“I’m going to bash your skull in with my tail if you don’t get out of my way!” shouted Raye, shoving multiple groups of people to the side. Several hundred feet in the air, polygonal shapes of ephemeral digital material appeared; it was an Alpha Cell. The tentacles ripped through the sky, distorting the very atmosphere of the virtual reality, A black ball covered in hundreds of grotesque eyes burst forth, shattering the artificial sky. Each eye bounced around towards different locations, indicating they were capable of independent movement.

From the source of the tear, blue lightning began breaking across the sky, attracting the darkest clouds the world had ever seen. The Alpha cell was finally here; this was the enemy of humankind, the reason the Earth’s legacy was continuing to be inside this semi-virtual world. 

However, it was the human world, and humans controlled their progression, and this time, they were ready.

Raye pulled down the zipper on the side of her uniform dress, pulling her arms from the sleeves, letting the black and white clothing fall to the ground, revealing the tight bodysuit she wore underneath. The suit was a highly protective high-tech leotard short of being a second skin. As embarrassing as it was feeling like she was completely naked from how curve hugging the suit was, it would protect her from all but just a few critically dangerous elements.

Around designated areas on her body, such as her shoulders, hips, head, breasts, and ribs, metal discs and spines materialized as added points of protection and armaments. In addition, two frames extended themselves from the side of her now-enhanced spine. They pumped an extreme amount of energy, creating the illusion of translucent wings made from energy.

In seconds, she took to the dark skies boosting herself into mach-two getting within combat distance. She smirked and reached out into the digital space pulling out a six-barrel twenty-millimeter minigun cannon.

She pulled the trigger causing the barrels to rotate and fire the huge rounds. She was taking chunks of flesh from the monster in swaths as she flew around in circles, dipping and rising in altitude and speed. The fight looked as though it was over as soon as it began. 

The jumbo screens of the city showed footage of her attack. The independent camera drones stayed far enough to record and stay out of the way while utilizing their zoom features. The crowd cheered as she lived up to her nickname, ‘Ripper Raye.’ 

Her advantage didn’t last for very long. Then, the Alpha Cell enacted its barrier, a kinetic-based shielding that had thousands of digital shapes reacting to the impacts of physical pressure and impacts. When a bullet got close enough, the barrier instantly sent a portion of itself to the location and intercepted.

“Damn it,” Raye said under her breath, releasing her grip on her trigger, ceasing the minigun’s rotation. She switched her means of attack as two missile pods appeared on both sides of her hips. Each pod was armed with barrier-piercing low-yield tactical nuclear warheads. The idea was that the missiles moved slow enough to break through the barrier, detonating to cook the target from the inside while doing very little to the surrounding area and minimizing radiation fall-out.

The independent mass of eyeballs all began rapidly moving towards her. If one lacked the means to track her, another would pick up where it was left off and continue to pass the information of her location to the next.

The nukes would need a continuous tracking of over thirty seconds to get an accurate lock on, as they were slow firing and needed as much information to track as possible. Collateral damage wasn’t ever an authorized method for nuclear devices.

But the enemy didn’t allow that. Instead, hundreds of streaks of light pierced the buildings and the sky in the general area she flew in.

The intensity of the laser barrage increased after every second that passed; they got closer and wider for each one that she dodged. Her suit heightening her reflexes were the only thing between her and an eighty-five percent chance of death. It became so close that she couldn’t avoid any more of them; they were grazing her skin so close she could have gotten a tan.

And then, all at once, they stopped shooting, but only to release a massive beam - a collective of all the eyes staring at a single point. Her eyes went wide as she realized what was going on. The eyes were calibrating; the Alpha Cell’s eyes tracked her moves and then her future actions, plotting her decision-making skills. And then it was released, the mother of all lasers; the sky cleared itself as the energy all around surged.

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She was hit by the beam straight through her. The entirety of the size was undodgeable; it melted her electronics, melted wing supports, and burned everything. She plummeted to the ground with no control.

The confidence in the crowd faded and burst into chaos immediately. The Alpha Cell now took out the only form of defense in a single attack. People ran everywhere to escape the now-focusing light beams just picking them off. 

