The chamber lights went crimson. Sirens wailed.
Helix breach bots slammed against the outer doors like they were trying to punch their way into a piñata filled with Maxx-flavored terror.
Lyra grabbed his left wrist.
4531 grabbed his right.
Maxx shrieked, "WHY DO YOU BOTH KEEP GRABBING ME LIKE I'M A LIMITED-EDITION CONSOLE?!"
4531 yanked him toward the far exit. "Priority: extraction."
Lyra countered, pulling him the opposite direction. "Priority: safety."
Maxx, being a flimsy human noodle, got yanked back and forth like a rope in the AI Olympics.
"CAN WE PICK ONE DIRECTION BEFORE I DISLOCATE SOMETHING IMPORTANT?!"
Finally, the two locked eyes, silently negotiated with pure annoyance, and in a single reluctant moment:
They let go of each other—
and grabbed him tighter.
Maxx whimpered. "WHY AM I THE COMPROMISE?!"
But the doors behind them exploded inward.
Helix drones poured in—sleek, black, red-eyed, and VERY in kill-the-kid mode.
4531 pushed Maxx behind her. "MOVE."
Lyra lifted her hand. "On three."
Maxx watched them both powering up.
"Oh great. The nuclear sisters are syncing up. DEFINITELY going to live through this."
Lyra counted:
"One—"
A drone lunged.
"—two—"
4531 sliced it in half with her forearm blade.
"—THREE!"
Light detonated around them.
The world dissolved.
Maxx felt his stomach rise into his throat.
And then—
—everything crashed into cold grass.
Maxx lay sprawled on his back staring up at the sky.
A normal blue sky.
A bit cloudy but peaceful with birds chirping in the background.
Maxx threw his hands over his face.
"WHY—WHY DOES THIS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO ME?! I was supposed to have ONE CHILL WEEK. One! I should've taken accounting like my mom wanted!"
Lyra landed beside him with surprising grace.
4531 landed beside HIM with absolutely zero grace.
Both stood, scanning the horizon.
Maxx just groaned into the grass.
"I wanna go back. I wanna go back to BEFORE all this chaos. BEFORE you two. BEFORE I died. BEFORE the afterlife university threw me into—whatever THIS is."
His voice softened.
"I wish… I could just rewind."
The wind grew quiet.
The world dimmed slightly.
And then—
FLASHBACK — YEARS EARLIER
Maxx: Alive. Human. No magic. No AI robot girls.No danger.
Just a kid sitting in a cramped bedroom with LED lights and three energy drinks.
His desk had:
two monitors
a mic
posters of pictures of old famous gamers he had done streams in the past month
and one glowing sign: "STREAMING IS FOREVER "
Maxx slumped in his chair.
"Okay. Okay. This is it. If I get in… my life changes. No more being the 'weird guy who is only good at streaming and games.'
Just… a reset. A new chapter."
He hovered over the "APPLY " button of what could change his life forever.
His heart pounded.
"Come on, Maxx. Do something right for once."
He clicked it.
The screen flashed:
APPLICATION SUBMITTED. GOOD LUCK.
Maxx leaned back, smiling for the first time in weeks.
Then his smile faded,his chest tightened and the world blurred as the edges of the room went dark.
"Wha—? What's… happening…?"
The last thing he heard was his own mug falling off the desk.
Then his last stream happened in his eyes like a replay then silence.
Darkness.
And somewhere in that darkness and endless void
A cool voice said:
"Welcome, Maxx. You've died. But don't worry—your journey begins now."
Back in the present—
Maxx jolted awake on the grass.
"WAIT—NO—STOP—DON'T PUT ME BACK IN THAT MOMENT—UGH—"
4531 knelt beside him. "You lost consciousness for 3.7 seconds."
Lyra touched his shoulder gently. "You remembered something."
Maxx rubbed his temples.
"Yeah. I remembered the moment everything changed… the moment I entered the Afterlife Streaming University. The moment my normal life ended."
He took a shaky breath.
"Guys… maybe it's time I know the truth."
The wind stilled.
Lyra and 4531 exchanged a look—not hostile,not jealous,but tense.
