The briefing room in COMA HQ was unusually quiet.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVgcECziYm8
Twelve chairs. Twelve operatives. And at the head of the table — Elda Korugane, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
Luce leaned back in his seat, eyes flicking between the others. The air felt… heavy. Even Ishaan, the eternal troublemaker, wasn’t making jokes. That’s how you knew something was wrong.
“ARGUS has flagged an anomaly,” Elda began, tapping a command into her console. The wall screen behind her came alive with blueprints of a derelict facility. The overlay read:
Yashiro Bioweapons Plant – Decommissioned 15 Years Ago68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVln5JNtYRp
Status: Unknown Activity Detected
ARGUS’s synthetic voice followed, calm but faintly eerie:
“Thermal signatures indicate pod activity. Bio-readings match known Valken bioweapon variants… and one unidentified entity.”
Damien narrowed his eyes. “Unidentified?”
ARGUS paused before responding — almost like it was choosing its words.
“The signature is a 92% genetic match to Luciano Moretti.”
All eyes turned to Luce. He stiffened in his chair.68Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuOY0rDkAvN
“…That’s not possible.”
Sayaka placed a hand on his shoulder. “Luce, maybe it’s a scan error—”
“No,” Avni cut in sharply. “ARGUS doesn’t do errors like that. If it says 92%… there’s something out there connected to you.”
Raiden’s gaze flicked to Erik, who looked concerned but didn’t speak. Lev leaned forward, resting his forearms on the table. “Could be a clone. Could be a body double. Could be someone who just looks like him.”
Elda spoke again, her voice low and steady. “Whatever it is, it’s moving. We don’t have much time before it vanishes again. Alpha and Bravo will deploy together — full authorization for lethal force if the entity is hostile.”
Ishaan finally piped up, his tone half-serious, half-trying to cut the tension. “So basically we’re chasing Luce’s evil twin? Great. This is gonna end well.”
Veer smirked faintly. “Only if you keep your mouth shut for once.”
Saira shot both of them a warning glare. “Focus. If ARGUS tagged it, it’s dangerous.”
Deployment
Hours later, the Ravenfall teams moved through the misty outskirts of the old Yashiro plant. The facility loomed like a corpse of steel and glass, windows shattered, ivy crawling up cracked concrete.
Alpha Team took point — Luce leading, Sayaka on his right, Damien and Dev flanking left, Ishaan and Veer covering the rear. Bravo Team shadowed from the side, Avni and Lev scanning ahead, Raiden and Erik handling overwatch, Saira and Isolde watching flanks.
ARGUS’s voice murmured updates through their earpieces.
“Pod chamber is located sublevel three. Power grid partially functional. Recommend caution.”
Damien muttered under his breath, “This place is a graveyard.”
“Graveyards don’t hum like this,” Lev replied. “There’s something alive here.”
They descended through corroded stairwells, their boots crunching glass and debris. The deeper they went, the colder it felt — and the more that hum intensified, a low vibration they could feel in their teeth.
The Pod Room
The chamber was massive — half laboratory, half tomb. At its center stood a single cylindrical pod, mist curling off its surface. Golden light pulsed faintly inside.
“ARGUS, scan,” Luce ordered.
The AI responded instantly:
“Subject match: 92% genetic alignment to Luciano Moretti. Anomalous features: altered pigmentation, ocular luminescence. Current status: dormant.”
Sayaka’s eyes narrowed. “Ocular luminescence? That means—”
Before she could finish, the pod hissed. Everyone’s weapons snapped up. The frost on the glass began to melt, revealing a figure inside.
The man — if you could call him that — had hair the color of molten gold, eyes glowing like twin suns. His features… were almost identical to Luce’s, but sharper, colder. He looked like a reflection pulled from some cruel mirror.
The pod seals released with a sharp hiss. The figure stepped forward, bare feet silent on the steel floor. His gaze swept over the group, and when he spoke, his voice was deep, calm… and chillingly familiar.
“So… these are the ones sent to greet me.”
Tension
No one moved. Even Ishaan’s usual urge to crack a joke was strangled by the weight of the moment.
Luce took a slow step forward, his hand resting on the grip of his sidearm. “Who are you?”
The figure tilted his head, studying Luce like a scientist might study a specimen.
“I am… what you could have been.”
Avni’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not an answer.”
The golden-haired man smiled faintly — but it didn’t reach his eyes.
“Names are for the incomplete. I am finished.”
Veer muttered under his breath, “Okay, that’s not ominous at all.”
Raiden took a protective step closer to Erik, his gaze never leaving the figure. “If you’re not here to talk, then say so. Save us the trouble.”
The golden-haired man’s smile widened, just a fraction.
“Oh, I’ll talk. I’ll tell you about the Sleeping Gate… and why it’s hungry.”
The Threat Emerges
Before anyone could press him for details, ARGUS’s voice cut in sharply:
“Warning: multiple hostiles inbound. Bio-signatures match Valken-class bioweapons.”
The chamber’s side doors burst open, and shadows poured in — humanoid shapes, skin pale and stretched tight over muscle, eyes burning red. Valken prototypes.
“Contact left and right!” Damien barked, opening fire.
The room exploded into chaos — muzzle flashes, the hiss of bioweapon screeches, the sharp clang of blades meeting steel.
Sayaka moved like water, her sword cutting down one Valken before it could lunge at Luce. Avni’s rifle barked three precise shots, dropping another. Lev slammed one into a wall with brute force, the metal buckling under the impact.
Raiden and Erik fought back-to-back, the former’s blade and the latter’s pistols creating a deadly rhythm. Saira moved with clinical precision, every strike meant to kill, while Isolde covered Damien’s flank, her movements sharp and disciplined.
The Stranger’s Exit
Through it all, the golden-haired man simply… watched. Then, as the last Valken fell, he spoke:
“You fight well. It won’t save you.”
Before anyone could reach him, he stepped backward into a shimmering field of light — and vanished.
“ARGUS, track him!” Luce snapped.
“Negative. Entity has exited traceable range.”
Luce cursed under his breath. “He knew we’d come. He wanted us to see him.”
Elda’s voice crackled over comms, sharp with urgency.
“Ravenfall, report.”
Damien answered for the group. “Target sighted, escaped. Engaged and neutralized multiple Valken hostiles. We’ve got a problem, Elda. This guy… looks exactly like Luce.”
There was a pause on the line, and when Elda spoke again, her voice was tight.
“Return to base. Now.”
As they began exfiltration, the weight of what they’d just seen pressed in on every member of Ravenfall.
And in the shadows of the ruined plant, far beyond their sight, the golden-haired man stood beside a second pod — frost still thick on the glass.
Inside, something even worse was waiting.
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and then Add to home screen.