The metallic clatter of Omega rifles echoed through the shattered silence. Floodlights from hovercrafts bathed the forest clearing in a sterile white glow, cutting through the crimson hue of the blood moon overhead.
Za struggled in the soldiers' grip, electricity crackling at her fingertips, but the restraints hissed as they locked down on her limbs. Her energy pulsed uselessly, her translator flickering with static.
"No! Let her go!" Kira stepped forward, arms out, shielding her with his own body even as the barrels of the rifles shifted toward him.
A command barked through a speaker.
"Stand down, boy. She's not yours."
Two soldiers surged forward and ripped Za away with force. She cried out in broken English,
"Kira! No want.. go!"
The breath punched from his lungs as they hit him to the ground.
Kira fell to his knees, hands clenched in the dirt, watching helplessly as they dragged Za toward the transport.
His pulse roared in his ears. His teeth clenched.
No... No... Not again...
He couldn't stop them. He couldn't even move.
That's when the voice returned.
"Let me in, brat."
The world around him began to blur,the air thick, humming with something unnatural. The blood moon above seemed to pulse with his heartbeat.
"You want to save her,don't you brat? Then give me control. You know what I am… You know what I can do…"
Kira trembled. His body felt like it was burning from the inside. He clenched his head, gasping as the voice scratched through his skull.
"Open the door. Just this once."
And then…
He screamed.
Muscles spasmed. Bones popped.
Veins swelled like roots across his arms and neck, turning black with some impossible energy. His skin split open along his back like paper soaked in acid, blood spraying across the grass.
His fingers elongated,tore and rebuilt.
The soldiers turned, their weapons raised in alarm, but it was already too late.
Something burst out of Kira's back like a nightmare being born. Red, sinewy flesh wrapped itself over a new body. The thing rose, grotesque and shifting. A horrific fusion of beast and human, standing hunched over,its spine curved like a scythe, limbs spidered and clawed, its mouth warped into a skull-like grin.
Its head twitched unnaturally. It sniffed the air.
Then it lunged.
CRACK.
A soldier's body bent in the wrong direction, his scream cut short.
Another tried to fire but the beast was already on him—tearing through flesh and armor alike.
But then… it paused.
Not for blood.
It turned to the fallen weapons.
And it ate.
Metal cracked between its jaws. A rifle. A knife. A data core.
It devoured not to feed—
But to gain.
The form twitched again,upgrades spreading through its arms. The plating hardened. Its movements sharpened.
It wasn't hunger.
It was evolution.
Smoke rolled across the clearing,choked with blood mist, burning metal, and shredded bark from fallen trees. Omega soldiers lay scattered like broken toys.
And the monster?
It crouched low, chewing through the last of a tactical gauntlet. The wires sparked in its maw before vanishing down its throat.
Za stirred, groaning weakly from where she'd been thrown. Her restraints had broken in the chaos, but she was too drained to move.
The creature's head snapped toward her.
The glowing, dead eyes narrowed.
Not out of hatred.
Not rage.
But instinct.
It crept forward, its limbs stretching like rubbery nightmares, claws gouging into the dirt. Each footstep pulsed with hunger. Not for flesh
But for potential.
Za raised her trembling hand.
"K-Kira...? No..."
But the thing didn't stop.
Her voice… didn't reach him anymore.
Then…
Hana appeared.
Between them.
Blood was already staining her dress.She didn't flinch as the thing towered over her, jaws open, saliva mixed with glowing circuitry.
Her eyes didn't even blink.
She reached out and placed a hand gently on the creature's head.
"That's enough, baby…"
"Come back now… You're scaring her…"
The beast froze. Twitching. Its body flexed, confused by the unfamiliar softness.
Its maw opened,then bit.
CHOMP.
Right into her shoulder.
"GHK…!" Hana winced but didn't scream. She stayed kneeling, one hand still on his head, the other on her bleeding arm.
The creature's eyes wavered. Its limbs began to tremble.
Inside its mind,static, screaming, blood-red chaos.
"No no no... You said you wanted power. Why stop now?!"
But her heartbeat was louder. Calmer. Familiar.
The beast staggered back.
Its flesh began to melt. Rebuild. Tear and stitch itself again.
Screaming. Moaning. Bone cracking backwards.
Until…
Kira collapsed in Hana's arms.
Naked. Blood-soaked. Unconscious.
She held him tightly. One arm limp from the bite, the other wrapped protectively around his shaking frame.
"It's okay… You're still my boy…"
Za crawled over, half-conscious, reaching out weakly.
"Kira... safe?"
Hana nodded silently, biting back the pain.
Roxy ran in from the trees, her shoes soaked in blood, eyes wide with horror and awe. Behind her came Leo, pale and breathless, clutching a crowbar like it would actually help.
They all stood in the ruin of the forest, under the light of the blood moon.
Silence… for now.
In the shadows beyond the wreckage, a strange pulse flickered.
Among the broken limbs of mecha suits and robotic debris, something moved.
A small glowing core pulsating like a heartbeat drifted through the smoke.
It hovered for a moment, as if scanning… and then found it:
A damaged combat bot, its legs twisted, arms limp but its mainframe still intact.
The core drifted closer tendrils of light reaching forward.
And then
FUSE.
The machine's body jerked to life.
Its eyes turned blue, then glitched red, then blue again. Armor plates shifted. Joints twisted. Limbs restructured.
What emerged was sleek. Deadly. Beautiful.Robot.
The core had found its new vessel.
And with it, The robot rises again.
To Be Continued...