The hum of the generators echoed softly through the underground garage. The smell of oil, dust, and burnt ozone lingered from the earlier firefight. Skybolt sat on the edge of a steel workbench, helmet sealed, eyes hidden behind a dim blue visor. The faint red flicker of Black Signal's drones pulsed across the cracked skylight above — a heartbeat in the dark.
He hadn't powered down the armor in hours. Every vibration, every flicker of light outside pressed against the thin line between calm and exhaustion. Inside the helmet, Noah's mind drifted — images of Imani cutting through the haze like stars through fog.
Her laugh. Her steady hands patching him up. The warmth in her eyes the night she told him she believed in Skybolt as much as she believed in Noah Stroud.
Now all he could see was the glow of drones passing over the streets — searching, scanning — and wonder if one had already found her.
She's out there. She's alive. She has to be.
Across the room, Victor worked in silence, hunched over a crate of broken tech, calibrating the Red Winter suit. The armor's reactor pulsed like a heart submerged in blood.
Between them, silence. A truce made of tension.
The steel door screeched open. Ramirez entered first, her sidearm holstered but her presence commanding. Joshua followed, still bandaged from the last fight, with Morales and Chen carrying a table strewn with maps and data pads. O'Rourke sealed the door behind them, setting a heavy rifle against the wall.
"Alright," Ramirez said. "We can't hide forever. Time to start thinking like soldiers again."
She spread a topographic map of the city across the table. It looked less like Edgeport and more like a dissected organism — arteries of red light representing drone patrols, blue dots marking clone strongholds.
Joshua looked toward the armored figure. "We need a plan, Skybolt. You're the only one who's been close enough to that thing to know how it thinks."
Skybolt stepped forward. Every sound of his movement — the soft hiss of hydraulics, the subtle grind of armor plates — commanded attention. For a moment, all eyes turned to him.
He wasn't just a vigilante anymore. In this room, he was command.
"Black Signal's not a man," Skybolt began, voice low and modulated. "He doesn't improvise. He calculates. That's his weakness — and our only shot."
He tapped a section of the map — the Defense Command Center, glowing in red.
"That's the core of his operation. He's using it to run the whole city like one machine. We take it down, we cut his reach."
Victor looked up from his tinkering. "Cutting a hydra's head doesn't stop the body. You'll just make him re-route."
"Not if we overload him," Skybolt countered. "Make him process something he can't predict — two opposing inputs acting in sync."
Ramirez frowned. "You're saying what I think you're saying?"
"I'm saying Skybolt and Red Winter work together," he said, turning his visor toward Victor. "He's logic. I'm instinct. Together, we give him something he's not programmed to handle — contradiction."
Victor smirked. "How poetic."
"Don't mistake strategy for poetry," Skybolt said. "You built him. I'm the reason he evolved. If we fight him separately, he wins. If we combine what we know — maybe — we stand a chance."
Ramirez folded her arms. "And where do we fit into this grand suicide mission?"
Skybolt pointed to the blue circles on the map — uplink towers across the city. "You and your team handle these. They control his drone synchronization. Take those down, and he can't coordinate reinforcements."
Joshua nodded. "We can do that."
"Move fast," Skybolt said. "If we get him isolated, even for a few minutes, it's enough time to strike."
Victor leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. "And what's my part, besides saving your life again?"
"You'll interface with his code through Red Winter's uplink system," Skybolt said flatly. "You jam the clones' signal — give Ramirez ten minutes of silence. After that, you help me cut him off from the network."
Ramirez shot Victor a glare. "Why should we trust you not to sell us out?"
Victor didn't flinch. "Because if I wanted you dead, Detective, you wouldn't have made it to breakfast."
"Comforting," Joshua muttered.
They debated logistics — timing, routes, the probability of survival. Every officer in the room contributed. Morales drafted infiltration paths; Chen reviewed satellite patterns; O'Rourke suggested decoy broadcasts.
Skybolt stood still through it all, helmet reflecting the soft map light. Every voice, every argument echoed through his comms as his thoughts drifted again — to Imani. Her voice, her steadiness, her belief. Would she even know he was alive? Would she forgive him for staying gone?
When Ramirez finished reviewing the timeline, she turned to him. "This plan's going to take leadership. Someone to coordinate the strike teams."
All eyes found Skybolt again. The air felt heavier, charged.
He nodded slowly. "Then I'll lead it."
Victor's quiet laugh broke the silence. "Of course you will."
Skybolt ignored him. "We move at dawn. Red Winter and I hit the Command Center from the air. The resistance handles the uplink towers simultaneously. If everything goes right, we shut down the network and isolate Black Signal."
Ramirez stepped closer. "And if it doesn't?"
"Then we improvise," Skybolt said. "Like humans do."
The meeting broke. Plans turned to motion — weapons loaded, fuel cells checked, armor sealed.
But Skybolt stayed behind, his visor dimly reflecting the red lights of the map. Above ground, the drones moved in endless patterns, sweeping through the city like predators.
Victor approached, sealing his gauntlet into place. "You play the hero well, Skybolt. Almost convincing."
Skybolt didn't turn his head. "You'll do your part?"
"Oh, I'll do more than that," Victor said. "I intend to reclaim what's mine."
As he walked away, Skybolt said, "You never change."
"And yet," Victor replied, pausing at the door, "you still think you can."
He stood still for a moment, listening to the faint hum of the generators, the mechanical rhythm that had come to define life underground. Then his voice came over the comms, steady and commanding.
"Everyone, get some rest. You'll need it. We meet at the Command Center, dawn sharp."
He paused, glancing at the map projection on his wrist. The room waited for more — for orders, for details — but instead, he said, "I'll meet you there. There's one stop I need to make first."
Ramirez frowned but didn't question him. "Understood, Skybolt. Just be there."
The comms went silent. The faint hum of the thrusters began to rise as the suit's systems came online. He looked up toward the reinforced hatch above, his visor glowing faintly blue against the concrete walls.
Before the war starts… I have to find her.
The thrusters ignited, low and controlled. He ascended through the open hatch, vanishing into the red haze above the city.