The subway tunnel was dead silent, a huge change from the noise Kaelen left behind at The Rusty Bolt. Down here, ten levels below the city, you could only hear water dripping and old machines humming. The emergency lights flickered, making weird shadows on the rusty pipes and broken control panels.
This was his hideout now. Even the rats stayed away.
Kaelen sat on the cold floor, Silas's tablet shining in his lap. Fighting the Crimson Fang had changed him. What used to be a craving was now a focused weapon. He wasn't just a container for stolen power anymore; he controlled it, getting to know it.
He checked the Abilities he had, feeling them move inside him. The Spatial Pocket was always there, like an empty well. The Stone-skin was like a sleeping fort. The Sonic Disruption was ready to explode. The Pyrokinesis was put away for now. He could hold them all, but using more than one at once felt like trying to hum two songs at the same time—doable, but annoying. Three felt like the max he could handle right now.
He looked at the tablet, at the file called Project Chimera. The company's security was super tight, way too hard for someone like him to get through. But Kaelen had changed. He had taken over a guy who knew about supply chains, systems, and security. He didn't get the knowledge for free, but it helped him think in ways he couldn't before.
He spent an hour working, his fingers moving fast, his mind figuring out firewalls and keys without even thinking. The craving seemed to guide him, not with voices, but with a feeling that led him to the answer, like a bloodhound on a trail.
Finally, the security broke with a soft chime.
The file wasn't about blueprints or plans. It was about people. Test subjects. Lots of them. Names, photos, info. And next to each one, something that scared him: Ability Status.
Subject 07: Mara Jax. Ability: Light Control. Status: Gone.
Subject 14: Leo Vance. Ability: Touch Telekinesis. Status: Gone.
Subject 23: Anya Sharma. Ability: Electric Pulse. Status: Dead.
Page after page. Gone. Dead. Gone. Dead.
This wasn't about creating something. It was about destroying it. Taking Abilities away. The Aetherium, the group that gave people power, was destroying it on purpose. Why? And Silas, who worked in supplies, had this info. He wasn't a scientist. He just moved things. People.
A cold anger started building in Kaelen, stronger than the craving. This was the system that screwed him over. The machine that said he was worthless. And it was all built on lies and death.
His cheap radio buzzed once. Elara. One word: Hunters. Fang guys everywhere. They have sniffers.
Sniffers. Weak Abilities that could find traces of Aether. He messed up at The Rusty Bolt. He left a trail. He didn't freak out. He focused. The hunt was on, but he wasn't the one being hunted.
He stood up, the tablet disappearing into his Spatial Pocket. The Sonic Disruption and Stone-skin were active, a shield and a sword. He needed to move. But he also needed to know what was going on. He needed to see the machine from the inside.
He knew where Silas worked. The Omni-Stor center was a huge, windowless building in a secure industrial area, where things—and people, it seemed—were dealt with in a cold way. Getting in would be impossible. For anyone else.
He left the tunnels as the sun started to come up. The industrial area was full of shadows and humming power lines, mostly automated, patrolled by drones that floated in the air. He moved like a ghost, sticking to the shadows, using his senses. He could feel the faint Aether signatures of the drones—simple, like the hum of a fridge. He could also feel something else, a block away. Two Crimson Fang guys. One had a tracking Ability, like a dog smelling something. The other was super fast.
They were following his trail, slowly, heading toward his hideout. They hadn't found the tunnels yet.
The craving woke up, looking at the fast guy with interest. Speed. That would be useful. But the sniper… that made things hard. He needed to stay hidden.
He came up with a plan, cold and mean. He wouldn't run. He would trick them.
He focused on the Sonic Disruption Ability. He didn't make a loud noise. Instead, he made a fine mist of sound, covering the whole street, making everything quiet. The usual hum of the area was gone. Even his own footsteps disappeared. It was creepy, this silent bubble he made.
Then, he grabbed a piece of metal from some junk. He put a little bit of sonic energy into it, not enough to be loud, but enough to make it vibrate. He threw it, not at the Fang guys, but at a warehouse behind them.
The metal hit the wall with a thud that was super loud because of the silence. It was like a gunshot.
The two Fang guys turned around fast. The sniper looked through his scope. The fast guy zipped toward the warehouse to check it out.
Perfect.
Kaelen dropped the silent bubble and used the Stone-skin. He became a statue in the shadows. The sniper was nervous, pointing his gun where the sound came from. He was close, his back to Kaelen.
Kaelen moved. He didn't run; he walked, his stone feet making no noise. He was on the sniper in seconds.
