The cold, metallic grip around Siddharth's throat tightened. He could feel the vibration of the countdown pulsating through his very bones.
[00:00:05]
[00:00:04]
His vision began to blur. The figure in the shadows, wearing his father's old leather jacket, didn't move. Its eyes—if they were eyes—glowed with a faint, rhythmic red pulse.
"Who... are... you?" Siddharth choked out, his fingers desperately clawing at the arm that held him.
[00:00:02]
[00:00:01]
[00:00:00]
Silence.
Siddharth closed his eyes, waiting for the explosion that would turn him into digital dust. But instead of heat and fire, a wave of absolute freezing cold washed over him.
[Ding! Heart-Link Stabilized.]
[Counter-Hack Successful.]
[Protocol: 'Ghost Father' Initiated.]
Suddenly, the pressure on his throat vanished. Siddharth collapsed to the floor, gasping for air. Above him, the figure stepped into the moonlight filtering through the broken window.
It wasn't a man. It was a machine—a hyper-realistic android, its face a perfect, unmoving replica of a younger Bhanu Pratap.
"Identification confirmed," the android spoke, its voice no longer glitchy, but calm and fatherly. "I am Unit-0, the Guardian of your legacy. My apologies, Siddharth. The 'Order' was tracking your pulse. I had to simulate your death to cut their connection."
Siddharth stared at the machine, his heart still racing. "My father... he built you?"
"He built me to wait for this day," the android replied, pointing to Siddharth's wrist. The green timer was gone, replaced by a glowing blue tattoo of a circuit board. "The Loyalty System is now unlocked. You are no longer just a user. You are the Admin."
Outside, the silence of Alwar was shattered by the sound of heavy engines. 'The Order' wasn't retreating anymore. They were surrounding the building with 'Sentinel Drones'—flying machines equipped with thermal scanners.
[Alert! 50 Tactical Drones detected.]
[Status: Lockdown initiated.]
[System Suggestion: Assimilate or Destroy?]
"They think they've trapped me," Siddharth whispered, standing up. He felt a strange power surging through his fingertips. He looked at the android. "Can you fight?"
"I am a shield, Siddharth," the android said, its hand transforming into a glowing energy blade. "But you... you are the sword."
Siddharth looked at the hundreds of red laser dots dancing on his walls. He didn't feel afraid anymore. He reached out his hand towards the window, as if grasping the air itself.
"System," Siddharth commanded, his voice echoing with authority. "Assimilate the drones. Show them who really owns the sky."
In an instant, every drone outside stopped mid-air. Their red lights turned a brilliant, loyal blue.
[Command Received.]
[New Fleet Acquired: 50 Sentinels.]
[Target: The Order's Regional Base.]
"Let's go, Dad," Siddharth said to the machine. "We have a world to reclaim."
But as they stepped towards the door, a final message flashed on his HUD, one that made him stop in his tracks.
[Unknown Variable Detected: Your father's signature is active... 2000 miles away. Location: The Forbidden Zone.]The cold, metallic grip around Siddharth's throat tightened, cutting off his oxygen. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the digital agony screaming inside his head. The countdown clock in his vision was no longer just a display—it felt like a ticking bomb wired directly into his nervous system.
[00:00:05]
[00:00:04]
Siddharth's heart thrashed against his ribs. Every second felt like an eternity. He looked at the shadow standing before him—the figure wearing the worn-out leather jacket that still smelled faintly of his father's old workshop. He wanted to scream, to ask if his father had finally come back for him, but only a dry rasp escaped his throat.
[00:00:02]
[00:00:01]
[00:00:00]
Silence.
For a heartbeat, the world stopped. Siddharth braced for the end, expecting his brain to fry or his heart to stop. But instead, a wave of absolute, bone-chilling cold washed over him. It wasn't the cold of death, but the cold efficiency of a machine.
[Ding! Heart-Link Stabilized.]
[Safety Protocol: 'Void Inheritance' Confirmed.]
[Counter-Hack Successful. All External Traces Deleted.]
