Chaos.
Absolute chaos.
Students scattered.
Faculty attempted controlled containment.
It failed immediately.
The first Null operative triggered a resonance pulse.
A shockwave hit the marble floor.
It cracked in a perfect circle.
Vesper hardened instinctively.
Absorbed the impact.
The crack radiated outward— but stopped at her feet.
The second operative activated a helix destabilizer.
Targeting Kael.
His mimic channel flared painfully.
He staggered.
Valentina bent light around him, diffusing the spike.
Aurelio projected refracted beams into the ceiling, collapsing a suspended walkway to block the third operative's advance.
Halvorsen shouted something about "containment protocols," but no one was listening.
Lyra— who should not have been anywhere near the center—
grabbed a fallen resonance amplifier.
"Don't touch that!" Vesper yelled.
Lyra pressed a button accidentally.
The device emitted a low pulse.
The Null operative nearest her jerked violently.
"Oops?"
Even in battle—
Lyra found ways to escalate.
Kael forced himself upright.
His hands bled where resonance feedback cracked his skin.
He looked at the operative targeting Vesper.
Something shifted in his expression.
Cold.
Precise.
He removed his gloves fully.
Touched the fractured marble floor.
Mimicked ultra-dense stone.
Then—
Something new.
He layered Vesper's density pattern over it.
A hybrid.
The operative fired again.
Kael stepped into the blast.
Hardened.
Perfectly.
The pulse shattered against him.
Everyone froze.
Even Vesper.
He shouldn't have been able to replicate her density so precisely.
The operative stepped back.
"You're not supposed to do that."
Kael smiled faintly.
"I improvise."
Vesper launched forward.
She increased mass sharply.
Hit the operative with controlled force.
Not lethal.
But definitive.
The third operative attempted retreat.
Valentina refracted light around him, blinding his escape.
Aurelio collapsed a reinforced beam across his path.
Within minutes—
Security forces arrived.
Too late to prevent damage.
Just in time to arrest.
The Academy hall looked like a sculptor had attacked it mid-rage.
Cracked marble.
Collapsed balconies.
A fountain was somehow turned upside down.
Lyra stood proudly in the center.
"Is this still Safety Week?"