The rain poured over Chicago like a cleansing firestorm, streets slicked with secrets, alleys brimming with whispers. Von Royner moved like a ghost beneath the city lights, eyes scanning the shadows, muscles tense with purpose. His black hoodie clung to him like armor, soaked from the storm, but he didn't stop moving. Not now. Not after what he had uncovered.
Next to him, Shanice kept pace. She didn't ask questions anymore. She'd seen too much, heard too many pieces of the puzzle to pretend it wasn't real. Her father's name on the Project Oracle files. The surveillance footage. The drone that hovered above their safehouse like a steel vulture before Von fried its sensors using the scrambler tech he salvaged from one of the flash drives.
"They'll come harder now," she said, breathless, trying to keep her pace through puddles and trash-strewn sidewalks.
Von nodded. "Let 'em."
His voice carried steel and smoke. His eyes were glowing faintly again, just like the night he'd seen Leon die. That power, his father's legacy was evolving. The visions no longer came in flickers or flashes. They were sharper, more controlled. Still unpredictable, but usable. Dangerous.
They reached the subway entrance on 63rd. A rusted gate. A locked service tunnel.
Von pulled out a metal key, not modern, one of the old skeleton keys from the days when his father used these routes. He'd found it taped behind a photo of James and young Von, back in the safe house on 79th. It slid into the lock like it belonged.
The gate opened with a screech.
"What is this place?" Shanice whispered, brushing her wet curls away from her face.
Von led her down into darkness. "It's where the demons used to sleep."
The tunnel opened into an old maintenance station, long-abandoned, walls cracked and covered in graffiti. In the far corner, behind a false wall of crates and tarps, sat a blast door. Steel. CIA-grade.
Shanice's eyes widened. "How's this under Chicago?"
"Because it was never supposed to be found."
He held up one of the decrypted flash drives. It had schematics. Files labeled "SUB-1." An underground server farm. A fail-safe for Project Oracle, abandoned after James Royner went rogue but never fully decommissioned. Von believed the last copies of the Oracle AI code, what allowed the CIA to predict behavior and manipulate global events were stored here.
If he could destroy it, the project would truly die.
He placed his hand on the biometric pad beside the blast door. The light blinked red, then green.
DNA match confirmed.
The door hissed open.
Inside was a vault-like chamber. Servers hummed in rows, dust-coated and blinking in dull yellow. At the center, under reinforced glass, was a black core tower, a fusion processor designed to house predictive algorithms too powerful for any public system.
Von stared at it, heartbeat rising. "This is the heart."
Shanice stepped close. "What do we do?"
"We end it."
Von placed the final flash drive into the terminal. A prompt lit up:
[PROJECT ORACLE: ROOT OVERRIDE DETECTED. TERMINATE ALL INSTANCES?]
But before he could hit confirm, the door behind them groaned open.
Von spun, drawing his weapon.
Agent Carter Mays stepped through, soaked, gun drawn. He wasn't alone. Two agents flanked him, rifles raised.
Shanice froze. "Dad.. ?"
"Lower your weapon, Von," Carter barked. "You're not walking out of here."
Von didn't budge. "Funny. That's exactly what I told your drone."
"I gave you a chance, boy. After Louis' Barbershop. After we pulled your body from the East River. But you made your choice. You think this is about justice? It's not. It's about balance. You were supposed to be controlled."
Von's voice was ice. "Like you controlled my father?"
Carter's jaw twitched.
"I saw the files," Von continued. "He trusted you. You turned him in. Sold him out for a promotion. For funding. You turned the Oracle program into a weapon."
Carter took a step forward, gun aimed steady. "You have no idea what your father was. He wasn't a man. He was an anomaly. A threat to every world order. You think he ran? No. He was eliminated. He couldn't be controlled. Neither can you."
"I don't want to be controlled," Von growled. "I want to be free."
Then he squeezed the trigger.
Shots rang out.
Von dove left, taking cover behind a column. Shanice hit the ground, screaming. Bullets tore into the wall behind her. The agents spread out, sweeping the room.
But Von's vision kicked in.
A flicker.
A second ahead.
He saw Carter stepping left, before he did it.
Von rolled and fired. One shot. The agent on Carter's left dropped, hit square in the chest.
Carter cursed, ducking behind a panel.
"You trained me for this," Von called. "I read the tactics in your files. You always lead with a flank. But you're predictable. Just like Oracle."
Shanice crawled toward the terminal.
"Von!" she shouted. "The override, finish it!"
Carter moved to stop her. But Von caught the vision first.
Another flicker.
He surged forward, tackling Carter hard into the floor. The older man's gun slid away.
They fought hand-to-hand. Fists cracking against ribs. Elbows driving into jaws. Blood slicked Von's teeth. Carter reached for a knife.
Von grabbed his wrist.
"Tell her," Von hissed. "Tell your daughter why her mother left."
Carter hesitated.
Von pressed the blade to his throat.
"She found out, didn't she?" Von whispered. "About you. About the things you did for the Agency."
Carter's eyes burned. "I kept this country safe."
"You destroyed your family to do it."
He let go, shoving Carter to the ground.
Behind them, Shanice slammed the return key.
[TERMINATING ORACLE CORE…]
The central tower sparked. Lights burst.
Alarms screamed through the chamber.
"Von!" Shanice yelled. "It's going to blow!"
He grabbed her, pulling her toward the exit.
Carter was still on the ground, stunned. Von paused.
Their eyes locked.
Carter gave him the smallest nod.
A silent thank-you or maybe surrender.
Then Von and Shanice ran.
They burst through the service tunnel just as a shockwave rocked the underground. The blast door behind them sealed with fire and thunder. Above, steam shot from grates. The city shook like it had been struck by a god's fist.
Von pulled Shanice behind a dumpster as debris rained from above.
Then… silence.
He looked at her. "It's gone."
She nodded, breathless. "So… what now?"
Von stared up at the flickering city lights, at the skyline choked in storm and smoke.
"They'll come again," he said. "The Agency. The remnants. The ones who still believe in control."
Shanice leaned on his shoulder. "Let them."
He wrapped his arm around her, a rare smile playing at his lips.
From the shadows, Chicago exhaled.
And the Demon of O-Block vanished once more, into legend.