Not the basement of the pension in Star Manor, but the other - what was three meters below the broken needle house, where children learned to feel pain before learning to speak. In the dream, she was seven again. His hands were tied to an iron chair. In front of him, a face-free woman held a silver needle and said, "You have the gift, Spencer. We just need to wake him up. A bit at a time. She woke up with the cry stuck in her throat and surpassed overpriced. The room of the pension pulsed with sounds that should not hear: the mouse gnawing the beam downstairs, the couple arguing was divorced or killed in the room next to, and above all, the constant tinnitus of the key of the first whisper, which now He rested on the table as a metallic heart. Spencer sat on the bed, ran his hand through the dark hair and tried to organize his thoughts. The key was a legendary artifact - that she already knew. But why did he have awakened righteously? And why, now, superudence seemed to show not only the present, but echoes of the past? "You'll want to see this." The guardian's corpse voice whispered in his mind, coming from nowhere. - The district of highing. Second home left after the stone bridge. Another body. Another lane. Spencer frowned. He did not trust ghosts, especially in those who already lied once. But if there was a new crime scene, the guards would find her soon. And if Kallus was involved ... She needed to get first. She put on the leather jacket, stuck the key into the inner pocket and left. II Highing was the type of district that TonteLay pretended not to have: abandoned mansions of the pre-war was, with broken stained glass and gardens taken by gray grass. The second home to the left of the stone bridge was a three-story mansion, with carved oak doors and a rusty plate that said: "Property of the Needle Foundation - Prohibited Entry". Spencer felt his stomach wrap. Needle. The same name of the orphanage. The door was half-open. She entered without making noise - or at least tried. With overdrawny, she listened to every creak from the floor, every particle of dust falling. But he also heard something more: heartbeat. Two. A weak and irregular, another strong and methodical. "Do not move, Raymund," Kallus's voice came from the shadows of the lobby. "Or I'll shoot before you have time to use your new ears." Spencer froze. The detective was leaning against the staircase, a revolver pointed to his chest. Her mustache looked less comical now, her eyes less tired. He looked ... young man. Younger than the last time she had seen him. "You're not human," Spencer said. It was not a question. "Humans are too fragile for what's coming," Kallus replied, and his voice echoed with two layers: a superficial, another deep and old. "I'm a protector, Raymund. Sworn to the harbor. And you are disturbing an operation that takes years to complete. He pointed with his chin to the hall left. - Go. The crime scene is there. You wanted to see, do not you? Spencer obeyed, keeping his hands in sight. The hallway ended in an immense dining room, where a body was extended on the mahogany table. She was a white-haired woman, dressed in a gray uniform - the same uniform as the nurses wore in the broken needle house. She was called Irma Gertrudes, "Kallus said behind her. "It was your personal adort for three years." Remember her, Spencer? Remember the needles? Spencer recalled. Yes, he recalled. Each bit, every night when the face-free woman now had a name. The anger rose like a sleeping volcano, but she pushed her down. - Who killed? He asked, his voice cold. "You, of course," Kallus smiled. "Or rather, the version of you that still lives in your nightmares." But do not worry. The cause of death was ... natural. Accelerated aging. You know how it is, when someone accumulates too much power. He lifted his pocket watch. The second pointer turned to the contrary. "I have five powers, Raymund. The latter is a storing gift: I can revert the local time on small objects. Watches, keys, bullets ... up bodies. That's why Irma seems to have died today, when she actually died twenty years ago. I only brought it back to send a message. - What message? Kallus stored the clock. "That you are not the only one with hidden identity. The orphanage has never been about awakening powers. It was about hiding something. And you, Spencer Raymund, is the literal and figurative key to find this something. III The mental game really started when Kallus sniffed. Spencer turned away by pure instinct. "Superudience captured the trigger crack before the movement of the finger, and she rolled back from a wooden column. The bullet pierced the stucco, and the sound of the impact reverberated in his ears as a gong. "You can not run away," Kallus said, recharging calmly. "I have four powers beyond time. Increased strength, regeneration, night view and metal control. The living room is full of nails, screws, knives. I can turn this place into a metallic hedgehog in three seconds. Spencer believed in him. But he also heard what he did not say: a slight hesitation in his voice, a heartbeat too accelerated for someone so confident. He's lying about something, she thought. It has no total control. Or the powers have a cost. "How many powers did you say you have?" She shouted, changing position behind another column. - Five? Does the human body take five? "Hold on if you're trained since you were a kid," Kallus replied, and his voice shook. "Unlike you, you only have one and you're