Chapter 7: Eyes in the Dark
Kaito couldn't sleep.
Even underground, New Tokyo's pulse seemed to bleed through the steel walls — a distant hum of machinery, whispers of danger carried through the pipes.
He sat at the edge of his assigned cot, fiddling with a broken drone core he'd found in a scrap pile. His mind refused to rest, replaying Echo's words over and over:
"Your father went into the Rift... and never came back."
A soft tap echoed from the hall outside.
Aya.
"Gear up," she said, tossing him a lightweight armored jacket. "We've got trouble."
Kaito blinked. "What kind?"
She didn't answer, already striding off into the maze of tunnels. He scrambled after her, heart hammering.
Minutes later, they reached a lookout post — a makeshift tower built from stacked cargo crates and old scaffolding. Mira and the big man, Jax, were already there, weapons slung over their shoulders.
Mira handed Kaito a battered pistol. "You even know how to use one of these?" she sneered.
Kaito ignored her, focusing instead on the live feed flickering on a cracked monitor.
AegisCorp Hunter Drones.
Six of them.
Sleek, black machines the size of wolves, their mechanical limbs ending in razor-sharp claws. Red targeting optics scanned every corner as they slithered through the ruins, moving with terrifying precision.
"Recon squad," Jax muttered. "Scouting for a larger force."
Aya's voice was steady. "We can't let them find the Riftborn."
Kaito swallowed. He knew what AegisCorp did to anyone they captured — experiments, memory wipes, worse.
He checked the pistol's charge. Barely two shots.
Wonderful.
Aya laid out the plan quickly: ambush, disable the drones before they could transmit their findings, then vanish.
Simple.
Deadly.
The four of them moved out, slipping between shattered pillars and rusted train cars. Shadows wrapped around them like a second skin.
As they neared the drones, Kaito's implants tingled — the Shadowseed pulsing at his side, whispering to him in patterns of light and code.
He felt... connected.
Like he could see the drones' data streams, lines of code and wireless commands hanging in the air.
Instinctively, he reached out with his mind.
The nearest Hunter Drone twitched, hesitated — then spun around, its targeting systems glitching. It fired wildly, shredding two of its own allies before short-circuiting and collapsing with a heavy clunk.
Mira's mouth dropped open in shock. Jax whooped in surprise, unloading plasma rounds into the remaining drones while Aya sprinted forward, slicing through one with a vibroblade.
The fight was brutal and fast.
And when it ended, Kaito stood panting amid the smoking remains, the others staring at him like he had just sprouted wings.
Aya stepped closer, her voice low.
"You're not just some street rat, are you?"
Kaito stared down at his trembling hands.
No. He wasn't.
Not anymore.
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[End of Chapter 7]