Eros could hear the feral coming closer. He stood ready. He still had his pistol, but the feeling of enhanced strength had not disappeared. If anything it had grown stronger. He wiped something wet trickling down his nose. Looking at his hand, he found blood.

“Ari,” Eros said.

“Yes,” he hear her little voice over his shoulder

“Are you the one making me stronger?,” he asked.

“I’m sorry. The doctors said I should ask before doing it to others. But you were endangered,” remorse stained her voice. “’I’ll stop doing it.”

“No, don’t. If you can, give me a little more of a boost,” Eros quickly said.

Instantly he felt the feeling of strength grow inside of him. The feeling of enhancement did not stop at his strength, all of his physical capabilities began to increase. Eros felt like he was going to burst. This new found strength wanted to be used.

The feral turn the corner of the hall. It was wearing an orange jumpsuit covered in blood and holes. Its skin black like coal colored skin and Its entire eyes were completely red.

Eros raised his leg and kicked the creature in the chest. Sending it flying through the air.

It grunted as it hit the floor. A dent from Eros boot printed into its chest.

Eros charged the creature, reaching the creature in an instant.

The feral scurried away. Its movements were slow to Eros, due to whatever Ari was doing to him.

Eros stomped on the creature's leg, shattering its bones.

It screamed, stopping in its tracks as it then crattled its broken leg.

With precision and strength, Eros effortlessly sliced through the neck of the feral. Its head slowly stopped some distance from its body. The feral’s body slumped to the ground, blood flowed from the neck, pooling on the floor.

Eros felt the feeling of strength fade. He grabbed his head as a headache came on. His heart was throbbing, the sound causing his eardrums to hurt. He collapsed to his knees, blood leaking onto the floor from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.

Ari detached herself from his back, “I’m sorry. I gave you too much.”

“It's fine,” Eros managed to weeze out. He used his hands to whip the blood from his face. His legs were shaking as he stood back up. “I don’t think I can carry you the rest of the way there like this.” Eros let out a small chuckle that turned into a cough.

“That’s all right,” Ari grabbed Eros’ hand. “We can walk the rest of the way there.”

Eros guided them to the places Sydney and her crew were. They did not encounter any ferals on the way there. The pain in his muscles slowly decreased, but never fully went away. He asked Ari about it, she said his muscles were torn and that he needed to rest. She mentioned that she could heal him, but she used up all her pheromones boosting Eros.

Eros found Sydney and the other sitting down, chatting idly. Their heads jerked around as soon as Eros entered. Smiles blossomed on their faces as they saw Ari with Eros.

Elena got up and ran over to them. Her arms extended as she went to hug Ari.

Ari relaxivly moved out of reach. Hiding behind Eros.

“What’s the matter? Is she shy or something?” Elena asked.

“More importantly, what happened to your face?” Gerald approached Eros.

“Yeah, that’s a lot of dried blood.” Mohawk chimed in.

“Most of it’s mine. Some of it is from the two ferals I killed. I fought them in hand to hand combat,” Eros answered with a smile.

“Stop playing around. Are you hurt anywhere? What about the girl, is she hurt?” Sydney asked.

“We’re both fine,” Eros said, “She was the one that helped me in fact. She’s an Altered.”

“Okay, enough talking. Lets go before, Tyrone manages to fuck up the mission,” Elena said.

“I need another rifl., one of the ferals chewed threw my rifle.” Eros said. Mohawk gave Eros one of his spares.

The group set off to meet with the others.

They arrived at the train station with ease. As they drew closer, they could hear the sound of gun fire and screams. Entering the station proper, they found Tyrone and the rest of squad Silverback finishing off a group of ferals.

“About time you all showed up. I was beginning to think we’d have to complete the mission by ourselves,” Tyrone said,.”And Eros, command will be hearing about how you abandon your squad for some prisoner.” He started towards a vacant train cart, boarding it.

“What are you all waiting for! Let's go,” Tyrone said.

“What an asshole,” Ana whispered.

They all board the train. Eros took a seat near the middle section of the train. Ari sat in the middle seat and Ana took the seat adjacent to the hall. Lisa went to the front of the cart and typed in their destination. The train began to move, slowly picking up speed, until the surroundings outside the cart started to blur together.

The ride was quickly over, with the train coming to a slowing halt. The tunnel seal was just outside. The group exited the cart.

“Lisa, use the terminal and close the seal,” Tyrone said, “Everyone else set up a perimeter. I don’t want any ferals sneaking up on us.”

Eros stopped Ari from getting off the train, “I need you to stay here, it's safer,” Eros said, “Will you do that?”

“Yes,” she said before running off to stand on one of the seats in the train. Looking outside the window at the others setting up a defensive perimeter.

