ASH AND NEON

Chapter 6: Echoes in the Tunnels

The tunnels beneath Detroit were older than anyone dared to remember. Concrete veins, fractured and damp, stretched like the hidden arteries of the city. Every echo was amplified: footsteps, distant drips, whispers carried on the stale, cold air.

Jace Arden led the way, Dex behind him like a shadow, chain coiled and ready. Nora followed cautiously, camera and notebook pressed against her chest. Every step deeper made the world above feel like a memory, a neon dream they might never return to.

“This place…” Nora whispered, eyes scanning the walls. “It’s like the city itself is alive down here.”

Dex snorted. “Alive? You’ve got no idea. The tunnels remember more than most people can handle. They’ve seen death, betrayal, crime… and magic.” He flicked a hand toward Jace. “Especially your kind of magic.”

Jace’s hands itched. He felt it, the residual pulse of the mural from the rooftop battle. It had followed him here, fragments of neon veins glowing faintly along the walls. The energy wasn’t chaotic anymore; it was deliberate, probing. Almost… hungry.

Then a faint hiss echoed from a side passage. Jace froze. The murals responded, shifting slightly, edges of neon trembling, projecting fragmented faces and memories he didn’t recognize.

“Who’s there?” he demanded.

No answer. Only shadows. And then movement, fast, sharp, almost silent. Phoenix stepped from the darkness, hood pulled low, eyes glinting.

“You still don’t trust me,” Phoenix said, voice low, teasing. “And I don’t blame you.”

“Why are you following us?” Jace snapped, heart hammering. “We don’t need more trouble.”

Phoenix smirked. “Trouble’s already here. Lumen knows you’re in these tunnels. They’ve been mapping every step you take. And I’m here because someone’s gotta make sure you survive long enough to fight back.”

Nora frowned. “You’re… helping him? Or… spying?”

Phoenix shrugged. “Depends on who pays attention. Survival’s a currency down here. I deal in it.”

Before anyone could respond, a low rumble shook the floor. Dust fell from the cracked ceiling. Jace glanced up and froze, blue eyes gleamed from the shadows. Lumen. Not one, not two, but a squad of them, spread across the tunnel entrances, moving silently yet impossibly fast.

“Move!” Dex barked, grabbing Jace and Nora, shoving them toward a branching path that sloped downward.

The trio ran, boots slapping wet concrete, hearts hammering in unison. Neon veins pulsed faintly behind Jace, whispering, warning, guiding. He realized the murals weren’t just reactive, they were anticipating Lumen’s moves. And they were angry.

They rounded a corner, and the tunnel opened into a vast chamber, the ceiling high enough to disappear into darkness. Rusted pipes ran along the walls, and broken graffiti flickered faintly in neon hues. But this wasn’t abandoned, it was Lumen’s experiment site, or at least, something connected to it.

“Look at this,” Phoenix muttered, crouching near a shattered panel on the floor. “They’ve been testing your kind of power down here. Every mural, every memory they’ve collected, it’s been feeding something.”

Jace’s stomach dropped. “Feeding… what?”

A low hum filled the chamber. The neon veins behind Jace surged violently, projecting a face onto the cracked wall, fragmented, screaming, a collage of stolen memories from the city above. The mural pulsed in time with the hum, as if resonating with whatever Lumen had built.

Dex’s jaw tightened. “Whatever it is… it’s alive. And it’s growing.”

The humming rose, like a heartbeat multiplied by hundreds, and suddenly, the chamber shivered. Pipes rattled, debris fell, and the shadows shifted unnaturally. Lumen’s squad advanced, moving faster than human reflex should allow, their eyes glowing that same terrifying blue.

Jace felt the mural pulling at him, urging him to fight, to take control, to unleash. Every memory he had ever stolen, every fear he had ever held, flashed in his mind, screaming. He raised his hands instinctively, and neon tendrils erupted from his murals, coiling around the chamber like serpents, striking toward Lumen.

The squad paused, briefly disoriented, memories flooding their senses. But one figure, tall, calm, deliberate, stepped forward: the same shadow who had haunted him from the rooftop. Lumen.

“You think you understand,” Lumen said, voice eerily soft, “but you’ve only scratched the surface. Control is an illusion. Power… is chaos.”

Jace staggered, neon veins lashing wildly, memories writhing uncontrollably around him. He felt them clawing at his mind, whispering truths he wasn’t ready to hear: You are not in control. You never were. You are part of this city. And the city remembers you.

“Focus, Jace!” Dex yelled, swinging his chain to knock back an approaching agent.

“I’m trying!” Jace screamed, pain shooting through his head. The murals flared, shapes shifting violently, faces twisting into monstrous parodies of the memories they held. The chamber itself seemed to pulse in response, shadows and neon colliding, alive.

Nora grabbed his arm. “You’re stronger than you think! You can control it!”

Jace shut his eyes, drawing on the deepest part of himself, forcing the murals to obey. Neon tendrils coiled, twisting, then snapped forward like whips, throwing Lumen’s agents backward. The shadow with the blue eyes narrowed, unflinching.

“You’ve learned a trick,” Lumen said, voice sharp, echoing. “But tricks are temporary. Chaos is eternal.”

Suddenly, the floor beneath them shook violently. Cracks spider-webbed across the concrete, and a wall of neon-lit water surged from a broken pipe, flooding the chamber in seconds. Memories splashed outward with it, fragments of lives, screams, and laughter blending in a horrifying symphony.

Jace barely had time to grab Nora and Dex. Phoenix leapt across the rising water, landing silently, smirking. “Welcome to the next lesson, kid. The city doesn’t just watch you, it tests you.”

Jace’s pulse raced, heart hammering against ribs that felt ready to break. His murals pulsed violently, whispering a single terrifying thought:

You can’t run. You can’t hide. And soon… you won’t be yourself anymore.

The chamber erupted in chaos, water surging, neon twisting, shadows moving like living things, and from the far end of the room, Lumen’s shadowy figure smiled, watching, waiting, calculating.

And Jace realized the truth: survival wasn’t enough tonight. Not anymore. He had to master his power, or it would master him.