Noble District, Area 1, Spire Prime.
Around 2pm in the morning.
In a city that seemed cut off from reality, a skyscraper rose like a black monolith through layers of neon fog, its upper reaches vanishing into low-hanging clouds electrified by pink and cyan advertisements.
Above, the sky roared with distant neon storms.
On the skyscraper, thousands of windows formed a vertical constellation, each one a cell of light in the city's sleepless spine.
Magnetic traffic lanes spiraled across its midsection as vehicles whistled past like insects with jet engines. Countless shining holo-billboards crawled up the building's sides, selling augmented dreams to the masses far below.
It was night in Spire Prime, and it was raining.
Rain slid down the glass of the skyscraper in luminous streaks, catching reflections of the city's glow and dragging them downward as if the tower itself was bleeding color into the streets.
