2025-10-28 03:40:42Neon rain hissed against the skylight of Helix Tower’s top surgical bay. The room glowed sterile white until an alarm sliced through the hum of machines.
“Clamp pressure, now!” Raymond Briggs barked. Sweat rolled down the edge of his visor. The man on the table, Director Halden, had a synthetic heart, half-open, its fibers pulsing like blue cables. “We’re losing rhythm!”
Nurse Ellen’s gloved hands shook. “Dr. Briggs, I can’t, his core temp’s dropping!”
Raymond leaned in, voice steady. “Stay with me, Halden. We’re almost there.”
He slid a scalpel into the chest cavity; the blade shimmered faintly, reflecting the neon lights beyond the glass. Then everything went wrong.
A high-pitched whine shrieked through the instruments. The monitors spiked, showing impossible readings. “System glitch?” Ellen gasped.
Raymond frowned. “That’s not a glitch”
The patient convulsed. Blue arcs of light rippled across his chest, throwing sparks onto Raymond’s gloves. The air smelled of ozone and burnt polymer.
“Power surge, disconnect!” he shouted.
Too late. The heart detonated in a flash of light. Silence. Then a mechanical voice filled the intercom:
He turned slowly. Behind the glass stood Dr. Arcturus Vane, his former mentor, flanked by two Helix Enforcers in matte armor.
“Vane? What’s happening?” Raymond asked, voice cracking.
Vane’s expression was calm, clinical. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Director Halden.”
Raymond stared at him. “That’s impossible, he coded because the containment field collapsed! The prototype core”
“was tampered with,” Vane interrupted. “You inserted forbidden nanocode into the patient’s heart.”
“That’s a lie!”
Vane’s eyes didn’t waver. “Security logs disagree.”
The Enforcers moved in. One held a restraint field, the other drew a stun baton that hummed with violet light. Raymond took a step back. “You think I wanted this? That man was my patient!”
“Then you’ll have your chance to explain it,” Vane said. “To the tribunal.”
The alarms flared red. The lights dimmed to emergency mode. For a heartbeat, the whole city below flickered, the endless grid of Neo-London’s skyline flashing like a pulse under glass.
And then Raymond heard it. A whisper. Cold. Inside his head. Initiating recovery protocol… Forbidden Healer System booting. He froze. “What… was that?”
Ellen blinked at him. “What was what?”
Vital signs critical. Neural sync required. Accept? Raymond’s breath caught. “Who’s talking?”
Vane’s brow furrowed. “Who indeed?” Accept.
Pain slammed into him, white fire searing up his spine. He dropped the scalpel; it clattered against the tile, leaving a thin blue trail of light.
“Dr. Briggs!” Ellen reached for him.
“Stay back!” Raymond gasped. His vision fractured into data streams: oxygen levels, heart rates, molecular signatures flashing over every surface.
He could see the nanites in the air, the microscopic dust dancing like fireflies. System synchronized. New parameters unlocked.
The scalpel on the floor vibrated, lifted, hovered. The neon edge gleamed, humming softly like a living thing. “Raymond,” Vane said, voice tightening. “What have you done?”
“I… I didn’t activate anything.”
“Contain him.”
The Enforcers advanced. Raymond staggered to his feet, eyes blazing blue. “Don’t come closer. I don’t know what’s happening.”
They didn’t listen. The first swung his baton. Reflex took over. Raymond raised a hand, light flared from his palm. The baton shattered mid-arc, scattering molten shards. Everyone froze.
Raymond stared at his hand. The glow faded, leaving small arcs crawling across his skin. Defensive pulse: successful. Biometric energy depleted: 7 percent. “What did you do?” Ellen whispered.
“I… healed the kinetic damage,” he said, realizing the absurdity of his words.
Vane’s face twisted, not in fear, but fascination. “It works,” he murmured. “Even without full integration.”
“What are you talking about?” Raymond demanded.
Vane’s voice hardened. “The protocol in your spine, my unfinished experiment. You activated it. And now, Raymond… you’ve made yourself property of Helix Dominion.”
