The silence in the apartment wasn't empty anymore. You could cut it with a knife, like a wire stretched tight between the agent, who seemed like a big blank, and Kaelen, who was just as intense. The woman didn't try to hit him. She just stood there, like she was totally in charge, and looked him up and down with those grey eyes.
"I'm Sigma-Seven," she said, her voice totally flat. "I check stuff for the Aetherium. You shouldn't exist. You mess up our numbers."
Kaelen stayed hidden in the shadows, but he knew she saw him. She saw more than just him. She saw the crazy stolen power inside him. Her null field messed with his soul, like a weight slowing him down. Made his Sonic Whatever feel weak and his Stone-skin breakable. Like trying to move in super thick mud.
But the hunger inside him wasn't slowing down. It was focused, sharp. It gave him a new, scary idea. He couldn't beat her head-on. She was made to stop him. But what if he didn't use his stolen powers on her? What if he used them on himself?
"You stole something, Kaelen Voss," Sigma-Seven said, taking a step into the room. The air felt heavy. "Actually, you stole several things. The Aetherium hates thieves. Especially ones that mess with its… farm."
Farm. That confirmed his worst fears. It made him mad all over again. He pushed it down. Being angry wouldn't help. He needed to be the one hunting, not the one getting hunted.
He had three powers going: Stone-skin, Sonic Whatever, and Marksman thing. He needed to drop one to try something new. Marksman thing was the least helpful here. He decided to get rid of it. Made space in his soul for something else.
Then, he grabbed the fire thing. The one he took from that guy in the Fangs. He didn't try throwing it at Sigma-Seven. That wouldn't work with her field. Instead, he pulled it in and used it on himself, sending hot energy into his own body.
It hurt like crazy.
He wanted to scream, but he didn't. It felt like pouring gasoline into his veins and setting it on fire. His body wasn't meant for this. It was a crazy, desperate move. But the Fire power was about fire, about moving fast. For a split second, it gave his body a boost, making him faster and it was real speed, using muscle, not the stolen powers. So she couldn't stop it.
He moved.
He wasn't super fast normally, but now he was like a cannonball. He jumped out of the shadows, not at Sigma-Seven, but past her, towards the door. The air screamed as he broke the sound barrier. It was just a side effect of him moving, not because of one of his powers.
Sigma-Seven looked surprised for a second. She was fast, trained and boosted, but she was made to stop power, not catch someone moving fast.
Her hand shot out, barely touching his jacket. Null energy hit him. He felt the fire die inside him. The speed disappeared, and he felt weak all over.
But it was enough.
He fell out into the hallway, hitting the wall hard. It would have broken bones before. Now, with the Stone-skin still working, it just hurt a lot. He got up, gasping, his body aching.
He looked back. Sigma-Seven stood in the doorway, looking calm again, but she was ready to move.
"Nice," she said. "But stupid. You're hurting the stuff you stole. It's not supposed to be used like that."
She stepped into the hallway.
Kaelen didn't wait. He turned and ran. Not super fast, but running with fear, like an animal backed into a corner. He ran to the stairs, taking them fast, his footsteps loud on the concrete.
He felt her behind him. Not running, but following slowly. She was like a storm, and he was just a bump in her way. Her null field was around her, and he could feel it, a cold empty feeling chasing him down the stairs.
He ran out onto the street, the morning light bright in his eyes. The city was waking up. People were going to work. Delivery carts were moving around. Everything was normal.
He was a mess in the middle of it.
He ran into the crowd, using his Marksman's thing—back again now—to find gaps and move fast. He moved through the people. But he couldn't shake the feeling she was still right behind him. Sigma-Seven moved through the crowd easily, people getting out of her way without knowing why.
He needed to get back to the Undercity. Where he could vanish. But the trains were too open. He needed another way.
He had an idea, from being desperate and starting to understand how things really worked. The Fangs were hunting him. Sigma-Seven was hunting him. Maybe he could make them fight each other.
He turned, running down an alley, not away from the sector, but towards it, towards the Omni-Stor place. The place they both wouldn't expect him to go.
He pushed himself hard, the Stone-skin helping him keep going. He could feel Sigma-Seven, like a cold spot, always a little behind him. She was herding him.
The Omni-Stor place was ahead, a big ugly building. He saw more security, guards and Crimson Fang guys. They were ready. His message had gotten through.
