CHAPTER 295: CHAPTER 295 THE CREATOR

Vanessa suddenly stood up from her chair without a word. Liam watched her, puzzled, as she crossed the room and grabbed a tall whiteboard leaning against the wall. With a determined grunt, she dragged it over in front of him, the bottom wheels squeaking lightly as it rolled across the cracked factory floor.

"What are you doing?" Liam asked, eyebrow raised.

Vanessa didn’t answer right away. She picked up a black marker from the tray at the base of the board, uncapped it, and began scribbling words across the surface.

"Let’s lay it out," she muttered.

She started by writing CRIMSON HAND in large letters on the left side of the board. Then she drew a short line connecting it to another name: GOLDEN BIRD.

Liam’s eyes narrowed.

Vanessa continued, her tone crisp. "We know the Crimson Hand is being backed by the Golden Bird. That much is obvious. Resources. Money. Power. That explains how they’ve expanded so quickly."

She paused, then wrote POLICE FORCE near the top of the board and drew another line connecting it to both previous names.

"Chief Josh Michelle," she said as she circled the words. "Corrupt. Weak. But smart enough to make alliances with people more dangerous than him. He’s letting the Crimson Hand operate right under his nose."

Finally, she stepped back, added a new word at the bottom of the board: THE RAVEN—writing it in bold, dark strokes—and drew lines from it to all three previous groups.

Now the board had four distinct names, all connected like branches of a growing tree.

Vanessa capped the marker and looked at Liam. "Four factions. Four separate entities that should have nothing to do with one another. The Golden Bird runs contracts and wealth. The Crimson Hand are your classic power-hungry thugs. The police are supposed to fight crime. And the Raven... well, they’re in a whole other league."

Liam crossed his arms. "And yet they’re all working together."

Vanessa nodded and then turned back to the board. She drew a large question mark in the center of the web where all four lines converged. Underneath, she wrote: COMMON GOAL = ?

She stepped back, studying it.

Liam tilted his head. "Isn’t the police’s goal just to get rid of the Black Lotus? That’s what it’s always been."

Vanessa turned to him with a grim look. "Liam... the Black Lotus is already gone."

Liam blinked.

She continued, "Chief Josh is working with the Crimson Hand. Probably always has been. He fed them everything they needed to take Lilith and the rest of the Lotus down. Think about it. The timing. The raids. The constant pressure."

Liam’s jaw clenched slightly. "And now they’re coming after me."

Vanessa nodded. "Exactly. They’re tying up loose ends."

Liam took a step toward the board, eyes locked on the center. "Why? Why get rid of every threat in their path?"

"Good question," Vanessa muttered. "What do they want so bad they’re willing to erase everyone who stands in their way?"

"Control?" Liam offered. "Take over the city?"

Vanessa gave a dry chuckle and rolled her eyes. "Seriously? You think they don’t already have it?"

Liam blinked.

She waved a hand at the map behind the board. "Liam... they control the police. They’ve crippled the underworld. They’ve got the money, the manpower, and now they’ve even got people like Clark on their side—people with powers. Who owns the city if not them?"

"...Right," Liam admitted with a grim exhale. "So it has to be something more."

Vanessa stared at the board for a few seconds, then muttered under her breath, "There’s something we’re missing..."

Liam furrowed his brows. "The serum?"

Vanessa froze. Slowly, her head turned toward him.

Her eyes widened as a slow smile crept across her face.

"You beautiful bastard," she whispered.

She spun around, uncapped the marker again, and drew a new shape above the others—a large, dark circle at the top of the board.

Then, in bold letters, she wrote:???: THE SERUM MAKER

Lines stretched from this new node down to every group below: the Crimson Hand, Golden Bird, Police, Raven.

"This is the missing piece," she said, her voice rising. "Whoever is making the serum—whoever figured out how to recreate your father’s formula—that’s the person pulling the strings."

Liam took a step back. "Vanessa... slow down. You don’t even know if that’s true."

"No," she said firmly. "I’m connecting the dots. These factions aren’t just working together. They’re evolving. They’re changing their structure, getting organized. And they’re doing it fast. Faster than anyone else could."

Liam stared at the board. His mind raced.

