Cyberpunk City AI

The echo of the metal hatch slamming shut above them faded into silence.

Beneath the shop, the maintenance shaft extended like the artery of a dead god—concrete, rust-stained, and lined with severed data cables that still sparked weakly in the dark. Faint emergency lights hummed every thirty meters, casting sickly amber shadows across the group as they descended deeper into Iron Alley’s underbelly.

Kael moved ahead, silent except for the sound of his boots on the damp floor. Kira followed, hand on the satchel. Liora brought up the rear, her eyes scanning the low ceiling for signs of collapse.

Then it pulsed.

The satchel vibrated once. Not violently—but enough to make Kira stop.

“What was that?” Liora asked.

Kira didn’t answer right away. She slipped the satchel off her shoulder and slowly unzipped it. Inside, the vial of Luminis was glowing brighter than it ever had. Its light wasn’t steady—it pulsed in erratic waves, flickering like it was reacting to something outside their awareness. Kael stepped back, shielding his eyes slightly.

“It’s never done that before,” Kira muttered.

“Something’s wrong,” Liora whispered.

Kael knelt beside them. “This shaft runs beneath the old NeuroCorp research corridor. No one goes down there. But if something’s still active…”

The vial pulsed harder.

And then—

crack.

Glass spiderwebbed across the surface. A tiny hiss escaped from the pressure. Before any of them could react, the vial ruptured with a soft pop—spilling glowing liquid across the shaft floor. It spread fast, like mercury and light had merged into something living. The glow didn’t fade. It deepened. Like it had fed on the rupture.

Kira instinctively stepped back—but it was too late. The fluid crawled around her boot, lapping at the edges of her heel, before receding like a tide. Into the cracks. Into the walls.

And then—

A tremor.

Soft at first. Then stronger. The shaft groaned as if awakening. Overhead, one of the amber lights flickered out.

Kael stood frozen, mouth open. “It… it just connected to the grid.”

“What grid?” Liora asked.

Kael looked at her, eyes wide behind his lenses. “I think… all of it.”