"I can't stop the operation," Adrian said, the words heavy with frustration. "I've spent four days running every option, and they all end the same way—either I expose myself directly to a federal director who'll lock me in a cage, or I sabotage government equipment and become an enemy of the state thirteen days before the threat even wakes up."
Reyes sat across the diner booth, looking like a man who had spent the same four days losing the exact same argument through official channels. "Voss isn't backing down. My pushback made her more determined. She thinks I've gone soft on the phenomenon I'm investigating."
Direct intervention is off the table. Time for plan B.
"Then maybe I don't stop the operation," Adrian said slowly, the shape of a new idea taking hold. "Then try stopping the consequences. I can't keep the door from opening, but I can be there to hold the seal when it cracks."
Sophia raised an eyebrow. "You want to stand directly beside Anomaly Zero while a tactical team pokes it?."
"I know. It sounds insane," Adrian admitted, rubbing his temples. "But the Collector said direct intrusion registers as an attack. If I'm down there, actively reinforcing the containment seal the moment they breach it, maybe I can absorb the initial shock. Not stop it forever—just buy enough time to patch the cracks before it fully wakes."
I can't fight that thing yet. But I might be able to act as a surge protector.
Reyes weighed the idea with clinical precision. "You'd need to slip inside a locked-down federal perimeter without triggering alarms. Even with the blind spots I can create, that's a massive risk."
"I know."
"And if you manage to stabilize it?" Reyes asked. "It's still down there. Still furious, and now agitated."
"Then I buy time the same way I've been doing for three months," Adrian replied. "I keep training. I keep leveling up. Until I'm either strong enough to handle it, or something else in this universe intervenes."
He spent the next ten days in a state of relentless, disciplined preparation.
He drilled the prepared-anchor variant of the Straw Doll technique until he could deploy it in under two seconds. He refined his cursed energy reinforcement against solid stone and scrap metal.
Most importantly, he developed a completely new application for his energy.
Through grueling trial and error in the small hours of the night, Adrian discovered he could invert the resonance principle behind the Straw Doll technique. Instead of projecting destructive force outward, he could channel stability inward—reinforcing a physical structure's structural integrity with cursed energy the same way he reinforced his own body.
It was crude and untested against something on Anomaly Zero's scale, but it was a concrete tool.
Reyes worked his end with quiet efficiency. He volunteered for perimeter security detail, ensuring a key access point on the eastern perimeter remained lightly guarded on the night of the operation.
"This tunnel leads directly beneath the target site," Reyes said during their final briefing, sliding a blueprint across the table. "I officially flagged it as 'structurally compromised' in the logistics report so no team will occupy it."
He's putting his entire career on the line for this.
"Thank you," Adrian said.
"Thank me if we survive this without answering to a congressional oversight committee," Reyes replied with a tired smile. "Be ready, Hayes. You're the one that's either going to save this city or trigger the exact disaster we're trying to prevent."
On the night before the operation, Sophia joined Adrian on the fire escape. She leaned against the railing beside him, staring out at the city skyline.
"You're scared," she said softly.
"Terrified really," Adrian admitted. "I don't know if this plan will hold. I don't know if I'm strong enough to handle that thing signature. But doing nothing guarantees the worst-case scenario."
"That's all any of us have ever had," Sophia said, leaning her shoulder against his. "A chance, and the choice to try."
She looked up at him, her gaze unwavering. "Whatever happens tomorrow, you're not walking into it alone."
Adrian met her eyes. "Sophia... if something goes wrong down there—"
"Don't," she interrupted firmly. "I don't need no goodbye speeches. Come home instead."
Adrian managed a genuine smile despite the cold knot in his stomach. "I will."
They sat together in the quiet dark as the hours ticked away, watching the scattered lights of New York flicker beneath a clear night sky.
Far below the concrete and steel, miles beneath the hazard zone, the furnace-hot presence shifted in its ancient sleep—not fully awake, but no longer entirely dormant.
The countdown was over. Tomorrow, the seal would be tested.