Recursion Error

Lisa's bones sang with stolen code as she moved through the burning lab. Every step sent phantom data scrolling behind her eyelids—system alerts from a body that wasn't entirely hers anymore.

*"Status?"* she barked, dragging Eleanor by her broken wrist.

Rabbit didn't look up from the smoking server bank. *"Got maybe six minutes before this place—"*

An explosion rocked the compound.

*"—burns. Four minutes."*

Lora emerged from the smoke, blue braid now streaked with soot. *"Clones are down. For now."* She eyed the writhing scientist in Lisa's grip. *"Her?"*

Lisa's upgraded optics flickered—suddenly seeing Eleanor's heat signature, her stress biomarkers, the panic humming beneath her clinical calm. *"She's coming with us."*

Eleanor laughed wetly. *"You think this is *over*? The Phoenix protocol has already—"*

Lisa silenced her with a neural spike from her new implants. The scientist's eyes rolled back.

*"Less talking,"* Lisa said, heaving Eleanor over her shoulder. *"More running."*

---

### **THE PRICE OF UPGRADES**

The safehouse was an old nuclear bunker beneath a laundromat. Rabbit worked frantically to stabilize Lisa's fluctuating vitals while Lora kept watch.

*"Her cerebellum's rewriting itself,"* Rabbit muttered, watching Lisa's pupils dilate and contract independently. *"Like she's... *buffering*."*

Lisa clenched her fists—and the concrete wall *cracked*. Not from force. From something deeper.

*"They made me a *backdoor*,"* she gasped. *"Into everything. Every system with Phoenix code—which is *everywhere*."*

Her vision glitched—suddenly seeing security feeds from banks, prisons, military bases. All at once.

Lora grabbed her face. *"Focus. Just on me."*

Lisa's scream was static and human noise woven together.

---

### **RABBIT'S GAMBIT**

Rabbit waited until Lora sedated Lisa before approaching Eleanor, now cuffed to a radiator.

*"Why'd you do it?"* His voice cracked. *"Was I just another *test*?"*

Eleanor's smile was almost gentle. *"You were the *control group*. Natural intelligence versus engineered perfection."* She nodded at Lisa's twitching form. *"And look—she's *winning*."*

Rabbit's fist connected with his mother's jaw.

Then he started typing.

*"What are you doing?"* Eleanor demanded.

*"What you *taught* me."* The screens reflected in Rabbit's glasses as he hacked into Lisa's new implants. *"Fixing your mistakes."*

---

### **THE FINAL CLONE**

Lisa surfaced from the pain to a warning flashing in her vision:

**// PHOENIX-1 ACTIVATED //**

The bunker's monitor flickered to life—showing a sleek containment pod opening somewhere dark. A figure stepped out.

No hoodie. No mask.

Just *Lisa's* face—calm, smiling, utterly empty.

*"Hello, prototype,"* the clone said through the speakers. *"I'll be taking your city now."*

The feed cut to Times Square—where every screen suddenly displayed their battle in the lab. Every citizen's phone buzzed with a message:

**LITTLE GHOST IDENTIFIED: LISA KAYS**

Rabbit swore. *"She's doxxing you to *everyone*."*

Lisa stood, her movements precise as machine code.

*"Then let's give her a *show*."*

---