Anger of a Dreamer

Chapter four

I pushed myself up from the cold ground, my muscles tense and my mind sharp. The chains twitched violently when I moved, like they knew what was coming.

Then, just like always...

They broke apart.

Every time I escaped, the Psions couldn't figure out how. Not once.

They studied my movements, analyzed the energy output, and ran every test imaginable. And each time, they assumed the same thing:

That I had simply grown too strong for their restraints.

They were wrong.

The real reason?

The second-hand organ they implanted in me.

The one they stole from De'Mar.

They thought all it did was keep me alive, replacing my old liver. What they didn't realize was that it came with something else.

Telepathy.

And their precious chains—those things they thought were unbreakable?

They weren't just metal. They were living.

Made from biomass, fused with something that acted like a nervous system, a kind of primitive brain.

And brains—even artificial ones—could be overwhelmed.

That was my secret.

Every time they locked me up, I used my mind. I flooded the chains' control system with an onslaught of raw data, overloading its capacity, frying its ability to function.

And thanks to De'Mar, thanks to her telepathic training, I had perfected the technique.

The chains twitched again, weaker this time.

I stood up fully, shaking off the last remnants of my restraints.

Outside, alarms were still blaring.

Starfire was loose.

The facility was in chaos.

And I?

I was finally ready to burn this place to the ground.

I pressed my palm against the cold metal of the door, feeling its resistance.

Then, I clenched my fist.

BANG!

A deep dent formed in the surface.

BANG!

The dent tripled in size, the metal groaning under the force.

BANG!

The door shattered, torn apart like it was made of nothing.

Last time I escaped, I held back—a lot.

And because of that, the Psions focused all their efforts on securing the wrong things.

They reinforced the data storage, strengthened their monitoring systems, and tried to predict my movements.

But they never truly upgraded the containment itself.

Everything they built to hold me?

It was weaker than it had ever been.

And this time?

I wasn't holding back.

Turning to my right, I spotted a squad of soldiers, their weapons already raised, fingers tightening on the triggers.

But they never got the chance to fire.

I moved—faster than thought, faster than their eyes could follow.

One moment, they were standing, ready to execute their orders.

The next?

Bodies split apart. Severed limbs hit the floor. Blood painted the walls in thick, crimson streaks.

Some were crushed into the ground with enough force to break bone and metal alike, their bodies reduced to nothing but twisted pulp.

They never stood a chance.

They never even saw me move.

Surprisingly, their blood was red.

For all the horrors they had inflicted, all the unnatural experiments they conducted, I expected something different—black sludge, acidic bile, something inhuman. But no. They bled just like anyone else.

I walked down the corridor toward the emergency bunker where the scientists would be hiding. I knew this because I had read their minds during one of my past escape attempts. They thought they were safe.

They were wrong.

Reaching the bunker, I ripped the doors off their hinges like they were made of paper. The energy shield flickered to life—one last, desperate defense. Pathetic. A few well-placed punches shattered the barrier into crackling shards of light.

Then, I turned to face them.

I smiled.

They cried.

The first one tried to run. Big mistake. I grabbed him by the leg, his screams barely registering as I swung him like a club—his body colliding with another scientist. The impact was sickening, both of them exploding into gore on contact.

I let go and moved to the next.

Forty of them.

I had time to get creative.

One's head came off clean in my grip. I tossed it like a baseball, sending it straight through another's chest.

Another? Ripped in half.

One unlucky bastard? I punched straight through his stomach, my arm tearing out of his back, coated in his insides.

Another? I played soccer with his body, kicking him so hard his spine shattered before he even hit the wall.

By the time I was finished, the room was painted red—my masterpiece.

I walked out, dripping in their blood, leaving behind nothing but shredded flesh and silence.

Walking a few more steps to the right, I opened the elevator door.

It was full of soldiers.

They reacted instantly, raising their weapons and opening fire. Energy blasts tore through the air, searing my skin, burning away the blood that coated me. I didn't move. I didn't need to.

When the gunfire stopped, I was still standing.

Their hands shook as they realized their weapons had done nothing.

I floated up slightly—just enough to make their stomachs drop—before I launched forward at inhuman speed.

The moment I stepped inside the elevator, the force of my movement turned the gold-plated interior into a slaughterhouse. Limbs and bodies exploded on impact, painting the metal walls red.

One of the bodies slumped forward, a security card still clipped to his uniform. I grabbed it, wiping the blood off against what was left of his armor.

Holding the card near my collar, I heard a faint click—the restraint unlocked, dropping to the floor with a dull clang.

I scanned the card against the panel and pressed for the 530th floor.

When the doors slid open, I stepped into a hallway.

It was full of people. More scientists.

I didn't have time for this.

Instead of cutting them down one by one, I simply floated up and shot forward.

The speed alone was enough. The sheer force of my movement tore them apart, turning the hall into a crimson tunnel.

I reached the door at the end.

It was locked. I didn't care. I ripped it open with one hand.

And there she was.

De'Mar.

Her body was still in its natural Martian form—tall, elongated limbs, two long fingers on each hand.

The moment she saw me, she stepped forward, placing a hand against mine. Her body shifted, limbs shrinking, her form reshaping into the familiar appearance I knew from our minds.

A voice echoed in my head, soft but steady.

Hello, love.}

I exhaled, a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"Hello, dear. Sorry for the wait. I got held up."

She tilted her head slightly.

I can see that. You're covered in blood.}

I smirked. "Not mine."

Floating up, we both moved too fast for the cameras to track, speeding through the labyrinth of corridors until we reached Dock Bay 200.

The moment we stepped inside, I saw hundreds of ships—some small and sleek, others massive and heavily armored.

I didn't waste time picking. The closest one would do.

It had a bird-like shape, its wings curved upward like a predator mid-dive. It was as big as a house, built for both speed and endurance.

Getting in was laughably easy. Just like rich people on Earth have valet services at fancy places, this station had dock attendants. Except here, they didn't need to be physically present. They used slip cards—holographic key passes that linked directly to their assigned ships.

I grabbed one from the docking station, the holographic key solidifying in my palm. One scan later, the ship's entrance slid open with a soft hiss.

De'Mar took the helm.

I sat beside her, watching as the station's defenses struggled to respond to our sudden departure.

They were too slow.

We shot out of the dock like a bullet, leaving the station shrinking behind us.

The moment we were a few million miles away, I stood up.

De'Mar turned to me, her brows furrowed. {You're going out there?}

"Just for a moment."

She didn't argue. She knew me too well by now.

I walked to the airlock, took a deep breath, and launched myself into the void.

The vacuum gripped at my skin, pressed against my lungs, but I ignored it. My body could handle this.

Then I moved.

Faster than I had ever gone before.

The station rushed toward me like a mountain of metal and light.

I hit it.

Once. A thunderous impact rippled through the structure.

Twice. Explosions erupted along its hull.

Three times. The entire station fractured, metal splitting apart like a dying star.

A chain reaction of fire and debris consumed it from the inside out.

The last thing I saw was the central core imploding in on itself, sending a shockwave that rippled through space like a silent scream.

I turned, rocketing back to the ship.

The moment I landed inside, De'Mar engaged the interstellar warp.

In seconds, we were gone.