The instant the strange man appeared, Shore moved. His gauntlet shifted with a mechanical click and two shock darts fired from beneath his wrist in rapid succession.
Thip. Thip.
The darts crossed the laboratory in less than a second. The white haired scientist smiled, then casually raised one hand.
Pak. Pak.
The darts bounced harmlessly away after being swatted from the air with his bare fingers.
Raye stared not comprehending what had just occurred.
"What the hell?"
The scientist's smile widened pleasantly, almost warmly, which somehow made the entire thing infinitely worse.
"Now now," he said lightly. "If I cannot even see you properly, how exactly am I supposed to address your potential?"
Then he waved his hand. A strange pressure exploded outward from his palm. Invisible and silent, but Shore felt it immediately. The air distorted violently around them like rippling water and the force slammed into both him and Raye simultaneously.
The two staggered backward and immediately afterward, the invisibility surrounding them shattered apart like dissolving liquid glass.
Their bodies became visible again.
Shore's eyes narrowed instantly.
Awakened.
The man in front of them was an awakened.
The scientist looked delighted. Then his crimson black eye settled directly onto Raye.
"Oh..." he said softly.
Recognition flickered across his face.
"My first masterpiece of V3."
Raye's jaw tightened violently.
He slowly approached several steps closer while studying her with open fascination.
"You know," he continued conversationally, "At the time, I genuinely was not expecting you to retain the Grimm abilities so cleanly after integration. Imagine my surprise when I analyzed your blood sample afterward and discovered the compatibility rate was nearly perfect."
His smile widened further.
"A near flawless bond."
Raye looked ready to tear his throat out.
"Such a shame you escaped before I could continue the experiments."
Raye snapped.
"You sick bastard."
Her voice trembled with fury.
"Doctor M." She spat the title like poison. "Or should I say Doctor Merlot."
The scientist inclined his head politely.
"How nice to finally be acknowledged properly."
"You had a lot of fun turning people into lab rats, didn't you?" Raye hissed. "And what? You experimented on yourself too?"
The moment she moved forward, Shore grabbed her arm hard.
"Stop."
Raye jerked toward him angrily.
"What?!"
"He didn't experiment on himself," Shore said sharply. "He's awakened."
Raye froze. Confusion immediately mixed with her anger.
"What does that even mean?"
Merlot's attention shifted smoothly toward Shore. This time his expression became considerably less interested, and more annoyed.
"Ahhh..." he murmured thoughtfully. "A rat from LUCID."
His visible eye sharpened slightly.
"But unawakened. How boring."
Then he reached calmly into his coat pocket and removed a small remote control device.
Click.
The moment he pressed the button, hidden panels across the laboratory walls activated. A pulse swept through the room. Shore's gauntlet screen immediately flickered violently. Warning messages flashed across the display before several systems abruptly shut down altogether.
Static crackled across the interface.
Shore frowned.
That was very bad.
LUCID equipment possessed exceptional resistance against electromagnetic interference and external tampering. For Merlot to bypass those protections this effectively meant the man either possessed frightening technical capability...
Or had spent considerable time preparing specifically for encounters with LUCID.
Possibly both.
Still...
Not all hope was lost. Before infiltrating the facility, Shore had already activated a contingency failsafe.
It would take time however—time they desperately needed to survive long enough to reach.
Merlot sighed lightly afterward.
"Well. Since LUCID is involved now, I suppose this particular research site must unfortunately be abandoned."
Shore kept his expression controlled.
"How did you find us?"
Merlot looked almost offended by the question.
"Ordinarily, I would not have."
He tapped his own temple smugly.
"However, imagine my surprise when my facility sensors detected traces of unrestricted V3 movement wandering around my laboratories."
His red eye drifted toward Raye again.
"I had to investigate personally."
Then he spread his arms slightly.
"Truly, if not for my own brilliance, I might never have discovered your intrusion at all."
Shore clicked his tongue quietly. Beside him, Raye leaned closer while keeping her eyes locked on Merlot.
"Why can't we just attack him?" she whispered urgently. "What does awakened even mean?"
Shore answered quietly without taking his gaze off the scientist.
"It means if you rush him head on, you'll die."
Raye's eyes widened slightly. Shore continued speaking under his breath.
"Awakened are proper superhumans. Real ones which are vastly different from you. At minimum he's stronger than both of us combined."
And possibly far worse than that. Shore still had no idea whether Merlot was Rank 1 or Rank 2. He prayed silently the man was merely Rank 1.
