Private correspondence between SynTec employees regarding the development of the Silvereye suit.

Look, we're not trying to cram this thing with all the functionality it could accommodate. It's to sell an image. Silvereye. That means it needs to show some skin, okay? This is a job directly from Mr. Ulrich, signed off by the mayor and approved by the manager. That means we have to make this thing both sexy and useful -- iconic. I know we're not the same team that develops some of the tech NeoCore uses, but look at Archangel, for example—the perfect blend of form and function.

Point of it all, make sure it shows off her silhouette, add some vanity wings that don't do shit besides give her a little floatiness and a few holoshield projectors. It'll still be better than 99% of the stuff the police usually use. But don't skip out on the materials; the last thing the cameras need to see is her bleeding.

October 13th

11:30 PM

Diana

The boat rocked gently under my feet; it was a sizable cargo ferry that ran on an electric motor with some Warp-conversion process. I could feel the storm coursing through the metal, charging the motors and turning them into a propelling movement that drew us ever closer to the dock connected to the First Precinct's territory. It wasn't quick enough.

Could I power those motors to work quicker? Maybe even tug the boat forward? The physics of that means escaped me, and it ached knowing I was sitting with no one to talk to. The bitter cold breeze swept in the stench of the river's pollutants, the pungent odour of decay and trash permeating my senses.

It was almost nostalgic for that month of homelessness on the streets. It was only nostalgic because of how it ended, with me being pulled into the heat of Yvette's embrace. I now had only cold metal to rest my head on; in fact, it was almost laughable how much time I spent around metal and training my control over it.

You'd almost think I was a Shard Op'. The irony might be that Ripley had a better social life than I was; he'd his girlfriend, or girlfriends, call me up to get him out. Diamante was there as a reliable ally, and Missy was there for him as a tutor.

I only had Dryder, and he was… questionable. Only there when he needed me.

No, not even me. When he needed Lillian Rose, that was the alias we created for our undercover stints on Soul Killer: black hair, red eyes, dull grey skin, and fangs in my mouth. She was meant to be everything I wasn't. We hadn't made much progress; we'd tracked down that Soul Killer was using clones of Dr. Kaisel and communicating with gangs—even a few corporates.

I'd always been the one who kept us from rushing in, but maybe it was time to change that. Then I stared at the blood on my clothes and wondered if that line had already been crossed.

Investigator Tomas… He was that bastard who kicked me for helping an injured man without his permission during The Toxin Club raid. Such violence was considered expected of the police; we were feared and hated by many for good reasons.

I thought I was different.

Was I different? When I felt such satisfaction in hurting those who hurt me?

Just the sentiment of it spurred vigour from my warp-burnt body. At first, I'd deluded myself into thinking that I was someone who wanted to save people the same way I'd been saved. Then, Anabelle Grazhe got me to admit that I was the kind of person who just wanted to prove that they were better than everyone else.

I was egoistic. I still am. I didn't think it was wrong for me to believe that I was better than so many people in this City.

More thoughtful, capable, and powerful. And yet, I wanted justice. Some fucking semblances of it.

I'd get shit done.

That was what I'd thought during Soul Killer… but maybe the more straightforward truth was that I was the one who retaliated against everyone who thought they could use me or others. That seemed right… that seemed morally right to a certain extent.

Yet even now, I questioned it. I was a wildfire burning in all directions, harming both those close to me and those far away. This city, my father, wanted me to be a symbol of something… the ads on the Pleasure Lanes spoke of me as an inspiring figure.

I laughed bitterly at that notion.

Olivia, what had I told her? That I'd be a hero all the time for her?

I was a fucking hypocrite.

I was no hero. I was only just a monster willing to fight the right war…

And I'd hunt all the other monsters if I needed to.

———

The boat settled into a quiet pier with barely any guards, and we were still a way from Maiden's location. Only a single, many-wheeled truck was in view, large and waiting for a container to be loaded behind it. A figure I'd only seen once four months ago sat inside it. She was youthful, and her hair was still short and blonde as the last time, but the impressive bulk of both her organic and cybernetic features lent her an intimidating look.

Emizren, or Missy. A former Neocore Inquisitor and someone capable of making contact with a Herald, such as Ruby. Missy clicked some controls on the truck, and a crane moved. Electromagnetic force I could only seek to one day match lifted the container of sedated victims and carefully aligned them onto the truck before Missy got out to manually secure it and check up on them.

At that point, I got off the ferry and strolled quietly towards Missy, who met me with a warm smile. "It's been a while, Diana. You've made quite the name for yourself lately."

"Maybe so." I dryly responded, taking ample time to ensure the container was safe and that those inside were still securely fastened to the walls. "Maiden can help them?"

Missy took a quiet second for herself to answer. "Yeah."

