Sirens wailed in the distance. The city was on high alert.
Haio ducked into a ruined alleyway and sat against a wall, his chest rising and falling. He had pushed himself harder than expected. His Archive glowed faintly in his mind's eye—a spinning sphere of blue-white energy.
> Activate: Spec #5 – Vital Bloom.
Glowing petal-like energy emerged from his palms and stitched up the gash across his side. He winced. "That blade had a heat edge…"
Healing complete.
But he was still running low on energy. Most of his stamina had gone into fending off that last strike. His internal stores—especially Echo Reservoir—were nearly maxed out.
> Energy Reservoir: 18% remaining.
Echo Reservoir: 88% full. Discharge needed.
Footsteps approached.
A young girl stumbled into the alley, bloodied and coughing. Her eyes widened when she saw him. "You… you're one of them…"
Haio narrowed his eyes. "One of what?"
"The Archive…" she whispered. "You killed my brother."
Haio froze.
His Quirkscope activated automatically. Her data appeared—but it was fuzzy. Something was shielding it.
> Warning: Unknown Spec Signature Detected. Cloaking Layer Active.
"Who are you?" Haio asked.
She grinned. Her body flickered.
A mimic.
Then—BOOM.
A concussive blast hit the alleyway as her body exploded in kinetic feedback. Haio raised his arm just in time.
> Activate: Spec #6 – Echo Reservoir. Burst Mode.
He absorbed the explosion's shock and redirected it into a speed burst, flinging himself out of the blast radius just in time. The world blurred.
Landing in a crouch, he grimaced.
Who had sent her? She wasn't real. Just a decoy.
> Echo Reservoir Release: Echo Strike.
He slammed his fist into the ground, using the last of the stored force to send a seismic shockwave into the building she'd been projected from. The structure collapsed—revealing a small team of cloaked observers.
One of them whispered, "So the rumors are true… He really can use all of them."
Haio stood, hair fluttering, eyes sharp.
"I'm more than Archive," he said. "I'm evolution itself."