Red

Neon rain streaked the sky, casting electric-blue reflections over the rain-slicked streets of Neo-Tokyo. The city never slept, and neither did its dangers. Data runners like Red thrived in the underbelly of the metropolis, weaving through cyber-traffic and corporate death squads, carrying secrets worth more than their lives.

Tonight, she carried something different. A drive the size of her thumbnail was tucked securely in her neural-linked pocket, its encryption pulses syncing with the rhythm of her heart. On it? Classified intel that could bring Lupus Industries to its knees.

Her employer? Granny, an infamous ex-hacker who had been off the grid for over a decade, feeding data to underground resistance groups. If Granny wanted this drive, it had to be dangerous.

Red sat astride her hover bike, its sleek, black frame humming beneath her as she revved the throttle. A deep vibration rumbled through her gloves as the speed mod engaged, and she shot forward, zipping between self-driving cars and holo-billboards advertising the latest brainjack interfaces.

A soft ping in her neural HUD made her stomach drop.

WARNING: YOU ARE BEING TRACKED.

Her grip tightened on the handlebars.

Unknown Entity Acquired Lock on Your Signal.

Location: 50 Meters Back.

Red swallowed hard and glanced at the mirrors. The streets were packed with night-crawlers, corporate drones, and cybernetic street gangs. But among them, she saw it—a figure moving too smoothly, too precisely. A tall, shadowed form wove through the crowd effortlessly, his chrome-laced eyes locked onto her.

The Wolf.

Not just any bounty hunter—Lupus Industries' top assassin. He wasn’t just augmented. He was perfected—a machine in human skin.

Red’s pulse spiked.

"Hand over the drive, kid."

The voice came through her HUD’s open channel, smooth, deep, and laced with synthetic modulation. She didn’t hesitate. She gunned the throttle.

Red tore through the streets, her bike's thrusters kicking in as she dodged past self-driving taxis and rogue delivery drones. Alarms blared behind her as The Wolf leapt onto a moving truck, sprinting across its roof with inhuman speed.

She swerved into an alleyway, trying to break his line of sight. Her HUD mapped an escape route, highlighting a shortcut through the undercity tunnels—an old rail system long abandoned.

She hit a switch on her wrist, activating her cloaking mod, and vanished from sight. For a second, she thought she lost him. Then, she heard the impact.

CRASH.

The Wolf smashed through the alley wall, metal plating beneath his synthetic skin glinting in the dim light. Sparks flew as debris crumbled behind him.

"Clever. But not enough."

Red cursed. He was too fast. Too strong. But he wasn’t the only one enhanced. She engaged her bike’s hyper-thrust, launching forward at speeds beyond safe limits. Her neural implant synced with the bike’s AI, predicting obstacles in real time.

She weaved between graffiti-covered buildings, barely squeezing through gaps that should have been impossible. But The Wolf? He didn’t dodge. He plowed through. Red glanced at her rear-view display—The Wolf’s metallic limbs absorbed the impacts, barely slowing him down. Then, he moved. With a powerful leap, he vaulted onto a hovering billboard, then kicked off it, landing directly in front of her. She had seconds to react.

Red jerked the bike sideways, skidding across the wet pavement. The bike's rear thrusters ignited, throwing up a wall of steam and sparks between her and The Wolf. It didn’t slow him for long. She needed to get to Granny. Now. A hidden panel on her wrist flickered to life, showing her distance from the safehouse. Three kilometers. Red rerouted her bike’s power, diverting all remaining energy into speed.

"You won’t outrun me, Red."

The Wolf’s voice was calm, patient, like he had already won. Red gritted her teeth.

"Then come and take it, metalhead."

The moment she said it, she sent a silent ping to Granny’s underground servers. A distress signal. Red crashed through the entrance of Granny’s safehouse—a run-down VR café in an abandoned sector of the city. The moment she stepped inside, she froze. Granny sat at the terminal, but something was wrong. Her posture was stiff, her fingers hovering motionless over the holographic keys. Red’s blood ran cold. The voice that spoke wasn’t Granny’s. It was distorted, artificial.

"What big eyes you have, dear Red."

The Wolf stepped from the shadows. He had been waiting for her. The safehouse door locked behind her. Security panels sealed shut. Red’s pulse hammered in her ears. She had nowhere left to run. But she wasn’t out of moves yet.

She shifted her stance subtly, fingers brushing against the trigger in her glove interface. The drive wasn’t just holding data. It was a virus. Designed to burn through the neural uplinks of Lupus Industries, scrambling their encrypted systems from the inside out. If The Wolf was connected to their network—which he was—then it could cripple him. Red let out a slow breath.

"What big teeth you have, Wolf."

Then, she triggered the virus. A pulse of blue light erupted from her wrist, traveling through the air like an invisible shockwave. The Wolf’s body seized mid-step. His glowing red eyes flickered, confusion breaking through his otherwise impassive expression.

"What… did you do?"

His systems glitched, sending him crashing to his knees. Sparks danced along his synthetic arms as his neural interface fought the intrusion. Red didn’t stick around to explain. She kicked off the terminal, flipped over his frozen form, and slammed the override switch on the safehouse door. The panels hissed open, letting in the night air. Outside, resistance fighters flooded the street, weapons drawn. Granny’s backup had arrived.

Red turned back once, watching The Wolf struggle against the virus, his cybernetic muscles twitching erratically. His glowing red eyes locked onto hers—not with rage, but something else. Curiosity. She didn’t wait to see what happened next. She bolted into the night, knowing this was far from over.

As Red vanished into the shadows of Neo-Tokyo, she knew one thing for certain—Lupus Industries wasn’t going to let this slide. And The Wolf? He wouldn’t stop hunting her. Not until the game was over.