Kai slouched on a sagging mattress in a Nevada motel room, the neon buzz of a Vegas suburb seeping through paper-thin walls, a garish pulse of pinks and blues flickering against the cracked blinds. Two days ago, he'd bolted from Ohio, hitchhiking and busing west, a ghost slipping through truck stops and backroads after Veilwatch snatched Riley and Chad. He'd embraced the lifestyle of anonymity, blending into the blur of strangers, but their label "null" stung deeper than he expected, bruising a pride he didn't know he had. Those purple threads, sparking faintly under the bandage on his arm, felt alive, almost conscious, as if they'd hidden from Veilwatch's scanner on purpose, mocking their tech. The goblins' red eyes, Chad's lie about killing them, Riley's abduction, recalling each memory cut sharper than the claw marks scabbing his skin.
His cracked phone glowed, the only light in the room, Connect open to his "HiddenTroll" post, buried under a flood of jeers: "Government goons took my friends after goblin attack, real shit." Comments piled on; "CGI trash," "Get a life," "Nice fanfic, bro." A new DM froze him: "I believe you, can we meet? L.V."
Kai's gut twisted. Another scam? He'd been burned before, Connect girls pushing crypto coins, fake sob stories luring him to shady links. But this felt different, raw, like his own desperation mirrored back. He'd fled Ohio's warehouse district, spooked by Veilwatch's shadow, scraping every dollar for a bus to Vegas, drawn by Connect whispers of "sky flickers" and purple shimmers north of the city. I killed those goblins, not Chad. His fingers trembled, hovering over the reply: "Diner off I-15, north of Vegas, noon tomorrow. Who's this?" He hit send, heart thudding, half-expecting a bot's reply.
The telescope in his duffel beckoned, his mother's last gift before cancer stole her. He set it up by the window, the neon haze fading as he aimed at the stars. Andromeda's halo shimmered, jagged purple streaks pulsing like the Ohio rift. Her voice, faint and warm, echoed: You're more than they see, Kai. The surge's hum pulsed in his chest, a truth he couldn't bury, tying him to the sky and the threads he barely understood. He sketched the shimmers on a crumpled napkin, lines frantic, his mind racing. What am I?
In the Nevada bunker, Lena Voss hunched over a terminal, the fluorescent buzz a relentless jab against her temples. At 32, she was Veilwatch's reluctant ace, her surge maps pinpointing U.S. rifts in Ohio, Nevada, Tulsa easily outpacing their clunky tech. Her hacked feed from Mauna Kea had exposed their secrets: 10-teraton surges spawning creatures, powers, chaos. Now, a new pattern loomed: a 100-teraton spike, stateside, ten times larger than prior rifts, its energy dwarfing anything she'd tracked. This could be the size of city blocks, spewing unknown monstrosities.
She glanced at Mara Solis, the healer's purple mist faint as she sifted trainee logs on a tablet, her sharp face unreadable. Lena's encrypted DM to "HiddenTroll" gnawed at her, a risk she couldn't shake. The Ohio logs listed Riley, a ranged damage anomaly with purple threads, and Chad, flagged as "enhanced strength" until yesterday's scan exposed him as a null, his bravado crumbling. Mara's debrief with the trainer replayed in Lena's mind, overheard in the training bay's hum:
"Chad's lying," the trainer had said, voice hushed, clipboard clutched tight. "Claims he killed those goblins, but Riley's report's off. She downed one, threads slicing clean, then got knocked out. Someone else finished them, crushed their chests, not an axe."
Mara's eyes had glinted, mist flaring briefly. "The third, Kai Velasquez? He scanned negative. His file's clean."
"Scanner said negative," the trainer admitted, shifting uneasily. "But Riley's fuzzy on details, and Chad's covering. Those goblin chests were pulverized; normal people don't do that."
Mara leaned in, voice low, commanding. "Find Kai. Rescan him. That power's not invisible. I want him."
Lena's pulse raced, her fingers pausing over the keyboard. Kai is HiddenTroll. The Ohio surge's timestamp matched his Connect post, his words raw, desperate, not the polished bait of a bot. Chad's reassignment to grunt status, hauling gear, scrubbing floors screamed deception, a coward hiding behind lies. She tapped her terminal, Mara's glance a shadow, and fired off a warning DM: "Kai, it's Lena Voss, astrophysicist. Veilwatch knows Chad lied… they think you killed the goblins. They're hunting you. Stay low, meet me at the I-15 diner. Trust no one else."
Mara's voice cut through, calm but pointed. "Voss, your maps done?"
Lena minimized Connect, heart pounding, the screen's glow betraying her flush. "Almost, Solis. This 100-teraton spike's a monster, ten times larger than prior rifts. You're not ready, none of your tech is."
Mara's gaze lingered, piercing, but she nodded. "Show me what you've got. I'm greenlighting field access, supervised. I'm trusting you, Voss, don't push your luck."
