My Hollow System

Chapter Seventeen – Lab Rats and Lightning Fists

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole mess, it’s that walking into your own origin story is a lot less cool than it sounds. Especially when the origin story involves bioengineered monsters, a morally bankrupt mega-corp, and a whole lot of lightning.

We stood at the edge of the quarantine zone, the air thick with tension and the sharp scent of ozone. Thunder rolled overhead like the sky was warning us to turn back. The compound loomed beyond the fence, a twisted blend of high-tech science and post-apocalyptic decay. Lights flickered behind grimy windows. Something inside that place pulsed alive, watching, waiting.

Adrian adjusted his gear, the straps on his tactical vest creaking under the strain. “You sure about this, Elias?”

I nodded, though my stomach was doing Olympic-level gymnastics. “As sure as I am that this place holds the answers we need.”

Lex tapped her tablet with rapid precision, her eyes scanning the encrypted schematics she’d hacked on the way here. “Security systems are set to ‘nightmare mode.’ Automated turrets, thermal sensors, and I’m pretty sure I saw something labeled ‘Containment Class Omega.’”

“Sounds cuddly,” I muttered. “Just another relaxing day in paradise.”

We ducked through a breach in the outer fence, the metal edges still scorched from a previous raid. Every crackle of lightning gave us a burst of visibility, painting our surroundings in blue-white flashes.

My heartbeat synced with the storm as we crossed the grounds. Each step brought us closer to the source of the virus—the place where this nightmare began.

I took a deep breath and felt the beast stir inside me, like a thundercloud swelling behind my ribs. “Time to put my new skills to the test.”

Without waiting, I sprinted forward.

My vision sharpened. My limbs moved with a grace I hadn’t yet earned. The motion-sensing lasers blinked red, but I zigzagged through the detection fields, narrowly avoiding each one. The world slowed as my body moved faster. I slid under a sweeping turret, then vaulted onto a second-floor balcony, tearing the steel mesh apart with clawed fingers.

“Clear,” I whispered into my comm.

Adrian and Lex followed using the alternate route: Lex’s hacked override looped the security feed for ten seconds, just long enough for Adrian to cover her approach.

We slipped inside through a shattered observation deck window. The moment my boots hit the ground, I felt it—like crossing a boundary into something not just dangerous, but wrong.

The air inside was sterile and unnaturally cold. Screens lined the walls, flickering with real-time surveillance of rooms filled with shadowy figures, suspended tanks, and mechanical arms.

As we crept through the labyrinthine halls, my head began to ache. Not from the lights or the tension but from the memories clawing their way up from the depths of my mind. I saw flashes: cold needles. A voice whispering numbers. Screaming my own, raw and primal.

“Elias,” Lex whispered, placing a hand on my arm. “You good?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “Let’s keep moving.”

We reached the central lab an enormous chamber with high ceilings and a cluster of containment units glowing faintly in the dim light. In the center stood a glass tank, unlike any other. Inside it pulsed a swirling mass of red and black fluid, veins of lightning coursing through it like living electricity.

Lex approached the control panel and froze. “This… this is it. This is the origin strain. The one they used to make you.”

Adrian’s voice was low. “The source of everything. The outbreak. The mutations. All of it.”

I stepped forward, heart pounding. My reflection stared back from the tank half-human, half-monster.

“We destroy it,” I said. “End this. For good.”

But before anyone could move, the lights shifted to blood red, and alarms blared across the complex.

“Containment breach detected. Unauthorized personnel in Sector Zero,” the system announced.

A voice followed, deeper, colder, and unmistakably smug. “Elias Mercer. We’ve been expecting you.”

I turned slowly, dread pooling in my gut.

Sloane stood at the entrance, flanked by six guards in high-grade combat armor. His silver hair was slicked back, his expression calm like a snake eyeing prey.

“You’ve come a long way,” he said, stepping inside. “But you’re still just a pawn in a much larger game.”

“I’m no one’s pawn,” I growled, fists clenched.

