Water shouldn't flow upward.

  Filu ducked as a stream of liquid shot past her head, solidifying midair into crystalline shards before dissolving back into mist. Her tattooed arms burned with the strain of maintaining a protective barrier around herself and Urgan. The runes etched into her green skin flared crimson with each pulse of magic.

  "The twins have much explaining to do," she growled, staff braced against the warped floor.

  Urgan grunted agreement, his massive shield deflecting another wayward stream. The ash-gray orc's red eyes narrowed as he scanned the chaos ahead. "If we survive to hear it."

  They'd arrived at the water purification facility to find it already compromised. According to Warren's intelligence, the Pinpoint Rift had been installed near the primary filtration systems—a strategic choice that threatened Avalon's water supply. But what they hadn't anticipated was the twins' enthusiastic "investigation" triggering early activation.

  "Skitters!" Filu called into her comm. "Report!"

  Static hissed for several seconds before the goblin sniper's voice broke through. "Filu! Filu! Bad things happening! Twins touch glowy ball, now water dancing!" A high-pitched cackle followed. "Also, guards shooting at us!"

  A section of flooring rippled beneath their feet, metal flowing like liquid before resolidifying in a different configuration. Urgan staggered but kept his balance, decades of battlefield experience evident in his steady stance.

  "We need to reach the central chamber," Filu said, consulting the facility schematics on her AetherLink. "The device should be—"

  A blur of green motion cut off her words as Rakk skidded around the corner, his oversized cleaver leaving sparks along the metal floor. The goblin berserker's yellow eyes widened at the sight of them.

  "Boss! Big gray! You come!" he shouted, bouncing with manic energy despite the dimensional chaos surrounding them. "We find shiny doom-ball! Very angry now!"

  "Where's Vraza?" Filu demanded.

  Rakk grinned, revealing rows of needle-sharp teeth. "Sister playing with guards. They have funny guns that go BZZZZT!" He mimicked an explosion with his hands. "No hurt much though."

  Filu fought the urge to blast the goblin with a minor shock spell. "Take us to the device. Now."

  They followed Rakk through corridors where reality increasingly frayed at the edges. Pipes phased through solid walls, emptying their contents into rooms that shouldn't have been flooded. Maintenance drones moved erratically, some floating upside down, others merged halfway into the floor.

  The facility workers had evacuated, leaving behind half-completed tasks and abandoned equipment. In their place, security forces in Metcom uniforms patrolled with weapons that hummed with dimensional energy.

  "Void tech," Urgan observed as they ducked behind a processing tank to avoid detection. "Same as Squad One reported."

  Filu nodded, stretching her magical senses outward. The signature of the Pinpoint Rift dominated everything, a discordant note that made her horns ache. But beneath it, she detected something else—a familiar presence.

  "Vraza and Skitters are pinned down in the next chamber," she reported. "Four hostiles, armed with dimensional disruptors."

  Urgan readied his shield. "Plan?"

  Filu's tattoos glowed as she traced arcane symbols in the air. "You breach, I disable. Rakk..."

  The goblin was already vibrating with excitement, cleaver raised.

  "...try not to kill anyone unless absolutely necessary."

  Rakk's face fell momentarily before brightening again. "Can I hurt little bit?"

  "Just enough to incapacitate," Filu conceded, knowing it was the best compromise she'd get.

  They moved with coordinated precision born from months of Tower training. Urgan charged first, shield forward like a battering ram. The massive orc crashed through the doorway, immediately drawing fire from the Metcom guards.

  The dimensional disruptors discharged with a sound like reality tearing. Where the energy bolts struck Urgan's shield, space itself rippled and distorted. But the shield—enhanced with Tower technology—held against the assault.

  Filu swept in behind him, staff tracing complex patterns in the air. The runes along her arms blazed as she released a wave of counter-energy, targeted specifically at the guards' weapons. Two of the disruptors sputtered and died, their power crystals cracking under the magical interference.

