The Barricade
In the backseat of the speeding car, Wayne sat with his arms crossed. The usual sarcastic glint in his eyes was gone, replaced by a cold, calculating stillness.
"They have a public excuse now," Robert said, his voice cracking as he gripped the steering wheel. "They'll lock Cecelia away forever under the guise of medical treatment. If they secure her now, she will never leave that house."
Wayne watched the massive black dome loom closer as they approached the school grounds. The area was already swarming with corporate security teams setting up private blockades.
"Don't stop the car," Wayne said.
"But the guards! They're blocking the entrance with armored SUVs!"
"Do you want to save Cecelia or not?" Wayne asked, his voice low.
Robert took a sharp breath, his knuckles turning white. "More than anything."
"Then step on it."
The luxury car's engine roared. Robert floored the accelerator. Guards dived into the dirt at the last second as the sedan smashed through the barricade, grinding metal against metal. The car fishtailed wildly across the ruins of the central wing before crashing to a smoking halt directly in front of the towering black wall of the Dark Barrier.
The Barrier
Wayne stepped out of the wreckage, ignoring the shouting security teams behind him, and walked toward the pitch-black energy wall. Nearby, students and teachers stood in a paralyzed panic, whispering that the Golden Child was trapped inside.
Wayne touched the dome. It was unnaturally cold, vibrating with a repulsive force that shoved against his hand with the weight of a freight train. Alex came running from the crowd, her face frantic as she pounded her fists against the energy wall to no avail.
Wayne casually leaned his shoulder against the impenetrable barrier. "Well, I guess bro is on his own."
"You're just going to leave him?!" Alex shouted, her eyes wide with disbelief. "He's your brother!"
"He can handle it," Wayne muttered, closing his eyes.
"Don't just sit there! We need to try everything! You're just being lazy, standing there without a care in the world while he's fighting for his life!"
Wayne exhaled a long, tired breath. He didn't want to explain the math, and he didn't want to hear the noise. Grey-black flames suddenly licked up his arms as he ignited his own energy, seeking enough self-inflicted pain to drown her out. Alex panicked, desperately patting at the flames with her bare hands, begging him to stop.
He extinguished the fire and looked at the wall, thoroughly bored. "Fine. I'll try one thing."
He placed his palm flat against the barrier. He didn't push or struggle. Instead, he focused on the X of his energy, matching the unknown quantity to the exact frequency of the dome.
"Times zero."
In an instant, Wayne's energy signature became a null variable. Because the dome was programmed to repel active energy, it found nothing to push against. Wayne simply leaned forward and walked through the black wall like a person passing through a hanging curtain.
Inside the Dome
Inside the perimeter, the air was thick with the smell of ozone and stagnant Negative Energy. Mr. and Mrs. Cole froze as Wayne casually strolled out of the darkness, his hands deep in his pockets.
"Oh," Damien said, not looking back. "You came."
"Yeah," Wayne replied. "I didn't want to have to look these monsters in the eye from the outside. Might as well get the up-close view."
"It's that bad, huh?"
Wayne looked at the parents and shook his head. "Bro, you have no idea."
Mr. Cole growled, his aura flickering with a jagged, artificial light. He threw the limp, drained body of Cecelia toward the twins like a piece of discarded trash.
"The butler talked, didn't he?" Mr. Cole asked, his voice corporate and cold.
"I always knew he had gotten too attached," Mrs. Cole added, her hands glowing with a parasitic black energy. "We'll deal with him next. We can't have leaks in the brand."
Damien caught Cecelia before she hit the ground, helping her into a seated position. She let out a weak, rattling cough, her voice thin and raw.
"I don't want to go back."
The last thread of Damien's legendary patience snapped.
The air inside the dome began to oscillate. While Cecelia's energy had pushed outward in chaos, Damien's Positive Energy began to pull. Debris, dust, and shards of concrete rose into the air, orbiting around him in a high-speed, radiant white vortex.
Damien raised his hand, forming a familiar hand gesture, but this was no school-level trick. The air around his fingertip screamed with the pressure of a jet engine.
"Water Rifle."
A single, needle-thin bullet of hyper-compressed water shot forward. It didn't aim for the parents; it aimed directly for the structural weak point of the barrier itself.
"All secrets," Wayne added quietly, "eventually come to light."
The bullet struck the interior wall. The dark dome didn't just break; it shattered like a million shards of black glass.
Daylight flooded the darkness, blinding everyone for a split second. As the dust settled, the hundreds of students, teachers, and security guards outside stood paralyzed.
They saw Cecelia collapsed and trembling. They saw the perfect parents standing over her like predators. And they saw Damien, the Golden Child, glowing with a righteous, terrifying fury that made the sun look dim.