The emergency alert blared through the communicators, the sharp tone sending a jolt through Nathan's spine.

  "Disturbance reported in District 4. Multiple hostiles engaged. Trainee teams are to provide containment until senior heroes arrive."

  Lucas barely let the message finish before sprinting toward the deployment vehicles, Astra and Nathan close behind.

  They arrived at the same time as another team. Titan, Aegis, and their third teammate, a lean, sharp-eyed hero named Striker. His uniform was sleek, designed for mobility, and the way he held himself radiated barely restrained energy.

  Titan crossed his arms. "Looks like we beat you here by a second. Try to keep up."

  Lucas stepped forward with an easy grin. "Didn't realize this was a race. Thought we were here to stop a threat."

  "Then let's stop wasting time," Aegis interjected, already scanning the area. "Containment perimeter first or direct engagement?"

  "Engagement," Titan said immediately.

  "Perimeter control," Astra countered at the same time.

  Nathan barely had time to exchange a glance with Astra before the villain in question, a massive, cybernetically enhanced brute, smashed through a storefront, sending debris flying.

  The fight had already begun.

  Lucas shot forward like a cannonball, his momentum shaking the pavement. Titan followed suit, both of them closing the distance with raw speed. The villain barely had time to react before Lucas delivered a crushing blow to his midsection, sending him stumbling backward. Titan wasted no time, leaping high and driving a knee into their opponent's jaw.

  The force should have knocked the villain unconscious. Instead, the cybernetic enhancements absorbed some of the impact, stabilizing him before he counterattacked. A massive, reinforced arm swung toward Lucas, but he pivoted mid-air, dodging. Titan wasn't as nimble, taking a glancing hit that sent him skidding back.

  The villain let out a booming laugh. "Is that all you've got? I expected more from so-called heroes!"

  "Stick to my tempo!" Titan barked, frustration bleeding into his tone.

  "Your tempo's off," Lucas shot back.

  Meanwhile, both teams scrambled to adapt. Aegis constructed an energy barrier that blocked a second wild swing from the villain, while Astra moved to evacuate nearby civilians. Nathan tried to assess the fight, but the constant shifting of battle styles, brute force from Lucas and Titan, defensive measures from Aegis, calculated support from Astra, was creating more chaos than control.

  It was sloppy.

  And something about it didn't sit right with Nathan.

  Nathan weaved between the chaos, dodging stray energy blasts and Titan's wild swings. He wasn't in the thick of the fight, he never was, but he was watching. Calculating.

  The villain moved oddly, almost deliberately allowing certain attacks to land. The way he shifted his stance right before a heavy hit, how his armor absorbed impact in some areas but deflected in others. It was intentional.

  Nathan tried to call it out. "Something's off! His movements…"

  "Not the time, Echo!" Striker cut him off, launching forward with a reckless charge. "We fight, you analyze later!"

  Nathan gritted his teeth. That was the problem, later would be too late.

  The villain sneered, side-stepping Lucas's punch with ease. "You trying to think your way through this, kid? Cute. Too bad brains don't win battles."

  Nathan ignored the taunt and narrowed his focus. He rewound a second in his mind, tracking every movement the villain made. The dodges weren't random.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  Every time Titan or Lucas struck, the villain adjusted slightly, letting certain hits land while avoiding others. He wasn't just taking damage, he was charging up.

  Nathan's pulse quickened. "He's absorbing kinetic energy!"

  No one was listening. No one cared what he had to say.

  For a moment, it looked like brute force was working.

  Lucas and Titan synchronized their attacks, hitting the villain with back-to-back power strikes. Aegis reinforced the offensive with an energy bind, locking their opponent in place.

  "We've got him!" Titan roared, charging in for the final blow. Lucas mirrored the motion, both heroes winding up their finishing moves at the same time.

  Nathan's eyes flickered to a detail no one else saw, the faint pulse of energy beneath the villain's armor, a subtle charge building in the cybernetics.

  "Wait!" Nathan shouted, stepping forward. "Don't"

  "Stay out of the way!" Titan barked, shoving past him.

  The final blows connected.

  A sudden whine of overloading energy erupted from the villain's body.

  Nathan's stomach dropped. "No!"