The guy must have felt something. He started to turn, opening his mouth to yell.
Kaelen grabbed his mouth with a hard hand. He wrapped his other arm around the guy, pinning his arms. The sniper fought, but he was no match. Kaelen focused. He could feel the guy's Ability, a sharp energy behind his eyes. Accurate Shooting. It helped him see better and aim better. Not as cool as fire, but still good.
The craving reached for it. This was easy, like picking a fruit. A clear vision flowed into Kaelen, settling behind his eyes. The world was suddenly super clear. He could see tiny bits of rust on a pipe, could count the threads in the sniper's jacket.
The guy went limp, his mind leaving. Kaelen put him on the ground, taking his gun and putting it in his Spatial Pocket. It might be useful.
He looked at the warehouse. The fast guy was inside, searching for the noise. Kaelen used his new Ability to see. He combined it with the Sonic Disruption, not to attack, but to see. He sent out a small pulse of sound. It bounced off the warehouse and came back to him, showing him a picture of what was inside. He could see the fast guy moving, the empty boxes, even his own heartbeat.
He wasn't just a fighter anymore. He was a hunter.
He went into the warehouse through a side door, using the darkness. The fast guy was fast, moving all over the place. But speed didn't matter if you didn't know where to go.
Kaelen stood still, using the sonic pulses. He tracked the fast guy, guessing where he would go. As the fast guy ran past a pillar, Kaelen made a sonic blast, not at the guy, but at the pillar.
The pillar broke into pieces. The fast guy couldn't stop in time. He crashed into the falling stuff. There was a loud crack and a scream. The shimmer around him disappeared, showing a broken guy on the ground.
Kaelen walked over. The guy looked up, scared. Please... don't...
Kaelen looked down, feeling nothing. The craving was quiet, full from the new Ability. The fast guy's Ability was for speed, but his legs were broken. Taking it felt… wrong. It was damaged.
Tell your boss something, Kaelen said. The debt is growing. Tell him I'm in his house, reading his mail.
He left the guy in the ruins. He had what he wanted. A new tool, and a reason to fight.
He left the industrial area as the sun started to rise. He didn't go back to the tunnels. He had a new place to go. Using the address from Silas's files, he went to a nice apartment building—a place for people who worked for companies but weren't rich. Apartment 7B was his target.
He used his new Ability to find the camera blind spots, and used the Sonic Disruption to make no noise while picking the lock. In a minute, he was inside Silas's apartment.
It was boring. Plain walls, cheap stuff. No photos, no anything. It was the home of someone who didn't exist outside of work. Kaelen searched, seeing everything. He found nothing in the drawers, or under the bed.
Then he looked at the painting on the wall. It was crooked. He fixed it, and heard a click. A hidden panel opened in the wall. Inside was a small chip.
He put it in the tablet. It had one file. A list. Shipments from Omni-Stor to a secret Aetherium place called Chimera Outpost. The shipments weren't marked as supplies. They were marked as Assets. And each Asset had a name from the test subject files. Mara Jax. Leo Vance. Anya Sharma.
They were shipping people. To be stopped. To be killed.
The anger grew in Kaelen. This was the truth. The Aetherium wasn't just giving out powers. It was farming them. And people like him, who they thought were useless, were the fertilizer.
He was about to leave when he felt it. Something there. A signature, but different. Not loud. Quiet, so quiet that it was louder than a shout. It was outside the door.
He put the tablet in his Spatial Pocket and hid in the shadows, ready to fight.
The door unlocked quietly. It opened without a sound.
A woman stood there, wearing grey tactical gear. She had no weapon. Her signature was scary. It wasn't gone, like a Null. It was a hole, where an Ability should be. It didn't hum; it took away feeling.
Her eyes looked around and stopped on Kaelen.
Interesting, she said. The Aetherium says you're a Null. They're usually right.
She took a step inside, and the air around her seemed to die. Kaelen could feel his powers getting weaker, like they were being turned off.
You've been busy, Kaelen Voss, she said. Taking down Fang guys. Getting secret info. You've been noticed.
Kaelen said nothing. He got ready to attack.
She smiled. Don't bother. My Ability stops others from working. Your powers are… weak. You're just a boy in a room with me.
The craving didn't get scared. It didn't rage. It stopped still. Then, it did something new.
It thought.
It saw her as a problem. Her power was a hole. And the craving knew that to take her, he wouldn't be taking a thing. He would be taking nothing. He would be stealing silence.
It would be his hardest meal ever.
He looked at her, and for the first time, he felt something other than anger or hunger.
He felt curious.
The hunt just got harder.