56. CoreCaster
CoreCaster
Kael
I snap back into my body like I’ve been dropped from the top of VikkCorp.
My lungs feel as if they’re seizing as cold, sterile air slams into me.
The lab’s peaceful hum feels like a mockery compared to the shitstorm I left her in.
The DreamNet band falls out of my pocket, dropping on the hard floor beside me, as if tossed out of the ether after Lyra ripped it off me.
I blink a couple of times for clarity. I hear Ash shouting something and Ember’s hands on her keyboard, typing furiously, but none of it resonates. My heart is still inside the grid with her.
“Fuck!” I lift myself up, gripping the edge of the console until my knuckles whiten. My body trembles, but not from weakness. From fury and obsession and especially from the vow I made to save her. I feel it searing into my bones.
I will not leave her there. Not to LINK, not to Eli, not to Vikktor.
“Whoa!” Ash’s voice cuts through my haze of anger, lazy as always, but pitched a bit higher than usual. “You look like somebody just unplugged a neon god.” He winks at his own pun.
My head snaps up. “Fuck off, Ash! Not the time!” I begin bringing up the DreamNet status feeds. It hasn’t crashed, so Lyra must be holding her own, keeping Eli from surging any further.
I have to get back in there; she can’t hold both LINK and Eli back forever. A few hours for Ash to repair this DreamNet band, and we’ll be reunited.
He leans against the console. “I love you too, man, I really do.” His hand grips my shoulder. “But it’s time for some truth bombing.” He guides me into a chair, which I willingly accept after being dropped out of DreamNet like a downed drone.
“So, it’s true then. You’ve been holding out on me.
” He gestures at my arms, then my eyes. “Your veins are lit up like one of my stage sets.” He leans against the console.
“Congrats, man. You spent your whole life pretending you were normal, and now the universe finally got bored with your grumpy ass and flipped the switch. Welcome to the club.”
I can only manage a groan. “Lyra’s inside.
I pushed her back inside the grid, and now she’s probably in danger.
And it’s all my fault, because of this shit.
” I motion with my hand down my arm. “Thanks for the DreamBand, by the way. How about a heads-up next time?” I run my hands up both sides of my face, secretly hoping the magic rubs off.
“You don’t wake up one day with magic, Kaze. You’ve been glowing for years. Pining for Lyra just pushed you to the limit. It couldn’t stay buried anymore.”
“You fucking knew, and you didn’t tell me?
” I feel it building again, the dragon down my back animating with light.
“I’ve built my life around this job, this Corporation, everything about me screams ‘not gifted.’ I loathe all of it.
I hate the chaos it brings, the way it divides people, the rebellion, it’s a complete lack of authority.
I’m about as U21 as your shoe.” I stand, only to find my head spinning, the lab becoming a blur of neon white.
“I knew—didn’t say anything because watching you argue with destiny was way more entertaining. But yeah...turns out the control freak was just scared of what he’d do if he let go and let someone in.”
“This can’t be real.” I stare at the floor.
Ember brings over a bottle of FizzyWater. Ash thrusts it at me and wraps my hand around it like I’m a helpless child. “It’s real.”
“I hate this stuff.” I tilt the bottle, trying to look through it. I immediately regret every choice that led me here.
The liquid glows an unnatural yellow, but that’s not even the worst of it. Floating in the center are green chunks. Actual chunks, suspended like algae in a fish tank.
I stare at it, horrified. “Is that kale?”
Ash grins from ear to ear. “Oh yeah. Made just for you! See? It has your name on it.” He points to the label.
Idiot.
I take a look at the label as I twist the cap.
FIZZYWATER?Hydration Reimagined. Cold-pressed. Micro-fermented. Ethically enhanced. Now with SuperLeaf Kale Particulates! It’s got VitaLytes!
Ember stands over me like a nurse. “It’s good for you. Everyone says it enhances your magic and stops the afterburn. Drink up!”
I lift the bottle, watching the leafy fragments drift lazily. “Why are they floating?”
Ash joins Ember, standing over me like an interrogation. “Future nutrition, Bro. Kale’s a wonder plant now. Something about nutrient density surviving climate collapse or whatever.”
I take a cautious sip. Instant regret.
The carbonation bites first, like electricity on the tongue, followed by a wet, vegetable texture that absolutely should not be moving in my mouth. I choke it down, eyes narrowing. “This is atrocious.”
Ash looks delighted. “Ah, you got the original flavor.”
I grimace.
He leans forward, taps the bottle, and launches into a perfect imitation of the holo-ad voiceover.
“FizzyWater—why drink water when you can drink science? It’s got VitaLytes! It’s got greens! It’s the future for your genes!”
I set the bottle down very carefully, like it might explode. “If this is what they’re feeding citizens now, the rebellion is justified.”
Ash snorts. “Hey, don’t knock it. They say kale enhances cellular conductivity.”
I freeze, slowly looking up at him. “Great.”
His laugh turns unhinged. “Relax. Probably just marketing.”
I push the bottle away with two fingers. “I work for a corporation that can rewrite reality, and this is the best water they can make?” I gesture at the bottle of sludge.
He snorts, snatches the bottle, and takes a long swig. “Suit yourself. More battery juice for me.”
He gulps. “You know what the real magic is? You survived everything that was supposed to break you and just called it discipline. That’s admirable.” He sets the bottle down on the console. Bile rises in my throat just looking at it.
“You’re a CoreCaster.”
“I’m not.” The denial leaves my lips so fast it seethes. “Wait a what?!” I squint at him.
Ash smirks, but there’s no humor there. “Kael, you were just bending and creating code like it owed you rent. That’s not normal programming. That’s magic, Bro. I knew you had it in you.”
