NEW ATLANTIS – SKYLINE – NIGHT
The city pulses under neon blues and carbon-glass towers—
highways threading the air like glowing serpents.
Traffic hums.
Rain falls in digital static.
A perfect New Atlantis night.
And then—
a flash of violet distortion ripples across the clouds.
---
INN FIELD OPS TOWER – ANALYTICS FLOOR – NIGHT
Tech panels blink erratically.
A junior analyst snaps upright.
[Dr. Lex ]:"Dr. Romer… we've got something unusual."
Romer approaches, coffee in hand.
[ROMER]:"Unusual comes in flavors. Which one is this?"
On the monitor:
A courier, running—panic in his eyes.
Then collapsing on a bridge in Midtown.
A frozen metallic suitcase beside him.
The feed glitches.
For one frame—
a distorted humanoid silhouette appears, made of static.
Romer frowns hard.
[ROMER]: …Steel needs to see this.
---
MIDTOWN BRIDGE – NIGHT
Jaxon STEEL arrives, drenched in rain, trench coat fluttering.
Tactical gloves on.
His eyes sharp despite exhaustion.
A team of INN FIELD AGENTS cordon off the body.
[FIELD AGENT]:Case is ice-cold, sir. Literally. Sub-zero core temperature."
Steel crouches beside the suitcase.
He brushes frost off the surface—
and sees a faint emblem:
A jagged serpent spiral.
Faint. Old.
Barely visible.
Ghost Serpent… or something older.
---
STEEL – INTERNAL NEURO-LINK FEED
The Neural HUD scans the suitcase.
SYSTEM GLITCH.
A static silhouette flickers again—closer this time.
Like someone watching him from inside his own vision.
SYSTEM VOICE (glitched) :NOT ONE OF THEM NEVER WAS...
Steel blinks it away.
---
[Agent Steel]:…Romer, patch Susan through."
---
INN TECH LAB – SAME TIME
Dr. Susan Thomas answers immediately.
Calm, warm, reassuring.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:Steel, I'm here. We're monitoring your feed.
He hesitates.
[Agent Steel]:You seeing… anything strange in the diagnostics? Distortions?
Susan exchanges a quick glance with Romer.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:Just residual stress from the previous fight. Nothing more.
Focus on the scene, Jaxon.
Steel nods but remains unconvinced.
---
Steel examines the body.
Cold burns on the skin.
Artificial tissue inside the fingertips.
[Agent Steel]:He was carrying something he shouldn't.Something someone wanted badly enough to kill for.
He lifts the suitcase.
A soft CLICK sounds behind him.
Steel freezes.
Someone is on the rooftop across the bridge.
A figure… tall, masked, wearing a streamlined obsidian suit.
Eyes glowing like sharpened crystals.
THE SHARDEYE SNIPER.
---
[SHARDEYE SNIPER]:(amplified voice)
"Prototype Zero.
You've exceeded expectation."
[Agent Steel]:…Who the hell are you?
[SHARDEYE SNIPER]: A measurement.
He fires.
---
BRIDGE –– NIGHT
Hard-light projectiles smash the pavement where Steel stood a fraction earlier.
Steel dives, rolls, fires back with his plasma sidearm—
but the sniper moves like a glitch in reality.
Short teleports.
Micro-phasing.
Optic flares.
Steel leaps onto an abandoned hover-car, sprinting across its roof.
Another projectile screams past, slicing a metallic pillar clean in half.
[Agent Steel]:You wanna dance?Fine!
He vaults over the railing, grabs a hanging cable, swings to the opposite structure—and crashes into the sniper mid-leap.
Both tumble across the rooftop.
---
SharEye fights with inhuman precision—
each movement calculated to map Steel's reflex patterns.
[SHARDEYE SNIPER]:You were not designed to win.Only to reveal your limits.
[Agent Steel]:Newsflash I don't have limits.
Steel lands a brutal elbow strike.
The sniper staggers—but stabilizes immediately.
A distortion field activates.
He begins to fade.
[Agent Steel]:HEY! We're not done—
[SHARDEYE SNIPER]:You are not ready.
The sniper vanishes.
---
STEEL'S POV – NEURO-LINK BLACKOUT
Everything goes dark except a single glitching silhouette standing inches from him.
[GLITCHED FIGURE ]: "Look deeper jaxon you have being studing
Steel gasps—
and the vision vanishes instantly.
---
BRIDGE – NIGHT
Steel stands alone.
Rain pouring.
City humming.
The frozen suitcase beside him…
and the chilling knowledge:
Someone out there knows who he truly is.
Someone is watching him.
Measuring him.
Anticipating him.
And Ghost Serpent…
may not even be the apex predator in this hunt.
Steel calls Susan.
Voice quiet.
Tired.
Uneasy.
[Agent Steel]:Susan…Tell Romer to run deep diagnostics on the Neuro-Link.Something's wrong."
She exhales softly.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:Jaxon…Stay where you are.We're coming."
