📘 Chapter 34: Distorted Light
Inside the Watchtower, there had been no room for rest since the team returned from the Dimensional Crystal. The tension was thick—so dense, it felt like the air itself was choking under its weight.
At exactly midnight, one of the technicians, a man named Lorin, was inspecting the spectral sensor systems linked to detecting Kairos' frequencies. Suddenly, in a flash, a crystal pulse surged from one of the shards brought back from the other dimension.
The light shot straight through Lorin's chest. His eyes froze in place. He didn't scream. He didn't fall. He simply… began to change.
In less than a minute, crystalline masses burst through his skin, spreading across half his face and his right arm. His eyes turned pitch black, glowing faintly with a violet shimmer.
His colleague ran to get help, but by then, Lorin had already begun speaking—in a strange, doubled voice:
> "The end draws near… and the Core shall return to its origin."
(The "Core" refers to Kairos' core—Ben himself.)
Cyborg was the first to arrive, attempting to calm him.
"Lorin? Listen to me... You've been infected by something external. We'll help you, but you need to stay calm."
But before he could finish, Lorin reached out with his crystal-covered hand and touched Cyborg's mechanical arm.
One brief touch… was enough.
Cyborg's circuits began to flicker wildly. A wave of confusion swept over his face, as if a second consciousness was now battling for control over his body.
He gasped:
"Can't… disconnect… myself…"
Then he turned toward Flash, who had just rushed in to help. In a blur, he fired a deadly energy beam—one that would've struck had Flash's speed not saved him in the nick of time.
Batman, observing from the command center, acted immediately.
He ordered an instant lockdown of the Watchtower and activated disruption signals to prevent any teleportation or communication with outer space.
"If we don't contain the infection here… it'll spread to the rest of the galaxy."
Ben finally stood, his voice tight with anger:
"Kairos isn't attacking me… He's testing me."
Supergirl looked at him, concerned:
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not his target... I'm his fragment. And what he's doing now—he's trying to twist everything, inside and out."
**
In the lower labs, Green Lantern used his energy constructs to isolate Cyborg from the rest of the team, while Wonder Woman subdued the other infected staff with her lasso.
But the sight in Cyborg's chamber was haunting.
His body—half-machine, half-crystal—twisted and trembling, with burning eyes that seemed to say just one thing:
> "The gate opens from within."
**
By the end of the day, the Watchtower had been secured… but at a steep cost:
Three support staff were in comas, Cyborg was unstable, and Flash was in critical care.
Ben sat silently by the observation window, gazing down at Earth.
Supergirl sat beside him and whispered:
"We're not losing because we're weak… We're losing because the enemy… looks like you."
Ben responded softly:
"And I'm afraid… I'm closer to him now than I've ever been."
And deep within the Watchtower, the infected crystals continued to grow—
As if something… was preparing to be born.
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