Chapter 26: The Railway Yards
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The old railway yard had been abandoned for nearly fifteen years.
Rusted locomotives sat frozen on broken tracks.
Weeds grew through cracked concrete.
Nature had begun reclaiming what people had left behind.
But tonight…
Someone was using it again.
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Rasheed arrived just after sunset.
He wore his repaired prototype suit beneath a dark hoodie.
The photograph of the missing boy rested inside his jacket.
Name: Daniel. Age: 12.
He climbed onto the roof of an abandoned freight carriage.
The entire yard stretched before him.
Too quiet.
No trains.
No workers.
No voices.
Just…
Light.
A faint silver glow seeped from beneath an old maintenance warehouse.
“So this is where they are.”
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A loud laugh echoed through the yard.
Rasheed dropped into the shadows.
Four men dragged heavy crates toward the warehouse.
Each crate bore no company logo.
Only a black spiral split down the middle by a diagonal slash.
The same symbol from the sniper’s casing.
One of the men groaned as he lifted a crate.
“What are these things?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“We get paid to move them.”
“And if they explode?”
The other man shrugged.
“Then we won’t have to worry about spending the money.”
They laughed.
Rasheed didn’t.
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Inside the warehouse…
Daniel wasn’t alone.
Nearly twenty people sat on the floor.
Teenagers.
Homeless adults.
Unemployed workers.
Some looked frightened.
Others looked desperate.
A man in a black coat stood before them.
“You all came here because life failed you.”
He paced slowly.
“I understand.”
He opened one of the crates.
Inside…
Dozens of glowing Chrona fragments.
“You were ignored.”
He picked up a crystal.
“You were abandoned.”
The crystal pulsed.
“You were told to wait.”
His smile widened.
“But power…”
He held the fragment higher.
“…doesn’t wait.”
Several people stared at the crystals with hungry eyes.
One young woman whispered,
“How much?”
The man answered,
“Nothing.”
The room fell silent.
“You earn them.”
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Outside…
Rasheed’s fists tightened.
“They’re recruiting…”
Not selling.
Recruiting.
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He spotted Daniel near the back of the room.
Scared.
Hungry.
Trying not to cry.
Rasheed’s decision was instant.
Get Daniel out first.
Stop the operation later.
Heroes rescued people before chasing villains.
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The world slowed.
Red lightning whispered around his boots.
One heartbeat.
Two.
He slipped through a broken window.
Past every guard.
Past every crate.
Past every armed smuggler.
Daniel suddenly blinked.
A young man wearing black stood beside him.
A finger rested against hidden lips.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Daniel nodded.
Before he could blink again—
The room disappeared.
Wind rushed past.
Then…
They were standing outside the railway yard nearly a kilometre away.
Daniel looked around in disbelief.
“H…how…”
Rasheed smiled beneath the hood.
“Can you get home?”
The boy nodded.
“My sister…”
“She’s waiting.”
“Then go.”
Daniel hesitated.
“Are you…”
“The Red Pulse?”
Rasheed smiled.
“I don’t know.”
Daniel grinned.
“I think you are.”
He ran.
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Back inside the warehouse…
No one had noticed Daniel was gone.
Until…
One of the recruiters frowned.
“Where’s the kid?”
Silence.
Everyone looked around.
The chair was empty.
The black-coated man slowly turned toward the broken window.
His expression never changed.
“So.”
“He’s here.”
He smiled.
“Ladies and gentlemen…”
“…our guest has arrived.”
Every light inside the warehouse shut off.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then…
Dozens of silver eyes opened.
Not machines.
People.
Every single recruit had already taken a Chrona fragment.
Every one of them.
Outside, hidden among the rusted train cars, Rasheed’s smile faded.
“This just became a lot harder.”
Far away, on the roof of a grain silo overlooking the railway yard, a streak of blue lightning flashed across the night.
Omar landed silently.
He looked toward the warehouse.
Then at the red lightning flickering between the freight cars.
“So…”
“We’re chasing the same people.”
Neither hero knew the other was there.
But fate had brought them to the same battlefield.
For the first time…
The hunt had truly begun.
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