The Sump was a vortex of crisscrossing energy fire, shouting, and the percussive impacts of heavy weapons. Zane, his face a mask of cold fury after the failure of his Dominator rifle, advanced relentlessly, his sidearm spitting deadly accurate shots.
Alex ducked behind an overturned stall selling what looked suspiciously like Krellian swamp leeches, the bolts searing the air where he'd been.
He needed that Thunderclap Core. Sonic power. Something completely different from what he'd wielded before.
The Raider leader, a hulking, tusked Xylossian with arms like tree trunks, was wading through a cluster of UGF troopers, his power maul swinging in devastating arcs, each impact releasing a bone-jarring sonic boom that sent troopers flying.
Contact. Prolonged, intense contact. Voss's words echoed.
Getting close to that Xylossian in this maelstrom would be suicidal. But Alex saw an opportunity. The Xylossian, roaring in battle fury, slammed his maul down onto the plasteel floor, creating a massive shockwave that momentarily buckled the ground and sent nearby combatants sprawling – including a few UGF troopers close to Alex's position.
In the ensuing chaos, as Zane was forced to sidestep a collapsing vendor awning, Alex moved. He didn't sprint towards the Xylossian, but tumbled, using the uneven, debris-strewn ground to his advantage, like a Rusthaven street urchin dodging enforcers. He rolled, ducked, and weaved, his old scavenger agility kicking in.
He reached the spot where the Xylossian had just struck, the air still vibrating, the plasteel floor humming with residual sonic energy. The maul itself was momentarily embedded in the buckled floor as the Xylossian roared at a new UGF target.
This was it. Alex lunged, not for the Xylossian, but for the still-vibrating head of the power maul. He slapped both hands onto the super-dense alloy, ignoring the painful jolt that ran up his arms.
Instantly, a new universe of sensation exploded in his mind. Not heat, not cold, not kinetic force, but vibration. Pure, resonant, controllable sound. He felt the subsonic thrum of the Sump's foundations, the ultrasonic shriek of dying machinery, the precise frequency of shattering plasteel. The Echo was less an emotion and more a… primal roar, a deafening symphony of controlled destruction.
It was overwhelming. His head felt like it was going to split open. Migraine on a cosmic scale. The Xylossian's raw, furious battle intent flooded him, threatening to drown his own will.
But beneath the pain, beneath the fury, was an intuitive understanding of sonic manipulation. Focused sound. Concussive force. Resonance cascades.
The Xylossian, feeling the drain or perhaps the alien touch on his weapon, roared and tried to yank his maul free. Alex clung on desperately for another precious second, the power flooding into him, raw and untamed.
Then the Xylossian ripped the maul away, sending Alex sprawling. The Raider gave him a bewildered, furious glare, then turned back to the UGF.
Alex scrambled back, his ears ringing, his vision swimming. But the Thunderclap Core imprint was there, burning bright and LOUD within him. He could feel it, a seismic tremor waiting to be unleashed.
Zane, having dispatched a Syndicate Enforcer who'd gotten too bold, spotted Alex. "Persistent little roach!" he snarled, leveling his pistol.
Alex didn't have time to aim or think. He just reacted. He slammed his open palm onto the plasteel floor, just as he'd seen the Xylossian do, but he focused the nascent sonic energy he'd just absorbed, envisioning not just a tremor, but a directed shockwave.
BOOOOM!
A focused cone of pure concussive force erupted from the floor in front of him, aimed directly at Zane.
It wasn't as widespread as the Xylossian's attack, but it was more concentrated. The plasteel beneath Zane's feet buckled and cracked. Zane, caught off guard by the sheer concussive power emanating from an Unenhanced-looking slum kid, was thrown off balance, his shot going wide.
"What in the blazes?!" one of the nearby Raiders exclaimed, momentarily pausing his fight to stare at Alex.
Alex felt a savage thrill. This power was intoxicating. Raw. Destructive.
He didn't stop there. He could feel other UGF troopers closing in on his position. He took a deep breath, picturing the sound waves, focusing them. He clapped his hands together with all his might, channeling the sonic energy into the impact.
A deafening, directional sonic blast, like a localized thunderclap, exploded outwards. The UGF troopers closest to him clutched their ears, their helmet comms likely shattering, their armor resonating painfully. Some stumbled, disoriented. Others dropped their weapons.
"He… he's using sonic attacks? Without a Core implant?!" a UGF trooper yelled, his voice filled with disbelief before a Syndicate disruptor bolt silenced him.
Zane, recovering, his face a mask of utter disbelief and rage, stared at Alex. The sheer impossibility of what he was witnessing seemed to momentarily short-circuit his tactical brain.
Alex knew this new power was a double-edged sword. The raw fury of the Xylossian's Echo was tempting, urging him to unleash more destruction, to revel in the chaos. He had to fight to control it, to harness it, not just become its vessel.
He saw Kai, Lena, Voss, and the Crows pinned down by UGF fire near one of the Sump's secondary exits. They needed an opening.
Alex took another deep breath, trying to find that point of balance, that alien resonance from his visions.
He pictured the Sump itself as a giant drum. He focused all the sonic energy he could muster, not into a wide blast, but into a series of precise, rapidly resonating pulses aimed at the main structural supports of a large, gaudy holographic advertising archway that spanned above the UGF position suppressing his friends.
Thrum. Thrum. THRUNNNNG!
The archway groaned, vibrated, then with a horrifying screech of tearing metal, it began to collapse, right on top of the UGF troopers who were firing on the Crows.
Panic erupted among the UGF ranks as tons of metal and holoprojectors rained down. It wasn't a direct hit on all of them, but it created chaos, blocked firing lines, and, most importantly, created a diversion.
"Crows, now! Move!" Kai yelled, seizing the opportunity.
Alex, panting from the exertion, his ears still ringing from his own attacks, felt a surge of grim satisfaction. He was no longer just a target. He was a force.
But as he turned, he saw Zane, his face inhumanly calm amidst the carnage, retrieve something from a pouch on his belt. Not a weapon, but a small, cylindrical device. Zane pressed a button on its side.
A high-pitched, almost inaudible whine filled the air – a frequency that resonated painfully with Alex's newly acquired sonic sensitivity and, terrifyingly, with something deep within his Absorber Gene itself.
It wasn't the Dominator's controlling pull. This was different. This felt like… a calling beacon. Or a trigger.
And then, from deep within the Echoes, a new voice, cold, ancient, and utterly alien, whispered in his mind. "Candidate acquired. Commencing assimilation protocol…"
Alex's blood ran cold. This wasn't UGF. This was something else entirely. Something Zane had just awakened.