That would downgrade their situation from completely impossible to catastrophically terrible. A marginal improvement but still usable.
Shore needed more time. So he did the only thing he could. He kept the doctor talking.
"Why create Aetherion?" Shore asked evenly. "What's your actual goal here, Merlot?"
The scientist immediately frowned.
"That's Doctor Merlot to you." His tone became oddly stern. "I did not earn my doctorate for people to omit my proper title."
Then suddenly he smiled again.
"But... since you asked so politely."
Merlot clasped his hands behind his back and slowly paced through the laboratory.
"Aetherion," he began, "is the next step of human evolution."
Raye looked at him like he had gone insane but Merlot continued regardless.
"Humanity has always been flawed. Weak and fragile."
His crimson eye gleamed unnaturally.
"But the Grimm... ah, now there lies perfection. Monsters born from the great dream. magnificent beings."
Merlot spread one hand dramatically. "Awakened individuals are born through chance. Randomness and genetic fortune."
Disgust entered his voice.
"A pathetic system."
Then his smile returned.
"But Aetherion changes that."
His gaze sharpened with fanatical intensity. "With proper integration, humanity will seize the strength of the Grimm directly. No more dependence upon accidental awakenings or the nightmare system!"
His voice rose slightly.
"I will create a world where every human possesses power."
Raye stared at him in disbelief. "Great, he's completely insane."
Merlot chuckled softly. "Insanity is simply genius that frightens lesser minds."
Then suddenly his smile widened further. "You know... I just had a marvelous idea."
Click.
He pressed another button on the remote. Immediately the floor between them shifted. A massive reinforced glass barrier erupted upward from hidden slots in the ground and slammed into place between Merlot and them.
THOOM.
Raye immediately tore herself free from Shore's grip and punched the barrier with monstrous force.
BOOM.
The glass did not even tremble. Merlot looked delighted.
"That will not work, my dear previous masterpiece."
Raye glared murderously at him.
"What kind of sick game are you playing now?"
"Simple."
Merlot pressed another button. The observation chamber containing Salinger hissed loudly. Then the reinforced partition sealing him inside began lowering into the floor.
Salinger's eyes widened in terror.
Merlot smiled pleasantly. "To pit my previous masterpiece... against my current masterpiece, of course."
Salinger immediately backed away.
"No..." he whispered shakily. "No no no please!"
Shore immediately raised his gauntlet toward the chamber while speaking sharply.
"Raye. Get ready."
Click.
Merlot pressed the final button and Salinger screamed. His body convulsed violently as he collapsed onto the floor. Foam erupted from his mouth.
Then his skin began peeling away, sloughing off in wet chunks.
Raye recoiled instinctively.
Black fur exploded outward beneath the exposed flesh and his bones cracked. His body swelled grotesquely larger while claws burst through his fingertips with sprays of blood.
Shore fired instantly.
Thip. Thip. Thip.
Armor piercing lethal rounds punched directly into Salinger's torso and neck. The transformed subject was launched backward violently.
Blood sprayed across the floor, then the wounds healed. The bullets were forcibly pushed back out through regenerating flesh with wet plopping sounds.
Shore's eyes narrowed.
Not enough.
Salinger's spine bulged outward grotesquely, then split open. Two massive skeletal wings burst from his back trailing blood and black Grimm fluid. A segmented scorpion tail erupted from the base of his spine seconds later.
The transformation finally stabilized.
A monster stood before them.
Perfectly fused.
Shore kept firing and more rounds slammed into the creature repeatedly. This time it barely staggered.
The hybrid slowly rose onto two massive digitigrade legs while deep claw marks carved into the laboratory floor beneath its weight.
Its wounds regenerated almost instantly.
Then its glowing animalistic eyes locked onto Shore and Raye. The creature roared and lunged directly at them.
Salinger hit them like a nightmare finally given flesh.
The transformed Hybrid slammed into the floor where Shore and Raye had stood barely half a second earlier, claws tearing through reinforced concrete like wet sand. Stone exploded outward across the observation chamber while the creature's roar shook the glass walls around them.
Shore rolled across the ground immediately after dodging. His combat instincts screamed through his nervous system with machine precision while his eyes tracked every twitch beneath the monster's fur.
It was far too fast for something that large.
Raye darted in from the side almost instantly. Her katana flashed in a silver arc toward Salinger's exposed flank. The blade bit cleanly through black fur and muscle before the creature twisted violently with horrifying flexibility.
