Cocolia
The holographic monitors lining the walls of the Lab flickered with a chaotic montage of destruction.
On Screen 1, Theresa Apocalypse stood in the center of a burning ring of Titan wreckage, her golden cross acting as an immovable anchor against the tide of Anti-Entropy forces.
Beside her, the fiery blade of Himeko Murata and the kinetic shockwaves of Fu Hua were dismantling Cocolia's elite guard with insulting ease.
On Screen 2, smoke drifted from the floor where Project Bunny had de-materialized. Bronya lay slumped in the arms of the Wind Herrscher before she flew out of the compound.
"Useless," Cocolia spat.
She tapped a key, terminating the feed from the corridor. She didn't need to see the Valkyries crying over their fallen friend.
The emotional theatrics of St. Freya were tedious. Bronya had served her purpose; she had bought time. That was the only metric that mattered.
"Director," a technician called out, his voice cracking with panic. "The intruders have bypassed the security checkpoint. The elevator is ascending. They will reach this floor in less than three minutes."
"Stopping the elevators wouldn't hold them for long, but." Cocolia turned away from the screens. "Three minutes is an eternity if you know how to use it."
She strode across the lab, her heels clicking rhythmically on the pristine white tiles. The room was a hive of frantic activity.
Dozens of researchers in white coats were scrambling to salvage hard drives, secure samples, and wipe servers. The smell of fear was potent, mixing with the sterile scent of ozone.
"Initiate Protocol Exodus," Cocolia commanded. "Scrub the local database. Upload the core files to the cloud and rig the servers to melt."
"What about the intruders?" the technician asked.
Cocolia stopped at the central console. She typed a sequence of commands with practiced speed.
A heavy, mechanical thud echoed from the heavy containment bay adjacent to the hangar.
"The Valkyries think they have won because they defeated a child," Cocolia said, a cruel smile touching her lips. "Let us see how they handle something closest to a god."
She pressed the execute key.
[PROJECT NIDHOGG: DEPLOYED]
"Send the prototype to the elevator lobby," she ordered. "Intercept them the moment the doors open. Do not hold back. Test its limits."
"Understood. Nidhogg is active."
With the distraction set, Cocolia turned her attention to the center of the room.
There, suspended in a massive, reinforced transport pod, was her prize.
Kenji Aoyama floated in the murky green fluid, his body relaxed, his red eyes closed behind the breathing mask.
The corrosive feed tubes were still connected to his neck, pumping the purple serum into his veins to keep his regeneration factor occupied, preventing him from waking up.
Or so she hoped.
"Move him," Cocolia barked at the team of six researchers huddled around the pod's base. "Get him to the secondary loading dock. My personal dropship is prepped for takeoff."
"Yes, Director!" The lead researcher nodded, reaching for the automated transport controls. "Engaging rail system..."
ZZZRRRT.
The lights in the lab flickered violently. The hum of the magnetic rails died with a descending whine, replaced by the harsh buzz of the emergency backup generators.
The pod didn't move.
"Report!" Cocolia snapped.
"Power failure in the lower sectors!" the technician yelled. "The Valkyries... they destroyed the main generator in the atrium! The automated rails are offline!"
The lead researcher looked at Cocolia, his face pale. "Director, the pod weighs over two tons with the fluid and the shielding. Without the mag-levs, we can't—"
"You have hands, don't you?"
Cocolia walked over to the man. She didn't raise her voice. She didn't scream. She simply looked at him with the cold, reptilian gaze of a predator deciding which part of the prey to eat first.
"The wheels are manual. Release the brakes. Push it."
"But... the hallway to the loading dock isn't reinforced for this kind of weight," the researcher stammered, looking at the massive tank. "And the vibrations... if the corrosive feed is disrupted, the subject could wake up. It's too dangerous!"
Cocolia pulled a pistol from her lab coat and pointed it directly at the man's forehead.
"The Valkyries are coming up that elevator," she said softly. "Project Nidhogg will slow them down, but it won't stop them. If they find you here, they will arrest you. If you stay here, you will die."
She clicked the safety off.
"But if you don't start pushing this pod right now, you won't live long enough to see them arrive."
The researcher swallowed hard. He looked at the gun, then at the monstrous boy floating in the tank.
