Chapter 6 - Blood and Steel
Sarah didn't hesitate. She threw herself forward, tackling Viper around the waist before he could throw the explosive. They slammed onto the hard concrete of the subway platform, rolling through shattered glass and bullet casings.
"Run, Leo!" Sarah screamed, struggling to pin Viper’s wrist to the ground as he fought back with terrifying, brute strength.
Viper laughed, a wet, sickening sound. He dropped the grenade, sending it rolling away from them toward the edge of the tracks. "We all go down together, bitch!"
Leo didn't run. He locked his eyes on the rolling grenade. In a fraction of a second, his brain calculated the fuse time, the trajectory, and the structural weakness of the platform's edge. He sprinted forward, kicking the grenade off the edge of the platform into the deep pit of the track bay just as it detonated.
The explosion shook the entire station, tearing up the concrete edge and sending a massive cloud of fire and debris roaring upward. The shockwave threw Sarah and Viper apart.
Viper scrambled to his feet, pulling his switchblade and lunging at Leo. "I'm gonna carve that chip out of your arm!"
Leo stood his ground. As Viper thrust the blade toward his throat, Leo stepped inside the arc of the strike with terrifying speed. He seized Viper’s wrist, twisted it inward with a force far beyond what a child should possess, and snapped the joint with a sickening crack.
Viper howled in agony as the knife clattered to the floor. Before he could recover, Leo slammed his elbow into Viper’s broken nose, sending the giant staggering backward into the open pit left by the explosion. Viper tumbled into the smoke and twisted metal of the destroyed subway tracks, disappearing into the dark.
Sarah dragged herself up from the floor, gasping for breath, looking at Leo with a mixture of awe and horror. "Where did you learn to move like that?"
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Leo looked down at his trembling hands, the glowing tattoo on his arm pulsing with a faint blue light. "I didn't learn it. It was programmed into me."
Behind them, the computer terminal chimed. UPLOAD: 100%. TRANSMISSION COMPLETE.
