Chapter 25: First Call In

 The transition from cosmic revelations back to the reality of a Tuesday afternoon was jarring. After a grueling day at Jefferson High, the underground base felt less like a sanctuary and more like a high-tech pressure cooker.

Kaleb sat at the base's main terminal console, his glasses slipping slightly down his nose as he watched the data humming from Neiry's latest physical scan. Kaleb thought to himself while waiting for results. True to their word, Iron Veil hadn't thrown any corporate traps or villainous ultimatums at them. In fact, their primary handler had simply sent a digital deposit notification alongside a standard compliance handbook. Iron Veil wasn't evil—they were just an organized, and a super efficient business. They wanted results, and for now, they were willing to pay handsomely for them.

"DUDE. I've spent the last three hours trying to write a script that can isolate your purple magic energy signatures from yesterday," Kaleb muttered, rubbing his eyes as Neiry walked over, a towel draped around his neck. "But every time the scanner tries to lock onto a computerized number, the data loops. It's like trying to measure water with a net."

Neiry leaned against the edge of the console, his expression calm. "I told you, Kaleb. Magic doesn't follow a code. It's driven by intent."

Kaleb spun around in his chair, his fingers tapping anxiously against his knee. He hesitated for a fraction of a second, his voice dropping into a quieter, more vulnerable tone. "If magic runs on intent... and like you said Infinity is like everything and also reads a person's deepest identity to manifest a power... do you think it or you could give me something? A power of my own?"

Neiry looked at Kaleb, his dark eyes thoughtful and unblinking. He didn't answer immediately. "Infinity isn't a vending machine, Kaleb. I don't have complete control either. It's a cosmic entity. When it altered reality to awaken Mia's light, it was because of something screaming out of me plus the potential was already buried inside her soul. I can't just command it to hand you a gift. And trust me—having power isn't a luxury. It's a target."

"I know it's a target," Kaleb said, looking down at his ordinary, unmutated hands. "But right now, I'm just the guy behind the screen. If Apex breaks through that door, or if any squad corners us, a computer isn't going to stop a bullet. I want to be able to stand next to you guys. Not just watch you get beat and bleed on a monitor where I only know how to do half of these things because you taught me."

Neiry let out a slow sigh, pushing himself off the console. He walked over to the center of the concrete training mat and unzipped his jacket, tossing it aside. "You want to learn how to stand your ground? Then get off the chair. Power or no power, if you can't protect your own head, you're gonna get hurt."

Kaleb blinked, surprised, but a sudden surge of determination took over. He stood up, cracking his knuckles, and stepped onto the worn mat.

In the corner of the base, Mia adjusted the straps on her training gloves "here you go", a small grin tugging at her lips. "Don't say we didn't warn you. Kaleb, Training with Neiry is a nightmare. Good to know I make it look easy."

"Shut it, I can handle a basic sparring match," Kaleb insisted, raising his fists into a standard defensive position he'd seen in tactical videos. "Just show me the fundamentals."

Neiry adjusted his stance, his movements fluid and entirely devoid of any magic. He wasn't even gonna try. Not a thought of using infinity or darkness right now; this was a raw, disciplined movement. "Keep your chin down. Protect your ribs. If you leave your center line open, you're just giving the enemy an invitation."

Kaleb nodded, shifting his weight forward. He threw a cautious, experimental jab toward Neiry's shoulder. Neiry brushed it aside effortlessly with a slight turn of his forearm.

"Too slow," Neiry murmured. "Again."

Kaleb pushed off his back foot, throwing a faster combination—a left jab followed by a right cross. Neiry dodged the first with a microscopic tilt of his head and slipped perfectly inside the second.

Before Kaleb could even realize his right arm was overextended, Neiry's fist closed the distance. It wasn't a supernatural attack. There was no energy, no magic distortion. It was just a clean, perfectly timed, textbook counter-punch delivered straight into Kaleb's solar plexus.

The impact was immediate. 

To Kaleb, it felt as if the entire room had suddenly lost oxygen. The sheer, unyielding force of a real punch was nothing like the movies. It wasn't a clean theatrical knockback; it was a heavy, agonizing shockwave that shattered his center of gravity.

