Barry didn't have time to think as he lunged forward in his werewolf form, claws bared, fangs flashing under the pale moonlight. His target: a hulking, mutated ape named Yamazaki, who was already slamming his fists into the ground hard enough to crack the ground like shattered glass. But before Barry could reach him—POP!
Kai materialized right in front of Barry, eyes wide. "Whoa, whoa—big guy, you almost clotheslined me!" Kai yelped before vanishing in another burst of energy.
Barry barely grunted before resuming his charge, but then—KRRRRRRAAAAAAK!
The sound was like a hundred mirrors shattering at once. Hana, had just screamed at a cluster of alien-looking cocoons that had started to hatch. The cocoons exploded into pieces, sending goo splattering everywhere.
"Ew, ew, ew—Hana!" Seraphina grimaced as she activated her force field, blocking the slimy mess from hitting her silver hair. "You could've warned us before you turned the place into an omelet!"
Rick, standing nearby, simply blinked as goo dripped off his diamond-covered arms. "…I hate this."
Meanwhile, Kevin—a.k.a Inferno—was, predictably, onfire. Literally. Flames engulfed his body as he incinerated any mutant that so much as looked at him wrong. "Just keep burning them!" Barry growled as he finally leapt at Yamazaki.
But before his claws could make contact—"OH COME ON!"
One of the cocoons burst open rightnexttothem, and out flopped a mutant with half-melted skin, blinking its glowing yellow eyes. It let out a half-hearted groan before slipping on the goo and face-planting into the ground.
Then the newborn mutant lifted its head, sniffed the air, and screeched so loud that Barry swore his eardrums would burst. The whole battlefield paused for just a moment.
But then, mutants started swarming. Seraphina threw up force fields to block their attacks, Rick was busy punching things with his diamond fists, Kai kept teleporting away from anything remotely dangerous, and Hana looked deeply uncomfortable as every sound she made kept shattering random things around her.
Barry, still mid-air, barely had time to think before Yamazaki recovered from his confusion and slammed him into the ground. The impact knocked the breath out of him. "Ow," he growled.
Kai popped up next to him. "Okay, so, new plan—"
Barry grabbed him by the collar. "Teleport me above this bastard!"
"…Uh, yeah, I can do that."
Barry plummeted like a meteor, claws outstretched, fangs bared. Yamazaki barely had time to react before CRASH—Barry's full weight slammed into him, driving the monstrous ape backward. The ground beneath them cracked like thin ice, sending debris flying.
Yamazaki let out a deep, guttural laugh as he caught Barry's arm mid-swing. "Oh, look who finally decided to use his head," Yamazaki sneered, effortlessly shoving Barry off him. "Then again, did you ever have one to begin with?"
Barry landed on all fours, growling low. His fur bristled as Yamazaki straightened up, pounding his chest.
"Tell me, Barry, why'd you run away from DravmoraUniversity?" Yamazaki's grin stretched wide, all teeth and arrogance. "Was it because you were toodumb to keep up? Or were you just tooferal to fit in?" He flexed his enormous arms. "See, I found the perfect balance. Brawnandbrain, a true intellectualpowerhouse—I am a doctor, after all."
Barry's eye twitched. He punched Yamazaki straight in the mouth. "Shut up."
Yamazaki barely staggered, spitting out a tooth. Then he grinned wider. "Oh-ho-ho! That all you got, pup?"
Barry answered with a clawed uppercut that sent the ape flying backward.
While both of them keep fighting. Seraphina, Kai, Hana, Rick, and Kevin had problems. Because the moment those newbornmutants finished hatching, they did not waste time being confused babies. No. They were fast.
"OH, COME ON!" Kai shouted, dodging a clawed mutant that tried to slice his throat. He blinked out of the way just in time, reappearing next to Seraphina. "Sera, do the thing!"
Seraphina didn't answer. She was toobusy holding her force field up against a swarm of mutants slamming into it like rabid animals. "Little busy here, Kai!" she snapped.
