249 TAKING OVER AN ARMADA
[moments ago, inside the command center of the Silver city fleet]
"Lady Morana," a lieutenant said cautiously, "Sorrow is requesting your aid."
The comms crackled, and Sorrow's furious shout echoed through the chamber before cutting off.
Morana scoffed.
"This useless brute. We're paying him a fortune already—must I wash his back as well?"
She waved a dismissive hand. "I agreed to intervene only if the enemy deployed a psychic."
General Ryjer watched the live feed in silence, his expression tightening as Black Halo dominated the battlefield.
"This Black Halo has grown far stronger," he said at last. "I fear Sorrow may no longer be enough. You must assist him."
"That would be inappropriate," Morana replied coolly. "It violates our arrangement."
Ryjer hesitated, then leaned forward."My lady, if you help Sorrow defeat Black Halo… his bounty will be transferred to you."
Morana turned sharply.
"You'd do that?" she asked, eyes narrowing. "You promised that reward to him."
"There's no contract," Ryjer said flatly. "And once Black Halo is dead, Sorrow becomes expendable. What will he do—complain to the League of Heroes?" He sneered. "He has nothing in writing."
A slow smile curved Morana's lips.
"Very well," she said softly. "Just this once."
She closed her eyes.
Her mind reached outward—past steel hulls and battle noise—until it brushed against Black Halo's consciousness.
Then she began to weave.
Not an illusion.Not a simple hallucination.
A story.
A memory sharpened into a nightmare.
And far below, Black Halo's mind began to fall.
-----
Then Damen remembered something. He's been through this kind of situation before and he came out from it.
He pulled out his phone.
"Got it," he told himself satisfied as he scrolled through the phone. Then he activated Blood Cores through his DemCoin app.
Pain flared through his skull…and then there was clarity.
The mine cracked like glass.Ralph dissolved into smoke.The illusion collapsed and reality snapped back into place.
"You're going to die!" Sorrow roared.
Damen felt fingers tighten around his neck.
While the psychic assaulted his mind, Sorrow had seized the opening—lifting him off the ground, crushing his throat.
"Not so soon."
Black Halo's voice was calm….. Too calm.
An evil grin spread beneath the mask as his hand clamped onto Sorrow's arm.
He spoke a single word.
"Devour."
Sorrow screamed.
His body twisted violently, joints bending at impossible angles as something unseen tore through him from the inside.
"What—what the hell is happening to me?!" he shrieked.
He fought to pull away, but Black Halo's grip was absolute. His strength bled out of him—his power, his vitality, his very essence draining into Damen.
There was nothing Sorrow could do to stop him now…. Nothing left to save.
Moments later, he was gone.
Black Halo rose slowly into the air, Sorrow's limp form clenched in his hand. Then he released him.
The super soldier fell—
—and before his body could hit the ground, it dissolved, breaking apart into drifting fragments of nothingness until not a trace remained.
Only silence followed.
And Black Halo hovered above it, untouched.
Black Halo suddenly shuddered.
His body twisted violently as the last remnants of Sorrow's essence surged through him. He had absorbed everything—strength, resilience, instinct—and now his body struggled to integrate it all.
If he failed, the power raging inside him would tear him apart.
"Damn it…" he muttered through clenched teeth.
"I took in more than I can handle."
His legs gave out.
Black Halo collapsed onto the shattered ground, veins glowing faintly beneath his armor as his consciousness slipped away.
The world went black.
----
"No—Big Brother!"
Kail's scream tore through the comms as he rocketed toward the battlefield.
He was piloting Project Hermes alone—without any crew or support. He doesn't have to… every limb, every system, every weapon on the ship responded directly to his thoughts.
"I'm coming," he growled. "I'll save you."
Project Hermes plunged from the clouds.
Mid-descent, its hull split and reconfigured, metal folding and locking into place as the ship transformed into a towering mecha.
One massive arm swept down, carefully lifting Black Halo's unconscious body from the ruined ground.
"I've got you," Kail whispered. "I'll get you out of here."
Then the sky roared.
Thunder rolled as space tore open above him.
One warship.Then another.Then a dozen.
They closed in from all sides, forming an iron ring around him.
Kail's eyes widened."Oh hell no… they've surrounded me."
Before he could maneuver, the warships deployed their payloads.
Thousands of smaller craft burst from their bays—drones, fighters, interceptors—flooding the air like a mechanical swarm. Cannons flared. Beams and shells screamed toward Project Hermes, slamming into its armor in blinding bursts of light.
Hermes staggered.
Project Hermes was versatile—brilliant in skirmishes, surgical strikes, and rescues.
But this?
This was an armada.
"Damn it," Kail snarled, fighting the controls. "Hermes can't take on professional warships head-on!"
Explosions rocked the mecha. Warning signals screamed inside his mind.
Then— he had an idea.
Kail closed his eyes.
His Quantum Mind awakened.
He reached out—not with hands, but with thought—slipping past firewalls, overriding protocols, sinking hooks into the logic cores of the machines attacking him.
One drone hesitated.
Then another.
In seconds, the swarm turned.
Fighters wheeled around mid-flight. Cannons realigned. Missiles redirected.
The armada began firing on itself.
Warships screamed as their own escorts tore into their shields.
Kail's breath caught.
Then he laughed.
"Oh wow…" he said, awe bleeding into exhilaration.
"This is actually kind of amazing."
He tightened his mental grip, spreading his control like a net across the battlefield.
"I could take over their entire armada," he said, his eyes gleaming with fervor. "And they wouldn't even know what hit them."
Far above, enemy bridges erupted into chaos.
And for the first time since the battle began—
the hunters realized they were no longer in control.
-----
[In the bridge of the command ship of Silver City]
"What the hell is that ship?!" General Ryjer barked pointing to the holo screen.
Zoluse rose from his console, his eyes fixed on the data streams.
"That, sir, is Project Hermes—a prototype mecha platform. Godfather has expressed significant interest in acquiring it."
"Then why is it here?" Ryjer snapped.
The answer appeared on the live feeds.
Project Hermes descended toward the battlefield, its massive frame shielding Black Halo's unconscious body as it lifted him from the ruins.
"It's attempting to extract Black Halo," a lieutenant reported.
Ryjer's face hardened."I don't care who authorized that mecha. I want it downed."
Orders rippled through the fleet.
Hangar bays opened. Android strike units were launched—sleek, lethal machines deployed to intercept and capture Project Hermes.
Then in a moment,
Things turned into Chaos.
Every alert panel lit up at once.
The androids halted mid-approach.
One by one, they turned.
"Sir…" the lieutenant stammered. "The units we sent out—they've changed trajectory."
On the main screen, the androids opened fire.
Not at Project Hermes….
…But at the motherships.
"What is happening out there?!" Ryjer shouted.
"Our troops are firing back at us!" the lieutenant yelled. "All systems indicate a malfunction!"
"Malfunction my foot!" Ryjer roared. "Something is doing this!"
Zoluse's console screamed with warnings. His expression drained of color.
"Danger," he said quietly. "Our systems are being breached."
Ryjer spun on him."Breached?! By what? Nothing should be able to penetrate our controls mid-battle!"
Zoluse swallowed.
"There is only one explanation." He hesitated, then said it aloud. "A Quantum Mind."
The command deck fell silent.
"Only a Quantum Mind," Zoluse continued, "could override our systems remotely—without physical access."
The pieces snapped together.
Ryjer's fists clenched."So, you're telling me… that mecha isn't acting alone."
He stared at Project Hermes on the screen as their own ships tore into their own formation.
"A Quantum Mind has taken control of it," he said slowly.
"And now it's turning our entire armada against us."
-----