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Southridge District – Zone 7A
Night draped the broken street in shades of flickering orange and deep shadow. A sinkhole gaped where a parking structure used to be. Sirens howled in the distance. Civilians screamed behind barricades.
In the center of the chaos — a Wraithborn.
Its form shimmered between solid and spectral: six jagged limbs like snapped telephone poles, a torso that pulsed with shifting symbols, and no face — only a wide, hollow flux sigil burning where its head should be.
It let out a screech — low, mechanical, and mournful.
It wasn't just noise.
It was feeding off the fear.
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✦✦✦
Team Flux – Arrival
The squad touched down just outside the danger zone. Elena led the descent, gravity lightened for a safe landing. Rico dropped beside her with a grin, his two copies sprinting wide to flank. Marcus was all steel and silence, tension vibrating off his arms. Zara's eyes were half-lidded, already sensing pain waves.
"Wraithborn's feeding on residual trauma," she muttered. "Three blocks' worth of it. That's why it's stabilizing."
Marcus scanned the creature. "Tier?"
"Echo," Thorne's voice crackled through their comms. "Unstable but intelligent. Don't give it time to adapt."
Elena exhaled. "Then we hit fast, hit clean."
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Engagement Begins
Rico moved first — three copies surged in simultaneously, distracting the creature with high-speed feints. One took a swipe and vanished in a blast of vaporized flux. The other two stayed just long enough to split its attention.
Marcus charged in, body lined with bright-blue flux. His punch landed — a thunderclap that cracked pavement.
The Wraithborn shrieked.
But instead of reeling, it absorbed the shockwave — and fired it back as a wide sonic burst.
Marcus was thrown into a parked truck, denting the metal.
Zara shouted, "It mimics emotional feedback — your aggression gives it power!"
Elena narrowed her eyes.
"Then let's confuse it."
She inverted her personal gravity, shooting straight up. Once high enough, she reached out with flux tendrils — and did something she hadn't done before:
She shifted gravity for a 20-meter radius.
The battlefield warped. Cars hovered. Rubble lifted. The Wraithborn stumbled, not used to fighting mid-air.
Zara gasped. "Elena—!"
"I've got it," Elena gritted. "New trick. Don't die."
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Zara's Turn
The Wraithborn lashed out, striking a floating car toward fleeing civilians. Zara closed her eyes — focused on the pain trail of the mother trying to shield her child.
"Forget fear."
A wave of Memory Burn pulsed from her, hitting the car mid-air and jolting its trajectory. The impact memory was gone — erased from the Wraithborn's sensing patterns.
The creature missed its strike.
Rico caught the child mid-roll. "Okay... that was badass."
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Marcus Returns
Bruised but burning with focus, Marcus stood.
He looked at Elena, floating in a gravity-bent dome. Then to Zara, who was kneeling from the mental strain. Then to Rico, covered in scratches, still shielding the family.
"No more holding back."
He surged forward — not to hit, but to lock the creature in place.
Time Dilation snapped on. Everything slowed.
He ducked beneath a sweeping claw. Jumped a ripple wave. Grappled the Wraithborn's arm, pinned it against a flux-scarred bus.
"Now!" he shouted.
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Final Combo
Elena released the full weight of her suspended gravity.
Rubble. Steel. Abandoned vehicles.
All came crashing down.
Rico timed his copy's final strike perfectly — punching the Wraithborn into the exact zone Marcus locked it in.
Zara waited until impact.
"Burn this moment."
She severed the Wraithborn's memory of pain resistance.
BOOM.
The creature let out a shriek as gravity crushed it in a second wave.
Then silence.
It collapsed in a shimmer of light and ash.
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✦✦✦
Aftermath – Quiet Streets
Emergency responders moved in. Team Flux sat on the curb, breathing heavy.
Marcus wiped blood from his lip. "We did it."
Zara leaned against a wall, pale. "I'm going to pass out in about ten minutes."
Rico held up two thumbs — and a bruised copy did the same before fizzing out.
Elena looked at her hands. Still trembling.
She had never manipulated gravity on that scale before.
She didn't know what it meant yet.
But it felt like… more was coming.
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Final Scene – Eclipsed Circle Outpost
Vincent watched the fight through an obsidian viewing crystal.
Mira stepped beside him.
"They're adapting."
Vincent said nothing.
Then:
"The Wraithborn was seeded with a memory fragment. A test."
Mira frowned. "Of what?"
Vincent turned, eyes glinting.
"To see who among them remembers… what they were meant to forget."