Chapter 8 · Brother, Stay Down

Ryan's boots hit the cage floor and Derek was already backing up, hands out, palms forward like that would stop anything.

"Ryan. Ryan, listen—"

The code kicked in before Derek finished the sentence. Ryan's vision whited out at the edges and his right hand snapped up, fingers curling into a discharge position he didn't choose. The current built in his forearm, crawling up through the damaged regulator, and his teeth clenched so hard his jaw popped.

The crowd outside the cage was screaming. He could hear Natasha somewhere above, her voice cutting through the noise, calm and clinical. "Asset operational. Proceed."

Derek stumbled back into the chain-link. "I didn't know, man. I swear I didn't—"

"Shut up." Ryan's voice didn't sound like his own. Flat. Mechanical. His legs moved forward and he couldn't stop them. The current in his arm was building, hot enough now that he could smell his own skin starting to cook. "Shut up and stay down."

"Ryan, please—" Derek's face was pale, slick with sweat under the overhead floods. His eyes kept flicking up to the observation deck where Natasha stood with her tablet, watching. "She said if I brought you in, she'd clear the debt.