139 ASKING FOR RANSOM
"Where is Eryn being taken?" Damen asked Kail over the comms as he eased Dorin into one of his armored trucks.
It was a simple rescue op, but he preferred to be ready; several armed trucks with meta soldiers waited on standby.
"Hold on…" Kail murmured, scanning the nearby camera feeds. "It's the Rank-B meta who grabbed her. According to her trajectory she's bringing Eryn back to this warehouse. This was her safehouse and she doesn't know the place's been cleared out."
Damen considered for a beat and smiled.
"Perfect. Restore the facility to normal operations—act like nothing's happened. Let her bring Eryn in. I'll be waiting inside."
-----
Acyros arrived at the secret warehouse and tapped her wrist to the console. "Open the door, idiots—it's me," she barked.
The heavy security door slid open with a hiss.
"Finally, some efficiency," she muttered, dragging the unconscious Eryn inside. She made straight for the containment chamber where Dorin had been held—only to stop short.
It was empty.
Even the three meta guards who were supposed to be stationed there were gone.
"What the hell…" Acyros scanned the room. "Did they evacuate without telling me?"
She ran diagnostics on the equipment—everything was still powered, still functional. "Hmph. Maybe they moved her. No matter, I can still use this shitty place for now."
The facility was meant to hold Dorin who at the moment wasn't a priority for the Zetheris. It was quite possible that the prisoner was transferred to another location.
Grabbing Eryn by the arm, she tossed her into the containment zone and activated the invisible prison field with a low hum.
"What do you want from me?!" Eryn shouted, pressing against the shimmering barrier.
"Relax," Acyros replied coolly. "We won't kill you—at least not yet. Not until your father pays up."
She moved to the control terminal, trying to contact her superior.
"Acyros here, please respond," she said into the comms only to be met with static.
"Damn it," she growled, slamming her fist on the console. "The bloody system's fried again."
For a moment she sat there, glaring at the screens, thinking. She needed to report to Exoren about her battle with the Veyrans…. But the communications equipment in the warehouse malfunctioned. She could only return to the HQ personally to report.
Then she sighed. "Whatever. I'll leave the girl here. No one's stupid enough to come near this place with all the drones patrolling."
She double-checked the containment field and found it to be perfectly stable, then turned and walked out, her boots echoing through the empty corridors.
The instant the door sealed behind Acyros, Eryn screamed because someone else was standing inside the cell with her who suddenly materialized before her.
"Damen! How—how are you inside the field?" she gasped with awe and relief.
Damen gave a faint smile. "I've been here all along, waiting for her to drop you off. Using my Camouflage skill…nobody could see me."
Then he tapped his earpiece. "Kail, shut it down."
With a soft hum, the containment field flickered and vanished. Eryn stared in disbelief before rushing into his arms.
"How did you…?"
"No time to explain," he interrupted gently. "You're safe now."
He guided her out of the warehouse.
Behind them, the sound of distant whirring filled the air—Damen's demolition drones were moving into position. Moments later, explosions tore through the facility, reducing it to rubble and ash.
"Did you leave evidence?" Damen asked.
"Yes, those demolition drones have Veyran Industries' registration on them. They will discover it when they check the wreckage", Kail said.
"Good, this will be on the Veyrans…again", he said.
By the time the smoke cleared, they were already on their way back to GenSyn Industries.
-----
When they returned to GenSyn, the group hurried straight down to the hidden levels beneath the facility.
"Where is he, Lander?" Dorin asked anxiously, her voice trembling with urgency.
"He's in the medical wing," Zairgid replied, leading her through a corridor lined with sterile glass walls and humming machinery.
Once Damen went to rescue Dorin, he already arranged for Lander to be transported back to GenSyn HQ from the hospital. There was no longer any need for him to pretend to be ill.
Inside the ICU, robotic nurses worked silently over a figure lying on the bed—Lander, his face was pale but breathing.
Dorin rushed to his side. "He's still not awake?"
"We promised him the first thing he'd see when he wakes up would be you," Damen said quietly.
Dorin sat beside the bed, holding Lander's hand. The antidote to his hibernation serum was already taking effect. After a few tense minutes, Lander's eyes fluttered open.
"Dor…" he whispered weakly.
"Don't talk," Dorin said, her eyes brimming. "You've been under a coma for weeks."
Lander turned his head slightly toward Damen and managed a faint smile. "Thank… you."
Before Damen could respond, Zairgid asked, "Now what do we do? The Zetheris won't just let this go."
Damen had already thought this through. "You two can't stay in Melrose City anymore. I've prepared two options—either you relocate to another city with new identities, or head to the Space Rift. You'll be safe in Fortress Myrone."
----
Leaving Lander in Dorin's care, Damen and the others moved to the command center to review the latest intelligence.
Dozens of holo-screens projected the recent battle between Acyros and the Veyrans, every explosion and battle detail captured in crystal clarity.
"I can't believe it," Eryn said, her eyes wide. "You got everything about our fight on record? Even we don't have such footages. When did you even deploy drones there?"
"We anticipated that Zetheris would ambush the Veyrans on their return route," Zairgid explained. "So, we sent drones ahead to observe. That's why we have such clean footage."
On the screens, the scene turned grim—all the metas on the battlefield suddenly collapsed, their powers cut off as if a switch had been flipped.
"What just happened there?" Damen asked, glancing at Eryn.
"I don't know," she said. "But my power was gone too at that moment. I couldn't use any of it."
The footage showed the same—every meta were incapacitated, except one.
"But your father wasn't affected by the anti-meta field?" Kail asked.
Eryn nodded. "He carries a special core device. It regenerates his meta energy during a fight… guess it worked even in the anti-meta suppression field. He probably didn't realize how valuable it was until now."
"No wonder he managed to fight Acyros to a standstill," Damen said thoughtfully.
"My father's a strong Rank C—almost at B. He's not far behind her in raw power," Eryn replied.
"Yes, Acyros isn't a frontline fighter," Kail added. "She's the control type—the one who sets up the Anti-Meta suppression fields. Umbros is most probably the executioner who finishes the targets. Luckily, Umbros is already gone. Otherwise, the Veyrans would have no chance."
"Did you take out Umbro…?" Eryn asked.
"Technically, it was Black Halo who took him down," Damen corrected.
"Right, Black Halo," Kail muttered.
Zairgid leaned forward. "So, if Umbros is out of the picture, can we take Acyros ourselves now?"
Damen frowned, folding his arms.
"Hard to say. Her anti-meta field is strong..much stronger than Umbros' devouring ability. Meta energy won't work under its influence. Even fusion skills get crippled. We'll need something beyond power—something that doesn't rely on meta at all to deal with her," he said.
"Now what do we do next?" Zairgid asked, breaking the silence.
Damen's gaze shifted toward Eryn, calm but deliberate. "Now," he said, "we ask your father for ransom."
Eryn's eyes widened. "You're going to use me to…what?"