"Release the brakes!" he screamed at his team. "Push! PUSH!"
The scientists scrambled, terrified. With a groan of metal on metal, the heavy wheels of the transport pod unlocked. The men strained, digging their heels into the floor, grunting with exertion as they slowly, painfully began to roll the massive tank toward the rear exit.
Cocolia watched them go, holstering her weapon.
She adjusted her coat, checking her datapad one last time to ensure the encryption on her files was complete.
She turned and walked briskly toward the private executive corridor that led directly to the helipad. She wouldn't help them push. She was the Director. Her job was to survive and rebuild.
She paused at the door, glancing back one last time at the receding pod. The green light from the tank cast long, eerie shadows against the walls.
"Don't disappoint me, Subject Zero," she whispered. "You are the key to everything."
She stepped through the door, sealing it behind her.
She left them alone in the dark. The researchers, the prototype, and the monster.
She didn't know it yet, but she had just locked them in a cage with a beast that was very, very hungry.
/ — /
Zero
Inside the reinforced glass of the transport pod, Zero floated in a state of semi-weightlessness. The breathing mask clamped over his nose and mouth hissed, feeding him oxygen, while the heavy needles buried in his neck continued their work.
The corrosive serum pumped into his veins, eating away at his cells, dissolving tissue as fast as his body could knit it back together. It was a cycle of agony that would have driven Kenji insane within hours.
But Zero wasn't Kenji.
Zero found the pain... boring.
He opened his eyes. Through the thick glass, he could see the distorted shapes of the researchers.
They were straining, their faces red with exertion, as they pushed the multi-ton pod down the industrial corridor.
"Heave!" one of them shouted, his voice muffled by the liquid and the glass. "Keep it moving! The loading dock is just past Section 9!"
"It's too heavy!" another complained, slipping on the smooth floor. "Why did she make the shielding so thick?"
Zero watched them struggle with detached amusement. They looked like ants trying to move a boulder.
He flexed his fingers. He could feel the power coiling in his chest, waiting to be unleashed. He had suppressed it earlier to deal with Kenji, but now? Now, the leash was off.
And he wasn't the only one who knew it.
Before the "Pink One" had strangled his connection, Zero had sent out a pulse. A beacon. It wasn't a command. He wasn't a normal Herrscher who bent the Honkai to his will.
He was an anomaly—one with a very particular signal.
Thump.
The transport pod's wheels didn't cause the vibration that traveled through the floor. It was deeper. Heavier.
The researchers stopped pushing.
"Did you feel that?" the lead scientist asked, looking around nervously. "Is that the prototype? Did Cocolia deploy Nidhogg already?"
"No," another whispered, staring at the wall to their left. "That didn't come from the lobby's direction. That came from... outside?"
THUMP.
Dust rained down from the ceiling tiles. The reinforced concrete wall of the corridor—three feet of solid bunker-grade material—groaned.
A spiderweb crack appeared in the center of the masonry, spreading outward with a sound like a gunshot.
Zero smiled behind his mask.
'Finally,'
The researchers began to back away, realizing too late that they were standing on a fault line.
"What is that?" one screamed, drawing a sidearm. "What's in the walls?!"
CRASH.
The wall exploded.
Debris, rebar, and chunks of concrete blasted across the hallway, knocking two of the scientists off their feet. A cloud of choking gray dust filled the air, obscuring vision.
But the roar that followed shook the very bones of the facility.
GRAAAAAAWR!
From the hole in the wall, a nightmare emerged. It was a Chariot-class Honkai Beast.
How did it get up to the 42nd floor? Zero had no idea.
It was at least ten feet tall, scraping the ceiling of the corridor.
"Honkai Beasts!" the lead researcher shrieked, scrambling backward on his hands and knees. "How?! The perimeter shields are active! How did it get inside?!"
The Chariot didn't pay the screaming man any attention.
Its singular, glowing eye locked instantly onto the transport pod.
It ignored the humans. It ignored the guns they were frantically firing, the bullets pinging harmlessly off its armored shell.
A primal, starving hunger drove it. It sensed the dense, chaotic concentration of Honkai energy floating inside that green tank.
It sensed a feast.