Lena masked her relief with a curt nod, her mind racing. Field access gets me to Kai. She encrypted her surge data, zipping it into a dummy file, a trump card against Veilwatch's leash. Her father's voice flickered, stargazing nights long gone: The stars hold answers. She'd find them, with Kai, or burn this bunker down trying.
Riley sweated in the bunker's training bay, her purple threads carving through steel-plated dummies with precision that drew trainers' nods. At 24, she was a ranged damage also called spellweavers, her powers honing faster than any rookie, her output stats climbing with each session. The bay's air stung with ozone, threads humming like a live wire, her muscles taut but steady.
"Fifteen minutes, not bad for a rookie," a trainer jeered, smirking, his clipboard scrawled with previous times.
"Not bad my ass," Riley shot back, wiping sweat, her grin sharp. She'd smashed the previous record by over five minutes, her threads slicing cleaner, faster, than any in the bay. Best in class, and they know it.
Chad's lie festered, a splinter she couldn't ignore. Demoted to grunt duty assigned to lugging crates, scrubbing gear, he floundered, his bravado cracking under the trainers' glares. She'd seen his axe graze a goblin in Ohio, barely scratching its slate skin, yet he'd claimed the kills, swaggering like a hero. Kai was out cold, wasn't he? She replayed the fight, her threads downing one goblin, a claw knocking her dizzy, then waking to crushed corpses and Kai bloodied, silent. What happened?
A trainer's voice snapped her focus. "Riley, you're cleared for rift drills. Your threads are containment-grade, top tier."
She nodded, wiping her brow, but caught two scientists muttering by the bay's edge, their coats crisp, voices low: "We don't detain every null who sees rifts, nobody believes them anyway. Disinformation protocol's working, like those bots on Connect calling every incident a hoax. People are skeptical to begin with."
Riley's gut twisted, her threads flickering. Kai's a null, out there alone. Chad's grunt role shielded him, mopping floors while she trained for war, but his lie, stealing Kai's moment, stank of betrayal. She slashed a dummy harder, threads flaring, the metal screeching as it split. What went down, Kai?
Nearby, Chad chased after Mara, his boots scuffing the bunker's polished floor. "Sir… Ma'am?" he called, snapping to attention, feigning military discipline, his face a mask of forced humility. "Can I join the training program too?"
Mara stopped, her cloak glinting with Veilwatch's steel claw insignia, her mist coiling faintly. "You're a con and a blowhard, Chad," she said, voice ice. "You're lucky to be walking around freely. Why did you claim to have killed those goblins?"
Chad's face fell, eyes downcast, his bravado gone. "I… I want to matter," he said, voice cracking, eyes closing as if bracing for a blow.
Mara's expression didn't soften. "You can't join the recruits here. Prove yourself at basic boot camp, see how long you last. Report to Sector A."
Chad's eyes snapped open, gratitude and determination flickering. "I won't let you down, ma'am!" He spun, sprinting down the hall, only to skid back, sheepish. "Uh… which way is Sector A?"
Mara shook her head, ignoring him, her boots echoing as she left Chad dumbfounded in the hallway, his shoulders slumping. Riley watched, her threads dimming, a mix of pity and disdain curling her lip. He's a mess, but Kai's out there, running.
Kai reached the I-15 diner, the noon sun brutal, baking the cracked asphalt lot. His jacket hid the sparking wound on his arm, the purple threads pulsing faintly, like a heartbeat he couldn't ignore. The diner smelled of burnt coffee and grease, its faded sign buzzing, truckers hunched over plates inside, their chatter a low drone. A woman in a hoodie and sunglasses, Lena sat in a corner booth, her sharp features and messy ponytail matching the urgency of her DMs. She waved him over, her eyes sweeping the room, wary as a hawk.
"Kai?" she asked, voice low, offering a quick handshake, her grip firm but warm. "Lena Voss. I'm the scientist tracking the surges behind those Ohio goblins."
He sat, wary, his throat tight, the diner's vinyl seat creaking under him. "You're not Veilwatch? They took Riley, Chad… ignored me."
Lena leaned in, her intensity cutting through his doubt. "I'm not with them, Kai. They dragged me into this, same as your friends. Chad's a fraud and Veilwatch knows he didn't kill those goblins. Mara Solis, their lead, thinks it was you. They're hunting you. What happened out there?"
Kai's fist clenched, a faint purple spark flickering under his sleeve, the wound's heat flaring. "They had me cornered with claws, red eyes, coming fast. I was done, then this… power hit. Like threads, but heavier, sharper, like they knew what to do. I blacked out, woke up, and they were dead, chests caved in."
Lena's eyes lit up, scribbling in a worn notebook, her pen flying. "Heavier threads? That's off their charts. Your cells might be processing dark energy differently, you may be a multi-spectral anomaly, something their scanners couldn't catch. Mara's circling back, rescanning everyone from Ohio. You're not safe."
