The real war, however, was not where Jonah thought it was.

While Jonah and Vanessa faced the drones in space, millions of miles down on the ground, the real war was about to start.

CRACK-BOOM!

A powerful explosive blast blew the Syndicate data-hub's door. Seraph, Draven, and the Ghost Hunter team rushed into the room, holding their weapons up and ready to fight.

But no one was there.

The lab was clean. Rows of dark computer terminals stood silent. There were no papers scattered around, no half-empty coffee cups. There was not a single person inside.

"Clear!" one of the soldiers called out from the back room.

"Clear here too," another confirmed.

Draven brought down his energy shield, the golden light disappearing. He looked around the room, his eyes narrowed with suspicion. "It's too clean," he growled. "It's staged. They knew we were coming."

Seraph quickly looked around the room, gripping her weapon tightly. He was right. This wasn't a lab. It was a trap. But where was the ambush?

And then, everything went dark.

CLICK.

The lights died. The buzzing of the servers stopped. The screens on their wrists flashed and stopped working. For a moment, there was only total darkness and a ringing silence.

"What was that?" a soldier asked, his voice tight in the dark.

"EMP," Seraph said instantly, and her voice was dangerously calm. "That's an electronic pulse. They've shut down the entire city's power grid." She tapped the dead communicator on her shoulder. "This is Captain Seraph to Command. Do you read me? Command, respond!"

Only the quiet hiss of static answered her.

Then, they started to hear a noise. It was a low, steady thumping that grew louder and louder, coming from outside.

WHOOMPH... WHOOMPH... WHOOMPH...

It was the sound of heavy rotor blades, dozens of them, pushing the air down hard.

Draven moved quickly toward the big window that overlooked the corporate plaza. "Captain," he said, his voice low and urgent. "You need to see this."

Seraph stood next to him, looking out into the sudden, dark night. The city, usually bright and glowing, was completely dark. But the sky was filled with unfamiliar points of light. Dozens of them. Black, angular shapes with red lights, dropping from the clouds like a swarm of angry insects.

They were unmarked VTOL transport ships. An army.

As they watched, the ships stopped above key buildings across the city. Ropes dropped down, and soldiers quickly slid down the ropes. On the streets below, the doors on the sides of the VTOLs hissed open, and robotic soldiers marched out onto the street, their metal feet making sounds on the floor.

The soldiers moved with one shared goal, taking control of government buildings, communication towers, and military spots one by one. It was not a messy attack. It was a swift, and ruthlessly efficient coup d'état. A military takeover.

Seraph quickly turned around, and her face was pale in the faint, red emergency light that had just turned on in the room. She slammed her hand against her dead radio unit again, trying one last, desperate time. "General Ironwood! This is Seraph! The capital city is under attack! I repeat, the capital city is under attack!"

The radio suddenly made a loud crackling sound. For a moment, she heard screams, the sound of guns, and a man shouting. Then, a tearing sound, and then… nothing. The channel went dead.

A sudden chill ran through her body. The General's command bunker, the most secure military facility in the nation, had just gone silent.

At that exact moment, every screen in the room, from the big ones on the wall to the small, dead computers, suddenly turned back on.

A face appeared. Julian Sterling.

He was in a simple, expensive suit, standing in what looked like a news studio with a smile on his face.

"My fellow citizens," he began, his voice calm and smooth, broadcasting on every screen in the nation. "Tonight, our nation faces a very serious problem. Moments ago, our intelligence services confirmed a huge failure of leadership within our government."

Images of the fortress in the Shattered Peaks appeared on the screen behind him. "For months," Sterling continued, his voice full of fake sadness, "the Mystic Phoenix Academy has been conducting dangerous, unsanctioned experiments, creating weapons of terrifying power. They have lost control."

He looked straight into the camera, his eyes full of false sincerity. "The danger these projects create means we have to step in. Therefore, under an emergency law, the Sterling Syndicate is taking charge of national safety for now, to make sure everyone has a secure and successful future".

The broadcast finished, leaving his smiling face fixed on all the displays across the city they had just taken over.

Seraph understood the horrifying truth, and the realization made her chest tighten.

She looked at Draven, her eyes wide with a growing horror. He was staring at Sterling's face on the screen, his own face showing a mix of shock and anger.

It was all a lie. All of it.

Project Damocles. The space mines. The swarm of drones. The impossible battle that Jonah and Vanessa were fighting, millions of miles from home.

It was all a distraction.

"He wanted them to go to space," Seraph whispered, the words difficult to say. " He tricked them into leaving. He took the most powerful pieces off the board…"

"...so he could conquer the board itself," Draven finished, his voice a low, dangerous growl.

Sterling had not just planned a battle. He had planned a war on two fronts. He had sacrificed his most powerful weapon, his doomsday satellite, just to create the perfect diversion. He had sent the world's greatest heroes on a pointless mission to a fake battle, leaving their home, their friends, and their whole country completely unprotected for his main attack.

Jonah and Vanessa were fighting for a world that might have already been lost.

Seraph and Draven were trapped in a city that was now enemy territory.

On the screens, Julian Sterling kept smiling.

The villain had won.

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