Chapter 541

Jake was quickly gaining on Owen, but it was painfully obvious that his counterpart would reach the teleporter room long before he could catch up with him. The distance separating them was shrinking with every stride, yet not nearly fast enough.

Up ahead, along the right-hand wall, he could see Fernand still lying on the floor, writhing and struggling against the cinch net tightly wrapped around him. The human thrashed helplessly, but the living threads only cinched tighter around his limbs and torso, refusing to give him even the slightest bit of freedom.

Rachel was somewhere farther down the corridor, but Jake couldn’t see her because Owen’s broad-shouldered frame blocked his view. He could only assume she was still trying to get as far away as possible from them.

And at the very end of the long corridor, inside the security control room, Chen was waiting for the moment the two mutants entered the teleporter room so he could activate the Dark Void. Jake had no doubt the human’s hand was already hovering over the controls, ready to trigger the device without a moment’s hesitation.

Would he be willing to do that while Catalina was still inside? Would he be willing to sacrifice her to get rid of the two powerful mutants, both of whom he and some of the other humans hated so much, once and for all?

Jake definitely didn’t put it past that human to sacrifice one of his own kind to achieve a goal that otherwise wouldn’t be attainable anytime soon. If eliminating Jake and Owen meant losing a single human in the process, Jake feared the Spartan would consider it an acceptable price to pay.

He was getting closer to his counterpart, but the gap between them was still too great for him to reach Owen with his tentacles. No matter how hard he pushed himself, Owen’s own speed continued to keep him just out of reach.

So Jake tried something else instead. Extending one arm forward, he launched a cinch net at his counterpart. The mass of living threads shot down the corridor, spreading wider as it rapidly closed the distance between them.

However, Owen’s senses must have warned him, because he leaped, twisting in midair with remarkable agility. At the same time, he sprouted a scythe-blade from his shoulder and immediately lashed out at the cinch net that was about to wrap around him.

The blade sliced through the tightening threads with ease, severing them before they could constrict around his body. The shredded strands fluttered harmlessly to the floor behind him. Then his body completed its turn, and as he landed lightly back on the floor, he continued racing down the corridor, barely losing a second in the process.

It was definitely a neat trick, and his timing had been flawless. Jake was sure firing another cinch net would be useless. Owen would simply repeat the maneuver, slicing through it just as easily. Jake fired another cinch net at him anyway. He couldn’t afford not to try.

This time, however, Owen didn’t even bother with his shoulder blade. Instead, he simply darted to the side with a burst of speed, letting the rapidly expanding net sweep harmlessly past him before veering back into his original path almost instantly. The entire evasive maneuver took barely a heartbeat.

Jake never got a chance to fire another net, because Owen finally drew level with the door to the teleporter room. Without breaking stride or hesitating for even a fraction of a second, he threw himself through the open doorway and disappeared inside.

It was bad. Real bad. Jake had lost a couple of precious seconds because he had to slow down to aim at Owen and fire two cinch nets at him. And he had accomplished nothing in return. Those few wasted seconds had been enough for Owen to reach the teleporter room, and now Jake was the one trying to recover from that mistake.

He reached the doorway a second or two later. A thought immediately occurred to him: linger in the doorway and tell Rachel not to activate the Dark Void. But he dismissed the idea immediately as soon as it crossed his mind. He simply didn’t have time to retrieve his electrolarynx and say anything to the human. Right now, every fraction of a second mattered.

Instead, he took a brief moment to survey the teleporter room. It was quite large but mostly empty, with smooth concrete walls and an unobstructed floor that offered very little cover. The teleporter itself occupied the very center of the room. Its thick metallic arch towered over the platform beneath it.

Catalina stood against the center of the far wall behind the teleporter, keeping as much distance between herself and Owen as she could. She had clearly taken up that position after realizing there were no other exits from the room.

Her entire attention was now fixed on Owen as he raced across the room toward her. Jake guessed she was waiting to see which side of the teleporter Owen would choose so she could dart around the opposite side before making a desperate beeline for the door.

