The status reached 99%. A crack of lightning echoed the anticipation in his chest.

The file name was nondescript: . To a bystander, it was just data. To Jax, it was the key to unlocking the inhibited beast sitting in his garage—a sleeper S4 that sounded like a vacuum cleaner but was built to scream.

The rain slicked the asphalt of the industrial park as Jax stared at the flickering progress bar on his laptop. He wasn't just downloading code; he was downloading a metamorphosis.