Chapter 542

Jake rushed toward Owen, keeping the hook latched onto him in case his counterpart tried to make a move against Catalina. However, Owen paid her no mind at the moment, his full attention fixed on the quickly approaching Jake.

The moment he was within striking distance, Owen sprouted long scythe-blades from his shoulders. The gleaming blades snapped into place in an instant before one sliced through the air toward him with frightening speed.

But Jake was ready. He darted out of the way at the last possible moment, feeling the rush of displaced air brush against his armor as Owen’s curved blade carved through the space where he’d just been. Had he reacted even a fraction of a second slower, the strike would’ve carved through him instead.

Jake had already detached the hook from Owen’s body so he could have both hands free for the fight. The cable recoiled into his forearm as he thrust one hand toward his opponent and launched two rotary saw blades in quick succession. The spinning discs shrieked through the air toward their target. From this close, it was nearly impossible to dodge them.

Owen danced out of the way with surprising agility, and one of the spinning blades zipped past, grazing his armored shoulder and throwing off a shower of sparks. But the other struck home, embedding itself deep in the side of his head with a sharp metallic crunch.

It didn’t seem to deal any serious damage to him, though. Owen barely even reacted. He reached up, grabbed the half of the saw blade jutting from his head with one hand, and ripped it free with a forceful yank before carelessly tossing it aside.

One of the scythe blades immediately lashed out at Jake, sweeping toward him in a broad arc. But Jake ducked beneath the strike as he continued closing the distance instead of backing away. The wicked blade hissed over his head, missing him by mere inches.

Now within arm’s reach, he morphed both of his hands into smashfists. He immediately launched an acid projectile at Owen. From this close, there was simply no room for his counterpart to evade it.

The glob splattered across the middle of Owen’s face, sending acid spraying over the obsidian-like flesh. It hissed violently on contact as smoke curled into the air and the armored plating began to bubble and melt, rapidly weakening under the corrosive attack.

While his counterpart was momentarily disoriented, Jake stepped in and threw a powerful punch. His massive smashfist slammed into the middle of Owen’s face with a thunderous metallic crack, sending him staggering backward several steps before he managed to steady himself.

Owen recovered almost instantly, barely giving Jake a moment to capitalize on the hit. Seemingly enraged, he lunged at him, his huge fists swinging through the air like sledgehammers. Jake managed to slip past the first strike by a mere inch, but the second caught him square in the chest. His armor caved inward at the center of the breastplate where Owen’s fist connected, and a web of cracks radiated from the point of impact.

The blow was so powerful it actually lifted Jake off the floor, his body curling backward as he was hurled through the air. Before he even reached the peak of his flight, he launched a grappling hook at Owen. The hook shot forward on its cable and latched securely onto Owen’s torso. Jake immediately yanked on the line with tremendous force, hurling himself back toward his counterpart instead of crashing helplessly to the ground.

He intended to use the momentum to add even more power to the punch he was about to deliver. His smashfist drew back, ready to slam into Owen with the combined force of his own strength and forward momentum.

But Owen danced aside at the last possible instant, and the strike swished through empty air, completely missing its target. Jake sailed past him and landed beside his counterpart. As he regained his balance, he caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye.

Without turning his head, he caught sight of Catalina darting around the teleporter from the corner of his eye. She had clearly realized he was keeping Owen occupied, giving her the chance to escape. She knew she couldn’t do anything to help him against an opponent like Owen. Her only real option was to flee while she still had the chance.

Even though Jake never turned to look directly at her, careful not to draw Owen’s attention in her direction, he still tracked her movement through his peripheral vision. While she’d remained perfectly still, Owen had seemed to ignore her, perhaps even temporarily forgetting she was there altogether.

But the instant she broke into a sprint, his eyes caught the motion. His head snapped toward her, and Jake could immediately tell his counterpart remembered exactly why he’d come here in the first place.

