Salvage Station: Poltergeist (Escape from Club Apophis, 47)

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STORYLINE:  The Safe Zone held its breath differently than the rest of the sewer labyrinth.

The air here carried no scent of rot or rust. It was simply absent, as if this pocket of stone existed slightly outside the world's normal processes. Sound moved with a sluggish hesitation. His own footsteps arrived a half-second late, leaving the cavern to decide whether to acknowledge his presence at all.

The 1929 Ford Coupe sat anchored in the center of the rock shelf. It was still smoking. 130 years had passed, and the vehicle had not yet finished crashing.

As Ghost explored the car’s mysterious Entropy Engine, wrenches and sprockets shifted positions whenever he turned his back. The antique radio clicked and hissed without a power source. Condensation dripped from the ceiling in tight, rhythmic patterns that sounded entirely too deliberate. The car's rounded headlights pulsed a sickly yellow, twice, then died.

Ghost registered every anomaly. He forced his hands to keep moving anyway. Distraction meant death. He had to stay focused on the immediate task: salvaging enough cursed energy to construct a bomb and rescue his pack.

What troubled him most was not the poltergeist. It was the vehicle's engine block. He had never seen technology like this. A few scattered fragments looked familiar. He could puzzle out others through context, but the liquid core remained completely baffling. This was not electricity. This was something engineered decades ahead of its time.

Driven by sheer frustration, he wiped grease from his gloves, climbed into the front cabin, and stared at the reclined, mummified nun. Leathered skin clung to her skull beneath the tattered black habit. He checked the glowing blue display on his wrist-mount, calculating his shrinking window of time.

He looked back at the driver's seat.

The nun's head was now pointed directly at him.

Ghost scrambled backward out of the vehicle. His heavy boots hit the mud with a wet slap.

The dashboard radio flared to life. Static hissed, sharp and biting. It grew louder by the second until a woman's whispered voice bled through the noise.

"Stop."

"Stop."

"Stop."

He paced the length of the rusted chassis, checking the countdown on his glove again.

"Stop."

"Stop."

"Stop."

Ghost slammed his heavy iron wrench down on the hood’s frame. A sharp clang echoed through the cavern. He aggressively tapped a command into his haloglove, projecting a single, blinding blue word into the dark.

SILENCE.

The static cut out instantly.

He turned back to the exposed machinery and carefully gripped a thick, braided wire.

His wrench lifted, then flew past his ear. The iron caught the edge of his collar and missed his temple by a fraction of an inch. His datapad lifted off a nearby supply crate, spinning in the dead air. The headlights flickered in a rapid, erratic strobe. Both car doors slammed open and shut in a violent, deafening mechanical frenzy.

Ghost marched to the rear trunk. He grabbed a thick canvas blanket, dragged it to the driver's side, and threw it completely over the mummy's head.

He did not expect that to work, but the frantic rattling stopped immediately.

He walked back to the front grille and leaned deep over the engine block.

The heavy steel hood slammed shut with the force of a guillotine. If his reflexes had been a fraction of a second slower, the metal would have crushed both his hands into paste.

He gripped the rusted lip and tried to force the hood back up. It remained locked tight, resisting his leverage entirely. He braced his shoulder underneath and shoved upward. Nothing moved.

Ghost let out a long, ragged breath. Defeated by the broken physics of the cavern, he collapsed into the backseat, and stared out the shattered window at the rushing black sewer water. He could feel every precious, unavailable minute slipping away into the current.

His gaze drifted back to the front seat, fixing on the blanket-covered silhouette.

The blanket-covered nun’s head was still turned his direction.

He reached forward and yanked the canvas away.

He quickly tapped a message into his haloglove. Glowing neon text projected onto the humid air.

I AM GHOST. I AM MUTE. BUSY. MUST RESCUE FRIENDS. NEED BOMB.

Absolute silence settled over the leather cabin. Then, a faint, garbled whisper emerged from the copper speaker mesh on the dashboard.

"Sophia. That was my name."

The static hissed. "I built this engine. Stop."

He tapped a single, demanding response.

WHY.

"Entropy Explosion. Time rift. …Or worse."

The sound of the rushing subterranean river mingled with the low electrical hum of the haloglove.

Ghost steadied his breathing and typed again.

HOW EXIST IN SAFE ZONE?

"I am not evil."

HELP ME.

Ghost manipulated his wrist-mount. He projected a saved image of his college friends, displaying Minjo, Plague, Echo, Lisa, Kyra, and Kyle huddled together in the dirt of The Pen. He typed below the image.

CAME TO RESCUE FRIEND. WAS KIDNAPPED.

He updated the projection, pulling up a stolen surveillance feed of Jihoon. The boy lay comatose in the center of the Museum of Catastrophes. Bright lines of violet Zone energy snaked into his pale flesh. His chest rose and fell in perfect synchronization with each cursed energy pulse.

The holographic light glitched, casting fragmented purple shadows across the ancient wooden dashboard and the hollow eye sockets of the nun.

"Recent?" the radio buzzed, the voice trembling with static emotion.

He tapped.

TODAY.

He watched the hologram, and tried to imagine Sophia’s point of view, watching the violet lines Entrophy power pulsing into a young man’s chest. The rhythm of it. Her creation used for an evil purpose.

A single drop of condensation struck the metal roof of the car. Then another.

The headlights slowly dimmed to a dull, amber glow. The car’s Entropy Engine gave one final, ragged spurt, then went entirely cold.

Darkness swallowed the cavern. The only illumination came from the faint, passing trails of bioluminescent algae swirling in the distant water.

Ghost waited in the absolute dark. The roar of the rushing river sounded hollow in the engine's sudden absence.

Sophia did not speak.

Minutes ticked past.

With a soft rustle of dry fabric, the canvas blanket slowly slid from the mummy's shoulder. It pooled onto the rusted floorboards with a heavy thud.

The radio crackled. No voice followed.

He leaned forward, listening intently to the white noise. The static shifted, adopting the distinct, rhythmic cadence of human breathing

He understood, with sudden clarity, that the silence was not malfunction. It was grief.

He tapped his screen one last time, projecting a final plea into the blackness.

HELP ME SOPHIA. CEREMONY TOMORROW.

The metal frame shuddered. The engine hummed once. It was a low, resonant vibration, sounding exactly like a machine exhaling after holding its breath for nearly a century. The twin headlights flickered on, burning steady and brilliantly white, slicing through the cavern gloom.

With a sharp metallic click, the car hood popped open.

"Let us begin," the radio whispered.

...

On Him, Ghost:

Jumpsuit: Starlit Endeavor - Machina Jumpsuit Set [mesh](Salvage Station)(1985L)

Wristpad: Starlit Endeavor - Machina WristReader Wristpad[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)

Hair: Dura - B95-HAIR [mesh]

Headband: TRASH - Covenant Unrigged Headband [mesh]

Gloves: LANEVO - Silence Gloves, LegacyM, Fatpack [mesh]

Head: LeLUTKA - CAMDEN 4.0 [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

Setting:

Bootle: ISHIKU - La Mer Swing-Top Beer Bottle[mesh](Salvage Station)(480L)

Spooky Eyes: HAUNT - Little Void - Puddle[mesh](Salvage Station)(159L)

Radio: Starlit Endeavor -  Machina ChatterBox Radio[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)

Boombox: Starlit Endeavor -  Machina LoopCrate Boombox[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)

Datapad: Starlit Endeavor -  Machina OmniDeck Datapad[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)

Flask: Starlit Endeavor -  Machina Rations Flask[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)

Toolbox: Starlit Endeavor -  Machina Toolbox[mesh](Salvage Station)(650L)

Wrench: Starlit Endeavor -  Machina Wrench Gift[mesh](Salvage Station)(Gift)

Cannisters: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Cannisters [mesh](Salvage Station)(160L)

Oil: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Oil[mesh](Salvage Station)(100L)

Radio: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Radio [Dark][mesh](Salvage Station)(140L)

Corpse: ContraptioN - Wrapped Corpse [mesh]

Car: Dirty Rat - The Botched Job [mesh]

Setting: Dirty Rat - Sewer [mesh]

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

Cyber Fair / Salvage Station: Happy Birthday (Escape from Club Apophis, 46)

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STORYLINE:

"I'm sorry, Jihoon." 

