The Five Evolution

Chapter 44: Pressure & Promises (II).

『"Hey, you. Yes, you. There’s a bigger picture. You just don’t see it yet." — The Book』

Later that evening, the five of them stood outside the Library with official permission this time, which somehow felt stranger than sneaking in.

"We go in, get what we can from the Book, and leave," Ethan said, holding up a keycard with proper clearance codes. "No touching anything or reading random texts."

"That was one time," Hiro protested.

Ethan swiped the card and they moved in to find The Book waiting.

Its containment field was already down when they arrived. The thick tome sat proudly on its pedestal, pages fluttering with visible excitement the moment they stepped into the chamber.

"Well, well, well," the Book said with smug satisfaction. "Look who came crawling back."

Sophia’s right eyebrow immediately went up. "Bitch, you begged us to come here."

The Book’s cover tilted towards her. "Let’s not focus on who did what, shall we? And begged? Really?" Its pages ruffled indignantly. "The point is, you’re all here now. That’s what matters."

"So?" Amara stepped forward, arms crossed. "What is so important? Let’s hear it."

The Book’s pages did a little shimmy that might have been anticipatory excitement. "First things first, did you bring it? The song?"

"This was a fucking waste of time," Ethan said, already turning around.

Amara turned as well as they prepared to leave. "Agreed."

"Wait! Just hang on a moment!" The Book called. "You’re about to be deployed to Tokyo in less than a week. Do you really not want to know what I know about that?"

Ethan stopped mid-step and turned back around slowly, his eyes narrowing. "How did you know about that?"

The Book somehow managed to convey a condescending look despite being a book. "Does it matter how I know? The better question is: do you want the information or not?"

Hiro crossed his arms. "Should we not be concerned with how it sent those messages to our devices?" Hiro asked, already obsessing.

The Book gave a dramatic flutter of its pages. "I have my ways... as do others."

"Hey!" Raj pointed at it accusingly. "What’s that supposed to mean? That sounded ominous as hell."

"What’s what supposed to mean?" The Book tilted toward Raj.

"The ’as do others’ part!" Raj insisted. "That was super ominous!"

"That did sound hella ominous," Sophia agreed, nodding.

"I know right?" Hiro added. "That’s some foreboding shit right there."

"Enough!" The Book’s pages ruffled violently, creating a small windstorm in the chamber. "Enough with the pointless questions!"

It calmed down and its pages fluttered slowly. "So what’s it going to be? Are you going to play the song or not?"

They all exchanged glances with each other and there was an understanding in that moment.

Finally, Amara nodded. "Hiro."

"Just a second." Hiro ran out of the Library and in a flash, returned with a portable speaker in one hand, his phone in the other, and a cued up song.

"Sympathy for the devil in three... two... one..." He tapped his phone and Mick Jagger’s voice filled the room.

Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste...

The Book’s pages ruffled in what might have been pleasure. When the song ended, silence stretched for a long moment before it spoke.

"Magnificent," The Book said with genuine appreciation. "That song gets better every time. The Stones truly understood the art of musical storytelling."

The Book’s cover tilted toward them. "Now, your truth. Let’s see... what would be most useful at this particular juncture?"

The temperature dropped and every surveillance lens in the chamber clicked downward at once, their indicator lights dying.

"The Darkness Malice in Tokyo didn’t manifest randomly," The Book said, its voice taking on a more serious tone. "None of them do. The Four rifts, they were called."

"Called?" Amara asked, not certain she wanted the answer.

"Summoned specifically." The Book Clarified. "To test the Five."

"By who?" Sophia demanded, her helmet glowing as she tried to read The Book’s intentions and getting only static.

"Now that would be another truth, wouldn’t it?" The Book sounded amused again. "But I’ll give you this. Whoever summoned them has no good intentions for you."

"Yeesh..." The Book said with false sympathy as soon as it heard itself. "Your lives suck."

"So we’re being... auditioned?" Hiro’s voice cracked.

"More like hunted," Raj corrected grimly.

"Hunted sounds about right," The Book agreed with disturbing cheerfulness. "The Malices seem to be the opening act. Exciting, isn’t it?"

"That’s not exciting," Sophia said flatly.

"As I said, exciting." The Book’s pages ruffled again. "Now then, same time next week? I’m thinking ’Paint It Black’ for our next session. Really captures that sense of existential dread you’re all probably feeling right now."

The temperature of the room went back to normal, the cameras went back to functioning.

They all took a moment to process then turned around and left the Library. Even then, no one spoke for the first several minutes as their footsteps echoed through the corridor.

"So," Hiro said finally as they walked, "to summarize: We’re being hunted by someone powerful enough to summon Malices straight out of the Chaos Sea and we might get fucked in Tokyo?"

"Sounds about right," Amara confirmed.

"Cool. Just checking." He laughed, high and slightly unhinged. "We’re so screwed."

"Maybe," Ethan said. "But fucked or not, we’ve got a job to do."

Raj rubbed his chin. "Wait, doesn’t this mean, we aren’t actually the one attracting the Malices? That Tokyo wasn’t our fault?"

"Well..." Hiro’s voice went higher. "Technically speaking..."

Amara cut him off gently, placing her hand on Raj’s arm. "Tokyo wasn’t our fault, Raj. You have to accept that. Someone used us, used our presence to justify summoning that thing. But we didn’t cause it."

She gave him a soft smile, then pulled out her device. "The Director needs to know what we learned."

Amara pulled out her device and sent a message to the Director:

CRITICAL INTEL FROM THE BOOK: MALICES WERE SUMMONED DELIBERATELY. REQUEST URGENT BRIEFING.

She waited for thirty seconds, which became a minute. Then her device buzzed:

RECEIVED. BRIEFING 0600 TOMORROW. THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.

Soon after, a second message followed:

AND AMARA, GOOD INSTINCTS REPORTING THIS IMMEDIATELY. NOW GET SOME SLEEP.

She stared at the messages and read aloud, "This changes everything."

"No shit," Hiro muttered. "We just found out someone’s treating us like lab rats in a death maze."

""Get some sleep"", Sophia scoffed. "Right. Because that’s definitely happening tonight." She sighed. "I never signed up for this."

"I could knock you out?" Raj offered helpfully, cracking his knuckles. "Just a light tap. You wouldn’t feel a thing. Probably."

"Hard pass, tiny," Sophia muttered.

They made their way back through the Institute’s shifting corridors, the revelation from the Book settling heavy on all of them.

By the time they reached the Relaxation Center, exhaustion and anxiety had created a peculiar mixture of fatigue and jittery energy.

"I need food," Raj announced, heading immediately for the kitchen.

"I need strings, lots of it," Hiro said, claiming the couch and a gaming controller with his mind already making wild connections.

Sophia opened up the fridge and grabbed an entire carton of orange juice to sip on, joining Hiro on the couch.

Which left Amara and Ethan standing by the holographic fireplace, very aware that they’d promised to talk, and very aware that the others were pretending not to watch them.

"Walk with me?" Ethan asked quietly.

"Please," Amara said, already moving toward the door.