His phone buzzed. Then his PC screen flickered back on, but the wallpaper was gone. A single line of green text scrolled across the black screen: Package deployed. Host recognized. Installation complete. Please insert cartridge to begin. Leo looked down at his hands. They were shaking. He turned the Switch over. The game card slot was empty. But he felt something there. A pressure. A weight. As if the console itself had grown a phantom limb.

He opened Tinfoil, navigated to "SD Card," and scrolled down. Zelda: Echoes of the Abyss [UP].nsp.

“No,” Leo muttered, jamming the Power button. Nothing. The Switch was locked. His PC monitor went black. The lights in his apartment dimmed. The only light left was the Switch screen, now burning a cold, sterile white.

And in the photo, someone was standing behind the frosted glass. Wearing a long coat. Holding something small and rectangular.

He injected the payload from his PC—a little green dragon icon that meant Hekate was booting. The Switch screen flickered to life, not with Nintendo’s cheerful red, but with a stark, hacker-friendly menu. Launch. Tools. Payloads.

He pressed A.

Ready to play.