Kyle's voice drifted through the darkness. "I never thought..."

Static swallowed the rest.

Still imprisoned within his own flesh, Jihoon lay motionless on the opulent bed of MasterGin's private residence. Kyle sat beside him, whispering a stumbling stream of apologies.

The sound made Jihoon's fractured consciousness glitch.

Then another voice cut through the static.

Kyle. Younger. Meaner.

“Get in there, you wuss!”

This moment. It was the one that changed his life. The reason he was barely alive.

He was hovering at the rusted iron edge of the Forbidden Zone. 

Then came the brutal, bruising shove to his spine into the Zone.

The city sounds bled away first. Traffic. Sirens. The electric thrum of Neu Seoul. One step past the rusted warning signs and all of it vanished.

The silence beyond the boundary felt toxic. It was not empty. It was waiting, holding its breath in the dark.

Jihoon scrambled backward, but Kyle already blocked the path. He stood with arms crossed, his heavy boots firmly planted on the safe asphalt.

“No more running away. You get your sorry ass to the center of the Zone and spend the night. Be a man for once!”

Deep within the ruin, a shadow slithered through the neon-tinted smog. Somewhere ahead, an old neon sign swung in a gust of wind. Its broken support chain rattled rapidly against the pole.

Chk-chk-chk-chk.

The sound bounced between the empty buildings.

Jihoon couldn't shake the feeling that something was warning him away. A violent shiver rattled his teeth.

“Come on, man. Let me out! This place is dangerous!” He rubbed his arms.

Kyle shook his head. "If you don't stay until dawn, I send this straight to Minjo." Kyle raised his halophone, the screen glowing with a cruel picture snapped from inside the boy’s locker room.

Hot shame flooded Jihoon's chest, burning the back of his throat. “But this place is toxic. It's an irradiated dead zone.”

“Bullshit,” Kyle huffed. “Bring me a coaster from that ruined club at the center. Prove you didn't just hide in the bushes.”

Jihoon lunged for the exit. Kyle barely flinched, shoving him backward into the dirt with a single, effortless strike. Jihoon’s bookish frame was no match for a security guard.

“You’ve got no dad in your life. So I’m gonna do it. I’m tired of watching you want to talk to Minjo and chickening out. Every day. The same god damned thing. Do it, and I’ll sweeten the deal. I'll give you 100,000 Won to finally take Minjo out for dinner.”

Jihoon turned around to look once more. Was it so bad? No one was here. And that’s a lot of money. Money he didn’t have.

“I don’t like this.”

“I don’t care. Do it.”

Jihoon walked carefully forward, watching for signs of danger.

Unseen things scuttled in the dark. Glowing eyes blinked from the shadows.

Then static.

Chk-chk-chk-chk.

Night had fallen. He was deeper inside the Zone.

In the distance, he heard a faint, deep throbbing beat.

Were there people living inside The Zone? Was that the nightclub?

He picked up his speed and raced towards it.

If nothing else, it was a safe place to spend the night.

Glitch.

Club Apophis rose above him like an Ancient Egyptian temple, pristine, sleek. But instead of being made of sandstone, it was obsidian with decorative elements of gold and pulsing lights.

He pushed the heavy doors open.

Every conversation died at once. Glasses froze halfway to painted lips. Laughter evaporated. A thousand perfect faces turned toward him. Watching. Waiting. Hungry.

He blinked. It was dark inside, hard to see.

“Umm… Uh.. Hello?”

He saw it then for the first time, a gigantic shadowy serpent.

It should have been a projection. A decorative effect. Ancient Egypt meets the cybernetic world.

It was looking right at him.

Its jaws parted slightly. Well, …as much as a snake could smile.

Yet Jihoon could have sworn the serpent recognized him.

He was hypnotized by its gaze, undulating code shimmering down its mighty coils. He wasn’t sure how long he stood staring at it before a tall blonde woman shoved him outside.

"Run."

Jihoon shook off the gaze of the serpent and looked at her. “What?”

"Run." She glanced toward the serpent. Fear flashed across her face. "Before it notices."

“Nonsense.” The most beautiful woman he had ever seen slid between them with grace of a ballet dancer. She shone in the dark, like a disco ball in a sparkling mini dress of small platinum plates. “The guest of honor just arrived. Do make yourself useful, darling, and serve the guests drinks.”

The dazzling lady hooked her arm around Jihoon’s, and waved the angry blonde away. Her smile arrived slowly. Like a knife being drawn from velvet.

This woman, so beautiful, was paying attention to him? He looked around to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. 

She laughed a deep throaty chuckle. Her smile made him feel like his legs would give out from under him. “Welcome to Club Apophis,” she purred like liquid velvet, guiding him inside. ”I’m the proprietor of this deliciously wicked establishment. You may call me MasterGin," she added, punctuating the statement with a playful wink of her long flirty eyelashes. “Now then, dear boy. What's your name? And what delicious bad decision brought you to my door tonight?"

Jihoon stared at her like a deer in headlights. Had she just hit on him? Was this some kind of high end brothel? Was that what Kyle meant by, “become a man?”

“Don’t keep me waiting, Dear Boy. You wouldn’t like me when I get hungry.”

He looked back at her, a sting rising in his cheeks. 

Wait.

That voice was too deep for a lady.

“Oh! Uh… Yoon,” he stuttered. “Yoon Jihoon.”

The smile fell off MasterGin’s face. He quickly guided them to a dark corner and whispered. “Do not tell anyone inside that name.” He pressed his long black fingernail against Jihoon's lips. “Your name is… Lathandro.”

The name struck somewhere deep inside him. Not familiar. Strange. Yet not entirely new.

MasterGin pulled back, and snapped his fingers.

A waiter in a sharp suit ran out with a silver serving tray. He presented Jihoon with a green glowing drink in an elaborate crystal carved glass. The ice cubes inside it glowed cyan and rolling fog fell down its sides.

“Happy Birthday, Lathandro,” MasterGin purred.

“Wait, what? How did you know it’s my birthday?”

MasterGin laughed, waving his elegant hand. “Drink first, talk later.”

The liquid tasted like lime, mint, raw electricity, and something he couldn't name. It fizzed all the way to his fingertips, then reverberated through his body like a struck bell.

The room tilted.

He looked up.

The club appeared different. 

He blinked. And rubbed his eyes. 

“Have Another!”

Glitch.

He was stumbling on his own feet. His legs too long. He was seeing over the top of other people.

Static.

Laughter.

A skipped frame.

Someone placing a crown on his head.

Glitch.  

A waiter handed him another glowing green drink.

