/~Kyra~/
Nova City’s streets never slept. Even when the artificial sun dipped behind the chromium walls and the sky flickered between system resets, its alleys pulsed with heat, gears, tension, and half-whispered threats.
And I was watching him.
He didn’t see . Of course, he didn’t. No one ever sees the huntress until the blade’s at their throat.
From my vantage point behind the rusted scaffolding of an old vendor stall, I saw him cross the gate. The boy of rage and ruin himself.
Contrario Williams.
"Ouuuu, how ballsy of you to have kept waiting sweetheart" I said, grabbing my knife.
He looked leaner, aner.....his aura was different. This was not the sa kid we knew in Irish valley underground years back. The swagger wasn’t as loud as it used to be, but sothing feral was beneath that hood. The way he walked was slow and careful. But he was not scared. He was more like soone who’s already bled and survived it and was on the verge of knowing his worth.
"Well, we wouldn’t want that now, he needs to stay under !"
Stray’s eyes flicked in scan mode. I could tell. Those subtle blinks, the occasional glimr from his core line running up Contrario’s back.....only soone who knew them would notice.
And I knew them, I basically watched this child take his first step.
I stalked him through the crowd with the grace of silence, my cloak ghosting against walls, my breath in sync with Nova City’s pulse. I watched as he passed the rebuild zone, the one Vance nearly razed to the ground and stopped. I saw the way his jaw tightened. I could feel the mories flash behind his eyes.
Contrario wasn’t just haunted. He was hunting himself, and he hadn’t realised it yet.
He moved again.
And I followed.
He didn’t even glance back as I shadowed him through the market, the alleys, and finally toward the Obsidian Tower.
That was when I struck.
I stepped out of the shadow and brushed against his shoulder, letting my fingers glide just enough to draw a reaction.
He spun fast, fluid, alert, instinct honed by trauma and dropped into a defensive pose that made smirk.
"Faster than before...." I thought to myself.
"Well, well..." I purred, "I’ve been expecting you, Conny."
His eyes narrowed. "Kyra."
I waited for more. Anger, insult, a threat maybe.
But all he did was sigh. "Listen, whatever it is this ti, let it slide please. I’m not here for you."
My smile thinned. "ouch, that’s Cold."
He adjusted his coat and looked past . "I need to talk to your brother."
Straight to business. Always deflecting. Always guarded. Even the night at Booty hole, if I hadn’t laced his drink, he might’ve not danced with .
"Of course you do," I said softly, stepping closer until I could sll the static hum in his cloak and the iron scent on his skin. "But first......"
I raised my hand and gently pressed a finger to his lips. He stiffened, eyes locking with mine, but I held firm.
"Shhh," I whispered. "Save that silver tongue for soone who wants to hear it."
He didn’t resist when I took his wrist and tugged him into the alley beside us, slipping through a concealed door built into the junk wall. The interior was dark and warm, flickering neon reflecting off steel panels. It slled of gun oil, lted copper, and sothing sweet beneath it...my incense burner had been on too long again.
I led him up a narrow stairwell and into the top floor suite. Our space. Mine and Axel’s.
As soon as the door slid open, I heard the unmistakable sound of a data-pad flicking through surveillance feeds, and a voice like a coil spring unwind.
"Well, if it isn’t the prodigal madman himself. NPC baby, the one avatar wonder, Contrario."
Contrario froze.
I scanned his eyes for anger as Axel taunted him but to my surprise he stood there cold and emotionless.
Axel was seated on the windowsill, his legs crossed, tablet glowing in his hand as he paused the footage of Contrario lifting that old bag from under the Forge. On the screen, I saw it too the map. I didn’t know what it ant, but Axel clearly did.
Because that grin he wore? It wasn’t amusent. It was one of a hunter who had his prey in sight!
It was obsession.
"You missed so much you had to co back to Nova city to find ?" Axel asked, setting the pad aside and rising to his feet.
