The building exploded about three seconds before Liam said it would.
He didn't even look up from his crouch as the shockwave blew past him, heat curling the edges of his jacket like a dry leaf caught in a lighter. His comm crackled, and Juno's voice came through, breathless and chaotic as always.
"Okay, that wasn't technically my fault."
"Technically?" Liam muttered, pulling a shard of shrapnel from his thigh like it was a splinter. "You detonated the wrong marker."
"It looked so similar! Who labels explosives with color codes? I'm not a chemist, Liam."
"I'm aware. Chemists don't scream 'Wheeeee!' when they throw grenades."
From the rubble, a low growl echoed a bass-heavy, vibrating hum that rattled Liam's teeth. He stood up slowly, brushing dust off his pants, and turned toward the epicenter of the blast.
The Vector they'd been sent to retrieve was no longer hiding.
The target was tall, broad, and wrapped in skin-tight cyber-armor that flickered with residual plasma. His right arm had fused with some kind of tech-organic cannon, and his eyes glowed the unmistakable red of a Crimson Wane operative. On his chest, burned directly into flesh, was their sigil: a spiral breaking through a triangle.
"Crimson Wane, confirmed," Rhea said over the comms, flat as always. "Engaging."
"No," Liam said. "I'll handle it."
"Of course you will," Juno sighed. "Because you're Liam Vale, the living, breathing action figure."
He tuned her out.
The target roared and charged. Fast. Faster than most Vectors Liam had fought. The kind of speed that made lesser agents panic. But Liam… Liam wasn't built like the others.
He exhaled, and everything slowed.
His heart synced with the rhythm of the ground. Time didn't stop, not exactly, it just tilted, gently. The Vector's sprint became a crawl. Each step is a ripple. Liam stepped forward once, then twice, sidestepping the cannon blast before it was ever fired. He drove his fist into the Vector's stomach.
The sound was dull. Wet. Disappointing.
"Too easy," he muttered.
The Vector gasped, eyes wide as blood shot from his mouth. He fell forward, dead before his knees hit the dirt.
And that should've been the end of it.
But it wasn't.
Because Liam noticed something on the corpse's forearm, beneath the skin. A glowing blue line. A pulse. Not just cybernetics. Something deeper. Older.
He knelt, brushing his hand over the sigil. It was carved into the bone. And beneath it?
A number.
His number.
"Nova," he said, voice tight. "Run a scan on this Vector's genetics."
"I already did," she replied in his ear. "That's why I haven't spoken. Liam… that guy was a Catalyst-class."
He froze. "That's impossible. I'm the last."
"Yeah," she whispered. "That's what they said, too."
He looked up. The moon above was half-shattered, casting broken light across the wreckage. His pulse began to double once in his chest, then again… somewhere deeper. Like an echo. Like a second heartbeat waking up in the dark.
Kairo's voice cut in, grim and low. "We're not alone."
Figures appeared at the edges of the crater. Four. No five. All wearing black. All silent.
"Nova," Liam said, standing slowly. "Get ready to move."
"Already on it."
"Juno?"
"Lining up a joke. I'll fire it when things go to hell."
"Rhea?"
"Lining up a kill."
"Kairo?"
"…Here."
Liam smiled faintly. Not at the enemies, not at the situation. Just because in moments like this between the tension and the chaos and the imminent possibility of being skewered by a plasma spike he remembered why they were a team.
The first of the five figures stepped forward. Face hidden. Voice mechanical.
"Subject 001. Singularity Class. Code: Apex. You are not cleared for survival."
Liam sighed and cracked his knuckles. "Yeah? Neither was your mom when she saw me naked."
Juno barked a laugh through the comm. "That's the line? Really?"
"Shut up and shoot someone," he said and ran into the fire.