“Why do you keep bringing me these? Why am I the only one drinking?”

His clothes had changed. He had no idea how. He was wearing tight black latex, but that couldn’t be his body. He didn’t have muscles like that. But he could feel it against his skin. Hear the way it squeaked.

Visual tear.

The floor swayed beneath him like the deck of a ship.

“Gotta pee. Gotta pee.”

He stumbled down a hallway, steadying himself with hands on the walls. But the texture of the walls changed. It felt like scales, like a massive snake was wrapping its thick coils around him.

Static.

Two girls were pulling each other’s hair. Fighting. “No! I get to dance with Lathandro!”

Skipped frame.

Girls on either side of him. His lap occupied. The room spinning.

Glitch.

Silver hair.

Icy blue eyes above him.

A smile full of broken glass.

White noise. 

Kissing on his neck.

A sharp pain. Warmth spreading downward. Then nothing.

Static.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he appeared in the VIP room. It was bright and white, unlike the dark interior of the club. There were balloons, and a sign that read Happy Birthday.

Opened gifts were scattered everywhere. Robots and toys. Everything he wanted but he could never have. Even the ridable Mecha Shark he wanted as a kid was there. It was better than waking up Christmas morning and finding a gift under the halo-tree.

Nobody had ever thrown him a birthday party before. The date of his birth was something to hide. 

For a moment, he forgot to be afraid.

“Jihoon” a small whisper behind his ear.

The voice arrived like sunlight through deep water. Soft. Familiar. Impossible.

Every hair on his body stood up.

“Flee this place immediately. It’s not too late. Go into the daylight.”

Jihoon’s mind was fuzzy. But that voice. He knew that voice.

“Mom?”

He blinked and spun around. “Mom?”

There was no one else in the room. He raced outside.

“Mom!"

A man nearby laughed, “Birthday boy wants his mommy.”

“Shut up! I know my mother’s voice, asshole. Have you seen her? She looks like me, about this tall. Yoon Sophia. She’s a mechanical engineer. Have you seen her?”

“Yeah, I know Sophia. But she disappeared two years ago.”

The tall blonde pushed through the crowd. For the first time all evening, genuine fear crossed her face. “Did you just say Sophia?”

The memory shattered.  

Outside the void, Kyle was still apologizing.

On him, Jihoon / Lathandro:

Jacket: YUEBIN - Dead Romance, Jacket, LegacyA, fatpack [mesh](Salvage Station)(1290L)

Collar: YUEBIN - Dead Romance,  Collar, LegacyA, fatpack [mesh](Salvage Station)(890L)

Pants: Muho - Neon, Pants, 3, LegacyM [mesh](CyberFair)(189L)

Shoes: SEKA's - E-Drop Boot, Legacy M, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(999L)

Hair: Exile Rory [mesh](390L)

Shine: ABYSSAL - Justice Cybertech With 3d Shine [applier][BOM](499L)

Skin: outernaked - #evox - juhoon skin [NF: natural] - nb [BOM]

Head, bloody tattoos: LeLUTKA - Kane Evolution [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

Setting:

Lettering: NI.JU - 3D Text & Retail Signage Pack - Distressed (Salvage Station)(240L)

Furniture, Room: Erfe & Design - Arog Livingroom Set, PG [mesh](CyberFair)(2,790L)

Shark: Moon Rabbit - MR~CYBER SHARK, shards [mesh](CyberFair)(500L)

Robot: Bee Designs Byte Buddies 08, gacha [mesh](CyberFair)(59L)

Arcade Game: Gecko Games - [GG] Whack a Gecko [mesh](CyberFair)(699L)

Robot: BONDI - MEOW BOT . Bubblegum [mesh](CyberFair)(245L)

Robot: HANII - Cyber Rich, CYBER CAT #RARE 2, gacha [mesh](CyberFair)(99L)

Planter: Cerridwen's Cauldron - [CC] SciFi Deluxe Planters [mesh](CyberFair)(649L)

Balloons: Apple Fall - Balloons - Pink & Gold [mesh]

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

 

Cyber Fair: A Voice in the Dark (Escape from Club Apophis, 45)

(click to enlarge)

STORYLINE:

Mission objective: Escape Club Apophis

Team: Jihoon / Lathandro
Location: The dreamscape in Jihoon’s mind

The void was a muffled, liquid grey. Gone were the familiar dreamscapes. It was like the void was constructing itself, trying to create an imposing building of obsidian but running out of instructions halfway through.

Outside, miles away, the real world hummed with frequencies he could barely grasp. The air of the real world tasted of clove smoke and static. He heard the rhythmic, heavy breathing of Kyle, standing guard. 

He focused on Kyle's breathing. Tried to reach toward it.

“Kyle,” his mind whispered. “I’m so cold.”

Kyle's breathing stopped. Just for a second.

The glass door swished open. He felt the bed give way as Kyle sat beside him. A blanket was pulled over him. It was warm and heavy. It smelled of earth and smoke, unmistakably Kyle.

Coincidence? Or had Kyle actually heard him?

He reached out with his mind again. “I’m hungry. So hungry.”

He heard something new. It sounded as if it were coming through a thick pane of soundproof glass. A mechanical hum, high-pitched and familiar. A reporter bot powering on.

Then Lisa Liemawr’s voice, sharp and suspicious: "Jihoon?"

A voice replied as “Jihoon.” But that wasn’t him, and that wasn’t his voice.

Jihoon went still in the void.

What’s happening out there?

He tried to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt like lead slabs. He tried to scream, but his lungs were filled with nothing but static. He was a prisoner in his own skin.

"Little Bookworm," a voice purred from the darkness. "Still wanting someone to save you? Pathetic."

Jihoon turned in the void. Lathandro was there, flickering like a holographic projection, looking utterly bored. He leaned against a glitching street light, looking like a male model in sleek latex from Monstrum Magazine. He sneered at his other half as he spun a digital dagger between his fingers.

"Leave me alone," Jihoon thought, his voice echoing in the hollow silence.

"I'll save you," Lathandro chuckled, a sound like glass breaking on silk. His dagger launched at Jihoon's head with deadly accuracy.

Jihoon held up a hand.

The dagger slammed into an invisible barrier. Violet lightning forked around Jihoon, spreading out from the point of impact. The blade melted and dripped from the barrier, sizzling as it struck the ground.

“You think I’m impressed?" Lathandro spat. "You think the richest blood was a gift? It's a trap. You sold yourself for power. The Ruler owns you now. You cannot disobey your master.”

Jihoon laughed softly. “You’re no better than me. I know your secret. I remember it all now. You only exist because you submitted to MasterGin. While I am what escaped before he could finish.”

A beat of silence. Lathandro's holographic form glitched for a second.

“So what. You’re still terrified. Admit it. The Opening of the Mouth is tomorrow."

“Stupid name. Like something a quack dentist would call an appointment.”

Lathandro leaned against the street light. The corner of his mouth curled upward. “On that point we agree."

“Progress. I’ll take it.”

The darkness softened around him. The void became something briefly familiar, Jihoon’s apartment. Scrappy 2’s ears perked up and his tail began to wag, before it disappeared again.

Jihoon smiled lightly, and looked toward the faint light in the distance of the "outside." He thought of the lecture halls at Jae Won. He thought of Minjo, the way she looked when she laughed, a memory so mundane and warm it felt like a holy relic compared to this surreal neon-lit hell.

"I just wanted to graduate," Jihoon whispered to the void. "I want to be... me."