Suddenly, the pressure on his throat vanished. Siddharth collapsed to the dusty floor, gasping, his lungs burning as they pulled in air. The mysterious figure stepped into the pale moonlight filtering through the cracked window.
Siddharth's eyes widened. It wasn't a man. The moonlight hit the side of its face, revealing a seam of silver carbon-fiber beneath the skin. It was a hyper-realistic android, its face an exact, frozen-in-time replica of a younger Bhanu Pratap.
"Identification confirmed," the android spoke. Its voice was no longer the distorted glitch from before. It was deep, calm, and hauntingly familiar. "I am Unit-0, the Guardian of the Pratap Legacy. My apologies, Siddharth. The 'Order' had locked onto your neural frequency. I had to simulate your biological death to sever their connection. It was the only way to hide you from their satellites."
Siddharth stared at the machine, his hands trembling. "You... you look just like him. Did he build you?"
"He built me to wait for this exact moment," Unit-0 replied, its metallic eyes pulsing with a soft blue light. He pointed to Siddharth's left wrist. The terrifying green countdown was gone. In its place was a glowing blue tattoo of a complex circuit board that seemed to move under his skin. "The Loyalty System is no longer in 'Observation Mode.' It has been fully unlocked. You are no longer just a user wandering in the dark, Siddharth. You are the Administrator of the Void."
Before Siddharth could process the weight of those words, a low, rhythmic thumping shook the walls of the small room.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Siddharth crawled to the window and looked out. His blood ran cold. The streets of Alwar were crawling with 'The Order.' They had brought in 'Sentinel Drones'—deadly, spider-like flying machines equipped with thermal scanners and high-intensity lasers. Red beams began to dance across the walls of his room like hungry ghosts.
[Alert! Tactical Threat Level: High.]
[Enemy Forces: 50 Sentinel Drones | 12 Tactical Suits.]
[Scanning Terrain... User is surrounded.]
[System Query: Will the Admin choose 'Stealth' or 'Dominance'?]
Siddharth felt a strange heat rising from the blue tattoo on his wrist, spreading through his arm and into his chest. He didn't feel like the scared boy who had been hiding for years. He felt powerful. He felt... angry.
"They took everything from us," Siddharth whispered, his eyes flashing with neon-blue data streams. "They hunted my father like an animal. They think they can do the same to me?"
He looked at Unit-0. "Can you fight?"
The android's right hand hissed and shifted, the synthetic skin peeling back to reveal a glowing energy blade that hummed with enough power to cut through a tank. "I am your shield, Siddharth. I was programmed to protect you until my last circuit fries. But according to the System's laws... the sword must be wielded by the King."
Siddharth turned back to the window. He didn't reach for a gun. Instead, he reached out his hand towards the sky, his fingers splayed as if he were grabbing the invisible radio waves that filled the air.
"System," Siddharth commanded, his voice vibrating with a power that made the glass in the room shatter. "Overwrite their protocols. I am the Admin. These drones don't belong to 'The Order' anymore. They belong to me."
[Command Received.]
[Overriding Sentinel Encryption... 10%... 40%... 100%!]
[Success! New Fleet Acquired: 50 Sentinels.]
[Warning: The Order's Regional Base has detected the hijack. Heavy reinforcements incoming.]
Outside, the red lights on the drones suddenly flickered and turned a brilliant, loyal blue. In perfect unison, the drones turned their weapons away from Siddharth's window and aimed them at the terrified soldiers on the ground.
"What is this? The drones aren't responding!" a soldier screamed below, just before a blue laser bolt struck the ground at his feet.
Siddharth watched the chaos with a cold smile—a smile that was the spitting image of Bhanu Pratap's.
"Let's go, Unit-0," Siddharth said, stepping over the window sill. "If they want a war, I'll give them one they can't reboot from."
But as he prepared to leap down, a final, high-priority notification pinged in his brain, stopping him cold.
[Unknown Variable Detected!]
[Global Scan Result: An encrypted signature matching 'Bhanu Pratap' has just gone active... 2000 miles away.]
[Location: The Forbidden Zone (Old Delhi Ruins).]
Siddharth's breath hitched. His father wasn't just a memory. He was out there. And he was calling.