2026-01-22 12:07:16Inside the cocoon, Max couldn’t hear them. Not clearly.
He drifted.
Memories flashed in fragments: his father’s voice, the weight of the first gauntlet on his arm, the mantis’s blades, the wasp’s piercing eyes, the banshee’s scream, the forest fire, the SUV, the lab’s skeletal doorway.
Past and present folded together.
Then everything went black.
When sight returned, he was standing in a strange space.
It looked like a cross between a gallery and a vault. The sky above was lined with massive safes, sealed tight and distant. Some of the floor platforms were empty. Others held items—faintly glowing, each with its own weight.
His gaze fell on the first one.
A familiar shape hovered there: a stinger attached to a bulbous core, like a mantis receptor.
His gauntlet.
The next platform held a formless, slowly flowing mass of sticky fluid.
Goo.
After that came something stranger. An item flickered between forms—a heavy hand cannon, a long sniper rifle, and a small, twisted horn. They shifted into one another in a slow, pulsing cycle.
Max stepped closer.
So this is the new slot… ammo, he realized.
He reached out mentally, focusing on the horn first. A faint, unpleasant pressure brushed against his mnd which he resisted. His hand brushed it, feeling it till he spotted a trigger, so it was a horn gun, but that changes nothing.
“Nope,” he muttered.
The horn shimmered, then hissed out of existence—dismissed, its potential sealed away.
Only the cannon and sniper remained.
Golden Ravine, he never thought he had seen the snipersoo soon or at all after his pouch divoured it, as for the cannon...he wasn't sure how it came up.
He studied both forms, weighing them thesame way he would weigh enemies on the field.
A sniper meant range. Silent kills. Taking down mid‑bosses before they even knew he was there.
A cannon meant raw impact. Loud, brutal, but devastating against huge, armored targets. The kind of thing that could tip future battles on its own.
He couldn’t decide.
If only I could have both.
The moment the thought formed, the space shuddered.
The platforms trembled. The sky of locked safes groaned. Cracks of white light raced along the floor.
“Uh—” Max started.
The entire realm began to collapse.
A massive pillar of shifting stone and light tore free from somewhere above, hurtling toward him.
Max didn’t have time to move.
The world snapped away.
Back outside, the cocoon of energy around his body pulsed once, then twice. Some of the soldiers flinched.
“We should cut him out,” someone muttered.
"That would be bad,” Garfield said sharply. “There could be complications, best we leave him to do it himself if lucky, he should be able to handle it....if not. Hiss face turned solemn. "We might need to take cover."
Everyone gulped in fear and prayed silently in their hearts, but a dangerous gleam in Marc's eyes said otherwise. But luckily.
The cocoon flared—then shattered.
Light blew outward in a short, controlled burst, then faded. Max staggered a step forward, smoke curling faintly from his clothes, a bitter taste burning at the back of his throat.
He let out a rough breath and grimaced.
“Damn… I was too greedy,” he muttered.
Jane misunderstood completely.
“You think?” she snapped. “You just swallowed enough enhancers to retire a mule! If that had gone wrong, I’d be writing your obituary instead of my report.”
Max only offered her a weak, crooked smile. He didn’t bother trying to explain. How was he supposed to tell them he’d almost been crushed by a metaphysical pillar inside his own power space?
Instead, he flexed his fingers.
His skin looked cleaner somehow, smoother, but not unnaturally armored. His bones felt denser. His muscles coiled with a quiet, controlled strength.
Garfield’s eyes widened.
“Punch that,” the professor said suddenly, pointing at a waist‑high boulder of fallen concrete.
Max raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.
He stepped up to the boulder and drove his fist forward.
Stone exploded.
Cracks raced across the rock before it shattered completely, crumbling into dust and chunks that skittered across the floor.
No goo. No wings. No gauntlet.
Just him.
Garfield sucked in a breath, excitement blazing behind his glasses.
“Rank D,” he whispered. “You’ve climbed to Rank D without mutation. Remarkable.”
Around them, the soldiers erupted into fresh murmurs. Another D‑rank on humanity’s side was no small thing. After everything they’d just fought, the tiny bump in hope felt like a miracle.
They barely had time to enjoy it.
As the squad relaxed for a heartbeat, Dr. Siri laughed lightly with the others, tension finally starting to bleed from her shoulders.
A shadow moved behind her.
From a crack in the far wall, a thin, glistening tentacle slithered out, silent as a breath. It slid across the floor, then whipped up and coiled around her waist and throat before she could even gasp.
Her smile froze.
The others hadn’t turned yet.
So she helped them........
Aghhhhhhhhhhh!!!
