Chapter 9: Processing... Please Wait.

Dylan cracked one eye open.

No gun to his head. No cyborg warlord standing over him. No squad of cyborgs ready to light him up.

Cool.

He cracked the other eye open and… no Raze.

Even cooler.

He shifted his fingers. His ribs screamed in protest, but he was still in one piece. No missing limbs. No broken bones… probably. He took a slow, careful breath—okay, scratch that, ribs definitely cracked. A warm energy slowly built in his spine and from there ran through his body.

'Mmm, I really hit something big though."

He slowly sat up, groaning. "Alright… let's do a quick status check," he muttered. "Am I dead? Nope. Am I bleeding? Surprisingly, also nope. Do I feel like I just got hit by a moving train? Yes, very much."

He looked around. The ruins were quiet now, just the occasional creak of broken structures adjusting after Raze had almost finished them. The place still smelled like dust, burnt metal, and just a little bit of regret.

He groaned again and rubbed his face. "Okay, what the hell just happened?"

Last thing, he was getting his ass handed to him by Raze. He dodged, phased, even tried out some fancy tricks, and Raze still treated him like a toddler in a fistfight. The guy punched like a damn sledgehammer.

And yet, he was still alive.

His brain replayed everything. He phased through walls, dodged bullets, and—oh yeah—slammed people into the ground with just a thought.

Right. That happened.

Dylan looked down at his hands, flexing his fingers. They felt normal. But they weren't.

He had powers. Real powers.

He took a deep breath and started listing them off.

First, Telekinesis.

He could move things with his mind. Lift them. Twist them around like a toy. Smash them… well no, not yet. The Echo Shard gave him that, and honestly? That was dope.

Second thing was Heightened Senses.

His hearing was sharper. His sight was clearer, especially in the dark. He could smell things way too well now, which was both a blessing and a curse cos seriously, the ruins stank.

Third was Phasing Through Solids.

Yeah, this one was wild. He didn't just walk through walls, he felt the walls. Like they were made of threads, and he could just… slip through the gaps. That was gonna take some getting used to.

Lastly and most importantly was The Advanced Mind.

This one was weird. It wasn't like a superpower he could see in action, but he could feel it. His thoughts came faster. Ideas clicked together. His brain was running on a whole new level.

Which, honestly, was the scariest thing of all.

Dylan rubbed his temples. "Okay… that's a lot."

He needed a plan.

Going back to Helion City was out of the question. Raze and his men would be looking for him, and if they found him in this half-broken state, he was dead. Not so half broken now, because his injuries were almost completely healed. But still if Raze caught him now, he'd probably get experimented on or thrown into some high-tech prison.

No thanks.

That left one option: Stay in the ruins.

Yeah. He'd hide out here, train, get stronger, and when things calmed down, he'd return. And by that time? He'd be powerful enough to actually live a good life, not just scrape by.

Dylan nodded to himself. "Yep. That's the move."

And with that decided, he sat back against the wall and let out a breath. His ribs were completely healed now but he had bigger things to focus on.

Like the shard.

That thing wasn't just a power-up. It gave him knowledge…tons of it. Stuff he hadn't even begun to process yet before the bully showed up.

Well… now was as good a time as any.

Dylan closed his eyes. Time to dig into the knowledge the shard had given him.