The moment they emerged from the cracked pavement, the four figures didn't waste a second.

Isaac, Sven, Nadya, and Amina stumbled into the nearest alleyway, its walls damp and the stench of the city clinging to every brick.

The man who had phased them out was trying to catch his breath. Beside him, Sven hunched over near a dumpster, dry heaving. His normally sharp expression was twisted in discomfort.

"I'd rather have fought my way out," he groaned.

Nadya didn't say a word, just pressed a hand to her stomach and swallowed the bile rising in her throat. Even she looked rattled, and that was saying something.

Only Amina managed to pull herself together quickly. Her hands lit up with that gentle golden glow, her ability already activating on instinct. She touched her chest first, letting the warm sensation wash away the ache in her lungs and the stinging nausea clinging to her insides.

Then, without a word, she turned and touched Isaac's shoulder. A ripple of healing energy passed through him, dulling the throbbing headache behind his eyes and soothing his fatigue.

He blinked. "Huh… You can heal yourself?"

"I… didn't know either," Amina admitted, glancing down at her fingers.

Sven gave a dry laugh, wiping his mouth with his sleeve, before shamelessly asking for her to heal him.

Nadya, on the other hand, had furrowed brows, and her gaze was darting around the alley. "Where the hell is Takeshi?"

She didn't direct the question at anyone in particular. It was more like a thought spoken aloud - one shared by them all.

He'd disappeared moments after they arrived in the city without warning or communicating where he was going - typical Takeshi.

But also… not.

"He always shows up when we need him," Amina said, her voice quiet, uncertain. "Like he's watching from somewhere."

Sven nodded. "Creepy bastard probably is."

But Nadya shook her head. "This time feels different. I don't like it."

There was no time to dwell on it, though - not with sirens wailing in the distance and the steady chop of helicopters closing in from above. The flashing lights painted the alley in streaks of red and blue as the city's response began to fully mobilise.

The battle at Venom had stirred a hornet's nest.

They had to move.

And if Takeshi was in trouble that he couldn't handle himself, they wouldn't be able to do much to help...

-

"We need to get to the rendezvous," Sven muttered. "It's further out, past the East Block. No way we're getting through the main streets."

"Especially with the Association swarming the nightclub," Nadya added.

They turned to what appeared to be a dead end of the alley, but they could get over it quite easily and try to get around without drawing attention.

"I'll see you guys there shortly, along with Kai." Isaac didn't sound very confident, but it's not like he could back out.

Three heads turned toward him at once.

Amina's eyes were wide with concern. "Be careful... okay?"

Isaac gave her a small, crooked grin. "Come on. I'll get our blood maniac out of there easily, don't even worry about it."

Before anyone could say anything else, he began to sink into the concrete beneath his feet, like smoke dissolving into a puddle.

A moment later, he was gone.

But none of them could've imagined what he'd find when he returned.

Because from the very moment Isaac had phased out with the others, the Snake Pit erupted.

And somewhere in the eye of that storm… was Kai.

-

It all started as soon as they made their escape, with Kai getting the upper hand over the one-eyed serpent and being on the verge of ending her life.

"Dominique Mercer is a valuable resource."

The AMC squad leader's voice rang out sharply through the squad's comms, clipped and professional. Not a trace of compassion bled through. She wasn't trying to save Dominique - she was merely protecting an asset.

"She's not important. But the other one... he's unknown. Dangerous. Not on any of our radars." Her eyes narrowed beneath her tactical visor as she watched the crimson figure standing beside the restrained mutant. "We can't allow him to walk away from this."

Then came the words that sparked hell.

"Open fire."

No hesitation. No warning.

The night exploded with violence.

The first bullet cut through the air like a whisper of death.

Bang!

It slammed into Kai's chest, through the dancing ripples of crimson that formed his blood armour, tearing clean through him. Then came the next. And the next.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

A barrage of high-powered rounds ripped into him, each one slamming through his torso like cannonballs. Blood sprayed into the air in sickening arcs. His body jerked with each impact. Red mist painted the asphalt.

Standard mutants would've dropped and bled out in seconds.

But Kai… wasn't standard.

He stumbled back, eyes wide - more out of surprise than pain. His breath caught, shallow and erratic. His vision pulsed red. The air smelled like iron and cordite. For a second, just a second, he could feel the holes in his body. The torn muscle. The shredded organs.

Then he laughed.

It wasn't joyful. It wasn't sane.

It was the laugh of someone who had finally stopped pretending to be human.

The blood that had sprayed outward shivered, suspended in the air, then reversed.

It snaked back into him in strands, guided by will alone. His veins sealed. His organs wove themselves whole. His armour rippled and closed like liquid steel. The ground beneath him quaked under the presence of something unnatural.

Kai's head tilted toward Dominique, and his lips curved into a low, venomous smirk.

"You get to live a little longer. I'll deal with these vultures before coming back to you," he muttered, voice low and distorted, as if layered with something demonic.

Dominique stiffened. She crumbled to her knees and knew that she would struggle to fend off Kai for even a second longer. Her life had flashed before her eyes, and after it had, only one thought arose.

'I don't want to die...'

She found herself hoping that the AMC could eliminate the blood monster, but from the looks of it, that was unlikely.

Because Kai was different from how he'd been earlier, he was now a predator, high on instinct, wrath, and bloodlust.

And he wasn't stopping...

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