Mike stood barefoot in the rain.
The rooftop beneath him trembled slightly as storm clouds churned overhead. Each droplet that hit his skin hissed into steam before reaching the concrete.
His hands were glowing again. No heatpacks. No tech implants.
Just power.
It scared him.
The scar on his chest was no longer a symbol.
It was a window.
And something on the other side was looking back.
Flash Vision: The Hive's Will
His mind split open.
In a single blink, he stood somewhere else entirely—beneath a sky of ink, stars bleeding downward like tears.
He saw himself—not as Mike, but as Vyre—kneeling before a twisted altar surrounded by flame and memory echoes. His hands bled fire. His eyes wept light.
Before him stood a woman.
Jessie.
"You promised me," she said softly.
"You said you'd forget."
Then she turned away, and the world shattered like glass.
Back on the Rooftop
Mike stumbled backward, nearly collapsing against the railing. His breath came in uneven gasps. The vision had been too clear, too real. He could still feel the heat on his skin… and her voice in his head.
Jessie.
He hadn't spoken her name in years. Not even to himself.
He wasn't sure he remembered it until now.
The Fire Spreads
As he descended the stairwell, his steps faltered. The lights flickered. The air grew heavy.
In the hallway outside his temporary safehouse, a man stood staring at a blank wall. When Mike passed, the man turned—eyes flickering with faint static.
"It's you," the stranger whispered.
"You woke it."
Mike froze. "What did you say?"
The man didn't answer. He just smiled.
Then collapsed.
His body twitched once, then went still. His skin was cold, and beneath his fingernails… faint embers glowed like dying coals.
Mike backed away.
"I didn't… I didn't do this."
But the Hive whispered otherwise.
"We are waking."
Elsewhere — Government Monitoring Room
Director Ysara watched the event unfold through a hidden surveillance feed—one of the last functioning drones in Ashenhold. Her tech specialist leaned closer.
"That's the third spontaneous collapse within Mike's proximity radius in forty-eight hours."
Ysara didn't blink.
"How long before it starts spreading?"
The technician looked uneasy.
"If he keeps resonating… maybe days. Maybe less."
She turned back toward the screen.
"Then it's time to prepare Protocol Zero."
Mike's Mind Fractures
He returned to his safehouse to find the walls covered in drawings.
He didn't remember making them.
Circles. Spirals. Flames. A girl's face.
He touched one, and it moved beneath his fingertips—shifting like a ripple in water.
Suddenly, all the drawings blinked once with dim red light.
Then they whispered:
"Return to the Seal."
Mike screamed and stumbled back, knocking over a chair.
He grabbed the relic and held it like a lifeline.
"What are you doing to me?"
The relic didn't answer.
But it pulsed once.
Then showed him a location: a half-submerged temple on the city's edge, marked with the symbol of the First Flame.q