Her tone is warm but unreadable.
For the first time in a long time—
Agent Steel feels genuinely unsafe.
---
MIDTOWN BRIDGE – NIGHT
Rain continues to hammer the metal railings in relentless sheets.
The neon lights of New Atlantis shimmer across the flooded asphalt.
Steel stands motionless.
The frozen suitcase lies at his feet, humming faintly with intermittent pulses—like a heartbeat.
[Agent Steel]:(soft, to himself)…What did they want you to deliver?"
The message from the Glitched Figure echoes in the back of his mind:
You are being studied.
He forces himself to breathe.
He's Agent Steel.
He doesn't break.
But tonight… his hands shake.
---
INN MOBILE RESPONSE VAN – NIGHT
The doors swing open.
Susan and Romer rush out into the rain.
Susan reaches Steel first.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:Jaxon—hey. Look at me. Are you hurt?
Her voice is gentle, grounding.
Steel doesn't meet her eyes.
[Agent Steel]:I'm fine. Not the first time someone's tried to vaporize me.
Romer eyes the suitcase.
[ROMER]:That thing's not standard issue. We'll need full containment.
Steel nods.
[Agent Steel]:And level-five clearance. No one else touches it.
Romer stiffens.
Steel rarely pulls rank.
When he does, something is wrong.
---
RESPONSE VAN – MOVING – NIGHT
The van cuts through neon-lit rain as Susan runs a portable Neuro-Link scan on Steel.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:Your stress markers are off the charts.You haven't slept in… what? Three days?
[Agent Steel]:Two and a half. I do power naps.
Romer snorts under his breath.
Susan shoots him a look, then switches to a quieter tone.
[Dr. Susan Thomas ]:Jaxon… talk to me. What happened?
Steel hesitates.
He looks down at his shaking hand.
[Agent Steel]:…I saw something. In my Neural feed.
Susan stops working.
Her expression shifts—neutral, unreadable, professional.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:What exactly did you see?
[Agent Steel]Someone. Something.
A… silhouette. It spoke.
It knew my name."
Romer freezes with a tablet in hand.
[ROMER]:That's impossible.
[Agent Steel]:Yeah.That's what worries me.
---
INN HEADQUARTERS – NIGHT
The van arrives at the towering glass fortress.
Rain cascades down its mirrored surface like falling data streams.
Security drones sweep the perimeter.
---
INN HQ – SUBLEVEL 3 – SECURE LAB – NIGHT
Romer and Susan transfer the frozen suitcase to a magnetic isolation platform.
The frost rapidly spreads across the containment glass.
[ROMER]:Temperature is dropping even more.This thing is generating cold, not storing it.
Susan types commands.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:I'm detecting biotech signatures… and something else.
Something encrypted.
Steel watches from behind the glass.
His eyes narrow.
[Agent Steel]:"Ghost Serpent?"
Susan shakes her head.
[Dr. SusanThomas]:Not matching any of their known compounds.This is… older.
More refined."
Romer swallows nervously.
[ROMER]:"So whoever killed that courier wasn't Ghost Serpent?"
Steel steps closer to the glass.
[Agent Steel]:They said a 'chosen one' is coming.Maybe Ghost Serpent is just another piece of the puzzle."
---
OBSERVATION HALLWAY – LATER
Steel leans against a cold wall, exhausted.
Susan approaches quietly.
[Dr. Susan Thomas]:You should go home. You're running on fumes.
Steel exhales.
A tired smile flickers.
[Agent Steel]:If I sleep, I'll see that silhouette again.
A pause
Susan softens, voice barely above a whisper.
[Dr. Susan Thomas ]:Then I'll come by in the morning.We'll get answers.
Together.
Steel looks at her—really looks.
Warmth flickers in his expression.
[Agent Steel]:…Thanks, Susan.
---
JAXON'S APARTMENT – NIGHT
A quiet, minimalist space illuminated only by city lights filtering through tall windows.
Steel tosses his soaked jacket aside.
He heads to his bedroom.
A framed photograph hangs above his desk:
Dr. Elira Cross, brilliant, smiling, alive.
His mother.
Steel gently touches the frame.
His voice cracks—only slightly.
[Agent Steel]:I wish you were here, Mom.
I…I think something is wrong with me.
He sits on the edge of the bed, staring at the floor.
[Agent Steel]:(soft, breaking)You'd know what to do.You always did.
His eyes glisten but don't spill.
Agent Steel doesn't cry.
But tonight—he comes very close.
---
. NEW ATLANTIS – ROOFTOP – SAME NIGHT
A shadow figure watches Steel's apartment from afar.
Twin crystal-blue optics blink.
SharEye Sniper.
[SHARDEYE SNIPER] : …Observation complete.Prototype responses aligned."
It taps a device.
A voice through comms
(warped, low)
"Good.Let the boy grieve.
Weakness will shape him."
SharEye nods once, then teleports away in a ripple of light.
TO BE CONTINUED....
---