The cabin smelled like cold air, fried chicken, and raw nerves. Everyone was crammed around Lina’s laptop as the screen bathed the room in a ghostly blue glow. Outside, the woods were black and silent, the kind of silent that made every creak of the floor feel way too loud.“Okay,” Reika said, fingers already flying over the keys. “Backdoor’s still alive. That’s… impressive. Guess the Architect’s gotten cocky.”Wilson leaned in, half-eating a chicken leg and half-trying to look like a hacker. “Define ‘backdoor.’ Because my brain is picturing, like, an actual door we forgot to lock.”“It’s a hidden portal into their network,” Lina explained, not even looking up. “Think of it as a VIP pass to someone else’s house—except the house is made of firewalls and every light switch wants to kill you.”“Cool,” Wilson said. “Totally not terrifying.”Reika smirked, eyes never leaving the screen. “Terrifying is the point. If you’re scared, you hesitate. And if you hesitate, they win.”Davion stood b

Chapter: After the StormThe night air hit them like a punch of cold freedom the second they burst out of the underground stairwell. For a heartbeat, nobody moved. The city stretched out before them—glass towers, flickering streetlights, sirens wailing somewhere in the distance—but the massive complex behind them stayed eerily silent, no alarms chasing them into the open.Beverly bent forward, palms on her knees, gasping. “Holy… crap. We actually did it.”Wilson flopped against a cracked brick wall, sweat dripping down his face. “Someone tell me I’m not hallucinating. Because it feels like we should’ve been blown up by now.”Irene clutched her tablet to her chest like a lifeline. Her fingers were still trembling from hacking the main console. “The shutdown signal… it went through. I watched every system fry itself.”Reika spun on her heel, eyes darting toward the dark skyline behind them. “Yeah, but don’t relax yet. Guys like Iron Hand always have backups. Traps. Contingencies. Whatev

By the time the sun clawed its way over the jagged skyline, the city looked like it had been holding its breath all night. Sirens wailed in the distance—constant, overlapping like a broken soundtrack—but the streets near the old subway entrance were quiet. Too quiet.Davion stepped out first, scanning the alleys. The others waited behind him, tense in the pale morning light.“Okay,” Wilson whispered, tugging at the strap of his backpack. “Anyone else feel like we’re about to get jumped by a bunch of ninjas? Because I do. A lot.”“No ninjas,” Reika said dryly, leaning against the doorway. “If Iron Hand sends people, they don’t wear black pajamas. They wear suits and smile while they ruin your life.”“Comforting,” Wilson muttered.Beverly pulled her hood tighter and checked the street. “We need to move. The longer we stay in one spot, the easier it is for them to track us.”Irene adjusted the tablet clutched in her hands, eyes still flicking across the glowing screen. “The files are eve

They worked like a jury with a grudge.The warehouse hummed all night: servers like sleeping beasts, cables like veins, Kai’s crew moving with a kind of cautious choreography. Davion walked the space as if memorizing it, fingering a dent in the metal crate, watching the sparks from a welder like they were small, dangerous stars.Beverly didn’t sleep. She sat at a folding table with maps spread out, pointing and tapping, eyes that refused to soften. Reika paced, knife sheathed but fingers restless. Wilson attempted to stuff five protein bars into his pocket and failed spectacularly.“You seriously think food is the priority?” Beverly asked without looking up.“Last supper vibes,” Wilson said, grinning through tiredness. “I’d like to be well-fed when I heroically die.”“You are not heroically dying,” Reika snapped. “You’re being mildly inconvenienced.”“Nope,” Wilson answered. “I’m dramatically inconvenienced.”Irene’s face hovered over a laptop, pale as the screen. Her fingers were nim

The explosion didn’t sound like one boom. It sounded like a thousand.The world went white-blue, the generator core splitting open, fire and lightning bursting in every direction. The shockwave slammed into them like a truck.Davion hit the ground hard, ears ringing, lungs on fire. For a second he couldn’t even tell if he was alive. Just heat, just noise, just weight pressing down.“DAVION!”Reika’s voice cut through the haze. She grabbed his arm, yanking him up with strength that didn’t match her size. Her face was smeared with blood and grime, but her eyes blazed. “Get up, idiot! Unless you want to be ash!”He stumbled, vision blurring. Behind them, the chamber was collapsing—steel beams twisting, flames shooting upward like monsters clawing out of the earth.Wilson screamed somewhere ahead. “RUN! Run now or we’re toast!”They ran.The hallway outside shook with each blast. Alarms wailed, red lights flickering like dying fireflies. The floor tilted under their feet, and sparks raine