  A pulse of raw kinetic force exploded outward, sending both teams flying. The villain, now surging with stored power, straightened with a grin. "That's more like it."

  Nathan hit the pavement hard, the wind knocked out of him. His head rang. He pushed himself up just in time to see Lucas and Titan struggling to stand.

  And the villain, now stronger than before, loomed over them.

  The villain's cybernetics whirred, but this time something was different. Blue energy crackled across his frame in pulsing waves, each surge brighter than the last.

  His previously sluggish movements became liquid grace, servos humming with newfound power. The ground beneath him began to crack, spiderweb patterns spreading outward as excess energy leaked from his frame.

  "Amazing..." Nathan breathed, eyes wide. "The kinetic absorption isn't just storing energy, it's optimizing his entire system!"

  The villain's armor shifted with a series of satisfying clicks, plates realigning and locking together in a cascade of motion. Steam hissed from newly revealed vents as a secondary layer of armor emerged, each piece sliding into place with mechanical precision. His mechanical eye pulsed with cruel red light.

  Lucas clenched his fists. "That's new."

  Titan wiped blood from his mouth. "We're just getting started."

  Before anyone could react, Striker lunged forward.

  Striker's body erupted in crackling electricity, his form blurring as he tapped into his full speed. The air itself seemed to split around him as he vanished and reappeared in rapid succession, each movement leaving trails of lightning in his wake. The ground sparked and smoldered where his feet touched.

  He attacked in a relentless sequence, left, right, above, each strike precise and calculated. Lightning arced between his hits, creating a cage of electricity around the villain. But something was wrong.

  Nathan's enhanced perception caught it first - the subtle way the villain's armor absorbed each impact, the barely visible pulses of stored energy growing stronger with each hit.

  "No... he's playing right into-"

  Too late. The villain moved.

  Time seemed to slow as the cybernetic hand closed around Striker's wrist.

  Their eyes met, Striker's wide with shock, the villain's mechanical lens adjusting with cold precision. Then reality crashed back at full speed.

  CRACK.

  The sound echoed like a thunderclap, Striker's agonized scream mixing with the dying crackle of his lightning.

  The villain released him, letting Striker crumple to the ground. The once arrogant hero groaned, clutching his broken arm.

  Nathan's blood ran cold. He had seen this before.

  The villain raised both arms, energy coursing across his frame in violent waves. His mechanical components shifted and expanded, vents opening to release excess power that made the air itself waver with heat.

  "Our goal demands perfection," he intoned, voice resonating with mechanical harmonics. "Allow me to demonstrate the gap between us."

  Nathan's heart pounded as he finally put the pieces together.

  This wasn't just a random attack.

  It had something to do with Sovereign Protocol.

  The energy building around him intensified, creating a visible dome of rippling force. Nathan's enhanced senses screamed warnings, the power was something he had never seen before.

  "EVERYONE MOVE!" he shouted, but it was already too late.

  "KINETIC OVERLOAD."

  A sudden shockwave of kinetic energy erupted from his core, blasting outward in all directions. The blast painted the world in electric blue, debris and bodies flying like leaves in a hurricane.

  The very air seemed to shatter, pressure waves visible as rings of distorted space expanding outward. Windows exploded for blocks around. Car alarms wailed in cacophony. And in the center of it all, the villain stood unmoved, his frame smoking with residual energy.

  A sharp burning pain flared across his ribs as he hit the edge of a broken streetlight. He sucked in a breath, pressing a hand against his side. Nothing felt broken, probably just a deep bruise. He forced himself upright.

  Lucas and Titan were both staggering to their feet, while Aegis's barrier flickered unsteadily, barely holding. Astra coughed, waving away dust, but Striker was still down, cradling his broken arm.

  "Regroup!" Astra called, trying to pull the teams together.

  "Fall back!" Aegis snapped at Titan, but Titan ignored him, already charging in again.

  "No, we need to..." Nathan started, but no one was listening.

  The battlefield was chaotic. No coordination, no structure. Just raw power clashing without direction.

  The villain loomed over them, unchallenged, watching as the so-called heroes unraveled.

  Nathan clenched his fists. This wasn't a fight anymore. It was a disaster.

  And they were losing.