As Catalina raced around the far side of the teleporter and sprinted toward the door, Owen abruptly changed direction and lunged after her. But Jake didn’t let him. He threw himself directly into Owen’s path without a second thought.

Owen slammed into him at full speed, the impact jolting both of them before they staggered apart. Jake dug his boots into the floor, keeping himself between Owen and Catalina for those precious few seconds she needed to escape.

A quick glance over his shoulder revealed Catalina had almost reached the door. Just a few more strides, and she’d be out of the teleporter room. But she wasn’t out of the woods yet. Escaping this room was only the first step. Jake would still need to keep Owen occupied for a few more minutes, giving her enough time to reach the freight elevator, ride it to the upper floor, and make her way out of the Spartan base.

Catalina reached the doorway. Just as she was about to throw herself through the opening, the heavy door suddenly slid shut right in front of her with a sharp metallic clang. It happened so abruptly she had no chance to stop. She crashed into it shoulder-first and stumbled back a step from the impact.

Her hand immediately shot toward the control panel, and she jabbed the open button over and over, but the door refused to move despite her frantic pounding. It remained firmly sealed, its locking mechanism refusing to respond.

Jake knew exactly what had just happened. Chen had closed the door and locked it remotely from the security control room he was in. He could’ve simply let Catalina escape, but he must’ve feared Owen would immediately chase after her and slip out of the teleporter room as well. And Chen obviously wasn’t willing to take that risk. As far as he was concerned, trapping all three of them inside was preferable to letting even one of the two mutants escape.

Which only confirmed Jake’s earlier suspicion that Chen would be more than willing to sacrifice one human life if it meant eliminating two overpowered mutants. To him, losing one innocent person was apparently an acceptable price to pay if it guaranteed the elimination of Jake and Owen once and for all.

It was bad. Very bad. Jake could feel Chen steadily pushing back against his intrusion into the teleporter’s systems. His own control was slipping away little by little, and he knew it was only a matter of seconds before Chen reclaimed it completely. Once that happened, he’d activate the Dark Void, and every one of them still inside the room would be dragged into the deadly anomaly without any chance of escape.

Jake rapidly weighed his options, his mind racing even as he continued exchanging blows with Owen. He knew he could hack the door’s controls and force it open, giving Catalina a chance to escape. However, it was already taking every ounce of his mental effort to maintain his grip on the teleporter’s systems. Even with his full concentration devoted to it, he was steadily losing control as Chen relentlessly fought to reclaim access.

If he loosened his mental grip on the teleporter’s systems, even for a moment, so he could divert part of his focus toward hacking the door’s controls, it would only make it easier for Chen to regain control of the teleporter. The more attention Jake pulled away, the faster Chen would overwhelm him. It was a race he was already on the verge of losing.

Jake knew he had no choice but to release part of his mental grip on the teleporter’s systems and redirect that effort toward hacking the door. If he managed to force the door open, Catalina would have a chance to escape the teleporter room and get beyond the Dark Void’s effective range before it activated. As for him and Owen, they likely wouldn’t be able to save themselves. There simply wouldn’t be enough time.

But if he didn’t open the door at all, he would accomplish nothing. Catalina would remain trapped with them, and all three of them would be dragged into the anomaly to meet the same grim fate.

So he didn’t really have any other options available. Giving Catalina a chance to escape and save her life was what mattered most. If someone had to make it out of this room alive, it had to be her.

So he released part of his mental grip on the teleporter’s systems. He immediately felt Chen gaining ground as he redirected the freed mental energy toward the door’s controls instead. His consciousness surged into the locking mechanism, tearing through its security protocols. It took him only a second to override the system and force the door open.

The heavy door slid aside once more. Catalina wasted no time slipping through the doorway the instant the opening was wide enough. She likely didn’t even realize Jake was the one who had opened it for her, probably assuming her frantic pounding on the control panel had finally made the mechanism respond.

