Alpha Team — Valken Unveiled
The figure ahead didn’t move as Alpha stepped from the SUV, gravel crunching under boots. For a moment, it was still, eerily still — golden hair shimmering, frame tall and lean, just like Luce’s.
Sayaka’s breath hitched. “It’s him—”
“No.” Luce’s voice cut her off, firm, though his chest tightened. “That’s not me.”
Damien’s fingers twitched near his blade. “From afar, it’s you. From here…”
The thing smiled. And the illusion shattered.
Its skin rippled, veins glowing faintly under the flesh. The eyes, once hazel, gleamed with a sickly amber light. The jaw stretched too wide when it smiled, revealing rows of teeth that didn’t belong in any human mouth. Its limbs moved with a predator’s looseness, not a man’s.
Veer cursed. “…Yeah, no way that’s our boy.”
Valken’s voice came low, layered, distorted — as if two voices spoke together. “So this is the Valgrave stray.” His gaze landed on Luce like a blade. “The shame. The echo. The leftover.”
Damien’s chest flared with rage. “Shut your mouth!”
He lunged first, steel flashing. Valken caught the strike with a clawed hand, stopping it mid-swing. The sound was bone against metal, a crack that shook Damien’s arm to the elbow.
“You’re weak,” Valken whispered, eyes glowing. “All of you.”
Sayaka’s pistols sang fire. Luce joined in, his shots precise, cold, his breath steady even as his pulse raged. But Valken danced through the bullets, moving with sickening grace, every dodge a mockery of Luce’s own speed.
“Don’t blink!” Veer shouted, hurling a flash charge.
Light burst across the road. For an instant, Valken’s true form revealed — skin split like cracked porcelain, black veins crawling, a spine too jagged for any human body. The sight froze even the fire in Luce’s veins.
Monster. Not a man.
But still, somehow, it looked like him.
Beta Team — The Doppelgänger
At the shipping yard, Beta moved like wolves in formation. Containers loomed, shadows stretching. The figure they had cornered hadn’t fled. It stood waiting.
Raiden lifted his rifle, voice low. “Target in sight. Same golden hair. Same build.”
Ishaan whispered, “…That’s not Valken, is it?”
“No.” Erik’s chest tightened. He didn’t blink, afraid if he did the figure would vanish. “That’s—”
The figure stepped into the light.
And every jaw dropped.
It was Luce. Down to the cut of his jaw, the weight of his stare, the small scar across the brow. Even the way he shifted his weight — all of it, perfect.
“Holy shit,” Ishaan muttered. “That’s him.”
“No,” Saira said, her voice shaking. “That’s Seraph Falk Draganov.”
The copy tilted his head, studying them like specimens. His voice, when it came, was exactly Luce’s. “You shouldn’t be here.”
Raiden’s hands clenched around his rifle. “…This isn’t possible.”
The Seraph moved — and the air turned colder. The resemblance wasn’t just skin deep. The speed, the balance, even the chilling calm — all mirrored Luce’s own fighting style.
He dodged bullets like shadows dodged light. He stepped inside Raiden’s guard in a blink, his blade kissing the air near Erik’s throat before Erik shoved back. Every strike felt personal, like fighting their own comrade twisted into an enemy.
“ARGUS, talk to me!” Saira barked into her comm.
ARGUS’s voice was cold, clinical. “Identity confirmed: Subject Seraph Falk Draganov. Genetic overlay: 99.87% similarity to Luciano Moretti.”
Erik’s stomach dropped. Ninety-nine percent. That wasn’t resemblance. That was replication.
Intel Support — Alarms
In the safehouse, Avni and Lev froze as ARGUS’s words filled the air.
“Ninety-nine percent?!” Lev nearly dropped his stylus. “That’s not cloning, that’s—”
“Replication,” Dev finished grimly. “They didn’t just copy Luce’s genes. They weaponized him.”
Isolde trembled, eyes burning. “Yuriko and Rokuro…” She bit her lip. “They didn’t just create a soldier. They created a phantom of him.”
Avni’s fists clenched. She opened the comms, voice fierce: “Beta, hold position. Don’t get drawn in. Seraph isn’t Valken. He’s a continuation of the labs.”
“And Alpha?” Lev asked.
Avni’s gaze shifted to the pulsing red sigil on ARGUS’s map. “They’ve got the real monster.”
Alpha Team — Breaking Point
The road shook as Valken hurled Damien aside like a ragdoll. Sayaka screamed his name, unloading both pistols into Valken’s chest, forcing the creature back a step.
Luce moved in, blade in hand now, fire in his eyes. Every motion was desperate, furious, yet precise — not wild. This wasn’t just battle. This was him rejecting the mockery standing before him.
“You think you’re me,” Luce hissed, steel sparking against claws. “You’re nothing.”
Valken’s teeth gleamed. “Not you. Better.”
The words burned. Rage flared white-hot in Luce’s chest, but beneath it — fear. Because even as Valken’s body distorted, as his skin split and reformed, the shadow of resemblance lingered. Enough to twist the knife.
Damien staggered back into the fight, blood running down his temple. His eyes blazed with fury, every strike aimed not just to kill, but to avenge. “You don’t get to say his name. You don’t get to wear his face!”
Veer called out, “Incoming truck left flank!”
Headlights split the night. Reinforcements — not human, drones bristling with guns. Valken’s laughter echoed across the hills as he vanished into the shadows, leaving chaos in his wake.
Beta Team — The Phantom
Seraph didn’t vanish. He pressed. He studied. Every clash felt like he was learning them, memorizing every move.
Raiden’s blade sparked against Seraph’s, their faces inches apart — his own friend’s features staring back, blank of emotion. “You’re not him.”
Seraph’s reply was quiet. “No. I’m what he should have been.”
Erik’s blood went cold.
Bullets screamed, steel clashed, and yet Seraph never lost composure. He wasn’t just fighting. He was testing.
Saira’s drone finally locked onto him with a high-pitch tone. “Lock secured!”
The copy’s eyes flicked up, glowing. And then he was gone, disappearing into the container maze like a shadow into night.
Only silence remained.
ns216.73.216.33da2
and then Add to home screen.