*Detective Kathleen "Angel" Hyatt*
Kathleen sat in her car outside Solomon's warehouse, hands still shaking from what she'd seen in the garden five floors below ground. The timer on her phone showed 39:47:22. Less than forty hours until every person in Chicago would breathe in compounds that could rewrite human biology.
Her radio crackled. "Angel, where the hell are you? The mayor's calling an emergency session. We need every available officer."
"On my way," she said, but didn't start the engine yet.
Instead, she pulled out her notebook and started writing. Not an official report—this was too big, too strange for paperwork. This was her attempt to make sense of what had just happened.
*Modified the release parameters. Compounds will be airborne but dormant until consciously activated. People get to choose. Real choice, not forced evolution. Maya and Prophet helped reprogram the system. Solomon's subjects approved the changes.*
*Question: Did we just save Chicago or doom it?*
Her phone buzzed. Text from Maya: *You okay? That was a lot to process.*
*Still processing. Meet me at the station in an hour? We need to brief Morrison without causing city-wide panic.*
*Already heading there. Brought coffee.*
Kathleen finally started her car. Around her, Chicago looked normal—people heading home from work, evening joggers, kids playing in parks. None of them knowing that in thirty-nine hours and forty-three minutes, they'd face the biggest choice in human history.
The police station was chaos when she arrived. Every desk occupied, every phone ringing, officers trying to manage what the media was calling "the enhancement crisis." Street dealers pushing last-minute Chance sales. Families fighting over whether their kids should try enhancement. Supernatural communities nervous about humans suddenly having access to their abilities.
"Hyatt!" Captain Morrison spotted her immediately. "Conference room. Now."
Maya was already there, looking as shell-shocked as Kathleen felt. Also present: Agent Sarah Chen from the DEA, Dr. Amanda Wells from Chicago General, and three people Kathleen didn't recognize but whose tailored suits screamed federal government.
"Sit," Morrison said. "Tell me you have good news."
Kathleen looked at Maya, who nodded slightly. They'd agreed on the drive over—stick to the facts, avoid the more impossible details.
"We found the source of the enhanced compounds," Kathleen said. "An underground laboratory. The scientist responsible has been... experimenting on himself for months. Multiple transformations. He's not entirely human anymore."
"Is he under arrest?"
"He's not going anywhere. But Captain, there's something else. The laboratory was set to release massive quantities of enhancement compounds into the city's air supply. Automatic dispersal system."
Morrison went pale. "When?"
Maya answered. "Thirty-nine hours, twelve minutes, eighteen seconds."
"Can we stop it?"
"We modified it," Kathleen said carefully. "The compounds will still be released, but they'll be inert unless someone consciously chooses to activate them. Like... like having the option available, but not being forced to take it."
One of the federal agents leaned forward. "Agent Roberts, Homeland Security. Are you telling us that in less than two days, every person in Chicago will have access to enhancement compounds?"
"Voluntary access," Maya clarified. "Choice, not coercion."
"That's still seven million people with potential superhuman abilities."
"Seven million people with the opportunity to make their own decisions about their bodies and their futures," Kathleen shot back.
Dr. Wells spoke up. "From a medical perspective, this could be revolutionary. If people can choose enhancement with proper support systems, proper medical monitoring..."
"Or it could be catastrophic," Agent Roberts interrupted. "Mass enhancement without federal oversight, without military protocols, without—"
"Without government control," Maya finished. "That's what scares you, isn't it? People making their own choices instead of following orders."
The room erupted in arguments. Federal agents worried about national security. Local officials concerned about infrastructure. Medical professionals excited about possibilities and terrified of complications.
Morrison slammed his hand on the table. "Enough! Hyatt, bottom line—can this be stopped?"
Kathleen thought about Solomon's garden, the transformed subjects who'd found something beyond the limitations of human versus supernatural. About Prophet, caught between forms but somehow more whole than before. About the timer counting down to humanity's next evolutionary step.
"Probably," she said. "But Captain, maybe it shouldn't be."
"Explain."
"Look around. The enhancement wars, the species conflicts, the kids dying from street drugs because they're desperate to be more than human. We've been treating the symptoms while ignoring the disease."
"Which is?"
"The disease is inequality. Humans feeling powerless in a world where supernatural strength rules. The compounds offer a solution—real choice instead of genetic lottery."
Agent Roberts stood up. "Detective, I'm going to have to ask you to—"
"To what? Arrest me for preventing mass casualties? Because that's what we did down there. We took a system designed to force evolution and turned it into an invitation."
Maya pulled out her tablet. "I've been running numbers all afternoon. If even thirty percent of Chicago chooses enhancement, and if they have proper support systems, we could see crime rates drop, economic productivity increase, community cooperation improve."
"Or we could see enhanced gangs, economic disruption, and social fragmentation," Agent Roberts countered.
"We're already seeing that," Dr. Wells said quietly. "Enhanced individuals are already here. They're just underground, unsupported, dangerous because they're desperate. This brings it into the open where we can help people."
Morrison rubbed his temples. "What do you need from the department?"
"Information campaigns," Kathleen said. "Community meetings. Support networks. Medical protocols. We've got thirty-eight hours to prepare the city for the biggest choice they'll ever make."
"And if people choose badly?"
Maya answered. "Then we help them deal with the consequences. Same as we do with every other choice people make."
The meeting broke up with assignments—federal agents coordinating with military, medical personnel preparing emergency protocols, local police organizing community outreach. As people filed out, Morrison caught Kathleen's arm.
"Off the record—do you think this will work?"
Kathleen looked out the window at Chicago's skyline. Seven million people going about their lives, unaware that tomorrow they'd wake up to the most momentous day in human history.
"I think it's better than the alternative," she said. "Which was forced evolution whether people wanted it or not."
"And personally? Are you going to enhance?"
The question she'd been avoiding all day. Down in Solomon's garden, surrounded by beings who'd chosen transformation over death, she'd felt the pull. The possibility of being more than human, stronger than her limitations.
"Ask me in thirty-eight hours," she said.
Outside the station, Maya waited by her car. "How are you holding up?"
"Terrified," Kathleen admitted. "You?"
"Same. But also... hopeful? We gave people choice. Real choice. That has to count for something."
They stood in comfortable silence, watching the city prepare for evening. Soon, those streets would be full of enhanced humans. Or not. Depending on what seven million people decided was best for their lives, their families, their futures.
"Maya," Kathleen said, "what did we just do?"
"Changed the world. One way or another."
The timer on Kathleen's phone showed 38:27:15.
Thirty-eight hours to find out if humanity was ready for the next step in its evolution.