As they surfaced, the streets of Sector 23 erupted into chaos.
Civilians scrambled like rats in a flooding gutter, their screams swallowed by the roar of flames devouring storefronts.
The air shimmered with heat, thick with the stench of burning plastic and charred flesh.
Vey's augments whined as he hauled Kai forward, the boy's legs stumbling beneath him.
The Spire brat was still dazed from the flash grenade, his pupils blown wide, his breaths coming in ragged gulps.
Behind them, the pavement cracked—a sound like splitting bone—as fire licked up the alley walls in jagged spirals.
"We need to lose that bastard," Vey snarled, his shotgun slamming against his back with every stride.
He ripped the comm unit from his belt, his voice a static-edged growl. "Pen! Visual on Blaze—now! Nail, call in whatever's left of Sector 18's squad!"
The reply crackled through, clipped and tense:
"Roger."
"Roger."
Cale cursed, his free hand slapping Kai's cheek hard enough to snap his head sideways.
"Wake the hell up, kid!" Kai blinked, his gaze swimming into focus—just in time to see a neon sign explode above them, raining glass like jagged hail.
A shadow moved in the smoke.
Not running.
Walking.
Smoke coiled through Sector 23's streets like a living thing, thick enough to chew.
Vey's augments whined in protest as he hauled Kai forward—too loud, too slow.
The Spire brat stumbled beside him, pupils blown wide from the grenade blast, his breaths coming in ragged gulps that did nothing to steady his legs.
Behind them, the pavement cracked like splitting bone as flames climbed the alley walls in distorted spirals.
Blaze wasn't supposed to be this strong.
The thought lodged in Vey's throat like a bullet.
Last time—five years ago, when Nex put a shotgun blast through the pyro's ribs—he'd screamed like any other man.
Now?
Now he walked through fire like it was morning mist, his skin unmarked, his coat flapping in heatwaves like the wings of some hell-born bird.
And if Blaze was back…
Don't tell me all the Scorchers are too.
Pen's voice crackled through the comm, sharp with warning: "Boss—he's right behind you!"
A high-pitched twang split the air like a snapped guitar string.
Above them, Pen's monofilament wire hummed at sonic frequencies, vibrating so fast the steel filaments glowed white-hot.
The Rank 1—Razor glyph etched into her gloves flared crimson as she whipped the wire in a perfect arc.
Neon light fractured across the hyper-thin strand as it sliced through rusted I-beams with eerie precision.
For half a heartbeat, the building stood intact—then the severed supports groaned like a dying animal.
Vey didn't need to look back to know what came next.
He'd seen Pen's handiwork before—how the wire could bisect a man before he realized he'd been cut.
But this wasn't some Red Dog grunt.
This was Blaze.
The collapsing structure rained debris—twisted rebar, shattered concrete, and jagged glass—all of it crashing down where Blaze had stood moments before.
Dust plumed in a choking cloud, mixing with the ever-present smog.
Pen's breath came hard through the comms. "Did we get him?"
Cale risked a glance backward, his augmented pupils dilating to pierce the haze.
The answer came not in words, but in the way the settling dust suddenly swirled, as if caught in an invisible updraft—
—then ignited.
The firestorm roared to life, flames licking upward in a perfect spiral.
And at its center, untouched, unhurried, Blaze stepped forward.
His coat flared like wings, embers dancing in his teeth.
"Seriously?," he called, voice layered with the crackle of burning timber. "But we both know you'll need more than playground tricks to stop me this time."
Pen's wire retracted in her gloves.
For the first time since the ambush began, Vey saw something like fear flicker across her usually stoic face.
Vey's shotgun barked three times—muzzle flashes painting his ruined face in strobes of orange and shadow—not to kill, just to buy seconds.
"Move," he snarled, shoving Kai toward Cale.
The younger Talon caught the kid by the collar, his grip iron-tight. "C'mon, you pass out now, you'll burn."
Kai blinked hard.
The world came back in fragments—the smell of Cale's leather gloves ingrained with blood and gunpowder, the taste of copper where he'd bitten his tongue, the distant crackle of Pen's comm cutting in and out: "He's not—shit—he's not stopping—"
Then laughter.
The sound slithered through the smoke like a lit fuse.
Blaze stepped from the rubble, flames licking at his sleeves like obedient hounds.
No burns.
No so much as a singed thread.
His grin widened as he watched them run, fingers twitching like a conductor savoring the crescendo.