"Then let's not waste time." I got into the passenger seat, resting my head against the glass window. Missy didn't say a word to me for most of the ride, and the world blurred past me: city lights blending into one continuous stroke and people moving behind and away from me.

They left, but I remained. What was the point of a life like that?

Rain began to thunder down on the city, slightly acidic, and the battering droplets shrouded the path ahead.

"Glad it's raining and not snowing. I'll need to do more maintenance on my arms then." Missy made idle chat.

"Antifreeze doesn't work?" I wasn't an expert on Shardware.

"Not for me. I've got extra stuff to take care of in my arms." She said with a hint of something.

That something became apparent when a dull cast of my senses detected an… oddity in her. She had two streams of Warp Energy blending into one: a fainter one, which I just barely detected, traversing her nervous system, and the more vigorous physical pulsation that was powerfully strumming through her blood and flesh.

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Missy was a Dual Adapter… and powerful at that. Most Adapters had a thick overlap of warp energy around them, like a field wrapping around them and radiating waves. Missy's aura was thicker; in terms of strength, it was magnitudes above and shifted intricately according to her body.

As if it were intertwined with her in the physical world.

Missy was an evolved human. A Tier IV. Despite all that, her signature was… Bronze?

"A Dual Adapter… and a Neocore Enforcer, but you're Bronze?" I let out in disbelief.

"That's confusing for everyone, yeah." She smirked. "There's a reason I didn't care about your Gold, nor Ripley's. Sure, a single whiff of it could have sent me all the way to a high Silver-Grade, but what's the point?"

I squinted. "The point?"

"Of that endless climb…" Missy sighed, her eyes reflecting exhaustion as my senses became more keenly aware of the dark circles under them. "Outpacing the lives of those around you and seeking power that only alienates you from humanity. For my entire life, I've studied humans: their behavior and reactions. I've lived long, got plenty of stars on my belt, and left too many flowers on too many graves. In the end… when you die, you're a memory. That's how it used to be, back in the Old World. Now, when you die, you're a resource, people will kill for what's in your skull or heart. Your Implants."

"That's why you're Bronze? To prevent others from hunting you?"

"No. It's only made them hunt me more, they think I'm weak because of it." She laughed incredulously. "I've proved them wrong so many times. Silvers, Golds… even Titaniums, they've come after me, and they're lucky if I let them tell the tale. Truth is, you kinda remind me of myself back when I was younger. Heart full of gold and wanting to do right, believing you have a gift that merits you to take responsibility for it."

"I don't need you to lecture me." I sighed.

"It's introspection, I'm thinking about myself, not you." She said calmly without any bitterness sent my way. "Then I made one mistake after another, found myself in stupid beliefs over this century, all in an attempt to fix what I'd broken. When in reality, I had to stop blaming myself. We're led to believe that it's not the world that's shitty, it's our outlook on it. That's horseshit. The world's corrupt, people kill and steal for power and we're all victims to it. Yet we're told that we're the reasons why things are so shitty, that it's those at the bottom who don't do enough."

Her voice took a sarcastic tone. "Practice mindfulness, change your diet, write what you're grateful for every morning. Meanwhile, your neighbor's just beaten their spouse to death. Someone living on the streets grew so desperate they killed their pet just so they wouldn't go hungry another day. Your cousin committed suicide out of a debt that never had any chance in paying back."

I sat quietly.

"All around us, shitty leaders are doing shitty things for profit. But we're the problem. We're the ones not doing enough; not saving electricity, not budgeting properly, not healthy enough. You wouldn't have to do crime if you just got a real job. Yet, half the electricity goes to produce warmachines, half the budget is stolen by our politicians, all our food is mass-produced to be addictive, and our shitty corporate job consumes half our day on desks. If we're even allowed to have the education and degrees to get that far. We are not the problem. This city is. The people who run it. The Founders who stuff their products into our lives. The Uncaged who take desperation and strangle it for their benefit."

"So then how do we solve it?"

"I wish I had the moral answer to that." Missy said, shame radiating through the vibrations leaving her throat. "But even after a century of life, all I can think of is more war, more bloodshed, more death. To rip out the old and install the new, to hope the 'new' doesn't become like the 'old' again. In the grand scheme of things, maybe we can never create a perfect world that lasts forever…"

She took a deep breath. "But if I can create a perfect moment in time, then that's proof enough that such a thing can be. For that moment, I'd let it be my last. I'd let myself be filled with hope in others to preserve it, to let it continue… because that's what I want to believe in."

"You're optimistic." I drew breath out of me.

"It isn't optimism… it's just belief." She let a weary smile grow on her. "You've never been one to believe in anything, right?"

"No." I said easily. "Beliefs can be proven false."

"Belief is even when it's proven false, you still hold true to it. It's a peculiar and somewhat absurd notion, but it works. Sometimes, all you need to do is lie to yourself until you get shit done." She reached for the small, refrigerated compartment between us, pulling out a vial indicated as… Silver-Graded Mutation Boosters meant for Tier II Adapters.

