Zane's boots hit reinforced steel just as Desmond charged. Each of the brute's steps pounded like pile drivers, shaking the entire Cadmus substructure. The ground groaned under the pressure, reinforced plating fracturing beneath Desmond's growing weight.
Zane moved instinctively. Before his brain caught up, he dove to the left, tucked into a shoulder roll, slid under a bench, and popped up just in time to watch Desmond obliterate the spot he'd just vacated. Concrete dust and fragments of bench shrapnel rained around him.
"Easy, big guy," Zane muttered. "That bench had a family."
He tossed a flash pellet over his shoulder.
FWUMP!
Blinding white light burst through the room, followed by a deafening concussive snap.
Desmond staggered a step—barely. His face scrunched in irritation.
"You allergic to being stunned?" Zane grunted.
His visor flickered to life. The stolen KGBeast module ran predictive overlays across Desmond's massive frame. Red outlines crawled across the HUD.
[ Stress Zones: 6%. Regeneration: Active. Kinetic resistance: High. Eyes, joints, spine—moderately vulnerable.]
"Not much, but I'll take it," Zane muttered.
Desmond lunged again, fists the size of concrete blocks cutting through the air. Zane ducked under a wide swing and buried his robo arm into Desmond's ribs with a violent swing. The hit landed with a solid, metallic THUD, but Desmond barely reacted.
Zane backpedaled fast. "Time for the big boy toys."
"Quick—activate Gauntlet Mode!"
His visor chirped in response. The mechanical arm clicked, segments disengaging, the inner frame unfolding like a steel puzzle. Parts rotated, shifted, locked into new positions, forming a larger, heavier bracer that clamped to Zane's forearm.
[Gauntlet Mode engaged.]
Zane flexed. The balance was off, but the raw reinforcement felt right. He smirked.
"Why did KGBeast build a mode like this anyway? In case his stump got chopped off mid-battle? Eh. Works for me."
He launched forward again, slammed the enhanced gauntlet straight into Desmond's temple. It sounded like two trucks colliding.
Desmond flinched this time. Just a little.
Then smiled.
---
OBSERVATION DECK – ABOVE
Lex Luthor's robotic avatar sat calmly behind reinforced one-way glass, fingers steepled. A data stream scrolled across his forearm screen.
He moved here right after Desmond and Zane started fighting. Although this was just one of his many Robots, he didnt want to damage it unnecessarily.
His assistant Ai drummed in his ear. "Sir, Desmond's vitals are spiking. Structural damage to the testing floor is at 43%."
"Expected," Luthor said without looking up.
"Sir," the AI said more urgently, "Green Arrow seems to be on his way here. Three minutes until engagement window. If he arrives—"
"I know." Luthor's voice sharpened. He activated a direct comm.
"Desmond. Finish it. Now. I don't want the League involved."
---
BACK IN THE CHAMBER.
Desmond's earpiece buzzed. His smile faded.
"Understood."
He turned to Zane, cracking his knuckles.
"You know," he said, "I've been holding back."
Zane arched an eyebrow. "Is this where you reveal you have a super form?"
"If I really moved," Desmond growled, "this whole block would be gone. Bones liquify at Mach speeds. Shockwaves turn people inside-out."
Zane opened his mouth.
BOOM.
Desmond vanished.
The air tore open behind him.
A moment later, Zane's back slammed into the far wall as Desmond appeared in front of him—his hand already wrapped around Zane's throat.
Only then did Zane hear the Sonic boom!
Steel groaned. The wall behind Zane bent inward. Alarms screamed.
He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move.
He'd been too slow. Again.
His fingers clawed at Desmond's wrist. His vision narrowed. The world slowed.
This was it. Again...
---
FLASHBACKS
A rooftop.
Blood. Cold wind. KGBeast standing over him. "Not much of a Challenge."
Then—Cadmus. Omega's hand pushing through his chest. The pain white-hot, then cold.
Now—Desmond, squeezing the life out of him.
'I'm always too slow.'
'Always too weak.'
'Not again'
"RAAHHHHH!!!!"
His body screamed. Muscles trembled. Nerves burned.
The Chrono Seed pulsed with power! Purole energy rippled throughouthis body, changing it!
It wasn't clean.
It was evolution—forced through violence, death, and defiance.
1 year...10 years...100 years...1 000 years...1 000 000 years!!
Ten million years of combat mutation flooded through his cells. Mitochondria ruptured and rebuilt. Bones cracked, realigned. Skin split and resealed. Blood thickened. His brain restructured its threat response in milliseconds.
The Gauntlet got pushed off by his arm bulging with pure muscle!
"RAAAHHHH!!"
Zane screamed—and this time, the sound cracked a wall.
Desmond staggered back.
Zane fell to one knee, coughing. Steam rose from his back.
Then he stood.
His body shimmered with fractured light. Not glowing—reactive. His movements were faster, sharper, completely different.
His eyes—gone. In their place: twin spirals of silver.
No fear. No hesitation.
He didn't speak.
He moved.
Zane lunged. Desmond tried to dodge—but he was too slow.
Zane's fist connected with Desmond's ribs.
CRACK.
The sound echoed like a gunshot.
Desmond flew backward into a reinforced column. It bent inward.