But Jake knew it wouldn’t work. Owen was simply too fast for her. Catalina might gain a brief head start by using the teleporter as an obstacle, but it wouldn’t be nearly enough. Owen would adjust his course in an instant, and it wouldn’t take much effort for him to intercept her before she even reached the doorway.

Jake had one more thing he could try to stop Owen. Remaining in the doorway, he extended one arm to the edge of the frame and gripped it tightly. He also sprouted as many tendrils and bladed tentacles from his back as he could, spreading them out all around him.

He drove the blades as deeply into the concrete wall around him as possible, forcing them into the solid material until they anchored him firmly in place. The sharp tips dug into the wall, creating cracks around the points where they had penetrated.

As for the tendrils, he plastered them against the wall, making use of Adhesive Secretion. The sticky substance spread across the surface, creating an additional layer of support and helping hold him in place. He needed every bit of strength and stability he could get.

While doing all that, he extended the free arm toward Owen, morphing it into a grappling hook. The transformation was nearly instant, the limb reshaping itself into a long, reinforced appendage designed to latch onto his counterpart. Jake knew Owen would try to dodge it the same way he had dodged the second cinch net. Still, he had to try.

Jake also knew that if he missed, he wouldn’t have another chance. There simply wouldn’t be enough time to reel the hook back in and fire it again before Owen reached Catalina. By then, it would already be too late. He had only one shot.

So he took a second to focus before firing the hook at his counterpart. He ignored everything else around him, concentrating only on Owen’s movements and the narrow window of opportunity he had.

Either he calculated everything perfectly or he was simply lucky, but Owen wasn’t able to dodge it.

The instant the hook shot forward, Owen reacted. He attempted to dart to the side, twisting his body away from the incoming attack, but he was a fraction of a second too late. The hook missed the center of his back, where Jake had intended it to land, and instead latched onto his shoulder. Still, it was good enough.

As soon as the hook caught, Owen’s momentum came to a sudden stop. The force of the impact pulled against him, bringing his charge to an abrupt halt. Jake felt himself yanked forward as the sudden strain traveled through the cord and into his body, but thanks to all the appendages anchoring him to the wall, he managed to remain in the doorway.

The concrete around him groaned under the pressure, and his blades dug even deeper into the wall as he fought against Owen’s strength. For a moment, it felt as though the entire doorway was being pulled completely apart.

His counterpart then turned and looked directly at him. The two mutants locked eyes, neither one moving. For a brief second, they simply stared at each other. Jake knew that Owen understood exactly what had happened. He had stopped him but only temporarily. But Jake had another ace up his sleeve.

The moment he reached the doorway, he had begun hacking into the teleporter’s systems, and now he finally succeeded. His consciousness connected with the device’s network, allowing him to force his way through its defenses and seize control. He immediately locked down its systems, preventing anyone else from activating it.

However, it wasn’t a permanent victory. Jake could already sense Chen working from the security control room, trying to override his command. To Jake’s great disappointment, he could feel his hack gradually being pushed back. The human was trying to shut down Jake’s interference, actively fighting against it and forcing his way through the barriers he had created.

This teleporter, like everything else in the tech lab, had been created by Mick. And the human was far more skilled at engineering and inventing technology than Jake was at hacking it. That wasn’t really surprising. After all, Mick’s talent had been given to him by the Whisperers. And whoever they were, they were clearly incredibly powerful beings, capable of granting abilities far beyond what ordinary humans could achieve. Jake doubted anyone else possessed such an extraordinary gift for creating advanced technology.

The fact that he had managed to temporarily hack into the teleporter’s systems at all was impressive. But it was clear he wouldn’t be able to maintain control for long. Chen’s knowledge of the system, combined with Mick’s superior engineering, was slowly turning the situation against him.

Chen hadn’t activated the Dark Void when Jake reached the doorway. He had probably been waiting for Jake to step inside before triggering it, wanting to make sure he was caught within its effective range. But now that the human had learned about Jake’s ability to interfere with electronics, there was no way he would wait any longer than necessary. The moment Chen regained control of the device, he would immediately activate the Dark Void.

