Chapter 284: Thieves In The Dark

The abandoned auto-body shop on the southern edge of Grayland smelled of stagnant rainwater, motor oil, and cheap antiseptic.

Rain trickled through a cracked skylight, dripping into a rusty metal bucket with a steady ping. In the corner of the garage, a single bare bulb hung from a yellow cord, casting shadows across the stained concrete floor.

Hexi sat on an overturned wooden crate, his bare torso wrapped tightly in dirty elastic bandages.

Every breath sent pain through his cracked ribs. He raised a trembling hand to his swollen jaw, feeling the broken bone where the clone’s bare palm had shattered his defense.

The physical pain was nothing compared to the anger burning inside him.

He was humiliated.

Hexi had spent months believing he was one of Master’s finest creations. When Dr. Malik Vance had altered their bodies and refined their abilities, Hexi had believed himself superior to the ordinary, fragile cattle walking the streets. He had thought Phantom had only been lucky at the docks. He had thought the clone would recognize his potential and welcome him as a partner.

Instead, both of them had looked at him like a bug.

The clone hadn’t even used a weapon or a powerful ability. He had simply walked through Hexi’s black miasma, called him worthless trash, and broken his ribs with a casual burst of strength.

"You are a low-tier impure. How could you possibly help me?"

The clone’s cold, indifferent words played through Hexi’s mind again and again, feeding the anger in his chest until his vision blurred with rage.

"I am not weak..." Hexi hissed under his breath, his fingernails digging into his palms. "I will never be weak again."

Across the garage, slouched in a torn leather seat with his boots resting on an empty oil drum, Sniper watched him. A cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth, its tip glowing faintly in the dim light. He held a small brass bolt between his fingers, tossing it a few inches into the air and catching it without looking.

"You’ve been muttering to yourself for two hours, man," Sniper said, blowing a thin stream of smoke toward the ceiling. "If you want another painkiller, just take one. The grudge speech is giving me a headache."

"Shut up, Sniper," Hexi snarled, clutching his side as a sharp cough rattled his chest. "You don’t care about anything. You sat on that catwalk and watched them drag the fake away, and you did nothing!"

"Damn right I did nothing," Sniper replied with a quiet chuckle. "Doing nothing keeps my ribs inside my chest. The big guy in the coat took down the fake like he was taking out the trash. If I’d pulled that trigger, the scary swordsman would’ve cut me up before the bullet even hit."

Sniper caught the brass bolt one last time and slipped it into his pocket.

"We survived. We have a dry roof over our heads, and nobody is shooting at us right now. That’s what I call a productive week."

Before Hexi could yell back, the shadows along the far wall rippled.

From the darkness between two storage lockers, a small figure stepped onto the concrete.

Shadow pulled back the hood of her oversized gray coat, revealing her pale, tired face. Her dark eyes were heavy with exhaustion, and she carried a small modified radio receiver—an encrypted police and emergency scanner she had taken from an Association scout vehicle two days earlier.

"I found something," Shadow said quietly.

Hexi straightened, ignoring the pain in his ribs.

"What is it? Did they move the clone?"

"No," Shadow replied, walking to the workbench and setting the scanner down. "The Association locked the clone deep underground. Sub-Level 9. They have energy dampeners running at full power. But that’s not what the dispatches are about."

Shadow leaned against the edge of the bench and crossed her arms.

"The high-frequency channels on the executive band went dark an hour ago," she explained. "The Hero Association sent out a special retrieval team without saying much over the radio. Phantom, the swordsman with the purple blade, the spatial woman, and Supervisor Selena. They flew out on an unmarked transport toward the eastern mountains."

Hexi’s eyes narrowed.

"The mountains? Why would they leave the city right after catching the clone? What’s out there?"

"I picked up some of the conversation from the transport coordinators before they switched to private channels," Shadow continued. "They’re heading to the Appalachian Range. Sector 4. It’s an old mining region that collapsed fifty years ago."

Hexi stood up from the crate, his mind racing.

