Location: ONYX CORE Site Zulu-9, Amazon Rainforest
Time: 12:34 PM
Ryan stared at the flickering holograms—five pods, five clones. Each one colder, sleeker, more terrifying than the last.
Version One: reinforced exoskin.
Version Two: integrated drone control.
Version Three: enhanced cognition algorithms.
Version Four: vocal override for enemy tech.
Version Five: no face—just a burning wolf sigil where eyes should be.
And in the center… the sixth pod, cracked open, steaming.
The one he'd already fought.
Bella walked among the projections like a tour guide at a death exhibit. "You just survived the tutorial boss. Congratulations."
Ryan grit his teeth. "Where are they now?"
"That's the terrifying part," she said. "These pods? They weren't just backups. They were scouts. And one of them—"
She turned to face him. "—didn't come out quite right."
Emily narrowed her eyes. "Define 'not quite right.'"
Bella tapped the sixth pod's hologram. "The system labeled him Frayborn. Corrupted data, fragmented mission files, memories stitched together with static and rage. He wasn't just a clone of Ryan… he thinks he's the real one."
Ryan went still.
"Wait," Holly whispered. "There's… a broken version of Dad out there?"
Faith hugged Jumpy tighter. "Is he like a zombie?"
Bella sighed. "Worse. He's the ghost of a good man rewritten by bad code."
Jungle Surveillance Room – Unknown Location
Time: 12:36 PM
Somewhere deep beneath the rainforest, wires sparked and screens flickered.
Frayborn sat alone in a chamber of shattered mirrors and gutted servers. His armor twitched—segments reshaping, mutating in real time. Glowing veins pulsed beneath his skin like living circuits.
His voice buzzed like a damaged speaker. "Family… mission conflict… error…"
A glitch-laden feed of Ryan's battle played over and over on the monitors.
"Ryan Bruce… corrupted baseline… original… obsolete…"
Then came another voice from the shadows.
"Is that what you believe?" asked Glitch Wolf, stepping into frame. Mask illuminated by a thousand shifting data-points. His voice distorted, familiar—but colder now.
"You were never meant to be Ryan. You were meant to replace him. You were meant to evolve."
Frayborn tilted his head. "They… rejected me."
Glitch Wolf crouched beside him, setting down a battered teddy bear—scorched, eyeless.
"No," he whispered. "They feared you. Just like they feared her."
A brief flicker—an old photograph. Emily, maybe seven years old, standing next to a man with a blurred-out face.
Frayborn stared at the screen.
"Then I will burn the fear out of them."
Back in the Cave – 12:39 PM
"Alright," Ryan muttered, pacing, "we've got five sleeper clones, a corrupted me running on existential hatred, and no exit strategy."
Emily holstered her weapon. "Also: I'm rethinking the family vacation."
Bella crossed her arms. "You need to shut down the clone network. Before Frayborn activates the others."
"And where exactly is this network hub?" Ryan asked.
Bella pointed toward a black map etched into the wall.
A red X blinked.
Beneath it: ONYX CORE Site Omega
Location: Undisclosed. Deep beneath the Vatican.
Emily groaned. "Great. We're going to church."
Final Hook – 12:41 PM
Far away, inside a chamber of flickering screens and relics buried beneath Rome, a new pair of orange eyes snapped open.
Version Five—faceless, silent—stepped out of its pod.
No emotion. No hesitation.
Just a whisper in the dark from Frayborn, beamed through static:
"Wake up, brothers. It's time to end the original."
(TO BE CONTINUED...)