The holo-table flickered, static licked across its edges as the projection stabilized: a top-down scan of the Rustbelt crater, charred metal and broken concrete still radiating thermal residue.
"Eighteen dead," an officer reported, voice clipped and clinical. "Residue signatures do not match User Overdrive patterns."
Another officer tapped the data feed. "Cross-check with internal rogue diagnostics."
A fresh layer of holo-light swept over the crater image. The readout twisted into a jagged waveform.
[UNIDENTIFIED ENERGY SIGNATURE — ADAPTIVE TYPE]
A low murmur passed through the room.
"…Possibility: Devourer activity," one of them said.
Across the table, the floor supervisor didn't even look up from his dataslate. "Impossible. All Devourer-class anomalies were wiped out years ago."
"Maybe this one didn't get the memo," someone muttered.
The scan shifted again, now highlighting a faint bio-signature recovered from the crater perimeter.
A civilian profile appeared. The file was glitching slightly.
KANE VOSS
Citizen Tier: Null
Occupation: Iron Wards Mechanic
Status: Unregistered / Low Threat
The room fell silent.
"A Null?" an Enforcer scoffed. "A Null can't host anything, much less a System."
"Yet…" the analyst zoomed the waveform, "…his signature is adapting."
A beat. The supervisor finally looked up.
"State your hypothesis."
The analyst swallowed. "Sir… he's integrating. Slow, but stable. That shouldn't be possible."
Another beat. Then the command fell, cold and absolute.
"Initiate Purge Protocol."
Several officers straightened instantly.
"Capture alive for analysis. Division Zero authority granted."
The holo-table flashed red.
[TARGET CLASSIFICATION UPDATED]
Potential Devourer Hybrid — KANE VOSS
Directive: CAPTURE ALIVE
Engage Level-Three Purge Assets]
Above them, the ceiling shifted open.
A drone squadron lifted through a vertical launch tunnel, vanishing into the static-choked night.
~ The Metro Depths ~
Water dripped from the ceiling in slow, uneven taps, each echo bouncing through the abandoned metro tunnels like a countdown he didn't want to understand. Kane moved with one hand on the wall, boots sloshing through ankle-high water thick with rust and oil.
Emergency lights flickered overhead, one dying bulb at a time, washing the tunnel in brief bursts of gold before dropping everything into darkness again.
His HUD pulsed weakly.
[Vitals: Critical]
[Energy Reserves: 12%]
"Yeah," Kane muttered. "Feels about right."
A faint Memory Echo triggered, no warning, just a sudden overlay of Lira's voice:
"Don't stop yet, Kane. Move."
He flinched hard and slapped a hand to his ear even though it wasn't coming from there. "You're dead, Lira. Stop… stop talking to me."
[Integration: 1.8%]
[Adaptive Synchronization — ERROR]
The world pixelated for half a second before re-solidifying. Kane braced against the wall, swallowing down the nausea.
Above him, somewhere beyond layers of concrete and rusted track lines, scanning pulses rippled, faint but real. A soft vibration trembled through the pipes overhead.
The Signal Scrambler in his system reacted, low. A sheet of distorted static spread across the tunnel walls like an invisible ripple.
"Good," Kane whispered. "At least one of us knows what we're doing."
He adjusted the strap on his gear bag, heavier now that the pistols and parts were inside, and forced himself forward. The deeper he went, the more the air changed. Denser. Metallic. Probably uneasy too.
A burst of pressure from above made him freeze. A scanner ping cut through the rubble in a piercing sweep, only barely dampened by the scrambler.
"Keep moving," he told himself. "Before they get creative."
He stepped deeper into the metro's throat, swallowed by darkness and the low aura of something ancient beneath the city.
Then the Ascendant Datafeed stabilized across the screen, and then a metallic voice announced:
[WITNESS LOG #2218 – RASK, Scavenger Tier E]
Rask appeared on the holo. Sweaty, shaking, eyes unfocused.
"We were scavenging the crater," he said, voice cracking. "Just routine collection, yeah? Then the… the Null stood up."
He swallowed so hard the mic picked it up.
"Joren went to strip him. And then he— he screamed. Not like a normal scream. Like… something was pulling the sound out of him."
Rask's hands trembled. "Then he dissolved. Just—" He made a helpless gesture. "Code. Light. Gone. I ran."
[END OF LOG]
The feed switched without transition.
[WITNESS LOG #2219 – KEM (Deceased)]
The audio was warped. The face on-screen blinked rapidly as if the recording barely held together.
"He had silver eyes," Kem whispered. "No halo. It wasn't a glitch—"
[AUDIO CUT – SIGNAL SEVERED]
A note slid across the feed:
[STATUS: Subject deceased. Body recovered with partial code burns.]
[DIVISION ZERO — FIELD ANALYST NOTE]
The tone was detached, almost bored.
"Residue confirms Devourer-class assimilation pattern.
No standard System User should produce this signature.
Recommend escalation. Contact Ghost Grid surveillance."
Another note blinked into place:
"Record shows no Null host has ever reached 1% integration without immediate disintegration."
[COMMAND REPLY — ASCENDANT OVERSIGHT]
"Then this one broke the rule. Track him. Study him. Do not kill him."
Holo-map expanded. A pulsing red dot glowed far beneath the city's surface.
"Sector Depth: Sublevel 8. The target is heading toward the old Ghost Grid."
The Iron Wards were never quiet.
Not even at night.
