The city skyline pulsed with neon lights and holographic billboards that screamed in every color imaginable. It was midnight, yet the city refused to sleep. Underneath its glow, five shadows moved silently through the back alleys of Sector 17—each with a purpose, each with secrets they dared not voice.
Leon Black glanced up at the perimeter wall in front of them. It was tall, reinforced with reactive alloys and layered energy grids—just like everything owned by the Avalon Research Institute. He narrowed his eyes.
"Entry point's ahead," he said into his comm-link, his voice low and composed.
Behind him, Lena Fox adjusted the settings on her wrist interface, checking their infiltration code one last time. Her silver hair was tied into a braid, and her eyes reflected a cool light, like distant starlight.
"I've bypassed the outer surveillance rings. For now, their system thinks we're just a garbage truck pulling out of the depot."
"Make it quick," Ethan Cross muttered from behind, loading a fresh mag into his pulse pistol. His jacket flared slightly as he moved—a sleek, bulletproof synth-weave fitted with multiple utility ports. "They update the AI heuristics every fifteen minutes. One error and this turns into a bloodbath."
Leon nodded. "Understood."
Standing near the rear, Mike Taylor, the team's muscle and former black-ops tank operator, stretched his neck. "Feels too quiet," he muttered. "I've been in enough ambushes to know what calm before the storm feels like."
Lily Cross, Ethan's sister and their medic-tech, tapped her tablet a few times, then pulled up the building's internal schematic. "There's a maintenance shaft five meters to your left. That's our way in."
Leon led the way, prying open a panel behind a supply crate. With a few clicks, the false wall disengaged, revealing a narrow tunnel barely wide enough to crawl through.
"You've got to be kidding me," Ethan muttered, already crouching.
"Welcome to infiltration," Lena quipped with a small smile as she slipped in behind Leon.
---
The shaft was stifling and smelled faintly of ozone and grease. Crawling through it felt like slithering inside a machine's artery. Metal scraped against armor. Sweat dripped down foreheads. Every movement was precise, calculated.
After ten grueling minutes, Leon stopped at a sealed hatch.
"We're under the west wing," he said. "Security node should be ten meters ahead. Lena?"
"On it."
Lena flicked her wrist, sending a wireless burst to the lock. A moment later, the hatch clicked open silently. The corridor beyond was dimly lit, lined with reinforced glass that showed glimpses of sealed laboratories and humming data cores.
"Split formation," Leon ordered. "Ethan, Lily—secure the left flank. Mike, with me. Lena, stay in the middle. You're our tech lifeline."
The team slipped through like shadows.
---
Inside, the institute resembled a tomb—eerily quiet, sterile, and humming with invisible energy.
They passed room after room, all locked behind high-security glass. Inside, massive servers blinked silently. One chamber contained biological tanks filled with a murky blue fluid, within which floated indistinct humanoid forms. Cloned test subjects? Experimental soldiers?
Leon's eyes lingered.
"This place gives me the creeps," Mike muttered. "Like we're walking through someone else's nightmares."
"That's because we are," Lena said. "Avalon's been doing genetic fusion experiments since last year. Rumors say they're trying to create hybrid cyborgs with AI-enhanced consciousness. Soldiers who never disobey, never feel pain, never think twice."
"Sounds like hell wrapped in chrome," Lily added from the comms.
They reached the main server vault—a circular chamber sealed by a biometric gate. Its surface shimmered with nanolocks, protected by a rotating cipher.
"Lena?" Leon asked.
She stepped forward, examining the lock.
"This one's got three layers—biometric scanner, neural pattern verification, and a rotating cipher. Give me two minutes."
"You've got one," Ethan said, eyes scanning their rear.
Lena cracked her knuckles, plugged in her portable spike rig, and began overriding the layers. Sparks danced across her fingers as she manipulated the code directly from her neural interface.
The cipher resisted. Then—
Click.
The lock hissed open.
"Got it."
They slipped inside.
---
Rows of server towers rose into the darkness like a forest of steel and light. Data conduits pulsed across the ceiling. At the far end stood the core terminal, encased in a transparent shell and linked to dozens of cables as thick as a person's arm.
Leon approached and inserted a data drive.
"Downloading everything," he said.
The drive lit up, its storage indicators rapidly filling.
Suddenly, the lights dimmed.
"Uh-oh…" Lily whispered.
The ceiling-mounted lights shifted to red.
An automated voice boomed across the facility:
> "INTRUSION DETECTED. INITIATING LOCKDOWN PROTOCOL ALPHA."
"Oh, come on!" Ethan snapped. "We were ten seconds from exfil!"
Turrets descended from the ceiling, unfolding like metallic spiders. Red targeting lasers blinked on.
Leon reacted instantly. "Form up! Defensive triangle!"
Mike stepped forward, shielding Lena with his reinforced arms. "I'll handle the turrets."
He raised his gauntlets—built-in kinetic projectors igniting. "Time to break some toys."
---
The firefight erupted in a storm of plasma bolts and bullet trails.
Ethan rolled into cover, firing back with his pulse pistol, while Lily tossed a stun grenade toward the turret on the left. The blast shattered its optic sensor.
Lena, crouched behind the terminal, screamed, "I need 30 more seconds!"
"Make it 20!" Leon yelled, blasting a turret to scrap.
Mike, now dual-wielding anti-armor pistols, took down the last turret with a roar. Sparks showered the room.
The lights blinked once—then turned green.
Lena stood. "Done!"
Leon yanked out the drive. "Time to leave!"
They raced out of the server room.
But it wasn't over.
As they reached the main corridor, the floor opened—revealing rising platforms with mechanical units. Chrome-plated humanoid androids stepped forward, armed with shoulder cannons and glowing plasma blades.
"Experimental units," Lena breathed.
"Looks like they're field-testing them... on us," Ethan muttered grimly.
"Split and flank!" Leon ordered.
They scattered.
---
The hallway became a warzone.
Leon dashed across the walls, flipping mid-air to dodge cannon fire. He landed behind one android and drove his blade through its core.
Mike charged another, tearing off its arms with sheer brute force.
Lily deployed a shock emitter, temporarily paralyzing one of the units.
Lena remotely shut down another using a backdoor vulnerability in its firmware.
Ethan took the final one out with a triple-shot to the head.
Breathing hard, the team regrouped near the extraction point.
"Extraction drone's two minutes out," Lily announced.
"That's two minutes too long," Ethan replied, reloading.
Suddenly, the far end of the hall exploded.
A tall figure emerged—silver-skinned, eyes glowing blue, standing over seven feet tall. It wasn't fully human… or even android.
"What the hell is that?" Mike whispered.
Lena scanned it. "Hybrid cyborg. Codename: Chimera. Bio-core interface fused with AI. Prototype."
Leon narrowed his eyes.
"It's him."
The project Avalon had hidden all along.
"Everyone, hold nothing back," Leon ordered. "We take this thing down—or we don't leave at all."
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