2025-10-28 20:01:10Rain slicked the alley in chrome reflections as Raymond and Jin ran.
“Left!” Jin shouted.
They ducked between two crumbling clinics, nearly colliding with a rusted vending bot. Raymond’s breath rasped in the cold air. “How far?”
“Two blocks, maybe three if we’re lucky.”
“Luck,” Raymond muttered, “ran out years ago.”
A flash of light cut across the alley. They froze. Three drones hovered overhead, red lenses pulsing. Corporate insignia glowed on their hulls, THE CIRCLE BIOTECH DIVISION. The same symbol branded into his memory from the day they exiled him.
“Identification request: Unauthorized healer detected,” one droned mechanically.
Jin cursed under his breath. “They got a fix on your energy spike.”
Raymond’s hand twitched toward his satchel. I can’t fight machines, he thought. I heal.
You adapt, the System whispered inside his mind. That is survival.
He yanked a cracked injector from his belt and slammed it into the wall console. Sparks spat out. The nearest drone fired,
“Doc!” Jin yelled.
“I’m fine,” Raymond hissed. He wasn’t. Pain throbbed through his arm.
The console flickered, then exploded in a shower of sparks. The drones reeled back long enough for Jin to grab his sleeve. “Come on!”
They bolted through a narrow corridor that opened into a drainage canal. Neon runoff poured down from above, glowing green and violet. A figure stood on the bridge ahead, tall, wearing a hood that shimmered with holo-static.
Jin skidded to a stop. “Who’s that?”
“Trouble,” Raymond said.
The figure didn’t move. Behind them, the drones whirred closer.
The stranger raised a hand. A burst of electromagnetic light rippled outward. The drones spasmed mid-air, systems failing, and dropped into the canal with a hiss.
Raymond stared. “How?”
The figure lowered the hood. A woman, silver hair streaked with blue, eyes reflecting circuitry. “You’re making too much noise, healer.”
Jin blinked. “You know him?”
“Not yet.” Her voice was calm, controlled. “But the Circle does. You just cost them three drones and a containment squad.”
“Then you’re welcome,” Jin said.
She ignored him and looked at Raymond. “You carry something that doesn’t belong to you.”
Raymond’s pulse quickened. “And you’d know?”
“I used to design systems like yours.”
He stepped back. “You were Circle?”
“I was worse.” She tossed him a small device. “EMP dampener. Put it on if you want to live past tonight.”
Raymond caught it, suspicious. “Why help me?”
“Because the Circle sent their hounds,” she said, glancing toward the rooftops. “And they don’t leave witnesses.”
Above them, mechanical barking shattered the air, metal paws on steel. Jin’s eyes widened. “Dogs?”
“Not the kind that bark,” the woman said. “The kind that tear through walls.”
Raymond snapped the dampener onto his wrist. A faint pulse ran through his skin, suppressing the glow under his veins. The System’s whisper faded to a low hum.
Signal masked. Temporary cloak initiated.
“Move!” the woman ordered. “We’ve got sixty seconds before they triangulate.”
They sprinted down the canal, boots splashing through the neon water. The city seemed alive, watching them through a thousand unblinking eyes. Sirens wailed somewhere above, joined by the metallic clatter of pursuit.
Jin panted, “You got a name, lady?”
She didn’t look back. “Lira.”
“Lira what?”
“Just Lira.”
Raymond caught up beside her. “You said you built systems like mine. Then tell me, what is this thing doing inside me?”
She glanced at him, expression unreadable. “Saving you. And killing you. That’s what the Circle calls progress.”
They turned another corner, straight into a dead end fenced by a high wall of scrap metal.
“Great,” Jin gasped. “Now what?”
Lira tapped a panel on her wrist. “Now we improvise.”
The wall shimmered, then split open to reveal an elevator shaft descending into darkness.
“Underground?” Raymond asked.
“Deep enough that even the Circle won’t hear you scream.”
The elevator dropped fast, shuddering as it cut through layers of rust and rockcrete. The light above flickered from white to red, painting their faces in pulses.
Jin gripped the railing. “You sure this thing’s safe?”
Lira smirked. “Define safe.”
Raymond kept his eyes on the floor numbers ticking down. “You said the Circle sent hounds. How many?”
