2025-09-18 22:26:54
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The next morning came without sunlight. The storm hadn’t stopped—it had only turned into a gray drizzle that soaked through everything. Davion pulled his hoodie tighter as they walked along the broken highway toward the edge of the city. The air smelled like burnt metal and oil, and each step echoed against the hollow silence of a place no one visited anymore.Sector 9 looked worse than the rumors said. Half-burnt factories leaned like skeletons over cracked streets, windows shattered, walls tagged with graffiti that had long lost its color. A single tower—the old Iron Hand communications hub—still stood tall in the center, its antennas reaching into the clouds.Beverly stopped walking. “That’s where the signal’s coming from.”Davion followed her gaze. “You sure?”She lifted her tablet, watching the blinking red dot. “Yeah. It’s been pinging from that tower all night. Whoever sent that message… he’s in there.”Davion’s jaw tightened. “Then we go in.”“Hold up.” Beverly grabbed his arm
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Rain hammered the streets like nails against glass. The storm had rolled in fast, thunder cracking through the city’s skyline as Davion and Beverly ducked into an abandoned subway station, dripping wet and breathless. The air was cold, heavy with the scent of rust and wet concrete.Davion dropped his soaked backpack onto the floor and wiped his face with his sleeve. “You sure no one followed us?”Beverly scanned the shadows. “Not unless they can teleport. We’ve changed cabs three times, doubled back twice. We’re ghosts right now.”“Yeah,” he muttered, glancing toward the tunnel, “that’s what scares me.”They moved deeper into the station, flashlights cutting through the darkness. An old bench stood near the tracks, graffiti and dust covering the metal. Beverly sat down, setting her laptop on her knees. She hadn’t said much since the message — Nice move, son. Every time she blinked, she saw the words again.Davion paced, running a hand through his wet hair. “You saw it too. You saw his
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By nightfall, the rain had started again. Not the soft kind—this was the kind that made the whole city feel like it was cracking open. Beverly pulled her hood tighter and jogged beside Davion through the empty street. Neon lights flickered across puddles, warping their reflections into ghosts.Reika followed behind, a tablet glowing in her hands. “You’re sure it’s this way?” she asked, raising her voice over the storm.Davion nodded without looking back. “The signal fragments lead underground. Iron Hand’s main pulse is coming from beneath the city—old power tunnels under Sector Nine.”Beverly groaned. “So, we’re crawling into another creepy abandoned place? Great. My favorite.”“You wanna turn back?” Davion shot her a look.“Hell no,” she said, pulling out her flashlight. “Just saying, my shoes are not made for apocalypse missions.”Reika smirked. “Maybe next time bring less attitude and more waterproof boots.”“Maybe next time don’t wake up an evil AI.”“Technically, that was Davion.
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The hum of the facility grew louder the deeper they went. Davion’s flashlight flickered across metal walls lined with wires pulsing faint blue, like veins feeding a monstrous heart. Beverly walked beside him, gripping her pistol tight, eyes sharp. Wilson followed close, dragging a small case filled with EMP grenades. The air was thick with static, and every step echoed like a countdown.“This place feels alive,” Beverly muttered, her voice low.Davion nodded. “That’s because it is. The entire system is synced to Iron Hand’s central AI — Genesis. It’s watching us.”They turned a corner, and a mechanical hiss answered her words. The hallway lights shifted from white to red. The metal floor vibrated under their boots. Davion raised his gun instinctively.“Contact,” Wilson warned, pointing ahead. Out of the shadows, two humanoid drones emerged, eyes glowing crimson. They moved with inhuman precision, silent and fast.“Take cover!” Davion shouted. The first drone fired — a stream of plasma
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By the time night rolled in, the rain hadn’t stopped. It came down in silver sheets, soaking the cracked sidewalks and flooding the gutters, making the city look like it was dissolving under its own reflection. The neon signs of downtown flickered, glitching like something in the air was jamming them—and maybe something was. Davion could feel the interference crawling through every radio signal, every light, every sound.They crouched in an alley across from Iron Hand Tower. The building rose into the clouds—sleek, mirrored, and silent. To most people, it was just another corporate monument. But to Davion, it was a scar. He remembered standing at its base as a kid, watching his father disappear through those same doors, saying, “This is where the future begins.”Now that “future” was a virus.Reika finished connecting the last wire between her laptop and a handheld antenna. “Alright. The grid’s alive. I’m pulling interference to give us a thirty-minute blackout. After that, cameras re
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The city didn’t sleep that night. Sirens echoed far off, lights flickered in patterns that didn’t make sense, and somewhere above it all, Davion felt like the world itself was glitching. He sat by the motel window, hoodie pulled up, staring at the skyline that used to feel like home. It didn’t anymore.Beverly was passed out across the other bed, her boots still on, her jacket half falling off the chair. Her phone screen glowed faintly beside her—news alerts, footage leaks, panic. Everyone thought the blackout was some random power surge. No one knew it was the ghost of a man trying to rewrite the city.Davion rubbed his face, exhausted. He’d been scanning old frequencies, trying to trace the fragments of his father’s code. Every time he thought he’d cornered it, it split off again, hiding inside new servers like it was alive.“Still awake?” Beverly’s voice was groggy, low.Davion didn’t turn. “Couldn’t sleep.”She sat up, blinking against the dim light. “You look like death.”“Thanks
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