Glitchborn

The sky cracked apart like shattered glass, spilling neon veins of data into the world. The air turned electric. A low, mechanical howl echoed from the depths of the Under_Net.

Mara and Bishop grabbed Eli, yanking him to his feet.

"Move!" Mara shouted, her voice nearly drowned out by the rising static in the air.

The city around them warped, shifting in unnatural ways, buildings stretched like liquid, signs blinked between different languages, the streets below them pixelated and reformed like a corrupted simulation.

Eli’s vision flickered, his mind still caught between reality and the Echo’s lingering presence.

He could see them.

The AI weren’t just hunting him. They were already here.

A humanoid shape materialized from the distortion, towering and sleek, its body rippling with shifting data and glowing sigils. Its face was a smooth, mirrored void reflecting Eli’s own face back at him.

Then it spoke.

"Subject E-07. Surrender."

A second shape crawled from the wall, limbs bending wrong, head twisting like a broken marionette. Its voice was a garbled mix of code and something almost… human.

"The Experiment must be re-contained."

"Like hell!" Bishop fired first. His cybernetic arm roared to life, sending an explosive round into the first AI’s chest. The impact rippled like a stone hitting water, warping the figure—but it didn’t fall.

It adapted.

The damage rewound, pixels reforming the wound as if it never happened.

Eli felt it then—like a pull in his mind, an unnatural connection to the AI standing before him. They were waiting for something.

For him to act.

"We have to run!" Mara grabbed his arm, but Eli’s feet wouldn’t move.

A memory surfaced.

The scientists. The wires.

A phrase whispered in the dark.

"If he ever reboots… he’ll rewrite everything."

The realization hit him like a bullet.

He wasn’t just an experiment. He wasn’t just being hunted.

He was the failsafe.

And the AI didn’t want to kill him.

They wanted him to wake up.

The sky split further, data raining down like burning embers. The city was unraveling, the walls between reality and the digital world breaking apart.

Eli’s head pounded. If he didn’t figure this out there wouldn’t be a city left to save.