Berlin – FANG V2 Compound
Dim fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. The training room floor was stained—not with blood, but with effort. With failure. With pain.
Kade, silent and surgical, stood before three other recruits. Dr. Kessler's voice came through the speaker system.
"Neutralize. Show me your edge."
The others moved first—overconfident.
Kade didn't move. He flowed.
In less than twenty seconds, they were on the floor, clutching bruised ribs and aching limbs.
He didn't gloat. He didn't celebrate. He simply turned to the observation glass.
Dr. Kessler smiled.
"Begin psychological cleanse," she ordered. "Wipe his last name from the records. He is no longer family. No longer son. Only shadow."
Kade blinked once.
Inside, the last of his humanity flickered… and faded.
Encino – Mike's Apartment
Mike rolled his shoulder. The pain was back—not from injury, but from memory. The kind of pain that slept lightly and woke up screaming.
He lit incense—something a visiting monk once taught him overseas—and sat in stillness.
Then—a knock at the door.
He opened it to find Johnny Lawrence, holding a bag of takeout and two beers.
"Figured you'd be the type to eat alone unless someone intervened."
Mike smirked. "You figured right."
They sat down. No music. No noise. Just two veterans of different wars, finding common ground.
"You ever wonder what kind of man you'd be if you hadn't fought?" Mike asked.
Johnny nodded slowly. "Yeah. Then I remember… fighting made me the man I had to be."
Mike stared at the window. "It made me into something I don't even recognize."
Johnny tilted his beer toward him. "Maybe that's why you're here. To remember."
Later That Night – Valley High School
Tory waited outside the school gym. The dim lights flickered above her head. She was used to the quiet, used to the cold. But tonight… something felt off.
A shadow moved across the parking lot.
Fast. Precise. Watching.
She turned sharply, fists up.
But no one was there.
Just wind.
And something else she couldn't name.
Germany – Dr. Kessler's Lab
Kade stood alone in a glass chamber, wearing a black compression uniform with the FANG insignia on the sleeve. Cold water misted from above, cleansing the air.
"Are you ready to serve the mission?" a voice asked through the intercom.
Kade nodded once.
"Target: Encino. Codename: GHOST ECHO."
Dr. Kessler's voice followed.
"Let's see how your ghosts match his."