New York never slept, but tonight, it was about to get a rude awakening.

A low thunder echoed through the city skyline as a giant military chopper roared across the rooftops, blades slicing through the night sky like a buzzsaw on a mission. The traffic down below was gridlocked, pedestrians clueless about the chaos unravelling beneath the city's surface. But the chopper wasn't here for traffic reports.

Its destination was clear.

The Venom Night Club.

On a rooftop helipad barely a block away, the chopper didn't bother with a graceful landing. It skidded to a rough hover and dropped just long enough for a squad of black-armoured soldiers to leap off in a fluid, synchronised motion. They were already moving before the skids touched metal.

"Move, move, move!" barked the squad leader through the comms, voice curt and sharp.

Parachutes deployed mid-leap, the elite task force steering themselves with expert precision as they descended in near silence toward the glowing neon sign of the club.

Beneath that glowing facade?

The Snake Pit.

An infamous underground fight club run by a known registered mutant: Dominique Mercer, better known as the One-eyed Viper. Her profile was well-documented in the Association database - Density Manipulation, Enhanced Physique, Strategic Combatant. She wasn't a rogue.

Not officially.

But everyone knew the truth. Rumours had circulated for years. She did as she pleased and kept rogue mutants under her thumb, subordinates to do her dirty work. The most notorious?

The Black Fang.

A shadowy young mutant who had no official registration, no known affiliations outside of Dominique's influence, and no recent public sightings. Yet his name was whispered in mutant circles like a warning.

Still, the Association had left her alone.

Why?

Because Dominique was a necessary evil.

She kept her violence in the underworld, away from civilians. She ran the fight club, sure - but she also kept others in line. No civilian casualties. No public incidents. She even paid her dues when needed and supplied intel on other threats.

But that was before tonight.

Because now?

Now there were reports of a massacre.

Dozens dead. Rogue abilities out of control. Civilians caught in the crossfire.

And most damning of all?

Survivors screaming about a red-eyed demon drenched in blood, fighting the One-eyed Viper herself.

They couldn't ignore this.

Not anymore.

As such, the AMC was deployed.

"This isn't a negotiation," said the squad leader as she landed hard on a balcony near the club entrance. "We're going in, securing the perimeter, and neutralising all threats. Orders are clear. Dominique Mercer is to be subdued, not killed, unless she resists. All other mutants, shoot first. Understood?"

"Yes, Ma'am!" the soldiers chorused.

She clicked the comm again. "Targets of interest: Red Eyes, Pyro Maniac, and Black Fang. Rogue mutants - possible affiliation to Mutant Outlaws. Authorised for lethal force if deemed unstable."

Their boots crunched on the ground. Guns raised. Sensors flickering. The smell of blood already hit them from here.

"Jesus... smells like a slaughterhouse," muttered one of the rookies, jaw clenched.

"It is," the commander muttered grimly, scanning the smoke rising below them. "And we're already late."

The night sky above the club was glowing a dull, ominous red with dawn soon on the horizon.

They didn't know it yet, but they weren't dropping into a fight club.

They were dropping into hell.

-

The AMC juniors were already moving in formation, heads on a swivel, eyes scanning every exit and entry point of the crumbling underground fight club. Their orders were clear - evacuate any surviving civilians, establish surveillance lines, and make contact with any approaching authorities.

"Team Beta, get the wounded out. Gamma, you're on comms and perimeter lockdown. If a badge shows up, stall them. We're not finished here," the squad leader ordered through clenched teeth, voice sharp through the squad channel.

But it was the Alpha team, the real muscle of the operation, who descended deeper into the Snake Pit.

And what they found made even the most hardened among them hesitate.

The air was thick with blood and sweat. Shattered concrete, broken support beams, and dozens of corpses littered the battleground. In the centre of the devastation stood a monster wrapped in crimson - a humanoid shape coated in a living, fluid blood armour that hissed and hardened at every impact point like some kind of breathing carapace.

Opposite him was a woman they immediately recognised - Dominique Mercer, the One-eyed Viper, her obsidian aura rippling with pressure, her skin gleaming as her ability made her body dense enough to leave craters with every step.

Every time they clashed, the ground trembled. Wind blasted out in shockwaves. Blood and energy whipped through the air like a tornado on the verge of imploding.

"Jesus Christ…" one soldier muttered, gripping his mutant-grade rifle tighter. The thing had been designed to punch through Kevlar like wet tissue - and it could drop most mid to high-tier mutants with a single shot to the head. If you could land it.

But this?

This was no ordinary mutant fight.

"Do we intervene?" another asked.

The squad leader didn't answer immediately. Her gaze remained locked on Kai, his presence like a demon born from carnage itself. The red glow of his eyes pulsed brighter each second, his movements getting faster, more fluid, more vicious.

"No," the leader said at last, jaw clenched. "We interrupt that fight, we're dead. We wait for the opening and lock down the surroundings."

Across the ruined battleground, Nadya's expression soured the moment she saw the familiar uniforms.

Her teeth gritted. "Well… shit."

Sven had already reached for his twin daggers. "That's the AMC. You know they're not going to leave until they capture or kill us all, right?"

Isaac, eyes darting between exits, squeezed Amina's hand tighter. "I can phase us out at a moment's notice. But we need to move soon. They'll be alerted and onto us if they see our faces."

Amina, sensing the tension, simply nodded. "What do we do?"

"They must know that we're here, but they don't seem focused on us just yet," Nadya muttered, "But Kai..."

She didn't need to finish the thought. The AMC had made their reputation in the early mutant crisis, back when even the Hunter was rumoured to be part of their squad. An enforcer so efficient and brutal that even top-tier mutants vanished without a trace.

Though no one had heard from the Hunter in a while, the AMC's doctrine hadn't changed.

Purge. Control. Contain.

And tonight, Kai found himself caught in their crosshairs...

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