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The central computer's alert shattered the quiet of their workshop.
Jay's expression shifted. He pulled up the drone surveillance feed, and Domino moved beside him, watching the screens flicker to life.
"What am I looking at?" she asked.
The aerial footage showed a structure carved into a cliff face fifty kilometers north of their position. Modern architecture with reinforced concrete and a security perimeter with armed guards.
"Three weeks ago, I deployed advanced drones to map the Savage Land," Jay said. "Looking for tribal gatherings, special locations and more Anti-Metal deposits. You know, standard reconnaissance."
He cycled through more images as the guards came into focus.
Domino leaned closer. "Those don't look like any demi-human I know."
"No, they're not." Jay zoomed in on individual figures. One had a thick-scaled hide, massive and brutish. Another moved with amphibian quirk, green skin glistening and gills visible on his neck. "Savage Land Mutates! Barbarus and Amphibious."
"You recognize them?"
"They're Sinister's pets. Enhanced through genetic experimentation. He uses them as muscle when he needs something protected." Jay's jaw tightened. "An hour ago, the drones flagged this installation. When I saw who was guarding it..."
He didn't need to finish.
"You think Sinister's here."
"I know he's here." Jay pulled up more surveillance footage. "I've been trying to track him for months. And now he builds a lab in the one place isolated enough that no one would think to look."
Domino studied the structure. "So what's the plan?"
"We go in." Jay's words came out quiet. "We find Sinister. And this time, we make sure he stays dead."
"You mean we move to kill him?" Dom said, asking.
"I mean exactly that." Jay turned to face her fully. "Dom, you remember how I told you about Korea? About Kim Il Sung and the M-Gang?"
"Wait, you mean the M-gang were Marauders. They were conducting the mutant trafficking operation. I thought you saved those kids."
Jay's hands clenched. "Kim Il Sung was Sinister's right hand. Those children weren't just trafficked. They were prepared to be lab specimens."
Domino's expression hardened as she said, "And now you get another chance."
"Now I get another chance. The Marauders went silent after Korea. I've been trying to track him for months." Jay moved toward the door. "Get your gear ready. We leave in twenty minutes."
The off-road vehicle Jay had teleported in weeks ago rumbled through the Savage Land jungle. Built for extreme terrain easily with its reinforced frame, powered by modified Stark technology.
Domino sat in the passenger seat, checking her weapons with methodical efficiency. Special ammunition, backup magazines and her knives strapped to her thighs.
Jay drove in silence. His jaw was set tight, and his knuckles had gone white on the steering wheel.
"You're worrying me, Jay", Domino said finally. "You haven't said a word since we left."
Jay was quiet for another moment, navigating around a fallen tree. When he spoke, his voice was carefully controlled.
"In the comics, Sinister is one of those villains who never stays dead. He's too smart. Too careful. He has clones hidden everywhere, backup plans for his backup plans. In the comics, heroes kill him all the time. And he just comes back. New body but same malicious genius."
Domino processed this. "So you're worried this won't stick."
"Yeah, I'm worried that even if we kill him today, there are a dozen other Sinisters waiting in labs around the world." Jay's fury leaked through. "And I'm worried that I'm not angry enough about it. That I'm becoming too comfortable with killing as a solution."
"Jay." Domino reached over, placing her hand on his arm. "You're not becoming a monster. Monsters don't worry about becoming monsters."
"That's what monsters tell themselves."
"No. That's what heroes tell themselves when they're making hard choices." She squeezed his arm. "Sinister has spent centuries torturing mutant children. You told me yourself he's personally responsible for some of the worst atrocities committed against our people. If killing him makes you a monster, then I'm a monster too. Because I'm going in there with you, and I'm not losing sleep over it."
Jay was quiet for a long moment. Then he nodded.
They drove in silence after that.
Finally, they stopped two kilometers from Sinister's installation. Close enough to approach on foot. Far enough that the vehicle wouldn't give away their position.
Domino climbed out, stretching. "Alright. What's the play?"
Jay pulled her closer in a hug, and the shadows below them came alive. They were submerged like quicksand, moving quietly around the shadow the noon sun was casting until they came out inside the base itself.
Domino stumbled as they emerged, gasping. "We...are...not...doing that again!"
Jay touched a digital panel nearby. The interface lit up under his fingers, blue circuitry spreading through the walls.
"Jay?"
"Give me a minute. I'm mapping their security network."
Domino watched as Jay's expression shifted. The Sage powers combined with his technomorphing turned him into a living hacking tool.
A minute passed. Then Two and Three.
