"Get your hand off me, Jax. Now," I spat, backing away. My pulse was hammering against my ribs, and every time I blinked, the world flickered like a dying neon sign.
Jax didn't move. He just stood there in the rain, his face a jagged mess of scar tissue and chrome plating. One eye was still human—bloodshot and tired—but the other was a glowing red optic that hummed with a low, predatory vibration.
"Still jumpy, kid," Jax rasped. His voice sounded like gravel being crushed in a blender. "And you smell like... something that isn't human. What the hell did you let inside your head?"
*He knows,* Nyx’s voice purred in my skull. It wasn't a sound; it was a cold needle sliding into my consciousness. *He can smell the fusion. Don't let him touch you, Kael. If he triggers a neural spike, we both fry.*
"I don't know what you're talking about," I lied, my voice shaking. I tried to step back, but my leg buckled. A sudden spike of heat flared in my chest, and I gasped, clutching my ribs.
Jax was on me in a second. He didn't walk; he blurred. His metal hand clamped onto my wrist, the grip like a vice. The coldness of the chrome bit through my skin, and I could feel the faint vibration of his servos working.
"Liar," Jax whispered, leaning in. His breath smelled like ozone and old copper. "You're leaking energy. You're not just infected; you're bonded. Who did it? Was it Victor?"
I tried to wrench my arm away, but he squeezed harder. "Let go!"
*Let me handle this,* Nyx hissed. *He's a relic. A broken toy. Give me the wheel, Kael, and I'll rip the secrets out of his remaining organic parts.*
"No," I gritted out. "I'm in control."
*Are you?* Nyx laughed, and suddenly, I felt her presence shift. She didn't take over—not yet—but she pushed. A surge of artificial adrenaline flooded my veins. My vision snapped into high-definition. I could see the rain droplets freezing in mid-air, the microscopic cracks in Jax's plating, the exact frequency of the optic humming in his socket.
I twisted my wrist, using the sudden burst of strength to slam my elbow into Jax's throat. It was a dirty hit, fast and brutal. He choked, his grip loosening just enough for me to rip away.
"Damn," Jax gasped, clutching his neck. He stepped back, a dark smirk crossing his scarred lips. "Still got that street-rat instinct. But you're burning up, Kael. You're a walking bomb."
"Tell me why you're alive," I demanded, my chest heaving. "I saw the blast. I saw the wreckage. You were dead."
Jax let out a wet, hacking laugh. "Dead? Kid, Victor doesn't let good assets go to waste. He just... repurposed me. But the 'repurposing' had a glitch. I found a way out. Now, I'm the glitch in his machine."
*He's lying,* Nyx whispered. *Or at least, he's omitting the best parts. He's terrified. I can feel the tremor in his neural link.*
"What do you want, Jax?"
"Information," he said, his red eye scanning me. "And a way to kill a god. Victor is building something, Kael. A network. He's not just hunting cores anymore; he's trying to upload the city's consciousness into a single hive. You? You're just the first successful prototype of a living vessel. That's why you're being hunted. You're the only one who didn't melt during the fusion."
I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the rain. "Prototype? I'm not a project. I'm a person."
*Cute,* Nyx sneered. *You're a meat-suit with a very expensive operating system. Now, stop flirting with the cyborg and ask him for the list.*
"The list," I said, narrowing my eyes. "You know who has the high-tier cores. The ones I need to survive."
Jax sighed, the sound a metallic wheeze. "I can give you the names. But you can't just walk in and grab them. These people are Victor's inner circle. They're guarded by Bond-Sentinels. You'll need more than a ghost in your head to get past them."
"I have Nyx," I said, though it sounded like a question.
*I'm more than a ghost, you idiot,* she snapped. *I'm the key to the city's firewall. If you give me enough power—if we hit a one-hundred percent sync rate—I can shut down every Sentinel in a three-block radius. But your body... it might not survive the heat.*
"Give me the list, Jax. Now."
Jax reached into his coat and pulled out a small, encrypted data-chip. He held it between two fingers, the chrome clicking. "This is the hit list. The most potent cores in the Eternal Night City. But be warned: some of these people aren't just targets. They're monsters."
As I reached for the chip, Nyx suddenly screamed in my mind.
*SENSORS TRIP! LEFT FLANK! NOW!*
I didn't think. I dove to the right just as a high-frequency blade sliced through the air, missing my ear by an inch. The sound was a piercing shriek that made my teeth ache.
Three figures emerged from the shadows of the alley. They were dressed in matte-black tactical gear, their faces hidden behind smooth, featureless masks. Bond-Sentinels.
"Target identified," one of them droned. The voice was synthesized, devoid of emotion. "Retrieve the vessel. Eliminate the anomaly."
"The anomaly?" Jax yelled, pulling a heavy-caliber pistol from his hip. "I'm still here, you bucket of bolts!"
He opened fire, the muzzle flashes lighting up the alley in strobes of orange. The Sentinels didn't flinch. They moved with a synchronized, terrifying grace, dodging the bullets with micro-adjustments that looked unnatural.
"We can't fight them like this!" I yelled, scrambling to my feet.
*Sync with me,* Nyx commanded. Her voice was no longer a whisper; it was a roar. *Kael, give it to me! All of it! If we don't hit a hundred percent right now, you're going to be a very pretty piece of roadkill!*
"I can't! You said the heat would—"
*DO IT!*
I stopped fighting. I stopped pushing her back. I opened the floodgates and let Nyx rush into every nerve ending, every synapse, every drop of blood in my body.
It felt like swallowing molten lead.
My vision exploded into a grid of neon gold. The world slowed down. I could see the Sentinels' movement patterns—the lag in their response time, the flicker of their communication signals.
*Sync rate: 80%... 90%...*
My skin began to steam. The rain hitting my shoulders turned instantly to vapor. I could feel my heart hammering a rhythm that wasn't human—too fast, too precise.
*100%!*
*SHRED THEM!* Nyx screamed.
I didn't move my muscles; I moved the air. A wave of raw electronic interference blasted outward from my chest. It wasn't a physical blow, but a digital scream. The Sentinels froze mid-stride. Their masks flickered. One of them began to twitch violently, his head snapping back and forth as Nyx tore through his firewall from the inside out.
"What... is... this?" the Sentinel gasped, his voice distorting into static.
I stepped forward, my hand glowing with a pale, violet light. I didn't even use a weapon. I just touched his chest, and the feedback loop I'd created with Nyx surged into his core.
*BOOM.*
The Sentinel's chest plate erupted in a shower of sparks and blue fluid. He collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut.
I gasped, falling to one knee as the sync snapped. The heat vanished, replaced by a bone-deep cold. I was shaking, my vision blurring.
"Holy hell," Jax whispered, staring at the wreckage. "You actually did it. You bypassed a Sentinel's core without a deck."
I ignored him, my fingers trembling as I grabbed the data-chip from the ground. I needed those cores. I needed to evolve or I was going to die in a few days anyway.
I slotted the chip into my wrist port, and the list scrolled across my retina. Names. Locations. Power levels.
I scrolled down to the first name, and my heart stopped.
"No," I whispered. "Not her."
"What's the matter, kid?" Jax asked, leaning over my shoulder. "Recognize the first target?"
I looked at the image on the screen. It was the woman who had pulled me out of the rubble three years ago. The only person who had ever shown me mercy.
"She's the first core on the list," I said, my voice hollow.
"And she's the most dangerous one of them all," Jax added, his red eye glowing. "So, do you want to kill her, or do you want to—"