AfterShock Academy Chapter 7
708 Words
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## Chapter 7: Operation Backlash
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### Scene 1: Strategy Over Shadows
The Echo Ruins flickered with glowing glyphs. Giant stood in front of a massive projection screen made from reconfigured Linzite panels, coding faster than ever. Boy leaned against the wall, twirling a combat baton. Wah adjusted metal cuffs on his wrists, sparks dancing along his fingertips.
Luke stood in the center, eyes burning with a calm fury.
“No more watching. No more waiting. We flip the script.”
Giant nodded, pulling up surveillance routes. “I’ve tapped into their shadow grid. We know when and where they move—but it’s not perfect. They’re cloaking data in fragmented bursts.”
“Then we hit where they think we’re blind,” Luke said. “We bait them.”
Wah smirked. “Yessir. Operation Backlash is officially in motion.”
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### Scene 2: The Decoy Drop
The plan was simple: lure one of the spies into a fake intel exchange. Boy disguised himself in a hooded trench coat, mimicking the body language of a known informant. He walked into the abandoned GearUp Shop near the transit line, where a listening bug had been dropped the week before.
Hidden on rooftops and shadows, Luke and Wah waited.
Cael appeared ten minutes later, wearing his perfect smile, phone in hand.
“You’re early,” he said smoothly.
Boy didn’t speak. Just dropped a flash drive near the counter.
Cael approached—calm. Controlled.
But the moment he touched the drive, Wah triggered a magnetic pulse. The lights surged and flickered, and a faint distortion rippled around Cael’s face—**a mask glitch**.
Luke dropped down behind him like thunder.
“I know what you are.”
Cael backed up, pulling something from his pocket—but Boy disarmed him instantly.
“Try again,” Boy grinned. “We’ve been watching you watching us.”
***
### Scene 3: The Interrogation
Deep beneath the academy, in the Echo Ruins’ sealed chamber, Cael sat restrained by magnetic cuffs. Sweat beaded on his brow—not from fear, but from frustration.
“You think you’ve won?” he hissed. “There’s more of us than you think.”
Luke stepped forward, expression unreadable. “We know. But we’re not after all of you.”
He knelt, eye level with Cael.
“Just the ones who forgot what loyalty feels like.”
Cael smiled. “That would be all of us.”
Without warning, he bit into a capsule hidden in his mouth.
His body jolted—and a puff of smoke hissed out of his nostrils. The cuffs clanged open. But before he could vanish, Giant activated the failsafe—locking him inside a containment field.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
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### Scene 4: Nexus Reacts
Meanwhile, in the secret Nexus outpost beneath Astilia’s arcade, Mr. Xavier Lock watched the scene unfold on a cracked monitor.
A girl leaned against the desk beside him, braiding strands of glowing thread between her fingers. Her name was **Lura**, Nexus’s illusionist—ranked S-minus.
“They’ve started fighting back,” she purred. “Should we crush them?”
“No,” Xavier said, voice like thunderclouds. “We let them believe they’re winning.”
He turned toward a table where five other figures sat in the dark—each cloaked in anonymity.
“Time to awaken the others. We bring the next phase forward.”
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### Scene 5: Rebuilding Trust
That evening, the group gathered around Minnie in the greenhouse. The plants glowed softly, casting gentle shadows over their faces.
“They’ll come for me again,” she said quietly. “And I won’t be lucky next time.”
Luke knelt beside her, holding her hand.
“You won’t need luck. You have us.”
Boy raised his can. “To Operation Backlash.”
Wah grinned. “And to the smoke we’re about to bring.”
Giant adjusted his glasses. “This is just Phase One.”
They all knew it. The war hadn’t started—it was still waking up.
But the first blow had been delivered. And it wasn’t from Nexus this time.
***
**To be continued...**
**Next Chapter: “Phase Two: Blood in the Garden”**
- Writer