Its skeletal wing snapped outward.
CLANG.
The bone structure knocked away the strike and sparks burst across the chamber. Raye's eyes widened slightly.
The skeletal wing, wouldn't be able to allow Salinger to fly but it clearly wasn't decorative. Salinger's claw tore toward her chest immediately afterward. Raye raised her sword to block instinctively.
However, that was a bad decision. The impact sounded like a cannon blast.
SHRAKK.
His claws ripped partially through the blade guard and carved directly into her forearm. Blood sprayed across the floor as the sheer force launched her bodily backward.
She slammed against the glass partition separating them from Merlot hard enough to create spiderweb cracks across the surrounding concrete wall. The partition itself still didn't take any damage.
"Raye!" Shore barked.
Salinger was already moving again.
The monster lunged toward Shore with terrifying speed, claws sweeping horizontally toward his neck. Shore ducked beneath the strike barely in time while drawing a heavy black pistol from the holster beneath his coat.
BANG.
The specialized round punched directly into Salinger's shoulder, causing the creature to stagger. Then, immediately it regenerated.
The flesh bubbled violently around the wound before forcing the bullet back out with a wet squelch. The metal projectile clattered uselessly across the floor.
Shore's expression darkened.
"Of course. V4."
Salinger roared again and attacked relentlessly.
Shore moved continuously now.
Step, twist, duck, slide.
Every movement came from years of combat conditioning designed for fighting creatures stronger and faster than humans. Shore's eyes focused not on the claws themselves but on the musculature beneath the fur.
Tiny shifts, weight transfers, shoulder tension and even hip alignments. The monster attacked brutally, but not intelligently enough to hide its movements completely.
Shore predicted each strike fractions of a second before it happened.
Fortunately, it was barely enough.
A claw carved past his face.
Another strike gouged trenches through the floor where his leg had been moments earlier. The scorpion tail whipped toward him from behind and Shore twisted sideways just in time to avoid getting impaled.
The tail punched cleanly through a laboratory console instead. Raye rejoined the fight seconds later.
This time she adapted. Rather than blocking directly, she redirected.
Salinger's claws smashed toward her again and instead of meeting the strike head on, Raye angled her katana carefully and slid the attack sideways. Sparks screamed across the blade while the redirected momentum carried the creature partially off balance.
"Left side!" Shore shouted.
Raye moved instantly.
Her blade flashed toward the exposed ribs while Shore simultaneously fired three rounds into Salinger's opposite knee.
The monster staggered briefly under the coordinated assault. But only briefly. Its wounds regenerated almost instantly.
The severed muscle reknit itself grotesquely while black Grimm fluid dripped steaming across the floor.
"This thing just doesn't stop!" Raye snapped.
Shore's jaw tightened.
V4.
Whatever Merlot had created here was monstrously stable and was clearly not degenerating. Salinger lunged again and the observation room became chaos.
Concrete shattered and glass exploded. Laboratory equipment crumpled beneath the monster's strength while Shore and Raye fought desperately to stay alive.
Merlot simply watched from behind the partition with fascinated delight. Like a child observing insects tear each other apart inside a jar.
"Amazing," he murmured softly. "Absolutely amazing regeneration."
Raye cursed loudly while narrowly avoiding another claw strike. Blood continued dripping from her injured arm now.
Worse.
Shore noticed faint black scales beginning to spread slightly beneath the wound.
Degeneration.
Her body was reacting to prolonged combat stress and slowly turning her into her hybrid form.
Salinger's tail stabbed toward Shore again. This time the strike came alongside a claw feint. Shore barely managed to avoid the claw but the tail sliced across his ribs painfully.
Not deep, but close enough. Shore slid backward across broken concrete while breathing harder now.
Their attacks weren't enough.
Attrition favored the monster.
Then Shore saw it.
A pattern.
Salinger's attacks always overcommitted slightly whenever he targeted Raye directly. The Hybrid fixated on her aggressively, almost instinctively.
Maybe because she was V3.
Maybe because he recognized her as something similar.
Either way... it created openings. Shore glanced toward Raye briefly. Fortunately, she seemed to understand immediately.
Good.
No words were needed.
The next exchange began violently.
Raye rushed forward deliberately this time, drawing Salinger's attention completely. Her sword danced in rapid arcs while the Hybrid responded with overwhelming aggression.
Claw.
Tail.
Wing.
