The night sky was a pollution-choked ocean, illuminated by greed. Eiren didn't know what greed was, but she could sense it in the piercing light of the giant holographic billboards that flickered between the skyscrapers. Advertisements for energy drinks, cheap cybernetic augmentations, and promises of better lives in space colonies—all shining lies. To her, it was just color. Dazzling, shifting colors, a pleasant distraction after the monochrome silence inside her tube.
The wind that whipped across her face carried a thousand unfamiliar scents. The ozone tang of maglev trains speeding below, the acidic aroma of a recent rain shower, and most powerfully, the stench of thousands of humans crammed into the city's belly. The smell of sweat, fried street food, and despair. Eiren inhaled it all deeply, processing every sensory data with terrifying efficiency. Her sponge-like mind absorbed everything without filter, without prejudice.
She felt no fatigue. Her body, a pinnacle of illegal genetic engineering, hummed with limitless energy. Her cellular regeneration worked so swiftly that muscle fatigue was a foreign concept. Hunger, however, was another matter. It was a new sensation, a strange emptiness in her stomach that demanded to be filled. A primal instinct as strong as the urge to escape a few moments ago.
Driven by this new need, she descended.
Not gracefully, but like a hunting eagle spotting prey. She swooped down, her tattered yellow cape billowing behind her like a ragged war banner. She weaved through lanes of flying cars, triggering panicked horns and sudden evasive maneuvers. She didn't care. They were just another obstacle.
Eiren landed silently in a narrow, damp, and dark alley, squeezed between two dilapidated apartment blocks. The neon glow from the main road failed to reach this corner, leaving only long shadows and towering piles of garbage. The smell here was denser: ammonia, rotting food, and rusted metal. This is where the city's true pulse beat—a diseased pulse.
At the end of the alley, under a flickering bulb, a small scene was unfolding. Three gaunt men surrounded a trembling old man, who clutched tightly a paper bag containing warm food.
"Just hand it over, old man," snarled one of the men, revealing a rusty knife. "We're hungrier than you."
"It's… it's for my daughter," the old man sobbed. "She's sick."
Eiren simply observed. Her brilliant white eyes, devoid of pupils, reflected the dim light in an unnatural way. She didn't understand the concepts of justice or morality. She only saw a simple power dynamic: the strong taking from the weak. But something about the scene triggered her. A small chaos. A disruption in the pattern. And she liked chaos.
"I won't ask again!" the gang leader yelled, raising his knife.
That's when Eiren moved.
She didn't walk. One second she was at the end of the alley, the next she was behind the knife-wielding man. There was no sound of footsteps, only the whisper of parted air. The man felt a chill at the nape of his neck and turned. His face met Eiren's blank stare.
"What—"
That was his last word.
Eiren's yellow-gloved hand shot forward, not to punch, but with an open palm. Her fingers cupped the man's face. There was no excessive brutal force, only calm, steady pressure. A sickening wet crack echoed, like a coconut being crushed underfoot. The man's skull crumbled under the impossible pressure. His body slumped, and Eiren simply released him into the puddle of dirty water.
The other two thugs froze, their jaws agape in horror. Their brains couldn't process what they had just witnessed. This figure in the black and yellow bat-costume had appeared from nowhere and killed their friend with an ordinary touch.
One of them finally reacted, drawing a makeshift pipe pistol from his waist. He didn't even get a chance to aim.
Eiren kicked a rotting wooden crate near her foot. The crate disintegrated, and a piece of wood shot out like a projectile. The board impaled the second man's neck, pinning him to the brick wall with a sickening THWACK.
The third man, the youngest, dropped his knife with a clatter. He stumbled backward, his eyes wild with terror, before turning and fleeing.
Eiren tilted her head, curious. She could have pursued him. She could have crushed the man with a single stomp of her foot as he ran. But she didn't. This small chaos was over. The pattern had been corrected. That was enough.
The old man, who had been robbed, remained frozen in place, his food bag fallen to the ground. He stared at Eiren, then at the two corpses, then back at Eiren. His face was ashen, not from relief, but from a deeper, more primal fear. This monster had saved him, but it was a far more terrifying monster than the robbers.
Eiren looked at the fallen paper bag. The aroma of hot broth noodles and roasted meat wafted out, triggering the hunger in her stomach again. Without a word, she stepped forward, past the trembling old man, and picked up the food bag. She opened the styrofoam container inside, grabbed chopsticks, and began to eat, standing amidst the bloody alley. She ate in a simple, almost childlike way, completely oblivious to the horror she had just created.
Meanwhile, tens of kilometers above the city, inside the sterile orbital station named Aegis, a silent alarm had sounded.
Commander Valerius stood before a giant observation window, gazing at the polluted curve of the Earth below. His face was like granite, with a strong jaw and cold eyes that showed no emotion. His attire was the gray uniform of the Cleanse Directive, unadorned except for the rank insignia on his collar.
"Report," he commanded, his voice calm and sharp.
An aide approached, holding a data-slate. "Incident at Gamma-13 Research Facility, Commander. Total breach. Dr. Aris and all personnel… confirmed KIA. Thirty-six security personnel, including one platoon of the Quarantine Team, eliminated."
Valerius didn't turn. "The asset?"
"The asset escaped, sir. Subject-013. Last telemetry shows her breaching the roof and flying towards the city center." The aide swallowed. "She also took the 'Nightfall' combat prototype from the armory."
For the first time, Valerius's expression shifted slightly. Not worry, but a sharp flash of interest. "Nightfall? Aris's adaptive combat suit project? So, the asset is now armed and armored."
"One could say that, sir. Preliminary forensic analysis of salvaged footage shows the subject possessing high-level regenerative capabilities, superhuman strength, and flight. She… she's emotionless. Audio recordings captured her heartbeat remaining stable even while… while she was decimating our forces."
"She's not emotionless," Valerius corrected, finally turning from the window. His eyes fixed sharply on his aide. "She's a blank slate. An undirected weapon. Dr. Aris was foolish to try controlling her with sedation and protocols. Weapons like this aren't meant to be contained, but to be used."
He walked to the holographic command table in the center of the room. With a few swift movements, he brought up a three-dimensional map of the city below. A red dot pulsed in the slum district.
"We're not hunting a monster, Lieutenant. We're retrieving our most valuable property," Valerius said. "Activate 'Operation Broken Cage'. Deploy Hunter-Alpha Team. Priority one: capture alive. Priority two: neutralize by any means necessary. Avoid excessive collateral damage, but don't hesitate to cleanse the area if needed. I want that asset back in its cage before sunrise."
"Yes, Commander!"
In the dark alley, Eiren finished her last noodle. The hunger was gone, replaced by quiet satisfaction. She dropped the empty container to the ground, beside one of the corpses. The thug's blood had slightly stained her yellow boots, mixing with the dirty water. She stared at the stain, then looked up at the artificial-light-filled night sky.
The old man was long gone, running in terror from his terrifying savior.
Eiren was alone again. But she didn't feel lonely. This world was too full of new things, with chaos waiting to be created. She jumped lightly, hovering a few meters above the ground, then shot back into the concrete and neon jungle, leaving behind her first trail of death in the surface world.
Above, unseen by her, three small unmanned stealth aircraft belonging to Hunter-Alpha Team detached from orbit, silently gliding towards the red dot pulsing on Commander Valerius's map. The hunt had begun.