But when the two Ascendant Enforcers stepped into Redd's workshop, the whole block seemed to hold its breath.
The old engineer didn't look up at first. He sat hunched over a dead servo-motor, squinting through a cracked lens while sparks popped off the soldering rig.
The door hissed shut behind the Enforcers, white-gold armor, polished visors, boots that vibrated faintly with internal stabilizers. Too clean for the Rustbelt. Too expensive. Too unwelcome.
"We're investigating a Null named Kane," the first Enforcer said, voice filtered through the mask.
Redd grunted. "Investigation? What, you boys run outta orphans to recruit?"
The second Enforcer stepped forward, ignoring the jab. "Records show he worked under you. Mechanic. Tierless."
"Taught him everything he knew," Redd replied without hesitation. "Which means he fixed things your Council broke." He didn't bother hiding the bitterness.
The first Enforcer scanned the room.
Tools. Scrap metal. Old wiring. A pile of outdated weapon mods. Typical Rustbelt shop.
Then his visor stopped on a few incriminating items:
A half-finished rifle frame
A set of custom capacitors
And… Lira's shattered badge, half-buried on the table
The Enforcer paused. "If he contacts you," he said slowly, "report it. For his safety."
Redd snorted. "Right. His safety. That why you're marching around with purge-authorized suits?"
Neither officer answered.
They left the workshop without another word, the door sliding shut with a metallic groan.
Redd didn't move for several seconds.
Then he lifted a tarp in the corner.
Underneath it lay Kane's datapad, still faintly glowing, still synced to the workshop's network ID. The last thing Kane left behind.
Redd exhaled through his teeth.
"You better be alive, kid," he whispered. "Because whatever's hunting you? It ain't stopping."
He closed the tarp slowly.
Hands shaking.
~ The Metro Depths ~
Kane's staggered forward, one hand dragging along the wall for balance.
His vision glitched again.
Not metaphorically, literally.
For a moment, the world broke into squares of red and silver dust.
[CORRUPTION LOAD: 4.2%]
"Not now…" Kane muttered. His voice echoed strangely, like the tunnel duplicated the sound before returning it.
He lifted his right arm to check the damage.
Bad idea.
Silver threads were crawling under his skin; thin, needle-like filaments pulsing with light. His muscles spasmed violently, jerking his fingers into a claw.
"Stop—" He slammed the arm into the wall. Hard.
Debris rained down. Pain shot up his shoulder. But the threads slowed.
For now.
He kept walking, stumbling into a wider chamber where the ceiling had collapsed. Water dripped from broken pipes. The faint smell of burnt circuitry lingered in the air.
That's when he saw it.
A Glitched Beast slumped against the far wall, half-metal, half-flesh, ribs exposed and twitching, its eyes frozen mid-blink like a paused video.
It was still alive. Barely.
Kane choked on his breath. "I'm not doing this again…"
[Assimilate… or die]
Kane shook his head violently. "No. No more—"
The Beast twitched. Its jaw snapped twice. Then it dragged itself toward him, one limb scraping metal against stone, sparks flying.
Kane backed up until his shoulders hit the wall.
He didn't choose.
Instinct did.
He grabbed the creature's skull just as it lunged.
A violent flash erupted. Data poured out; white, red, silver, streaming into his arm like liquid fire.
The Beast disintegrated.
Kane dropped to his knees, gasping, eyes watering as the new energy stabilized in his chest.
[Fragment Absorbed — Energy +17%]
[Structural Adaptation Reinforced]
[Integration: 1.85%]
Kane pushed himself back onto his feet, legs shaking. The energy from the Glitched Beast kept him upright, but only barely.
[ALERT: ASCENDANT SIGNATURE DETECTED]
[Distance: 400m → 260m → 200m]
His stomach dropped. "Already…?"
A low sound vibrated through the concrete, scanners sweeping the underground sectors. The sound burrowed into his ribs, rattling every bone.
He ran.
Fast enough to stay alive.
The tunnel narrowed, the ceiling lowering until he had to duck under old support beams. A burst of white-gold light flashed from a crack overhead, Ascendant drones scanning downward, tracing the tunnels like searchlights.
[Distance: 180m → 140m → 120m]
His Signal Scrambler pulsed inside him, distorting the readings, but only enough to slow the inevitable.
"Come on… come on…" Kane hissed, boots splashing through ankle-deep water.
The tunnel forked suddenly:
Left led to an upward slope, faint daylight leaking in.
Right led to a steep descent into pitch-black darkness… except for a faint, rhythmic red glow pulsing from below.
His HUD responded instantly:
[Signal Trace Detected: Compatible Fragments – Sublevel 9]
[System Advisory: Environment Unknown]
[Hazard Level: EXTREME]
Kane stared into the darkness. The red light throbbed, slow and steady.
"You're leading me there, aren't you?" he whispered.
The Predator didn't answer.
Kane reloaded his pistol, exhaled once, and turned toward the glowing descent.
"Fine," he muttered. "Let's see what's waiting in the dark."
He stepped into the red-lit tunnel.
_______________________
Author's Thought:
Congratulations, you survived another chapter.
Kane barely did.
So if you made it this far, I'm guessing you enjoyed the story, or got lost and can't find the exit button.
Either are valid. I respect the grind.
Anyway, if you want the story to keep going, toss a power stone or two.
Power stones are like caffeine for authors, except instead of making us productive, they make us feel guilty enough to write faster.
Both are effective.