The scientists worked methodically, treating Specimen 21 and Version 06 like fascinating puzzles to solve rather than people.
One group surrounded Nana's containment table, tablets in hand, running scans and tests while she lay paralyzed.
"Bone structure is remarkable," one scientist murmured, examining x-rays. "Reinforced at the molecular level. No fractures despite multiple high-impact trauma events."
"Blood composition shows enhanced oxygen-carrying capacity," another added, drawing samples. "Red blood cell count three times normal human baseline. Explains the accelerated healing."
"But how is she still *alive*?" A third scientist gestured at the monitor showing Nana's vital signs. "Five gunshot wounds, severe blood loss, aether core depletion... any normal human would be dead. Even most enhanced specimens would have failed by now."
They spoke about her like she wasn't there. Like she couldn't hear every word.
Across the hall, different scientists examined Zayne.
"Version 06 demonstrates remarkable control," one noted, reviewing footage of the ice bridge escape. "The precision required to manifest solid crystalline structures while operating a vehicle at high speed... his tactical intelligence is off the charts."
"Different from Specimen 21's design philosophy," another agreed. "She's built for pure destruction—combat efficiency, overwhelming force, berserker-class enhancement. He's the calmer version. Strategic. Surgical. Designed to think and fight."
"Both specimens are invaluable," the lead scientist concluded. "The memory modification procedure needs to preserve their enhancements while erasing knowledge of the program. We can't afford to damage them."
Inside her paralyzed body, Nana's fury grew.
*Captured again. Examined again. Treated like specimens again.*
And they wanted to erase her memories. Make her forget Avalon, forget the facility, forget the truth about what her parents did.
Make her forget Zayne and have to make him fall in love with her again from scratch.
The third time. The *third fucking time* she'd have to rebuild everything because someone decided her memories were too dangerous to keep.
No.
NO.
Her aether core flared—sudden, violent, angry. The tranquilizer was designed for Specimen 21's normal metabolism, not for the pure rage-fueled overdrive she could achieve when pushed past breaking.
The paralysis cracked.
Nana's fingers twitched. Then moved. Then clenched.
The restraints holding her wrists were reinforced steel, designed for enhanced strength.
She broke them anyway.
Metal shrieked as she ripped her arms free. Sat up. Grabbed the nearest scientist by the throat and *threw* him across the room.
He hit the wall with a sickening crack and crumpled.
"SPECIMEN 21 IS FREE—" someone shouted.
Nana was already moving.
In the adjacent cell, Zayne heard the commotion.
Heard Nana's chains breaking. Heard scientists screaming. Heard the fury in every movement even through the walls.
His ice evol responded to her rage like an echo.
The suppression technology was still active—94% effectiveness, they'd said—but apparently 6% was enough when you were angry enough, desperate enough, done enough with being treated like a weapon instead of a person.
Frost spread from Zayne's hands. Slow at first, then faster. The restraints frosted over, became brittle, shattered.
He sat up, ice coating his arms in sharp crystalline edges, and looked at the scientists backing away in terror.
"You made a mistake," Zayne said quietly. Too quietly. The calm before a storm. "You should have killed us when you had the chance."
Ice exploded outward.
Cameras froze and shattered. Monitoring equipment cracked under sudden temperature drop. The observation window became opaque with frost.
Zayne formed an ice spear and drove it through the door lock. Then another. Then a dozen more, punching through reinforced steel like it was paper.
The door froze solid.
From the hallway, he heard Nana's voice: "ZAYNE!"
"Stand back!"
She kicked the frozen door.
Once.
It exploded inward in a shower of ice fragments.
Nana stood in the hallway, covered in blood—some hers, some the scientists'—eyes glowing fierce green, aether core blazing. Behind her, bodies. Unconscious or dead, Zayne didn't care which.
Their eyes met.
No words needed. Just understanding.
*We're leaving. We're done being specimens. We're done being hunted.*
The facility alarm blared—shrill, endless, screaming.
Zayne shot ice arrows at every camera he could see, blinding the surveillance. Nana kicked open the exit door and they ran.
The people of Bloomshore weren't prepared for what crashed through the checkpoint.
Two figures moving at inhuman speed—bleeding, glowing, eyes wild with rage and desperation. The woman had green luminescent eyes and moved like liquid violence. The man had frost spreading from his hands, freezing everything he touched.
They looked like monsters.
Civilians screamed and scattered.
Soldiers poured from the facility in pursuit, weapons raised, shouting orders that got lost in the chaos.
"STOP! SPECIMEN 21 AND VERSION 06, STAND DOWN!"
Nana didn't stop. Just kept running, dual guns in hand, shooting at soldiers who tried to flank them. Not killing shots—she aimed for legs, for arms, for weapons—but enough to clear their path.
Zayne didn't stop either. Frost forming in thick sheets across the ground, ice barriers blocking pursuit routes. He couldn't fully control it—his anger making the ice evol run wild, freezing *everything* in sight.
Cars froze mid-drive. Windows cracked from sudden temperature shifts. The street became a glacier.
More helicopters appeared overhead, spotlight tracking them through the crowded district.
"CIVILIANS CLEAR THE AREA! ENHANCED HOSTILES IN PURSUIT!"
Hostiles.
Not survivors. Not victims. Hostiles.
The soldiers opened fire—automatic weapons, grenades, everything—and they didn't care that there were civilians everywhere.
A woman screamed as a bullet hit the wall inches from her head. Children dove for cover. Elderly people froze in terror.