“You died, idiot.” Lathandro’s voice dripped with mockery. “How many times do I need to say it? You can’t go back to hiding in a library, especially now that your body holds the blood of the most powerful vampire who ever lived. Honestly, I don’t know how we are the same person. You’re so stupid.”

"Easy for you to say."

"Because I'm the part of us that admits what we wanted."

Jihoon felt a sudden, sharp ache in his chest.

The dreamscape cracked open.

For a moment, the grey void vanished.

Throbbing music. Pulsing cyan lights. Perfume. Smoke. Laughter.

Club Apophis.

A thousand beautiful strangers turned toward him at once, wishing him a happy birthday.

The Lost one. The Chosen One. Prince. The words echoed through his memory.

MasterGin's hand on his shoulder. Warm. Proud. Possessive. The faint scent of clove and expensive cologne.

"What do you want for your birthday, dear boy?"

The answer came from both of them at the same time.

“I don't want to be small anymore." 

And also, “I want to be like you."

Both boys looked at each other.

Jihoon blinked. "Which was it?"

"Both?” Lathandro shrugged.

The memory shattered.

Fragments rained between them like a broken mirror, clinking like tiny bells.

Jihoon saw his face in the fragments, one side was his old nerdy self and other side the photogenic Lathandro.

"I was drunk," Jihoon blurted. "Drunk out of my mind. God knows what was in those glowing green drinks they kept feeding me.”

Lathandro laughed softly. "Cosmic Snake piss probably.”

Jihoon cringed.

Lathandro looked at him. For once, he was the one who looked sad. "Why did you run? Why did you flee Club Apophis?”

Jihoon took a moment to collect his thoughts before he replied. “Beauty. Thrills. Power. They're fun for a while. But when everything falls apart, you don't remember the parties. You remember who stayed."

“You mean love?" Lathandro laughed bitterly. "That's rich coming from you. You think only human love counts? You’re a monster too. At least I haven’t forgotten who is dragging us back from the grave.”

The boys sat silently, pondering it all.

“I wonder…,” Jihoon said quietly. “What happens if the ceremony fails?”

"It won’t.” Lathandro folded his arms confidently. “We will awaken, and the Age of Apophis will begin."

Jihoon's head jerked up. "What? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t look at me with those sad, confused puppy dog eyes. Isn't it obvious?" Lathandro leaned in, his face inches from Jihoon’s, his eyes burning with a dark, predatory fervor. “I’m gonna kill the Ruler of the Night.”

The void cracked.

A hairline fracture spreading across the grey like glass under pressure.

Then it sealed itself.

Jihoon stared as his thoughts scattered, leaving something deep and unnameable to stir inside him.

Lathandro grinned, a smile that was beautiful and entirely wrong. “Don’t look so shocked. The old order is failing. Look around. Monstrum is the last dying breath of an ancient tyrant’s attempt to hold onto power. He can barely understand our technologic world. When we wake up, everything The Ruler built is going to collapse. Everything he owns is going to be ours. Don't get in the way, Bookworm.”

Jihoon tried to look away, but Lathandro gripped his chin, forcing him to witness the ambition burning in his own reflection. He watched his own pupils dilate with something he didn't want to name.

Jihoon closed his eyes.

Outside, Kyle's breathing was steady.

He held onto that.

Cyber Fair has two shopping days left. If you haven't visited yet, head over this weekend.    ....At long last, Lathandro makes his debut in the year long series. His look is inspired by items at Cyber Fair, snakes, and a fractured personality.   ....From Abyssal is the wonderful Protocol catsuit for men with fantastic textures in PBR and Legacy. The flatpack includes all texture choices, for adjusting the all the material zones on the suit. Matching gear include the Protocol gloves and boots with the same texture options.  And there is a version of this suit for women too.   ...From Excy is a fun cyber hairclip. Is its receiving signals from the net or jacking the wearer into the Hive? Who knows. There are several texture options to choose from. It's unrigged for easy placement.   ...From TRK are the epic Dawnbringer Canon and Halo. I love the cartoon outline on the canons. You can resize them by touching for a popup menu, and use the texture hud to change the textures. Note: the Cannons do not have weapon scripts in them.  ....From Yuebin is the Fallen Saint leather jacket, drapped seductively from one shoulder, available at Lewd Station. (Meanwhile the normal fit version is at the Salvage Station, Dead Romance.) Both versions of the jacket come with a hud to switch out the textures.   ...From Zeroichi is the Crimson Watch Backdrop. You get a copy or mod version of the set. I used the mod version for this image, since I like to control the lighting.

On him, Lathandro:

Outfit: ABYSSAL - PROTOCOL gloves, catsuit, boots, Legacy M, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(2777L)

Hair Clip: Excy - X Clip - X-Metric [mesh](CyberFair)(219L)

Canons: TRK - Dawnbringer Canons [v2] [mesh](CyberFair)(499L)

Halo: TRK - Dawnbringer Halo [mesh](CyberFair)(499L)

Jacket: YUEBIN - Fallen Saint Jacket - [Legacy (m) + Ath] [mesh]

Hair: Aii - Necromantic Hair, HAIR HELL [mesh]

Pet: AxisMundi - SerpentHagoromo-BShort-LARGE [animesh]

Body snakes: HEIKE - Viper's Embrace -Arms, Legs(Legacy M) [mesh]

Claws: Static - Hexxus Symbiote {Black} Legacy M [mesh]

Skin: outernaked - #evox - juhoon skin [NF: natural] - wb

Head, bloody tattoos: LeLUTKA - Kane Evolution [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

Setting:
Setting: ZEROICHI - Crimson Watch Backdrop, mod [mesh](CyberFair)(560L)

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

 

Cyber Fair: The Scoop of the Century 1 (Escape from Club Apophis, 44)

(click to enlarge)

STORYLINE: 

Mission objective: Get Dirt on MasterGin. Destroy Monstrum. 

Team: Solo. Hexa Herald Investigative Journalist / Influencer.
Location: GIN AESTHETICA™ plastic surgery clinic. 

Lisa pressed her back against the cold, sterile wall of the VIP clinic corridor. Somewhere behind her, Kyra was lying on a crisp white bed with her chrome skull-plating unlatched. Diagnostic arrays jacked directly into her exposed mechanical brain, pulsing with cold data instead of life. No blood. Only the flickering, phantom glint of synthetic pathways.

Her long-time best friend.

Seeing under Kyra's hood wasn't the worst part. The worst part was realizing how much of her had always been hidden, and how little Lisa had ever thought to look. The girl she grew up with was buried somewhere deep inside all that hardware, and Lisa could no longer find her.

She was the same girl who had followed her into hell just because Lisa wanted a scoop.

Lisa squeezed her eyes shut. One tear cut a clean line through the sewer grime on her cheek. Just one.

Then she shoved the grief into a mental locker, slammed the heavy iron door, and threw away the key. Sadness didn't pull views. Sadness didn't dismantle a corrupt, blood-sucking empire. She was Lisa Liemawr of the Hexa Herald, professional chaos correspondent, and she was going to burn MasterGin's pristine world to the ground. She needed dirt.

But first, she needed a camera.

She slipped down the immaculate hallway. An Enforcer stepped from the shadows, his heavy hand clamping onto her arm.

Time to activate Slippery Bar of Soap Mode.