Zero floated in the tank, looking directly at the monster. A wide maniacal grin was embedded on his face.
'Hungry?' Zero's thought echoed in the silence of his own mind. 'Come and get it!'
The Chariot roared again, a sound of pure gluttony. It raised one of its massive, floating fists.
"Kill it before it breaks the pod!!!" the scientist yelled, opening fire.
The Chariots fist slammed into the side of the transport pod. The reinforced glass, designed to withstand high-caliber rounds and explosions, didn't stand a chance. It shattered instantly.
Thousands of gallons of green suspension fluid erupted into the hallway, washing over the floor like a tidal wave. The researchers were swept off their feet, tumbling in the slick chemical flood.
Zero was thrown from the tank.
He hit the wet metal floor hard, sliding through the glass shards and the slime. The impact jarred his bones, but he barely felt it.
The tubes in his neck ripped free with a wet tear, spraying a final jet of purple corrosive agent before dangling uselessly from the broken machinery above.
Zero lay on his hands and knees, coughing up the oxygen liquid from his lungs. He gasped, sucking in the first breath of real, unfiltered air he had tasted in days.
Steam began to hiss from his skin.
Without the constant flow of the poison, his regeneration factor kicked into overdrive.
The holes in his neck closed in seconds. The bruises from the fall faded. The lethargy vanished, replaced by a burning, electric vitality.
He wiped the slime from his eyes and looked up.
The Chariot hovered over him, its shadow casting him into darkness. It raised both fists this time, preparing to crush the tiny, energy-rich morsel into paste and consume the residue.
Behind it, through the hole in the wall, more shapes were moving—hordes of Honkai Beasts, all drawn by the scent of the False Origin.
The scientists were cowering against the far wall, praying the monsters would be satisfied with the boy.
Zero stood up. He rolled his neck, feeling the vertebrae pop. He looked at the massive fist hovering above him, ready to drop.
"Finally," Zero whispered, his voice raspy but dripping with malice. "I was getting cramped in there."
The Chariot's fist descended as he finished his sentence.
It was a blow meant to pulverize steel, a strike driven by the singular, mindless hunger of the Honkai.
The air pressure alone cracked the floor tiles beneath Zero's feet before the limb even made contact. The researchers screamed, shielding their eyes, waiting for the wet crunch of the boy being reduced to paste.
The facility shook. Dust billowed outward in a choking ring.
But there was no crunch.
As the dust settled, a gasp of collective disbelief rose from the scientists huddled against the wall.
Zero stood exactly where he had been. He hadn't dodged. He had simply raised his right hand.
The massive, armored fist of the Chariot was stopped dead in Zero's open palm.
The ground beneath Zero had cratered, buckling into a spiderweb of fractured concrete, but his arm didn't tremble. He held the beast's weight with a terrifying ease.
Zero looked up at the monster. His eyes weren't glowing with the thrill of battle; they were burning with a cold, simmering irritation.
"You served your purpose." Zero growled, his voice rough from disuse.
He squeezed.
CRUNCH.
The Chariot roared in confusion as its carapace began to fracture under the pressure of the boy's grip. Zero didn't let go. He dug his fingers into the white armor, finding the purchase he needed.
With a snarl of exertion, Zero pivoted his hips and pulled.
There was a sickening, tearing sound as Zero tore the Chariot's floating arm cleanly out. The Chariot shrieked, off-balance and mutilated.
Zero paid no mind to its screams. He spun, gripping the severed, massive arm by the wrist like a baseball bat.
"Die."
His swing collided with the Chariot's main body, shattering the white plating and caving in its central core.
The beast was launched backward, crashing into the swarm of Seraphs that were trying to squeeze through the hole in the wall.
Zero dropped the arm. It hit the floor with a heavy metallic clang as it began to dissipate.
He took a deep breath.
The pink Honkai Energy leaking from the dying Chariot suddenly stopped disappearing. It drifted toward him.
It swirled around his body, drawn by the vacuum of the False Origin.
The energy rushed into his pores, flooding his starving cells. The last of the acid burns on his neck vanished. His muscles swelled slightly, the atrophy from the tank was erased in a heartbeat.
"Ah~ That hit the spot!" Zero hissed.
