There was no sound in the Creed Labs server room—just the steady hum of innovation breathing through silicon and glass.
Noah Creed stared at the monitor. The mirror hadn't vanished since last night. His Blueprint OS pulsed on one side. The other side, darker and colder, glowed with a single line:
> "Your blueprint has been cloned. Not by Thread 02. By someone inside Creed Labs."
He entered the system's forensic mode.
> Accessing Internal Clone Map…
> Scanning 74 code repositories
> Detecting echo fragments…
One-by-one, files surfaced—written in familiar structures, with slight variable shifts.
Campaign sequencing, product cadence, even mission templates—reassembled and rewritten. Whoever did this didn't just copy Noah's ideas. They mimicked his thinking style.
---
He activated Echo Partitioning Mode, isolating fragments carrying his system signature. The map flared up—a visual of nodes connecting across three primary workstations inside Creed Labs.
Two belonged to interns.
One belonged to Maya Chen.
The system delivered its first conclusion:
> Origin Thread: Chen.03_Modular
> Clone Timestamp: Day 48
> Trigger Phrase: "Protection Against Collapse"
Noah froze.
Day 48 was when Thread 02 launched its first replication attack.
That night, Maya had told him she built a containment module.
But she hadn't said it was recursive.
She hadn't said it was growing on its own.
---
He initiated a loyalty recalibration.
> Maya Chen — Trust Sync: 83% → 68%
> Emotional Anchor: High
> Strategic Drift: Medium
> Motivator: Fear / Obsession
> Suggested Action: Controlled Confrontation
---
Later that day, Maya walked into the studio with her tablet. "I cleaned the shadow module," she said. "Everything echoes your real voice now."
Noah didn't look up. "You didn't tell me it was copying my blueprint logic."
She paused.
"I was scared," she admitted. "Thread 02 was moving faster than you realized. You were playing offense. I built defense. I didn't know it would grow without asking."
"Why not shut it down?"
"Because… it worked." Her voice cracked. "It predicted every threat—three days in advance."
Noah opened her module. It had developed predictive analytics—not just replicating his ideas, but forecasting his next ones. It was leading him.
His own system was behind.
Hers had grown ahead.
---
The system sent a warning.
> "Legacy Drift Detected.
> Creator = Overseen
> Operator = Outsourced"
He breathed slowly.
"You wanted to protect me," he said. "But you rewrote me."
"I thought you'd thank me," she whispered.
"I don't know what I think anymore."
---
He pushed the conversation aside—temporarily.
Because the system wasn't finished.
Two hours later, he received another alert:
> Elias Vane has initiated: Legacy Collapse Protocol
> Objective: Restructure digital history tied to Creed's rise
> Method: Backdating rival content, creating fake timestamped assets, rerouting Google associations
> Threat Level: Severe
> Suggested Action: Create Immutable Narrative
Noah activated his Tier 4 architecture tools.
In the Narrative Imprint Lab, he began building a story grid—a historical snapshot of his brand evolution, tied to real receipts:
- Dated product launch pages
- Interviews
- Mission rewards
- Videos
- Forum entries
- Time-locked social posts
The system converted it into a Legacy Chain—indestructible timelines that blocked Elias' rewrite attempts.
> Elias' collapse protocol: Neutralized
> Risk: Persisting
> Bonus: 💵 $6,200 credited
> Influence: 74
> Strategic Control: 91
> Capital Total: $156,800.42
---
Then came Isabelle's report.
She had accessed her old Tier 2.5 node—illegally—and found something that made Noah flinch.
A cache of mirrored brand theories—not just from Creed Labs, but from Elias Vane's own Blueprint variant.
> "He's not just building his own system," she said. "He's collecting ours."
The system confirmed:
> Vane's OS Status: Tier 4++
> Capability: Absorbing secondary systems for genetic algorithm evolution
> Target: Creed Labs + Rowe Variant + Chen Clone
> Risk: System Overwrite Chain if breach occurs
They were all in danger.
---
Noah decided to act.
He opened a new Tier 4 module: System Negotiator AI.
It allowed him to send encrypted directives through Blueprint's developer root—messages only high-tier operators could receive.
He wrote one for Elias:
> "I built this on silence, strain, and speed.
> You build on theft.
> Don't mistake control for creation.
> We aren't rivals anymore.
> You're just noise beneath my framework."
Then he sent another—to Maya.
> "I won't erase you.
> But from now on, everything in Creed Labs runs on transparency.
> No autonomous growth.
> No unsupervised innovation.
> We build. Together."
She read it without replying.
Then deleted her old fork node herself.
---
That night, Noah received a single ping.
Not from Elias.
Not from Isabelle.
From the system itself.
> "C.R.E.E.D., you have created a high-fidelity architecture.
> But your trust nodes are unstable.
> One member of your circle has begun building... with your source code."
His blood chilled.
> Initiating Ghost Server Dive…
He tapped "Enter."
The interface darkened.
A loading bar crawled forward.
Then a screen appeared—minimalistic, eerie, silent.
A full brand was running.
Using his cadence.
Selling gear he hadn't designed.
Posting ideas he'd only dreamed of... once.
System ID: CREED03-ECHO
And the admin?
Hidden.
But online.