The Next Day
Zen stood in the cold, sterile hallway, adjusting the collar of his new SHIELD track suit. It was high-grade tactical fabric, charcoal grey with neon blue accents that seemed to hum with faint energy. Not bad, he thought, remembering how he'd found it in his locker earlier that morning—toothpaste still on his lips and a brush in his mouth.
"Zen! We're going to be late!" Aiko's voice echoed down the corridor. She, Tsukiko, and Hoshizaki were already sprinting toward the exit, their own suits rustling.
Aiko reached him first, grabbing his hand to tug him along, but Zen stood like an anchor. His gaze was fixed on Hoshizaki's dormitory door. "I have to check on Ren first."
Aiko let out a heavy, stressed sigh. "Hoshizaki, you and Tsukiko head to the field. We'll catch up." The siblings nodded and vanished around the corner. Aiko turned back to Zen, her voice dropping to a frantic whisper. "The drill is only four minutes long, Zen. We're going to miss the whole thing."
"It hasn't started yet," Zen said, his pace quickening toward the door. "If we're fast, we can make it."
"Ren is probably sleeping right now," Aiko countered. "He's too weak to do anything stupid. This is a waste of time."
Zen reached the door, his hand trembling slightly on the handle. "Trust me, Aiko. You don't know Ren like I do."
He pushed the door open. The room was dim, the only sound the low hum of the air conditioner. A figure lay on the bed, buried deep under a heavy blanket, unmoving.
Aiko pointed a triumphant finger. "See? Sleeping. Now let's go before we wake him."
Zen stared at the shape under the covers. Something felt off—the silhouette was too static, too perfect. But the pressure of the drill won out. He nodded, slowly closing the door, and the two of them sprinted for the exit.
They didn't see the truth. Under the blanket, Ren had meticulously stacked pillows to mimic his frame.
Outside, in a secluded, shadowed corner of the facility grounds, the real Ren stood trembling. He had found a secluded tree and carved a rough, jagged face into the bark—a crude sketch of the robotic spider that had nearly severed him in half.
He backed away from the tree, his breath coming in ragged, shallow stabs. "You can do this," he whispered, his voice cracking. "Just hit it. Once. You've done worse. This is nothing."
He took one step forward.
Suddenly, the world bled into a horrific crimson. The sky turned the color of an open wound, and the ground liquefied into a lake of blood. Five massive silhouettes of the robotic spider-monsters materialized from the red mist, their metal legs clicking like a thousand knives.
Ren stumbled back, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird. He tripped, falling hard. When he looked down to see what had caught his foot, he didn't see a root. He saw Hoshizaki's cold, lifeless face staring up from the gore.
Ren screamed, scrambling backward, but a white-hot agony flared in his waist. He looked down and saw his scar—the one that should have been closed—ripping open. Blood sprayed out as the wound widened, threatening to tear him in two. He clutched his side, trying to hold his own body together, sobbing as he limped away.
Through the mist, he saw more bodies: Aiko, Tsukiko, all dead.
"Help!" he shrieked, spotting The Elites standing in the distance, glowing like beacons. "Please! Help me!"
As he reached for them, the ground vanished. He fell into a pitch-black abyss, slamming into a cold, unbreakable wall. He was trapped. A single, giant robotic spider loomed over him, its leg raised like a spear.
Ren huddled against the wall, weeping, waiting for the end.
Suddenly, a figure blurred into view, standing between Ren and the monster. It was Zen. The spider's leg pierced through Zen's chest with a sickening crunch.
"Zen! No!" Ren wailed.
Zen turned his head, blood spilling from his lips, his eyes dulling as he looked at Ren. "Ren... are you okay? Ren... Ren..."
"Ren! Ren, look at me!"
The nightmare shattered. Ren snapped his eyes open, gasping for air. It wasn't Zen in front of him—it was a frantic doctor. Ren was collapsed on the grass outside, drenched in a cold, deathly sweat.
"Get a stretcher, now!" the doctor shouted to his assistant. He turned back to Ren, his face stern. "I told you to stay in bed! What were you doing out here?"
Ren reached out, his hand gripping the doctor's coat with terrifying strength. "Please," he wheezed, his eyes bloodshot and pleading. "Don't tell them. Don't tell my team... I don't want them to worry."
His grip loosened as his head fell back, consciousness slipping away again.
The Drill Field
Zen and Aiko arrived at the massive training field, joining a small, weary crowd of about ten or eleven candidates. Hoshizaki and Tsukiko waved them over.
"You made it just in time," Hoshizaki said. "The supervisor just arrived."
A man in a sharp black uniform stood before the group. "I'm glad to see this many of you are standing," he began. "I'll assume everyone here is fit for duty."
Zen subtly adjusted his tracksuit. Beneath the fabric, his chest and arms were a map of bandages and cooling ointment, hiding the deep muscle tears from the previous day.
"This drill will only last for four minutes—"
"Four minutes?" a voice boomed from above.
Everyone jumped as Raizen plummeted from a high tree, landing with a heavy thud that cracked the pavement. The supervisor turned pale. "Mr. Raizen? You... you aren't supposed to be here. The Elites aren't due for two days!"
Raizen laughed, a wild, echoing sound. "I got permission. Mostly."
(Back in the Elite Quarters, Kuro stared at Raizen's empty bed, then at Akihito. "Do you know where that idiot went?" Akihito just shook his head. "Shit," Kuro hissed.)
On the field, Raizen shoved the supervisor aside. "How about you take a break? I'll train these slackers. And trust me, I won't go easy."
"But this is just a stretch!" the supervisor protested. "There's no need for—"
"Stretch? How boring," Raizen grinned, his eyes gleaming with a manic light. "Training should be fun. I'm taking over. Stand back and watch."
He stepped toward the candidates, who were all visibly vibrating with nerves. Raizen pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "See that mountain over there?"
The candidates squinted. The horizon was empty. "No... there's nothing there."
"Exactly," Raizen smirked. "Because it's far beyond what your pathetic eyes can see. But you're going to reach it. Fast."
He drew his massive technological axe and dragged the blade across the ground, carving a glowing, burning horizontal line into the dirt. He snatched the stopwatch from the supervisor's hand.
"You will run to that mountain and back in under ten minutes," Raizen barked. "If you fail, you keep running until you get it. On your marks!"
The candidates scrambled into running stances, the air suddenly thick with tension.
"Get set... RUN!"
As the group vanished into a blur of speed, Raizen chased after them, howling with joy. The supervisor watched them go, rubbing his temples. "I am definitely getting fired for this."