The city didn't sleep.
And neither did Ash.
Not after the sync.
Not after the neural rush that still clung to his bones like cold electricity. He had felt Falcon's instincts become his own. He had flown. Not through engines or code, but through a bond. One deeper than technology.
He had become something else. Not quite machine. Not quite boy.
And now, he couldn't feel like either.
---
School felt like fiction the next day.
Peter babbled about a new chemical compound in bio lab, something about adhesive proteins. But Ash barely heard a word. His mind drifted in pulses and fragments, syncing to data that wasn't there, eyes catching motion that didn't exist.
"Hey." Peter waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Ash."
Ash blinked. "Sorry. Long night."
"Nightmares again?"
Not exactly.
More like realities he hadn't asked for.
Before Peter could ask more, Ash excused himself and headed to the hallway. The moment he stepped outside the classroom, the noise dropped out—replaced by the hum of invisible waves.
He felt power in the walls.
Currents. Heat signatures. Electromagnetic pulses.
And beneath it all… something ancient. Inside him.
---
In the boy's bathroom, Ash locked the stall door and stared at his reflection.
For a moment, he didn't recognize his own eyes.
They were… deeper. As if galaxies had rooted themselves into the black of his pupils. When he exhaled, he swore he saw a pulse—a ripple of soft light over his skin, gone before it could be confirmed.
> "Echo," he whispered. "Diagnostic. What's wrong with me?"
> "Nothing is wrong."
> "You are adapting."
> "Corp core bonding complete. Starborn tissue evolution: 4%."
Ash gritted his teeth. "So why do I feel like I'm coming apart?"
> "You are. And you must. Evolution is not a comfort."
He didn't like that answer.
---
That evening, Ash wandered the edge of Queens, deeper into alleys he used to avoid. Falcon trailed silently above him, a soft blue glow in the dusk.
"I can't keep doing this alone," Ash murmured.
Falcon beeped softly in reply, lowering to hover near his shoulder.
"You're trying to help. I know. But this…" He lifted his hands. "This isn't a power I understand. It's not just tech. Not just energy."
He clenched his fists.
"It's like I'm rewriting."
---
He turned a corner and stopped.
A figure was waiting there.
A man in a dark gray coat. Face half-shadowed. Standing perfectly still, as if carved from the alley itself.
"You're earlier than expected," the man said, voice calm.
Ash tensed. "You've been following me."
The man smiled faintly. "We've been watching. Since the closet opened. Since the sync."
Falcon hovered between them, wings extended in defense.
"No need for that," the man said. "We're not here to hurt you."
Ash didn't relax. "Then who are you?"
The man took a slow step forward. "I'm just the introduction. You'll meet the others soon."
He extended a hand—not threatening, just… offering.
"We're the ones who understand what's happening to you. Because we designed it."
Ash froze.
"What?"
The man nodded. "Starborn isn't a protocol. It's a classification. And you, Ash… you're the first of your kind to survive full integration without going mad."
He paused.
"For now."
---
Ash stepped back.
"You're with the Corp?"
The man shook his head. "We're the Inheritors. We were Corp once. Until we realized the Corp didn't evolve to save anyone. It evolved to replace."
Ash's heart pounded.
"You were one of them."
"I am one of them," the man said. "And so are you. Whether you like it or not."
He turned, walking toward the far wall of the alley.
"We'll speak again, Ash. When you're ready to know the truth about what you're becoming."
---
Ash didn't follow.
Didn't speak.
He stood there, hands trembling slightly, heart racing as questions spiraled.
What am I?
What am I becoming?
Why do I feel like there's something inside me trying to wake up?
---
Later, alone in his room, Ash sat cross-legged on the floor with the lights off. Falcon hovered silently by the window, watching.
> "Echo," he said. "Tell me again what the Starborn Protocol is."
> "A survival framework. A last attempt."
> "You were not meant to be one. But you became it."
> "Corp did not anticipate emotional retention. You are… anomaly."
Ash closed his eyes.
He could feel the humming again. Not from the world. But from himself.
And the deeper he looked inward, the more he saw light moving in his veins.
Power.
Real power.
But it didn't have a name.
Not yet.
And that terrified him more than anything else.