Lowwater was shaking.
Not from an earthquake. Not from collapsing rails or failing power lines.It shook because two storms were tearing through it at speeds no city was built to survive.
Evan hit the ground running, sliding under a spray of black lightning that carved a smoking trench where he'd stood half a second earlier. His armor was cracked down one arm, the violet glow flickering like it struggled to stay lit. Every breath felt like swallowing broken glass.
But Cross was worse.
Black lightning pulsed unpredictably from his body, uncontrolled, wild. His movements were sharper, more violent than before—almost frantic. The city lights around him dimmed, flickered, died. Concrete sagged under his footsteps as if gravity bent differently around him.
He wasn't just fighting Evan.
He was breaking the Lattice with every move.
Evan sprinted along a collapsing avenue, rails lighting up beneath him as the city tried desperately to hold itself together.
[RUNBREAKER FIELD — 71%] [LATTICE STABILITY — CRITICAL] [ASHCODE THREADS — SCATTERED / HIDING]
Aelira came through the comm, breathless, scared."Evan—if Cross hits Node Zero, it'll cascade. The whole city will black out. You won't have speed, the Lattice will break, and—"
"Then I can't let him get there."
Another blast of black lightning tore past his cheek, close enough to burn the edge of his visor.
Cross appeared in front of him in a blink—no teleport, no phasing. He simply stepped into existence like reality didn't get a vote.
"You're slowing," Cross said. "You feel it, don't you? The Lattice screaming? The rails dying? Every step you take is weaker than the last."
Evan braced, keeping his stance low. "You're falling apart too."
Cross smiled, teeth dark with static. "Falling apart is still more than you'll ever be."
He raised his hand.
Black lightning spiraled outward in a wave—power raw enough to twist street signs and crush light poles.
Evan threw his Overdrive field forward.
The shockwaves collided.
The street shattered.
For a moment, everything was fire and thunder and metal splinters spinning through the air.
Evan hit the ground hard. He skidded twenty yards, carving a long scrape in the pavement until he smashed into the side of a bus. The impact knocked the breath out of him, helmet ringing, lungs burning.
Cross walked toward him.
Not fast.Deliberate.
Every step made the air shake.
"You were supposed to be the one worth chasing," Cross said quietly. "You were supposed to be the one who understood. But you're just a heartbeat in a dying machine."
He lifted his foot—black lightning coiling around it.
He aimed to crush Evan's chest.
The city reacted first.
Rails under the street lit up in a violet flash and sent a surge of energy straight into Evan's armor.
[RUNBREAKER BOOST — EMERGENCY PULSE] [ENERGY — SPIKE] [SPEED — RESTORED]
He moved.
Evan rolled aside just as Cross's foot hit the bus, crushing it flat with a metallic scream. Evan slammed his hands against the ground and launched himself upward with a burst of pure velocity.
He hit Cross across the jaw with a crack of violet lightning.
For the first time in hours—Cross stumbled.
The villain wiped dark blood from his mouth, amused. "There he is."
Evan didn't hesitate.
He sprinted, leaving afterimages that coiled like violet ribbons. He punched Cross in the chest, the neck, the ribs, the shoulder—each blow faster than the last, each one detonating with the full force of Runbreaker sync.
Cross caught Evan's final punch in his palm.
"Faster," he whispered.
Evan pushed harder.
The ground beneath them fractured. Windows shattered for blocks.
Cross pushed back.
Evan slid backward across the street, boots carving trenches in the pavement.
He needed more speed. More force. More anything.
But the Lattice was dying. The city was choking. And Cross's field was getting stronger.
Aelira screamed in his ear, "EVAN, YOU HAVE TO FINISH THIS—NOW!"
Evan saw it then.
A metal pole—part of a fallen rail support—lying across the street behind Cross. Long, sharp, heavy.
Runbreaker form hummed, like it understood his intent.
Evan didn't think. He moved.
He sprinted backward, letting Cross think he was retreating. Cross lunged forward, black lightning twisting space behind him like a living shadow.
Evan hit the far wall, ran straight up it, flipped, hit the opposite building, flipped again, and tore across the sky like a thrown blade.
He grabbed the pole mid-run.
Violet lightning wrapped around the metal, heating it until it glowed white-hot.
Cross looked up, eyes narrowing.
"That won't work."
"It'll work," Evan growled, "because I'm done holding back."
He dropped.
Not feet-first.
Pole-first.
Cross swung a black lightning blade of his own—but Evan twisted midair, letting the attack graze his shoulder. Armor cracked, flesh burned, pain tore through him—
—but he kept moving.
He drove the pole downward with every ounce of speed the city had left.
Cross tried to step aside—
—but the Ashcode threads poured out from every hiding place, swarming around his legs, his arms, his chest. They didn't attack him. They simply held him for one fraction of a second.
Just enough.
The pole pierced Cross's chest with a wet, tearing sound.
It drove straight through him and into the street, pinning him to the ground.
Cross's eyes widened, the black lightning around him collapsing into sparks.
"You—" he gasped, voice glitching. "You actually—"
Evan didn't let him finish.
He twisted the pole hard.
Cross choked on his own breath, blood filling his mouth. Black lightning flickered violently, then dimmed.
Evan leaned close.
"No more running," he said. "No more chances. No more coming back."
Cross's head dropped forward.
The storm inside him died.
Black lightning faded into nothing.
The pole glowed red, then cooled, smoke rising from the hole in Cross's chest.
[HOSTILE ENTITY — TERMINATED] [LATTICE INSTABILITY — DECREASING] [CITY STATUS — RECOVERING] [ASHCODE THREADS — STABILIZING] [RUNBREAKER SYNC — NORMALIZING]
Evan stood over the body, shaking, bleeding, breathing hard.
The city around him slowly brightened—rails lighting, power resuming, the hum returning to the streets like a heartbeat finding its rhythm again.
Aelira whispered through the comm, voice breaking.
"Evan… is it over?"
He looked down at Cross.
At the pole. At the body that had hunted him for months.
And he said the only thing that mattered.
"Yeah," Evan breathed. "It's over."
He turned away.
Lowwater exhaled with him.