Morning didn't feel like morning.
Light filtered into the abandoned transit station through broken ceiling panels, dull and gray instead of warm. Dust hung in the air like fog, glowing faintly as it caught the light. The platform smelled of rust, old oil, and damp concrete.
Aira sat on the edge of the platform, knees pulled to her chest.
None of them had slept.
They'd reached the station just before dawn, slipping through back streets and maintenance tunnels like criminals. No helicopters. No soldiers. Just the distant sound of a city pretending nothing had happened.
Which made everything worse.
Lumi lay curled up near a pillar, jacket folded under her head like a pillow. Her eyes were open, unfocused. Zee sat cross-legged nearby, staring at her wrist like it might explode. Isha was examining a broken terminal with the interest of someone in a museum. Kora leaned against the wall, hugging her knees.
Rhea stood at the far end of the platform, facing the empty tracks.
And Riven… hadn't stopped moving.
She paced the length of the platform, boots echoing softly against the concrete. Her muscles still burned, her bones aching with a deep, wrong soreness that no stretch could fix.
"You're going to wear a hole in the floor," Zee said without looking up.
"Good," Riven muttered. "Maybe then I'll feel something normal."
Aira rubbed her eyes. "Everyone check in."
Six pairs of eyes turned toward her.
She hesitated, then forced herself to continue. "Any injuries? Anything… strange?"
Lumi lifted her hand weakly. "I feel like I ran a marathon inside my organs."
"That's descriptive," Zee said.
"And my heart won't slow down," Lumi added. "It's like it doesn't trust me."
Kora swallowed. "My arms feel… heavy. Like I'm carrying something that isn't there."
Isha nodded. "Residual energy strain. Makes sense."
Riven barked a humorless laugh. "You say that like you expected it."
Isha glanced at her wrist. "Given the scale of what we witnessed, yes. Power doesn't arrive without consequence."
Riven stopped pacing. "You sound like you're okay with it."
"I'm not," Isha said calmly. "I'm curious."
That answer unsettled more than one of them.
Zee exhaled slowly. "I keep seeing… patterns."
Everyone turned toward her.
"Like afterimages," she said. "Numbers. Shapes. When I close my eyes, it's like something is still calculating."
Rhea tilted her head. "It hasn't disconnected from you yet."
Zee stiffened. "That's not comforting."
Rhea didn't apologize.
Aira stood up. "We can't stay here long."
"Agreed," Isha said. "This place will be searched eventually."
"So we move again?" Kora asked quietly.
Aira hesitated. "Not yet. We need food. Water. Phones. And answers."
Riven crossed her arms. "And how exactly do we get all that without getting caught?"
Aira met her gaze. "Carefully."
They left in pairs.
Riven went with Zee. Aira with Lumi. Isha with Kora. Rhea… insisted on going alone.
"No," Aira said immediately. "We said no one goes solo."
Rhea looked at her. "I don't need to blend in."
"That's not the point."
Rhea paused, then nodded slightly. "Then I'll walk where no one is looking."
She was gone before anyone could argue.
The city looked normal.
That was the worst part.
News screens showed blurry footage of the crater, vague headlines about "industrial accidents" and "unknown explosions." No mention of creatures. No mention of girls with glowing wrists.
Aira and Lumi kept their heads down, moving through a small market near the river. Aira bought bottled water and protein bars with cash from her wallet. Lumi watched every person like they might suddenly scream.
"You're shaking," Aira said softly.
"I keep thinking someone's going to point at me," Lumi whispered. "And say, 'That's her.'"
Aira forced a smile. "They won't."
Lumi looked at her wrist. "How do you know?"
Aira didn't answer.
Riven and Zee took a different route.
Riven grabbed supplies quickly energy drinks, gloves, cheap knives. Zee hacked a prepaid phone in less than two minutes.
"Someone is already scrubbing last night," Zee said quietly. "Government-level cleanup."
Riven snorted. "Figures."
Zee hesitated. "Riven… when you changed back there…"
Riven's jaw tightened. "Don't."
"You didn't hesitate."
"I did," Riven snapped. "Just not long enough."
Zee nodded slowly. "You liked it."
Riven didn't deny it.
Isha and Kora returned last.
Kora carried a bag of clothes, face pale.
"There were soldiers near my street," she whispered. "They asked about… lights."
Isha adjusted her glasses. "Which means the perimeter is expanding."
When Rhea returned, she had nothing in her hands and something wrong in her eyes.
"They're deploying sensors," she said calmly. "Energy traps. They won't feel like nets. They'll feel like… gravity."
Everyone stared at her.
Zee swallowed. "You saw that?"
Rhea nodded. "Briefly."
"How?"
Rhea's gaze drifted upward. "Because it wanted me to."
No one liked that answer.
They regrouped in the station.
Aira laid out the supplies. "We need to talk about last night."
Riven scoffed. "I think it talked plenty."
"No," Aira said firmly. "About us."
Silence followed.
Lumi spoke first. "I don't want to use it again."
Zee said, "I don't know how to stop it."
Kora whispered, "I didn't even mean to use mine."
Isha said, "We need to understand the mechanism."
Rhea said, "It understands us."
Riven said nothing.
Aira looked at her. "What about you?"
Riven's jaw tightened. "It didn't feel like borrowing power."
Everyone waited.
"It felt like remembering it."
That hit harder than anything else.
A distant boom echoed through the city.
Not close. But heavy.
Rhea stiffened. "That wasn't human."
Zee stood. "We need to move again."
Aira nodded slowly. "We go north. Old industrial zone. Fewer cameras."
Riven cracked her knuckles. "And if something finds us?"
Aira met her eyes. "Then we don't panic."
Riven smirked faintly. "You're asking for miracles."
They gathered their bags.
As they left the station, Aira glanced back once at the empty platform.
It felt like leaving a grave.
Above the city, unseen systems updated their projections.
Host mobility confirmed.
Psychological stress detected.
Escalation protocol pending.
The world hadn't noticed them yet.
But something else had.