Eros went over to the others, joining them in their watch over the direction of the Prison Sector. He turned on his flashlight attached to his rifle and started scanning the tunnel. Nothing was out there besides concrete, cables, and train tracks.

“What’s taking so long,” Warren asked.

“I’m almost done, just give me a second,” Lisa said. “What! No! No! No! Someone is trying to prevent me from closing the seal.”

“What, who is it?” Tyrone asked.

“I don’t know … It's Elsa. Shit, she’s turning on the alarm and flood light.” Lisa said.

“Stop her,” Eros said.

“I’m trying,” Lisa said.

“Why would she be doing that? And isn’t she out for maintenance?” Tyrone asked.

A siren started to play above them. One by one the floodlights on the ceiling of the tunnel turned on, from their location leading all the way back to the train station in the Prison Sector. Hundreds of thousands of ferals roared in anger. Their shrieks echoed down the tunnel. The ground began to rubble, it grew louder, then the first of the ferals appeared in the tunnel. Followed by another, then ten, then hundreds.

“Hold your positions,” Tyrone said, “Don’t shoot until I say so.”

“How is it coming along Lisa,” Ray asked.

“I almost got it.”

The feral horde drew closer and closer. Until finally Eros could make out their individual faces. “Fire!,” Tyrone said. Eros pulled his trigger and nine other rifles also shot. Their bullets tore through the horde of ferals.

But as one feral was shot down dead, another took its place. They slowly started to take steps back towards the train as the horde pushed closer.

“Fuck you!” Lisa said in triumph. The doors on the side of the walls began to slide out of the walls slowly. The door motors pumped, trying to push the huge metal doors into place.

Eros and the others immediately turned around and ran to get on the other side of the door before it closed.

As Eros was running to the otherside of the seal, he could see multiple droids making their way down the tunnel from the direction of sector 4.

“What are droids doing here?” Warren asked.

The droids moved past their group, lining up in the path of the doorway. As more and more fill the gap between the doors, the doors began to screech as they tried to close. The droids use the bodies to make sure that the doors don’t close.

“Stop the droids,” Tyrone yelled as he began shooting at them.

Eros joined in, killing the droids before they could get past them. A majority keeped walking towards the door. But a few started to attack Eros.

Eros dodged as one tried to tackle him to the ground. ‘Droids aren’t programmed to do this,’ he thought. Bullets sprayed from his rifle, his explosive rounds ripping holes into the droids.

“Lisa, try shutting the droids down,” Ray roared.

“I’m trying put someone is locking me out,” she responded

Eros could hear the motors powering the doors pop with stress. Looking back the door wasn’t closing, more and more droids were filling in the gap in the doorway. Pushing against the motors trying to close the doors. All the while the horde of ferals were coming ever closer.

“We have to retreat!” Eros yelled over the sound of gunfire.

“No, we still have a mission to do,” Tyrone said.

There was a huge bang and then the doors stopped resisting against the tide of robots. Sliding open again.

Eros started running to the train and hopped on. “There's nothing we can do now, the door is busted.”

Everyone else quickly boarded the train. Ferals were pouring over the hill of droids, racing towards their next meal. Lisa quickly inputed their destination into the control panel and the train took off. The horde of ferals were too slow to catch up to the maglev train.

---

Eros noticed that the train cart slowed prematurely. Looking outside the window he could see a blockade. Hundreds of guards were at work moving equipment and setting up defences.

The train stopped just outside the blockade. A squad of guards approached the train. Three of the guards boarded, two armed with rifles, and the last an officer with his hands behind his back. The rest of the squad of guards swept the outside of the train.

“All the other guards made it back hours ago. What took your squad so long to make it back?” The office asked as his two subordinates on the train began sweeping the interior of the train cart.

Tyrone stood up, “Our squad was sent on a mission by the Commander.”

The two guards neared the back of the train. As one passed near Eros’ seat, he stopped and stared at Ari. “Sir, they have prisoners.”

“You are trying to smuggle criminals into the safety zone, officer. That’s a crime.” the leading officer at the front of the train cart questioned Tyrone.

Tyrone's face twisted with anger, “I would never. Though I was opposed to it, the Commander allowed these prisoners,” Tyrone gestured to the back of the train, “to help us on the mission.”

The officer squinted his eyes at Tyrone. Reaching for his radio, he called to report his findings. A second later he got a response. “You are free to go, but we are to escort you to the Commander.”

The officer then walked off the train. He yelled for the rest of his squad to board the train and then told the guards operating the gate that it was safe to let the train enter. The other squad poured into the train cart. Each carrying their rifles in their hands. The gate opened and the train started moving again. They moved past the blockade camp, then disembarked at the station.

Arriving at the Commander’s office, Tyrone knocked on the door. Eros heard the clicking of the locking mechanism opening and then the door slid open.