The beast inside surged forward, licking at my veins with electric fire.

Sloane raised an eyebrow. “Then prove it.”

His guards raised their weapons.

And all hell broke loose.

Lex dove behind a control station, Adrian rolled across the floor and came up firing non-lethal shock rounds, and I charged forward, letting the beast take over.

I crashed into the first guard, sending him flying into a column. My claws tore through metal and armor. Sparks and screams filled the air. The lab descended into chaos shattered glass, gunfire, screams.

But through it all, I had one goal: reach Sloane.

He moved like a phantom, always just out of reach, taunting me with that smug smile. “You think destroying the virus ends this? You think you’re the only experiment?”

“What are you talking about?” I snarled, blocking a baton strike and kicking the attacker into a vat of chemicals.

Sloane tapped a button on his wrist. From behind the tank, another door hissed open and a figure stepped out.

It was me.

No,not quite. He was taller, bulkier. His eyes glowed bright yellow. His claws were longer. More feral. Less human.

“What… what the hell is that?” Adrian shouted.

“My successor,” Sloane said, stepping back. “You were Version Nine. This… is Version Ten. Perfected.”

The clone tilted its head and let out a low, rumbling growl.

I felt it,recognition. Like looking into a warped mirror. Rage boiled inside me.

The clone lunged.

We collided in the center of the lab like twin hurricanes. Claws clashed, teeth gnashed. Every strike was met with equal force. He matched me blow for blow, growl for growl.

But I had something he didn’t: purpose.

“Elias!” Lex shouted over the comms. “The virus tank! Hit it—it’ll destabilize him!”

I glanced at the swirling mass behind me. Risky. If I missed…

I ducked a swipe and drove my elbow into the clone’s chest, then spun and hurled a piece of debris at the tank.

It shattered.

The virus spilled out in a pulsing wave of red energy. Instantly, the clone let out a tortured scream. His body began to twist, veins glowing too bright, muscles bulging uncontrollably.

Sloane’s eyes widened. “No,no! That’s too much!”

“Should’ve read the side effects,” I muttered.

The clone convulsed, then exploded into ash and static. The energy from the virus surged upward, cracking the ceiling.

Alarms doubled in intensity. A robotic voice blared: “Omega-level breach. Structural collapse imminent.”

Sloane stumbled, shielding his face from the debris. “This isn’t over!”

I lunged.

He turned to run but I was faster. I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the shattered tank. Electricity licked his skin as he screamed.

“You don’t get to walk away,” I said, my voice a mix of human and monster. “Not this time.”

The virus surged around him, eating into his skin. His screams became guttural, primal.

And then he stopped moving.

The facility groaned. Steel beams collapsed. Smoke filled the lab.

I turned to Adrian and Lex. “Go! I’ll hold the rest off!”

Lex hesitated. “Elias”

“Now!”

Adrian grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the exit.

I stood alone in the crumbling lab, the world around me collapsing.

A giant crack split the floor as I ran, leaping across burning equipment and dodging falling debris. The beast inside me strained, muscles flickering with sparks, barely holding form.

Finally, I burst through the loading bay doors into the night. Rain hammered down in sheets, cooling my burning skin. I collapsed to my knees, panting.

We had won.

But as I caught my breath, I looked back and froze.

Something moved in the shadows beyond the facility.

A figure tall, hooded, and watching.

Then a voice crackled through the comms Lex’s voice, frantic.

“Elias… there’s something you need to see.”

I stood, blood dripping from my claws. “What is it?”

Her voice wavered. “You’re not going to believe this… but there’s another lab. One that’s still active. And… Elias, they have a list.”

“A list of what?”

She hesitated. “Test subjects. And your name… it’s not the only one that’s crossed out.”

A cold chill ran down my spine.

The figure in the storm took a step forward, lightning briefly revealing a symbol on their arm an emblem I’d seen once before.

The Hollow Crown.

Sloane wasn’t the end.

He was just the beginning.