HYDRA-07 FACILITY – SUBLEVEL ZERO – NIGHT
The structure does not look like a base.
It looks like a mistake the world forgot to erase.
Concrete fused with alloy. Old industrial bones reinforced with something newer, darker.
No insignia.
No banners.
Only silence layered over hostile intent.
A blue pulse flickers briefly along a ventilation seam.
Then—
JAXON STEEL drops inside.
He lands without sound.
The Neuro-Link beneath his skin hums low, controlled—blue light tracing faint circuitry along his forearm, syncing with his breathing.
In his ear, a whisper.
[SUSAN THOMAS ](comms,):You're inside the exclusion shell. No alarms yet. Hydra's running passive observation.
Jaxon moves.
Fluid. Precise.
He disables guards without breaking stride—nerve taps, redirected momentum, pressure applied exactly where needed. He isn't fighting.
He's passing through.
JAXON STEEL (low):They want me deep.
A pause.
SUSAN:Yes. And they think I don't see their blind spots.
Data streams flicker across her private console—unlogged, off-network.
She is breaking protocol.
For him.
HYDRA-07 – CORE CHAMBER
The room opens like a cathedral built for machines.
At its center—
AGENT MARCO LOPEZ.
Standing.
Unchained.
Awake.
His posture is wrong—too still, too balanced. His right arm glows with crimson Neuro-Link circuitry, jagged and aggressive, crawling up his veins like a living infection.
His eyes—
Red.
Not rage.
Control.
Hydra control.
Jaxon stops.
Everything else falls away.
JAXON: …Marco.
Lopez turns his head slowly.
Not recognition.
Target acquisition.
LOPEZ (voice flat, reinforced):Primary anomaly detected.
The words cut deeper than any weapon.
Susan's voice tightens.
SUSAN: Jaxon—listen to me. His Neuro-Link architecture is rewritten. They didn't overwrite him… they reframed him.
Lopez steps forward.
The floor cracks under his foot.
He moves—
And he's already there.
The first strike sends Jaxon through a reinforced pillar.
Concrete explodes.
Steel bends.
Jaxon hits the ground hard, rolling, barely getting his guard up as Lopez appears above him and drives a knee down with superhuman force.
Blue sparks clash with red.
The air screams.
Lopez's fighting style is not emotional.
It is algorithmic.
Every movement is optimized:
No wasted motion
No hesitation
Every strike layered with predictive correction
Hydra is fighting through him.
Jaxon blocks, redirects, absorbs—but he does not counter.
Not fully.
He can't.
JAXON (strained):Marco—look at me! It's me!
Lopez grabs him mid-sentence and throws him across the chamber.
Jaxon slams into a wall, blue light flickering unstable for the first time.
Lopez advances.
Relentless.
Susan's voice fractures.
SUSAN: He's in active override, Jaxon. His optic feed is locked to threat parameters. He can't hear you—
Jaxon rises anyway.
Blood at the corner of his mouth.
Still talking.
JAXON: You carried me out of Nexus City when my Link almost burned me alive. You remember that?
Lopez hesitates.
One microsecond.
Enough.
His eyes flare brighter red.
Hydra tightens the leash.
Lopez attacks again—harder.
Faster.
Stronger.
He breaks Jaxon's defense, drives him down, pins him by the throat.
The floor caves beneath them.
Red light floods the chamber.
Lopez's grip tightens.
LOPEZ (distorted):Anomaly—termination authorized.
Susan shouts—
SUSAN: JAXON!
At the last second—
Jaxon moves.
Not with strategy.
With instinct.
He drives an unexpected jaw punch, raw and uncalculated.
Blue explodes.
Lopez is launched across the chamber, skidding through debris.
For a moment—
Silence.
Jaxon staggers back, gasping.
Then—
Slow clapping echoes.
Two figures emerge from elevated platforms.
Not guards.
Not soldiers.
Weapons given form.
RAVENSTRIKE — tall, armored,Red Neuro-Link glowing , carrying a long-range pulse rifle already charging.
SHARDEYE — lean, angular, optic implants glowing sharp red, twin energy blades forming along his forearms.
RAVENSTRIKE:Subject Steel has exceeded tolerance thresholds.
SHARDEYE:Let's see how the blue one bleeds.
Lopez rises behind them.
Silent.
Awaiting command.
Susan's voice is ice now.
SUSAN:Three signatures. Enhanced. Jaxon—this is a kill box.
Jaxon wipes blood from his mouth.
Blue light stabilizes.
His stance changes.
No more restraint.
JAXON:Then let's rewrite the math.
Ravenstrike fires.
The shot bends mid-air—Neuro-Link guided.
Jaxon vanishes.
Appears behind Shardeye.
Blue and red collide in a violent blur.
Shardeye's blades scrape across Jaxon's ribs, drawing sparks and blood.
Jaxon counters with a kinetic burst that sends Shardeye crashing into a wall.
Ravenstrike adjusts, firing again—predictive shots boxing Jaxon in.
Lopez joins the fight.
Red and blue crash together again—this time with no words.
Pure power.
Susan feeds Jaxon micro-timing windows, blind spots Hydra didn't account for.
She is everywhere.
He is surviving.
Barely.
The chamber becomes chaos—energy tearing through steel, debris suspended mid-air by opposing force fields.
Jaxon takes hit after hit.
Still standing.
Still fighting.
Still refusing to kill Lopez.
Finally—
Hydra alarms scream.
Not danger.
Extraction.
Ravenstrike disengages.
Shardeye pulls Lopez back.
RAVENSTRIKE:Data acquired. Prototype confirmed.
Lopez looks at Jaxon one last time.
For half a second—
The red flickers.
Then he's gone.
Jaxon drops to one knee.
Blue light dim.
Susan exhales for the first time in minutes.
SUSAN:You're alive.
Jaxon looks at the empty space where Lopez stood.
JAXON:Not all of us.
The facility begins to self-seal.
Far away—
Hydra watches the data stream.
And smiles.
TO BE CONTINUED