Nearby, Rick punched one of the mutants so hard its jaw snapped—only for it to regenerate a second later. "…That's not fair," Rick muttered.
Kevin, who was still onfire, was lighting mutants up left and right. "Why are they somany of them?!"
"Why are they sogross?" Hana added, gagging as a mutant with six eyes crawled toward her.
The mutant screeched. Hana screamed back—except, her scream shattered everything. The ground split. Nearby trees exploded. The airitself vibrated with the force.
The six-eyed one's head burst. Kai, who had barely teleported out of range, let out a nervous laugh. "Hana… remind me to never make you mad."
"I hate this," she groaned.
Rick, whose diamond form had cracks in it from the shockwave, sighed. "Can we not do that again?"
Kevin, still burning mutants alive, pointed at Barry and Yamazaki's fight. "We need to end this before thosetwoidiots bring the whole Wyndmoor down!"
Seraphina, still straining against the mutants clawing at her barrier, gritted her teeth. "Then we better move fast."
Then the sky splitopen. Jets—sleek, black, and bristling with weaponry—screamed overhead. The mutants barely had time to react before BAMBAMBAM—automatic fire rained down like a steel storm. And then they dropped.
Heavily armed soldiers, clad in reinforced exo-suits, repelling from the aircraft with eerie precision. Their movements were coordinated, ruthless, efficient—because they weren't just any soldiers. They were Purity Dawn. The infamous anti-mutant extremists.
The battlefield seemed to pause. Even the newborn mutants, driven by instinct and hunger, hesitated as the real monsters arrived.
"Uh…" Kai, still panting, turned to the others. "Are we glad about this? Or—"
BOOM! A Purity Dawn soldier landed right in front of them, visor glowing red. Without hesitation, he raised his rifle—BLAMBLAMBLAM—three clean shots, each one finding a mutant skull. The newborns collapsed, dead before they hit the ground.
Seraphina, still holding up her force field, clenched her fists. "I don't like this."
"No one does," Rick muttered, watching as Purity Dawn tore through the mutants like a well-oiled killing machine.
Kevin, still onfire, narrowed his eyes. "They're not just here for the newborns."
A Purity Dawn commander stepped forward, his armor sleeker, his presence radiating authority. His helmet retracted, revealing a sharp-jawed man with cold, calculating eyes. He looked directly at them. "Stand down, mutants," he ordered, voice like steel. "We'll handle the situation from here."
Seraphina, Kai, Hana, Rick, and Kevin were still locked in battle, fighting off wave after wave of newborn mutants. No matter how many they cut down, more emerged from the darkness, shrieking, clawing, devouring.
Seraphina raised both hands, her silver hair whipping in the wind as she reinforced her force field, slamming it outward like a battering ram. CRACK! Dozens of mutants were flattened against the invisible barrier, bones snapping like brittle twigs.
Kai blinked in and out of reality, teleporting between monsters, his daggers flashing as he carved them apart. Blood sprayed in the air, black and steaming.
Rick's diamond-covered fists met mutant flesh with brutal force, every punch sending shockwaves through the ground. He took a bite to the arm—teeth scraping uselessly against his crystalline skin—before he crushed the creature's skull in response.
Kevin was a living inferno, torrents of fire roaring from his hands as he bathed the battlefield in flame. The scent of burning flesh filled the air, mixing with the howls of the dying.
Hana let out another shattering scream, the sound ripping through the air. A dozen mutants disintegrated on the spot, their bodies crumbling into dust.
Purity Dawn's leader, Commander Adrian Locke, stood amidst the chaos, watching his soldiers execute the mutants with ruthless efficiency. His armor—sleek black plating, adorned with the Purity Dawn insignia—was splattered with mutant blood. His golden eyes burned with cold fury as he observed the battlefield. And then—BOOM!
A shockwave exploded through the ruins. Locke barely had time to react before a massive figure dropped from above, landing with a force that shook the ground. The very air vibrated with power as the ground beneath them cracked apart.
From the dust and debris emerged a figure clad in advanced exo-armor—black as night, lined with pulsating crimson veins of energy. His face, partially hidden behind a steel mask, twisted into a cold, amused smirk.
