CHOKE POINT
Wednesday – 5:25 P.M. | Cold Storage Warehouse – Inferno Zone
The entire facility was on fire.
Ceiling pipes hissed and burst, flooding corridors with steam. Sirens wailed, but no rescue would come. Hollow Bridge didn't invite attention.
Rick grabbed Ava's hand.
"We need to move!"
Kael still stood frozen mid-lunge, body rigid, sweat streaming down his temple.
"She locked him neurologically," Ava said. "It's not just paralysis. She's overriding his motor cortex."
Rick looked toward Mara.
She was watching them like a curious predator.
"Do you bleed like the rest of us?" he growled.
Mara tilted her head.
"I do not bleed. I evolve."
She flicked her fingers — and Kael's body twitched violently, slamming into a wall and crashing to the floor.
Rick charged.
5:26 P.M. | Fight for Freedom
She dodged every strike with inhuman grace. Like she had already seen him coming.
Rick threw a spinning kick — she ducked under it and whispered:
"That technique? Your instructor's. You adapted it when you were sixteen. Just like I adapted you."
Rick faltered for half a second — and that's all she needed.
She grabbed his arm, twisted it back, and with a simple look, flooded his mind.
Suddenly —
He was back at his childhood home.
His mother was cooking. Laughing.
Then a fire started. She screamed.
Rick couldn't move — his feet were nailed to the ground.
Inside the Illusion
Rick clawed at his mind.
He knew this wasn't real.
He screamed at the walls of the illusion, shouting his mother's name.
Then a voice, soft and cutting:
"You can stay here. It's safer. You don't have to fight anymore."
Rick fell to his knees.
But then — a different voice.
Real. Present.
Ava.
"Rick. Snap out of it! She's manipulating your trauma!"
Back to Reality
His eyes shot open.
Mara stumbled back — Rick's mental resistance had spiked like a shockwave.
"Impossible," she whispered.
Rick stood up, fists raised.
"You read my mind. But you didn't read my heart. I promised her I'd be better. And better starts now."
5:30 P.M. | Escape Sequence
Kael groaned, finally regaining partial movement.
Ava jammed a flash grenade into her coat.
"On my mark!"
Rick nodded.
Mara's eyes glowed pitch black.
Ava yelled, "NOW!" — and hurled the flash grenade into the flames behind Mara.
BOOM!
The entire corridor exploded with light.
Mara staggered, stunned just long enough for the three to rush toward a collapsing back tunnel.
They dove through the emergency exit seconds before the structure behind them gave way entirely.
5:42 P.M. | Rooftop Across the Street
Smoke billowed into the sky. Sirens echoed distantly, but still, no one approached.
Rick watched the fire rage.
"She's not just powerful," he muttered. "She's obsessed with me."
Kael wiped blood from his mouth.
"No. She's obsessed with breaking you."
Ava looked up.
"She said something weird back there…"
Rick nodded.
"Yeah. She said I'm the 'solution.'
What does that mean?"
Kael stood slowly.
"It means she knows something we don't. About you."
Rick stared at the sky.
"Then we find out. And we end this."
Final Scene – Hollow Bridge HQ | Observation Room
Widow stood before the screen as Mara walked through the burning wreckage, untouched.
"She let them go," the Director snarled. "Why?"
Mara looked up toward the satellite camera.
And smiled.
"Because the hunt only matters when they think they have a chance."