The Neon Spine District hit us like a punch of color and chaos.
Neon signs flickered above narrow alleys, rain steaming off hot metal.
Crowds shoved past each other, shadows long and dangerous.
Rave led Kai through the crush.
Lira moved beside me, breathing fast, scanning everything.
"We're too exposed," she whispered. "Calder will lock down this whole sector."
She wasn't wrong.
Every sound felt sharper.
Every footstep closer.
Every neon reflection too bright.
And inside my chest—
Heat.
Not normal heat.
A spike.
The Sun-Core pulsed violently, fractures along my ribs lighting up like molten cracks in a furnace.
Lira noticed instantly.
"K-17."
Her voice dropped low.
"Not now. Don't you start."
"I'm trying—"
Another pulse hit.
Harder.
My vision blurred.
The neon signs warped into streaks of red and gold.
My shadow stretched behind me—
Then shifted.
Just a fraction.
Just enough.
Rave froze.
"K-17… your shadow—"
"I KNOW."
Kai squeaked, hiding behind her.
"Bro's about to go full monster—"
Lira spun on me, grabbed my chest plating with both hands, fingers digging into the heated cracks.
Her face inches from mine.
"K-17. Listen to me."
Her voice cut through the noise like a blade.
"You do NOT lose control here."
The Beast inside me disagreed.
It pushed again.
A growl crawled up my throat—not human, not mechanical.
The neon lights flickered.
People around us stepped back instinctively, sensing something wrong.
Lira didn't move.
Her forehead touched mine.
"Stay. With. Me."
Her breath hit my lips.
Her hands burned against my plating.
The heat inside me snapped—
a sharp, dangerous click like a trigger being pulled.
The Beast Spike.
My arm convulsed.
Plating shifted.
Bone? Metal? Something twisted beneath the skin.
"MOVE!" Lira shouted.
Rave grabbed Kai and dragged him down the alley.
I staggered after them, clutching my ribs.
"Don't stop!" Lira yelled over her shoulder. "If you stop, it will tear out of you!"
We sprinted.
Through steam clouds.
Through neon haze.
Through crowds that scattered at the sight of me glowing like a walking furnace.
My shadow twitched again.
Longer.
Sharper.
Too many limbs.
Kai screamed, "Bro—your SHADOW has ARMS—"
Lira cut him off.
"Not helping, Kai!"
Gunshots cracked behind us.
Dominion patrols.
They poured into the alley, rifles raised.
A soldier shouted:
"Calder wants him ALIVE! Aim for the companions!"
Lira cursed.
"Rave! Cover!"
Rave vaulted up a stack of crates and ambushed the nearest soldier, slamming a knee into his jaw before driving her blade through the gap in his helmet.
Kai ducked behind a vending machine that sparked from stray shots.
"K-K-17!" he yelled. "We gotta go NOW!"
I tried to move faster.
The Beast wouldn't let me.
Heat exploded under my skin.
Vision pulsed red.
Pulse thundered.
The shadow stretched forward in front of me like a beast about to pounce.
Lira didn't wait.
She ran straight at me.
Grabbed my face with both hands.
Forced my gaze on hers.
"HEY!" she screamed over the gunfire.
"LOOK AT ME!"
I did.
Even through the blur.
Through the heat.
Through the pain.
Her eyes cut through everything.
Fear.
Fire.
Anger.
Concern deeper than she'd ever admit.
"You stay with me," she said, voice cracking.
"I'm not losing you to that thing."
I breathed.
Hard.
Once.
Twice.
The Beast resisted.
Clawed.
Pushed.
But the Sun-Core dimmed just enough for me to move.
Lira grabbed my arm.
"Run with us," she whispered.
"Not ahead of us. Not behind us. With us."
I nodded, jaw clenched.
"Go," I growled.
And we ran.
The district exploded into chaos.
Vendors dove for cover.
Holograms glitched from stray shock-blasts.
Rain sprayed from broken pipes.
Rave kicked open a maintenance door.
"This way!"
We barreled down a slick metal staircase.
Dominion soldiers swarmed the upper catwalks.
"Visual on the anomaly!"
"Sector lock in progress!"
"He's heading into the Spine's lower platforms!"
Lira cursed.
"We're funneled. This is bad."
Kai tripped on a loose cable.
I grabbed him with my glowing arm—
NOT crushing him,
NOT burning him—
just holding him steady.
He blinked.
"T-thanks… bro."
"Move," I said.
Far gentler than it sounded.
We sprinted across a suspended walkway—
But halfway across—
A Dominion shock drone rose from below.
Weapons primed.
Red eye glowing.
Lira skid to a stop.
"DOWN!"
A blast fired.
I shoved Rave and Kai aside.
The shockwave hit me square in the chest.
Pain tore through the fractures—
but I held.
Smoke curled off my plating.
The Beast inside me roared.
Not out loud.
Inside my skull.
Inside my ribs.
Inside my shadow.
Lira grabbed my wrist again.
"Hold it. HOLD IT."
I did.
Barely.
Rave kicked the drone off the platform.
Kai hacked a locked door panel with trembling fingers.
"I—I got it—just a sec—just a sec—"
The panel blinked green.
Door opened.
"GO!" Lira shouted.
We crashed through—
Just as Dominion reinforcements swarmed the walkway behind us.
We didn't stop running until the door slammed shut and Kai sealed it with a ripped control wire.
Breathing hard.
Sweat.
Steam.
Heat.
Rave checked the hallway ahead.
"All clear."
Kai collapsed onto a crate, panting.
"Are—are we alive?"
"For now," Lira said.
Then she turned to me.
Hard.
"You lost control back there."
"I kept it."
"No you didn't," she said, stepping close.
"I saw your shadow. I saw your ribs. I saw your eyes."
My jaw tightened.
She wasn't wrong.
Rave looked between us.
"What now?"
Before I could answer—
A faint sound echoed from the catwalk above us.
Shk—shk—shk.
Metal scraping metal.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Hungry.
Lira's face went pale.
Kai whispered, voice trembling:
"Bro… that's Calder, isn't it?"
I nodded.
The Hunter had arrived in the Spine.
The Beast inside me stirred in response—
"Let me meet him."
Not yet.
Not now.
But soon.