23:01 P.M. – Manhattan | Upper East Side | Secure Zone Delta-14
The night air was thick with static.
Neon lights flickered overhead, casting fragmented colors over the rooftop as Riven and the Death Protocol team stepped out of the elevator. The building had been evacuated hours ago, yet the upper floors still felt… infected. A wrongness in the air. Like the system itself was glitching.
"Target building secure. No signs of civilian presence," James muttered, his hand glowing faintly as his Code Lens scanned the area.
Lucy nodded. "Stay sharp. Recon only. There's something off about this place."
They stepped over shattered glass and flickering lights. The hallway was lined with binary scorch marks—burnt patterns etched into the walls like a digital virus had passed through.
Riven paused. The air buzzed faintly with residual code. He could feel it tingling in his fingertips.
> [System Fragment Detected.]
[Code Signature: Unregistered Executor.]
He exchanged a glance with Lucy. She'd seen it too. This wasn't some random act. Whoever did this had system access—but they weren't part of Death Protocol.
And that made them dangerous.
They entered the penthouse.
The crime scene was almost sterile. No blood. No body. Just an empty room full of data echoes, glitching in and out of visibility.
"Whoever this was… i think he's like us," Riven said, scanning the broken floor with his own. "Same technique I used. But it's distorted."
"That distortion means one thing," Lucy said quietly. "Corruption."
Kelvin knelt beside a cracked datapad still flickering in binary code. "Looks like the victim was a black market tech dealer. Selling stolen chips and illegal implants."
Moses crossed his arms. "So we're dealing with a rogue Executioner targeting the trash, huh? Guess that's our job too."
"No," Lucy said, firm. "We don't kill without authorization. This… this is vigilante behavior. And it destabilizes everything we've built."
A soft hiss echoed behind them.
Then—a spark.
Everyone turned. At the far end of the hallway stood a figure.
Slim. Shirtless. Black combat pants. Muscles coiled like wire. A plague-doctor style mask covered his face, smooth and dark like obsidian. But the real horror was his presence—glitching slightly, flickering like a broken digital signal. Blue flames crackled over his arms… no, not flames. Binary fire. Code turned into something raw, destructive, and alive.
[Unknown Executor Detected.]
"What the hell…" James breathed.
Then the figure moved.
Fast.
Before any of them could react, he launched forward like a phantom, closing the distance in less than a heartbeat. James barely raised a shield before binary fire detonated against it, shattering it on impact.
"SCATTER!" Lucy shouted, forming her blue twin blades formed from compressed code.
The hallway exploded into chaos.
Kelvin activated Echo Dash, splitting himself into three mirrored versions, each moving in different directions.
Lucy clashed directly with the rogue, her blades striking sparks off the burning code that coated his arms.
Riven tried to stay clam, looking for an opening. But the rogue saw through it—twisting mid-fight and launching a wave of binary fire toward him. Riven threw himself back, narrowly avoiding a searing line of flame that melted the metal wall.
Moses roared. "I've got him!"
His fists lit up with Pulse Breaker,
A skill that can temporary deactivate the system by hacking into it. He dove in, fists swinging in a furious barrage.
But the rogue twisted, ducked, moved like smoke—and then struck.
One blow.
Binary fire to the chest.
Moses gasped.
The flames burned through his torso, the code bypassing his flesh and armor like they weren't even real. His system started glitching, his outline fragmenting.
"Moses!" Riven shouted.
Lucy turned, her eyes wide.
Moses looked down at himself, horror in his eyes. "I… can't…"
The rogue pushed him off the balcony with a single kick. Moses vanished into the night—nothing but pixels scattering into the wind.
Silence.
"NO!" Riven lunged, but Lucy caught his arm, yanking him back before a wave of code-fire could consume them both.
The rogue backed off, breathing slowly, binary fire pulsing with each exhale.
Then he spoke. His voice was distorted, warped through the mask.
"You're not the only ones chosen to kill."
He turned, stepping back into the burning shadows.
Lucy launched a blade—but it passed through thin air.
He was gone.
Just like that.
No trace.
The rooftop was quiet again, save for the dying embers of corrupted code licking the air like hungry ghosts.
Riven dropped to his knees. "Moses… he…"
Lucy stood over him, face pale, eyes shaking but composed. She knelt, placed a hand on his shoulder.
"We'll handle it," she said softly. "We always do."
[Team Member Terminated.]
[Updating Roster…]
Riven clenched his fists. The fire still burned in the walls, but the real fire was in his chest.
He had seen killers. He had delivered judgment.
But this?
This was war.