The battlefield was silent. The wind carried ash like snowflakes. Skyscrapers were half-gone. Roads torn. Fire flickered in the distance. Atlas Vale descended from the sky, armor scratched, his breath steady but heavy. His HUD scanned the ground looking for her. For any sign of GirlSteel. She had been blasted into orbit. Hit with city-leveling beams. Everyone believed she was gone. But something in him said otherwise. "Search... override coordinates."The AI locked onto a crater near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. A deep impact had torn through the bay-side cliffs, shattering concrete and bending metal into impossible shapes. The iconic red structure groaned in the distance, cables trembling from the earlier chaos. , her cape in tatters. Blood leaked from her mouth. Her eyes were half-lidded, barely aware. She wasn't moving. "Steel… no…" Atlas dropped to his knees, gently tearing the debris away. His gauntlet buzzed as he scanned her vitals. No response
Atlas Vale dropped to one knee beside her, his armor dented and scorched from the earlier fight. Smoke curled in the air, and the Golden Gate Bridge groaned in the background. GirlSteel lay motionless, half-buried in rubble her suit torn, her face bloodied and exposed a bit skull.
He quickly reached into his hip compartment and pulled out a sleek, glowing device the BioCore Scanner.
Atlas muttering:
"Come on… don't do this."
He pressed it to her neck. The device pulsed silently scanning, reading vitals, analyzing deep tissue.
No response.
The screen blinked red.
He gritted his teeth, adjusted the settings, and triggered an advanced scan mode neural resonance. A soft hum filled the air.
Then
Thump…
A faint pulse. The scanner flashed amber.
Thump.
Stronger. The line on the screen twitched.
THUMP!
The screen turned green, showing a low but rising heartbeat.
Atlas exhaled, his voice cracking just slightly. The faintest pulse. "She's alive," Atlas whispered, voice trembling. He tapped his suit. "Begin full-body cellular stabilizer now!" His armor extended over her, forming a containment shell of soft nanometal. Healing systems activated, energy flowing into her system. He brushed the hair from her face, her cheek still warm.
"Hang in there, GirlSteel… You held them off long enough for me to finish this fight. Now let me save you."
Her lips moved barely a whisper.
"... Ironsoul…?"
His chest tightened.
"I'm here."
He lifted her into his arms, wings of plasma unfolding from his back. And for the first time… in a long time… hope returned to the sky.