The Bottleneck Vortex warped the air as it smashed into the window. A boom rang throughout the vault, shaking the walls. Slabs of reinforced glass cracked free of the frame and crashed to the floor as a hole widened in its centre. Andy could not see the guards inside, either they had died, or fled. Andy focussed his will, imagining the tight beam of the Bottleneck Vortex shot widening. The feeling of energy flowed through him more evenly, filling his arms and legs as it built to a climax. Pulling Julie’s trigger again, Andy strode towards the window and fired a standard Vortex shot, the wide area of effect shattering what remained of the broken glass, leaving a hole in the guardpost wall where the window had once been.

An alarm sounded. The lights overhead dimmed, joined by spinning red sirens. Andy wasted no time climbing through the opening into the cluttered office space beyond. The guards had left in a hurry, kicking over a desk chair in their haste which now lay in the doorway, wheels spinning. Andy peeked through the open door into the armoury beyond. He could hear footsteps and whispering in the dark room. Andy crept in, but did not turn his headlamp on–that would only reveal his position and provide a beacon for the guards to shoot at, assuming they had armed themselves already. His eyes adjusted faster than he’d expected in the dim red emergency lighting, assisted by LED lights blinking in the ceiling and a dimly lit sign above each of three doors. The room was lined with lockers. One was open to contain combat apparel. There were riot shields stacked in a row, truncheons on a rack, and a cabinet of tasers, but none of the good stuff Andy was looking for. A sign above a door at the back of the room read ‘Military Stock’. Bingo.

There was shouting outside. Somebody screamed, their voice heavy with anger and hysteria, rather than pain. The shouting went back and forth until a gunshot rang out, and the vault dwellers exchanged gunfire for words.The ‘Greys’ must have arrived, and Blue-cap’s men were engaging them. That left the armoury all to Andy, once the guards hiding inside were dealt with.

Andy’s head snapped around as he heard shuffling to his right. He scanned the darkness, but the crackle of gunfire outside masked the sound. Somebody jumped out at him. Andy spun on the man and fired Julie, blowing a chunk out of his shoulder. The man collided with him, knocking Andy off balance. Sparks flew in the corner of his eyes. Andy turned, but was too late. Something struck him in the head. His body spasmed, fingers clenched. Julie went off in his hands. Andy hit the deck, his vision blurry. Clara had zapped him like that before with her new Augmented powers. He must have been tased.

Jumping to his feet, Andy held Julie close to his hip, searching for his attacker. Something stabbed him and filled his body with electricity. Andy clutched at the pain, wrenching taser’s barbs free and darted around the corner of a locker, but realised too late that he had dropped Julie. Due to his Combat Conceptualisation skill, he knew exactly where she was, but it didn’t help, because coming around the corner of the lockers was a muscular man, older than him, with a bat in one hand and a riot shield in the other. At the tip of the bat, white hot electricity danced between two metal teeth. The guard snarled.

Andy held his hand out to Julie, calling upon their Fatal Attraction, summoning her to him. She flickered across the floor and knocked into the guard’s boot. He glanced down, then booted her away.

“Nobody kicks my Julie!” Andy drew his dagger and got stuck in. Leaping at the heavy-set guard, Andy bounced off his shield like a gangly gazel as the man slammed him against the locker and jabbed him in the stomach with the electrical baton. Andy’s brain short-circuited, but somehow instinctively, he managed to get a grip on the baton’s shaft and wriggle free of the taser end. The guard battered Andy with his riot shield, catching him under the chin, dizzying him. Andy tried to stab the man in the neck, but couldn’t get around the shield. Kicking and ducking, Andy squirmed free as the big man swung wildly in the dark. Andy tried to dash past him to get at Julie, but the guard must have read Andy’s thoughts, because he stopped swinging and took a few steps backwards, standing between them.

“Give up mate. You’re trapped. Can’t get through either of them doors without this armband. Your mates outside are fucked. The greys’ll get them.” The guard pointed his baton at Andy. Sparks singed the air between them. “You’re going down mate. You’re going in a hole for the rest of your life.”

All Andy had was an assortment of knives. After everything he’d been through, all the monsters he’d killed and hordes of zombies he’d faced, it seemed ludicrous to lose here to one bloke with a cattle prod and a good workout regime. Andy was nothing without his guns. He needed to get to Julie, he didn’t want to get locked up inside a vault prison. If that happened, he didn’t have much faith in ever getting out. Andy wasn’t afraid of death, but imprisonment terrified him.

Andy mustered his Augmentation’s powers, the familiar metallic taste bursting like a cherry in his mouth. Although the tools were different, the principles were the same, weren’t they? Unsheathing his boot knife, he threw it at the guard wrist, just above the padding of his glove. He didn’t wait to see if the knife had hit. Charging forward, Andy leapt through the air knee-frist into the guard’s riot shield. Stabbing wildly, Andy aimed for the man’s throat, but his knife glanced off the protective padding of his grey jumpsuit. Andy’s knife was blunt! Clara’s face popped into his mind, chiding him for not maintaining his gear.

