Kandy's voice, sharp and piercing, drew the eyes of everyone nearby, including Mrs. Pemberton and a curious Tansy Kelley.

She sauntered over to Alyssa, theatrically pinching her nose. "Are you actually sleeping on the street? Get away from me. I don't want to catch your poverty."

Alyssa's gaze remained flat, her expression unchanged. She simply looked through Kandy, as if she were a pane of dirty glass. This infuriated Kandy more than any insult could have.

"What is wrong with your hotel?" Kandy screeched at the security guards. "You just let anyone in? She used to steal things from our house! You should arrest her!"

The guards, already convinced Alyssa was trouble, nodded grimly.

Suddenly, a pained gasp came from nearby.

Tansy Kelley's body went limp. Her face turned a frightening shade of blue, her breathing ragged. Her limbs began to twitch in a violent, uncontrolled seizure.

"Miss Tansy!" Mrs. Pemberton shrieked, her composure shattering. "What's wrong? Someone call an ambulance!"

The entrance dissolved into chaos. The doorman and guards panicked, frozen in place. Kandy's eyes widened, a sick flicker of excitement on her face as she prepared to watch the drama unfold.

But Elisa heard Mrs. Pemberton mutter a sentence to herself: "Genetic shock."

Her eyes sharpened.

In a flash, she shoved past a guard and was at Tansy's side.

"What are you doing?" Mrs. Pemberton cried, trying to shield Tansy. "Get away from her!"

Alyssa ignored her completely. She knelt, her fingers pressing against Tansy's carotid artery, then against several nerve clusters on her neck. Her movements were precise, economical, and utterly professional. From a small pouch on her belt, hidden beneath her hoodie, she produced a thin, sterile case containing several long, silver needles. It was a toolset no ordinary student would carry.

"Alyssa, are you insane?" Kandy screamed. "You're going to kill her! If anything happens to her, you'll be in jail for the rest of your life!"

Kandy lunged forward, trying to pull Alyssa away.

"Get back!" Alyssa snapped, without even looking up. "Touch me again, and she dies."

The raw authority in her voice was absolute. It stopped Kandy cold.

Alyssa barked an order at Mrs. Pemberton. "Lay her flat. Elevate her head. Loosen her collar. Keep her airway clear. Now!"

Stunned, Mrs. Pemberton found herself obeying without thinking.

With a speed that blurred her hands, Alyssa inserted three of the silver needles into specific acupressure points on Tansy's neck and wrist. It was a high-risk, ancient technique designed to manually regulate a failing nervous system.

Seeing the needles, Kandy started screaming again, this time with triumph. "Look! Everyone, look! She's stabbing her with some unknown drug! This is illegal! It's murder!"

She fumbled for her phone and started recording, a vicious smile on her face. The headline was already forming in her mind: Homeless Woman Attacks Heiress with Street Drugs at Grand Hyatt.

The crowd of onlookers murmured, pointing at Alyssa with a mixture of fear and disgust.

The security guards surged forward, determined to stop her.

Alyssa blocked it all out. She twisted one of the needles a precise quarter-turn. The world narrowed to a single point: the faint, faltering pulse beneath her fingertips.

Upstairs, Dalton Kelley's patience finally broke. He stood up, his chair scraping against the floor. "Has 'The Surgeon' arrived or not?" he growled at his assistant. "I'm not waiting any longer. Let's go check on Tansy."

He strode toward the elevator, completely unaware that downstairs, his sister's life was hanging by a thread, and the doctor he was desperately waiting for was being treated like a killer.

The guard's hand clamped down on Alyssa's shoulder, but she didn't flinch. She calmly made one final, minute adjustment to the needle in Tansy's neck, then looked up at him with eyes devoid of all emotion.

"It's too late!" Kandy shrieked, her voice filled with victory. "You all saw it! She stabbed her! Call the police! Arrest her right now!"

Mrs. Pemberton, her face white with terror, leaned over Tansy, her hand trembling as she checked for a breath. She looked like she was about to faint.

At that moment, an older, distinguished-looking man in a tailored suit hurried out of the hotel. A badge on his lapel read: "Global Genetic Medicine Summit."

He was Dr. Martin Vance, one of the experts Kelley had flown in, leaving early for another appointment.

Kandy saw him and immediately ran over, grabbing his arm.

"Doctor, thank god! You have to help! This lunatic just injected our friend with some kind of street drug! She's dying!"

Dr. Vance frowned and walked over to assess the situation. His professional gaze fell on Tansy's condition, then on the precise, unconventional placement of the silver needles.

His eyes widened. His breath hitched.

He ignored Kandy completely and rushed to Alyssa's side. His voice trembled with a mixture of awe and disbelief.

"Is that... is that the Sheng-Men stabilization technique? I've only ever read about it in classified medical journals. It's a theoretical procedure for halting catastrophic autonomic failure!"

Alyssa met his gaze and gave a single, curt nod.

Kandy froze, her mouth hanging open. She didn't understand.

Dr. Vance knelt beside Tansy, his own fingers gently feeling for her pulse. He looked up at the stunned crowd, his voice filled with reverence. "This technique requires a level of precision and knowledge of human physiology that most of the world's top neurosurgeons lack. It's not a cure, it's a bridge. It buys time when there is no time left. Whoever did this... is a master."

