"Don't move a muscle, Prototype. Or I'll carve that pretty little gene-set right out of your spine."
The voice didn't sound human. It sounded like grinding metal filtered through a velvet curtain. I felt the cold press of a monofilament blade against my throat—thin enough to slice through my windpipe before I could even blink. I was pinned flat against the rusted corrugated wall of the refinery, my breath hitching in my chest.
"Get off her!" Pip screamed from my shoulder. The plush bear looked ridiculous, but his voice was vibrating with a frequency that made my teeth ache. He lunged forward, his small paws batting at the man's wrist, but the guy didn't even flinch.
"Shut the toy up," the man whispered. He leaned in closer. I could smell something clinical on him—ozone and expensive sterile soap, the kind they only use in the High Spire. His eyes were the worst part. Golden. Vertical slits. He wasn't just some corporate hitman; he was something *changed*.
"What do you want?" I managed to choke out. My heart was drumming against my ribs, a frantic, jagged rhythm. "I don't know what a prototype is. I'm just a courier."
He chuckled, a low, dangerous sound that vibrated against my skin. "A courier with combat genes that just woke up like a supernova. You're a bad liar, Maya Kade. But you're a very expensive piece of property."
"I'm not property!" I snapped, and before I could think, I slammed my forehead into his nose.
There was a sickening *crunch*. The blade flickered away from my throat, and I didn't waste a second. I dove to the side, rolling through the grit and oil on the floor.
"Maya! Left!" Pip shrieked.
I didn't ask questions. I threw myself toward the left, just as a bolt of searing gold energy scorched the air where my head had been a millisecond before. The wall behind me exploded in a shower of sparks and molten iron.
"Holy shit!" I scrambled to my feet, my boots slipping on a patch of grease. "Pip, what the hell is this guy?"
"A High Spire Enforcer!" Pip yelled, his voice glitching into a high-pitched whine. "They don't hunt couriers, Maya! They hunt *glitches*! We need to move, now, or we're both going to be disassembled for scrap!"
I looked around. The refinery was a maze of rusted pipes and steaming vents. About twenty feet away, a figure was slumped against a pile of crates—the 'pure' human signal Pip had spotted earlier. He was covered in blood, his chest heaving in shallow, wet gasps.
"Leave him!" Pip screamed. "He's a distraction! Run!"
I looked at the man. He looked terrified. He looked... real. In a city of vat-grown freaks and chrome-plated monsters, he looked like something that actually belonged in a history book.
"I can't just leave him to bleed out," I hissed.
"Since when do you care about strangers?" Pip snapped, his glass eyes flashing red. "You're a disposable, remember? In ten minutes, this guy will be a corpse, and you'll be a rug in some executive's office!"
"Shut up and cover me!"
I bolted. I didn't run like a normal person; the combat genes were still screaming in my blood, making every muscle feel like a coiled spring. I leaped over a fallen girder and slid toward the dying man, my hand reaching for his collar.
"Get... away..." the man wheezed. His eyes were clouded, flickering with a strange, rhythmic light.
"Stay still," I commanded, grabbing his arm to drag him toward the shadows.
Suddenly, a surge of electricity slammed into my wrist. Not from the Enforcer, but from the man.
*Zap.*
My vision exploded. For a split second, I wasn't in the refinery anymore. I was seeing something else—a memory that wasn't mine.
I saw a nursery. Not a vat, but a room with soft lights and a wooden crib. And there, sitting on a plush rug, was a toy. A bear. Not a beat-up, stitched-together mess like the one on my shoulder, but a brand new, golden-furred bear with a ribbon around its neck. A child was hugging it, laughing, whispering a secret into its fuzzy ear.
*"You're my best friend, Pip. You'll always keep me safe."\*
I gasped, my eyes snapping open. I was back in the grime, the smell of rust and blood filling my nose. I looked up at Pip. The bear was staring at me, his expression unreadable, but his stitching seemed to tighten.
"What was that?" I whispered, my voice trembling. "Pip, was that... you?"
"Don't look at me!" Pip barked, though his voice sounded strained, almost fragile. "It was a neural leak! The guy's brain is frying, and you just caught the feedback! Now move your ass before the gold-eye comes back!"
"You were a kid's toy," I said, the realization hitting me harder than the Enforcer's blast. "You weren't always a combat AI. You were... loved."