Kaleb collapsed instantly to his knees, his hands slamming into the cold concrete as his throat locked up. He couldn't breathe. His eyes went wide with a cocktail of shock and primal panic as his lungs desperately clawed for air that wouldn't come. A sharp, burning ache radiated entirely through his torso, making his vision blur at the edges.

"Breathe," Neiry's voice floated down, completely calm but demanding. "Don't panic. Expel the air and let your diaphragm drop. If you panic, the pain gets worse."

Mia quickly stepped off the couch, her face a mix of concern and sympathy. "First time getting the wind knocked out of you is always the scariest. Just give it a second, Kaleb."

It took a long, agonizing ten seconds before Kaleb's throat finally unlocked, letting out a ragged, violent gasp as air flooded back into his chest. He stayed on his knees for another minute, his chest heaving, his face completely flushed as he stared at the floor. The realization hit him like cold water: fighting wasn't a strategy game. It was brutal, physical, and it hurt.

"It hurts oh MY GOD it hurts that..." Kaleb wheezed, his voice weak and raspy as he slowly pushed himself back up to a sitting position, clutching his stomach, "...that sucked."

"That was just a controlled strike with just your restricted regular human strength," Neiry said, extending a hand to pull Kaleb back to his feet. "Villains like Apex won't pull their punches. If you want power, you have to understand the physical toll that comes with it. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. If you can't survive the reaction, the power will destroy you before the enemy does."

Kaleb took a deep, steadying breath, nodding weakly as he wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Message received. Less talking, more guarding the ribs. I don't know how you guys handle that."

Before they could reset the training grid, a sharp, rhythmic chime echoed through the basement. It wasn't their internal base alarm. It was the secure, dedicated frequency provided by Iron Veil.

Kaleb stumbled back over to the main terminal, his stomach still aching as he swiped his hand across the interface to clear the alert. A sleek, silver corporate layout expanded across the main monitor, displaying an encrypted file packet bearing the official Iron Veil crest.

Mia stepped up beside Neiry, her posture instantly shifting from casual to hyper-focused hero as she stared at the screen. "Is that...?"

"Yeah," Kaleb breathed, his technical focus struggling to take over after the lingering pain of the punch. "It's a direct dispatch request. Our hero ranking metrics just got cross-referenced with their internal field database. We have our first official mission."

Neiry leaned closer, his dark eyes scanning the text scrolling down the screen. The briefing details were clear, objective, and professionally laid out. 

"An unauthorized, high-tier energy surge detected at the central downtown electrical substation," Neiry read aloud, his voice dropping into its familiar, authoritative tactical tone. "It's right in the middle of a high-density zone. If the grid overloads or goes completely dark, who knows how it could affect the people living in that community."

"The substation is boxed in by apartment complexes and a busy commercial square," Kaleb added, tapping his pen to pull up the local mapping grid. "Iron Veil's local patrol units are tied up dealing with some sorta logistics containment on the other side of the district. They're giving us the perimeter data and letting us handle the crisis. There are already reports of localized structural damage near the fencing, and civilians are panicking on the street right outside the perimeter."

Mia reached out, grabbing her tactical jacket from the back of the couch and sliding it over her shoulders. The nervous energy from earlier was entirely gone, replaced by the bright, determined glow of Beacon ready for the field. "An active city zone means people are in direct danger. We need to secure the area before anyone gets hurt."

Neiry pulled his black mesh mask out of his pocket, his expression hardening as the transition back to the dark world began. "Kaleb, get a look at what's going on through the camera, track the grid fluctuations, and keep our tactical feed updated. "Mia, stay with me and make sure not to lose focus, let's head out." 

The underground base's exit cylinder hissed open, venting a burst of pressurized air into the narrow, brick-walled alleyway two blocks from Jefferson High. Neiry and Mia emerged into the fading night, already moving at a dead sprint. They didn't have the luxury of a corporate transport, and teleportation wasn't an option, speed meant using the buildings to their advantage.

Neiry hit the brick wall of a three-story apartment complex first, his boots finding traction on a rusted iron fire escape. He vaulted over the railing, using a brief, concentrated pulse of his hands to pull himself upward toward the roofline. Mia was right on his heels, her movements fluid and illuminated by a faint, golden solar shimmer. She grabbed the edge of a concrete ledge, swinging her body up and over the parapet with practiced ease.