Seeing the destruction just one punch caused, when he didnt even punch his hardest, Zane let out a veral smile.
He felt SRONGER! FASTER! TOUGHER!
'Dont know whats going on, but I like this very much!!'
Zane followed, elbow-first. Desmond raised his arm, caught the strike—but was still knocked through th entire wall!....straught into the next room!
BOOM!
Shockwaves pulsed from every clash. The reinforced walls cracked. Ceiling tiles exploded. Pressure plates ruptured.
Outside the facility, a tremor shook nearby homes. Windows rattled. Car alarms screamed. Civilians in the nearby zone felt what they assumed was an earthquake.
Desmond charged back in, moving at Mach speed.
Zane met him head-on.
BOOM!!!
They collided in a shockwave that blew out the entire left wall of the chamber.
Pipes burst. Fire systems activated. Emergency lighting flickered.
The two figures became streaks of motion—too fast to track.
BOOM. BOOM. CRACK. THWAM.
Zane spun mid-air, delivered a kick to Desmond's jaw that sent him spiraling into the sublevel support beams.
Desmond responded with a hammerblow that shattered the floor. Zane vanished from impact and reappeared behind him, landing three successive punches in a microsecond.
The building couldn't hold.
The Cadmus testing chamber—built to contain nuclear-powered hybrids—began to fall apart.
Support beams collapsed. Chunks of concrete rained down. Steel warped. Lights burst.
Zane ducked a sweep, vaulted over Desmond's shoulder, and drove his heel down.
CRUNCH.
Desmond's knee buckled.
"You're... just a kid!," Desmond coughed, struggling to stand.
"I'm the last person your ever gonna see alive!," Zane said.
One final blow—
Zane twisted, leapt, and spun a kick into Desmond's chest that sent the mutant flying through the ceiling. Steel panels ruptured. Dust clouded the air.
Desmond didn't come back down.
Zane landed, panting. His skin flickered, the spirals in his eyes fading. The Transformation...no...The 'Echo Form' receded.
He stumbled—but didn't fall.
The wreckage around him hissed and sparked.
He looked up at the remnants of a shattered monitor.
"I'm coming for her."
---
OBSERVATION DECK
'Luthor' lay among the dust and debris. His robot's lower body crushed beneath beams.
"And here I thought he were done suprising me. He's even more dangerous than I thought.
Maybe we need to reactivate the original plan."
Luthors Robot body sparked with electric wires, as he pondered on wether to use his 'Son' like it was planned at the start.
---
OUTSIDE
Sirens in the distance.
Tremors fading.
Zane stepped out of the ruins, his boots dragging through dust and debris. Smoke clung to the collapsed Cadmus facility like breath from something just slain. Morning light split through the haze in fractured beams.
His body ached.
The Echo Form was gone. Burned out.
He carried the broken Robo-arm like dead weight—clutched in his left hand, its joints twisted, sparking softly. His skin was scraped raw, his breaths short and sharp. Every nerve screamed, but he kept walking.
Ahead of him—Desmond.
No longer monstrous. No glowing veins. No unnatural bulk.
Just a man now.
Battered. Bruised. Barely breathing.
Weak.
Vulnerable.
Killable.
Zane stopped a few feet away. Looked down at him in silence.
He let the Robo-arm fall to the ground with a dull, metallic thud.
Then, slowly, he reached behind his belt and pulled out a small black pistol. Matte finish. Compact. Personal.
Karen.
He ran a thumb across the scratched nameplate on the side—an weapon he barley used anymore.
Zane cocked the slide.
Desmond stirred. Eyes fluttering open. Face swollen, lips cracked.
"Wait," he gasped. "Zane—don't—killing me won't fix anything."
Zane said nothing.
"You're better than this," Desmond wheezed. "You—we're not supposed to be murderers. We're supposed to survive. That's what this is about, right? Living. Evolving."
Zane knelt beside him.
Pistol raised.
"You remember what you said to me?" Zane asked quietly. "That you could liquefy me just by moving too fast?"
Desmond opened his mouth.
"You remember how many people you killed working for Cadmus?"
Desmond's eyes darted. His lips trembled.
"You're not scared of death," Zane said. "You're scared of dying like this. Small. Helpless."
Desmond's voice cracked. "Please... Zane. Don't—don't do this. You don't have to—"
Zane pointed the gun at his forehead.
"No," he said. "But I want to."
His finger tightened on the trigger—
!!!Danger!!!
He wanted to move, to jump out of the way. But his body refused to listen! The only reason he could stand right now was pure willpower!
THWIP!
A sharp pain exploded in his neck.
His body jerked. Numbness spreading fast.
THWIP!
Another arrow shattered Karen, the pieces skittering across the rubble.
Zane staggered. Dropped to his knees. The world spun violently.
Before the black swallowed his vision, he saw boots step into view.
Green boots.
Then red.
Then a third pair—familiar.
Someone knelt beside him.
A hand on his shoulder. Soft. Steady.
"Zane," said Artemis.
Her voice was calm. He could tell she was mad at him, but more concerned.
When she stood, he saw the tension in her legs. The way her bow was already drawn.
She turned to face them.
Green Arrow.
Speedy.
They didn't back down.
Neither did she.
Then Zane hit the dirt.
And the world went black.