God’s Cube

The wind howled through the jagged peaks of the Alps, the moon casting long shadows over the rocky terrain as Inveniam moved swiftly and silently through the night. The vigilante group's objective tonight was simple. They had to infiltrate and destroy the stronghold of a terrorist group led by a man known online as the Dagda. 

Flavio marched at the forefront, his eyes fixed on the dark horizon, his breath fogged in the chilly air of the mountains. His hands gripped his rifle, ready for the oncoming violence. The group moved in tight formation, their steps guided by their hacker, Zara. 

"Flavio we're about half a click from the bunker's entrance. Be ready. According to the leak we intercepted, this place is more heavily guarded than anything we've hit before." 

Zara's voice buzzed through his earpiece.

"Copy that" 

Flavio replied, his tone even. He cast a look over his shoulder at his team, each member ready for the mission to come.

Zara, their digital ghost, was the one who discovered the location. She's the only green in their ranks, but is able to use her yellow power to the max when feeling with technologies, making her a very proficient hacker. A deep dive into the underbelly of the web had uncovered chatter about a secret bunker. The messages were coded, but Zara had cracked them, her ability made the task almost mundane. Now, after months of planning and preparation, Inveniam was finally ready to strike.

There were five of them on this mission. Besides Flavio and Zara, there was Max, a demolitions expert, he had broad shoulders like very broad shoulders, his dark beard covering his chin fully. He had a tendency to growl at anything that slowed them down, obviously a red. Lila, a sniper, thin as a whip and just as sharp, carried her rifle slung over her back, her eyes always scanning the horizon, she wasn’t a super genius as many of her fellow blues, but her vision was uncanny. It wasn’t just better eyesight, she could see things without genuinely seeing them, hints of their presence or even just an unnaturally placed object was enough for her to know where someone or something was. And finally, Jorik, their youngest member, and a combat medic, another blue specialized in medicine. 

As they neared the entrance to the bunker Flavio signaled the others to halt. They crouched low behind a ridge while Zara worked her magic on the control panel.

"Give me a minute. Got it." 

She muttered, fingers flying over the device strapped onto her wrist. The door then slid open, its sound was quiet for a door that size, but it was to be expected if they ever wanted to maintain secrecy in this bunker. 

The group moved in quickly, weapons raised, the echo of their boots muffled by the concrete corridors. The moment they crossed the threshold, the air was thick with tension. Flavio could feel it, something was wrong.

The initial hallway was deserted, lit by flickering fluorescent lights that cast long, eerie shadows. They moved in silence, all completely alert, until they came to a set of double doors. Flavio held up a fist, signaling the team to stop. He signaled at Max and the latter stepped forward. They could hear sounds on the other side, and knew very well chaos was about to ensue. Max stepped forward, pulling a small device from his belt. 

“Let’s blow this open.”

But before he could set the charge, the doors swung wide, and chaos erupted. Gunfire rained down from the far end of the room as armed guards poured in from the other side of the room. Flavio ducked behind a column, returning fire while shouting commands.

"Take cover! Lila, give us some cover fire!"

Lila's rifle cracked in quick, efficient bursts, picking off guards from their positions. Jorik slid in beside Max, patching up a bullet wound on his shoulder while Zara was frantically trying to hack into the security systems to shut off alarms that now blared through the complex.

"How many of these guys are there?!" 

Jorik yelled, his voice barely carrying over the roar of gunfire.

"Too many!" 

Flavio growled, squeezing off a few more rounds before signaling to retreat into another corridor. They were pushing deeper into the bunker now, the walls echoing with the sounds of gunfire and the stench of blood. Bodies littered the floor as they fought their way through. In one way they were lucky, everyone against them seemed normal, none enhanced by the Cube like them giving a slight edge in their favor. Numbers still made it complicated to have a completely one sided battle.

"There's a lab up ahead, get ready. I don’t like the readings I’m seeing."

Zara’s voice was nervous, she had managed to get access to the cameras around her area, so if she said she didn’t like what she was seeing, she genuinely meant it. Flavio's gut twisted. This wasn't just a bunker, it was a fortress. They breached the next door, but the sight that greeted them stopped everyone in their tracks.

Rows of metal tables filled the room, each one occupied by lifeless bodies, some pale, others twisted and distorted. Most looked like they had died long ago. The smell of death was heavy. Jorik’s face paled as he glanced around, muttering under his breath.

"What the hell…?"

"Seems like they’ve been running experiments." 

Lila said, her voice tight.

"The Cube, the bodies have similar patterns to those mauled by it, probably all from a Red one." 

Flavio murmured. 

Zara nodded grimly. 

“We had caught wind that there was some experimentation, but this… this is beyond anything we’ve seen. How could they access the bodies from the Cube? All of them are meant to be collected by the government immediately afterwards, something sketchy is going on.”

In the corner of the lab, there was a massive furnace, a crematorium. Flavio felt a surge of anger rise in his chest. They weren’t just killing people, they were erasing them afterwards, like they never existed in the first place. Suddenly, a loud alarm blared through the speakers. Red lights flashed in quick succession, and the metallic voice of the system started shouting. 

"Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert."

"We're out of time!" 

Zara hissed, Flavio gritted his teeth. 

"Move! Now!"

They ran down the corridor, not being able to afford a second look at the bodies laying there. That would come later. Every corner was a firefight, this was starting to look bad. Max was the first to fall, a bullet caught him in the throat after a wrong turn put them right in an assault rifle's path. He went down without a word, eyes wide with shock. Jorik tried to get to him, but Flavio pulled him back.

“There’s no time, we have to keep moving.”

Flavio barked, his eyes clearly uncomfortable. They reached the final door, thick and reinforced. Zara was already working on the controls, her fingers shaking, constantly muttering to herself.

“Come on, come on…”

Gunfire sounded behind them as Lila, already wounded, collapsed against the wall. 

"I’ll cover you." 

She gasped, firing off her last rounds as the door slid open. She wouldn’t make it. The shock had barely time to register with the remaining crew when an even bigger one overtook them. Inside was a large chamber. At its center stood the Red Cube, towering and ominous, humming with an otherworldly energy. The sound of footsteps and gunfire behind them grew louder, but Flavio’s focus was fixed entirely on the Cube. 

“How is this possible?”

He muttered. All Cubes were meant to be registered, under government control. It was impossible to move one, and they had only ever appeared on the surface, how was one present here? In an underground bunker. This should be impossible, but he barely had time to process that the doors of the Cube slid open and he saw it. There was a boy, no older than thirteen, inside the Cube. His eyes were closed, his body eerily still, as if frozen in time. Flavio's heart jumped out of his skin. He was completely still. 

"What are you doing?" 

Zara shouted as Flavio moved toward the Cube. That was when she also noticed the boy.

"I have to get him out!" 

Flavio ignored her warnings and sprinted forward. The alarms were deafening, and the room seemed to vibrate with the energy of the Cube. He reached inside, grabbing the limp body of the kid.  Bullets whizzed past as Flavio cradled the child, pulling him out of the Cube. He glanced back at Zara, who was frantically firing her weapon, covering their escape.

"Go! I’ll hold them off!"

Zara screamed and Flavio didn’t waste a second. With the kid in his arms, he sprinted for the exit, Zara and Jorik following closely behind. They eventually made it out, luckily not much more to stop them, but their mission failed. They had cleared a large part of the bunker, but little information was uncovered on anything. It didn’t take long for the group to called other members from Inveniam for back up, and push back into the bunker, but it had already cleared out, the man they came for, The Dagda, was nowhere to be found. Only the eerie Red Cube remained.