The Neural Resonance Pistol hummed against Kane's palm as the creatures burst through the ruined security door. In the strobing emergency lights, he got his first clear look at what humanity had become. The thing in front had been male once – traces of a security uniform still clung to its mutated frame. But where a head should have been, a mass of neural tissue pulsed and writhed, shot through with pearlescent veins that matched the glow of Kane's implant. Its arms had split and re-grown multiple times, creating a writhing mass of limbs that moved with horrible coordination.
"Neural signature analysis complete," Aria's voice cut through his horror. "The pearl formation in its exposed brain mass is similar to your implant's quantum architecture. Targeting that should—"
"Let me guess," Kane interrupted, his voice tight with focused tension, "shoot the glowy bits?"
"Essentially. Though I appreciate you reducing complex quantum architecture to 'glowy bits.'"
Kane pulled the trigger, but the creature was faster than expected. It twisted with impossible speed, the beam grazing its neural mass instead of scoring a direct hit. The thing screamed – a sound that existed in too many frequencies at once – but the glancing blow only seemed to enrage it.
〘 ! 〙 COMBAT ANALYSIS 〘 ! 〙
【PARTIAL HIT DETECTED】
【TARGET INTEGRITY: 92%】
【WARNING: HOSTILE ADAPTING】
【RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE EVASION】
The creature lunged, its mass of arms spreading like a deadly fan. Kane tried to dodge, but his cryo-stiff muscles betrayed him. Three razor-sharp appendages raked across his ribs, tearing through the thermal gear and into flesh. Hot blood steamed in the frozen air as he stumbled backward.
"Multiple lacerations detected," Aria reported urgently. "You need to avoid further injury. Your body is still recovering from cryo-sleep."
Kane fired again, but pain disrupted his aim. The beam went wide, melting a hole through the wall behind the creature. His HUD flashed with warnings:
▓═══ SYSTEM WARNING ═══▓
〢 INJURY DETECTED 〢
〢 BLOOD LOSS: MODERATE 〢
〢 NEURAL SYNC DEGRADING 〢
〢 WARNING: SYSTEM STRESS 〢
▓═══════════════════▓
More infected poured through the doorway – five, six, seven of them. Each bore different mutations, as if humanity had explored every possible way to stop being human. One moved like liquid mercury, its form constantly shifting. Another had grown a cage of bone around itself, through which internal organs were visible, pulsing with unnatural light.
"Kane, fall back!" Aria's voice was sharp with concern. "Your combat capabilities aren't fully online yet. The security officer's pearl needs more time to—"
A whip-like limb caught Kane's ankle, yanking his feet out from under him. He hit the ground hard, the impact driving the air from his lungs. The pistol flew from his grasp, skittering across the frozen floor. Pain exploded through his shoulder as he landed badly.
╔═══ CRITICAL ALERT ═══╗
〢 SHOULDER DISLOCATION 〢
〢 WEAPON CONNECTION LOST 〢
〢 MULTIPLE HOSTILES CONVERGING 〢
〢 RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE DEFENSIVE ACTION 〢
╚════════════════════╝
The mercury-like creature flowed forward with terrible speed. Kane rolled away from its reaching pseudopods, each movement sending fresh waves of agony through his dislocated shoulder. His fingers caught the edge of a fallen weapons rack, and he swung it desperately at the approaching horror. The rack passed through the creature's liquid form without effect, but the movement bought him precious seconds to scramble toward Pierce's fallen weapon.
"Your neural patterns are spiking," Aria reported. "The pain... it's changing something in your readings."
Kane's fingers closed around the pistol just as the bone-cage creature slammed into him. Its jagged protrusions tore new gouges across his back. Through the pain, he felt something shift inside him – as if his body was remembering something it had forgotten.
Stolen story; please report.
▼═══ NEURAL ANALYSIS ═══▼
〢 DETECTING PATTERN SHIFT 〢
〢 WARNING: SYSTEM ADJUSTING 〢
〢 NEURAL LOAD: ELEVATED 〢
〢 RECALIBRATING... 〢
▲════════════════════▲
He managed to twist around, shoving the pistol against the creature's exposed organs. At point-blank range, the quantum-coded beam couldn't miss. The thing's bone cage exploded outward as its internal structure collapsed, showering Kane with fragments of corrupted calcium.
