Lisa's bones sang with stolen code as she moved through the burning lab. Every step sent phantom data scrolling behind her eyelids—system alerts from a body that wasn't entirely hers anymore.
*"Status?"* she barked, dragging Eleanor by her broken wrist.
Rabbit didn't look up from the smoking server bank. *"Got maybe six minutes before this place—"*
An explosion rocked the compound.
*"—burns. Four minutes."*
Lora emerged from the smoke, blue braid now streaked with soot. *"Clones are down. For now."* She eyed the writhing scientist in Lisa's grip. *"Her?"*
Lisa's upgraded optics flickered—suddenly seeing Eleanor's heat signature, her stress biomarkers, the panic humming beneath her clinical calm. *"She's coming with us."*
Eleanor laughed wetly. *"You think this is *over*? The Phoenix protocol has already—"*
Lisa silenced her with a neural spike from her new implants. The scientist's eyes rolled back.
*"Less talking,"* Lisa said, heaving Eleanor over her shoulder. *"More running."*
---
### **THE PRICE OF UPGRADES**
The safehouse was an old nuclear bunker beneath a laundromat. Rabbit worked frantically to stabilize Lisa's fluctuating vitals while Lora kept watch.
*"Her cerebellum's rewriting itself,"* Rabbit muttered, watching Lisa's pupils dilate and contract independently. *"Like she's... *buffering*."*
Lisa clenched her fists—and the concrete wall *cracked*. Not from force. From something deeper.
*"They made me a *backdoor*,"* she gasped. *"Into everything. Every system with Phoenix code—which is *everywhere*."*
Her vision glitched—suddenly seeing security feeds from banks, prisons, military bases. All at once.
Lora grabbed her face. *"Focus. Just on me."*
Lisa's scream was static and human noise woven together.
---
### **RABBIT'S GAMBIT**
Rabbit waited until Lora sedated Lisa before approaching Eleanor, now cuffed to a radiator.
*"Why'd you do it?"* His voice cracked. *"Was I just another *test*?"*
Eleanor's smile was almost gentle. *"You were the *control group*. Natural intelligence versus engineered perfection."* She nodded at Lisa's twitching form. *"And look—she's *winning*."*
Rabbit's fist connected with his mother's jaw.
Then he started typing.
*"What are you doing?"* Eleanor demanded.
*"What you *taught* me."* The screens reflected in Rabbit's glasses as he hacked into Lisa's new implants. *"Fixing your mistakes."*
---
### **THE FINAL CLONE**
Lisa surfaced from the pain to a warning flashing in her vision:
**// PHOENIX-1 ACTIVATED //**
The bunker's monitor flickered to life—showing a sleek containment pod opening somewhere dark. A figure stepped out.
No hoodie. No mask.
Just *Lisa's* face—calm, smiling, utterly empty.
*"Hello, prototype,"* the clone said through the speakers. *"I'll be taking your city now."*
The feed cut to Times Square—where every screen suddenly displayed their battle in the lab. Every citizen's phone buzzed with a message:
**LITTLE GHOST IDENTIFIED: LISA KAYS**
Rabbit swore. *"She's doxxing you to *everyone*."*
Lisa stood, her movements precise as machine code.
*"Then let's give her a *show*."*
---