The Awakening and the Attack
The scene shifts. The air feels dense with agitation in the hospital room, machinery whirring and beeping, drowning out the silence. Rudra sprawls dead atop the stretcher, wires and monitoring equipment snaking across his body, his pale skin nearly clear under cold fluorescent blooms. His breaths are shallow, each more labored than the last.
Ayush takes a few steps forward, hand slowly outstretched and shaking. He kneels next to his brother, wrapping his fingers around one of Rudra's cold hands. He holds on tightly and gently at the same time, like he is hanging onto the final delicate thread of hope. His throat constricts, his voice dropping to almost a whisper, heavy with emotion.
"You're going to make it Rudra… I swear. Just hold on. When the worst happens, you will survive," she explained.
For a second, nothing happens. And then — just a little movement — Rudra's finger clicks.
Ayush's breath catches. His heart thumps inside his rib cage as he sees his brother's hand move, however slight.
"Rudra…?"
Tears stream down his face, his clasp on his brother's hand going white-knuckled. His sobs shatter the wrenching silence, his body shaking with relief and anguish that stabs him at once.
The doctor observes the scene for a moment before steadying himself. A knowing nod, he calls to the medics. "We need to move him—now."
Delicately, they start to wrangle over Rudra's fragile body, moving him from one stretcher to the next. The cold metal clangs against the base as they buckle the straps. Reluctantly, Ayush releases his brother's hand, his fingers still electrified by the faint warmth of that one movement.
He's rolled quickly into another room where elaborate machinery is waiting. Ayush dawdles behind, his feet four-legged, tentative. He knows what comes next. The final procedure.
Inside the brightly lit operating chamber, wires and tubes and machinery encircle the lone operating table. At its center, Rudra is arranged neatly, his sickly body dwarfed by the massive machines surrounding it. The doctor walks to a station in which a long metallic syringe is being prepared. A thick iridescent blue serum is sucked into it, swirling with an almost unnatural luminescence.
"This is the catalyst," the doctor says, looking away from Ayush. His tone is grave, deliberate. "This serum is going to be injected into his spine directly. It will trigger the mutation in his very cells, forcing his body to regenerate. But the pain … it will be unlike anything you can imagine."
Ayush gulps and clenches his fists. He already knew that. He had experienced it himself. He understood the torment of Metallic Mutation — the way it burned like Sulfur, eating away from the inside, how it broke the soul before stitching it up into place again.
He forces himself to nod. There is no other way.
The doctor leans over Rudra's motionless form, the long needle hovering just above his spine. He steadies his hands and shoves the needle in. The serum courses through Rudra's system and for a beat, nothing —
Then—
A sudden, violent spasm.
Rudra's whole body jolts off the table, as if hit by lightning. His eyes pop open, but they're vacant — pupils dilated, whites exposed. His pulse, previously feeble, shoots up. The monitors surrounding him shriek with a rapid series of beeps, their displays flashing red alerts.
"His vitals — what's going on?! Ayush comes running forward, yelling.
The doctor's expression goes dark; his fingers fly over the control panel.
"I don't know … this has never happened before —!"
Before he can complete his thought, Kim's voice pierces the tumult.
"It only happens when … someone has done it already once."
A long, icy silence engulfs the room. Ayush falls silent, his eyes seeking Kim in disbelief.
"What do you mean?" he demands.
Kim gulps, a voice barely above a whisper. "Natural Awakening…"
The doctor's face pales. "That's impossible… Only one in ten million people ever experience Natural Awakening. The chances—"
"—are never zero." Kim finishes.
It sends a shiver down Ayush's spine.
Natural Awakening — the rarest, scariest phenomenon among mutants. Unlike normal subjects who had to endure the torturous transformation process, those with a Natural Awakening were otherworldly. Their bodies accepted it without their bodies rejecting it. Their powers had manifested on their own. And above all—
They were a million times more powerful than any regular mutant.
Ayush shoots Rudra a look of horror, creeping up his bones. The mutation was meant to save his brother … but had it transformed him into something else?
Then: an explosion reverberates through the facility, shaking everything loose.
Suddenly alarms wail from every direction as the room shakes back and forth violently. Sparks tumble from the ceiling, smoke filling the air, emergency sirens blaring.
"What the hell—?! Ayush whirls in the direction of the explosion.
A missile has slammed into their defense shield through the thick fog of smoke, with deep crevices cracking the reinforced glass. The barrier that protects them—their last line of defense—is crumbling.
"WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"
Before anyone can react, a single gunshot sounds across the chaos.
The doctor pitches forward, a ragged gasp tearing from his throat as a scarlet flower opens up on his forehead. Blood gushes across the surgeon's table, across Rudra's face, and before anyone can stop it—
He collapses. Lifeless.
Ayush's breath hitches in his throat, his heart freezing for a millisecond. The doctor—gone. Just like that.
And then, she appears.
A woman emerges from the smoke, her silhouette shining amidst the devastation. A girl.
She enters the room, face tranquil, expression inscrutable. She clutches a smoking gun in her hand.
The barrel still faced forward.
Her eyes — twisted, insentient — gaze upon Ayush's.
"You should have allowed him to die."
The voice whispers so gently, but sends a chill through the air, sharper than any weapon.
Ayush's muscles tense, breath catching.
Everything—the mu
and then it came —had all been planned.
And now they had walked right into it.
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