Ashes of Our Flame
by RapwizzyDebaron
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Episode 81: "Run with the Fire"
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The moment froze.
Subject Zero stood like a statue of death in the shattered doorway, eyes glowing like electric coals. Behind him, Ronan's body lay still, a trail of blood smearing the floor.
Adrian stepped forward, heart pounding. "Get away from her."
Zero tilted his head, as if analyzing the threat level. "You are not the priority."
In a blink, he moved.
Adrian fired. Tessa triggered the automated defenses. Nemesis slammed the emergency lockdown. The entire safehouse became a warzone of flashing lights, collapsing walls, and chaos.
But nothing stopped him.
Zero evaded every blast, danced between bullets, and flipped over tables like he'd rehearsed the entire layout of the building in his mind.
Kara, unconscious, began to stir.
Inside her mindscape, the ash field trembled. The dark version of her snarled, "He's coming."
"I know," Kara whispered.
She clenched her fists, feeling fire surge through her veins.
"I'm done hiding."
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Real World – 40 Seconds Later
Zero reached her.
Nemesis jumped between them, unleashing a plasma blade — but Zero caught it mid-swing and crushed the hilt in one hand. He tossed her across the room like a ragdoll.
Tessa screamed, "Adrian!"
"I've got her!" Adrian grabbed Kara's limp body and sprinted toward the underground escape tunnel. "Go, go, go!"
Tessa followed, barely avoiding Zero's calculated strikes as he sliced through reinforced doors like paper.
Kara's eyes fluttered open in Adrian's arms.
"Adrian…" she whispered. "He's here, isn't he?"
"Yeah," he breathed, out of breath and terrified. "And he's not playing."
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Escape Tunnel
Explosions shook the ceiling as Nemesis caught up, bruised but alive. "He's breaking through. We need to trigger the blast doors."
Tessa typed furiously. "Thirty seconds, tops."
Kara reached out, touching the wall with her fingertips. Her vision blurred — not from exhaustion, but from something new.
The fire.
It wasn't pain anymore. It was power.
She turned toward the sealed end of the tunnel. "I can hold him off."
Adrian grabbed her hand. "No. We do this together."
Her eyes met his — fire and steel.
"Then don't let go."
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Surface – Ruined Alley Behind the Safehouse
As the team burst into the open, the night sky greeted them with sirens and chaos. More citizens were waking up, screaming in confusion from broken Lazarus illusions.
But they had no time to explain.
Behind them, the wall exploded — and Subject Zero walked through the flames, untouched, emotionless, unstoppable.
Tessa pulled out an EMP grenade. "He's wired. Maybe this will fry his systems—"
Before she could throw it, Zero blurred forward and disarmed her with terrifying ease. The grenade detonated, lighting up the alley in blue-white pulses.
Zero staggered for the first time.
Just a fraction.
Kara stepped forward. "You feel that?"
Zero recalibrated, straightening. "Adapting."
Kara's hands sparked with energy. "So will I."
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Downtown Ruins – 1:03 A.M.
The team scattered.
Nemesis drew him toward the old subway lines, planting explosives as she went.
Adrian and Kara headed for the Lazarus Resistance safe zone — a ghost station beneath the city.
"Why is he after me?" Kara asked between breaths.
"Because you're the only thing they can't control," Adrian answered. "And that scares the hell out of them."
Kara looked at her hands. "I'm becoming something else."
"You're becoming what they couldn't predict," he said. "That's power. Not corruption."
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Meanwhile – Lazarus HQ
Vane watched everything through his monitors. Selene paced, shaken.
"He's stalling. He could've killed her by now."
"He's testing her," Vane replied calmly. "We need to see how far she's come."
Selene scowled. "And if she kills him?"
Vane smiled darkly. "Then she's ready."
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Old Subway Line
Nemesis dove into the tunnel as the explosives she planted lit up the ceiling — collapsing part of the path behind her. Dust and rock filled the air.
Zero halted, assessing the damage.
Then turned toward a side tunnel, recalculating.
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Underground Resistance Safe Zone
Adrian and Kara entered the circular, dim-lit command hub of the resistance. Dozens of awakened survivors had already gathered. Screens blinked. Weapons hummed.
Everyone went quiet when they saw Kara.
She stood taller now.
Her voice steadier.
"I need your help," she said. "Because they've just sent something worse than anything we've faced before. And he's not coming to conquer."
Her eyes burned with light.
"He's coming to erase."
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To be continued…
🔥 Power awakened. Enemies reborn. The battlefield expands — and the fire inside Kara refuses to be tamed.
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The war for truth is no longer in the shadows.