The tunnels narrowed again, slick with condensation and littered with debris from shattered machinery. Sparks arced from exposed conduits, casting fractured light across the walls. Marcus's chest ached from running, the prototype thrumming violently against his ribs, pulsing like a heartbeat gone rogue.
"We can't keep going straight," Kade panted, knives drawn, eyes scanning every shadow. "They're—"
A deep vibration cut through the floor, silencing her mid-sentence. Marcus froze, listening. The hum from the prototype grew sharper, almost commanding. It wasn't just a warning—it was pulling them somewhere.
"Follow it," Marcus whispered.
The glow from the device illuminated a section of wall that had looked ordinary moments before. Etched into the concrete, hidden beneath grime and cracks, was a thin seam. When Marcus pressed the prototype against it, the wall shivered, and a concealed door slid open with a hiss, revealing a narrow, descending passage.
"Looks like it wants us to go down," Marcus said.
Kade muttered under her breath but followed, stepping cautiously into the darkness. The passage widened into a small chamber, wires snaking across the floor like veins. At the far end, a hub of flickering monitors awaited them, screens displaying fragmented schematics of the tunnels and pods.
"Holy…" Kade's voice cracked. The monitors showed images of the pod chambers, some active, some dark. Lines traced through the city's underbelly, connecting nodes Marcus hadn't seen before. Symbols pulsed on the screens in time with the prototype.
Marcus moved closer, studying the schematics. "These aren't just experiments. This… this is a control network. The pods, the conduits… someone's been orchestrating all of it."
A soft, mechanical click echoed from the ceiling. They froze. Shadows shifted in the corner of the room. One of the monitors flared bright red, and alarms buzzed, low but insistent. The hub reacted to the prototype, lights flaring in response to its pulse.
Kade gritted her teeth. "Looks like we woke more than the pods."
Marcus scanned the logs flickering across the monitors. Names, dates, and annotations in a language part human, part… something else. References to "anchors," "sub-space synchronization," and "sentinel activation." He swallowed. "Some of the beings we woke—they're not just alive. They were designed to guard this."
The floor trembled again, stronger this time, like something immense moving just beneath them. Dust fell from the ceiling in tiny showers, and the hum of the prototype escalated into a roar. Marcus's vision blurred, synced with the vibration in his chest.
Then the shadows moved. Slowly, deliberately, coalescing into a shape too large to be human. Mechanical or organic—it was impossible to tell. The hum of the prototype synced with its presence, pulsing faster, almost alive.
Marcus gripped the device tighter. Kade's knives gleamed under the flaring lights, muscles coiled. The room felt impossibly small, the walls pressing in as if the chamber itself were breathing.
Something in the darkness shifted again, closer this time. The vibration became a pulse that rattled their teeth, resonating deep in their bones.
Marcus's voice was barely audible. "Whatever it is… it knows we're here."
The hub's lights blinked violently, monitors flickering red, green, and blue in chaotic patterns. A low, grinding growl emerged from the shadowed corner—an impossible sound, layered, distorted, both mechanical and organic.
Kade swallowed hard. "We… we fight it?"
Marcus shook his head. "We survive it."
The shape moved forward. In a single, fluid motion, it began to fill the chamber, massive and silent except for the resonance vibrating through the floor. The prototype in Marcus's arms flared, light bursting outward in jagged pulses, the room bathed in electric blue.
.