An Anomaly

Back in the training room, Leo was gaining confidence. As Neo sent in more drones, he found himself moving more fluidly, the shadows responding more readily to his thoughts. 

What had started as thin, weak threads of shadows were now solid whips that lashed out with increasing speed and precision.

"More," Leo called out, surprised by his own eagerness. "I need to push this further."

Neo glanced at Kaori, who nodded reluctantly. Neo pressed a button on her console, and six larger drones entered the training room, surrounding Leo in a tight formation.

"These are combat training models," Neo warned. "They're programmed with basic attack patterns used by C-class Awakened. Be careful."

Leo nodded, settling into a defensive stance. The drones attacked simultaneously from different angles, forcing him to react quickly. 

He ducked under one drone, lashing out with a shadow whip that wrapped around another. As the shadow made contact, Leo felt a rush of energy flow into him, making the shadows around his hand darken and solidify.

Three drones fired stun bullets at once. Leo instinctively raised his arm, and to everyone's surprise, the shadows around him rose up, forming a shield that absorbed the projectiles. The shield wavered for a moment, then collapsed, but not before Leo felt another surge of energy.

"Interesting," he muttered, grinning despite the sweat now beading on his forehead.

The drones attacked again, and this time Leo went on the offensive. He sent shadow whips in multiple directions, catching drones and draining their power until they dropped from the air. With each drone that fell, the shadows around Leo grew darker and more substantial.

By the time the last drone clattered to the floor, Leo stood in the center of the room, surrounded by a faint aura of darkness that seemed to pulse at the pace of his breathing. He looked up at the observation window, his eyes bright with excitement and something else, a longing for more control of his surroundings. The shadow realm had shown him how much of that he lacked.

"More," he called again, his voice sounding odd.

In the monitoring room, Neo and Kaori exchanged worried glances.

"His readings are off the charts," Neo said quietly. "The shadow energy is integrating with his Lumina cells at an exponential rate. We should stop for today."

Kaori nodded in agreement. "Shut it down. We need to analyze this data before proceeding further."

Neo reached for the controls, but before she could end the session, the lights in the monitoring room flickered. The screens displaying Leo's readings flashed with warning indicators, and a chill seemed to seep into the air.

"What's happening?" Kaori demanded, her hands instinctively raising as crystals began to form around her fingers.

Neo's fingers flew across the controls. "I don't know. Some kind of feedback from his abilities. It's affecting our systems."

They looked back at the training room's viewing window. Leo stood perfectly still, his eyes closed, the shadow aura around him expanding slowly. The fallen drones at his feet were now completely dark, as if all color had been drained from them.

"Leo!" Neo called through the intercom. "That's enough for today!"

Leo's eyes opened slowly, and for a brief moment, they appeared completely black. Then he blinked, and the darkness receded. The shadow aura faded, and the lights in the monitoring room stabilized.

"Sorry," Leo said, his voice back to normal. "I got a bit carried away."

Neo released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "It's fine. That's why we're training, to understand the limits. We'll analyze the data and continue tomorrow."

As Leo exited the training room, Neo turned to Kaori, her expression serious. "We need to be careful with this. His abilities are evolving rapidly."

"Too rapidly," Kaori agreed. "And there's something else. Did you feel it? When his powers peaked, it was like something was looking back at us. Something that wasn't him."

Meanwhile, thousands of miles from Neo-Tokyo, in a GPA command center in Geneva, a different kind of observation was taking place. In a neat room, with polished floors that reflected the simple but luxurious furnishing lay a large holo-table, a three-dimensional display platform that could project detailed interactive holograms for strategic planning and surveillance.

A tall, broad-shouldered man with hawk-like eyes stood before the table. He was wearing a sleek, black tactical suit with red lines on certain parts for the transfer of energy. He had a flame-shaped scar on the side of his neck with short black hair and red eyes that could chase kids away with a glance. 

Alongside him stood a slightly shorter blonde woman in her late thirties, the pin on her chest read, General Selene Graves.

On the holo-table was a hologram of a brown-haired man with emerald-green eyes. It was a wanted alert for Leo Voss, for the price of two hundred million AC or Alliance Credits, a currency formed when the world united under the GPA.

"Our sources confirm Voss is with the resistance," General Graves said, her voice cold. "Energy readings from their known locations show unusual activity consistent with a new type of Awakened ability."

The man studied the hologram without speaking, his gray eyes taking in every detail of Leo's face.

"We believe the Yamashita woman is training him," Graves continued. "Which means they view his knowledge as valuable. Our science division is... concerned about the readings we've intercepted at the location where he was last seen."

"An anomaly," the man said, speaking for the first time. His voice was deep.

"Precisely." Graves tapped a command into the holo-table, and the image changed to show Neo. "You know her, of course."

The man's expression remained neutral, but something flickered in his eyes as he looked at Neo's image, recognition, perhaps, or something more personal.

"Find Voss. Neutralize the Anomaly, and if you can, capture Kaori Yamashita." General Graves ordered. "As for her right hand Neo... You know what to do."

The man nodded, taking one last glance at Neo's image, before picking up the Neo-Weapon beside him and leaving. The weapon, a highly advanced fusion of technology and Awakened energy, invented by the very Neo he would be going after.

As the door closed behind him, General Graves turned back to the holo-table, studying Leo's image with cold calculation.

"Who are you?" she murmured to the hologram. "And how much do you know?"