Phase Three

The world felt different.

Every breath I took wasn't just mine—it was ours.

Priya's pulse thrummed through me, a second heartbeat threaded with Apex resonance—alive, burning, connected. Our link wasn't just neural. It was something deeper.

And through it, I felt something else—

The signal.

The Override was dead. The Leviathan—destroyed.

But the lattice was still alive. And something on the other end of it was… listening.

A pulse—distant, cold, and vast.

Then—

It answered.

Hypermind Warning – Unknown Apex Class Detected:

✔ Designation: Phase Three Entity✔ Source: Apex Network Root Signal – Deep Zone✔ Pattern: Sentient.✔ Objective: Incorporation.

Hypermind flooded my vision with a brutal conclusion:

We didn't stop the war. We just… signaled the enemy.

Hart's voice broke through my comm, her tone raw and urgent. "Engineer. You copy?"

I coughed, wiping blood from my mouth, my voice shredded but alive. "I'm here."

Her words were tight with controlled panic. "We've got a problem."

We returned to Bastion, our home—still standing but bleeding. The defenses held against the Leviathan's spawn, but barely. Towers scorched, turrets offline, Skyweaver drones reduced to hollowed-out husks.

But it wasn't over.

Because the sky—

—The sky was fracturing.

Above Bastion, cracks of light split the clouds, Apex resonance bleeding through like a wound in reality. And from those fractures—

Something was coming.

Hypermind Alert – Apex Network Bridge Opening

✔ Multiple high-tier signatures detected.✔ Apex-Class Threat Level: Catastrophic.✔ Estimated Arrival: 7 minutes.

Hart's voice, clipped and sharp. "You said the Override was dead. What the hell is that?"

I felt the answer burning through the link, Priya's voice resonating inside me—

"It's the Apex Network," she said, her voice layered with the new power in her veins. "They felt us break the Leviathan. Now they're coming."

Hart's eyes blazed. "Then we hold."

Phase Three: Apex Assault Imminent

Hypermind flashed the grim projection:

Bastion Defenses: 32% operational.Personnel Combat-Ready: 40 survivors, half wounded.Ammunition: Critically low.Survival Probability: 5.7%.

My voice was hard, cutting through the chaos. "We're not surviving. We're winning."

Directive: Bastion Override DefensePhase One – Skyweaver Reboot

I slammed my burned gauntlet into the console—rerouting power from the Titan-core reactor into the damaged Skyweaver drones.

The air crackled—lightning sparking from the towers—

And one by one, the drones rose, their systems rebooting under Hypermind's control.

But this time—

They were faster.

Because I wasn't just controlling them.

Priya's Apex signature flowed through the link, feeding into the Skyweaver subroutines.

The drones adapted—fighting like we would.

Phase Two – Bio-Ward Amplification

I rerouted the Screamer pylons to broadcast Priya's resonance pattern—amplified through Bastion's walls. The subsonic wave hit the approaching Apexes—

And they reeled, their neural lattices clashing against the signal. Lesser mutants collapsed, their bodies failing under the feedback.

But something stronger was coming.

The fractures in the sky split wide—

And through them—

They came.

The first creatures were massive, towering beasts that pulsed with Apex energy—Warforms, their bodies constructed from biosteel and flesh, their movements fluid and precise. Each step vibrated through the air, their resonance shattering the ground.

But worse—

They moved with tactics. Coordination.

Because they weren't just creatures.

They were soldiers.

The Warforms charged—

And Bastion answered.

The Apex-enhanced Skyweaver drones dived—Gauss rifles firing in synchronized bursts, their trajectories guided by Hypermind.

The first Warform collapsed under concentrated fire, its neural lattice rupturing from Priya's Apex feedback.

But the second—

It learned, shifting its lattice to jam the Skyweaver targeting.

Hart, on the wall, roared into comms: "They're adapting!"

Priya's body flickered, her Apex veins igniting gold. "Then we hit them harder."

She vanished—a blur——colliding with the Warform in a shockwave of raw Apex energy.

The beast howled, its body splitting under her strike—

But as it died, I felt it—through the link:

It was sending her pattern—learning her.

I screamed through the bond: "They're stealing you!"

But she didn't stop.

Because she trusted me—

—to stop them first.

Hypermind showed me—

The Apex Network was running through a relay. The Warforms weren't commanders. They were extensions. The true entity—

Was still beyond the breach.

But if I could invert their connection—

I could hit back.

I called to Priya through the link: "Get clear—I'm hijacking their signal!"

Her voice, burning through my veins: "Do it."

I flooded Bastion's towers with every ounce of Apex resonance from our bond—reversing the frequency—

And hit the Apex lattice itself.

The Warforms froze, their neural patterns collapsing.

And for a second—

I felt it.

A presence—Vast. Cold. Older than anything human.

It wasn't just watching.

It was… curious.

It spoke—inside me:

"You... are new."

My voice, through Hypermind, raw and burning:"Stay out of my world."

The voice— calm.

"This world... is ours."

Then—

The breach——collapsed.

The remaining Warforms—fell, their bodies lifeless.

The Apex Network——withdrew.

My voice, through Hypermind, raw and burning:"Stay out of my world."

The voice— calm.

"This world... is ours."

Then—

The breach——collapsed.

The remaining Warforms—fell, their bodies lifeless.

The Apex Network——withdrew.

Smoke choked the air. Bastion's walls—scarred, but standing. Survivors—bruised, but alive.

Hart, her armor cracked, blood on her face, reached me—her voice ragged. "You did it."

I looked at Priya—her body burned from overuse, but alive—linked to me, her eyes flickering with shared power.

"We did it," I rasped.

Hypermind flickered. A final, cold transmission burned across my HUD.

INCOMING TRANSMISSION – APEX PRIME

A voice. The Voice.

"You closed one gate.""But we are... many.""And now... we know your pattern."

I felt Priya's hand slip into mine—warm, alive, together.

Her voice, through the link, soft but burning:"Let them come."

I squeezed back—my voice cold, sharp—ready.

"They'll wish they hadn't."