Raye retreated intentionally toward the center of the room while barely avoiding each strike. Then finally Salinger committed fully.
The monster roared and both claws descended toward her simultaneously.
"NOW!" Shore shouted.
Raye vanished into her invisibility and Salinger's attack crashed into empty air. The monster faltered for one crucial instant.
Shore activated a hidden setting on his gauntlet.
SHINK.
A metallic blade extended outward from the wrist mechanism. Then Shore stepped directly into Salinger's path.
The creature's claw slammed toward him and Shore intercepted.
CLANG.
The impact detonated through his entire arm.
Pain exploded instantly.
His bones broke from wrist to elbow under the force. Shore heard the sickening crack before he even felt it fully. The deflection succeeded barely enough to redirect the killing blow sideways.
But the price was catastrophic. Shore was launched violently across the floor.
The world spun, then agony erupted suddenly through his abdomen. Salinger's scorpion tail punched cleanly through him.
Blood sprayed from Shore's mouth immediately as the stinger tore into his side and lifted him partially from the ground.
His vision blurred violently and warm blood flooded down his torso. The monster roared triumphantly.
Then suddenly...
Raye appeared.
She emerged from invisibility directly behind Salinger like a phantom given form.
Her katana flashed.
SHINK.
The blade sliced cleanly through Salinger's neck.
The monster twisted instinctively at the final moment and slammed backward wildly. One claw smashed into Raye's chest and launched her away across the room.
But it was too late, Salinger's head separated fully from his body. The monstrous corpse staggered several steps blindly before collapsing heavily onto the ruined floor, apparently unable to regenerate through decapitation.
Silence followed.
Then came the clapping.
Slow and measured.
Merlot smiled brightly behind the partition.
"What a wonderful performance."
Raye glared murderously at him while dragging herself painfully toward Shore.
"I'll definitely be logging this combat data for future experiments."
"Go to hell!" Raye spat.
She reached Shore and immediately froze slightly at the amount of blood pouring from his abdomen. Shore clenched his teeth hard enough that blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
His arm hung twisted unnaturally, broken badly and the tail wound... was very bad. It had punctured into his intestines and had most likely cut half of his liver as well.
Without treatment he probably had minutes blood-lost shock killed him.
Merlot sighed pleasantly.
"Well then. That was entertaining but unfortunately it's time for me to leave."
Then he smiled wider.
"Still... it would be rude not to leave you with a parting gift."
Suddenly Merlot leaped upward.
His body rose nearly to the ceiling before stopping entirely midair as though invisible platforms supported him.
Shore grimaced internally.
Merlot pressed another button on the remote. The glass partition separating him from Shore and Raye lowered smoothly into the floor.
Then deeper within the facility, massive mechanical systems activated. Heavy metallic groaning echoed through the mountain base.
Raye narrowed her eyes.
"What did you do?"
Merlot only smiled.
"Now now. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."
Raye immediately activated her invisibility again while trying to haul Shore upward. Then Merlot casually waved his hand.
FWOOM.
The invisibility shattered instantly and Raye staggered slightly.
Shore's eyes narrowed as he noticed her hands. Black scales had begun spreading visibly across her skin now. Her fingernails elongated into warped clawlike shapes.
Raye saw it too.
"…Shit. I'm degenerating."
Shore coughed blood weakly.
"Raye…"
Then suddenly... Growling, heavy footsteps and scratching claws emanated. The entrance behind them exploded inward as Grimm poured into the chamber.
Three Beowolves, an Ursa and a Boarbatusk with two Creeps skittering across the ground behind them. The same Grimm from containment earlier.
But worse still...
Hybrid subjects began flooding into the room too.
Half transformed and their Bodies twisted grotesquely between human and monster. The Grimm snarled at the Hybrids.
The Hybrids snarled back.
Then slowly...
Both groups turned toward Shore and Raye simultaneously.
Predatory and hungry.
Raye stared numbly. "…Shit."
Even Shore couldn't disagree. This really might be the end.
Then suddenly...
The entire ceiling disappeared.
As if peeled open. Like some invisible god had ripped apart a metal can with bare hands. Sunlight flooded the chamber.
And floating high above the ruined facility... was a beautiful young woman with blazing red hair. Shore smiled weakly despite the blood running down his chin.
The failsafe had worked.
Shore couldn't help but gloat in his heart at Merlot's suddenly darkened expression... because Shore himself recognized the Rank 2 floating in the sky.
Pyrrha Nikos.