The hallway lights flickered as Delilah, Taskmaster, Sarah, and Laura moved deeper into Sublevel 4. Every surface felt sterile. Like the walls themselves were holding their breath.
Delilah hated the environment.
Weapons out, tension high, they swept each corner with quiet precision until they reached a door marked with nothing at all. That was the giveaway.
Secret facilities didn't do blank doors.
Delilah exchanged a glance with Taskmaster.
"Secure location?" he asked.
"Probably a trap," Delilah murmured.
Taskmaster keyed the panel.
The door slid open with a soft hydraulic hiss.
Inside: an empty, white room.
Delilah stepped forward—and the moment the last of them crossed the threshold, the door slammed shut behind them with a metallic BOOM that echoed off every flat surface.
Bulkheads locked into place.
Delilah sighed, "Yup, definitely a trap."
A moment later, a speaker crackled overhead.
"Well," Dr. Zander Rice's voice drawled with smug satisfaction. "You saved me the trouble of luring you here."
Delilah's muscles tightened. She scanned the room automatically: no vents large enough for escape, no control panels, no cameras visible—but she knew they were there.
'After all, this idiot wants to see us die.'
Taskmaster muttered under his breath, "I hate when bad guys monologue over the PA system."
"Shut up," Delilah said quietly but sharply. "Keep stalling."
Sarah stood frozen behind them, hand clasped over her mouth. Laura, silent and coiled, was pressed to her side like a shadow waiting for instruction.
"First," Rice continued cheerfully, "allow me to thank you for removing Dr. Sutter. He'd outlived his usefulness. You saved me the paperwork. Truly—helpful."
Domino's voice crackled in Delilah's earpiece, "Uh, boss? We're still looking for Rice. Where—"
Delilah muted the channel.
Taskmaster's visor glowed faintly. "He's about to deploy something. The air's shifting."
Delilah felt it too.
A faint hiss. Barely audible.
Then—
Her stomach dropped. She remembered Luc's warning.
She lunged backward.
"Sarah!" Delilah barked, grabbing her by the arm. "MOVE."
She snatched Laura with the other and threw the girl across the room just as Laura inhaled—
—and her entire body convulsed.
Sarah stared, horrified. "What—what are you doing?!"
Delilah didn't answer.
Because Laura's eyes were already changing.
Green irises constricted into predator slits. Her breathing became hitched as her shoulders shook.
Her fingers curled—
SNIKT SNIKT
—and her claws extended on instinct.
Taskmaster swore under his breath. "Oh. They added something to the air in the room."
Sarah gasped. "Scent—? No!"
"Yup means we're all marked," Delilah said flatly.
Taskmaster readied his weapons, "Ah, so she's entered a kill mode. Damn, if we kill her, we won't be paid."
"Rice pumped the room with Laura's trigger scent. She's been conditioned to go berserk and kill anything wearing it," Sarah said as her voice began to crack. "No—Laura—no, no— damn you Rice."
But the child was already gone behind the conditioning.
Her lip curled.
Her claws flexed.
Her stance shifted lower, tighter, lethal.
She was now a living weapon locked onto its targets.
"Delilah—" Taskmaster said seriously, stepping forward, shield raised, "—plan?"
"Delay her. Don't kill her. Focus on keeping Sarah alive."
"Not exactly my favorite parameters," he said.
Delilah clicked her comms back on and whispered. "Domino. Sable. Rice trapped us in a room. His attention is focused on us, so you'll have an easier time moving around. Take him out quickly."
Domino replied, "On it, boss."
Sable responded with a curt, "Understood."
The speaker crackled again, Rice's voice smooth and gloating, "You see, X-23 instinctively prioritizes threats and proximity. She'll kill you quickly. I recommend praying."
Delilah snarled. "I recommend you shut the hell up. Your voice is annoying"
Laura launched forward with a feral scream.
The girl moved like a bullet.
Small, fast, almost impossible to track.
Delilah sidestepped, but Laura adjusted mid-air and slashed Delilah's ribs—blood spattered the floor.
