Time was running out for both Marie and Kai.
Marie couldn’t shake the feeling that Kai had already done far more than anyone could have expected, making moves behind the scenes, supporting this fight without ever directly clashing with Gary or the Howlers.
Now, all they could do was conserve their energy until the full moon. They had to hold back the hunger, endure the gnawing ache of starvation that would only grow worse with time, until they gave in, at just the right moment.
At least, that was supposed to be the plan.
So when Kai suddenly asked Marie to return with him, to head back up the mountain road, she didn’t argue. Not out loud, anyway. But her mind was already questioning everything.
And that’s when she saw it.
A van, parked awkwardly on the side of the road near the summit.
Seriously... what is he doing now? Marie thought, narrowing her eyes. Every time I think he’s figured everything out, he throws in something new at the very last second.
The van’s back doors swung open, and a series of large wooden crates began sliding out from the cargo hold.
“I’ve gotta say, kid,” the delivery driver muttered, rubbing his arms. “This is the strangest drop-off I’ve ever done. Gives me the creeps. Just sign here so I can get out of here.”
Kai signed the form without a word, and the man didn’t waste a second. He hurried back into his van and drove off, tires kicking up gravel as he disappeared down the winding mountain road.
Without missing a beat, Kai turned toward the crates.
With a single swift motion, he swung his arm down and shattered the wooden lid of the first crate, revealing what lay inside.
“...Drones?” she asked, confused. “You ordered drones? What are we going to do with those?”
Kai didn’t stop working as he responded. He pulled another crate open and began assembling the sleek, black devices inside.
“The world’s changed,” Kai said. “Ever since Altered appeared, everyone’s been so focused on the flashy stuff, strength, transformation, raw power. That’s all anyone sees now. But the truth is, we’re still fighting at street level. And what we need to win fights on the ground... isn’t just power.”
He turned to her, eyes serious.
Marie stayed silent as she watched him work. Kai had clearly prepped these in advance. He moved with precision and ease, already knowing how each part fit together. This wasn’t some last-minute idea, this had been planned.
And these weren’t your average off-the-shelf drones.
They were state-of-the-art, military-grade, built for advanced surveillance and real-time coordination. More importantly, they could network across the entire city grid. Each one could be synced to a single tablet, allowing Kai to switch between live feeds with the tap of a finger.
He could set them to follow specific targets, patrol routes, or hover over key locations.
Controlling multiple drones at once would normally be near impossible for a single person, but Kai had thought ahead. With his setup, they didn’t need to be micromanaged. They were autonomous, smart, efficient.
Soon, he would have a bird’s-eye view of the entire city.
And in a world where chaos moved in the shadows, where Altered, gangs, and corrupted forces collided, that kind of visibility might just be the most powerful weapon of all.
“We need information more than anything,” Kai said firmly. “We can guess when they’ll need our help most... but there’s also a real chance that by the time we act, they could already be dead. So while they’re out there fighting, we’ll be watching from above, tracking everything, gathering every detail we can.”
The drones were launched into the sky one by one, quickly scattering and zooming toward key locations within Slough. With his phone and the city map in hand, Kai had no trouble deciding where to send them.
He knew the alleyways, the abandoned buildings, the open fields and choke points better than anyone. He used that knowledge to predict movement, assigning the drones to blanket Slough with surveillance.
Of course, there were blind spots, but he was confident he had covered enough.
And more importantly, he’d correctly guessed one of the Howlers’ main staging points, the park. It was exactly the kind of open, semi-central location they would choose for a group fight.
He smirked slightly as the drone feeds confirmed his hunch. On-screen, he could already see them setting up.
They won’t notice the drones, Kai thought. Everyone will be too locked in the chaos of battle to even look up. These things will be invisible to them...
But even as he checked the footage and made adjustments, another thought weighed heavily on his mind.
This plan, this whole operation, depended on him staying out of it until the very last second.
That meant watching the battle unfold. Watching as people fought for their lives. And possibly... watching as some of them died.
I’ll see it all happen in real time... through these screens, Kai thought grimly. And I’ll have to sit there and do nothing. Not until the very end.
He didn’t doubt that some of the Howlers would fall. That was the cost of war. But knowing that, and watching it, were two very different things.
The hardest part wouldn’t be launching drones or setting up the tech. It would be forcing himself not to act too early.
What if I step in before they reach their limit? he questioned. What if I ruin everything by rushing in too soon? But if I wait too long... they could all die.
This strategy only worked if everyone was pushed to their absolute limit, if they did everything they could on their own.
Only then could he step in. As their final card.
Kai didn’t know how much loss he could take. Not just allies, but friends. People who had chosen to fight beside him.
As the hours passed and the screens filled with chaotic, brutal images of battle, one feed in particular caught his eye. The fight between Ice and Apollo.
It was intense. And quickly spiraling out of control.
Elsewhere, the situation wasn’t much better.
And that’s when Kai made his decision.
“Marie!” he shouted, snapping the silence. “We’re joining the fight!”
His voice rang out over the mountain wind.
The time had come to initiate their plan.
Kai knew what that meant.
He would have to face Lupus.
Seeing how things were going, how Ice was struggling, how Apollo looked one step away from collapse, he feared the worst.
Ice might die out there. And Apollo... he might not make it either.
He just had to hope that Lupus hadn’t grown too strong.
Too strong for Kai to take down.
But ready or not, it was time to act.
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