Super Hero Rhapsody: 1975

The corridor door shudders under another burst of fire. Orange light stabs through the seams, and the lab’s alarms finally wake up, shrieking over the hiss of dead monitors.

Devlan hauls Doctor Aris Thorne toward the emergency exit, half carrying him as the scientist stumbles on rubbery legs. Thorne’s eyes track the broken feeder diagrams on the screens, like he cannot quite believe the line is really gone.

Boots thunder outside the door. More than one shooter. The breach splits wider, and smoke rolls into the room in dirty gray sheets.

Sally plants herself by the slab wall, the emergency light catching the tattoo at her collarbone. Behind her, Thorne is alive, Devlan is still moving, and ahead of them is the only clean escape left. If she phases them out now, the Department loses the lab and the trail turns into a hunt.

Sally lets the wall take her first, then Devlan, then Thorne, and the three of them sink into the concrete like a shadow pulled underwater.

The lab vanishes behind them. For one breathless second there is only pressure, darkness, and the muffled grind of the building shaking apart above.

Then they spill out into a service cavity beyond the room, knees hitting damp floor, the air cold and metallic.

Smoke drifts through the crack they left behind, and somewhere on the far side of the wall, boots slam into the corridor.

Ahead, the service tunnel splits into two dark routes, while the ceiling shivers with fresh impacts from above.