Interstellar: Return of the Villain
Chapter 214: Infiltrating the Psycos

Chapter 214: Infiltrating the Psycos

Ryan, Lyra, and the rest of their group crouched low behind a rocky outcrop, quietly observing the landscape with sharp, silent focus.

The seemingly endless plain stretched out like a green sea. The tall wild grass swayed with the wind, rippling like waves on a stormy ocean.

Suddenly, a woman on a lev-cycle zoomed across the field, her speed leaving a trail of wind that made the grass whip and thrash.

Then, out of nowhere, a glowing tentacle of light shot up from the dense greenery, wrapping around her like the limb of some monstrous creature from the deep.

It gripped her tightly but released her just as fast, unharmed.

A while later, "the woman" reappeared. She continued her path, as if such incidents were a common occurrence.

She rode toward a small, nondescript hill, where she brought the lev-cycle to a halt.

With a quick tap on her opticomputer, a hidden platform appeared beneath her feet and quietly lowered her into the ground.

This was no ordinary hill—this was the covert entrance to the Psycos’ secret base.

Once inside, the security measures were ironclad. Access required a fingerprint scan at the door, followed by a DNA verification in a decontamination chamber.

These high-tech procedures were all pieces of information the team had extracted from the woman’s mind, using hypnosis to pull every detail they’d need to ensure the mission went smoothly.

Lyra had been asked to take on the dangerous task of infiltrating the base, something she agreed to without hesitation.

There was a lot riding on this—she needed to find out if the Psycos were connected to Ansel and the shadowy figure she had been chasing for so long.

The Psycos might not have been a massive organization like some notorious space pirates, but what they lacked in numbers, they more than made up for in cutting-edge technology and the brilliance of their members.

Disguised as Vesna, the woman they’d observed earlier, Lyra moved through the bright, clinical corridors of the base.

Most of the people she passed wore white lab coats—scientists whose faces could’ve easily been plucked from wanted posters, notorious for their intellectual crimes.

They barely acknowledged her, too engrossed in their own work to bother with small talk.

Carrying a metal cage, Lyra blended seamlessly into her surroundings. She moved through the sterile hallways like a shadow. She was close to her objective when an older man called out.

"Vesna, did you get what we needed?"

Lyra lifted the cage, revealing two large eggs resting inside. "Got them. Should I take them to the modification chamber?"

The man nodded curtly. "Yeah, come with me. The boss wants to see the progress firsthand."

Without a word, Lyra fell into step behind him. Her face was calm but her mind was racing with calculations.

She kept her eyes down, masking the intense thoughts brewing within her.

Ivo, the leader of the Psycos was not an average criminal mastermind. He was a level-eight Peculiar with the superpower that was both rare and terrifying—he could communicate with non-human creatures without relying on psychokinesis.

This allowed him to study and control them in ways no one else could.

To make matters worse, his psychokinetic abilities were also top-tier, giving him the power to manipulate multiple high-level beasts at once. His very short name struck terror in the hearts of those in the Alliance.

They arrived at the gene modification chamber, where about ten other researchers had already gathered.

In the center of the room stood a massive metal cage, inside of which a small Windrider cub whined pitifully.

The researchers’ eyes gleamed with excitement when they spotted the cage Lyra was carrying.

"Finally!" one of them exclaimed, practically buzzing with excitement. "If this works, we’ll have created the first-ever dual-powered beast!"

Lyra’s mind spun as she processed the information. This was huge. She wondered if Ivo was connected to the man she had been chasing all this time.

A raspy voice interrupted her thoughts. "Vesna, bring the eggs here."

It was Ivo. Despite his scholarly appearance, something about him was deeply unsettling, especially the look in his eyes—intelligent but tinged with madness.

Lyra approached, placing the cage beside the whimpering Windrider cub. The creature let out another small cry, and Ivo’s gaze lingered on it before shifting back to her.

"Vesna," he said, his voice dripping with suspicion, "where exactly did you go on your way back?"

Lyra felt her heart hammering in her chest, but her face remained an unreadable mask. "I came straight back," she said calmly, her voice giving nothing away.

Ivo’s eyes narrowed dangerously. Without warning, he pressed a button on the control panel next to him. "The cub is telling me that your scent... has changed."

In an instant, laser turrets emerged from the walls, their red sights locking onto her with deadly precision.

The room fell deathly silent.

The researchers, unshaken by the sudden shift in atmosphere, began backing away methodically.

They retreated toward hidden exits with an eerie calmness.

Lyra moved fast, grabbing the nearest researcher and using him as a human shield.

However, before she could even consider her next move, a single, precise shot rang out.

The man in her grasp went limp as a bullet tore through his skull, spraying blood across the sterile white walls.

He crumpled in her arms, lifeless.

Ivo lowered his gun with chilling composure, his voice as cold as ice. "I didn’t think the Alliance’s hounds would sniff us out so quickly."

