Night draped West Hollow in static neon when the Chaos Crew gathered around Zara's cracked projector table. A hologram of the city's underbelly spun above them—sewage arteries, service tunnels, maintenance shafts—all converging on a red pulsing sphere labeled SIGIL NODE – DR. CROSS.
Zara adjusted her visor. "Node sits five hundred metres below the Guild's R&D tower. Triple‑layer security: glyph sentries, pressure plates, and a bio‑signature lock keyed to Cross herself."
Patch pecked the projection. "Any ventilation ducts big enough for a daring pigeon?"
"Ducts yes," Zara said, "but rune grids will fry feathers and hybrids alike."
Jack leaned on the table, arms still faintly silvered from lingering Quicksilver trace. "So we piggy‑back the only key in town. We abduct Cross."
Lyra's brow furrowed. "Extraction in an active Guild tower? That's insane."
Jack grinned. "Insane is our brand."
Reina cracked her knuckles. "I vote yes. Strike at dawn when shift rotation is thin."
Zara swiped to a new slide: a service elevator shaft that plunged past the node chambers. "This line is dormant but still powered. If we spoof Cross's ID badge into the elevator's archaic mag‑stripe reader, we ride straight down."
Jack twirled an old Guild ID Zara tossed him. "Spoofing means I need Cross's encoded heartbeat, right?"
"Exactly," Zara said. "Remote scans show she's on the 22nd‑floor lab tonight."
Lyra exhaled. "Clock's ticking before Omega reboots fully. We kidnap Cross, hijack the node, sever Omega's leash, and blow the core while we're at it."
Jack clapped. "Beautiful chaos. Let's roll."
---
Phase One – Tower Infiltration
An hour later they crouched on a skybridge adjoining the Guild tower. Acid rain hissed off Jack's carbon‑web cloak. Zara jammed the camera grid; Lyra fried lock circuits; Reina slipped first, cat‑stepping inside.
Jack followed, elastic arms extending to ceiling pipes for silent swings. He touched down beside Reina.
"Heartbeat," Zara whispered in comms. "Cross is in Lab 2219. Two guards outside."
Reina signaled. Jack stretched an arm, tapping each guard's shoulder from thirty feet. They whirled—Reina pressure‑pointed both before they spoke.
They crept into the lab. Dr. Valerie Cross hunched over a cylinder containing shredded Quicksilver residue. She didn't look up until Jack's elastic hand closed over her mouth.
"Shhh," he whispered. "Field trip."
Cross's eyes blazed righteous fury, but Zara's taser‑dart put her out cold. Lyra scanned her retina and fingerprint, dumping data into a cloned badge.
---
Phase Two – Elevator Descent
Thirty floors down, an ancient maintenance lift wheezed open. Jack hauled the unconscious Cross inside; Zara swiped the forged badge. Blue lights turned green, elevator dropping like a coffin on cables.
Halfway down, alarms flashed red. "Emergency override," Lyra spat. "Someone noticed Cross's vitals offline."
Reina jammed the 'STOP' lever, halting at Level ‑10. Shaft doors pried apart—revealing a horizontal tunnel lined with rotating rune sentries.
Patch gulped. "Plan B?"
Jack inhaled, feeling the sigil hum. Quicksilver trace still swirled in his blood, carbon lattice in muscles. "I'll scout."
He phase‑shifted—limbs liquefying into thin tendrils. Sliding between rune beams, he reached a breaker box. An elastic‑carbon fist smashed it; lights died, runes fizzled.
"Tunnel clear," he called, cheeks pale from energy drain.
Lyra and Reina dragged Cross through. Elevator resumed, spiraling deeper.
---
Phase Three – Node Gate
At Level ‑50, steel doors etched with living glyphs barred the path. A heartbeat scanner pulsed.
Cross stirred groggily. Jack pressed her wrist to the reader. Glyphs unfurled, doors hissed open.
Inside: a cavernous sphere of humming conduits feeding a thrumming core—the Sigil Node. Tendrils of light stretched upward like neon roots. Glass pods along the walls housed dampener prototypes—future Ω units half‑grown.
Lyra's eyes hardened. "We end this."
Zara deployed tap‑bombs on backbone servers. Patch scattered mini‑EMP seeds. Reina guarded Cross, pulse‑knuckle crackling.
As Jack approached the core, a shadow detached from the ceiling. Not Ω—but a sleeker, spider‑like drone with a single crimson lens.
Zara gasped over comms. "Phase‑Two sentinel: Arach‑Ω. It'll remote‑trigger Omega if we're detected."
The spider lunged. Jack's carbon‑elastic leg spring‑launched him upward; mid‑air he poured Quicksilver into his fist, shaping a liquid blade. He slashed—the spider's lens shattered, but micro‑drones burst out, swarming.
Alarms howled. The node throbbed brighter. Jack swore, spinning elastic limbs to bat drones away.
Lyra yelled, "We have sixty seconds until system lockdown!"
Zara's tap‑bombs armed. Jack dove toward the core, mercury blade poised—
—and a siren voice boomed from hidden speakers:
"Wilson, submit. Your body will evolve no further without me."
Cross had awakened, micro‑needles digging into a wristband, her smirk illuminated by node light.
Reina lunged, but too late—Cross triggered a failsafe. A vortex of sigil energy erupted, pulling Jack toward the core like a magnet.
"Jack!" Lyra screamed.
Jack's vision filled with blinding violet. The last thing he felt was his own cells igniting, fabric of body and node intertwining.