*Dr. Karen Dergors*
The Fort Dearborn facility was a concrete tomb buried beneath Chicago's suburbs. Karen had been there for twelve hours, surrounded by soldiers and scientists who spoke about her formula like it was the second coming.
"The new synthesis is remarkable," Dr. Patterson, the lead military scientist, showed her screens full of data. "99.7% uptake rate. Minimal rejection. The enhancement is permanent after three doses."
"The fatality rate—"
"Acceptable. 15% in the first generation. But their children will be born enhanced. True human evolution."
Karen wanted to vomit. "Children shouldn't be born as weapons."
"They'll be born as survivors." Patterson pulled up satellite images. "Beijing is developing their own enhancement programs. Moscow has supernatural integration camps. We're not the aggressors, Dr. Dergors. We're playing catch-up."
Her guard shifted—Private Johnson, young enough to be her student. He'd been kind, bringing her coffee, talking about his sister in medical school. Now he looked nervous.
"Dr. Patterson, sir? External communication for Dr. Dergors. Priority one."
Patterson frowned but nodded. Johnson handed Karen a phone.
"Hello?"
"Dr. Dergors." The voice was electronically distorted. "I've been trying to reach you. You can call me Friend."
The killer. Karen's hand tightened on the phone.
"I assume you're recording this," Friend continued. "So I'll be brief. Fort Dearborn's computers have been compromised. The airborne strain will release in four hours unless manually stopped. The kill switch is in Lab 7. Your handler knows this."
"Why are you—"
"Because this isn't what you wanted. Your vision of equality has been perverted into supremacy. The strong feeding on the weak. I've been showing your detective the truth, one body at a time. Teaching her to see."
"You're insane."
"I'm evolved. First generation Chance user. Strain X—my own creation. It enhanced more than my body, Doctor. It opened my mind. Showed me the future." A pause. "Your daughter's safe. The extraction team never reached her. But she won't stay safe if this spreads."
The line went dead. Karen looked at Johnson, who was pale.
"You heard?"
He nodded slowly. "My sister... she's in the city. If this goes airborne..."
"Help me stop it."
"I'll be court-martialed. Shot."
"You'll be saving millions." Karen stood. "Including your sister. Please."
Johnson stared at her for a long moment. Then he unholstered his weapon.
"Lab 7 is this way. We'll have to be quick."
They moved through sterile corridors. Karen's heart hammered. Four hours to prevent genocide. But part of her wondered—was Friend right? Had her enhancement drug inevitably led to this? Species competition instead of cooperation?
"There." Johnson pointed to a reinforced door. "Dr. Patterson's inside with the release mechanism."
"Can you—"
Gunfire erupted. Johnson shoved her aside as bullets sparked off the walls. More soldiers, converging on their position.
"Go!" Johnson returned fire. "Stop this!"
Karen ran. Behind her, Johnson screamed. She didn't look back.
The lab door was locked. She input her override code—Patterson hadn't changed it. Inside, the military scientist stood before a console, countdown timer at 3:47:22.
"I wondered when you'd come." He didn't turn. "Having second thoughts about human evolution?"
"This isn't evolution. It's extinction. The enhanced will burn out. The unchanged will die. You're destroying our species."
"I'm saving it. In a hundred years, historians will call us heroes."
"In a hundred years, there won't be historians. Just graves."
She moved toward the console. Patterson pulled a gun.
"I've dedicated my life to protecting humanity," he said. "I won't let sentiment stop progress."
"Then you'll have to shoot me."
Karen lunged for the console. The gun fired. Pain bloomed in her shoulder, but her hands found the keyboard. Override codes, shutdown sequence—
Another shot. Her legs gave out. Blood pooled beneath her as Patterson stood over her.
"I'm sorry, Karen. Your formula was brilliant. Your execution was flawed."
Her vision blurred. But through the door, she saw shadows moving. Maya Chen burst in, claws extended. Detective Hyatt behind her.
Patterson turned, firing. Too slow. Maya's claws found his throat.
"Dr. Dergors!" Hyatt knelt beside her. "The code—"
"Melissa," Karen whispered. "My daughter's name. The password is Melissa."
