Marvel: A.T.L.A.S. - Ghost Protocol

Abandoned Mining Facility, Northern Finland - July 1987

The tunnel air bit with unnatural cold. Caspian moved through darkness, Emperor Eye piercing the gloom to track thermal signatures—or rather, their absence. The deeper they went, the more heat seemed to leech from the surroundings.

"Three hundred meters to the main chamber," Walter's voice whispered through secured comms. "Power readings are... unstable."

Caspian's four-man team moved with practiced silence. All A.T.L.A.S. veterans, hand-picked by his mother. The facility's security had been almost too easy to bypass—no alarms, minimal resistance. As if something wanted them to reach the center.

The Emperor Eye caught movement ahead. A guard, but his patterns were wrong. Jerky. Uncertain.

"Target ahead," Caspian subvocalized. "Something's off."

The guard turned, revealing glazed eyes and frost-covered skin. His breath didn't steam in the cold air. Because he wasn't breathing.

The takedown was swift, silent. No blood from the killing blow. The guard's body was already frozen solid.

"Control, we have a situation." Caspian's voice remained steady. "Security personnel appear to be compromised. Possible biological or chemical agent."

"Negative." Dr. Sterns' voice cut in on the secure channel. He'd insisted on monitoring from the command center. "These readings... this isn't a pathogen. It's something else. Something changing them at the cellular level."

The tunnel opened into a massive chamber. Soviet-era equipment lined the walls, covered in decades of ice. But the ice was wrong. It grew in patterns. Deliberate patterns.

"Center of the chamber," one of the team whispered. "Some kind of containment pod."

The Emperor Eye analyzed the structure. Layers of specialized shielding, power systems far too advanced for the 1940s. And inside...

"Movement," Caspian warned. More guards emerged from side tunnels. All showing the same signs—frozen skin, dead eyes, coordinated motion that shouldn't be possible in corpses.

The fight was brutal, efficient. Caspian's team worked with precision, but every fallen guard simply rose again until physically broken apart. The Emperor Eye tracked dozens of threats, calculating angles, predicting impossible movements.

"The pod's readings are spiking," Sterns reported urgently. "Whatever's in there, it's responding to the violence. Feeding on it."

"Feeding is accurate." Howard's weak voice joined the channel. "That's what it does. What it's always done. Why we tried to keep it buried."

Caspian reached the containment pod, Emperor Eye analyzing its systems. The controls were coded, but not in any language he recognized. The symbols seemed to shift as he watched them.

"I'm seeing multiple heat signatures converging on your position," Walter warned. "More security teams. All showing the same biological alterations."

"Howard." Caspian's voice was very quiet as he studied the pod's readings. "What exactly did your team find in that ice?"

"Not what. Who." Howard's breath shuddered across the comm. "Something that used to be human. Something that learned to... change others. Make them like it."

The pod's surface was covered in frost, obscuring its contents. But as Caspian watched, the patterns in the ice began to move. To form shapes. Like fingers pressing from the inside.

"The original containment protocols," Howard continued. "They weren't just about keeping it locked away. They were about keeping it asleep. Because when it's awake..."

"It hunts," Caspian finished. The Emperor Eye caught power fluctuations spreading through the facility. Systems activating that had been dormant for decades.

"Director," Walter's voice carried rare urgency. "We're detecting similar power signatures from other locations. The other hidden facilities... they're all coming online."

Through the pod's frosted surface, something smiled.

"Get out." Howard's voice cracked. "Get out now. It's not contained anymore. It's been waiting. Growing. All these years..."

The temperature dropped sharply. Ice crystals formed in the air itself as the frozen guards moved with increasing coordination. The thing in the pod pressed harder against its barriers.

"Fall back," Caspian ordered. "Controlled retreat. Prepare for—"

The pod's surface cracked.