Chapter 5 : The Hunters Circle

The night didn't wait.

An hour later, New Arcadia's underbelly had already stirred.

Across the city, terminals buzzed in hidden bunkers. Private servers lit up in neon-coded languages. Surveillance satellites shifted focus. Jay's viral footage had triggered an avalanche — one that couldn't be stopped.

Targets Identified: Subject 9 – Arcadia High Mutant.

Status: Active. Uncontained.

Priority: High.

Jay didn't know he was being hunted. Not yet.

He wandered through the skeletal construction zone behind 7th District. Half-finished buildings surrounded him like dead giants. Steel rods jutted from concrete like broken bones.

He needed silence.

He needed air.

But the voice wouldn't stop whispering in the back of his skull:

"Phase Two… the bones adapt… the blood learns…"

He gritted his teeth.

"I don't want to be a freak," he muttered. "I just want to be normal."

The spiral mark on his chest pulsed beneath his hoodie. Faint heat.

A shadow moved.

Jay froze.

Then — a whisper.

"On your knees. Now."

A sharp whirring sound followed, and something like a drone zipped overhead.

Jay slowly turned.

Four figures stood on the skeletal scaffolding behind him. They wore matte-black armor with hexagonal visors glowing faint red.

Watchpoint Operatives.

"Subject 9 acquired," one of them spoke into his headset.

"Begin containment procedure."

Jay's eyes widened.

"Wait—"

He barely finished the word when a shock baton cracked into his side. Electricity surged through his ribs, dropping him to one knee.

One of them kicked him in the gut.

"Do not resist."

Another baton struck his shoulder. Pain exploded. His vision blurred.

"Initiate sedative spray."

A nozzle hissed. Mist filled the air. His lungs burned.

But then...

His hand twitched.

The spiral mark ignited beneath his chest. Not visually — but in his nerves, in his bones. His fingers clenched against the gravel.

You are not weak.

Phase Two is permission.

Jay screamed — not in pain, but in power.

He launched upward, tossing one of the soldiers back with a blast of kinetic force from his palm. A ripple cracked the floor where he stood.

"Target resisting!"

Another soldier aimed a blaster.

Jay ducked, rolled, and slammed his elbow into the nearest attacker's helmet — shattering the visor.

He was fighting back.

Untrained. Wild. Instinctive.

But it wasn't enough.

A dart struck his leg.

His body faltered.

Another baton slammed into his spine.

Jay collapsed again.

His vision faded — gray, then white, then burning red.

"Get the chains," one of the Watchpoint men muttered.

They approached slowly.

That's when the old man appeared.

A voice cut through the smoke.

"That's enough."

A blur moved across the gravel like wind. One Watchpoint agent turned — too late. A crack echoed as a precise palm strike shattered the soldier's jaw.

Another agent raised a weapon. The man twisted, disarmed him mid-spin, and threw him off the scaffold like a doll.

Jay could barely lift his head.

The man stood tall — wrapped in a gray robe, body scarred and disciplined, eyes sharp like steel.

"You don't own him."

He moved like a ghost. One-by-one, the attackers fell — not by brute strength, but through flawless martial technique.

In under thirty seconds, the rooftop was silent.

Watchpoint operatives unconscious.

The man turned toward Jay.

"They came faster than I expected," he said quietly.

"But so did your awakening."

Jay coughed, barely conscious.

"Who... are you?"

The man stepped forward, offering a hand.

"Your body is learning to kill. But your heart hasn't caught up."

"You need to learn control — before you lose yourself."

Jay hesitated.

Then — he took the hand.

The man pulled him up and said:

"Call me Dhiran. I was there when Project Deva fell apart. I trained the first spirals. I buried them too."

Jay blinked.

"Project... Deva?"

Dhiran nodded.

His voice low.

Filled with something between guilt and warning.

"You don't know what's inside you.

But I do.

And if we don't train it — they'll turn you into a weapon."

As dawn bled into the sky, Jay limped beside the stranger.

He didn't know who to trust. He didn't know who he was becoming. But in that moment, he knew one thing:

He wasn't alone anymore.

And the hunt had only just begun.

– To Be Continue..