The VANTA : Origin

Adi Wilder adjusted the strap of his backpack as he stepped off the city bus.

Calder City never stopped moving.

Magnetic trains screamed between skyscrapers. Delivery drones weaved through traffic lanes overhead. Giant holographic advertisements reflected across rain-soaked streets, while hundreds of people moved beneath them without ever looking up.

Adi did.

He always did.

At sixteen, he wasn't particularly special. He wasn't a genius, a trained fighter, or some secret experiment.

He was just a kid who liked taking things apart to see how they worked—and occasionally putting them back together incorrectly.

His destination was Calder Central Library.

Lina Martinez had texted him an hour earlier.

LINA: I found something weird in the city network. Come ASAP.

That was Lina's way of saying this is probably going to get us arrested.

Adi pushed through the library's glass doors.

The interior was enormous. Three floors of books, research terminals and suspended holographic displays surrounded a gigantic kinetic sculpture hanging above the central atrium.

Hundreds of metal rings moved continuously through the air, changing formation every few seconds.

Adi stared at it.

"That's actually pretty sick."

"You're late."

He turned.

Lina sat at a corner table, her custom-built laptop surrounded by floating screens.

"You're early," Adi replied.

"I've been here for forty-three minutes."

"Exactly. Early."

Lina rolled her eyes.

Then she turned the laptop toward him.

"Look."

Adi leaned closer.

A map of Calder City appeared across the display.

Several locations flashed red.

"Blackouts?" he asked.

"Not normal blackouts."

Lina zoomed in.

"Someone has been accessing the city's experimental energy grid. Three times this week."

Adi frowned.

"Who?"

"That's the problem."

She opened another file.

The screen displayed a strange symbol.

A diamond.

Two horizontal lines crossed through it.

Adi stared at it.

"I've never seen that before."

"Neither had I."

For a moment, neither of them spoke.

Then every light in the library flickered.

Once.

Twice.

The kinetic sculpture above them suddenly stopped.

Every ring froze in midair.

Adi looked up.

"Uh..."

A deep metallic sound echoed through the building.

Then the entire sculpture dropped.

People screamed.

The rings came crashing downward.

Adi didn't think.

He ran.

A massive metal ring tore loose from the sculpture and fell directly toward Lina.

Adi threw himself between them.

And then—

Everything stopped.

Not slowed.

Stopped.

The falling ring hung inches above the floor.

The rain outside appeared frozen beyond the glass.

A dropped book remained suspended in midair.

Even the dust seemed motionless.

Adi stared at his own hands.

Thin silver light pulsed beneath his skin.

The world suddenly slammed back into motion.

The ring crashed beside him.

Glass shattered.

Alarms screamed.

Adi stumbled backward, breathing hard.

Lina stared at him.

"What..."

Adi looked at his hands again.

"I don't know."

Across the city, inside a hidden underground facility, a monitor suddenly came alive.

The same symbol appeared on its screen.

—◇—

A voice whispered:

"Subject has awakened."

And somewhere beneath Calder City...

something else woke up with him.