Rain speckled the fractured skylights of the Undercore. Thunder growled through the sublevels like a distant war drum. Shane stood at the launch bay's edge, shadows coiling around him like ink in water. The armor, Spectra Nova, stood ready.
It wasn't just metal anymore. It breathed with him, bled with him. Reacted before his thoughts finished forming. As the final cascade of neural fusion blinked green across the HUD, a breathless stillness took hold.
Neural link: Stable. Core resonance: Optimal.
Behind him, Aegix shifted in his panther form, eyes glowing cobalt, tail flicking in anticipation. He was more than Shane's companion. He was his tether to meaning.
The call came, not a whisper, but a rupture.
The emergency feed tore through the Undercore like lightning: a Parallax RX-77 freighter had spiraled off its mag-rail track in Sector 12. High-density freight. No control. No recovery. Its descent was a comet dragging flame across the lower spires.
Civilian air traffic was gridlocked. Defense drones delayed. Impact: ninety seconds.
"Trajectory intersects with the refugee quarter", Aegix reported, voice a low rumble. "Estimated casualties, two hundred minimum."
Shane didn't hesitate.
"Armor protocol. Now."
The chamber hissed. Strands of reactive alloy uncoiled like metallic roots, spidering across his limbs. Core plates locked over chest and spine. Neural relays slithered along his skull. Every connection sparked with pain, and purpose.
Memories flooded him as the final piece, the helmet descended over his face. Rhane's steady hand on his shoulder. Liora's laugh in the rain. Aegix's first breath.
Now it all converged.
"Spectra Core integration stable", Aegix confirmed. "Do not overcharge."
"I remember", Shane murmured.
Then he launched.
The city became wind and velocity. Shane cut through underlayers, plasma streaking from his armor's edge. Aegix followed in stealth vector, tailing from below, a silver-blue shadow.
Sector 12 loomed, a skyline etched in chaos. The RX-77 was a flaming titan, arcing toward collapse. Civilians scrambled. Klaxons wailed. Tower lights blinked red. Drones were still fifteen seconds out.
Shane had ten.
He dove.
Kinetic dampeners howled. His grav-mesh palms ignited, syncing with the freighter's velocity. He hit hard, hard enough to crater the outer hull and almost black out. His spine screamed from the force. He stayed conscious by sheer will.
"Stabilizers offline", Aegix said.
"I'll be the stabilizer".
He drove one arm deep into the vessel, anchoring. With the other, he lit his core thrusters, bleeding raw force through his legs. The ship resisted, trembling, shrieking metal. But it slowed.
The ground surged up.
He roared.
Everything flared, his body, his mind, his ghosts. The freighter hit, crumpling in a thunderous quake that shook five blocks.
But it didn't explode.
A protective field flared, a shimmer of blue shielding the nearby shelters. Shane stood amid the wreckage, armor cracked, one arm trembling. Dust curled around him like a veil.
From the edge of debris, a small girl stepped forward. Her clothes were soot-streaked. Her eyes were wide.
"Are you... a hero?" she asked.
Shane looked down.
For a moment, just one, he almost smiled.
"I'm here to help", he said.
The cheer began as a murmur. Then it grew. People clapped. Drones hovered. Phones captured the moment. Spectra Nova stood framed by fire and dawnlight, salvation forged in shadow.
Aegix landed beside him, silent. Proud.
But then the world turned.
The HUD blinked, then spiked red.
Warning: Core feedback detected.
Shane's vision wavered. His back arched. The Spectra Core screamed. A jagged crack of volatile energy tore from his chest, slicing through the wreckage, and striking a nearby tower support.
It collapsed.
Screams echoed. Civilians scattered. The cheering turned to panic.
"Containment field!" Aegix shouted, deploying a shield to hold the crowd back.
Shane stumbled. More arcs lashed out from his body, frantic, wild. His voice tried to rise, but the helmet's modulator stuttered. Static. Nothing.
A drone exploded.
The girl was pulled away by her father. Others ran. The crowd fractured. Cameras caught everything.
His silhouette, once a beacon, now flickered with fear.
Back in the Undercore, hours later, Shane sat with the armor peeled halfway off. His hands shook. Emergency feeds played on loop. Every screen, every net, asked the same thing:
WHO IS THE SPECTRA THREAT?
ROGUE TECH HERO OR PARALLAX FAILURE?
MAN OR MONSTER?
Shane buried his face in his hands.
Beside him, Aegix stood silent. Protective.
"I lost them", Shane whispered. "I lost myself."
"No", Aegix said. "You weren't wrong. Just... not yet ready."
Outside, the city churned in judgment. Parallax denied involvement. Resistance chatter frayed. The world had seen him, truly seen him, and recoiled.
And deep in a vault buried beneath Parallax's inner citadel, cryo-lock hissed.
A figure stepped forward, its silhouette cloaked in liquid shadow. Red light gleamed from its mask.
Ghast Prime had awakened.
But this, this fracture, it was not the end.
It was the ignition.
The world would never unsee Spectra Nova again.