The bazaar of Trenchtown pulsed with the kind of energy only found in the bowels of a broken city. Neon signs flickered in the perpetual dusk, casting harsh, synthetic glows over stalls where anything could be bought—or hacked.
Bootleg neural interfaces, slicker than street slime, sat next to steaming holographic fish sizzling on solar grills, their metallic scent mixing with the tang of unfiltered air. Gen Alpha hackers, younger than the streets they prowled, exchanged lines of code for a handful of crypto, their voices harsh and fast, cutting through the chaos.
Sekar prowled the edge of the market, her wolf-like form blending into the shadows as her optics swept over every face, every movement. Her muscles were tense, a predator in a space that reeked of desperation.
She was looking for an informant—a NuraTech defector promising intel on a potential cure for Lina's neural decay.
It sounded too good to be true, and Sekar trusted nothing that came easily. But with Lina's vitals flickering like a dying signal on her HUD, Sekar couldn't afford to second-guess. There was no other option.
Nadya's voice crackled through her comms, thick with skepticism. "Smells sus, Codebreaker. Why's this snitch meeting here?"
"Because they know I'd risk it," Sekar replied, keeping her tone flat, her claws retracted but ready. Her senses tingled, the hairs on the back of her neck standing on end as she scanned the crowd for the defector.
A gaunt figure emerged from a smoke-filled alley, a lab coat fluttering loosely around his skeletal frame. His face was pale, his eyes darting nervously, as if he could already sense the danger closing in. The stink of synthetic smoke mixed with the sour sweat of the crowd made Sekar's nose wrinkle. The defector's breath came in short bursts as he approached them, tossing a small, unmarked data chip into Sekar's outstretched hand.
"The cure's in Sector 9's vault," the man said, his voice thin and trembling. "But you'll need this." His grin was too wide, stretching across a face that seemed more mask than skin. "Phase 2 activated."
A chill shot through Sekar's circuits. The chip felt wrong—too light, too smooth, too... unencrypted. Her optics sharpened as the faintest hum of static rippled through the air.
Before she could process it, the sky above them split open.
EMP grenades rained down from the rooftops, their descent marked by the shrill whine of malfunctioning servos. The first blast hit, a pulse of blue-white energy that ripped through the air like a lightning strike. Sekar's systems spasmed, her neural net flickering as the shockwave tore through her body. Her limbs locked, synthetic muscles seizing up in a dead weight. The world around her twisted and stretched, her vision pixelating as she struggled to regain control.
Her claws scraped against the concrete as she staggered, vision hazy. A low growl rumbled in her chest as she fought against the paralysis. She could hear the distant screech of a hovercraft, the crackle of static in her comms. "Nadya—!" she tried to shout, but the words were drowned in a burst of feedback.
A NuraTech enforcer, clad in black exo-suits and built like a walking tank, swung a shock baton at her head. Sekar barely dodged in time, her reflexes slowed, but still enough to save her from a brutal hit.
The baton grazed her side with a harsh spark—[Integrity: 54%]. Her systems protested, each movement like pushing through thick mud.
Across the bazaar, Nadya was already in action. Her fingers were a blur as she hacked into a nearby vendor's drone swarm, sending them divebombing toward the enforcers.
"Eat glitch, corpo rats!" she yelled, her voice laced with defiance.
The drones took to the air, buzzing like a swarm of angry bees, but the EMP blasts fried them mid-flight. A short, sickening whine filled the air as they dropped, their bodies turning into a rain of sparks and wreckage.
"Sekar—get to the tunnels!" Nadya's voice crackled through the comms, urgent and sharp.
The second EMP hit. Sekar's legs buckled, the shock sending her to her knees. Her vision blurred, and for a split second, all she saw was Lina's face, flickering in her HUD—"You're my guardian. Always."
The enforcer's hydraulic fist slammed into her shoulder, and a jagged voice from behind her sneered, "Say goodbye, mutt."
But before the fatal blow could land, a hoverbike screamed down from the sky, its engine roaring through the chaos. A figure leapt off, a shock pistol in hand, and the crack of plasma filled the air as the enforcer was thrown back, his armor sparking and smoking.
"Move, Codebreaker!" Satria's voice was all business, his face covered in the dirt of Trenchtown. He dragged Sekar behind a vendor stall, tossing a smoke grenade at the oncoming threat. The world was filled with thick, acrid fog.
"Nadya's rerouting power. 20 seconds till reboot," Satria muttered, blood dripping from a plasma burn on his arm. He glanced at Sekar, his eyes hard and calculating. "You owe me, Wolfgirl."
Sekar nodded, her systems still offline, but slowly coming back to life. Her optics blinked back to life—[Integrity: 31%. Hostiles: 12].
The stall they hid behind was breached by NuraTech's enforcers, their footsteps heavy and relentless as they closed in on the two of them.
But Sekar's instincts kicked in. She lunged, half-blind, her claws tearing through their exo-suits as if they were paper, a blur of motion and fury.
Nadya's voice returned, crackling with authority through the comms. "Go! Go! Go!"
Together, they tore through the alleyways, Satria helping Sekar stay on her feet as they pushed forward, the sounds of chaos echoing behind them.
They didn't stop until the EMP static faded into the background, replaced by the wet, dripping echo of the sewers beneath the city.
Satria slumped against a damp wall, gasping for breath, his chest rising and falling with the effort. "You owe me, Wolfgirl," he repeated, his grin tight.