Lisa went limp, twisted her shoulder to break his grip, swiped the Halophone right off his tactical belt, and was three steps down the corridor before he even processed the theft. She bounced into an open elevator, slamming the override. The doors sealed, and the car plummeted at breakneck speed.

Lisa raised the stolen Halophone, tapped the screen, and flashed her signature grin.

“That’s right, Dragonlets! Your favorite reporter is back! Today's sponsor is Poor Decision Making™, and apparently we're going for the platinum subscription.”

She let out a quiet, forced laugh.

The elevator chimed. The doors slid open. She bolted out, rounding the corner with her camera raised.

The next three doors were wide open. She filmed the empty passage, her eyes darting across the screen.

“How suspiciously helpful is that? But Lisa doesn't look gift doors in the mouth!"

Down the hall, another elevator chimed. It was coming down. Someone was following her.

“Ruh-roh.”

The overhead lights flickered, buzzing with a sharp electric whine.

A heavy mechanical thud echoed through the gleaming marble floor.

Then, total darkness.

Emergency lights flickered on, bathing the corridor in a sickly, blood-red glow.

“To the unknown person of awesomeness,” she whispered to the ceiling, giving a crisp salute. “Your hack skills are Amaze. Whoever you are, I owe you a coffee.”

Then, she smelled it.

Clove smoke.

She spun the camera around and waved to the faint tendrils of smoke with feverishly bright eyes.

“Yo Yo Yo, it's your girl Lisa Liemawr, making yet another series of decisions my future therapist is going to hate. This newshound just caught a scent!” She did a crazed happy dance. “Let’s see where this cursed yellow brick road leads.”

The spiced scent hung heavy in the stale air. She raced after it, going deeper and deeper underground.

She stopped.

The silence was absolute. The guards were entirely gone now. The smoke was stronger here. Thicker.

The camera dipped just for a second.

"Hey, Ky." Her voice dropped out of the influencer register entirely. "If you're out there somewhere... I'm coming. This whole operation, the story, all of it. That's for you. Because you followed me in here, and you never once asked if it was worth it, and I never once said thank you."

She stared at the faint red light lining the hall.

"I'm saying it now. Thank you. And also, I'm sorry. And also,” she paused, “we're getting out."

She raised the camera back up. The grin returned, just a little less polished than before.

"Okay! Emotional moment over. Back to committing corporate espionage against a centuries-old vampire."

She rounded the final corner.

This place had the quiet confidence of somewhere ordinary people were never meant to enter. It looked exactly like a place that needed to get broken into.

Lisa pushed open a pair of heavy doors and stopped dead.

The phone dropped a fraction.

Rows upon rows of polished machines stared back like an audience waiting for the curtain to rise.

Silence.

"Oh my cyber-soul," she breathed.

Then her chin lifted.

“Jackpot, Dragonlets. It’s your girl Lisa Liemawr reporting live from inside the belly of the beast. No signal down here, but Lisa films anyway, because that's just what a Lisa does.”

She winked and flashed a victory sign.

“I’m a hundred and fifty feet under the center of the Forbidden Zone.” She gestured dramatically downward. “Exactly where I traced the threatening phone call from that nasty, chain-smoking vampire himself: MasterGin.”

She panned the camera around the vast space.

“But Lisa, what is this place? A museum exhibit? No! It’s a storage room of white marble and gold trim. Like even Mr. Diva’s storage rooms need to be beautiful. Compulsive much?”

Her camera swept across the room to reveal her entire bot army. The seven flawless avatars. The reporter drones. All the tech MasterGin had confiscated when his lawyers raided her apartment.

“He sued me for selling merch. Took all my gear. Shut me down. I thought he destroyed it all. But he kept them. He kept them like trophies.”

Her eyes landed on the centerpiece.

"M10?"

The little reporter bot rested perfectly still, powered down but completely restored. MasterGin had fried him with a casual flick of his electrical claws back at Jae Won Stadium. But M10 was whole now. Better than whole. He had little mechanical arms and legs. His glossy blue chassis gleamed.

“I don’t get it. Why rebuild a broken drone?”

She lowered the phone. Her reporter brain was already running the math.

"Intel," she whispered. "His lawyers didn't just confiscate you, M10. They must have rebuilt you to mine my data. My sources. My network."

A violet glow leaked around the edges of the bot's LED face screen, pulsing with a sinister low hum that made the hair stand on the back of her neck.

“Shit.” Her head dropped.

All her bots were now running on the Zone’s cursed energy. Even if she managed to steal them back somehow, they were corrupted.

Every broadcast she'd ever made. Every source she'd ever protected. Every face she'd hidden behind an avatar. He had it all.

She stood very still.

Then she lifted her head and forced a tight smile into the Halophone.

“I think I'm going to cry, which is very off-brand, so let's not.”

In the corner, propped against the marble wall like it belonged there, was a baseball bat. Black chrome and neon. The word LATHANDRO burned along the barrel.

She had sold unlicensed merch with that name. Sold it on five continents.

She stepped closer. There was fire damage on it. Her hand trembled as she studied the charred outline of fingers that once held it.

She hadn't thought about that since the day everything went up in flames. Jihoon with cleats, a drool-worthy batting average, and a million dollar smile.

Her guy was supposed to be the next biggest thing in college baseball.

A thick hiss of smoke seeped under the far door.

She zoomed in. As the smoke thickened, a silhouette materialized in the haze.

"Oh, hell naw," Lisa muttered, backing away from M10.

Plumes of smoke began rolling across the marble floor. The scent of clove hit her like a physical blow, thick and suffocating.

“Guess who, everyone,” she announced.

The silver hair. The cigarette. The posture that should be wrong but isn't.

“If you guessed it’s your not-so-favorite chain-smoking Discount Dracula, you win a prize. M10, tell them what they won! …Trauma. The answer is trauma.”

The figure in the rolling cloud moved.

“Wait."

She squinted through the haze.

“…Jihoon?"

He stepped forward with liquid confidence. Silver hair spilling over his shoulders. A clove cigarette pinched effortlessly between his fingers.

But his eyes were the wrong color. They were calm in a terrifying, ancient way. And he smiled at her with a poised, million-dollar smirk. It was exactly the way MasterGin smiled at things he already owned.

The heavy doors behind Lisa slammed shut, the locks engaging with a heavy metallic clack. Then the door behind him hissed open, revealing a paranoid nerve center. Floor-to-ceiling monitors bathed the luxurious room in a cold, phantom-blue glow. Hundreds of live surveillance feeds flickered across the screens.

He gestured dramatically for her to join him inside.

“Do come in. That is, unless you really don’t want the scoop of the century.”

Continuing with Cyberpunk Character Card theme, in this post Lisa Liemawr takes over.   ....Lathandro's baseball bat makes a reappearance with Masoom Plasma Muse Bat. It comes with a texture hud and flatpack has bonus textures like halogram.   ....From Lanevo is the Tamamo tank top, bikini, and pants. Each item comes with a detailed hud to change textures, and that includes left and right leg, from and back.   ...From Trash are the Covenant Cyberlox. The texture hud lets you change the textures for different groups with a wide selection of colors. It's very fun.   ...From Grima are the sleek Talos Protocol Cyber Arms, which includes a texture hud.   ...From Hades are the Cyberhorns. They are unrigged so you best position them.   ...The wild glasses are the CyberGhost Lens by Ohmai. They wrap around the entire head and include multiple tech animations on the lens. It has a hud to change the LED colors. They are unrigged and scalable for the perfect fit.   ....From Diaboli Design are the Gravicator boots. They come with a stacked hud of texture goodies and fits for men and women.   ... From SEmotion Libellune is cute new gacha, and limited editions, and event only color of the Neo Neko Companion. It has hud to change the expression of the visor, and change the animations for the figure.   ...From Bersav is the Cyber Nest megapack. It is mod, so I used my own PBR textures to crate that MasterGin Clinic look, but you can see it in legacy texture below. You can add your own textures to the monitor and TV.

