Leo knew the dinner was a mistake the moment he stepped into the restaurant.

The place wasn’t loud exactly, but it wasn’t quiet either. Cutlery clinked, low conversation drifted through the air, and somewhere near the bar someone laughed a little too hard. It was the kind of warm, busy Monday evening atmosphere most people found comforting.

Leo did not.

He paused just inside the entrance, the cold from outside still clinging to his coat, and watched his coworkers begin to spread out through the restaurant like iron filings pulled toward a magnet.

The magnet, of course, was Henry.

He was already at the front of the group, talking smoothly with one of the staff as if he owned the place. Erin was beside him, smiling up at him with the same bright, hopeful expression she always wore whenever he paid her the slightest bit of attention. It was always about Henry.

Running the company given to him by his father, Henry ruled it like a tyrant who could change faces at will. Smiling while he ripped you apart, then feigning concern about workplace attitude. Leo couldn’t stand him.

The others clustered close, eager in that way people always got around him, as if being near him might make some of his confidence rub off, or just pay them a bit more of his regal attention.

Or perhaps it was just fear.

The server gave their group of fifteen a quick once-over, then led them toward the back where a VIP section had been reserved. Leo followed with the rest, hands in his pockets, saying nothing.

“Come along, my young kouhai,” Thomas said, Leo’s only real ‘friend’ in the office. And that was because the man was a self-proclaimed self reject of society.

Leo just grunted, not in the mood for any talk about anime or games right now.

The décor was expensive without being obnoxious about it. Clean lines, dark wood, soft lighting. Modern furniture with small Japanese touches in the artwork and table settings, all of it clearly designed to make people feel like they were somewhere better than usual. Leo had heard the owner was eccentric. Apparently his lemonade was incredible.

He wasn’t here for the lemonade.

He was here because Henry had announced, in front of the whole office, that everyone was attending dinner and that anyone who skipped it was fired. Of course, he said it in a half-joke, half-threat.

But with Henry, no one—especially Leo—ever seemed fully sure where one stopped and the other started.

As they walked through the VIP area, Leo spotted a table of four men and a woman. Based on body language and attention, she was in charge. His eyes met hers as she looked up and he was momentarily stunned. Not just because she was gorgeous, but because her eyes were silver.

They gleamed in the light, and struck him with a feeling of danger that had him involuntarily shuddering. She looked away a moment later, and Leo kept moving.

Weird.

Arriving at the table, Leo moved toward the far end of it, hoping to disappear into a quieter seat where he could survive the evening without drawing too much attention. It was a habit as much as preference, keeping to the edges. He’d gotten good at it over his time working for Henry.

“Leo!”

He stopped, one hand on the back of the chair he had pulled out.

Of course.

Henry’s voice carried easily over the room, too loud and far too cheerful. “Get your ass up here. Come sit with me and Erin.”

Leo closed his eyes for the briefest second. There was no point pretending he hadn’t heard.

He turned and made his way back up the table, already feeling the shape the night was going to take. As he approached, Henry patted the empty seat beside him with a grin. Before Leo could sit, though, Monica slipped into it, blouse a little lower than usual and smile just as deliberate.

“Monica,” Henry said pleasantly. “I was saving that seat for my good friend Leo.”

Her smile held for a second too long, then wavered.

“Come on, honey,” she said softly, tracing a finger down the front of his shirt. “Wouldn’t you rather sit beside me?”

“I won’t ask again.”

The warmth vanished from Henry’s voice so completely it made Leo’s stomach tighten.

Monica laughed, but there was no real humour in it. “Of course. Sorry.” She got up quickly, smoothing her skirt as she moved. “Quick, Leo. Don’t keep the prince waiting.”

He sat down, blank faced.

Henry leaned in as soon as he did, close enough that Leo could smell his aftershave. Suffocatingly expensive.

“Now you get a front-row seat,” he murmured, “while I make Erin the last office notch on my belt.” He turned and smiled at Erin sweetly. She returned it.

Rage stirred in Leo’s gut, familiar and immediate, but kept his face blank and looked straight ahead. His fingers curled beneath the table until tension bit into his palms.

Erin was a sweetheart. He’d had a crush on her for a while. She was kind to him when no one else was. It hurt to see her be used by this monster.

He was in control.

He’d had to learn to be.

Henry leaned back, watching him. The lack of reaction seemed to irritate him more than if Leo had snapped.

Was that a good thing? With Henry, it was hard to tell.

The waitress came over to take drinks, and the noise around the table dipped as everyone started ordering. Leo had no intention of drinking. Alcohol just made people sloppy, and tonight already felt like something he’d need to survive with a stable mind and both eyes open.

“Just a lemonade, please.”

Henry turned his head immediately. “Oh, let me get one of those too. And one for Erin. Make those vodka lemonades.”

Erin smiled like she’d just been handed a crown.

Leo opened his mouth. “I’d rather not—”

Henry looked at him.

“...Vodka lemonade,” Leo muttered.

The waitress nodded politely. “I’ll need to see your ID.”

Leo handed it over, watching as she glanced at it, then gave a small smile before returning it.

Henry didn’t miss that smile.

Leo knew he saw it because the man’s expression sharpened with instant interest. Before Leo could slide the card back into his wallet, Henry snatched it from his hand.

“Yoink!”

