Marcus pressed his three-fingered hand against the observation window and stared at Auster's violet sky. The atmosphere had changed him—purple skin, enlarged skull, bat-like ears—but the real transformation ran deeper. He felt it constantly now, those tiny invisible fingers brushing against his thoughts, reading him, rewriting him from the inside out. Three times he'd pushed back, bending the atmosphere to his will. Three times people had suffered for it. Jenkins convulsed. Chen's body twisted into something new. Marcus pulled his hand away from the glass. He would master this force that remade him, no matter how long it took. But first, he had to understand what he was becoming. The Atmospheric Research Tower stood before him now, its glass panels catching the strange light. Metal beams crisscrossed the structure, holding sensors and equipment he didn't fully understand yet. This place would give him what he needed—data, patterns, answers. He walked through the entrance and felt the atmosphere press against him harder, as if it knew what he planned. His enlarged skull throbbed. The tiny fingers probed deeper. Marcus clenched his jaw and kept moving. He would learn the rules of this living air. He would find a way to push back without hurting anyone. The tower hummed around him, its instruments already recording the invisible exchange between his body and the sky. This was where it would happen. This was where he would take control.