The underbelly of New Havoc stank of ozone and desperation. Alex hid in a derelict subway tunnel, his stolen jacket singed from the prison fire. His hands still sparked unpredictably—yesterday, he'd accidentally fried a vending machine.
A voice cut through the gloom: "You look like hell, Sparky."
Alex whirled. A young woman leaned against a graffiti-covered pillar, neon-blue hair glowing under a UV strip light. She tossed him a protein bar. "Eat. You'll need it."
"Who are you?" Alex growled.
"Jade. And you're the guy who blacked out half the city's grid escaping Blackgate." She smirked. "Saw it on the Eclipse News Network. They're calling you a terrorist."
Alex crushed the protein bar wrapper. "What do you want?"
"Same as you. To burn Eclipse Corp to the ground." She nodded to a rusted door. "Come on. I've got a present for you."
---
Jade's hideout was a hacker's nest—screens flickered with code, and the walls were plastered with Eclipse Corp blueprints. In the center lay a black bodysuit, its surface shimmering like liquid graphite.
"Try it on," Jade said. "Graphene-laced fabric. Channels electricity, protects your squishy bits."
Alex stripped to his waist, the scars from prison experiments glaring under the harsh light. "Why help me?"
Jade welded a carbon-fiber plate to the suit's chest. "Let's just say Marcus Kane owes me... a family."
Alex froze. "You're his—"
"Daughter? Biologically." Her voice turned icy. "He left my mom to die in an Eclipse 'accident.' Now he's CEO. So yeah, I'm invested in his downfall."
---
That night, Alex tested the suit.
Razor, a gang leader with a face like knotted rope, held a knife to a shopkeeper's throat. "Pay up, old man, or I'll carve you a new smile."
Alex dropped from a fire escape, his suit humming. "How about *you* pay?"
Lightning snapped from his palm, severing Razor's blade. The thugs fled, but Razor lunged. Alex sidestepped, grabbing the man's wrist. Electricity surged—Razor collapsed, twitching.
The shopkeeper gaped. "Who... *are* you?"
Alex melted into the shadows. "Just a reckoning."
---
Back at the hideout, Jade replayed news clips:
"*Vigilante or Menace?*" blared a headline.
Marcus Kane's face filled the screen. "This 'Neon Shadow' is a dangerous radical. Eclipse Corp will restore order."
Jade froze the frame. Behind Kane stood a hulking figure wreathed in flames.
"Meet Pyroclasm," she said. "Project Rebirth's first success."
Alex's fists crackled. "He's next."