Vey's augments hissed as he loaded incendiary rounds.
This wasn't a chase.
It was a cattle drive—Blaze herding them toward some hell of his own making.
And worst of all?
The bastard was enjoying every second.
Kai's voice cracked with disbelief as he stumbled forward, his Spire-bred composure shattered. "Who the fuck is that?"
Vey didn't bother turning. His augments whined as he shoved Kai forward with a metallic hand. "No time for history lessons! That walking inferno's got your scent now—move your damn legs!"
Kai wrenched himself free from Cale's grip, his spine straightening despite the way his hands trembled.
The acrid smoke burned his lungs, but the adrenaline sharpened his focus.
Cale's eyes focused on Kai's face.
"You good now?" The question was practical, not concerned.
When Kai nodded, Cale jerked his chin toward the crumbling overpass ahead. "Then stop gawking and run."
They surged forward just as the world exploded behind them.
Blaze's laughter echoed through the streets as he flicked his wrist—not at them, but at the buildings flanking their escape route.
Glass storefronts detonated inward, fireballs erupting with surgical precision.
The message was clear: he wasn't just chasing them.
He was herding them.
Vey's shotgun strap snapped against his armor as he pivoted, firing blindly into the smoke. "Fuck this! You better start talking, Kid—why's Blaze hunting Lucent?"
Kai ducked as a molten shard of signage crashed beside them.
"I don't know!" The truth tasted bitter—Lucent hoarded secrets like armor, and now they were all paying for it.
The realization hit as they rounded the corner: the collapsing buildings weren't random.
Blaze was driving them toward the abandoned mag-lev tracks—a dead end with nowhere to run but up.
Kai's fingers flew to his Conduit, the cracked screen flaring to life as he activated the pre-loaded glyph.
"I'm deploying Rank 2—Leap! Aim for that rooftop!" His voice cut through the chaos as he pointed to a half-collapsed building across the street.
Vey barely had time to bark "Wha—" before the glyph's energy wrapped around their legs like invisible springs.
The world lurched violently as they were catapulted upward, the sudden g-force slamming Vey's jaw shut with an audible clack of teeth.
To their credit, the veteran Talons adapted instantly.
Vey twisted mid-air, his augments compensating with hydraulic precision as his boots slammed onto the rooftop.
Cale landed in a combat roll, coming up with his pistol already drawn.
Kai hit the surface harder than intended, his knees buckling from the impact.
But he stayed upright—days of Lucent's brutal training paying off in that single moment.
The rooftop gravel skittered beneath his boots as he fought for balance.
Cale whistled low, eyeing Kai's Conduit with new appreciation.
"Well shit. That's handy." He jerked his chin toward the device. "You gotta share that SpellApp later."
Below them, the street erupted in flames as Blaze realized his prey had escaped.
The fire twisted upward in furious tendrils, licking at the building's foundations.
The heat warped the air, making the neon signs across the street drip like molten wax.
Vey's eyes scanned their new position.
"Don't get comfortable. That glyph just bought us seconds." His augmented fingers tightened around his shotgun. "Kid—how many more jumps you got in that thing?"
Kai's chest heaved as he checked his Conduit's flickering display.
"I've got plenty of jumps left," he panted, wiping soot from his brow.
"Our knees will give out before this thing does. But that's not—" His finger stabbed toward the inferno below, where flames coiled like living things around a single, unmoving figure. "That's the real problem."
Vey's augments whining as he tightened his grip on the shotgun. "No shit. But that motherfucker's wearing some kind of invisible armor now. We ain't running if there's even a sliver of chance to put him down."
Kai's breath hitched. "What do you mean, invisible armor?"
Cale's ocular implant whirred as he tracked Blaze's movements.
"Put three rounds center mass earlier." He mimed firing his pistol.
"Bullets stopped mid-air like they hit glass. Then Pen dropped two tons of steel beams on his head—" A piece of rebar twanged off the rooftop beside them as if to emphasize his point. "—and look at him. Not a scratch."
Below them, Blaze tilted his head, flames dancing across his outstretched palm.
The fire pulsed in time with his heartbeat—a rhythm too steady for someone who'd just survived a building collapse.
Vey's jaw clenched. "Five years ago, Nex put a shotgun blast through his ribs. Now?"
He racked a fresh round. "Now he's playing with us."
The realization settled over Kai like the creeping heat.
