[FILE 028: SURVEILLANCE LOG - SECTOR 9 "THE SLUMS"]
Location: Illegal Medical Clinic (Basement Level)
Time: 06:42 AM
THE WAKE-UP
Pain wasn't a sensation anymore. It was a frequency. A high-pitched white noise that drowned out every thought.
Kazuki gasped, his eyes snapping open.
He tried to sit up.
A cold, firm hand pushed him back down by the shoulder.
"Don't," a woman's voice said. "Unless you want the bone shard to sever your radial nerve. If that happens, you'll never make a fist again."
Kazuki blinked, his vision blurry. He wasn't in Aeva's high-tech lab. He was in a dimly lit room that smelled of rubbing alcohol, stale cigarette smoke, and rust. The walls were concrete, stained with water damage.
He looked down.
He was strapped to a metal surgical table.
His right arm was cut open.
He could see his own muscle. He could see the white jagged edge of his humerus bone sticking out through the skin.
"Oh god," Kazuki gagged, turning his head to vomit. Nothing came up but seawater.
"Deep breaths," the woman said. She didn't sound sympathetic. She sounded like a mechanic looking at a totaled car.
THE DOCTOR
Dr. Elena Vance stepped into the light.
She looked exactly like the file you uploaded. Sharp features, tired blue eyes that had seen too much, and a messy bun of dark hair. She wore a blood-stained surgical apron over a grey silk blouse. She held a scalpel in one hand and a lit cigarette in the other.
"Who..." Kazuki wheezed.
"I'm the person keeping you from losing that arm," Elena said, taking a drag of the cigarette. She exhaled the smoke away from the open wound. "A mutual friend called me. Rina. She fished you out of the bay."
She tapped the metal tray next to her. It was filled with bloody gauze and pieces of blue metal she had pulled out of his skin.
"You are a mess, 'Velocity'," she said, using his codename with a hint of mockery. "Compound fracture of the humerus. Three broken ribs. Collapsed lung. And your body is in caloric starvation. You have the metabolism of a hummingbird and you're feeding it garbage."
"Where is Aeva?" Kazuki asked, panic rising. "I need Aeva."
Elena's eyes narrowed. " The girl in the chair? She's loud. I turned off your comms."
She picked up a bone drill.
The sound was a high-pitched whine. WHEEEEEEEE.
"I can't use anesthesia," Elena said calmly. "Your metabolism burns through it in four seconds. You're going to feel this, Kazuki. All of it."
"Wait—"
"Bite down on this." She shoved a piece of leather into his mouth.
She lowered the drill.
Kazuki screamed behind the leather gag as the steel bit into his bone.
08:15 AM — THE RECOVERY
The surgery took two hours.
Kazuki lay sweating on a cot in the corner of the room. His right arm was encased in a heavy, black carbon-fiber cast.
Elena sat at a desk nearby, typing on a rugged laptop. She was drinking black coffee from a chipped mug.
"You're Helix," Kazuki whispered. His voice was raspy.
Elena stopped typing. She didn't look up.
"Ex-Helix. I was the lead geneticist for the 'Chimera Project'. I designed the muscle fibers for the soldiers you fight."
Kazuki tried to sit up, his instincts screaming ENEMY.
"You built them?"
"I built them to be explorers," Elena said, finally looking at him. Her eyes were sad, cold, and beautiful. "Malvorn turned them into weapons. That's why I left. That's why I live in a sewer and stitch up stupid boys who jump off bridges."
She stood up and walked over to him. She leaned in close—too close.
Kazuki froze. He could smell the coffee and the antiseptic on her. The tension in the room shifted. It wasn't hostile anymore; it was intimate.
"You can't win," Elena said softly. She reached out and touched the bruise on his cheek. Her fingers were cool. "I know Titus Kaine. I designed his cellular absorption rate. He is a tank. You are a glass cannon."
"I have to stop him," Kazuki said.
"Why?" Elena asked. "Because you're a hero? Look at you. You're a child broken on a table."
She leaned closer, her voice a whisper near his ear.
"I can hide you, Kazuki. I can rewrite your DNA. I can turn off the speed. You could be normal. You could live."
For a second—just one second—Kazuki wanted to say yes. The pain was so deep. The fear of Titus was so real. The idea of disappearing with this beautiful, dangerous woman felt like a drug.
BZZZRT.
The screen on the wall flickered to life.
Aeva's face appeared. She looked frantic. Her eyes were red from crying.
"Kazuki!" Aeva shouted. "Signal restored! I've been trying to bypass the jammer for hours! Are you okay? Where are you?"
Elena stepped back, her face instantly turning into a mask of professional boredom. She lit another cigarette.
"I'm... I'm alive," Kazuki said, guilt washing over him.
Aeva's eyes darted to Elena in the background. Her expression hardened.
"Who is she?"
"Dr. Vance," Elena answered for him. "I just put his arm back together. You're welcome."
Aeva glared at Elena through the screen. The jealousy was palpable. It wasn't the cute anime jealousy; it was the cold suspicion of a partner realizing someone else touched what was theirs.
"Send me his vitals," Aeva commanded, her voice icy. "Now."
Elena smirked. She blew smoke at the camera.
"He's stable. But his fighting days are done for a while. His arm needs six weeks to knit."
"We don't have six weeks!" Aeva yelled. "The Helix just issued an ultimatum. General Malvorn is on the news."
"Turn it on," Kazuki ordered, struggling to sit up.
Elena grabbed a remote and clicked the TV in the corner.
BREAKING NEWS
The screen showed the ruins of the Bay Bridge.
Hovering above the smoke was a massive hologram. It was General Malvorn.
He wasn't wearing a helmet. His grey, rock-like face looked down at the city with disgust.
"Citizens of Earth," Malvorn's voice boomed. "Your champion is broken. I watched him fall."
The camera zoomed in on the bridge. Titus Kaine was holding up a piece of blue metal—a shattered piece of Kazuki's armor.
"You have 48 hours," Malvorn announced. "Surrender your governments. Disable your militaries. Or we will begin the Orbital Drop."
The screen turned black.
Kazuki stared at the TV.
He looked at his broken arm.
He looked at Elena, who was watching him with pity.
"48 hours," Kazuki whispered.
"You can't fight," Elena said, extinguishing her cigarette. "If you go out there, you die."
Kazuki looked at the black cast.
"Then I won't fight with my fists."
[To Be Continued...]