The impact shook the doorframe.
Screams.
Raven moved out. Two men on the floor. One still alive. Three behind them.
He fired at the one still standing first. Controlled. Two shots. Switched targets. Three.
The third returned fire.
A bullet struck Raven in the abdomen. The plate caught it. Brutal pain. Raven lost half a step.
He didn’t fall.
He fired.
The other man did.
Another operator appeared from the right. Raven was too close.
He knocked the rifle aside. The man swung. Raven blocked with his forearm.
Immediate response.
Elbow to the face.
The operator tried to grab him. Raven drove the knife beneath his arm, pulled it free, and struck him with the pommel.
The man dropped.
A shot came from the far end.
Raven took cover.
"Cole!"
"Sixty-eight percent!"
"That wasn’t what I was asking."
"I can’t stop it!"
Raven leaned out. Two shots. Back into cover.
"Then find something else."
"Like what?"
"Something that doesn’t kill us."
"Very specific."
"Do your best."
Another man advanced.
Raven dropped the magazine. Fresh one. Hard slap. Bolt. Fire.
The recoil was familiar. Comforting.
Nothing else was.
The sphere began producing a sound. Very low. It wasn’t something Raven could actually hear.
He could feel it.
He watched a nearby light fixture bend.
Not physically.
The image itself seemed to curve.
Cole shouted from inside.
"Eighty-three!"
Raven fired at the last visible operator.
The man dropped behind a doorway.
Silence.
Raven retreated into the laboratory.
"Options."
Cole stared at the screen.
"One."
"Good?"
"No."
"We ran out of good ones."
Cole pointed toward the chamber.
"We can open it."
Raven looked at the black sphere.
"That sounds like the opposite of surviving."
"The overload is using the containment field to accumulate energy. If we open it before collapse, it might discharge."
"Might?"
"Yes."
"And the other possibility?"
Cole looked at the sphere.
"It disintegrates us."
Raven thought.
Resonance: 89%. Outer doors. More men approaching. Gas in the upper levels. Facility sealed. Voss willing to destroy it.
"Open it."
Cole stared at him.
"Are you insane?"
"Probably."
"Raven—"
"Ninety percent."
Cole turned back to the console.
Typed.
MANUAL CONTAINMENT RELEASE
AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED
"I need two credentials."
Raven tossed him the guard’s keycard.
"One."
Cole swiped it.
CLEARANCE INSUFFICIENT
"We need director-level access."
Raven looked toward the camera.
"Voss."
Silence.
"I know you’re listening."
The voice came through.
"I’m not going to help you."
"I wasn’t asking for help."
Raven raised the pistol toward the control panel.
Cole’s eyes widened.
"No."
"What?"
"If you shoot that, we might release the entire containment system at once."
"That’s the objective."
"Controlled release."
"Cole."
92%.
"Do something."
Cole opened a panel beneath the console and reached into the wiring.
Raven turned back toward the door.
A shot tore through the outer glass. Fragments scattered.
Raven returned fire.
95%.
Cole ripped out a module.
The lights flickered.
CONTAINMENT ERROR.
"Now!"
Raven grabbed the emergency lever and pulled.
Nothing.
Again.
The lever gave.
Inside the chamber, massive metal anchors disengaged.
The black sphere changed.
For the first time...
it grew.
Not like an object.
Like a hole.
Air rushed toward it. Papers. Dust. Fragments of glass.
Raven grabbed a railing.
Cole did the same.
"THAT IS NOT A DISCHARGE!"
"I NOTICED!"
The pressure increased.
A table slid across the floor, slammed through the glass, passed through it, and disappeared into the sphere.
Raven watched a chair lift into the air. Then a metal panel. Then one of the bodies from the corridor.
The corpse was dragged several yards.
It disappeared.
No impact.
No sound.
It simply ceased to exist.
Resonance:
98%.
Cole shouted.
"CLOSE THE CONTAINMENT!"
Raven reached for the lever.
Before he could touch it, the speakers crackled.
Voss.
"I’m sorry."
Raven looked up.
A new warning appeared.
EMERGENCY CORE DETONATION ARMED.
Cole went white.
"No."
Raven understood.
"He’s not trying to contain it."
"He wants to destroy it."
"With us inside."
"With everything inside."
