"Get your ass moving, Kade! Now!" Jax’s hand clamped onto the back of my neck, shoving me forward so hard I nearly ate the grime-covered floor.
"Get off me!" I snapped, twisting my shoulder to shake him. "I can walk!"
"You can't even run straight," Jax retorted, his grip tightening just enough to let me know who owned the contract. He didn't let go. He leaned in, his breath hot against my ear, his voice dropping to a dangerous hum. "The Nest is inside the perimeter. If you trip, I'm not carrying you. I'm leaving you for the scavengers."
I glared at him, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. "You're a real romantic, you know that?"
"I'm a realist," he said, finally releasing me with a sharp flick of his wrist. "And right now, the reality is that you're a walking beacon for every monster in this sector."
From my shoulder, Pip let out a distorted, electronic screech. The plush toy's stitching was fraying, and a small wisp of acrid smoke drifted from his seam. "Warning! Thermal signatures approaching from the ventilation shafts! Also, Maya, your heart rate is embarrassing. Breathe, you idiot, or you'll faint and I'll have to watch Jax gloat over your corpse."
"Shut up, Pip!" I hissed, scrambling behind a rusted shipping crate.
"Make me!" Pip shot back, though his voice flickered. "Oh god, my core is overheating. This body was made for toddlers, not tactical retreats!"
"Stay focused!" I yelled.
Suddenly, the ceiling groaned. A massive, pale shape slammed through the corrugated metal above us, landing with a bone-shaking thud. It was a Bloom-mutant—a thing that used to be human, now just a mass of iridescent scales and jagged bone, its eyes glowing with a sickening violet light. It let out a shrill, vibrating scream that rattled my teeth.
Jax didn't even flinch. He stepped in front of me, his heavy combat boots grinding into the concrete. He racked the slide of his rifle with a metallic click that sounded like a death sentence.
"Stay behind me," he commanded. "And if you see a gap, run for the exit. Don't look back, don't help me, just go."
"I'm not leaving you to get eaten," I muttered, though I was shaking. I gripped the handle of the scrap-knife I'd scavenged, my knuckles white.
Jax glanced back at me, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Look at that. The vat-girl has a soul. How inconvenient."
"Suck it, Jax!"
The mutant leaped. It was a blur of violet and grey, moving faster than any living thing should. Jax fired—three rapid bursts that tore into the creature's chest—but the beast didn't stop. It slammed into him, the sheer force sending him flying backward into a stack of crates. The rifle clattered across the floor, sliding ten feet away.
"Jax!" I screamed.
The mutant pinned him down, its claws digging into his tactical vest, shredding the reinforced fabric like paper. Jax groaned, his arm pinned, struggling to reach the combat knife at his thigh.
"Maya! Now!" Pip yelled, his voice suddenly urgent, losing the sass. "The creature's ocular nerve is exposed on the left side! Hit it or we're both scrap!"
I didn't think. I couldn't. I lunged forward, sliding across the oily floor, and drove my knife upward with every ounce of strength I had. The blade sank into the glowing violet eye with a wet, sickening squelch.
The creature shrieked, a sound that felt like a needle piercing my brain. It thrashed, throwing me off. I hit the ground hard, the air leaving my lungs in a sharp gasp.
But the fight wasn't over. As the mutant recoiled, it lashed out with a spiked tail. It didn't hit me. It hit Pip.
There was a sharp *crack*. The plush toy was flung across the room, hitting a wall with a dull thud. He didn't bounce. He just slumped there, a jagged tear running across his chest, exposing a glowing, flickering core of blue circuitry.
"Pip!" I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the searing pain in my side. I ran to the plush, sliding on my knees to reach him.
"Hey... hey, look at me," I whispered, cupping the small, ruined toy in my hands. "You're fine. You're just a plush, right? You can't actually die."
Pip's voice came out as a distorted whisper, barely audible over the ringing in my ears. "System... critical. Core... leaking. Maya... you're... such a clumsy... little..."
"Don't you dare!" I yelled, my voice cracking. "Don't you dare die on me, you stupid, mouthy piece of fabric! Stay! Do you hear me? Stay!"
Jax's voice echoed from the other side of the room, strained and breathless. "Kade! Leave the toy! The boss is coming!"
I looked up. Emerging from the shadows was something far worse than the first mutant. It was humanoid, but towering, draped in a cloak of living vines and pulsing veins. Its face was a smooth, featureless mask of bone. This was the Sector Boss—the thing that had been terrorizing the underbelly for months.
Jax was already back on his feet, bleeding from a gash on his forehead, his rifle gripped tight. He looked at me, then at the dying plush in my hands. His expression shifted—something like respect, or maybe just pity, flickered in his eyes.
"I can't leave him," I said, clutching Pip to my chest.
"Then you'll die with him," Jax snapped, but he stepped closer, positioning himself as a shield between me and the Boss. "Fine. We do this the hard way. On my mark, you throw that toy and run like your life depends on it, because it fucking does."
"I'm not throwing him!"
"Then hold him tight and pray," Jax growled. "Now!"
Jax opened fire, a continuous roar of lead that forced the Boss back. I used the distraction to scramble up, pressing Pip against my heart. I could feel the AI's core pulsing—weak, erratic, like a dying heartbeat.
"I've got you," I whispered. "I've got you, Pip."
We fought for what felt like hours. Every time the Boss closed in, Jax found a way to push it back, his movements a brutal dance of violence and precision. He was taking hits—a claw mark across his shoulder, a bruise blooming on his ribs—but he didn't budge. He kept me in the blind spot, his presence a wall of heat and gunpowder.
Finally, Pip's voice flickered one last time. "Maya... the vent... above the boss... it's unstable. Hit the support beam... now!"
I didn't ask how he knew. I didn't ask why. I looked up and saw the rusted support beam trembling. I grabbed a heavy piece of rebar from the floor and threw it with a scream of desperation.
*Clang!*
The beam snapped. A ton of concrete and steel collapsed directly onto the Boss, burying the creature in a roar of dust and debris. The silence that followed was deafening.
Jax slumped against a wall, gasping for air. He looked like hell—covered in blood, soot, and sweat. He looked at me, his eyes scanning my face, then dropping to the plush in my arms.
"Still alive, huh?" he wheezed. "Both of you."
I didn't answer. I was staring at the spot where the Boss had been. As the dust settled, a small, shimmering data-cube began to float upward from the wreckage. Loot.
Jax stood up slowly, wiping blood from his lip. "That's the prize. That's why we risked it all. Let's see what the bastard was hiding."
He reached out, grabbed the cube, and slotted it into his wrist-reader. A holographic screen flickered into existence, casting a cold blue light over both our faces.
Jax frowned. "Wait. This isn't a weapon blueprint. It's a file. A personnel file."
I leaned in, my breath catching. The screen displayed a vat-growth sequence, a series of genetic markers, and a serial number that matched the one tattooed on my own wrist.
Jax's voice went dead cold. "Maya... look at the classification."
I looked. Under my name, in a bold, crimson font that seemed to bleed into the screen, were two words:
[PROTOTYPE 0]