Chapter 8: City of the Hunted
The announcement hits Nocturne at 6:00 a.m.
Every screen. Every phone. Every police terminal.
WANTED: KAEL VOSS
Former Special Operations
Armed. Extremely Dangerous.
Suspected Terrorist Activities.
A reward blinks beneath the name.
Seven figures.
Dead or alive.
People stare at the screens.
Some in fear.
Some in disbelief.
Some… in quiet understanding.
In the alleys, someone spray-paints a symbol over the poster.
A mask.
THE HUNT BEGINS
Sirens don't stop.
Police checkpoints rise overnight. Drones patrol rooftops. Private security contractors flood the streets wearing Crowe's logo disguised as "city protection."
Kael moves through the chaos unseen.
Mask on.
Hood up.
Every shadow could be a sniper now.
Iris watches the broadcast from a hidden basement, hands shaking—not from fear, but anger.
"They turned you into the villain," she says.
Kael reloads calmly.
"They always do."
She pulls up encrypted files.
"I traced the order. The kill order on your family."
Kael pauses.
"Who?"
Iris swallows.
"Project Black Crown."
The name hangs heavy.
"A joint task force," she continues. "Off-the-books. Police. Military. Corporations."
"And Crowe?" Kael asks.
"Just the butcher they hired."
Kael's jaw tightens.
"So this ends at the top."
ELIAS THORN CHOOSES
At the precinct, Elias watches officers cheer the manhunt.
He feels sick.
His phone vibrates again.
UNKNOWN:
Bring Voss in. Or we expose you.
A video file opens.
Elias watches himself—years ago—signing off on a classified operation.
Black Crown.
Civilian casualties covered up.
His hands tremble.
"You sons of—"
He deletes the message.
Grabs his coat.
If the city wants a monster…
He'll decide which one survives.
CROWE MAKES HIS MOVE
Darius Crowe sits comfortably, watching chaos unfold.
"Flush him out," he says. "Burn his shelters. Kill anyone who helps him."
An aide hesitates.
"The journalist—"
"Especially her."
Crowe smiles.
"Heroes fall harder when they protect something."
AMBUSH
Night.
Iris leaves the hideout—wrong move.
A van screeches to a halt.
Masked men grab her.
She screams once.
Then silence.
Kael feels it.
That instinct.
That pull in his chest.
His comm crackles—Crowe's voice, smooth and amused.
"Come to the old courthouse," Crowe says. "Or she dies screaming."
The line goes dead.
Kael doesn't hesitate.
He loads every weapon he has.
Tonight, Nocturne bleeds.
THE COURTHOUSE
Floodlights cut through the darkness.
Armed men everywhere.
Iris is tied to a chair at the center of the courtyard, bruised but defiant.
Crowe steps forward, clapping slowly.
"There he is," Crowe says. "The city's favorite ghost."
Kael emerges from the shadows.
Gunfire erupts.
He moves like death given form.
Headshots. Disarms. Broken bones.
Bodies fall.
Then—
A sniper round hits Kael in the side.
He stumbles.
Crowe laughs.
"You think you're special? You're just another asset that didn't stay obedient."
Kael rises anyway.
Bleeding.
Unstoppable.
THE TURN
Police sirens roar.
But they aren't here for Kael.
Elias Thorn steps into the light, gun raised—not at Kael.
At Crowe.
"Drop it," Elias says.
Crowe's smile fades for the first time.
"You chose wrong."
Elias fires.
Chaos explodes.
Kael frees Iris.
Crowe escapes into the smoke—but not before locking eyes with Kael.
"This isn't over," Crowe snarls.
Kael answers quietly.
"It ends with you."
AFTERMATH
The courthouse burns.
News feeds explode.
Half the city calls Kael a criminal.
The other half calls him something else.
A Vigilante.
Elias disappears from the force.
Iris uploads everything—Black Crown, Crowe, the lies.
And somewhere in the dark, powerful people start panicking.
Kael watches the city from a rooftop.
The war is no longer hidden.
And he's no longer alone.
END OF CHAPTER 8