The Enforcers lunged again. Raymond grabbed the hovering scalpel; it burned cold in his fingers. Blue circuits raced up his arm. “Not anymore.”
He slashed, not to kill, but to cut the air. The blade released a pulse that hurled the soldiers backward, crashing them into the glass wall.
Cracks spidered across the pane. The city’s neon lights bled through like a second sunrise. “Stop this, Raymond!” Vane shouted. “You’re endangering us all!”
“You framed me,” Raymond said, voice low. “Why?”
“Because you outgrew control,” Vane replied. “And in this city, control is everything.”
Raymond’s heart pounded. The whisper in his mind grew louder. Warning: system overload. Host stability 49 percent. “Shut up,” he hissed under his breath.
Vane’s eyes narrowed. “Who are you talking to?”
Emergency exit advised. Guidance uploading. Blue lines flickered across Raymond’s vision, marking a path through the corridor beyond the shattered glass.
Ellen’s voice trembled. “If you run, they’ll hunt you.”
He met her gaze. “They already are.”
He hurled a defibrillator disk at the cracked glass, it exploded outward. Wind roared in, carrying the smell of rain and static.
The neon world of Neo-London sprawled below: endless towers, sky bridges, drone traffic slicing the clouds. “Raymond, don’t!” Vane shouted. “The drop”
But Raymond had already leapt. For a heartbeat, he was falling through a storm of light. Deploying kinetic dampeners.
The world slowed. Blue energy wrapped around him like a cocoon. He hit a lower skyway hard enough to shatter the polymer railing, rolled, and came up gasping amid flickering holograms and terrified pedestrians.
Rain dripped off his coat; the scalpel’s neon edge dimmed in his hand. Survival confirmed. Host status: fugitive. Sirens wailed somewhere above.
Raymond looked up at the towering Helix logo blazing across the skyline. “You wanted a scapegoat, Vane,” he muttered. “Now you’ll get something else.”
The whisper in his head pulsed once more, almost like approval. Mission parameters: heal the world… or purge it.
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CHAPTER 110 — GHOSTS DO NOT BLEED
“They are calling you a contagion again.”Raymond did not look up.He was tightening the wrap around his forearm, fingers steady despite the tremor in his muscles. The tunnel safehouse hummed with low power. Bare bulbs. Old city bones.“Helix needs language that makes killing easier,” he said. “Contagion works.”Mercer leaned against a console, holo-feed flickering over his scarred face. “This one is different. They are not just hunting you. They are baiting you.”Lira snorted softly. “Of course they are.”Raymond finished the wrap and flexed his hand. Pain flared, then settled.“How,” he asked.Mercer expanded the feed. A district map bloomed in the air, glowing red in several nodes.“Three clinics,” Mercer said. “All independent. All previously ignored. Helix just sealed them under emergency protocol.”Raymond’s jaw tightened. “How many inside.”“Unknown,” Mercer replied. “But the message is public. Loud. They are daring you to show.”Lira crossed her arms. “If you go, they close th
CHAPTER 109 — THE PRICE OF BEING SEEN
The backlash came before dawn.Raymond woke to shouting. Not alarms. Not gunfire. Voices.Angry. Afraid. Demanding.Lira was already on her feet when he pushed himself upright, pain flaring through his ribs. The clinic hall was darker now, emergency lights dimmed to a low amber glow. Outside, silhouettes pressed against the reinforced glass.“They followed the feeds,” Lira said tightly. “All of them.”Raymond swung his legs off the cot. “How many.”“Too many.”Mercer stood near a portable console, jaw clenched. “Helix shut down three transit lines within a kilometer. They are funneling civilians here.”Raymond froze. “They are using us as a pressure point.”“Yes,” Mercer replied. “They want disorder. Panic. An excuse.”The shouting grew louder.A fist slammed against the door.“Open up.”“My daughter needs help.”“They said you would save us.”Raymond stood slowly, breath shallow.“This is what being visible means,” Mercer said. “You cannot be a symbol without becoming a magnet.”The
