Chapter 7: The Chase & The Trap
[Late Night – Stark Lab Tunnels – Day 2]
The silent alarm was no longer silent. A shrill, piercing siren echoed through the old lab, a sound that made Adam's teeth ache. The light on the portable data stick pulsed a frantic red. He and Bixby were on the run, a frantic dash down a long, decaying hallway, the sound of boots echoing behind them, growing closer.
"He's fast," Bixby shouted, her voice a strained gasp. "Faster than any of our agents. He's not a man."
"He's a cyborg," Adam yelled back, his voice raw. "A prototype."
The Hydra agent from the cafe was a blur of motion, easily navigating the old tunnels. His movements were precise, inhumanly fast. He was a machine, a weapon, and they were his targets.
[SYSTEM: Threat analysis: Hostile. Subject displays enhanced speed and agility. Passive defense protocol recommended. Use 'Barrier' Card.]
Adam didn't hesitate. He pulled a new card from his mental deck, a shimmering, translucent shield that pulsed with a faint blue light. He threw it up just as a fist, a blur of metal and flesh, slammed into it. The barrier held, but the force of the impact sent a shockwave through him, a jolt that made his bones rattle.
"That's one of them!" Bixby shouted, pointing at the cyborg's arm. "The power source. It's what powers the limbs."
Adam's mind raced. He had to use the environment against him. He had to use his wit, not his brute force. They ducked into a side tunnel, a narrow, dark passage that led deeper into the lab's decaying guts. The cyborg followed, his footsteps echoing ominously in the dark.
"We're trapped," Bixby said, her voice strained. "We have to fight him."
Adam had a different idea. He had to go back. He had to lure the cyborg into a trap. He had to play a game of cat and mouse, a deadly game of strategy.
She's good. Better than a regular agent. She's using the lab's layout to her advantage, using her knowledge of the place to buy us time. We're a team. A weird, terrifying team. I have the power, she has the knowledge.
They doubled back, their footsteps silent in the dark. The cyborg was a ghost, a silent predator, his movements too fast to track with the naked eye. Adam used his Perception Card, the world shifting into a shimmering tapestry of data streams and electrical currents. He could see the power lines, the circuits, the weak points in the old, decaying lab.
"Bixby," he whispered. "The main power line. The one that runs through the ceiling. Can you… can you get to it?"
"I can," she said, her voice determined. "What's the plan?"
"Create a distraction," he said. "A big one."
She nodded, a silent agreement that didn't need words. She ran down a side corridor, her footsteps echoing in the dark. The cyborg, sensing her presence, followed. Adam was alone. He used a new card, a "Manipulation Card" that allowed him to control the lab's aetherial energy. He focused his will on a section of the floor, a rusted I-beam that had been sitting there for decades. He felt the aetherial energy flow through him, a strange, exhilarating sensation.
The floor beneath the cyborg's feet gave way. A terrible, grinding crash echoed through the tunnels as the I-beam fell, pinning the cyborg beneath it. Adam ran, not looking back. He had won. For now.
[SYSTEM: Threat neutralized. Warning: Subject's internal monologue detected. Subject is not a puppet. Subject displays signs of remorse and despair. Subject's internal dialogue: 'I can't do this… not again…']
Adam stopped dead in his tracks. The cyborg was not a puppet. It was a person, a man, trapped in a metallic shell, his mind a prison of a past he couldn't escape. His hand, the metal gauntlet that had almost crushed Adam, twitched. A single, silent tear, a tear of rust and oil, dripped from its unblinking eye. Adam had to go back. He had to help him. But he didn't have time. The Hydra agents were coming.
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