The AMC squad leader stood frozen, motionless in the middle of the ruined underground structure.

Her rifle slipped from her fingers.

Clatter!

The weapon hit the concrete beside her boots, echoing loudly in the silence.

The blood demon - the monster in human skin who had massacred her squad like they were nothing more than paper dolls - had just sunk into the ground. Vanished like a phantom.

Gone. Just like that.

But the fear didn't leave with him.

It lingered.

Clinging to her lungs. Clawing at the edges of her mind.

Weapons hadn't worked. Not rifles, not grenades, not a damn thing.

Even after taking down the Black Fang and the One-Eyed Serpent, two high tier threats recognised by the Association, he had kept moving. The blood-wielding mutant barely even looked tired, like he had enough left in him to tear through ten more squads.

It was a massacre; no other word fit.

Almost her entire squad had been shredded before her eyes.

Some were crushed. Others impaled. One of them had simply vanished into a storm of crimson and never reappeared, his remains splattered on the wall.

The figure didn't even use a weapon.

Just his hands.

That cold, red armour that wrapped around him like a second skin… It wasn't just powerful - it was a statement.

This is the difference.

This was the line between a powerful mutant and a trained human. No matter the equipment and gadgets. No matter the drills. Against someone like him, they were nothing more than target practice.

And yet…

Even with all that carnage playing on loop in her head… that wasn't what haunted her most.

Her fingers trembled as she stood there, rooted in place.

'W-Was that… really Kai?'

The question swirled through her mind, heavier than her gear, louder than the sirens in the distance.

She had recognised him. Just for a second. When the blood peeled back and she locked eyes with the smiling, deranged figure.

He was wilder and almost unrecognisable, but she couldn't be more sure of who he was.

It left her with dozens of questions that she couldn't hope to answer, as she gritted her teeth and snapped out of it with a shake of her head.

This wasn't the time to get sentimental. Not in the middle of a disaster zone.

She dropped to one knee, snatched her rifle back off the floor, and barked into her comms.

"Requesting urgent med-evac. We've got wounded - civilians and operatives. Multiple casualties. Repeat, multiple. Send backup and containment immediately."

Her voice was steady. Crisp. The perfect soldier's tone. No trace of the chaos in her heart.

She rattled off coordinates, listing names, statuses, and affiliations like clockwork. The Black Fang and One-Eyed Serpent, both unconscious and cuffed with reinforced steel that even mutants would struggle to break, would be collected and transferred into the Association's custody.

Reports would be filed. Statements taken. Logistics sorted.

Everything would go through the proper channels.

Because that's what they did.

That's what the AMC had to do.

Even when everything felt like it was falling apart.

Even when her squad was lying in pools of their own blood.

Even when she'd just seen a ghost rise from the past - alive, broken, and transformed into a walking nightmare.

Her subordinates looked at her, shaken but trying to compose themselves. She responded with swift orders, pointing out evac routes, triage priorities, and fallback positions. Her voice was iron. Her expression was calm and unreadable.

But inside?

She was more shaken than she cared to admit.

Her hands clenched tighter around her rifle. Her jaw locked.

She didn't know what Kai had become or how.

She couldn't confirm if he was friend, foe, or something worse.

But one thing was crystal clear.

'Things are going to be crazy…'

-

Meanwhile…

Somewhere in the backstreets of New York, tucked away in a half-collapsed alley just beyond the reach of the flashing red-and-blue sirens, the ragtag group of mutants finally regrouped.

They were all members of the renowned Mutant Outlaws, then there was Kai.

But unlike the camaraderie they'd built over the past month - the jokes, the laughter, the awkward moments of bonding - there was no light in the air this time.

Only silence.

Heavy, suffocating silence.

Kai stood with his back against the wall, drenched head to toe in blood, most of it not his own. The crimson stains soaked deep into his clothes, congealing and clinging to him like guilt that wouldn't wash off.

He didn't speak.

His mind was loud enough.

Thoughts crashed through his skull like warring beasts, pulling in a hundred directions. Rage. Regret. Emptiness.

Most of all - frustration.

Frustration that he'd lost control.

