It didn’t take long before we were back in my room. To be honest, the distance between where Victor and Rupert were and my room wasn’t exactly far. The only reason Nyara and I took so long to catch up with them was because, halfway there, we stumbled upon an anomaly — something that forced us to stop for a moment and be extra cautious.

Anyway, as soon as we returned with Victor and Rupert, we were greeted by Laura and Emily, who were waiting for us in the room. Both let out long sighs of relief upon seeing us enter, visibly tense until then. The atmosphere in the room softened for a moment, as if our arrival had dissipated some of the unease hanging in the air.

As soon as I stepped through the door, Althea didn’t waste any time — she practically threw herself at me as if she’d been waiting for hours. Her arms wrapped around me so tightly it nearly took my breath away: “Ah! I missed you so much, dear sister!” she exclaimed, rubbing her face against mine almost like a clingy cat seeking affection. Her voice was a mix of exaggerated joy and deliberate dramatics.

“I can feel my little sister energy recharging quickly” she added, making a theatrical gesture with her hands as if she were plugging a battery into an outlet by absorbing my presence.

Nyara watched from the side, calm and patient as a perfect younger sister should be, her eyes alert but serene. Nekra, on the other hand, didn’t waste words; she just dropped a short, almost indifferent phrase before turning back to what she was doing with the same natural ease as always: “Welcome back, sister”

Well, putting that aside for a moment, as soon as my shadowy, smoky tentacles immobilized the man I found in the bathroom, all eyes immediately turned to him.

However, what really caught my attention was the subtle but genuine look of surprise on the other man’s face — as if he hadn’t expected to see him there in such a pitiful state... or maybe for some deeper reason we still didn’t understand.

Anyway, now we had our prime suspect. And honestly, I was curious to see how Emily and Laura would examine him. It’s worth mentioning that my room didn’t have any proper equipment for this kind of analysis — no scanners, sensors, or specialized instruments — which made the situation even more improvised... and interesting.

In the end, only a few seconds had passed since I knocked the suspect down. My tentacles, now unnecessary, smoothly slid back into my shadow like snakes retreating to their den.

Emily stayed still for a moment, scanning the fallen man from head to toe with a careful, meticulous gaze — as if searching for something specific in his appearance, posture, or clothing.

Then she crouched beside him, her eyes still fixed, evaluating every detail with surgical coldness. After a few more seconds of tense silence, Emily looked up and gave Laura a brief glance, who remained just behind her, as if a silent understanding had passed between them.

Without a word, Laura grabbed the device she’d been carrying since the start — something between a tablet and a portable analysis terminal — and handed it directly to Emily with such an automatic gesture that it was clear this was already part of their protocol. All I did was stand on the sidelines, just watching the scene alongside the others.

Anyway, in the next moment, Emily activated a device — it looked like some kind of portable camera — and began examining the suspect through it. The image scanned the man’s entire body, switching between different vision modes every second: infrared, thermal, various spectrums... a true sensory sweep.

The analysis was quick, precise, almost automatic. It didn’t take long for Emily to notice the same thing I had seen the last time I used my “Eyes”: something writhing inside that man. A strange, living presence hidden beneath the skin, as if a creature was lodged inside him.

Watching the scene unfold before me, a nearly involuntary thought crossed my mind: (Wow... this tablet has way more functions than I thought)

At the same time, seeing that thing writhing inside the man, a look of pure disgust instantly took over Emily’s face. Her eyes narrowed, and her lips tightened into an involuntary scowl as she watched the scene silently.

After a few seconds of contemplation, she refocused on the device in her hands and started operating it swiftly. Lines of data began to form on the screen, pulsing and rearranging as the device analyzed the anomaly. A faint mechanical buzzing accompanied the process, indicating the reading effort.

When the analysis finally finished, a progress bar blinked green and then stabilized. Emily then let out a heavy sigh, full of frustration or maybe resignation, and brought her fingers to her temple — a familiar gesture to those who knew her, almost like an unconscious reflex in situations that demanded more from her than she wanted to admit.

“Shit...” Emily murmured, her voice almost a tense whisper as her eyes widened at the situation: “Things just got a lot more complicated”

Laura, standing next to Emily, also stared at the tablet’s screen with an analytical expression, as if she was beginning to understand, at least partially, the reason behind Emily’s obvious frustration. Victor and Rupert, watching from the side, exchanged a curious look; Victor raised an eyebrow, clearly intrigued.

After a few seconds of silence, Rupert broke the tension, asking cautiously: “Is the situation really that serious?”

Emily didn’t answer immediately. She stayed silent for a few seconds, her fingers trembling slightly as she pressed hard on the tablet’s edge, as if trying to steady herself before the information she had. Then she let out a deep sigh full of resignation before finally speaking: “There’s... there’s an anomaly inside this man. I have no idea where he got it from, but it’s definitely not from this base. The anomaly itself isn’t very strong, nor does it cause major problems at first glance. To be honest, it doesn’t even manifest any directly destructive anomalous power...”