I slam my palm against the console, hard enough to make the screens stutter. “You think I don’t know that?” I flip around tossing my head back, breathing in all the oxygen around me. “By the way, thanks for telling me...oh, I don’t know...for like ten years or so?”
He’s neither accepting nor denying the statement. “So, what comes next? What’s the plan? This certainly levels you up, man! Like you’re boss level now.”
I drag a hand through my hair, still feeling the phantom sting of her hand on mine. “This is not a GameNet session,” I say slowly, “The plan is to get her out before LINK erases her or Eli deletes her and before Vikktor finds out about her.”
Ash’s brows lift. “Easy peasy. You always did like to make things complicated. You know, if you just...”
“Don’t.” My voice drops an octave, out of frustration. “Not another joke.”
He raises his hands in mock surrender, but he’s laughing again, that cocky smile he uses to defuse awkward situations. “Alright. But you’re glowing again. Neon veins, ink flaring, dragon eyes. Spooky shit. If you don’t want people to freak out, at least own it and tame it.”
I breathe hard through my nose, trying to swallow the inferno building in my chest. “I’ll own it when she’s safe.”
Ash whistles low. “Guess we’re past the ‘Lyra and I are just friends’ phase then.”
“Way past.” My hands curl into fists. “Now help me rethink the plan for her extraction before she disappears for good. We need to speed things up.”
Ember’s comm pings. She touches it gently to speak. “Now?” A pause. “Yes, Father.”
She looks at me with those helpless doe eyes as she approaches. “Um...my father wants to see you in his office, ASAP.” She bites her lip nervously.
Not good.
Ash and I both look at each other, our mouths dropping in disgust. For once he doesn’t know what to say.
I adjust my shirt, covering most of my ink, put myself back together, and grab my jacket off the chair.
The faintest burst of orange flickers in the symbols on my fingers before I take a breath and force it down.
Tame it.
Ash lounges against the console like this is just another day at the office, one eyebrow cocked. “Hey, Glowworm! Maybe get that radioactive rave stuff under control before Daddy Dearest sees it. Yeah?”
I freeze just long enough to pin him with a look sharp enough to slice his throat.
Ash smirks wider, undeterred. “Don’t get me wrong, the neon veins are a hell of a party trick. But Vikktor sees that, and we’re all fucked with a capital F.”
I exhale through my nose, steadying myself, tamping down the angst under my skin. I head toward the elevator, readying myself for war.
The elevator ride is silent except for the buzz of neon bleeding through the ceiling tiles. My reflection stares back at me in the chrome panels, I’m still faintly pulsing from the magic being drawn out of me. I shove it down again to the depths with a quick inhale. I can’t let anyone see it.
Not yet.
Vikktor’s office looms like a temple of excess: obsidian walls, sprawling windows that make the city look small, and a desk so pristine it might as well be an altar.
He’s standing in front of it when I enter, his tailored suit so crisp it looks like he’s carved of stone.
His tie is knotted with elite precision.
I lock onto his stare; steel gray eyes assess me, full of detached superiority. He’s silently asserting his dominance. They instantly bore into me.
“Kael.” His voice is calm in the way a serial killer talks to himself after he’s just snuffed someone out. “Do you know why you’re here?”
Yay! A quiz.
I step closer, but not too close. “You said it was urgent, sir.”
“It is.” He flicks his wrist, and the wall behind him lights up with fractured vitals.
Eli’s readings. Dead flat in some places, spiking erratically in others.
“The anomaly is failing me. He’s unresponsive, spends all of his time in DreamNet, even without a band.
You assured me he would be stable, contained, and useful. ”
I keep my expression unreadable. “Containment of a VoidChanneler is never stable. You knew that going in.”
His smile twitches. “Don’t play semantics with me, boy. You built the infrastructure this company runs on. If anyone can keep him under control, it’s you.”
Silence hums like a taut wire between us. He hasn’t mentioned that Jett was in the containment sector or Lyra. Damn, I have to hand it to him, SoulReaver is good.
I finally choke out actual words. “I’m sorry, but I was told to stand down on this one, by you.” My finger points right at him. “I’m to observe, study, and offer insightful analysis on the subject. Your words.” I clear my throat anxiously. That was probably too much. “Sir.”
What’s gotten into me?
“You think you can test me?” Vikktor steps around the desk, deliberately, until we’re almost chest-to-chest.
He’s not taller than me, but he is older. I remind myself of years of training, Master Kenji drilling it into me to respect my nenchōsha—elders. Power rolls off him like heat from a furnace. More experienced? Yes. But I’ll never trust him.
And I’ll never be like him.
“Respect for your enemy is based on a rational assessment of their capabilities, not on personal feelings. Underestimating your opponent is a grave strategic error.”
—Master Kenji
Fuck respect.
He underestimates me.
“Let me make something abundantly clear. If Eli slips through my fingers, if I can’t wield what he is, then all of this?” He gestures to the sprawling cityscape outside, the glowing arteries of the Corporation’s reach. “All of this collapses. And if it collapses...so do you.”
I don’t flinch when he leans closer, even though I can feel his breath on my face. “You’re not untouchable, Dr. Ryudon. I may have taken you off the streets and given you everything you’ve ever wanted, but that does not mean you’re invincible. I control this city and you.”
He pulls back, that condescending smile returning. “Do I make myself clear?”
I force the words out evenly, my lips tight behind them. “Yes, sir.”
“Good.” He straightens the lapels of his jacket, as if I’ve just caused him physical exertion. “Now get back to work. Fix him, or I’ll find someone who will.”
I turn for the door, but his parting words freeze me mid-step.
“And Kael? If I sense even a hint of disobedience, I won’t just erase this anomaly. I’ll erase her as well. You know...that little holo-toy you’ve been playing with in the lab.”