and expanding in violent bursts. The shockwaves rolled across the lab, slamming the scientists off their feet and throwing papers and instruments into the air.
"Momentum collapse," Damen whispered, stepping out from the shattered tank as alarms blared and the lights turned blood-red.
"No… we were this close… so close," Kaiser screamed, slamming his fist against the console.
"Arrest him!" Stacy barked.
Drone guards whirred in, landing like metallic locusts between Damen and the shattered tank.
"Arrest me with these tin can toys?" Damen scoffed.
In a blink he was on them.
A single, precise punch ripped a drone's head free; the kinetic shock sent the others snapping like brittle toys. Metal and servos rained to the floor.
"How can he be so strong?" Stacy whispered in hysteria.
Kaiser's face had gone hard. "The experiment failed—he may be a fusion now, incomplete but still deadly. Don't underestimate him. Move! Get out of here!" He grabbed Stacy's hand and bolted.
As they fled, Damen's eye caught something flashing across a nearby monitor.
"Get a headset"