Ghosts in the wires

Cyberpunk 2097

The neon glow of Neo-Tokyo flickered against the rain-soaked alley where Zero and Alt-Del-F4 crouched behind a rusted dumpster. Their latest job had gone to hell fast—Overmind's forces were everywhere. Every bounty hunter, corp enforcer, and rogue AI was scanning the city for them.

"We need a place to lay low," Alt-Del-F4 whispered, her voice edged with frustration.

Zero adjusted his cybernetic visor, scanning the streets. "I'm open to ideas unless you want to bunk with a rat."

She smirked. "You talk too much. Follow me."

They moved through the shadows, dodging patrol drones. Every step felt like walking through a digital minefield—one wrong move, and they'd light up on every security feed in the city.

They found an abandoned arcade in the slums, its neon sign half-burned out, reading "Ga_ _e Ov_r."

"Fitting," Zero muttered as they stepped inside.

The air smelled of dust and ozone. The machines were dead, save for one: an old hacker terminal still faintly humming with energy.

"This could work," Alt-Del-F4 said, tapping the side of a broken console.

Zero leaned against a machine, watching her. "You ever think about what happens when this all ends?"

She glanced at him. "I don't plan for 'ends.' I plan for the next job."

There was a moment of silence, charged with something unspoken.

Before either could say more, the hacker terminal buzzed to life. Someone was trying to contact them.

"Zero. Alt. You shouldn't be here."

A distorted voice filled the room.

Zero tensed. "Who the hell—"

The screen flickered, showing a ghostly digital face.

"They found you."

Suddenly, the arcade's power shut down, and outside, footsteps echoed.

They had seconds before hell broke loose.

I'll continue and expand it properly. Here's the next part:

The arcade plunged into darkness, the only illumination coming from the faint glow of the hacker terminal. Zero's pulse quickened. Someone had found them, and it wasn't by accident.

Outside, heavy boots crunched against wet pavement. The sound of shifting metal followed—a telltale sign of cybernetic enforcers gearing up for a breach.

Alt-Del-F4 drew her twin blades, their edges flickering with an electric-blue charge. "If we don't move, we're dead."

Zero's fingers flew across the hacker terminal's interface. "I can overload the grid, buy us a few seconds."

A robotic voice blared from outside:

"SURRENDER. YOU ARE SURROUNDED."

Alt glanced at Zero. "Got those seconds yet?"

"Working on it," he muttered. Lines of code blurred across his visor.

Then—BOOM.

The arcade exploded in sparks as the power surged. Outside, the streetlights burst in a wave of darkness, and the patrol drones flickered off.

"Move!" Alt yelled.

They sprinted through the back, slipping into the maze of neon-lit backstreets. The rain hit like bullets as they darted through the city's underbelly, past glowing billboards advertising cybernetic upgrades, past gangs, past the hollow eyes of people who had already lost to the system.

Zero turned to Alt. "We need a permanent hideout."

She nodded. "I might know a place."

But as they disappeared into the night, the hacker terminal flickered one last message:

You Can't run forever

The neon-drenched alleyways twisted and turned, swallowing them whole as they ran. Rain dripped from the rusting balconies above, the scent of ozone and burning circuitry thick in the air.

Alt-Del-F4 led the way, her footfalls precise, calculated. Zero followed, his mind racing faster than his pulse. They weren't safe yet.

"How much farther?" he panted.

Alt didn't answer immediately. She made a sharp left, shoving a garbage bin aside to reveal a metal hatch embedded in the alley floor. It looked ancient, rusted from time rather than neglect.

She knelt, punched in a code on the small keypad. "Not far," she finally said. The hatch hissed open, revealing a deep, black abyss.

Zero frowned. "A basement?"

Alt smirked. "You afraid of the dark?"

Before he could respond, she dropped in. Zero exhaled and followed.

The moment he landed, soft blue emergency lights flickered on. The air was damp but breathable. Wires snaked across the ceiling, feeding into old-world monitors stacked along the walls. A dusty couch, a few ammo crates, and a long-forgotten fridge made up most of the room.

"Welcome to my old haunt," Alt said, stretching.

Zero eyed her. Something about her felt different here. More at ease. Like she wasn't always the hunted rogue assassin—just a person with ghosts like everyone else.

"This place is ancient," he muttered.

Alt kicked off her boots. "It's hidden. And that's what we need right now."

Zero dropped onto the couch with a heavy sigh, his brain still buzzing with the night's events. Alt sat on the floor across from him, legs crossed, blades resting beside her.

A silence stretched between them—not uncomfortable, but charged.

Zero ran a hand through his hair. "What's next?"

Alt-Del-F4's gaze flickered to him, something unspoken lingering in her eyes. She didn't answer right away. Instead, she leaned back, resting her head against the wall.

"For now?" she murmured. "We breathe."

And for the first time in what felt like forever, they did.

But the city above still hunted them. And the war was far from over.