But there was no time to recover. The liquid mercury creature flowed over him like a tide of metallic flesh, its mass threatening to drown him in mutated biomatter. Kane's lungs burned as he fought against its smothering weight. The neural interface screamed warnings he couldn't see through the silver horror trying to consume him.
"Neural resonance detected," Aria's voice seemed distant through the creature's mass. "The pistol – its frequency can disrupt surface tension! But the angle—"
Kane couldn't speak, couldn't breathe. But his finger tightened on the trigger. The beam refracted through the creature's liquid form, splitting into dozens of smaller energy streams. For a moment, the thing's entire mass glowed from within. Then its surface tension shattered, spraying caustic fluid across the room.
〘 ! 〙 MEDICAL ALERT 〘 ! 〙
【CRITICAL EXPOSURE】
【CHEMICAL BURNS DETECTED】
【INTERNAL BLEEDING LIKELY】
【WARNING: SYSTEM STRAIN】
He stumbled to his feet, every movement agony. Blood ran freely from a dozen wounds, and the mercury creature's residue burned wherever it touched skin. But there was no time to recover – the remaining creatures pressed their attack, having learned from their fallen kin.
The security uniform creature came at him again, its neural mass reconfigured to resist the pistol's previous frequency. Kane fired and missed, his injured shoulder throwing off his aim. The thing's claws raked his chest, adding new lines of fire to his collection of injuries.
"Kane, your vital signs..." Aria's voice held an odd note of confusion. "Something's not right. You should be down, but your readings... they don't make sense."
She was right. Despite the pain, despite injuries that should have put him down, Kane felt something awakening inside him. His movements became smoother, more precise, even as blood ran down his chest and back. The absorbed combat knowledge from the security officer's pearl was integrating faster now, driven by desperate need.
"Just tell me how to kill these things," he growled through blood-stained teeth.
"Their neural patterns cycle through adaptation phases," Aria replied, her voice steady despite his condition. "There's a moment of vulnerability when they shift configurations. Zero-point-three seconds. But the timing has to be perfect."
Kane's vision blurred – blood loss or neural feedback, he couldn't tell anymore. But his muscles responded with strange precision as he ducked under another attack. Something was changing in him, driven by the desperate fight for survival.
▓═══ CRITICAL WARNING ═══▓
〢 MULTIPLE SYSTEM FAILURES 〢
〢 SKELETAL INTEGRITY COMPROMISED 〢
〢 BLOOD LOSS APPROACHING CRITICAL 〢
〢 NEURAL PATTERNS SHIFTING 〢
▓════════════════════▓
Three creatures remained, moving with coordinated purpose. They had adapted to his previous tactics, learning with terrifying speed. Kane's back hit a wall – nowhere left to run. Blood-slick fingers tightened on the pistol's grip as his neural interface synchronized deeper with the weapon's quantum architecture.
"Almost..." Aria's voice cut through the pain. "Their patterns are aligning... wait... now!"
Kane's last shot put everything into it – all his pain, all his strength, all the energy he could channel through Pierce's impossible weapon. The pistol's surface patterns blazed like captured stars as reality shuddered around the beam. It struck at the perfect moment, catching all three creatures in their vulnerable state.
The effect cascaded through their linked neural patterns. Probability collapsed around them, their mutations unraveling from the quantum level up. They dissolved into mathematical impossibilities, leaving behind only pearls that pulsed with the same light as Kane's neural implant.
He collapsed, the pistol finally falling from nerveless fingers. Everything hurt – the cuts, the burns, the torn muscles and cracked bones. But he was alive. And somehow, his wounds were already beginning to close.
"Initiating emergency bioscan," Aria's voice seemed to come from very far away. "Kane... these readings... you're healing far faster than any baseline human should. And your combat performance... we need to talk about what's happening to you."
The world grew dark around the edges as his body dragged him toward unconsciousness. The last thing he saw were the fallen pearls, pulsing in sync with his neural implant – promises of power that carried terrible costs.
"Rest now," Aria's voice followed him into darkness. "When you wake up, we need to discuss how you're moving like a trained soldier when you just stepped out of cryo. And why Dr. Pierce's weapon seems perfectly calibrated for you."
Through the pain and encroaching darkness, Kane managed a final thought: Someone had prepared him for this fight. The only question was – who?
The quantum patterns pulsed once more, and consciousness finally fled. In the silence that followed, his wounds slowly began to close, healing far faster
The future hadn't just been waiting for him.
It had chosen him for something.