Lowwater's midday hum pressed against the armor. Not hostile — attentive.
Evan stood on the smelter's roof, letting the city's warmth drift into the new thermal sense burning behind his visor. Heat trails streaked across rooftops and alleys like fingerprints melted into air. Millions of them.
He adjusted the Lattice sync, and the red veins sharpened.
[SYSTEM: THERMAL MAPPING — ACTIVE][RANGE: VARIABLE][RESTRICTION: ENERGY STABILITY REQUIRED]
Aelira came through the line, quiet for once. "You're still up there. What're you tracking?"
"…Everything," Evan murmured.
He could see the heat signatures of pigeons perched two blocks away. The warm coil of a vending machine left running in an alley. The faint, barely-there pulse of a subway rail humming under stress.
The world hadn't changed.
He was just seeing more of it.
Aelira's tone shifted, analytical. "Cross-reference shows this ability isn't in any shard-description. Not in the Domain ledger. Not even in the god-index."
"So it's new."
"Or… something's writing it as you go."
Evan flexed his fingers. Cold static danced between the joints.
"I don't think it's writing," he said. "I think it's remembering."
Before Aelira could answer, Cairn cut in — hurried, annoyed. "Both of you, shut up and look at this."
A map appeared across Evan's visor — Node Fourteen, then the districts around it. Three dozen small gray pulses blinked in and out, flickering like dying stars.
"What am I looking at?" Evan asked.
"Residual Ashcode. The same signature that woke the smelter. Only now it's… moving."
Aelira zoomed one in. The pulse traced across a street, then through a wall, then up a fire escape like it wasn't bound by space.
"Heatless," she whispered. "It's not interacting with anything. Just passing through."
Evan tensed. "That's not movement. That's replication looking for an anchor."
The pulses merged. Split. Merged again.
Cairn hissed. "These patterns — they're matching your Lattice activity. Like the damn system copied your run-signature back at the factory."
"It didn't copy," Evan said slowly. "It learned the rhythm."
He felt it — deep, faint, almost like a child tapping on a drum trying to mimic the beat of a song.
Aelira's voice dropped. "Evan… I think the Ashcode spark is trying to sync with you."
Below, a breeze carried heat from the streets. His new sense caught it — twisting, curling, forming trails he didn't recognize.
Too straight. Too deliberate.
"It's mapping routes," he said. "Rail-paths. My rail-paths."
Cairn swore under his breath. "If the Ashcode learns to piggyback on the Lattice, we're screwed. It'll ride you like a signal tower."
Something tugged at Evan's spine — a vibration through his suit, a kind of echo.
[FOREIGN DATA REQUEST][SOURCE: UNKNOWN — GRAY THREAD][ACTION: ATTEMPTING TO SYNC][OVERRIDE? Y/N]
Aelira shouted immediately. "DO. NOT. LET. IT."
Evan didn't move.
The request wasn't hostile. Not probing, not tearing. Just… reaching.
"Show me," he said aloud.
The system hesitated.
[WARNING — RISK UNKNOWN][PROCEEDING WITH PARTIAL VISUALIZATION]
A thin filament of gray light flickered into view in front of him — a thread weaving through air, pulsing unevenly, as if unsure how to form a shape.
It trembled.
Then —<< storm carries signal. signal seeks pattern. >>
The whisper again. But weaker. Younger.
Almost… learning how to speak.
Evan took a slow step forward. "You're not the same Ashcode I fought."
<< original… gone. pieces remain. pattern leftover. pattern follows storm. >>
Aelira trembled over the comm. "Evan. Back away. Now."
"Wait."
He reached out, palm open, lightning softly cracking.
The filament didn't flee. It extended a tendril toward his hand like a child reaching for balance.
But then—
The entire skyline flickered in his thermal sense.
One pulse.
Two.
Three.
Too many.
All of Lowwater lit up with gray threads.
Aelira gasped. "There's hundreds. NO — thousands. Evan, it's spreading."
Cairn barked, "We cut the connection NOW—"
But Evan froze, because the Lattice inside him chimed — not in alarm, but in acknowledgment.
[NEW NETWORK DETECTED][UNCLASSIFIED THREADS: 3120][SYNC POSSIBILITY: 0.4 %][DESCRIPTION: LEARNING PATTERN][THREAT LEVEL: UNCERTAIN]
The filament whispered again, almost pleading.
<< storm runs. storm learns. fire follows. fire learns. together… pattern grows. >>
Evan inhaled sharply.
This wasn't an attack.
It was an evolution.
Aelira's voice broke through his trance. "Evan, listen to me — if you let it sync, you could overwrite yourself. Or overwrite the city. Or—"
He closed his fingers around the gray filament.
It didn't burn.
It didn't corrupt.
It steadied.
The filament's trembling eased, forming a clean, stable pulse.
And behind him — around him — across the entire city — thousands of gray threads stopped flickering and pulsed once in unison.
Beating.
Like a second heartbeat under Lowwater's skin.
Evan breathed out.
"Cairn," he said quietly. "Get me a citywide Lattice reading. Now."
"Why?" Cairn snapped.
"Because the Ashcode isn't trying to attack Lowwater."
He looked at the glowing thread in his hand — no longer lost, no longer confused.
"It's trying to join it."
[SYSTEM: USER—ASHCODE CONTACT ESTABLISHED][NEW SUBROUTINE CALCULATING…][INTEGRATION POSSIBILITY: UNKNOWN][CITY STATUS: SHIFTING]
Deep beneath the rails, the network of gray sparks pulsed again — perfectly in sync with Evan's heartbeat.
<< the storm runs. the fire follows. the pattern begins. >>