  Rakk needed no further invitation. The goblin berserker launched himself into the fray with a gleeful shriek, his cleaver whistling through the air. He struck with the flat of the blade, showing unusual restraint as he knocked one guard unconscious.

  From across the chamber, a matching green blur joined the attack. Vraza swung down from an overhead pipe, landing on the remaining guard's shoulders. The female goblin wrapped her legs around his neck and covered his eyes with her hands.

  "Guess who?!" she cackled as the disoriented guard spun in circles, trying to dislodge her.

  Skitters emerged from behind a control panel, crossbow trained on the struggling pair. "Hold still, hold still! Skitters want clean shot!"

  "Enough!" Filu commanded, asserting control before chaos truly descended. "Secure the prisoners. Where's the device?"

  The twins exchanged a look that combined mischief with something approximating guilt. Vraza released her grip, allowing the guard to crumple to the floor before Urgan secured him.

  "We find in big water room," Rakk explained, gesturing toward a nearby doorway. "All glowy and humming. Vraza poke with stick, then big boom! Water start dancing, so we run."

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  "You activated an interdimensional device... with a stick," Filu repeated, voice dangerously calm.

  The twins nodded in unison, apparently missing her barely contained fury.

  Skitters, more attuned to the orc mage's moods, edged away slightly. "Not Skitters' fault! I say 'no touch' but twins never listen good."

  "Show me," Filu ordered, shelving her anger for later. The mission took priority over disciplining the twins.

  The central purification chamber was a vast circular space dominated by a series of concentric pools. Under normal circumstances, water would flow through these in a carefully regulated purification process. Now, however, liquids defied containment—flowing upward, separating into constituent elements, or coalescing into semi-sentient shapes that reached toward anyone who approached.

  At the chamber's center, suspended above the primary pool, hovered the Pinpoint Rift device. Unlike the prototype they'd seen in the warehouse, this one was fully activated. Its metallic surface shifted through colors that hurt the eyes, while the void core at its center had expanded to the size of a human head.

  "The dimensional breach is growing," Filu observed, tracing diagnostic runes in the air. "It's still contained within the device, but the effect is leaking into surrounding space."

  "How do we stop it?" Urgan asked, maintaining a defensive position as Skitters and the twins secured the perimeter.

  Filu withdrew a specialized containment device from her pack—a pyramidal crystal structure developed by the Tower's R&D department. "This should stabilize the rift long enough for transport back to the Tower."

  She approached carefully, each step calculated against the unpredictable dimensional fluctuations. Water surged around her boots, sometimes solid, sometimes vapor, never consistent for more than a few seconds.

  The containment device in Filu's hands vibrated as she approached the Pinpoint Rift, responding to the dimensional instability radiating from the void core. Her tattoos flared brighter as she wove protective magic around herself, creating a buffer against the worst of the spatial distortions.

  "Stay back," she warned the others. "If something goes wrong, be prepared to evacuate immediately."

  Twenty feet from the device, resistance increased. The air thickened like syrup, each step requiring more effort than the last. Fifteen feet, and the tattoos on her arms burned hot enough to smoke. Ten feet, and she could hear whispers—voices speaking in languages that existed before the concept of sound.

  "Boss struggling," Rakk observed, cleaver twitching nervously in his hands.

  "Should we help?" Vraza asked, unusually somber as she watched Filu fight against the dimensional current.

  Urgan shook his head, shield raised protectively. "We'd only make it worse. Her magic gives her resistance the rest of us lack."

  At five feet from the Pinpoint Rift, Filu's forward progress halted completely. The device seemed to recognize her intent, responding with a pulse of void energy that pushed her backward. The water in the filtration pools rose in undulating columns, forming a barrier between her and the target.

  "Clever design," she muttered, studying the defensive response. "It's not just broadcasting dimensional instability—it's actively protecting itself."

  She planted her staff on the warped floor, channeling a more focused counter-spell. The runes along the darkwood shaft ignited, matching those on her skin. The water columns wavered under her magic's influence, their movement becoming erratic rather than purposeful.

