The alarms wailed.
Red lights bathed the prison walls in a crimson glow, sirens screaming across the bay.
Shouts erupted from every corridor—guards rallying, prisoners laughing, steel clashing against steel.
Alcatraz had become a battlefield.
“Contain the west wing!” Kane barked, his voice cutting through the chaos like thunder.
“Do not let them breach the armory!”
“Yes, sir!”
Interpol escorts fanned out, weapons raised, engaging rioters that poured from their cells like a flood.
Touya, Rolf, Marcus, and Aira split instinctively, driven by the chaos of the corridors.
The prison swallowed them whole, each path leading to battles they hadn’t expected.
And in the heart of it, shadows whispered.
Zero’s storm had begun.
Rolf sprinted down a dim corridor, hammer gripped tight in both hands, eyes scanning the riot.
Prisoners lunged at him—he slammed one aside, cracked another’s jaw, and kept moving.
Then he froze.
At the end of the hall, shackles dangled broken on the floor.
And standing above them, smiling through the smoke—Sulaiman.
“You again…” Rolf muttered, his hammer tightening in his grip.
Sulaiman rolled his shoulders, veins popping beneath his skin, muscles twitching with raw power.
“I told you… no cage can hold me.
Not chains.
Not men.
Not this prison.”
In a blur, Sulaiman vanished.
Rolf barely raised his hammer in time—BOOM!
The air cracked as Sulaiman’s knee slammed against it, the force rattling his bones.
Rolf skidded backward, boots grinding against the concrete, sparks flying.
“Too slow!” Sulaiman roared, spinning midair.
His leg snapped forward like a whip, crashing into Rolf’s chest and hurling him into a wall.
Blood sprayed from Rolf’s mouth, but he grinned through it.
He slammed his hammer into the ground, feeling the vibrations ripple outward.
Every footstep, every heartbeat, every shift in the air—seismic sense. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
Tom’s voice echoed in his head:
“If your eyes can’t track him, then track the ground itself.
Feel his speed.
Read his movements through the earth.”
Rolf’s eyes narrowed.
“Alright then, Tom.
Let’s try it.”
Sulaiman dashed forward again, his legs a blur, cracking the concrete beneath each step.
Rolf pivoted, hammer swinging with the vibrations—CLANG!
Steel met flesh as he intercepted the strike, knocking Sulaiman back.
“Not bad,” Sulaiman growled.
“But can you keep up?”
He spun, fists flashing like pistons, legs kicking with the speed of a beast.
Each blow cracked the air, ripping chunks from the stone walls.
Rolf blocked, deflected, countered—hammer arcs smashing into fists, into knees, into kicks.
Sparks flew with every collision, the sound like thunder exploding through the halls.
Sulaiman grinned, blood dripping from his lip.
“You’re actually… keeping up!”
Rolf roared, swinging his hammer in a wide arc.
Sulaiman ducked—only to feel the hammer slam into the ground, the quake throwing him off balance.
Rolf lunged, driving the hammer upward into his jaw.
CRACK!
Sulaiman staggered but didn’t fall.
He bellowed, his leg flashing upward in a savage kick that slammed into Rolf’s ribs.
SNAP!
Rolf’s side screamed with pain, but he forced his hammer down, pinning Sulaiman’s leg beneath it.
“Got you!”
Sulaiman snarled, raising his fist—
Rolf’s hammer came crashing down.
BOOOOM!
The ground shook.
Stone shattered.
Sulaiman’s head slammed into the wall, blood spraying.
Breathing ragged, blood dripping from his mouth, Rolf dragged Sulaiman’s massive body by the chains.
Step by agonizing step, he hauled him into the nearest cell.
With trembling hands, he locked the gate.
Then he collapsed against the bars, hammer slipping from his grip.
He sank to the floor, his body bloodied but his spirit unbroken.
“I think…” he coughed, smiling faintly, “I’ll watch you… until this riot’s over.”
In the solitary wing, darkness stirred.
Zero sat calmly on his bed, head tilted slightly as if listening to music only he could hear.
Then, from somewhere down the hall, the sound of Sulaiman’s body being dragged, the slam of a cell door, reached his ears.
He chuckled softly.
Then louder.
Then louder still.
“Hahaha… ahahahahaha!” His laughter echoed through the block, rising into a frenzy.
“You all think you can contain my riot?” Zero’s voice rang out, manic, sharp as knives.
“Without a man who can end me in a single blow—like the Captain who put me here, Tom Bruce… or this prison’s lion, Kane—you’ll always fail!”
His laughter grew unhinged, filling the cellblock like poison.
“Without overwhelming strength, chaos is mine!
I am the storm, the tide, the riot itself!”
Prisoners nearby shivered, some trembling, some smiling with madness.
His words were seeds, and the riot his harvest.
Meanwhile, deeper in the labyrinth of Alcatraz, Touya’s voice echoed through the corridors.
“ZERO!”
His footsteps slammed against the steel floor, his voice bouncing off the walls.
He stalked through the chaos, eyes sharp, his grin wide.
“Where are you hiding?!” Touya roared, fists clenched.
His aura burned like fire in the shadows.
“Show me what kind of monster you really are!”
The prison roared with chaos all around him, but Touya pressed forward.
Toward the storm’s heart.