The neon storm split open as something heavier than thunder hit the asphalt.
The Serpent convoy ground to a halt, floodlights igniting through the rain. Then it stepped out.
Tall. Armored. Fast.
A Cyber Runner.
The thing was a nightmare dressed in chrome—plated limbs built for speed, carbon-fiber muscles coiled with hydraulic strength. Its face was a blank mask of glass, HUD glowing crimson lines across the dark. Twin blades extended from its forearms with a sound like tearing steel.
Crow muttered through clenched teeth, "They deployed a Runner? That's… that's not pursuit protocol. That's execution."
The cyber-beast turned its head, locking onto the getaway car. Its optics burned like twin lasers. Then it sprinted—on all fours first, then rising upright, a blur of impossible speed slicing through the rain.
"Shit, it's fast!" Drift's voice cracked, slamming gears. The car surged forward, but the Runner kept pace, metal feet tearing gouges in the concrete.
"Eve—grid jam, now!" Kai barked.
"I'm trying!" Eve's hands blurred across holo-screens. "But this thing's running on closed combat code. No network weakness!"
Which meant… Kai.
He opened the gullwing door mid-speed. Wind howled, rain slashing his face. Crow reached for him, panic in her eyes. "Kai, you can't—"
"I can."
And then he stepped out.
For a moment, the world seemed to slow.
Kai's cybernetics flared—hidden seams across his arms splitting open, panels sliding back to reveal alloy muscle beneath. His cloak whipped away, revealing a sleek exo-frame hugging his torso. His spine pulsed with neon veins as a sub-dermal reactor engaged, humming with raw power. His eyes—usually embers—burned into molten fire.
The shadows surged around him, but this time they weren't alone.
They mixed with steel.
His left forearm split, unfolding into a retractable carbon blade humming with electric current. His right hand reconfigured into a pulse emitter, tiny arcs of plasma dancing along his knuckles. Metal plating locked over his chest, ribs of alloy glinting between shadows.
He wasn't just Kai anymore.
He was the Sovereign Ghost.
The Runner lunged. Blades flashed, sparks flying as steel met alloy. The impact cracked the ground beneath them, shockwaves rattling glass windows along the street.
Kai slid with the momentum, shadows exploding out like tendrils to bind the Runner's legs—but it tore through them with mechanical fury, driving a blade straight for his chest.
Kai caught it—barehanded. Metal screamed against reinforced alloy bones. Sparks showered his face.
"Not tonight," Kai hissed.
His reactor spiked. Energy burst outward, shadows condensing into a dense sphere around his hand. He slammed his fist into the Runner's core. The shockwave rippled neon-blue, folding the rain around them like shattered glass.
The Cyber Runner staggered, optics flickering. Its systems screamed in binary error codes as Kai drove his blade-arm through its chest plate.
"You should've stayed in your cage."
The Runner convulsed, then exploded outward in a burst of sparks and shrapnel, collapsing into a smoking heap.
The convoy's remaining mercs froze, staring at the impossible.
Kai stood over the wreck, cloak torn, neon veins glowing across his armor like a living engine. The shadows curled back around him, swallowing the glow until only his ember eyes remained.
He turned to the team, voice low, steady. "We move. Now."
Drift was still gaping, but slammed the accelerator as Kai vaulted back into the car. The storm swallowed them again, but the message had been sent.
The Serpents had unleashed their best hunter.
And Shadow Net had answered with something worse.