Three days passed. Three quiet days.
Too quiet.
No attacks. No signals. No Phantom.
Until now.
A city-wide blackout surged through lower Manhattan. Power grids failed. Emergency services crashed. And at the heart of it all—Echo Nexus Tower. A shell corporation owned by no one… and the last known location of the Overseer Protocol.
The sky was dark even in the afternoon as you arrived with Daredevil and Spider-Man. Lightning cracked over the rooftops. Phantom had called you here.
And you weren't leaving without answers.
Inside the tower, everything was sterile. Steel, white light, humming floors. Cameras tracked every step. You felt them.
Felt him.
"Welcome," Phantom's voice echoed from above. "You've reached the final node."
You stepped forward. "No more games. No more trials. Just me and you."
"Funny," Phantom said. "That's what I was going to say."
The walls peeled back, revealing a massive chamber lined with glass tanks.
Each tank held an Echo Unit.
Each unit… wore your face.
Daredevil tensed. "This is a replication lab."
Spider-Man whispered, "They're… cloning you. No. Copying your adaptations."
Then, the doors sealed.
And from the far side, Phantom stepped through.
But this time, he wasn't a projection.
He was real.
Tall. Lean. Clad in obsidian armor. His mask bore no expression.
"I tried to accelerate human evolution," he said calmly. "I tried soldiers. Then AI. But none of them matched your potential. So I took the obvious path—copy the one who adapts best."
You clenched your fists.
"You failed."
Phantom smiled behind the mask.
"Not yet."
He struck—and the fight began.
He was fast. You were faster.
He hit with copied strength. You struck with adapted precision.
Every blow traded information.
Every movement taught your body something new.
[Adaptation in Progress: Phantom Combat Matrix]– Parsing high-speed attacks…– Integrating defensive counters…
You ducked a strike, landed a knee into Phantom's ribs, and felt something crack.
"You're not a ghost," you said. "You're a man playing god."
Phantom staggered, then grinned.
"I'm your future, Y/N. You just haven't accepted it yet."
Behind him, one of the tanks hissed.
A clone opened its eyes.
And stepped forward.
The first of many.