Sublevel A – Helipad
Sirens screamed into the storm.
"Fifteen minutes until detonation."
The intercom's voice cut through the chaos, alarms wailing.
Ross lunged. The Proto-Tyrant—TJ—slammed into him, the rooftop shaking under their clash. Steel screamed, bone cracked.
Jack moved in. This time, he didn't hold back.
The world slowed. Rain froze in midair, every drop a crystal hanging in the light. His breath was steady. His rifle snapped between targets faster than thought—Ross's tendons, the exposed nodules, the gaping seams in his twisted flesh. Every weak point glowed like it was begging to be destroyed.
He fired in short bursts, sliding across the pad. Recoil barely touched him thanks to his muscle density.
And then Jack heard the whispers.
…Don't stop… keep going… faster…
…This is what you were made for…
Jack knew what it was. The virus. Whispering inside his mind, urging him to let go of his humanity. His hands trembled on the rifle—not from fear, but from how good it felt.
"Not now," he growled, shaking it off.
Ross swiped wide. Jack ducked under, every movement too sharp, too perfect. He almost felt like a monster himself.
Ada's POV
The helicopter rocked in the storm. Ada gripped the case Jack had thrown her, her eyes locked on the chaos shrinking below.
"We've got less than fifteen minutes!" the pilot shouted. "If we don't leave now, we die with the rest of the facility!"
Ada didn't answer at first. Jack's face—his anger, his sorrow—haunted her. And TJ… that truth still burned in her chest.
Finally, she said, "Turn us back."
"Ma'am—"
"Now."
The chopper banked hard toward the helipad.
"Ten minutes until detonation."
Back to Jack
Ross roared, charging, his mutated mass tearing gouges into the pad. The Proto-Tyrant intercepted, but Jack could see TJ faltering.
Jack pushed harder. The world stretched thinner. Whispers filled the gaps.
…Let go… more power… lose the limits…
His vision tunneled. For a split second, he almost raised his rifle at the Tyrant—his best friend.
The world slammed back into speed. His chest heaved. He was on the edge of losing himself.
Then the helicopter roared overhead.
"Jack!" Ada's voice cut across everything—the storm, the fight, the whispers.
He blinked, grounding himself.
Something slid across the pad, skidding to a stop at his boots. An RPG. Ada leaned out the hatch, shouting, "Use it! End this!"
Jack picked up the launcher, rain slick across its grip. His hands steadied. Ada's voice anchored him, pulling him back from the abyss.
Ross tore free of TJ's grip and barreled forward. The Proto-Tyrant moved to intercept.
Jack set his sights, the countdown screaming through the intercom.
"Nine minutes until detonation."
The RPG hissed, smoke trailing as it streaked across the helipad. Ross twisted, the rocket slamming into his shoulder instead of his chest. The explosion blew half his body apart, fire lighting the rain. The monster staggered, shrieking—but it didn't fall.
Jack dropped the empty tube and drew his sidearm. His heart hammered. He fired again and again, the rounds chewing into Ross's chest.
"Stay down, damn it!"
But the Aegis Virus refused. Bone re-knit, muscle bulged grotesquely, veins glowing like molten wire. Ross charged, half his body still burning.
The impact hurled Jack across the pad. His ribs screamed. He coughed blood and rolled. The VSS flickered to life, warning him of major wounds his Enhanced Recovery (Tier 1) couldn't heal.
Jack's hand found the knife he hadn't used since the armory fight. Ross loomed over him, massive hands about to slam down.
Then TJ struck. The Proto-Tyrant crashed into Ross from the side, both monsters tearing into each other. Flesh and claws, steel and bone. The rooftop shook beneath their weight.
Jack forced himself up, vision swimming. He had minutes left. Maybe less. He stumbled toward the edge, searching for a way down—anything.
The intercom howled: "Five minutes until detonation."
Ross hurled TJ into a railing, steel buckling. The Tyrant growled low, pushing back up. His cloudy eyes flicked once to Jack—brief, sharp, human.
Jack's throat tightened. "TJ…"
The Ross-thing lunged for Jack again. Jack raised his pistol, empty with a useless click. Too close. Too fast.
