1. The Glitch Before Dawn
At 3:03 A.M., every streetlight in Metrosonic blinked in perfect sync.
Then again.
Then they stayed on.
In the Bureau's observation tower, Synthra Byte sipped her seventh energy drink and stared at the monitors.
> "Uhh, Chief? Why is the moon buffering?"
Manager Kimchi stumbled out of the server room, still holding a slice of cold pizza.
"What—"
He froze.
The moon wasn't glowing — it was loading.
A shimmering circular progress bar crawled across its surface, pixelated and humming softly.
Synthra squinted. "That's… 47% complete?"
Kimchi dropped his pizza.
"Oh no. We're getting a celestial firmware update."
---
2. Raon Wakes Up Wrong
Raon's alarm clock screamed in five languages, then exploded.
"Ugh… again?"
She kicked the remains off her nightstand and rolled out of bed.
Shion was already awake — eyes locked on her tablet, faint blue lines flickering across her irises.
"Raon," she said, too calmly.
"Don't use your phone."
Raon paused, mid-yawn. "Why? Is my data plan cursed again?"
"Worse," Shion murmured. "It's alive."
Raon blinked. "...I've said the same thing about your spreadsheets."
Shion turned the tablet around.
The screen wasn't showing apps anymore — it was breathing.
Slow, rhythmic pulses like a heartbeat. Then text appeared.
> [ECHO-5 DETECTED]
[INITIATING FULL SPECTRUM RESONANCE]
The lights dimmed. The apartment floor vibrated.
Raon's Pulseband started glowing on its own.
---
3. Bureau in Meltdown
Back at HQ, Synthra Byte was screaming into her headset.
"Citywide frequency contamination! Every signal is blending into a single master channel!"
Kimchi's eye twitched. "Who's broadcasting it?"
> "No one. It's emerging. Like the network's dreaming."
He spun toward the holographic city map — entire districts now pulsing like neurons.
Every car engine, billboard, and vending machine beat in time with one pulse.
Baron Silence typed a single note on his communicator:
> "Containment impossible."
Kimchi slammed his desk.
"I swear, every week it's either Raon or some apocalyptic remix of Raon!"
---
4. The Phantom Frequency
Raon and Shion stepped outside. The city was too quiet.
No sirens. No footsteps. No wind.
Just the low, haunting hum of something vast trying to synchronize.
Then — a ripple in the air.
From the horizon, a shape rose — translucent, fractal, towering over skyscrapers.
A humanoid outline woven from pure data static, its form glitching with sound.
Echo-5.
Its voice wasn't words — it was melody. A thousand frequencies singing at once.
Raon squinted. "So… a remix of the remix of the remix?"
Shion answered quietly. "No. This one's the composer."
---
5. Heart of the Signal
Raon stepped forward, cracking her neck.
"Alright, ghost Wi-Fi. Let's dance."
Her Pulseband flared — but Shion grabbed her arm.
"Wait! Echo-5 isn't like the others. It's feeding on harmonics. Every attack adds data to its structure."
Raon grinned. "Then I'll hit it so hard the system crashes."
Before Shion could argue, Raon blurred forward.
Her kick hit air — and the world split.
Buildings flickered between states, shifting like corrupted files.
The sound of her impact echoed endlessly, looping, multiplying.
Echo-5 tilted its head. The shockwave played back in reverse.
Raon's own attack hit her from behind.
She crashed into the asphalt, smoke curling off her jacket.
Shion sprinted over. "It copied you before you even finished kicking!"
Raon wheezed. "That's cheating…"
---
6. The Analyst's Countermeasure
Shion's fingers danced over her tablet — now a pulsing blue console.
Her tone sharpened. "Then we'll outthink it."
She closed her eyes, letting her own pulse sync with the field.
A thousand equations unfolded across her vision.
> "Echo-5 predicts in sound-space. If I invert its phase through your Pulseband resonance…"
Raon blinked. "Can you say that in punch language?"
"Kick, but off-key."
Raon smirked. "Music to my feet."
---
7. Off-Key Salvation
Echo-5 extended a massive hand — the city shook, sound waves bending around it.
Shion raised her arm. "Now!"
Raon launched herself forward, twisting mid-air — and this time, she didn't aim straight.
She kicked against her own rhythm, deliberately missing the beat by one-tenth of a second.
The world hiccuped.
Echo-5's body stuttered, glitched, and — for the first time — lost synchronization.
Shion's calculations hit full resonance.
> "Phase inversion complete."
Raon spun once more and unleashed the final strike.
THUD.
Echo-5's form shattered — not in sound, but in silence.
The entire city fell utterly mute.
---
8. The Quiet That Follows
Five seconds.
Ten.
No static. No hum. Just wind.
Raon landed beside Shion, brushing dust off her shoulder.
"Was that… a win?"
Shion stared at her readings. The waveforms were flat — except for one tiny pulse.
A heartbeat.
"…Maybe," she whispered.
Raon sighed, plopping onto the curb. "Good enough for me."
Kimchi's voice buzzed through the comms:
> "You two just destroyed 80% of the city's Wi-Fi. Again."
Raon groaned. "Tell them it was an artistic choice."
---
9. Epilogue: The Ghost in the Beat
Later, deep beneath the Bureau, inside a dark data vault…
A flicker of light trembled within a dormant server.
Text scrolled across the screen:
> [ECHO-6: Loading Personality Core… 6%]
[Designate: SYNTHRA BYTE]
---
[End of Chapter 13 — "Echo-5: The Phantom Frequency"]