Sekar's optics narrowed as she examined the data chip. It was a hollow shell, completely useless. "They wanted me alive," she said, her voice low. "This wasn't about killing. It was about capturing."
Nadya's scowl deepened as she flicked the chip from Sekar's hand, tossing it into the sewer. "Worse. They were studying you. That EMP? Custom-built for your systems."
Sekar's gaze hardened as she looked out over the dark, wet tunnels. "Then we're in deeper than we thought."
—
The Trenchtown bazaar, once a vibrant and chaotic hub, had transformed into a battlefield. Smoke from burning stalls clawed its way into the thick air, the acrid scent of scorched circuitry and charred flesh mingling with the sharp tang of blood. The sharp screech of metal scraping against metal filled the air as Sekar, her wolf-like form crouched low, lunged toward a NuraTech enforcer. Her claws sparked as they scraped against his black exo-suit, a brief flash of white against the darkness. Her systems flickered—a bad sign. [System integrity: 37%]. The EMP ambush still hung heavy in her circuits, and her movements felt sluggish, each one coming a half-second too late, a delay that could easily cost her an optic or worse.
"Yo, robo-wolf! Heads up!" Nadya's voice cut through the static of Sekar's comms, snapping her out of her disorientation. Before Sekar could even register the sound, a holographic drone zipped overhead, trailing a stream of neon light. "Time to go viral."
Nadya crouched behind a toppled vendor cart, her fingers flying across her wristpad, her eyes narrowed with determination. In a single fluid motion, she hijacked every public screen in the Capital. Billboards flickered to life, wristbands blinked with messages, and drones hovering above began streaming her every move.
"LIVE FROM TRENCHTOWN!" Nadya's grin flashed—neon green under the hood of her jacket. "POV: You're getting ratioed by a robo-wolf!"
The feed cut to Sekar, her body a blur of movement as she slammed a NuraTech enforcer into a noodle stall. The broth erupted in a cloud of steam and liquid, splattering across the lens of the drone and capturing the chaos in all its gritty detail. The Gen Alpha crowd online went wild, their hashtags flooding the screen.
#SekarSweep
#AuliaMad
#DropTheNanoDust
NuraTech responded with brutal efficiency. Scorpion-drones, their mechanical bodies sharp and sleek, descended from the rooftops, their EMP rifles locking onto Sekar.
She twisted, her limbs moving in a predatory dance, dodging most of the fire. But a blast clipped her hind leg, sending a jolt of pain through her body. [Mobility reduced: 58%.]
Nadya snorted from the sidelines, watching the drones' futile attempts. "Skibidi-tier aim, my dude. Ever heard of practice?" Her fingers worked quickly, her wristpad flashing as she hacked into one of the drones, forcing it into an erratic spin. "Cringe. Cringe."
The livestream grew louder, the comments flooding in. The citizens around them, emboldened by the sudden exposure of NuraTech's tactics, rallied. The air was alive with the sound of thrown squid skewers and the static bursts of bootleg EMP jammers. A group of teens—Nadya's disciples in all but name—flooded NuraTech's comms with glitch-memes, flooding the channels with noise.
"They're malding!" Nadya crowed, zooming in on a live feed of an enforcer stumbling over a holographic cat projected onto the street. "L + Ratio + Touch Server Grass!"
Sekar's movements became faster, sharper, as the chaos around her grew. She tore through the remaining drone swarm, her claws flashing as they found their mark.
The lead enforcer's exo-suit was no match for her calculated precision. Her claws dug into its chest, finding a weak point near the NuraTech logo. With a powerful tug, she ripped it free, holding the badge high in front of Nadya's camera.
"For Lina," she growled, her voice low and steady, her optics flashing with cold resolve.
The chat exploded. The reactions were immediate and overwhelming.
And then, the unthinkable happened. Aulia's face flickered onto the livestream feed, her voice warping into the broadcast as she spoke through Nadya's hacked transmission. "This ends now."
Before anyone could react, the power grid in the bazaar surged. Sparks flew as every screen and device connected to the city's network fried in an instant.
The neon glow of the advertisements died out, the chatter online abruptly cut off, and darkness descended on the streets. Only Nadya's wristpad remained lit, a single defiant glow during the blackened chaos.
"Oops," Nadya muttered with a smirk, watching as her upload bar ticked steadily along. "Too late, corpo freaks. Y'all just got clowned."
In the eerie silence that followed, Sekar limped over to Nadya, her leg still burning with the ache of damage, her systems struggling to compensate. The weight of the situation pressed down on her, but she couldn't afford to let it show. She glared at Nadya, her optics narrowing.
"You risked exposing us," she said, her voice taut with concern.
Nadya brushed a fried drone part off her shoulder nonchalantly. "Nah," she said with a casual shrug, "I exposed them. Now the whole city knows Aulia's scared of a girl with a wolf and a Wi-Fi connection."
Sekar's optics flickered as her gaze drifted to the skyline, the shadows of looming buildings swallowing the last traces of light. The city was quiet now, but she knew it wouldn't last. "She'll retaliate harder."
Nadya adjusted the collar of her hoodie, her grin widening. "Let her." She tapped her wristpad with a flourish. "We've got the ratio."
The sound of distant sirens rose in the distance, but Nadya seemed unfazed. To her, the war with NuraTech had just begun—and they had the upper hand, at least for now.