"Hey, team, do you copy?" Kaleb's voice crackled instantly through their earpieces. Back at the base, the steady clacking of his keyboard provided a background rhythm to their comms. "The distortion at the substation just spiked another twelve percent. Main transformers are venting steam, and the local news feeds are already reporting a total blackout across a three-block radius."

"We copy, Tempest," Neiry said, his voice completely steady as he sprinted across the gravel-topped roof of a commercial building. He reached the edge, calculated the fifteen-foot gap to the next structure, and leaped. For a split second, an aura flared around his boots, momentarily dampening his weight so he glided effortlessly across the gap, landing in a smooth roll. "What's the status of the power grids is anyone in danger?"

"Iron Veil's remote protocols are holding, but the physical hardware at the station is melting down," Kaleb updated, his tone sharp with focus. "I'm tracking a massive thermal anomaly inside the primary generator core. It's not a mechanical failure. Something—or someone—is drawing the current outward."

Mia executed a precise parkour vault over a thick cluster of rooftop ventilation pipes, her pigtails flying behind her. She reached Neiry's side as they paused at the edge of a massive drop overlooking the main commercial square. "If it's an electrical anomaly, why the hell couldn't Volt be assigned to this?" Neiry muttered, his brow furrowing beneath his hood as he thought of Iron Veil's high-tier electrokinetic field officer. "This is literally his exact power class. He could ground this entire surge in five seconds."

"Volt is currently outside the state boundary handling an escort detail for a high-priority corporate shipment," Kaleb replied smoothly through the feed. "Iron Veil specifically flagged this as an evaluation run for 'The Team.' They want to see how you guys handle a local urban crisis without senior backup. You're three hundred meters out. Watch the intersection ahead."

Below them, the busy city square was descending into localized chaos. The streetlights had gone completely dark, and the sudden failure of the traffic signals had caused a minor three-car pileup at the crossroad directly outside the substation's reinforced perimeter fencing. Plumes of thick, grey smoke were billowed from the high-voltage transformers inside the concrete yard, accompanied by a terrifying, rhythmic snap-hiss of raw electricity arcing across the framework.

"Civilians," Mia reported sharply, her gaze dropping to the pavement below.

A crowd of pedestrians had gathered near the entrance of a ground-floor convenience store, completely pinned by a downed, live power line that was violently whipping across the asphalt, throwing brilliant blue sparks into the air. A mother was shielding her young son behind a concrete pillar, trapped as the snapping cable arc edged closer to their position.

"Don't forget training rules apply," Neiry commanded, his tactical mask settling firmly over his features. "Secure the people first. Eliminate the environmental threats before we breach the facility."

Without waiting for a response, Neiry dropped over the ledge, plunging three stories toward the street. Twenty feet above the ground, he snapped his hand downward, letting him drop softly onto the cracked asphalt right between the trapped civilians and the thrashing live wire.

With a sharp flick of his wrist, Neiry generated a thick, shimmering barrier of shadow energy, anchoring it firmly into the pavement. The whipping cable slammed against the dark shield with a deafening CRACK, the electrical current grounding out harmlessly against the dense field.

"Get inside the building! Move!" Neiry ordered the crowd, his low, gravelly resonance cutting through the panic. The startled citizens didn't need to be told twice; they rushed past the shadow barrier, scrambling safely behind the store's heavy glass doors.

Above them, a fractured concrete cornice from the substation's outer wall—loosened by a violent electrical blast from within—snapped completely free. The two-ton slab of stone tumbled directly toward a parked sedan where a driver was frantically trying to unbuckle his seatbelt.

"I've got it!" Mia yelled.

Descending from the roofline like a falling star, her hands erupted with a brilliant, blinding concentration of solar photons. She didn't use a destructive beam; instead, she wove the light into a dense, solid-state solar shield, intercepting the falling debris mid-air. The concrete shattered against her golden light barrier, dissolving into harmless gravel that rained down around the vehicle.

She landed smoothly on the hood of the car, her glowing eyes scanning the perimeter as the driver stared up at her in absolute awe. "Area clear," Mia reported into her comms, her breath even. "The citizens are protected, Dark. The perimeter is secure."