Delilah didn't flinch.
She grabbed Laura's wrist, twisted, and pinned her for half a second—
Only half a second.
The girl headbutted her, claws slashing upward.
Delilah barely rolled back in time.
"Jesus," she muttered. "She's faster than you, Taskmaster."
Taskmaster scoffed. "I heard that."
Taskmaster stepped in as Delilah disengaged.
He copied Laura's crouch, her footwork, her timing.
"Cute," he said. "Let's see who does it better and faster."
Laura leapt.
Taskmaster mirrored her perfectly.
They collided in midair—
claws to shield,
heel to heel,
strike to counterstrike.
The impacts blow them both back.
Taskmaster slid back a foot, impressed, "She's reading me and adjusting. That shouldn't be possible."
"That's because she isn't reading you," Delilah said, stepping back into the fight after her side stop bleeding. "She's reacting to motion like an animal does."
Laura pivoted toward Sarah as she froze—but Delilah intercepted the girl with a full-body tackle, slamming her into the wall.
Laura's claws sliced into Delilah's shoulder, blood pouring freely.
Delilah didn't even blink.
Pain meant nothing as she had been trained to ignore small pain such as this.
Sarah collapsed to her knees, panic shredding her voice, "Laura! Laura, look at me! Sweetheart, please—"
But Laura couldn't hear her.
Conditioning screamed louder than love.
Taskmaster swung his shield, ricocheted it off the far wall, and let it slam into Laura's ribs. She staggered—
Delilah grabbed Laura's jaw from behind and locked her in a chokehold—
Laura snapped her head back and broke Delilah's nose.
Delilah grunted. "She's impossible to hold down. She's fully triggered."
Taskmaster leapt over Delilah, landing behind Laura and kicking her into the air.
Laura twisted mid-air and slashed him across the chest.
Taskmaster hissed. "Okay—she's learning me too fast. I hate that. I see why people hate fighting me."
Delilah wiped blood from her nose and fixed it.
"Just keep her occupied," she growled. "Rice wants us dead in here. Our job is to ruin his expectations."
While they fought for their lives below, Mack had Sable's Wild Pack finish planting charges on the upper floors.
Mack clicked the detonator remote with his thumb, checking the indicators.
"Charges set," he muttered. "Now all we gotta do is wait for those idiots down there to bring out the targets. Then we can turn this entire building into a very expensive ashtray."
Back in the kill room, Laura lunged again—this time straight for Sarah.
Sarah screamed Laura's name.
Taskmaster intercepted her with a sweeping kick.
Delilah grabbed Laura's hair and slammed her into the floor—hard—but the child bounced back instantly, eyes wild, claws dripping with Delilah's blood.
"Taskmaster!" Delilah shouted. "Left side!"
"I see it—"
Laura vanished from their sight for a heartbeat.
Then—
She struck from above.
Delilah tackled Sarah out of the way as Laura's claws stabbed into the metal floor where Sarah had been.
Taskmaster caught Laura's wrist, twisted, and pinned her arm to her back.
Laura screamed and writhed, foot claws extending as well—
Delilah swore. "Right, I forgot that she has the toe claws too?!"
Taskmaster ducked just as Laura's foot almost slashed his throat.
"Yep," he said. "Not using these judo moves are enough for this kid."
They held her—but only barely.
And not for long.
Delilah panted, blood dripping down her chin.
Taskmaster strained against Laura's strength.
Sarah sobbed behind them, seeing what she had done to her daughter.
And Laura?
Even berserk, even drowning in conditioning—she looked sad.
Like she didn't want to be doing any of it.
Like something inside her was screaming to stop.
Delilah met her eyes for a split second.
"Hold on, kid," she murmured. "You're gonna be okay. You hear me?"
Laura didn't respond.
She only fought harder.
The doors stayed locked.
Rice laughed at the moronic display of trying to save one's would-be assassin, "While X-23 is taking care of them, I should get ready to leave. It's a shame to lose such a toy, but she's proof of concept, and we can just make a new one. This data download is slow."