On her, Lisa Liemawr:

Baseball bat: MASOOM - Plasma Muse Bat, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(395L)

Eyes: EUPHORIC - AiraEyes #07 [BOM](CyberFair)(275L)

Top: LANEVO - Tamamo Tanktop, LaraX, Fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(660L)

Bikini: LANEVO - Tamamo Bikini Shorts, LaraX, Fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(660L)

Pants: LANEVO - Tamamo Pants, LaraX, Fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(885L)

Hair: TRASH - Covenant Cyberlox, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(1000L)

Arms: GRIMA - Talos Protocol Cyber Arms, RC2 [mesh](CyberFair)(600L)

Horns: Hades Cyberhorns [mesh](CyberFair)(666L)

Glasses: OHMAI - CyberGhost Lens, V1 [mesh](CyberFair)(399L)

Shoes: Diaboli Design - Gravicator, LaraX, fatpack [mesh](CyberFair)(999L)

Robot: SEmotion Libellune - Neo Neko Companion COMMON 09 [gacha](CyberFair)(88L)

Datapad: StudioOne - Datapad [mesh](300L)

Shine: ABYSSAL - Justice Cybertech With 3d Shine [applier][BOM](499L)

Head, eyes, skin: LOGO - Dawn Desert Nomad [mesh]

Body: Maitreya Mesh Body LaraX [mesh](2750L)

Pose: PSYCHO:Byts - Ailsa-Selfie - 4

Setting:
Furniture: Bersav - Cyber Nest, Megapack [mesh](CyberFair)(1333L)

Skybox: Ambice Store - "007" Sky Tower Building [mesh]

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

Salvage Station / Cyber Fair: Something Beautiful Survives (Escape from Club Apophis, 43)

(click to enlarge)

STORYLINE: Cold mud pressed against Echo’s cheek.

For a long, disoriented moment, she didn’t know where she was. The air tasted of rust, wet ash, and the heavy, metallic tang of unwashed bodies. Her upper torso felt like it was on fire, a rhythmic, white-hot throb pulsing right against her collarbone.

She rolled over with a choked groan, looking up through blurred vision at towering, gunmetal-gray walls that swallowed the sky. Massive iron bars bisected the gloom.

The Pen.

She sat up too fast and regretted it immediately. Blinking away the sting of ash, she scanned the nearest clusters of captives, looking for any familiar face from Jae Won University. Row after row of hollow, unfamiliar faces looked back at her or looked away entirely. 

The reality of it slammed into her, bringing the memory rushing back in a terrifying, jagged flash. 

The heavy, calloused fist of the Dokkaebi Guard twisting into her hair. The brutal drag across the slippery marble floor of the clinic. The way she had clawed at the ground, her oversized jacket tearing, screaming that she didn't know where the other six escapees were. And then, the forge. The guard lifting the heavy iron rod, its tip glowing a blinding, angry orange with the insignia of Monstrum. The searing stench of her own flesh. The scream that had died in her throat before the blackness took her. 

Echo curled into a tight ball in the dirt, her breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. She clutched her hands over her ears, trying to shut out the low, miserable hum of the cursed energy barrier and the shuffle of a hundred captive humans awaiting their doom. 

She was the only one who had been caught.

The self-loathing hit her worse than the physical pain. The moral center? The one who always insisted on doing the right thing? What a fool.

She was the one who had pleaded with the group not to abandon Jihoon after he caught fire two months ago. Her sentimentality had dragged them all into this. She had frozen when the Nuns attacked. Bit her lip when scared, her blood giving away their hiding spot. Not once. Twice.

Worse, she had coaxed the Black Snakeskin Box's core into containment. Played PONG with it. Treated it like misunderstood tech. Instead of what it truly was.

A fragment of Apophis.

She had literally befriended a demon because she couldn't stand the thought of something being lonely.

Liability.

The word echoed through her skull. Everyone would have been safer without her.

She shook her head hard enough to hurt. No more thoughts. Just hands.

Echo’s hands instinctively began to move through the mud. She picked up a strip of frayed copper wire. A cracked, dead circuit board. A rusted washer. Sitting cross-legged, she began to fit the pieces together, forcing order onto the chaos, building a tiny, fragile junk garden in the filth.

A necklace of bottle caps. A tree decorated with glass bottles. Tiny robots of scrap metal.

A small shadow fell over her hands.

"That mark," the child pointed. "I've never seen one like that. No one else has a mark like that. Are you special?"

Echo flinched, pulling her collar up to hide the raw, blistered brand. A little girl in an oversized, grime-streaked shirt was looking down at her, her eyes wide with a strange kind of reverence.

"It's ugly," Echo whispered, her voice cracking.

The child sat down cross-legged right across from her, staring at her brand. "You look healthy. You escaped, didn't you? That's why you got that special mark. You're dangerous."

Echo laughed bitterly. "I'm not dangerous if I was recaptured."

The girl jumped to her feet, her eyes shining. "I knew it! You escaped!"

"I'm not a hero," Echo choked out, fresh tears tracking through the grime on her cheeks. "I'm a failure. I'm alone. None of the others got caught."

The child didn't look dissuaded. Instead, she reached out and gently guided Echo's own hand to cup the air around her neck, shielding the burn. "The brand pain fades after a day if you don't touch it. Don't let the air hit it straight on."

Echo blinked through her tears. The world was upside down. She had dreamed of being the one to rescue the people of The Pen, and here a ragged child was teaching her how to survive.

"Watch the Enforcers on the north wall," the girl whispered, pointing with her chin. "The ones with the red armbands do the same route every hour. Stay away from the center courtyard after dark." Then, the child looked at the tiny toy robot in Echo's lap. "My mom has moldy bread. I'll trade it for your robot."

"Moldy bread?"

The girl nodded. "It helps wounds."

"Oh! I get it," Echo brightened. "Is that The Pen's version of Penicillin?"

"Pen a what?" The girl grew bored, her eyes searching Echo's collection of junk. "Have you seen a teddy bear around here? I lost him before they moved me out of this block."

Echo froze. The robot in her hand rolled out.

Teddy.

The dirt-stained, lonely bear she had found half-buried in the mud a day ago. The one that had broken her heart.

"You're... you're his owner?" Echo whispered. Her chest heaved as she pulled the little girl into a sudden, tight hug. "Thank God you're alive."

"You found him?" the girl asked softly against her shoulder.

Echo pulled back, gripping the girl's small shoulders, her determination flaring back to life. "Yes, I did. Teddy is on a very special mission. He's escaping The Pen. He's carrying proof of what's happening inside this place. He's going to tell the outside world we're trapped. Teddy is going to save us all. Help is coming."

Hot tears of relief cut fresh tracks down Echo's face.

A woman stepped forward from the shadow of a nearby shipping container home, having watched them warily from the gloom. Her eyes were wide with a sudden, electrifying hope. "Is that true? You know a way out?"

Echo nodded. “The vampires can't cross water. Teddy is our message in a bottle, sealed with proof of what's happening in here, sent to the outside world.” 