The swarm of Seraphs and a Templar rushed through the hole in the wall. They screeched, their instincts overriding their fear, and charged him en masse.
Zero grinned as he saw more meals approach him.
A Templar slashed at him with its lance. Zero stepped inside the guard, ignoring the blade that bounced off his shoulder, and punched his fist straight through the beast's chest.
He punched through its body in one swift movement, absorbing the burst of energy before the body even hit the ground.
Seraphs swooped down. Zero caught it by the wing, swung it around, and slammed it into the floor so hard the concrete liquefied.
He stomped on its head, silencing its screech with a brutal thud.
It didn't take him long to deal with the rest of the pitiful horde.
Within a minute, it was over.
The hallway was a graveyard of white carapace and dissolving pink corpses. Zero stood in the center of the carnage, his body wreathed in the faint, red aura of One For All.
He was covered in the glowing ichor of the Honkai. He wiped his face, smearing the blood, and turned slowly.
Slowly, he turned his head to the six researchers.
The six researchers were still there. They were pressed against the far blast door, shivering, their eyes wide with a terror.
They knew, with sinking dread, that the beasts were the lucky ones.
Zero walked toward them.
His footsteps were wet, squelching in the mixture of green suspension fluid and monster blood.
"Stay back!" the lead researcher screamed, raising his pistol with trembling hands. "Don't come any closer! I'll shoot! I swear to god, I'll shoot!"
Zero didn't stop. He didn't even look at the gun. He looked at the man's face.
He remembered that face.
Through the haze of the tank, through the agony of the drugs, he remembered this man. This was the one who had taken notes while Cocolia increased the voltage.
This was the one who had adjusted the flow of the corrosive agent when Kenji's healing factor fought back too hard.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
The bullets hit Zero's chest. They flattened against his skin and fell to the floor, useless against his body's recovered power.
Zero reached the man.
He didn't strike him. He simply reached out and grabbed the gun's barrel. The metal heated up instantly, glowing red, then white.
The researcher screamed, dropping the weapon as it melted into slag in his hand.
"You…" Zero whispered.
"Please!" the researcher begged, falling to his knees. Tears streamed down his face, mixing with snot. "I was just following orders! Cocolia—she made us do it! She would have killed us if we stopped!"
"You think I care?" Zero asked, his voice devoid of pity.
He grabbed the man by the hair, forcing him to look up.
"You cut me open," Zero hissed, his red eyes boring into the man's soul. "You pumped poison into my veins. You watched my body destroy itself, and you wrote it down on your little clipboard."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Zero tilted his head, his expression not giving any clue as to what he was thinking. "You wanted to see how much I could take," Zero said, tightening his grip. "You wanted data."
He lifted his other hand, clenching it into a fist. The red lightning crackled around his knuckles.
"Here is your data."
Zero didn't drag it out. He wasn't Cocolia.
CRACK.
The researcher's head turned to red mist, blood splattering all over the walls. The man's headless body went limp instantly, his pleas silenced forever.
The other five scientists screamed, scrambling over one another to reach the door, pounding on the locked controls.
Zero stood over the body. He looked at his hand, then at the dead man.
He looked at the others and scoffed at their cowering forms. He didn't want to spend any more time looking at them than he had to.
He pooled his power into his right arm and swiped it across the room. The scientists' screams were cut short as their bodies were thrown into the walls from the shockwave.
The room shook from the immense power, and the scientists' bodies turned into nothing but paste that smeared across the walls.
Zero stood in the middle of it all, a disgusted look on his face. "Ugh, I got some of that in my eyes."
He shook his body with OFA activated and instantly threw most of the blood off his body. Sighing at his now cleaner state, even if his battlesuit was still drenched in it.
He walked over to the hole in the wall where the Chariot had entered. He could feel the fresh air coming from the outside.
He could feel the elevator ascending in the Central Spire, its vibrations vibrating through the floor.
He could feel Kiana and Mei getting closer.
"Kiana. Mei," Zero murmured, testing the names on his tongue.
His expression softened, though just a fraction.
He cracked his neck again, the red lightning flaring around his body as he stepped back, choosing to explore the facility further.
"I'll judge you two later. There's something else that's far more interesting."