Characters: Jaxson Chambers, Camil Thomas, Jabreena Nicholson
Jaxson Chambers stood in a laundromat basement beneath District 5, hands pressed against the pulse-stone wall. It was cracked. Breathing. Alive.
“You sure this is the right place?” Camil Thomas asked. He was crouched on an overturned detergent bucket, twirling a blade made of folded music sheets. “’Cause it smells like mold and a bad idea.”
“Your face smells like bad ideas,” Jaxson muttered. “It’s under here. The seal.”
From the shadows, Jabreena Nicholson emerged, her eyes glowing softly with Threadlight — the mark of someone who’d spoken with a Dominion Echo.
“It’s not just a seal,” she said. “It’s a Fold Rift. If it breaks, the Dominion beneath reawakens. The kind that don’t just end cities — they remix them.”
Jaxson stared at her. “You’re not making sense, Queen Metaphor.”
“Don’t need to. You’ll feel it in a second.”
As if on cue, the floor pulsed. Cracks radiated outward. A glyph — ancient and snarling — flared open, and from it, a humanoid figure cloaked in dust and glass crawled out. Its eyes mirrored shattered buildings.
“Aw, hell,” Camil said, standing. “Basement ghosts. Just once I want a mission where nothing wakes up.”
