The second red rain began as a whisper in the wind.
Marcus stood on the rooftop of the school's east wing, watching the sky churn into crimson vortexes. Clouds twisted like muscles flexing, unnatural and alive. Flashes of red lightning cracked in the distance, and each one pulsed in his bones like sonar.
They were calling to him.
He wasn't sure if he hated it more because he could feel it… or because part of him wanted to answer.
[Red Rain Arrival Countdown: 56 Minutes][System Status: Hive Resonance – Stable][Warning: Incoming Signal Interference Detected – Encryption Signature: VOSS PROTOCOL]
There it was again.
Elena Voss.
A name that tasted like static. Her presence was like oil sliding over water—slick, heavy, and wrong. Unlike the Hive Alpha, whose mind had been all instinct and hunger, Elena's signal carried precision. Purpose.
She wasn't a beast.
She was a builder.
[Enemy Evolutionist Profile Updated][Elena Voss – Rogue System Architect | Former Biotech Specialist | Mutation Level: Unclassified][Objective: Establish Alternate Hive | Goal: Forced Reunification of Mutated Species]
Marcus frowned. "Reunification? What the hell does that even mean?"
Below, Danny stirred in the gym. The kid had been asleep for hours, but Marcus could feel the changes in him too. His mutation had stabilized—but not stopped. Veins glowed faintly along his neck now, and his breath came in soft, rhythmic bursts like he was syncing with something unseen.
And then—just for a second—Marcus heard it.
A voice.
Not in words, but in feeling.
"You're not leading them. You're delaying them."
He jerked back, startled, but no one was there.
[Mind Contact Attempted – Origin: Voss Hive][Defense Protocol Engaged – Link Severed]
"She tried to talk to me," he muttered, shaking his head. "No... warn me?"
And that scared him more than anything.
Because Elena wasn't just building her own hive.
She was trying to reach him.
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Far beyond the school—past the forest, across the river where the old cities lay in ruin—Elena Voss stood atop a collapsed skyscraper, her silver-white eyes scanning the horizon.
Her skin glistened faintly with embedded threads of living metal. Around her, dozens of hybrid creatures moved with unsettling coordination, building, reshaping, growing something large and breathing at the base of the building.
A signal tower of flesh and steel.
Her voice was calm, but carried command.
"Subject Marcus Chen has rejected integration. His resonance is unstable. He will resist, then fall."
One of the creatures near her—a twisted serpent-thing with six legs and human eyes—hissed, uncertain.
Elena turned toward it and smiled softly. "But not yet. First, we show him the cost of ruling alone."
She reached toward the sky, where the clouds now throbbed in time with her own heartbeat. Her Hive—her network—was growing by the hour.
[Voss Protocol Initiated: Rain Sync at T-minus 48 Minutes][Mission Update: Contact Marcus Chen / Assimilate or Eliminate]
Elena turned her gaze south.
"Let's see if the last human knows what it means to lead."