“Can you give that back, please?” Leo asked, keeping his tone level.

“No chance. Not until I see what was so funny.”

Leo felt his jaw tighten.

Around them, people were still settling into their seats, still chatting, still laughing. No one was really looking yet. That would change in a second.

Henry turned the card over lazily, eyes scanning it.

Then he paused.

“...No way.”

Leo’s stomach sank into the floor.

Henry laughed, loud enough that several heads turned immediately. “Alright, hold on. Everyone, listen to this. You won’t believe it.”

Conversation dipped around the table.

Leo sat very still, trying to disappear while holding down his emotions.

“His name isn’t Leo,” Henry said, holding up the ID like evidence. “It’s Leonidas.”

There were a few confused murmurs at first while Henry continued laughing heartily.

Then someone snorted.

Henry leaned back in his chair, grinning wider. “Yeah. As in the Spartan king.”

Laughter spread more easily this time. Some of it uncertain, some genuine, some just joining in because Henry had decided something was funny and no one wanted to be the one not laughing.

Leo kept his eyes on the table.

He’d always been a little embarrassed by his full name when he was younger. Leonidas Hawkins. It had felt too big, too dramatic, like it belonged to someone else. His parents had loved old films and older stories. They’d named him after a warrior king because they thought it sounded strong.

After they died, the name had changed. It wasn’t embarrassing anymore. It was theirs.

A piece of them.

“You ever think about how badly that name fits you?” Henry asked.

Leo didn’t respond, which only encouraged him.

“What kind of parents call their kid Leonidas and end up with…” Henry looked him up and down, amused contempt written openly across his face. “..this?”

That did it.

Leo could take the jokes. He could take Henry. He’d been taking Henry’s smug comments, his needling, his constant petty humiliations for over a year now. Ever since that man had decided Leo’s quiet refusal to orbit him like everyone else was some kind of personal insult.

He could take all of that.

But not this.

Not his family.

Not to his face.

Something broke deep inside him.

The storm of emotions Leo had kept bottled up since childhood tore free.

The pressure came all at once, crushing and sudden, like the air in the room had been replaced by something heavy and angry. The temperature seemed to shift by the second. Hot. Cold. Hot again. Every conversation in the restaurant stuttered and died. Cutlery stopped clinking. Chairs scraped as people instinctively pulled back from tables without fully understanding why.

Leo’s fists were clenched so hard he felt something pop in his hands.

Next to him, Henry turned toward him with a smirk half-formed—

—and froze.

For the first time since Leo had known him, Henry looked afraid.

His face was caught in bone-chilling, nightmare inducing terror.

Leo’s vision had gone narrow, his pulse hammering in his ears. He could feel it, the storm was loose now, roaring through him with all the force he’d spent half his life pretending he didn’t have.

He was going to kill him.

The thought was clean, cold, and absolute.

He was going to cave Henry’s face in while the whole room watched, and for one terrible, violent second, the idea felt right.

Then he saw Erin.

She was staring at him like she was looking at something inhuman. That was enough.

The rage didn’t vanish, but it faltered. Just enough for thought to return. Enough for shame to creep in.

“I… need to go,” Leo heard himself say.

His voice shook. It still carried.

No one stopped him. No one said a word.

He stood too quickly, nearly knocking his chair over, and walked out of the restaurant in a daze, every stare in the room cutting across his skin on the way out.

The cold hit him like a slap.

Leo bent over with his hands on his knees, dragging in ragged breaths that didn’t feel like enough. His stomach twisted violently. He thought for a second he might throw up.

What the hell was that?

Leo squeezed his eyes shut, trying to steady his breathing. His morning had been completely normal. He tried to focus on it, on what he’d been taught by Boyd, his sort of mentor at the gym/dojo he attended.

“Control and focus.” Boyd would say. Ironic considering the man.

Leo’s mind drifted to the gym. Seeing the man he trained with every morning. To the one place where the noise in his head quited down, where he didn’t have to think about work, or bills, or whether he was doing enough to keep Natalie on her feet across the country while she studied.

An image of his bald head appeared, a big bushy beard below it. The man was built like a warhammer in human form, carrying his prized battle-axe he talked to, calling it Princess without any hint of shame.

Leo focused on the rhythms he liked to do. Strike, step, turn, again. In those moments, he could almost believe in the worlds he escaped to every night when his sleep wouldn’t come—worlds full of monsters and magic, danger and freedom.

At least in those worlds, the things trying to ruin your life had the decency to look like monsters. Not supermodels.

A strange stillness passed over the street.

Street lamps started to fade, then died completely.

The old factory on the hill, overlooking the supermax prison vanished in a rolling wave of smoke.

The traffic noise was gone.

The distant hum of conversation, even in the restaurant behind him, gone.

Even the cold itself felt distant now, like it had been pushed behind a pane of glass.

A dizziness swept through him so suddenly he staggered.

Then everything vanished. No light. No sound. No sensation.

Only black.

He didn’t know for how long he was there before the blue glow appeared.

A screen unfolded in front of him, luminous and impossible, hanging in the void as if it had always belonged there.

64th Integration Initialising

Universe integration sequence starting…

Planet Designation: Earth

Status: To be terraformed and assimilated

A beat passed.

Then new words formed.

Congratulations, initiate!

You have joined the multiverse!

Welcome to the System.