A discarded, bones-bare radio sitting on a nearby crate crackled. For half a second, a girl's voice whispered through the static. Then silence. A loose copper washer on the ground rattled, sliding an inch closer to Echo's boot entirely on its own. 

Echo barely registered it, assuming her mind was finally fracturing under the trauma.

The mother didn't notice it either. She was focused on Echo's brand, then at the carefully arranged junk garden, and finally at her daughter. She gave a quiet, respectful nod.

"Come with me," the mother said softly, her posture shifting from wary to protective. "There is someone you need to meet."

Echo stood up, her hand still cupped over her burning collarbone. As she followed them through the crowd, a ripple went through the tents. The story of the teddy bear whispered from prisoner to prisoner.

Behind them in the dirt, the toy robot's eyes glowed white. It turned its head and watched them move away. 

The mother led her deep into the ruins of a collapsed administrative building. She pushed a heavy desk aside and rolled up a dusty Persian rug, revealing a hidden hatch. The smell of mildew and old paper drifted up from the darkness beneath. She knocked on the metal with a rhythm that sounded like Morse Code. 

They waited.

Then the hatch groaned open.

"You need to meet our leader. The one who keeps us organized," the mother whispered, stepping aside. "The one who puts the pieces together. Tell him about the bear."

Echo climbed down into a shadowed room as the mother covered the hatch once more.

The ever-present hum of the cursed energy barrier disappeared. It was a hidden Safe Zone, right inside The Pen.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, her heart stopped.

Sitting at a makeshift desk covered in hand-drawn maps of the underground tunnels was the leader of the resistance. The Ice Cream Man mask hanging on the wall behind him.

She recognized the mask. Her throat tightened.

He looked up, his eyes meeting hers. There was no surprise in his gaze, only the calm, calculated look of a chess master whose missing piece had finally landed on the board. The Guardian of the Barrier.

Hwan.

He closed his ledger. "Welcome to the real fight, Echo. Now what is this rumor about a teddy bear?"

On her, Echo:
Outfit: Web Dew - Skirt, Leggings, Blue, Lara X [mesh](Salvage Station)(250L)

Jacket: Web Dew - Jacket Lyzz, Blue, Lara X [mesh](Salvage Station)(250L)

Boots: Web Dew - Boots [mesh](Salvage Station)(750L)

Visor: Web Dew - Boots [mesh](Salvage Station)(250L)
Hair: Usagi Society - Rogue Hair, Misc [mesh](Salvage Station)(350L)

Pet: REKT - MEKARAPTOR, silver [mesh](CyberFair)(350L)

Tattoo: AURO - Reaper Tattoo // BLOOD [BOM](Salvage Station)(450L)

Tattoo: SOMEONE - Sun Damage Set [BOM](Salvage Station)(450L)

Tattoo: SOMEONE - Rugged Skin Detail Set [BOM](Salvage Station)(550L)

Tattoo: SOMEONE - Chapped Lips, peeling [BOM](Salvage Station)(300L)

Nails: Opulent - Living Dead Nails - Hand and Feet Blood & Dirt [BOM](Salvage Station)(500L)

Eyes: Mana - Plague Eye [BOM, Applier](300L)

Head, eyes: LeLUTKA lel EvoX LILLY 3.1 [mesh](3990L)

Body: Maitreya Mesh Body Lara [mesh](2750L)

Setting:

Robot: What's Lost Spirits - WLS - JUNK ROBOT [mesh](Salvage Station)(300L)

Tree: Candle & Cauldron C&C - Bottle Tree  [mesh](Salvage Station)(179L)

Chair: Cica's - Robo Chair 1[mesh](Salvage Station)(300L)

Wagon: Cica's - Wagon [mesh](Salvage Station)(300L)

Chair, clutter: Dirty Rat - Stripped Seat [PBR] [mesh](Salvage Station)(375L)

Set: LORE - Atomotel Kit & Deco, fatpack  [mesh](Salvage Station)(2250L)

Props: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Hand Display [Light] [mesh](Salvage Station)(140L)

Props: Random Matter - Junk Jeweler II - Oil [mesh](Salvage Station)(100L)

Neighborhood: LORE Atomic Estates Fatpack [mesh](1200L)

Bench: Dirty Rat - Derelict Bench [mesh](415L)

Dunes: Fundati - Beach Cliffs [mesh]

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky:

Cyber Fair / Salvage Station: The Digital Shinobi (Escape from Club Apophis, 42)

(click to enlarge)

STORYLINE: 

Mission objective: Rescue classmate Yoon Jihoon. 

Team: 7 students of Jae Won University, 6 remaining.

Location: GIN AESTHETICA™ plastic surgery clinic. 

It was a tragedy in slow motion.

Ghost smelled it first. Clove smoke and a cold that didn't belong to the building. Something ancient was close. His hands flew up in a sharp, commanding gesture toward a nearby door, but no one was looking at his hands.

"Scatter!" Minjo yelled. "Rendezvous at the car in the Safe Zone!”

Ghost gripped her shoulder hard and stepped into her path. Speech was not an option. He mouthed a single, fierce command: No. Stronger together. 

But without her glasses, she couldn't read his lips.

Click. Click. Click.

Heels in the distance echoed, sharp and unhurried. There was no time to argue. No time to herd them back together.

The team was already in motion. Five sets of frantic footsteps fragmented in different directions. His team, scattered. A second later, the heavy, synchronized thud of Enforcers echoed from the opposite end of the hall, moving to intercept.

Ghost took the wall. He activated his Gecko Grip, scaling the smooth vertical surface in two silent bounds. He shoved a ceiling tile aside and hauled himself into the dark ductwork. His Haloglove cast a pale blue light over a nest of thick white cables. He didn't hesitate. He grabbed the primary data bundle and ripped it from its housing just as Minjo rounded the far corner.

Below him, the red eyes of the security cameras flickered and died.

It was a brutal, unrefined solution, but it blinded the hunters. It gave his pack a fighting chance.

Ghost popped the Cursed Energy battery from his Haloglove and slid it into his Nano Stealth Cloak. Communication was a luxury. Stealth was survival. The high-tech fabric flickered with violent static, and then, pixel by pixel, he dissolved into the dark architecture of the ceiling.

Click. Click. Stop. MasterGin stepped into the corridor directly beneath the vent.

Clove smoke drifted upwards. Then the silence. The silence was the worst part.

Ghost’s lungs locked tight. The air pressure in the hallway seemed to drop, stolen entirely by the monster standing below. A false surgeon. A vain god. The kind of monster whose presence warped the room around him. In that moment, Ghost finally understood how Jihoon had been seduced by Monstrum. 

The powerful vampire’s icy gaze swept the dead cameras. He sensed the blind spot.

Ghost snapped his eyes shut. He clamped down on his own biology, willing his heartbeat into a slow, dormant rhythm. It was a Shinobi discipline meant for surviving underwater. His chest burned with the need for oxygen. His internal clock ticked away the longest twenty seconds of his life.

Finally, the heels clicked into an adjacent consultation room.

Ghost let out one slow breath through his nose. He gave it three more seconds, listening for the pause of someone turning back, before dropping weightlessly to the floor. He pressed his ear against the cold white marble wall. MasterGin's voice came through, sharp enough to cut. "...those cameras are worth more than a hundred of you! Either restore my cameras immediately, or explain to me why I continue paying you!" A second later, a new command, "Scratch that. Weld the sewer access doors shut. Permanently!"

