Before I could even outline a tactical plan, the academy’s emergency sirens let out an ear-splitting shriek, reeking instantly of scorched dust and melting circuitry. Crimson lights strobed wildly beneath the door crack, throwing bloody shadows across the stone, and heavy steel blast doors slammed down with a teeth-rattling CLANG that vibrated straight through the soles of my boots.
The academy wasn't locking down to protect the students. They’d just realized the lab rats had chewed through the wire, stolen the cage keys, and were actively seeking revenge.
I locked eyes with my alternate self. “Which way?”
A slow, feral grin spread across her face, her shoulders relaxing into a terrifying, bloodthirsty posture. “Administrative wing.”
“You're not even going to pretend we're innocent debutantes?” I asked, scoffing with a dry, amused smirk.
“Honey, I was a contract killer before I ever wore a corset,” she purred, swishing her silk skirts with arrogant flair as she strode up to the door like she owned the joint. “And I'm definitely not starting now.”
We burst into the security corridor, hit instantly by the acrid stench of ozone and cordite, just as the cavalry arrived. Four elite campus goons dropped straight down from the catwalk, the leather of their tactical boots squealing against the tile as high-grade mag-rifles snapped toward our faces.
Rookie mistake.
I moved instantly. The first guard squeezed his trigger, a searing blue plasma bolt singing my eyebrows and leaving the metallic taste of burnt hair on my tongue. I didn't dodge—I folded space. Pop. One step bridged twenty feet of hallway, landing me straight in his personal space. I viciously slammed my elbow into his throat with a sickening CRACK, sending his night-vision goggles flying while he clawed frantically at his neck in sheer panic.
I snatched his falling rifle, spun, and shot the second guard’s weapon battery point-blank. It detonated with a deafening BOOM, launching him backward down the hall like a cartoon stuntman amidst a cloud of hot, blinding smoke.
Across the corridor, the other Tiara was a human blender. She hit the wall, spring-boarded off it with lethal grace, and drove both heels into the third guard's sternum with a dull, heavy thud, launching him clean over the balcony railing. He let out a pathetic, fading shriek all the way down. Ten out of ten for form.
The fourth guard panicked, his eyes wide with hysterical terror as he frantically aimed his sidearm at my chest, his leather gloves squeaking with sweat.
I raised my hand, silver energy swirling around my fingertips with a high-pitched, electric hum, and flicked my wrist. Bio-override.
The guard's trigger finger instantly seized up in a hyper-accelerated muscle spasm. He shrieked like a kicked puppy, doubling over in agony as his hand cramped so violently his bones popped and his pistol clattered uselessly to the floor.
I savagely grabbed him by his tactical vest, smelling his cheap cologne mixed with cold fear-sweat, and slammed him against the stone wall. “Where is the headmaster, pencil-pusher?”
He stared at me, shaking violently in absolute humiliation and dread, trembling like a wet chihuahua. “You... you freaks are monsters!”
“Wrong,” I whispered, pressing my glowing hand against his arm with a cold, sadistic sneer until the skin seared hot and his cells threatened to turn into soup. “We’re apex predators.”
The other Tiara casually strolled up, smelling faintly of ozone and crushed roses, brushing a stray speck of dust off her high-fashion sleeves with utter condescension. “And you chumps made the catastrophic error of locking us in with our dinner.”
Suddenly, deep beneath the academy, something colossal and ungodly answered the sirens with a bass-heavy, guttural roar that vibrated straight through our teeth, popping three ceiling tiles and shaking plaster dust into our hair.
I looked down the smoke-filled corridor toward the administrative wing. The headmaster was likely filling his pants, the board of trustees was probably burning documents in a frenzy, and whatever eldritch horror they kept in the basement was about to crash the party.
I flashed a razor-sharp smile, my pulse hammering with pure adrenaline. “Well. Shall we go say hello?”
The other Tiara cracked her knuckles, the sharp snap-snap echoing as a dark, ecstatic thrill sparkled in her ruby eyes. “After you, partner.”
We marched straight toward the heart of the facility while the alarms screamed our praises. They thought they were the hunters.
Too bad for them, the season just opened.