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# Rebellion ballads

## Chapter 2: Refuge in the shadows

The smell of burnt oil and oxidized metal permeated the air of the abandoned season. Clippings of newspapers and digital maps covered the peeled walls, connected by red threads that formed a complex web. Under the shaking light of the makeshift lamps, line 7, as they called their hiding place, came to life.

Lia fell on a torn sofa, finally giving in to the pain she had ignored during the escape. Igor "Shadow" Rurik, a man of Slavic features and attentive eyes, applied a medicinal gel to his injuries. His ability to manipulate shadows and move between them had been crucial to the rescue, but now, in the relative safety of the hiding place, he was again the doctor who had been before the big collapse.

"You should have let me break at least one of those damn perfect teeth of Deep Impact," Lia Grunhiu as Igor bandaged her ribs.

"And activate aggression sensors?" Igor replied in his light accent, without taking his eyes off work. "Your impulsiveness will kill us one day."

Across the broad space of the season, Artur "Trickster" Mendes worked on a makeshift terminal, his fingers dancing on multiple holographic keyboards. Tall, thin, with curly hair that escaped from the misaligned bun, Arthur was the group's technological brain. Former Virtutec employee, the corporation behind the men of steel, he knew his systems inside and out.

"The leak is reverberating every net," he announced with a satisfied smile. "They are trying to overthrow the videos, but have been copied thousands of times. It's a information tsunami."

Sofia "root" Almeida entered the room, carrying a box of supply. His green dreads moved like vineyards with each step, small flowers sprouting and withering among them - a subtle manifestation of their powers of manipulation of plant life. Years of environmental activism had become a literal connection with nature after the virtutec laboratory accident.

"People are mobilizing in the east and south sectors," she said, depositing the box on a makeshift table. "Small spontaneous protests began to emerge. The seed was planted."

Lia watched her companions with a mixture of pride and worry. Each one carried scars - physical and emotional - of men of steel. Each had given up on a normal life for the cause. For the truth.

"And what is the next step?" Sofia asked, sitting on a bench and making a small plant grow between her fingers. "Now that we shake the hive, the drowners will come with everything."

"Not just the gaps," Arthur interrupted, turning the screen so that everyone could see. "The city's surveillance systems are on maximum alert. Captain Virtue has summoned a press conference for two hours."

The image of the steel men leader appeared on the screen: a man of almost two meters, golden hair and a gleaming uniform in the colors of the flag. The symbol in his chest ice pan - a sword crossing a scale - he was tight like a promise that Lia knew how to be empty.

"The most virtuous man in the world will lie through those perfect teeth," Lia murmured, rising with difficulty. "We need to be ready for the second phase."

Igor finished the bandages and walked away, his shadows writhing around him, reflecting his restlessness.

"Talk to the oracle," he suggested, referring to the mysterious ally that provided information to the group through encrypted channels. "We need to know if the files we got are enough to expose the Divinity Project."

Lia nodded and walked to a separate terminal, inserting a series of encryption commands and keys. The screen blinked several times before displaying a single symbol: a stylized eye inside a triangle.

"Oracle, we are on safe ground," Lia typed. "Level three files are protected. What is the situation?"

The answer came almost instantly: *"The storm you have triggered is just the beginning. Captain Virtue activated the archangel protocol. Lady vex is coming back to the city. The collective is a distraction. The real target is sector 9." *

Lia felt her blood freezing. Sector 9 was the area where its mechanical workshop was before being destroyed in the "accident" that killed his family. It was now a refugee neighborhood, people displaced by the "heroic made" of the men of steel.

"They will do a cleaning," Lia concluded, turning to the group. "Eliminate witnesses, destroy evidence ... All under the pretext of combating 'subversive elements'."

Sofia got up from a leap, the plants around her shuddering in response to her anger. "We cannot allow another massacre."

"And let's not," said Lia, the determination hardening her gaze. She approached a cabinet locked in the corner of the season and inserted a code. The door opened revealing several parts of equipment, including a partial exoskeleton that resembled rudimentary armor. "It's time to show these false gods that we are no longer just victims."

While Lia was beginning to wear her exoskeleton - her creation, forged the same special alloys she used to use to build engines - the station lights blinked. A distant sound of thunder made the floor shake lightly.

"They know where we are," Arthur warned, his fixed eyes on the security monitors that showed lightning in the night sky, approaching quickly.

"Edward Graham," Lia recognized the pattern of electric discharges. "How did he find us so fast?"

"It doesn't matter now," Igor said, the shadows of the season starting to move toward him, as if they met a quiet call. "We need to evacuate."

Lia finished adjusting her exoskeleton, feeling the familiar sense of power when the systems connected to her nerves. It was nothing compared to the costumes of the men of steel, but it gave him enough strength and resistance to face one of them, even with his broken ribs.

"No," she decided, her firm voice. "If we retreat now, sector 9 will be sacrificed. This is our chance to show the city that there is an alternative."

"This is suicide, iron," Arthur argued, already collecting essential data drives. "Edward Graham can fry us all with a single concentrated lightning."

A slow smile formed on Lia's lips as she activated a device on her wrist that made the station lights shine more intensely.

"Not if we are prepared to channel this energy," he said, looking at others. "Remember what has brought us here. Each of us should be dead according to their plans. Each day we live is an act of rebellion."

Sofia approached, touching the soil of the station. Immediately, roots began to spread, strengthening the structure. "What do you have in mind?"

"A trap for a god of thunder," Lia answered, while the sound of static electricity filled the air. "And a message for everyone else."

In the sky above the abandoned season, the clouds stirred into an unnatural whirlpool, loaded with the elemental fury of Edward Graham. The hunter had found his prey, not knowing that this was exactly what the prey wanted.

The rebellion was about to show his claws.