Kai's breath caught, the diner's hum fading, his pulse loud in his ears. "What do they want? Lock me up like Riley?"
"Control," Lena said, voice sharp but steady, her eyes locking on his. "They train people like Riley to fight creatures from rifts like Ohio, Nevada, Tulsa, all U.S. so far. But anyone outside their mold, like you, they might cage or conscript. I'm mapping surges and a 100-teraton one's coming, ten times bigger than anything before. Your power could be key, but we need to move fast."
The diner's windows blazed purple, a blinding flash that silenced the room. A rift tore open in the lot, jagged and pulsing, bigger than Ohio's, its edges crackling with dark energy. A creature emerged; it's not a goblin, but a hulking, multi-limbed beast, its slate skin oozing black mist, six red eyes glinting like embers, claws like scythes shredding the asphalt. Screams erupted, truckers bolting, plates crashing to the floor.
"Kai, move!" Lena shouted, grabbing her bag, her notebook tumbling to the seat.
He froze, the surge's hum roaring in his chest, a tidal wave drowning his thoughts. The beast lunged, a claw grazing his arm, pain searing, ripping his jacket. Purple threads erupted from his hands, wild, uncontrolled, slamming the creature back, its chest denting with a wet, sickening crunch. A parked car flipped, glass shattering, a grizzled trucker screaming as shrapnel grazed his leg. Crap, I'm hurting them.
Lena gripped his shoulder, her voice cutting through the chaos. "Kai, focus! Picture the threads tightening, like a net!"
He clenched his jaw, her words grounding him, sweat beading on his brow. The threads sharpened, coiling around the beast's limbs, crushing its torso like a tin can. Black mist sprayed, the creature collapsing in a heap, its eyes dimming. Kai's vision blurred, blood dripping from his reopened wound, his knees buckling.
A black van screeched into the lot, Veilwatch agents spilling out, Mara at the lead, her purple mist glowing, a sleek pistol in hand. Her scanner locked on Kai, beeping louder than Ohio's, a shrill confirmation.
"Anomaly detected," Mara said, voice cool, stepping forward, her boots crunching glass. "Kai, you're coming with us right now, or we contain you."
Kai's wound sparked, threads flaring, cracking the asphalt beneath his feet. Fear and anger surged, his voice sharp, taunting, echoing his Ohio defiance. "What are you gonna do, huh? Heal me to death?"
Mara's eyes narrowed, a faint smirk tugging her lips. She raised her pistol, mist swirling around it, her stance unshakable. "No, Kai. I can shoot you, then heal you later. Don't test me."
Lena stepped between them, defiant, her hoodie slipping back, ponytail swinging. "He's not your asset, Solis. You missed him once; you don't get to cage him now."
"Get out of my way, Voss!" Mara snapped, her calm fracturing. "You don't call the shots here." With subtle hand gestures, she signaled her troops to flank Kai. Two agents approached slowly, one from each side, their wrist devices humming, stun batons sparking faintly.
Kai's threads pulsed in sync with his heartbeat, a rhythm he couldn't control, the air thick with ozone and fear. Mara's pistol steadied, agents closing in, their boots scuffing the gravel. Lena's whisper hit him like a lifeline: "Run, Kai." His mind raced, should I trust her, flee, or fight? The choice burned, as fierce as the power surging through him.
High above, perched on the van's roof, a sniper trained his sights on Kai, his scope glinting, finger poised. Mara's hand twitched, a slight gesture, and the sniper fired; a tranquilizer dart streaking toward Kai's torso.
Time slowed, Kai's senses screaming. The threads reacted before he did, a purple sheen flaring at his chest, concentrated, alive. The dart hit with a dull thunk, bouncing harmlessly to the ground, the sheen dissipating like a ripple. Kai's eyes widened, panic flooding, his breath ragged. They're not taking me. His legs gathered threads, warm, electric, coiling tight, the world sharpening. In a blink, he vanished into the Nevada desert, a cloud of dust the only proof of his passage, sand swirling in the rift's fading glow.
Lena, Mara, and the agents froze, staring at the dust cloud, the diner's neon flickering in the silence. Mara snapped first, barking orders: "Pursue him, now!" The lead van roared forward, but its tires spun, stuck in the dunes' rough terrain, engines whining uselessly. An agent radioed, voice tense: "Ma'am, we can't pursue further the terrain's too rough. Awaiting orders."
Mara's jaw tightened, her amazement masking disappointment. He's the strongest I've seen. "Disengage and convene at the base," she ordered, her voice steady but laced with urgency. She turned to Lena, eyes cold but calculating. "Voss, I need you to recruit Kai Velasquez. You can have anything you want; resources, access, name it."
Lena's heart raced, her defiance cloaked in a nod. Anything I want? Freedom's not on your list. She grabbed her notebook, the diner's chaos fading as agents retreated, the rift's hum a distant echo. Kai was out there, threads alive, and she'd find him; before Mara's leash tightened or the 100-teraton surge tore everything apart.