A collective gasp rippled through the onlookers. The doorman, the guards, Mrs. Pemberton-they all stared at Alyssa as if she had just sprouted wings.

"This young woman didn't harm her," Dr. Vance declared, standing up and fixing Kandy with a withering glare. "She just performed a medical miracle with nothing but a few needles. You should be thanking her, not accusing her."

Kandy's face turned a blotchy, ugly red. "No... that's impossible!" she stammered. "How could she know something like that? She's a broke nobody we kicked out of our house!"

Dr. Vance looked at Kandy as if she were a particularly stupid insect. "A broke nobody? Ma'am, anyone with this level of medical expertise has a mind that would likely dwarf everyone else's here combined. You may have just insulted someone very, very important."

As if on cue, Tansy Kelley let out a soft groan.

The violent blue tinge of her skin began to recede, replaced by a healthy pink. Her breathing evened out.

She slowly opened her eyes.

She was alive.

Mrs. Pemberton burst into tears of relief, throwing her arms around Tansy.

The crowd's expression shifted from scorn to shame, then to awe. They had just accused a hero of being a criminal. They had tried to stop a woman from performing a life-saving procedure.

Kandy started to shake. The weight of what she had done crashed down on her. Faced with the contemptuous stares of everyone around her, she let out a strangled cry, turned, and fled to her Maserati, speeding away in a cloud of shame.

Through it all, Alyssa's expression never changed. She calmly removed the needles, wiped them, and returned them to their case.

She packed the case away and prepared to leave.

"Wait!" Dr. Vance said, stepping in front of her. He held out a business card. "Miss... I am Dr. Martin Vance. May I have the honor of knowing your name? The medical community needs to know who you are."

Before Alyssa could answer, Tansy Kelley, helped by Mrs. Pemberton, struggled to her feet. She looked at Alyssa, her eyes wide with gratitude and overwhelming curiosity.

"Thank you," Tansy Kelley said, her voice still weak but sincere. She stepped toward Alyssa. "You saved my life. I'm Tansy Kelley."

"Alyssa Clarke," Alyssa replied with a nod. Her tone was distant.

Mrs. Pemberton stood beside them, her face a mask of shame. She bowed deeply to Alyssa. "Miss Clarke, I am so sorry. I was blind and foolish. Please, forgive my rudeness."

Alyssa didn't even look at her. Her focus was on Tansy. "Your condition is only stabilized for now. That was an emergency stopgap. Without a systematic course of gene therapy, the next attack will be fatal."

Tansy's eyes lit up. "You... you can treat me?" she asked, a surge of hope in her voice. "My brother has searched the entire world for a cure! He'll be so happy when he finds out you're here!"

She grabbed Alyssa's hand, her touch surprisingly warm. "I have to call him down here right now! My brother, Dalton Kelley, you must have heard of him. He's the most eligible bachelor on Wall Street! And he doesn't have a girlfriend. I think you two would be perfect for each other!"

Tansy's cheerful, innocent nature was completely oblivious to the way Alyssa's brow tightened at the mention of a setup.

Alyssa gently pulled her hand away. "I'm not interested in your brother," she said, her voice cool. "I saved you because you needed medical attention. That's all."

Tansy's enthusiasm deflated like a popped balloon. She looked crestfallen.

"As for the treatment," Alyssa added, "I can wait for him to come down to discuss the terms. But it will be strictly business."

Tansy stuck out her tongue, realizing she'd been too forward. But her admiration for this mysterious, powerful girl only grew. She quickly sent a text to her brother, telling him the miracle doctor was here, downstairs, and had just saved her life.

Dalton Kelley had just stepped out of the elevator when his phone buzzed. He read the message. The words "miracle doctor found" and "saved my life" sent a jolt through his icy composure.

He immediately quickened his pace, striding toward the hotel entrance with his assistant and bodyguards in tow.

Tansy was trying to convince Alyssa to wait in the hotel café. Alyssa refused. She disliked the stuffy, enclosed space and chose a seat in the open-air lounge area by the entrance.

Mrs. Pemberton, desperate to make amends, immediately ordered the finest tea and pastries and had a waiter bring a cashmere blanket.

Alyssa waved it all away with a single, dismissive gesture. She sat in silence, a solitary figure observing the world around her.

Tansy thought she was the coolest person she had ever met. She sat beside her, chattering away about her brother, trying to build a connection.

Alyssa listened with half an ear, her attention focused on scanning her surroundings.

Dr. Vance hadn't left. He stood a respectful distance away, debating whether to approach her again. He pulled out his phone and sent a coded message to a secure medical research forum he belonged to. Extraordinary incident in LA. Unidentified female practitioner demonstrated a theoretical neuro-stabilization technique with flawless execution. Possible link to the anonymous 'Surgeon' research papers. This could be a major breakthrough.

Tansy, getting no reaction from Alyssa, changed the subject. "That girl who was bullying you earlier, who was she? She was horrible!"

"Someone unimportant," Alyssa said flatly.

"How can she be unimportant?" Tansy said, indignant. "She needs to pay for what she said! When my brother gets here, I'll have him take care of her for you!"

A barely perceptible twitch touched the corner of Alyssa's mouth before vanishing.

Just as Tansy was vowing to get justice for her, the tall, imposing figure of Dalton Kelley appeared in the hotel doorway. His sharp, blue eyes scanned the crowd, searching for his sister and the doctor who had appeared out of nowhere.