1 — RAFI GETS TOO CLOSE
Rafi's phone light flickers as he crouches on the fire escape of an abandoned textile mill.
Below him, in the drowned alleyway, she moves — a black silhouette slipping between rusted pipes and trash fires.
Rafi whispers into the cracked mic on his collar:
Rafi:
"I see you, Raven. I see what the news can't."
He tries to keep up — jumps from the fire escape, lands hard. His knees bark with pain. He fumbles the cheap knock-off drone he saved for weeks to buy.
But tonight isn't a good night to play hero.
Selene stops — senses prickling.
From the shadows, a shape lunges — not at her, but at Rafi. A junkie with a blade — or maybe a lookout for Lyric's fresh hunts.
Rafi freezes — too slow to scream.
Selene moves — fast, precise — feathers flick, a throwing blade buries itself in the junkie's throat.
Rafi stares at the blood, the body twitching in the trash.
Selene turns — mask reflecting neon.
Selene (low, deadly):
"Go home, Rafi. Next time, I don't clean up your mess."
Rafi swallows the terror — and the thrill. He fumbles backward, lost for words. His hero just saved him — but the alley smells like iron.
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2 — JESS PRESSED TO BREAKING
At dawn, Jess stands by the industrial sink in the morgue, scrubbing blood from under her nails that isn't hers.
Mendoza leans in the doorway, sipping burnt coffee, the predator who never sleeps.
Mendoza:
"Rough night? You look like someone who knows too much for her own good."
Jess doesn't answer — drops the scrub brush. It rattles in the sink.
Mendoza:
"I know she comes here. I know you're the hole in her mask. I'm giving you one last chance — come clean, Jess. Or the next body I zip up might be wearing feathers."
Jess's voice cracks — but her spine stays steel.
Jess:
"Get out of my morgue, detective."
Mendoza flicks her badge back into her pocket — and leaves laughing.
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3 — LYRIC MOCKS THE CITY
Midtown. A parking deck. Lyric stands over his new canvas — a city bus driver, taped to a column, chest opened like an anatomy lesson.
Around the corpse, Lyric paints words in the man's blood: THE CITY BLEEDS.
He places a black feather in the man's mouth, then turns to the small camera hidden in his bag — streams it to every underground forum he can.
Lyric (whispers, smiling):
"Watch closely, Raven. Every cut is a poem for you."
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4 — MICAH FINDS THE NEST
In the Nest, Micah taps at a bank of screens — lines of code crawl faster than his pulse.
He rewinds satellite sweeps, old Flock schematics — overlays them on sewer grids. One tunnel, bricked up and forgotten under the dockyards, pulses red.
Micah mutters to himself, voice dry but shaking:
Micah:
"Project TALON never left the city. It's in the walls. Right under us, boss."
His fingers hover over the send button — but he hesitates. Tells himself it's just static. Just old ghosts.
He presses send anyway: "RAVEN — TALON LIVES. UNDER DOCK 47. DON'T GO ALONE."
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5 — SELENE BLEEDS
Selene drags the junkie's corpse deeper into the trash maze — covers her tracks. She tastes copper in the back of her throat — exhaustion, rage.
Over comms, Micah's voice buzzes — Talon's location, Lyric's new kill, Ward's last text.
Selene stares up at the skyline — cranes loom like iron birds. She remembers her father's hand on her shoulder the night before he died — don't lose yourself in monsters, baby girl.
Too late.
A shout echoes from deeper in the alley. Another man steps out — another one of Lyric's lost dogs. He swings a pipe — Selene dodges, counters, drives her talon blade into his knee. He drops like a stone.
She kneels beside him, voice ice:
Selene:
"Where's Lyric?"
The man wheezes, laughing blood through his teeth.
Thug:
"He says… he says you're next. Feathers fall first, pretty bird."
Selene ends him — clean, quiet. Another piece of rot removed — another ghost for her dreams.
---
6 — WARD'S NIGHT
In his small apartment, Ward sits at his table, Mendoza's reports scattered in front of him. Every line screams Selene.
He pours whiskey over an old file: ROWAN ARLEN MURDER, CLOSED UNSOLVED. His hand shakes.
He whispers to the empty room:
Ward:
"If they want you, kid… they go through me first."
His phone vibrates. An encrypted ping from Micah: LYRIC BLEEDS AGAIN. STOP HIM OR SHE WILL.
Ward kills the whiskey — and reaches for his badge.
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7 — THE HUNT BEGINS
On the waterfront, under a broken streetlight, Selene watches the warehouse Micah marked. Her cloak rustles in the wind. A memory of her father's grave flickers — the promise carved into stone: Never again.
Micah's voice in her ear, low, final:
Micah:
"Boss… bring bigger knives."
Selene slips into the dark — feathers spread, blades gleaming.
Somewhere inside those bricks — Talon waits. And tonight, the city's mask splits wider.
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END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE