Rain slicked the alleyways of Grayson District, painting the neon-lit streets in colors that bled like oil across water. Kaiya, Jericho, Mira, and Eli moved swiftly through the shadows, guided by coordinates only Eli could decipher.
"Why are we heading here?" Jericho asked, adjusting the strap of his gear-laden bag.
Eli's eyes glowed faintly as the thread in his mind pulsed.
> Target Identified: Vega Morn. Location: Grayson District, Sector Delta.
"She's one of us," he replied. "But she doesn't know it yet."
---
Inside a dim, ivy-choked greenhouse nestled between collapsing warehouses, Vega Morn knelt among rare bioluminescent plants. Her pale fingers traced the edge of a glowing vine, lips moving in silent calculation.
She was brilliant—bio-engineer, expelled prodigy, and fugitive from her own family. She hadn't seen another human in two months.
Until the glass above shattered.
Vega rolled instinctively, grabbing a spore grenade and tossing it toward the broken ceiling. It detonated in a harmless mist—but the movement above was deliberate, calm.
Mira dropped in first.
"No harm," she said. "We're not here to fight."
Vega stood slowly, eyes narrowed.
"Who are you?"
Then Eli entered.
"The ones you've been dreaming of."
---
Minutes later, with tensions cooled and introductions made, Vega listened as Kaiya laid out their goal: to find others like them, gifted or cursed with connection to the Threads—energy pathways buried in the Earth long before history began recording truth.
"I've seen them," Vega whispered, her voice shaky for the first time. "Not just in sleep. When I touch the soil beneath these plants, I feel... music. Patterns. Like the Earth is humming in code."
Eli nodded. "That's the Thread singing back."
Kaiya stepped forward, pulling a scanner from her bag. "Let me check your—"
Suddenly, the entire greenhouse trembled.
> System Alert: Interference Detected
Entity Approaching: Codename—Red Thorn
Jericho's weapon was in his hand before the alert ended.
From outside, heels clicked softly against the cracked pavement.
Then she entered—the Woman in Red. Long crimson coat, high black boots, and a face both beautiful and eerily cold. Her eyes were obsidian—reflective, not of light, but of memory.
"So," she said, smiling faintly. "This is where the Threads converge tonight."
Eli stepped forward. "Who are you?"
"I'm the archivist of forgotten powers," she said. "And you're children playing in the ruins of gods."
Vega backed up. "I've seen her before. In dreams. She stood at the end of a road of fire."
"Good," the woman said. "Then you know what comes next."
---
She raised a hand. The air cracked. Thread energy burst in wild arcs—pure power that didn't follow physics. Mira threw up a barrier. Jericho countered with a kinetic pulse.
Kaiya leapt behind cover, dragging Vega with her.
Eli, eyes glowing, channeled his focus.
> Thread Connection: Locked.
Initiating Defense: Sync with Kaiya's Stabilizer Core.
From Kaiya's wrist, a protective wave surged forward, momentarily halting the woman's attack.
The Woman in Red tilted her head. "Impressive. Improvised, but... promising."
Then she vanished—no smoke, no theatrics—just disappeared, as if the world forgot she was ever there.
---
The team stood in the silence she left behind.
"What... was that?" Vega asked, voice trembling.
"Our future," Eli said. "And maybe our destruction."
Kaiya exhaled, her mind spinning.
"She wanted to see what we could do."
Jericho tightened his fists. "And next time, she won't walk away."
---
> System Update: Team Expansion Complete
New Member: Vega Morn
Thread Activity Increasing Across Sectors.
New Objective: Track the Crimson Presence. Prevent Thread Collapse.
As dawn broke, Kaiya looked at her growing team. Five souls pulled together by fate, hunted by something ancient and vast.
There was no turning back.
Only forward—into the unraveling future.