The corridor was a frozen moment of absolute tension. Red emergency lights pulsed through the thick, chemical-smelling suppression foam, painting the scene in flashes of blood. Ahead, the dozen Banisher Praetorian Guards formed an immovable wall of charcoal-gray Aegis Suits, their sonic rifles aimed, weapons humming, waiting for the one word that would erase the threat.
Behind them, blocking the only escape, stood Captain Akanni. His massive frame was deceptively relaxed in his officer's greatcoat, but his glowing red eyes—the mark of his Scion Geokinesis—burned with an intensity that dwarfed the emergency lights. He was the fulcrum, the single point on which their survival now balanced.
"You have caused a significant, and very expensive, amount of trouble," Akanni's voice rumbled, easily cutting through the wail of the alarms.
Kwandezi didn't sheathe his swords. His battle IQ was screaming. He was flanked, his escape routes cut, and he was standing next to his two primary objectives: Aisha and the briefcase. His instincts analyzed Akanni, not as a superior officer, but as a territorial predator. The captain wasn't angry; he was assessing.
Aisha, her plasma pistol still raised, made the first move. "Captain," she said, her voice tight but respectful, projecting protocol. "We have secured evidence vital to Citadel security. General Thorne's treason implicates the Ironclad and Banisher leadership. We were retrieving it when Captain Zaire initiated a containment protocol."
She was offering him an 'out,' a way to frame their escape as a loyal act.
The Praetorian Guard leader, his visor identical to Zaire's, took a half-step forward. "Captain Akanni, your presence is unauthorized in this sector. These assets are under Red Protocol containment for assaulting Citadel staff, including Commander Elara. Stand down, or you will be in breach of Banisher martial law."
Akanni's eyes narrowed. He looked past the guard, past Kwandezi, and settled on the Void-sealed briefcase in Aisha's hand. He knew what was happening. The Scholars had sprung the leak. Zaire was purging the evidence. And he, Akanni, was standing in the middle.
"Breach of martial law," Akanni repeated, a low, humorless chuckle rumbling in his chest. "Son, I am Scion-Class. My authority here is second only to the Founding Council itself. You are mistaking a political purge for a security threat."
He turned his gaze to Kwandezi. "Asset, you were my responsibility. Zaire attempted to neutralize you without my authorization. That is the breach."
Akanni took a slow, deliberate step toward Aisha. The Praetorian leader tensed, his rifle whining to full charge. "Do not approach the evidence, Captain!"
"This is the evidence," Akanni growled, tapping his own temple. "And these are my assets."
He didn't wait for another warning. He slammed his foot onto the Corundum-Steel floor.
It was not a stomp. It was an act of pure, catastrophic will.
The entire corridor exploded. Akanni's Geokinetic power, amplified by his Scion lineage, didn't just crack the floor; he commanded the rebar and concrete beneath. A massive, ten-foot-wide section of the floor erupted upward, creating a solid wall of debris between Akanni's team and the Banisher guards.
"Move!" Akanni roared, his voice now a commander's.
The guards, momentarily shielded by the new wall, were blinded. But the leader was elite. "He's breached the hull! Fire through the barrier!"
Sonic blasts and plasma bolts tore into the concrete wall. It wouldn't hold for long.
"This way!" Akanni didn't run toward an exit; he ran toward a solid wall at the end of the intersection. "Aisha, protocol 7-B override! Seal this corridor, now!"
Aisha, realizing his plan, ran to a nearby junction panel, shoving her gauntlet into the port.
Kwandezi moved with Akanni. He wasn't just following; he was protecting the flank. The concrete wall crumbled under the sustained fire. Three Praetorian Guards burst through the smoke and foam.
Kwandezi met them. His Ultimate Transmuted blades were a blur.
The first guard fired a heavy sonic disruptor. Kwandezi, his instincts screaming, didn't dodge or block. He transmuted the air in a one-meter bubble directly in front of him, momentarily warping its density into a super-dense, sound-absorbing gel. The sonic blast hit the bubble and simply died, its energy nullified. The guard's eyes widened in his helmet display—a fatal moment of shock.
Kwandezi's right blade flashed, not at the armor, but at the weapon, severing the barrel. His left blade followed, a precise, upward thrust that slid between the plates of the Aegis suit's neck guard, severing the coolant lines. The guard collapsed, choking, his suit systems failing.
The other two guards attacked in formation, their energy nets deploying. Kwandezi was trapped.
But he wasn't alone.
A pillar of raw concrete, laced with rebar, erupted from the floor beside Kwandezi. It wasn't a random spike; it was a perfectly formed, rotating shield. Akanni, while running to the dead-end wall, was multitasking—fighting a war on two fronts with sheer, brutalist power. The nets hit the concrete shield and sizzled, useless.
"Asset! The wall!" Akanni yelled. He placed his massive hand on the dead-end wall, a solid three-meter-thick block of reinforced steel. "This wall leads to the old industrial transport shafts. It's too dense for a clean break! I need a seam!"
Kwandezi understood. Akanni could push, but Kwandezi could unmake.
He dodged the remaining guards, who were now struggling against Akanni's secondary assault—the floor itself was turning to thick, grasping mud, the concrete de-solidifying.
Kwandezi slammed his hand against the wall beside Akanni. "Clear!"
He focused his will. He didn't try to make a hole. He drew a line. With a focused surge of Molecular Transmutation, he transmuted a perfect, one-inch-wide line in the wall, from floor to ceiling, turning the hyper-dense Corundum-Steel into brittle, porous iron oxide—rust.
"Now, Captain!" Aisha screamed, hitting the final command. Behind them, heavy quarantine blast doors began to slam shut, sealing the corridor, trapping the Banisher guards.
Akanni roared. He channeled his full Scion power into the rusted seam. The wall didn't explode; it tore. With a deafening shriek of metal, Akanni ripped a human-sized opening in the Citadel's hull.
"In! Both of you!"
Aisha dove through the gap first, clutching the briefcase. Kwandezi followed, turning to give one last look at the approaching guards, who were now firing desperately at the closing blast doors.
Akanni was the last one through. He turned, placed his hands on the torn steel, and with a final, guttural yell, he transmuted the steel back into concrete, sealing the hole with a massive, dripping plug of instant-set rock.
They were in darkness. The alarms were muffled, the air thick with dust and the smell of ozone and ancient metal. They were in the old, forgotten transport shafts, the arteries of the Citadel that predated the Banisher's pristine reconstruction.
Akanni slumped against the new wall, his chest heaving, the red glow in his eyes dimming. He had just openly committed high treason, assaulting elite Banisher guards and destroying Citadel property to save them.
"Well," Akanni panted, a grim smile touching his lips. "It seems my investment in you has become... significantly more hands-on."
Aisha looked at the sealed wall, then at Kwandezi, then at the Captain. They were no longer just an asset and a handler. They were a rogue cell.
"They'll hunt us, won't they?" Aisha asked, her voice echoing in the dark shaft.
"Zaire won't stop until we are all dust," Akanni confirmed. He pushed himself upright, his massive form a mountain of shadow. "He's not just following protocol anymore. We have the evidence, and we have the anomaly. We just became the single greatest threat to his family's legacy."
Kwandezi gripped his perfected blades, the cold steel a comfort in the dark. "Good. Let them come. I've been hunted by their system my whole life. It's time they learned what it feels like to be the prey."