//ChemBaron Zarkon PoV//

  "AAAA!"

  Zarkon threw a grunt across the factory floor toward the entrance as armed thugs rushed toward the stairs.

  Sounds of gunfire and screams echoed, followed by soft explosions from grenades and Chemfshes. Zarkon snarled as his mind raced. He had no idea who or how the Enforcers were tipped off.

  Did Ferros find out we've been manufacturing Syntaxi Crystals? Zarkon thought, frustrated.

  Ferros had approached them, asking them to make a weaker, less potent form of Hextech crystals. They provided the materials, and the Poire family would produce it.

  Sometime into the process, though, they figured they could create a stronger version that could rival topside. They wouldn't have to fear the 'Gray Lady' nor bend the knee any longer while raking in riches.

  That was the pn.

  Another explosion rocked the base of the building, apanied by a series of violent screams.

  His cyberic legs stabilized against the floor as everyone else stumbled and struggled to find their footing.

  "Take Drake and Vale to the emerge," Zarkon barked at a skinny, stist-looking man, sweat dripping from his forehead.

  The stist's lower face was covered in a gray cloth, and his right eye was white from scarring. Nodding apathetically, he walked off as if there was no hurry.

  The Poire family couldn't end here. He wouldn't let it, and he knew his youwins would find vengean his stead.

  He took one of the early versions of the Syntaxi gems and ied it into his suit. Zarkon's cyberic suit was already outfitted to take on the new power, but he had been holding off due to the known votility and instability of the gem.

  Zarkon's chemtech green fshed before the fluid and tubes turned light e. Steam ejected violently, and a wave of energy, like a tidal wave, rippled out and fttehe nearby maery like pancakes. Someone briefly screamed, but it was quickly silenced.

  While he couldn't see it, the veins running up his neck started to bulge and shine—simir to Shimmer—shades of distorted e.

  CRASH

  Zarkon raised his metallic arm, shielding his head from the cascade of gss shards. The rgest window, overlooking a smog-obstructed cityscape, shattered inward violently.

  -----------------

  //Orion's PoV//

  With his weight banced between two pipes, Orion waited patiently as the chaos erupted below.

  Caitlyn and Greyson still hadered the building. Every time he gnced down, they remaiationed outside, monit the se with a team of enforcers keeping a vigint watch.

  Orion's breath hitched when he peered through the shattered window. What he had assumed was a four-floor factory was actually one massive space. At the heart of the room hung a colossal, pulsating orb, its surface riddled with glowing e veins that shimmered with a votile glow. Tubes and wires ected the orb to the ceiling, and occasionally, jets e energy hissed and shot through the pipes.

  Three levels of metallic walkways crisscrossed the walls, eg various rooms and maery in a plex work of industrial chaos.

  But his foarrowed on one figure: Zarkon. The Chembaron stood he base, fiddling with his cyberic arm, grim as the fighting approached from below.

  Suddenly, a violent pulse of energy exploded from him, rippling through the room and fttening heavy maery like crushed tin s. Orion tehere was no magic radiating from Zarkon, but the power emanating off him was unmistakable, like a bomb waiting to detonate.

  'Those Enforcers will be killed, just like the Shimmer-enhanced warriors did in Are,' Orion thought grimly, his gaze l toward the street where Caitlyn and Greyson remained.

  The sound of g metal and violent pops reverberated through the factory, and as Orion gnced downward again, he saw Caitlyn peering through the scope of her rifle—directly at him.

  'Fuck.' His pulse quied as he cursed inwardly. She had spotted his silhouette against the dim light.

  Without wasting another sed, Orion eled energy, shattering the window with a sharp crack. He arced inside, swinging through with one arm as gss rained down with him.

  -----------------

  "That man from the streets- he just vaulted in!" Caitlyn excimed, her voice raised with arm. Greyson immediately raised her on, her eyes narrowing as she spotted the shadow slipping ihrough the shattered window.

  "Let's go, Caitlyn," Greyson ordered, her crag voice cutting through the noise as she slid rounds into the chamber of her rifle. "It's early, but you will experience your first bat operation."

  Caitlyn's gaze flicked to Greyson's gun as she loaded it, an uling feeling rising within her.

  When Caitlyed the masked man's warning about Syntax being manufactured in the Uy, Greyson's rea wasn't what she expected.

  "This is something we'll have to iigate," Greyson said with a weary sigh, waving off the urgency Caitly. "And this came from a random man off the street?"

  "No..." Caitlyn had answered slowly, recalling the masked man's words. "He cimed to be an old friend of Orion. He knew about the corruption- and even accused topside of funding this."

  Greyson had gid, her posture tightening as Caitlyn's words sank in. Shock flickered briefly across her face before hardening into grim realization. Her expression darkened, and without an expnation, she'd approved the raid.

  'She seems less ed about Syntaxi and more about...' Caitlyn's thoughts drifted off into unpleasant possibilities, her mind being clouded.

  With a final breath, Caitlyn loaded her own bullets and followed Greyson into the heart of the chaos.