The Five Evolution

『"Run, run, run again, I can’t help it..."』

He burst through a service corridor and nearly collided with a security team rounding the corner ahead. Seven guards with their weapons raised.

"Hi." Hiro raised his hand slowly. "You wouldn’t happen to know where the—oh forget it." He ran straight at them.

One of them yelled, "Hiro! Stop running!" The rest prepared to shoot.

Hiro did genuinely want to stop. His body was begging for it. But Ethan was clear about what would happen if he was caught now.

His body vibrated between states as he ran straight through them. One guard’s arm passed through his torso. Another tried to grab him and found only air.

He stumbled on the other side, his momentum carrying him forward.

"I would love to!" he yelled back. "I really would! But y’know, Bureaucracy and all that!"

After making it down a different corridor, he felt a jolt of pain on his shoulder. The impact of a non-lethal round had grazed him. This was a sign for Hiro that his ability to keep phasing was waning with each time he used it.

"Son of a bitch shot me." He hissed, placing his hand over his shoulder while running.

Suddenly, his phone buzzed in his pocket and he grabbed it without slowing.

"Where are you?" Ethan asked as soon as he picked up.

Hiro glanced at his surrounding. "Sub-Level 3—Near hydroponics—" he gasped with each word. "Heading—toward—the main elevator—"

"Don’t," Ethan interrupted. "Ditch the main elevator and take the service door on your left. Then head for Elevator Shaft B, east. It’s your fastest route down."

Hiro hesitated for half a second. His original plan had been the stairwell to the main elevator. It was wider and more direct. But he was going to have to trust Ethan on this one.

He turned left and ran, dashing towards Shaft B.

Behind him, the corridor he’d almost taken lit up with a sudden flash of light and the sharp crackle of electricity. The entire stairwell access would have turned him into a human taser pinata.

"How the hell did you know?" Hiro panted, already racing toward the elevator shaft.

"Because that’s where I’d set the trap if I were hunting someone with your abilities," Ethan replied, dry as ever.

Hiro kept running.

Elevator Shaft B was a dark and narrow maintenance access. The kind of space nobody ever used unless they had to. He found a vent covering and phased through it, dropping into the shaft itself.

His hands caught the guide rails, friction burning his palms as he dropped. Then he swung himself toward the ladder rungs and kept climbing down to the ground floor.

There was a sound below. Someone else was in the shaft. When he looked down, Amara emerged from the darkness below, climbing up to meet him.

"Come on," she said. Her hand reached up and grabbed his wrist, pulling him toward a secret service door by the side he hadn’t even seen.

For a half-second, their hands held differently than a grip needed to.

"This way," Amara said.

They ducked through into another corridor. This one, narrow and industrial, filled with humming machinery and exposed pipes.

"How did you—" Hiro started.

"Ethan told me where you’d be," Amara said. Her hand was still gripping his wrist. "There’s a blocked section ahead. You’re going to need help."

Ahead, the corridor had collapsed—or been deliberately sealed. A wall of crisscrossed metal bars.

"Normally, I’d phase through but—" he tried vibrating his body but fell to the ground.

Amara caught him by his arms immediately. "We’re going to have a talk about rules and following them," she said, slowly pulling him up. "But until then..."

She manifested Angel’s Bane and slashed through the bars, creating a path for him. "Go," Amara said. "This path should lead you straight to the RC. The group will be there waiting if you make it."

"You’re the best, Amara." He ran through the path, shouting over his shoulder as he did. "The fucking best!"

He made it three corridors, almost there before Yelena stepped out of the shadows. She stood in the middle of the hallway like she’d been waiting all along. Probably had been.

"It is train boy," Yelena observed. "You look tired."

"Yeah," Hiro agreed, and didn’t stop, already calculating how to outmaneuver her.

He tried to zig, but Yelena zagged, already intercepting and sending him crashing back with a kick to his solar plexus.

He bounced off the wall and quickly got right back up, gasping for air. "Listen..." he raised his index finger up in the universal gesture for ’one moment’, and Yelena straightened to listen.

However, that was just a distraction. He immediately tried to blur past her.

Without a second wasted, she anticipated the move, pivoting with perfect timing and drove an elbow into his ribs.

