The city of Sherwood was a blur of neon and rain through the lenses of Elizabeth West’s tactical cowl. As Nightshadow, she had spent the last three hours scouring the darker corners of the district, her gut twisting with a seasoned hunter’s instinct. The "Santiago Frequency" was a ghost she had chased before, but tonight, the air felt different—thicker, like a storm held in a bottle.
Her comm-link exploded with a jagged burst of static that made her wince.
"Nightshadow! Elizabeth! Code White!" Austin’s voice was hysterical, breaking over a wave of digital interference. "The signal... it’s got her! I’ve lost her neural feed! She’s at the old textile mill on 4th! Please, get her out!"
Elizabeth didn't waste a breath. She banked her cycle hard, the tires screaming against the asphalt. "I'm two minutes out, Austin. Keep that localized scrambler running. If I can't break her out, I'll have to shut her down."
The Sight of the Gallery
The heavy iron doors of the warehouse didn't stand a chance against Elizabeth’s explosive entry. She surged into the room, bow notched, her eyes scanning for threats.
She stopped dead.
The violet light was suffocating. In the center of the cold concrete floor stood the missing women, but they were no longer the focus. Standing at the head of the line was the Starlight Legacy.
Laura was completely nude, her school clothes and armor scattered like debris around her feet. Her athletic, porcelain skin glistened under the rhythmic pulse of the overhead lights. But it was her face that made Elizabeth’s heart cold—her blue eyes were gone, replaced by that terrifying, milky white void, and her mouth was stretched into a radiant, wide, and vacant smile.
"Laura..." Elizabeth whispered, her bow trembling.
"She doesn't hear you, Commander," Mr. Puppet’s voice drifted from the shadows. "She only hears the correction. Subject 001... defend the Master. Initiate Starlight."
The Corrupted Armor
Without a word, Laura’s hand twitched. Even without her manual input, the Cybergem on the floor reacted to her neural signature. The armor didn't just snap on; it seemed to crawl onto her nude, shivering body like a living shadow.
The green-and-purple plating locked into place, but the eyes of her mask flickered with a jagged, unstable violet light instead of her usual heroic green.
"Laura, look at me!" Elizabeth shouted, side-stepping a sudden, violent blast of gravity energy that shattered a crate behind her. "It's Elizabeth! Fight the hum!"
"The Master is the only voice," Laura droned, her voice a shivering, mechanical echo through the suit’s vocoder.
She lunged. The speed was terrifying. Laura wasn't holding back; she was a weapon with no conscience, her movements dictated by the Puppet’s cold, mathematical algorithms.
The Fight for a Soul
Elizabeth flipped backward, narrowly avoiding a localized gravity well that threatened to pin her to the floor. She notched a non-lethal disruptor arrow, her fingers hovering over the release.
I can't hurt her. I can't break the suit, Elizabeth thought, her mind racing. But if I don't stop her, she'll kill me.
She fired. The arrow hissed through the air, aimed perfectly at the Cybergem on Laura’s chest. If she could just short out the power source, the brainwashing might flicker.
But Laura didn't dodge. With a chilling, robotic grace, she caught the arrow mid-air, the shaft snapping in her armored fist.
"The Commander is... noise," Laura whispered, her white eyes glowing behind the mask. "Master... may I silence the noise?"
"Give her the peace of the doll, Laura," Mr. Puppet chuckled from the mezzanine.
Laura’s thrusters ignited with a roar. She slammed into Elizabeth, pinning the legendary hero against the warehouse wall with a force that cracked the brick.
"L... Laura... please..." Elizabeth gasped, her hands gripping Laura's armored wrists, trying to find any spark of the girl she knew.
Above them, Austin’s voice began to bleed through the warehouse PA system, a jagged rock of sound in the smooth lake of the hypnosis. "LAURA! REMEMBER THE PIER! REMEMBER THE CHOCOLATE CROISSANT!"
The armored hands around Elizabeth’s throat flickered. The violet light in Laura's mask began to stutter.
ns216.73.216.98da2 
and then Add to home screen.