already losing control. Spencer smiled in the dark. Hit. It's on the edge. Five powers is the maximum secure. He can not use everyone at the same time without growing. She made the bills quickly. He had already used the clock to reverse the time of the body of the sister. This consumed part of your reservation. Then the strength increased to jump behind her. Then the night vision to follow her in the penumbra. And now, metal control. Four active powers in less than ten minutes. "Your watch," Spencer said, coming out of the column with his hands up. "He's not just an item, it's an anchor, is not it?" Without it, you lose control of the fifth power. Kallus hesitated. It was enough. Spencer used his only advantage: the key of the first whisper was not just a key. It was a legendary artifact, and legendary artifacts have their own will. She pulled the object from her pocket and played it not in Kallus, but on the floor between them. The key fell with a metallic tinkling ... and then shouted. Not an audible sound, but a psychic vibration that only Spencer could hear throughout its extension. The cry froze the time for a second - enough time for her to move forward, tear the pocket watch from the Kallus belt and break it on the floor. The detective roared in pain. His face wrinkled instantly: deep wrinkles, blinding hair, sinking eyes. He fell to his knees, now seeming to be eighty years old. "You ... no ... understand ..." he gasped. "The needle ... you'll find you ... You'll wear you ... You're the living spiritual root ... The only one who can have ten powers ... Spencer retreated, shocked. - Ten? No one can have ten. The body can not stand. - Common bodies: Kallus coughed blood. "But yours ... yours has been modified ... in the basement ... they planted a harmer seed inside you ... You are not human, Raymund. You're a gun. He fell aside, his eyes glazed. The breath ceased. Spencer stood stopped, the clock broken at his feet, the key still vibrating softly. She looked at her own hands and for the first time did not recognize what she saw. IV The body of Kallus began to shine. Not with own light, but with golden reflections - the same reflexes in the sky of CES, the infernal planet where everything had begun. Spencer took a step back, but it was late. A slit opened on the floor of the mansion, not stone, but of time. She saw fragments of herself: the child in the basement, the teenager fleeing, the woman who had become a criminal expert. And he also saw what Kallus had said - a dark seed planted on his chest, pulsating as a second heart. "You're not human. The voice was not from Kallus. It was from the corpse of Irma Gertrudes, now sitting at the dinner table, his eyes white and empty. - You are the eleventh. Which comes after ten. The limit breaks. "I did not ask for it," Spencer whispered. "No one asks you," Irma replied. "But the storage needs you." The Shont system is collapsing. The planet CES is leaving. Someone has to resume the wires. Someone who can contain all the powers without dying. She held out her hand. The key of the first whisper floated from the floor and went into his spectral fingers. - Accept your past, Spencer. Or he will consume you. Spencer took a step forward, ready to rip the key back. But before he could touch the dead hand, the whole world trembled. Not an earthquake. Something worse. The time came back. V a second, Spencer was in the highing mansion, the hand extended to the resurrected sister, Kallus's body still smoking on the floor. In the next second, she was on the pension in Star Manor, lying on the bed, the alarm clock scoring 4h47 - five minutes before waking up from the nightmare with the basement. She sat down, panting, sweat dripping by the forehead. "No," he murmured. "It was not a dream. It was real. I've been there. Kallus is dead. Irma spoke to me. But how? She had no power to reverse the time. The key was on the table, quiet, dull. The Kallus watch was broken - in two different times. Spencer led his hands to his head. Superudence was still there - she heard the heart of the neighbor, the ranger of the mouse, the wind out there. All normal. Except for a detail: she also heard her own breathing five minutes ago, echoing in the past as a ghost. The time has returned 5 minutes unexpectedly. It was not Kallus - he was dead. It was not the key - she was inert. It was not the sister - she was just a speaker corpse. It was something inside her. The seed. The second heart. "I did it," Spencer said aloud. - I revolt the time. I have a second power. She told her fingers. Superaudiência. Now limited temporal reversal. If Kallus was right, she could have up to ten. Or more. "You are the eleventh. What comes after ten." Spencer got up, picked up the key and stopped in his pocket. She did not know who she was, did not know what the steal wanted, did not know why the time had come back. But I knew one thing: now she had a second chance. And heroes do not waste second chances. Dawn over TonteLay. Ces's golden sky glowed in the distance, indifferent. Spencer Raymund opened the window, took the mangrove air and began to plan. --- 🔮 End hook The time back 5 minutes unexpectedly. Spencer has two powers - but he did not ask for any. Kallus is alive again, not knowing that he has died once. The broken needle has not yet revealed his true face. And somewhere in the SHONT system, the steamy observes. It moves the pieces. The problem is that Spencer Raymund is learning to move the entire tray.