Inside the fight club's living quarters, the air was thick with tension. Every few seconds came another tremor, shaking the floor, rattling the walls. Explosions echoed in the distance. Shouts, crashes, inhuman roars.
Isaac sat huddled in the corner with a dozen others, all crammed into what little space remained intact. Amina was right beside him, her small frame pressed close, eyes wide with terror. Around them, the townsfolk whispered prayers, held each other, and tried to stay quiet, but the fear was too loud.
Isaac felt pathetic.
Utterly useless.
He clenched his fists, nails digging into his palms, but he couldn't stop the trembling. Ever since awakening as a mutant, he'd never felt this level of dread - except once. When he was trapped inside that lab… when he stood before Nyx.
And now… he was helpless again.
The first sonic scream hit like a truck.
The entire building groaned, a deep, awful sound, before chunks of the ceiling caved in. Dust filled the air. Screams broke out. Isaac's heart froze as he watched a slab of concrete crash down, crushing one of the townsfolk right in front of him.
"Help! Someone help!"
People scrambled, trying to pry the rubble off. Isaac moved on instinct, but froze halfway. His limbs wouldn't obey him. With his mutant ability gone, there was nothing but panic in his chest.
And yet… Amina, with tears streaking her cheeks and hands trembling, pushed through the fear.
She dropped beside the wounded person, her hands glowing softly as she began healing the crushed body, her voice cracking as she whispered reassurances through sobs.
She was stronger than him. Braver.
Isaac just knelt there, paralysed, ashamed.
Then he heard a voice. Distant. Faint.
"Nadya...?" he breathed.
It sounded like her. A desperate cry carried on the wind. He scrambled over debris to the gap in the wall, blasted open by the monster's scream. He peeked out - and what he saw made his blood run cold.
Nadya, Kai, and Takeshi were there. Fighting. Running. Screaming.
And then he realised… There was a shadow over him?
He looked up.
And his heart sank.
A titan loomed above them - no, it was falling. Hurling itself through the sky like a meteor, its enormous form aimed directly at the building he was standing in.
The monster was so large, it blotted out the sun. Its body twisted mid-air, mouth wide open in a silent roar as it came crashing down like the wrath of god.
Isaac's eyes widened.
'Shit!!!'
He turned on his heel and ran.
-
Time slowed to a crawl.
The roaring wind, the weeping of the survivors, even Nadya's desperate screaming - all of it faded into a surreal silence for Isaac. Like the world itself had muted, forcing him to confront the crushing truth: within seconds, he would be reduced to paste beneath a collapsing building.
He wasn't ready. Not for this.
His heart pounded like a war drum in his chest, yet his body felt numb.
His gaze drifted to Amina, who was still healing the wounded townsman with shaky hands. The others, wide-eyed, pale, and frozen in fear, huddled around her in the corner of the room, completely unaware of the incoming doom hurtling their way.
'I can't leave them here and let them die.'
Even if he wanted to run, he knew he wouldn't make it in time. Not against something that size. And if by some miracle he did… what then?
How could he live with himself?
Live with the knowledge that he abandoned Amina and the townsfolk?
That he let them all die just to save his own worthless skin?
No.
'But my ability hasn't worked since I escaped that godforsaken facility with Kai… It's like it's there in my head, but I can't reach it. Like trying to remember a name you've forgotten.'
He bit down on his lip so hard it split, blood running down his chin.
But there was no time.
It was do or die.
Literally.
Isaac lunged forward.
"Everyone grab onto me!" he shouted, voice cracking under the strain. His sudden motion startled the group, and Amina instinctively obeyed, snapping out of her healing trance. She dragged the slower ones, eyes wide with realisation.
Isaac wrapped his arms around as many as he could, pulling them close.
He'd never phased with this many people before.
Hell, he hadn't even tried phasing anything since his power sputtered out. Back when it was working, he could barely handle phasing with two others before his mind felt like it'd split open. And now? Now he was just gambling.
His clothes usually phased with him by instinct, after a few awkward experiences in his rookie days, but this wasn't about modesty. This was about mass. Too much mass.
He was pushing the limits of something that might not even respond.
'Oh well. If this is the end, then so be it.'
As rubble started to fall, Amina yanked one last person into the cluster, just as the roof gave in.
BOOM!
The giant monster's full body slammed down into the building.
A shockwave blasted outward.
Dust and smoke erupted into the sky. Chunks of debris scattered like shrapnel. The building crumpled instantly - flattened like a house of cards under a boot. Cracks split the ground. Windows shattered. Fires from earlier reignited with the sheer force of the impact.
From the outside, it looked like death. Instant, absolute death.
Nadya screamed.
"NO!!"
Tears streamed down her face as she dropped to her knees, the raw pain in her voice louder than any explosion. Her vision blurred as she watched the last intact building, the place she fought to protect, the people she swore to protect, obliterated right before her eyes.
"Amina… Isaac... no... no!"
She could barely breathe. Grief hit her like a bullet to the chest, and for a moment, she felt like her legs would give out entirely.
Kai stood beside her, unmoving.
His red eyes glowed faintly beneath the settling dust, their calmness hiding a storm within. There was no panic in him. No yelling. No breakdown.
Just silence.
And hatred.
'Nyx...'
Even now, Nyx's hand was in this. The monster. The serum. The entire disaster.
Kai had come so far, controlling his volatile ability and pushing himself to the brink. And yet, in front of this Calamity Threat, he might as well have been firing toy guns at a tank.
Even his blood, the very core of his power, hadn't made a dent.
Nadya? She was strong. Takeshi? On a different level entirely.
But him? He couldn't compare to them yet. Not by a long shot.
'Tch. This is fucked up.'
Beside him, Takeshi exhaled, his chest rising and falling with quiet, measured breath. He was panting slightly, but still upright. Still composed. As if even the monster's devastation hadn't shaken him.
Kai glanced at him, then back at Nadya's broken state.
And then up.
The monster was rising.
Its colossal form pulled itself upright, blood streaming from the wound Takeshi carved into its eye. It shrieked again, another sonic cry exploding out of its mouth as it turned its head.
The one good eye it had left locked onto them - the last standing and the annoying pests that had wounded it.
And with its twisted, primal rage, it stepped forward once more.
The battle wasn't over.
Not even close.
'This isn't over yet.'