The warehouse bunker felt colder than usual. It was not the type of cold that came from the weather or from broken pipes or from a draft that slipped in through the cracked ceiling. It was the cold that followed fear. It was the cold that lived in the air after a team was beaten so badly that their confidence cracked like thin glass.Landon sat on a metal crate near the far wall with his elbows resting on his knees. His hands were still shaking. His ribs were still aching. His mind kept replaying the short and brutal fight with Gorgon Wolfe. He remembered the way Wolfe moved through them as if they were light shadows. He remembered that terrible strength, the calm voice, the strange cold humor, and the way Wolfe walked away after sparing them. He said it with ease. He said it like life and death were toys in his hands.“Rebuild your little squad. Make them strong. When the Midwest burns, I want a real challenge.”Those words had carved a burning scar inside Landon’s mind.Navarro

The night after the convoy encounter felt heavier than any other night since Wolfe began his rise. The sky over Milwaukee was black with smoke, and the air tasted like metal and dust. The Vanguard gathered inside the old warehouse that served as their temporary base, but even with all of them together, the building felt cold and hollow.Landon sat alone on the second-floor balcony, watching the street lamps flicker outside. His mind spun with thoughts of the armored walker and the disciplined soldiers. Their precision, their timing, their behavior, it all felt too smart, too controlled, too aware.Claire climbed the stairs and stood beside him. She kept her voice low. “The civilians from District Five are safe. Priya placed them in a temporary shelter near the western tunnels.”Landon nodded but kept his gaze outside.Claire studied him quietly. “You are thinking about the soldiers again.”“I am thinking about the message,” he said softly.Claire leaned against the railing. “They s

The proto-Gorgons knelt in the broken parking lot like twisted giants bowing before a king they did not understand. Their pale skin quivered, their metal plates clicked softly, and their glowing red veins pulsed in rhythm with the strange light coming from Landon’s arm.Everyone froze. Even the night air seemed to stop moving.Claire stared at Landon with wide eyes. “How did you do that?”“I didn’t,” Landon said, his voice low and confused. “I just raised my arm.”Priya whispered, “They are responding to your origin. Rhea warned us this could happen.”Marcus eyed the kneeling monsters with a mixture of fear and fascination. “So what, Landon just became their, what, master?”Navarro gripped his rifle tightly. “I don’t like this. Not at all.”Rhea stepped forward slowly, as if approaching a wild animal. “They are unfinished versions of Wolfe. Their bodies are programmed to recognize dominance. Whatever Wolfe has inside him, you have a piece of it too.”Liana stared at the creatures, th

Rain fell in steady sheets over the hideout the next morning, tapping against the roof in a slow, nervous rhythm. Jin sat in front of three glowing screens with wires looping around him like vines. His fingers moved fast across the keys, typing commands that made the screens flash with shifting maps, code lines, and scrambled feeds from old Syndicate servers.Landon moved behind him with quiet steps, the tension from the night before still hanging heavy in his shoulders. Claire stood at the table nearby, reviewing tactical files with a tight jaw. Navarro polished weapons with calm focus, and Priya studied a list of dead drops sent by her network. Marcus paced back and forth in the corner, too restless to sit still.Jin broke the silence first. “I found something,” he said, his voice steady but low.Everyone looked up.“What is it?” Claire asked.Jin pointed at the central screen. “These coordinates. They are encrypted routes hidden inside a Syndicate archive. They are not random. T

The sun had not yet risen when the Vanguard left the fire station. The air carried a cold bite, as if warning them of what waited ahead. Landon tightened the straps on his gear and breathed slowly. The abandoned industrial port sat three miles east, and every step toward it felt like entering a place no one should return from.Priya rode in the front of the van, scanning her tablet.“The coordinates match,” she said. “This is where the divine artifact drop should land. Wolfe wants it before sunrise.”Navarro loaded extra magazines with sharp clicks. “Then we beat him to it.”Marcus sat beside him, silent, rolling his shoulders. He had not slept, and it showed in his eyes.Jin sat behind Landon, fingers tapping restlessly on her tablet screen. “Signal traffic is heavy. Wolfe has drones in the air, but they’re circling wide. They don’t want to expose the drop point until the last second.”Claire sat closest to the door, her face half-lit by the van’s interior lights. She looked calm, b