The heavy iron door glowed bright orange.
The metal literally bubbled.
Emma grabbed Noah’s arm and pulled him toward the back sterilization room.
Noah dragged Jax along the sterile tiles.
They needed the escape tunnel.
Quinn didn’t follow them.
She stood ten feet away from the melting entrance.
Her dark eyes were locked on the bubbling metal.
“Quinn.” Noah yelled over the loud hiss of the melting iron.
“Don’t be a hero.
They have energy weapons.”
Quinn cracked her bare knuckles.
“I’m not a hero Noah.
I’m hungry.”
[System Warning: Apex Trailblazer Squad (Rank 5) breaching.]
[Evolution Catalyst detected.]
The center of the iron door finally gave way.
The molten metal collapsed inward and splattered onto the concrete floor like liquid lava.
The heat hit Quinn’s face like an open oven.
A heavy combat boot kicked the remaining iron completely off its hinges.
The massive door crashed to the floor.
Three figures stepped through the thick smoke.
They wore pristine white tactical armor.
It didn’t look like human fabric.
It looked like overlapping scales of white ceramic.
The tall blonde girl walked in first.
Her hair was tied in a perfectly tight braid.
Her eyes were completely cold.
She held the massive purple sniper rifle casually in her right hand.
The barrel hummed with a dangerous high-pitched whine.
Behind her stood two massive guys.
Twins.
They were identical mountains of muscle wearing the same white ceramic armor.
They held thick riot shields that glowed with a faint blue energy field.
The blonde girl stepped over the molten iron.
She looked around the cheap underground clinic.
She saw Quinn standing alone in the center of the room.
“Target acquired,” the blonde girl said softly into a comms unit on her wrist.
“Prime Core located.
Engaging.”
She didn’t waste a single second.
She raised the purple sniper rifle and pulled the trigger.
A bolt of pure purple plasma shot across the room.
It was faster than a bullet.
It smelled like burnt ozone and copper.
Quinn activated Shadow Step.
The world went pitch black.
The vacuum sucked her through the air.
“Whoosh.”
The purple plasma bolt missed her chest by an inch.
It hit the concrete wall behind her and exploded.
A massive chunk of the wall vaporized instantly.
Quinn teleported directly to the left of the blonde sniper. This story is hosted at g.com.
She planted her sneakers on the floor and threw a brutal hook punch right into the girl’s jaw.
“Clang.”
Quinn’s knuckles smashed into an invisible wall of blue light.
A kinetic energy shield.
The blonde girl’s white armor projected a forcefield.
The impact sent a painful shockwave right back into Quinn’s arm.
Her bones rattled violently.
The blonde girl smirked.
She didn’t even flinch.
“Did nobody teach you how to fight a Trailblazer street rat.” The blonde girl swung the heavy stock of her rifle like a baseball bat.
The hard ceramic slammed into Quinn’s ribs.
Quinn flew backward and crashed into a metal surgical table.
Surgical tools scattered across the floor in a loud clattering mess.
[HP: 28/355]
[Warning.
Kinetic shields detected.
Blunt force attacks nullified.]
Quinn gasped for air.
She rolled off the table.
The Alchemical Stim Emma gave her pumped warm healing energy into her chest but it was slow.
Too slow.
The two identical twins stepped forward.
They raised their glowing blue riot shields.
They formed a solid wall of energy to protect the sniper.
“Crush her,” the blonde girl ordered.
The twins charged forward like a pair of rhinos.
Their boots shook the clinic floor.
Quinn wiped a drop of blood from her lip.
Blunt force attacks wouldn’t work.
She needed precision.
She needed to bypass the shields completely.
She activated Adrenaline Rush.
The terrifying red aura exploded around her body.
Her speed and strength spiked by fifty percent.
The pain in her ribs vanished.
She ran straight at the wall of blue shields.
At the very last second she dropped to her knees and slid across the smooth floor tiles.
She slid directly under the bottom edge of the glowing shields.
She popped up right between the two giant twins.
They roared in surprise and tried to crush her between their shields.
Quinn didn’t punch them.
She extended two fingers on both of her hands.
[Skill Activated: Viper Strike (Lv.
1)]
She drove her fingers precisely into the small gaps of their white ceramic armor.
Right under their armpits where the armor plates met.
She hit the major nerve clusters perfectly.
The System energy surged from her fingertips like liquid lightning.
It completely bypassed their kinetic shields because it wasn’t a blunt attack.
It was a targeted biological strike.
Both twins went completely rigid.
Their eyes rolled back into their heads.
Their massive bodies locked up entirely.
They fell to the clinic floor like heavy statues.
“What.” The blonde girl gasped.
Her perfect arrogant composure broke for a split second.
Quinn stood over one of the paralyzed twins.
She looked down at him.
The bio-chip was glowing a faint blue light right under the skin of his neck.
[Evolution Catalyst isolated.]
[Extract Core to survive.]
Quinn’s hands were shaking.
She had broken bones.
She had paralyzed men.
But she had never done this before.
The System wasn’t asking.
It was commanding.
The crimson text burned in her vision.
Quinn dropped to one knee.
She pressed her hand against the twin’s thick neck right over the glowing blue light.
She closed her eyes.
She focused the raw terrifying energy of the Trailblazer class into her palm.
“Pull,” Quinn whispered.
The System responded violently.
A sickening tearing sound echoed in the room.
The twin didn’t scream because his vocal cords were paralyzed.
But his body spasmed wildly.
A solid sphere of glowing blue energy ripped itself straight out of his neck.
It passed right through his skin like a ghost.
Quinn held the glowing blue sphere in her hand.
It pulsed like a living heart.
It was warm and hummed with immense digital power.
[Rank 3 Core Extracted.]
[Consume to finalize Evolution.]
The paralyzed twin on the floor stopped spasming.
His skin turned completely pale.
The System abandoned him.
Quinn stared at the glowing blue core in her hand.
She just had to crush it to absorb the power.
A high-pitched whine filled the room.
Quinn looked up.
The blonde girl wasn’t aiming her purple sniper rifle at Quinn anymore.
She was aiming it directly at the heavy metal door of the sterilization room.
The door where Emma Noah and Jax were hiding.
“Drop the core street rat.” The blonde girl’s voice was shaking with pure rage.
Her finger curled around the glowing trigger.
“Drop it right now or I will vaporize your little friends behind that door.”
The purple plasma built up in the barrel.
It glowed blindingly bright.
Quinn froze.
Her hand closed tightly around the glowing blue core.
If she dropped it she died.
If she kept it Emma and Noah died.
The timer in her vision blinked blood red.
The first Core has been extracted!
But the sniper is aiming right at her found family.