The building shuddered beneath them as a nightmarish screech of twisting metal tore through the air.
Below, the fire wasn't just spreading—it was climbing, tendrils of flame slithering up support beams with unnatural precision.
Then Blaze moved.
With a casual flick of his wrist, he detonated the ground beneath him.
The explosion catapulted him upward, his body twisting through billowing smoke.
He landed on a mid-level balcony—only to kick off again with another concussive blast, shattering concrete as he launched himself higher.
Three stories. Five. Seven.
Each ascent punctuated by another explosion, another rain of debris.
When he finally cleared the rooftop's edge, he landed with a casual grace that defied physics, his boots barely disturbing the small debris on the floor.
The flames licking at his coat sleeves didn't even singe the fabric.
Cale backpedaled, his usually cocky voice cracking.
"What the fuck—that's not a human anymore!" His pistol trembled as he took aim. "No human moves like that!"
Blaze's grin widened, the firelight catching the scars that webbed across his face.
His eyes—too bright, pupils slit like a reptile's—locked onto Kai.
"Cute trick with the jump," he mused, flexing his fingers. Embers danced between them. "But you're not getting away with only that."
A fresh explosion rocked the building's foundation.
Somewhere below, Pen screamed a warning through the comms.
Vey's augments hissed as he stepped between Kai and the advancing inferno, his shotgun raised.
"Kid," he growled, "whatever history your boss has with this freak? Now'd be a great time to remember it."
***
Five blocks east, the ground still trembled from distant explosions.
Each concussive wave sent vibrations through the cracked pavement, rattling loose bolts in the fire escapes overhead.
Karen's combat boots kicked up clouds of ash as she backpedaled, keeping herself between Ember and the fleeing children.
The woman standing before her moved like liquid fire—her dark skin gleaming under the sector's neon glow, those distinctive ember-orange tattoos pulsing along her arms with each breath.
Karen's grip tightened on her pistol.
The intel flashed in her mind:
Scorcher lieutenant. Close-quarters specialist. Last seen burning down the Myriad substation in Sector 7.
"Ember," Karen spat, the name tasting like gunpowder on her tongue.
A slow smile spread across Ember's face, her teeth unnaturally white against the smoky backdrop.
"Oh?" The flames around them seemed to lean in, as if listening.
"You know me. How...flattering." Her head tilted, the motion eerily reminiscent of Blaze. "But you smell like Talon blood. That makes this interesting."
Behind them, Jessa yanked Tink behind a collapsed billboard, their footsteps fading into the maze of alleyways.
Good.
Karen's prosthetic fingers twitched near the grenades at her belt.
"We heard Nex wiped you all out," Karen said, shifting her stance.
The lie came easily—everyone knew Nex had only gotten Blaze.
But maybe uncertainty would buy seconds.
Ember's laugh was the sound of dry kindling catching fire.
Ember's grin widened, the ember-orange tattoos along her arms pulsing like live coals.
"Nex got one of us, sweetheart." She flexed her fingers, and the intricate flame patterns flared crimson, casting flickering shadows across the rubble-strewn street.
The garbage cans beside them exploded into pillars of fire, flames roaring three meters high.
Heat washed over Karen's face as Ember's voice dripped with amusement: "But like a phoenix..."
The inferno twisted, forming brief, screaming faces in the fire before dissolving into smoke. "We rise from ashes."
Karen's back teeth ground together. "Revenge, then?" Her prosthetic hand hovered near the flash grenades on her belt.
Ember's laughter crackled like burning timber. "Maybe."
She took a slow step forward, boots leaving smoldering footprints on the pavement. "What do you think, Talon?"
Karen's mind raced.
The Scorchers had never been subtle—if this was payback, they'd have torched the sector outright.
But someone was playing with Vey's squad, and Ember was...toying with her.
The realization hit like ice water:
They want something.
And worse—they were enjoying making her guess what.
Just earlier, Ember said that they want to talk to Lucent.
But is that really all they want?
The ground trembled as another explosion rocked the district—close enough to feel the pressure wave ripple through Karen's ribcage.
She couldn't tell the source through the maze of collapsing buildings, but the unnatural way the flames licked upward in perfect spirals...
Corporate incendiary tech? No—
Ember's voice cut through her racing thoughts.
"Sounds like the party's starting without us." The Scorcher lieutenant didn't even glance toward the blast, her focus unnervingly fixed on Karen.
Karen's fingers twitched near her grenades.
