Jackie exhaled, stretching his shoulders. "Feels weird, huh? Winning for once."
Max didn't respond immediately. His optics flickered faintly — subtle, thoughtful. The rain caught on his cheek as he looked toward the skyline where the extraction drone had vanished. "We didn't win," he said finally. "We just bought time."
Lucy frowned. "You always gotta ruin the mood, boss?"
"Reality ruins moods," Max said quietly. "I just deliver the message."
The group moved through the maze of empty containers until they reached a broken fence overlooking the old magline. Below, a single freight car sat idle — its systems dead, its interior dry enough to serve as shelter. Mary highlighted it in Max's HUD.
"That'll do," he murmured.
They dropped down one by one, boots splashing as the city's glow faded behind them. Inside the car, it was dark except for the faint flicker of Lucy's wristlight. She set up a small field generator that hummed to life, bathing the cabin in soft blue light.
Jackie slumped against a crate, removing his soaked jacket. "Man, I could sleep for a week."
V checked her rifle before setting it aside. "Try an hour. Militech doesn't stay confused forever."
"Mary," Max said, looking up. "Run deep-scan on the local grid. I want to know if Genesis is rebooting any drone networks nearby."
"Already scanning," Mary replied. "But… there's something else. I intercepted a low-band Militech transmission. It wasn't directed at you, but—"
"But what?" Lucy asked.
Mary paused for a moment that felt too long. "They mentioned Project Genesis Phase Two. Deployment window: forty-eight hours."
The silence that followed was cold and sharp.
Jackie straightened. "Phase two? We just wrecked their whole setup."
"They don't stop because we burned a lab," V said grimly. "They adapt. That's Militech."
Lucy looked at Max, worry flashing in her eyes. "So what's next? You think they'll send another drone army after us?"
Max's expression hardened, shadows cutting across his face in the faint light. "Not drones," he said. "Something worse."
Jackie snorted softly. "Define worse, choom."
Max's voice was quiet, measured — the way it always was when he was already calculating ten steps ahead.
"Project Genesis was never about control," he said. "It was about replacement. What they lost in metal, they'll rebuild in flesh."
V's jaw tightened. "Cyborg units?"
"No," Max replied. "Full-spectrum bio-mechs. Synthetic soldiers built from gene-spliced human tissue and cybernetic cores. Smarter, faster, adaptive. The next generation of Militech's war toys."
Lucy groaned. "You're telling me we pissed off an army that's still in the factory settings?"
Max looked out the broken window at the distant neon haze. "No," he said. "I'm telling you the factory just turned itself back on."
For a moment, nobody spoke. The hum of the generator filled the silence, and the rain outside turned into a dull whisper against steel.
Jackie rubbed a hand over his face. "So what's the plan, boss?"
Max's eyes glowed faintly again, that cold machine-light threading through his irises.
"Tomorrow, we disappear. Split routes. Go dark. Mary will feed you new IDs, safe nodes, burner chips. We regroup when the smoke clears."
Lucy frowned. "You're not coming with us?"
"I'll draw the signal," Max said simply. "If Genesis is tracking me, they'll chase the noise. Not you."
Jackie shook his head. "That's suicide, man."
Max smiled faintly — that calm, mechanical curve that never quite reached his eyes.
"It's called misdirection. Suicide's just a matter of timing."
V studied him for a long moment, then finally nodded. "Fine. But you better not pull a vanishing act again."
"I don't make promises," Max said softly, standing. "I make exits."
Outside, thunder rolled across the skyline. The night bled silver against the rooftops, and somewhere far away, alarms began to echo — faint, mechanical, growing louder.
Mary's voice cut through the hum, quiet but urgent. "Max… they just activated something new in the grid."
He turned toward the sound, rain streaking down his face as his optics refocused.
"What kind of something?"
Mary hesitated, processing. Then her tone dropped to a whisper.
"A Militech combat drone. Model unknown. Signal reads… like it's looking for you."
Max's smile was almost imperceptible. "Then it's going to find me."
He pulled his hood back up, the generator light reflecting off his chrome neural ports as he stepped toward the exit.
Jackie sighed. "You're seriously going after it?"
Max paused at the door. "No," he said. "It's coming to me."
Outside, the storm roared again, and in the distance — through the smog and lightning — the shape of something massive moved across the skyline, its red optics pulsing like a heartbeat.
"Hide until I return," Max said, his voice low but firm — a command more than a request.
The storm swallowed his silhouette as he stepped into the downpour, the hum of his cybernetics merging with the thunder. For a moment, the blue glow of his optics was the only light in the blackness — then that, too, vanished into the haze.
Jackie exhaled sharply. "He's insane," he muttered. "Walking straight into whatever the hell that is."
V checked her rifle, jaw tightening. "You know what's crazier?" she said. "He'll probably win."
Lucy leaned against the doorframe, watching the distant flashes of lightning illuminate the skyline. "He's not built to hide," she murmured. "None of us are. But him…" Her voice trailed off. "He's different."
Mary's voice pulsed through the comms, calm but clipped. "Tracking Max's signal. He's moving east — toward the power relay hub. Estimated intercept with the unknown unit in ninety seconds."
Jackie cursed softly. "He's drawing that thing right to the city's power spine. If it explodes—"
"He knows," Mary interrupted. "He's not planning to fight it head-on."
V frowned. "Then what's he planning?"
Mary paused, digital hesitation — rare for her. "You don't want to know."
Max, on the other hand, was grinning — a wild, almost boyish smirk cutting through the chaos.
"Man, I really wanted to try this," he muttered under his breath. "Just like they do in the movies."
He broke into a sprint, the rain streaking behind him like silver trails. His cybernetic joints hissed with each movement, feet hammering against the cracked pavement as the city blurred past.
***
Support me at
patreon.com/boring_world
It's 22 chaps ahead