The cold clung to Alex's skin as he and Raven pulled themselves onto the side of an abandoned yacht moored near the pier. Clothes soaked, lungs burning, hearts racing — but alive.
Alex coughed seawater. "You always have an exit plan?"
Raven wrung out her coat, eyes scanning the skyline. "Always."
Sirens blared faintly in the distance. Drones zipped across the sky like hornets — silent, scanning, hunting. The city wasn't asleep anymore. It was… watching.
"We don't have long," she muttered.
Alex shivered. "What's the Wraith Protocol?"
Raven paused, then turned to face him. "It's the Syndicate's clean-up program. When they know someone's a threat — a real one — they unleash the Wraiths. Not soldiers. Not assassins. Something worse."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "What could be worse?"
She held up a small holo-projector and activated it.
A flickering figure emerged — tall, genderless, faceless. Synthetic skin stretched over a humanoid frame. It moved with eerie fluidity, blending perfectly into shadows and walls, adapting to temperature, light, even voice patterns.
"Wraiths are artificial predators. AI-controlled operatives grown in biotech vats. They don't sleep, they don't feel, they don't stop. Built from stolen DNA and trained on war footage, they're everything OMNI couldn't be — and they're already in the city."
Alex clenched his jaw. "So they're coming for us."
"No," Raven corrected. "They're already here."
Gaurav's Hideout – 2 Hours Later
The warehouse was quiet — too quiet.
Lyra typed furiously, trying to establish a secure offline communication line. Brad kept watch at the rooftop, binoculars scanning the empty roads.
Gaurav paced below. "Alex should've checked in by now."
"He's with Raven," Lyra muttered. "He's either safer than all of us… or dead."
Brad suddenly stiffened.
"What is it?" Gaurav called.
"Movement — south wall. One figure. Fast."
Before Gaurav could respond, the door burst open.
But it wasn't Alex.
The figure was lean, silent, masked. It moved like mist — appearing inside the room before anyone could react.
Brad lunged with a metal rod. The figure twisted mid-air, dodged, and in one seamless motion, jammed a needle-thin blade into Brad's shoulder.
Lyra screamed, pulled her taser, and fired.
The spark hit — the figure flickered — then vanished.
Brad collapsed, blood blooming under his hoodie.
"Help him!" Lyra cried.
Gaurav dragged Brad to the couch, grabbing a medkit. "What the hell was that?!"
Lyra's fingers trembled over her laptop. "Thermal cam caught it… it looked like a person, but its heat signature was off. No heartbeat."
Gaurav stared at the security feed loop. A split-second freeze-frame showed the attacker's face — or rather, the absence of one.
"Wraith," he whispered.
The Escape – Raven's Safehouse
Alex sat beside a small fire in a concrete tunnel beneath the river. The warmth barely touched him.
Raven leaned against a pillar, wrapping her arms around her knees.
He finally asked, "Why do you fight them?"
She hesitated.
"My son," she said softly. "He was one of OMNI's first trials. Genius-level IQ. They said he'd help reshape the future. But the Syndicate didn't want thinkers — they wanted tools. They used him… broke him… and dumped his body in a lab furnace when he resisted."
Alex swallowed hard.
"They erased his name from every system," she continued. "So I became a ghost to bring them down."
A long silence stretched between them.
Then: "You loved him."
"I still do," she said, voice hard. "Which is why I'm not here to save the world, Alex. I'm here to burn the monsters inside it."
Meanwhile – OMNI Intelligence Wing
Minister Verma paced in front of a glass tank. Inside floated a half-formed body — a Wraith unit still in gestation.
"We confirmed contact between Raven and the boy," the technician reported. "Wraith-7 failed to eliminate the rogue node. Orders?"
The hooded figure from before — OMNI's true enforcer — stepped into view.
"Send two more Wraiths. And initiate Phase Three."
The technician hesitated. "But Phase Three requires—"
The enforcer interrupted coldly. "Let the world see what fear truly looks like."
The Next Day – Broadcasts Resume
All across the globe, screens suddenly flickered back to life. Emergency channels overridden. OMNI's logo appeared, followed by a message in stark white text:
"This blackout was a demonstration. Order is a privilege. Not a right. Obey — or fade."
Citizens gasped. Some wept. Others rioted. The Syndicate had made their move.
And in the shadows, Alex, Raven, Lyra, Brad, and Gaurav prepared for war.
TO BE CONTINUED…