Neiry turned his gaze toward the reinforced steel doors of the substation, where he could feel a sense of something at the back of his mind, roaring current inside.

"Tempest," Neiry said softly, his eyes locked on the entrance. "We're breaching the area now."

"Hold on, I'm pulling up the internal layout of the facility," Kaleb's voice chimed in quickly through their earpieces. On his end, the keystrokes came in, rhythmic bursts. "The layout is standard Iron Veil engineering—three defensive tiers separating the auxiliary transformers from the main control deck. But whatever is inside is chewing right through the localized containment dampeners. I'm reading an unstable, dense thermal cluster in the primary turbine vault."

"Can you shut down the main breakers remotely?" Mia asked, dropping down from the car hood and landing lightly on the pavement next to Neiry. 

"No I can't," Kaleb replied, his tone tightening with genuine frustration. "The automated system isn't responding. The physical switches have been completely fused together by an immense electrical surge. If you want to drop the power grid before the entire sector blows, you're going to have to manually sever the main conduction conduits inside. But be careful—the air inside that room is literally superheated plasma right now."

Neiry didn't hesitate. He stepped toward the massive, heavy steel doors of the substation entrance. Instead of looking for a handle, he raised his left hand, his fingers curling into a tight fist. A dense, high force of his dark energy blast distortion hit directly around the reinforced hinges. With a sharp, metallic scream, the steel buckled inward under the sudden atmospheric pressure, the heavy doors tearing completely free from the brickwork and slamming onto the concrete floor inside.

A wave of dry, ozone-scented heat rolled out of the dark facility, making the air shimmer violently.

"Stay behind me, Beacon," Neiry murmured, as the two stepped in they felt a rhythmic pulse down the corridor. "Kaleb, keep the local scanners running. If anything moves in the dark, I want to know before it gets the chance to even think about getting away."

"I'm on it," Kaleb muttered, his eyes glued to the oscillating data streams. "Just... don't take any direct hits. I still haven't figured out how to write a medical diagnostic for ancient demon physiology."

Neiry let out a faint, gravelly breath that sounded almost like a laugh. "Let's go."

The corridor inside the substation was a concrete tunnel of electric friction. Overhead, thick copper busbars hummed with a violent, rhythmic vibration that resonated deep inside Neiry's chest. The air was thick, choked with the bitter scent of scorched insulation and ionised air. Every few seconds, a stray branch of static electricity would snap across the ceiling, casting rapid, jagged blue shadows down the hall.

"Thermal signatures are multiplying," Kaleb's voice cut through the static in their earpieces, sharper and more urgent now. "Whatever is draining the generator core isn't just absorbing the power—it's actively compressing it. I'm seeing independent kinetic nodes forming inside the primary vault. Guys, these metrics look like localized lightning storms contained within a forty-foot room. If those destabilise, the physical feedback will vaporise the entire block."

"We're moving in, don't worry," Neiry said shortly. His heavy boots clicked against the concrete, a aura around his legs flaring instinctively with every step to absorb the stray electrical currents grounding out near his path.

Mia tracked slightly behind his left shoulder, her hands raised slightly, palms outward. The ambient static electricity in the air was making her hair crackle slightly beneath her hood, but her focused expression didn't waver. "Dark, look at the walls."

Neiry paused. The thick concrete reinforcements along the hallway weren't just cracked; they were scorched with, violent handprints. The stone had literally been melted and dragged inward toward the core, leaving glassy, cooled obsidian streaks behind.

"Someone didn't just break in," Neiry observed, his voice dropping into a gravelly murmur. "They're feeding."

"The primary vault doors are right ahead of you," Kaleb warned. "And my local energy feed just went completely blind. I've lost internal visual diagnostics. You're on your own for the layout from here."

The end of the corridor opened up into a cavernous, two-story industrial chamber. Giant cylindrical turbines—the heart of the sector's electrical distribution—were spinning in reverse, their mechanical brakes screeching in a deafening metallic chorus. Suspended directly in the center of the vault, floating ten feet above the central conduit grid, was a human silhouette.

