the aftermath of his reckless abandon.

Inside the Bentley, the world exploded into a vortex of noise and shattering glass. The side windows imploded, spraying the interior with glittering shards. Emka's mom screamed, wrestling the car to a screeching halt on the shoulder. Benji, covered in glass, stared up at the sky in stunned panic, his ears ringing. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?"

High above, Emka barely registered their panic. The thrill of the speed was everything. But just as he started to pull up, something slammed into him. A blinding, white-hot pain erupted in his side. The suit's systems blared alarms in his helmet.

"IMPACT DETECTED! HULL BREACH! VITAL SIGNS CRITICAL!"

Emka's consciousness fractured. The sky, the earth, the blinding sun all spun into a nauseating spiral. His last thought was a hazy image of Benji's shocked face. Then, everything went black as he began to fall. The suit decided to keep emka floating to avoid serious injuries.

A groan escaped Emka's lips as consciousness slammed back into him. He was floating, about 500 meters above. The sky was a dizzying, blue canvas. His vision swam, a blurry mess, but he could make out two shapes high above. One was clearly an F-22 Raptor, its twin tails a familiar silhouette. The other... the other was something else entirely. Sleek, impossibly fast, and utterly alien. It zig-zagged through the sky with a physics-defying agility that made the fighter jet look like a clumsy bird.

"What the hell..." he mumbled into his helmet. "Cyber, I'm hallucinating. That thing... it's not real."

"Negative, Emka," Cyber's calm voice cut through the static in his helmet. "My optical sensors are tracking it as well. I am also seeing it. And I am detecting a severe concussion. You lost consciousness for approximately two hours."

Emka's mind raced, trying to piece together the impossible. "Did someone get into the lab? Is that the hypersonic jet? Did they steal it?"

"The 'Aether' is secure in the laboratory," Cyber assured him. "What you are seeing is an unknown variable. The suit's primary thrusters are offline from the impact. You must eject."

"Eject? In this?"

"I have dispatched the prototype vehicle. It will be at your location in ninety seconds."

With a surge of adrenaline, Emka triggered the emergency eject. The suit broke apart around him with a series of explosive bolts, and he was left free-falling for a terrifying moment before a powerful parachute deployed. Below him, a beat-up, cheap-looking sedan was speeding along a deserted country road. It looked completely out of place, but as Emka descended, the roof retracted smoothly. He landed perfectly in the passenger seat.

The car's door closed, and the vehicle accelerated with impossible silence and speed. The shabby exterior was a facade. Inside, it was the pinnacle of luxury and technology, with plush leather seats and holographic displays shimmering in the air. "Rest, Emka. We are heading home," Cyber's voice emanated from the car's speakers.

The car didn't pull into the driveway. It parked a block away, cloaked in an invisibility field. Emka, sore and disoriented, trudged toward the house. The first thing he saw was his mom's Bentley, its side windows completely blown out, glass littering the pristine pavement. He winced.

He walked into the house to a scene of pure panic. His mom, Benji's mom, and Benji all shot to their feet the moment he entered.

"Emka! Oh my god, where have you been?" his mom cried, rushing to hug him.

"We've been calling you a hundred times! We were so worried!" Benji added, his face a mask of relief and terror.

Emka leaned heavily on his well-rehearsed alibi. "Sorry," he said, rubbing the back of his neck. "My head was killing me, so I went for a walk to the store to get some air. Didn't find anything so i came back. Must've left my phone here."

The explanation seemed to work. The evening settled into a strange rhythm of forced calm. They ate takeout pizza while his mom recounted the terrifying sonic boom incident. Emka's head was genuinely starting to throb now. "Ugh, my head's starting to hurt again," he announced, using the pain as a convenient excuse. "I'm just gonna go lie down."

He retreated to his room, popping a couple of painkillers and calling the one person who could distract him. Lukne arrived twenty minutes later, and they were sprawled on his bed watching dumb YouTube videos when Benji appeared in the doorway.

"Surprise," Benji said with a tired grin. "The moms are in the home theater, powered by energy drinks, 'debriefing' the day. Said I could stay another night."

Later, in the dead of night, Emka was asleep, the medication finally pulling him under. Downstairs, Benji and Lukne were bickering over the movie selection.

"I am NOT watching another rom-com, Benji!"

"And I am NOT watching some pretentious black-and-white foreign film!"

Lukne, frustrated, paced the room and leaned against the basement wall—the one that led to the elevator. She felt an almost imperceptible seam under her hand. Curious, she pressed it.

The wall glowed. "ACCESS DENIED. ENTER PASSWORD."

Benji's eyes went wide. "No way." He thought for a second, then typed in the password he'd seen Emka use on his phone a dozen times.

"ACCESS GRANTED."

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