  "The opening I make won't last long," she called to her team. "Skitters, when I give the signal, you'll have one chance to place the containment device."

  The goblin sniper nodded, readying the secondary containment unit they'd brought as backup. His small size and natural agility made him the logical choice for a quick insertion.

  Filu drew a deep breath, focusing her considerable magical reserves. The tattoos covering her arms weren't merely decorative—each represented a school of magic she had mastered during her long life before the Tower. Now she called upon them all simultaneously, spilling their power into a single concentrated spell.

  "Paths Unbind, Ways Unmake," she intoned, her voice gaining resonance as she tapped into arcane energies.

  The water columns froze mid-undulation, dimensional forces momentarily suspended. A narrow corridor opened between Filu and the Pinpoint Rift, reality briefly stabilized by her magic.

  "Now, Skitters!"

  The goblin darted forward, moving with preternatural speed. His feet barely touched the ground as he wove between the frozen water columns, containment device clutched tightly to his chest. For all his usual chaotic energy, Skitters could display remarkable focus when necessary.

  He reached the Pinpoint Rift just as Filu's spell began to falter. The water columns shuddered, dimensional forces reasserting themselves. With a final burst of speed, Skitters slammed the containment device against the Rift's base and activated it.

  Crystalline structures sprouted from the pyramidal device, encapsulating the Rift in a lattice of dimensional stabilizers. The void core pulsed violently as containment protocols engaged, its darkness straining against the constraining geometry.

  "Got it!" Skitters cried, already retreating. "Shiny doom-ball very angry!"

  "Back to the perimeter," Filu ordered, her staff sweeping a covering arc as Skitters scrambled to safety.

  The captured Rift device emitted a sound like no earthly instrument could produce—a discordant vibration that rattled bones and twisted the inner ear. The water columns collapsed, splashing back into their pools as dimensional forces reconfigured around the containment field.

  For a moment, it seemed the crisis had been averted. The chaotic dimensional effects throughout the chamber began to subside, reality reverting to its normal parameters.

  Then the void core pulsed once more—harder, angrier—and cracks appeared across the containment field.

  "It's failing," Urgan observed grimly. "The device is too strong."

  Filu's mind raced through alternatives. This Pinpoint Rift was further along in its activation sequence than they'd anticipated, thanks to the twins' "investigation." The standard containment protocols might not be sufficient.

  Her comm unit crackled. "Squad Two, report status." Zark'thul's voice, unnaturally calm despite the crisis unfolding across Avalon.

  "Sir, we've located the water facility Rift, but standard containment is failing," Filu replied. "The activation sequence is too far advanced."

  A brief pause, then: "Implement Protocol Omega. The device cannot be salvaged—it must be neutralized completely."

  Protocol Omega—the last resort. Complete dimensional negation, rendering the target area temporarily outside normal space-time. Effectively erasing a small portion of reality itself.

  "Sir, that protocol has never been field-tested," Filu cautioned. "The collateral effects could—"

  "Are irrelevant compared to city-wide dimensional collapse," Zark'thul interrupted. "Implement immediately. I am proceeding to the Grand Terminus."

  The communication ended. Filu turned to her squad, expression grave. "Evacuation protocol. Clear all personnel from a two-hundred-meter radius."

  "What about device?" Skitters asked, eyeing the increasingly unstable containment field.

  "I'll handle it." Filu withdrew a small obsidian pyramid from a specialized compartment in her pack—the Omega trigger. "This requires a focused magical signature to activate properly. The rest of you would only be at risk."

  Urgan studied her face, centuries of battlefield experience allowing him to read the subtle tension in her features. "You're not telling us everything."

  Filu met his gaze steadily. "Protocol Omega temporarily removes the target area from normal space-time. The magical feedback could be... unpredictable for the caster."

  "You mean it might kill you," he translated bluntly.

  "A calculated risk."

  The orc tank shifted his massive shield, positioning it between Filu and the twins. "We'll clear the facility. Ten minutes enough?"

  She nodded. "More than sufficient. Go."