Jace was back in the void. The black, crushing space surrounded him, but now it felt… familiar. Ethereal lights pulsed around him, like silent stars in an endless night. He drifted, bodiless, through the nothingness, a strange sense of peace washing over him amidst the emptiness. It was a stark contrast to the pain and chaos he vaguely remembered. This void felt almost… comforting. But the comfort was fleeting. A jolt of pain, sharp and real, ripped through the ethereal calm, dragging him back. He gasped, his eyes snapping open.

  Confusion warred with pain. He was no longer floating. He was lying on something hard and cold. His head throbbed. His back burned. He tried to move, but his limbs felt heavy, unresponsive. He blinked, vision blurry, and saw… metal. Cold, grey metal bands encircling his wrists and ankles. Tech. They had him restrained.

  Memory flooded back – the bus, the chase, the fight, the energy blast from behind… .They’d captured him. Anger flared, hotter than the pain in his back. He wouldn’t stay captive.

  Gathering his strength, focusing all his will, he flexed his muscles against the restraints. The metal bands hummed faintly, resisting. He pushed harder. He could feel the power coursing within him, the coiled energy ready to break free. With a roar held silent in his throat, he exploded outwards. Metal shrieked, alarms blared somewhere, and the bindings around his wrists and ankles snapped apart, torn and sparking.

  Free! He surged to his feet, the sudden movement making his head spin. He was in a room, small and stark, but not like the simple cell he’d first thought. This was different. The walls were smooth metal, reflecting the harsh white lights overhead. Strange machines hummed in the corners, blinking with colored lights. Wires snaked along the walls. This wasn't just a prison cell. This was a lab… or something like it.

  There was only one way out, a heavy door set in the far wall. But in front of the door, something shimmered – a wall of pale blue light, humming with energy. A force field.

  He ran towards the door, ignoring the stinging in his back, his focus solely on escape. He slammed into the blue force field. It crackled and flared, pushing back with surprising force, making him stumble. But it didn't hold. He channeled his strength, focusing it into a single point, and punched. The force field rippled, bulged, then shattered with a sound like breaking glass, the blue light vanishing instantly.

  Alarm sirens wailed now, deafening, and red lights flashed, painting the lab-room in pulsing crimson. From the ceiling, small, sleek shapes descended, buzzing like angry wasps – drones. All armed with a glowing emitter and turrets on their front.

  Beams of stinging energy lanced out, striking his arm,his leg,burning like fire ants. He grunted in pain,but kept moving. Jace leapt straight up, twisting mid-air as a volley of energy beams sliced through the space he'd just occupied. His hand shot out, fingers clamping around the cold metal body of a drone. The machine let out a shrill mechanical whine as he crushed its frame with a single squeeze, its whirring motors sputtering before dying completely. Without hesitation, he swung the lifeless drone like a massive club, its shattered propellers cutting through the air as he brought it crashing into another. A sharp crack split the room as both machines tumbled to the ground in a flurry of sparks and broken circuitry. Landing lightly, he ducked just in time to avoid another energy blast, feeling the heat graze past his cheek. He grabbed a fallen drone, yanking off its weaponized arm with a screech of metal before hurling it like a javelin at another attacker. The makeshift projectile spun through the air and struck dead-on, the drone jolting violently before detonating in a shower of sparks.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Jace was in rhythm now. Moving like a blur, he weaved through the remaining drones with lethal precision, dismantling them one by one. He caught another out of the air, twisting its turret backward to make it fire into its own core, reducing it to burning scrap. Another drone rushed him, but he slammed his fist through its chassis, sending fragments flying as it collapsed lifelessly. He ducked and rolled, grabbing another downed machine and turning its own laser against the rest, carving through their ranks with ruthless efficiency. What had started as an overwhelming assault was now a massacre. Jace was a force of destruction, using his strength, speed, and sheer ferocity to tear through the machines, turning their own advanced technology against them in a relentless dance of chaos.

  With the drones destroyed, he turned towards the door he’d broken through. Adrenaline pumping, heart pounding, he was ready to finally escape this place. He stepped through the doorway and froze.

  He wasn’t free. Not even close.

  Beyond the door wasn’t an escape route, but another room. A wide corridor, and it was packed. A platoon of figures in dark uniforms stood shoulder to shoulder, lining the corridor, blocking his path. Each one held a large, energy rifle with glowing barrels, all aimed directly at him.

  And in front of the platoon, three figures stood out. The two assailants from the bridge, the ones with the tech-enhanced limbs, stood flanking a third man in the center. This man was different. Taller than the others, broader, with a harsh, angular face and cold, assessing eyes that seemed to bore right through Jace.He wore a dark, tailored suit, not uniform, and an air of absolute command radiated from him.This was the one in charge.

  The man in the suit raised a hand, a slow, deliberate gesture that silenced the alarms, cut off the flashing red lights, plunging the corridor into a stark, tense silence. Only the low hum of the energy weapons and the heavy sound of Jace’s own panting broke the stillness.

  "Stand down," the man's voice cut through the silence, cold and sharp, like shards of ice "it's over"

  Jace stood his ground, fists clenched, red targeting dots dancing across his hoodie and just before Jace leapt to continue his escape , the air itself shifted. An invisible pressure slammed into him, not like a physical blow, but a force pressing inwards from all sides, trying to compress him, to force him back. It was disorienting, subtly sickening, as if gravity itself was warping around him, pushing and pulling him in conflicting directions instinct took over. Jace braced himself, his muscles screaming as they instantly engaged, resisting the unseen assault. He planted his feet, digging into the floor, his fists clenching, Axel watched Jace’s reaction. He was testing the limits, probing Jace’s defenses. The enhanced youth was raw, untrained, but the sheer magnitude of his resistance was undeniable. He was holding firm against a focused gravitational manipulation that would have sent a normal human sprawling, and even given other enhanced individuals pause

  The leader's flicker of amusement vanished. "Allow me proper introductions. I am Axel Reed. And this," he gestured to the the platoon, "is Counter-Defence against Enhanced."

  Jace scoffed. "Counter-Defence against... You call kidnapping and attacking me 'defence'? Let me attack for real then so I can see your real defense."

  A cold smile touched Axel Reed’s lips. "Threats. Predictable. Demonstration it is." He raised a hand slightly outwards.

  The invisible force increased in power slamming Jace. A crushing weight pressed down, gluing his feet to the floor. Muscles strained against an unseen pressure. He grunted, surprised.

  The smile on Axel Reed’s face widened, predatory. "Gravitational manipulation."

  Jace grit his teeth, trying to move, to leap, but he was encased in lead. The force intensified, pushing him down. His knees buckled. He fought to stay upright, but it was no use.

  With a final surge of gravity, Jace was forced to his knees, then onto his chest, sprawling on the cold floor, pinned, helpless. The red targeting lasers mocked his prone form.

  Axel Reed stood over him, absolute control in his eyes. "Perhaps now," Reed said, his voice laced with steel, "you understand the reality. Stand down, Mr Jace Carter!. Resistance is unwise."