Adrian's boots echoed faintly on the pavement as he moved through the city streets. It had rained some time during the night. The scent of wet asphalt and urban stench hung thick in the air. Adrenaline from the last Nanobot acquisition from the alley fight still hummed in his veins. He was on edge. A new sensation was making itself known. It was clawing its way to the forefront of his attention. Suddenly a gnawing hunger, fierce and unrelenting took hold of him.
He had never felt hunger like this. It wasn't just the regular need for food hunger that he'd always experienced before. This was something deeper and more primal. Awareness flooded him, the nanobots that were thrumming through his body were demanding fuel for the transformation they were weaving. He needed to eat. One minute he was marveling in the brisk night air at his new body and new abilities and the next his focus was totally consumed with the need to feed.
With his new cat-like eyes' he scanned the shadows, catching every detail: the glint of a broken bottle in the gutter, the faint rustle of a rat skittering behind a dumpster. The city was alive alright, but so was he. With the hunger now burning urgently inside him he kept moving forward.
In this area of the city the air carried the stale tang of spilled beer on top of the other smells as if a perfume added to the regular urine and garbage funk. Adrian's heightened senses drank it all in: the distant clatter of a delivery truck, the soft whine of a neon sign loud to his sensitive ears. He was on alert, as he always was now, for ferals. His stomach growled, louder than he expected, a deep rumble that seemed to vibrate in time with the nanobots. He quickened his pace, drawn toward a familiar dive bar a few blocks away.
The Rusty Anchor was a squat, small, hole-in-the-wall dive bar. Inside the air was thick with the smell of hot fry grease and regret. But the food was cheap, fast and filling. Right now, that was all he needed to quiet the beast inside him. He pushed through the front door and the bell above jingled weakly, but the sound was still sharp and piercing to Adrian's enhanced hearing.
The bar was half-empty just a few folks who appeared to be nightly regulars nursing their drinks. The television mounted above the bar blared an emergency news report, the newscaster's voice cutting through the low murmur of conversation. Adrian slid into a booth near the back, his senses instinctively cataloging the room: the bartender wiping down the counter with a bleachy rag, two drunks arguing over something about politics in hushed and heated tones, and a woman in the corner muttering to herself over a glass of whiskey.
He flagged the waitress over, a tired-looking woman with stringy hair and dark circles under her eyes. He ordered without hesitation: three burgers, rare, a plate of fries, a side of wings, and a pitcher of beer to wash it all down. She raised an eyebrow, her pen pausing over her notepad, she said jokingly, "Somebody's hungry." then scribbled the order and shuffled off without a word.
The television drew his attention as he waited for his food. The anchor's voice sounded serious and urgent. She was reporting on the growing number of attacks across the city. What Adrian referred to as "ferals" after encountering them for the first time. The creatures he'd fought had once been ordinary and human. But they had been twisted by something unnatural, had been able to move with erratic yet still coordinated precision. Their glowing eyes now mirrored his own.
The screen on the TV showed grainy security footage: a feral lunging at a pedestrian in a convenience store, its claws tearing through a display of canned goods. Another video of one tearing through a park at night, scattering scared joggers as it howled. The anchor's voice cut through the low din. "Authorities remain baffled by the surge in these violent incidents. Theories range from a new street drug to bioengineered pathogens, though no official statement has confirmed the cause. Residents are urged to stay vigilant and avoid isolated areas after dark."
Adrian's lips twitched into a grim humorless smile. The speculations were laughably far from the truth, but he had no intention of correcting them. His thoughts drifted to the nanobots coursing through his body, the silver mist he'd absorbed from the ferals he'd killed. Whatever was happening to the city, he was part of it. He was different now. Changed forever by the nanobot core. He knew that he was connected now to what was going on.
The hunger in his gut screamed again and he shifted his weight, the leather of his jacket creaking against the plastic cover over the fabric of the booth seat. The nanobots seemed to stir in response to his discomfort and his need, as if feeding off his emotion.
