2025-10-28 19:52:04The rain didn’t fall in the slums, it leaked.
The lights from the upper tiers never reached this far; here, only broken ads lit the street, flickering between “CURE YOURSELF CHEAP” and “NEWLIFE STEM PATCHES, GUARANTEED CLEAN.”
“Keep your head down, doc,” muttered Jin, the boy leading him through the alleys. Barely sixteen, with wires embedded behind one ear and a patch over the other, Jin was one of the street runners, kids who ferried stolen meds and messages between the gangs that ruled the ruins.
“I’m not a doctor,” Raymond said softly.
“Sure you ain’t,” Jin shot back with a grin. “And I’m the mayor of New Bastion.”
They stopped before a door welded shut from the outside. Jin knocked twice, then once more. The metal slid aside, revealing a narrow space reeking of antiseptic and rust.
Inside, three people lay on cots, their bodies twitching under sheets. A woman at the far end coughed hard, her chest spasming like it was being crushed.
Raymond’s eyes flicked over the room, the makeshift IV lines, the cheap knockoff nanogel, the old med-droid in the corner sparking uselessly.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Corp raid last night,” Jin said. “They dumped a nerve agent. We can’t afford a city hospital. You’re all we got.”
Raymond hesitated. He wasn’t supposed to get involved. The System had warned him already, too much exposure could trigger a scan from the corporate AI grid. Still, watching the woman choke on her own breath.
You can save them, whispered the System’s voice, soft and metallic. But the cost remains yours. He sighed. “Get me clean water. And whatever you call medicine around here.”
Jin’s grin returned. “Knew it.”
Raymond dropped to his knees beside the first cot. The man’s veins were blackened, nanites corrupted. He placed his hand over the wound, focusing on the faint hum beneath his skin. A flicker of light pulsed from his palm.
“Hey, what’s that?” Jin whispered.
“Don’t talk,” Raymond said.
The glow intensified. Data ran behind his eyes, streams of molecular code rewriting themselves as the Ancient Medical Rising System came alive. Initiating detox protocol. Warning: stability ratio 43%.
“Hold still,” Raymond muttered. The patient convulsed once, then stilled, the black veins receding like ink drawn back into the pen. The man’s breathing steadied.
Jin exhaled. “Holy, You’re, you really”
“Next one,” Raymond cut him off. “Hurry.”
They moved from cot to cot. With each patient, the System’s whisper grew louder, colder. Efficiency rising. Neural load: 68%. Recommend termination of procedure to prevent synaptic burn.
Raymond gritted his teeth. “Shut up,” he hissed under his breath. “They’re still alive.”
The last patient, the coughing woman, looked up at him with watery eyes. “You’re one of them, aren’t you?” she rasped. “A Circle doctor.”
He froze. The Circle, the organization that had condemned him, that still hunted him. “I was,” he said quietly. “Not anymore.”
He pressed his palm to her chest. A faint spark. The light wavered… then dimmed. Something was wrong. Pathogen unidentified. Countermeasure unavailable.
“No,” he muttered. “There’s always a countermeasure.”
He poured everything he had left into the link. The System flared, a rush of images, screaming data, blood-red light. The woman gasped, her body arching, then she collapsed, still.
Raymond dropped back, chest heaving. Jin stared at the motionless body. “You… you couldn’t”
“She’s gone,” Raymond said. His voice cracked, barely above a whisper. “I tried.”
For a moment, the room was silent except for the buzz of dying neon. Then the System spoke again, its tone lower now, almost human.
Life restored: two of three. Compassion level detected: critical. Recalibrating core protocols…
“What?” Raymond whispered. “What do you mean”
New subroutine unlocked: Duality Protocol, the power to heal or harm in equal measure. Before he could react, the body of the dead woman twitched. Her eyes snapped open, glowing faintly red.
“Doc?” Jin stammered.
Raymond’s pulse spiked. “Back away!”
The woman’s body jerked upright, the corrupted nanites crawling like black vines under her skin. She screamed, not in pain, but in some terrible new awareness, and lunged forward.
Raymond grabbed a broken scalpel from the floor. “Stay behind me!” Use it, whispered the System. Test the other side of medicine. He hesitated. “I’m not” Now.
The scalpel flashed. A single arc of energy burst from it, clean, surgical, final. The woman collapsed once more, this time truly still. Smoke rose from the blade’s edge.
Jin stared in horror. “What… what did you do?”
Raymond looked at his trembling hand, the faint glow fading. “I don’t know.”
You chose survival, said the voice in his mind. Every healer must. Sirens blared in the distance, drone patrols sweeping the slums.
Jin cursed. “Corp scanners! They must’ve picked up that energy spike!”
Raymond grabbed his bag, slinging it over his shoulder. “You have another way out?”
“Always.” Jin darted toward the back door. “Come on, doc, before they turn this place to ash.”
They slipped into the rain-soaked alley, neon flickers painting their faces in sick colors. The night swallowed them as the first drones screamed overhead, searching for the pulse signature of a healer who should have been long dead.
Behind them, the street sign flickered weakly one last time before shorting out:
“CURE YOURSELF CHEAP.”
The word CURE burned for a second longer than the rest, then vanished.
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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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