The tunnel's darkness pressed in, the sonic hum vibrating through Kara's bones as she froze at the fork, her breath shallow. The collapsing path behind her crumbled further, dust choking the air, while the unknown tunnel ahead pulsed with an eerie green glow—OmniCorp's tech, alive and hunting. Lena's footsteps echoed closer, her whisper slicing through the silence: "I can smell your fear, Kara." The extraction window ticked down—three minutes, maybe less—her comms crackling with static: "East dock… hurry…" Marcus's voice was a lifeline, but the sound of choppers overhead drowned it out.
Kara gripped her stun baton, its charge nearly dead, and nodded to Ghost, who clutched a cracked tablet, its screen flickering with a weak signal. "Left or right?" Ghost rasped, her augmented eyes darting between the paths. The right tunnel pulsed brighter, its glow revealing faint movement—mechanical tendrils, like a predator's limbs. The left was a black void, water dripping with a rhythmic dread. A sonic pulse hit, rattling Kara's teeth, and a shadow loomed—Lena, her cybernetic arm glinting as she rounded the corner, cannon charging with a high-pitched screech.
They bolted left, the ground slick underfoot, each step a gamble. The tunnel narrowed, walls closing in, scraping Kara's shoulders raw. A tendril lashed from the right path, missing by inches, its metallic screech echoing. Ghost stumbled, her tablet slipping, and Kara caught her, but the delay cost them—Lena's cannon blast shattered the wall behind, shrapnel grazing Kara's cheek. Blood trickled, her vision blurring, but adrenaline kept her moving. The comms buzzed again: "One minute… east dock…"—a taunt against the impossible.
The tunnel dead-ended at a rusted grate, sealed tight, the green glow seeping through its cracks. Ghost jammed her tablet into the lock, fingers trembling, as the sonic hum intensified, pinning them in place. Lena's laugh echoed, closer now, her boots splashing in the water. "No escape," she called, her cannon's whine peaking. Kara swung the baton at the grate, sparks flying, but it held. A tendril snaked through the right tunnel's wall, wrapping around Ghost's ankle, yanking her back. Kara lunged, severing it with a desperate strike, the baton's last charge dying in a fizzle.
The grate gave way as Lena fired, the blast incinerating the tunnel's entrance, collapsing it behind her. Kara and Ghost tumbled through, landing hard on a platform overlooking the east dock—a chopper's spotlight sweeping the water, its blades a deafening roar. But the platform was rigged, a pressure plate clicking under Kara's weight, triggering a countdown beep: 10… 9… 8… Explosives, buried and primed. Marcus waved from the chopper, his face pale, shouting, "Jump now!"
The gap was wide, the water below a deadly drop, and the countdown relentless: 5… 4… Lena burst through the debris, her cannon aimed, a twisted grin on her face. Kara grabbed Ghost, her muscles screaming, and leaped as the platform erupted in flames behind them. Mid-air, a tendril lashed out, grazing Kara's leg, pulling her back—Lena's final trap. The chopper's cable swung into reach, Marcus straining to lower it, but the tendril tightened, dragging Kara toward the edge.