The machine hummed like a living thing.
Blue currents crawled across the metal ring, filling the chamber with a sharp, electric smell.
Omar stood perfectly still.
He had never been afraid of competition.
He had never been afraid of pain.
But this…
This was different.
Dr. Evelyn Sato stepped beside him, holding a tablet.
“You can still walk away.”
Omar looked at the machine.
“If I leave…”
“…I’ll always wonder.”
She nodded.
“That’s usually how it begins.”
⸻
Several floors above, a board meeting was already underway.
The Director sat at the head of a long black table.
His face remained hidden by the darkness of the room.
“Has the candidate agreed?”
“He hasn’t refused,” one scientist answered.
“Good.”
“And Subject Pulse?”
The scientist changed the screen.
Security footage of Rasheed rescuing the bus passengers filled the display.
“His abilities are evolving faster than expected.”
The Director leaned forward.
“Do not interfere.”
A confused silence spread through the room.
One of the researchers finally spoke.
“But if he continues growing—”
“He will.”
“Then why leave him alone?”
The Director smiled.
“Because every hero eventually creates his own villain.”
⸻
Rasheed spent the afternoon in his father’s workshop.
Dust covered every shelf.
Old tools hung neatly on the walls.
Everything remained exactly as his father had left it.
He opened another cabinet.
Inside were dozens of notebooks.
Most contained engineering formulas he couldn’t understand.
One notebook was different.
It wasn’t filled with equations.
It was filled with sketches.
Protective boots.
Reinforced gloves.
Heat-resistant fabrics.
Impact-resistant helmets.
Every page described equipment designed for someone moving at impossible speeds.
Rasheed stared at the drawings.
“…Dad…”
His father had never built ordinary safety gear.
He had been designing equipment for a speedster.
Years before the Chrona Core accident.
At the bottom of one page, a single sentence was written.
“Speed without protection is self-destruction.”
Rasheed slowly closed the notebook.
His powers hadn’t destroyed a pair of shoes by accident.
His father had expected this.
Somehow…
He had known.
⸻
That evening, Adesewa sat in her bedroom surrounded by unfinished sketches.
She couldn’t stop drawing the same symbol.
The spiral.
Every time she tried to erase it…
Her hand unconsciously drew it again.
“This is getting creepy.”
She tossed the pencil aside.
The bedroom lights flickered.
A cold breeze drifted through the open window.
Pages scattered across the room.
One sketch landed upside down.
When she picked it up…
Her smile vanished.
She hadn’t drawn a hooded figure this time.
She had drawn a broken city beneath a crimson sky.
And standing in the middle of it…
Was a man whose face she couldn’t remember.
Even though she’d just drawn him.
⸻
Deep underground, Omar stood inside the circular chamber.
Mechanical arms locked into place around him.
Blue lights illuminated the room.
Dr. Sato’s voice echoed through the speakers.
“Last chance.”
Omar closed his eyes.
His entire life flashed through his mind.
Every race.
Every loss.
Every moment of finishing second.
Then…
Rasheed crossing the finish line.
Leaving everyone behind.
His eyes opened.
“I’m ready.”
The machine roared to life.
Blue lightning exploded from the ring.
Energy surged toward him from every direction.
Omar screamed.
Not because of the pain.
Because it felt as though every muscle in his body was being torn apart and rebuilt at the same time.
The chamber shook violently.
Warning sirens blared.
Scientists shouted over one another.
“His heart rate is spiking!”
“Energy output exceeding projections!”
“Containment failure in Sector Three!”
Dr. Sato gripped the railing.
“Hold the field!”
The blue energy suddenly turned white.
For one impossible second…
Every monitor in the laboratory went black.
Then—
A bolt of brilliant blue lightning erupted through the roof of the facility and shot into the night sky.
Across the city, Rasheed looked up from his father’s workshop.
His heartbeat stopped.
The bolt felt…
Familiar.
Not the same as his own power.
But connected to it.
“What was that?”
Far away, inside the testing chamber, the lights slowly returned.
Smoke drifted across the floor.
The restraints had been ripped apart.
The chamber doors hung twisted from their hinges.
In the middle of the room…
Someone was standing.
His eyes glowed an intense electric blue.
Tiny arcs of lightning danced across his skin.
Omar slowly looked at his hands.
The electricity responded instantly.
The Director watched through the observation glass.
For the first time in years…
He smiled.
“Welcome…”
He paused, admiring the crackling blue energy filling the chamber.
“…to the next stage of human evolution.”
Outside, thunder rolled across the city.
For the first time since the Chrona Core disaster…
Two different colors of lightning lit the same sky.
One crimson.
One blue.
Neither belonged to the storm.