The workshop wasn't just groaning anymore; it was screaming. A high-pitched shriek of tortured metal filled the air as the massive crack in the far wall widened, splitting the asteroid like an eggshell. Chunks of the ceiling, the size of cars, tore loose and were pulled, not down, but sideways, towards the glowing purple epicenter on the floor.
"We have sixty seconds before this entire rock implodes!" Kael yelled over the deafening noise, his face a mask of grim calculation. He was no longer the arrogant rival; he was an engineer facing a catastrophic system failure. "The containment pylons have failed. The singularity is self-sustaining now!"
Leo didn't need the technical explanation. He could feel it. A strange, pulling sensation in his gut, as if the universe was trying to turn him inside out. He looked towards the main airlock, their only way in. It was now buckling inward, the metal distorting under the immense gravitational pressure. There was no escape that way.
"The Phantom!" Leo shouted, pointing towards his cloaked scooter, which was thankfully bolted to a secure maintenance platform. "It's our only way out!"
"It won't be fast enough!" Kael countered, already running towards his own workbench. "The gravitational gradient will tear it apart before we reach the edge of the debris field!" He began frantically pulling cables from a damaged console. "But... we might be able to use the distortion. Like a slingshot."
It was a madman's plan. He intended to use the gravity of the forming black hole to launch them to safety. Leo didn't wait to hear the details. He ran to the Phantom, unbolting it from the platform. He threw his leg over the seat and powered it on. The silent hum of the cold vacuum core was a small point of stability in the growing chaos.
Kael arrived a second later, clutching a device made from the cobbled-together parts of his temporal tracker. It was a mess of wires and glowing crystals. "This can project a temporary stabilization field," he explained, his voice strained. "It won't protect us from the gravity, but it might keep the scooter from being torn apart at a molecular level. Get us to the main breach in the hull. It's our only exit!"
Leo nodded. Kael jumped onto the back of the scooter, his weight barely registering. "Hold on!" Leo yelled, a phrase that felt ridiculously inadequate.
He activated the Phantom's thrusters. The scooter shot forward, not across the floor, but into the air, as the floor itself was no longer a reliable concept. Debris whirled around them. Leo flew with pure instinct, dodging massive chunks of metal and equipment that were being pulled into the singularity.
The pull was immense. The scooter fought to move forward, its engine whining under the strain. Kael held up his makeshift device, and a faint, shimmering bubble of energy enveloped the Phantom. Leo could feel the scooter's frame groaning, the metal vibrating as if it wanted to fly apart.
"The breach! Go!" Kael shouted, pointing towards the massive crack in the wall. It was their only way out into the open void of the Crossroads.
Leo aimed for the opening. But as they flew, a new horror emerged. From the singularity on the floor, a tendril of pure blackness lashed out, not a physical object, but a distortion in space itself. It shot past them, grabbing onto the wreckage of Kael's Phantom scooter.
The wreck, which weighed several tons, was lifted into the air and pulled towards the vortex. But it didn't just fall. It was unmade. The metal stretched, twisted, and dissolved into a stream of shimmering particles that flowed into the blackness.
Their trap hadn't just opened a portal; it had woken something up.
"It's feeding," Kael whispered, his voice filled with a terror that went beyond the immediate danger. "The Hermit was wrong. It's not just a gravity well. It's hungry."
There was no more time for strategy. Leo pushed the Phantom's engine to its absolute limit. They shot towards the breach as the asteroid groaned its final death agony around them.
They burst out into the silent void of the Crossroads just as the entire asteroid collapsed in on itself. There was no explosion, no grand fireball. One moment, the massive rock was there, a mountain of junk and maps. The next, it folded inward, crushed into a single, infinitesimal point of impossible density before vanishing completely, leaving behind only a faint, shimmering distortion in spacetime.
They were alive. They had escaped.
They floated in silence for a moment, the only sound their own ragged breathing. The Phantom drifted, its engine powered down to conserve energy.
"Well," Leo said finally, breaking the silence. "That went about as well as it could have."
Kael didn't answer. He was staring at the spot where the asteroid had been, his face a mixture of horror and awe. "The power... to just erase something from existence..."
But their reprieve was short-lived. A proximity alert chimed softly on the Phantom's console. Leo looked at the radar. A single, large red dot was approaching their position. Fast.
It was the Syndicate tow truck.
It hadn't left. It had been waiting, observing from a safe distance. And now that the anomaly had collapsed, it was coming to collect the survivors.
"They're not going to let us go," Kael said, his voice flat. The fight had drained him.
Leo looked at his rival, then at the approaching behemoth. They had survived a black hole, only to be caught by a garbage truck. The irony was almost funny.
Almost.
He powered up the Phantom's engine. He still had a few tricks Griz had installed. But what could he do against a ship that size?
As the tow truck filled their view, its running lights gleaming like the eyes of a predator, another proximity alert went off. This one was different. It wasn't red. It was a bright, chaotic green. And it wasn't one ship. It was a dozen small, fast-moving signals, appearing from a messy, unsanctioned portal.
On their comms, a familiar, manic voice crackled to life, filled with glee.
"Looks like the salvage party has arrived! Hope you boys left something shiny for me!"
It was Jett. And he hadn't come alone.