Jay's eyes snapped open. "Got it. Twenty-one guards total. Seventeen are basic security, enhanced locals, but nothing special. The other four are the Savage Land Mutates I recognized. All dangerous. And all loyal to Sinister."
He pulled up the display in his digital watch, showing the facility's layout in three dimensions.
"Sinister's in the basement level, lab three. He's alone, which means he's working on something he doesn't want witnesses for."
With a thought, Jay triggered the lockdown.
Throughout the facility, doors sealed shut, alarm systems disabled, communication systems jammed. And in lab three, reinforced blast doors slammed shut.
Sinister was completely trapped.
"Done." Jay pulled his hand back, and the blue circuitry faded. "The whole place is on lockdown. He can't escape. Can't call for help. Can't even see us coming through his cameras."
"You really take the fun out of infiltration." Domino teased.
Jay just shrugged. "I can't help it."
The first thing that hit Domino was the smell.
Antiseptic and copper. Bleach trying to hide blood. Underneath it all, something organic and wrong.
"Jesus," Domino muttered. "This place smells like a hospital had sex with an abattoir."
"Probably accurate." Jay's danger sense pinged softly. "Stay sharp. The Mutates will respond once they realize something's wrong."
The corridors were too white, clinical white. The kind that showed every spatter. Domino noticed the floor tiles, as some were newer than others. Recent replacements.
They moved deeper into the facility, navigating corridors that all looked the same. White walls. Numbered doors. Warning signs about biohazards and genetic containment.
They passed laboratories filled with equipment Jay recognized. Gene sequencers running analysis on samples that looked disturbingly human. Centrifuges spinning vials of separated blood. Microscopes connected to computers displaying DNA helixes that twisted in patterns that shouldn't be stable.
One room had a surgical table with restraints. The leather straps were worn smooth from use. Dark stains marked the drainage channels built into the steel.
Jay didn't let himself think about how many people had died on that table.
Footsteps echoed ahead. Three guards rounded the corner, human but clearly enhanced. Too much muscle. Moving with predatory grace, with eyes that reflected light like a cat's.
Before they could react, Domino made her move.
The shot cracked through the corridor.
The bullet left her pistol spinning. It struck the far wall at an angle, ricocheted off the concrete.
The first guard's eyes widened as the bullet changed trajectory impossibly mid-flight. It caught him in the throat. Blood sprayed as he went down, clutching his neck.
Then the bullet hit his falling rifle. The impact changed its trajectory again, as now it was moving parallel to the floor.
The second guard tried to track it. His mistake. The bullet caught him directly in the visor, spiderwebbing the reinforced glass before punching through into the eye socket beyond. He dropped dead.
The third guard dove for cover. Good instincts, but not good enough.
The bullet clipped a support beam, changed course one final time, and buried itself in his chest cavity. He made it two more steps before his heart stopped.
Silence fell as three bodies hit the floor almost in sync.
Domino lowered her pistol, smoke curling from the barrel.
She'd fired once. But three men were dead.
When the gunsmoke cleared, Jay was staring at her.
"Okay," he said. "I have been seriously underestimating your training these past two months."
"You may have upgraded my powers." Domino grinned, reloading. "But they are my powers, Babe."
They continued deeper. More guards came, drawn by the gunfire. Each time, they dealt with threats with brutal efficiency.
Jay absorbed Vibranium, his entire body becoming living metal. When five guards with energy weapons opened fire, the blasts splashed against his metallic skin. He moved through them like inevitability made flesh. His arm, now a blade, found throats and hearts with Taskmaster's precision. Bodies dropped like flies.
Domino's probability manipulation made her untouchable. She moved through the chaos like she was dancing, each step perfectly placed. Bullets that should have hit her struck walls instead. A thrown knife veered off course at the last second, embedding itself in the wall beside her head. When a guard got close enough for hand-to-hand combat, he slipped on blood that hadn't been there a moment ago and cracked his skull against the wall.
"This is fun," Domino said as they cleared another corridor. "We should do infiltration missions more often."
"This isn't a mission."
"Same skill set."
They reached the stairwell leading to the basement levels. Jay's technomorphing confirmed that Sinister was still trapped in lab three, the blast doors holding. But his danger sense was screaming now.
They descended the stairs. The temperature dropped. The walls down here were reinforced concrete instead of sterile white panels. Water damage stained the corners. The air tasted worse down here.
The lighting was different too. Harsh fluorescents that cast sharp shadows. No windows, thus no natural light.
The corridor leading to lab three was empty. Too empty.
Heavy footsteps echoed from behind them. Multiple sources and moving fast.
Domino turned, her weapons ready.
Four figures emerged from the shadows.
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