Agent Steve stepped out of the cage with a slow, unsettling smile curling across his face.
"Hello, baby boy," he murmured, voice hollow and hypnotized.
He walked straight toward Agent Mike.
Mike frowned. "Dude… are you okay?"
"Yeah," Steve replied calmly. "How are you doing?"
Before Mike could process the odd behavior,
CRACK!
Steve's kick slammed across Mike's face, knocking him flat and tearing the inside of his mouth.
"Ah!"
The arena erupted in chaotic cheers.
Steve approached and lifted Mike by the arm, pulling him close as if for a hug.
Only to drive a brutal knee into Mike's stomach.
Mike collapsed again, gasping in agony.
"In pain," he rasped. "Dude… this isn't you."
Steve crouched beside him.
"Oh, but this is you," he whispered. "You came into the mission team with nothing. And I brought you up."
He extended his hand.
Mike stared at it.
"Yeah… I appreciate that from you." His voice hardened. "But I ain't that guy anymore."
With a sudden yank, Mike dragged Steve downward, forcing his head low enough.
THUD!
Mike slammed his knee into Steve's face. Steve staggered back, head bent with the impact.
"Hmmm!" Steve hissed.
"You trained me," Mike said coldly. "Now I'm gonna make good of that."
He grabbed Steve by the ears...
And froze.
Steve was smiling through the blood dripping from his mouth.
"You're going above the ground," Steve smirked. "Back to the ground."
He slapped Mike's hands away, seized his arm, and hurled him upward with monstrous strength.
The creatures roared wildly as Mike crashed down again.
Before he could rise, Steve grabbed his head and slammed him into the floor.
"Ahh! Ahh! my… back!"
Steve planted his boot on Mike's face, leaning his weight in.
"You are still my boy…"
The doctor watched from his perch, grinning. Monsters growled and cheered around him, drunk on the violence.
Mike groaned, shut his eyes..
And took a deep breath.
FOUR DAYS EARLIER…
PRIVATE BASE TRAINING ROOM
Steve knocked Mike onto the mat with a clean strike.
"You can't remain on the floor, dude," Steve teased.
"I didn't throw myself there," Mike grumbled. "I'm tired."
"Okay, let's try move 396."
"Oh… okay."
Mike sprang up with a Chinese get-up, flipped behind Steve, swept his leg cleanly, and sent him crashing to the floor.
Steve winced. "Ow! Yep. That's it."
"Of course it is," Mike answered smugly.
PRESENT DAY
THE ARENA
Mike's eyes snapped open.
He tapped Steve's leg twice.
Steve smiled darkly.
And Mike suddenly shoved his leg aside, flipped up in a Chinese get-up, rolled behind him, and swept his legs cleanly off the ground.
Steve landed hard.
Mike rose, irritated, and flipped all the creatures off with a middle finger. They hissed in shock.
He quickly drew two daggers, drove them through Steve's clothes, pinning him to the ground, and then sprayed pepper spray point-blank into his face.
"Arghrr!"
Mike tore open his backpack, tied a rope around Steve, grabbed two grenades.
And hurled them into the crowd.
A monster caught one, looked at the others...
BOOOOM!
The explosion obliterated the creature, tore several others apart, and launched ten bodies into the arena.
"Fucking shit!"
Mike grabbed a magnetic device...
"Ahhgghr!" Steve groaned beneath him.
"Shut up, you freak."
Mike slammed Steve unconscious with the device, then aimed it at the doctor.
The doctor's gun ripped free from his grip and flew into the device's magnetic pull.
Mike snatched it, holstered the device, and smiled directly at the doctor.
He fired.
The bullet struck the monster standing beside the doctor the same one that had dragged Steve from the restaurant.
"Fucking creatures!"
The arena monsters exploded into motion, rushing toward him. The wounded one beside the doctor growled in pain.
"Stay calm!" the doctor commanded.
The monster stopped instantly.
Mike fired at the doctor..
The doctor raised his metallic hand. The bullet bounced off harmlessly.
Dozens of monsters leapt into the battleground.
Mike hurled more grenades at the watchers above.
"Come on!"
He activated a small device on his weapon...
The bullets instantly doubled in force.
They tore through the first line of monsters, punching into two or three behind them.
Mike dragged the unconscious Steve along the ground by the rope as he fought.
More monsters dropped down and surrounded him completely.
And then...
A silent figure landed among them.
The same creature who had stared at Mike earlier, during his communication with Commander Rez.
It stood six feet away, eyes locked on him.
"You wanna play?" Mike growled. "Let's play."
He fired.
The creature dodged everything flipping, twisting, weaving like liquid shadow as more monsters rushed him.
"Shit!"
Mike shot a towering brute in the head of a tall huge one. The blood splashed onto the monster near the doctor...
Its skin melted instantly.
It shrieked in horrific agony.
"No, no, no, no!!" the doctor shouted, panicking.
He swung his metal hand upward, sending every remaining monster pouring into the arena.
"What the heck just happened?!"
Mike pulled a dagger through his glove and sprinted toward the swarm. He slashed wildly, spraying corrosive blood across them as he fired shots clean through multiple bodies at once.
Creatures melted.
Creatures fell.
Creatures screamed.
Frustrated, they all charged again...
And the agile creature that Dodge Mike's bullet began clawing them, spraying melting blood everywhere.
Mike stared, breathless.
"What's going on…?"