“You’re aiming for my head, but your footsteps are far too loud for a hunter!”Axel hissed softly into the darkness of the night as the steel door behind him slammed shut. The narrow alley outside the bunker felt like a frozen vice. The remnants of the evening rain reflected the glow of the streetlights across the deserted city. The night wind pierced through his tactical jacket, cutting past the layer of biological skin and into the bionic circuits that were beginning to cool down. His right leg suddenly stiffened. The effects of Dextar’s Neural-Stabilizer formula were starting to falter, triggering a faint numbness beneath the sharp ache in his joints. Axel knew he did not have much time before his entire body became paralyzed again on this rain-soaked asphalt.Axel dragged his feet forward, sticking close to the shadows along the rows of storefront walls to avoid open areas. On the main street, city life continued as usual. A couple walked beneath a large umbrella, several sedans s

"Drop all that useless stuff, Axel, they're right above our heads!" Dextar shouted in panic as he slammed his fist against the control desk.The roar of combat helicopter rotors above ground sent violent tremors down through the concrete pillars. The empty test tube in Axel's grip slipped free, crashed against the cement floor, and shattered into scattered shards of glass. White concrete dust rained from the cracked bunker ceiling, dirtying Axel's tactical jacket and hair. Axel's bionic eyes flickered wildly, processing the high-frequency sound waves rapidly approaching from the main entrance of their underground facility."How could they find this place so fast?" Axel strode toward Dextar's security monitor, which was now blinking red."I don't know. Every outer sensor is picking up massive movement. They've surrounded the entire warehouse district block!" Dextar yanked an old backpack filled with important documents, his hands trembling violently as he stuffed in the remaining stabi

“Get that poison out of your lungs before your main circuits freeze, Axel!” Dextar barked as he slammed his trembling palm against Axel’s tactical backplate.Axel coughed up the last traces of purple chemical fluid from his mouth, letting the corrosive mucus drip onto the pile of dry waste at the bottom of the holding tank. His knees shook violently as he tried to crawl out of the foul-smelling brackish water. Beside him, Dextar leaned his aged back against the moss-covered concrete wall, coughing harshly with a flushed face from the lingering acidic gas he had inhaled in the upper corridor. The old man’s breathing sounded painfully heavy, clashing with the hiss of hot steam still escaping from the damaged valve at the back of Axel’s neck.“My system is rejecting the automatic cooling command, Dex. It feels like molten iron is flowing through my spine.” Axel groaned as he clutched the right side of his neck, feeling the lingering extreme heat continue burning through his motor nerve p

“You deliberately let them trace the remaining circuit waves, Axel?” Dextar shouted as he grabbed Axel’s arm, pointing at the shattered communication radio still emitting a slow blinking red light across the concrete floor.Axel did not pull away his hand, now covered in permanent black streaks circling his wrist. His bionic eyes stared straight toward the waste processing corridor of Sector Five, directly connected to the main pipeline network beneath Goran’s command tower. He had intentionally manipulated the tracking signal from the destroyed console for thirty seconds before crushing it into metallic ash.“Their field officers won’t come down into these sewers if they think we already escaped to the outskirts, Dex.” Axel stepped past the bodies of two mercenaries that now looked as dry as old timber.“Your body just recovered from a massive malfunction. Inviting the Goran faction’s rapid response unit is the same as speeding up our deaths!” Dextar stomped the floor, splashing brac

"Get away from that hunter sensor, Dex!" Axel roared as the hydraulic valves in both of his bionic knees released maximum gas pressure simultaneously.The mechanical burst launched Axel’s tactical body across the slick concrete floor just as the twin barrels of the Cyber-Sentry unit began spewing a storm of bullets. The deafening barrage of seven point sixty-two millimeter rounds tore through the night air, igniting continuous flashes of fire within the darkness. Axel’s hard impact managed to shove Dextar tumbling behind a steel steam reservoir tank."Hold your position!" Dextar shouted through the metallic screech of bullets skinning the concrete walls.The drone’s gunfire sliced through a high-pressure steam pipe behind them, creating another explosion of steam that blasted wildly in every direction. One of the rounds pierced a protective steel plate, ricocheted sharply, then tore through the biological flesh at the base of Dextar’s left shoulder, sending fresh blood spraying across