The clock on the wall didn't tick; it pulsed. 03:58 AM. In the tactical heart of the Black Box, the air was static, charged with the kind of tension that usually preceded a high-stakes surgery or a declaration of war.
Total Blackout
POV: Jay
I stood behind Keifer, my hands resting on his shoulders. I could feel the iron-hard tension in his muscles. His "Monster" was awake, prowling just beneath the surface, waiting for the shadows to claim the room.
"Cyrus, if this is a trap, I'm going to make sure your heart stops before the lights do," I said, my voice clinical and cold..
It's not a trap, Doctor," Cyrus muttered, his fingers flying across the holographic keyboard. "It's an execution. They aren't just turning off the lights; they're reversing the magnetic locks. When the clock hits zero, every door in this fortress will swing wide open."
03:59:45.
"Keigan, get to the nursery. Rory, Erdix, secure the main stairwell," Keifer commanded, his voice a low vibration. "Jay, stay behind the reinforced console. Do not move until I give the signal."
04:00:00.
The world didn't just go dark; it vanished.
The hum of the servers died. The glowing blue maps flickered and died. A heavy, unnatural silence swallowed the Black Box, followed immediately by the terrifying, synchronized clack of five hundred electronic bolts sliding back at once.
The fortress was no longer a cage for our enemies. It was an open invitation.
POV: Keifer (The King of the Dark)
I didn't need the lights. I had lived in the dark long enough to call it a brother. I felt the weight of my tactical knife in one hand and my suppressed pistol in the other.
"Night vision," I whispered into my comms.
"Offline, Boss," Rory's voice came through, static-heavy. "They've jammed the localized frequencies. We're blind."
"I'm not," I growled.
I closed my eyes, letting my other senses take over. I heard the faint shhh of rubber soles on the marble two floors down. I heard the rustle of tactical gear. The Obsidian Protocol wasn't just digital; they had boots on the ground. They had been waiting in the woods for the doors to open.
I moved through the hallway like a ghost. I didn't use a flashlight. I used the memory of the floorboards. I reached the landing of the grand staircase just as the first intruder stepped into the foyer
He was using a thermal scanner. I saw the faint red glow of his goggles. Before he could register my heat signature, I was on him. My blade found the gap in his armor with surgical precision. He didn't even have time to gasp before I lowered him silently to the floor.
"One down," I whispered into the void.
POV: Jay (The Savage Surgeon)
I wasn't sitting behind the console. I was a Watson; I didn't sit and wait to be rescued.
I had grabbed my emergency medical bag and a pair of heavy-duty surgical shears. I moved toward the kids' wing, my heart thundering. I knew these halls better than any intruder. I knew the third floorboard from the left creaked. I knew the vent in the ceiling hissed every ten seconds.
I heard a scuffle near Astraea's room.
"Stay away from her!" a small, fierce voice shouted.
Alexander.
I rounded the corner. In the dim moonlight filtering through the high windows, I saw a man in black reaching for the nursery door. Alexander was standing there, holding his wooden sword—the one Keifer had weighted with lead for "training."
The intruder laughed, a wet, mocking sound. He reached for his belt.
I didn't think. I lunged. I didn't use a gun; I used the weight of my body and the razor-sharp shears. I slammed into the man's back, driving the shears into the soft tissue of his shoulder. He screamed, spinning around, but I was already down, sweeping his legs with a move I'd practiced with Rory a hundred times.
"Alexander, get inside! Lock the manual bolt!" I screamed.
The man lunged for me, his face a mask of rage, but a single red dot appeared on his forehead.
Pop.
The man slumped. I looked up. Keifer was standing at the end of the hall, his silhouette framed by the moonlight. He looked like a god of vengeance.
The Restoration
"Jay, status?" Keifer asked, his voice raw.
"I'm okay. The kids are safe," I gasped, leaning against the wall, my hand clutching my side where my ribs were still healing.
"Cyrus did it!" Keigan's voice crackled over the emergency speakers. "The secondary backup is live! Rebooting the grid in three... two... one..."
The lights flared back to life—blinding, beautiful, and white. The magnetic locks slammed shut with a thunderous roar, trapping the remaining intruders inside the house with a very angry "Monster."
Keifer walked over to me, stepping over the body of the man I'd tackled. He looked at the shears in my hand, then at the fire in my eyes.
"You tackled a mercenary with surgical scissors, wifey?" he asked, a ghost of a smirk touching his lips despite the blood on his knuckles.
"He was near my children, hubby," I replied, stepping into his arms. "He's lucky I didn't have my scalpel."
Keifer pulled me into a crushing embrace, his heart beating a frantic, matching rhythm to mine. "The Obsidian Protocol made a mistake. They thought the darkness was their ally."
He looked down the hall at the cowering intruders being rounded up by Section E.
"They forgot that the Watsons own the night."