The figure was completely surrounded by a web of violently arcing, pure white currents. Thick cables torn from the walls were floating around him like severed nerves, feeding continuous streams of high-voltage energy directly into his palms. His face was obscured by a jagged, cracked visor that flickered with corporate-grade digital code, and his entire uniform was heavily modified with makeshift conductive plating.

"An overcharger," Mia whispered, her eyes wide as she registered the sheer volume of power being pulled through the room. "He's force-feeding himself the city's entire supply."

The rogue energy absorber didn't look down at them, but the moment Neiry's darkness entered the room, the floating cables violently shifted, their sparking ends pointing directly toward the entrance like a nest of disturbed vipers.

"Iron Veil sent... children?" a distorted, trembling voice echoed across the chamber, vibrating with the unstable hum of an electrical generator. The man's body violently convulsed as another wave of power surged through him. "They think they can contain me a wildfire? I am taking what they locked behind their corporate paywalls! This power belongs to THE GRID!"

❖[ VILLAIN CARD: THE GRID]❖

Real Name: CAFE

Agency Affiliation: Independent / Rogue (Former Aegis Electrical Engineer)

Threat Rank: C-Rank (Highly Unstable)

Status: Escaped convict 

Power Class: Electrokinetic Absorption & Compression

Ability Profile: * High-Voltage Conduit: Capable of forcefully siphoning electrical currents directly from grids into his own body.

"Kaleb so" Neiry spoke quietly into his comms, his feet shifting into a low, balanced combat stance. "How long until the primary transformers fail completely?"

"If he pulls another high density spike? Ninety seconds," Kaleb's voice crackled heavily through the interference. "The circuit breakers are totally fried. You have to force him away from the main conduction column or the whole district goes black."

"Understood," Neiry replied. He didn't look back at Mia, but his left hand extended slightly, his fingers curling into a tight, deliberate hook. "Beacon. Ground the lines. I'm dropping him out of the sky."

Mia didn't say a word. She moved in perfect sync with him. Her hands ignited, With a sharp hiss, the golden light acted as a insulator, severing cafs direct energy stream and grounding the wild currents harmlessly back into the facility's bedrock.

"My power!" the Grid screamed, his body violently jerking as the sudden lack of incoming current caused his floating cables to drop dead to the floor. The digital code on his visor flickered erratically. "You think you can just shut down the grid?!"

"I don't think so. Honestly I don't care, all I do know is you aren't as strong as me," Neiry said.

Before the man could even fall back to the ground, Neiry snapped his hand downward. The atmospheric pressure cracked the concrete floor beneath them, and the Grid was violently yanked down from the air by Darks tendril, slamming them hard onto his back on the central mat of the turbine vault. He gasped, pinned flat against the stone by a crushing weight he couldn't fight.

"Dark, I've got a lock on the primary conduit right behind him!" Kaleb's voice blared through the comms, entirely clear of static now that the electrical interference was dropping. "The cooling systems are kicking back in automatically. If you sever the manual override switch on the wall to your left, the core will drop to safe levels!"

Mia sprinted past the pinned rogue, her hand shifting into a hyper-focused, razor-sharp heat cutting arc. With a clean, vertical slash, she sliced through the manual master conduit. A deep, heavy mechanical thud resonated through the building as the spinning reverse turbines finally ground to a halt, venting a massive cloud of harmless white steam into the cavernous ceiling.

The emergency lights clicked on, shifting from an angry, pulsing red to a steady, operational amber.

"The grid is stable," Kaleb exhaled, leaning back in his chair all the way across the city, a massive wave of relief washing over him. "Local residential sectors are reporting full power restoration. No casualties. Guys... you actually did it. Your first official Iron Veil dispatch is a clean success."

Neiry didn't let his guard down then a giant blast of electricity appeared. completely exploding with static towards Dark. He tried dodging it for the most, only getting skimmed. Then the electric villain was gone. Neiry was left looking at his own hands as the midnight-purple aura slowly receded back into his veins.

"Neiry are you okay what the hell just happened" Kaleb screams. "Yeah, yeah im all good dont worry it only just barely got me" Dark replied back. 

"Anyways well area secured, Tempest," Neiry spoke quietly into his earpiece, a rare, faint trace of satisfaction in his voice. "Call in Iron Veil to tell them our guy got away. We're heading back.