CHAPTER 108 — WHEN HEALING BECOMES ILLEGAL
The first clinic burned twelve hours later. Raymond did not see the flames. He felt them.A sudden spike behind his eyes. A tightness in his chest that had nothing to do with injury. Somewhere in the city, hands he had just trusted were scrambling through smoke and panic.Lira noticed immediately.“You felt that,” she said.Raymond nodded slowly. “They found one.”Mercer checked the portable scanner, jaw tight. “Eastern sector. Helix marked it as a narcotics den.”“Were there survivors,” Raymond asked.Mercer hesitated.“That bad,” Raymond said quietly.The room they occupied was smaller than the last. A forgotten utility chamber wrapped in humming cables. Emergency lighting cast long shadows across the walls.Lira paced. “They are not even pretending anymore.”“No,” Raymond replied. “They are teaching.”Mercer looked up. “Teaching what happens when people disobey.”The Core stirred, its presence heavier than before.Predictive outcome confirmed, it whispered. Decentralized nodes are
CHAPTER 107 — THE FIRST CUT SPREADS
The room smelled like rust and antiseptic.Raymond stood in the center of what used to be a transit storage bay, staring at the people gathered around him. Twelve of them. Too many. Not enough.A woman with cracked optical implants leaned against a crate. A man with tremoring hands clutched a med-kit that was at least a decade out of date. Two teenagers hovered near the door, whispering to each other, fear written plainly across their faces.Lira closed the bay doors and slapped a manual lock into place.“That’s everyone,” she said. “Anyone else we risk drawing attention.”Raymond nodded slowly. His head still throbbed. Every heartbeat felt slightly out of sync.“You all know why you’re here,” he said.No one spoke.He tried again. “I am not here to replace Helix.”A man snorted. “Good. They replaced themselves with nothing.”A few quiet laughs rippled through the group.Raymond raised a hand. “This is not a rebellion. This is not a cult. If that is what you are looking for, leave now
CHAPTER 106 — THE CITY DECIDES
The city did not wait for Raymond to recover. It never did.Sirens howled across Zenith’s spine as Helix gunships swept low over the undercity, floodlights carving through smoke and neon haze. Checkpoints appeared overnight. Streets that once belonged to gangs and scavengers now bristled with armored troops and scanning towers.Raymond felt it before he saw it.A pressure behind his eyes. A pull in his chest. The city’s fear brushing against his nerves like static.They moved through a maintenance corridor beneath the hospital, guided by Mercer’s codes. The walls vibrated with distant engines. Dust rained from the ceiling.Lira kept close, her grip firmil, alert, weapon ready.“You still standing,” she muttered.“Define standing,” Raymond replied, breath shallow.Mercer glanced back. “You should not be conscious.”Raymond managed a faint smile. “I have a habit of disappointing experts.”Mercer did not smile back.They emerged into an abandoned transit hub. Broken rails. Flickering ads
CHAPTER 105 — A SYMBOL MADE OF BLOOD
Raymond woke to darkness and sound.Machines breathed for him, steady and relentless. A slow rhythmic beep pulsed near his ear, too loud, too close. Antiseptic stung his nose.Hospital.Again.He tried to move and pain answered immediately, sharp and unforgiving.“Don’t,” Lira said.Her voice was right there. Close. Tired.Raymond cracked his eyes open. Dim lights. Reinforced ceiling panels. A private med-bay, not one of the public wards.“How long?” he asked.“Six hours,” she replied. “You scared the hell out of everyone. Including yourself.”He swallowed. His throat felt like sandpaper. “The city?”“Still standing,” Lira said. “Barely.”She leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. There was dried blood on her sleeve that was not hers.“They are calling it the Ascendant Incident,” she continued. “Helix locked down half the districts. Emergency broadcasts on loop. Your face is everywhere.”Raymond closed his eyes.“That bad?”“That loud,” she corrected. “People are chanting your name i
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