The ruins stretched endlessly, neon veins glowing weakly beneath broken glass and rusted towers. Once this district had been a commercial hub — a street of blinking ads, drone kiosks, and holo-displays promising futures that never came. Now the signs glitched between static and ghostly faces, voices whispering from cracked speakers like broken prayers.
Mateo walked at the center of the group, his eyes tracing every flicker. "The city smells of ambush," he said quietly.
Jun kicked at a shattered vending unit. "The city smells like burnt wire and cheap liquor. Ambush is just a bonus."
Ramon didn't smile. His blade hummed faintly, alive with relic charge. "Stay sharp."
They were not alone.
Shapes moved in the neon haze, peeling off the walls like shadows unstuck. At first, they looked human, silhouettes of men and women, faces faintly lit. Then the glitch came — their forms rippled, flesh flickering into steel, skin melting into static. Mouths stretched wide, revealing not teeth but data-wires sparking red.
"Shapeshifters," Liwayway whispered, staff tightening in her hand.
Mateo nodded grimly. He had heard of them: the broken legacy of the Synthesis Program — soldiers designed to merge with adaptive nanite armor before the Rupture. When the abyss broke the system, the nanites fused with shadow instead of code. Now they were not soldiers, not men, but nightmares looping between states.
The first one lunged, body folding into a blade.
Ramon intercepted, his sword cleaving through — only for the creature to melt, reforming behind him with a scream of static.
Andoy roared, fists igniting. His punch detonated flame across three attackers, burning flesh and wire. But the fire spilled, licking at the barricade of scrap nearby, sending villagers scrambling to stamp it out.
Liwayway lifted her staff, dawnlight bursting across the field. For a moment, illusions broke — half the attackers vanished, revealed as echoes. But the burst ricocheted, searing close to Nico's head. He snarled, fists already glowing.
Nico charged, his punches landing like thunder. One shapeshifter crumbled under his strike, but the shockwave blasted Jun off his feet. The boy scrambled, swearing, clutching at a scavenged drone.
"Great! The walking sun nearly killed me, again!"
The monsters adapted, multiplying, reforming. The team scattered, clashing with each other as much as the enemy.
Mateo saw it for what it was: the same pattern that destroyed the Program. Fragments, not unity. Soldiers devoured not by enemies, but by their own chaos.
"Stop!" His voice cut across the noise.
For a heartbeat, the team hesitated.
"We survive as one," Mateo said, his tone like stone. "Or we fall as fragments. Choose."
The choice hung in the neon smoke. Ramon's jaw clenched. Andoy's fire flickered. Liwayway's staff pulsed once. Nico's fists trembled, rage barely chained. Jun looked from one to the other, half a grin on his bruised face.
They chose.
The next wave came.
Ramon planted his feet, sword raised like an anchor. He took point, his blade humming with relic charge, holding the shapeshifters in place as they phased.
"Andoy!" Mateo barked.
Andoy leapt in, fists detonating into controlled bursts this time. His fire hammered where Ramon's blade opened gaps, driving monsters back in storms of heat.
"Liwayway!"
She spun her staff, dawnlight weaving into arcs. Instead of blasting blindly, she swept wide, burning away illusions so the team saw which enemies were real. The echoes vanished like smoke.
"Nico — now!"
Nico's fists blazed gold, divine fire coursing up his arms. He struck in rhythm with Andoy, their blows shaking the ground. For a heartbeat, his rage surged, fire flaring too high — but Andoy caught his wrist mid-swing. Their flames collided, fused, steadied. Together they pounded the shapeshifters into molten ruin.
"Jun!"
Jun jammed his scavenged drone into a sparking panel. Wires spat blue flame, and a hacked pulse burst outward. The monsters convulsed, glitching hard as their nanite code fractured.
Mateo's voice cut like a rhythm. "Left! Shield! Now fire! Nico, hold—strike now!"
For the first time, their chaos became harmony.
The last shapeshifter didn't retreat. It fused.
Its body swelled, absorbing fragments of its fallen. Limbs multiplied, faces flickered across its skin, mouths screaming in static. It towered above the ruins, glitching between steel, flesh, and shadow.
Ramon braced, sword two-handed, slamming into its core. Sparks exploded, the blade locking in.
"Andoy! Nico!" Mateo shouted.
Andoy roared, fists detonating flame into its flank. Nico followed, his punches cracking its chestplate, fire and faith twisting together.
"Liwayway!"
Her staff burned bright, unraveling its illusory shells. False faces peeled away, revealing the writhing abyssal heart beneath.
"Jun!"
The boy scrambled onto a broken sign, wiring his hacked drone into a power core. "Overload, you bastard!" He jammed the trigger, and a surge ripped through the monster, freezing it mid-glitch.
"Now!" Mateo roared.
They struck as one. Ramon's blade pinned, Andoy and Nico's fire ripped through its core, Liwayway's dawnlight burned its heart, and Jun's charge ruptured its spine.
The shapeshifter convulsed, screaming with stolen voices. Its form collapsed, glitching into static and slag, then dissolved into ash carried on the neon wind.
Silence.
The group stood heaving, bodies scorched, hands shaking. But alive. United.
Around them, the ruins flickered with faint neon. Old holo-ads glitched into fragments: "UNITY IS STRENGTH. SYNTHESIS PROGRAM APPROVED." The irony wasn't lost on Mateo.
They slumped near the broken barricade. Ramon wiped his blade clean. Liwayway lowered her staff, exhaustion in her eyes. Andoy's fists smoldered. Nico's hands trembled, but steadied as Andoy placed a hand on his shoulder. Jun collapsed onto a crate, laughing breathlessly.
"That was… the best near-death team-up of my life."
Liwayway almost smiled. Ramon grunted.
"You fought like a unit," the warrior admitted. "Clumsy. Raw. But a unit."
Andoy and Nico exchanged a glance — fire recognizing fire. For once, no words were needed.
Mateo sat last, his gaze on the glowing ash where the monster fell. His voice was low but firm. "The city wanted us scattered. Tonight, we chose otherwise."
The firelight hummed faintly against the neon haze. For the first time, the fellowship did not feel like strangers. They felt like survival.
Unseen above, a small drone cloaked in static hovered at the edge of the skyline, recording. Somewhere in the ruins, an organization watched. The world was taking notice.
And the team had only just begun.