The base had a different atmosphere now.
Not quieter.
Sharper.
Aaron stood on the central platform as holographic terrain projections rose around him—ocean currents rendered in shifting blue light, wind vectors scrolling across invisible layers of air. Marcus leaned against the railing, arms folded, studying the projections with a seriousness that hadn't been there a week ago.
"From now on," Aaron said calmly, "we don't use real names in the field."
Marcus nodded. "Yeah. Probably smart."
Aaron tapped the console.
"On mission, I'm Wolf."
Marcus gave a half grin. "Figures."
"And you're Lion."
Marcus cracked his knuckles. "I can live with that."
The Phoenix spirit shimmered into view above them, wings flickering.
Designation protocol confirmed, it chimed playfully. Try not to die, Lion.
Marcus blinked. "Does it always talk like that?"
"Yes," Wolf replied flatly.
The Distortion
The alert came three hours later.
Not a scream across the magnetic field.
A ripple.
Deep water, but closer to shore this time.
Wolf activated the orbital distortion scan. The hologram shifted—Atlantic shelf, thirty miles offshore. Energy output pulsed in irregular intervals.
Lion studied it. "That doesn't look like the last one."
"It isn't," Wolf replied.
The pulse pattern was layered.
Something was stabilizing the demon.
Something artificial.
Wolf's eyes narrowed.
"Deploy."
Mission Site: Offshore Platform Ruins
The old drilling platform had been abandoned years ago. Rusted beams rose from the ocean like skeletal fingers. Waves crashed through hollow corridors where workers once walked.
Wind tore at their capes as they landed.
Wolf activated the Wolf Miraculous.
Silver-black armor wrapped around him in segmented layers, lightweight but reinforced along vital joints. The energy orb formed in his palm, humming softly.
Lion ignited beside him in a burst of gold light. His frame thickened with controlled power, veins faintly glowing beneath reinforced skin. His eyes sharpened.
"Movement below deck," Wolf said.
Lion rolled his shoulders. "Let's go."
They descended into darkness.
First Contact
The smell hit first.
Salt.
Oil.
And something metallic.
Lion dropped lightly onto the corroded lower platform. The metal groaned under his weight.
Then it moved.
The floor split open as something erupted upward—three meters tall, humanoid but jagged. Black kelp-like tendrils twisted inside a frame of steel plating.
Not organic.
Not mechanical.
Both.
A demon encased in a shell.
Its head jerked unnaturally, metal grinding against bone-like cartilage. One arm extended—and unfolded into a serrated blade.
Lion stepped forward instantly.
"Lion engaging."
The creature lunged.
Metal met muscle.
Lion caught the blade mid-swing. The impact detonated the air around them, shockwaves rattling the platform. Sparks sprayed across his forearms as the blade tried to grind through his durability.
"Strong," Lion muttered.
"Don't let it anchor," Wolf warned.
Too late.
The demon slammed its other arm downward. Tendrils shot from its torso, drilling into the steel flooring. It rooted itself.
The ocean answered.
Water surged upward through the holes in the deck, spiraling around the creature like armor.
Wolf moved.
The orb in his hand elongated into a spear of condensed lunar energy. He hurled it.
The spear struck the demon's shoulder joint—energy flaring—but instead of piercing flesh, it sparked violently against reinforced plating.
"Shell is absorbing output," Wolf analyzed aloud.
Lion shifted tactics.
He released the blade, pivoted low, and drove a full-force punch into the creature's knee joint. The metal buckled inward—but did not shatter.
The demon responded with terrifying speed.
Its torso split open.
Inside the metal ribcage was pure shadow mass, writhing and pulsing.
A tendril shot outward—faster than before.
Lion barely twisted aside. The tendril grazed his shoulder, burning like ice.
"Corrosive," he hissed.
Wolf was already moving.
The orb reshaped into twin crescent blades. He dashed forward, carving precise arcs into exposed joint seams. Sparks exploded. One arm severed.
The demon screamed—not in sound, but in pressure. The air itself vibrated.
Then the platform trembled.
From the ocean below—
More movement.
Lion looked toward the shattered railing.
Two additional figures climbed onto the deck.
Identical.
Tall.
Clad in matte-black tactical armor that seemed to drink in the light.
Their visors glowed faint violet.
Each held sleek pistols—barrels made of condensed shadow.
Wolf felt it instantly.
Not demons.
Human.
Corrupted.
One tilted his head slightly.
"Interesting," the twin said, voice distorted.
The second finished the thought seamlessly.
"Two Miraculous signatures."