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The guard punched him in the temple. Andy flinched, raising his arm to defend, but got punched again and again, twice in the gut, lowering his arm, then once more in the temple. Pretty quickly, he was missing the bite of the prod’s electricity. Fingers crawled over his throat. A primal panic struck Andy. He stuck his forearm into the crook of the guard’s elbow and pried the hand free, then before the man could punch him again, grabbed the back of his head and pulled him in. Andy wrapped his leg around the guard’s knee and they both fell to the floor, Andy beneath him.

Clawing and tearing at his clothing, Andy exposed the man’s thick neck. An impulse swelled inside him. Something primitive, tainted. His hangover was excruciating. His head pounded. He needed to drink, but not even booze could satisfy his urges. Andy’s nostrils flared at the man’s scent–his sweat, his blood gushing through the arteries of his neck, bulging with strain. Andy could feel the man’s heart beat pound against his chest so rapid, so potent. Andy’s mouth opened, his tongue flickered, tasting the air, as he arched his back towards his prey.

Biting down, Andy wrapped his skinny limbs around the bigger man and clenched his jaw, drawing the life force from his body. The man screamed and pulled back, but Andy held on tightly. His blood tasted exquisite, like wine, and not the cheap sort Andy used to knock back as a kid. His blood was thick, juicy and sweet, with undertones of oak and spicy nutmeg notes. The man’s scream faded to a quiet groan as the fight started to leave him. With a final desperate effort, he tried to stand, but he clung to him like a tick. Collapsing, the man went limp, breathing heavily, wide eyes gazing into nothing. The more Andy drank, the softer the man’s heartbeat became, until it fluttered to a stop.

Andy untangled himself and sat against the locker, wiping his lips. The room spun drunkenly as he panted, feeling his headache subside. The heady rush of pleasure soon passed, and Andy was left with the taste of salt on his lips and another man’s blood in his mouth. His stomach churned. Andy bent over and vomited up red bile. Gagging, he crawled across the floor to retrieve Julie, then threw up again.

What had he done?

He could feel the other man’s blood inside him. It was disgustingly intimate. Andy vomited again, chunks of vegetables from his afternoon meal coming up, clotted with blood. He stood upright and leant against the wall, washing the taste out of his mouth with a gulp of scotch from his hip flask. A conflict of feelings sloshed in his gut, sweeping through his arms and tickling his brain. He felt gross, but at the same time, energised like never before. Powerful, lean. A predator. The metallic aftertaste of blood was eerily similar to that of his Augmentation. It was as though the two were combining, curdling in his stomach, a cocktail of powers.

The light of a flashlight pierced the dark room. Andy slunk back into the shadows between the lockers, willing himself unseen. He needed time to think and process these new feelings without interruptions. Besides, he felt a little embarrassed by what he’d just done. Sucking a man to death… it wasn’t exactly his style.

Andy’s black leather jacket was like a veil of darkness, soaking in light. His long hair curtained his face, drawing the shadow about him like a blanket. Blue-cap entered the room with the blonde-moustache soldier. He shone his flashlight around the room, then gasped as the beam landed on the body of the first guard Andy had killed.

Blue-cap cursed. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s too late, sir,” his comrade said, heading to the reinforced door. “They stood between us.”

Blue-cap remained still, shining his torch upon the second body. “Carl?” he said. “Andy?”

Andy remained still, observing them from the shadows. Blue-cap staggered towards the large doors leading to the vault main and leaned on the wall. He talked to himself softly, fists clenched, then opened the outer door and vault dwellers streamed in. Andy could see perfectly in the dim red siren light spinning in the tunnel outside. Blue-cap’s uprising was in full swing, but Andy kept to the corner of the room, focussing on the waves of sensation flooding his body. Each wash heightened his senses. The nerve endings in his armpits and groin tingled painfully. He felt dizzy, overwhelmed, but remained still, simply observing.

Mutation adaptation complete. He didn’t recognise his AI’s voice at first. It was the first time in days since his AI had talked to him unprompted. The feminine tone had returned, but with a deep silky quality to it. Delineation Hitman has been modified to suit invasive genetic alterations. New delineation termed: Predator. Subsequent abilities upgraded. Recalibrate at an Augmentation Master Console to complete synthesis.

“Hello again,” Andy murmured, then something caught his attention in the dark. A patch of shadow on the nearby wall, unaffected by the siren light. The darkness clung to the walls like grime, swallowing the white ceramic surface beneath it–a transformative void. Andy squinted. The darkness rippled before him, as though disturbed by the attention of his eyes. Something primal told him that the object was familiar, like in the seconds before sleep, when his mind wandered beyond its limits, and the guiding hand of consciousness fled, there loomed a blight in the dark. Patient. How long had it been stalking him? Andy could not tell. Days? Weeks? Booze blurred his perception of time, but suddenly witnessing the shadowy form in the dim light of consciousness, Andy knew that it was no illusion, and it had not always been with him.

Andy held his pale hand out to catch the red light of the siren. The shadow it cast was blotchy, and with each rotation of the siren, the shadow grew more disfigured. It was larger than his hand, and swelling in size. A chill swept through Andy upon the sudden realisation. He was not alone. The parasite was coming out of him… out of hiding.