Hyatt typed frantically. The countdown stopped at 2:33:41.
"We did it," the detective said. "It's over."
But Karen knew better. The formula was out there. The knowledge couldn't be contained. Humans had tasted power, and they'd never stop craving it.
"Just beginning," she managed. "The war... just beginning."
Darkness closed in. Her last thought was of Melissa, safe somewhere, growing up in a world her mother had broken and couldn't fix.
*Multiple Perspectives - One Week Later*
**Detective Kathleen Hyatt**
The city was under martial law. National Guard on every corner, supernatural registration checkpoints, mandatory blood tests for Chance usage. The official death toll stood at 847. The real number was higher.
Kathleen stood in the ruins of Boz's warehouse, now a crime scene. They'd found his body that morning, along with Marcus and twelve others. Mass overdose on something called Strain Z—Solomon's final creation before he vanished.
"They knew we were coming," Agent Chen said beside her. "Chose their own ending."
"Or someone chose it for them." Kathleen held up an evidence bag. Inside, a note in familiar handwriting: "The weak feed the strong. The strong feed on themselves. Evolution complete. - Friend"
"Any leads on Friend's identity?"
"Hundreds. Every enhanced human who survived is a suspect." Kathleen pocketed the note. "But I think they're done. Made their point."
"Which was?"
She looked out at the city burning. Supernatural districts barricaded. Human supremacist groups hunting anyone different. The peace of five years shattered in seven days.
"That power corrupts. Always. Doesn't matter if you're born with it or buy it in a vial."
Her phone buzzed. Text from an unknown number: *You learned to observe. Now observe what comes next. The real war isn't between species. It's between what we are and what we're becoming.*
No signature this time. Friend was gone, message delivered in blood.
**Maya Chen**
The funeral was small. Lycanthropes weren't gathering in large groups anymore. Too dangerous. Maya stood over Derek's grave, wondering if she'd ever feel whole again.
"Maya Chen?" A young woman approached. Human, nervous, smelling of fear and grief. "I'm Melissa Dergors. My mother... she told me to find you if anything happened."
Karen's daughter. Maya saw the resemblance now.
"She left me this." Melissa held out a flash drive. "Said you'd know what to do with it."
Maya took the drive. It was warm, like it had been clutched too long. "What's on it?"
"The real formula. Not the weapon. The original. She called it Chance 2.0. Said it could heal instead of enhance. Bridge the gap without the addiction." Tears ran down Melissa's face. "She died believing redemption was possible."
"Do you?"
Melissa looked at the city skyline, smoke rising from a dozen fires. "I have to. Otherwise, what was it all for?"
Maya pocketed the drive. Another choice. Release a "better" version and risk starting the cycle again. Or destroy it and accept the division between species.
"Your mother was brilliant," she told Melissa. "But even brilliant people make mistakes."
"So what do we do?"
"We survive. We remember. And maybe..." Maya thought of Derek, who'd believed in coexistence until the end. "Maybe we try again. Slower this time. Without shortcuts."
They left the cemetery together. The city was wounded, maybe dying. But cities had survived worse. People had survived worse.
Evolution wasn't about becoming stronger. It was about adapting.
And humans—enhanced or not—had always been good at that.
**Epilogue: Solomon's Journal (Found in abandoned lab)**
*Day 73 post-exposure to Strain X:*
*The changes continue. Not just physical—cognitive enhancement beyond parameters. I can see the chemical structures in my mind, manipulate them like a conductor with an orchestra. Beautiful. Terrifying.*
*Friend was right. The weak do feed the strong. But they were wrong about evolution.*
*Evolution isn't about individuals becoming powerful. It's about species surviving. And we've poisoned our own survival in pursuit of personal strength.*
*I've created one final strain. Omega. It doesn't enhance. It equalizes. Strips supernatural abilities. Returns enhanced humans to baseline. True equality through reduction rather than elevation.*
*I won't release it. That choice belongs to whoever finds this.*
*But know this—we were so busy trying to become gods that we forgot how to be human.*
*Maybe it's time to remember.*
*E.S.*