They moved in perfect synchronization.
Shadow bled from beneath their boots—spreading like ink across the platform floor.
Lion growled. "Wolf?"
"New priority," Wolf replied calmly. "Shadow-class hostiles."
The twins raised their pistols.
They fired.
Not bullets.
Compressed shards of solid darkness.
Lion leapt, crossing his arms as three shadow rounds detonated against his chest. The impact hurled him backward through a rusted support beam.
Wolf spun, blades flashing. He deflected two projectiles—but a third grazed his thigh armor. The shadow round didn't explode.
It latched.
Claws of darkness sprouted outward, trying to burrow through.
Wolf slammed his orb directly into it, disintegrating the construct in a burst of lunar energy.
The twins blurred.
And vanished.
Not invisibility.
Shadow merging.
Lion ripped himself from twisted steel.
"They're in the shadows."
"I see them."
Wolf closed his eyes briefly.
The Wolf Miraculous heightened perception—not sight, but presence.
Shadows weren't empty.
They were occupied.
"Left flank," Wolf called.
Lion reacted instantly, pivoting and driving a crushing kick into empty air—
The twin re-materialized mid-strike, blocking with crossed forearms. The force shattered the deck beneath them.
The second twin erupted from Wolf's own shadow, blades extending from his wrists.
Wolf twisted low, one blade carving across the twin's chest plate. Sparks flew—but the wound sealed in creeping darkness.
Adaptive constructs.
Engineered.
Behind them, the armored demon roared again and tore free of its severed arm stump—reforming metal plating as ocean water fused into it.
Three threats.
Confined space.
Unstable footing.
Lion grinned despite the chaos.
"Okay," he said, wiping blood from his lip. "Now it's a fight."
Wolf's voice remained level.
"Lion. Break their coordination."
Lion didn't ask how.
He charged both twins head-on.
They split, shadows rippling.
Lion slammed both fists into the deck, sending a concussive shockwave through the structure. Rusted beams collapsed inward, forcing the twins to disengage from perfect symmetry.
Wolf seized the opening.
He launched upward, orb shifting into a wide crescent arc. One twin phased partially—but not fully—into shadow.
The blade sliced through his shoulder.
This time, the darkness did not fully reseal.
The twin staggered.
For the first time—
He sounded irritated.
The second twin raised both pistols and fired in rapid succession. Shadow rounds tore through the air like meteors.
Wolf formed a barrier dome from condensed lunar energy. The projectiles hammered against it—cracks spreading.
Lion burst through the smoke, grabbing the wounded twin by the torso and driving him bodily into the armored demon.
Metal shrieked.
All three figures crashed through the deck—
Down.
Into the ocean below.
Wolf dove after them.
The water swallowed everything.
Dark.
Cold.
Violent.
The armored demon adapted instantly—water compressing around it like a living shield. The twins moved effortlessly through the ocean, shadows bending unnaturally in the deep.
Lion sank faster—strength immense but movement slowed.
Wolf cut through the water with focused propulsion bursts from the orb.
The wounded twin turned underwater and extended both hands.
Shadow claws expanded outward—vast and skeletal.
They closed around Lion's leg.
Lion roared, twisting violently, but the ocean pressure worked against him.
The armored demon descended above them, jaws opening wide—
Wolf surged forward.
The orb expanded.
Not a blade.
Not a spear.
A pulse.
He released it.
A sphere of concentrated lunar force detonated underwater.
Light ripped through the dark.
Shadow constructs shattered.
The armored plating cracked.
The twins were hurled backward in spiraling currents.
Lion tore free.
Wolf grabbed his arm and propelled them both upward.
They burst from the ocean in a column of spray.
Behind them—
The drilling platform collapsed entirely into the sea.
The twins resurfaced briefly at a distance, standing impossibly on solidified shadow atop the water.
They didn't pursue.
One tilted his head again.
"Data collected."
The other finished.
"Adaptation required."
They sank into the sea's darkness.
The armored demon dissolved with them—retreating.
Not sealed.
Escaped.
Lion floated in the water, breathing hard.
"…They were working with it."
"Yes," Wolf said quietly.
Lion looked toward the empty horizon.
"So we're not just fighting monsters anymore."
Wolf's gaze hardened.
"No."
Far beneath them, in trenches where sunlight never reached—
Something else stirred.
Watching.
And somewhere in a hidden laboratory lit by screens of shifting data, a scientist reviewed combat footage, smiling faintly as mechanical prototypes adjusted in response.
The war was evolving.
And this—
Was only the second chapter.