The world didn't end when Daniella’s heart stopped. That was the cruelest part. The sirens in the distance kept wailing, the neon signs kept flickering, and the rain began to fall, washing the salt of my tears into the crimson pool on the concrete.
"Dani, please," I choked out, clutching her cold hand. "Wake up. You have to be the hero. I don't know how."
But the only answer was the sudden, violent scream of the Watch.
It wasn't a sound, but a vibration that shattered the glass in the nearby streetlamps. The heavy silver cuff on my wrist split open, revealing a core of swirling violet energy. It felt like a thousand needles of ice and fire were sewing themselves into my skin.
A voice, synthesized and ancient, echoed directly into my mind:
BIOMETRIC LOCK: RELEASED.
EMOTIONAL RESONANCE: CRITICAL LEVEL.
INITIATING DEFENSE PROTOCOL: CYBERGIRL.
I watched in terror as liquid metal—dark, iridescent purple—leaked from the Watch and raced up my arm. It didn't just cover me; it felt like it was replacing my skin. It spread across my chest, forming a sleek, lightweight breastplate, and coiled down my legs into reinforced boots.
Then came the green.
The air around my forearms and shoulders began to solidify. It was hard-light—a shimmering, translucent emerald green that formed jagged armor plating over the purple base. It looked like science, but it felt like spells.
I stood up, but I didn't feel my own weight. I felt like a weapon. My vision shifted into a digital HUD, highlighting the raindrops in mid-air and tracing the heat signature of the man who had just vanished into the alley.
"Target acquired," I whispered. My own voice sounded different—deeper, layered with a metallic hum.
I didn't run. I launched.
Rocket thrusters concealed in my boots ignited with a violet flare. I cleared the height of the dumpsters in a single leap, landing at the end of the alley. The gunman was there, fumbling with a stolen car door. He turned, his face twisting in a mask of pure terror as he saw me—a ghost of purple metal and glowing green constructs standing in the rain.
"What are you?!" he shrieked, raising the rusted revolver.
Click. Click. He pulled the trigger, but the bullets never reached me.
A green energy construct, shaped like a honeycomb shield, flickered into existence in front of my palm. The lead flattened against the light and fell harmlessly to the ground.
I stepped forward. My hand felt heavy. With a thought, the green light on my gauntlet extended, shaping itself into a humming blade of pure energy.
"You took her world," I said, the violet glow of my visor reflecting in his wide eyes. "Now I'm taking yours."
I raised the blade. My heart was a storm of grief, and the Watch was feeding on every bit of it. I wanted to strike. I wanted the rivers of science and magic to erase him from existence.
But then, a flicker of a memory passed through the HUD. Daniella, smiling at breakfast. The world keeps turning... promise me you'll keep living.
If I killed him here, in the dark, I wasn't the sister she loved. I was just another monster from a dying world.
The green blade flickered and vanished. I grabbed the man by the collar of his hoodie, lifting him off the ground with a strength I didn't know I had.
"You're going to tell the police exactly what you did," I growled. "And you're going to pray they get here before I change my mind."
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