2031 – Undisclosed Underground Facility
The air was cold unnaturally so, as if the lab itself had forgotten what warmth felt like.
A flickering fluorescent bulb struggled to illuminate the clutter: old medical equipment, shattered beakers, and half-dried bloodstains smeared across the tiled floor.
At the heart of the chaos stood a man—wild-eyed, gaunt, and consumed.
Dr. Elias Ray.
His lab coat, once white, was now stained with months of sweat, serum, and failure. In his trembling hands, he held a glowing blue vial—pulsing as if it had a heartbeat of its own.
He whispered to himself, the words tumbling out like a broken prayer.
"Nature... is inefficient. Predictable. But evolution real evolution needs a push."
Behind him, a reinforced containment pod encased an unconscious pregnant woman. Her breathing was shallow.
Clara Ray.
Once a brilliant physicist, now reduced to the vessel for Elias's most ambitious—and most terrifying—experiment.
Wires trailed from her abdomen to machines analyzing fetal growth in real-time. One of the monitors displayed a twisted strand of DNA, mutating at an unnatural rate.
PROJECT: JAY
Elias's whisper trembled with emotion, tears glistening in his bloodshot eyes.
"He'll be perfect. My legacy. Born not from God… but from math."
He plunged the serum into the pod's nutrient line. The machine beeped.
A warning flashed in red:
GENETIC INSTABILITY DETECTED
Elias didn't flinch. He laughed.
And then… the lab screamed.
Alarms howled. Lights exploded. The pod convulsed violently as the fetus inside reacted. Monitors sparked and short-circuited. Blood sprayed across the room. Clara's back arched—then went limp.
Flames erupted from the overloaded circuits. Glass shattered. Amid the chaos, Elias fell to his knees, eyes wide with manic joy.
"It's working..." he gasped. "It's finally—"
Darkness swallowed everything.
Sixteen Years Later New Arcadia City
The mirror reflected a boy who didn't belong.
Jay Ray stared at himself. Pale skin. Black, unblinking eyes laced with crimson swirls. A silence that felt... unnatural. His school uniform clung awkwardly to his thin frame, the sleeves concealing veins that sometimes glowed when he felt too much.
He didn't smile. He didn't blink.
He just watched himself.
And then something changed.
In the mirror, his face twisted. It morphed into another older, crueler, with a smirk that reeked of madness.
**His father.**
Jay stumbled back, heart pounding. His head throbbed with a familiar ache.
That voice. Again.
"Hello, son. Ready for your next evolution?"
Blood dripped from his nose.
The mirror cracked.
"No…" Jay whispered, clutching his skull. "Get out of my head!
The lights flickered.
He didn't see it but his shadow on the floor warped no longer matching his movements.
Meanwhile.
In a secret facility miles away, a wall of monitors tracked Jay's every breath.
A woman watched, expression cold and unreadable. Her lab coat was pristine. Her tea steamed calmly in her hand. One of the monitors blinked red:
SUBJECT: JAY — STAGE 3 MUTATION INITIATED
She didn't blink.
Agent Mira leaned forward and whispered, almost to herself:
"It's time.Back in New Arcadia Beneath a flickering streetlight, Jay stood alone.
The pavement cracked beneath his feet. His fingers twitched uncontrollably. His breath steamed in the warm night air. His eyes shimmered with fear and fury.
He looked down.
There was blood on his hands.
And the voice...
The voice wouldn't stop.
To Be Continued..