The dockyard burned, flames licking the sky as Kara and Ghost scrambled behind a crumbling crate, bullets chewing into the wood. Lena's arm-cannon hummed, its charge building with a menacing whine, the neon glow reflecting off her cybernetic eye like a predator's stare. Kara's chest heaved, her stun baton slick with sweat, every breath a gamble as the sniper's laser danced across the wreckage—searching, waiting. The air crackled with the scent of ozone and fear.
"Move, or we're dead!" Ghost hissed, her voice barely audible over the gunfire. She yanked a small EMP grenade from her belt, its pin trembling in her fingers. Kara nodded, her mind a storm of doubt—Marcus was gone, the boat a smoldering ruin, and Lena's trap had tightened. The backup he'd promised was ash. Was this the end?
They bolted, weaving through the maze of cranes and barrels, the sniper's shot splintering a steel beam inches from Kara's head. The EMP detonated with a blinding flash, frying the drones overhead and plunging the dock into a eerie hush—except for Lena's steady footsteps, closing in. The silence was a blade, each second stretching taut as Kara's heart pounded in her ears. She spotted a rusted ladder leading to a catwalk above—their only shot at escape.
Climbing was a nightmare. The ladder groaned under their weight, rusted rungs threatening to snap. Halfway up, a shadow loomed—Lena, her cybernetic arm gripping the ladder below, her face twisted with cold fury. "You can't outrun justice, Kara," she snarled, her cannon arm whirring to life. Kara kicked down, her boot connecting with Lena's shoulder, but the enforcer's grip held, her implants unyielding. The ladder shook violently, a rivet popping loose with a deafening clang.
Ghost reached the catwalk first, hauling Kara up as Lena fired, the blast searing past Kara's leg, scorching her pants. They stumbled forward, the catwalk swaying underfoot, its bolts rattling loose. Below, Lena scaled the ladder with unnatural speed, her cybernetic enhancements giving her an edge. Kara's comms crackled faintly—static, then a whisper: "Kara… dock… alive…" Marcus? Her hope flickered, but the signal died, leaving her gut twisting with uncertainty.
The catwalk ended at a control room, its windows shattered, overlooking the burning dock. Inside, a terminal blinked with a single active feed—OmniCorp's kill order, updated with a chilling detail: "Target Vance: Terminate on sight. Priority: Neural extraction." Kara's blood ran cold. They weren't just hunting her—they wanted her mind, her hacks, her soul. Ghost hacked the terminal, overriding the feed to loop static, buying seconds. But a thud on the roof signaled Lena's arrival, her silhouette dark against the neon sky.
The door buckled as Lena kicked it, her cannon arm glowing red. Kara and Ghost barricaded it with a console, but the hinges groaned under the assault. Ghost whispered, "Vent—now!" They pried open a vent grate, squeezing inside as Lena burst through, her shot blasting the console to shards. The vent was tight, every scrape a potential giveaway, the sound of Lena's heavy breathing echoing behind them. A grate ahead was their only exit, but it was sealed—locked from the outside.
Kara's fingers bled as she clawed at the grate, Ghost jamming a shard of metal into the lock. Lena's footsteps grew louder, her voice a venomous promise: "I'll tear you apart, Kara." The lock clicked free just as Lena's cannon fired, the blast shredding the vent wall behind them. They tumbled out onto a lower platform, the dock's edge looming—a drop to jagged rocks and churning water below.