Shadow folded his arms and finally began explaining what their mission was.

"The mission is simple," he said. "But it should be covert: limited fighting, minimal destruction, and definitely no killing."

A long silence followed.

Then, slowly, one by one, they all turned to look at each other.

Nadya grinned. Sven covered his mouth to hide a smirk. Even Isaac - usually the composed one, the strategist, the worrier - had a rare twitch at the corner of his mouth.

They were suppressing laughter.

Because if there was one thing this group was not built for… it was subtlety.

Especially with Kai now joining them, with his own somewhat controlled recklessness and spontaneity. He also had a unique mutant ability that was unmistakable, to say the least.

"I think we're overqualified," Sven said, deadpan.

Kai shook his head, amused. 'They think Nadya won't end up blowing things up, then being backed up by the rest of us.'

Still, none of them complained. They'd waited long enough for Shadow to show up. At one point, they thought something must've gone wrong - maybe the rest of the Outlaws were wiped out, or Shadow himself had been taken down.

But then they remembered who they were talking about. The Outlaws were elusive, capable ghosts in the wind. Shadow, especially, was the type you couldn't pin down even if you wanted to.

And Nadya didn't have a Spatial Pulse either; those were valuable and only given by Shadow when they were sent on operations that would require extraction.

So eventually, they stopped worrying.

Days blurred together. They trained. They fought. They rested.

Then trained some more.

But it was starting to wear on them. Their bodies were catching up to the effort. Their minds, too.

No matter how determined someone was, there came a point where progress slowed, where the plateau kicked in. Mutant Maturity wasn't something that could be forced. Sometimes, you just need time. Patience. Repetition.

That was true for most of them, anyway.

Kai was the exception.

His growth seemed to have no ceiling. Day after day, his limits kept moving. Every spar, every challenge, he climbed higher.

And he needed to.

Every new mutant he met reminded him just how vast the world really was. Abilities that bent logic. Beings that made no sense. Monsters that didn't care about power levels - they just destroyed. And then there was Nyx.

He was something even more dangerous than any mutant or monster - a psychopathic genius.

And as Shadow got into the actual mission briefing, they all fell silent again.

What started as a simple reconnaissance and information gathering mission… quickly spiralled into something else.

Something that once again led back to the man who seemed to haunt Kai's every step.

Nyx.

There was a moment of stillness.

No words.

Just tension.

Nadya swore under her breath. Isaac's brows furrowed. Sven looked like he might punch something. Even Shadow's tone had dropped.

Kai clenched his jaw.

'Can't I get away from this bastard?' he cursed inwardly.

But then he exhaled.

Because if this mission gave him even the slightest edge over Nyx… if there was even a hint of an opportunity to sabotage him or pull back the curtain on whatever sick game he was playing…

Kai would take it.

Every time.

He raised his head, eyes sharp and cold.

"I'm in."

And one by one, so were the rest.

-

Across the world, far from the camp they had been lying low in, chaos was quietly brewing in New York.

A new drug had hit the streets.

They called it TEMP Z.

Short for Temporary Z Gene Activation, TEMP Z did exactly what the name suggested - it let a regular human become a mutant for a short period of time.

It was illegal. Obviously. A black market creation that bypassed every regulation known to man.

But here's the thing.

No one was stopping it.

The Association stayed silent. The government couldn't act without the help of mutant officers, who, surprise, surprise, were under the Association's control. It was almost like the higher-ups wanted this to happen. Like they were letting the drug spread… just to see what would unfold.

Some said it was a test.

A society-wide experiment - one that they were sure Nyx was at the centre of. How could he not be? He had his hands in everything mutant and was the only one capable and crazy enough to produce such a drug.

Marketed through whispers and shady dealers as a "balancer" between regular humans and mutants, it quickly gained popularity.

Some bought it for protection.

Some used it to unleash carnage.

And others? They were just curious. Curious to know what it felt like to awaken an ability, to step into a world they weren't destined for and experience the supernatural.

For most, TEMP Z just boosted their physical abilities to superhuman levels. Strength, speed, durability.

It was riveting, but nothing special.

But sometimes?

Sometimes, it did more.

Sometimes, TEMP Z was so effective that it produced High-tier mutants - temporary freaks of power that could rival the real thing. But their strength came with a price.

TEMP Z couldn't be controlled.

Not really.

The more you used it, the worse it got. The body began to break down. Sanity slipped away. Some turned to dust. Others devolved into mindless monsters, barely human. There were even reports of people melting, literally melting, when their body rejected the temporary gene infusion.

The Z Gene had always been a double-edged sword, a mutation that occurred in response to the Z Virus.

It made monsters. It made miracles. And it killed more people than anyone liked to admit.

There were the Withered - humans whose bodies collapsed and were comatose after exposure. The Lost - those who went insane and became monsters. The Unmarked - people completely unaffected by the Virus.

Stable mutants were rare and few among the rest of the people.

But TEMP Z changed the game.

It gave everyone a shot at having mutant powers.

Even those who should've never awakened.

Even the Unmarked who didn't contract the virus.

And like handing a loaded gun to a child, the consequences were brutal and unpredictable...

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