TJ roared, intercepting, claws digging into Ross's bulk. The two monsters slammed against the edge of the pad, concrete crumbling.
"Four minutes until detonation."
Ada's helicopter circled low, but flames and wreckage from the last blast made it impossible to land. She leaned out, shouting Jack's name, but couldn't get close enough. The rotor wash only added to the chaos.
Jack staggered forward, trying to reach them, but Ross slammed TJ into him, sending all three sprawling. The pad groaned beneath the weight, cracks spreading.
TJ grabbed Ross, pinning him down with strength born of rage and memory. With his other hand, he shoved Jack hard—so hard Jack's boots left the ground.
"No!" Jack shouted as he was thrown clear, crashing into the twisted wreckage of a stairwell below the helipad. The impact knocked the air from his lungs, but he was alive.
Above, TJ and Ross were locked together, fire and rain swallowing them both. The helipad sagged, alarms screaming, sparks raining like meteors.
"Two minutes until detonation."
Jack crawled to his knees, staring up through the smoke and fire. The silhouettes of the two monsters blurred, then vanished in a wall of flame as the facility began to tear itself apart.
"Ada—hurry up or we're going to die!" the pilot yelled from above.
Ada reached down, straining her arm toward Jack. He grabbed on, muscles screaming as she hauled him into the helicopter. The cabin rocked hard as they pulled away, the entire facility shaking itself to pieces below.
Jack pressed a hand to the glass, staring down at the collapsing helipad. His chest burned with grief and fury.
TJ's fate was lost in the fire.
"One minute until detonation."
The intercom's final warning echoed faintly through the storm as Ada's helicopter banked hard away from the collapsing helipad. Jack clung to the side rail, chest heaving, blood seeping through his torn vest.
The entire facility groaned beneath them. A moment later, the world turned white.
The underground complex erupted, fire ripping upward through the cracks, a chain of detonations punching holes through steel and concrete. The helipad folded into itself, swallowed by a geyser of flame.
"Hold on!" the pilot shouted, wrestling the stick.
The blast wave hit a heartbeat later. The helicopter bucked like a toy in the gale, alarms shrieking in the cockpit. Jack slammed against the bulkhead, his ribs screaming, one arm thrown across Ada to keep her steady.
Through the glass, fire blossomed below, chasing them like the breath of a dying god.
"Thirty seconds until detonation."
Jack barely heard it over the thunder. He looked down and swore he saw something in the fire—two shapes locked together, Ross's hulking silhouette and the bulk of the Proto-Tyrant, swallowed in the inferno.
"Dammit, TJ…" he muttered, voice raw.
Ada gritted her teeth, gripping the edge of the hatch. She didn't speak—didn't dare. For the first time, she looked shaken.
The pilot shouted again. "We're not gonna clear the radius!"
"Then push it!" Ada snapped back.
The rotors screamed as the helicopter strained against the wind. Shards of steel and burning debris whirled past, some clipping the tail with bone-rattling clangs. The cabin lights flickered, alarms howling.
Jack forced himself upright, bracing against the frame. "Tell me we're gonna make it!"
"Depends what you call 'make it,'" the pilot barked.
The shockwave finally rolled through, a concussive wall that sent the chopper spinning sideways. Jack's vision blurred as gravity flipped; the horizon whirled between fire and black sky. He grabbed Ada, anchoring her as the helicopter fought to stabilize.
The pilot yanked the controls, cursing, and at the last possible moment, the bird leveled out. The fireball chased them one last stretch, licking the tail before it finally thinned into smoke and embers.
Then… silence. Only the rain. Only the wail of damaged rotors.
Jack slumped back, his muscles screaming, lungs burning. He pressed a hand against the glass, staring down at what was left of the facility. A smoldering crater. No sign of Ross. No sign of TJ. Just fire.
His jaw tightened, grief and fury twisting in his chest. "They're all gone," he whispered.
Ada finally looked at him. Her voice was quiet, softer than usual. "…Not all of us."
Jack didn't answer. He just kept staring at the crater, haunted by the shapes he'd seen in the flames.