Chapter 13 · Apex Loop: Glitch Evolution - Chapter 13: Gene Overload

"Stop screaming, you pathetic little glitch. It's making my head ache."

Dr. Vivian’s voice drifted through the intercom, cool and bored. I wasn't screaming—not with a voice. I was thrashing, my new claws shredding the reinforced flooring of the containment cell, while my spine felt like it was being rewritten by a drunk god with a soldering iron.

I lunged at the glass, my vision blurring into a chaotic mess of infrared and static. "Let... me... out!"

"Now, now," she purred. I could see her on the other side, leaning against a chrome console, swirling a glass of something amber. She didn't look at me; she looked at the monitors. "The integration is at sixty percent. If I open that door now, your nervous system will literally liquefy. You'll be a very expensive puddle of goo, Kane. Is that what you want?"

I slammed my shoulder against the wall, the impact rattling my teeth. The power was there—I could feel it humming under my skin, a predatory hunger that made my previous forms look like house pets—but it was too much. My muscles were expanding and contracting in rhythms that didn't make sense. Every breath felt like swallowing broken glass.