The emergency notification took priority over everything else on the device, shoving lesser alerts aside and blooming across the small screen in stark white on red.
[EMERGENCY: WARD 7]
[Breach Confirmed]
[Estimated Hostiles: 100+ Xenons, 3 Tainted-class entities]
The text blurred for a moment.
He blinked and read it again.
Ward 7...
'Why now'
There were Xenon incursions all the time. But this — triple-digit Xenon count, three Tainted demons in one place, that wasn't a background incident. That was an event. A large operation. The kind of thing you planned around.
Why now.
Why at the exact time he was in ruined streets under a fake storm, killing a corrupted boy who had been told that he would be free if the Boss planted a seed.
The question repeated itself in his skull like a stuck notification.
'Why now, why now, why now.'
Why now of all times?
The communicator vibrated again, shifting from alert buzz to incoming call.
He looked at the origin line.