"I said shut up!" Pip screamed, but there was no bite in it this time. Just a desperate, jagged edge. "I'm a tactical support unit! I'm a—"
"You're a teddy bear with a god complex," I countered, though I felt a sudden, fierce knot of protectiveness in my chest.
"And you're a vat-grown idiot with a death wish!" he shot back, but he nudged my cheek with his fuzzy head. "Now get this human out of the line of fire before I decide to stop helping you."
I grabbed the man's shoulder and heaved him behind a massive coolant tank. We were panting, both of us, the silence of the refinery suddenly feeling heavier than the noise.
"Where is he?" I whispered, peering around the edge of the tank.
"He's circling," Pip whispered back, his voice now a low, tactical hum. "He's not rushing because he knows we're trapped. He's playing with his food, Maya. He wants you to panic."
"I'm not panicking," I lied, wiping a smear of oil across my forehead.
"Your heart rate is 140. You're lying through your teeth," Pip replied. "Listen, if he finds us, you don't fight him head-on. You're fast, but he's... he's something else. Use the environment. Drop the coolant pipe above him. Freeze him out."
I looked up. A thick, frosted pipe ran directly over the center of the floor. If I could just get enough leverage to crack the seal...
"Hey, Prototype!" the Enforcer's voice echoed through the hall, sounding amused. "I can smell your adrenaline. It smells like fear and cheap soy-protein. Why make this hard? Just come out, and maybe I'll leave your limbs attached."
I glared at Pip. "You ready?"
"Ready for what? To get murdered?" Pip sighed. "Fine. Do the thing. But if we die, I'm haunting your ghost."
I crept toward the valve, my movements fluid and silent. I could feel the gold-eyed freak moving closer, his footsteps rhythmic and confident. He thought he had me. He thought I was just a scared girl in a dirty jumpsuit.
I reached the valve. I gripped it with both hands, the metal freezing cold against my palms. I waited.
One step.
Two steps.
He was right there. I could see the gold glow of his eyes reflecting off the damp floor.
"Found you," he whispered.
I slammed the valve open with every ounce of strength my awakened genes could muster. A torrent of liquid nitrogen roared out of the pipe in a blinding white cloud, slamming into the Enforcer with the force of a freight train.
He screamed—a sound of genuine shock—as the flash-freeze hit him. He was knocked backward, his golden armor frosting over instantly, his movements slowing to a crawl.
"Now!" Pip yelled.
I didn't hesitate. I lunged forward, not to kill, but to grab the data-drive humming in his wrist-port. I slammed into him, my shoulder hitting his frozen chest, and ripped the device free with a guttural yell.
But as I backed away, the dying man behind the tank let out a wet, hacking cough.
I turned back. He had crawled forward, his hand shaking as he reached for my ankle. His grip was surprisingly strong—fingers like iron clamps, digging into my skin.
"Wait..." he wheezed, his voice a shredded whisper. Blood bubbled at the corners of his mouth.
"I'm getting you out of here," I said, reaching down to help him up.
He shook his head, his eyes widening with a sudden, lucid terror. He pulled me down, his face inches from mine. The smell of death was overwhelming now, but he didn't let go.
"You... don't understand..." he gasped, his voice cracking. "They aren't... coming to kill you..."
"What?" I asked, frowning.
He gripped my wrist so hard I thought the bone would snap. His pupils dilated, and for a second, I saw the reflection of the entire city in his eyes—not the city I knew, but a map of red pulsing lights, all converging on one point.
"They're reclaiming..." he choked out, a final, violent shudder racking his body. "Prototype Zero..."
Before I could ask what that meant, a high-pitched, piercing shriek tore through the air. It wasn't a human sound. It was a signal.
Every speaker in the refinery, every rusted intercom, and every device in the street outside erupted at once. A crimson light flashed across the ceiling, and a cold, synthetic voice boomed over the intercom, echoing through the entire district.
*"TARGET ACQUIRED. PROTOTYPE ZERO LOCATED. ALL UNITS: COMMENCE TOTAL RECOVERY. KILL ALL WITNESSES."\*
I froze. I looked at the drive in my hand, then at the red lights flashing in the distance.
"Pip..." I whispered. "What the hell is a Prototype Zero?"
"I don't know," Pip whispered, his voice trembling for the first time. "But Maya... every single hunter in the Underbelly just locked onto your signal."