095 THE BLOOD BUTTERFLY
"These are the failed Synth prototypes, they are neither human nor alien," Stacy said, smiling, her eyes glowing gold.
The tanks contained mutated humans infused with alien genes. They were developed to harvest the perfect heart for Stacy. Some barely resemble people, others grotesque forms beyond imagination.
Stacy rose into the air, her crimson wings of veins fully unfurled.
With a violent shriek, the tanks exploded open.
Hundreds of half-human, half-alien hybrids crawled out, shrieking, staggering, then roaring as they attacked the nearest targets.
Veins of glowing blue snaked from Stacy's body, piercing the fusion creatures, feeding her with their power.
Kaiser fell to his knees screaming, "No… no, this can't be happening! What is happening to you?"
"Father," Stacy said softly, her face unreadable. "Come to me. I've evolved. I'll bring you out from here."
Veins of energy shot from her body, latching onto Kaiser and the nearest synths, merging them into her growing form.
Damen lunged, kicking midair. The force of his strike rippled through the air, crushing walls, yet Stacy remained unharmed.
"How… how is this possible?" he gasped.
"I am immortal once I transformed," Stacy said, her voice layered, human and alien.
She was transformed now like a butterfly emerging from a cocoon.
"A Blood Butterfly."
Damen refused to believe it, striking again and again, but nothing worked.
Stacy's skin melted into crimson liquid armor, her veins transforming into dozens of writhing tendrils tipped with the bodies of captured synths. Each one evolved into a monstrous being, their gaping mouths and bladed limbs flailing in all directions.
Even Kaiser had been absorbed, his body now part of her terrifying form.
"Ah… I can feel the power of your transformation," Kaiser's voice groaned through her, a grotesque fusion of father and daughter.
"I can't bear this. This is disgusting", Damen cried.
Synths attached to Stacy's tendrils like minarets. They started attacking Damen, slicing through the air with bladed limbs. More followed, each strike stronger than the one before.
The synths were too strong, and too numerous. They wouldn't die no matter how Damen crushed them. With the synths blocking, he couldn't get close to Stacy.
"Damnit, how do I kill this damn thing?" Damen cursed.
By now, the SIA soldiers arrived, their autocannons trained on Stacy and her monstrous army.
"What the hell is that thing?" Dorin whispered in shock.
"I don't know… she looks like a bloody butterfly," Damen said grimly.
Stacy realized she couldn't hold the advantage here.
With a scream that rattled the chamber, she surged backward, crashing through the escalators and blasting her way toward the surface.
"Damnit… we're stuck down here, the damn escalator is broken," Damen muttered, dust and debris falling around him as alarms blared and chaos reigned above.
-----
Around them, the remnants of the synths that Stacy hadn't merged with continued their assault with mindless ferocity. The SIA team fought for what felt like hours before finally subduing the last of them.
By then, the elevator had been repaired. Lander and Director Ambrone descended into the ruined lab.
"What the hell happened here?" Ambrone demanded, surveying the devastation.
"You already know," Lander replied. "I transmitted all the data from their servers to you."
Ambrone's expression darkened. "Still… seeing it with my own eyes is another matter." He ran a gloved hand along one of the unbroken synth tanks. "What was the purpose of making these hybrids?"
"Kaiser Qiltera was trying to save his daughter," Damen said quietly. "He was experimenting to create a fusion heart—a human–alien hybrid organ."
Ambrone turned to him. "So, you're the new intern. You've cracked several cases for the team lately. Good work."
Damen hesitated. "Uh… Director Ambrone—about my claim? Can you approve it?"
Ambrone frowned. "Claim? What claim?"
Dorin stepped in. "Damen spent a million aur to breach the Order of Cockerel's server. I've already submitted his reimbursement request."
"A million?" Ambrone's eyes widened. "Who authorized that?" He stroked his beard, muttering, "The case is still ongoing. It's too early to talk about claims." With that, he turned and strode off.
Damen glared at Dorin and Lander. "You made me transfer that money! You'd better pay me back."
Neither of them answered. They pretended not to hear, busy cataloguing the synths and recording evidence from the lab.
"Damn you, SIA!" Damen shouted, his voice echoing through the shattered chamber.
------
Damen returned upstairs. Something felt off—he remembered he had lost something.
He ransacked the medical bay where he'd been kept earlier.
"Where the hell is my phone?" he shouted.
He grabbed one of the nurses by the arm. "Where did you take it? my phone?"
The nurse, an android, replied calmly, "I'm sorry. You are not authorized to order me."
"Damnit." He tightened his grip until the servos in her arm whined. "Don't test me."
To his surprise, the android hesitated—fear flickered in her synthetic eyes.
She didn't want to be decommissioned.
"Alright… follow me," she said at last.
"Even androids fear death," Damen muttered under his breath.
The nurse led him to a storage cabinet. Before she could say a word, Damen tore it open with a single motion.
Inside was his phone.
He pocketed it immediately.
Then another thought struck him. "Where's the vault? The Aur Box?"
The Aur Box was GenSyn's energy register which stored an enormous cache of Aur credits, the wealth of the company.
"I cannot tell you that. You are not authori—"
The android's sentence cut off as Damen crushed her forearm like tin foil.
"Yes… yes… this way." She led him to an office lined with dusty shelves and old books.
Damen frowned. "Who even reads books in this century?"
Then realization hit. He stepped back, twisted, and unleashed a spinning kick.
The air cracked—Momentum Collapse.
The entire bookcase crumpled inward, revealing a thick vault door hidden behind it.
The vault was reinforced, but Damen of today was stronger. With a roar and a brutal slam, he broke the locks and pulled the door open.
Inside was a secret server chamber. There were humming machines and glowing conduits surrounded a single object—the Aur Box, radiating green light like a living jewel.
"Perfect," Damen said, pulling out a handful of empty Aur cards. He shoved them into the terminal and activated the transfer.
But the monitor blared,
"You are not authorized to make a transfer."