I was watching the quantum static between realities when I heard reality scream.

Not metaphorically – an actual scream, broadcasting across every frequency simultaneously. AM, FM, shortwave, quantum bands, even the weird signals from parallel Earths – all of them carried the same sound. Like reality itself was being torn apart.

"That's new," Olivia said, watching her quantum monitoring equipment spark and die. My friend had gotten used to weird phenomena around me, but this was different. The scream hadn't just overloaded her sensors – it had erased them from existence. The machines simply forgot how to be machines.

I tuned my consciousness across the electromagnetic spectrum, trying to isolate the source. The parallel Earth frequencies were going dark one by one, like someone unplugging Christmas lights. Even the shadow realm's mathematical broadcasts were distorting, their elegant equations corrupting into something else.

That's when I caught it – a signal hidden in the scream. Not data or voice or even those quantum numbers I sometimes picked up. This was... older. Like it existed before information itself.

"Kwan?" Olivia waved her hand in front of my face. "You're bleeding."

I touched my nose, felt wetness. "Something's coming through. Not from the parallel Earths. From... between them."

The signal pulsed, and reality rippled. I saw Olivia flicker, like a TV changing channels. For a moment, she was every possible version of herself – quantum physicist, resistance fighter, BACR agent, corpse. Then she stabilized, but the ripples kept spreading.

The lab's emergency sirens began wailing as reality started unraveling around us. Through the windows, I could see BACR troops converging on the building, their quantum-enhanced weapons glowing with unnatural energy. They knew what was happening. They'd been waiting for it.

That's when I received Asset 2174's dead man's switch.

It hit me like a lightning bolt to the brain – pure data, encoded in blood turned to binary. The Asset's last transmission, bouncing through electrical grids and quantum spaces, carrying a warning about something called Project Echo. About BACR's experiments with shadow energy. About things that lived in the spaces between realities.

The first explosion rocked the building as BACR breached the perimeter. I could feel their quantum dampeners trying to suppress my abilities, but something else was fighting back – the signal, using my power like an antenna.

"We need to move," I told Olivia, pulling her toward the emergency exit. "They're not here to contain this. They're here to ensure it happens."

The signal and the data merged in my mind, forming a pattern I didn't want to recognize. "Oh shit," I whispered, as understanding crashed over me. "They're not invaders. They're coming home."

"What?" Olivia steadied me as my knees buckled. "Who's coming home?"

A BACR tactical team burst through the door, weapons raised. I reacted instinctively, broadcasting on frequencies that made their neural implants overload. They dropped, blood pouring from their ears. I'd never used my power as a weapon before. Never knew I could.

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"The Umbras," I said, as we ran through corridors that kept shifting between different architectural styles. "The shadow entities. They're not from another reality – they're what's left of THIS reality. From before. We're living in what they... discarded."

The signal grew stronger, and with it came images: our universe, but older. Empty. Waiting to be filled. The Umbras weren't invading; they were reclaiming. Every parallel Earth, every quantum possibility – all of it built in spaces they'd temporarily abandoned.

We reached the quantum physics lab just as another BACR team found us. Their leader, a woman with metallic implants crawling across her skin, raised her hand. Reality itself bent around her fingers.

"Stand down, Mr. Park," she said, her voice distorting through multiple frequencies. "You're interfering with a designated manifestation point."

I responded by broadcasting the carrier wave I'd been building – every frequency the human nervous system used to function, all of them screaming at once. The BACR agents collapsed, their augmentations shorting out in sprays of sparks and blood.

"Jesus, Kwan," Olivia whispered, staring at the convulsing bodies. "What are you becoming?"

I didn't have an answer. Through my electromagnetic sense, I could feel them gathering. Not just in shadows anymore – in the static between radio stations, in the quantum foam between particles, in the milliseconds between thoughts. The spaces that even reality forgot about.

"BACR knew," I said, processing Asset 2174's data as we barricaded ourselves in the lab. "They've been working with them. Project Echo wasn't about controlling who gets powers – it was about preparing humanity for... integration."

"Integration into what?" Olivia asked, but I could tell she already knew. The quantum ripples were visible now, reality thinning like old fabric.

The lab's reinforced door began to glow as BACR cut through with quantum torches. I tried to broadcast a warning to the Displacement Underground, pushing my power to its limits. The signal fought me, trying to corrupt my transmission into its own pattern. Blood poured from my ears as electromagnetic frequencies I was never meant to access burned through my nervous system.

"Got to... warn them," I gasped. "The Umbras... they're not just watching anymore. They're—"

The signal peaked.

Reality broke.

The lab door exploded inward as reality fractured. BACR troops poured through, but they weren't alone. Shadows moved with them, wearing their shapes like cheap Halloween costumes. Some of the agents were already changing, their bodies twisting into geometries that shouldn't exist.

When I could see again, everything had... shifted. Colors that shouldn't exist bled through the air. Shadows moved like living things. And in the spaces between moments, I saw them clearly for the first time – the Umbras, wearing existence like an ill-fitting suit.

"Such primitive transmission methods," one of them said, its voice coming through every frequency at once. "Let us show you how it's done."

Then they were inside my head, inside my power. Using my electromagnetic abilities like a tuning fork to adjust reality's frequency. I felt my consciousness expand across the spectrum, touching every broadcast, every signal, every quantum possibility.

"Stop," I tried to say, but my voice came out as static.

"We're not stopping anything," the Umbras whispered through me. "We're finishing what we started. Reality needs to remember what it was before it learned to be solid. Before it learned to be... limited."

I fought them, tried to contain my power, but it was like trying to hold back an ocean with a paper cup. They were using me as an amplifier, turning my electromagnetic abilities into a key to unlock... everything.

The last thing I saw before the shadows took me was Olivia running for the quantum shielding room. Smart girl. She knew what was coming. Through fragmenting vision, I watched BACR agents and shadow entities merge into impossible forms, their screams harmonizing across frequencies that shouldn't exist.

As darkness filled my vision, I broadcast one final message – not to the resistance or the government, but to anyone who could still receive signals. Anyone who might understand what was happening.

"They're not invading," I transmitted. "They're rebuilding. And we're the raw materials."

Then the shadows took me completely, and all frequencies went dark.