The bar's patrons were abuzz with their own theories, their voices carrying over the clink of glasses and the low hum of an old jukebox in the corner. "It's gotta be some government experiment gone wrong," a grizzled man at the bar muttered, his voice thick with distrust as he swirled a glass of amber liquid. "They're always messin' with shit they don't understand." A younger woman nearby shook her head, her fingers tightening around her drink, her knuckles pale. "I bet it's a cult. Like, some kinda ritual that turns people into monsters." Another voice, slurred with alcohol, chimed in from a nearby table: "Whatever it is, I ain't going out at night no more. Saw one of 'em rip a dog apart. It ain't right."
Adrian's jaw tightened, his enhanced hearing picking up every word of each patron. He heard the tremor of fear in their voices. The air was thick with the smell of emotion, he was surprised to find that he had that ability now. He could smell emotion. Fear is a sour, heavy scent and it stood out against the smell of fried food and spilled beer. He didn't blame them for being scared. The ferals were something new, something the city wasn't ready for, monsters born from the same technology that was transforming him. But where the patrons saw terror, Adrian saw opportunity: more nanobots, more power, a chance to push his evolution further. That thought sent a dark, intoxicating thrill through him, and his fingers twitched against the table.
His food arrived. A table so full of plates it looked like a family of 4 was sitting there. It drew stares from nearby tables, but Adrian didn't care. He tore into the first burger, the rare meat dripping red juices onto the plate. The taste exploded across his tongue. He was unnatural with his intensity. He thought It was the best bite of burger he ever had. His heightened senses made each bite vivid. The iron in the meat was sharp and tangy. The bite from the mustard, the char from the grill. He ate like a man starving while trying to maintain some decency. He devoured the burgers, fries, and wings without skipping a beat. Washing it all down with long gulps of beer directly from the pitcher. To his surprise the hunger didn't vanish, but it did diminish. Slightly sated for now just by the sheer volume of food he consumed was enormous.
He was halfway through the third burger when the bar's fragile calm shattered. A window at the front exploded inward, glass spraying across the floor like shrapnel. Screams erupted as a feral vaulted through the broken frame, landing in a crouched position on a table that flexed under its weight. Its eyes glowed faintly in the dim light. Its mouth was smeared with blood, its teeth jagged and bared. Patrons scrambled, chairs toppling, drinks spilling. The creature lunged, its claws raking a man's arm as he tried to flee. Blood sprayed everywhere, and the man's scream was cut short as the feral tackled him to the ground and tore his chest open with animalistic strength.
Adrian was on his feet in an instant, grabbing a pool cue from a nearby rack with one hand, the pitcher of beer still gripped in the other. The nanobots thrummed in his veins, his senses sharpening to a razor's edge. The world slowed as he moved, his footsteps silent despite the chaos. The feral's head snapped toward him, sensing the threat, its glowing eyes locking onto his with a flicker of recognition. It shrieked, abandoning its victim and leaping across the gap toward Adrian, claws slashing through the air.
He sidestepped smoothly, the pool cue whipping through the air with a sharp crack. The heavy end connected with the back of the feral's, sending it sprawling into a booth. The impact splintered the wood of the pool cue and Adrian tossed it aside. The monster scrambled to its feet, snarling, blood and spit dripping from its mouth, as it lunged again. Aiming for the throat this time, but Adrian swung the glass pitcher from his other hand, catching it across the jaw with a sickening crunch of bone. The feral staggered, but Adrian didn't let up. Dropping the pitcher, he grabbed another pool cue. With both hands this time he drove it forward like a spear. The tip plunged into the feral's chest with a surprising amount of ease. The creature howled, thrashing, but Adrian twisted the cue deeper, rendering it useless on the floor. With a final, brutal swing, he brought the butt of the cue down on its skull, splitting it open with a wet crack.
The bar fell silent, save for the ragged breathing of the patrons cowering behind tables and the faint drip of blood to the floor. Adrian stood over the feral's twitching corpse, his chest heaving, the nanobots humming with a fierce satisfaction. The overlay flickered into his mind, unprompted.
Free Nanobots Detected. Assimilate? [Y/N]
"Yes," he muttered, his voice low and steady.