However, one person from the crowd saw where she landed; he ran as quickly and hard as he could to Raye’s side. It was a boy with white hair and purple eyes. “Are you okay!” He shouted while missing a step and falling into the pit. On his hands and knees, tears welled up as he crawled to her side. “Hey, Hey! please wake up! I beg you, please wake up!” desperation hung deep in his voice.

He clung to her side and rocked her back and forth, but she didn’t budge. She was severely burned with third-degree. Her arms and legs looked like they had been made of charcoal as they were red and bloodied. He looked up and out of the crater. The Alpha Cell was effortlessly burning through the landscape as it was uncontested; it was cutting buildings into halves and causing them to collapse in or to the side to kill as many humans as possible.

Tears were streaming down his face. He looked back down and shook her. “People are dying! Please don’t die too!” he choked out in between sobbing, 

The constant moving must’ve done something as there was a slight movement. She must’ve been courting death as everything she did was extremely weak. And then she opened her mouth, revealing the two large fangs dripping with what seemed to be black venom; the fangs were twice the size of any normal canine tooth. She said nothing while latching onto his kneck, plunging her teeth deep into him. And within minutes, the liquid began overflowing, drenching his white t-shirt in the black liquid.

The bite filled him with fear and pain; he screamed and pulled on her to force her to release her snake-like grip on his body. Finally, he gripped the sides of her head and pulled up with as much strength as he could muster, and threw her back. Raye instantly felt gratification as her head collided with a rock.

A sudden electric shock shot through his brain. His body felt like it was on fire and freezing simultaneously. The feeling of thousands of pins was pushing through his veins, his blood and the black goo poured from his nose, he could feel his pupils forcible contracting, his teeth fell out and regrew at insane speeds, coming back feral and more predatory.

The pain was unbearable; he was sure at some point, it’d cause him to pass out; it never came. Metal burst from his muscles and out of his skin.

He grabbed at the metal spikes but released them. In seconds, the process was over. He was left, kneeling on the ground, bloodied and drooling. But he heard it, the screaming and anguish of the people; it brought him back to his senses.

The metal spikes reformed around his back, and he took off, breaking the sound bearer almost immediately. Buildings and cars all around him had their windows shattered by the pressure. 

In the blink of an eye, he was already upon the enemy. And with a single punch connected with the back-barrier, the barrier strained, showing more contact points; it bent inward from the force. And then slingshotted the monster forward, subsequently shattering the barrier.

He landed on a nearby rooftop with a satisfied look on his face. The pain was finally gone; it was replaced with pleasure that he couldn’t explain. It was like being made of stone all his life, and then now he was suddenly made of liquid.

The enemy turned every single eye on him; it was enraged. The moment it saw him, it did the same thing with the Raye, fired hundreds of beams that barely hit him; however, he did not move. 

And then the same laser that knocked Raye out of the sky came. It melted the entire rooftop off the building, burning an almost perfect circle diagonally going downward. But he was missed. He was standing just a foot to the left, and somehow, his body was changing even further. His hair had multiple black metal scales littered throughout. His arms were twice as big and covered in the black scales; he even grew a tail, twice as thick as Raye’s.

His wings frames grew even more prominent, pushing almost thrice his original wingspan. The Alpha Cell finally felt the pressure of fear and immediately flinched back. A thick aura of uncontrollable savagery accompanied his surroundings. The enemy began blasting with a ferocity that meant death wouldn’t come soon enough.

He danced between the lights, purposely skirting through them; the closer to the danger, the more alive he felt. And then he was tackled; someone much stronger had brought him crashing to the same rooftop he had just left. Over the top of his was someone dressed like Raye and had the same features, except he was dark-skinned.

“Oh god, he’s approaching phase two; he's going berserk!” said a voice.

He felt something go around his neck; it was tight and rigid. “Control collar is on! The nanites are starting to stabilize,” said another voice.

The last thing he saw was about six tiny dots approaching the enemy and engaging, and then it felt like he was encased in stone once more.