The crimson reflection of emergency lights rippled across black water, casting strange shadows on the submerged corridors' ceiling. Kane's enhanced muscles fought against the cold as he treaded water, trying to orient himself in the flooded maze of SubTech's lowest levels.
"Multiple contacts detected," Aria's voice carried an unusual note of concern. "These readings... they're not like anything we've encountered above."
▓═══ BIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS ═══▓
〢 MULTIPLE AQUATIC VARIANTS DETECTED 〢
〢 TYPE α: "LURKER" - AMBUSH SPECIALIST 〢
〢 TYPE β: "SIREN" - SONIC WEAPONRY 〢
〢 TYPE Ω: "LEVIATHAN" - MASSIVE SCALE 〢
▓════════════════════════════▓
╔═══ ENVIRONMENTAL ALERT ═══╗
〢 TEMPERATURE: -2°C 〢
〢 WATER PRESSURE: HAZARDOUS 〢
〢 HYPOTHERMIA RISK: CRITICAL 〢
╚════════════════════════════╝
"The water preserved them," Aria continued, her voice dropping to match the oppressive atmosphere. "While the surface mutations fought and killed each other, these... adapted. Evolved. The cold and pressure created perfect conditions for specialized aquatic variants."
Something massive moved beneath the surface, displacing water in a way that made Kane's newly enhanced instincts scream danger. His neural implant throbbed, detecting multiple pearl signatures deep below.
"Be advised," Aria's tone shifted to tactical precision. "I'm detecting three distinct mutation classes. The smaller ones – Lurker variants – they're pack hunters. Adapted for underwater ambush. The Sirens appear to use some form of sonic attack, possibly evolved from the facility's marine acoustics research division. And the Leviathan... Kane, its mass exceeds anything in my database except the apex we encountered above."
A Lurker variant lunged through the water, its mutated form cutting through the freezing depths with predatory grace. Kane barely dodged, his enhanced reflexes burning through stamina as he fought against both the creature and the cold.
"'Lurker variant'?" he spat between movements. "You've been sitting on a whole classification system this entire time? What else have you been keeping hidden from me, Aria?"
〘 ! 〙 SYSTEM FAILURE 〘 ! 〙
【NEURAL INTERFACE DISRUPTED】
【HUD SYSTEMS OFFLINE】
【SONIC INTERFERENCE DETECTED】
【EMERGENCY PROTOCOLS FAILING】
The AI's response came with an unusual hesitation. "Kane, I—" Her voice distorted, breaking into fragments of digital noise. His HUD flickered once, twice, then went completely dark.
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"Aria?" The Lurker circled back, joined by two more of its kind. Without his targeting systems, their weak points were harder to spot in the crimson-lit water. "ARIA?"
A Lurker's claws caught him mid-evasion, sending him crashing into a submerged wall hard enough to drive the remaining air from his lungs. Pain exploded across his back.
"FUCK!"
The impact had cracked something – either in him or the wall, and he wasn't sure which was worse. Through the pain and the dark water, he could see the Leviathan's massive form rising again, its collected pearls pulsing like a constellation of hungry stars.
Without Aria's guidance or his HUD's targeting assistance, he was about to discover exactly how well his engineered enhancements worked on pure instinct alone. The pistol felt heavy in his hand, Pierce's quantum patterns still visible even without power to his neural interface.
The Lurkers moved with practiced coordination, herding him toward the Leviathan's rising bulk. These weren't mindless predators – they were working together, using tactics that spoke of terrible intelligence. Kane's enhanced cells hummed with recognition of the pearls they carried, but without his HUD's corruption gauge, absorbing their power would be a dangerous gamble.
A subsonic pulse cut through the water, and Kane's vision blurred. The Siren variants were joining the hunt, their sonic attacks disrupting what was left of his working technology. Through the pain, he caught glimpses of them – twisted things that had weaponized sound itself, their mutations focused around massive structures that might once have been vocal cords.
The wall behind him had cracked from his impact. Emergency lights flickered through the spreading fissure, suggesting another flooded chamber beyond. An idea formed – desperate, probably stupid, but right now those seemed to be his specialty.
Kane raised Pierce's pistol, not at the creatures, but at the weakened wall. The quantum-coded weapon hummed to life, its patterns briefly illuminating the dark water. He pulled the trigger just as the Leviathan's massive form blotted out the emergency lights above.
The beam struck the cracked wall, and physics took over. Water pressure did the rest, the barrier collapsing in a rush of current that sucked everything toward the new opening. Kane let himself be pulled through, tumbling into the adjacent chamber as the Lurkers scrambled to avoid being dragged along with him.
He slammed into a half-submerged control panel, his enhanced frame the only thing keeping the impact from knocking him unconscious. As his vision cleared, he found himself in what had once been some kind of research lab. Massive tanks lined the walls, their reinforced glass somehow intact after a century underwater.
Something moved inside the nearest tank. No, not just moved – pressed against the glass. A face, mostly human but wrong in ways that defied description, stared back at him. More movement drew his eye to the other tanks. More faces. More twisted forms. Not dead, but suspended, preserved. Waiting.
"Oh good," he muttered to the silent facility. "More nightmares. Because we didn't have enough of those already."
〘 ! 〙 THREAT WARNING 〘 ! 〙
【MASSIVE ENTITY APPROACHING】
【SONIC DISRUPTION INCREASING】
【CONTAINMENT BREACH IMMINENT】
【MULTIPLE THREATS CONVERGING】
A deep vibration shook the chamber. The Leviathan hadn't given up – it was forcing its mass through the opening he'd created, driven by hunger and the terrible intelligence granted by its collected pearls. The water began to hum with sonic attack frequencies as the Sirens coordinated their assault.
"Any time you want to wake up, Aria," Kane said to the dead neural interface as he pushed away from the control panel. "Really. I'm open to suggestions here."
The only response was the sound of rushing water as the chamber's other occupants stirred in their tanks, awakened by the Sirens' call. Kane checked the pistol's quantum patterns – still active, but for how long without power to his neural interface? He had no targeting assistance, no corruption gauge, no tactical analysis.
But he did have the memories of that security officer, absorbed through his first pearl. And right now, those combat instincts were screaming that he needed to move.
Behind him, glass began to crack.
It was going to be a long day.