Yelena stood over him, one boot pressed lightly against his chest. Just like that, it was over. "Give it a rest, Train boy," she said simply.

Hiro looked at his trembling hands and tried to vibrate again. But nothing.

His body wouldn’t respond. He was too exhausted. He opened his mouth, searching for something clever, some trademark quip to cut the tension. Nothing came. Only ragged breathing.

Yelena studied him for a long moment, her expression unreadable. Then she lifted her boot from his chest where she’d pinned him moments earlier.

"Is this the part where you see something others can’t and make a judgement call to let me go by turning your back to me?" Hiro rasped from the ground.

"No." She kicked hard, and the last thing Hiro saw before being knocked the fuck out was a beautiful black leather boot racing towards his face in a brutal arc.

"Target secured," Yelena said into her comm. "Intruder is down. Upper-level, close to Relaxation Center. Send a retrieval team."

***

Minutes later, boots pounded down the corridor. Ethan, Raj, Sophia, and Amara arrived also, just as guards were hauling Hiro’s limp body off the ground.

The first thing Amara saw when she arrived was Hiro. Or rather, what was left of him. One of his eyes was already swelled shut and blood stained the corner of his mouth.

Two security officers carried him between them, his arms hanging limp over their shoulders as his boots dragged against the floor.

Amara’s fingers clenched into fists "Hiro." She moved forward instinctively but stopped herself.

Raj on the other hand, wasn’t so level-headed. He surged forward immediately, fists clenched. "Get your hands off him, you—"

Ethan grabbed his arm, yanking him back. He shook his head once, eyes hard with warning.

Raj strained against the hold, breathing heavily, but stayed put. Meanwhile, Sophia stood tense beside Amara, scanning the scene.

Ahead of them, more guards were already moving into formation around the unconscious Hiro. One of them crouched beside Hiro and began searching his pockets, patting him down.

Phone. Wallet. Institute identification. A half-empty inhaler. The guard checked everything twice, then looked up. "He’s clean."

Another guard searched again anyway but still found nothing.

Raj stared, one brow raised, Sophia frowned, and even Ethan’s expression shifted. Because that wasn’t possible. They all knew Hiro. If he’d broken into Sub-Level Seven, there was absolutely no way he’d come out empty-handed.

The guards clearly realized the same thing.

"Search the area," one of them said, and immediately, personnel spread through the corridor, checking corners, vents, and maintenance access points.

They were looking for anything he might have hidden. But just like the search conducted on his person, they came away with nothing.

"Clear."

Raj blinked. Ethan said nothing. But his shoulders dropped by a fraction that only someone watching closely would catch.

At the center of it all stood Yelena. Her gaze never left Hiro. She watched as the unconscious Awakener was lifted fully onto a transport stretcher. Something wasn’t adding up.

Yelena looked down at him. Her sharp eyes narrowed as she studied the idiot currently unconscious because he’d tried to outrun an entire Institute security response.

Afterwards, her gaze shifted to the four of them for a moment. Then she sighed.

"Глупый."

Stupid.

The word slipped out, barely audible. She turned on her heel, walking away without another glance.

The guards wheeled Hiro toward detention. And as they passed, Hiro’s swollen lips twitched with a tiny grin. It was barely visible, but was unmistakably there.

Amara immediately looked away before anyone noticed. Because she knew exactly why he was smiling.

Much earlier. Just before Yelena intercepted him. Just before he made it to the Upper-Levels. Amara had met Hiro at the elevator shaft.

Back when she grabbed his wrist to pull him toward the service door, he’d pressed the device into her hands without a word, and their eyes had met for less than a second during the transfer.

Then she had slipped it inside her vest before vanishing back into the maintenance tunnels, while Hiro drew Yelena and the rest of security away.

***

Now, back in the Relaxation Center, the four of them stood there in a circle.

Ethan glanced at Amara and his eyebrow climbed. She nodded with a small smile, interpreting his look.

The rest immediately understood as well.

Raj rubbed his knuckles, still simmering. "They’re going to interrogate him. You know that, right? We should—"

"We stick to the plan," Ethan cut in. "Hiro bought us this window. Let’s not waste it."

Sophia checked the corridor ahead, then gave the all-clear. "So, to the Director’s office?"

Amara’s jaw tightened, but there was quiet determination in her eyes. "Yeah."