New York City – 3:17 AM
The station was supposed to be empty. But the air was thick—like something ancient had exhaled beneath the concrete.
Dead Rose Unit 7 moved in silence. Sable led the charge, her boots slicing through puddles of oil and blood. Behind her, Echo scanned the shadows with his pulse rig, while Juno whispered the seal phrase under her breath.
> "Petals fall. Thorns remain."
The titan emerged from the far tunnel—its body glitching between flesh and rusted steel. Eyes like broken lenses. Limbs that bent wrong. It didn't roar. It hummed—a low, vibrating tone that made the walls shiver.
Name: Varnyx
Rank: C-Class
Ability: Echo Pulse—distorts perception, bends sound into weaponized confusion.
Sable raised her blade.
"Echo, sync. Juno, anchor. We end this before it sings."
The battle was brutal. Varnyx pulsed waves of distortion, making the squad see doubles, hear screams from nowhere. Juno's anchor glyph flickered. Echo's rig shorted. But Sable moved like she was born in the glitch—her blade slicing through illusion.
She whispered the seal phrase again.
> "Petals fall. Thorns remain."
Varnyx collapsed. Its body pixelated, then folded into a containment shard. Juno sealed it with a blood-coded glyph.
Above ground, Unit 3 rerouted trains, calmed civilians, and erased footage. The surface remained peaceful. But something deeper stirred.
---
Elsewhere…
A boy sat alone in a laundromat, watching the spin cycle. His name was Zayio. He didn't know he was a titan. Not yet. But the hum in his ears matched Varnyx's final pulse.
And somewhere in the Dead Rose archives, a forgotten file blinked back to life:
> S-Class Detected. Identity: Unknown. Status: Walking.
Suddenly, the