Frustration that he didn't remember. That even now, after everything, her face, the squad leader, meant something to him… but the memory stayed just out of reach. Like a word on the tip of the tongue. Like an itch he couldn't scratch, no matter how hard he clawed.

And deeper still… was that damn truth he couldn't run from.

He was in this situation because of Nyx. Because of Seraphina. Because the world had grabbed him, twisted him, and tossed him into a pit he hadn't chosen.

'If it weren't for them…' he thought bitterly, teeth grinding.

'I'd be somewhere else right now. A normal life. Maybe even peaceful. I don't remember it all, but… it felt peaceful. Before.'

He exhaled slowly.

Let the chaos settle.

His blood began to calm and circulate more slowly around his body, easing his nerves.

Then, like flicking a switch, he shifted his thoughts. Adjusted his perspective.

Kai had always been good at that - when the past failed him, he focused forward.

'At least now I've discovered something new.'

A faint smirk tugged at his blood-stained lips.

'Blood Armour… I wove it instinctively. It wasn't just defence, it boosted everything. Strength. Speed. Control. Like I had suddenly been given a proper vessel to channel my blood through.'

He flexed his fingers, still crackling with faint traces of red.

'Quite ingenious, if I do say so myself. And best of all…'

His smirk faded into something sharper.

'I've got a lead. That woman. The squad she was with. AMC, was it? Yeah… That's the name. Feels familiar. Like something buried in me recognises it. I don't know how, but I'm tied to them. I was probably even one of them once.'

He rolled his neck, eyes narrowing.

'Time will tell. But I doubt that's the last time I'll see her.'

He didn't dwell. Didn't overthink.

Kai had no past to look back on, only the wreckage of it. So he looked ahead instead, like always.

But not everyone shared that resilience.

Just across the alley, the others stood in varying states of silence and disarray.

They stood in the alley they had emerged in through a Spatial Rift hours ago, hearts still pounding, eyes wide. Sirens screamed faintly in the distance. The city wouldn't sleep, not after that chaos. Choppers still circled somewhere near the Venom Nightclub, floodlights cutting across buildings.

They needed to move.

They needed anywhere but here.

But no one made the first step.

Isaac leaned against a rusted pipe, chest heaving, lips pale. Sweat dripped down his brow as he wiped his mouth with the back of his sleeve, barely managing to keep his guts down.

Amina was beside him, her palm glowing faintly as her healing flowed into him and herself. She looked worn, drained, but focused. And more than anything, she looked scared.

But Isaac was even more so - he had seen everything.

Through the concrete. Through the floor. Through the blood.

His Phased Vision had shown him Kai's rampage in horrifying detail. The way he tore through the AMC with ease.

At the time, he was frozen in place.

Terrified to even think about stopping that monster in red.

He only acted when he saw the hesitation. When Kai paused. When the blood calmed. Only then had he reached out, ghosted through the floor, and yanked his friend down before anyone else could get to him.

Even now, his legs trembled.

He couldn't stop thinking: What if Kai hadn't stopped? What if that bullet hadn't hit him? Would there have been anyone left to save?

Nadya stood a few feet away, clutching her jacket tightly around her. Her expression was unreadable. Cold. But her eyes flicked over to Kai every few seconds like she expected him to explode again at any moment.

They had all been there when it happened.

They saw what he became.

What he was capable of.

And yet… here they were, standing in an alley beside him. Hoping it wouldn't happen again.

That was all they had right now.

Then there was Sven.

The quietest of them all.

He stepped forward.

His voice wasn't loud. Wasn't sharp. But it cut through the silence like a blade.

"…We need to move."

Everyone looked at him in agreement as he nodded towards the end of the alley.

"We can't stay here for long. The authorities'll sweep the area and block off everything leading to the nightclub. If we're still standing here when they do…"

He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't have to.

Kai remained leaning on the wall and let out a slow exhale, eyes still a little distant, but his body back under control.

"Lead the way, then," he muttered.

No one argued, and they were all eager to get as far away from the aftermath at Venom Nightclub as they could.

But deep down, they all knew, things were just getting started...

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