“Enough to turn this shaft into a grave if we’re slow.”
A mechanical howl echoed from above, followed by the grinding scrape of metal claws.
Jin froze. “That, that’s them, isn’t it?”
Raymond didn’t answer. He could feel them, sensors sweeping, sniffing the heat signature of prey. The air grew tighter, hotter.
Warning, the System whispered faintly, hostile entities detected. Energy signatures: augmented biomechs. Estimated lethal capacity: high.
Lira met Raymond’s eyes in the dark. “How long can that dampener keep you hidden?”
“Thirty seconds,” he said.
“Then this is going to hurt.”
The elevator crashed to a stop. The doors hissed open to a tunnel lined with pipes and broken warning signs. Steam filled the air like ghost breath. Lira jumped out first. “Move!”
They sprinted through the tunnel. Behind them, metal roared, claws tearing through the elevator shaft.
Jin yelled, “They’re fast!”
“Keep running,” Lira shouted back. “Don’t stop!”
The tunnel split ahead. Raymond slowed just long enough to read the faded markings. “Maintenance sector or waste drains?”
“Waste drains!” Lira called. “They can’t track scent through bio-acid.”
“That sounds,” Jin started.
“Terrible idea, I know,” she snapped. “But it’s our best shot.”
They veered left. The air grew heavier, stinking of rot and chemicals. The noise behind them kept getting closer. Raymond could almost hear the hounds’ processors whining, smell the ozone from their weapons.
Then, silence.
Jin slowed. “Did they stop?”
“No,” Lira said. “They’re flanking.”
Raymond’s heart pounded. “How can you tell?”
She pointed upward. Faint red dots blinked along the ceiling, sensors sliding through the steam. “They’re mapping us.”
He swallowed hard. “Then we fight.”
Lira turned to him, incredulous. “With what? A scalpel and a prayer?”
Raymond reached into his satchel, fingers brushing the cold handle of the weapon he’d made from shattered med-tech. “Something like that.”
The first hound dropped through the ceiling, a nightmare of chrome and teeth. Its eyes burned red, its body pulsing with internal nanofluid. It landed with a wet clang, claws sparking.
Jin stumbled back. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me,”
The beast lunged.
Raymond moved faster than thought. He drew the scalpel, the Neon Scalpel, the blade that had ended and saved lives alike. It flared bright, cutting through the steam.
The hound’s leap froze midair. A streak of light sliced clean across its chest. The creature hit the ground in two pieces, still twitching.
Jin gaped. “Doc… what was that?”
Raymond didn’t answer. His pulse thundered. The System hissed in his mind: Duality Protocol activated. Neural load: increasing.
Lira was already pulling a compact blaster from her jacket. “Two more incoming!”
The tunnel erupted into chaos, energy bolts, sparks, growls. One hound lunged for Jin, and Raymond threw himself in front of it, the scalpel’s arc turning the air electric. He sliced through steel and code in a single motion.
The second hound’s jaws clamped around his arm. Pain shot through him like lightning. He fell to one knee, gasping.
Do it, the System whispered. Switch polarity. Convert healing energy to destructive force.
Raymond gritted his teeth. “No.”
Obedience equals survival.
He slammed his free hand against the hound’s neck. The light in his palm flared, then exploded outward. The machine convulsed, circuits melting, and collapsed in a shower of sparks.
When the smoke cleared, Raymond was still kneeling, his arm bleeding, breath ragged. Lira holstered her weapon, eyes wide. “You shouldn’t be able to do that.”
“Tell me something I don’t know,” he said hoarsely.
Jin looked from the smoldering metal to the healer. “You just fried two Circle hounds by touching them.”
Raymond stared at his hand, the faint glow fading. “Healing and destruction,” he murmured. “Two sides of the same coin.”
The System’s voice curled in his head, cold and satisfied.
He winced, pressing a hand to his temple. “What the hell does that mean?”
Lira stepped closer, her expression unreadable. “It means the Circle’s not hunting you anymore, Raymond. They’re testing you.”
He met her gaze, a tremor of unease crawling through him. “And what happens when I pass their test?”
Lira’s cybernetic eyes dimmed. “Then they’ll want you back.”
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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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