A countdown appeared.
00:20
Cole ran toward the console.
"I can cancel it!"
Raven looked at the timer.
Then at the sphere.
"No."
Cole looked at him.
"What?"
Raven grabbed his vest.
"We don’t have time."
"Let go of me!"
Raven dragged Cole toward the chamber.
Cole understood.
"NO!"
"You said things disappear."
"THAT DOESN’T MEAN THEY SURVIVE!"
"We know we don’t survive here."
Cole punched Raven.
Raven took the hit.
Didn’t let go.
"Raven!"
An explosion shook the complex.
The outer door gave way.
More men poured in.
Raven fired one-handed.
One dropped.
Another bullet struck his shoulder.
This one penetrated.
Raven felt the impact first.
Then heat.
Then nothing for a second.
The force spun him.
Cole fell.
Raven raised the rifle.
Empty.
He dropped it.
Pistol.
Fired.
The men advanced.
Raven grabbed Cole.
Cole had been hit in the abdomen.
Blood.
A lot of it.
"Leave me."
"No."
"Now you care?"
Raven looked at him.
"I don’t want Voss deciding who dies."
Cole let out a broken laugh.
The sphere expanded again.
Gravity disappeared.
Raven felt his boots leave the floor.
The entire laboratory began sliding toward the center.
Raven lost the pistol.
Cole lost his grip.
Raven caught his wrist.
The world turned white.
Raven didn’t know how long he fell.
Maybe seconds. Maybe years.
There was no up. No down. No pain.
Then everything came back at once.
His shoulder. His ribs. His abdomen. The metallic taste in his mouth.
He tried to open his eyes.
He wasn’t sure whether they were already open.
Darkness surrounded him.
Not black.
Something worse.
Empty.
Cole was no longer in his hand.
Raven tried to call his name.
No voice came out.
His body was cold.
Too cold.
Breathing became difficult.
Good.
He’d felt that before.
Compromised lung, maybe. Blood loss. Shock. Death.
Nothing particularly new.
What a ridiculous way to retire.
Raven closed his eyes.
Or thought he did.
Then a light appeared.
Blue.
Perfectly defined in the middle of nothing.
Text.
Raven frowned.
"Unknown dimensional exposure detected."
No.
That was definitely new.
Another line.
"Biological entity located."
Raven tried to move one hand.
Nothing.
"Species: Human."
"Host condition: CRITICAL."
"Fatal trauma detected."
"Thanks..."
He wasn’t sure whether he’d actually spoken.
The text continued.
"Original dimensional coordinates lost."
"Searching for compatible environment."
Raven stopped trying to understand.
He had a bullet in his shoulder, another had slammed into his vest, he was probably bleeding internally, and he’d just passed through something capable of bending space.
Hallucinations weren’t exactly the strangest explanation available.
Then:
"Compatible world located."
Raven opened his eyes.
This time, definitely.
He saw nothing.
But he felt something.
A force.
As if his entire body were being pulled through an opening too small to contain it.
Pain.
Bones. Muscle. Nerves.
Every part of him seemed to come apart for an instant.
Raven tried to scream.
He couldn’t.
The words continued appearing.
"Foreign biological laws detected."
"Foreign energy system detected."
"Mana-compatible environment confirmed."
Mana.
Raven almost wanted to laugh.
He couldn’t do that either.
"Host adaptation initiated."
Something entered his body.
Not a needle.
Not a substance.
It was impossible to describe.
Cold first.
Then fire.
Every nerve awakened at once.
Raven could feel the bullet lodged inside his shoulder. He could feel the blood pooling inside him. He could feel tiny tears in his muscles.
Even something he shouldn’t have been able to feel.
His own heart.
Every contraction.
Every failure.
Each beat getting slower.
The interface changed.
"Host psychological profile analyzed."
"Extreme survival adaptation detected."
"Predatory behavioral compatibility detected."
"Dimensional contamination interacting with host biology."
Raven could barely read anymore.
The darkness was closing over his eyes again.
"Unique Authority forming..."
One second.
Two.
Then:
"Unique Authority acquired."
The letters changed.
Larger.
PREDATION
Raven managed to read one final line.
"Consume. Adapt. Evolve."
Then his heart stopped.
And Raven Ashford fell into another world.