"Don't move, or I'll blow a hole through that cheap plating of yours," a voice snapped.
Kael froze. He didn't need to look up to know he was pinned. The cold, circular press of a gun barrel was already grinding into the center of his forehead, pushing his skull back against the rusted corrugated metal of the alley wall.
"Please," Kael rasped. His voice sounded like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. "I don't even know where I am."
"Wrong answer," the woman replied. He could hear the slide of the weapon racking—a sharp, lethal click. "You're in the Grey Zone, scrap-tier. And you're currently occupying a space that belongs to people who actually know how to fight. Now, tell me why the hell the Capital's security drones are swarming this sector like you're some kind of high-value asset."
Kael blinked. His vision flickered. A jagged line of gold code suddenly ripped across his retina, flashing *[ADMIN ACCESS: GRANTED]*.
He didn't know what it meant. Five seconds ago, he'd been a nameless cyborg scavenger with a leaking hydraulic line in his left leg and a memory bank that felt like a shattered mirror. Then, the glitch happened. The world had suddenly stopped being a blur of rust and started looking like a blueprint.
"I'm just a scavenger," Kael lied. He tried to shift his weight, but the gun pressed harder, bruising his skin. "I found a chip. That's all."
"Liar," she hissed. He felt her breath—sharp, smelling of ozone and bitter coffee—just inches from his face. "Your eyes are glowing, you idiot. Do you think I'm blind?"
Kael looked up. The woman was lean, dressed in tactical gear that had seen better decades, with a scar cutting through her left eyebrow and eyes that looked like they'd seen the world burn and liked the view. This was Sila. He didn't know her name yet, but he knew the look of a predator who had finally cornered something interesting.
"Get out of my head," Kael muttered, though she wasn't in his head. The gold code was.
*[SYSTEM OVERRIDE: SECTOR 7 POWER GRID]*
He didn't think. He just felt a pull in the center of his chest, a sudden, violent surge of electricity that didn't belong in a scrap-tier body. He slammed his palm against the wall behind him.
*BOOM.*
An explosion of blue sparks erupted from the wall. The entire alleyway screamed as the ancient power lines overhead surged, overloading in a blinding flash. The shockwave threw Sila backward, her gun slipping from her grip as she hit the pavement with a grunt.
Kael didn't stop. He couldn't. The power was pouring through him, making his synthetic nerves scream. He could feel the city. Not just the street, but the veins of the city—the hidden conduits, the locked gates, the dormant security turrets.
"What the hell..." Sila gasped, scrambling to her feet. She didn't reach for her gun; she reached for a combat knife, her eyes wide with a mixture of rage and genuine shock. "You're a god-tier? In a body that looks like it was put together in a junkyard?"
"I don't know!" Kael yelled. He tried to stand, but his left leg gave out. A spray of black hydraulic fluid leaked onto the concrete. "I can't... I can't make it stop!"
"Stop it then!" Sila lunged.
Kael reacted on instinct. He didn't fight her; he fought the environment. He flicked his wrist, and a heavy industrial shutter above them slammed shut with a deafening crash, cutting off the alley exit and trapping them both in a narrow, dim corridor of rust and rain.
Sila skidded to a halt, her knife inches from his throat. She didn't pull back. Instead, she pressed the blade against his skin, the cold steel biting in.
"You're not a scavenger," she whispered, her voice dropping to a dangerous, low vibration. "You're a key. A walking, leaking piece of Old World hardware. Who sent you? Viktor? Was it the Capital?"
Kael stared at her. The proximity was suffocating. He could see the gold flecks in her iris, the way her pulse was hammering in the hollow of her throat. The power was still humming under his skin, making his fingers twitch.
"I don't know a Viktor," Kael said, his voice shaking. "I just woke up. I don't remember anything before the reboot."