Chapter 193: Agent Julie
"...and to repeat our top story this hour, the situation at the dome has only grown more dire."
The news anchor’s voice filled the quiet interior of the car, tight, grim, and barely holding steady beneath the low, muted purr of the engine.
"In the hours since the villain’s global broadcast, a number of heroes from neighboring regions have arrived at the affected zone. Against all warnings from local authorities, several have chosen to enter the dome in a desperate attempt to rescue those trapped inside." A heavy pause lingered over the airwaves, punctuated only by the soft hum of the dashboard electronics. "We must report that not one of them has come back out. Every hero who has crossed into the dome has vanished from all contact the moment they stepped through the barrier. No signals. No transmissions. No emergency beacon pings of any kind. As of this broadcast, the official number of heroes who have entered that dome and returned stands at zero."
The anchor’s professional composure cracked, just slightly, her voice wavering as she read off the raw teleprompter.
"We are urging all heroes currently watching this broadcast: Please. Do not enter. Whatever is waiting inside that dome, no one who has walked into it has walked back out."
In the front passenger seat, Selena stared blankly at the high-definition display set into the dashboard. She said nothing.
She was, once again, quietly reeling in her seat, though this time it had nothing to do with the grim news report playing on the screen.
It was the car.
Because the machine carrying them toward the end of the world was, without a shred of exaggeration, the single most expensive vehicle she had ever sat inside. It was low, sleek, and eerily silent, crafted entirely from hand-stitched leather and cool, brushed metal—a custom-engineered hypercar worth far more than most high-ranking heroes earned across an entire decade. And it belonged, of course, to the exact same man who was perpetually, mysteriously broke. The same man with the hidden armory, the underground shooting range, and an itemized stack of medical debt to Dr. Cho that he claimed he could never seem to clear.
’A private arsenal. A shooting range right beneath his living room floor. And a car that costs more than a regional Hero Association branch,’ Selena thought bitterly, watching the massive, glowing dome grow larger on the horizon through the windshield. ’And he still complains about paying his clinic bills on time.’
She turned her head slowly to look at him. Nicholas was driving them straight toward an active doomsday zone with one casual hand resting on the steering wheel, wearing the exact same bored, indifferent expression he used when ordering takeout for dinner. She opened her mouth to demand a full financial audit.
Then, she snapped it shut again.
’No. I’m not asking. I am absolutely not going to ask him where all the money goes anymore. I don’t want to know.’ She faced forward, her jaw setting hard. ’Every single time I learn something new about this man, I lose an entire year off my life. The hidden armory took two years. The secret murder basement took three. If I find out what this car actually cost, my heart will give out before we even reach the perimeter.’
She folded her arms tightly over her chest, stared straight through the glass, and made her quiet peace with never knowing the truth.
In the back seat, Julie had her face pressed flat against the tinted window. For once, the pink-haired streamer was completely silent, watching the colossal dome swell across the sky as they approached the boundary line.
It was staggering in scale. Up close from the highway, it filled their entire field of vision—a vast, shimmering wall of translucent, shifting light that curved up into the night sky well beyond the clouds, sealing off an entire state beneath its shell. Behind that glowing veil, the city burned in muted, dreamlike colors. The abandoned highway border checkpoint, which had once simply marked the division between two states, now stood as the dividing line between the normal world and whatever nightmare the Master had constructed inside. Empty, abandoned civilian cars were scattered along the asphalt, their headlights cutting through the growing dust.
Nicholas took them in fast.
He didn’t slow down for the barricades of the abandoned checkpoint. He downshifted smoothly, the engine dropping into a deep, aggressive snarl that vibrated through the floorboards. At the absolute last second, he jerked the steering wheel and stomped on the brake pedal. The rear tires broke loose, kicking the car sideways into a long, flawless drift. Rubber screamed against asphalt, leaving a wide arc of white smoke behind them as the vehicle slid to a perfect stop entirely parallel to the shimmering wall of the dome—close enough to reach out and touch through an open window.
The engine ticked softly into silence.
"Show-off," Selena muttered under her breath, slowly unclenching her white-knuckled grip from the door handle.
"We’re here," Nicholas said, completely unbothered as he killed the ignition.
They stepped out of the luxury car into the strange, humming quiet at the dome’s edge. This close to the boundary, the massive wall of light towered over them like a sheer glass cliffside—silent, beautiful, and fundamentally unnatural. The air itself felt strangely dense, as though the barrier were exerting a subtle physical pressure against the rest of the world. Even the ambient city noise from behind them seemed to deaden in its presence.
Nicholas leaned casually against the warm hood of the car, crossing his arms over his chest, and turned his one good eye on Julie.
"Once more. Walk me through the plan. All of it. I want to hear you say every step out loud, so I know it’s locked in your head and not just in your mouth."
"Ugh, fine, dad." Julie rolled her eyes, but she immediately straightened her posture as she spoke.
"I go in first." Julie held up her camera in one hand. With the other, she popped open a slim tactical case strapped to her hip, revealing a tight cluster of miniature, folded reconnaissance drones resting inside like sleeping insects. "I release the swarm. They spread out across the entire district—every street, every alley, every rooftop—scanning for anything that looks like an ambush, a patrol, or whatever traps the Master has set up past the wall." She gently patted the camera body. "And everything the drones capture, my innate ability projects straight back out here, live, for you two to watch from the outside. No matter what the dome does to conventional radio signals, my personal projection feed will cut through. You’ll see exactly what I see, in real time."
"And you touch nothing," Nicholas reminded her, his voice dropping into a hard, cold register. "You engage no one. You are a lens on legs, nothing more. The second you’re spotted, or the second anything inside looks your way, you do not try to fight, and you do not stay to film a dramatic close-up. You run."
"Lens on legs. Run if spotted. Touch nothing." Julie nodded crisply, tucking the camera firmly against her chest. "I’ve got it, boss."
Selena stepped up beside her, crouching down slightly to meet her gaze. Her voice was uncharacteristically gentle, carrying a layer of genuine worry.
"Julie. Seriously. You’re going to lose your ability the moment you step across that line, just like everyone else did. If they catch you in there, there’s no backup power coming to bail you out. Just your legs and your own wits."
"Then it’s a good thing," Julie said softly. For a brief second, the chaotic, manic energy around her settled into something remarkably steady—something almost fearless. "It’s a good thing that being completely underestimated and running exceptionally fast are the two things I do better than anyone alive."
She turned around to face the towering wall of light.
She drew in a deep, steady breath. She pulled her pink jacket straight. She buried her fear deep down where no one could see it. And then, puffing out her chest with all the ridiculous, magnificent confidence of a woman about to march into an active doomsday zone armed with nothing but a video camera, she planted her fists firmly on her hips.
"Agent Julie, reporting for duty!" she announced at full volume, striking an exaggerated superhero pose against the glowing barrier. "Codename: Peach Fairy! Mission: total infiltration!"
"Julie, please—" Selena started.
"The enemy has NO idea what’s coming for them!" Julie declared, jabbing a confident finger straight at the shimmering wall, grinning from ear to ear. "They think they’ve got the strongest heroes in the world on lockdown? Ha! They definitely weren’t ready for the sneakiest woman on the planet! Villains, beware! Agent Julie is on the ca—"
She took a confident step forward and passed right through the surface of the dome.
And the instant she crossed the line, her voice cut off dead by the sight in front of her