“Come in,” Eros heard the Commander's voice from inside the room.

Everyone entered the office. Squad Silverback, Sydney and her gang went first. Then their escorts came in after them. The Commander’s office was spacious. In the center of the room, standing above a holo desk, were the Commander and his aides. Eros looked around and noticed a number of guards lining the walls of the office.

Tyrone stopped just shy of the holo desk, the rest of their group crowded around just behind them. Eros and the rest of the guards that entered saluted the Commander.

“At ease,” the Commander said, “Why is the tunnel not sealed?”

Eros put down his hand. His eyes drifted down towards the hologram projected over the table. He could see red dots in what was slowly traveling through the tunnel connecting the Prison and Security Sector.

“Sir, when we were sealing the tunnel Elsa tried to kick Lisa out of the system,” Tyrone said as he gestured to Lisa, “when that didn’t work the Elsa activated an alarm and turned on the floodlight in the tunnel, drawing the feral horde towards us.”

“The AI? Go on,” the commander said.

“We managed to hold the feral horde off long enough for Lisa to beat Elsa and close the gate, but the attacker then sent an army of droids to prevent the seal from closing.”

“How come you didn’t stop the droids from preventing the seal from closing?”

“There were too many and everytime we tried to interfere, the droids would attack us,” Tyrone said.

“We could have completed the mission if it wasn’t for Eros and prisoners.” Tyrone said.

“What did they do?” the Commander questioned.

“They broke off from us to save another prisoner,” Tyrone said as he pointed towards Ari.

The eyes of the Commander fell on Eros and then slowly drifted down until they spotted Ari. Ari clung to Eros hand and moved behind him, using him as a shield from the Commander’s piercing gaze.

“If they continued on with the mission with us, we would have completed the mission earlier,” Tyrone said.

The Commander's face fell, “Damn it,” he then turned to one of his aids. “Start evacuation procedures.” Eros watched one of the aids go off into a corner and begin to speak into her radio.

“And arrest these prisoners,” the Commander said, “put them in containment.”

Eros watches as Sydney activates her armor and the rest of her crew aimed their weapons at the guards approaching them. “You promised us that if we helped, we’d be freed.” All the guards in the room raise their weapons, aiming at Sydney and her group.

“I promised to free you, if you completed the mission.” the Commander responded. “Now stop resisting or things will get ugly for you and your people.”

“Sydney just do what he says, don’t give them an excuse to kill you all.” Eros said.

Bone spikes slowly started to ease their way out of Sydney’s bone white armor. She then looked around. First at her crew and then at the guards in the room. They were outnumbered. Eros watched as she pulled her armor back into her body. She got down on her knees and put her hands in the air.

“Everyone put down your weapons,” she commanded. Weapons hit the floor and knees followed after. Eros watched as each member of Sydney’s gang put down their gun and knelt on the ground, all except one.

“Boss, you can’t let them disrespect us like that,” Mohawk said, “We risked our lives on that mission. We did everything they asked us too. We desire to be let go!”

“Mohawk, just put down your weapon and we’ll talk about this later,” Sydney said.

“No,” Mohawk said, aiming his rifle at the Commander. “Someone gots to put this son of a bitch in his place. He thinks he can play with us, like we’re some puppet on a string.”

“Prisoner, I warn you. If you don’t put that weapon down and get on the ground right now you will die.” the Commander said.

“And so will you,” Mohawk responded. Eros watched as his finger squeezed the trigger. Eros heard the sound of two gunshots. Eros watched as Mohawk dropped to the floor with a hole through his skull. Turning towards the Commander, he saw that he stood to the side of where the bullet had hit the wall, holding a smoking pistol. Him having dodged inhumanly fast.

“Clean this up and take them away,” the Commander said.

The guards in the room approached the kneeling prisoners, cuffing them. They locked a cuff around Sydney's neck and then attached that cuff to another around her arms. Locking her arms to her chest.

One of the guards approached Eros. He grabbed Ari’s hand attempting to pull her way from him. Ari yanks her arm from the guard. She clinged to Eros’ arm, while hiding behind him.

“Ari, you have to go with them,” Eros tells her.

“I don’t want to.” she responds.

“You have to,” Eros said as he crouched down, his eyes now level with her’s. “I’ll come visit you later.”

She stares into his eyes as if searching for something. She then lets go and takes the guards hand. She, Sydney, and the rest of the prisoners were escorted out of the office by guards. Eros glanced at Tyrone, he had a smirk on his face.

“As for the rest of you,” the Commander addressed squad Silverback, “You all will join the defensive line. You are dismissed.”

Eros saluted the Commander, along with the other members of squad Silverback and the squad of guards that escorted them to the office. They then all turned around and exited the office.