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Tracks and Terror
Siri led the way, but it was really her memories that pulled them forward.With her quiet guidance—and Jane’s steady presence at her side—they began retracing the places where she and Dr. Colosso, now Kran, had once circled each other as an almost-couple. They walked through stretches of the facility and the broken city that were haunted more by ghosts of the past than by anything visibly dangerous.They stopped where he used to wait for her between shifts, at the cracked bench by the outer corridor window where the sun bled orange through dust. They paused in the narrow alley that once served as their shortcut, where the walls seemed to lean together in a conspiratorial hush. Siri’s voice shook as she pointed out the quiet corners where he’d rambled about theories and futures and impossible dreams in place of confessing feelings he never quite dared to say aloud.Jane said little during all of this. She didn’t know the old Colosso, didn’t share these memories, but she understood grie
Main phase
Max walked down the base and met up with Jane in her office. As it seems ,she wasn't inn he had to go back to the secretary in charge, then she directed him towards one of the lectures room on camp .Not even bothering to knock max entered the room without much further ado, jane was before a board giving details of the dos and don'ts of the Kraken squad, written vividly on the board. the sound of the door drew the attention of eight eyeballs to the entrance."Max?never thought you had come.."Jane was pleasantly surprised he accepted her request. few would want to risk their lives for the military, though it wasn't for free."its good you could make it," she added"The pleasure is mine." Max smiled turning his view to the three people seated, including Sarah who occupied the last row. she waved at him. So he made sure to send a thumbs up her way, but it was only for a second.Beggars couldn't be choosers. Max wasn't much of a talker, but it was good enough he could join the team.Jane we
Darkness Pigment
It was raining cats and dogs tonight,And birds were cradling their chicks in their nest.The civilian sector is a very humble space as of now, with stalls that were dying out in sync.with little to no walking on the street.An old man came by his usual spot and banged the counter to wake up the owner. The owner wasn't act displeased from being woken up from his beauty sleep, plus sales have been slow lately, so he would appreciate it if sales came in at all.Though this old geezer was too much, he still accepted him with open arms."Hey, got any spare umbrella? I wrecked mine just now," the old man showed his wind-torn rain guard."Hmm, let me be done warming your noodles and make some cocoa for the rain its a no-brainer, you had need some flames through these stormy curtains." The stall owner passed an umbrella from the hook behind the door.servings of noodles and hot cocoa for the night, he couldn't lie knowing his body was a catastrophic combo, but he can't stop, plus it was too
Heist
An orb glowed on a ring-shaped plate. A scientist wearing a face shield was reassembling the orb with a picker and spatula for what felt like the ten-thousandth time. He had tried multiple patterns already. Hopefully, this time would be a success."Hey, Lorne, would you hand me the chip of the core? That should be the final piece to this puzzle. Let's pray it doesn't explode." The scientist grimaced, extending a hand toward Lorne, his new assistant, who was holding a chunk of Nest Core worth dozens of lives."Here, Professor," Lorne answered.It had been three days, yet they still hadn’t succeeded in creating what they were after. There wasn’t much time. According to the military, the system might crash the moment the Merc Association obtained a C rank or a New Path.The professor attached the chip of Nest Core to the open part of the core. Immediately, a rainbow wave of energy spread to all corners of the lab and beyond.The scientist, Garfield, flinched as sweat dripped down his for
it's not the letter.... it's the mail that's off.
“Is that the last one?” Jane said to the secretary, who was tidying up the papers on the table. She, on the other hand, was sipping her morning coffee from her mug.“Yes, Captain, that was the last one,” the secretary said anxiously.“Leave the rest to me, then,” Jane reassured her, her hands picking up the paper on the table before she took her seat and gave the chair a twirl.Sigh...“I sent letters to five different destinations, secretly, to those I found fitting for the Special Squad. Those I could trust, as they would focus more on missions outside the base,” Jane said out loud, though she didn’t seem to be talking to anyone. She had chosen individuals known for their resourcefulness and who had proven their loyalty through past missions. Each had unique qualities: a strategist who could outsmart adversaries, a medic who excelled in high-pressure situations, and a technician with unrivalled skills in hacking and engineering, making them indispensable for missions beyond base bor
The Story of the leader of the first Speial squad leader.
The birds were screeching just beneath the clouds as the sun set on the event of the day.An awarding ceremony for the soldiers who had accomplished the first-ever Rank C mission would be taking place at the sector front. The commander had taken it upon himself to honour the heroes who brought hope back to the last lamplight of humanity.With the apocalypse in full swing, it was hard to make anything feel official, but the military managed, making it at least half as good as ceremonies from the old world.Jane watched the setup. To her, all these were mere formalities that could have been skipped—yet the constant, rapid tempo of her heartbeat said otherwise.Father… little Jane hasn’t let you down.Jane’s cheeks went wet as tears slipped down onto her fist, clenched tightly at her waist.“Is everything fine, Captain? I can’t help but notice that you haven’t dressed up for the ceremony.” At some point, the commander had managed to appear at her side.“Ah, Commander—” Jane flinched, the
You may also like
