New York, 2:17 a.m.
It was quiet in the city—well, as quiet as New York ever got. But for Adrian, crouched in an alleyway dressed in his lightweight, patched-up hero gear, that silence buzzed like static. He adjusted the small communicator in his ear and whispered, "You guys in position?"
"Already in the vents," Cassie whispered back. Her voice was smooth, focused, a contrast to her usual sarcastic tone. "Smells like old gym socks and radioactive rust. Real high-class operation."
"Roof access clear. No cameras on this side," Bobby's voice came in, filtered through the voice modulator in his helmet. "On your go, Red Nova."
Adrian rolled his shoulders, activating his Float and High Spec in sync. His body lightened, senses sharpened, breath slowed. "Alright, team. Let's make this clean."
--
Thirty Minutes Earlier
Inside the abandoned warehouse that doubled as their hideout, the trio huddled over blueprints projected from Cassie's salvaged Stark-lite tablet. She smacked the screen once and the flickering stopped.
"This is Camp Bellwood," she said. "Old military base, officially shut down in 1968. Unofficially? Been hot the past year."
Adrian raised a brow. "Hot how?"
"Thermal scans. Power spikes. Shady trucks going in. All signs say someone's either building weapons or burying bodies. Maybe both."
Bobby nodded, flipping through a tattered file. "We got this from Warden Silas' data dump. Mentions something about experimental anti-mutant weapons. I say we go in, grab what we can, blow the rest."
"Explosives?" Adrian asked, half-grinning.
Bobby shrugged. "What? I brought two."
Cassie facepalmed. "And people think I'm the psycho."
--
Present
They moved like a seasoned unit.
Adrian slipped through the front, using Float to hover silently over broken ground and crumbled stone. His eyes scanned every corner, HUD highlighting paths and sensors. High Spec let him calculate enemy movement even before he saw them.
Inside, Cassie danced through shadows, cloaking herself in darkness and silencing cameras with pinpoint shadow daggers. Her black, ragged cloak blended perfectly with the night, making her almost invisible.
Bobby blurred through space, vanishing and reappearing in bursts of air, his claws slicing locks and hinges with surgical precision. The wolf-helm glinted faintly under the moonlight.
They converged in the main corridor. Adrian leaned against the wall, breath steady.
"You good?" Cassie asked.
"Yeah," he nodded. "Warehouse is just ahead. Thermal shows a few warm spots—maybe security droids."
"You had me at droids," Bobby muttered.
They entered.
--
The Main Facility
Rows of crates lined the room, each tagged with barcodes and digital locks. Strange weapons sat on racks: rifles too advanced for public eyes, gauntlets glowing with unstable energy, and containment pods marked with biohazard warnings.
Cassie whistled. "Well, this screams evil science fair."
Adrian was already scanning files from a nearby terminal. His eyes narrowed. "These were designed for mutant suppression. And they've been tested. On people."
Bobby clenched his fists. "This tech doesn't belong in anyone's hands."
Just then, a low hum filled the room.
Cassie swore. "Tripwire. We've got movement!"
The crates shuddered.
From hidden hatches, sleek, bipedal drones emerged—red optics glowing. Thin, fast, and armed with plasma batons and pulse rifles.
"Split up!" Adrian shouted.
The fight was on.
--
Adrian activated One For All: Full Cowling at 10%, electricity crackling across his limbs as he surged forward. He ducked a baton swipe, twisted, and launched a right hook reinforced by Hardening—his arm shimmering like black stone. The blow shattered the drone's chassis, sending sparks and smoke into the air.
Cassie leapt through shadows, reappearing above a drone, plunging twin daggers into its optic sensors. It flailed wildly before she vanished again.
Bobby teleported across the battlefield, claws slicing in mid-flash. One drone tried to anticipate his reentry point, only for Bobby to jump behind it, grin unseen under his helmet, and ram a spatial-enhanced elbow into its core.
Three drones boxed Adrian in. He vaulted upward using Float, rebounding off a wall and flipping mid-air, then warped mid-dive behind the trio using Warp Gate—appearing with a grin before blasting them apart with a wide-range OFA-enhanced plus Hardening ground slam.
The floor cracked.
"Adrian, left!" Cassie shouted.
He spun too late—a drone fired a pulse blast.
Cassie emerged from a wall of shadow beside him, raising a cloak of darkness to absorb the blow. It wasn't enough.
Adrian took the hit across his ribs, flying back and skidding through crates.
Bobby growled and blurred into action. He didn't speak, didn't taunt—just brutalized the nearest two machines with speed and ferocity that made them crumple like tin cans.
Cassie appeared beside Adrian.
"Hey, don't die. I still owe you a punch."
Adrian groaned. "Appreciate the sentiment."
He stood up, wincing. More drones emerged.
"Alright," he muttered. "Time to go all out."
He activated Permeation, his body turning ghostlike just as a volley of blasts shot through him harmlessly. As one drone charged, Adrian dropped into the floor, then reappeared behind it—timing the ejection from Permeation perfectly to rocket himself forward.
He twisted mid-air, channeling One For All into a hardened elbow that smashed the drone into the wall with a metal-warping crunch.
Cassie blinked. "Okay, that was cool."
"I know," Adrian muttered.
They regrouped. Bobby set a small charge.
"We torch the rest and bounce."
Adrian opened a Warp Gate. Cassie covered their backs, slicing shadows through the stragglers. Bobby hit the detonator.
Boom.
They vanished through the gate as the facility went up in smoke.
--
Back at the Hideout
They sat on cracked couches, each holding an ice pack.
Cassie broke the silence. "So... how long you been mixing powers like that?"
Adrian chuckled, tired. "Since I realized the best power isn't strength—it's synergy."
Bobby removed his helmet. "You're getting scary good, man."
Adrian just looked at them, then smiled faintly.
Cassie sighed. "Great. We recruited a myth."
They all laughed.
The mission was a success.
But the war? It was just getting started.