LOCATION: Circuit 12 – Subterranean Lab Sector B, Roosevelt Island
The hum of monitors vibrated through the sterile lab, cold lights reflecting off steel and glass. Rael leaned over Containment Pod 07, eyes fixed on the trembling teenager inside.
Ethan.
Barefoot. Shackled. Pupils razor-thin. Skin slick with sweat.
Yet he wasn't dying.
He should be dying.
Rael adjusted the vitals screen, jaw tightening.
Constant adrenaline levels like this should've fried his heart hours ago.
But Ethan wasn't just surviving — he was adapting.
Optimizing.
Mutating.
Rael's lips curled upward in fascination.
> Rael (soft whisper):
"You're impossible… and impossible things belong to me."
He tapped his tablet, moving Ethan's profile into the VIP category, slotting him directly under Riven Cross.
A twisted satisfaction warmed his chest.
Then the alarm shattered his moment.
A siren shriek tore through the corridor, red lights pulsing like a heartbeat gone wild.
INTRUSION ALERT — SECTOR GATE 3 BREACHED
Rael froze.
Breached?
Breached here?
Circuit 12 is basically invisible.
Untouchable.
Nobody should have even known this place existed — let alone gotten in.
He slammed his palm onto the comm panel.
> Rael:
"What the hell do you mean we're breached!? How did anyone even get close to this site?"
Static.
Then frantic voices.
"Unknown group! Amateur formation! They—they knew the tunnels! They're already inside!"
Rael's eyes widened for a fraction of a second — then hardened into ice.
> Rael:
"Capture. All. Of. Them.
I want every rat dragged into the interrogation block. I want answers."
His voice thundered across the comms.
> "MOVE!"
Minutes later — interrogation block
Fluorescent lights flickered overhead.
One by one, the intruders were slammed into chairs — bruised, terrified, shaking.
Civilians. Kids. Protesters.
Not soldiers.
Not spies.
Not professionals.
Amateurs.
But amateurs who somehow knew the exact layout of a top-secret facility.
That made Rael's skin crawl in a way he didn't show.
He interrogated each one personally.
Each failure made his anger boil thicker.
> Rael:
"Who sent you?"
"How did you find us?"
"WHO FED YOU THE MAP?"
But they knew nothing.
Rumors.
Screenshots.
"Someone said—"
"We heard—"
"We thought—"
No source. No mastermind. No trail leading back.
It felt orchestrated.
Too clean.
Too perfect.
Too intentional.
Rael clenched the edge of the table until the metal dented under his fingers.
Someone was playing chess with him.
Someone clever.
Someone he couldn't see.
Then the call from the higher-ups came.
The holo-screen blinked to life, projecting three shadowed government officials.
They didn't greet him.
They didn't congratulate him.
They attacked.
"Dr. Rael, this breach is unacceptable."
"You compromised the secrecy of Circuit 12."
"You are hereby instructed to step down—"
Rael's jaw snapped upward.
Step down?
Step. Down?
From his operation?
The operation he built, he maintained, he perfected, he controlled?
Something inside him snapped.
He leaned into the screen, eyes burning, voice shaking with rage and ego.
> Rael:
"This is MY operation.
Mine — and mine alone."
The officials stiffened.
But Rael kept going, words dripping venom.
> Rael:
"You think you run Circuit 12?
You don't.
I AM this operation."
He slammed his hand onto the console.
> Rael:
"Without me, this entire place collapses into useless scrap metal.
You don't command me.
You don't control me.
You need me."
He cut the connection.
Just like that.
Without permission. Without fear.
Or so he thought.
Then the lights flickered.
The lab screens blinked.
The sirens outside went silent.
And then—
The giant external broadcast relay above the facility lit up.
It shouldn't have.
Circuit 12 wasn't supposed to be connected to anything outside.
But the world was suddenly watching.
The emergency override display flickered to life.
SkylineVision News.
Manhattan.
Live broadcast.
Mark Jones.
The text burned across the screen:
"BREAKING: SECRET FACILITY 'CIRCUIT 12' EXPOSED — REPORTS OF TORTURE INSIDE."
Rael's blood froze.
How?
How did they know the name?
How did they know the location?
How did they know about the experiments?
His heart pounded so violently it hurt.
Fear. Anger. Confusion. Humiliation.
It all collapsed inside him like a dying star.
People shouting outside the room.
Soldiers scrambling.
Operators panicking.
But Rael just stared at the bleeding red headline, breath shaking for the first time in years.
Someone was moving pieces behind him.
Someone he hadn't seen.
Someone who had gotten this close without leaving a footprint.
Someone who had just declared war on him.
His voice barely escaped his throat:
> Rael (whisper):
"Who… are you?"
Circuit 12
Command Deck – 6:14 PM
Rael hadn't moved from in front of the screen.
Not since that cursed broadcast exposed everything.
His fingers dug into the console as another call came through.
