BitCrack was what happened when Neonspire's junk code learned to breathe.
Beneath the city's electric veins, rogue hackers crowded in a data bazaar woven with neon wire and rule-breaking ambition. Here, security was a suggestion and loyalty was for sale. Server racks blinked like forgotten firewalls, and conversations happened behind screens and silence.
Elijah moved through the crowd with a casual swagger, scanning the glow-lit tunnels. "This place smells like burned circuits and betrayal."
Lyra chuckled beside him, her leather jacket brushing against his sleeve. "Perfect. You'll fit right in."
[System Protocol Activated: Shadow Network, Cloaking Field Engaged]
[+2 IP: Infiltration Success, BitCrack Hub]
Behind them, Valis Rehn chewed his thumbnail, visibly sweating under the flickering lights.
"You've got five minutes before Apex flags the access," he muttered, sliding a translucent keycard across a data terminal. "After that, the city's surveillance net lights up like a Christmas tree."
Elijah nodded. "I'm not planning to unwrap presents."
[Apex SubNet, Clearance Validated, Valis Authenticated]
[Restricted Cache Located, Class ECHO-013, Decryption Initialized]
Lyra's eyes narrowed as she tapped her Cipher glove to the console. Intricate glyphs spiraled across the screen, dancing with his Shadow System's black-silver interface.
"You sure you're ready for this?" she asked.
"I was ready the second Victor Slade watched me die," Elijah replied.
[System Sync Detected, Shadow + Cipher, Compatibility Level: UNKNOWN]
[WARNING: Unstable Cross-Protocol Communication Detected]
Their systems pulsed once, then the cache opened.
ECHO-013
A warped voice oozed from the terminal—grainy, mechanical, ancient.
"They think we're code. They're wrong. We are memory, bound in recursion. Echoes of the first tether."
A red warning blinked in Elijah's vision.
"ECHO-013: SYSTEM INTERLINK, ORIGIN NODE: CLASSIFIED, ANOMALY STATUS: LIVE."
"You hearing this?" Elijah asked quietly.
"I'm hearing everything," Shade replied. "And for once, I'm nervous. ECHO-013 isn't just data—it's a ripple in your reality. A backdoor left by something smart enough to plan five timelines ahead."
Lyra's fingers paused on the console, then—deliberately—brushed Elijah's hand.
"I'm syncing partial logs," she murmured. "If we're both infected, we might as well be in sync."
[+3 IP: Mutual Trust Established, System Logs Synced]
[+1 IP: Physical Connection, Emotional Protocol Triggered]
Something sharp twisted in Elijah's chest. He wasn't sure if it was attraction, or the growing realization that Lyra Voss might be the only person in Neonspire who actually understood what was happening to him.
Then his system jolted.
[SYSTEM PENALTY: Unauthorized Cache Access, Shadow Protocol Violation]
[CHARM PROTOCOL: LOCKED, 6 Hours]
[WARNING: Social Influence Systems Offline, Verbal Persuasion Impaired]
"Elijah?" Lyra asked.
His voice caught in his throat, the words snagging like static.
"Protocol locked," he said hoarsely, gripping the terminal. His usual smooth flow faltered, and a dull ache settled behind his eyes. "They just cut my charm."
"Apex doesn't need to silence you if it can just uncool you." Shade muttered. "That's actual psychological warfare. I'm proud of them."
The red lighting snapped cold.
Valis bolted from the access panel as sirens hissed through the vents. Every coder in sight scrambled, slamming terminals closed and yanking drives from ports.
Then a silence.
And footsteps.
Kael.
He moved like a shadow given form, all obsidian mesh and neural precision. His cybernetic eye flickered, a pulsing crimson spiral scanning the air as if it could taste system anomalies. His trench coat flared with Apex insignia, tailored to remind you that resistance wasn't just futile, it was expensive.
"You really should've stayed dead, Kane," Kael said.
Lyra's hand tightened around her glove. "Who the hell is he?"
"Elijah Kane," Kael continued, ignoring her. "And the Cipher girl. Just like the anomaly predicted. Interlinked, activated, glitching."
His left eye whirred audibly.
[Subject Analysis: Kane, Shadow Host, ECHO-013 Positive]
[Subject Analysis: Voss, Cipher Host, ECHO-013 Positive]
"Kael's not just Apex's attack dog," Shade whispered. "He's the lens through which Apex sees the future. And you? You're the blind spot they're correcting."
Kael stepped forward, and the server room's lights flickered, syncing rhythmically with the pulses of his implants. The very air felt like it was syncing to his neural thread.
"Elijah," Lyra hissed, "I'll run interference."
"You trust me with the exit?"
"I trust that I hate losing more than I hate you."
With that, Lyra launched a burst of Cipher glyphs into the ceiling grid. Sparks exploded. The entire left wall shimmered in flickering projections, distorting Kael's scan radius.
[+2 IP: Emergency Defense, Cipher Flare]
[+1 IP: System Concealment, Temporary Obfuscation]
Elijah surged forward, grabbing Lyra's wrist. The floor beneath them trembled as Kael advanced, the server towers groaning from the overload.
"We need to go now."
A plasma dart hissed past him—grazing his sleeve, which sizzled, melting into blackened threads.
"Elijah!" Lyra shouted, yanking him toward the exit shaft.
Kael stood still, unbothered.
"You're not ready," he called after them. "But you will be. Victor will show you what your systems are really for."
Underground Tunnel – 3:07 AM
They ran until the glow of BitCrack faded into shadows.
Only then did Elijah stop, leaning against a wall, breath shallow.
Lyra, hands on her hips, looked at him like she wanted to throw a data spike at his head.
"Next time," she said, "we bring backup."
"Next time," he replied, "we don't crash a system conspiracy with a guy named Valis and two hours of sleep."
She cracked a reluctant smile. The tension eased just slightly.
Then their systems pulsed again.
ERROR CODE: ECHO-013
"RECALIBRATING, SHARED PROTOCOLS IN PROGRESS."
"This isn't over, Elijah," Shade said darkly. "Kael was just the start. You're not glitching anymore—you're evolving. But so is he."