But after she slipped through the doorway, Catalina suddenly paused. Instead of immediately running as far away from the room as possible, she turned back and looked at him.

For a very brief moment, their eyes met across the distance between them. Jake didn’t have time to explain, so he simply waved vigorously at her, urging her to keep moving. She understood without a word. Giving him a brief nod of gratitude, she turned around and sprinted away, disappearing down the corridor.

Jake barely had time to react before Owen came at him again. He twisted aside as his counterpart threw another powerful punch, the massive fist cutting through the air where his head had been moments earlier. Jake didn’t retaliate. There was no point. Every second he spent fighting was another second wasted. Instead, he quickly retrieved his electrolarynx and spoke.

“Owen, listen. We gotta get outta here right now.”

He could feel it. They had only seconds left before Chen finally regained complete control of the teleporter’s systems and activated the Dark Void. The pressure in his mind was growing weaker as Chen continued pushing him back, and Jake knew there was no time for lengthy explanations. They had to move.

Spinning toward the door, Jake broke into a sprint, putting every ounce of speed he could into reaching the exit before it was too late.

He didn’t get far. A second after he started moving, Owen slammed into him from behind with overwhelming force, sending them both crashing onto the floor. Jake hit the ground hard, his armor scraping against the solid surface as Owen’s weight came down on top of him.

Jake immediately tried to push him off, twisting and shoving with all his strength, but it was no use. Owen had him pinned firmly beneath him. Jake had already found himself trapped in this exact same situation aboard the living ship, so he knew from experience how difficult it was to break free from his counterpart’s grip. Fighting against Owen’s raw strength while pinned beneath him was almost impossible.

His hands were free, though. He quickly retrieved his electrolarynx again.

“Owen, they’re about to activate the Dark Void. We gotta get out of the room right now!”

Jake could only hope his words reached whatever part of Owen was still listening. There wasn’t much time left. Every second they spent struggling on the floor brought them closer to being pulled into the anomaly.

Suddenly, Jake’s head slammed against the floor as Owen’s fist crashed into him. For a moment, his vision blurred from the force of the blow. It was clear his counterpart was no longer in control of his actions. Whatever human part of Owen had been holding back was gone. His monster side was now fully at the helm.

He was now fully focused on Jake, attacking him with brutal instinct. He even seemed to have forgotten about Catalina entirely. Jake tensed, bracing himself for the next punch.

But it never came.

Instead, Chen had finally activated the Dark Void.

Almost instantly, a tremendous force erupted behind him, pulling everything in the room toward the anomaly. Jake felt the immense weight pinning him down suddenly disappear as Owen was torn away from him. He didn’t need to look back to know what had happened. Owen had been caught by the Dark Void and dragged into it.

Having predicted what was about to happen, Jake had preliminarily taken a precautionary measure a moment before the Dark Void was activated. He had launched a grappling hook forward, sending the cable shooting through the open doorway and burying itself deep into the corridor wall. The hook locked into place, anchoring him before the force behind him could pull him away as well.

The force lifted Jake completely off the floor, leaving him suspended two or three feet above the ground as his body was dragged backward. Fighting against the invisible force, he quickly glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough, he saw the black hole hovering motionlessly inside the arc of the teleporter, silently consuming everything not bolted down and within its effective range.

Jake then shifted his attention back to the hook lodged in the corridor wall. He tried to reel in the cord, hoping to pull himself away from the Dark Void, but nothing happened. The pull of the anomaly was simply too powerful. Worse, he could feel the hook beginning to loosen, the concrete around it quickly giving way under the strain.

He wasted no time. Before the first hook could fail, he fired another from his opposite hand, aiming for anything solid enough to anchor himself.

The second hook was affected by the pull as well, and before it could latch onto anything, the first one was violently ripped free of the wall. Jake felt the sudden loss of resistance and immediately began hurtling backward through the air.

There was absolutely nothing he could do to stop himself from being dragged backward, and a second later, the Dark Void swallowed him whole.