Emily paused, her voice dropping low and tense: “But it’s precisely this peculiarity, this subtlety, that makes it so problematic”

Emily slid the tablet smoothly and deliberately toward Victor and Rupert. With a careful gesture, she turned the screen to face them, revealing a high-definition close-up image. On the screen, a tiny organism—almost microscopic—was firmly attached to the man’s jugular vein. The parasite’s outlines—translucent and pulsating—seemed almost alive, as if it were drawing energy straight from the bloodstream.

“It’s a parasite” she continued, her voice heavy with apprehension: “It looks like a translucent worm, almost ethereal, about the size of a pinky finger. Its skin is thin, almost like a delicate membrane, letting you see its internal organs constantly moving. We’ve given it a provisional classification because we still don’t have complete data on its life cycle or its full impact on the host”

She paused briefly before tapping the image, which quickly shifted to a pulsing graph showing irregular, almost hypnotic electrical waves. Calm but meaningful, she explained: “What this parasite does is... simple, almost harmless at first glance. Once ingested, it lodges itself in the host’s circulatory system and begins emitting subtle electrical impulses, barely detectable by any common device. These signals aren’t strong enough to cause pain or direct harm to the body or living beings nearby, but they have a devastating effect on any nearby electronic systems”

She pointed to peaks on the graph: “Machines start failing mysteriously, sensors go blind for brief moments, drones lose control during critical seconds. It’s like the parasite is a microscopic saboteur programmed to attack technology from within, using the human body as its hiding place”

Emily shot a tense look at Victor and Rupert, her face furrowed with concern before continuing firmly: “Besides that, this thing... seems to think. Or at least, it reacts with terrifying precision whenever we try to remove it. In preliminary tests, every attempt to extract or damage the organism resulted in serious equipment failures in the room—as if it’s defending itself, in a last desperate act of resistance, releasing an energy burst intense enough to wipe out an entire city”

She paused briefly, her eyes shining under the cold lab lights: “It’s like it’s aware of the danger and willing to do anything to survive”

The next moment, Emily let out a heavy sigh, her fingers trembling slightly as she touched her temple, trying to hold back the growing tension inside her. In a low voice, almost a whispered urgency, she said: “We can’t remove this thing now. Not at this moment. If we try, it’ll unleash a pulse so intense it’ll destroy every electronic system nearby”

She paused again, staring at some distant point as if already imagining the chaos that would follow: “And if any anomaly remains trapped even after all that, it’ll be released immediately” she added with a worried tone.

Emily paused for a moment, as if carefully organizing her thoughts before speaking again: “Now, this man isn’t just an ordinary person. He’s basically a living EMP bomb—silent, discreet, almost invisible... and at the same time, extremely effective”

The place fell into an almost suffocating silence. The visitors clearly showed concern over the grim news—tense expressions, uneasy glances, hushed murmurs.

Some still watched me and my sisters with a mix of distrust and caution, as if waiting for us to drop some mask and reveal hidden intentions at any moment.

Even the kids, who had seemed mostly unaware of the gravity of the situation before, now showed signs of unease. Their eyes, once distracted and curious, seemed more alert, their bodies closer to the adults.

Of course, I doubted they understood the complexity of what was happening—but they understood enough to know something was wrong. And that everyone there, without exception, was in danger.

Anyway, while I was still lost in thought, distracted by everything, Emily kept fiddling with the tablet with almost automatic focus—until suddenly, she just stopped. Her expression went blank, eyes wide and fixed on the screen as if glued there.

It was like time around her had frozen. Inside, I frowned, confused by the sudden shift. The next moment, her voice shattered the silence with a hysterical tone that sounded completely unlike her—a disturbing contrast to her usually calm and controlled demeanor.

“No, no, no, no... this can’t be happening!” Emily exclaimed as the tablet slipped from her hands and hit the floor with a sharp crack. Her face was consumed by horror, eyes wide as if she’d just witnessed a tragedy.

“Shit, shit, shit... why?” she muttered almost in despair: “This thing’s been showing the same graphs for decades! Why now?!”

Emily’s eyes scanned the room urgently, as if desperately searching for someone to blame for the chaos unfolding. Her gaze was sharp, restless, never resting for more than a second—until suddenly it stopped.

She locked eyes on the man in front of her, specifically on his stomach. At first, it looked like just an involuntary twitch, maybe muscle spasms. But on closer look, she saw something terribly abnormal: beneath the skin, something was moving.

A subtle, rippling outline betrayed the presence of a worm still writhing inside him, like it was desperately trying to escape. My stomach twisted, but I didn’t look away—I had found what I was looking for.

“This is impossible... Is it sucking energy? But then... if that’s the case... this thing isn’t just releasing electrical energy”

I had no idea what Emily’s words actually meant, but one thing echoed loud and clear in my mind: whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t good: (Well... I can't really say I'm surprised by the way things turned out)

Call it experience, if you want. But honestly, it's hard for anything to truly catch me off guard these days. With time, that feeling of surprise just... fades away. I say that because when you grow up with younger sisters who literally control — and are — the embodiment of fundamental aspects of reality, there’s not a whole lot left that can shock you.