Darkness.
It felt endless.
Rasheed couldn’t tell if seconds or hours had passed.
His body felt weightless, as though he was floating in an endless sea.
Then he heard footsteps.
Slow.
Measured.
Coming from somewhere beyond the darkness.
“…Dad?”
His own voice echoed strangely.
No answer came.
Instead, a crimson glow appeared in the distance.
It grew brighter with every passing second until it swallowed everything around him.
Suddenly—
Rasheed’s eyes flew open.
He gasped, sucking in air as though he’d been underwater.
The ceiling above him was cracked.
The underground laboratory.
“I’m… alive?”
Pain shot through every muscle in his body as he tried to sit up.
The machine in the center of the chamber had gone silent.
Its once-glowing core was now completely dark.
Whatever had happened…
It was over.
At least, that’s what he thought.
As Rasheed pushed himself to his feet, a loose metal beam crashed from the ceiling.
Instinct took over.
Before he could even think—
His body moved.
The world around him slowed.
Dust floated through the air like tiny stars.
The falling beam barely seemed to move.
His eyes widened.
“What…”
He stepped sideways.
Almost casually.
The beam slammed into the ground exactly where he had been standing.
The sound arrived a heartbeat later.
Rasheed stared at the crater.
His own breathing sounded unnaturally loud.
“No…”
He looked at his hands.
They trembled.
Not from fear.
From energy.
Tiny crimson sparks danced across his fingertips before fading into the air.
He backed away.
“This isn’t possible.”
He turned toward the exit.
Then he blinked.
The doorway was suddenly right in front of him.
He froze.
“I…”
He looked behind himself.
The center of the laboratory was now almost fifty meters away.
“I didn’t…”
His heart pounded.
“I couldn’t have…”
He tried walking.
Instead—
The room blurred.
A powerful gust of wind exploded behind him.
He crashed straight through the laboratory doors and rolled across the concrete hallway outside.
Metal lockers toppled like dominoes.
Pipes burst overhead.
Water rained down around him.
Rasheed groaned as he pushed himself onto one knee.
“I have to stop doing that.”
For the first time in his life…
He was afraid of his own body.
⸻
Outside, the evening sun had already begun to set.
The abandoned district remained silent.
Rasheed stumbled toward the broken front gate.
His legs felt strangely light.
Every step seemed to carry him farther than it should.
He concentrated on walking slowly.
One step.
Then another.
It worked.
Until a stray dog ran into the road.
Without thinking, Rasheed lunged to avoid it.
A loud boom echoed behind him.
The dog barked in confusion.
Rasheed looked around.
He wasn’t on the road anymore.
He was standing on the roof of a nearby warehouse.
His eyes went wide.
“I…”
The warehouse had to be at least two hundred meters away.
He slowly turned toward the edge of the roof.
The distance between the two buildings made his stomach tighten.
“I jumped that?”
A nervous laugh escaped him.
“This has to be a dream.”
He pinched his arm.
It hurt.
Definitely not a dream.
As the sun dipped below the skyline, Rasheed looked out over the city.
For the first time…
He noticed something strange.
Thin crimson streaks drifted through the air above the rooftops.
Like tiny rivers of light.
No one else seemed to notice them.
They flowed toward the center of the city…
Toward the place where the Chrona Core had exploded.
Almost as if they were calling him.
Rasheed swallowed.
“I need answers.”
Far away, hidden inside a black SUV parked across the street, a man lowered a pair of binoculars.
He picked up a phone.
“He survived.”
A calm voice answered from the other end.
“Excellent.”
“And the energy?”
“It bonded perfectly.”
A brief silence followed.
Then the voice spoke again.
“Do not approach the boy.”
“Why not?”
“Because if our calculations are correct…”
The voice paused.
“…Kronis already knows he’s awake.”
The call ended.
Inside the laboratory, unseen by anyone, a single crack spread across the dead Chrona Core.
A faint red pulse echoed through the darkness.
Once.
Twice.
Then everything went still.