Ghost pulled back from the wall. His mind mapped the variables. One exit. One priority.

He moved.

He sprinted back the way MasterGin had come, moving soundlessly toward a new set of approaching footsteps. The maintenance crew. Ghost had memorized the labyrinth of the Clinic. He knew exactly where the choke points were. He slipped into an alcove and waited.

The crew rushed past. One man lagged heavily behind the rest, panting under the massive weight of a multi-arm mechanical welding unit strapped to his back.

Perfect.

Ghost transferred the Cursed Energy battery from his cloak back to his Haloglove. Stealth was no longer needed. A weapon was.

He stepped from the shadows directly behind the straggler. He pressed two fingers to the exposed skin of the man's neck and delivered a maximum voltage jolt from his glove. The man folded without a sound. Ghost caught the heavy equipment before it could hit the floor and dragged the unconscious body into a dark supply closet.

Within ninety seconds, Ghost was wearing the straggler’s red and black uniform, and strapped the heavy welding apparatus on. He pulled the dark welding visor down over his face and sprinted to catch up with the crew, forcing his lungs to heave in loud, ragged pants.

The Crew Leader spun around. "You! What's wrong with you, are you dying?"

Ghost nodded, slumped his shoulders, and feigned breathlessness. It was a flawless cover for his muteness.

The Crew Leader turned away, disgusted.

When they reached the sewer access door, Ghost pushed to the front. The leader ordered him to lock down the compromised digital kiosk and weld the door shut, while the main crew handled the heavy elevator doors nearby.

Ghost knelt by the panel. He didn’t fix the kiosk. His gloved fingers flew across the exposed circuitry, completing his earlier hack, a backdoor bypass. Then he engaged the welding torch. He laid down a line of sparks on the doorframe that looked convincing to the naked eye but actually left the door completely unsealed.

"Move!" the Crew Leader barked. "Find the camera short!"

Ghost shuffled after them, disgruntled and bored. As they swept the next corridor, he deliberately lingered behind to cross the wires of a secondary junction box, shorting out a fresh row of cameras. 

The Crew Leader threw his hands up in enraged confusion, screaming into his halophone about a cascading system failure.

In the chaos, Ghost stepped backward into a shadow and vanished.

By the access door, he paused and graded his performance. Approximately half of the clinic's surveillance network was disabled, and the team's escape route remained intact. 

Before leaving, he projected from his Haloglove the underground map. Satisfied he knew the way, he plunged into the dark labyrinth with his Gecko Grip reactivated.

Scrambling across the vaulted stone like a spider, he was careful to avoid the foul, rushing water below and the toxic bioluminescent fungi clinging to the walls. 

Higher and higher he climbed through the gloom. Left. Straight. Another left. Then a hard turn right.

Finally the sterile chill of the clinic faded, replaced by a growing scent of rot and humidity.

A large cavern opened up. The Safe Zone.

The air felt different here. Cleaner. Quieter. The pressure that haunted the rest of the sewer was absent, as though the safe zone itself refused to respect Monstrum’s authority.

He dropped silently to a limestone slab near the 1929 Ford Coupe, using the glow of his haloglove to cut through the dark. The car was still smoking, frozen in the violent aftermath of a crash that happened a century ago. Inside, a body sat perfectly still, preserved by whatever force kept the car from rusting. High above the wreckage, a rebel had slashed the Monstrum logo with red ink.

Ghost stood still for a moment and let his body recalibrate. The ambient hum that had been pressing against his skull since they entered the clinic was gone.

He scanned the damp cavern. The only sound was the rushing water of the drainage outflow.

No one else had made it.

He stood very still. The water rushed. Nothing.

He shoved the panic aside and reached for rage instead. 

He unbuckled the heavy welding rig and let it drop to the stone with a loud echoing thud.

If he was the only one to reach the safe zone, then it was up to him to ruin whatever MasterGin was planning for Jihoon. 

He pulled the toolkit from his belt and laid the instruments out in a perfect, disciplined row on the fender. 

The dented hood groaned as he wrenched it upward. No engine block. No pistons. He already knew that. The carbon fiber lattice was still intact, the obsidian coils still spiraled around the ceramic core like ribs around a heart. The violet liquid still pulsed through its tubes in a slow, deliberate rhythm, the one that vibrated in the back of the teeth rather than the ears.

Minjo had called it an Entropy Drive.

Ghost had a different name for it. 

A bomb.

He reached blindly to his right to grab his screwdriver.

Fingers met empty stone.

He frowned and shined the haloglove downward. The screwdriver was now sitting neatly on his left side.

He blinked, turning his head slowly, sweeping the empty, violet-lit cavern. 

Nothing moved. Nothing breathed.

Ghost picked the tool up and placed it deliberately back on his right side.

Strange.

He turned his attention back to the engine.


Guess what time it is? It's Cyber Fair o'clock! Woo woo! I'm back from a break to dive back into the Cyber Awesomeness as we count down to the finale of Escape from Club Apophis. Ghost has his moment to shine this chapter, and I loved all these cool items that worked so well together.   ....The Authority Mask by Just Tony is unrigged so you can move and scale it for the perfect fit. To change its colors tap on each part in the texture hud.   ....From SEKA's is the E-Tech Neck, with animating LED texture. It's rigged and mod to get the perfect fit. It comes with a SEKA style texture HUD with lots of texture options.   ...From 129129 is the 222 Outset outfit which has a top, upper body Cawl, and shorts (not shown). The Fatpack allows mixing and matching textures.   ...From HAM Store are the fun Leg warmers and stompers. The Fatpack on this also allows for fun texture mixing.   ...From RED Shadow is the Viper MultiArms and backpack. There is animated LED texture tracker-beam from the backpack to the Arms. The Arms are Animesh, with their own AO.   ...Meanwhile at another awesome event that just opened is Floro Solar Relic at Salvage Station. Wear the holdable, and touch it to create a popup Halogram.  It's mod so you can change the halogram tint and add your own art to the Halogram if you want. There is also a Decor version.   ...Other items used are the Lanevo Silence Gloves for men, CheerNo CHN F22 BOM latex body suit, and Sintiklia Gerald hair.

On Him, Ghost:

Helmet: Just Tony - Authority Mask, red [mesh](CyberFair)(250L)

Collar: SEKA's - E-Tech Neck [mesh](CyberFair)(399L)

Top, armor: 129129 - **222 Outset HAIL/NECK [mesh](CyberFair)(fatpack 2,000L)

Halogram Map projector: Floro - Solar Relic, holdable (Salvage Station)(499L)

Shoes: HAM. Store - ERR0R Leg Warmers, Stompers, LegacyM [mesh](CyberFair)(fatpack 999L)

Arms: RED Shadow - RS-ViperMultiArms, Arms AO Include [Animesh](CyberFair)(fatpack 689L)

Gloves: LANEVO - Silence Gloves, LegacyM, Fatpack [mesh]

Hair: Sintiklia - Geralt Unrigged&resized [mesh]

Bodysuit: CheerNo - CHN F22 latexbody, blakc, LegacyM [BOM]

Head: LeLUTKA - CAMDEN 4.0 [mesh](3990L)

Body: TheShops - [BODY] Athletic Meshbody (Legacy)(m) (1.7.1) [mesh](5000L)

Pose: momomuller [3M]_sc)_m_3

BONUS IMAGES: inworld raw shots, hi-res, midday sky: