CHAPTER 50: THE PLUNGE

The maintenance conduit smelled like a robot’s graveyard.

Damp, metallic, and full of forgotten things that probably wanted to kill them.

Michael moved through the oppressive dark, the only light coming from the faint, tactical glows of their gear.

It was tight in here. Claustrophobic.

He could practically feel the thousands of tons of concrete and steel above them, a silent, crushing weight.

"Well, this is cozy," Jax’s cheerful voice whispered in his ear, a stark contrast to the tomb-like silence. "Reminds me of my first apartment. Less rats, though. So far."

"Focus," Chloe’s voice commanded, a crisp, clean line of pure logic cutting through the gloom.

Jinx was on point, moving with a silent, practiced grace that made Michael feel like a clumsy elephant in a library.

She reached the first security door, a slab of reinforced steel that looked like it could survive a direct hit from a bunker buster.

She didn’t even hesitate.

She pulled a small, wicked-looking tool from her belt, and in seconds, there was a soft, satisfying click.

The door hissed open.

"Show-off," Jax muttered with undisguised admiration.

They pressed on, deeper into the mechanical guts of Conduit Zero.

Finally, they reached it.

A massive, cavernous chamber humming with a low, oppressive thrum of raw, untamed power.

The primary power junction.

Thick, armored cables, each one as wide as Michael’s torso, snaked across the floor and walls, all converging on a central, crackling energy node.

The air buzzed, making the hairs on his arms stand up.

"Okay, kids," Jax said, rubbing his hands together with a glee that was deeply unsettling. "Time for the light show."

He unslung a device from his back. It was a beautiful, chaotic mess of scavenged DGC tech, exposed wiring, and a single, perfect, glowing Resonance Core at its heart.

It looked less like a precision instrument and more like a bomb that had decided to become an abstract sculpture.

"Behold!" he announced to the empty chamber. "The ’Party Pooper’ Pulse Generator! Guaranteed to ruin any evil corporation’s day."

"That is the worst name I have ever heard," Jinx stated flatly.

"You’re just jealous you didn’t think of it first," Jax retorted, already attaching the device to the main energy conduit.

Chloe’s voice cut in, sharp and final. "Jax, status."

"The Party Pooper is in position and ready to poop on this party, Boss Lady," he confirmed, giving a thumbs-up to the ceiling.

"Final check," Chloe commanded. "Jinx, you have the entry point. Michael, on my mark, you guide them through the dark. I will count down the window. You have exactly 4.7 seconds. Do you understand?"

"Four-point-seven seconds to run through a corridor of death while the lights are out," Michael’s inner monologue drawled. "It’s not a plan. It’s a speedrun category."

"Ready," Jinx grunted.

"Born ready!" Jax chirped.

Michael took a deep breath. "Ready."

He could feel it with his [Void Sense]. A vast, complex web of dormant energy in the corridor just beyond the next door. Turrets. Pressure plates. A symphony of things that wanted to turn them into a fine, red mist.

"Alright, team," Jax said, his hand hovering over a big, red, and deeply inviting button on his device. "Let’s make some beautiful noise."

"Countdown initiated," Chloe’s voice was a cold, steady anchor in the rising tide of panic.

"Five."

Jax grinned, a wild, beautiful, and utterly insane expression.

"Four."

Jinx tensed, her body a coiled spring of potential energy.

"Three."

Michael closed his eyes, focusing, letting the map of the energy traps burn itself into his mind.

"Two."

Jax slammed his hand down on the button.

"One."

"Fire in the hole!" he screamed with pure, unadulterated joy.

The world didn’t explode.

It just... stopped.

The oppressive, room-shaking hum of the power junction died with a sickening thwump.

The lights went out.

Absolute, profound, and terrifying darkness.

For a single, silent heartbeat, there was nothing.

Then, the emergency klaxons kicked in, their blaring, rhythmic wail a frantic heartbeat in the sudden dark.

WWHHHOOOOOPP!

WWHHHOOOOOPP!

"4.7 seconds on the clock!" Chloe’s voice yelled. "Go! Go! Go!"

Jinx kicked the door open, and they plunged into the corridor.

It was a nightmare of flashing red emergency lights and deep, disorienting shadows.

"Left!" Michael shouted, his [Void Sense] his only guide. "Hug the left wall! There’s a plate two feet to your right!"

They moved, a frantic, three-person blur of desperate motion.

"3.0 seconds!" Chloe counted down, her voice a relentless metronome of doom. "You’re halfway there!"

Michael could see the automated turrets, inert and silent on their ceiling mounts, their targeting lasers dead.

He could feel the pressure plates beneath his feet, just harmless squares of metal for now.

"Jax, there’s a support pillar coming up on your right!" Michael yelled. "Don’t clip it!"

"I never clip the pillars, Spooky!" Jax shot back, his long limbs flailing with a surprising grace. "I’m a professional!"

WWHHHOOOOOPP!

A flicker.

The main lights in the corridor sputtered, a weak, yellow glow that was somehow more menacing than the darkness.

The system was rebooting.

The turrets on the ceiling began to whir, a low, hungry sound of machines waking from a short, unwanted nap.

"1.5 seconds!" Chloe screamed. "Move!"

The doorway at the far end was twenty feet away.

It felt like a mile.

Michael’s lungs were on fire. His legs were screaming.

This was it. The final sprint.

Jinx was already there, a phantom of motion, diving through the doorway.

Jax was right behind her, his lanky frame tumbling through in a move that was less a dive and more a controlled fall.

Michael pushed off the floor with his last ounce of strength, launching himself through the air.

He was in mid-air when the world turned back on.

The main lights blazed to life with a loud hum.

The pressure plates beneath him glowed with a faint, angry red.

And the turrets... the turrets let out a synchronized, electronic shriek of pure, murderous intent.

A torrent of brilliant blue pulse-fire erupted, a solid wall of energy that vaporized the exact spot where he had been standing a fraction of a second before.

The heat washed over his back, searingly hot.

He landed hard on the other side of the doorway, skidding across the cold metal floor and crashing into Jinx’s legs.

They had made it.

They were alive.

His heart was trying to beat its way out of his chest.

"See?" Jax panted, a huge, triumphant grin on his face. "Plenty of time."

Just as Michael was about to make a deeply sarcastic comment about his definition of ’plenty’, Chloe’s voice cut through their ragged breathing.

It wasn’t calm. It wasn’t controlled.

It was sharp.

Urgent.

And laced with a new, unwelcome note of alarm.

"They’re faster than I thought," she said, her voice a low, grim hiss in their ears.

"They’ve initiated a soft lockdown."

"Roving patrols are active, and my scanners are picking up multiple, non-human energy signatures heading your way."

She paused, and the silence that followed was heavier than any alarm.

"Kael has released the hounds."