It started with a cough.
Not in one city. In seventeen.
Tokyo. Lagos. Buenos Aires. Istanbul. All at the same minute—3:14 a.m. local time—people woke gasping, throat raw, skin slick with cold sweat. They didn't feel sick. They felt… hollow.
Like something inside them had been unplugged.
In Mumbai, Arjun tried to call the dust again. His fingers twitched over the floor. Nothing rose. The constellations he'd drawn in the air for weeks? Gone. He stared at his hands like they belonged to someone else.
In Reykjavik, Sif pressed her palm to the glowing symbol on her wall. The ink stayed dark. Cold. Dead.
She whispered, "No…"
Then screamed.
At Sector Nine, Luna was reviewing the new vine-network data when Miko burst in, gauntlet flashing red.
"Global anomaly spike," she said, voice tight. "Not energy. Absence."
Kai followed, rifle slung but eyes wide. "Reports coming in from every Hybrid hotspot. Powers just… stopped working."
Luna's blood went cold. "All of them?"
