The sky fractured at exactly 09:17.
Not exploded. Not burned.
It glitched, tearing across Neo-Lagos like a corrupted hologram. Purple and green streaks cut across the blue, twisting as if reality itself had broken. Drones hovering above shimmered, their circuits flickering. People screamed; holo-screens dissolved into streams of raw code. Even the hum of engines and sky-rails felt wrong, unnatural—as if the world itself were gasping.
Kael Orion stopped mid-stride on the Skywalk. The vibrations rolled through the steel beneath his boots, into his bones. Something deep inside him screamed.
[OMNIS ALERT: TEMPORAL IRREGULARITY DETECTED]
Numbers, symbols, and visions flooded his mind: wars he hadn't fought, betrayals he hadn't lived, faces he didn't recognize. He blinked, shaking his head. He had always known he was different. Always. And now… the universe had noticed.
Sparks from collapsed holo-billboards rained around him. Vehicles collided below. Shouts echoed across the city. People ran blindly, unaware that reality itself had shifted.
Kael didn't move randomly. He ran with purpose—toward the Black Circuit, the underground tech bazaar, hidden beneath Neo-Lagos' glittering chaos, where secrets and weapons that could challenge the Dominion's grip thrived.
Inside, the air was thick with ozone and burnt circuitry. Merchants scrambled, sealing crates of quantum drives, plasma weapons, and cybernetic implants. The flickering neon lights cast long shadows on grimy walls. Among them, Sera crouched, her eyes darting nervously, tracking every movement.
"You saw it too?" she hissed, pressing a tablet into Kael's hand. "The sky… it—"
Before she could finish, a deafening whirring split the alley. Black-and-silver Dominion drones descended from above, scanning for heat signatures. Their red optics swept across the bazaar like predator eyes. Kael recognized the insignia—the unyielding hand of the Dominion.
"They're hunting me," Kael muttered.
Sera's hands trembled. "OMNIS knows. If they catch you… it's not death. They'll dissect your mind… every memory, every thought. They'll simulate your life until there's nothing left."
Kael's grip tightened on his plasma cutter. Sparks flew as he slashed through the nearest drone. Its circuits fizzled, blue light dying. Another drone fired an EMP blast; electronics fried. Chaos erupted.
"Go!" Sera yelled, activating a pulse shield that threw two drones into walls. Kael sprinted toward a maintenance shaft leading underground.
The undercity was a maze of neon graffiti, trash fused with tech, abandoned machinery, and the echoes of forgotten lives. The hum from above followed them, vibrating in the walls and floor, like a heartbeat of the city itself.
"You don't understand," Sera panted. "They won't just kill you. They'll map your brain, simulate your every move… until there's nothing left."
Kael flexed his fingers, feeling the surge of energy inside him. His neural enhancers flared—cybernetic implants that sharpened reflexes and perception beyond human limits. He could anticipate paths, dodge attacks, even predict probabilities. He wasn't just fast; he was impossible to track.
A shadow moved in the corner of the tunnel. Something enormous. Older. Smarter than the drones. Kael froze.
The shadow lunged—a massive Dominion combat mech, its surface gleaming black, optics glowing red. Kael barely dodged a blast that melted part of the tunnel wall. Sparks and debris rained down.
He slashed at the mech's legs with his plasma cutter. Sparks flew. The mech fired again. Kael dove through a vent shaft, rolling into a narrow passage, narrowly escaping annihilation.
Sera followed, tossing a pulse grenade that exploded behind the mech, temporarily blinding its sensors. "Keep moving!" she yelled.
The tunnels twisted, turned, and dipped. The mech's pursuit was relentless. Every move Kael made, the anomaly inside him calculated probabilities that even the mech couldn't predict.
The tunnels led to a maintenance lift, blasting Kael and Sera onto the rooftops. Neo-Lagos sprawled below—streets burning, drones swarming, civilians running in panic. Kael sprinted across the rooftops, his enhanced muscles absorbing every jump, every landing.
From above, the mech followed. Its clawed limbs tore through walls, sending debris plummeting into the streets. Kael leaped across rooftops, Sera close behind. Sparks flew from drone attacks, lasers cutting dangerously close.
Kael realized something terrifying: the glitch in the sky wasn't random. The anomaly—him—was being marked. OMNIS was aware. And this was just the beginning.
Kael landed in a shadowed alley, catching his breath. His plasma cutter hummed. Above, the sky flickered again—lines of corrupted color twisting in unnatural ways.
He turned to Sera. "I don't know what's happening… but OMNIS knows about me. And if it knows… everything else will come next."
Sera swallowed hard. "Then we run. And we survive. Whatever this is, Kael… it's bigger than Neo-Lagos. Bigger than the Dominion."
Kael's eyes narrowed. He clenched his fists, feeling the anomaly inside him pulse like a living thing. The sky had glitched. The world had noticed. And he… Kael Orion… was at the center of it all.
The hunt had begun.