Contrario’s stance shifted, just slightly. His fingers twitched toward his hip where his command module was synced. I could almost hear Stray charging up in standby, waiting to be unleashed.
"I didn’t co here for jokes," Contrario said.
"Well apparently you did not," Axel murmured, stepping forward. "You ca here because you finally saw it. The map."
His smile twisted into sothing more dangerous, more electric. "And now you realize...we*were right all along."
Silence wrapped the room. Contrario’s shoulders tensed. My fingers itched toward the hidden blade in my boot.
"You set up my kidnap didn’t you?" Contrario asked with a fiery look in his eyes.
"Ouuu gay boy, we wouldn’t want to start throwing heavy accusations around now would we?" Axel said as he ca up close to Contrario.
"What is on that map?" Contrario asked, looking Axel dead in the eye.
"I bet you thought it was sothing your father left you didn’t you now boy?" Axel said with a cold grin on his face.
Contrario clenched his jaw, I could tell he was trying to suppress his anger. I had to do sothing, "Axel just wanted you to co here by your own free will, now ladies we don’t need to get on our nerves."
"Yes, I did so digging into you," Axel said, his grin widening as he folded his arms and leaned back against the tallic pillar behind him. "The one avatar wonder. The boy legend with a broken system and too much anger to manage. Turns out your dad was an irresponsible scientist that worked here in Nova City, long before I even found my avatars."
I saw it the mont the words landed. Contrario didn’t flinch. He didn’t blink. But sothing in his eyes snapped.
Like glass under too much pressure.
"Don’t talk about him like you knew him," Contrario said low, voice flat but hot with a buried edge. "You don’t get to say his na, let alone spit on his grave."
"Ouuuu?" Axel arched a brow, pacing forward slowly. "But it’s true, isn’t it? A genius who ran simulations into forbidden bio-syncs, worked on an avatar-class rger without proper clearance, and then banished after the Great Nova Hack. That’s the guy you’re defending? You think Irish Valley files don’t leak when you dig deep enough?"
"Shut up."
Contrario’s voice was louder now. I could hear Stray powering beneath his skin, the soft whir of tension in his posture. The kind of anger that begged for an excuse to explode.
"You think you know anything about why he did what he did? He tried to build sothing that could protect people. Sothing different. He gave up everything for it. Including his own safety. So don’t stand there with your smug face and pretend you’re better than him."
Axel laughed darkly, turning to face him fully. "I am better than him. Because I’m finishing what he was too much of a coward to see through, life. He’s dead and I am alive you bitch!"
"Enough!" I snapped, stepping between them before Contrario lunged. My heart was racing, and not in the good way. "Both of you need to shut up before you tear this entire place apart."
They didn’t move. But they listened.
"Did I just feel threatened by Contrario’s presence? ?" I thought to myself as I looked at Contrario.
I took a deep breath. Slid my hand to Contrario’s chest, pressing it flat over Stray’s core panel, feeling the heat of the nano-circuits humming under his skin.
"We didn’t bring you here to poke your past," I said quietly. "We brought you here because there’s sothing real on the table. Sothing that could change everything."
Contrario didn’t speak, but his breathing slowed.
Axel stepped back and pulled a projection disc from his belt. With a flick, a schematic lit the air in blue fire. It hovered above us. It’s sharp lines, rotating grids, notes in half-finished code.
"This," he said, his voice low with a scientist’s reverence, "is a fragnt of the Rift-Class Avatar Schematic....."
Contrario’s eye lit up as he heard that, he wanted to say sothing but I saw him swallow and just kept observing as Axel continued.
"Lost tech from the pre-Ascension Era. Not just evolution.....transcendence. For you, Stray isn’t just a basic unit with good instincts anymore. With this, he could evolve into sothing we’ve never seen. Fully sentient, modular-class interface, bonded attack capabilities....The whole fucking legend."
I watched Contrario’s face change. Wonder flickered behind the walls of his caution. But then....it vanished. Replaced by that old soldier steel.
"What’s the catch?"
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