The moment Company 8 breached the facility's perimeter, chaos erupted throughout the underground complex. Ryu's thermal senses painted a vivid picture of the White Clad's emergency response—guards rushing to defensive positions, scientists frantically working at control panels, and, most horrifying of all, the children's thermal signatures spiking to dangerous levels as automated systems began pushing their modified abilities beyond safe limits.
"They're forcing the children into overdrive," Ryu reported through gritted teeth, his own temperature rising in response to his growing anger. "We have minutes before permanent damage occurs."
The facility's main entrance had been sealed with blast doors that would have stopped conventional forces indefinitely. But Ryu was far from conventional. Channeling his thermal manipulation with surgical precision, he created a localized fusion field that turned the reinforced steel into molten slag in seconds.
"Temperature control holding steady," he announced as they moved through the breach. Despite generating heat intense enough to melt through military-grade defenses, the air around his teammates remained comfortable. It was a demonstration of control that would have been impossible without his enhanced understanding of thermodynamics.
The first level of the facility revealed the true scope of the White Clad's operation. Laboratory equipment that clearly cost millions lined the corridors, while observation windows revealed rooms filled with children connected to machines that pulsed with artificial Adolla energy.
"My God," Tamaki whispered, her usual nervousness replaced by fury as she saw children no older than ten hooked up to devices that were clearly causing them pain.
"Focus on the mission," Captain Obi commanded, though his own expression revealed how deeply the sight affected him. "Maki, structural analysis?"
"The building is designed to channel and contain massive energy discharges," Maki replied, her earth-manipulation abilities giving her an intuitive understanding of the facility's construction. "But there are critical support points that could be exploited if we need to bring sections down selectively."
Arthur had already encountered their first group of guards—White Clad operatives enhanced with artificial pyrokinetic implants. His Excalibur cut through their flame-based attacks with ease, but Ryu noticed something troubling about their combat patterns.
"They're not trying to stop us," he realized. "They're herding us toward specific areas."
His enhanced tactical awareness, honed by years of studying superhero strategies, recognized the signs of a coordinated defensive plan designed not to repel invaders but to control their movement through the facility.
"It's a trap," Shinra concluded, his devil's grin notably absent as the gravity of the situation sank in.
"Of course it's a trap," Ryu replied, his flames shifting to a deeper blue as he prepared for whatever was coming. "But we're walking into it anyway because those children don't have a choice."
The team advanced deeper into the facility, following Ryu's thermal mapping toward the largest concentration of child prisoners. As they moved, he continued to monitor the artificial energy readings throughout the complex, noting patterns that suggested a countdown sequence had been initiated.
"They're building toward something," he reported. "The energy levels throughout the facility are rising in a coordinated pattern. I think they're planning to use the children as components in a larger system."
The horrifying realization hit them all simultaneously. The White Clad weren't just experimenting on children—they were planning to use them as living batteries for whatever Project Prometheus truly represented.
As they reached the facility's second level, they encountered their first group of children. Eight young prisoners, ranging in age from seven to fourteen, were connected to machines that were clearly pushing their modified pyrokinetic abilities to dangerous extremes. Their thermal signatures showed signs of artificial enhancement that made Ryu's enhanced physiology seem subtle by comparison.
"Tamaki, you're up," Ryu directed, already beginning the delicate process of using his thermal manipulation to safely disable the machines without harming the children.
Tamaki approached the nearest child, a girl who couldn't have been older than nine, with infinite gentleness. "It's okay," she whispered. "We're here to take you home."
The girl's eyes, previously glazed with pain and artificial stimulation, focused on Tamaki with desperate hope. "Are you... are you real?"
The question hit harder than any enemy attack could have. These children had been subjected to psychological conditioning designed to make them question reality itself.
"Very real," Tamaki assured her, carefully working to disconnect the cables and monitoring devices that had been surgically implanted. "And we're getting you out of here."
Ryu's thermal manipulation made quick work of the machines, melting critical components while ensuring the energy discharge wouldn't feedback through the children's systems. His enhanced understanding of both technology and human physiology, boosted by his pyrokinetic evolution, allowed him to safely extract each child from their technological prison.
But as the eighth child was freed, alarms throughout the facility reached a new level of urgency. Ryu's thermal senses detected massive energy buildups on the facility's lowest level, and the pattern finally became clear.
"They're not trying to stop us from rescuing these children," he realized with growing horror. "They're using our rescue operation as a trigger for the final phase of Project Prometheus."
Captain Obi understood immediately. "The energy signatures you detected?"
