It started with the sky.
The morning over Hollow Creek Elementary shimmered for a split second—like a glass screen cracking from invisible pressure. Reggie's Dimenswatch beeped wildly as it detected a transdimensional breach.
Isabella's limo had just pulled up in front of the school. She, Candace, Vanessa, Linda, Jake, Reggie, and Remy stepped out—each of them feeling the eerie pressure that settled over the air like thick fog.
Then it happened.
A deafening shatter echoed across the sky. A jagged rift opened directly above the school, twisting the clouds into a spiral. And from it—they came.
Echoes.
Shadow-like beings with flickering edges, distorted faces, and glitchy voices. Dozens poured out, some crawling across the walls, others hovering like specters of fractured code. Reality warped in their wake.
Reggie's eyes widened. "That's not a small tear. That's a full-on dimensional collapse event."
"Can they hurt people here?" Jake asked, Mythatrix glowing on his wrist.
"They're not supposed to exist in our world at all. So yeah," Reggie said grimly. "They can."
Jake slammed his fist into his Mythatrix. "Mythatrix Form: Draco-Wyld!"
With a burst of blue flame, Jake transformed into a winged beast-like warrior. Remy followed, activating his Arcanodrive to shift into Chrono-Slinger, a form that let him manipulate bullet-time.
"Everyone pair up!" Isabella called out, already summoning twin Aether Shields to block an incoming barrage of dark tendrils.
Candace turned intangible just in time to avoid being pierced.
Linda unleashed a thunderclap that sent three Echoes crashing into the schoolyard fence.
They had trained for this.
But not on this scale.