Sound came first.
A wall of noise — metal shrieking, alarms dissolving into white static, the low bass of the containment grid choking on its own pulse. The vibrations shook through the floor and climbed his ribs, humming in his teeth until it felt like the noise was inside him. The air itself seemed to shudder, heavy with pressure that made every breath taste of dust and electricity.
Then came the smell: copper and ozone, mixed with something foully organic — like a burned hive or rotten fruit left too long in the sun. Beneath it, a chemical sweetness clung to the back of his throat, coolant vapor turning each inhale sharp and sterile. Heat and cold rolled in alternating waves, colliding across his skin until it felt like the atmosphere was breathing around him.
The tanks were coming apart one after another. Each detonation sent a spray of viscous silver fluid across the floor, splattering the copper veins until they hissed and steamed. The sound of boiling metal filled the air, joined by the faint popping of distant circuitry dying in sequence. The figures inside those tanks staggered out — half-formed, their limbs dragging light trails behind them like after-images that refused to die.
Selene's voice snapped through the chaos, clean and cutting:"Containment Formation Alpha! Do not break alignment!"
But alignment was already gone.
The copper grid flickered underfoot, its light pulsing erratically. The symmetry of the room — walls, lights, tanks — bent inward and outward, the geometry breathing in slow, nauseating motions. The very air vibrated like stretched metal, the hum building until it threatened to tear the room apart.
Kahn moved without thinking. His boots slipped in the coolant. The liquid was slick and cold, clinging to his skin through the soles, smelling faintly of metal polish and blood. His breath came out in short, visible bursts — the temperature dropping without warning, then surging hot again as the grid spasmed.
One of the Aberrants lunged — a tall, translucent thing whose skin rippled like water seen through broken glass. Its body shimmered with faint reflections, every motion accompanied by the sound of cracking ice. Its face was smooth except for the hint of a mouth that never stopped widening.
He ducked. The thing's arm passed over him, cutting a line of pressure through the air that popped his ears. The heat left a ghost-burn on his neck. Every sound dulled except his own heartbeat.
The fragment inside him roared awake.
Heat pulsed up his arm, sharp enough to blister. His skin prickled, his veins stung like threads of molten wire. Vision blurred at the edges — the lights fractured into colors that didn't belong, shades that had no name. Every light source split into two, then three, then none. The room stuttered between frames, as though reality had forgotten how to stay still.
He pressed his palm to the floor. The copper veins flared under his touch — not obediently, but violently, spreading outward like cracks in glass. The hum deepened until it became physical, pressing against his chest. The air around him distorted, bending the light into jagged shapes that shimmered like heat mirages made of knives.
The Aberrant screamed — not a sound but a vibration that rattled teeth and made his tongue taste of iron. Its body twisted in on itself, its perfect form fracturing under the pressure of Kahn's resonance.
The floor buckled. Fluid boiled around his boots, spattering his legs with stinging droplets that reeked of burnt iron. The smell of copper thickened until it was almost sweet.
He felt hands grab his shoulder — Voss, dragging him back, shouting something he couldn't hear. His grip was iron-hard, glove edges cutting into skin. His voice was just wind in the storm. Voss's face was streaked with grime, eyes bloodshot, breath hot with smoke and adrenaline.
"Don't burn it out!" Voss shouted again, the words finally cutting through. "Contain it!"
But the fragment wouldn't contain.It was hungry.
Kahn's veins burned white. He saw the world twist — Selene framed in red light, her fragment blazing around her like liquid fire; the symmetrical recruit across the room, still motionless in the chaos, his aura cold and exact. Sparks rained down from ruptured conduits, popping like insects on a lamp. Each movement he made restored balance for a heartbeat before the room tore it apart again.
Their powers were colliding even without touching.Every time the rival froze an Aberrant mid-motion, Kahn's field cracked it loose again. The rhythm of light between them pulsed out of sync, shattering the floor's pattern, each wave crashing against the other until the copper veins glowed white-hot.
The smell grew unbearable — hot iron, burnt insulation, and blood thick enough to taste. The noise was everywhere, in his lungs, in his skull. The copper under his boots began to melt, the grid screaming in frequencies that made his bones ache.
An Aberrant fell from the ceiling — crawling upside down along a strip of warped gravity. Its body was thin, its limbs too long, moving with insect speed. It hissed in short bursts, soundless but felt through the spine like static crawling over skin.
Kahn turned and let the fragment move.No technique, just instinct.
The air around his arm tore open, a jagged rift of shimmering light. The Aberrant hit it mid-lunge and folded inward, its form breaking into fragments of itself that scattered like glass shards in a whirlpool. For a heartbeat, the world smelled clean again — ozone and cold rain. Then the pressure returned, doubled, crushing the purity back into chaos.
Selene's command echoed:"Grid reset! All suppressors—now!"
The lights overloaded. The sound became light. The air snapped cold, dense as stone, and every living thing in the room dropped at once — not from impact, but from the silence that followed.
Aftermath
When Kahn's eyes opened, the world was blue.
Emergency lights flickered dimly through rising steam, turning the air into slow-moving mist. The smell of coolant mixed with blood — metallic sweetness layered with sterilizer. Each breath burned faintly, like inhaling cold iron.
The copper veins were blackened and cracked, still faintly warm under his palms. The air tasted of dust and ozone.
Selene stood amid the wreckage, her expression unreadable. A thin trail of blood ran from her nose, bright against her pale skin. Her breath came slow and steady, carrying the faint tang of ozone.
Voss was slumped against a console, coughing quietly, coat scorched, the scent of smoke clinging to him like a second skin. His hand trembled on his knee, the glove leather creaking softly.
The symmetrical recruit was still standing — untouched. Not a speck of coolant on him, not a bruise. His reflection in the floor looked sharper than his real body, edges too perfect, as though reality itself preferred the mirrored version.
Selene looked over the room. "Containment restored," she said softly. "Damage classified as structural. Losses…" She paused, eyes flicking toward the broken tanks. "…acceptable."
Kahn tried to rise. His legs trembled; his knees felt filled with sand. Every nerve hummed, faint electric pulses racing under his skin. His cuff was cracked, a thin glowing line running through the metal like a fracture in bone.
The rival stepped closer, voice low, calm as ever. "You're bleeding resonance."
Kahn looked down. He wasn't — but his shadow was.Dark light leaked from it, spreading slowly across the floor like an oil slick, swallowing reflections as it went.
Selene's gaze caught it. For just a second, something like recognition — or fear — flashed across her face. Then it was gone.
"Medical isolation," she said. "Now."
Two containment officers moved in, their suits hissing as seals engaged. The air around them smelled of cold disinfectant and synthetic plastic. The hiss of their filters filled the silence. The scent made Kahn's stomach turn — too clean, too chemical.
Kahn's fragment whispered softly as they led him out, too weak to fight but still awake:The cage is cracking. Don't let them seal it again.
He didn't answer.
The hum of the facility followed him down the corridor — a heartbeat made of electricity and fear. Each step echoed like a countdown.