"Every child we free sends a signal to the central system," Ryu explained, his tactical mind racing through the implications. "They've designed it so that attempting rescue actually accelerates their timeline. We're not preventing their plan—we're completing it."
The ethical dilemma was staggering. They couldn't abandon the children to their fate, but every rescue was apparently contributing to whatever catastrophic event the White Clad had planned.
"Options?" Captain Obi demanded.
Ryu's enhanced intellect, pushed to its limits by the desperate situation, began formulating a solution that would have been impossible without his unique combination of abilities and knowledge.
"I override the entire system," he said, his flames beginning to shift toward the brilliant blue-white that indicated his fusion state was approaching activation. "Instead of letting their automated systems use the children's liberation as a trigger, I become the trigger myself."
"Explain," Captain Obi ordered.
"The facility's central system is designed to channel massive amounts of Adolla-influenced energy," Ryuelaborated, his voice taking on the focused intensity he displayed when pushing his abilities to their limits. "If I can reach the core and connect my own thermal output directly to their collection system, I can flood it with more energy than it's designed to handle while simultaneously maintaining precise control over the output."
The plan was audacious to the point of insanity. Ryu was proposing to essentially become a controlled nuclear explosion, channeling stellar-level energy through a system designed to exploit children while somehow maintaining enough precision to avoid harming any of the prisoners.
"The risk?" Maki asked, though her expression suggested she already knew the answer would be terrifying.
"If I lose control for even a microsecond, the energy discharge could level half the city," Ryu admitted. "But if I maintain perfect thermal control, I can turn their own system against them. Overload their equipment, disable their defenses, and create a massive electromagnetic pulse that will shut down every artificial enhancement system in the facility simultaneously."
Shinra was already moving toward the next group of children. "How long do we have?"
"Based on the energy build-up patterns, maybe twenty minutes before they reach critical mass," Ryu replied. "But that assumes they don't accelerate the timeline further in response to our interference."
As if summoned by his words, a new thermal signature appeared on Ryu's enhanced senses. Massive and cold despite the facility's rising temperatures, and moving toward their position with purpose. Whatever it was, it wasn't human, and it radiated the kind of artificial power that suggested White Clad engineering at its most dangerous.
"We have company," he announced, his flames automatically intensifying in preparation for combat. "Something big, artificial, and heading straight for us."
The approaching entity's thermal signature was unlike anything Ryu had encountered before. It seemed to absorb heat rather than generate it, creating a moving cold spot that defied the laws of thermodynamics as he understood them.
"Guardian protocol activated," a mechanical voice echoed through the facility's PA system. "Unauthorized personnel will be terminated with extreme prejudice."
Through the facility's corridors came something that looked like a fusion of infernal and machine—a creature that had once been human but had been so extensively modified that only traces of its original biology remained. Artificial Adolla energy pulsed through technological implants that covered most of its body, while its eyes glowed with the same cold light as the White Clad's more advanced equipment.
"They've created an artificial Infernal," Arthur breathed, his usually bombastic confidence notably shaken by the sight.
"Not an Infernal," Ryu corrected, his enhanced senses analyzing the entity's energy patterns. "Something worse. They've taken a human being and turned them into a living weapon specifically designed to counter pyrokinetic abilities."
The creature's thermal absorption capabilities were already affecting the facility's temperature, drawing heat from the surrounding environment and somehow converting it into the cold Adolla energy that the White Clad used for their most dangerous technologies.
"New plan," Ryu announced, his tactical mind adapting to the evolving situation. "You get the children to safety. I deal with their pet monster and then proceed to the core."
"Not alone," Captain Obi said firmly.
"Yes, alone," Ryu replied, his voice carrying absolute conviction. "This thing is designed to counter normal pyrokinetics. But I'm not normal, and what I'm about to do has never been attempted before."
His thermal output began rising beyond anything his teammates had witnessed before. The air around him didn't just shimmer—it began to ionize as he approached temperatures that shouldn't have been possible for a human being to generate, let alone survive.
"Get those children to safety," he commanded, his voice distorting slightly as his body began transitioning toward a state of controlled plasma. "And whatever happens, don't look directly at me once I reach full fusion state."
The artificial guardian was almost upon them, its heat-absorption abilities creating visible distortions in the air as it drew thermal energy from everything around it. But Ryu's enhanced intellect had already identified the critical flaw in its design.
It was built to absorb and counter normal flame. What he was about to become was something far beyond normal.
As his teammates moved toward the remaining children, Ryu stepped forward to face the creature, his body beginning to emit light as well as heat as he approached the threshold of his fusion transformation.
The battle for the facility's core was about to begin.