Triple X System

Kyle looked at the screens and felt sick. Millions of names. Millions of numbers.

”We can’t free them all right now,” he said.

”I know,” Yua said. ”But we can start.”

Elara stepped out of shadow. Her legs were shaky. ”What do we do first?”

Yua looked at the screens. Then at the door. ”First we make sure more butchers don’t find us. Then we figure out how to shut this down.”

Kyle nodded. His hands were still black at the edges. He couldn’t help it. ”Control room probably has a master shutoff. Or alarms. Something.”

They split up in the room. Not far. Just enough to check things.

The control room was big. Cold. White walls, white desks, white everything. Screens everywhere. Each screen showed a section of the kalkai chamber. Tube after tube. The monitors beeped in rhythm. Like a heartbeat that wasn’t theirs.

Yua went to the main console. She pressed a few buttons. Nothing happened. She pressed harder.

”Locked,” she said. ”Needs vampire blood or a key.”

”Can you fake it?” Kyle asked.

She shook her head. ”Not with this. It’s old tech. Not blood magic.”

Elara was looking at a smaller screen in the corner. It had a map.

”Guys,” she said. ”Look.”

Kyle and Yua walked over.

The map showed the whole facility. It was massive. The kalkai chamber was just one wing. There were 4 more just like it on this floor. And 3 floors below.

”Vampires use humans in a never ending cycle for breeding and farming across several planets,” Yua muttered, reading some text on the side. ”This is Sector 7, Floor B-2. There are Sectors 1 through 9.”

Kyle stared at it. ”Across several planets.”

”Yeah,” Yua said. ”This isn’t even the biggest one.”

No one said anything for a bit.

Elara pointed at a red dot on the map. ”What’s that?”

”Security,” Yua said. ”And that’s...” She paused. ”That’s a butcher pen.”

”Of course there is,” Kyle said. He rubbed his face. ”Okay. Plan. We lock this door, we find the shutoff, we get out before they send everything at us.”

The door slammed.

All three of them turned.

Outside the glass, butchers. Six of them. Walking slow. Thump drag. Thump drag.

”Must ki-ll. Must ki-ll.”

Kyle cursed. ”That was fast.”

Yua was already moving. She ran to the door and pressed her hands to it. Red strings shot out and sealed the edges.

”It won’t hold long,” she said. ”Maybe two minutes.”

”Then we have two minutes,” Kyle said. He looked at the console. ”Where’s the shutoff?”

”I don’t know,” Yua said. ”It’s not labeled.”

Elara was panicking a little. ”They’re gonna break in and take me.”

”They’re not,” Kyle said. He grabbed her shoulders. ”Listen to me. They’re not.”

Where Kyle immediately uses his shadow walk skill on Elara to turn her into shadowy figure. He put his hands on her and black poured out. It covered her in seconds. She went light. She could still see through the shadow, but she wasn’t solid.

”Stay like that,” he said. ”Don’t move. Don’t make sound.”

Elara nodded inside the shadow.

Before blasting out with yua towards the tough challenge.

The door cracked. One of the butchers hit it with both arms. The red strings stretched.

Yua stepped in front. ”On three.”

”On three,” Kyle said.

One.

Two.

Three.

The door blew in.

Butchers poured in. Six of them, hunched, bloodied, all reaching.

Kyle and Yua hit them at the same time.

Kyle went first. Dark flames out of both hands. He didn’t aim to kill. He aimed to burn and push. The first two caught fire and fell back, screaming that wet scream.

Yua was right behind him. Life entanglement. Red strings everywhere. She wrapped one butcher’s legs and yanked. It went down. She wrapped another’s arms and pulled them behind its back.

The third one grabbed her.

She headbutted it. Broke its nose. Blood that wasn’t hers sprayed.

Kyle was fighting two at once. He ducked under hooks, hit them with elbows, knees, anything. No weapons. Just him.

One butcher got a hit in. A hook across his ribs. It hurt. He didn’t make a sound. He just grabbed the arm and broke it.

The last two came at him together.

He dropped low and swept both their legs. When they fell, he was on them.

It was messy. Fast. Loud.

Thirty seconds and it was done.

Six butchers on the floor. Not dead. Just down. Tied up in Yua’s strings or too broken to move.

The room was quiet again except for breathing.

Kyle was bleeding from the side. Not bad.

Yua had blood on her face but not from a cut. From using too much power.

Elara dropped out of shadow. She looked at the bodies and then looked away.

”You okay?” Kyle asked her.

”Yeah,” she said. ”You?”

”Fine,” he lied.

Yua went back to the console. She was angry now. ”There’s gotta be a shutoff.”

She started hitting buttons. Random ones. Alarms didn’t go off. Lights didn’t change.

”Come on,” she muttered. ”Come on.”

Kyle looked at the map again. ”What if it’s not here? What if it’s on another floor?”

”Then we go,” Yua said.

They left the control room. The hallway outside was empty. For now.

They walked. Fast. Checking doors as they went.

Most doors led to more tubes. More people.

One door led to a break room. Empty. Coffee still warm.

