The city woke to a strange kind of silence. It was the kind that came after a shock, after thousands of people checked their phones and saw the same headline drifting across every screen. Syndicate-owned corporations, once giants towering over Milwaukee’s skyline, were crashing like brittle towers of sand. Stock charts dipped in sharp red lines. Workers flooded the streets with hollow eyes. And above all of it, the cold silver logo of Aether Dominion flashed on digital billboards like a warning.Landon Hale stood on the balcony of their safehouse, watching smoke curl from a distant rooftop where angry crowds had set fire to a Syndicate recruitment office. The flame flickered against the early gray sky. Shouting spread across the blocks below. Somewhere glass shattered. Somewhere else a siren wailed and then cut off.Claire stepped beside him and leaned on the railing. Her breath clouded in the chilly air.“It’s starting,” she said quietly.Landon nodded but kept his eyes on the str

The sky over District Seven looked bruised, as if the clouds themselves were scared of what waited below. Smoke drifted through the streets. Windows trembled from distant explosions. The whole district felt like it was holding its breath before something terrible burst open.Landon Hale stood at the end of a narrow street, watching a line of Wolfe’s soldiers march past a shattered row of shops. Their armor glowed with faint red veins that pulsed like angry hearts. Their helmets had no visors, only smooth white plates that made them look like ghosts preparing to take a neighborhood apart piece by piece.Claire crouched behind a broken car beside him. Her grip on her rifle was tight, and her voice was low. “This is not an attack. This is a takeover.”Navarro scanned the rooftops with cold eyes. “He is pushing for full control of the district. If he owns this place, he controls half the city’s economy.”Jin tapped his tablet rapidly, his hands shaking from the stress. “I am tracking en

The city screamed long before the people did. Landon Hale heard the first blast from three blocks away. The ground shook beneath his boots, and a deep roar rolled across the plaza like thunder trapped inside a cage. Dust rose between the buildings. Windows rattled. Car alarms burst to life one after another, screaming over each other until the noise became a wall of panic.Marcus looked up from his rifle scope. “That came from the central plaza. Something big.”Claire’s voice cut through their comms, sharp and tense. “I’m picking up emergency reports. People are running. Something’s attacking the square, and it’s not Dominion.”Landon’s stomach tightened. He already knew. Wolfe had made his move.Jin shouted from the safehouse connection. “It’s Scalebreaker! Wolfe just unleashed him in broad daylight!”Marcus whispered a curse. “That monster again.”Landon was already moving, sprinting toward the smoke. “We stop him. Now.”“Wait,” Claire called, but he had cut the line. He knew she

The arena had been abandoned for decades. Concrete walls cracked, steel beams twisted, and rust claimed everything that hadn’t already fallen. Once, it had been a place of cheer and sport. Now, it was a graveyard of echoes, shadows moving like ghosts along the debris-strewn floor.Landon Hale crouched behind a fallen metal beam. His chest heaved, sweat running down his forehead despite the chill of the night air that filtered through the collapsed roof. The Vanguard had tracked intelligence that Tangle, one of Wolfe’s Serpent Triumvirate, was hiding here. Now, silence pressed down on them like a physical weight. Even the wind seemed to whisper warnings through the broken rafters.Claire’s voice crackled over the comm. “Landon, stay sharp. We’ve got a live one. Tangle isn’t just strong, he plays with physics itself. His limbs can reach impossible angles. Watch the ceiling, walls, everything.”Navarro muttered under his breath as he checked his rifle. “This place feels like a trap. E

Landon Hale stood beside the small metal table in the safehouse basement. The lights were dim, and the air was heavy with the smell of old concrete and damp wiring. Dr. Harin Varos sat across from him, wrapped in a blanket Claire had given him, his hands trembling but his mind sharp. Everyone else stood nearby, watching and listening with tight, anxious faces.Claire leaned against the wall, arms crossed but eyes focused. Marcus paced slowly, one hand rubbing the back of his neck. Jin tapped at his wrist screen but only half-paid attention to the glowing code. He was waiting for something far more important.Priya sat closest to Varos, gently adjusting the small device that checked his vitals. She kept her voice low and calm. “You are safe now. Whatever Dominion did to you is over.”Varos gave a tired smile. “Thank you. But I fear what I must tell you is far worse than what they did to me.”Landon nodded once. “Then start from the beginning.”Varos took a slow breath. His eyes were