"Sir."
A soft but firm voice cut through the room.
A woman in a dark uniform stepped inside and gave a sharp salute. Her posture was straight and precise
President Vale's fingers twitched against the table. The cooling nodes embedded beneath his suit hummed softly, useless against the thin line of sweat sliding down his chin.
"Report," he said.
The word came out like a whisper
She lowered her hand. "Mr. President… as of now, all FAI leads regarding Councilman Greens have gone cold. No confirmed identity. No traceable pattern." A pause. "However, we recovered something else."
Vale's chair scraped violently as he leaned forward, growling.
"That's not what I asked," he snapped. His fist struck the table again "What did you find about my daughter?"
The room stiffened.
The aide didn't flinch. Her name badge read LUNA. She had stood in rooms like this before. Watched men break quietly.
"Sir," she said carefully, "your daughter was last seen at 22:14. Surveillance footage was fragmented, but we managed to reconstruct part of the incident."
She tapped the tablet in her hand. A shaky holographic projection bloomed between them. A flash of movement. A struggle caught between frames.
Vale's breath hitched.
"A masked individual," Luna continued. "Male. Heterochromia." Her jaw tightened. "Gold and purple."
The air seemed to drain from the room.
"A Night Demon," she finished.
Vale's hand flew to his chest. His heartbeat thundered against his ribs, loud enough he was sure she could hear it. For a moment, the room blurred. The table. The screens. The world narrowing to a single name he refused to say out loud.
Clove.
Not a politician's daughter. Not an FAI agent. Just his child.
The most hunted man in the nation had taken her.
"Sir," Luna said softly, urgency breaking through her discipline, "we're mobilizing every unit..."
Vale lifted a hand.
She stopped instantly.
He stared at the frozen image, his reflection faintly visible in the hologram. Older. Tired. Powerless.
The same way he had looked years ago.
"Seal this floor," he said at last. His voice was low now. Steady in a way that scared even him. "No press. No ministers. No leaks."
"Yes, sir."
"Pull every file we have on Night Demon activity. Patterns. Targets. Survivors." His jaw clenched. "I don't care how buried they are."
Luna hesitated. "Sir… if this is the same individual—"
"I know!," Vale cut in.
He pushed back from the table and stood. The room felt suddenly too small.
"They don't take people without reason," he said quietly. "And they don't make mistakes."
Luna watched him, concern flickering across her face. "What are your orders, Mr. President?"
Vale looked at the darkened screen. At the frozen blur where his daughter disappeared.
"Find him," he said.
"And if you can't," his eyes hardened, "then find someone who can." He paused. "Anyone!"
Luna saluted and walked outside
For a few steps, her pace remained crisp. Professional. The kind expected of someone trusted with state secrets and a president's breaking heart.
Then the corner swallowed her.
Her shoulders loosened.
The tight line of her mouth curved upward, slow and deliberate, like a blade being drawn halfway from its sheath.
She reached up and brushed two fingers against the small comm embedded behind her ear.
A soft click.
"Phase two has begun," she said lightly, her voice stripped of all urgency. "He took the bait exactly as expected."
She passed beneath a security camera. It tracked her for half a second… then conveniently shifted away.
Luna smiled wider.
"They're mobilizing everything. Files. Units." A quiet breath escaped her, something close to a laugh. "He's desperate."
She stepped into an empty corridor, lights dimming as she moved, the building recognizing her clearance without question.
"It's all going as you planned, darling."
A pause.
Static whispered faintly through the line.
Luna's eyes gleamed.
"Yes," she murmured. "He believes his daughter was taken by a monster."
She stopped walking.
"And now," she added softly, "he's about to unleash one."
"Good job" Vorden's voice came through the comm, clearer now
Beep.
The transmission was cut.
Far away, Vorden sat in his office facing a blank wall.
Smoke rolled lazily from his mouth as he exhaled, the pipe glowing faintly between his fingers.
He enjoyed this part.
The calm before things broke. The moment where the world still believed it had choices.
He tapped a control on the arm of his chair.
vmmm...
The chair rotated instantly
Vorden now faced three figures standing in the center of the chamber.
No.
Not men.
Hybrids.
The first looked almost human at a glance. Broad shoulders. Thick arms stretching the fabric of his uniform until the seams complained. Veins traced slow, deliberate paths along his forearms, pulsing once, like something inside him was breathing. His eyes were dull, disciplined, waiting for orders he'd never question.
The second was leaner. His shadow didn't quite match his movements, lagging a fraction behind like it had its own thoughts. When he shifted his weight, the air around him rippled, subtle and wrong, as if space itself disliked his presence.
The third.....
smiled.
He revealed his perfect creepy set of Tobacco-stained teeth.
His pupils flickered, splitting briefly before settling again, his eye colors rearranging themselves
Vorden studied them in silence.
Successful results of his enhanced human project after countless failures.
"These are the pieces," he said at last with a calm voice. "While the president panics, we act!"
A pause
"And acting..." He smiled "Is just what you were made for"
He stood up, boots touching the floor with a soft click.
"The world doesn't need saving," he continued. "It needs correction."
The men straightened, attention snapping fully onto him.
Vorden's smile returned, slow and certain.
"Go," he said.
A pause.
Then, with quiet satisfaction,
"Go hunt your targets."
FWWWOOOOOOOO
Immediately he spoke, Jet thrusters appeared on the hands of each of them.
Their eyes turned cybernetic blue.
Streams of data rolled through their eyes
STTTTCHWWWWZZZZ
Their heads snapped up in unison. "Target confirmed"
Vorden nodded
"Do not fail me."