Another led to a medical room. Tables with straps. Tools. Nothing good.

Elara kept close. She didn’t talk much.

Kyle kept checking behind them.

Yua kept looking at every screen they passed.

After 10 minutes they found another control room. Smaller.

This one wasn’t locked.

Inside, a single chair. A single screen. And a big red lever on the wall.

”That it?” Kyle asked.

”Maybe,” Yua said. She walked to it slow.

She grabbed the lever.

”If I pull this, alarms will go off. Every butcher, every guard, everything will come.”

”And if you don’t?” Kyle asked.

”Then nothing changes,” Yua said.

Kyle looked at Elara. Elara looked at him.

”Pull it,” Elara said.

Yua pulled it.

A siren started. Low at first, then loud. Red lights flashed.

”Facility lockdown initiated,” a voice said over speakers. ”All units to Sector 7, Floor B-2.”

”Great,” Kyle said. ”Now we run.”

They ran.

Back through the kalkai chamber. Past the tubes. Past the people sleeping.

The alarms made it worse. People in the tubes started waking up. Some were crying. Some were banging on the glass.

Kyle hated every second of it.

They got to a stairwell. Down, not up.

”Where are we going?” Elara asked as they ran.

”Basement,” Yua said. ”If there’s a main shutoff, it’s down there.”

The stairs were metal. Their footsteps echoed.

Behind them, footsteps too. Thump drag.

”Butchers,” Yua said. ”Lots.”

They hit the bottom floor. B-3.

This floor looked different. Dirtier. Older.

The tubes here were cracked. Some were empty. Some had bodies in them.

”They don’t even clean this place,” Kyle said.

They kept moving. Following signs that said ”Main Control” with arrows.

The butchers were close. Kyle could hear them breathing.

”Must ki-ll.”

They turned a corner and ran right into four of them.

No time to talk.

Kyle moved. Dark flames. He burned the first one’s face and it went down.

Yua hit the second with strings, tied it to a pipe.

The third grabbed Elara.

Kyle saw it and moved without thinking.

Where Kyle immediately uses his shadow walk skill on Elara to turn her into shadowy figure again. He reached out and the shadow covered her before the butcher’s hooks could. The butcher grabbed nothing but air.

”Run,” Kyle told the shadow.

Elara ran.

Before blasting out with yua towards the tough challenge.

The fourth butcher came at Yua. She met it. They traded hits. She was faster. She was also bleeding more now.

Kyle finished his. Then helped Yua with hers.

They didn’t stop. They kept running.

The Main Control room was at the end of the hall. Big doors. Locked.

Yua put her hand on it.

”I can break it, but it’ll take time.”

”Then break it,” Kyle said. He turned around. More butchers coming. At least ten this time.

He stepped in front of the door.

Yua started working. Red strings pushing into the cracks, forcing it.

The butchers got closer.

”Must ki-ll. Must ki-ll.”

Kyle didn’t wait for them. He went to them.

Dark flames. Shadow. Fists.

He was fast and he was mad.

He took down three before they even reached him.

Yua was still working on the door.

Elara was still shadow, hiding behind a crate.

Two more butchers.

Kyle took them too.

His ribs hurt. His arm hurt. He didn’t care.

The door finally opened.

”In!” Yua yelled.

They got inside and slammed it shut. Yua sealed it with strings.

Inside was dark. Then the lights came on.

It was the main room. The real one.

Screens from floor to ceiling. All the sectors. All the floors. All the planets.

And in the middle, a big console. With a big red button.

”Emergency Purge,” it said.

Yua stared at it.

Kyle stared at it.

Elara, out of shadow now, stared at it.

Outside, the butchers were hitting the door.

”That’s it,” Yua said. ”That’s how we shut it down.”

Kyle nodded. ”Do it.”

Yua put her hand on the button.

She looked at Kyle.

He nodded again.

She pressed it.

Alarms got louder.

”Emergency purge in 60 seconds,” the voice said. ”All tubes will be released. Evacuate immediately.”

The screens started changing. Tube after tube switching from ”Locked” to ”Release”.

Kyle exhaled.

Yua sagged against the console.

Elara started crying, but quiet.

The door was still being hit.

”We have 60 seconds to get out before this place floods,” Yua said.

”Then let’s go,” Kyle said.

They ran out the back door. There was an emergency exit. Stairs up.

Behind them, the sound of glass breaking. Millions of tubes opening.

They didn’t look back.

They ran up. Floor after floor.

The facility was chaos now. Alarms. People screaming. Butchers running.

They made it to the surface. Night air. Cold.

Behind them, the vampire solitude was lighting up. Sirens everywhere.

They kept running until they couldn’t hear anything anymore.

Then they stopped.

Kyle bent over, hands on his knees.

Yua sat down in the dirt.

Elara just stood there, looking at the sky.

No one talked for a long time.

Finally Kyle said, ”We did it.”

”Yeah,” Yua said. ”We did.”

Elara wiped her face. ”Millions of people.”

”Yeah,” Kyle said. ”Millions.”

The sky was starting to get light.