The stars were invisible tonight.
Heavy cloud cover choked the Musutafu skyline, casting the city in a deeper gloom than usual. The wind howled through the alleys like a ghost, rattling broken window panes and tugging at scraps of tarpaulin nailed over shattered glass.
Perched atop a rusted radio tower in the abandoned North Sector, Jetsling Beroba stood still—an unmoving silhouette against the dead sky.
His armor, black and silver, gleamed faintly beneath a flickering antenna light. White photon streams pulsed from the Delta Mover across his limbs, breathing like veins beneath the armor's surface.
And inside his helmet, something spoke.
[System synchronization: complete. Environmental sweep in progress. Surveillance disruption initiated.]
A monotone voice, artificial and calm, echoed in his ears.
Jetsling didn't flinch.
"Delta," he muttered, eyes scanning the jagged skyline through his HUD. "Show me the last imprint."
[Acknowledged. Beginning trace from previous interaction point. Target Designation 'Mari'.]
The moment he'd found the scarf together with the triangle symbol on the alley wall, the silence afterward—he knew it wasn't a coincidence. Someone just left a message. A challenge. Or maybe a warning.
That someone do not know about this, a technology that can rival them. The hunter that hunting them no longer consider this kidnapper and criminal as human.
His visor lit up with a full 3D reconstruction of the alley from 12 hours prior.
[Residual chemical profile left behind matches industrial sedatives and dampened transport grease. No signs of conflict been detected. Target was removed with precision.]
Jetsling narrowed his eyes. There one thing that tell him about this, the quirk that the other side have specialize in doing this kind of job.
People cannot choose quirks but they can choose what to do with them. As long as it involve taking other live and they succeed, he will hunt them.
"They're getting cleaner."
[Correct, Sir. Processing signal ghost left behind by wireless relay drone used in vicinity.]
Delta's AI had changed.
Once, it was a cold system—triggered only in battle. Now, it adapted. It spoke. It hunted with him.
Before it can only jam all surrounding electronic but now it can even control it.
It not just a Rider system anymore.
A partner.
---
Below him, the slums blinked and buzzed with quiet life. Old neon signs hummed like tired insects. Patrol drones zipped by overhead.
Then, they started dropping.
[Jamming field in passive state. Local surveillance and electronic grid has been blind.]
Everytime he transform a jamming field then form around the surrounding. Before it only cover a few ten of meter, but now, it can easily cover a half and a kilometer. Even if it like that, he only make the jamming cover only to 100 meter when near hospital. He do not want to accidentally kill people there.
Jetsling leapt from the tower.
His boots hit the rooftop below with barely a sound. Cameras on neighboring buildings flickered, then failed. Communications within a 1km radius scrambled.
[Shall I initiate deeper network infiltration?]
"No. Just mask me."
He moved across the rooftops like a phantom.
---
Two blocks south, in the shell of an old recycling depot, Delta's scan highlighted a collapsed storage bin.
Jetsling kicked it open.
Beneath the lid, crumpled cardboard. A torn sleeve. Blood. Faint.
And a trail.
He crouched down and reached toward the cold concrete. His gloved fingers grazed the spot.
[Scanning... partial heel print. Size consistent with child. Likely female. Matched to target Mari.]
"Direction?"
[Tire pattern located. Unique. Matched to off-market armored van registered under defunct NGO. Route deviation detected heading west toward Sector 12.]
Jetsling stood.
"That's where they took her."
[Coordinates uploaded. Tracking active. I advise caution.]
"I don't need caution," Jetsling muttered. "I need answers."
---
The alley narrowed as he passed through it, the walls scarred with old gang tags and peeling posters. Light from above failed to reach these corners of the city.
But he didn't need light.
His helmet adjusted, filtering through thermal and magnetic signatures. He saw the faint imprint of wheels dragging through sludge. The smell of oil. Rust.
He was hunting.
[Requesting permission to activate secondary combat protocol. Unknown contacts present within current vector path.]
"No."
He paused.
"Not yet."
The AI fell silent—but the system's tension could be felt.
Even it wanted blood.
---
He stopped at the mouth of a dead-end warehouse lot. Half the walls were collapsed, but recent tire tracks were fresh in the mud. The place hadn't been used in years.
Until now.
Jetsling leaned against the wall, placed two fingers against the exposed wiring of a junction box, and let the Delta system flow.
His armor pulsed.
[Accessing underground grid... camera feeds decrypted... No visual confirmation, but thermal pockets detected inside basement level. Four bodies. Four small heat source... likely a child.]
Jetsling's breath fogged up again inside the helmet.
"Mari."
He summoned the Delta Mover to his hand.
[Are you initiating breach?]
Jetsling's grip tightened.
"No. First... let's show them how blind they really are."
[Acknowledged. Beginning total blackout.]
Lights across the lot shut down. Electric locks failed. Drones monitoring the district turned to static.
In the dark, the only light left was the gleaming triangle across Delta's mask.