Smoke clawed it's way into the California sky like the city was trying to cough out it's sins. Redwood heights wasn't supposed to look like this- half the downtown step scorched, power lines dangling like vines in a cyberpunk jungle, and every news chopper circling ahead like vultures over fresh meat.
Zeke coughed his way out of a pile of rubble, hoodie singed, hair standing on end like he'd just licked and electric socket. Which , to be fair, wasn't entirely inaccurate. His hands still fuzzed with blue static.
"Well." He croaked , surveying the flaming wreckage, "that went as well as my chemistry midterm."
A chunk of broken streetlamp groaned, and Maya crawled out from underneath, bruised, her tactical gear coated in soot. She shot him a glare sharp enough to cut concrete.
" Zeke Carter," she hissed, brushing ash out of her curls. " Do you ever listen when I say 'don't blow everything up'?"
" In my defense," Zeke said , dragging himself upright, " technically I didn't blow everything up. The suicidal cyborg did it." He tilted his head at the smoking crater where Subject X- Tyler - has disintegrated. " I just ...helped with the special effects."
MAYA groaned, half in pain ,half in exasperation. " One of these days, your sarcasm is going to get you killed."
" One of these days," Zeke shot back, " your complete lack of humor is going to get me killed."
They stumbled towards what had once been Main Street, where panicked civilians darted between overturned cars. Fire crews sprayed futilely at flames leaping off shattered buildings. Giant digital billboards,their glass cracked,still blared cheerful ads: NEOGENEX - building Tomorrow's humanity.
MAYA spat into the street. " Building Tomorrow's humanity my-"
"Language," Zeke cut in, wagging a finger. " There are children present."
"Where?"
He gestured at a wide- eyes boy peeking from behind his mother's skirt. The kid clutched a toy plasma blaster, his face smeared with soot but his eyes locked on Zeke like he was a comic book hero come to life.
And just like that, the weight hit him. Tyler's final words echoed in his skull: don't become me.
The kid didn't see the static burns on Zeke's skin,or the way his left hand still shook uncontrollably. He just saw someone who had stood between him and annihilation. A hero. Zeke wasn't sure which was scarier - living up to that or failing spectacularly.
By night fall, the official story already hit the feeds.
Zeke and Maya crouched in the shadows of a burned -out diner, watching a cracked Holo screen hanging from a leaning streetlamp. A perfectly polished anchor, his hair too symmetrical to be real,starer gravely into the camera.
" Tonight, Redwood Heights suffered catastrophic damage," the ma said. " Dozens injured, millions in property damage. Officials report the chaos was caused by a rogue cyber- terrorist known only as patient Zero."
Zeke nearly choked on the stale energy bar Maya had scavenged for him. " cyber terrorist ? really? I can barely work the Wi-Fi."
" Shh," Maya muttered.
The screen flickered to an image: grainy footage of Zeke mid- battle, hurling arcs of blue lightning at Subject X . To anyone watching it looked like Zeke was the one tearing the city apart.
The anchor continued, "NeoGeneX has pledged to support the city in recovery efforts. They want citizens to avoid contact with patient zero, who is considered extremely dangerous ."
Maya swore under her breath. " They are rewriting the whole narrative. Classic corporate cleanup. To the world ,you are not the victim -you are the weapon." Zeke slammed against the diner wall. " Great! first time I ever trend online, and I am a villian. My mom's going to love this."
They sat in silence for a while, the sound of distance sirens filling the gaps .Zeke rubbed at his temples, still seeing Tyler's broken eyes, still hearing his final please.
"Do you think...," he started, then stopped.
" Do you think he was right? Tyler, I mean. That I'll end up like him?"
Maya looked at him, her face lit by the faint glow of a burning billboard. For once, she didn't fire back with sarcasm.
"I think, " she said slowly, "that NeoGeneX made you both. They wrote your code. But Tyler's story doesn't have to be yours."
Zeke tried to smile, but it came out twisted. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one short- circuiting your own brain every time you throw a lightning bolt."
Maya reached over and squeezed his wrist- steady,grounding . "Which is why you need me. To make sure you don't fly yourself."
He blinked. " Wow was that an actual...compliment?"
" don't get used to it!"
Across town, beneath layers of concrete and forgotten subway tunnels, the air was still.
A cyropod sat in the darkness, it's surface cracked from the shock wave of Tyler's self destruction . Faint white vapor hissed out, curling like breath into the stale air.
Inside, her silver hair fanned out like liquid mercury, her skin pale against the ice. For years, Zara Voss had been a ghost in a glass coffin.
Her eyelids fluttered.
Somewhere above, alarms still wailed . Redwood Heights bled .And in the silence of the pod ,Zara's violet eyes snapped open ,glowing faintly in the dark.
Cliffhanger.
Back into the diner ruins,Zeke tilted his head to the stars barely visible through the smoke. "Tyler said evolution needs extinction," he whispered
" what if... what if he was talking about me?"
Maya tightened her grip on his wrist, almost fierce. "Then we make damn sure he was wrong."
Zeke gave her a lopsided grin. " sounds like a plan. Totally vague, wildly optimistic, and probably fatal. Just my style."
Maya look that him and chuckled and then she smiled.
She rolled her eyes. " You are impossible."
"yeah,' Zeke said, the sparks dancing faintly across his fingers again. "But at least I'm not alone."
Above them, the cities smoldered . Below them, Zara awoke .
And somewhere in the glass towers of NeoGeneX ,new plans were already been written.