Paranoia Heartsteel Novels & Stories

A massive black-silver core suspended above the abyss, beating like an actual heart while endless corruption veins spread outward from it through the mountain foundations. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM. Every heartbeat shook the chamber. Ronan slowly released Aria while staring upward at the Heart in disbelief. Kael landed nearby seconds later alongside the Sovereign. The Sovereign’s face drained completely of color. “No…” Aria stepped toward the throne involuntarily. The Heart pulsed faster immediately. Silver-black energy spiraled around the chamber violently while whispers echoed through the cavern walls from thousands of forgotten voices. “Come home…” Ronan grabbed Aria’s wrist instantly.

At the dead center of the room, suspended over a bottomless central ventilation shaft, was the Heart. It was a perfect, twenty-foot sphere of churning, liquid silver data, held in place by massive magnetic containment rings. It pulsed with a rhythmic, terrifying heartbeat that Ren could feel in his teeth. "Target acquired," Ren whispered, his smart-scope sweeping the cavernous, freezing room. There were no Blackwatch guards. There were no Praetorians or automated sentry turrets. The Admin didn't need foot soldiers in its own brain. "YOU HAVE COME FAR, ANOMALIES."

“It saw my intention. It saw all of us. It’s afraid, Adrian. Afraid you’ll shut it down.” “We’re not going to shut it down,” I said. “We’re trying to keep it stable so it doesn’t—” The room vibrated again. Harder. Mara stood, scanning the walls. “The stabilization beams are fluctuating. Whatever you did, it’s making the Heart push back.” Rhea shook her head weakly. “No. It’s not pushing—it’s calling.” “Calling what?” I demanded. Her breath hitched. “Backup. Reinforcement. Something… something like itself.”

she sobbed, "it is changing it it is turning the machines into meat." June watched in horror as the metal frame of the bike began to grow red hairs the leather seat flickering and turning into a piece of muscle. The green roots pulled June closer to the General and Hope all being dragged towards a silver needle rising from the floor of the hangar. The needle was hollow with a DNA liquid inside. "The General is the Mind " Hope repeated, her eyes glowing brighter. "She has the war plans she has the memories of the fight. June is the Heart she has the empathy she has the healing touch."

"What are your true intentions, Aaron? Do you want to win her back or do you just want to make her life miserable?" Aaron's expression didn't change, but I noticed something odd. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the winter chill in the building. "Are you... sweating?" I asked, confused. "It's freezing in here." Aaron gave me a wordless, exasperated look. His jaw clenched as if fighting some internal discomfort. "Aaron?" I pressed, suddenly concerned. Before he could respond, James Morrison appeared from the elevator, looking harried. "Alpha Hunter, you might not know," James said quickly. "Alpha Steel has a chronic stomach condition. The stress can trigger attacks."

He threw a heavy right hook across the man's jaw, knocking the guy clean off his feet before he hit the rug like a sack of wet salt. ​Silence hit the room for two seconds, heavy and completely dead quiet, except for the loud ring in my ears from the gun. Then heavy boots started pounding down the hallway upstairs. ​"Kaelen!" a voice called down from the top landing. ​I looked up, pulling my hands tight around the grip of the gun. Greta was standing right at the top of the stairs in a dark work jacket, a broad radio clipped to her left shoulder. She had three armed Ironbound guys standing right behind her in a row, their rifle barrels pointed straight down into the middle of the room.

he said. “Don’t think for me,” I murmured, scanning the next crate myself. My enhanced senses did the rest, the smell of metal, grease, adrenaline, lies. Every sound in the warehouse was a heartbeat, every flicker of motion a possible betrayal. Twelve years of running the Eastern underworld had taught me that paranoia wasn’t weakness, it was survival. I counted each rifle, noted the missing serial chips, the faint smudge of new paint. “It’s clean,” I said finally. “Load it.”

"We were so in love..." "I hate you!" she screamed. "I hate you, Lorenzo!" My tears fell onto her face. "Don't hate me... please don't hate me..." My hands went to my belt. I would be inside her. I would erase him. I would brand her all over again as mine. She would remember who she belonged to. But in that moment, a sharp, searing pain bloomed in my chest. I looked down. A small, silver blade was buried to the hilt in my ribs. Her blade. The one I gave her for protection.

Alima POV I stood in front of the Alpha’s door, my heart pounding so hard it felt like it would burst out of my chest. I didn’t want to be here. I didn’t want to face him. But I had no choice. He had requested to see me. My mind kept spinning with questions I didn’t have answers to. Why was this happening to me? What did I do to deserve this? I hesitated, then raised my hand and knocked softly. No answer. I waited, biting my lip nervously. I knocked again, a little louder this time. Still nothing. My breath quickened as I raised my hand a third time, then his voice sounded.

And I dread making that move as right before my eyes, a demon, a hundred times more sinister and malicious in comparison to the night I was held in a chokehold, roasts me with such unbridled indignation. A grotesquely tight face, bereft of any emotion, and sunken orbs going gravely onyx. And the condemnation exuding from him...I pedal back impulsively, cold sweat running down my temple when his bulk form begins to rise so excruciatingly slow. ‘Shit! Of all the things I had to start with, I had to hit the nail directly!’ Paranoia defuses into my being, watching his gradual and deliberate movements until a loud bang and glass shattering, wrings a frightful scream out of me.