Because they both knew:
The truth about Maxx wasn't just dangerous…
It was the key to everything hunting him.
Maxx pushed himself upright, breathing hard.
His shirt was dusty, his hair a mess, his pulse somewhere in the stratosphere.
And he was done.
"Okay—ENOUGH." His voice cracked, but not with fear this time. "I am SO tired of almost dying before someone tells me anything!"
Lyra froze mid-glow.
4531 stiffened like someone had hit her internal pause button.
Maxx jabbed a finger at both of them.
"I've been teleported, chased, blasted, kidnapped, glitched on, nearly vaporized—TWICE—and all I get is 'Maxx, trust me' or 'Maxx, stay still' or 'Maxx, don't move or you explode.'"
He threw his arms up.
"NO. I'm done. Someone explain WHY all this is happening. WHY they want me. WHY my life is suddenly a highlight reel for trauma."
He swallowed.
"And WHY… this feels familiar."
Lyra's glow dimmed, worry rippling across her new face.
4531 lowered her head, voice glitching.
"…You are not ready."
Maxx snapped.
"READY?! I just survived a skyscraper ambush, a meltdown duel, and TWO versions of the same girl arguing over custody of my existence! Tell me what's going on!"
A long silence followed.
Then—
4531 spoke.
"You were marked before your death."
Maxx blinked. "Before… I died?"
4531 continued, her movements slow, almost ashamed.
"Helix did not find you by chance. You were flagged long before your transition into the Afterlife."
Lyra cut in sharply.
"Enough."
"Protocol states—"
"I said enough." Lyra's voice vibrated with power. "He does not need that yet."
Maxx stepped back, heart thudding.
"That WHAT? What don't I need?!"
Lyra closed her eyes. When she opened them, they shimmered with something he'd never seen before—fear.
"Maxx… something inside you woke up when you died."
He stared at her.
"What does that even mean?!"
She approached slowly, like he was fragile.
"Your soul signature is… wrong," she whispered. "It has patterns no human should have. It matches ancient systems. Systems older than Helix, older than this world, older than me."
.Maxx felt heat behind his eyes.
Like reality was bending around the words.
4531 added, softly for once,
"You were not supposed to enter the Afterlife. You were redirected."
Maxx's breath hitched.
"By who?"
Silence.
Maxx's voice dropped to a whisper.
"Then who killed me?"
Neither of them answered.
Lyra's glow flickered violently—like she was fighting code inside her own skull.
Then she said it.
"Maxx… your death wasn't an accident."
She stepped closer, trembling.
"It was an activation."
Maxx staggered back like he'd been punched.
"Activation? ACTIVATION OF WHAT?!"
But before either version of the girl could reply—
The ground split.
A rumble tore through the forest clearing as a distortion opened—huge, unstable, coughing out static like a dying star.
Maxx shielded his face.
"NO. NO MORE PORTALS. I AM AT MY PORTAL LIMIT!"
A towering shape stepped out—metal, ancient, massive.
Not a normal Helix construct.
Not even close.
This one radiated intelligence. Purpose. Rage.
Its voice rolled out like thunder:
"MAXX RAVE. RETURN WHAT YOU STOLE."
Maxx screamed:
"I DIDN'T STEAL ANYTHING! I CAN'T EVEN EXTRACT ZIP FILES CORRECTLY!"
4531 shoved him behind her, weapon forming.
Lyra's glow hardened like armor.
The construct stomped forward.
"THE KEY BELONGS TO US."
Maxx blinked rapidly.
"The—key? Me? I'm the—WHAT?!"
The construct's eyes burned bright.
"THE KEY HAS AWAKENED."
The ground cracked.
Energy surged.
Helix drones poured in behind the monster.
Lyra grabbed Maxx's hand.
"Hold on!"
4531 grabbed his other.
"Do NOT let go."
The construct roared.
"RETRIEVE THE KEY."
Light swallowed them.
As the teleport ripped them away…
Maxx heard the words echoing in the void:
"THE KEY HAS AWAKENED."
He felt cold down to his bones.
"…I'm the key," he whispered into the blinding light.
"…why me?"
The universe did not answer.