He remembered the glowing green shard embedded in the clone’s chest back at the rail yard. He remembered the strange energy coming from the clone’s body—an enormous source of cosmic power that had allowed B to throw around Void Slashes and gravity wells without tiring.

"The Sahara expedition..." Hexi whispered, a manic grin slowly spreading across his bruised face. "They didn’t just go to Africa to look at old rocks. They found the source of the energy. They found where it comes from!"

Sniper groaned, sinking deeper into his seat.

"Oh, no. Here it comes. The crazy eyes."

"Don’t you see it?!" Hexi shouted, pacing across the concrete floor. "The clone had a piece of an ancient stone in his chest! That green rock was feeding him endless power! The heroes flew to Egypt, got the coordinates to where the other stones are buried, and now they’re heading to the mountains to dig up the source!"

"Hexi, no," Shadow muttered, rubbing her eyes with the back of her sleeve. "Let them dig up whatever they want. We don’t have the strength to fight Phantom, and we definitely can’t fight the whole team. Master told us to stay hidden until he finishes his research."

"This is the research!" Hexi snapped, stepping in front of Shadow. His bloodshot eyes were filled with desperation. "Master wants a cure for the impure degradation, right? He wants to stabilize our bodies and unlock absolute evolution! What if that stone is the key? What if that ancient energy can fix our genetic decay and make us stronger than every A-rank hero in the Association?!"

Shadow hesitated, looking down at the scars on her hands.

"And even if it isn’t the cure," Hexi continued, his voice dropping to a whisper, "think about the power. If I get my hands on one of those stones... if I fuse that energy into my miasma... I won’t just control a handful of street thugs. I could put an entire city to sleep with a single breath. Phantom wouldn’t be able to look down on me ever again. No one would."

Sniper let out a long sigh and dropped his cigarette into an empty soda can, where it hissed and died. He stretched his arms above his head and looked at Hexi with open disdain.

"You’re forgetting one tiny detail, boss," Sniper said lazily. "We don’t know the coordinates. We don’t have a private jet. And hiking through the Appalachian Mountains sounds like a lot of work."

"We don’t need a jet," Hexi said, baring his sharp teeth in a feral grin. "We have the general area. The heroes will have to land at a local base and drive all-terrain vehicles into the foothills. All we have to do is reach the mountain base, find their trail, and follow them into the dark."

Hexi turned toward Shadow.

"You can track their energy through the shadows, right? Once they start using Qi to clear out whatever beasts are living in those old mines, you’ll be able to follow them."

Shadow stared at Hexi for a long moment. She was tired, and every part of her told her this was a terrible idea. But looking at the determination in Hexi’s eyes, she knew he was going to the mountains with or without them.

"I can track them," Shadow admitted quietly. "If they fight, their Qi will spread through the earth."

Hexi spun around and pointed at Sniper.

"Grab your rifle. We’re moving."

Sniper stared at him without much reaction before letting his head fall back against the seat with a groan.

"I hate mountains," Sniper muttered, slowly pulling his boots off the oil drum. "There are bugs in the mountains. There is mud in the mountains. And now there are going to be giant heroes throwing energy waves around in the mountains."

Sniper picked up his long-barreled rifle, checked the magazine, and pulled the bolt back with a sharp click. He slung the weapon over his shoulder, pulled up his hood, and shook his head.

"If I get eaten by a mutated bear, Hexi, I’m haunting you for the rest of your miserable life."

Hexi pulled a dark canvas coat over his bandaged chest and zipped it tight to hide his bruised ribs. He reached into his pocket, pulled out a vial of painkillers, and swallowed two tablets.

The shame of the rail yard was already fading, replaced by a cold determination.

The heroes thought they were the only ones searching. They thought the secrets of the cosmos belonged to the Association.

Hexi walked toward the garage door, faint tendrils of black miasma curling around his hands.

"Let them do the heavy lifting," Hexi whispered into the cold rain. "Let them dig through the dirt. When they find the stone... we take it."