My Scumbag System Chapter 626: The Price of Heroism

Her eyes bulged. Face turning purple. Hands clawing uselessly at my wrist.

"V-Valerius..."

The name hit me like ice water.

Julian’s family. Of course. Who else would have access to experimental anti-Aspect technology? Who else would be desperate enough to make a move like this during an active Gate operation?

I dropped her. She hit the rooftop gasping, hands going to her bruised throat.

Behind me, Reyna was trying to sit up. Her movements were sluggish. Uncoordinated. Whatever that device had done to her, it had hit hard.

"Satori..." Her voice was barely a whisper. "What... what happened..."

"Stay down." I moved to her side, keeping one eye on the fallen operatives. "You got hit with some kind of Aspect suppressor. Just breathe."

"Can’t..." She shook her head. Sweat beaded on her forehead. "Can’t feel my lightning. It’s like... like there’s glass between me and..."

Her eyes went wide with terror.

I’d seen that look before. On Zeroes. On people who’d never manifested. The sudden horrifying realization that the power you’d relied on your entire life simply wasn’t there anymore.

"It’s temporary," I said. I had no idea if that was true. "The effect will wear off. Just stay calm."

"How do you know?" Her voice cracked. "How do you know it’s temporary?"

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t answer. Because the truth was I had no fucking clue what that device had actually done to her.

Nel’s voice cut through my rising panic.

Two to four hours minimum. In a world where your Aspect was your identity, your livelihood, your everything.

I looked at the woman I’d dropped. She was still gasping, still clutching her throat.

"The effect," I said. "How long does it last?"

She laughed. Weak and bitter. "Wouldn’t you like to know?"

I moved toward her. She flinched.

"Okay! Okay! Usually a few hours. But she was already drained. Could be longer. Could be..." She swallowed. "Could be permanent if her channels were damaged."

Permanent.

The word hung in the air like a death sentence.

Reyna had gone still. Too still. Her breathing came in shallow, erratic gasps. Her eyes stared at nothing, seeing some horrific future only she could perceive. She was trying to process what she’d just heard—what it meant for her, for her career, for the identity she’d spent her entire life building.

"You’re lying," I said. My voice was flat. Dead. Because I knew she wasn’t.

"I’m not." The woman’s words came faster now, desperate. "The tech is experimental. Bleeding edge. We don’t understand all the side effects yet, all the variables, all the ways it could interact with different Aspect types. That’s the whole point. That’s why they needed to test it on someone—"

She caught herself. Stopped mid-sentence.

Too fucking late.

"On a high-value target," I finished for her. The pieces were clicking together now, forming a picture I really didn’t want to see. "Someone whose Aspect loss would be noticed. Would be . Someone powerful enough that the data from their suppression would actually matter. Someone who could provide real-world metrics on how this weapon affects A-Rank abilities."

The woman said nothing. Didn’t need to.

Her silence was confirmation enough.

A different kind of rage bubbled up inside me. Not the hot, explosive fury that made you do stupid things. This was cold. Sharp. Utterly focused. The kind of anger that turned into action plans and body counts.

These people hadn’t just attacked Reyna.

They’d this.

They’d used a legitimate Gate crisis as cover. Had waited——for Reyna to exhaust herself playing hero, to drain her reserves saving civilians, to push herself to the absolute limit doing the right thing. They’d weaponized her heroism, her sense of duty, her inability to walk away from people who needed help. All of it calculated. All of it planned. All so they could test their goddamn prototype on a lab rat who couldn’t fight back.

And Julian Valerius was behind it.

Had to be.

This had his family’s fingerprints all over it.

The pendant against my chest pulsed. Once. Twice. Three times in rapid succession. Natalia. She was feeling my anger through our bond, the raw emotion bleeding across three hundred miles of distance. She could sense the fury building inside me like a storm preparing to break.

"Medical team is ninety seconds out," Veronica’s voice crackled through the earpiece. Her usual bubbly affect was gone, replaced by something tight and controlled. Professional. "Satori, what’s your status?"

I looked at Reyna.

At the terror swimming in her eyes.

At the way her hands kept clenching and unclenching, opening and closing around empty air like she was trying to grab onto something that wasn’t there anymore. Trying to feel her lightning. Trying to summon the power that had defined her since she was six years old.

Finding nothing but absence.

"We have a situation," I said. Kept my voice level. Informative. The opposite of what I was feeling. "Hostile operatives attempted to kidnap Reyna during the operation. Two of them. I’ve neutralized both, but one of them hit her with some kind of Aspect suppression device before I could intervene. Unknown tech. She needs immediate medical attention."

Silence on the line.

Then Veronica’s voice came back. Stripped of every ounce of warmth. Cold as the void between stars.

"Understood. I’m dispatching additional security to your position immediately. Armed response team, full kit. Do not—and I mean —let anyone near my sister until they arrive. Anyone approaches without proper identification, you put them down. Questions later."

The connection cut.

I knelt beside Reyna. Her eyes found mine. Lost. Afraid. The invincible Crimson Comet reduced to a shaking girl who’d just had her entire identity ripped away.

"Hey." I put my hand on her face. Cupped her cheek. "Look at me."

She did. Tears were forming in the corners of her eyes.

"I’m going to fix this," I said. "Whatever it takes. However long it takes. I’m going to fix this."

"You don’t know that." Her voice broke. "You don’t know if—"

"Reyna." I made my voice firm. Certain. Even if I wasn’t. "I killed an A-Rank monster with a baseball bat and bad intentions. I survived a Black Gate that should have erased me from existence. I’ve been shot, stabbed, burned, frozen, and thrown off buildings. And I’m still here."

I leaned in close. Our foreheads almost touching.

"This Valerius tech? These bastards who did this to you? They’re just another problem. And I don’t lose to problems. I solve them."

She stared at me. Searching my face for doubt. For uncertainty.

She didn’t find any.

Because I’d buried it so deep even I couldn’t see it anymore.

"Okay," she whispered. "Okay."

The medical team arrived in a thunder of boots and shouted orders. Hunters in Olympus Rising colors securing the perimeter. Medics rushing to Reyna’s side with equipment I didn’t recognize.

I stood back. Watched them work. Kept one eye on the fallen operatives as security personnel secured them for transport.

The woman I’d interrogated was conscious. Alert. Her eyes tracked me as they loaded her onto a stretcher.

I walked over. The guards didn’t stop me. Probably didn’t dare.

"Tell Julian something for me," I said quietly. Softly. So only she could hear.

She tensed.

"Tell him that whatever game he thinks he’s playing, he just made it personal." I smiled. That same not-nice smile from before. "And I play for keeps."