Chapter 76
Alexander stepped out of Precision Unlimited’s workshop into the station’s eternal twilight. His shoulders slumped from exhaustion, but his stride remained confident despite the seventy-two hours of near-continuous work. Behind him, three sets of black armor floated in formation: chest plates, bracers, shin ...
2025-09-27 13:42:54 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 75
Augustus stepped through the doorway onto cool stone tiles, the shift from Argentum’s afternoon to Mediterranean night immediately apparent. Stars blazed overhead in a clarity impossible near any city. The terrace’s exterior lighting cast warm pools of gold across the stone, highlighting the pool...
2025-09-27 13:42:24 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 74
Augustus stepped through the portal into the estate’s living room. Through the wraparound glass walls, late afternoon light painted the mountains gold. Two hours until the Doorman arrived. Alexander was busy at work in the station’s workshop, leaving the move to them.
He found Annie in the kitchen, organ...
2025-09-27 13:41:34 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 73
Alexander stepped through the doorway into the workshop he’d rented through Precision Unlimited and stopped, taking it all in.
The workshop stretched out before him, industrial and beautiful. Clean steel surfaces, overhead gantries for heavy lifting, power feeds running in organized channels along the ...
2025-09-27 13:37:35 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 72
Augustus stood in the reception area, watching Paul rise from behind his crescent desk of polished black stone. The Truthseeker’s measured gaze took in his appearance with the same weight as always, but there was something else there. A flicker of recognition, perhaps. Or concern.
“Mr. Greaves,...
2025-09-27 13:37:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 71
Annie forced brightness into her voice as she stepped back into the living room. “How’s everyone doing? Still enjoying the Barkforce?”
She stopped mid-sentence. One of the aliens, the one with scales that shimmered like oil on water, held her tablet. The others huddled close, multiple eyes...
2025-09-27 13:36:43 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 70
Alexander made it back to the estate without further incident. The walk from the lake gave him time to process what had just happened. A bounty on their heads, big enough to motivate even the cautious. The kind of wealth that could turn anyone into an enemy.
He found most of the team in the kitchen, far...
2025-09-27 13:35:41 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 69
Alexander woke to the sound of chirping outside and the faint thrum of dramatic music from inside the house. After getting dressed, he made his way downstairs, still rubbing sleep from his eyes, and froze at the bottom step.
All the aliens except the Syltharian sat arranged around the holo, watching Bark...
2025-09-27 13:30:26 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 68
The rest of the day passed in a blur of strange normalcy, punctuated by the oddity of alien foods.
Augustus returned through a portal with bags that clinked and sloshed with their bizarre contents. He muttered under his breath while unpacking.
"Fermented tree bark. Crystallized sulfur...
2025-09-27 13:29:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 67
After a brief discussion about the quest that continued to blink insistently at the corner of Alexander’s awareness, they set it aside. The System wanted an answer, but it could wait.
“Medical first,” Talia said, already moving toward the nearest alien. “I need to assess them properly.”<...
2025-09-27 13:28:46 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 66
Alexander released the last of the restraints holding the alien. The creature’s breathing had steadied into something like sleep, chest rising and falling in a rhythm that seemed too slow compared to a human.
He glanced around the lab, once again taking in the blood pooling beneath the twisted me...
2025-09-27 13:25:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 65
Alexander closed his eyes and reached into the security panel, unlocking the door.
The mechanism clicked softly. He eased the door open, peering through the crack. Dr. Miller stood with his back turned, tablet in hand, still addressing the alien strapped to the medical frame. The creature’s ...
2025-09-27 13:24:36 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 64
Alexander waited until the man had moved far enough away that he wouldn’t hear him, then he pulled on the hatch, easing it up.
He dropped down into the elevator with a thud; his drone floated down noiselessly after him.
Reaching for the doors, he gently slid them apart with a thought. Caution ...
2025-09-27 13:23:12 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 63
Alexander moved quickly through the dim corridors, his drone keeping pace. He kept checking for any change, but had so far found only disappointment.
His senses stretched wide across the facility. The place was quiet, with the only notable sound besides his footfalls being the air scrubbers working ov...
2025-09-27 13:22:20 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 62
Alexander leaned against a crate, taking a few moments to let his heart rate slow. Annie pulled her helmet off first, the small oxygen canisters starting to run low. Talia followed, and Alexander pulled his own off as well. The air in the room was chilled, but breathable.
One by one, they shrugg...
2025-09-27 13:20:45 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 61
The rooftop was quiet.