"You're not working alone." It wasn't a question.
The timing was too coordinated—Ember engaging her right as those detonations began.
Ember's grin showed too many teeth.
"Smart girl." She stepped closer, the pavement blackening under her boots. "But wrong question."
Karen's comm unit crackled to life suddenly, Vey's voice bursting through in a static-edged snarl.
"Pen! Visual on Blaze—now! Nail, call in whatever's left of Sector 18's squad!"
The name hit Karen like a gut punch.
Blaze?
That Blaze?
The one whose corpse Nex had described in vivid detail—the shotgun blast to the ribs, the way the fire had died in his eyes as he choked on his own blood.
Her grip on the pistol tightened as impossible questions burned through her mind.
How?
Nex did make mistakes from time to time, but he didn't leave jobs half-finished like this.
Yet the dread pooling in her stomach told her Vey wouldn't scream that name unless—
Ember's laugh pulled her back, the sound like sparks jumping between live wires.
Her grin widened as she watched realization dawn across Karen's face.
"Oh, that's a good look on you." She raised her right hand, flames swirling around her fingers like living jewelry, and gestured toward the distant inferno where Blaze hunted. "But we should start our own party here."
The circle of fire surrounding them pulsed suddenly, flames leaping higher in perfect synchronization with her words.
The heat washed over Karen in waves, making the sweat on her brow evaporate instantly.
Karen's jaw clenched as her prosthetic fingers tightened around the pistol grip.
Before she could adjust her stance, Ember's armored gauntlets sparked violently—
—then she struck.
Both fists came forward in a double hammer blow, flames trailing like comet tails.
Karen squeezed off three rapid shots, the muzzle flashes painting the alley in stark strobes.
Ember didn't dodge.
Her burning gauntlets came up in a crossed guard, the superheated metal intercepting each round.
The bullets didn't ricochet—they melted, liquefying into glowing droplets that sizzled against the pavement.
The smell of vaporized lead filled the air as Ember shook out her wrists, the flames along her armor flaring brighter with each movement.
"Come on, Talon," she taunted, rolling her shoulders. "You'll have to do better than that."
Behind them, another explosion rocked the district—closer this time.
The firelight revealed fresh burns along Karen's jacket sleeve where the radiant heat had already begun searing through fabric.
Karen backpedaled, putting distance between herself and the advancing Scorcher.
Her mind raced through options, but the cold truth settled in her gut—her prosthetic was just a basic limb replacement, no hidden weapons or combat augments.
Just an aluminum alloy and servos that already whined in protest from the heat.
Ember's laughter cut through the crackling flames.
"Hey now," she taunted, her voice dripping with mock concern, "this isn't the time for daydreaming!"
The Scorcher lunged forward in a burst of embers, her flaming gauntlets coming up to deflect another volley of gunfire.
Karen's bullets turned to molten slag mid-air, spraying droplets of liquid metal across the pavement.
Karen's boot heels scraped against broken concrete as she barely avoided the follow-up swing.
The heat radiating from Ember's fists blistered the paint on Karen's prosthetic, the metal beneath growing uncomfortably warm against her residual limb.
She needed space.
Needed time.
Her fingers found the Conduit in one smooth motion, thumb pressing the activation glyph with muscle memory born from hundreds of desperate nights.
The Rank 2—Kinetic Push flared to life, its blue-white runes painting jagged shadows across the crumbling walls.
The reaction was instantaneous.
Three corroded lamp posts wrenched free from their foundations with a scream of twisting metal.
The first struck Ember square in the chest, throwing her back fifteen steps in a shower of sparks.
The second and third came whipping horizontally like giant's clubs.
Ember's gauntlets came up—not fast enough.
The impact sent her skidding through the dirt, boots carving molten trenches in the pavement as she fought to slow her momentum.
At the last second, she planted her feet and caught the final post bare-handed.
For three heartbeats, they stood locked in the struggle—Karen's glyph versus Ember's unnatural strength.
Then the steel began to glow cherry red.
"Clever," Ember spat through gritted teeth as the metal softened in her grip.
"But heat..." The post sagged like taffy, molten droplets hissing against her armor. "...changes every—THING!"
With a final wrench, she tore the liquefied lamp post in two, the severed ends dripping glowing metal onto her boots.
Karen's fingers tightened around the Conduit.
This wasn't about winning.
This was about surviving long enough for—
A child's scream cut through the alleyway.