He stopped behind some cargo containers, breathing hard. He was trapped. Sigma-Seven behind him, the Fangs ahead. A classic trap.
The hunger was quiet. Watching. Waiting to see what he would do.
He looked at the Fang guys. There were four of them. He could feel what they did, fire, slowing things down, feeling emotions, and something like glue. They were different, but not too tough. He could beat them, maybe. But not with Sigma-Seven coming.
He needed to vanish.
He focused on his powers. The Stone-skin was protection. The Sonic thing was a weapon. The Marksman thing was a tool. They were all pretty obvious. What he needed was to not be seen.
He thought about that sniper he took down. How he could hide, blend in. The Marksman thing was about seeing, but it also knew how to not be seen.
The hunger liked this idea. It grabbed the Marksman thing, not to use it normally, but to flip it around.
It was complicated, like surgery on his soul. He felt the power twist, changing. He got rid of the clear vision; it turned inward, hiding his own energy, making it faint. It was a quick fix, using an existing power to do something it wasn't made for.
He felt dizzy. The world got softer. But he could feel it working. He wasn't getting a new power; he was just hacking what he had.
He took a deep breath and ran, not at the Fangs, but past them, staying out of sight. He moved quietly, using the sonic pulses to find his way and quiet his footsteps. He saw the guys get tense, turning, feeling something, but not seeing it.
He slipped past them and climbed a pipe on the side of a building, his stone fingers grabbing it easily. He pulled himself onto the roof and stayed low behind a big vent, looking down at the street.
Just in time.
Sigma-Seven walked out of the alley. She walked into the open, right in front of the Crimson Fang guys.
They pointed their weapons. "Stop! This is our territory!" the fire guy yelled.
Sigma-Seven didn't look at them. She was looking at the rooftops, trying to find Kaelen. "I work for the Aetherium. Move."
"The Aetherium has no power here!" the slow-down guy yelled. "We're hunting a thief. You're in the way."
Sigma-Seven looked at them for the first time. She looked at the four men with those empty eyes. "You're interfering with an audit. This is your only warning."
The emotion guy turned pale. "Boss… she's… she's not here. Like looking into a hole."
The fire guy wasn't scared. "Get her."
He shot fire. The slow-down guy made a shield. The glue guy shot globs of sticky stuff.
Sigma-Seven didn't move.
The fire died right in front of her. The shield vanished. The glue turned to nothing on her clothes and fell to the ground.
She took a step forward.
The guys stared, freaking out. She took another step, and her null field got bigger, hitting them.
The fire guy's hands went out. The slow-down guy's shield broke. The emotion guy screamed, holding his head. The glue guy's shooter quit working.
They were all powerless.
The fear on their faces was huge. It was the fear Kaelen felt before, just way worse. They were soldiers who had just had their weapons taken away.
Sigma-Seven didn't hurt them. She just walked past them, like they were nothing. She was still looking at the roofs. She knew he was close.
Kaelen held his breath, trying to keep the fake field around him working. He was nothing.
Sigma-Seven tilted her head. She looked right at the vent he was behind. Her eyes narrowed. She felt something. An error.
She pointed at him.
And then everything blew up.
A big cargo truck, driven by a scared Fang guy who saw his friends get taken down, crashed through the gate of the Omni-Stor place, hitting a power thing. The power thing exploded, sending sparks everywhere and making a loud noise, sending crazy energy through the area.
Alarms went off. Lights went out. Everything was chaos.
Sigma-Seven got confused for a second, turning to look at the new problem.
It was the chance he needed.
Kaelen moved. He didn't stand up. He rolled off the roof, dropping into another alley, his field disappearing as he got ready to fall. He hit the ground, rolled, and ran, not looking back.
He didn't stop until he was deep in the Undercity, in the gross tunnels, the alarms getting quieter. He sat down against a wet wall, shaking with exhaustion and fear.
He had gotten away. But he had been seen. He had been measured.
And he had learned something important. His power wasn't everything. There were people who could stop him. The Aetherium didn't just make powers; they made the stuff to control them.
He looked at his hands, still a little grey. He had run today. He had hidden. The hunger inside him felt… angry. It had felt fear, and it didn't like it.
It wanted to change things. It didn't just want to take power. It wanted to take the things that could block power.
It wanted Sigma-Seven.
The hunt was about survival, and revenge, sure. But it was also about getting better. And Kaelen knew that the next time he and the null-field agent met, only one would win. And the winner would be changed forever.