The crater was a mess of fire and broken metal. When the heavy-drop pod crashed from the sky, it threw the Iron Giant backward. For one brief second, the giant and the terrifying beast known as Subject 13 were fighting each other in the smoke. Silas Kapito did not waste that second. He knew he could not fight two nightmares at the same time. He turned to his Reapers and gave the signal to run. Now, they were hiding far away. They were deep underground, in the ruins of an old train station. The ceiling was cracked. Water dripped from the dark pipes. Plop. Plop. Plop. It was cold, and the air smelled like wet dirt and old rust. Silas sat on the hard concrete floor. He crossed his heavy legs. He placed his hands on his knees. He was meditating. Silas needed to fix his mind. The purple "Rot" in his chest was spreading too fast. It felt like hot fire crawling up his neck. His marble-white skin was glowing faintly in the dark. Inside his head, Silas was fighting a silent war. This was

The sky above the train station was completely black, but it did not stay black for long. A bright, burning red streak tore through the clouds. It looked like a dying star falling to the earth. Down in the Citadel, the Chrome Council watched their crystal screens. They had pushed the final button. They had sent the monster. The heavy-bore containment pod fell at an impossible speed. It did not have parachutes. It did not have slow-down thrusters. It was a giant bullet made of thick, dark metal, fired directly at the Ash-Lands. BOOOOOOM!The pod slammed into the roof of the ruined train station. It smashed through the thick concrete ceiling as if it were made of thin paper. It hit the ground floor, digging a deep, smoking crater into the dirt. The impact was so loud that it made the air shake. Dust and rocks flew in every direction. Silas Kapito stood just fifty feet away. He held a thick, rusted pipe in his heavy hands. He did not blink. He did not step back. He just watched the

The dark subway tunnel was filled with thick grey dust. The smell of burning bone and strong acid hung in the air. Silas Kapito lay flat on his back in the dirt. His chest was torn open. The highly corrosive acid from the Chimera's claws hissed loudly. Tssss. Sizzle. The acid was eating deep into his dark, heavy ribs. Any normal person would be screaming. Any normal person would be rolling on the ground in pure, blinding pain. But Silas did not scream. He did not make a single sound. He closed his solid black eyes. He reached deep into his mind. He found the part of his brain that felt pain. He used a technique called "Nerve-Stripping." It was like taking a pair of scissors and cutting the wires that connected his body to his brain. The pain vanished. It was replaced by a cold, numb feeling. Silas opened his eyes. He could not feel the fire in his chest anymore, but his internal sensors, his "Neuro-Sync Alpha" mind—told him exactly what was wrong. Warning, his mind whispered. Da

The dark subway tunnel was filled with blinding, bright blue light. The heavy power cables hissed and spat in the deep water. Millions of volts of raw, planetary electricity pumped into the pool. The water boiled instantly. Thick white steam filled the air. Inside the boiling water, Subject 13 roared. The sound was terrible. It was a mix of a screaming machine and a dying animal. The blue lightning danced across the beast’s clear skin. It wrapped around its titanium bones. Silas Kapito watched from the dry dirt. He held his breath. His left arm hung completely dead at his side. His chest was covered in silver blood. “Die,” Silas thought. “Just die.”The bright blue light flashed one last time, and then the power cables burned out. The tunnel went completely dark again. The only sound was the bubbling of the hot water. For a long moment, nothing moved. Then, a heavy foot stepped out of the water. Clank. Subject 13 walked up onto the dry dirt. It was smoking. The black syntheti

The Resonance Chamber was completely silent for exactly one fraction of a second. Then, the beast struck. Subject 13 moved so fast that the air inside the giant cooling tower snapped. It sounded like a massive whip cracking in an empty church. Silas Kapito stood in the center of the room. He had his right arm raised. He was ready to block. He was ready to strike. But the Chimera did not use its claws. It was a perfect predator, and predators are smart. It knew Silas was watching its hands. Instead of punching, the beast spun its massive body in the air. SWISH. The Chimera had a thick, heavy tail made of synthetic muscle and titanium joints. It looked like a giant, black whip tipped with a sharp metal spike. The tail swung around with the force of a wrecking ball. Silas did not see it coming. The heavy tail slammed directly into Silas’s left side. CRUNCH. The sound was terrible. Silas’s tungsten-dense ribs—the strongest bones in the known world—shattered. They did not just cr