Setting: In Dr. Rhane's Lab—a cold, antiseptic room illuminated by white fluorescence and flickering red warning lights. Sirens howl in the distance. The hallways are long and narrow, lined with reinforced steel doors, humming machinery, and watchful surveillance cameras swiveling like interested eyes.
Von slipped through the broken gate, fire and smoke still crackling behind him. His heart pounded like a drum in his chest.
"Come on, Von… breathe. You've come this far."
He pressed himself against a wall as he crept forward, boots barely making a sound on the sterile tile floor.
Above him, a security camera swiveled listlessly. Von knelt and waited until it turned away, then.
He lifted his arm, and with intense focus, the camera snapped up, breaking its neck. No noise. No flash. Only accuracy.
He shifted. Smooth and quick, moving through the corridor—no extraneous movement. He no longer struggled with his gift. His training asserted itself. He was focused.
A turret controlled by a motion slid out of the wall, whirring into speed with a hiss of machinery.
Just like Marco showed me… find the weak points… think, not brute force.
Von waved a hand toward an empty metal tray on a countertop in the background behind the turret. It shot out toward the with the gun at high speed, slamming into the rotation bearing, destroying it.
Von (to himself): "Nice."
The deeper Von went, the more surreal the lab became. It was not an institution—it was a horror maze. Through the thick glass walls, he could see cells containing bright-white lights, holding muffled screams and slow movement. Awake humans, restrained and helpless, some of them IV-line-equipped, some with helmets on their heads.
This place. It's a damn prison.
Von stopped and quickly freed the awakened trapped in the cells. Once they were free, Von directed them on how to escape.
Alarms began to wail in the distance.
Shit. They've spotted us. "Go!" he shouted as the people began to run.
Von sprinted down a hallway—until three guards rounded the bend, firing stun rifles.
Guard: "Stop right there!"
Von didn't stop.
Von: "Rise."
The floor underneath the guards bucked upwards, not by breaking—but because Von yanked the metal tiles beneath their feet up at an angle, so they collapsed and crashed into each other. He yanked a rolling supply cart after him and pushed it into the chaos of guards, and they all went out cold in a single smooth motion.
He puffed out hard.
I used to freak when one guy looked at me wrong…
He went on and encountered a hallway that had laser tripwires. The red beams were just inches above the floor—clearly hooked into a lockdown system.
Can't jump. Can't slide…
He looked up. There were two steel beams across the ceiling.
That'll do.
He focused and launched himself upward, twisting midair—but not falling. Instead, he gritted his teeth and pushed downward with his power, suspending his body in midair like a slow, floating swimmer.
Control… breathe… focus the pull…
He drifted along the corridor, avoiding the lasers completely. His boots touched down on the other side softly.
Von finally arrived at a large central chamber, filled with reinforced holding pods arranged in a circular pattern. In the very center—Justin, still unconscious inside a glass prison. Tubes were strapped to his arms, and a monitoring screen beeped slowly next to him.
Von's stomach roiled.
Von: "Justin…!"
He moved forward but stopped when the ground before him began to ripple. A trap.
Too late.
Glass pillars burst around him, trapping him in a cube of crystallized fortified energy.
They expected me to show up.
A voice over the speakers of the chamber—cold, clinical, smug.
Dr. Rhane (intercom):
"I see Marco's little soldier made it this far. How cute. Do you want me to give you a tour of your new cell? Or should I let the dogs finish you off first?"
Von clenched his fists.
Von: "No more cages."
He pushed both palms out—his power flared.
Glass panes shattered, whining with the unseen force that he used. He gritted his teeth, blood trickling from his nose—not of weakness, but of pushing his limits.
With a final yell, he pushed both hands out—
Von: "Fall!"
The glass exploded outward, the flying shards bridging the chamber.