Jake knew he had to pull Owen out of the teleporter room before that happened. And he didn’t have much time. At best, he figured he had less than a minute. At worst, only a few seconds before Chen regained control of the teleporter.

So Jake pulled back on the cord as hard as he could. He poured every bit of strength he had into the movement, using his anchored position in the doorway as leverage. The cord tightened between them, and Owen was actually yanked forward, his feet sliding slightly across the floor as the sudden force caught him off guard.

Unfortunately, Owen managed to keep his balance. And he immediately planted his feet wide apart, lowering his center of gravity while gripping the cord with both hands. For a brief moment, neither mutant moved, locked in a struggle of raw strength. Then Owen gave the cord a powerful yank of his own.

It took all of Jake’s strength to remain fixed in the doorway. The force traveled through the cord and into his entire body, pulling against every tendril and blade anchoring him to the wall. The concrete around his appendages cracked slightly under the strain, but he refused to give ground.

He knew the teleporter was currently hacked, so there wouldn’t be any immediate danger in stepping into the room. In fact, moving inside would probably make it easier to pull Owen away from Catalina. Still, he stayed where he was for the moment. He couldn’t afford to make a mistake, not when Chen was still fighting for control of the teleporter and the Dark Void could be activated at any second.

Suddenly, his Feral Instincts warned him of danger behind him. In the next second, he felt something slam into his armored back, the impact punching into the plating and burning a small crater into it. A flash of energy spread across his armor as the blast struck. Jake immediately knew what had happened. Rachel had just fired at him from behind.

She obviously didn’t know Jake had jammed the teleporter. From her perspective, Chen hadn’t activated the Dark Void yet because he was waiting for Jake to enter the room and come within its effective range. She probably assumed that was the reason he had held back, and if she could force Jake inside, Chen would finally be able to activate the device and end the fight.

So she had clearly decided to shove Jake into the teleporter room herself. Another shot struck his back. Then another.

Rachel hammered several more blasts into him, each one sending another wave of tremors through his armored body. Jake felt the energy shots drill into the protective plating, leaving behind small glowing craters where they had impacted. The armor absorbed most of the damage, but the repeated attacks made it harder for him to focus on keeping the teleporter locked.

Before she could fire another shot, Jake acted. He tore one of the bladed tentacles free from the wall, ripping it out of the concrete with a shower of fragments. Without even needing to look, he swung it toward the human attacking him from behind.

Rachel noticed the movement and attempted to dodge. But she was too slow. The blade caught her across the side of the head, the force of the strike sending her flying several yards down the corridor. She hit the floor hard and slid across the surface before finally coming to a stop, the blow having knocked her unconscious.

Owen gave the cord another sudden, powerful yank. Jake managed to hold his ground but only barely. The force pulled against every part of his body, making his anchored appendages strain against the wall. The concrete around his blades cracked further, and for a moment Jake could feel himself being dragged forward despite all his efforts to remain in place.

His counterpart was far stronger than he was. Jake knew that next time, Owen might succeed in ripping him free of the doorway and dragging him into the room.

Beyond his counterpart and the teleporter, Jake could see Catalina still standing in the same spot. Her eyes remained fixed on the struggle unfolding before her. She wasn’t frozen in fear. She was waiting, searching for any opening that might allow her to escape.

It was then that Jake realized what he had to do. There was no way he could pull Owen out of the room. If anything, it was far more likely that Owen would be the one to pull him inside. The difference in their strength was simply too great, and Jake couldn’t keep relying on the doorway as an anchor forever.

Jake knew his first and foremost objective was to let Catalina escape. But while he was standing in the doorway, she simply couldn’t do that. His own position was blocking the only exit. Owen was clearly intent on killing her, but for the moment, his attention was focused entirely on Jake. He had been so determined to overpower him that he had temporarily forgotten about his original target.

Jake knew he had to capitalize on that. So he detached all his tendrils from the wall, releasing himself from his anchor point. The sudden loss of resistance sent him stumbling forward, but he used the momentum instead of fighting it. He rushed into the room, charging straight at Owen.