The address on the card led to the edge of the city.
There were no company signs.
No reception desk.
No towering glass headquarters.
Only an old manufacturing plant surrounded by high concrete walls and razor wire.
Omar stood outside the gates, staring at the words engraved into a steel plaque.
HELIX DYNAMICS
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY
He looked down at the card one last time.
“What am I doing?”
A speaker above the gate crackled to life.
“Welcome, Mr. Bello.”
The heavy steel gates slid open on their own.
Omar frowned.
“They were expecting me…”
He stepped inside.
The gates closed behind him with a deafening clang.
⸻
Meanwhile, Rasheed couldn’t stop thinking about the little girl.
“A red pulse…”
He had never wanted recognition.
Yet hearing those words felt… different.
Not because they sounded heroic.
Because they reminded him why he’d run in the first place.
Not to prove he was the fastest.
Not to become famous.
Just to save people.
For the first time since his powers awakened, they didn’t feel like a curse.
They felt like a responsibility.
⸻
“You’re smiling again.”
Adesewa dropped into the seat beside him during art period.
Rasheed quickly looked away.
“I wasn’t.”
“You literally are.”
“I was thinking.”
“About me?”
He nearly choked.
“What?”
She laughed.
“I knew that would get a reaction.”
Rasheed shook his head.
“You enjoy this too much.”
“I really do.”
She opened her sketchbook.
“I’ve been drawing something.”
She turned it toward him.
It was a charcoal sketch of a figure standing on a rooftop.
The face was hidden beneath a hood.
Crimson streaks surrounded the silhouette like living lightning.
Rasheed’s heart skipped a beat.
“Where did you see this?”
“I didn’t.”
She looked at the drawing herself.
“I just… dreamed it.”
His expression changed.
“You dreamed this?”
She nodded slowly.
“It sounds crazy.”
Rasheed stayed silent.
“The weird part is…”
She traced the spiral she’d unknowingly drawn on the figure’s chest.
“I’ve never seen this symbol before.”
Rasheed’s pulse quickened.
It was the same spiral.
The one from the pocket watch.
The one in his father’s files.
The one he’d seen inside the laboratory.
How could she know it?
Before he could ask another question, the bell rang.
Students began leaving the classroom.
Adesewa closed her sketchbook.
“I’ll show you the finished version tomorrow.”
As she walked away, Rasheed couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever was happening to him…
It wasn’t happening only to him.
⸻
Deep beneath Helix Dynamics, Omar followed Dr. Evelyn Sato through a corridor lined with reinforced glass.
Behind every window stood machines unlike anything he’d ever seen.
Some generated arcs of blue electricity.
Others contained strange crystalline materials suspended in liquid.
Scientists watched silently as he passed.
No one smiled.
No one spoke.
“This way,” Dr. Sato said.
They stopped before a pair of massive steel doors.
A scanner swept across Omar’s face.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED.
The doors slowly opened.
Beyond them lay a circular chamber dominated by a machine that looked eerily familiar.
A ring.
Towering nearly three stories high.
Covered in cables.
Blue energy pulsed through its frame.
Omar stared.
“What is this?”
Dr. Sato joined him beside the observation window.
“A second chance.”
“For what?”
She looked directly at him.
“To become everything you believe you can be.”
His eyes remained fixed on the machine.
“…And the cost?”
For the first time since they’d met…
She didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she said quietly,
“Every great leap forward has one.”
The lights dimmed.
The machine came alive.
Blue lightning danced around the ring.
For just a split second, Omar thought he saw another ring.
Not blue.
Crimson.
Broken.
Then it disappeared.
Somewhere far beyond the laboratory…
A hooded figure looked toward the horizon.
“The second Pulse is about to awaken.”
He closed the silver pocket watch with a soft click.
“But his path…”
“…will be far darker than the first.”