The higher-ups again.
He considered ignoring it…
but the door locks around him clicked automatically.
They forced the connection.
Three officials appeared — faces hard, voices colder than steel.
> **"Dr. Rael.
You lost secrecy.
You lost containment.
You lost control."**
Rael's eye twitched.
> Official:
"We are ordering immediate relocation of every subject in Circuit 12.
Trains will arrive in one hour."
> Official 2:
"And Rael—
You are no longer in charge of this site.
You will supervise relocation only. Nothing more."
It hit him like a blade.
He wasn't the king anymore.
He was a handler.
A babysitter.
A demotion disguised as an order.
Rael's jaw locked so hard it hurt.
But he couldn't explode again.
Not with the world watching.
Not when the higher-ups already had their knives drawn.
So he nodded once — stiff, mechanical.
> Rael (forced calm):
"Understood."
Three floors below.
Maintenance Tunnel 4B.
Cyrus wiped grease off his fingers as he slid the vent cover back.
Kaito landed silently behind him.
Circuit 12's alarms were buzzing in the distance — relocation had begun.
Just as Cyrus predicted.
> Kaito (whisper):
"We're actually doing this.
You think the plan holds?"
Cyrus didn't even look back.
> Cyrus:
"It's already holding.
They're scared.
When people get scared, they move fast.
And when they move fast…
they make mistakes."
Cyrus held up a small device — a scanner he'd stolen from a rooftop guard three nights ago.
He pointed down the tunnel.
> Cyrus:
"Ethan's on the third sublevel.
Let's go."
Kaito exhaled, then raised both hands.
A soft ripple of light bent around their bodies — a shimmering cloak of distortion.
Kaito's illusion field.
Complete invisibility.
> Kaito:
"We're ghosts now.
Guards won't see us unless they physically crash into us."
> Cyrus:
"Good.
Move."
The power was cut for relocation.
Lights were running on emergency strips.
Sirens pulsed with no rhythm.
The air felt sick with tension.
And most importantly:
Every meta-dampener was offline.
Cyrus felt it the instant he stepped in.
It was like oxygen returning after drowning.
His telekinesis vibrated around him, sharper, freer, deadlier.
Kaito felt it too. His illusions stretched farther than before, doubling in clarity.
They slipped past guards.
Past scrambling scientists.
Past panicking operators.
Straight to the lab.
Sublevel 3
Bio-Containment Wing
Cyrus froze at the window.
Ethan lay slumped on a metal bed, hooked to IVs, heart rate spiking and dropping like a malfunctioning machine.
Kaito whispered:
> "We take him and we run."
But Cyrus' eyes drifted to the row of cells on the wall.
Cages.
People inside.
Some asleep.
Some screaming.
Some banging on glass.
And above each:
A single code tag.
He scanned them.
"Code 7 – Bio-Electric."
"Code 4 – Density Shift."
"Code 3 – Cryokinetic."
Then he saw it —
A darker cell.
Thicker glass.
Wall covered in reinforced seals.
CODE 0
The only one with a physical lock.
Old-fashioned.
Keyed.
Not digital.
Not hackable.
A name plate beneath it, etched in black:
SUBJECT: RIVEN CROSS
AUTHORIZED ACCESS: DR. RAEL
Cyrus felt a shiver — but kept his distance.
Not tonight.
Not this mission.
Instead, he stepped to the console and took a photo of every note, every document, every graph.
Then he ripped the hard-drive out.
Then he downloaded the entire archive to his own stolen tablet.
Kaito watched him.
> Kaito:
"We're taking evidence?"
> Cyrus:
"We're taking leverage."
Then Cyrus walked to the cell controls.
He raised a finger.
Paused.
Looked at Ethan.
Looked at the other prisoners.
And then he slammed his hand onto the release switch.
All cells opened.
All locks snapped.
All chaos was unleashed.
Screams erupted.
Bodies stormed out.
Some fleeing.
Some attacking guards.
Some just collapsing in relief.
Perfect distraction.
Kaito lifted Ethan onto his back.
> Kaito:
"We need to go. Now."
Cyrus nodded.
> Cyrus:
"We walk out in the chaos.
Nobody sees ghosts."
Kaito tightened the illusion field.
They vanished.
And slipped out with Ethan.
Back in Command Deck.
An operator burst into the room.
"Cells are opening! Subjects are loose!"
Rael spun.
"What?! Who gave that order?!"
"We—we don't know! The system— it reset—"
Then another shout:
"SIR! SUBJECT ETHAN — HE'S GONE!"
Rael's face drained.
Gone?
Impossible.
He raced to the terminal.
Cameras flickered.
Chaos everywhere.
But no image of the kidnappers.
Someone had cloaked them.
Someone with precision.
Someone who knew exactly where to go.
Rael's voice fell to a whisper — one part anger, one part fear:
> Rael:
"There's someone inside my maze."