Lyss needed a moment just to force herself upright.
The impact with the building had rattled through her whole body, and the pain hadn't faded nearly enough. Her arms shook as she pushed against the pavement, trying to lift herself, while the trembling in her legs made it hard to trust her own balance.
The man watched her with a grin.
"Oh, right," he said, almost casually. "You're just a student. My mistake."
He stepped closer, flexing one hand before cracking the knuckles of the other, like he had all the time in the world.
"That explains it," he added, looking her over as she struggled to stand straight. "I'm dealing with a lack of talent."
Lyss managed to get back to her feet, but her posture stayed uneven, her body still bent by the pain and her legs unsteady beneath her.
Then the voice in her earpiece came through again, sharper this time.
"Lyss! Are you alright? Listen to me—this is not a fight you should be taking right now. Get out of there!"
She didn't answer right away. Her breathing had turned heavy and uneven, her chest rising and falling hard as she tried to steady herself.
Lyss lifted a hand to her earpiece and pressed against it, trying to reestablish contact.
All she got back was static.
The impact had done more than leave her in pain. Somewhere in the fall, the signal had been cut completely, turning the line into nothing but dead noise.
When she realized no answer was coming, she slowly lowered her arm. The movement alone hurt. She kept it close to her body afterward, protecting it on instinct while the pain continued to pulse through it.
"This isn't a fight I can win," Lyss whispered to herself.
Even so, she refused to let the pain fully show. Her body had already betrayed enough—her uneven stance, the tightness in her breathing, the way one arm stayed tucked close to her side. None of it was minor, and none of it was easy to ignore.
The man noticed anyway.
He smirked as he watched her steady herself. "Still standing after that?" he said. "Not bad for a student."
His eyes moved over her again, taking in the effort it was costing her just to stay upright.
"I figured that academy only turned out weaklings," he went on, almost amused. "Looks like they're putting in more work than I gave them credit for." The smirk faded a little as he flexed his hand and drove one fist into his palm. "Doesn't change anything, though. Just because you're young doesn't mean I'm going easy on you."
He looked at her more seriously then, like he'd decided to give the conversation one last chance.
"Maybe this started off wrong," he said. "Maybe there's been some misunderstanding." His eyes narrowed. "So I'll ask you one more time. The woman who experimented on me—who is she, and where can I find her?"
Sweat gathered more heavily along Lyss's face, but she kept her expression as controlled as she could. She didn't answer right away. Instead, her eyes flicked past him for just a second toward the tunnel leading down into the underground station.
I just hope they got away in time, she thought.
Takumi and Timotheo had no idea what was happening above them.
She needed time.
While keeping his attention on her, Lyss slowly moved one hand behind her back, then the other. The band around her wrist was still linked to the Vanguard network, and even with the damage she'd taken, it hadn't stopped working completely.
If she could trigger a silent alarm, that was enough.
"Right… the woman," she said, forcing her voice into something lighter than she felt. She even rolled her eyes a little, like the whole thing was more annoying than threatening.
The shift in her attitude made him pause.
His stare sharpened, confusion flickering across his face as he tried to read her.
"I know who you mean," Lyss continued, playing along as smoothly as she could. "The problem is, I can't exactly give you a clear answer right away."
She kept talking while her fingers worked behind her back.
"See, I'm only a first-year student," she said. "I'm still new to the Institute. New to how things work there, new to who matters, who doesn't…" She gave a small shrug, buying herself another second. "They don't exactly hand all the important details to students who just got there."
Behind her, the alarm signal finally pulsed through the wristband.
Quiet. Small. But sent.
The man's patience was starting to crack. She could see it in his hands, in the way his fingers twitched, in the tension building through his shoulders.
Lyss kept her smile in place anyway.
"So don't worry," she said. "Give me a couple minutes and I'll—"
He stepped closer.
That was all the warning she needed.
"I'll talk to you later, alright?"
In one motion, Lyss snapped both arms forward in a crossing swing and released the cluster bombs hidden in her hands.
The man's eyes widened just slightly—more from surprise than fear—as the devices flew toward him.
They detonated a second later in a violent burst of flashing light.
Not fire. Not impact.
Just a blinding explosion of white and neon that flooded the street all at once, swallowing the space around him and forcing him to throw an arm up over his eyes.
By the time the light began to fade and his vision cleared enough to focus again, Lyss was gone.
The man spun around, scanning the street for any sign of where she might have gone. There was nothing. No movement, no footsteps, no trace of her anywhere nearby—just broken pavement, shattered debris, and the mess he had already made.
"Damn bitch…" he muttered, jaw tight with frustration.
He knew she had played him.
His eyes narrowed as he looked down the empty stretch of road. "She couldn't have gotten far."
But she had.
In the few seconds he'd been blinded, Lyss had already forced more distance between them than he expected.
By the time she reached the underground station again, her body was close to giving out. She bent forward with both hands braced against her knees, trying to catch her breath while the pain in her back burned through every movement. The hit from before had taken more out of her than she wanted to admit, and pushing herself to move that fast had only made it worse.
Still, she had made it.
"The Institute should've gotten the alarm by now," she told herself under her breath. "I did what I could."
That thought steadied her a little.
At least no one had seen her use her Binder. At least that part hadn't gone wrong.
When the train doors opened, she slipped inside just before they closed again. Only then did she let herself breathe a little easier.
"Who even was that guy…?" she thought, her face tightening. "He wasn't normal."
But there was no point staying stuck on it now. Not here. Not while her body still felt like it had been hit by a truck and slammed into concrete.
"That's their job now," she told herself, trying to shut the thought down. "I did my part."
She moved deeper into the carriage and leaned back against the wall, folding her arms behind her as much to support herself as to appear composed. From the outside, she looked almost calm.
Inside, her body was still shaking.
To be continued...