New York City was dying.
That was Kyla's first thought as the helicopter flew over Manhattan at two in the morning. Below them, entire neighborhoods were frozen over, ice coating skyscrapers like frosting on a cake. The city that never sleeps was dark in patches, power grids failing under the assault. And everywhere she looked, she could see fires—some from the battles, others from desperate attempts to melt the advancing ice.
"Jesus," Josh breathed beside her, staring out the window. "It's so much worse than Boston."
He was right. Boston had been bad, but New York was catastrophic. The city was ten times larger, with ten times more people, and five weak points instead of three. According to the briefing they'd received during the flight, over two hundred people were confirmed dead, with thousands more injured or missing.
"NYPD estimates they've got at least a thousand creatures loose in the city," Captain Rodriguez shouted over the helicopter noise. She'd insisted on coming to New York personally, bringing her best soldiers. "Maybe more. They're losing ground by the hour."
The helicopter landed on the roof of One Police Plaza, NYPD headquarters. They were met by a woman in a deputy chief's uniform who looked like she'd aged ten years in the last day. Her name tag read "Morrison."
"You're the team from Tides?" She didn't wait for confirmation. "Follow me. We need you in operations immediately."
The operations center was pure chaos. Dozens of people shouted into phones and radios, coordinating responses across the city. Maps covered every wall, marked with so many red dots that Kyla couldn't count them all. And on multiple screens, news coverage showed the devastation—Times Square frozen solid, creatures attacking Grand Central Station, the Brooklyn Bridge covered in ice so thick that cars had been abandoned mid-crossing.
"We're losing," Morrison said bluntly, pointing to the maps. "Five weak points—one in Central Park, one at the Hudson River pier, one in Times Square, one in the subway system under Grand Central, and one that just opened an hour ago in Brooklyn near the Navy Yard. Every time we close in on one, more creatures pour out. We're stretched too thin."
"What about the National Guard?" Captain Rodriguez asked.
"Deployed to all five locations. Doesn't matter. These things adapt too fast. My officers figured out the salt water trick on their own, but we don't have enough resources to drive them to water sources. And the creatures are learning—they're avoiding water now, staying inland." Morrison looked at them with desperate eyes. "You closed three weak points in Boston in under eight hours. Tell me how."
Kyla stepped forward, pulling up the data Dr. Walsh had compiled. "We use modified fragments to generate counter-resonance at the weak point's center. But someone has to get the device in position and activate it manually. It's dangerous."
"Everything's dangerous right now. We'll take it." Morrison turned to her staff. "Where's our science team?"
"Right here." A man in his forties wearing a rumpled suit approached. "Dr. Marcus Chen, NYPD science division. I've been analyzing the creatures' remains. Fascinating stuff—their molecular structure is completely—"
"Later, Chen," Morrison cut him off. "Can you work with their scientist to build these resonance devices?"
Dr. Chen looked at Dr. Walsh, who'd been setting up her equipment nearby. "You're Dr. Rebecca Walsh. I've read your papers on dimensional physics. Brilliant work."
"Thank you. Now let's save a city." Dr. Walsh pulled him aside, and they immediately started discussing technical details that went over Kyla's head.
"We need to prioritize," Josh said, studying the maps. "Which weak point is causing the most damage?"
"Times Square," Morrison answered immediately. "It's in the middle of everything, and creatures are spreading out from there into surrounding neighborhoods. We've evacuated as much as we can, but there are still thousands of civilians trapped in buildings."
"Then we start there," Kyla decided. "Captain Rodriguez, can you take a team to Central Park? Stevens, you and half the Tides officers hit the Hudson pier. We'll coordinate from here and rotate teams as needed."
Morrison looked impressed. "You've done this before."
"Twice now. Still terrifying every time." Kyla checked her flame unit—fully loaded and functional. Her shoulder was still sore from Boston, but the medic had cleared her for duty. "How fast can we move?"
"Armored vehicles are ready on the ground floor. You'll have NYPD escorts—officers who know the city and can navigate even with half the streets blocked." Morrison handed them radios. "Channel seven for coordination. I'll be monitoring from here."
They split into three teams. Kyla, Josh, and six NYPD officers headed for Times Square in two armored trucks. The drive through Manhattan was surreal. Streets that should be packed with traffic were empty except for abandoned cars and ice. Store windows were shattered, their contents frozen or looted. And every few blocks, they'd see bodies—people who hadn't made it to safety in time, now frozen solid.
"Try not to look," one of the NYPD officers said gently. She was young, maybe Kyla's age, with haunted eyes. Her name tag read "Delgado." "It's worse if you look."
But Kyla couldn't help looking. Each frozen body was someone who'd died because they hadn't been fast enough, hadn't known about the danger in time. Each one was a failure.
"Not your fault," Josh said quietly, reading her expression. "We're doing everything we can."
Times Square was unrecognizable. The famous billboards were dark, covered in ice. The streets were empty except for creatures—dozens of them, patrolling like they owned the place. And in the center of the square, where the New Year's ball normally hung, was the weak point. It looked like a tear in reality, edges crackling with blue energy, creatures crawling through it in a steady stream.
"That's a lot of monsters," Delgado said, which was possibly the understatement of the year.
"We've faced worse," Josh said, though Kyla wasn't sure that was true. This was easily twice as many creatures as they'd fought in Boston.
They set up a perimeter two blocks out, using abandoned vehicles as cover. Dr. Walsh and Dr. Chen were working on the resonance device in the back of one truck, racing against time.
"How long?" Kyla asked.
"Fifteen minutes to calibrate," Dr. Walsh said without looking up. "Maybe less if Chen stops asking theoretical questions."
"But the implications for quantum dimensional bridging are—" Chen started.
"Later," Dr. Walsh insisted. "City first, physics debates second."
While they waited, more creatures emerged from the weak point. Kyla counted fifty, then sixty, then lost count. They were spreading out, searching for prey. Soon they'd find the team's position.
"We need a distraction," Captain Rodriguez's voice came through the radio. "Something to draw them away from the weak point so you can get the device in position."
"What kind of distraction?" Morrison asked from operations.
"The loud, obvious kind. Explosions, fire, noise. Make them think there's a bigger threat somewhere else."
"I can arrange that," Morrison said. "Give me five minutes."
Four minutes later, a series of explosions rocked the area six blocks south. Abandoned buildings that had already been cleared went up in flames, creating a massive light show. The creatures' heads snapped toward the sound, and most of them started moving in that direction.
"That's our window," Kyla said. "Walsh?"
"Device is ready!" Dr. Walsh handed it to Josh. "Same procedure as Boston—blue to arm, red to activate, ten-second countdown. But this weak point is bigger. The resonance might take up to sixty seconds to fully collapse it."
"Sixty seconds?" Josh repeated. "That's forever in combat time."
"Can't be helped. The dimensional energy here is more concentrated. It'll take longer to disrupt." Dr. Walsh looked at them seriously. "And there's something else. The creatures will feel it when you activate the device. All of them, everywhere in the city. They'll know what you're doing and they'll come for you. Fast."
"So we activate it and run even faster," Kyla said. "Simple."
"Nothing about this is simple," Delgado muttered.
They moved in, Kyla and Josh flanked by four NYPD officers providing cover. The creatures that remained near the weak point noticed them immediately and charged. Flame units opened up, taking down the first wave. But more kept coming through the portal.
"We can't hold them all off!" one officer shouted.
"Don't have to!" Josh yelled back. "Just need thirty seconds to place the device!"
They fought their way to the center of Times Square, where the weak point hung in the air like a wound in reality. Up close, it was even more horrifying—Kyla could see through to the other side, that frozen wasteland with its purple sky and wrong angles. And she could see shapes moving in the darkness, massive forms that made the creatures they'd been fighting look small.
"Are those—" Delgado started.
"Don't think about it," Kyla cut her off. "Just focus on the mission."
Josh placed the device directly under the weak point, on the frozen ground. He pressed the blue button, and it started humming. "Armed! Activating now!"
He hit the red button.
The effect was immediate. Every creature in Times Square shrieked in unison, a sound that made Kyla's ears ring. And from all over the city, she could hear answering calls. They were coming. All of them.
"Run!" Captain Rodriguez's voice came through the radio. "All teams, whatever you're doing, stop and run! Something's happening!"
They ran. The ten-second countdown in Kyla's head had barely started when creatures began pouring into Times Square from every direction. Not just the ones from the weak point—these were creatures from all over Manhattan, drawn by the device's resonance.
Five... four... three...
A creature tackled Delgado, sending her sprawling. Kyla spun and fired, melting it, but three more took its place. They were surrounded.
Two... one...
The device activated with that horrible reality-breaking sound. The weak point started to collapse, its edges fragmenting. But the creatures didn't care. They kept coming, driven by something beyond survival instinct. Pure rage at what Kyla and Josh had done.
"Sixty seconds," Josh reminded her, back to back as creatures circled them. "We just need to survive sixty seconds."
Sixty seconds felt like an eternity.
They fought with everything they had. Flame units, physical combat when creatures got too close, teamwork that had become second nature. The NYPD officers fought beside them, holding the line even as their numbers dwindled.
Thirty seconds. The weak point was half-collapsed, creatures trying to push through even as it closed.
Forty seconds. One NYPD officer went down, swarmed by three creatures. His partner pulled him back, still firing.
Fifty seconds. Kyla's flame unit ran out of fuel. She drew her service weapon, knowing bullets wouldn't do much, but it was better than nothing.
Sixty seconds.
The weak point imploded with a thunderclap that shattered windows for blocks. The creatures still emerging were caught in the collapse, their bodies torn apart. The ones already in Times Square froze, their connection to their home dimension severed. For a moment, they just stood there, confused.
Then they began to break apart, ice crystallizing and shattering into fragments that dissolved into nothing.
In less than a minute, every creature in Times Square was gone.
Kyla stood in the sudden silence, breathing hard, covered in ice crystals and sweat. "Did we—"
"One down, four to go," Josh finished, though he sounded as exhausted as she felt.
Morrison's voice crackled over the radio. "Times Square weak point confirmed closed. Good work. Captain Rodriguez just closed Central Park. That's two down."
"Three to go," Kyla corrected. "What's the status on the other locations?"
"Hudson pier team is pinned down. Heavy creature activity. Stevens is requesting immediate backup." Morrison paused. "And we're getting reports of a new weak point opening in Queens. That makes six total now."
Six. The number hit Kyla like a physical blow. They were barely keeping up with five, and now there was a sixth?
"How is this happening?" Josh asked. "The Herald said three days. It's barely been two weeks since we closed the original portal."
"The King is accelerating his plans," Dr. Walsh's voice came through. "Each weak point we close makes him angrier. He's throwing everything he has at us."
"Then we throw everything back," Captain Rodriguez said. "Martinez, Reeves, can you make it to the Hudson pier? Stevens needs you."
Kyla looked at Josh. He looked at her. They were both exhausted, injured, running on fumes. But Stevens needed them. The city needed them.
"On our way," Kyla said.
The drive to the Hudson pier took twenty minutes through blocked streets. When they arrived, they found Stevens and his team pinned behind police barricades, unable to advance. The weak point at the pier was massive, and creatures were pouring out faster than they could be destroyed. Worse, these creatures had adapted further—they were barely affected by heat, requiring sustained flames to bring down.
"About time!" Stevens shouted when he saw them. "We've been getting pounded here! The National Guard tried to set up artillery, but the creatures destroyed it!"
Kyla assessed the situation quickly. The weak point was at the end of a long pier extending into the Hudson River. To reach it, they'd have to fight through at least a hundred creatures, across open ground with minimal cover.
"We need a different approach," she said. "What if we don't go to the weak point? What if we bring the weak point to us?"
"How?" Josh asked.
"The pier is old. Wood and steel, built over a century ago. If we can collapse it, the weak point goes into the river with it." Kyla pointed to the support structures. "Dr. Walsh, would the weak point survive being submerged in salt water?"
"No. The salt water would disrupt the dimensional energy. It would close itself." Dr. Walsh sounded excited. "That's brilliant!"
"Also insane," Stevens added. "How do we collapse a pier?"
"With these." Captain Rodriguez's soldiers had arrived with crates of C-4 explosives. "We blow the support columns, the whole thing comes down. But someone has to place the charges, and that means getting close to those creatures."
"I'll do it," said one of Rodriguez's soldiers, a young guy named Patterson. "I'm trained in demolitions."
"You'll need cover," Kyla said. "We'll keep the creatures busy while you work."
What followed was the most intense fifteen minutes of Kyla's life. While Patterson placed explosives on the support columns, the rest of the team held off wave after wave of creatures. They used every tactic they knew—fire, water, improvised weapons, anything that would work. Delgado went down with a broken leg. Two National Guard soldiers were knocked unconscious. Josh took a claw to the ribs that left him gasping.
But they held the line.
"Charges set!" Patterson called out. "Clear the area!"
They ran, dragging wounded with them, putting distance between themselves and the pier. Patterson hit the detonator.
The explosions were beautiful and terrible. The support columns shattered, and the entire pier collapsed into the Hudson River with a groan of dying metal. The weak point, still open and spitting out creatures, plunged into the salt water.
The effect was instant. The weak point destabilized, crackling and sparking as the salt water disrupted its energy. Within seconds, it collapsed completely, taking dozens of creatures with it.
Three down. Three to go.
But as Kyla watched the pier sink, she saw something that made her blood run cold. Through the collapsing weak point, just before it closed completely, she saw a figure standing on the other side. Not a creature. Something else. Something that looked almost human, but wrong. And it was watching them with eyes that glowed like ice.
The Herald. Or something worse.
And it smiled before the portal closed.
"Did you see that?" Josh asked quietly.
"Yeah." Kyla's hand found his. "Something's coming. Something bigger than the creatures."
"Then we'll stop it," Josh said, though he didn't sound as confident as usual. "We always do."
The radio crackled with Morrison's voice. "Three weak points closed, three to go. Grand Central subway, Brooklyn Navy Yard, and Queens. We've got fresh teams heading to Queens. Martinez, Reeves, you're needed at Grand Central. It's the worst one—creatures are in the tunnels, spreading through the entire subway system."
"Grand Central," Kyla repeated. Fighting in dark, enclosed subway tunnels against creatures that were getting smarter and stronger. "That sounds fun."
"So much fun," Josh agreed sarcastically. "Best date night ever."
Despite everything, Kyla found herself smiling. "Our dates really do have a theme, don't they?"
"Monster attacks and near-death experiences. Very romantic."
They helped load the wounded into vehicles, then headed for Grand Central. The sun was starting to rise over New York, painting the frozen city in shades of pink and orange. A new day was beginning.
But the battle was far from over.
End of Chapter 19