The gray thread in Evan's hand brightened as if taking a breath. And far beneath the streets, thousands of faint pulses answered that breath at the same time.
Lowwater shifted around him. Not in danger. Not in fear.Just… aware.
Aelira's voice came through the comm, shaky but trying to stay analytical."Evan, those signatures are stabilizing. They're syncing temperature patterns across the district."
Cairn cut in. "They shouldn't even have temperature. This makes no sense."
"It does," Evan said quietly. "They learned it."
His visor flickered as the new sense expanded.
THERMAL SENSE — EXPANDEDCITYWIDE READ — PARTIALGRAY THREADS — MOVING
The world lit up.Gray filaments drifted across the city: sliding through alleys, hovering around rooftops, moving along power lines and railways.
Not attacking.Not corrupting.Just mapping the same invisible rhythm Evan carried in his stride.
Aelira sounded stunned. "They're using your running patterns as a baseline. They're not syncing to the Lattice—they're syncing to you."
"That's impossible," Cairn muttered. But even he didn't sound convinced.
Evan hopped off the smelter roof. He landed softly on the street below. The gray threads followed, drifting down around him in a slow spiral. When he stepped forward, they moved with him. When he tapped the pavement lightly with his heel—an old warm-up habit—the threads pulsed the same rhythm a split second later.
Aelira whispered, "Evan… it's mirroring your movements."
He crouched.The threads floated closer. They weren't hostile. They weren't lost. They were learning.
"What do you want?" he asked.
The filaments trembled, then steadied.They tilted slightly, mimicking the angle of Evan's head as he studied them.
Aelira saw it too."Oh my god… it's trying to communicate through physical patterns. It's using your movement as its language."
Before Evan could respond, a deep rumble rolled across the city.It wasn't thunder.The Lattice itself shuddered.
Cairn's voice sharpened instantly. "That came from the eastern sector. Node Eight. That was a network-level alert. Not random. Someone hit it."
Aelira pulled the feed. She froze mid-sentence."It's not an Ashcode fragment. It's not one of the threads. It's—"
Her voice died.
Evan already felt it.
His thermal sense locked onto a single figure walking the long road through the industrial valley. A humanoid shape, cold as stone. Black lightning slid off his outline like cracks in reality.
Cross.
The air around Evan tightened. The filaments behind him flickered with something like fear, pulling closer to his back like startled animals.
Aelira whispered, "Evan… he wasn't supposed to be awake yet."
Cairn swore under his breath. "His signature's higher than last time. Something changed in him."
Evan didn't reply.
He took one step forward. The threads moved with him, forming a drifting halo around his shoulders.
Cross finally spoke, voice carrying not through the air but through the Lattice in a low vibrating growl.
"You're louder than before. Good. It means breaking you will be more interesting."
The black lightning around him flared.
The gray filaments behind Evan recoiled sharply, pulsing in distress.
Evan lowered his stance. Violet arcs licked across his armor.
"Cross," he said quietly, "you're early."
Cross tilted his head, mimicking the exact tilt the threads had copied earlier.
"No," he answered. "You're late."
Silence fell over the district.
Then the ground beneath Evan glowed violet.
RUNBREAKER FORM — FULL SYNCWARNING: HOSTILE COUNTERSIGNAL APPROACHINGASHCODE THREADS: DISTRESSED
Aelira's voice broke through in a panic."Evan, MOVE! He's charging—"
A streak of black lightning tore down the street.
Evan ran.
The city ran with him.