Night fell fast in the ruins of Old Chicago. The bones of the city cast long shadows under a fractured moon, while flickers of dormant energy pulsed beneath the rubble—remnants of technology lost in the Cataclysm. In an abandoned skyscraper, half-buried in glass and ash, Kairos stood with his back to the broken window, eyes closed, arms at his sides.
The nanites within him stirred.
They pulsed to a silent rhythm, vibrating through his veins like a choir of machines waking from hibernation. He inhaled slowly, feeling them reorganize. They weren't just responding to him anymore. They were preparing for something.
Nanite convergence: 82% synchronicity. Stage two evolution ready.
Kairos opened his eyes. The world around him was clearer, sharper. He could hear the hum of invisible frequencies, smell the iron of distant blood, sense the heat signatures of EVOs far below the streets. His connection to the nanite web had deepened.
A voice pinged inside his neural interface—not quite machine, not quite his own:
"You are the catalyst. Phase One has ended."
"What is Phase Two?" Kairos asked aloud.
"Adaptation."
Suddenly, pain lanced through his chest. Not the pain of injury—of transformation. The nanites inside him twisted, broke apart, and rebuilt themselves in real time. Kairos dropped to one knee, gasping.
Light erupted from his spine, forming an exo-structure—organic metal branching into the air. It wasn't armor. It was evolution.
When the light faded, he stood taller. More alien. Blue veins of energy pulsed along his arms, and his fingers shimmered with data streams. His body had changed to house something new. Something dangerous.
Mamachine blueprint unlocked: CORE SHARD
He held out his palm. The air warped and bent around it, as if reality itself recognized his shift. Nanites swarmed outward, forming a hovering construct: a sleek, black device with a glowing center—half drone, half organism.
The CORE SHARD. A Mamachine. His first.
It hovered beside him silently, linked directly to his thoughts.
"You're awake," he whispered.
The CORE SHARD emitted a soft pulse of light. It was intelligent in a different way than normal nanite drones. It had purpose. Designed by Kairos's subconscious, it existed to control and expand. A tool, a weapon, a companion.
Below, movement stirred.
He turned to the window, watching as a team of Providence agents cautiously approached a glowing crater. He didn't need to guess what they were after. Traces of his last battle with the EVOs still lingered there.
Among the soldiers was Ben.
Still stuck in her altered form.
She moved like she didn't fully trust her own body yet, glancing back at Holiday and Six, who followed from a distance. Her eyes flicked upward—to the skyscraper. She paused.
She could feel him.
Kairos sent the CORE SHARD forward. It zipped silently through the sky, avoiding scanners, and hovered just out of view. Through it, he saw her clearly.
Ben turned sharply. "He's here. I can feel it."
Six drew his weapon. "Where?"
Kairos smiled faintly. He liked that she could sense him.
Dr. Holiday checked her scanner. "Something's interfering with the readings. Nanite frequency is... fluctuating. It's alive."
Suddenly, the CORE SHARD pulsed. EVO signatures: three of them, closing fast from underground tunnels.
Ben stepped forward. "We need to move. Now."
Kairos tapped into the CORE SHARD. "Engage."
In a blur, the device shot toward the EVOs' location, unleashing a wave of nano-suppressive energy. The ground exploded. EVOs howled, stunned and weakened by the Mamachine's effect. Kairos dove from the skyscraper, landing beside Ben just as the fight began.
She stared at him. "That thing—you made it?"
"It's part of me now."
"It feels... different. More than tech."
"It is." He turned toward the charging EVOs. "Let me show you."
Together, they fought—her in alien form, him enhanced by Mamachine support. Each movement from Kairos was mirrored by the CORE SHARD, disrupting EVO abilities, healing Ben's minor wounds, even adapting new countermeasures mid-combat.
Providence watched in awe.
When the battle ended, and the last EVO turned to dust, silence followed.
Holiday stepped forward. "What are you, Kairos?"
He looked at her. Calm. Cold. "Something you weren't supposed to meet yet."
Ben turned to him, breathing hard. "And what are you becoming?"
Kairos didn't answer. He looked at the CORE SHARD as it returned to him, folding into his shoulder like a phantom.
The nanites inside him pulsed once more.
Stage Two Evolution: Complete