The rain hit the city hard that night, masking movement and muting the sounds of chaos lurking beneath Granis City's surface. Inside the safehouse, Kael sat at the edge of the planning table, staring at the blueprint of a new facility—one even Spark couldn't fully hack into.
Codename: Black Flame.
Rin leaned over the map, tapping a blinking red node on the screen. "This place isn't just a lab. It's a command center. They're not only creating synthetic Operators—they're coordinating everything from there. Security, research, even suppression squads."
Aria cracked her knuckles from the shadows. "Then we burn it down."
Kael nodded slowly, but Spark's voice cut in from across the room. "Not so fast. Black Flame isn't just fortified, it's glitched."
Kael blinked. "Glitched?"
Spark swiveled her chair, pulling up live feed footage that was constantly stuttering. Walls flickered in and out of visibility. Guards patrolled areas that didn't physically exist. The camera views shifted with static bursts like someone was tampering with reality itself.
"I don't know what kind of tech they're testing there," she said, "but it's warping the building—digitally and physically. It's not just a lab anymore. It's a damn distortion zone."
Kael narrowed his eyes. "Fragments?"
Spark nodded. "Very likely. Either raw ones or some kind of unstable merge. If we're not careful, one wrong step inside that place could glitch us out of existence."
Aria raised an eyebrow. "So what, we walk into a nightmare?"
Kael stood. "Exactly."
---
The entrance to Black Flame looked like nothing more than an old telecom building, but as Kael and the team approached under the cloak of night, their Systems pulsed with warning signs.
[Warning: Dimensional Distortion Detected] [Stability Rating: 47% – Proceed with Caution]
Kael clicked his earpiece. "Status?"
Spark's voice responded. "I've disabled the external sensors for four minutes. You're ghosts until then."
They entered through the side door. Inside, the air was... wrong. Every step echoed with a slight delay, as if the building was remembering their movements before they made them.
Hallways flickered.
Walls shimmered.
One door melted into another, then reshaped itself.
"This is insane," Aria muttered. "It's like we're inside a dream... or a simulation."
Kael led the way, his baton drawn, eyes darting between shadows and digital ghosts. They reached the server room—or what was left of it. Wires floated mid-air. Machines clicked without rhythm. And in the center floated a crystal-like core, pulsing blue and red.
[System Alert: Unknown Fragment Detected – Compatibility Unknown] [Do not engage directly]
Spark's voice came through, distorted. "Kael... back out now. That thing... it's—"
The feed cut.
The crystal pulsed, and for a moment, Kael saw something else—a memory that wasn't his.
A boy… restrained.
A woman in a lab coat, whispering, "Stabilize him. If we lose another one—"
The image snapped away.
Kael staggered.
"What did you see?" Aria asked, catching his arm.
"Another subject," he said, breathing hard. "They're using the fragments to trap memories... maybe even personalities."
The floor trembled.
[Warning: Fragment Instability Rising – 81%]
"Spark, get us an exit!" Kael shouted.
Static.
Then, "North wing fire escape. Go, now!"
They ran.
Doors warped as they passed.
One hallway looped them back twice before Kael smashed through a collapsing wall to cut through. The building screeched, like it was aware of their presence and resisting them.
But finally, they burst through the north wing. A rusted door kicked open—and cold rain welcomed them like salvation.
The team collapsed against the alley wall, soaked and gasping.
Kael checked the feed on his watch.
[Data Collected: 43% of Black Flame Core Files] [Fragment Signature Stored – Analysis Pending]
Spark's voice returned, clearer. "You're alive… thank god. I've got partial data. I'll need time to decode it."
Kael nodded. "Take it. Whatever that place was, it's evolving. And so are we."
Aria wiped rain from her face. "So what's next?"
Kael stood, eyes on the city skyline.
"We find whoever's behind Project LUX… and we end them."