Page 210 of Villainous Rise

I adjusted my grip, cradling her closer. “My lab is three minutes out. I have prototypes, power dampeners that can contain this until I modify one properly.”

Did I tell Havoc to bring Helios?

The memory felt distant, clouded by the panic flooding my system. I must have. We’d need him to understand what was happening to Annie.

Her Warden genetics were supposed to be an impenetrable shield, keeping her safe. But whatever she had absorbed was a part of her now. Her body wouldn’t fight a threat it recognized as itself. She was burning alive and her own mutated cells were simply letting it happen.

“Stay with me, Annie.” I pressed my forehead against hers, ignoring the heat that scorched my skin even through the mask.

The lab’s rooftop access point appeared ahead, and I pushed harder, Annie’s body trembling violently against mine as another wave of golden energy pulsed outward from her.

“EVACUATE! EVERYONE OUT NOW!” My voice boomed through the lab’s intercom system once inside. Annie’s skin pulsed with that terrible golden light, each wave stronger than the last.

Alarms blared as my henchmen scrambled, abandoning work stations and experiments.

I spotted Twelve among them. “Stay on standby. I’ll need you for Annie soon.” He looked at her glowing form doubtfully, but nodded.

“Sir, that kind of energy⁠—”

“She’ll need you,” I insisted, refusing to entertain any other possibility. Annie would survive this. She had to. “Her arm will need treatment once I contain this.”

I rushed to my primary lab. The nearest workbench was covered with prototypes and half-finished work worth hundreds of thousands. I swept it all to the floor with one arm, equipment shattering where it fell.

“Hang on, Annie,” I murmured, laying her on the cleared surface. Her back arched as another wave of energy pulsed through her, the golden light now so bright I could barely look at her.

Her eyes found mine, terror and pain swimming in pools of gold. Her voice was barely recognizable. “Cipher... I can’t hold it back...”

“You won’t have to,” I promised, already moving to the secure cabinet where I kept my most experimental tech. “I’m going to help you control it.”

I frantically scanned the prototypes inside. My hands closed around a bulky cuff, an early version. It was incomplete, unstable, but it might buy us time.

“This will help.” I snapped the cuff around her uninjured wrist and the device immediately began to hum, its internal components straining against the surge of power coursing through her.

My HUD let me know that a system overload was imminent, but I’d already turned away, rushing to my workbench.

Another prototype was there in pieces. It was more advanced but unfinished. I needed to complete it, modify it on the fly. I forced my hands to stop trembling. There was no room for error now.

I activated the Tinkerer’s Hammer, feeling the familiar surge of power through my arm. The sensation of the energy flowing through my nervous system was usually exhilarating, but now it was Annie’s salvation.

My salvation.

Behind me, I heard the lab doors open. Havoc’s voice cut through the chaos. “I’ve brought Helios. He’s still unconscious.”

I didn’t turn around. Couldn’t turn around. Every second counted as the first cuff’s warning lights flashed from yellow to red. It was failing faster than I had anticipated.

The Hammer’s power flowed through my fingertips as I manipulated components that would normally take weeks of careful calibration.

“Cipher!” Annie’s voice broke through my concentration, a desperate, terrified plea that nearly shattered my focus.

The first cuff failed with a sharp crack, golden energy surging outward from Annie once more.

Just a few more seconds. Just a few more adjustments.

The world narrowed to the device in my hands and the woman I loved dying behind me.

I’d never worked so fast in my life. My hands were a blur as the Hammer’s power coursed through me, letting me reshape metal and circuitry with thought and touch alone.

But I could also feel the Hammer burning inside my arm, white-hot pain radiating through the implant as I pushed it beyond any reasonable limit. The sensation was like molten metal flowing through my veins, but I didn’t care. Pain was irrelevant. Everything was irrelevant except Annie.