The federal courthouse's marble floors echoed with the click of Leo's handcuffs. Four SEC agents flanked him, their lapel pins glinting with crow-shaped nanites. The scent of gun oil and peppermint gum clung to their suits. One agent leaned close, breath hot in Leo's ear: "Cooperate, or we'll drag your mother's grave into discovery."
Victor's wheelchair whirred behind them, its IV drip pumping black fluid into his veins. "They flagged every offshore wallet," he hissed. "Even the Satoshi-era coins. This isn't regulation – it's a fucking witch hunt."
The courtroom doors opened to a nightmare.
Crow-masked figures sat beside SEC prosecutors, their robes embroidered with circuit-board patterns. Above the judge's bench, a hologram displayed Leo's blockchain transactions superimposed over wolf DNA sequences. A bailiff adjusted a device on his belt – a sonic restraint module humming at 18.5 kHz, just high enough to make Leo's molars ache.
Genetic Match Alert: 87.3% Wolf Hybrid
"Defendant will rise."
The judge's voice boomed through bone-conduction speakers. Leo stood, claws flexing against reinforced cuffs. His reflection in the polished mahogany paneling showed golden irises bleeding into sclera.
SEC Lead Prosecutor Ames slid a tablet across the table. Footage played: Leo shorting Tesla at the NYSE, claws shredding drones, Irene's lab burning. "Mr. Leonidas Wu. Charges include market manipulation, unlicensed securities trading, and..." She paused, tapping a crow-masked collaborator's shoulder. "Biochemical terrorism via unauthorized lycanthropic gene dissemination."
The crow removed its mask.
Leo's claws tore through cuffs. "You."
Agent Ryker, his former Fight Club sparring partner, grinned with a mouth full of silver-capped teeth. "Miss me, mutt? Turns out SEC pays better than fight promoters." He tossed a vial of mercury onto the table. It rolled toward Leo, leaving scorch marks. "Here's the deal: lead us to the glacier vault, or we'll carbonize your hacker friend's life support system."
Victor's monitors flatlined. The bracelet on Leo's wrist pulsed hungrily, syphoning power from the wheelchair's batteries.
Wallet Drain: -42 BTC (Life Support Tax)
"Go fuck your–"
Ryker activated the sonic restraint.
The frequency liquefied Leo's kneecaps. He collapsed, vision blurring as the courtroom transformed – agents became crows, the judge's bench morphed into a glacial altar. A hologram flickered to life above the evidence table.
Irene's form materialized, bioreactor tubes swaying like Medusa's snakes. "Hello, prototype."
Leo's claws dug grooves into the floor. "Where's the serum?"
"Wrong question." Her hologram stepped closer, revealing subdermal text beneath collarbones: PROJECT FENRIR – MATRIARCH SEQUENCE. "Ask why your DNA matches mine before the 1983 lab fire. Ask why Victor found your birth records in a Soviet gene bank."
The SEC agents froze mid-motion, time itself glitching. Leo's eyes dilated – 92% wolfification. Memories erupted:
A nursery with steel cribs. Irene injecting newborns with Ymir's serum. A label on his wrist: CLONE BATCH 7 – BITCOIN HASH COMPATIBLE
Ryker's boot slammed into his ribs. "Sleepwalking, mutt?"
Reality snapped back. The prosecutor droned: "...will forfeit all digital assets under 18 U.S.C. § 1960..."
Leo's claws seized the indictment.
Cognitive Degradation: Mother's Voice (41% Remaining)
The paper shredded in his grip. He swallowed the fragments, ink burning his throat like frozen vodka. "You want my assets?" Gold veins crackled across his eyes. "Come mine them."
The courtroom erupted.
Crows deployed mercury grenades. SEC agents fired nanite rounds that dissolved into silver worms mid-air. Leo backflipped over the jury box, landing beside Victor's failing wheelchair.
"Underground..." Victor coughed blood onto a decryptor chip. "Wolf gene vault... under Wall Street..."
The bracelet lit up, projecting a map of lower Manhattan's sewer system. Red markers pulsed where Rothschild expedition logs overlapped with Cold War lab blueprints.
Ryker's glaive sliced through the defense table. "You're just a stolen experiment, Wu! We made you!"
Leo's claws met Ryker's blade in a shower of cobalt sparks. "Funny." His free hand yanked the agent's earpiece out, tendons snapping. "I don't feel owned."
BTC Wallet Activated: 666 Transactions (Glacial Protocol Unlocked)
Power surged. The courtroom's emergency lights died as the bracelet drained Manhattan's grid. Leo's regeneration accelerated – bullet wounds sealing with black ice, severed tendons rebinding as carbon fiber.
Victor gasped, life support failing. "The gene vault... it's a mining rig... they're using our DNA to crack Yggdrasil's blockchain..."
A crow's talon impaled Victor's chest.
Memory Critical: Mother's Face (3% Remaining)
Leo's roar shattered the hologram. He lunged at Ryker, dislocating his jaw with a Mongolian hip throw. The agent crashed through the judge's bench, revealing a hidden terminal:
NY FED VAULT 9B – GENOME MINING OPERATIONAL
Irene's final hologram flickered: "The Lock isn't a shackle, puppy. It's a bridge."
Outside, thunder rolled. The bracelet's map updated:
TARGET ACQUIRED – YMIR'S CRYOSTASIS CHAMBER
As SWAT teams breached the courtroom, Leo dragged Victor's body into air vents crusted with wolf fur and Soviet radiation symbols. The hunter's silver worms followed, digesting marble floors into sulfuric sludge.
Somewhere below Wall Street, machinery hummed.
Polished English Version
Federal marshals marched Leo through courthouse halls, their shoes clacking like metronomes. Victor's wheelchair left smeared blood trails. "They're using Patriot Act clauses," he wheezed. "Classified us as terrorist miners."
The courtroom stank of ozone and wolf pheromones. SEC prosecutors sat beside crow-masked hunters, their alliance sealed by shared syringe guns. Judge Holloway's bench displayed holograms of Leo's blockchain sins.
"Defendant will–"
Leo's cuffs snapped. The bailiff's sonic device screamed, but he'd learned – Mongolian jaw thrust shattered the man's larynx mid-frequency.
SEC Agent Ryker applauded. "Still got that killer intuition, Batch Seven."
Irene's hologram erupted from the evidence table. "Did you know Yggdrasil's roots penetrate Bitcoin's genesis block? Your DNA authenticated Satoshi's first transaction."
The indictment shredded in Leo's claws. Paper scraps tasted like his mother's burning journal. "You're a damn photocopy," Ryker sneered. "Irene's little Xerox project."
Mercury grenades rolled. Leo ducked, claws carving through a crow's alloy ribs. Victor's decryptor chip spat coordinates: Wall Street's sewers pulsed with Soviet-era geothermal pipes.
"Gene vault's a fucking ASIC farm!" Victor choked. "They're hashing your blood to crack the Lock!"
Ryker's glaive impaled Victor's wheelchair. "Time to reboot, old man."
Leo's bite severed Ryker's carotid. Blood fueled the bracelet – 666 transactions blazing through his veins. SEC agents melted under mercury rain as the power grid failed.
In the vents, Victor's last breath fogged a Soviet emblem: PROJECT FENRIR – PHASE IV COMPLETE.
Somewhere below, machinery howled.