As if his words were the trigger, a barrage of energy beams erupted from every corner of the room, converging on her like a swarm of angry hornets.

It seemed like Lyra’s fate was sealed—there was no way she could survive the onslaught.

But instead of crumbling under the attack, she unleashed a ferocious counterstrike.

Blinding tentacles of green energy lashed out from her like wild vines, snaking through the room and extending into the still-open doorways.

In seconds, the pristine lab was drenched in blood, white coats stained crimson as bodies hit the floor.

Despite the massacre of his subordinates, Ivo’s expression barely shifted. If anything, a twisted gleam of excitement flickered in his eyes.

"I know who you are, Lyra," he said with dark satisfaction. "What a shame you’re not a beast. You’d make the perfect subject for my experiments."

Lyra’s hand glowed with energy as she prepared to blast him, but before she could strike, Ivo’s foot tapped a hidden panel on the floor, and he disappeared through an escape hatch.

The floor swallowed him in an instant, leaving nothing but silence in his wake.

Lyra didn’t waste time giving chase. Instead, she tapped her comm device.

"Mission compromised. Ivo’s gone," she reported, keeping her voice steady.

Not one to let time slip away, she quickly hacked into Vesna’s opticomputer, navigating through layers of security to locate the base’s central control room.

When she arrived, the researchers inside were already scrambling to delete data.

Without hesitation, she sliced through the lead scientist, halting the deletion process in its tracks.

Her fingers flew over the controls, transferring whatever remained onto a storage device. A few more keystrokes brought up the base’s full layout, including hidden exits and evacuation routes.

Lyra swiftly uploaded the data to her team outside.

The alarms blared loudly now, the once-quiet base erupting into chaos. Members of the Psycos Organization rushed to escape, but they were like mice fleeing a burning building—only to be caught in a trap the moment they emerged.

Outside, Ryan was in command of the containment efforts. "We’ve got fewer than expected," he said over the comms, urgency creeping into his voice. "And Lyra hasn’t come out yet."

"Hold steady," Wolf’s voice came through, calm and authoritative. "Block the exits. Tell Lyra to find Ivo."

No one was taking this lightly. The real threat wasn’t the researchers or the base—it was the creatures lurking within. The genetically modified beasts that Ivo had at his disposal could turn the tide of battle at any moment.

Deep underground, Lyra scanned the monitors and quickly pinpointed Ivo’s location.

He was in a massive cylindrical chamber that looked like some kind of twisted garage, lined with cages of grotesque creatures.

Ivo stood casually atop one of those cages, perched on the head of a monstrosity that defied all logic—a mix of writhing octopus tentacles and a werewolf-like torso.

"This discovery is a nuisance," Ivo said aloud, his voice carrying a dangerous calm. "But it does provide a perfect chance to test my creations against the Alliance."

He tapped a few buttons on a translucent control panel, and the sound of locks clicking echoed through the chamber.

It was followed by the heavy clank of chains hitting the floor, like the distant rumble of a coming storm.

Lyra’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t wait. She bolted, sending a quick message to her team: "Ivo has released all the modified beasts. Estimate 3,000. Brace yourselves."

Before her message had even finished transmitting, an ear-splitting roar shook the base.

The creatures burst from their cages with terrifying force, ripping through walls and structures like they were made of paper.

On the surface, Ryan and the rest of the team felt the tremors beneath their feet.

The ground heaved violently, cracking open like an egg as a flood of mutated beasts surged out.

They came in all shapes and sizes, their grotesque forms twisted beyond recognition.

Fangs gnashed, claws tore at the earth, and toxic sludge dripped from their mouths—each one more monstrous than the last.

Ryan wiped sweat from his brow. He pushed his sunglasses back up his nose, trying to stay focused amidst the chaos.

Wolf’s voice barked over the comms: "Engage!"

The Special Forces leapt into action, climbing into their mechas and charging toward the incoming horde.

This was what they had trained for, but even with all their preparation, none of them could predict how brutal the battle would become.

Thoughts of Lyra’s survival faded—they were all on the edge of their own deaths now.

The initial wave of beasts was manageable. Their lower-level mutations were no match for the military mechas.

The second wave, however, brought larger, deadlier creatures.

"Help—!"

One soldier’s desperate plea was cut short as the tentacles of an octopus-werewolf hybrid snapped him in half before he could finish.

Bruce watched in horror as the creature tore the man apart like a rag doll.

"Bruce, move!" Marty’s urgent warning barely reached him in time. A massive tentacle came crashing down, aiming to flatten Bruce and his mecha.

Frantic, Bruce activated his superpower, struggling to get the machine to move.

It felt like he was trapped in slow motion, the controls sluggish under his panicked touch.

’This can’t be it...’ His mind raced, terror flooding every fiber of his being as the shadow of the tentacle loomed over him.

But just before it could strike, a searing green flash sliced through the air, cleanly severing the tentacle in half.