Next Day
As they all woke up, Max entered the room carrying a set of clothes—each tailored to match their style. Golden and white for Gwen, red and white for Rize, black and white for Malaika, purple and white for Lan Xue, and green and white for Mu Qing.
They looked like netrunner suits straight out of Cyberpunk.
"Max, what are these?" Gwen asked, holding hers up.
"I made them all for you with Gaia's help," Max replied casually. "Since you guys don't like cybernetic implants, these suits can help you interact with the tech world without needing anything installed in your bodies."
He gestured for them to try them on. "They're like a second skin—soft, comfortable, and they'll let you see and interact with this world's systems as if you were connected directly. No wires, no surgery—just put them on."
They exchanged glances, then began slipping into the suits. The material was smooth and wrapped around them perfectly, adapting to every movement.
The suits came to life the moment they sealed into place. Thin lines of light traced along their arms and legs, pulsing softly like veins of energy. A faint hum filled the air, almost like the quiet purr of a machine in sleep mode.
Rize flexed her fingers, eyes widening. "Whoa… I can feel… data? Like… little streams running past my hands."
"That's the overlay," Max said, leaning against the wall with a smirk. "The suits sync to Gaia and project a mixed-reality layer into your vision. You'll see things the naked eye can't—network nodes, access points, hidden systems."
Lan Xue twirled once, watching faint holographic particles shimmer around her. "It's… beautiful. Like dancing in light."
Malaika tapped the side of her head, raising an eyebrow. "And how exactly are we connected without implants?"
"Microfilament layer inside the suit," Max explained, pointing to the glowing seams. "Acts like an external nervous system. Feeds sensory data into you through resonance—no needles, no nanites in your blood. Safer, cleaner, and removable whenever you want."
Mu Qing bent down, touching the floor. Her hand passed through a faint wireframe projection of it, revealing hidden conduits and power lines. "This is… insane. I can see the infrastructure under the street."
"Exactly." Max crossed his arms. "In this city, information is power. You can walk through a crowd and see who's armed, what devices they carry, even trace signals back to their source. And with Gaia's help…"
He snapped his fingers. Their visors lit up with a glowing map of the surrounding district—streets, buildings, hidden access tunnels.
"…you'll never be lost, never be unprepared, and never be blind."
Rize grinned. "Okay… this is officially better than magic."
The city was already alive when they stepped outside.
Morning light spilled across pristine streets lined with towering spires of glass and chrome, their surfaces rippling with massive holographic ads that shifted every few seconds. Neon lines traced along building edges, pulsing in sync with the rhythm of the city's traffic. Sleek drones zipped overhead in organized lanes, while mag-rail trams glided silently along elevated tracks.
The suits reacted instantly. Faint streams of data scrolled across their visors—vehicle tags, public terminal locations, even atmospheric quality readouts in real time.
"Look at that," Gwen said, pointing to a side wall between two cafés. To the naked eye, it was just brushed steel. Through the visor's overlay, glowing interface panels shimmered faintly—hidden AR access points waiting for the right credentials.
Mu Qing's gaze followed a metallic hawk as it darted between skyscrapers. "That… is broadcasting?"
"Courier drone," Max confirmed. "Fully encrypted, but if you're fast enough, you can ride its signal to send a ghost packet anywhere in the city. Zero trace."
Lan Xue turned slowly, her eyes catching the reflection of a massive walking cargo platform moving down a side street, its legs folding elegantly to let pedestrians pass. "That thing looks like a walking warehouse."
"Cargo mech," Max said. "City backbone. Moves goods, clears blockages, even doubles as a mobile depot."
Rize crouched, brushing her fingers over the pavement. Thin blue lines pulsed beneath a transparent surface. "Power veins?"
Max nodded. "Energy grid's everywhere. You could pull power from any point if you know how to tap it. Though… you shouldn't, unless you like having corporate security knock on your door."
The air was clean, faintly metallic with a hint of synthetic floral scents pumped through the district's ventilation system. Music drifted from open plazas—an artificial yet oddly comforting hum of life and machinery in perfect balance.
A mag-rail train thundered overhead as they walked, its underside glowing with plasma coils, the sound resonating through the streets like a rolling storm. Neon signs blinked to life one by one as shop shutters rose—cafés with steam-hissing machines, weapon boutiques displaying sleek rifles under glass, augmentation parlors with rotating holograms of cybernetic limbs.
Vendors along the sidewalks called out their goods, some selling piping-hot food skewers, others hawking black-market chips in tiny static-proof cases. Delivery drones swooped down, grabbing packages from drop-off points before shooting back into the flow of aerial traffic.
Gene tilted her head at a glass tower wrapped in animated advertisements that shifted with every passerby. "That's… creepy. It's looking at us."
"It is," Max replied without missing a step. "Adaptive marketing AI. It's pulling your data right now—likes, purchases, even emotional responses—and it'll keep changing until it finds what makes you stop and buy."
Rize smirked. "So, basically, a stalker with a budget."
"Pretty much," Max said.
They crossed into a busier district where music thumped from somewhere unseen, the bass vibrating through their boots. Cyborg street performers played instruments that looked half-organic, half-machine, their holographic stage effects spilling into the crowd. An augmented dancer spun midair, held aloft by anti-grav nodes stitched into her suit.
"Not bad," Malaika admitted, scanning the street like a hunter. "It's… too clean, though. No one watching from the shadows?"
"Oh, they're watching," Max said, glancing up at the building tops. "You just can't see them without the right filters."
Mu Qing's visor flickered as she activated a new setting—and her eyes widened. Silhouettes shimmered along the rooftops, cloaked figures armed with high-powered optics and rifles, tracking the streets below.
"This city doesn't leave anything to chance," Max said. "It's paradise if you fit in… a prison if you don't."
A low, distant horn sounded—deep and resonant. Max stopped for a moment, listening.
"That," he said quietly, "is the shift-change signal for the central district. Means the gates are open. Perfect time for a tour."
***
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