The sun slipped behind the mirrored towers of Velmora City, casting the skyline in molten gold. But deep beneath Tower B, Elsa Jefferson's world had just turned midnight black.
She stood over Kip Tagora's shoulder in a makeshift tech lab that looked like a hacker's fever dream: wires everywhere, a server rack humming like a beast, and empty noodle cups stacked like a shrine to caffeine-fueled brilliance.
"Okay, okay, okay," Kip muttered, fingers flying. "We've got breadcrumbs, Jefferson. Real spicy ones."
"Show me."
He tapped a key, pulling up a series of encrypted access logs.
"Silas's 'Project Sovereign' is hosted off-grid… but guess what? The server pinged a hidden node during a file sync this morning. Probably accidental. Rookie mistake. That gave us a 4-second window to trace it."
A grainy map lit up, highlighting a location near Ravenlock District—an abandoned corporate zone on the edge of Velmora.
"There. Sovereign's ghost nest."
Elsa's lips parted slightly. "He's hiding it that close?"
Kip cracked his neck. "They always hide the treasure under the skeletons."
🖤 The Descent
By nightfall, Elsa and Kip rolled through Ravenlock in a matte-black Jefferson SUV, its windows tinted darker than regret. The old district was riddled with rusted buildings, broken glass, and the scent of abandonment.
Kip leaned forward. "I feel like I just loaded into a post-apocalyptic RPG."
Elsa smirked. "Just don't trigger the final boss."
"No promises."
They pulled up near a decommissioned Helix Industries warehouse, covered in ivy and sprayed with gang symbols. To the untrained eye, it was just ruin. But Kip's scanner blinked green.
"Yup. That's the spot. Signal leads inside."
Elsa stepped out, her heels clicking on cracked concrete. She wore a long coat with reinforced lining—corporate elegance fused with field utility. Chess would've admired that if he were watching.
(Spoiler: he was.)
🔓 The Vault Beneath the Dust
Inside the warehouse, Kip found a disguised panel and typed in a coded string from Silas's old tech archives.
With a low hiss, a steel door slid open, revealing a staircase bathed in eerie blue light.
"If we die," Kip said, "I want my hard drive buried with me. There's anime on there no one's ready for."
Elsa just descended the stairs without flinching.
At the bottom: a lab straight out of a Bond villain's blueprint. Stark white floors. Suspended glass tubes. Massive processors glowing in sync.
"This isn't a project," Elsa breathed. "This is a kingdom."
🐍 The Trap
Kip stepped up to the terminal and cracked into the system. "Hold on, let me just... bypass the firewall... aaaand—"
Click.
The room lights dimmed. A red laser grid blinked to life around them.
Kip froze.
Elsa turned slowly.
On the screen, a video began to play.
Silas Kade.
Cool. Polished. Smug as sin.
"Elsa," he said, his voice pre-recorded and perfectly calm, "If you're watching this, then you've walked willingly into your own trap. That's either brave... or naive."
"You see, Sovereign isn't just a secret. It's a test. And you just failed it."
"Now I know you're hunting me."
"Which means I'll have to finish this game sooner than expected."
The screen went black.
💣 Countdown to Chaos
An automated voice rang through the lab.
"Self-purge protocol initiated. Please evacuate immediately."
Red lights began flashing. The tubes started to hiss.
Elsa looked to Kip.
"Can you stop it?"
"If I had three more nerds and a time machine? Sure. Right now? We RUN."
They bolted back up the stairs, smoke and sparks chasing them like angry ghosts. Kip flung open the steel door as flames licked the edges of the lab below.
They dove outside just as the facility imploded—quietly, precisely, as if it had never existed.
Elsa lay on the pavement, breathing hard, eyes fixed on the smoldering ruin.
"He knows," she whispered.
Kip coughed beside her. "And now we know he knows you know. Which... is bad."
"No," Elsa said, standing. "It's war."
🎭 Elsewhere…
In a secure observatory halfway across Velmora, Chess Golding watched the scene on a secure feed.
He sipped tea.
"Now you've seen the beast," he murmured, "Let's see how far you're willing to chase it."
Beside him, Lance raised an eyebrow. "You could've warned her."
"No," Chess replied. "She needs the burn. The real game begins now."