The soldiers were shooting in a public area, in a civilian evacuation zone, treating Nana and Zayne like enemy combatants worth any collateral damage.
The watching civilians were *horrified*.
"Why are they shooting them?!"
"What did they do?!"
"Those soldiers are going to hit someone—oh god—"
Nana and Zayne moved like lightning, inhuman speed carrying them between buildings. Nana kept shouting warnings—"GET DOWN!" "MOVE!" "RUN!"—trying to protect civilians even while being hunted.
Zayne's frost grew thicker, more chaotic. He was fully angry now—*furious* at being captured, examined, given impossible choices, hunted through streets where innocent people could die.
The ice spread in massive sheets. Soldiers slipped and fell. Vehicles skidded out of control. Helicopters struggled to maintain position as frost accumulated on their rotors.
More soldiers came from every corner. Dozens. Hundreds.
This wasn't a capture operation anymore. This was a kill order.
And then—
The sky turned orange.
The explosion painted Bloomshore's eastern horizon in fire.
Linkon City—fifty miles away across the water, separated by ocean but visible on clear days—detonated.
Nuclear fire bloomed like a second sun. The mushroom cloud rose in terrible beauty, climbing miles into the sky. The shockwave followed seconds later—BOOM—rattling windows, shaking ground, making everyone freeze in primal terror.
Zayne stopped running.
Pulled Nana into his arms and held her tightly, both of them staring at the destruction.
Linkon was gone.
Every person still trapped there—the skeletal Avalon survivors too weak to evacuate, the civilians hiding in rubble, the soldiers fighting creatures in the streets—all of them vaporized in an instant.
Every creature. Every portal. Every piece of evidence.
Every memory of what the city used to be.
Just... gone.
Nana made a sound like a wounded animal, pressing her face into Zayne's chest. She was bleeding heavily again, gunshot wounds reopened from the escape, but she didn't care. Just cried for the city that had been her home.
For the Hunter Association headquarters where she'd trained. For the cafe where she'd fallen in love. For Akso Hospital where Zayne had worked. For all the normal places that had existed before the government turned everything into a nightmare.
Gone. All gone.
Zayne held her while the mushroom cloud rose higher, while the shockwave faded, while Bloomshore went silent in shock.
The soldiers pursuing them had stopped too. Weapons lowered. Staring at the distant explosion with expressions ranging from horror to grim satisfaction.
They'd done it. The government had actually done it.
Nuked an entire city to hide the evidence.
Captain Marcus Chen stood in the middle of Bloomshore's main street, surrounded by his soldiers, watching Specimen 21 collapse in Version 06's arms.
She was bleeding out. Her aether core's glow was flickering dangerously. The enhanced healing that made her nearly invincible was failing because even weapons had limits.
Version 06 was trying desperately to keep her conscious—talking to her, checking her wounds, looking around frantically for help that wasn't coming.
Because Chen's orders were clear: capture or kill. Eliminate the witnesses. Erase the evidence.
He raised his hand, ready to give the command.
His soldiers raised their weapons, aimed at the two enhanced individuals who'd caused so much chaos.
One word and it would be over. Two more casualties of the Linkon outbreak. The government's secret safe.
Chen looked at Nana and Zayne.
Looked at the desperate doctor trying to save his bleeding girlfriend.
Looked at the enhanced girl who'd been shouting warnings to protect civilians even while being hunted.
Looked at the evidence—living, breathing, suffering evidence—of what the government had done.
Then he looked at his soldiers. Young faces. Good people following orders from monsters.
If the government tried this hard to erase evidence of what happened in Linkon...
What would stop them from doing it again?
What would stop them from turning Bloomshore into the next death realm if it suited their purposes?
What would stop them from treating *anyone* as specimens if the research was valuable enough?
Captain Chen made his choice.
He lowered his hand.
"Stand down," he ordered.
His soldiers looked confused. "Sir?"
"I said *stand down*." Chen's voice was firm. Final. "Lower your weapons. These two are under my protection."
"Captain, our orders—"
"Our orders are *wrong*." Chen stepped forward, moving between his soldiers and the two enhanced individuals. "The government nuked an entire city to hide what they did. Killed thousands of people—*our people*—to erase evidence of illegal human experimentation."
He gestured at Nana and Zayne. "These two survived hell. Survived being turned into weapons against their will. Survived being hunted by the same government that created them. And we're going to what—kill them? So the truth dies with them?"
Silence.
"No," Chen said quietly. "Not today. Today we stop following orders from evil people."
He turned to Nana and Zayne. "You need medical attention. You need safety. You need a chance to tell your story."
Zayne stared at him, ice evol ready, not trusting. "Why?"
"Because someone needs to speak about how evil the government is," Chen said simply. "Someone needs to be witness to what really happened in Linkon. And if we silence you..." He looked at the mushroom cloud still rising in the distance. "...then they win. The truth dies. And nothing stops them from doing this again."
Chen held out his hand. "Let us help you. Please."
For a long moment, Zayne didn't move. Just held Nana protectively, weighing the offer against weeks of betrayal and hunting and being treated like specimens.
Then Nana spoke—weak, pained, but certain: "Trust him."
So Zayne did.
He took Chen's hand.
And for the first time since the facility broke, someone chose to help them instead of hunt them.
Linkon City: destroyed.
Two witnesses: alive.
One choice: speak truth or die silent.
Captain Chen chose truth.
And everything changed.
.
.
.
.
.
To be continued.