_Terry_

Tobias Anderson was supposed to be a ghost. New name. New life. No questions.  
  
But when his past claws back with a threat he can’t ignore, Tobias is forced to infiltrate Aegis Academy, the world’s most elite training ground for metahumans.  
  
His mission? Infiltrate. Pass the trials. Don’t get caught.  
Simple—until the simulations turn deadly, alliances blur, and his teammates start bleeding.  
  
Now Tobias is surrounded by monsters in training, power-hungry rivals, and a system designed to break anyone who doesn’t follow the rules. Worse? He has a lot to hide.  
  
But secrets burn. Loyalties bend.   
And when sparks ignite—will Tobias protect the system or burn it down with him?  
  
Tobias has scars.  The academy has phases.
And not everyone makes it past Phase Two.

Project Babel

Cracked pillars. Dead stone. Smoke and panic pressing in from every side. Behind me, the civilians huddled close whispering a prayer. Or maybe just shaking. Hard to tell

Time remaining: 07:42

The big guy—Lucas, I heard someone scream—was still swinging wild. Punches like wrecking balls, but slower now. Less control. More noise than precision. A boar clipped his leg. Another hit his ribs. He just roared and kept going.

Alice stood her ground. Gravity whipping around her like storm debris—commanding, beautiful, collapsing in slow motion. Her eyes didn't show fear.

Liam ghosted past me, arm half-ash, cutting through enemies with clean detachment. He didn't speak. Didn't hesitate. Just moved.

Something hit the ground outside hard enough to shake the floor.

I moved to the broken edge of the gallery.

What I saw didn't fit the girl I barely remembered from earlier—the one with the lazy grin and purple hair.

She was a giant now.

Twelve feet tall. Muscle packed tight over bulging veins. Her clothes were shredded, her expression wild—eyes wide, teeth clenched, breath coming in bursts like fire from a furnace.

She charged the boars like a battering ram. Slammed into one, sending it flying through the air and into a collapsed fountain. She grabbed another by the tusks, twisted its head clean around, then swung the body into three more.

She let out a guttural scream—rage and grief and fury all boiled down into sound—and leapt onto a boar twice her size, hammering it down into the earth with fists the size of war drums.

For a second, I thought she might turn the tide.

Ten of them. Maybe more. Jumping on her back. Clawing up her arms. Biting, slashing, and pulling her down.

She roared—one final, massive cry.

Casualty confirmed: 7

Time remaining: 05:02

But I wouldn't forget that scream.

We fell back—what was left of us.

Everyone else was down. Torn, crushed, buried. There was no more yelling. No more panic.

Time remaining: 04:11

Alice grunted, blood at the edge of her mouth. "We hold this line."

Liam didn't answer. He didn't need to.

We fought like the end had already been written.

Back to back to back. Every step held with pain. Every move slower than the last.

Time remaining: 02:03

I saw Alice drop to one knee, pushing her field out to shield two civilians.

I saw Liam burn a hole through three at once—then stagger as his arm failed to reform in time.

I turned, dodged, countered—still not using my ability. Still holding on.

Time remaining: 00:27

A tusk pierced clean through my shoulder. I cut it off and proceeded to decapitate it.

At that moment we were like butchers dropped into hell, drunk on adrenaline we cut and crushed and flung corpses as far as the eye could see, in a moment that seemed to last forever.

Liam fell to the ground, ash cracking off him like armor breaking.

The final boar lunged at me, tusks wide—

Simulation complete.

Phase One cleared.

Participants advancing: 105

Stand or Shatter