Colonel Volkov. The mastermind. The shadow pulling the strings. The leader of Echelon Prime, the secret organization responsible for the mutant outbreak. Locke's golden eyes narrowed. "You."
Volkov dusted off his armor as if this—the battlefield, the bloodshed, the war—was nothing more than an inconvenience. "Commander Locke," he mused, "How predictable."
Locke's fingers twitched over his sidearm. "You caused this."
Volkov chuckled. "Guilty."
Then he moved. Like a thunderbolt, Volkov launched forward, his fist—reinforced with kinetic amplifiers—slamming into Locke's chest. The sheer force hurled the Purity Dawn commander acrossthe battlefield, smashing him through a half-collapsed building. The structure collapsed in on itself, dust and debris choking the air. For a moment, silence. Then—From the rubble, a metallic hand punched upward.
A moment later, Locke emerged, his armor cracked but unbroken. His golden eyes burned with raw fury as he wiped blood from his mouth. "You bastard," he growled.
He reached for his belt—click—and activated his Exo-Drive. His suit whirred to life, the damage self-repairing as blue-white energy surged through his limbs.
With a boom, Locke rocketed forward, meetingVolkovhead. Their fists collided. Volkov twisted, catching Locke in the ribs with a brutal knee strike. Locke grunted, but twisted with the blow, locking his arm around Volkov's neck and slamming him into the ground. Volkov laughed as he hit the dirt. "I love this part," he grinned.
His suit's energy spiked, and he exploded upward, sending Locke flying. The Purity Dawn commander barely had time to adjust before Volkov was onhim, a flurry of rapid strikes hammering against his armor.
Locke snarled, flipping mid-air. His bootthrusters flared, shifting his momentum as he lashed out with a spinning kick.
Volkov blocked—but just barely. The impact sent him skidding backward, tearing trenches into the dirt.
Wyndmoor was dying. The streets were a graveyard of fire and ruin. Buildings crumbled under the weight of endless mutant swarms, their monstrous forms tearing through steel and stone like paper. The sky, once clear, was now thick with smoke and the distant screams of the dying.
Seraphina and the others fought with everything they had, but it was a losing battle. Every mutant they killed was replaced by three more. The ground was drenched in blood—some of it theirs, most of it not.
Locke and Volkov's blows sent shockwaves through the battlefield, tearing through debris and bodies alike. Their fight was a storm of metal, fire, and sheer willpower—neither willing to fall, neither willing to yield.
But none of it mattered. Because in the command center miles away.... General Calloway stood over the holographic battlefield display, his expression grim. His uniform was immaculate despite the sweat on his brow. Around him, officers scrambled for solutions, shouting orders that no longer mattered. Because there was only one solution left.
At the far end of the war room, a man leaned against the cold steel table, watching the destruction unfold with a wolfish smirk. Silas Morrigan.
A man of means. A man of control. A man who enjoyed moments like these. He arched an eyebrow at Calloway. "It's bad out there."
Calloway's jaw clenched. His hands curled into fists before he turned to the officer at his side. "Activate Sentinel Protocol."
The room froze. Every officer turned toward him in silent horror. Silas let out a low chuckle. "Well now," he mused, pushing off the table. "You sure about that, General?"
Calloway didn't look at him. His gaze remained fixed on the main screen—on Wyndmoor, on the failure, on the consequences. "Do it," he ordered.
The officer hesitated. Then, slowly, he turned and pressed his palm against the biometric scanner. The screen flashed RED as the system engaged. SENTINEL PROTOCOL ACTIVATED.
A deep hum filled the war room. Metal groaned in unseen places. Gears, long dormant, began to shift.
Silas exhaled through his nose, shaking his head. "And here I thought you'd put up more of a fight."
Calloway finally turned to face him. "How many?"
Silas' smirk widened. "How many what?"
"Howmanyareyousending?"
Silas tilted his head, enjoying the moment. Then he leaned in close, voice dropping to a whisper. "All of them."