She rolled it onto my lap. "Take it."

I eyed her distrustfully. "Why?"

"You just fought Diamante; bet he put you through a good workout." This ache in your body is when you'll grow the most; just be mindful of the Warp Burns. She smirked. And… because I do believe in you. And Ripley."

"To stop The Uncaged?" I lifted the vial, observing its glowing contents.

"No." Missy smiled. "To change how things work."

That word drew on me. And so, I drew my sleeve up, faint scars of bullet wounds already fading away — and stuck the vial in. It burned like the sun was breathing on me, and I let that warmth slice into my genome.

———

[G] Mutation: Soul Resonance is now at 16% Development. Additional Meta-Mutation has occurred, increasing sensitivity to BUG Adapters.

[G] Mutation: Electrosomatic Organism is now at 21% Development. Additional Meta-Mutation has occurred; increased rate of healing.

[G] Mutation: Limited Morphology Manipulation is now at 23% Development. Additional Meta-Mutation has occurred; increased ability to alter the body beyond human physiology.

[G] Mutation: Electromagnetic Domain is now at 18% Development. Additional Meta-Mutation has occurred; increased range of electricity conduction.

[G] Mutation: Kinetic-Thermal Catalyst is now at 12% Development. Additional Meta-Mutation has occurred; increased threshold of kinetic absorption.

[G] Mutation: Inorganic Metabolism is now at 19% Development. Additional Meta-Mutation has occurred; increased passive production of electrogenic metabolism.

Integrity is now Bronze V

Energy is now Bronze IV

It was only when the reports came in that I realized I'd fallen asleep, my forehead leaving a sweaty imprint on the window. My body still ached, and my breath was cold, but I felt power sedimenting into my flesh.

"Good, you're up. I'm just about to roll in. I'll be leaving soon after." Missy turned the wheel as the truck curved into the rear of a fairly large shelter.

"You're not staying?" I heaved out with a weak breath.

"Maiden doesn't like me very much, for reasons." She left unexplained.

I didn't question the criminal drama between them. As we parked in the cargo depot, I noticed a few metal scraps lying about. Then I saw Ripley and Maiden. Maiden was a fairly short woman with wrinkled dark skin and blue eyes piercing at Missy's direction, whereas Ripley couldn't decide which of us to look at.

He was messy. Black hair tossed over his orange-gray eyes, and there were faint bloodstains all across the lab coat worn over the black tactical armour I'd only seen in blurry photos of Dreadwire. A singular metal arachnid limb dragged across the ground behind him, seemingly broken and limp.

Getting out of the truck, I rolled my hand over the Iron BUG I'd taken from Steel Tygers, it had some of Soul Killer's Titanium Mutagen in it. Ripley could read the Implant… maybe figure out its secrets. That was just a hope, a fleeting hope. One that I might have to take.

He waved his hand up, and I wasn't sure how to respond. He seemed… carefree despite how much the last few months should have been on us. My fingers twitched, but I kept them down as I approached Ripley and Maiden.

My voice itched in my throat, an unsure tone as the result. "Is there a shower here I can use?"

Maiden scanned my dirty body up and down, nodding. "Not the cleanest, but head upstairs. Brat, take her. I'll transfer the bodies myself."

"I'll stay and-"

"It's a miracle you handling them hasn't gotten them infected yet, take a shower as well. A good one." She ordered Ripley with a sharp tongue, and he sighed in compliance. I got the sense it was less about handling the bodies, and more about handling Missy.

Ripley eyed the tension between Missy and Maiden too, and let out a hasty series of nods that indicated he decided he did not want to be trapped in that mess. "Yeah, I'll take Diana. Starlight's already made a map of this place anyway."

He swiftly turned around and began walking to a nearby door. The scraping noise of his limp arachnid limb seemed to have alerted him, and he sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as he trailed down a corridor. "Actually, uh, just hold on a moment. Probably better I remove this before I become the next rumor for the non-criminal folk living up there."

"There are criminals living in this place?" I turned my head to that.

"You… might want to shut off your police-brain for today." He darted his eyes around, almost as though to search for anything that could earn an arrest on this place.

I sighed. "If I wanted to arrest you, Donovick, I would have left you to rot in that jail cell."

He chuckled. "Guess I would have had to take a page from your book and break myself out."

My eyes hardened at that, but then… I shrugged as I walked past him. "I'd have you back in that cell in an hour."

"Ripley, maybe." He smiled. "Dreadwire's a little more difficult to keep on a leash."

"Dreadwire, huh, a shame I've never met him." I gave an amused look as I turned back. "I bet we'd…"

And then I remembered what I said about Dreadwire during fuck, marry, kill. Stammering to silence, I let him take the lead as he entered the workshop.

I held my breath when I saw all of what was inside.

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