He didn’t want to admit it, but she might be right.

All of it—the serum, the alliances, the Raven, the attacks—it was all too clean, too purposeful. Like chess pieces being moved across a city-wide board.

And whoever created the serum had the power to reshape the entire game.

Vanessa gripped the marker like it was a weapon now. She pointed to the dark circle she’d drawn.

"This is who we need to find," she said with certainty. "Not the Crimson Hand. Not the Golden Bird. The creator. Because that’s the real mastermind."

Liam hesitated.

"...You’re starting to sound a little unhinged," he muttered.

Vanessa didn’t even blink. She stepped forward again, eyes alive with revelation.

"No, Liam," she said. "I see it now. I’ve figured it out."

He didn’t say a word. Instead, he just reached out, grabbed the rolling chair she had been sitting on earlier, spun it around, and sat down. Leaning back with his arms loosely on the rests, he looked at her and said calmly:

"Okay. You’re the genius right now. So talk. What exactly did you figure out?"

Vanessa stepped closer, her body language electric with momentum. She stood over him, one hand holding the marker and the other waving slightly as she paced a step.

"Let’s rewind," she said. "Weeks ago, you and Lilith killed Boss, right?"

Liam nodded once. "Yeah. She shot him. Point blank. Bullet right in the eye. The guy dropped like deadweight."

"And yet... three days later, he’s walking again like nothing happened." Vanessa’s tone was serious now. Her eyes locked onto his. "You see the problem?"

Liam frowned. "Yeah, I’ve thought about that. We didn’t just injure him. We killed him. That shot should’ve ended everything."

Vanessa leaned in slightly, eyes narrowing. "Then how do you explain him showing up again? Alive. Stronger. Not a scratch on him."

Liam blinked once, then slowly leaned forward in the chair. "...You’re saying Boss is an exogen too?"

"Exo- what?" Vanessa asked curiously.

Liam gave a small shrug. "We call them Exogens. People with powers."

Vanessa’s eyebrows raised. "Huh. Didn’t know you had a name for it."

"It’s what we came up with. Fits, I guess," he replied. Then he narrowed his eyes again. "You think the creator, whoever is making this serum got to Boss that night?"

"I don’t just think it," Vanessa said firmly. "I’m sure of it. There’s no other way he could’ve survived that kind of fatal shot, let alone recover that fast. Something was done to him. Something... unnatural."

Liam’s gaze sharpened. His jaw tensed as realization began to hit harder.

"And if that’s true," he said slowly, "then that means the creator didn’t just save Boss... he made him stronger. He gave him powers. Which means..."

"They struck a deal," Vanessa finished, voice quiet but deadly certain.

Liam ran a hand down his face as the pieces began to click together like gears falling into place. "The creator saves Boss. Boss agrees to work for him. In exchange, the Crimson Hand becomes something more than a gang, they start turning into powered soldiers."

Vanessa nodded like an eager student. "Exactly. And what better way to ensure control than by giving each faction a taste of that power? The Golden Bird funds the operation. The police are silent about it. The Raven? Who knows what they’re getting but clearly, they’re involved too."

Liam leaned back in the chair again, finally seeing the whole puzzle with unclouded eyes.

"It’s not about chaos. It’s not about territory," he muttered. "It’s a goddamn system. A new structure."

Vanessa’s expression brightened even more, and she pointed the marker toward him like she was declaring him top of the class. "Finally. You get it."

Liam exhaled sharply through his nose and looked away for a moment, piecing together her earlier theory.

"And you’re saying... if we take out the creator," he said, turning back to her, "we break the link. No more power to offer. No more influence. The alliance collapses."

Vanessa smiled wide and gave him a playful wink. "You grab."

Liam gave her a look. One eyebrow raised, lips pulled to the side in a mix of disbelief and mild amusement. "That’s not a sentence."

Vanessa just grinned and ignored the comment. She walked over to the board and, for the first time since she started her wild diagram, began clearing the scribbles. She set the marker back in its tray and turned around to face Liam fully.

Her tone shifted now. It wasn’t frenzied or rushed—it was focused.

"Let’s get to work."

Liam tilted his head. "Work?"