Jethro entered the dim, echoing lair, his boots clicking across the cold metal floor. Rows of massive tubes and mechanical rigs lined the walls, filled with unconscious Vigors and Shadows floating in eerie, glowing fluids. The low hum of machines blended with the hiss of pressurized valves, making the whole place feel alive, predatory.
He stopped in front of a steel chair bolted to the floor. In it sat the Japanese girl—her head slumped forward, long black hair cascading over her face and shoulders. Thick metal cuffs bound her wrists and ankles to the chair, while a high-tech metallic collar encircled her slender neck. Thin needles and translucent pipes protruded from the collar, snaking back into the machinery behind her, pulsing like veins of the lair itself.
Jethro exhaled quietly, st