Silver mist bled from the feral's body, curling upward like smoke before rushing into his chest. The familiar jolt of cold lightning surged through him, his muscles tightening as the nanobots integrated, fueling his transformation.
Assimilation complete. Free nanobots gained: 1,012. Total available: 3,895.
Adrian straightened, tossing the pool cue aside. The patrons stared, frozen, their eyes wide with a mix of shock and fear, and maybe something more. He tossed a crumpled stack of bills onto the counter as he had a feeling it wouldn't be needed soon anyways. It was more than enough to cover his meal and the shattered window, and he walked out. The bell above the door jingled faintly as he stepped into the night. Behind him, the bar remained silent, the patrons too terrified to move.
High above the city, in a dimly lit room with walls made out of windows on the top floor of an unmarked skyscraper, eight figures sat around a polished obsidian table. Six men and two women, their faces half hidden in shadow, spoke in low, measured tones. The atmosphere was thick with the tension of a world slipping out of their control. Through the windows they could see the skyline of the city which glittered. It was pretty from this high up, sparkling like so many gemstones. Too bad the people of the city were oblivious to the conspiracy that was unfolding in its heart.
Dr. Elias Voss, a wiry man with sharp features and cold eyes, leaned forward, his fingers steepled. "The feral outbreaks are accelerating," he said, his voice clipped and precise. "Seventeen recorded incidents in the last few days alone. The media is spinning tales of drugs and viruses, but it won't be long before someone gets too close to the truth."
A woman across the table, her hair pulled back in a severe bun, scoffed. "Let them speculate. The nanobot project was designed to be untraceable. No one will connect the ferals to us, not without evidence, and we've already buried that."
"Buried?" A heavyset man with a scarred jaw leaned back, his tone skeptical. "You saw the footage from the park. These things are evolving. Some are showing coordination, strategy. That wasn't in the design. Why are they still showing intelligence?"
Voss's eyes narrowed. "A glitch in the replication protocols. The nanobots are adapting faster than anticipated. But the core's objective, control through enhancement, remains intact. The ferals are a side effect, not the project end goal."
"Side effect?" another man snapped, his voice rising. "They're going to tear the world apart. We've safeguarded our assets, politicians, CEOs, key players, with stable nanobots or inhibitors to prevent feralization. But the public? They're fodder. If this gets out, we're finished."
The second woman, the younger of the two, spoke with calm intensity. "Then we accelerate to the next phase. Our enhanced candidates are performing as expected. Strength, speed, senses, are all within parameters. Some are even exceeding parameters. The nanobots are evolving independently, assimilating others. It's proof the system works."
"But this Kane's a wildcard," the scarred man growled as he gestured to the CCTV video. "He's not one of ours. If he figures out what's happening, he could ruin everything."
Voss waved a hand dismissively. "He's a tool, nothing more. Let him hunt ferals, absorb their nanobots. He's thinning the herd for us. If he becomes a problem, we'll eliminate him." The room fell silent, the heaviness of the situation settling over them like a shroud. The younger woman leaned forward, her voice steady. "We could shut it down. Purge the nanobots, contain the ferals, and walk away. But we'd lose everything, control over the city, the markets and the future."
The scarred man snorted. "And the alternative? Let the ferals overrun the city? Let people like Kane become gods? The world is overrun with useless people. This is a culling"
Voss's lips curled into a thin, psychotic smile. "We let it play out. The ferals are chaos, yes, but chaos we can harness. The enhanced will rise above it, and our preloaded allies will maintain order. The rest? Collateral damage. The world has always been shaped by those willing to make these hard choices."
A murmur of agreement rippled through the room, though unease lingered in the eyes of some. The younger woman nodded slowly. "Then we monitor Kane closely. If he's evolving, he could be an asset, or a threat. Either way, we use him."
Voss stood, signaling the end of the meeting. "Agreed. Keep the project running. Let the city burn a little. It'll make our control sweeter when the dust settles."
As the group dispersed, the skyline beyond the window pulsed with life, unaware of the strings being pulled in the shadows. Below, Adrian Kane walked the streets. His hunger was sated for now. But the nanobots flowing through him whispered of greater power, and greater battles, yet to come.