CHAPTER 4: SKYFORGE GAMBIT
The rain had stopped.
That was the first thing Finn noticed as they crouched on the rooftop opposite Skyforge Tower. The storm had left the air smelling like wet concrete and burnt ozone, the tower's obsidian surface glistening under the predawn glow of Neo-Tokyo's artificial skyline.
05:00:00 blinked on Finn's wrist-com.
"Showtime," Vroomba muttered, his headlight dimmed to a faint blue pulse.
Finn adjusted the laser-grid gloves Mira had given him—supposedly capable of scaling the tower's energy shield. "Remind me why we're not using the front door?"
"Because Lysander had the lobby mined with cognitive grenades," Vroomba said. "One wrong thought, and your brain turns to pudding."
A notification popped up:
[SYSTEM ALERT: "OMNI-CORE TRANSPORT IN PROGRESS"]
Estimated time to intercept: 17 minutes
Finn exhaled. "Alright. Let's—"
Sneeze.
"EeEeEEk!"
A security drone swiveled toward their rooftop.
"Goddamn it, Finn!" Vroomba hissed as the drone's targeting laser painted Finn's chest.
THE ASCENTThe tower's energy shield hummed against Finn's gloves, each handhold sizzling as the laser-grid adjusted to his grip. Below, the city stretched like a circuit board, neon arteries pulsing between monolithic corporate spires.
Halfway up, the first drone found them.
Type-7 "Reaper"
Twin plasma cannons
Neural disruptor array
Weakness: Overloads in heavy rain (Too bad the storm had passed)
"Don't. Move." Vroomba's whisper was barely audible over the shield's hum.
The Reaper's scanners swept past Finn's boot—then paused.
A voice crackled through its speakers: "HELLO, SOUP-THIEF."
Juno.
The drone's weapons powered down. "FOLLOW MY LIGHTS. LYSSANDER CAN'T KNOW YOU'RE HERE."
Finn exchanged a glance with Vroomba. "Trap?"
"Obviously." The motorcycle's engine purred. "But we're out of options."
THE SUMMITThe rooftop access hatch hissed open, revealing a corridor lined with corpses. Each bore the same mark: Ω burned into their foreheads.
"Processing overflow," Juno's drone explained. "LYSSANDER'S WORK."
At the corridor's end, the Omni-Core floated in a containment field—a sphere of liquid light, its surface rippling with code.
Finn reached for it.
"I wouldn't."
The voice was velvet and knives.
Lysander stepped from the shadows, his silver hair now streaked with the same glowing green as Finn's. His eyes weren't human anymore—just voids with pinpricks of red light at their centers.
"You're early," he murmured. "The ritual wasn't supposed to start until you remembered."
Finn's wrist-com screamed:
[WARNING: COGNITIVE INVASION DETECTED]
The world dissolved into static.