Augustus lifted his wand, the beginnings of a portal forming, until Alexander caught his wrist.
Augustus turned his head, one brow raised.
“Two people below,” Alexander subvocalized across comms. “And the vehicle elevator’s coming back up for some reason.” 2025-09-27 13:20:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 60
An hour had passed since takeoff, the cabin’s steady hum broken only by the occasional rustle of movement, or the clinking of ice in Augustus’s drink.
Talia napped, reclining in her seat. Annie sat cross-legged with her boots on the seat, glued to the massive screen. Alexander appreciated that s...
2025-09-27 13:19:26 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 59
Very early the next day, Alexander stood on a low platform while an elderly tailor circled him like a hawk, tugging at sleeves and muttering to himself in accented English. Augustus lounged nearby in a chair a touch too small for his frame, reading a tablet and looking completely at home.
“I still don...
2025-09-27 13:18:47 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 58
Alexander sat on the couch watching the holo, listening in on the debate between Annie and Augustus.
The news anchor’s voice droned on about riots flaring across the planet, crowds storming corporate branches, protests outside AEGIS offices, clashes with police and national guard. In some pla...
2025-09-27 13:18:21 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 57
Alexander spun lazily on the stool, holding his favorite drone in his hands. Little had changed in the few days since the System’s reveal.
The workbench was a place of chaos. To one side sat the alien cube, still giving off pulses picked up by his Technopathy. Still refusing to yield any secrets.
Chapter 56
Annie stumbled and almost lost her footing.
Her opponent was taller than her, not that it was any surprise, but he was also quicker than she wanted to admit. He fought with a clean, efficient style, and every strike landed with a weight that reached deep even into her metal.
She tried to press th...
2025-09-27 13:16:57 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 55
Annie looked at him askance. “You killed yourself?!”
“I didn’t mean to,” Alexander said, feeling defensive for some reason. “I think…”
Talia and Augustus exchanged looks. “At least we’ve confirmed that your story of being from an alternate reality is true,” she said...
2025-09-27 13:16:27 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 54
After congratulating Talia, the others quickly realized that they all had hit at least one threshold themselves.
The mystery of ascension had long since lost its charm in favor of the desire to clean up immediately. So the team went their own ways to handle their own ascensions, with Augustus shouting a...
2025-09-27 13:15:55 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 53
The agreement held, though the two teams kept their distance from each other.
Alexander found it strange, the shape of trust in a moment like this. Enemies who had seen enough to keep their word. People who might hunt him tomorrow, yet would not break faith today. He allowed the thought to settl...
2025-09-27 13:14:34 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 52
The knight spun, swinging the heavy sword wide. It flared with light. Alexander seized his two crafted drones with Metallokinesis, dragging them into the path of what was coming.
The sword ripped through the air, releasing a wave of energy that crashed into the drones, carving into them in a burst ...
2025-09-27 13:13:53 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 51
Everything went white.
The next thing Alexander knew, he was rolling on the ground, screaming as fire tore down his spine, and agony exploded inside his skull. He was vaguely aware that everyone else was going through the same thing, though he could barely hear anything over the damn buzzing in his ears. 2025-09-27 13:13:13 +0000 UTC View Post
Chapter 50
Alexander hopped through the portal, swinging the tonfa to deflect a barrier-javelin Maximilian hurled after Annie.
The portals winked out.
He studied Maximilian. Technopathy was useless here; the Throne of Scales had wisely left behind anything that could be turned against them. Metallokinesis s...
2025-09-27 13:12:00 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 49
Alexander leaned against the wall while he waited, slowly winding spools of wire around his arms. Now and then, a portal appeared and a pile of objects tumbled through. With casual effort, he scattered them throughout the hallways of the junction where he and Talia stood waiting.
It was chaos.
Fi...
2025-09-27 13:11:28 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 48
“Are you okay?”
Julia startled, then glanced at Raelene. “What?”
Raelene didn’t take her eyes off her tablet. “I asked if you’re okay. I know I’m not very good at understanding interpersonal relationships, but you have been having episodes where you stare off into the distance e...
2025-09-27 13:11:04 +0000 UTC View PostChapter 47
Talia pulled on the director’s consciousness. It was easy compared to what it had taken to do the same to Flashpoint or the Ice Queen even for a few moments. But it was harder than stealing a recent memory, as she’d done to the officer at the police precinct.
She pushed away the facets of her ...
2025-09-27 13:10:30 +0000 UTC View Post